Living Room Change-Up

Here is our new "lighter" wall color and new couch covers.  There's white base trim but "we" haven't completed the door trim yet.  The crown molding is stained wood and I think we should leave it that way.  I really like the combination of stained wood with painted white woodwork - it's just trying to find the right balance that says, "it just kinda fell into place" vs. "we're still working on it".
We used to have framed photos over the couch that I got tired of.  So, I've been working on these canvases - trying for a cleaner, sparser look.  The canvases, themselves (photos from at the river), are beautiful.

But a little too sparse.  So, today, I took them down and put the Molokai, Hawaii Photos back up and I love them again - they look right.

I used the rest of the thrift store denim to make a few couch pillows.  I sewed the seams wrong-side out so that, after a couple washings, they'll fray.  I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Vegemite and Meal Planning

So many things to say...where to start?  Okay, well, I have been planning, for years, to start a meal planning habit, with week long charts filled in with what we're going to eat (and make) each day, with grocery lists an recipes and...just has never happened.  It feels so overwhelming and, I know, I know, it really isn't.  And, in the end, it will be so much easier, so less stressful, so less expensive, so much more healthy.  But still.  Never happened. 

And so, everyday about 4:00, I stand in front of the fridge and/or the pantry and wait for an idea (an easy idea) to reach out and punch me in the nose.  Also...never happens.

And now I started back to work, outside our home, fulltime, and...I NEED a plan!  I've reached out to a few friends and have started collecting their weekly menus.  And I've started listing what we have every night.  I'm going to try to pull together all this valuable information and see if I can't come up with a system that works, for me, at least.  And I will share.  Soon.

But yesterday, as I should have been grocery shopping, I was hunting down a jar of Vegemite.  We have a Mom's Book Club meeting this coming week.  We read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty, which is a story taking place in Australia.  We always have dinner at our meetings and the dinners have started to tend towards some type of theme - the last couple were in relation to a location in the book.  So, this week, we're trying Australian dishes.  Remember that Men at Work song, Down Under?

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

I'm bringing, to the book meeting, Vegemite sandwiches.  They sound quite disgusting but I'm so curious to try one!  Here's the description on the Vegemite site (I can't paraphrase better than this):

Vegemite is considered as much a part of Australia's heritage as kangaroos and the Holden cars. It is actually an Australian obsession that has become a unique and loved symbol of the Australian nation.  A Vegemite sandwich to an Australian kid is the equivalent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to an American kid - but the taste is QUITE different!

Vegemite is one of several yeast extract spreads sold in Australia. It is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract (a by-product of beer manufacture) and various vegetable and spice additives. It is very dark reddish-brown, almost black, in color, and one of the richest sources known of Vitamin B. It's thick like peanut butter, it's very salty, and it tastes like - well let's just say that it is an acquired taste!
Australian children are brought up on Vegemite from the time they're babies. It is said that Australians are known to travel all over the world with at least one small jar of Vegemite in their luggage, for fear that they will not be able to find it.

Yum, huh?!  I saw the Chocoshrooms in the next aisle and had to grab them also -had to even snap the photo when I got in the car 'cause I opened the box right away to eat them - truly nummy!  So much for grocery shopping.  Maybe tomorrow.

Baseball and a Loss

Have I mentioned how much I love going to a baseball game?  When I know there's a game, I look forward to it all day.  I don't watch baseball on TV.  I've nothing against it and I might like it...I just don't.  Most of what I watch is Little League, mostly, of course, John's team.  While waiting for John's practice to wrap up the other night, however, I found myself drawn into some other team's game, cheering them on.  It's such a great game!  John plays a good second base, or shortstop.  He's a good pitcher.  But he really likes playing outfield.  He is always moving, running in to back up bases, dancing right and left to cover the gaps in that expansion grassy outfield.  He stops the ball and gets it into the infield. 
I remember always preferring outfield when I played softball, very briefly, in my childhood.  But I liked it for very different reasons than John does; reasons that remain true today.  I like to see everything coming at me.  I like to be distanced enough to see it coming.  I need time to react, even if it's only a fraction of a second longer.  I'm a planner and I like to be able to see the whole picture.  Having only the baseline on either side of me gets me a little jumpy.  Being in the center of the diamond would freak me out.  And being behind the home plate, fenced in by the towering ump and knowing that everything is coming at you fast with every single pitch - I can't even imagine.
Here's John flying to first base. 
Oh, I love watching this game!

Changing gears...Mark texted me this morning with some sad news of a MN loss.  Vince Flynn, a Minnesota writer died today, of prostate cancer, at age 47.  My youngest brother introduced the Vince Flynn collection to Mark just this past winter and Mark has totally enjoyed the titles he's read. 

Serialized Story

Certain things just feel romantic - not in the love way but in the old-fashioned, quaint way.  Like serialized stories; bits of a story being told in increments each ay or week or month.  In a world of excess and allowance, there's something very intential and rationed about a serialized story.  You get what you get and you must wait for the next one.  Well, actually you can usually go online and buy the e-book if you can't handle the discipline but...try.  You'll be so much more happy.
So, serialized stories/books can be found online, immediate an in abundance but finding them in the daily newspaper is the ultimate.  Last Sunday was  the first installment of a serialized ghost/love story by Minnesota author Mary Logue and was featured in our Star Tribune newspaper.  Today is the fifth day of the series which will run every day for seven weeks.  I set my alarm a little earlier today, eagerly anticipating a walk to the paperbox, a cup of coffee and an intentional read with my breakfast.
If you on't have access to the daily Star Tribune, here's a link to the story"  Giving Up the Ghost

No More Dewey Decimal

We just returned from a trip to our public library.  John was looking for books about WWI aircraft and Kate was trying to find a particularr book about fairies.  She looked the book up on the computer catalog, wrote down the number and then searched the shelves.  I tried helping her but the shelves were all in this crazy order that made no sense to me.  Every time I thought I'd deciphered it's madness, I lost my path.  So...I asked for directions.  Apparently our library system is no longer using the Dewey Decimal Classification system.  I know!  Look at these biographies - not "921"!!  And poetry is no longer in the "830"s.  Everything is now shelved according to the Library of Congress Classification system.  I don't know if this system will be taught in schools now or if it will be like the American use of the metric system and we'll spend more time trying to translate back to Dewey than we would trying to just learn the new one.  Here's a little cheat sheet of how this all makes sense:

Finally...Chicago

Last October, my mom, Kate and I had a trip to Chicago planned and this past weekend we finally made that trip.  In all my previous trips to the windy city, I've always stayed on the north side of the river.  But the hotel we always stayed at has been turned exclusively into residential apartments.  So we stayed south of the river and saw so many things I've never visited before.  Like the Art Institute and the Bean and the highest building in the western hemisphere - the Skydeck at the Sears Tower (I know, I know...it's called the Willis Tower now but, for me, it's always the Sears Tower):

We took the El from the airport to within a block of our hotel and, as we zipped along, I caught glimpses of this building with big green wings.  As soon as I would tell Kate or mom to look, however, it was too late - we'd passed the corner and they couldn't see it.  Then,...on our third day, as we walked from Millennium Park, I glanced both ways while preparing to cross a street and...there it was, the building with the green wings.  I don't know what the building is (our feet were too tired to walk the extra two block and find out!).

I have a wonderful college friend in Chicago who picked me up from the hotel on Sunday morning so we could go to church together followed by a long brunch and catch-up.  Way back when, cities were divided up into parishes.  A parish was your community and the church was where you were if you weren't at home or at work.  After mass, we had a cup of coffee in a basement area of the church which used to be the pub/bar/restaurant.  The church is very old and in constant reparation but the craftsmanship of every detail is amazing.

After we had our chance to chat, she and her husband had all of us out to their house the next day for a beautiful afternoon meal before our flight.  With a bottle of Chianti we were served cantaloupe wrapped in thinly sliced prosciutto, thick slices of buffalo mozzarella on tomatoes with olive oil and sea salt followed by a delicious pasta dish (sorry, L, can't remember the name!) with onions, pancetta, and red sauce.  And then...Nutella brownies (to die for!) served with hand whipped cream and fresh organic strawberries with hot coffee in delicate white cups.  Perfect.  Such a wonderful trip.

The Kindness of Writers

For the past several years, I have taken Kate and a few of her friends to the annual Young Author's Conference.  It is organized and put on by Success Beyond the Classroom and held on a local college campus.  As an adult, I've been to writer's conferences and am always amazed by the kindness and generosity of other writers.  I don't know why.  Maybe I expect everyone to be secretive or protective about their own ideas.  But that's not the case.  Overwhelmingly, there is an overflowing of sharing and helping and just plain friendliness.  At the YAC last week, as I sat in a central "chaperone" location, I overheard some 4th graders trying to locate their next session.  These 10 year-olds seemed so much littler than the 13 year-old (going on 28!) girls that I had with me.  The campus is sprawling and the sessions can be very spread out.  So, these girls were carrying their maps in front of their faces, glancing up at these color-coded zone signs (a session might be labeled "Basics of Editorial Writing and Cartooning - Sky Blue 337).  These two students, strangers to each other, noticed each other and here's the conversation I overheard:

Is this way Magenta?

Are you Magenta too?

Yeah.  Hi, I'm Amy.

Nice to meet you.  I'm Chloe.

I love your shirt.

Oh, thanks.

And off they went together, to learn new tips and share ideas, in their "Magenta" poetry session.  The level of maturity these kids exhibit when put into a situation where they are treated like adults and really have to fend for themselves (in a very organized and safe environment) is incredible.  They network, they rely on each other, and they grow!  So cool.

This is a scene from a book I recently bought, with beautiful sepia-toned illustrations punctuated by a red fish.  the little red fish by taeeun yoo begins with the line:

JeJe's grandfather was a librarian at an old library in the middle of the forest.

What a wonderful beginning!