5 days and counting

d hasn't let go yet! i kid you not, if the babe is awake, she's reaching for those toes. i think she might even be waking up in the night to make sure that they are still there.

bff

ellie was walking by my "office" (a little table in the hall) this morning and saw some stamps. she brought them to me and asked me if she could use them to play stickers. the teacher in me decided to seize this teachable moment and explain the united states postal system to her. after we talked about the mailing process she decided she wanted to write her friend payton a note. we found a note card, drew a picture and then my little love bug wrote "love ellie" at the bottom of her card. she sealed her envelope and placed the stamp properly in the upper right-hand corner (almost). it was an exciting moment in the life of my little 3 year old. it was also a little bit sad- payton is her best friend and e misses her terribly. the girls met when they were 4 months old and have been bff ever since. we used to see each other weekly, but the burbs and preschool have made it much more difficult.

above is a snap taken of payton and e last summer having a tea party. they have seen each other more recently, but e and i love the memory of this day and speak of it often. i also made e pose as she prepared her little note.

this little piggy went to market

our little d is growing so fast. this week she discovered her toes. once she found 'em, i think she was scared to loose 'em. she has hardly let go! she even got a little miffed with me today because i needed her to let go for just the briefest moment in order to get her leg into her pants. she's been showing her toes off around town, too. i had a dr's appointment today and when the doctor paused to say "hello" to her, she reached down and grabbed hold of the one that had roast beef. later in the day we were in a store and the salesman stooped down to check her out. wouldn't you know it, she showed him both of the ones that went to market.

requiem

on saturday evening, my mom and i went to see a performance of requiem by hector belioz at wheaton college. the guest conductor, john nelson, graduated from wheaton with my mom in 1963. while the symphony isn't my favorite performance to see, this one was quite spectacular. watching mr. nelson conduct helped me develop a new found appreciation for this art form. he conducts with his whole being. his entire body goes into the piece. as i watched him, i kept thinking that if one were deaf, he would be the conductor to watch. his physical interaction with the piece allowed you to "hear" the music just by watching his body.

the piece that was performed is a mass for the dead. they collaborated with niu students and dedicated the performance to those that lost their lives earlier this year. it was quite moving.

i found the second movement to be my favorite. the theme of this part was judgment and without judgment, it is hard to come to peace with what happened on that campus. for me, the belief in a just god helps me to rest in the fact that God will not let senseless acts like this go unpunished.

the above picture is of my mom in the side yard by the chapel. she doesn't get to visit her alma mater often, so cherishes the times when she does.

organic foods

when i became pregnant with e, scott and i switched over to eating mostly organic foods. originally, we didn't feel a huge impact on our wallet. since then, organic food has gotten pretty pricey due to the trendiness of it as well as the increase in the price of gas to get it to my local grocery. here is a pretty handy list of the top 12 things to eat organically grown and the bottom 10- where you can save $ by eating conventionally grown and are exposed to minimal risks from pesticides.

buy organic:
1. beef
2. milk/dairy
3. coffee
4. peaches
5. apples
6. bell peppers
7. celery
8. strawberries
9. lettuce
10. grapes
11. potatoes
12. tomatoes

corner cutters (ok to buy conventionally grown to save $):
1. asparagus
2. avocados
3. bananas
4. broccoli
5. cabbag
6. kiwi
7. mango
8. onions
9. papaya
10. pineapple

a blast from the past

today our adventure was to travel a little ways south of us and check out the historic district of orland park. there is a block of many antique stores to peruse. believe it or not, ellie really likes antique stores. she has specific things that she hunts for and then plays with them using great care to be gentle.

growing up my grandparents owned an antique shop. it was their hobby to carry them through the retirement phase of life. they traveled to several shows across the country and then ran a shop that was attached to their garage. as a little girl this was part of my play space when visiting them. i can remember going out to the shop and playing store with my sisters and cousins. i gravitated towards the jewelry case trying on fancy rings and pocket watches. i can't explain what it was, but holding a pocket watch was magical to me. something about the silkiness of the metal and the weight of the piece while you help time in the palm of your hand. i can't explain it, but it was special to me.

taking my girls into a replica of my childhood play space feels like a right of passage to me and i adore watching ellie enjoy this as much as i did. i hope that it continues for years to come. it was also fun to watch my mom in her hunt. she loves antique stores, too. every time she visits she is on a hunt for something specific. last year it was a bedside wooden turned candle, this year it was a transfer plate. she found what she was looking for, so our trip was a success.

jane addams

sandy has been dying to go to the jane addams hull house museum for quite some time. on her last two visits to chicago, the museum was closed for summer and for renovations. i expected to find another reason for it to be closed this year, but was excited to discover that it was wide open.

maybe the past two years of it being closed increased to our expectations of this museum (you really want what you can't have), but i must say, the museum failed to deliver. it is a fancy house smack dab in the center of the uic campus. and while it had lots of artifacts, it was lacking in substantial information. i walked through the rooms and read the descriptions of each item- searching for clues about jane or hull house, but was met with a lot of unclear information.

it was disappointing, because from what i saw, i think jane might have been pretty amazing. and i also think that hull house had a very kipp (knowledge is power program, the school that i worked for before having e) mentality that i most likely would have connected with. but the museum did very little to connect the dots and create a clear understanding of how hull house operated and the role that jane played in the project.

what was clear though, was that jane's mentality was met with a considerable amount of resistance in her day. she stood up for her beliefs (anti-war, member of the NAACP, member of the ACLU, fought for the women's right to vote in illinois, pro education of minorities, pro equal pay and fair work conditions etc.). these are the things that people initially feared her for and then later recognized as valuable (awarding her a noble peace prize). her spirit inspired my rebellious side- the side of me that gets all stirred up when i think of how poor children are neglected, or how the elderly are medically neglected etc.

i'd like to say that i'm going to get to the bottom of this woman and really read up on who she was. truth be told, i don't have much time for reading these days. the last book i read took me about three months from start to finish, and it wasn't even a challenging read. these days, reading us weekly feels like an accomplishment. if you know anything about jane addams, please share:)

i'd also like to report that we ate lunch in the uic student center. it was an out of body experience. i was surrounded by all these kids chatting about the great party they went to over the weekend or commiserating about a professors upcoming exam etc. i started to get excited- to get that college campus enthusiasm running through my veins... and then i looked around and realized that i was eating lunch with my mom (not cool), was wiping my three year old's nose (gross) and breastfeeding my infant under a blanket (REALLY uncool). the wind flew right out of my sails. to make matters worse, i ran into one of my cool friends on the way out of the building who really is a young hip uic student. ahh... to be cool again!

grand dukes

yesterday we spent the afternoon watching the masters. it made me miss georgia even more than i already do. here is ellie perfecting her golf skills and getting tips from the pros.

in addition, my mom is visiting from virginia. she makes the trip about once a year and when she comes she makes me be a tourist in chicago. she is always up for new adventures and allows me to see my city with fresh eyes as I take in new experiences. my mom's mother was an immigrant from lithuania. scott and i recently saw an episode on check please! (a local restaurant review show) featuring lithuanian cuisine. it looked pretty tasty and looked like something sandy (my mom) would LOVE. to kick off the week with my mom, we went there for dinner last night. it was very authentic and incredibly delicious.

my mom tried the roasted beet soup and the pork stuffed cabbage, scott had the authentic lithuanian plate (it featured sauerkraut, zeppelins, fried potato sausage and kugelis ), and i had the wild boar wrapped in bacon. ellie had a grilled cheese:) in addition, my mom had a glass of lithuanian sparkling wine, while scott and i sampled the beer. we were so full that we did not indulge in dessert.

the menu was rich with text concerning lithuanians and their eating habits. here are two of the sayings that i found to be funny:

"why did god create potatoes?" " so poor people would have something to peel the skin off of."

"if you ate some beet soup and some bread with bacon, then you will have the strength to work hard."

where's waldo?

after such a fun day in the city on thusday, e & i needed a little pick me up. this is what we did to put a smile on our faces today. it did the trick. we spent most of the morning giggling together and being silly. d didn't find it to be as much fun- i think she thought we were nuts!

i get by with a little help from my friends...

i spent yesterday visiting with my dear friend holly. e and i met holly almost 4 years ago at our church in the city. we were part of a moms bible study together- one that was truly rare. as a group of women (starting with just 5 of us and growing to 30+) we navigated a friendship with Jesus, mothering, being a good spouse, and the trials of city living together. the only way that i can describe my relationship with holly (and the other women in this group) is to say that they know all about me and still love me. the relationship that our kids have is equally unique. e spent 2 1/2 years of her life playing with this group of beautiful children at least three days a week. they are all super close and have rich relationships with one another. to say that we miss being part of this group of women is an understatement.

e and holly's daughter caroline have always been dear to one another. caroline is a year older than ellie and ellie looks up to her a great deal. caroline loves this- she gets to be like the big sister. e also has a great deal of love for caroline's baby brother. holly was the first pregnancy that e really got up close and personal with and so she really bonded with this new baby that was on the way. shortly after holly gave birth to her son, han, ellie decided to name her american girl "baby han". the name stuck and so to this day we have our own "baby han". someday the fact that bitty baby is a girl and the real baby han is a boy might become a problem, but for now, ellie is sticking with it.

in november, holly moved to atlanta. her departure was a pretty low point for me. i'm not good with "goodbyes" and while i was really happy for her, i was also insanely sad. i was counting on holly to help me navigate breastfeeding, co-sleeping, natural childbirth, cloth diapers and all the other wonderful things that she has embraced. i needed her to be there for me if post-partum depression reared its ugly head again in my life. i needed that friend who i can always be real with, and who forces me to be real when i don't want to be. as life would go, i was put on bed rest the week that holly moved. i never really got to send her off in proper fashion and i have kind of clung to this feeling that i failed her a little bit.

i tell you all of this because it highlights the promises of my friend Jesus. while holly's life went to one location and my life went to another, our relationship is deeply rooted in Christ. yesterday was amazing. we spent 8 solid hours together and although our lives have changed drastically, our relationship is totally the same. we were able to go right back to that place of honesty, the place behind the curtain of "I'm fine." and support each other in our highest points, as well as our lowest. i think that ultimately, when i question God about our new sometimes lonely suburban life, His answer comes through quite audibly. i will always have holly (and these other dear friends from my urban life), and yet maybe, i was relying on them more than i was relying on Him.

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out- plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." God's Decree. (Jeremiah 29.11-14 The Message Translation)

btw: the pictures above were taken yesterday-

1.) e & c happy to see each other

2.) baby han set up with an afternoon snack (ok, so we staged this one a little bit for the benefit of our friend Leslie who is blogging about food:)

3.) ellie, delaney and han

4.) caroline passed out from a long day of playing.

baked potato soup

on wednesday, ellie and i spent the afternoon making baked potato soup. it was a pretty fun day. now that she is getting a little bit older, she can really participate in these kind of tasks. she was able to stick with the project from start to finish. while making the soup, we had some really nice mommy daughter time.


this was ellie's first experience with a vegetable peeler. she did a pretty good job!

here she is stirring the soup, donning her adorable apron (thank you very much grandma).

lastly, here she is scooping out the flesh of the baked potatoes. (for those of you that we gave this soup to, rest assured, we did a lot of hand washing).

lorelei

delaney is racking up a large number of baby friends these days. our dear friends scott and jodi just had their second. e, d and i drove into the city on friday to hang out with jodi, big sister olivia and to meet baby lorelei. it was a very special meeting for me. i kept looking at our four girls knowing that for years to come our lives will mingle together. it's nice to know my girls will have such good friends with parents who share the same values we do. i'm excited to watch them grow together.

on another note, meeting lorelei reminded me of a song i used to listen to in highschool and just recently downloaded. it's a song by the pogues titled lorelei. jodi and i talked about it while i was there and she told me she had just recently learned of another song titled lorelei. this really got me thinking. lorelei isn't a common name and here we had come up with two songs that used the name. did my girls have songs titled with their names? could my name possibly have a song? what about scott?

i went on itunes and did a search. turnes out we all have our own songs. in fact, each of us girls had more than one! i downloaded them and made a cd. it was pretty exciting for me. with a name like tasha, i have spent a lifetime not finding my name on things. i can remember going into fluff-n-stuff (that's right, the sticker store) and searching for my name to be on a sticker. it never happened. when i found a song titled tasha, i was pretty jazzed and felt pretty special. i imagine ellie will feel the same way every time she hears her new song.

above is a photo of d and her new gal pal. aren't they cute as a button?

oijoy photo

my friend janet is an AMAZING photographer. this is a little something that she put together using some of her snaps of delaney. i can't stop looking at it. i love how she captured each little part of my girl. she took pics of ellie when she was a babe also. they are equally fantastic. if you live in chicagoland, i would encourage you to book a session with her. check out her web site!



http://www.oijoyphoto.com/

love your mother

i used to be a science teacher and in the month of april, science teachers are supposed to do something with their students to draw positive attention to earth day and the impact that we have on our planet. it also used to serve as a friendly reminder to yours truly to step back and take stock in how i am impacting the environment.

as a teenager, i was pretty interested and involved in this kind of living. i recycled in my home, i became pretty active in seeking out eco-friendly products and even was a member of greenpeace. as an adult, i am not doing so well. my biggest environmentally sound contribution has been curb-side recycling, and if i'm totally honest, i don't recycle as often as i could. i tend to let convenience have an impact on my recycling habits.

this whole topic has been on my mind for a while and yet i haven't done anything about it. every time i go through the grocery store i become slightly ill with the number of products that are designed with consumer convenience in mind, while having a blatant negative impact on the environment. i keep thinking about my girls and what problems we are creating for their generation to deal with. it makes me sad to think that my convenience is going to be their hassle and their challenge to solve.

i decided that i needed to do something about this and found myself being a little overwhelmed with where to start. i mean, i am only one person, running a household of only four people. how much can our little efforts help? not much, but maybe if i start doing something and then tell you, and then you start doing something... you see where i am going here. and so my challenge to you is this: find one thing that you and your household can do to contribute to a healthier planet. kudos to you if you are already doing things in this area. keep doing them, but consider my challenge, do one more:) and then talk about it. not in a toot your own horn, look how great i am kind of way, but in a way that might inspire the next guy to make positive changes as well.

(if your interested, i bought a canvas bag. my first step at reclaiming the planet is to use as few plastic bags as possible. i read up on them and found them to be a pretty nasty contributor to environmental chaos- they negatively impact wildlife, soil, air and are almost impossible to effectively recycle.)


happy earth day!