Perfect homemade iced coffee

Lizzard Loves the perfect glass of homemade iced coffee.

Sometimes your Sunday needs a bit of a pick me up to keep it rolling...and its summer and it is approaching afternoon and you are hot and want to cool down. Enter homemade iced coffee. By this point in the day your pot of morning coffee has cooled off, so just add iced and your favorite milk and sweetener.

My preference is a ton of ice cubes, vanilla coconut milk and about a teaspoon of good old granulated white sugar. I stir it a ton to help the sugar dissolve.

I find the swirls the coconut milk makes in the coffee to be just wonderful.

Insert straw & enjoy!

Unexpected Beauty

Lizzard Loves unexpected beauty.

So many pretty colors jammed in one tight little space!

I was struck by the shock & tangle of colorful wire in a junction box in our dining room. Our home is still majorly under construction & much of what is happening there is quite ugly.

Like the mud pit. 

Yeah. Our backyard is a mud pit wasteland!

Or the guy cleaning out the porta potty. 

Don't get me wrong - I appreciate it being cleaned, but
the process is pretty ugly.

But not this. This struck me as beautiful. Maybe it is all the color in a room that is now covered in white drywall including the ceiling (hooray for drywall by the way. Lizzard also desperately Loves drywall - it means we are inching ever closer to moving into our home). Maybe part of its beauty lies in the amount of work I saw go into wiring our house. Hours & hours of work by 3 great guys. The time from mid December to mid March was occupied by filling in the "guts" of our house - it was a slow process to install new plumbing, HVAC & electrical. There is a certain beauty in the almost finished product pictured above. If you want to read more about our "house to a home" project, we have a blog about it.

As per usual, I'd love to know where you have found unexpected beauty recently! Please feel free to share in the comments :)

Voting

Lizzard Loves to vote.

Only once - no "vote early, vote often" for this girl ;)

Why? Because in a year when I've felt really quite out of control in many ways; I can assert my opinions in a concrete way. Right there on paper, I connected the lines next to the candidates whose policy & plans I support. Slid that paper into the balloting machine, a couple quick beeps later & my voice had officially been heard! Democracy hinges on participation. We can not be apathetic in this regard - it is too important to assume "someone else is going to do it". We owe it to ourselves to take the few minutes out of our day to vote. It is a privilege that so many around the world hope, fight & pray for; don't squander it!

Now, please dear God, let this election season be over- its killing me! November can't come soon enough!

Family Winter Fun

Lizzard Loves winter, you know this already! 

As today is the first day of spring 

(though it dawned feeling like it was in the 20s....there's Chicago weather for you!) 

I'm looking back at all the fun outdoor adventures we had this winter.

I also love spending winter with my family including my nieces and nephews!

Here is an assortment of things that have made me happy this winter, all of it family related:

Miss Anne's first ice skate

Miss Anne's first ice skate

Anne's first downhill ski

Chris came for the big day too :)

Meeting up with this smiling face at the Gunnison airport

Hennie's amazing ability to sleep
while Marg & I snowshoed!

Hennie's first downhill ski!

Marg, Hennie & my first time fat biking

Shredding the gnar with my sissy

Bluebird days in the mountains

Hiking with the adventurous Samantha,
why would you use the bridge to cross
the creek??

Hiking with Chris & Samantha 

Baking & Helping

I love baking. 

You already know this though. 

I also love helping. 

You might also already know this.

Chewy and good Chocolate Chunk with
Walnuts Cookies

On Monday, I baked a new recipe for the first time that I found on Smitten Kitchen. If you don't at least occasionally look at Smitten Kitchen, check it out - the recipes are delicious & the blog is beautifully photographed. The recipe I tried is here. I chopped up the remains of 3 different dark chocolate bars and sprinkled the dough balls with sea salt before I baked them. I chose to use toasted walnuts.

These cookies were baked as a thank you treat for the nurses working 12 hour shifts taking care of my mother in law, Barb, at the Crozer Hospital ICU. Barb had a 13 hour long surgery on Thursday and has been in the ICU since. Things are touch and go. Chris & I flew to be with my father in law Rich, my sisters in law Jen & Beth and be by Barb's bedside during the annoyingly strict visiting hours. More family came to visit throughout the weekend & week which was comforting indeed.

Why do I bake for the nurses? I bake to tell them they are seen, appreciated & needed. To try to bribe them into giving Barb even better care than they already are. As insurance against anything less than compassionate and gentle care. Also, to keep myself calm amid the storm. My husband's family (myself included here) are in a terrible middle ground of waiting. We don't know what the future holds for Barb. She remains sedated & stable in her bed in the ICU. Vital signs remain normal. No one knows what is next. It is horrible. As much as I know the care the nurses & doctors are giving Barb is great, the place is not. The ICU restricts the hours you can visit your loved one, it restricts the number of people who can visit at a time (only 2), and feels like a cold and lonely place. I am incredibly scared and sad and stressed and my heart hurts each time I think of my mother in law spending a big part of everyday away from all of those who love her. 

So I bake. I bake bread, I bake cookies, I bake whatever comes to mind. I want to offer my family in law the best of what I have to offer. The best I have to offer pretty much always comes in the form of edibles.

I am home from Philly now. I am still baking. Approximately no one should be shocked by this. The nurses will get 2 more deliveries of cookies when Chris returns to his family on Saturday. One of my most favorite cookie recipes of all time; Salted Oatmeal Dark Chocolate from Real Simple. I swap out the shortening in favor of melted coconut oil. If you make them - please don't over-bake them. They should be pretty darn pale when you take them out of the oven. They retain their chewiness best if they don't brown in the oven. 

Salted Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

If anyone has any tips for handling an ongoing medical crisis; I am open to them. I'm sure that some of you have dealt with similarly sick family members and I'm sorry for that. I'm hoping you can share some advice about how you dealt with the sadness & stress. If you have spare good thoughts & prayers; please send them Barb's way. She is heroically strong and has made it this far - but every little bit helps. Thanks all and as always; happy baking.

Close up of the Salted Oatmeal Dark Chocolate
Cookies to show how the chocolate erupts out
of them. I love how it does that.

Grandpa's 99th Birthday

Man oh man, my Grandpa turned 99 last week! Ninety nine! It is hard for me to imagine what it is like to be 99. This is my Mom's Dad who lives in semi-rural Kansas, where he & my Grandma raised my Mom, her sister & brother.

Aunt Margi, Mom, Uncle Rick with
the 99th Birthday Boy

The year my Grandpa was born......

~Streetcars began municipal operation in San Francisco

~USA broke off diplomatic relations with Germany (the same day a US ship was sunk by Germany)

~The 1st NHL Championship game was played (though it was a 2 game series, which strikes me as odd)

~USA enters World War 1

~The average life expectancy for an American man was 48.4 years & an American woman 54 years (I'd say my Grandpa blows that average right out of the water!)

~The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded. 1 of them was shared by 2 women writers!

~The United States was only made up of 48 states.

~The draft was established for WWI

Things have changed indeed since then :)

We had a great weekend with Grandpa, who lives in an apartment inside an assisted living facility. The long weekend meant visiting with Grandpa over 3 days and listening to his jokes and stories. 

Chris & I were excited to share photos of the progress on our house with him and Grandpa reminisced about the home he'd visited in Evanston; the one belonging to my dad's parents! This would've been 40ish years ago when my parents were dating, engaged & newly married! Grandpa told me he thought Evanston was  great town and he saw copper gutters on Dad's parents' home for the first time ever. He also loved their sunporch.It is crazy to think that my Grandpa can recall details like that 40 years after he experienced them!

As he consistently reminds me - his long life can be attributed to three things "Hard work, clean living, and wine" I had another chance to drink a glass of wine with Grandpa this year - its a huge treat to share in his twice daily ritual with him. Because when you're 99, you can request a wine delivery from the nurses at 11am and again at 4pm........which sounds lovely to me!

Grandpa with all but 2 of his great grandkids!

Grandpa with all but 3 of his grand & great grandkids!

So much family, so little time :)

Grandpa with some of the Kearney/Kramer/Platts

Family enjoying Grandpa's party

The birthday party was well attended by family plus all of Grandpa's neighbors were invited and many of them came to celebrate! There was cake & ice cream & punch. It was perferct; though I think we exhausted Grandpa fully - he headed back to his room to relax in his chair once the festivities wrapped up.

Grandpa meets Hennie

Grandpa meets Kane & Anne

Another bonus of the weekend: Grandpa got to meet 3 more of his great grandchildren for the first time! Hennie, Kaner & Anne! What fun he had with all the kiddos scrambling around in his room.

When we weren't spending time with Grandpa, we ate a ton of ridiculously delicious food in epic portions. Check out Chris' half portion of biscuits & gravy along with Dad's single pancake. These treats were enjoyed at the restaurant inside the tiny Miami County Airport. When the weather is nice, people fly their 2 & 4 person planes into this airport just to eat at the restaurant! President Barack Obama visited We B Smokin when he came to give a speech nearby in 2011. Its a pretty great place!

We spent a good amount of time hanging out at Aunt Margi & Uncle Phil's house, playing games, catching up & eating even more delectable food. 

Mom, Hennie & Aunt Margi hanging at Margi & Phil's

It was a fantastic weekend spent with family, celebrating Grandpa Dick Schowengerdt & his 99 great years.

Random lovely things

Lizzard Loves random lovely things.

Here they are in no particular order:

~ These beautiful flowers. Sunny & pretty & bright. Thanks Tara!

Lizzard Loves fresh flowers

~A phenomenal dance show Chris & I went to on Friday. "Still Inspired (?) A Series of F.O.U.R." was put on at Constellation at Links Hall, a cool spot with a great beer list. Bonus - we had no idea what to expect - so where there is excellent beer available - we feel like we're winning. This show was a pairing between dance & painting. The choreographers (including the 2 producers of the show) selected a painter to approach about this collaboration. The artist was excited, flattered, & on board. Each choreographer created 1 dance based on a different painting by the same artist. I should state for the record that Chris & I don't go to a ton of dance shows of any kind. As much as we try to make room in our lives for these moments of culture - days & weeks & months go by without us finding the time or making the effort. All that being said, I am graced with the friendship of Christina who is a passionate, incredibly talented professional dancer. When she is dancing in a show; I make a point to go (assuming we are in town; which is a big assume as of late). This show was inspiring. To watch people do their job in such a thoughtful, graceful, powerful way was awe inspiring. Most people have jobs that aren't particularly "watchable"; I'm not going to watch Chris on his computer and feel awe struck by his abilities (though I know he is incredibly talented & accomplished in his field). Dance combined with viewing the paintings projected onto the wall gave me the chance to see people at work, to see the end product of countless hours of hard work and be wowed. I won't soon forget the beauty! Still Inspired has a Facebook page, its here if you want more info!

Felt good for supporting the show's crowdfunding
campaign too, double lovely.

~This weekend was chock full of cultural activities! Thank goodness I have artistic friends :) Our Saturday evening was kicked off at Firecat Projects where my friend (from volunteering) Jane Sloss was giving a talk/guided tour of her show "This Is Home". The collection is her brainchild - do yourself a favor & check out her website about this project and view her paintings! She interviewed 15 Chicagoans who had lived in their homes for 10+ years about their experience of home. She made beautiful paintings based on photos she took and the subjects which came up in the interviews. It was lovely to hear her explain the art, describe her interactions with the residents, hear clips from her interviews - all while looking at these beautiful paintings! Again I was struck by the talents of those I know. Jane is an architect by trade; but also an incredibly gifted painter! Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Check out her work for sale on Etsy; Chris & I both love it.

Jane guiding us through her paintings

~The Lincoln Park Zoo on a frigid, sunny MLK Day. I stopped in (using my lovely membership card to breeze into the parking lot) and even though it was 10:15am, it was deserted! I saw so few other people, it felt like I had the whole zoo to myself. Being that it is frigid today (-20ish with the wind chill) I walked from building to building to keep relatively warm. I was impressed by the camels- they seemed utterly unfazed by this extreme cold. The tiger was fazed. He/she (not sure which I found lounging inside & which was outside) was walking outside and then quickly back inside and doing it again. Maybe wished he/she could switch to the indoor enclosure.....The highlight of the day was visiting the Regenstein Center for African Apes and having the building to myself (I am not delusional - I know the zookeepers are working behind the scenes all the time; but there were no other zoo visitors nor volunteers in the viewing area). It was quiet and lovely. I enjoyed unobstructed views of the Zoo's youngest gorilla eating breakfast and well as the bachelor gorillas chowing down on their food. It was so quiet I sat in a sunny corner & read my book for awhile. Double lovely. 

Mmmm, delicious lettuce.

~Donuts. Delicious, perfect, ridiculous good donuts. Do-Rite Donuts. If you've never had them & you live in/near Chicago - go try them. You will not be disappointed!!

Do-Rite; YUM!

Old fashion, chocolate, cinnamon crunch, apple fritter,
pistachio lemon, maple bacon....yes, yes, & yes!!

~Free lunch at Chipotle because  the stranger in line behind me had a "Buy 1 Burrito, Get 1 Free" coupon & he never goes to Chipotle with someone who wants a burrito (its a sad day when you don't have anyone in your network who loves delicious Chipotle.......Chris, Amber & Camilla all share my love of Chipotle. I am grateful I have people to share in the deliciousness). Back to the free lunch - how great is that? Just a random person wanting to share!

So that's that. A roundup of a few random, lovely things that I've been into lately. What has been lovely in your life lately? I'd love to know in the comments!