Friday Recap 8/31/18 - Road trip funnies, Skunked, Garden love, The Bug

I can't believe August is coming to a close. Most of my nieces and nephews are back to school, all of the neighborhood kiddos are, we've had a couple of cool nights (admittedly that was last week....but still) with the windows open, Lulu & I are starting to see leaves fall from trees- insane that it feels like Fall is around the corner.

1. Road trip funnies

The Fun Park

We drove to Columbus, OH for one of my college roommate's weddings last weekend. Road trips are always interesting - especially when they involve a 16 month old ;)

We drove from 7pm-2am on the way there. Somehow - more than once- we encountered stopped traffic on the highway. Just jammed traffic. Summer time is construction season & that'll do it I guess. You have to laugh about these things to avoid screaming!!

The Fun Park

On the way home we took it a little easier since Lulu would be awake for some of the drive. Or so we thought. Lulu was awake for almost the entire drive! We stopped at "the fun park" (I should've taken a photo of the sign - the playground was literally called "The Fun Park" it was awesome) to let Lulu run around & burn some energy & to break up the drive a bit. 

Corn field detour

We needed to get gas - so did that too. And then got on the highway going the wrong way. 10 miles to the next exit toward Columbus....10 miles after we got turned around.....and a detour through the cornfields because the overpass was demolished. Oh man. Tough wrong turn!! Very pretty detour though!







2. Getting skunked
Its funny now.........not so much Monday morning at 530 when Owenn & I were out running & it happened.

The funny part is really the fact that when Owenn did a 180 & pulled like a maniac the opposite direction we were going, I let him. Then I noticed what he was running for: (in the dark, without my glasses on) a small potted plant in the green space between the sidewalk & street. "Well," I think to myself "if Owenn wants to pee on a potted plant that is inexplicably in the greenway, so be it". You may have already guessed that it was not, in fact, a potted plant. It was a Goddamned skunk. Owenn chomped on it and was shaking it around, which is how I ended up with a drop of skunk spray in my MOUTH. Which again, funny now. Not funny as it happened. 

After 2 baths in hydrogen peroxide, baking soda & dish soap (followed by dog shampoo) & one treatment of this Nature's Miracle product (lent to us by our most FANTASTIC neighbors) - Owenn was back to smelling fresh a daisy. Or at least back to his eau de dead raccoon smell he always seems to rock. Not funny, but we were able to loan the Nature's Miracle product to different friends/neighbors later this week because their poor pup got skunked too :(

Keeping us on our toes Owenn is.

3. Garden love

Not sure what this plant is, but it is thriving & making me very happy by doing so! Anyone have any idea? Pretty sure I bought it at a native plant sale 2 summers ago........no clue what it is though!

4. This face

Almost always brings a smile to my face! 

Friday Recap 6/29/18 - Sister time, Chris & Lulu, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

It feels impossible that June is almost over! Summer just keeps on chugging! I had this ready to rock & forgot to publish it Friday. Whoops. Late again. No one is surprised!

1. Sister time

Cousin pool time (Lulu's face!! Nevas face!!)

Cousin park time

My sister has been living with my parents at their summer home in WI for the past couple of weeks; its a summer tradition that harkens back to her years as a teacher on Maui.....she would come home to the mainland for her summer breaks. It makes me so happy to have her home for several weeks; it means I get to soak up a bunch of quality sister time which I love. It also means our girls get to spend a ton of time together which pretty much makes my heart explode. I suppose it is not surprising that we have far fewer photos of us in them now that we have cute little munchkins to take pictures of! Next week I'll have some of me & my sister :)

Marg creeping in the kids area of our fav coffee shop

2. Chris & Lulu

There seems to be something special about the daddy/daughter relationship - generally - but also specifically in our family. Lulu loves Chris so much & I love to see the 2 of them enjoying each other! Have we talked about Lulu's full body wiggle when Chris gets home from work? It is intense and enthusiastic and amazing. Might be something that you need to see to believe!

3. Impromptu birthday celebration

This is technically from last week, but such is life :) A friend from my mom's group had a birthday last week & we were meant to go on a regularly scheduled walk together. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating & thunderstorms were forecasted. So I invited the birthday girl, her daughter & another mutual friend & her son for a happy hour play date! Obviously there needed to be a birthday treat since it was her actual birthday. She & her family eat a vegan diet - so I referred to my good friend Google to help me find a quick & easy recipe. Here is what I came up with no bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I added rice krispies for crunch/texture, mixed almond butter in with the peanut butter (out of necessity.....I was low on both) and sprinkled the top with flaky sea salt before putting them in the freezer to firm up. Everyone enjoyed them & I just made them again for us this week!

4. Indoor S'mores

Sometimes the weather poops on your plans (see above regarding cancelled walk) and that happened again on Friday. We had our lovely friends over for dinner - our plan was to grill & enjoy the backyard, play games outside, you know - summer. Wellllllll the temperature during the day Friday barely crept out of the 60s and it rained SO MUCH. Though the rain had stopped by the time CC & Adam arrived, it was dreary, damp & chilly outside. Ew. So we ate our dinner inside! And then made s'mores over our gas stove......because lemons into lemonade!

5. Some pretties. Just because.

Mornings at the Lake are quiet & relaxing.

Owenn takes advantage by fishing in the morning.

Etown mornings aren't too shabby either!

Friday Round Up 4.13.18 - San Diego Vacay

Lizzard Loves vacation. I mean, who doesn't though?!? So this week (2 days late I'm afraid) is all about our trip to sunny California!

This is the view from Cody & Matty's front porch. I could get used to it!!

1.Trip Planning

My best friend & her husband moved to San Diego from the Midwest in February (smartest people I know.......) so naturally I started planning the trip in January when they told us they were moving. I mean, I love the winter in the Chicago area- but dear Lord- it has the ability to drag into spring and make me desperate to get out of dodge.

Organizing is one of my jams. I love thinking and planning the best ways to make a room or a closet work - so it is not too much of a stretch that I love to make lists & plot out the best way to pack for a trip. Since Lulu was born I have started using the packing cube method - not with the pricey actual cubes that are for sale a million places- but with my reusable tote bags! I have a major excess of these bags and they work so well for organizing our clothing! Each family member gets 1 for clothes & 1 for pjs, underwear, swimsuits, etc. It helps prevent our giant rolling duffle from becoming a giant rolling mess on day one of vacation!

This was the first flight where I was concerned Lulu might be so wiggly as to warrant some special entertainment, she was 11+ months when we embarked on the 4 hour flight from Chicago-San Diego and it seemed unwise to go into this trip unprepared! Thankfully, my genius sister had gifted us a busy bag for our baby shower. It had finger puppets, small sorting games, a magnet game, and more. I read a blog post about traveling with a 1 year old & took the following ideas from it: post it notes for Lulu to pull off/re stick on the tray table, downloadable library books for my phone (Lulu doesn't get any of her own screen time yet - but books on the go seemed like a great idea), and the pouch to hold it all (though I bought my pouch from an acquaintance's Etsy shop - she makes the CUTEST bags!! I can't regress to the 6th grade & start rocking a FiveStar pencil case again. Just can't do it). See number 2 for how it all worked out!

2. Lulu's flexibility with sleep

Holy cow I gave a lot of energy to my worry over Lulu not sleeping on our flight to CA (when we traveled with Chris) and the flight home (when we traveled just me & Lulu). I thought through the worst case scenarios, I hoped, and I planned some activities that would (hopefully) keep the interest of my potentially overtired little one. Man. I didn't need to plan. We were incredibly lucky that neither of our flights was fully booked. We fly Southwest as often as is possible and they invite parents to carry on a car seat for a lap child as long as the flight has empty seats. When Lulu was 4 weeks old and taking her first flight, the ticketing agent at Southwest told us about this policy. It blew my mind, in a good way. 

Our flight out took off right at Lulu's bedtime - so I was incredibly hopeful that she would sleep - whether or not we had a seat for her & her car seat. She knocked my socks off. It took her about 30 minutes to settle down, but she slept for the rest of the flight! I didn't need my activity bag at all! Yipeeeeeee. 

Zzzzzzzzzz

Once we made it to my best friend's house Lulu played & visited with Cody & her puppy, Briar for awhile before we put her down to sleep. She fell immediately asleep in a pack n play she'd never seen in an unfamiliar house. I wanted to give her a gold medal for sleep!

A well slept Lulu makes for well slept parents & sets us all up for a good trip indeed :)

3. SUNSHINE & WARMTH

4. Seals

Sleepy seals (not dead seals)

Admittedly hard to tell from the photo- but the dark spots are snoozing seals! Some are babies! 

5. A burrito with french fries inside

Because vacation eating. I have nothing additional to add.

6. Lulu learning to point

She watched the airplanes taking off from San Diego airport from Cody & Matty's backyard and for the first time in her 11 months, started pointing at them when we'd ask "where's the airplane?" It made me unreasonably happy.

7. Lulu's 1st dip in the ocean

Despite Chris & I both having family who live within easy driving distance of the Atlantic Ocean, Lulu's first ocean experience was the Pacific! Even before her little toes had dipped into Lake Michigan - she was splashing around on the west coast. 

8. Last but not least (the opposite of least really) 

Friday-Wednesday with my best friend

We spent our first 18ish years living down the street from each other, then a decade or so living reasonably close to each other in Chicago until 2015 when she & Matty moved to Bermuda and we moved.....in with my parents in the suburbs :) (it was for the house renovation, but still). It is conceivable that we will never again share a zip code which makes my heart hurt though I am comforted with the fact that our friendship has lasted 35+ years and a few states/countries/oceans between us won't change it! 

It was a delightful treat not to just "catch up" with Cody, but to relax and just hang out. We didn't need to rush, we had very few plans for the time, just took the days pretty slowly. It was a true vacation with some of my absolute favorite people in the world. 

Plus a puppy. Did I mention sweet Briar boy?!?

Friday Fun March 30, 2018. Spring clean up, Home brew, Mini daredevil

Lizzard loves spring time. I mean, in theory anyway. In reality, its pretty cold & dreary here during "spring" we pretty much go from winter to summer.....oh well!

1. Spring clean up in the yard

I love clearing out last year's old growth on plants to make way for this year. I was thrilled to learn that our lemongrass is still fragrant when cut! 

Who would've thought this dead leamongrass would still smell lovely??

It's fragrance is serious business if it can hang around throughout a snowy winter. It was such a refreshing, unexpected smell during a morning that was filled with last winter's dog poop clean up. Oh spring cleaning. The morning also happened to be filled with sunshine & not much wind - so it was delightful to be working in the yard. Dog poop aside. 

Also- more bulbs! Yes! Bulbs! Bulbs! Bulbs!!

2. Home Brewing Beer

So the first time Chris & I tried home brewing beer, we were living at my parents house while our house was being renovated. It did not go well. When it was time to taste test the beer, we were in for quite a surprise. The beer had gone bad as they say & when we opened the bottle it sprayed all over my Mom's brand new kitchen. It sprayed with the type of force you associate with champagne in locker rooms of World Series or Superbowl champions......lots of spray. Lots of rancid, nasty smelling beer all over a kitchen that was not ours....Ugh. At least my parents were out of town & not present for the mess or the frantic clean up that followed.

Cooking the grain into the water. Adding hops. All the things!

Fast forward a couple years to last Saturday when we finally got up the courage to try home brewing again (in the safety of our own kitchen :).

Cooling the beer down as fast as possible. Ice. Lots of ice.

 So far, it seems to be going better than our first try....we'll know more in another week or two! Stay tuned!

Daddy's littlest helper checking the gravity of the beer. I don't technically know what that means.

3. This Face

Ill fitting hat coupled with strong willed baby = this face. I love it.

4. Cuddle Bug

Meet Herbert the elephant, he was Lulu's Christmas gift from Santa last year. Owenn gets along swimmingly with Herbert. Can't blame him.

5. Our little daredevil 

Yeah. So, this makes me proud & scared at the same time. According to my mom (& general family lore) I was a kid constantly on the go, testing & pushing limits, climbing, exploring, wiggling free, and generally being hard to pin down. 

It seems that our little bug might share some of these qualities with her mama. Because standing up facing the wrong way in the cart are Target. Also climbing up the new slide....here we go!!

6. This video from our fair city

I hope you feel like you're watching an episode of Parks & Rec when you watch this video. It is ridiculous. The event seems to be a giant waste of $$ (but if timing works - I'm totally taking Lulu!) and maybe ill conceived, but we'll see. For now, this video literally had me dying laughing.