On winter & spring.

Last fall, for a hundred reasons, I didn't plant a single bulb, in fact I barely touched the gardens around our house; I'm not entirely certain I winterized anything out there.

I let the gardens fall under the weight of frost and then snow. All winter long, I ignored them, buried deep just beyond my window panes.  I watched the snowflakes pile one on top of the other until I could no longer see the markers at the end of the garden path or the tip top of the peony bushes that still stood tall in their metal cages because I didn't cut any of the dead branches back at the end of the season.  I sat by as the wind whipped snow into first ankle deep, then knee deep then, in spots, hip deep drifts.  Our back yard was a blanket of fluffy white, mostly quiet and tranquil except when the sun deigned to make an appearance.  Then it hurt my eyes to look outside, the glare bouncing on the razor sharp edges of snowflakes.

Slowly, though, as the winter wore on, I began to think about what was buried deep beneath the frigid mounds.  I began to plan for them again. A thought here, a note of something new to plant there. Sporadic, at best, but thoughts nonetheless.  

By Easter, I was ready to rake and pull and cut and make room for something new and lovely out of the fallow and silent.  I had my rain boots on and my rake and clippers in hand, the sun was warm on the top of my head and my expectations of this early forage into the gardens were low - very low. 

So you can imagine my surprise at the small shoots all over the place, carrying on as if I hadn't neglected them at all. Green leaves curling into the sun, reaching up. From the darkness of winter comes forth abundant spring.

The truth is, we all need that rest, the cold cover of a winter season.  And I found in those moments, as I stared in wonder at my garden's ability to persevere and press on, that I appreciated those fledgling green curls of leaf so much more than I ever have before.  In spite of all of that darkness - or perhaps because of it -  we still have the ability to bloom.

Last fall, for a hundred reasons, I didn't plant a single bulb, in fact I barely touched the gardens around our house; I'm not entirely certain I winterized anything out there.

I let the gardens fall under the weight of frost and then snow. All winter long, I ignored them, buried deep just beyond my window panes.  I watched the snowflakes pile one on top of the other until I could no longer see the markers at the end of the garden path or the tip top of the peony bushes that still stood tall in their metal cages because I didn't cut any of the dead branches back at the end of the season.  I sat by as the wind whipped snow into first ankle deep, then knee deep then, in spots, hip deep drifts.  Our back yard was a blanket of fluffy white, mostly quiet and tranquil except when the sun deigned to make an appearance.  Then it hurt my eyes to look outside, the glare bouncing on the razor sharp edges of snowflakes.

Slowly, though, as the winter wore on, I began to think about what was buried deep beneath the frigid mounds.  I began to plan for them again. A thought here, a note of something new to plant there. Sporadic, at best, but thoughts nonetheless.  

By Easter, I was ready to rake and pull and cut and make room for something new and lovely out of the fallow and silent.  I had my rain boots on and my rake and clippers in hand, the sun was warm on the top of my head and my expectations of this early forage into the gardens were low - very low. 

So you can imagine my surprise at the small shoots all over the place, carrying on as if I hadn't neglected them at all. Green leaves curling into the sun, reaching up. From the darkness of winter comes forth abundant spring.

The truth is, we all need that rest, the cold cover of a winter season.  And I found in those moments, as I stared in wonder at my garden's ability to persevere and press on, that I appreciated those fledgling green curls of leaf so much more than I ever have before.  In spite of all of that darkness - or perhaps because of it -  we still have the ability to bloom.

On granola and spring.

Winter is groaning on and on and on.  I am certainly envious of the pictures of spring break and spring I see on Facebook and Instagram.  I want spring.  I want tulips and the start of grass and pretty purple crocuses easing their way out of the ground, and in lieu of all of that in my own back yard, I'd take a vacation someplace warm and tropical.

My yard is still covered with feet and feet of snow, and probably will be for some time...long past the start of spring in a few weeks, maybe even right up until the first day of summer.  And so I'm breathing deeply this week, reminding myself that there is beauty in the snow sparkling in the sunshine.  There is something primitive about the icicles hanging sharply from the roof.  We can still snuggle up in the afternoon, under a blanket and with some hot cocoa and be content to hibernate a little bit longer.  Summer brings busyness and gardening and the lake and vacations.  Right now, we can move a little bit slower, simmer soup a little bit longer, enjoy the days with nothing to do...no running, no errands, no appointments...and instead we can read books and play games and build train tracks that use every ounce of our imagination and ingenuity.  We can spend an afternoon covered in flour, making cookies and singing and stopping for the occasional dance party.

I pulled out my granola recipe last week; actually, I pulled out two granola recipes and kind of married them into one beautiful, easy granola.  I feel sort of hippie when I make granola, and last week was no exception. Finn helped me mix it together using the bits and pieces that I found in our drawers and I had a little Minnesota honey left, so it smelled like spring as it was baking.  I kept it on the counter to cool and crisp up and I couldn't stop snacking on it.  It's delicious on yogurt and even more amazing in these cookies.  I've made these cookies before just the way the recipe reads, but this time I omitted the apricots and blueberries (because I didn't have any) and used the dried cherries and pomegranates that I also used in the granola instead.  I also added a half cup of chocolate chips (because I did have those!) and I used the granola we'd just made.  Finn helped me roll the cookies into balls, but next time I will flatten them a little bit.  These are seriously so good.  I might have given them the blessing to be breakfast cookies - because granola and dried fruit is totally breakfast food, right?

Spring is coming. The windows will open and the fresh air - cool, but not cold - will clean out the stale smell of winter.  Our days will be full of gardening and walking and just being outside.  Until then I've been motivated to dive into closets and cupboards and drawers; cleaning and organizing and purging.  We can't be outside right now, not really when the temperatures still plummet below zero, but when the ground thaws and the green peeks and the tulips reach up out of the dark, we will be there waiting and watching and sighing with relief.

Cherry Granola

• 2 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried pomegranates
• 1/2 cup dried dates, chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Mix the oats, nuts and fruit in a large bowl.  On the stove top, bring the butter, honey and oil just to a boil; pour over the oat mixture and stir to coat completely.

Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven for 15 minutes.  Stir and bake another 5-10 minutes longer, just until brown.  Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack stirring occasionally and breaking up larger chunks.  Store in sealed container for up to 2 weeks. 

*Use whatever dried fruit you have/like: raisins, craisins, apricots, dried blueberries.  Same with the nuts: you can substitute walnuts or almonds, I've even done a mixture of nuts if I have some random quantities to use up.

Winter is groaning on and on and on.  I am certainly envious of the pictures of spring break and spring I see on Facebook and Instagram.  I want spring.  I want tulips and the start of grass and pretty purple crocuses easing their way out of the ground, and in lieu of all of that in my own back yard, I'd take a vacation someplace warm and tropical.

My yard is still covered with feet and feet of snow, and probably will be for some time...long past the start of spring in a few weeks, maybe even right up until the first day of summer.  And so I'm breathing deeply this week, reminding myself that there is beauty in the snow sparkling in the sunshine.  There is something primitive about the icicles hanging sharply from the roof.  We can still snuggle up in the afternoon, under a blanket and with some hot cocoa and be content to hibernate a little bit longer.  Summer brings busyness and gardening and the lake and vacations.  Right now, we can move a little bit slower, simmer soup a little bit longer, enjoy the days with nothing to do...no running, no errands, no appointments...and instead we can read books and play games and build train tracks that use every ounce of our imagination and ingenuity.  We can spend an afternoon covered in flour, making cookies and singing and stopping for the occasional dance party.

I pulled out my granola recipe last week; actually, I pulled out two granola recipes and kind of married them into one beautiful, easy granola.  I feel sort of hippie when I make granola, and last week was no exception. Finn helped me mix it together using the bits and pieces that I found in our drawers and I had a little Minnesota honey left, so it smelled like spring as it was baking.  I kept it on the counter to cool and crisp up and I couldn't stop snacking on it.  It's delicious on yogurt and even more amazing in these cookies.  I've made these cookies before just the way the recipe reads, but this time I omitted the apricots and blueberries (because I didn't have any) and used the dried cherries and pomegranates that I also used in the granola instead.  I also added a half cup of chocolate chips (because I did have those!) and I used the granola we'd just made.  Finn helped me roll the cookies into balls, but next time I will flatten them a little bit.  These are seriously so good.  I might have given them the blessing to be breakfast cookies - because granola and dried fruit is totally breakfast food, right?

Spring is coming. The windows will open and the fresh air - cool, but not cold - will clean out the stale smell of winter.  Our days will be full of gardening and walking and just being outside.  Until then I've been motivated to dive into closets and cupboards and drawers; cleaning and organizing and purging.  We can't be outside right now, not really when the temperatures still plummet below zero, but when the ground thaws and the green peeks and the tulips reach up out of the dark, we will be there waiting and watching and sighing with relief.

Cherry Granola

• 2 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried pomegranates
• 1/2 cup dried dates, chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Mix the oats, nuts and fruit in a large bowl.  On the stove top, bring the butter, honey and oil just to a boil; pour over the oat mixture and stir to coat completely.

Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven for 15 minutes.  Stir and bake another 5-10 minutes longer, just until brown.  Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack stirring occasionally and breaking up larger chunks.  Store in sealed container for up to 2 weeks. 

*Use whatever dried fruit you have/like: raisins, craisins, apricots, dried blueberries.  Same with the nuts: you can substitute walnuts or almonds, I've even done a mixture of nuts if I have some random quantities to use up.

Let's Pretend It's Spring! (Psych! It's really just another winter storm!)

We played this little game last week called, "Let's Pretend It's Spring!"

The weather got up to 39 degrees two days in a row and it was like a little bit of heaven on our white, frozen tundra.  Uriah and I decided to fully embrace the warm weather by wearing only sweatshirts outside - we were bold: no hats, no mittens; although I did cheat and wear a scarf.  Finn obviously was not allowed to play outside without his full winter-gear, but we did forego his hood and scarf.  The sun was shining, the snow was melting, it totally felt like spring.  I stood in the sunshine, the warm, warm sunshine and I figured that stupid groundhog was full of shit about his shadow and spring and 6 more weeks of never-ending-winter, so we cleaned the snow off of the grill and used it 2 nights in a row!  I'd forgotten how good grilling is...the clean up is so minimal.  I love that.

The downside is that the warm-ish weather causes snow to get sloppy and that gets tracked into the house and I tried really hard not to care because...it was warm and spring-like!  I can handle a little melty, dirty snow on the kitchen floor if it means we can open windows (we did not, by the way, open any windows. Uriah was firm on that one.).  We came to the conclusion that everyone needs new rain boots before spring hits full-force; I really do hate having wet feet and wet pants legs and Finn wore holes in his boots last spring/summer/fall.  I'm not really sure why I didn't throw them away when I did fall cleaning.  The warmer weather also makes snow pants much wetter much sooner; and I resorted to putting his outside clothes in the dryer rather than on the radiator because Finn wanted to play outside often and dry clothes are necessary.

Then, you know...reality hit and we got 12 million feet of snow on Thursday night (actually is was more like 12 inches, but it all feels the same) and school was cancelled on Friday and our grill is once again a snow white mound in the back yard. No more grilling for awhile; back to coats and hats and mittens and boots. I plan to go to Home Depot next week to buy some grass seed.  I'm going to plant it and watch it grow and run my fingers though it because based on the height of the snow piles in my back yard, I will not see grass until at least June.  We might even be able to have a sledding party for Finn's birthday in July.

We played this little game last week called, "Let's Pretend It's Spring!"

The weather got up to 39 degrees two days in a row and it was like a little bit of heaven on our white, frozen tundra.  Uriah and I decided to fully embrace the warm weather by wearing only sweatshirts outside - we were bold: no hats, no mittens; although I did cheat and wear a scarf.  Finn obviously was not allowed to play outside without his full winter-gear, but we did forego his hood and scarf.  The sun was shining, the snow was melting, it totally felt like spring.  I stood in the sunshine, the warm, warm sunshine and I figured that stupid groundhog was full of shit about his shadow and spring and 6 more weeks of never-ending-winter, so we cleaned the snow off of the grill and used it 2 nights in a row!  I'd forgotten how good grilling is...the clean up is so minimal.  I love that.

The downside is that the warm-ish weather causes snow to get sloppy and that gets tracked into the house and I tried really hard not to care because...it was warm and spring-like!  I can handle a little melty, dirty snow on the kitchen floor if it means we can open windows (we did not, by the way, open any windows. Uriah was firm on that one.).  We came to the conclusion that everyone needs new rain boots before spring hits full-force; I really do hate having wet feet and wet pants legs and Finn wore holes in his boots last spring/summer/fall.  I'm not really sure why I didn't throw them away when I did fall cleaning.  The warmer weather also makes snow pants much wetter much sooner; and I resorted to putting his outside clothes in the dryer rather than on the radiator because Finn wanted to play outside often and dry clothes are necessary.

Then, you know...reality hit and we got 12 million feet of snow on Thursday night (actually is was more like 12 inches, but it all feels the same) and school was cancelled on Friday and our grill is once again a snow white mound in the back yard. No more grilling for awhile; back to coats and hats and mittens and boots. I plan to go to Home Depot next week to buy some grass seed.  I'm going to plant it and watch it grow and run my fingers though it because based on the height of the snow piles in my back yard, I will not see grass until at least June.  We might even be able to have a sledding party for Finn's birthday in July.

Cold & snow & turkey & elves

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year - the 2nd year in a row - and we continued with the Turducken theme of last year.  Another theme that was repeated?  Snow.  And lots of it.  We picked people up from and dropped them off at the airport in snow.  About 20+ inches of snow in a two-day period.  And our snow blower is broken (who has a broken snow blower in Minnesota in December?!).  So, yes - shoveling the old-fashioned way was necessary!

It's common knowledge that I revoke my own license when the snow starts falling in earnest and this year is no different.  I can toodle around town a little bit once the roads have been cleared, but I get major-highway and hill anxiety if I have to do more than run to the grocery store.  So what possessed us to live in an are that gets a million zillion snowflakes a year?  Well, it is beautiful (from the warm confines of my home!).  And I love the summers here - not too hot, not too cool.  I'm like Goldilocks of the north land - it's mostly just right.

Anyway, as I dig through my pictures of the past week with my family I will share.  It was...epic.  So much food, 19 people for Thanksgiving dinner, a round of illness (not in any way related to the dinner), more hooch than you can shake a stick (or a beer can) at, pies that didn't get eaten and now sit in my freezer, Jac's first steps, birthday cake, maple ice cream, loads and loads and loads of laundry.  I am equal parts happy and exhausted and still picking myself up from the week.

Our elf, Reginald VanWinkle, made his appearance this week.  In spite of my planning and calendar, he was a few days late.  Not that it mattered too much, Finn doesn't even know the days of the week yet.  It's a more laid back year for RVW this year.  Last year he had a lot to do, which you can check out here and here.  This year he's more into hiding and snowball fights and reading.

I had big plans for preparing my kids for Christmas this year, but every good intention got over-taken by planning for Thanksgiving and now my energy level is spent.  We do have an Advent wreath this year, and we light a candle and read a little prayer at dinner time each night.  I did not do 24 Days of Christmas Books this year, in spite of the treasure trove of new books I found that I bought at the end of the season last year.  Instead I have them spread all over the coffee table in the living room so we can read them and look at the pictures whenever we want.  And Finn does so, often!  We've been taking advantage of the Christmas movies on Netflix and hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Today Finn and I are going to make some sugar cookies for our religion kids tomorrow.  Abby's fighting a cold and stuffy nose, so she get's to stay far away from any food preparation/dishes because I do not want those germs spreading.  We've been listening the The Best Christmas song list ever (remember when mixed tapes/CDs were so cool to make?!).

I'm hopeful that some Santa cookies will put me in the Christmas spirit (and not the napping spirit!) because I still need to figure out some Christmas cards this afternoon and I found a paper mache ornament project that I think Finn would have fun with.  Honestly, though...the Christmas movies and couch are definitely calling my name...it is the weekend, after all!

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year - the 2nd year in a row - and we continued with the Turducken theme of last year.  Another theme that was repeated?  Snow.  And lots of it.  We picked people up from and dropped them off at the airport in snow.  About 20+ inches of snow in a two-day period.  And our snow blower is broken (who has a broken snow blower in Minnesota in December?!).  So, yes - shoveling the old-fashioned way was necessary!

It's common knowledge that I revoke my own license when the snow starts falling in earnest and this year is no different.  I can toodle around town a little bit once the roads have been cleared, but I get major-highway and hill anxiety if I have to do more than run to the grocery store.  So what possessed us to live in an are that gets a million zillion snowflakes a year?  Well, it is beautiful (from the warm confines of my home!).  And I love the summers here - not too hot, not too cool.  I'm like Goldilocks of the north land - it's mostly just right.

Anyway, as I dig through my pictures of the past week with my family I will share.  It was...epic.  So much food, 19 people for Thanksgiving dinner, a round of illness (not in any way related to the dinner), more hooch than you can shake a stick (or a beer can) at, pies that didn't get eaten and now sit in my freezer, Jac's first steps, birthday cake, maple ice cream, loads and loads and loads of laundry.  I am equal parts happy and exhausted and still picking myself up from the week.

Our elf, Reginald VanWinkle, made his appearance this week.  In spite of my planning and calendar, he was a few days late.  Not that it mattered too much, Finn doesn't even know the days of the week yet.  It's a more laid back year for RVW this year.  Last year he had a lot to do, which you can check out here and here.  This year he's more into hiding and snowball fights and reading.

I had big plans for preparing my kids for Christmas this year, but every good intention got over-taken by planning for Thanksgiving and now my energy level is spent.  We do have an Advent wreath this year, and we light a candle and read a little prayer at dinner time each night.  I did not do 24 Days of Christmas Books this year, in spite of the treasure trove of new books I found that I bought at the end of the season last year.  Instead I have them spread all over the coffee table in the living room so we can read them and look at the pictures whenever we want.  And Finn does so, often!  We've been taking advantage of the Christmas movies on Netflix and hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Today Finn and I are going to make some sugar cookies for our religion kids tomorrow.  Abby's fighting a cold and stuffy nose, so she get's to stay far away from any food preparation/dishes because I do not want those germs spreading.  We've been listening the The Best Christmas song list ever (remember when mixed tapes/CDs were so cool to make?!).

I'm hopeful that some Santa cookies will put me in the Christmas spirit (and not the napping spirit!) because I still need to figure out some Christmas cards this afternoon and I found a paper mache ornament project that I think Finn would have fun with.  Honestly, though...the Christmas movies and couch are definitely calling my name...it is the weekend, after all!

Autumn

Seemingly overnight the wind blew in and took with it the leaves from the trees and the light from the sky.  I almost feel as though we should be getting into jammies and brushing our teeth for bed by five o'clock.  I'm planning a lot of soup and I light candles by four o'clock to ward off the gathering darkness.

Autumn is my most and least favorite time of year.  I love the crispness and the squashes in the grocery store and the onset of comfort foods for dinner.  I love flannel sheets and warm slippers and the way my hands feel around a cup of hot coffee in the morning.  I do not love full-blown night time by six o'clock, even if it is a little easier to get my small human ready for bed.

Our fall so far:

Finn grew his own pumpkin in our garden this summer and has been asking every day since July when it was going to be time to carve his pumpkin.  We finally carved it the day before we left for Kansas City, but we lit it up a few times when we got home.  Finn wasn't too keen on the squishy insides but was insistent on it having an angry face.  He also had to write his name on his pumpkin, which these days is a lower-case i, followed by a backwards upper-case F.    

Finn wanted to be a fireman for Halloween this year.  When Uriah and I went out for our anniversary, we stopped at every costume store in Duluth looking for a fireman for our small human. We found one at Target, but it was sized 3+, which means it was made for kids much bigger than Finn.  I was lamenting the fact that Finn was swimming in his costume to my mother-in-law and she said said she saw a costume at Costco and she'd check to see if they still had it.  Sure enough, she had one waiting in a 3T size for Finn when we got there on Halloween.  He did not wear his mustache trick or treating, apparently it "tickled." Abby, of course, is too old to trick-or-treat, but she wanted to dress up anyway to hand out candy.  When you're 13, it's really just an excuse to wear a lot of very heavy make-up (I believe that she calls it "smokey eyes") and some super high heels and call yourself a vampire.  And then she was resistant to having her picture taken with the small-ish cousins.  Go figure.

Finally this fall we have begun the process of raking and raking and raking the leaves.  I've already done one round.   I have piles in the yard that need to be bagged and taken to the community composting site. And I end up raking each pile at least 15 times because it is just too tempting for Finn to run through! He looks so cute, though, I forgive him and re-rake.

Seemingly overnight the wind blew in and took with it the leaves from the trees and the light from the sky.  I almost feel as though we should be getting into jammies and brushing our teeth for bed by five o'clock.  I'm planning a lot of soup and I light candles by four o'clock to ward off the gathering darkness.

Autumn is my most and least favorite time of year.  I love the crispness and the squashes in the grocery store and the onset of comfort foods for dinner.  I love flannel sheets and warm slippers and the way my hands feel around a cup of hot coffee in the morning.  I do not love full-blown night time by six o'clock, even if it is a little easier to get my small human ready for bed.

Our fall so far:

Finn grew his own pumpkin in our garden this summer and has been asking every day since July when it was going to be time to carve his pumpkin.  We finally carved it the day before we left for Kansas City, but we lit it up a few times when we got home.  Finn wasn't too keen on the squishy insides but was insistent on it having an angry face.  He also had to write his name on his pumpkin, which these days is a lower-case i, followed by a backwards upper-case F.    

Finn wanted to be a fireman for Halloween this year.  When Uriah and I went out for our anniversary, we stopped at every costume store in Duluth looking for a fireman for our small human. We found one at Target, but it was sized 3+, which means it was made for kids much bigger than Finn.  I was lamenting the fact that Finn was swimming in his costume to my mother-in-law and she said said she saw a costume at Costco and she'd check to see if they still had it.  Sure enough, she had one waiting in a 3T size for Finn when we got there on Halloween.  He did not wear his mustache trick or treating, apparently it "tickled." Abby, of course, is too old to trick-or-treat, but she wanted to dress up anyway to hand out candy.  When you're 13, it's really just an excuse to wear a lot of very heavy make-up (I believe that she calls it "smokey eyes") and some super high heels and call yourself a vampire.  And then she was resistant to having her picture taken with the small-ish cousins.  Go figure.

Finally this fall we have begun the process of raking and raking and raking the leaves.  I've already done one round.   I have piles in the yard that need to be bagged and taken to the community composting site. And I end up raking each pile at least 15 times because it is just too tempting for Finn to run through! He looks so cute, though, I forgive him and re-rake.

Patience: not a virtue in my house.

Yesterday we cleaned up the back yard, put away all of the summer stuff (sandbox toys, lawn chairs, bikes and wagons), the lawn mower and the snow blower traded places, and Uriah pulled down his ice fishing stuff (priorities, people).  Our snow shovels took up a forward position by the back door.  The wind chimes came down, I cleaned out one last garden for the season and the gutters were checked for excess junk.  The dark clouds moved in and the wind picked up.  A little bit of rain fell.  And Finn proceeded to ask every four minutes - all day long - when the snow was going to start.

It didn't really snow at all up here and Finn woke up in a bear of a mood because of it.  So while he moped around the house this morning, alternately looking outside and sighing heavily, and making a construction site all over my piano, I spent this morning doing the most mundane things known to man: finishing up the laundry, cleaning the fish tank and washing some windows.  And trying not to be frustrated every time I had to answer that the snow would come when it was good and ready.

For about twenty solid seconds, the snow came down in teeny tiny flakes during lunch and Finn pressed his sticky, jelly face right up against my freshly cleaned window and screamed with excitement and asked where his snow suit was.

And then the snow stopped.

He looked at me with his little brow furrowed and said through his teeth (his new way to talk when he's frustrated):  "That was not enough to fill up my back yard!"





This was 6 months ago. I'm okay with waiting a little bit longer for snow to fill up my backyard.

Yesterday we cleaned up the back yard, put away all of the summer stuff (sandbox toys, lawn chairs, bikes and wagons), the lawn mower and the snow blower traded places, and Uriah pulled down his ice fishing stuff (priorities, people).  Our snow shovels took up a forward position by the back door.  The wind chimes came down, I cleaned out one last garden for the season and the gutters were checked for excess junk.  The dark clouds moved in and the wind picked up.  A little bit of rain fell.  And Finn proceeded to ask every four minutes - all day long - when the snow was going to start.

It didn't really snow at all up here and Finn woke up in a bear of a mood because of it.  So while he moped around the house this morning, alternately looking outside and sighing heavily, and making a construction site all over my piano, I spent this morning doing the most mundane things known to man: finishing up the laundry, cleaning the fish tank and washing some windows.  And trying not to be frustrated every time I had to answer that the snow would come when it was good and ready.

For about twenty solid seconds, the snow came down in teeny tiny flakes during lunch and Finn pressed his sticky, jelly face right up against my freshly cleaned window and screamed with excitement and asked where his snow suit was.

And then the snow stopped.

He looked at me with his little brow furrowed and said through his teeth (his new way to talk when he's frustrated):  "That was not enough to fill up my back yard!"





This was 6 months ago. I'm okay with waiting a little bit longer for snow to fill up my backyard.

The Artist's Cottage

When we moved into our house last year, there was an extra room attached to the garage.  A simple room with windows and electricity and heat.  You can safely bet that Abby begged for weeks to be able to use it as her bedroom.  You'd win the jackpot if you also bet that we firmly denied that request each and every time (Because, really?  A teenager in a room that is not connected to the main house?  No good can come of that).

   

I don't know if it was pitched to us as an extra cottage, or if we later found out that the previous owners were artists, but we took to calling it the Artist's Cottage and that is how we still refer to it today.  For the first few months the Artist's Cottage housed all of our moving detritus - the stuff we couldn't find an immediate home for.  Then winter blew in and it suddenly became a catch-all for our summer stuff - bikes and stroller and wagon and sandbox toys all found their winter respite in the Artist's Cottage.

We spent the winter dreaming big dreams for the space - my favorite being an extra guest bedroom. But that would require a little more work that we have time for during Uriah's busy season, so it continued to sit through the spring as extra storage space.  Finally early in the summer I gutted most of it.  I threw away a ton of junk, swept up a sandbox of dirt and rocks and dust.  I found homes for the items that needed to get out of there and organized the items that remained.

And suddenly it turned into an Artist's Cottage again.  We brought out all of the crayons, markers, craft stuff. The paints and the paint brushes, paper, coloring books and scissors, even the sewing machine all found their happy homes on the shelves of the cottage.  I strung up some string with clothes pins to dry pictures and I brought a bin of Uriah's old toys out for Finn to play with; I set up a very big table in the middle and stuck some of our folding chairs around it - giving space for imaginations and crafty ideas.

And over the course of the summer, Finn would ask me to open up the cottage for him and he'd play planes, or play-dough or color pictures.  Abby and her friends would visit in there and they even did a couple of paint craft projects.  We used it and we loved it.  But somehow, when I walked in there earlier this week, the play-dough had melted all over the table, the pieces of paper craft projects were scattered over the floor. The blow-up pool had found a temporary home in there, along with our charcoal, bird food, and a bag of quick-set cement.

In other words: the Artist's Cottage was more like an Artist's Junk Pit.  So I swept and organized.  I threw things away and stored things in the garage.  I scrubbed all the grody, melty play-dough off of the table and cleaned up the shelves. 

And although organizing that room was very, very low on my list of tasks to tackle this week, once again we can use the cottage for it's intended purpose: art and imagination.  

When we moved into our house last year, there was an extra room attached to the garage.  A simple room with windows and electricity and heat.  You can safely bet that Abby begged for weeks to be able to use it as her bedroom.  You'd win the jackpot if you also bet that we firmly denied that request each and every time (Because, really?  A teenager in a room that is not connected to the main house?  No good can come of that).

   

I don't know if it was pitched to us as an extra cottage, or if we later found out that the previous owners were artists, but we took to calling it the Artist's Cottage and that is how we still refer to it today.  For the first few months the Artist's Cottage housed all of our moving detritus - the stuff we couldn't find an immediate home for.  Then winter blew in and it suddenly became a catch-all for our summer stuff - bikes and stroller and wagon and sandbox toys all found their winter respite in the Artist's Cottage.

We spent the winter dreaming big dreams for the space - my favorite being an extra guest bedroom. But that would require a little more work that we have time for during Uriah's busy season, so it continued to sit through the spring as extra storage space.  Finally early in the summer I gutted most of it.  I threw away a ton of junk, swept up a sandbox of dirt and rocks and dust.  I found homes for the items that needed to get out of there and organized the items that remained.

And suddenly it turned into an Artist's Cottage again.  We brought out all of the crayons, markers, craft stuff. The paints and the paint brushes, paper, coloring books and scissors, even the sewing machine all found their happy homes on the shelves of the cottage.  I strung up some string with clothes pins to dry pictures and I brought a bin of Uriah's old toys out for Finn to play with; I set up a very big table in the middle and stuck some of our folding chairs around it - giving space for imaginations and crafty ideas.

And over the course of the summer, Finn would ask me to open up the cottage for him and he'd play planes, or play-dough or color pictures.  Abby and her friends would visit in there and they even did a couple of paint craft projects.  We used it and we loved it.  But somehow, when I walked in there earlier this week, the play-dough had melted all over the table, the pieces of paper craft projects were scattered over the floor. The blow-up pool had found a temporary home in there, along with our charcoal, bird food, and a bag of quick-set cement.

In other words: the Artist's Cottage was more like an Artist's Junk Pit.  So I swept and organized.  I threw things away and stored things in the garage.  I scrubbed all the grody, melty play-dough off of the table and cleaned up the shelves. 

And although organizing that room was very, very low on my list of tasks to tackle this week, once again we can use the cottage for it's intended purpose: art and imagination.  

Extended Stay

You'd think we hadn't seen each other for years and years.

It felt that way, actually.  It was a long week and I was pretty preoccupied - but worth every stressful moment to see how incredibly beautiful and happy my sister was on her wedding day.

We are snug at home now, with no plans to leave for extended periods of time for awhile.  But, you know, all that could change without notice.  Now we can focus on doing some preschool stuff during the week, planning for a visit from Uriah's parents and sister, and my list of things to accomplish is growing with every turn I take in the house - paint the bathroom, finish painting the dining room chairs, wash the windows, clean Finn's closets, bring up/air out cool-weather jackets, find a dry cleaner for the down comforter, get Abby's twin bed ready.  We also need to figure out something to do for our anniversary - a couple's massage sounds like a really, really good plan to me right about now! Abby's JV volleyball is in full-swing, so we also have to work around practice and games.  My mom's group starts up again soon, I'm wait-listed for Finn's once a week preschool class, and I've committed to teaching the 2nd graders religion this year.

I was deluded into thinking we wouldn't be busy...we're just busy in a different way.

I spent the morning diving into my recipes and past menus.  I think my week runs so much better when I'm not struggling to figure out what to make for dinner.  Abby has requested to take her lunch to school this year, so we're giving that a trial run.  I like to give her some variety - not just sandwiches, chips and fruit, so I'm making a list of lunch options, as well.  I planned out a month's worth of rotating breakfasts a while ago - some she can make herself and some I'll do for her on gym mornings.  (For the past month my gym mornings have been non-existent, but I'm hopeful to get back into them regularly starting tomorrow. No more "we're not home" excuses for me!).  Gym mornings will hopefully also turn into writing mornings - so long as Finn stays on his sleeping-in schedule, that is!

It's raining today but I promised Finn a trip to the library.  We've been infrequent visitors as of late and we both miss it, so we are going to put on our rain boots and our sweatshirts, grab our umbrellas and take a rain-walk this afternoon.

Happy (wet) Monday!

You'd think we hadn't seen each other for years and years.

It felt that way, actually.  It was a long week and I was pretty preoccupied - but worth every stressful moment to see how incredibly beautiful and happy my sister was on her wedding day.

We are snug at home now, with no plans to leave for extended periods of time for awhile.  But, you know, all that could change without notice.  Now we can focus on doing some preschool stuff during the week, planning for a visit from Uriah's parents and sister, and my list of things to accomplish is growing with every turn I take in the house - paint the bathroom, finish painting the dining room chairs, wash the windows, clean Finn's closets, bring up/air out cool-weather jackets, find a dry cleaner for the down comforter, get Abby's twin bed ready.  We also need to figure out something to do for our anniversary - a couple's massage sounds like a really, really good plan to me right about now! Abby's JV volleyball is in full-swing, so we also have to work around practice and games.  My mom's group starts up again soon, I'm wait-listed for Finn's once a week preschool class, and I've committed to teaching the 2nd graders religion this year.

I was deluded into thinking we wouldn't be busy...we're just busy in a different way.

I spent the morning diving into my recipes and past menus.  I think my week runs so much better when I'm not struggling to figure out what to make for dinner.  Abby has requested to take her lunch to school this year, so we're giving that a trial run.  I like to give her some variety - not just sandwiches, chips and fruit, so I'm making a list of lunch options, as well.  I planned out a month's worth of rotating breakfasts a while ago - some she can make herself and some I'll do for her on gym mornings.  (For the past month my gym mornings have been non-existent, but I'm hopeful to get back into them regularly starting tomorrow. No more "we're not home" excuses for me!).  Gym mornings will hopefully also turn into writing mornings - so long as Finn stays on his sleeping-in schedule, that is!

It's raining today but I promised Finn a trip to the library.  We've been infrequent visitors as of late and we both miss it, so we are going to put on our rain boots and our sweatshirts, grab our umbrellas and take a rain-walk this afternoon.

Happy (wet) Monday!

Hello...hello...hhhheeelllloooo!

August was a brutal month of travelling for us.  We were away from our home more than we were in it - and we left Uriah behind more often than not.  Our one-day-a-week Family Funday that I had great expectations for fell off the map sometime in July and we never fully recovered.  

So here we are, school starts again tomorrow and the summer of great adventure is going to go down in Hefter Family History as the summer of mediocre adventure.  And lots of travel.  And lots of busyness.

We did not get to the Great Minnesota Get Together (aka: The Minnesota State Fair) but we did make an appearance at the Great Lake County Get Together (aka: The Lake County Fair).  We sampled the offerings of the beer garden, saw some chickens, let a baby cow lick our fingers, rode some kiddie rides and had mini-donuts.  

Abby lost her crap on the ride that drops you super fast.  We could hear her screaming the whole way down.  She begged to be able to meet her friends the following day - without parents - at the fair.  I guess this is what growing up means - more friend time, less family time.  We sent her off for the day with some money and the request to make good choices.  I guess that's all you can do. 

We took another mini-vacation to Leech Lake.  Uriah, of course, worked.  But we managed to get in a little family time on the "hontoon," as Finn calls it.  Lots of fishing - no catching.  Finn also learned to jump into the pool and even let me dunk his whole head under a couple of times...and by "let," I mean I just dunked him under a couple of times when I caught him.  He learned to hold his breath!  For as fearless as that boy is of the water, he needs to learn some basic swimming lessons soon!

Abby is awesome at being surly and 13.  She brought a friend along on our Leech Lake vacation and then promptly slept on the pontoon/fishing excursion.  Her friend, on the other hand, fished with Finn and Uriah.  My mom's advice is always to stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth; you can't say anything when you're busy keeping your tongue stuck up there and it avoids a lot of needless arguments.  I am getting awesome it and I remind myself daily that at some point she will grow out of this phase.  Please let me be delusional in thinking that it won't take her going to college for her to become human.  Teenagers...they think they know it all!

We had a bachelorette party for Sarah last weekend in southern Minnesota.  That area of Minnesota is so beautiful.  I should know, my pal Becca and I got lost walking on the bike trail for about 4 hours.  It's clear I learned nothing from my years as a Girl Scout.  No map.  No compass.  No idea where we were going.  We are poster-children for what not to do in the great outdoors.  Luckily we made our 10+ mile walk back to Sarah and she was only slightly annoyed that we left her sleeping in the tent.  Without a note. And with the car keys in my pocket.

School starts tomorrow for Abby.  I am very much looking forward to getting back into our routine and having some structure for our days.  Finn is still too young for pre-school, and, let's face it, I'm not ready for him to go even if he was old enough, but he was insistent that he get a back pack when we went back to school shopping last week.  He can wear it to the library, I guess.

Wedding week is upon us and then Uriah's parents are visiting and then it's our anniversary and my birthday.  And then, you know...it's Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So, I'm really looking forward to January when the snows keep us home-bound for more than a few days at a time!

August was a brutal month of travelling for us.  We were away from our home more than we were in it - and we left Uriah behind more often than not.  Our one-day-a-week Family Funday that I had great expectations for fell off the map sometime in July and we never fully recovered.  

So here we are, school starts again tomorrow and the summer of great adventure is going to go down in Hefter Family History as the summer of mediocre adventure.  And lots of travel.  And lots of busyness.

We did not get to the Great Minnesota Get Together (aka: The Minnesota State Fair) but we did make an appearance at the Great Lake County Get Together (aka: The Lake County Fair).  We sampled the offerings of the beer garden, saw some chickens, let a baby cow lick our fingers, rode some kiddie rides and had mini-donuts.  

Abby lost her crap on the ride that drops you super fast.  We could hear her screaming the whole way down.  She begged to be able to meet her friends the following day - without parents - at the fair.  I guess this is what growing up means - more friend time, less family time.  We sent her off for the day with some money and the request to make good choices.  I guess that's all you can do. 

We took another mini-vacation to Leech Lake.  Uriah, of course, worked.  But we managed to get in a little family time on the "hontoon," as Finn calls it.  Lots of fishing - no catching.  Finn also learned to jump into the pool and even let me dunk his whole head under a couple of times...and by "let," I mean I just dunked him under a couple of times when I caught him.  He learned to hold his breath!  For as fearless as that boy is of the water, he needs to learn some basic swimming lessons soon!

Abby is awesome at being surly and 13.  She brought a friend along on our Leech Lake vacation and then promptly slept on the pontoon/fishing excursion.  Her friend, on the other hand, fished with Finn and Uriah.  My mom's advice is always to stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth; you can't say anything when you're busy keeping your tongue stuck up there and it avoids a lot of needless arguments.  I am getting awesome it and I remind myself daily that at some point she will grow out of this phase.  Please let me be delusional in thinking that it won't take her going to college for her to become human.  Teenagers...they think they know it all!

We had a bachelorette party for Sarah last weekend in southern Minnesota.  That area of Minnesota is so beautiful.  I should know, my pal Becca and I got lost walking on the bike trail for about 4 hours.  It's clear I learned nothing from my years as a Girl Scout.  No map.  No compass.  No idea where we were going.  We are poster-children for what not to do in the great outdoors.  Luckily we made our 10+ mile walk back to Sarah and she was only slightly annoyed that we left her sleeping in the tent.  Without a note. And with the car keys in my pocket.

School starts tomorrow for Abby.  I am very much looking forward to getting back into our routine and having some structure for our days.  Finn is still too young for pre-school, and, let's face it, I'm not ready for him to go even if he was old enough, but he was insistent that he get a back pack when we went back to school shopping last week.  He can wear it to the library, I guess.

Wedding week is upon us and then Uriah's parents are visiting and then it's our anniversary and my birthday.  And then, you know...it's Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So, I'm really looking forward to January when the snows keep us home-bound for more than a few days at a time!

{cricket chirp...cricket chirp}

This summer, especially this month, has been a blur.  It's the end of August already and we have hardly even started shopping for back to school supplies and clothes!  Finn keeps asking me to sign him up for preschool (our once a week ECFE program) and is insistent that he needs a backpack.  He told me this morning he also needs to bring a lunch to preschool (he does not).  We've been away from our house (and our Uriah) more this month than we've been together, although we did get a mini-family-vaca last weekend.  And a whole, uninterrupted 24 hours with Uriah to swim and boat and build sandcastles together.

Summer weather has finally hit the north shore and it is hot and humid and I have fans everywhere and windows open wide in a vain attempt to get a cross breeze blowing through our house.  These are the two weeks of summer that I wish for an air conditioner.  I know that this too shall pass and I wish I could bottle up this heat so that in January I can remember the smell of humid grass in the early morning and clouds heavy with raindrops that do not fall.  In the meantime we are meeting some friends for a picnic and some swimming...a fun way to cool down.

And then we will pack up and leave again tomorrow.

Oh, summer...our love affair is fleeting.

This summer, especially this month, has been a blur.  It's the end of August already and we have hardly even started shopping for back to school supplies and clothes!  Finn keeps asking me to sign him up for preschool (our once a week ECFE program) and is insistent that he needs a backpack.  He told me this morning he also needs to bring a lunch to preschool (he does not).  We've been away from our house (and our Uriah) more this month than we've been together, although we did get a mini-family-vaca last weekend.  And a whole, uninterrupted 24 hours with Uriah to swim and boat and build sandcastles together.

Summer weather has finally hit the north shore and it is hot and humid and I have fans everywhere and windows open wide in a vain attempt to get a cross breeze blowing through our house.  These are the two weeks of summer that I wish for an air conditioner.  I know that this too shall pass and I wish I could bottle up this heat so that in January I can remember the smell of humid grass in the early morning and clouds heavy with raindrops that do not fall.  In the meantime we are meeting some friends for a picnic and some swimming...a fun way to cool down.

And then we will pack up and leave again tomorrow.

Oh, summer...our love affair is fleeting.

A family obsessed.

A few weeks ago I brought home a fire pit.  

Uriah and I had been talking about getting one pretty much all summer, although Uriah was convinced that he could make one for us out of bricks and crap he was going to buy at Home Depot.  With the loads of spare time he has in the summer, I was certain it would be 20 summers from now by the time the awesome fire pit of his dreams was complete, so when I found one on clearance at the ShopKo, I popped on it. 

We have been obsessed ever since.  We have a fire as often as we can - weather and wood permitting - and I 've been loading my kids up on s'mores, because I think s'mores are the official bed time snack of summer.  Most nights we have our bed time snack around the fire pit (grahams, mallows, chocolate...what an awesome way to go to bed!  Last night we experimented with Rolos and the metly-caramel/hot marshmallow combo was amazing!) and then Uriah and I sit outside and have grown up time until the embers are glowing and the mosquitoes force us inside.

We should have done this a long time ago...

A few weeks ago I brought home a fire pit.  

Uriah and I had been talking about getting one pretty much all summer, although Uriah was convinced that he could make one for us out of bricks and crap he was going to buy at Home Depot.  With the loads of spare time he has in the summer, I was certain it would be 20 summers from now by the time the awesome fire pit of his dreams was complete, so when I found one on clearance at the ShopKo, I popped on it. 

We have been obsessed ever since.  We have a fire as often as we can - weather and wood permitting - and I 've been loading my kids up on s'mores, because I think s'mores are the official bed time snack of summer.  Most nights we have our bed time snack around the fire pit (grahams, mallows, chocolate...what an awesome way to go to bed!  Last night we experimented with Rolos and the metly-caramel/hot marshmallow combo was amazing!) and then Uriah and I sit outside and have grown up time until the embers are glowing and the mosquitoes force us inside.

We should have done this a long time ago...

Parade of Sail

The Tall Ships came to Duluth last weekend.  It was a pretty incredible spectacle for someone who's never seen anything quite so...well, tall - and piratey, before.  We met some friends down by the shore to watch the ships parade past us and into Canal Park.  It was a mess of boys - 5 between the three of us (plus one teeny, sweetie girl) and we were joined by two more boys before the afternoon was over.  And as you can imagine, where there is water and boys, there is sure to be wetness and swimming.  The "only go out up to your knees" rule lasted 12 seconds with Finn - he sat down in the lake almost immediately.  I did think ahead and I had a change of clothes for him, but only because wearing big boy undies is still so new and with playing with friends, I wasn't sure he'd remember to tell me when he needed to go, so I wasn't too terribly concerned when he got soaked, I was just hopeful he didn't have an accident, too, or we would have been in a heap of trouble.  I just took off his shirt and let him have at the water; it's where he's happiest, and he had dry shorts and undies for the drive home.

The boys watched the ships for about 12 minutes, and then it was more fun to throw rocks and climb rocks and slide down rocks and lay on rocks and they were entertained for the rest of the afternoon by each other, the waves, the rocks, and occasionally the cannons that the ships shot off.

Next time the tall ships come through (in a couple of years, I'm sure), Finn will be a little older and I think it would be fun to actually go for a ride on one of the ships, or at least go down to Canal Park and look at them up close.  He was just a little too little this year and his attention span is still a little too short for us to brave the masses of people that converged upon Duluth.

The Tall Ships came to Duluth last weekend.  It was a pretty incredible spectacle for someone who's never seen anything quite so...well, tall - and piratey, before.  We met some friends down by the shore to watch the ships parade past us and into Canal Park.  It was a mess of boys - 5 between the three of us (plus one teeny, sweetie girl) and we were joined by two more boys before the afternoon was over.  And as you can imagine, where there is water and boys, there is sure to be wetness and swimming.  The "only go out up to your knees" rule lasted 12 seconds with Finn - he sat down in the lake almost immediately.  I did think ahead and I had a change of clothes for him, but only because wearing big boy undies is still so new and with playing with friends, I wasn't sure he'd remember to tell me when he needed to go, so I wasn't too terribly concerned when he got soaked, I was just hopeful he didn't have an accident, too, or we would have been in a heap of trouble.  I just took off his shirt and let him have at the water; it's where he's happiest, and he had dry shorts and undies for the drive home.

The boys watched the ships for about 12 minutes, and then it was more fun to throw rocks and climb rocks and slide down rocks and lay on rocks and they were entertained for the rest of the afternoon by each other, the waves, the rocks, and occasionally the cannons that the ships shot off.

Next time the tall ships come through (in a couple of years, I'm sure), Finn will be a little older and I think it would be fun to actually go for a ride on one of the ships, or at least go down to Canal Park and look at them up close.  He was just a little too little this year and his attention span is still a little too short for us to brave the masses of people that converged upon Duluth.

Strawberry Insanity

It's been a whole lot of strawberries up in here lately.  The last time we went strawberry picking was 2 summers ago, Finn couldn't walk and it was a hot Iowa day.  Needless to say, we didn't last long in that patch.  We tried to go last summer before we left Iowa, but by the time I got myself organized and had carved out some time in the midst of packing, we were too late.  It's just as well, I wouldn't have had time to do anything with those strawberries last summer anyway, I was just being optimistic.

This year was different and our bounty was 10-fold what we had two years ago.  I've got a board devoted to all things strawberry on my Pinterest page and I can't wait to try a few new recipes.  I managed to make 3 batches of jam.  I used this recipe from The Pioneer Woman because it's really easy and because it's in her new cookbook, which my husband gave me as a surprise "just because" gift last spring, so it was readily accessible.  The pages are now slightly sticky and stuck together.  Try not to shudder at the 10-1/2 cups of sugar per batch.

I've got a list a mile long of what I want to make with all of these strawberries - and considering I have about 5 gallon-sized bags in the freezer, it will surely take me through the winter.

• Strawberry Popsicles are top on my list (although we've been hovering in the high 60s, low 70s, so it hasn't really been hot popsicle weather up here).
• I want to make some more Strawberry Syrup for ice cream and for pancakes and for waffles (and really, anything else I can think of to throw some strawberry syrup on - oatmeal, vanilla pudding...).
• I really want to make some biscuits to go with the jam, and if I'm making biscuits, I might as well make some Strawberry Shortcake - or an alternative, Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake.
• Last summer, to celebrate Julia Child's birthday, I made Strawberry Millefuille, which I will totally be making again because it was so light and amazing. 

I have been using this strawberry ice cream recipe for a couple of years.  It's easy and really, really good. Especially paired with the lemon ice cream that I made a couple of weeks ago.

Uriah requested that I make my mom's Strawberry Glaze Pie, so I did.  It doesn't take a lot of arm twisting to get me to make pie, and since he requests sweet things so infrequently, I like to oblige when I can.  I think my love language is food.

If you find yourself with a plethora of strawberries and need something to make - this pie is a summer staple. Clearly we couldn't even wait to dive into it!  You wouldn't necessarily have to use whole strawberries, although my mom always says it makes for a prettier presentation and I tend to agree.  A simpler solution would be to fill the pie crust with sliced strawberries and pour the glaze over them.

• Baked pastry shell for a 8-9" pie
• 1 cup strawberry juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablepoons cornstarch 
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups (or more) strawberries

To make the juice:  Measure 1 cup of strawberries, crush them, and add enough water to measure one cup.  Simmer for about 3 minutes; strain, discarding the strawberry pulp and keeping the juice.  Add water to the juice if necessary to measure 1 cup.

To make the glaze: Cook the juice, sugar, cornstarch, and salt over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick.  This part takes a bit of patience because it takes time for it to get to a thick syrup consistency.  Cool the glaze.

To assemble the pie:  Slightly wash and hull 2 cups (or more) of strawberries.  Arrange in the baked pie shell.  Coat with glaze and chill 2-3 hours.





Could someone please tell these two to stop growing?  2011 and 2013:

It's been a whole lot of strawberries up in here lately.  The last time we went strawberry picking was 2 summers ago, Finn couldn't walk and it was a hot Iowa day.  Needless to say, we didn't last long in that patch.  We tried to go last summer before we left Iowa, but by the time I got myself organized and had carved out some time in the midst of packing, we were too late.  It's just as well, I wouldn't have had time to do anything with those strawberries last summer anyway, I was just being optimistic.

This year was different and our bounty was 10-fold what we had two years ago.  I've got a board devoted to all things strawberry on my Pinterest page and I can't wait to try a few new recipes.  I managed to make 3 batches of jam.  I used this recipe from The Pioneer Woman because it's really easy and because it's in her new cookbook, which my husband gave me as a surprise "just because" gift last spring, so it was readily accessible.  The pages are now slightly sticky and stuck together.  Try not to shudder at the 10-1/2 cups of sugar per batch.

I've got a list a mile long of what I want to make with all of these strawberries - and considering I have about 5 gallon-sized bags in the freezer, it will surely take me through the winter.

• Strawberry Popsicles are top on my list (although we've been hovering in the high 60s, low 70s, so it hasn't really been hot popsicle weather up here).
• I want to make some more Strawberry Syrup for ice cream and for pancakes and for waffles (and really, anything else I can think of to throw some strawberry syrup on - oatmeal, vanilla pudding...).
• I really want to make some biscuits to go with the jam, and if I'm making biscuits, I might as well make some Strawberry Shortcake - or an alternative, Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake.
• Last summer, to celebrate Julia Child's birthday, I made Strawberry Millefuille, which I will totally be making again because it was so light and amazing. 

I have been using this strawberry ice cream recipe for a couple of years.  It's easy and really, really good. Especially paired with the lemon ice cream that I made a couple of weeks ago.

Uriah requested that I make my mom's Strawberry Glaze Pie, so I did.  It doesn't take a lot of arm twisting to get me to make pie, and since he requests sweet things so infrequently, I like to oblige when I can.  I think my love language is food.

If you find yourself with a plethora of strawberries and need something to make - this pie is a summer staple. Clearly we couldn't even wait to dive into it!  You wouldn't necessarily have to use whole strawberries, although my mom always says it makes for a prettier presentation and I tend to agree.  A simpler solution would be to fill the pie crust with sliced strawberries and pour the glaze over them.

• Baked pastry shell for a 8-9" pie
• 1 cup strawberry juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablepoons cornstarch 
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups (or more) strawberries

To make the juice:  Measure 1 cup of strawberries, crush them, and add enough water to measure one cup.  Simmer for about 3 minutes; strain, discarding the strawberry pulp and keeping the juice.  Add water to the juice if necessary to measure 1 cup.

To make the glaze: Cook the juice, sugar, cornstarch, and salt over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick.  This part takes a bit of patience because it takes time for it to get to a thick syrup consistency.  Cool the glaze.

To assemble the pie:  Slightly wash and hull 2 cups (or more) of strawberries.  Arrange in the baked pie shell.  Coat with glaze and chill 2-3 hours.





Could someone please tell these two to stop growing?  2011 and 2013:

3 Bitty Birthday Parties

One of my friend's set it up for us to go strawberry picking at a local strawberry farm last week. We went early in the morning.  Happily, it had rained the night before, so there was a cool breeze, and we dominated those rows of strawberries.   Between my friend, Abby and a friend, and myself we managed to pick 16 ice cream pails of strawberries in about 2 hours.  Let me tell you, in case you were wondering, 8 pails of strawberries filled up my entire extra refrigerator as I sorted through them.  I should have weighed them.  Anyway, since then, I have been up to my elbows in strawberries, and feel as though I haven't had much time to devote to writing. Rest assured, I think about writing daily and the insane number of pictures from the last month hanging out on my hard drive taunts me as I make strawberry jelly and strawberry pie and strawberry ice cream.  I've put 5 gallon sized bags of whole frozen strawberries in my freezer and I'd really like to make some strawberry smoothies and strawberry shortcake.

Last night I finally sat down for an hour to sort through some of the pictures.  Holy goodness, there is a lot there.  More to come soon - and probably my mom's strawberry pie recipe, which I made for Uriah last weekend. This season is fleeting and I'm going to soak up as much as I can (both the strawberries and the boy!).

From Finn's 3 Bitty Birthday's last week | at home; with Grandma & Grandpa; with Auntie Sarah:

One of my friend's set it up for us to go strawberry picking at a local strawberry farm last week. We went early in the morning.  Happily, it had rained the night before, so there was a cool breeze, and we dominated those rows of strawberries.   Between my friend, Abby and a friend, and myself we managed to pick 16 ice cream pails of strawberries in about 2 hours.  Let me tell you, in case you were wondering, 8 pails of strawberries filled up my entire extra refrigerator as I sorted through them.  I should have weighed them.  Anyway, since then, I have been up to my elbows in strawberries, and feel as though I haven't had much time to devote to writing. Rest assured, I think about writing daily and the insane number of pictures from the last month hanging out on my hard drive taunts me as I make strawberry jelly and strawberry pie and strawberry ice cream.  I've put 5 gallon sized bags of whole frozen strawberries in my freezer and I'd really like to make some strawberry smoothies and strawberry shortcake.

Last night I finally sat down for an hour to sort through some of the pictures.  Holy goodness, there is a lot there.  More to come soon - and probably my mom's strawberry pie recipe, which I made for Uriah last weekend. This season is fleeting and I'm going to soak up as much as I can (both the strawberries and the boy!).

From Finn's 3 Bitty Birthday's last week | at home; with Grandma & Grandpa; with Auntie Sarah:

Mama says there'll be days like these...

I had one of those days yesterday.  You know the kind that you sort of want to forget, but really all you can do is laugh because, after all, isn't this life?  And someday, won't I want to remember the day Finn went streaking 3 times?

I got my early morning workout in.  I met my lovely friend for a walk and chat before the heat of the day made exercise impossible.  I gardened and gardened and gardened, pulling overgrown plants that I'd wanted to remove for weeks now, tending all the little radish and cucumber and squash shoots, feeling relatively proud of my little peas that are starting to make their presence known.  Weeding and watering, weeding and watering.  My hands and legs and feet were a crusty, muddy mess, my back was sunburned and my hair had a tree's worth of sticks tangled up in it.  I may have gotten a little absorbed in my task.

Finn, however, felt that being naked was more his style yesterday.  I glanced up from digging a huge cluster of overgrown something out of the garden, only to see little pink buns race past me.  Luckily our back yard is pretty well shielded from the street, but I dropped my shovel quickly and chased down my little exhibitionist. I explained that we need to keep clothes on when we are outside, re-dressed him, and went back about my business.  I was huffing and puffing and trying to get my shovel all the way under the root cluster (because I do not want these things back!) and I looked up to find Finn - naked again - in the bird bath (it's actually an in-ground water fountain, but we call it a bird bath.  It's not very big, so really, he was only wet up to his knees from splashing, but he had his little naked buns sitting on a nice warm rock).  I plucked him from the water, reminded him again that we need to have clothes on when we're outside, and sent him on his way to make a construction site in the sandbox.

I went back to my digging and sweating and cursing the blasted root systems that are found in nature, when it occurred to me that I couldn't hear construction site "noises."  In fact, I didn't hear anything.  I walked around the side of the house - no Finn in the sandbox.  I walked all the way around the house.  No Finn anywhere.  I walked into the house, and the minute I opened the door, I heard a little voice say: "Just go back outside, Mama.  I'm making a snack."

And there he was, standing on his stool at the counter, half a loaf of bread spread out before him, pouring pancake syrup all over it.  Stark naked.

The appliance repair man came to fix the dishwasher - thankfully, Finn was fully clothed at the time and remained so for the duration of his visit.  The dishwasher started up immediately for him, I'm assuming just to screw with me.  I almost had a heart attack, partly because I couldn't believe it had started and partly because I was excited to bypass that bill.  Unfortunately, it stopped almost as quickly as it started, but after an hour of fiddling around and doing appliancey-things, it's now fixed and we are back to the convenience of a dishwasher.

Our baby-sitter showed up about the same time Uriah got home from work and declared that he still needed to take a shower before we could leave.  All of the power went out in Canal Park, where we wanted to have dinner.  We couldn't find a gift at the toy store down there, so we ended up having to trek up the hill to Target.  We thought about having dinner at a neighborhood place that had been recommended to Uriah, but upon being seated and looking at the menu, we both decided we wanted something different so we got up and left (something I have never done before, and honestly felt a little bit bad about doing, but there was nothing on the menu that appealed to me).  We headed back down to Canal Park to see if the power was back on.  It was hit or miss at most restaurants, the wait was long and everyone was crabby, so we headed back up the shore toward home and had dinner at Clearwater Grille.  At about 8:15.  It wasn't bad, but after sitting on the patio for 10 minutes, it started to sprinkle and the wind picked up, so we headed inside to finish our dinner.

I demanded a date-night redux, which we will need to accomplish before our baby-sitter leaves for college in the fall.  If we go on a quick date within 15 minutes of home, we usually leave Abby in charge of Finn.  However, we do hire a baby-sitter for Finn when we head into Duluth for our date, since that puts us a minimum of 30 minutes away from home, longer if we have to head up the hill.  If something were to happen, Abby is obviously not able to drive yet, so we tend to err on the side of caution and leave him with someone who could schlep him to the ER if necessary.  



Blast from the past:
My little one-year-old chubby lump, back when morning and afternoon naps were necessary. | August 2011

I had one of those days yesterday.  You know the kind that you sort of want to forget, but really all you can do is laugh because, after all, isn't this life?  And someday, won't I want to remember the day Finn went streaking 3 times?

I got my early morning workout in.  I met my lovely friend for a walk and chat before the heat of the day made exercise impossible.  I gardened and gardened and gardened, pulling overgrown plants that I'd wanted to remove for weeks now, tending all the little radish and cucumber and squash shoots, feeling relatively proud of my little peas that are starting to make their presence known.  Weeding and watering, weeding and watering.  My hands and legs and feet were a crusty, muddy mess, my back was sunburned and my hair had a tree's worth of sticks tangled up in it.  I may have gotten a little absorbed in my task.

Finn, however, felt that being naked was more his style yesterday.  I glanced up from digging a huge cluster of overgrown something out of the garden, only to see little pink buns race past me.  Luckily our back yard is pretty well shielded from the street, but I dropped my shovel quickly and chased down my little exhibitionist. I explained that we need to keep clothes on when we are outside, re-dressed him, and went back about my business.  I was huffing and puffing and trying to get my shovel all the way under the root cluster (because I do not want these things back!) and I looked up to find Finn - naked again - in the bird bath (it's actually an in-ground water fountain, but we call it a bird bath.  It's not very big, so really, he was only wet up to his knees from splashing, but he had his little naked buns sitting on a nice warm rock).  I plucked him from the water, reminded him again that we need to have clothes on when we're outside, and sent him on his way to make a construction site in the sandbox.

I went back to my digging and sweating and cursing the blasted root systems that are found in nature, when it occurred to me that I couldn't hear construction site "noises."  In fact, I didn't hear anything.  I walked around the side of the house - no Finn in the sandbox.  I walked all the way around the house.  No Finn anywhere.  I walked into the house, and the minute I opened the door, I heard a little voice say: "Just go back outside, Mama.  I'm making a snack."

And there he was, standing on his stool at the counter, half a loaf of bread spread out before him, pouring pancake syrup all over it.  Stark naked.

The appliance repair man came to fix the dishwasher - thankfully, Finn was fully clothed at the time and remained so for the duration of his visit.  The dishwasher started up immediately for him, I'm assuming just to screw with me.  I almost had a heart attack, partly because I couldn't believe it had started and partly because I was excited to bypass that bill.  Unfortunately, it stopped almost as quickly as it started, but after an hour of fiddling around and doing appliancey-things, it's now fixed and we are back to the convenience of a dishwasher.

Our baby-sitter showed up about the same time Uriah got home from work and declared that he still needed to take a shower before we could leave.  All of the power went out in Canal Park, where we wanted to have dinner.  We couldn't find a gift at the toy store down there, so we ended up having to trek up the hill to Target.  We thought about having dinner at a neighborhood place that had been recommended to Uriah, but upon being seated and looking at the menu, we both decided we wanted something different so we got up and left (something I have never done before, and honestly felt a little bit bad about doing, but there was nothing on the menu that appealed to me).  We headed back down to Canal Park to see if the power was back on.  It was hit or miss at most restaurants, the wait was long and everyone was crabby, so we headed back up the shore toward home and had dinner at Clearwater Grille.  At about 8:15.  It wasn't bad, but after sitting on the patio for 10 minutes, it started to sprinkle and the wind picked up, so we headed inside to finish our dinner.

I demanded a date-night redux, which we will need to accomplish before our baby-sitter leaves for college in the fall.  If we go on a quick date within 15 minutes of home, we usually leave Abby in charge of Finn.  However, we do hire a baby-sitter for Finn when we head into Duluth for our date, since that puts us a minimum of 30 minutes away from home, longer if we have to head up the hill.  If something were to happen, Abby is obviously not able to drive yet, so we tend to err on the side of caution and leave him with someone who could schlep him to the ER if necessary.  



Blast from the past:
My little one-year-old chubby lump, back when morning and afternoon naps were necessary. | August 2011

Pop-Up Vacation - you know, from 3 weeks ago.

I am behind...behind in laundry, behind in blogging (which I said I would be more diligent about), behind in my reading (I have 3 books checked out from the library, 2 of which I've started - and a list of books I still want to tackle).  And honestly...I'm not too concerned about any of it.  

We just got back from a week in Kansas City with my sister and trying to fit in visiting all of our extended family down there (I learned that it's kind of impossible, even with a week's worth of time, and I'm trying not to feel too guilty about those we missed.).  We had a bridal shower for my baby sister and spent 4th of July at the pool.  We left behind 91 degree weather for 55 degree fogginess.  And we're making up for 10 long days away from Uriah.

Before we left for the dirty, dirty South we took a pop-up vacation to Leech Lake, which was really a working vacation for Uriah - so not really a vacation for him at all - but it was for the rest of us!  And although it rained one of the 3 days we were there, but we managed to squeeze in some marshmallow roasting, some boating, fishing, and swimming and, of course, a little bit of HGTV (I need my fix when we leave our cable-free home!).

This week we are preparing for Finn's 3rd Birthday!  I can hardly believe 3 years have zoomed by, but I am staying stoic and trying to to cry all day long.  On the plus side, he's almost completely potty trained - still just a pull-up at night because it's hit or miss yet.  Of all of the struggles these past 3 years have brought us, potty training is by far my own personal hell.

So...while I'm planning super-hero themed birthday fun and rainbow pancakes and an Iron Man cake, I also hope to sort through the 1000+ pictures from our week away from home.  I'm tring not to miss morning naps with my sweetie sugar lump nephew and my husband has planned an an honest-to-goodness-hired-a-babysitter-and-everything date (which really means we need to get Finn a birthday present and we don't want him along while we decide).  I need to weed a week's worth of junk out of my gardens, but mostly I need to try not to be a basket case about my baby not being a baby.

I am behind...behind in laundry, behind in blogging (which I said I would be more diligent about), behind in my reading (I have 3 books checked out from the library, 2 of which I've started - and a list of books I still want to tackle).  And honestly...I'm not too concerned about any of it.  

We just got back from a week in Kansas City with my sister and trying to fit in visiting all of our extended family down there (I learned that it's kind of impossible, even with a week's worth of time, and I'm trying not to feel too guilty about those we missed.).  We had a bridal shower for my baby sister and spent 4th of July at the pool.  We left behind 91 degree weather for 55 degree fogginess.  And we're making up for 10 long days away from Uriah.

Before we left for the dirty, dirty South we took a pop-up vacation to Leech Lake, which was really a working vacation for Uriah - so not really a vacation for him at all - but it was for the rest of us!  And although it rained one of the 3 days we were there, but we managed to squeeze in some marshmallow roasting, some boating, fishing, and swimming and, of course, a little bit of HGTV (I need my fix when we leave our cable-free home!).

This week we are preparing for Finn's 3rd Birthday!  I can hardly believe 3 years have zoomed by, but I am staying stoic and trying to to cry all day long.  On the plus side, he's almost completely potty trained - still just a pull-up at night because it's hit or miss yet.  Of all of the struggles these past 3 years have brought us, potty training is by far my own personal hell.

So...while I'm planning super-hero themed birthday fun and rainbow pancakes and an Iron Man cake, I also hope to sort through the 1000+ pictures from our week away from home.  I'm tring not to miss morning naps with my sweetie sugar lump nephew and my husband has planned an an honest-to-goodness-hired-a-babysitter-and-everything date (which really means we need to get Finn a birthday present and we don't want him along while we decide).  I need to weed a week's worth of junk out of my gardens, but mostly I need to try not to be a basket case about my baby not being a baby.

On my mind today: Gardens and rain and furniture.

It is rainy and foggy and a little bit chilly today.  Good for growing grass and flowers, I suppose.  I have already cleaned my kitchen (mostly, anyway.  I still have the floors to do.  I always run out of steam  by the floors and wish I could leave them for a merry house elf to finish.), I've started on the bathroom, stripped the beds and made a pot of chicken noodle soup.  Day, accomplished, I'd say.  But probably not since I still have to finish the bathroom and the kitchen floors and re-make the beds.

Finn has been napping all afternoon.  Literally since right after lunch - and we ate lunch before the noon bells rang because he was starving and losing his wee toddler mind.  Growth spurt, I suppose, but maybe Uriah and I wore him out yesterday with all of our furniture shopping.  We have been trying to find a set of bunk beds, either to split apart and put one in each of the kid's rooms or just leave together in Finn's room.  Furniture shopping is not our forte and we had to take a snack break half-way through.  I may have lost my own mind over the insane number of handicap parking spaces in downtown Duluth - as in: every single meter had a handicap sticker on it.  Turns out, what look like handicap signs are really just notices that handicap parking stickers have a certain amount of time to park at the meter - maybe free of charge? - and everyone else can park there, too?  I don't know, I'm guessing.  All I know is after about 3 circles of two different blocks, I finally made Uriah back up into an empty space, I shoved our quarters into one of the damned meters with the white handicap sticker and we walked another block to the furniture store.  We did not get a parking ticket and I apologized twenty times to Uriah for the harsh words I spoke out of hunger.  All that to say we did not purchase anything yesterday.  6 furniture stores and not one purchase.  But, at least we have an idea of what we might want.  I guess.  Or we just wasted an afternoon watching Finn climb the bunk bed ladders and pretend he was a fireman.

So, while Finn naps his Saturday away, I'm ignoring the kitchen floors that are screaming to be swept, and I'm playing with my garden pictures instead.  I inherited the most beautiful gardens with this house last summer and I'm just trying to keep them alive.  And trying to figure out what's planted in them.  Green is shooting up everywhere, along with some red leafy things and some purples and yellows, and the lilac and hydrangea bushes are budding, and the lily of the valley are going to be everywhere very soon.  I could look at those gardens all day long and constantly find something new bursting up through the soil...as long as I can keep the bunnies and the deer away, that is.

It is rainy and foggy and a little bit chilly today.  Good for growing grass and flowers, I suppose.  I have already cleaned my kitchen (mostly, anyway.  I still have the floors to do.  I always run out of steam  by the floors and wish I could leave them for a merry house elf to finish.), I've started on the bathroom, stripped the beds and made a pot of chicken noodle soup.  Day, accomplished, I'd say.  But probably not since I still have to finish the bathroom and the kitchen floors and re-make the beds.

Finn has been napping all afternoon.  Literally since right after lunch - and we ate lunch before the noon bells rang because he was starving and losing his wee toddler mind.  Growth spurt, I suppose, but maybe Uriah and I wore him out yesterday with all of our furniture shopping.  We have been trying to find a set of bunk beds, either to split apart and put one in each of the kid's rooms or just leave together in Finn's room.  Furniture shopping is not our forte and we had to take a snack break half-way through.  I may have lost my own mind over the insane number of handicap parking spaces in downtown Duluth - as in: every single meter had a handicap sticker on it.  Turns out, what look like handicap signs are really just notices that handicap parking stickers have a certain amount of time to park at the meter - maybe free of charge? - and everyone else can park there, too?  I don't know, I'm guessing.  All I know is after about 3 circles of two different blocks, I finally made Uriah back up into an empty space, I shoved our quarters into one of the damned meters with the white handicap sticker and we walked another block to the furniture store.  We did not get a parking ticket and I apologized twenty times to Uriah for the harsh words I spoke out of hunger.  All that to say we did not purchase anything yesterday.  6 furniture stores and not one purchase.  But, at least we have an idea of what we might want.  I guess.  Or we just wasted an afternoon watching Finn climb the bunk bed ladders and pretend he was a fireman.

So, while Finn naps his Saturday away, I'm ignoring the kitchen floors that are screaming to be swept, and I'm playing with my garden pictures instead.  I inherited the most beautiful gardens with this house last summer and I'm just trying to keep them alive.  And trying to figure out what's planted in them.  Green is shooting up everywhere, along with some red leafy things and some purples and yellows, and the lilac and hydrangea bushes are budding, and the lily of the valley are going to be everywhere very soon.  I could look at those gardens all day long and constantly find something new bursting up through the soil...as long as I can keep the bunnies and the deer away, that is.

How far you've come

"Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go.

You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be."

[Rick Warren]

"Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go.

You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be."

[Rick Warren]

Winter Blues

Finn and I took a walk this morning.  The temperature said 25 degrees, but the wind was brutal.  Next time I will wear an extra shirt and bring a blanket for Finn in the stroller.  We didn't go far and I am, in fact, still trying to warm up.  I think a cup of tea is in my very near future (even though I'd love a cup of coffee; I'd also love to go to sleep tonight).

We are supposed to go to Iowa tomorrow, Finn and I, but the weather is being a spiteful hooker, and if it snows and blows like it's supposed to, we may be stuck here, missing out on all of the fun.  We have great plans to hang out in a hotel and play with Cousin Dane and watch Uncle Dan graduate from taxidermy school and look at all kinds of cool, stuffed critters, and maybe even stop at Ikea on our way home.  What is meant to be will be, and I don't drive in inclement weather (read: snow, rain, strong winds - basically anything that is not sunny and dry and safe!) but I am hopeful that we can make our trip as planned.

We are counting down the days to spring break...well, Finn is counting down the days.  He has zero concept of time and keeps asking me if it is next year yet, which, I guess in Finn time means later.  Anyway, he kept asking me if it was time to go to Mimi's house (Uriah's mom) and I finally had to tell him when we'd taken off all of the chains, then it would be time to go to Mimi's.  I probably shouldn't have told him we were going to the zoo or that we get to see absolutely all of our cousins (both hound and human).  He's pretty excited.  I'm pretty much sick of saying, not today fifteen zillion times an hour and then having him ask, "Please, Mama?  Please can we go to Mimi's house today?" in his very sweet little voice.  Next time we take a trip I am not telling him about until the day we leave.

Finn and I took a walk this morning.  The temperature said 25 degrees, but the wind was brutal.  Next time I will wear an extra shirt and bring a blanket for Finn in the stroller.  We didn't go far and I am, in fact, still trying to warm up.  I think a cup of tea is in my very near future (even though I'd love a cup of coffee; I'd also love to go to sleep tonight).

We are supposed to go to Iowa tomorrow, Finn and I, but the weather is being a spiteful hooker, and if it snows and blows like it's supposed to, we may be stuck here, missing out on all of the fun.  We have great plans to hang out in a hotel and play with Cousin Dane and watch Uncle Dan graduate from taxidermy school and look at all kinds of cool, stuffed critters, and maybe even stop at Ikea on our way home.  What is meant to be will be, and I don't drive in inclement weather (read: snow, rain, strong winds - basically anything that is not sunny and dry and safe!) but I am hopeful that we can make our trip as planned.

We are counting down the days to spring break...well, Finn is counting down the days.  He has zero concept of time and keeps asking me if it is next year yet, which, I guess in Finn time means later.  Anyway, he kept asking me if it was time to go to Mimi's house (Uriah's mom) and I finally had to tell him when we'd taken off all of the chains, then it would be time to go to Mimi's.  I probably shouldn't have told him we were going to the zoo or that we get to see absolutely all of our cousins (both hound and human).  He's pretty excited.  I'm pretty much sick of saying, not today fifteen zillion times an hour and then having him ask, "Please, Mama?  Please can we go to Mimi's house today?" in his very sweet little voice.  Next time we take a trip I am not telling him about until the day we leave.