Catching Kate

Last week we went to Chicago to visit my sister, Kate, and her family and play tourist for a few days. Having grown up only 4 hours away from the Windy City, it's a little embarrassing that I hadn't gone to see the sights before now. Fortunately, Kate hooked us up and was a fabulous tour guide for us! *Thanks again, Kate!*

I had only two requests for our trip to the city - the bean and the beach - and they did not disappoint. But first we took a walk to a nearby park where we met an ICE CREAM TRUCK!

Yes. This is a big deal. I could not remember ever getting ice cream from an ice cream truck before, and I have now officially checked "Visit an ice cream truck" off my bucket list. Yay!

Day 2 was a trip into the city. We needed to see the bean, which apparently is called Cloud Gate. Who knew, right? Along the way we saw Buckingham Fountain, and the Crown Fountains, I ate a Chicago Dog (and my very unadventurous children had plain, old, nothing-on-them hot dogs), and went to the bean.

Chicago Hot Dog! What else could you possibly put on a hot dog? It was startling at first with so many flavors, but it was good.

Buckingham Fountain was beautiful. We walked up while the fountain was shooting a geyser into the air. Like, a you-can-see-it-from-the-other-side-of the-park geyser. Very impressive. It stopped before we walked around to the other side, but that's ok. We got this fabulous family picture.

However, Buckingham Fountain is definitely the see it and go kind of attraction and so we snapped some pictures and moved on.

Chicago is a very interesting city. I have lived near Los Angeles (where this blog was so pitifully started, thus the name SoCal) and near Salt Lake City, but Chicago is a very different creature. They manage to blend nature and art in with the hustle and bustle of one of the biggest cities in the country so seamlessly. On the walk from one spectacular fountain to the next, there were tons of little fountains and sculptures. The park was full of gorgeous gardens, the streets downtown actually had large leafy trees. It was pretty. I could probably do a whole post with just pictures of the art around town. This one was Chelsea's favorite, though. Most of them were not particularly interesting to her, but Chelsea stopped and asked for a picture of this.

Crown Fountains were super cool. They are two miniature skyscrapers covered in subway tiles with water pouring all over the place and they are set up like a splash pad with benches all around so we stopped and had lunch, took off our shoes, and went a-splashin'. The kids had a blast and it was fun to see the faces that are projected on the two sides facing each other. The faces cycle through a variety of expressions and then spit water at you. Watch out!

Another short walk away was the BEAN! The iconic reflective sculpture of Chicago. The masses were insane, but it was worth it. I saw tons of pictures on the internet of Cloud Gate all showing it with the skyscrapers in the background (here let me add another ^^^), but I didn't see a single picture of the inside. It was amazing. Kate suggested there may be a hole up the middle of the bean and that may explain the crazy reflections on the inside. So many curves and stretching reflections in directions you don't expect. Does anybody know? Why does the inside of the bean look like it does?

A stop for ice cream after getting off the train made for some happy kids and cute pictures. A refreshing end to a fun day.

Day 3 was the beach. We went in the morning to a beach on Lake Michigan. It was an overcast Friday morning and we got the beach entirely to ourselves! The lake was clean and quiet and coooold. Also, very different from an ocean beach. (Who'd-a thought?!) The sand was hard and rocky, except a strip about 6 feet wide all the way down the beach. I'm actually not a huge fan of the ocean - too many times almost drowning and could that smell be any worse? - so the tiny waves breaking, the light color, and the fact that I could actually see the bottom 15 feet away from the shore all made that lake pretty much perfect. I'd go swimming in there in the summer.

All in all, we had a wonderful time visiting family and touring Chicago. There is still so much to see and do so we'll have to go again sometime!

County Cultural Festival

We got to go to the Portage County Cultural Festival this last Saturday and we had tons of fun! There were booths from many, many different countries and cultures showing food and traditions, there were performances with dancing and music, and there were kids crafts. All sorts of interesting things for the whole family.

At the entrance to the festival the kids were each given a "passport" to have stamped at each booth we visited, so of course we started out doing that. People wearing traditional clothing answered questions and sold food and toys. Each booth had some sort of stamp that said their country's name or had a traditional symbol and for about 30 minutes the kids were super excited about gathering stamps and looking at the beautiful displays. But we got down to the end of one row and found the stage, where a band was playing traditional Irish music and Chelsea just had to stop. We sat and listened until a cute little girl in the front started dancing. Chelsea got up and danced for just a minute (until her nerves got the better of her). Unfortunately, I only got one very fuzzy picture of Chelsea dancing. You'll have to take my word for it. She was adorable. Jumping straight up and down, holding her arms straight down at her sides like a Riverdancer - thank you YouTube videos for teaching her that - smiling so big her face might split.

We then found some delicious Chinese food - I know, not very adventurous for being at a cultural festival. But the kids ate it well - and stopped at the Norwegian booth for some lefsa and a rosette. They had some amazing looking sweets and we tried a few, but the rosette was definitely the winner. Light, delicate, beautiful, and delicious.

After lunch, we wandered over to the kid crafts area where Chelsea and Zach made Olympic torches,

 leaf crowns, an Indian game called Ludo,

and a mariachi hat game.

By the end of all that, the kids were done and we went home to have a quiet/nap time and enjoy the afternoon at home.

Digging in the Dirt

One of my favorite parts of homeschooling with my kids is nature study. I think I may get just as much, if not more, out of it than they do. Most of the time we sit outside and choose something to draw. Get up close and personal and draw it in a sketch book. Here are a couple of my favorite sketches from my book. 

Sometimes we go for walks, paying attention to what we see and hear and smell. Sometimes we just sit and birdwatch. This morning we identified a new species in the yard! That was super exciting. A very common, but new to us, brown thrasher. Sadly, he was too fast for me to get a picture. But he sat in the top of the tree (completely hidden) and sang for us for about 5 minutes.

And then there are the days - my favorite days - we get to play in the garden.
We are not very experienced gardeners, but we sure love playing in the dirt and have been working on cleaning up my parents' gardens - a rather large vegetable garden and a nice flower bed. Today we finished cleaning the weeds out of the flower bed and planted some new flowers! Pink dahlias, yellowy-orange pansies, and this pretty little purple flower that Chelsea picked out and I forget what it is called.

We met quite a few critters and worms as we went along. Both Chelsea and Zach have a particular fondness for worms, but the big winner this morning was definitely the toad. A cute, bumpy, little, brown toad.

He jumped out from under an overgrown leftover from last year and just sat in the middle of the garden while I recovered from the surprise of finding him (and being grateful I didn't skewer him while I was splitting that plant he was hiding under). Of course, I called the kids over and they were completely enthralled. We scooped him up and took turns holding him for a few minutes and then put him back under his plant. Come visit again, Mr. Toad! (I'll do my best to not let my inquisitive children scare/squish you to death with loves.)

Thoughts from a Sunday Afternoon

Doesn't that just look lovely? It conjures pictures of crisp morning air, not a care in the world. Just sitting on the back porch with a hot cup of raspberry and lemon tea listening to the birds chirping with no place to go and nothing better to do than soak up the early morning sunshine.

Yeah. Right. I am frequently reminded of the saying, "Whoever said 'easy like a Sunday morning' obviously did not have to get kids ready for church!" Let's face it. Getting 3 kids (or even just 1) ready and out the door for church at 9:30 in the morning is no picnic. It is a process that starts Saturday afternoon with making sure the good clothes are clean and just gets more and more hectic as you go until Sunday morning you realize that, as a friend said to me once, "It's either me or them. We don't get to both look good." Sometimes I really wonder if taking them to church is worth it.

But yesterday as I sat in church, trying to keep the kids quiet and happy and telling myself that they were listening even if they don't look like it, I realized that I love going to church. I love listening to the lessons and learning from other people's points of view. I love that the scriptures have different meaning to different people based on their life situations and needs. And on the weeks that I don't get to go to class because my baby is overtired, cranky, and just needs to not be in that little room being quiet I can take to the halls where I will find other mamas with their little kids trying just as hard as I am to get something out of the 3 hours at church. And it's ok. It's ok that life is messy. It's ok that things don't always (ever) go as planned. Because the one thing that is consistent is the Savior and His love for us.

The lessons over the last few weeks (what I have been able to pick up from them) have really hammered on the message that we have a loving Heavenly Father and it doesn't matter where we are on our path as long as we are headed in the right direction. We have a Father that we can trust to be there for us no matter how far we are from Him. He is just waiting for us to turn to Him. Through all the chaos and uncertainty, my faith has been my grounding. I know my Father is helping me. I can see His hand in so many ways in my life. Little things and big. The coolant lines in my car burst as I was driving across the country and nothing else broke even though I put another 1000 miles on the car before realizing what happened and getting it fixed. I have a terrible time making good friends, but so many good people are literally asking to be my friend. My children have been thrown into a very difficult situation with huge adjustments and are not absolutely nuts. I have peace in my heart and help everywhere I turn which gives me hope. Hope that everything will be alright.

So yes. Church is hard. Momming is hard. And there are times when I feel overwhelmed and my efforts seem futile. But I know that God's got my back.