Good Bye A Avenue

Over Labor Day weekend, 2008, Jamey and I moved into our first home; a lovely little bungalow on A Avenue. We had no idea how much work, sweat and love would go into and come out of that house over the next fourteen years.

From the start, it was Jamey, me and our black cat Izzy. We brought minimal furniture (we didn't even own a real couch!), a vehicle and a bike for each of us, and little more. 

Here's my attempt to inventory what we did and how we grew in this place:

• 17 new windows
• three days with a sledgehammer and jackhammer to remove the big cement slab steps in the front; replaced with a lovely wooden deck. Uncountable hours sitting out there with ice cream, yogurts, snacks, books and beer.
• one layer of old siding ripped off, one layer of new added
• baby dog in 1999
• two layers of new tiles in kitchen
• baby girl in 2003
• kitchen gutted to studs and rebuilt
• bathroom semi-gutted and rebuilt
• one new room in the basement
• sixty gallon fish tank rescued from storage crate...too many fish to count. Seven inch Convict Jack is buried in the back yard
• ten gallon birthday fish tank revealed: one frog and lots of fish...all dead
• two different sandboxes built, one un-built
• baby boy in 2009
• mac-daddy tree house designed and built (it all started when a friend offered a "free" play house for dismantling)
• paint in every room (several rooms had multiple paint jobs!)
• new roof; new roof on garage as our do-it-yourself project 
• countless outside movie nights in the back yard
• four feet of a new chimney
• motorized vehicles that came and went: Lisa's original Grand Am, Toyota pick up, Camry, BMW motorcycle, Izuzu Trooper "bio diesel" project (plus associated motors...), The Prospector, Toyota 4Runner, VW Jetta TDI. 

A lot of living...

I just read a historical-fiction book about Frank Lloyd Wright and Mameh Borthwick's love affair. The descriptions of the home FLW built in Wisconsin for his love are exquisite. The home was their refuge from the world, connected to nature and built with love. I've begun to feel that way about our new space. I love sitting in the family room, with the beautiful view of the trees in the back yard in place...peaceful and quiet. I didn't feel it at first; I think I needed the fall to really let go of A Avenue and embrace HH. 

Slippy Slides & Spinach

On Memorial Day we planted what I think will be our last plantings (until fall plantings). Here's the tally of things we've planted:

• several varieties of lettuces - we've been enjoying them for close to two weeks!
• spinach: came in spotty, but it seems we're getting a decent harvest
• peas: dismal failure = replaced with more beans
• pole beans
• sweet corn (about 7 inches tall already!)
• cucumbers
• squash
• rainbow chard
• cantalope
• brussel sprouts (had to try them! they're so pretty)
• popcorn (not coming in too well at all)
• tomatoes
• onions (we lost quite a few and had to do a replacement planting)
• carrots (another dismal failure: we did a second planting on Monday with some new advice and hopefully better results)
• peppers
• basil
• red & white striped beets
• sweet potatoes
• regular potatoes: they're HUGE!

It's been so rewarding to eat our lettuce and to share it with our friends & neighbors! I can't wait for the rest of the harvests.

The other addition to the garden scene is the slippy slide. For a mere $40 at Target, this thing is going to provide endless summer entertainment. Will & Willa already had a 'fail or fun' game going on and Cam digs it, too.  To add to the water fun, Ev got out an old water tank. This tank was the original "pool party" for Larisa and her siblings when they were growing up on the farm. Now it's fun for another generation: the Fu-lympics were a featured event in our afternoon gardening session. If only I'd gotten in a few laps to train for the Pig this weekend!

Gardening tip of the day: We are putting crushed egg shells around and in the tomato and pepper plants. Both of these are fast growing plants that strip vital nutrients from the soil. The calcium carbonite in the egg shell is one of the nutrients the plants need.

30 Day Challenge

In my 'other life' at Coe, I'm leading a summer development program called "13 Things to Think About."
The first post in the program introduced a quick TEDtalk by Matt Cutts, Google Engineer. Matt talks about trying something for just 30 days. Check out Matt's short talk HERE.  My 30 day challenge for May is to stop eating after 8:30PM.

On the surface, I thought this sounded sort of cheap for a 30-day challenge. But when I stop to think about it, I think it's a good starter for me. It's about improving my over all health. It may seem like a small thing, but this will be a big deal for me. I'm a terrible snacker. I snack when I'm not even hungry. The kids have a "night-time" snack between 7:30-8, and I snack along. Then I tend to have another snack close to my 'night-time' between 10-11. Sometimes, in my moments of insomnia, I'll snack around 2am.  I've read many times that it's good to give your digestive system a nice long break every night. Mine rarely gets any break!

I'm certainly not off to an impressive start (I am committing to this on May 7 - so I'll have to carry on my 30 days in to June!). No more night-snacks - starting NOW.

Building the Biosphere

Biosphere coming together!

Willa's class is studying life systems. As part of the study, Willa was tasked with building a biosphere to study and document for the next few weeks. Via Pinterest, we found some great directions (HERE, then follow the links).

Our first task was collecting three empty 2 liter bottles. Willa and Cam canvassed the neighborhood - thanks to our neighbors Larry & Jeannette for the mini-ecosystem home!

I was deep into mulching and taking care of baby hostas, so this project was really a Jamey-Willa-Cam project. They made a trip to PetCo for guppies, snails and crickets. Willa harvested earth worms from my hosta-transplanting locations and Cam collected brown leaves and rocks.

The biosphere has been at school now for almost a week. Within the first day, two guppies died. But we put in four guppies with the assumption that there might be a tragic beginning to life. Willa reported on Friday that the snails were eating the fish carcasses and she'd found the leftover bones floating in the pond. Circle of life in action!

The class is also monitoring a small pool of tadpoles and their most exciting recent addition was crayfish. Willa is quite excited to be in the group hosting only one of two crayfish in the class! I've heard there are plans to try to get the crayfish to mate. I haven't asked her how they're going to go about this task yet.

Snails moving in.

Closing it the biosphere.

Let the Growing Begin!

This year, instead of renewing our CSA membership, we're going on our own! Well, not on our own, exactly - just without an expert! We're doing a collective garden with our friends, the Bickels and our new friends the Rogers'. Larisa's parents have two acres just outside of town. They're no longer interested in maintaining their large garden themselves, so we're taking over.

So far - SO FUN!

March 30: it only took us about 30 minutes on a sunny Sunday afternoon to plant three long rows of potatoes. It's a week earlier than suggested, but we just couldn't wait to dig in.

April 6: Jamie, Larisa and I, along with our offspring headed out on the school's early out day to plant salad greens, spinach, peas and onions. We're planting in first-year garden area, so there were some clumps to contend with, but we rocked that dirt!

Unfortunately Jamie and her kids had to leave, but the other Jamey (with a Y) and Cam and J.P. showed up shortly after. Terri prepared us a delicious post-planting dinner: homemade pizza pockets, from-scratch sauce and an awesome salad. Larisa pulled out a bottle of wine and some interesting beers and we sat on the porch and feasted. It was such a beautiful evening - good food, good friends, good conversation, (mostly) good kids - I'm looking forward to more of these (and eventually feasting on our own bounty!).

Documenting a Good Day

I just started reading through a book (I was actually giving to my friend) called "The Happiness Project". I realize I've got a lot to be happy about, so I'm documenting my day (which just happened to be Easter).

7:00ish AM... with plans to attend 8am church, it seems a bit impossible that I was still lounging in bed at this time. There were a few cranky words between Jamey and me when he came up at 7:15 and asked if we were still going. But somehow we managed to pull it off. Arrived to find a seat inside, walking in just before the processional went down the aisle.

8-9:30ish... kids were relatively good in church (Cam loudly asked where the Easter Bunny was) and we stayed for donuts and coffee afterward.

Between 9 and noon, the kids found their Easter baskets, ate the heads off the bunnies, played with the sidewalk chalk and bubbles, we all ate delicious Maple Syrup french toast (recipe courtesy of my mom) and were ready for play. Jamey commented how going to 8am church really opened up our whole day for more things!

12:45-2:45PM - biking. Despite a really windy day, the sun was shining and we decided to head out on bikes. Had a great ride, stopped at the park by Bender Pool and had some play time before coming back.

Other afternoon activities: playing at St. Matt's playground, mowing the yard, baking up lasagna, spending an hour browsing through Barnes & Noble.

Finally, the kids got to use their new bubble bath and shower gels for clean up (never were they so excited to take their baths/showers!) and everyone was in bed. Jamey and I watched a DVD I'd rented on Saturday; "50/50" supposedly a bittersweet comedy with Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I did laugh, but I also cried.

FreezeFest 2012

Last year, our friends, the Bickels had their first 'FreezeFest'. They decided the month of January was a good time to reflect on their spending habits as a family. During the month of January, 2011 the Bickel family put a self-imposed no-spending restriction in place. They liked the results, and this year asked if we'd wanted to join them. Sure! We decided FreezeFest 2012 would run from February 1-29. What does this mean for the Family Stro?

• no going out to eat. PERIOD. No after-church brunches, no Friday-night Tomaso pizza feasts, no Brewed Awakening coffee stops after Saturday morning basketball games
• no RedBox or Family video rentals, no early-show movie theatre trips
• no entertaining ourselves at Barnes & Noble with treats and a few books, or picking up the next chapter books for Willa and cooking mags for me at 1/2 Priced Books
• no lunches out or on the way back from the gym for Jamey
• no stops by Brewed for Monday Mocha (or Tuesday's latte or Wednesday's latte...) for me

We're in our third week and we've done pretty well. By far, it's had the most impact on Jamey and me. Jamey was typically eating out or picking up lunch 3-5 times a week prior to FreezeFest. A tray of sushi from the big HyVee or a Blimpie's sub on the way back from a noon workout were very common. Taco Tuesday at El Super Burrito was a standing date. For me, my theory of just one or maybe two coffees a week had lately turned into four-ish, or maybe five or six counting weekends. And by coffees, I mean the $4 cups consisting of a little coffee steamed up with lots of frothy milk, whip and syrups. 

Willa has expressed her dislike of Freezefest on several occasions, mostly when we've had to remind her why we aren't going out for pancakes after church or coffee after basketball. What I hope we're instilling in her with this little exercise (and ourselves) is that going out is a special treat and privilege. We'd become reliant on ordering a pizza or picking up meals from China Express on a night that seemed too busy or too tired to come up with our own meal. Now we're excited to remind ourselves what a nice treat it is to head to Tomaso's for a Detroit Deep Dish Mombo Combo.

I'm In!

The Pig is full. The Pigman Sprint Triathlon has already registered 900 participants. I'm one of them. Registration opened in December and filled within five weeks.

Let the training begin!

First Summer Project

I have a long list of projects for the summer. It usually carries over from one summer to the next; I think I've got items on this list that originated four or five years ago.

This is a bedside table project for Cam's room. I finished it in early June (but am late getting it posted!).

BEFORE:

 

Materials:

• Night stand: $10 on Craigslist
• Paint: free (found leftovers from other home projects)
• Hardware: re-used original hardware with a fresh coat of hammered nickel spray paint (also on hand from another project)
  

AFTER:

Cam is very happy with his new table. He stores lots of things in the drawer: marbles, stickers and various little cars. Every night, after we turn out the light, he reaches over in the dark and grabs a car out of the drawer.

Finally

After a several week slump, where it felt like we didn't see the sun at all, and every minute outdoors involved 12 layers and as little exposed skin as possible....it's 40 degrees. And rising.

I'm thrilled. I wore a fleece jacket today and little gloves. I dodged puddles and ignored the dirty, wet, garbage filled snowbanks. Predictions indicate potentials for even higher temps this week, so I'll pretend the snow banks are gone already.

I am trying to temper my enthusiasm, because I know it's only February and I know this can't last. But I will enjoy it while it does (and then go back to complaining when it's gone.)

Gratefull-nesses and Upliftingness

I've been feeling a bit low this week; it seems sadnesses are all around us. Our neighbor's 25-year-old brother passed away this week, my BFF's neighbor gave birth to a beautiful still-born daughter, my cousin's daughter was diagnosed with melanoma...the list continues.

To lift myself out of this weighted funk, I'm going to share five things that are totally awesome and that I'm thankful for - I'm going to think about the little things, and know that I'm so wildly thankful and uplifted already by the big ones (healthy family, love, friends that continue to talk to me and inspire me after almost 20 years...etc)

So here's my list in no particular order; I'll try to keep this up until I realize that I'm the luckiest person in the world.

1. I'm thankful I can go out for lunch today with a friend. This covers multiple bases...it means I've got enough disposal income to spend $10 for a lunch out, I've got transportation and I've got a job that lets me have enough flexibility to leave it for an hour at lunch time. I've also got a friend that wants to lunch with me!
2. Despite often being exasperated by the details, I'm thankful that I could answer 14 questions asked by Willa on the way to school concerning the busing/transportation systems for Harding Middle School. 
3. It makes me smile that after a weekend away from me, Jamey called me 5 times yesterday. There were flimsy reasons, but really I think he just felt disconnected after being away from me for three days. First call was 10 minutes after he left the house.
4. While most of the trees outside my office window are now bare, there is one brilliant fire-red bushy tree and one golden yellow one clinging to their leaves. I can see them both together if I lean forward and look right.
5. I got the entire Sister Hazel Digital Collection (20 mp3s) as a free download from Amazon.com. I'm not a huge fan of Sister Hazel, and I wouldn't have bought the album, but I'm enjoying listening to the music at the moment, and it was FREE. I just discovered the free mp3 collection (which changes daily) on Amazon.

Reflection

I've organized and am in the middle of a workshop about ePortfolios. Portfolios are all about reflection. We've been talking about how to make our students reflective...to think about what they're learning, why they're learning it and how it relates to the rest of the universe. Why don't I do that??!?!? Starting today, starting today.

Socrates said it best - "A life unexamined is not worth living."

Signs of Spring

Today when I woke up it was ZERO degrees; which seems about as far away from spring as you can get. However, I am starting to see the signs. Perhaps it's because I'm just so tired of everything winter (snow, colds, boots, hats, ice, chapped lips, etc.) that I'm quite open to seeing anything different.

Here's what I've observed that gives me hope for a change of season:

• three students in the past week wearing flip flops on campus
• two bikers (self-powered) on the way to school the past two days
• swim suits and shorts in the stores, winter stuff on deep clearance
• absolutely NO snow mittens to replace a lost pair for Willa
• distance track runners out on the street rather than on the indoor track

I know, not much, but I'm clinging and hoping.

Old Things

My parents got a new crock pot. It has three different sizes of removable heating bowls. I admit to a small touch of crock pot envy.

The crock pot the stews our chili and soups is circa somewhere 1993. At some point during the first autumn in Skylight Apartments #3, my roommates and I determined we must have a crock pot (I bet it was Robyn). We went to the local WalMart and probably paid about $10 for this one. I don't know how I lucked out, but it stayed with me.

I realize I have several other things that fit into the category of the crock pot. It's old and outdated, and there are newer & better models...but it's still functional...so it's still getting used in my house.

I have a sweatshirt that I know I got on a trip to North Carolina just after my former roommate Ali moved out there after college graduation. I got it at an outlet mall (my first outlet experience!). I wear it to bed now. The ribbing on the sleeves is almost completely worn off, but it's still a very functional sleeping sweatshirt. I am not sentimental about clothes. This really is a great sleeping garment.

Plates: hosting a half-dozen friends for Thanksgiving made me realize the mish-mash of plates we have dates back post Jamey. Several of the plates were purchased upon moving into Southland Lane apartments during my senior year of college; and two or three were from a shopping trip with my mom a few years after. You can bet Shirley dumped those old dishes WAY before I will! Many times I've thought we need a regular set of dishes...but I just haven't gotten around to picking some out and replacing the very-functional dishes in the cupboard.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that Jamey and I never got around to replacing ALL of the college furniture. Our bedroom still boasts two dressers that have followed me since my college days. One of them is a cast off from an aunt; I refinished it and am quite proud of the work that went it to restoring this old treasure. The other has been painted at least 4 different colors over the years and probably needs to find a home with another college student looking for bedroom creativity.

I'm not sure if it's a mental block or some practical thread weaving its way into my life regarding these old relics. I think I'm going to make it my post-holiday task, though, to finally get a big-girl set of dishes. The rest of the stuff can keep on functioning for a few more years.