A Little of This, A Little of That

I went to see a Josh Groban concert this week. This man is a musical genius. Does the fact that I love his voice make me a Grobanite? I cannot say enough good things about this concert and his music. Let’s be clear though---he’s pretty dorky. . . but in a good way. He was charming and charismatic and made you feel as if you were in a much more intimate venue than a stadium.

Which, by the way, the Bradley Center in Milwaukee is a great place to see a concert!! We live about an hour from either Milwaukee or Chicago and for some reason seem to attend most events in Chicago, so this is the first time I have ever seen a show at the Bradley Center. I will absolutely make it a point to head north from now on—it was a breeze to get there, we found close parking and the stadium was smaller than what we're used to in Chi-Town.

My friend Gina and I got a good chuckle out of this couple in front of us who were wearing. . . .wait for it. . . .earplugs!!!! Earplugs at a Josh Groban concert?!? Wha?!

I mean, it’s not like we were at a heavy metal show, for crying out loud. Is there a reason for this that maybe we don’t know about? Anyone? There wasn’t a head nod or a foot tap to be found and they sat in their seats while everyone else screamed and clapped for an encore performance. Looking at them brought back a memory of being unhappily married and I almost wanted to tap her on the shoulder and say, “Sweetie, Get. Out. Now. You two are clearly not having fun, either at this concert or with each other.”

I didn’t get many pictures; I don’t really like to be one of “those people” who is constantly messing with their phone or camera while not really enjoying the music because they are too busy fussing around to do so. You know what he looks like and you probably know his music. If not, please do yourself a favor and listen to Weeping, Awake, You Raise Me Up, and You Are Loved.

It felt good to get out of the house and do something. I have felt that ache in my bones lately. Turns out that commercial on television is right---Depression really does hurt. I know this sadness that I feel is situational and I know it will get better, so I keep trying to just put one foot forward and smile. And buy stuff online. Looks like Country and I will be attending Cirque du Soleil next week. (Hey, the tickets were 50% off as the show is almost over. Can you blame me?) I haven’t felt like doing much this summer, between feeling crummy from the injections, feeling crummy from the pregnancy and feeling crummy that I had a miscarriage, so it is a nice feeling to have something to look forward to.

One foot forward.

I Love it When We're Cruisin' Together

On Sunday, my brother Neil, Gina and their boys stopped by the house in Neil's newly restored Chevelle.  It's been a slow process to restore this car. . . .what's that saying?  When you have the time, you don't have the money and when you have the money, you don't have the time?  Not to mention, Neil and Gina have their hands full these days with the boys.

As I was out in the driveway taking pictures and talking with them, Gina said, "I bet this isn't quite what Neil had in mind when he set out to restore this car; driving around with the wife and kids."

Well, Gina, maybe that's not quite what he had in mind, back when he was younger and single.

  But I think it's even better.

Summer, So Far

It’s been rainy, cold and very non-summer like here in Northern Illinois. For someone who lives for the summer sunshine, I feel incredibly neglected of my Vitamin D.

I learned a very unfortunate lesson this year with my garden. I had a huge truckload of manure/compost delivered and I spread it everywhere, including on top of my garden soil. I had read a book about weed-less gardening and it suggested that you not rototill your garden as it “churns” up the weeds and allows them to get all of the sun/air/water that they need to grow. Instead, you’re supposed to mulch like crazy and let it be and you will have very few weeds. In my haste to spread the manure/compost, I somehow got a little confused. As in, this stuff is not mulch. It is rich. Very, very rich. And unfortunately for me, my little tomato plants that were started from seed didn’t stand a chance. After about a month of hoping and fussing that they’d take off, I had to accept the fact that they were not going to grow. And then, I had to break down and buy plants for my garden. I rarely buy vegetable plants. Every year, I start most everything from seed indoors or else put the seeds directly into the garden. It’s not that I’m opposed to buying plants; I just really love the satisfaction I feel dropping those seeds into tidy rows and loving them until they produce more food than we can eat. It’s a process for me; one I love dearly. The lady at the nursery where I bought the plants confirmed what I had suspected---too rich. So when I put the new plants in, I tried to scrape away as much of the manure/compost as I could so as not to “burn” them.

Stangely enough, everything else seems to be coming in just fine.  Are tomato plants tender?

Hello little radish.

We love fresh basil in salads and of course, pesto.  I found this pretty purple basil plant at a Farmer's Market in Michigan and had to bring her home.  I'm excited to make basil-infused vinegar for salad dressings.  Yum.

What do you get when you have lots of rain, cool temps and lots of manure?  Mushrooms!  They are everywhere.

The "Cedar Grove" in all it's glory.

And some tid-bits of Mother Nature. 

 My most favorite rummage sale starts today.  I look forward to this sale all year long.  Seriously.  It is run by a Boy Scout troop and held in a church parking lot.  When I see those huge white tents go up, my heart starts to race.  Then, usually on Tuesday the trucks arrive.  Huge, massive trucks full of treasures.  You see, a very affluent neighborhood has a neighborhood garage sale and everything that’s left gets donated to this sale.  Thursday is opening day.  Sometimes I’ve gone after work on the first day, sometimes not.  Usually my plan is this:  there is so much stuff crammed onto the tables that on Thursday, the first day, it can be extremely overwhelming.  I find that the best time for me to go is on Friday after work.  By then, they only have Friday night and Saturday morning left and they are anxious to move things out, so they start selling brown paper bags for $10 and everything you can fit into that bag is yours.  That may sound like a lot, but you can fit a ton of stuff if you know how to cram it all in there.   This sale is a little different for me in that I really go for the clothing.  Usually, at any given rummage sale, I don’t even bother looking at clothes, but at this sale, it is a guarantee that I will come home with 2-3 bags full of Gap, Express, Banana Republic, J. Crew, and various other brands of clothing.  Last year I also found a McCoy planter that when I looked it up online, I found selling on Ebay for about $40.  Score!!  And also, by Friday night, a lot of stuff has been sold but there are almost always still unopened boxes underneath the tables!!  So, I start digging and filling my bag with as much as I can.  I'm in trouble.  This is not very conducive to my purging of "stuff."  Ah, stuff.  I love stuff.  I guess the beauty of buying 98% of my clothing used is that I can pretty much have an entire "new" wardrobe on a pretty regular basis.

Have a great weekend, friends.

Thankful

My heart has been a little tender this week, thinking about all of the people who lost their homes from the tornados and storms. Here I was, feeling pretty darn good about myself for being featured on one of my favorite sites, Better After, and there are so many people out there that have lost everything. Their pictures. Maybe a wedding dress, grandma’s ring. A lifetime of treasures. Perhaps a pet. Hopefully not a family member or friend.

With that being said, I chose not to post anything house related this week.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, friends. Squeeze everyone a little tighter this weekend.

Farming and Fertility

The truth is, I don't know at what age I felt that I should live on a farm. I can't quite totally wrap my head around the idea or butchering a pig or performing some of the other farm necessities, but I can picture the land, feel the dirt in my nails and smell the scent of sweat, love, and of course, tomatoes. Why is that?
Apparently, I'm not the only one with the same romantic idea of farm life. I just picked up this book from the library last night and I can't.put.it.down. It's called "The Dirty Life," by Kristin Kimball. Stay tuned for a book review when I'm finished.

In other news, March 8th will be my first appointment with a doctor at a fertility clinic. After a year of heartbreak and disappointment, I finally know that there is a viable medical reason that I haven't gotten preggers yet. Thank God, because if one more person told me to relax or suggested that maybe I wasn't meant to have children, as my co-worker did, I might have poked my eyes out. But yes, after three rounds of blood tests this month, I have found out I have Premature Ovarian Failure (POF). Apparently it's pretty rare and there really isn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason as to why this happens. I have read that certain auto-immune diseases can be a contributing factor, but when I asked about Ankylosing Spondylitis, my doctor told me no (although there is very little research with AS and pregnancy/fertility).

In a nutshell, what this means for Country and I is that we will (hopefully) be having a baby by in vitro (IVF). Yup. It seems my lady parts don't want to give me a baby naturally, so we're about to embark on a strange, fascinating, shot-in-the-ass-daily, kind of world. I'm reading a lot about IVF online and trying to learn the lingo. I think Country is a little bewildered but on board. We're praying that we will be able to use my eggs and not a donors (we don't know for sure yet if I have any good eggs). Wild, huh?

Although I was obviously very upset to learn that I can't have children naturally, I can't say I'm especially surprised. Let me tell you a secret---for as long as I can remember, I have felt that I would adopt a child or children. So while I pretty-pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top want to have biological children, I also can say that I wouldn't be especially surprised if IVF isn't an option or doesn't work. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally optimistic about the whole thing.....it's just that I don't think it'll come as a big shock if it's not in the cards for me.

With that being said, send me your fertility vibes and wish me luck next Monday!

Brrrr

What do you do when the temps are in single digits and the highlight of your day is being able to wear sunglasses for a few minutes because the sun is actually out (and bright)?  You start dreaming of your gardens, of course!

I don't think a whole lot has changed. . . .my hair is longer, my body larger, but I still wear stupid shoes and more often than not have skinned knees from playing around in the dirt.  I am longing to be outside, planting, digging, nurturing, sweating. 

The older I get, the harder it is to live in a state where the seasons are so dramatically different.  Don't get me wrong; I do like the season change.  I even get excited about winter's apperance every few years.  After all, it is fun to bring out the pretty scarves and mittens and my leather peacoat that is so worn in that it feels like butter.  But after Christmas, I'm over the cold and snow.  Bring it on, Spring!

In other news, I took the plunge and painted over the red paint in the dining room.  No pictures yet as I am waiting for the other pair of curtains to come in.  (I purchased the last two panels from a store that was closing but when I went to order the other two panels that I needed online, they were out of stock.  Bummer.)  My mom was cracking up about this dramatic change in the dining room.  She said, "What?  Your house was on a decorating website and now you're changing everything?"  That's just how I roll, I guess.  So, pictures to come soon and the story behind the paint choice.  Stay tuned!

And lastly, Country and I have a new obsession.  Ping Pong.  Yes, you read that right.  We've been playing every chance we get.  When the temperature is -1, you must make the effort to find things to keep yourself occupied and so ping pong it is.

Have a great week friends.