Category: General News

Oct. 21: When I don’t post in several days, this…thing…happens to me.  I get all twitchy and sort of nervous.  I’ve got about six posts I’m trying to hold onto in my brain, and it’s making me a bit crazy.
But Sylvia just started crying, so I’m not going to free my mind yet!

OK, it’s 11pm and the wee one is fed.  Andrew was calling for me an hour ago.  When I went into his room, I discovered that he was completely encased in his blankets.  And stuck.  He had somehow gotten down to the foot of his bed, cocooned in his blankets.  I had to pull and roll him a lot before I could find him:)  Although he was almost asleep, he did seem to see the humor in the situation.  What a kook.

As a quick recap, we had a wonderful visit with Bryan’s mom.  She came into town on the 12th and left on the 17th.  Sylvia was pretty unhappy/sick for much of her visit, so it was especially nice to have her here as backup…both for Andrew and for my mental and emotional sanity.

On Saturday, Jessica and I took our girls down to Mineral Point for the Fall Art Tour.  It was a glorious day.

I’ve continued to scan my CD collection to iTunes.  I’m really nuts.  So far, I have 3,500 songs scanned.  I went home last weekend and got a bag of CDs.  More MORE ha ha ha ha!!!

I just read a quote I liked a lot: “We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection.” – Anais Nin
So true.  That’s a big chunk of why I love to chronicle my kids lives.

I think I had other really pertinent things to report, but they currently escape me.  So I’ll leave you with the update that Melanie flies in tomorrow.  Ben joins her on Friday, and the two of them are staying until mid-day on Monday.  We’re really looking forward to their visit!

Bryan’s a sick boy today.  Fever, chills, headache.  Hopefully we won’t give our disease to our house guests!

Oct. 13: We’ve had some great outdoor adventures this past week.  It’s been warm, it’s been sunny, the trees have been oh-so colorful.  It’s been great.
On Wednesday after story hour, Jessica and I took our kids to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.  I’m regretful to admit that I have never been there before.  It was a wonderful, wonderful afternoon.  The boys were so sweet together, running amidst the prairie grasses, the girls had fun being carried and then hanging out on a grassy clearing, and we basked in the realness of it all.  Afterwards we stopped by a great yarn store I hadn’t been to before.  Off the Beaten Path was so great!  Maretta, next time you’re in town, we’re going there!
Jessica and I met for some knitting on Thursday night.  I just love sitting with friends, drinking warm beverages, and knitting or talking and in either case, laughing.  It restores my soul.
On Friday, we returned to the Door Creek Orchard with Jessica and family and with Terry.  We had a nice picnic amidst the apple-laden trees, and we bought many jugs of cider.  The boys had fun looking at the black Welsh mountain sheep.  They then crawled around on the grass pretending to be Art and Andy, sheep.
On Sunday, we met my dad out at Cherokee Marsh and had a wonderful time walking through the forest and the prairie.  It’s one of my very favorite places on earth.  That and Jack’s place.  Beautiful.
As the sun came up today, the trees behind our house were glowing with a purplish-red.  Our tree out front is starting to turn yellow.  It’s a wonderful time of year.

Oct. 13: We have Granny here for the week!  I’m taking a big sigh of relief.  Sylvia is on the mend, and I have some major child-care assistance.  In fact, today I only moderately assisted with child-care.  It felt so nice to have a little break.  LuAnn drove up all the way from Texas.  My white car is going, going, going…  To our great delight, relief, and surprise, Bryan’s parents offered us their Toyota Camry as a replacement.  LuAnn drove from Texas up to Wichita last week and then on Friday did the 11 hour trek to Madison.  She’s amazing.
I used some of my free time this afternoon to process some of the many, many photos I’ve taken in the last week.  The fall color is so incredible.  We’ve been having fun in the out-of-doors!
Photos of Andrew and Alivia having a painting fest, Sylvia crawling in the back yard, and the young girl munching on some breakfast are in the gallery.

Oct. 9: [Note: Sylvia just fell asleep after working on it for an hour and a half. I’d go in to pick her up and soothe her, and she’d yawn and yawn.  So we took a break and spent some time outdoors, I put her down, she cried for 10 minutes, I held her and bounced her, and at long last, she fell soundly asleep.  Hope it lasts at least a half hour.  Cat-food-breath was one tired girl.]
In other news, I’ve recently been making a brownie recipe that I found on a bag of King Arthur Flour.  It’s so good.  So Good.  I had to share.

The Best Fudge Brownies Ever

1 cup (8 ounces) butter,
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup King Arthur unbleached all purpose
2 cups chocolate chips, semi-sweet

Note: Increase salt to 1 teaspoon if you are using unsalted butter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan. (I lined mine with aluminum foil).

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave for 1 minute) and heat until mixture is very hot but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the butter and sugar a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl (if you melted the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl, you don’t have to transfer anything).

Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Add the eggs, beating till smooth; then add the flour and chips, stirring until combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the brownies for 28 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out dry. Remove them from the oven and after 5 minutes, loosen the edges with a table knife. This helps prevent sinking as they cool. Cool completely then cut and serve.

Makes 2 dozen brownies

 

Oct. 9: October is undoubtedly my favorite month.  Unless you were to ask me in May.  Or maybe June.  September is good too.  But October.  I think it’s #1.  This morning is sunny and with a brilliantly blue sky.  The maples are all just starting to turn, so there’s lots of green with bright splashes of scarlet and fiery orange and that amazing yellow.  Yellow locus tree leaves against the blue, blue sky.  Nothing like it!
In case you were wondering, this is a post about my abiding love for autumnal beauty.  It is not a post about how Sylvia is not napping this morning.  [I had to stop for a moment there.  Sylvia just discovered the cat’s food for the first time.  Fishing cat food kibble out of her mouth…]  She almost fell asleep while we walked Andrew to preschool.  But then she cried for a half hour in her crib before I decided a nap was right out for a while.
By the way, on the walk to preschool, Andrew said a couple delightful things.
“Hip hip hooray!  It’s preschool today!”
“You’re the best mommy.  Even better than I’m an Andrew.”
Have a good morning!

Oct. 8: I’ve ripped 1,000 songs in the last couple days.  It’s been an all-day affair.  Tom got an iPhone a while back, and since iPhones are also iPods, he offered me his iPod.  This is new territory for me.  I’ve never had an mp3 listening device.  But now with this new gadget, I’m excited to re-vamp my music-listening habits.  We’ve got loads of CDs, most of which we haven’t listened to in years.  My plan is to rip all our CD to the computer.  I’ll hook up the iPod to our stereo.  It’ll hold all our music.  I’ll keep the CDs that we like and actively use, and I think the rest we’ll find new homes for.
It takes 10 minutes or so to rip a CD.  Andrew’s been very engaged in watching and counting as each track is checked off.  Then he gets to put the new CD in the computer.  He’s have a great time.  We’re both somewhat obsessive personalities:)
I’m about a quarter of the way through my CD collection.  I’m excited to use the playlists and other nifty features to shake-up my music-listening habits.  I often listen to the same 5 CDs for months…even years at a time.  Hey, when I find something I like, I don’t seem to mind listening to it over, and over, and over and over.  Should be fun to re-explore some of my old music and maybe try out some new tunes too.  I found that nearly all our CDs are from the 1990s.  Except for the recent influx of children’s music!  If you have favorite artists or albums, let me know!  I’m game to explore.

Oct. 4: Sarah, Wes, Charlie and our gang met at Door Creek Orchard this afternoon to enjoy the lovely day.  Being a picturesque location, we took loads of photos.  I can’t get enough of my sweet kids:)
Andrew was having a good time covering Sylvia in grass.  She was having a great time munching on said grass.  Perhaps she believes she is an ungulate.
OK, I’ve got to turn off the computer.  It’s midnight!  Tomorrow afternoon/evening I’m going to American Players Theater and Bryan will have both kids.  Wish him luck if you wouldn’t mind.  He hasn’t had Sylvia on his own very much, and these days she’s pretty keen on having her mom around.  Hopefully it’ll be a good experience!

Oct. 4:  It’s been a little hard to post this past week. Sylvia is continuing to only sleep for 20-40 minutes before waking up.  And then she’s really not going back to sleep.  So…that’s been fun.
But, what was fun was to have Granny and Grandad come visit us last weekend.  Andrew got to show his preschool off to his grandparents.  The boys all went to the zoo on Saturday, and they both got lots of Sylvia time.  Sylvie is so amazing right now.  I’m really glad that they got to see her as she’s transitioning from a cuddly baby to an active little one.
Granny is driving up to see us next Sunday, so we’re looking forward to seeing her again soon!  Photos of their visit are in the gallery.

Sept. 29: Wow, I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of September!  When did that happen?
I’m in the processes of backing up my computer, but I thought I’d take a moment before I step away from the computer to make dinner to quickly update that Sylvia seems healthy.  She’s a happy girl during the day again.  Still waking pretty frequently at night though…
This morning, I was so surprised to see Sylvia crawling down the hall from the bathroom to the kitchen.  She really got everything synched up for a good, long crawl.  Usually she’s staying within about a five-foot area.
Bryan’s parents were here for the weekend (since we canceled our Northfield trip due to Sylvia’s unhappiness).  We had a really, really nice time.  Photos are in the gallery!

I’ve been having a hair crisis, but it has reached a very happy conclusion.  My hairdresser, Liz, has been doing my hair for about four years.  I love getting my hair done by her.  I also really like her.  So about a week ago, the salon called to tell me that Liz was no longer at the salon, and they wondered if they could reschedule me with a different stylist.  “She has taken a new career path,” they said.  Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

I held of on posting about this because although it deeply troubled me, it seemed rather superficial to be so upset about a person’s hairdresser going AWOL.  I mean, we had a long-term relationship!  She didn’t mention that she was thinking about leaving!  Couldn’t she have found a way to say goodbye?  Did I value our relationship more than she did?  How could she break up with me by just disappearing?

I knew what street she lived on and considered walking down it calling for her.  “Liz, even if you aren’t a hair-stylist any more, can you please just do my hair?” LIZ!!  Please!

But I pulled myself together, decided not to be a stalker, and I made an appointment at Ananda Salon.  Sad, resigned.

Then today a postcard.  It was from Liz.  She has started her own salon right near my home called THORPS.  They’re specializing in cut and color.  Oh, sweet relief!  Liz and me.  BFF again.