Christmas in Milwaukee

On Monday December 27, we went for an overnight to see Mike and Jackie and Hazel in Milwaukee to celebrate Christmas with them. We had fun eating at an indoor Market. We also had a great field trip to Growing Power, which is amazing and worth visiting. We played a new game and ate a couple great meals before heading back to Chicago area.

Walking on the Lakefront


Hummus, Eggplant dip, she'll eat everything!


Hazelnut

Christmas celebrations

Two shots from family Christmas gatherings: Hungry Hippos and a little trap set were favorite gifts of Douwe's (and yes he did get the black and white scarf and pretend bird that talks).

December highlights

Douwe made his first acquaintance with Santa at a Christmas caroling party. He made this request: "I want a black and white scarf and a pretend bird that talks. "



Snow angels


Greta and I attended the Christmas talent program at Steve's current school to see him recite "The Night before Christmas."
One child lip synched James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto." Hearing that song in an auditorium full of children who live in the rejected city of Gary and have themselves been further rejected for behavior or academic ineptitudes from mainstream Gary schools . . .a very powerful experience.


Steve came over for a few nights over the holiday school vacation
Opening an early present . . .

Gingerbread cookies . . .




New pretend family to play with

November highlights

The week before Thanksgiving, we had Steve as an overnight guest, then spent Saturday morning at his favorite museum, the Museum of Science of Industry. Steve's choice of special exhibit was the Smart Home, which is an actual house built in the courtyard which incorporates many inventions and materials and design choices for reducing the energy and natural resource demands that are part of building a home and living in it. Douwe absolutely loved the Idea Factory exhibit.



The day before Thanksgiving Douwe and his cousins enjoyed a morning at Bellaboo's, which is Douwe's favorite destination for a special excursion.




On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Douwe spent lots of time with his new cousin Hazel, who was in with her parents from Milwaukee. She is growing so much and it was fun to see her at this age!



The same weekend, we made our annual trek to the DeMotte area to pick out our Christmas tree.

10 years

In a few weeks on December 9, we celebrate ten years of marriage, so this past weekend we made a long weekend in Santa Fe New Mexico to celebrate and enjoy some leisure time with the two of us.

It was a perfect trip. The location was beautiful, we made good choices for dining and we spent the bulk of our free time exploring the scenery on foot and on bicycle. Our Friday hike was pretty impressive. We picked a loop trail near Taos up in the foresty mountains. I wasn't sure how we'd do because of the altitude, and the loop was a 5 mile length that included 2000 feet of incline, and 2000 back down to the trail head. It took several hours, but we kept the pace slow and all the views were worth the effort.

On Saturday, we rented some cruisers to cruise around Santa Fe a bit. We should have found bikes with more gears and better brakes because there were lots of hills and steep fun descents (not so fun with a weak back tire only brake). Exploring the outlying neighborhoods a bit was fun, because there are so many sizes and shapes to these adobe style houses.

I highly recommend a visit to this city and region, and the casita where we stayed, Las Palomas. And the new history museum. And many other spots. It is not a city that I would have ever picked to visit, but now that I have been there, I'm glad Jeff suggested it.

October camping

It is always a bit risky to plan a camping trip in late October, but if the weather is mild, cool weather camping beats a hot summer tent anytime! We traveled south a bit in Indiana to Mississinewa Reservoir SRA which is huge and has a lot of sites to explore and a huge campground. This is only a few minutes from where my sister Emily lives and works, the city of Peru. Emily joined us for camping and my brother Zach and our parents came down on Saturday for the day. Well the weather was PERFECT, mild and cool and falling leaves. We hiked the Lost Sister Trail with, we visited the loud crashing side of the dam which makes the reservoir and we explored along the river. Steve joined us for the weekend so we spent several hours imagining we were solving a mystery or setting spiders loose in bark ship races down the river. He is very talkative and imaginative and loves the outdoors so it is very fun.

It rained north of us in Chicago most of the weekend, but we only got a few drizzles at the most during a dry weekend, which for basic-outfit tenters, makes the difference between a fun campout and a sloppy miserable mess.

Visit to Grand Rapids

In early October the three of us made a short visit to downtown Grand Rapids to see some of the special exhibits for Art Prize. We visited the Ford Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum for the first time, and enjoyed crossing the river on one of the bridges. We also enjoyed the hospitality of our friends Amy and Dan and their children, so it was a fun 26 hour getaway!

Sweet sleeper

Had to catch a shot of this when I checked on him near the end of a very long nap!

Douwe turns three

After I blogged about Steve's birthday, I realized that I forgot to put in an entry for Douwe's 3rd! His birthday is the same as his dad's, which is quite interesting, but maybe means that Jeff does not get as much attention on his birthday now. Douwe's cousins came to celebrate and Grandpa and Grandma Groen picked up Steve, so he could join us!

Steve turns 11

Jeff's parents hosted a backyard birthday party for our beloved Steve. He invited 5 of his siblings, 2 neighbor friends and 2 church friends, so we had a fun crowd in the big back yard at the Groen's! We roasted hot dogs, played badminton, tee-ball, croquet, and ladder golf and every one enjoyed craft time and cake and presents. We are so proud and honored to see Steve on occasion and see him growing up and staying as enthusiastic as ever about the joys of being alive.

Fall Wedding

We had a special weekend in September to celebrate a friend's wedding. It was a fun summer with several parties in honor of Kristin and John's upcoming marriage and the wedding celebration was downtown Chicago. Many college friends attended and it was fun to have an occasion for getting all dressed up.


I took a bit of a risk and decided to make myself a cocktail dress to wear. I don't sew (except for one matching shorts/tank top outfit in eighth grade, but my Mom and friend Kris are experienced, so I figured if I got stuck I could scrap the project or get their help. They did help with the fittings and the hemming. It turned out nice, but took way more time than I expected. I was still hand stitching a few parts the day before and I would be embarrassed to know how many actual hours it took. But it was fun and a sense of accomplishment!



The wedding day was mild and sunny and my parents went also, so we all drove together to the wedding and reception, then Jeff and I stayed overnight in the city. The bride was absolutely stunning, the ceremony and reception were amazing, and a great time was had by all!

Field Trip Fun

Our first attempt to do a walking tour field trip in Chicago--Chinatown--back in May didn't work out b/c the water taxi schedule was messed up. And it took till today to try again! Where did the summer go? We were hoping to meet Jeff once a week in the city after work and do some exploring . .that sure didn't happen.

We have a box of cards that contains 50 walking tours of different areas in the city. We combined two and had a long walk around the Wicker Park neighborhood and a little of Bucktown. So much fun!

We followed the route to see some big old houses, then on our way to Damen Ave we ducked into a corner grocery called Olivia's.

A few other highlights from our stroll up and down Damen: The Red Balloon Co. a children's store where Douwe browsed books with his dad while I browsed the clothing, Mindy's Hot Chocolate, where we shared the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had, and of course the park which is actually Wicker Park, which was full of recreating people and had a great playlot for Douwe to enjoy. There were a lot of interesting spots that would be fun to spend more time in on a real shopping excursion, but it was a fun spot for an afternoon walk.

Labor Day Weekend

When we got to Holland on Sunday evening, Lake Michigan was still unsettled from gale force winds on Friday. It was cool and raining Monday morning, so we were glad to have a back-up plan . . .beach time with the Lantings at Warren Dunes! It was perfect weather for sand digging, volleyball, eating and enjoying the day.

Don and Peggy

I saw my first couple episodes of Mad Men at the end of its second season and I liked the show well enough to go back to the beginning and watch all the episodes up to that point before the third season started. Now the fourth season is well under way and this past Sunday's episode was amazing.

The writing and character creation on Mad Men is so impressive to me, and Peggy and Don are really the primary characters of this show. Last night almost every scene was Peggy and Don so there was so so much going on. This show is incredible.

Oh Peggy, your desire is for your Don, and he is going to lord it over you! You half-heartedly tried to get out of working late, but it was obvious that the first place you'd rather be is next to Don. Oh Peggy, Don is just a child crawling into every woman's arms to taste and smell her and ask "Are you my mother? I haven't found her yet." Oh Peggy, where is your own child? That child is going to become another Don, looking for the mom that was never there.

Peggy, what will you do? Don has been welcomed into the embrace of so many women who are in return searching for their strong confident handsome security of a man. Don may look the part, but he is a lost little child. He can't be the man you are looking for. Peggy, he can't be the comforter that will take the place of the father you lost as a girl. He can't even be available for his own daughter right now. You can't help but love him, but be careful! Don't reduce yourself to a role of pouring his next drink and assisting him to the toilet and being a warm pass-out pillow. Don't pretend that being his surrogate mom is better than not having him near you at all. Peggy, this man has your heart and your career wrapped around his finger and his life is on a free fall! What are you going to do?

Oh woman, oh mama, oh Peggy! You have a child and won't be a mommy to it, you have a boss who wants his mommy, you want a lover who is a good match for you and you want a successful vocation. Oh Peggy, who will help you navigate the challenges of being a woman! There is no way to escape your vulnerability. Who will you love and who will love you?

Kitchen Garden

This summer Jeff put various plants in all of the raised garden beds we now have in the back part of our yard. Not everything was productive, but overall it is amazing how much food comes out of a few 3x6 foot beds. We have 4 3x6 beds of various heights and 1 3x12 going across in the way back. Jeff did all the planning, seed starting and sowing, and I have been doing most of the harvesting and cooking. We only watered the area about 6 times all summer, and the plants did better than I thought without a daily drink like I give my potted flowers.

In May we enjoyed a few strawberries, and a daily plate of salad greens. We also had spinach in May which made a few salads and 2 meals of spinach calzones.

In June and July we enjoyed several side dishes of green beans, many cucumbers to make several batches of marinated cucumbers and Thai style cucumber salad, and beets to make several batches of Odessa Beets. We have picked many tomatillos and made some great salsas with those.

In August we have been trying to keep up with all of the peppers and tomatoes! We also have had several eggplants. We have had three eggplant meals: two of Eggplant Enchiladas with a red sauce made from the tomatoes and one Eggplant Curry. We have made basil pesto, and this with some sliced tomatoes and a bit of mayo makes my favorite summer treat: Tomato Sandwich. This has been our go to lunch meal many times this month. The pepper plants are also out of control, but Jeff made an 11 pepper lasagna this weekend, and we have had several batches of salsa which is a good use for tomatoes and peppers. Yesterday I collected our weak batch of leeks and made a 1/3 size batch of leek/potato soup because the recipe called for 11 cups of leeks and I only had about 3 1/2 cups. Our brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli plants are huge and leafy but no food produced on any of those plants. We have green onions galore and so I have to think of some way to use them. We also have many shallots but those have dried out well.

Overall we have had a good harvest for the first full use of these gardens, and it is kind of refreshing to know that it is not a huge loss of money or time if a few plants don't turn out like we expected. Our tomato harvest was way smaller than we expected for how many plants there were but we still had so many tomatoes that many of them spoiled on the plants before we could pick them. Is it a saving to the grocery bill? Probably not, but we are eating more fresh and seasonal food these weeks and less meat than usual because having a pile of peppers and tomatoes on your window sills is a lot of pressure to fill up on those while they are right there waiting to be eaten. Now I think I will have a tomato sandwich.



I am really happy with the raised bed/square foot gardening concept. It seems very accessible and easy to maintain and the soil mix that you add to raise up the soil level can be better than the ground soil that some of us have. The whole garden area is only in about a 12 x 16 foot spot by our garage, so it only takes up a tiny part of our modest city yard. Thanks to Moosewood Cookbook for all the vegetable recipes this summer, Rick Bayless for all his salsa recipes, and Dad Groen who worked so hard to build the beds last summer! A kitchen garden is so much fun! Maybe I'll add a few pictures soon.

A new spot

We do a lot of field trips, so I am familiar with many of the natural settings in our area, but this week Friday we visited an NW Indiana beach that is only accessible by boat. Our neighbors the Sandricks took Douwe and me out on their boat for the day and we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of hot weather and calm lakewater at Boater's Beach a few miles west of Indiana Dunes State Park. Douwe and the boys enjoyed jumping off the boat, swimming back and forth from boat to shore, flowing down the industrial outlet "lazy river" and playing with the beach toys. One of the most enjoyable days of the summer!