Steve is Eight!

Steve had a great day celebrating his eighth birthday. The festivities began with an early morning present, a box full of Rescue Heroes along with their headquarters. Later in the morning, Jeff headed downtown to Dave and Busters with Steve and three of his friends where they had lunch and enjoyed some arcade games. In the evening the fun continued as we all headed to Lucas' b-day party in Wicker Park. Happy Birthday Steve and Lucas!

Favorite photos of Douwe's first week

Unexpected Visitors

We took Douwe home on Sunday morning and were surprised to notice a stork on our front yard! Thanks to Steve's 2nd grade classmate Kevin's family, we now had a way to notify the many neighbors who have been looking forward to hearing the baby news.

On Monday morning we said goodbye to a nest of visitors, with the help of Guardian pest control: bald-faced hornets who kept their beautiful creation hidden from us until last week. They are said to help with bug control and abandon the nest within the first couple frosts, but they are also said to be aggressive without provocation, and the nest is quite close to the mail carrier's path and our neighbor's lawn mowing route.

On Wednesday, the cable guy showed up to replace our modem, which had broken and put our internet and phone lines on the fritz for two days.

On Thursday, the Sears delivery team came for a visit with a new dryer, since our dryer chose the opportune time of Tuesday laundry session to give up its linty ghost.

On Friday, the Sears delivery team came for another visit with another new dryer, since yesterday's delivery was defective. I was glad that I had put up a clothesline last week when I heard some wheezes and squeals from the dryer. The warm sunny weather and the fact that my sister lives a block away took some of the load off living with brand new baby and no working dryer.

On Friday night, the NIPSCO truck came out since Jeff was smelling gas near the dryer hook-up and yes there were traces leaking from the hook-up site and a few other places. Nothing to evacuate the house for, but a hassle none the less as this repair calls for a plumber!?

Thankfully Jeff had taken the week off to be at home, though he got more work than he had planned on!

We also had a perfect amount of hoped for guests: grandparents, niece and nephew, best friends, and close neighbors to come see the handsome new member of the Groen household.

Welcome Douwe James

We're pleased to introduce the newest member of the Groen Family, Douwe James. Douwe arrived at 7:43 am on Friday, September 14 weighing 8lb 1oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. Early signs point to a resemblance to his dad, which would make sense, considering he was born on Jeff's Birthday! Under the skillful eye of midwife Michelle, and with the helpful staff at St. Catherine's Family Birthing Center, the whole process could not have gone any better. For those wondering, Douwe is a Dutch name, and was the name of Jeff's grandfather who immigrated to the U.S. from Amsterdam. We're very thankful for all the well wishes from Family and Friends, and are excited to begin this next phase in our lives.

Summer Fun with Food

I've been inspired by the book I've been reading this summer--Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle--to take more time to find local produce for meals and for preserving. My mom always canned a lot when we were kids, since she was raised on a farm where the kitchen garden fed the family during summer and winter.

In June, my sister, my neighbor and I picked strawberries at Johnson's, which were enjoyed fresh with cereal, strawberry shortcake, and the rest are in the freezer as whole berries or freezer jam.

In July, I made a quick trip to Stateline blueberry farm, and several pounds. Some turned into a blueberry buckle which kept us grinning for a week of desserts, and the rest were frozen as whole berries.

In August, I froze some corn, which is as easy as boiling the cobs for a few minutes and cutting the kernels into a freezer bag. The best corn we have tasted this year is from Bultema's farmstand on Route 30 in Lynwood. That same week, my friend Emily came over to show me how to make a loaf of bread from scratch. We finished the morning by enjoying a tomato sandwich on LaBriola panini bread which we can get at Ron Erik's Village Farmstand in Cal City.

My next project was some jalapeno-mint jelly, which is the first boil-processed canning I've ever tried without my mom around. I made one small batch which only turned into about 5 4-oz jars, but the pale green jelly looks beautiful, and it used up a ton of mint which grows wild near our garage. That gave me enough confidence to try canning a small batch of Michigan freestone peaches, and the 7 pints I processed came out just fine, and they all did that vacuum seal pop thing.

We used three more Michigan peaches to make a batch of homemade peach ice-cream on Labor Day weekend. For my birthday, Jeff gave me an ice-cream bowl attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer, so we had to try this out when Jeff's family came for dinner. The initial result is a soft serve consistency ice cream, but we put the rest in a container to freeze solid. I tried some this morning and it is absolutely delicious. This is fun! I'll never be so ambitious as to put up the bushels and bushels that Grandma Cora always did, but I feel proud of these little attempts to help our household consume more produce from local growers.

If the baby waits till the end of the month, and my mom and I can pick a date to get together, September will bring some jars of applesauce using apples from County Line Orchard and stewed tomatoes using tomatoes from Buiter's farm.

Labor Day Weekend

Jeff's brother Mike and his friend Jackie came to visit for the weekend, so we spent Saturday and Sunday with Jeff's family.

On Saturday, the highlight was a bike ride with Mike's friends the Fiekemas on the Oak Savannah Trail from Griffith to Hobart (and Jess did stay home for this event.) There were a few falls and some tired children by the end of the ride, but everyone had fun.

After church on Sunday, we packed a lunch to take to Whihala Beach (the west end which is in Hammond right by the Horseshoe Casino. It was like having our own private beach, and the water was a perfect refreshing temperature. For the evening meal, we grilled out, and here's the family making a toast to Mom and Dad on their 41st anniversary.

Final Weeks

With a due date at the end of the month, Baby Groen is enjoying the last few weeks of pre-natal growth. We are excited and nervous and as ready as we can be without knowing exactly what we're getting ourselves into. Keep checking, we'll post the news and first photos on this blog as soon as we meet Baby ourselves!