NOT Wireless

I've been distracted by telephone wires lately.  In the mornings, on the way home from driving the kids to school, the sun shines on the strings of cable, looking very much like a sticky web, freshly spun.  On those mornings there is traffic and I can't stop to take a photo.  So, Saturday morning, Kate and I got up early and took a three hour road trip around town, takings photos of telephone wires.  Yes, in case you're wondering, I do have other things I should've been doing.  But I'm glad I didn't do what I should be doing because we had such a beautiful morning.  And these wires...what is it about them?  Normally, I would not be enamored by cables and hardware and posts obstructing my view of the trees behind.  Maybe it's the suspicion that, within our lifetimes, these cables will be obselete - a thing of the past.  Or maybe it's the pattern, the loose order of the parallels.  I'm just finding them so beautiful.

Homecoming and September Beer

Tonight is the Homecoming parade and football game in our town and although it's bright and warm this afternoon, it'll be chilly when the sun goes down.  So I've been digging out sweatshirts and hats in our school colors.  Last year, during a particularly cold baseball & softball season, I made this stadium blanket from remnants I found at the fabric store.  It is double layered and very large so we can snuggle up and share.  I predict that nobody will want to carry it in tonight but everybody will fight over who gets to use it.

In honor of homecoming, one of our September's Minnesota Beer of the Month selections is Big Island Shandy from the Tonka Beer Company .  "100% of profits from our craft beer sales go to support Save-Our-Lakes^™, which funds initiatives of Conservation Minnesota and the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center to protect our lakes and rivers from zebra mussels, milfoil and other invasive species."



Our other selection for September is a variety case of James Page which is now brewed by the Stevens Point Brewery in Wisconsin.  Both Tonka Beer and James Page have their origins in Minnesota but have been outsourced to Wisconsin.

Autumn Nesting

At the river, we use plates and bowls that I've collected from antique shops, thrift stores and garage sales.  They are not all matching but all follow this amber-tone, made in USA theme.  Hull is a brand I've come to look for and I found these soup crocks a few weeks ago, right when the weather started turning colder.  The little lids are not completely necessary but they sure are fun.  I made clam chowder last week so we could try them out before packing for the next trip to the river.

And I'm back into the swing of packing lunches every morning but am amazed at how fast our cookie supply is depleted.  Hmmm.  Maybe you already do this cool trick but I was impressed when my friend, Joanne, showed me how, when she makes a batch of cookies, she bakes a pan or two and then uses a scoop to plop the rest of the raw dough on wax paper lined pans; sticks them in the freezer.  When they are frozen, they can be dumped into a plastic container or ziplock for easier freezer storage.  So when I take 12 out in the morning and bake them while I'm packing lunches, everyone thinks I got up extra early to whip up a batch of cookies and am baking them already.  (Actually they're on to my trick but still...great idea.)



Teen Room Redo - Started

Okay, we've started re-doing Kate's room, and I'm happy to be finding some white!  Last weekend, we cleaned off the bookshelves and emptied the dresser drawers into boxes.  With all the furniture in the garage, we primed and painted with lots of white paint and now these old dressers are transformed to a beautiful, clean, white:

These are pieces of furniture I inherited years and years ago.  The black one has been painted a few times before this.  The bookshelves (cheapy veneer from Target) didn't take paint so well at all.  Actually, they turned into a yucky mess.  So, I ended up scrapping them and contemplating making new (no, I don't know how - just think oh, I could do that!) before coming to my senses and buying a new set of cheapies from Target.  Afterall, they are going into a teen bedroom which will look sparkling clean for about 1 hour and after that, really, you won't notice the cheapy bookshelves.
This weekend we'll have the windows open, the music blaring, and walls will be changing from pink to white.  Hopefully I'll have pictures to show you next week!

Take a Deep Breath

This is the road that leads to our home.  We travel it every day.  The hill from which this pic is taken is the highest point in our county.  When the kids were little and we reached the top of this hill on our way home, we would shout out "Take a deep breath and look ahead."  We'd all breathe deeply and the kids would ask, although they already well knew the answers, "Why?", "Is this the highest place?", "Can we see all the way to the next city?", "Did you take a breath, Mom?"
It has become our custom and I find myself, even when alone in the car, taking a deep breath and looking out into the next city as I drive home.  Occasionally it happens that there is tension in the car (read in a sarcastic tone) and yet, from the back seat I'll hear a long inhalation and a slow exhale.  And I breathe also.  And I am so grateful to be going home.

Et tu, Hunger Games?

 

In Language Arts this year, Kate is using the vocabulary manual, Caesar's English to learn about Latin roots and their relationship to our language.  She learns the ancient Latin roots, learns their meaning, and then creates a few examples that follow the rule.  This week, one of the roots was "super"which means above, over, overly, excessive...When she thought of examples to write in her workbook, I suggested supercalifragilisticexpialidocious but she only rolled her eyes and snickered (an amused snicker, I believe). 

 

Who came first, she asked, Julius Caesar or Caesar Augustus?

Ummm, I don't know.  Probably Julius, I guess, since July comes before August. (I really have no idea but that sounded good to me.)  And what about Caesar Octavian, I ask, he probably came after.

Actually, turns out Augustus and Octavian were the same person.

 

But, the point is, her interest was peaked.  A couple more factors added up to her next request.  The factors are:

(1) A few weeks ago, we watched Orson Welles and Me (with Zac Efron and Claire Danes), in which Orson Welles is directing a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  Kate loved the film.

(2) About 3 years ago, Kate asked Mark to help her buy tickets online to a promenade staging of Romeo and Juliet which she gave me for Valentine's Day (to take her, of course).  From there, we discovered No Fear Shakespeare, which is how Kate first read Romeo and Juliet.  In this series, the original text appears on one side with an updated/explanatory version on the opposing side.  I'm okay with this.  If you're going to read Shakespeare, you need to read his real words; they are so verbal.  Even if you read silently, you're talking in your head.  There is nothing silent about Shakespeare.  And there is no better way way to say it.  But it's also nice to be able to understand the text.

 

So, the request yesterday morning:

Mom, can you go to Barnes and Noble today and get me a NFS copy of Julius Caesar?

Yes. I can. I will.

 

Today, before school, she's reading it and says,  Hey, Mom, did you ever realize that the names of lots of the Capital characters in the Hunger Games are the same as characters in Julius Caesar:  Caesar, Flavius, Octavia(n), Portia, Cinna, Cato, Messala, Claudio, Brutus.

Writing Session; Dark and Light

Every other week, I meet with another writer for a writing session.  We rarely do any actual writing during our session but we do discuss what we've worked on in the interval and help each other through current problems.  As a loose sort of format for the meeting and a springboard for discussion, we "assign" 2-3 chapters from bird by bird, Anne Lamott's book on writing.  This week, we covered the chapters titled Writing a Present, Short Assignments, and Perfectionism.  Short Assignments is helpful for me right now.  In this chapter, Lamott advises giving yourself a one-inch picture frame and writing only what you can see through that frame.  Basically, she's saying write the small stuff, a little at a time.  A project can become overwhelming quickly unless you break it down; get the details right.
We chose Lamott's book because we both already had a copy.  Having covered most of this book, however, we're looking to add another writing book; to add another perspective.  It's amazing how many are out there.  I'm welcoming any suggestions.
This week's session also covered a discussion on the vitality of the relationship of light and dark in our characters.  I thoroughly enjoy the tangents our talks travel down and the circular way they come back to the point.  In discussing dark and light, we covered Ansel Adams' Zone System for photography in which he codifies the levels between black and white.  We covered the Taoist Yin and Yang.  Of course, I brought up the essential element of dark and light in classic Gothic literature.  In all of these examples, we find the duplicity, the reliance, and the reflection of dark and light - always enhancing the other.
I have some writing assignments, from a college course, that I still refer to.  I'll share some occasionally, in case you'd like to "exercise".
Take one of these phrases and write 25 sentences that complete it.  You may want to do more or try a second phrase.  That may be the end of the exercise or you may want to pick your top five favorites and write something from it.  You may see a pattern emerge and write something from that.  Here are the phrases:
I remember...
I never...
Don't...
What if...
If only...
I should have...
I wish...
I remember...

After also debating the moral obligations and accountability in our writing, we ended the meeting with a reading from the Buddhist Dhammapada:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

--Ch. 1, Twin Verses

Little Falls Annual Craft Fair

This past weekend was the annual Little Falls Craft Fair; which is also our annual Girls Weekend!  The weather was phenomenal as we took a break from shopping and enjoyed a little people watching from the top of the post office steps.  I didn't take any photos of the crafts themselves (it is frowned upon) but I bought a few things (can't share with you yet as they're Christmas presents and somebody might be reading) and jotted down a few inspirations (I'll share with you if they become reality).

The weekend started off Friday night, with gourmet burgers at A.T. The Black and White.  This retro styled restaurant has many of the old signs from buildings around town that have been torn down or remodeled - so cool. 
Friday night dessert at The Black and White is always Banana Foster - oh - yum!  Bananas, brown sugar, banana liqueur, rum and ice cream - you cannot possibly go wrong!

The lake is within easy driving distance from the craft fair so we slept there and spent Sunday on the water.  Thinking about all the different crafts, I noticed this beautiful web at the side of the dock;

so like the doilies we had seen the day before.  Here is a picture of the doily my Grandma made us as a wedding gift.  The delicate work of both is amazing.

Sleep Issues & Quilt in Progress

Everybody has their sleep issues; sleepwalking, nightmares, trouble getting to sleep, trouble waking, not getting enough sleep....  I snore. Kinda loud - wake myself up sometimes.  John thrashes his limbs.  Share a bed with him on vacation or even put your sleeping bag next to him and you're liable to be black and blue in the morning.  This week, in fact, he thrashed right through his sheet - which turned out to be to my advantage.  I'm making twin quilts for the bunkbeds at the river and I've vowed to only use fabric from my current stash - NO buying more.  But the little design voice in my head continues to groan, no, no, not that color, you need a better blue!  And John's old sheets are the perfect provencial/denimy blue color that I need. I know this sounds suspiciously like the times we came home from with "distressed" holes conveniently cut in our jeans but I truly did not sneak in and slash the pretty blue sheets!

My goal was to have these finished by next weekend as we'll have more guests in the fall (mainly hunters) and will need all the beds covered.  After the kids are in bed, I've been cutting strips and sewing, sewing, sewing but Teddy, here, is holding the only square completely pieced so far.  Yep, I've got a ways to go!

Celebrate = Chocolate

Mark and I always take the week of our anniversary off and spend it with the kids.  A few weeks ago, we celebrated our 14th and it has become tradition for Kate and John to make gifts for us.  We received some very lovely things this year including some wishing twigs (you hold them in your hand, make a wish, and then toss them into the campfire - when they burn up, your wish can come true).
Spending most of the afternoon in the kitchen, Kate made this DELICIOUS chocolate layered cake.  I love chocolate layered cake but I'm pretty picky about which ones I'd vouch for as DELICIOUS - this one was!  I've only had two other pieces that compare - one was in San Francisco and the other was actually at Granite City (I know - go figure!)  So when we celebrated a birthday this week, I tried her recipe and it was delicious again so I'll include the recipe at the end of this post.  (She got the recipe online but I have no idea where) The pic above is my cake with chocolate frosting but the one Kate made had the frosting in the recipe, which was more my favorite.

Birthdays around here seem to linger out over a few weeks.  So, Kate's actual birthday was this week but last week she had friends over (hence, the cake).  Next weekend she goes out with her Godmother for a night at the orchestra.  In October, she goes to Chicago with me and Grandma for a girls weekend.  But for the actual day, we ordered in Chinese food and had brownies with ice cream and hot fudge.  I use the same recipe for hot fudge that my Mom always made.  It is so good and if there's any left over, just put it in the fridge, warm it up in the microwave ad have it again! Yummmmm.

Hot Fudge
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
Mix together in a saucepan, bring to boil and boil for 1 full minute.

Chocolate Anniversary Cake
Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Heat Oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two 8- or 9- inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
In a small saucepan, combine the butter and 1 cup water and bring to a boil.  Add to the flour mixture and, using an electric mixer, mix until combined.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 35-45 minutes.  Cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Transfer one of the cakes to the platter and spread with 3/4 cup frosting.  Top with the remaining cake and spread with the remaining frosting.

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
In medium bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter until creamy.  Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioner's sugar.  Store in refrigerator after use.

A Story from Great Grandpa Nels

We spent Labor Day at the farm my Dad, and my Grandpa before him, grew up on.  The picture above is in the house where my grandparents raised their six children.  It is in this dining room and living room that we spent every Christmas Eve and many Sunday dinners.  It seems so small now.

Across the driveway is the house where my Grandpa grew up and where my Great Grandparents lived during my Dad's childhood.  I remember sleeping in an upstairs bedroom and hearing the horrible screeching moan during the night that the windmill makes - spooky.  My grandpa used to climb to the top, routinely, to oil it but that hasn't happened in many, many, many years.

During our Labor Day picnic, stories were shared and there was one I'd never heard before.  My Dad retold a story his Grandpa Nels told him about a man back in Denmark who used to walk home, every night, in the dark.  The path he walked wound through a cemetery and every night he'd get to a spot and he'd fall down.  He would pick himself up only to fall down again.  Every night he fell four times but that fourth time, when he picked himself up again, he was able to stay upright and continue home.  So, one day he decided to walk the path during daylight hours and find out why he kept falling down four times every night.  So he came to the spot where he always fell and there was a goat tied to a tree, munching away on the plentiful cemetery grass.  The goat got excited and knocked the man down, ran around the tree and, just as the man got back on his feet, came from behind and knocked him down again.  After the fourth time, however, the rope, now wrapped around the tree, had grown too short and the goat just ran past the man.

Now, I'm sure there was originally more to the story.  Why was he walking home after dark?  Was there another reason he was falling down?  Had he never walked through the cemetery during the day before?  Is there a moral to the story?  I don't know but what a fun, weird, little story!

This is the car I drove in High School, a 1966 Corvair, sitting not so prettily in the old chicken house now.  Like the Volkswagon Beetle, the engine is in the back and the trunk is in the front.  The trunk had a key of it's own which, for some reason, I kept on a separate ring than the ignition key.  One summer, some friends and I spent the weekend at my parents cabin where there was no garbage service.  So, at the end of the weekend, we packed the big bag of garbage in the trunk.  At some point, I lost the separate trunk key and the garbage started to STINK!  And, as I drove around, the stink wafted back.  Ewww.  I don't remember what happened in the end; whether I found the key or we had one made but I remember the stink!

Another story about Great Grandpa Nels is that he had a real hard time transitioning from driving horses to driving a car.  In the stable/garage, he lined the back wall with old tires and when he returned from a trip to town, he would drivel into the building and continue to drive until he hit the tires.  My Aunt says the car would hit the tire wall, shimmy a bit and boing off it.

And "my" willow tree.  This is the most singular image that comes to mind when I think of the farm.  Well, that's not true since, as I wrote it, 3,4,5 more images came immediately to mind.  But this tree is first.  It wasn't nearly this big, of course.  It is what you see when you look from the window over the kitchen sink.  So, I guess this was my Grandma's kitchen tree.