Once upon a time I used to make fun of the Sunday circulars for craft stores that screamed “75 Crafting Days until Christmas!” (And once upon a time I used to get and look at Sunday circulars. Now you know how old I am.) But now I actually like making things for Christmas — not […]
Now what?
September 10, 2012 by
Both of my boys are now school kids. The first day of school was marked with the requisite excitement, photos, and hugs (Owen’s from very “far away from school, Mom, sheesh”) and Noah’s at the door of his room (His teacher: “Mom stops right here!”). My kindergartener is thrilled to be a school kid like […]
P is for Party: A back-to-school party for the kindergarten set
September 1, 2012 by
My youngest is about to start kindergarten. My oldest is in his last year of elementary school. A lot has changed since I brought Owen to his first day of pre-kindergarten in 2005. This time, I’m no longer the new kid in school. Everyone knows what being the new kid in a new school or […]
How to make homemade cleaning supplies
August 13, 2012 by
If you spend any time at all on Pinterest, it won’t be long before you are seized with the desire to paint constellations on your fingernails or spray paint half your furniture high-gloss lime green or, in the case of my springtime Pinterest obsession, make homemade cleaning supplies. But it wasn’t just Pinterest that led […]
Flour made fun: Mill City Museum
August 3, 2012 by
Minneapolis is Mill City, dontcha know? For fifty years, Minneapolis was the largest producer of flour in the world, and the Washburn A mill along the Mississippi river was the world’s biggest mill. It closed in 1965 and nearly burned down in 1991. The Minnesota Historical Society’s Mill City Museum is built into its ruins. […]
Little farm in the city
August 1, 2012 by
How many times did you read the Little House on the Prairie series? Ten, twenty? I don’t remember my total times through the nine books, but so many scenes are perfectly vivid in my head: Ma making cheese, Jack turning around three times in his bed and then dying, finding baby pickles and saltines in […]
Get this: Gardens need water
July 14, 2012 by
Nothing really need be said about this. If you go away for 10 days and it’s a 100 degrees the whole time and you make no provision for the care of your vertical garden, this is what happens. Turns out that rain or pests aren’t really the problem. Seems I’m the biggest garden threat of […]
My first library card
July 13, 2012 by
You are forgiven if you think the title refers to my four-year-old son’s first library card, which he indeed got Tuesday at the Merriam Park Branch Library in Saint Paul, and of which he is extremely proud (see self-satisfied smile, above). He signed his card himself (so cute it hurts a little) and showed it […]