H turns 18

On Saturday 04.04.20, my baby turned 18. How that happened is beyond me. I'm pretty sure none of us would have imagined spending his day in Safer at Home quarantine, but that's how it is, so we did our best to make the most of the day. Starting out by embarrassing him with a giant yard sign announcing his big day which was already installed when he woke up. C made him a mozzarella cheese soufflé for breakfast, then his friend/old JV swim coach showed up and put a little birthday greeting in our yard. It was constructed with sticks and forks and absolutely adorable. Other nice surprises was a little note from the mail lady (thanks to the yard sign), and a drive by gift toss and from the car hang out with the Schwebel family, and a Zoom call and trivia game that my nephew made up with family. H requested his standard dinner - steak, Greek Salad and french fries, and put in a request for either a brownie cake, banana cake with chocolate or giant cake ball. I was able to accommodate two of those with a concoction I made up - a brownie cake with vanilla whipped cream and banana foster filling, topped with chocolate ganache and white chocolate shavings. If I ever open a bakery, this cake is going on the menu for sure. I'd say it was a pretty good day. Memorable for sure. Happy birthday H! You an amazing human being, and we love you.

Moments 04 20 :: Week 01

Meet our home gym. Thankfully our gym loaned out equipment during the pandemic, so we are able to at least modify a lot of the workouts to make them work with the programming. Been getting in at least 4-5 good workouts a week, which has felt great. I mean, the workouts never feel great, but afterwards it does. The other healthy habit I've been pretty good about is sleep. My goal is 7 hours a night, and I'm happy to report, I'm finally getting that. I used to be lucky with 6. Not good.


Messing around with Gretel. She's thrilled.


Speaking of Gretel, someone had a birthday on March 30. Can't believe she's 6 years old. They say German Shorthaired Pointers are puppies until the die. I think that's pretty accurate.


Whipping up some piña coladas. While my workout route and sleep may be on point, I can't say the same for my food and beverage intake. After almost 4 years of hardly drinking, been enjoying my glasses of wine and newfound appreciation for Frangelico, thanks to virtual happy hours and my Oak Park friends. We've been making some pretty good meals around here too. Trying to go easy on myself, because these sure are crazy times. Most important thing is, we are making the most of it and really enjoying each other's company.

Moments 03 20 :: Week 04

Gotta love a disco ball. And sunlight.


Ventured out to Trader Joe's and picked up these blooming branches. It's the little things.


Homemade everything. Naan. Hummus (requires overnight soaking of the chickpeas - it's worth it).


Work in progress since New Year's Eve. We could have picked an easier puzzle to start with, don't you think?
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Welp, another crazy week. This week was spring break. We were supposed to be in Florida (H) and a showcase soccer tournament in Virginia (C & me). I felt a little more out of sorts than last week. Probably because we also started .... wait for it .... our bathroom remodel. Gah! We have been going back and forth and back and forth and decided to proceed. We are being extra careful, and spending a ton of time cleaning and sanitizing after, but it is still a tad nerve-wracking having people in the house and spending that kind of money right now. Besides the normal clanging and banging, you've got the coronavirus situation escalating. It's interesting for sure. The boys bathroom is completely gutted and demoed. I do believe it's really going to be so worth it. We haven't been able to use the shower for months, and the toilets are original to the house meaning, they don't work well. Otherwise, all is good here. Continuing to enjoy our virtual happy hours, and even started a Netflix viewing party of The Tiger King. Stay home and safe everyone!

Moments 03 20 :: Week 03

Lots of trying to find joy around the house, since we are flattening the curve and staying inside. We did venture out to do our taxes on Saturday, and stopped for lunch on the way home. Felt good to be out, but quickly realized that would be our last hurrah for awhile. It felt weird to be out.


Made a batch of elderberry syrup while wearing my socks, which were supposed to be for the upcoming election. They felt pretty appropriate now too.


The boys are on a remote learning schedule. Their school has been nothing short of amazing, and I'm so thankful. Our gym has also been doing home workouts, and starting next week, will be doing zoom classes. I participated in one today, and while it doesn't make up for seeing my gym people face to face, it was really fun. I'm sure my neighbors will get a kick out of my driveway workouts.


Coronavirus? Whatever. Happy to have our humans home.


Our first quarantine celebration also happened. Brian's 49th birthday! We had our traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. We have bee watching our meet intake, so it tasted especially amazing.


Also cracked up the Irish Whiskey.


I also made a Guinness Chocolate Cake. It was gone by the next day.


Brought my workout inside one of the days. Within 5 minutes of setting up my space, this was the scene.


I still love a foggy day. Just keep thinking how lucky we are for so much space and getting to walk Gretel every day.


I hope our yard survives. I've also been really impressed with C's soccer club, who has been posting virtual training every day. They have been posting everyone's videos, but someone (C) refuses to have a video taken.

Moments 03 20 :: Week 02

Saturday, Nicolet hosted the regional basketball game -- and won! So exciting for the school and players. They also played Sectional Semi-Finals against Whitefish Bay on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was only open to immediate family, but we were able to stream it. They won, and were scheduled to play again Saturday. Thanks to this crazy week, however, basketball is done. No more. They were on the road to another State victory for sure. P.S. See my boys in their red shirts? :)


C could not wait for basketball season to be over. I'm glad he tried it, but I'd be very surprised if he tried out again. I always got a kick out of seeing his name on the roster, however. There's definitely some names to watch on that varsity roster.


The week started with daylight savings starting, which always throws things off, and got worse and worse. It sucked. Trying to take a moment to soak in the little things during this Coronavirus, like amazing sunsets.


I was in pretty good spirits --until I hit the stores this week. The first one to make me crazy was Costco. I still don't understand why toilet paper is the first thing people decided was a huge necessity. That's why we went to Costco. We were close to being out, so I ran over to Target, who fortunately had some. The odd thing about Costco was all the paper towel people were grabbing as well. I don't get it. I sure hope people bought plungers as well. The next day I went to Trader Joe's. This was the pasta aisle. All I could think about was how I'd be grabbing protein shakes and canned fish instead of pasta. But that's just me, I guess. And fortunately, I have a really bad habit of buying too much food anyway, so we are set.


Me. Taken yesterday to show off my b. fearless lipstick color, one of three limited edition lipsticks for Beautycounter's 7th anniversary. It's true -- I love the color. But I can also see a lot of nervousness in this photo. Yesterday felt extremely scary to me. The good news is, my niece is home from Europe, where she was studying abroad for the semester. But there have been so many last minute cancelations, and so many questions, like, will there be a high school graduation for my senior? The potential loss of so many memories is making me terribly sad. I wake up every morning and think this all has to be a bad dream. But it's not. I hate this. Yesterday it was the basketball game canceled. Today it's everything else. Including a showcase soccer tournament C was supposed to play in in Virginia (no surprise there) and school -- for the next 4 weeks. Class assignments are getting moved online, and I know H should be fine, but I'm worried I won't be able to provide or guide C through the instruction and support he needs. I worry about the community and jobs and the economy. I'm mad our 1-year old dishwasher is broken and the repair guy who was out today couldn't fix it, especially since we will all be home a lot. I know these feelings are something I'm really going to have to work hard on in the coming weeks. Everything is so scary! I'm probably going to take advantage of the gift of a slower pace of life for a couple days, then take advantage of the situation and start organizing my house. I've wanted to do that forever -- and now seems like a pretty good time I'd say. Maybe we'll even work on the puzzle we started on New Year's Eve and never finished. All I know, is as long as I have my family around, I'll be alright.

Moments 03 20 :: Week 01

Now that basketball and swim are over, we had some nights free this week. It felt GREAT. So not much happened this week, except for the fact Brian and H are doing their last college visit today. To THE Ohio State. The good (AND band) news is, H is absolutely loving it.


No, he's not going to be swimming there (can you imagine?), but they had to check out the facilities, duh. Pretty impressive!

Door County with Grandma :: Day 3

The last day, sadly. We weren't in a rush to leave, that's for sure. On our way out of town, we drove through Peninsula State Park. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do any hiking this time around, but we did get out to take in a little scenery and snap a photo. We stopped in Sturgeon Bay, and came across a little gem -- Scaturo's. I had an incredible vegetarian skillet, the boy's we so excited to have their favorite breakfast food there (biscuits and gravy), and we all picked up some delicious bakery for the ride home. So good. What a great weekend. So much fun making memories, relaxing, and enjoying each other's company.

Door County with Grandma :: Day 2

After an amazing night of sleep, we enjoyed some relaxation before heading out for the day. We started with brunch at White Gull Inn, per Mel's recommendation. We split a coffee cake (cherry was the flavor of the day), then most of us opted for dishes with the hash browns. I can't pass up a good potato dish. It was a great way to start the day. Afterwards, we strolled around Fish Creek. My absolute favorite shop is Sister Golden. Such a lovely place. I ended up with a pair of amazing earrings. Yay. Next was Charlie's Smokehouse to pick up some salmon and whitefish (another Mel recommendation), then Bailey's Harbor for an afternoon pick-me-up at Door County Brewing/Hacienda. We were all pretty tired and full yet, so grabbed some soup from Czarnuszka Soup Restaurant and headed back to the house. I decided to walk around and check out our area. Unfortunately, because of the time of year, most was closed. But what a fun location. After the sunset the day before, my one request was to be home in time for the sunset. It wasn't as spectacular as the first night, but was still gorgeous. The rest of the night was spent eating our soup and just hanging out. We actually went to sleep so early. It felt amazing.

Door County with Grandma :: Day 1

Last weekend was Grandma's 80th birthday, so to celebrate, we went out of town for a few days. Brian and I had such a great time in Door County last summer, and thought it was the perfect spot for a quick getaway. We stayed at the cutest VRBO -- perfect for our little group. The hilarious thing is, is when I got home, my friend Penny texted me to say that they stayed at the same exact place when they were in Door County a couple weekends ago. You guys, there's hundreds of rentals there, and we ended up at the same place. No wonder we are friends. And travel well together.

We couldn't leave until the boys were home from school, so didn't arrive to the house until sunset. But what a sunset it was. You can't help but have a great weekend when you are greeted with something like that. Lucky for us the house was right across the street from Lake Michigan. It was amazing. Because we had just spent a couple hours in the car, we decided to keep it simple and had Wild Tomato pizza for dinner, and birthday cake at home later.