And cleaning up too. I promised the girls pancakes this morning. Now I will spend my day cleaning up all the construction dust and going up and down the stairs a bajillion times to bring up the contents of the kitchen.

My kitchen is so, so close to being done. The carpenter put all the knobs on my drawers and cupboards yesterday. The painting is mostly done and I’m just waiting for the electrician to finish a few small details. The floor needs to be sealed with a protective coating. So close I can hardly stand…

For our Labor Day weekend we visited a couple new places that are close to home. First we went canoing at the Skokie Lagoons. File this under why didn’t we do this sooner. Skokie Lagoons is a nature preserve that has man made ponds winding through it – and it’s only about a five minute drive from our…

Every time I start complaining about the inconvenience of my kitchen remodel I get a wave of guilt. Because, HELLO SELF – YOU ARE GETTING A BRAND NEW KITCHEN!!! But what the hell – here are my complaints: Ok that’s enough now I’ll show how it’s looking.  This is the area that has the most…

It’s the time of year when the prairies of the Midwest shine with color and life. We all went for a hike and a picnic over the weekend and then I took the girls for an early morning walk on Tuesday – both trips to see lovely prairies.  The weather cooled and the humidity dropped and…

We are two days away from the first day of school, but I still have some fun pictures to post from our trip to Florida. We went down to join the family part of Brian’s annual company meeting. I am so glad Grandma C. was able to join us. They alway choose a nice resort for the meeting…

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,& the deer and the antelope play,Where seldom is heard a discouraging wordAnd the skies are not cloudy all day. Home, home on the range,Where the deer and the antelope play;Where seldom is heard a discouraging wordAnd the skies are not cloudy all day. Where the air…

It’s happening – the cabinets are installed. I’ve chosen my stone for countertops and the flooring will be started on Monday. In the meantime we are watching the Olympics and getting ready for school to start next week. I’m a little frustrated that I have vegetables coming from my garden but no way to cook…

Bea really really wanted to start her own blog – so I signed her up on my account. It's cute. It's called Bea Log -I'll put a link in the side bar of my blog. Be sure to check out her about page too. http://laowai.typepad.com/bealog/

Yay – it’s time to pick tomatoes. I had the most delicious tomato sandwich yesterday. A slice of white bread, some mayo, a whole juicy tomato sliced thick and some salt and pepper. What could be better? I also spied some goldfinches eating from my purple coneflowers. That means summer is coming to an end soon.