For Claire’s 5th birthday we surprised her with a trip to the city to Dylan’s Candy Bar and to the big Maggie Daley playground. On the way we watched one of the bridges go up to let some sailboats through. Dylan’s Candy Bar is a wonderland of every kind of candy you can think of.…

Some mushrooms sprouted up in our yard. Well – really we made them out of concrete when Mom visited. She’s good about doing crafts with the girls. It was a cold rainy day when we made them. Yes, Mom, they did turn out and they look right at home in our yard.

This is Charred Man. He was a fixture in my mom’s living room when I grew up. Mom says he was a gift from her brother Tad – a friend of Tad’s made him. Now he lives with us and gives us a healthy appreciation for modern art. He is very evocative of the sculptures…

It’s taken me a while, but I have fallen in love with our long chime doorbell. Yes, this is what I think about.   I happened upon an article tonight that explained the history and the charm of long chime doorbells. Here are a couple snippets from the article: The premise that a doorbell made…

I love this time of year. I love seeing the plants coming up all around my yard. Shooting out of the ground so small yet so strong and bright. I’m drawn to them. I walk around the yard and check their progress. They reassure me. I have some nice shade plants between our house and…

We had a really nice long weekend with Grandpa and Grandma J. We celebrated grandma’s birthday. We went for a lovely walk at the botanic garden. Mom and I went to a church rummage sale. And we made some progress on our front yard – removing those old shrub roots and buying some new shrubs…

We had some rainy days – lots of opportunities for puddle jumping. I spotted some spotty mushroom cookies at a new favorite cafe. Cute. Claire is doing great learning to ride her bike. She does fine pedaling and balancing – she needs practice starting and stopping. Why do I spend my time doing silly things?…

Spring is bringing some changes to our little home landscape. The grass is getting green and flowers are blooming. And a big, big change in the front yard – we cut down the old, overgrown shrubs along the front of our house. Here’s the before and after: Wow – what a change. It makes our…

Today is my wedding anniversary – Brian’s too (ha). We’ve been married 13 years. This morning, after getting Bea off to school, l did something I haven’t done in a long time. I got out my wedding and honeymoon albums and took a trip down memory lane.  We got married on a Tuesday at Midland’s…

To end our Spring Break week we took a quick trip to Midland. The good parts were watching the girls eat up all the love from grandma and enjoying lots of yummy Easter foods. Just one bad part – we woke up to snow on Easter morning. Uhg. This Spring seems to be teasing us.…