Cole and his 12-year-old cousin, Ryan, are visiting the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry today. Ryan is Cole’s second cousin twice removed because he is my first cousin once removed.  But doesn’t “once removed” sound just awful? “Twice removed” sounds even worse, like the family wanted nothing to do with you. In any case, … Continue reading Boys! Heading Shaking and Headlock Included!

 If this made you laugh, we might share the same sense of humor... The Oobleck is out of the living room. It was starting to get a little whiffy, so I think we moved it out just in time. It was a bit more of a challenge than I thought it would be to bag … Continue reading Lighten Up and Laugh!

My morning starts when I post El Morno on Facebook and various friends bring their cuppa and drop by to chat before they start their day. Usually the conversation is light and breezy. However, on Friday, we were all greeted with the news of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. The idea that someone would walk … Continue reading Wonderful People Doing the Right Thing Every Day

A big event happened in my life last week: a friend and I finally hooked up for coffee. Just coffee between friends, but setting the date and actually making it to the designated Starbucks was nothing short of a miracle. On the way to the coffee date, we changed the Starbucks location because of traffic … Continue reading Keep Calm and Call Mom

One of my projects this summer is cleaning out our basement again. It’s a never-ending project. My goal is to eventually just store what we use and get rid of the rest. For example, during this year’s crusade to purge and pitch, I found that we owned eleven coolers! I know that there are only … Continue reading Coolers and Shoe Yard Art

Did you keep a journal with all the cute and funny things your child did when he or she was small? I always planned to...first in a Moleskine notebook and then in a lovely journal with a fairy on the cover…and then I bought a spiral notepad from Walgreens and never wrote anything down past … Continue reading Precious Conversations with My Teen

Cole decided that he wanted to build a new fence to replace the small wire fence that kept our campers back from the main fence and to coral off the back patio from the campers, turning it into an outside teen patio. Such a task should be entrusted to real professionals, fence builders West Palm. … Continue reading Fence One-Hundred Dollars-Sense of Accomplishment Priceless

This summer Cole’s uncle encouraged him to apply for a caddy position at the country club his grandfather has been a member of for years. Cole was excited about the prospect of earning money caddying and learning the game of golf; I was excited about the possibility of an Evan’s College scholarship. Cole’s uncle walked … Continue reading Caddying: Quit and Carry On

This weekend we were invited to my brother- and sister-in-laws’ for a day of FUN. They could not have picked a more perfect day to host an indoor-outdoor lake party. The temperatures finally broke, and the weather was great. It was about 81 for the entire day, with a nice drop to the 70s in … Continue reading Lake Michigan: Riding The Waves