From the Heart

I don't have any pictures for this post. I'm typing on a computer that I have owned for about 1 hour and it doesn't have a lick of pics on it. Not one.

So this post will just have to be naked.

I just flew back from a weekend in Maryland. It's where I grew up for most of my natural born life and it's where my heart occasionally goes when something from the midwest reminds me of something from the east coast. Maryland.

The reason for my visit was to help my mother sell some of her belongings so she can move south and start fresh. The little girl in me wishes that my parents' marriage could've lasted forever, but due to circumstances beyond our understanding, that's not the case.

I brought my camera to Maryland intending to take hundreds of pictures of my family home, intending to document the little nooks and niches that made for our playground. In "its day", the house showed very well. It had vines on the front of it that climbed romantically up the portico face. It had big spaces for those who needed to entertain larger crowds; it had smaller places for those needing to retreat for some solace.

But when a house is stripped of its personality... the people in it, the furniture, the vines, the laughter... it's not a home anymore. It's just bricks and wood.

So I didn't take one picture. Not one. I let the heart keep its memories the way they were.

When I returned home to Chicago, there was a message for me that the lumberyard had the cedar for my pergola ready. It's odd to be building up my family and my home while my past is experiencing the opposite.

By God's grace, I will build up this home. Not just physically. But build up the people in it... with kindness and good food... with truth and laughter... with creativity and joy.

"There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven... A time to tear down and a time to build up."

Ecclesiastes, The Bible

Shrink Art Charms

I'd like to take this moment to tell the entire bloggy world that I am not an energetic mother. My friend Beth can raise four children more effortlessly than me and I've come to terms with that. And... more surprisingly... she is still very much my friend even though I covet said energy. (Hi, Beth!)

That being said, I'm going to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out this Skydeck adventure we had for all its worth. Not only will we be writing our adventures in a scrapbook. We will also be making bracelet charms out of shrink art. Klutz makes an amazing Shrink Art Jewelry book. I'm all for saving some dough, but in my crafty opinion, you should totally spring for this set.

(And yes, I realize this post is a bit on the girly side. However... boys would totally enjoy shrink art, too... just without the jewelry part.)

Here's why:
It comes with LOTS of instructions, picture, graphics, templates, beads, hooks and inspiration.
And... AND... it has a charm bracelet as well as a ring sizer.
SCORE!

For those uninitiated in the art of shrink paper, here's how it works:

1. Draw on shrink paper with permanent marker or colored pencil and cut out your image.

2. Put it in the oven for a few minutes.
(Check directions for oven temperature.) The art will shrink in the oven, thicken and turn into a hard plastic substance. It's amazing.

Back to my regularly scheduled programming:
I found the Skydeck logo on their website and printed it out to the size I wanted it. I had to keep in mind that it was going to shrink to about one third or one quarter of its original size.

Here is Morgan happily coloring away:

Here is the resulting charm. By the end of the summer, she should have a wrist full of memories.

Hooray for summer fun!

Morgan and Scrapbooking

(I am about to do a series of posts on summertime sanity. Here is the first in my series.)

____________________________

Last week or so, I had my Morgan home for one day because there was no school. By 9am, I nearly went bonkers with how restless she was. Dear me, how in the world am I going to keep this child occupied this summer?

For starters, I want to combine work with fun. In order to keep her writing this summer, I thought I'd start a scrapbook.

You may be thinking, "Really?" and picturing mounds of tape and stickers and scrapping paper.

I'm going to keep it a little simpler. The idea is that whenever Morgan and I have an adventure day (i.e.- zoo or Arboretum), we'll each write a page about it. During our day out at said adventure, we'll be sure to pick up a post card or two to remember our fun time.

There are many benefits to this:
1. She and I are doing this TOGETHER.

2. She is keeping up her writing skills from kindergarten.

3. In a court of law, if she sues me for "summer boredom", I can refer to this scrapbook as "Exhibit A".

Here's our first entries:
We wrote our thoughts about being on the Skydeck in Chicago at The Willis Tower. I wrote about how scared I was at the top of the 103 floors.

I love Morgan's side.
It says:

What I liked the top becuase I got to poottoo corters into a mishine and I saw the hol toun then we when't home.

Let me translate for you:

What I liked: the top because I got to put quarters in a machine and I saw the whole town. Then we went home.

Skydeck

In the midst of all the home renovations, some fun had to be had.

Look at these fabulous people who showed up in Chi-town! My brew (brother Bret) and his Laura. Here they are at Buckingham Fountains.

"Say, brother, have you BEAN to the BEAN?"

"You gotta see it!"

Working the camera...

The baby is unsure about this fun sculpture...

...but the rest of us rather like it.

When we first moved to Chicago from the Washington DC area, my husband said, "Honey, I'm about to show you a real city."
Say what you will, but he's kind of right.

Bret and Laura stood on the scary Skydeck in the Willis Tower. It's 103 floors in the air with a glass overlook onto the street below.

My brave girl and courage-filled hubs.

Eeeek!

Patio Fun

The patio is poured.

And even though I didn't lift a finger to pour the actual slab, I felt like I did.

I have done a million home improvement projects and each time I'm completely in awe of how tired I am afterwards. It takes days to recover. It didn't USED to take days to recover, but I'm a momma of two wonderfully lively daughters... one of which has recently learned to climb onto tables and bark things in baby mandarin. *Serenity.*

But I digress. After the work is done and the tiredness is banished, I take a step back and smile. This will be good for my family, I tell myself.
I picture my baby running around with a diaper in the hot sun.
I picture my Morgan playing house with friends in the grasss.

And then, with a little sloppy Photoshop work, I slap the pic of the pergola over my patio to see what it might look like.

Oh my.
Pour me a glass of somethin' because I'm really going to enjoy a place of shade.

Now if we could just get the grass around the patio to grow.
Suggestions are welcome, but only if they're serious. :)

Patio Progress, Day 2

Morning of Day Two:

The patio area is framed out and wired. Ready to be poured.

... So is the front walk...

Construction looks purdier with sun beams.

The footer frames are installed.

And the tools are waiting in the yard for the concrete to come. I like how the boots are lined up like soldiers.

The concrete cometh...

And is very messy-eth.

(Here they are evening out the surface with a wood board.)

The men who did our sidewalk and patio were very knowledgeable.

And stylish. I like the color of this happy cement mixer.

Just sayin'.

The sidewalk started to take shape.

And the back patio started to look like wonderfulness.

Did they use wheel barrows?

Nope. They used this automatic barrow.

No idea what the technical name is.

"Doohickey," I think.

Big trucks! Grunt, grunt.

And since I don't like when people make house projects look easy breezy, I am showing confessional photos of the state of my house.

Note: This was not staged in the least.

Note the background: Morgan has her head in a lamp shade.

Again, not staged.

I must have worked in this kitchen all day. And the dishwasher never recovered.

I gave Morgan a soda.

Bad idea.

(See earlier comment about Morgan's head in a lamp shade.)

I gave Eve her dinner. Which she rubbed in her hair and mixed with her bottle milk.

Slimy mess.

While I'm being honest:

Today reminded me why I don't do huge home projects as often anymore.

But when I sit on the patio this weekend, I will forget the chaos of it all and dream some more with Dan.

Patio Progress

Ten minutes to seven in the morning...

Here was my backyard. Still and quiet.

The footprint of our former deck still stood.

And then some loud machine sounds...

A truck thundered up the street.

My baby began to tremble when she saw the dirt being moved.

Morgan just stared.

It was about this time that I wished for the world that my nephews were here to grunt and hoorah about the dirt mover.

Girls just don't get it.

Including me.

At 11am, the patio was nearly framed and the footers were being dug...

If the building of this patio was labor and delivery, this stage would be the cramps before the epidural kicked in. We eagerly await its arrival.