A quick foodie excursion

This trip seemed even more meal focused simply because we're not eating in restaurants as often these days. It's just not worth the hassle of sorting through gluten free menus, though we certainly do it when necessary.

Staying in Columbia with Kelly and Greg is like hitting the culinary jackpot. They are foodies. And I am grateful for it because we get to have delicious food when we are with them. Case in point, I've suspended my no-coffee rules during spring break. And wouldn't you know, Greg has a fancy pants coffee machine that makes cappuccinos and cafe au laits and all sorts of good strong caffeine drinks. I made myself one both mornings. Okay, I made two both mornings. It's vacation.

My kids got their first experience with TV at breakfast.
I may or may not be making myself a delicious coffee beverage.

And, we were treated to a roast with some sort of yummy raisin sauce and potato parsnip puree for dinner. I hear Evelyn doesn't always eat her dinner. Um, Butterfly/Evelyn, you can send it to me.

They told me about a new market that just opened up in Columbia. Lucky's Supermarket is a large grocery store that sells organic and natural items. Fresh produce, a deli, lots of gluten-free items, huge tea selection and a large supplement/vitamin area.

It's very well-designed. Bright, open, and intriguing. The kind of place I'm a sucker for.

Anna always asks me why I like food shopping so much. I don't know. I get as much enjoyment out of finding some little new organic small batch artisanal whatever as some folks get out of shoe shopping.  It's just the newness of it. The idea that someone took the time to dream up this little lovely food. And I get to help try it out. And support them and their craft. And perhaps stumble across the newest and best thing ever.

We decided to grab sandwiches at the deli (gluten-free bread!!) and eat them in the coffee bar/cafe area. The sandwiches were good and we added a package of dried apple rings to round it out.

If you're in the area, I recommend stopping by there. It's a great place to release your inner foodie.

On the road again

It's not even 9:00 p.m. And we've been in bed for nearly an hour.

It's day seven of our nine day road trip and we've officially succumbed to the exhaustion that results from being away from your own routine. The newness and excitement carried us through the week and now we just need our structure back.

This spring break has been so good in so many ways. And the kids have been fabulous (minus a few episodes of acting out, of course). But if you think about being seven and four years old and sleeping in three different cities and, therefore, three different beds, in the course of one week and eating new foods in new kitchens and meeting lots of new faces, they have actually proved remarkably resilient.

We departed St. Louis for Columbia on Monday morning to stay with dear friends. This was a double fun situation because I got to spend time with one of my closest friends, Kelly. We've known each other since we were (wait for it)... three years old. Let it be known that if I take a liking to you, we might just be friends forever.

Kelly hosted us for two nights and the kids loved playing with her littles ones, Evelyn and Miles. Or as Abe says, Evelyn and Mialyn. They ransacked Evelyn's library of Little Miss and Mr. books. I think Anna tried to read all of them. There are approximately 75 million.

I love hearing the girls play. Anna was very intent on having a Magic School, where all the dolls (and humans) had their own magical powers. She gave herself the name Flame because her power is that her hair can turn into fire. As I write this I realize that might not always be an asset. Sweet Evelyn had magical butterfly powers. She readily agreed to all of Anna's crazy schemes. Flame and Butterfly.

This stopover allowed us to see my father and brother. The kids get regular visits from my dad, but seeing Uncle Andy is a bit harder. They were glad to spend time with them. And Uncle Andy indulged Abe by reading him a stack of books. What a good sport.

There's always a food element to every trip I take. More on that soon!

St. Louis Gluten-Free

Our foray into gluten-free living is still very new. We are neither allergy experts nor are we seasoned gfree folks. We're just building habits day by day and trying to do the best we can. So when we started our recent spring break road trip, I wondered whether we could keep up with this effort without obsessing and stressing.

We don't have an allergy issue that forces us to into this. We have just seen enough benefits to know that this feels right and we want to keep exploring it. My challenge was to bring enough snacks to help distract us from readily available gluten options, and to find eating spots where we could at least attempt the gluten-free thing even if it didn't pan out.

You can imagine my excitement to discover New Day restaurant in Ellisville, a suburb of St. Louis. The restaurant is entirely gluten-free and they take it seriously. A sign posted on the door states that no one is to bring in outside food. Anyone with celiac disease will tell you that cross-contamination is a huge scary issue in places where there is no dedicated allergy work space. I love that folks can feel safe and relax when they enter the door here. It must be such a relief.

We opted for cheese pizza for the kids and grilled cheese and tomato soup for me (this is my comfort meal). My previous experience with gluten-free pizza has been pretty disappointing. It's not terrible... it's just not that great. And you want pizza to be great.

This pizza was fantastic. Thin crust, nice thick cheese. Very tasty. And by the sounds of the carry out orders coming in over the phone, everyone else loves it too.

My grilled cheese was pretty good. Gluten-free bread always tastes a little different, but I have to say if I really had a craving for grilled cheese again, I'd order this one. It's not an exact replica, but it's a fair substitute.

And perhaps the best part was the baked goods area where customers can pick up cookies, muffins, breads and all sorts of goodies. I grabbed some gooey butter cake cookies (yum) and muffins and banana bread. That's the nice excuse of a road trip, this shopping can be classified under both the "food" section of the trip and the "souvenir" section. I had wanted to bring something to share with our friends when we arrived and this fit the bill.

Perhaps one of the most heartwarming parts of this visit was reading all the reviews on the place. It is such a gift for some folks to have a gluten-free restaurant. They tell stories of having been recently diagnosed and feeling completely underwater. A restaurant like this helps them find good food when they feel like they've been asked to put it away on the shelf.

If you have any friends or relatives looking for a place like this, I would suggest New Day in a heart beat. It's not fancy, but it's safe and friendly and good. What more can we ask for?

A warm wind

Our St. Louis leg has been filled with family and food and finally some warmer weather. The Chicago winter has left us/me with a permanent chill. We knew the temps were slated to be nearly 70 degrees today, but my fragile mental state knew better than to hope for warmth before it appeared.

Thank you, weather, for delivering. We needed your sunshine.

The kids ran wild and I took my turn sitting in the grass and letting the sunlight fall on my face. It was good for the soul.

Why not meditate? 

The kids threw themselves into the sun, running, screaming, and digging for fossils. Anna reminded me that most fossils have been found in Asia. So they were pretending to dig in Asia.

Of course.

Grandma had graciously invited family over to celebrate Anna's birthday last week. The arrival of the cousins is always huge. My kids adore Evelyn, Jack, Aidan, and Grace. This might have been more exciting than the cake.

And what a cake it was...

We broke our gluten-free habits for the sake of birthday pizza and a FROZEN cake. The kids went right back to running around and playing in the yard, with occasional assistance from Great Uncle Karl.

Some trips are about seeing sites or trying new restaurants. Some are cultural adventures. But this road trip will be about connection. Seeing our family, visiting old friends, and weaving our way through the state I called home and, in many ways, still think of as home. 

Road Trip Time

Today we start a spring break road trip across the great state of Missouri, making stops in St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City. The rundown? Nine days. One mom and two kids (with dad along for very brief periods on the weekend).

We stay with family and friends throughout the journey, which will be wonderful, and several portions of our trips will allow us to meet up with other kids, which will be wonderful for my little ones.

It will be one long haul from Chicago across Missouri and back again, but I think we're ready!

First stop...

A bitter cold

Folks, we've lived in the Chicago area for nearly ten years. That's ten more than we expected when Mike started law school and we assumed we'd be staying closer to home. Who would have guessed that this Chicago experiment would develop into a city life in a condo, then parenthood in both the city and then the suburbs, and now a home purchase with green grass and carpools.

Our life has taken a decidedly northern twist due to professional decisions, and we truly love it here. It's been an incredible journey.

However...

Today, as I write this post, it is expected to be a HIGH of -13 degrees tomorrow. That's an achingly bitter forecast. And I say that after living through nine Chicago winters. This kind of punishing cold is rough going even for veterans.

Brave husband rakes the snow off our roof (the weight can cause damage)

Life simply has a different rhythm when you live in a cold climate. We have hot summers in Chicago so it's like a giant pendulum, swinging from -13 to 101 degrees in the course of a year. The weather smacks us around a little and, believe it or not, I've actually started appreciating the coolness (or rather started to wimp out during the oppressive heat).

Around late October, we begin to think about locating winter items... our snow shovels are pulled from the shed, snow pants are held up to check sizes and zippers, warm woolen socks get new life, and long underwear takes center stage. I do a massive shift in our shoe bin in the closet. No more crocs, just boots and the like. The space heater for our bedroom gets dusted off and removed from the crawl space. The back patio furniture gets covered. To quote my newest fiction obsession, "Winter is coming."

No errands today, just board game central

We've had massive snowstorms and rough winters and then surprisingly mild ones the past couple of years. This year is spitting out incredibly harsh temperatures. It fools us into thinking that sunshine and snow have created a playground, only to have our cheeks burn and skin cracks with the bitter cold.

Quilts aren't just for decor, they become a necessity. And our old, uninsulated kitchen, receives an increase in oven usage, if for no other reason than to warm things up. We drink more tea, coffee and hot chocolate and find excuses for warm breakfast treats.

Certain children photo bomb my picture of great grandma's quilt

The winters may be long and harsh, but part of me enjoys the sheer coziness of it all. Winters are good for snuggles in soft pajamas and fires and new Ugg slippers. They are beautiful opportunities for seeing brilliant red cardinals against the white snow and remembering that earlier generations didn't have nearly the comforts we have. Can you imagine living in this winter without ready supplies of hot water? Or heat that literally changes a few degrees with a mere twist of a dial?

So wherever you are, stay warm. Enjoy your cocoons and your warm drinks and snuggles. Our schools have been cancelled for Monday already. Winter may have set in, but so have the cuddles and board games and warm blankets. I'm going to try to relish the newness of this season now before stir craziness and exasperation set in by April... by then I'll be singing a different a tune.

Scenes from Christmas

And then I cried...

This came home in Anna's backpack.

Love is when my mom hugs
me when I am sad

Christmas cookies

With Christmas carols playing in the background, Abe and I embarked on our annual Christmas cookie endeavor this weekend. That kid is so wonderfully eager to cook and bake. Anything tactile, really.

Watching a little boy operate is so fascinating.

I have to watch him closely because he's so eager to mix and dump and stir that he will just start grabbing and throwing things in a bowl. Forget the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Oh no, if it's on the counter, he's gonna throw it in a bowl.

But, seriously, how cute is this?

This year I made a molasses gingerbread-type cookie. I doubled the recipe (mistake!) and it was really too much dough even for my stand mixer.  Allrecipes.com is my go to web site for baking, however, I think the cookies in their photo were giant because the recipe made 12. I doubled it, and that should have made 24 cookies.

We got a bit more than that...

I ended up just throwing out the last of the dough because it was getting out of control. Too much mess. Too many cookies. Too long in the kitchen.

Besides, Abe was desperate to start icing them.

The above cookie started life as a gingerbread boy. And, he met his sweet, sweet death by being buried alive in in icing and sprinkles.  I guess it's not the worst way to go out...

My primary goal for making cookies is to keep up our tradition of delivering cookies to our two next door neighbors. Our neighbors are a huge part of our life and one in particular (retired Dr. Miller) is one of Abe's special friends. He and Dr. Miller hang out in the backyard. Abe will talk his ear off, help him with little chores, and give him giant hugs. It's one of the biggest blessings we've received in living here.

And our neighbors on the other side are also dear friends. All of these neighbors are elderly and I cannot bear to think of a time without them. Rather than mailing our Christmas cards to them, we deliver a little package of goodies.

I've still got personal plans to make my favorite lemon cookies. Lately, I'm all about lemon things. We shall see if time allows.

Gingerbread Time

Today we attended an incredible Christmas event to benefit a local organization that helps women and children affected by domestic violence. My neighbor has been working with Family Shelter Services for years and this new fundraiser was so much fun that I'd love to add it to our annual tradition list.

A local banquet center hosted the event and the place was gorgeous. Christmas trees and beautiful trim, little jars of candy by each place setting, and Father Winter strolling around, handing out little stickers. Everything was adorable.

Brunch was served to everyone, your typical breakfast fare, which is good for the kids because breakfast is always a safe meal. And the coffee was amazing. Don't ask me why it was so good, but we all took note of it. We were seated with some neighbors from our block, which made it even nicer. 

But the real show was at the gingerbread house tables. A pre-assembled house was positioned at each chair and volunteers walked around placing plates with candies, gum drops, and licorices in front of the kids for decorating their house. Then additional volunteers offered to squeeze icing on the houses, which was great for the little ones who had trouble navigating the knives and plates of icing.

Abe went for sheer volume

Anna went for precision

After the gingerbread houses, Anna wanted to visit the table with the winter fairy. They gave out "fortunes" and Anna was told that she would travel to great places. This was perfect for her! Abe was told that he liked books. He replied, "my sister likes books, I like superheroes." And the winter fairy quickly changed directions accordingly.

There was a balloon animal table (only two options: fish and a dog), but the real excitement was the face painting. I'm not very keen on face painting, but the kids wanted it and I was in a particularly giving mood. Abe selected Santa Claus and Anna selected Hello Kitty (??). And, no, I don't mean just little pictures on their cheeks.

Santa, spectacles and all...

Santa Claus was available for pictures and we did that, too. But our Santa Claus tradition takes place at the Christkindl Market in downtown Chicago so I didn't emphasize this one too much. We did get one picture though...

And that concludes our Saturday morning. It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone local. Hope your holiday season is proving as merry and bright as ours is!