This past summer the boys in our family drove down to Minneapolis for a weekend trip to see the Minnesota Twins play at Target Field. They met my parents who are big baseball friends, and my brother’s family, and the whole troop attended two different baseball games. You can only…

As August winded down, we didn’t get to the beach until late into the evening on Sunday night because of soccer practice. Our visit might have been shorter, but the lovely sound of the waves made it worthwhile just the same. The Banana was so tired from her practice that…

So, I was behind before my unintended blog vacation, and now I’m really behind! Our first day of school was last Tuesday. It was a chilly, rainy morning. Mr. Trouble on Feet is our resident third grader. The Banana had just gotten up right as Mr. Trouble on Feet was…

Cicadas are a little bug with a loud, loud, LOUD sound. We don’t have them where I live or where I grew up, so I was pretty impressed with the volume that those singing bugs can create! My goodness! While we were in Chicago, Dr. Peds and I went to…

An unintended blog vacation! Last weekend my hosting service migrated the blog to another server, and in the process some things got mixed up. Thankfully nothing was lost! However, the blog was unaccessible for most of the week while they restored everything from a backup copy, and then, unfortunately, the…

YaYa had to work, and The Devious Snail elected to clean the kitchen rather than go to the beach.  The Banana’s soccer practice was cancelled, so she and I headed to the beach after we dropped of Mr. TOF at his soccer practice.  Dr. Peds was able to pick him…

Earlier this month we had to take our host daughter back to meet her teacher in Chicago to fly back to her home country with her group.  It’s always so incredibly hard to say goodbye.  It’s a post unto itself, and the transition back to family life without that extra…

This summer I’ve been loving the shimmery silky look of water on the shores of Lake Superior.  I love how it moves, heaves, and sways.  I love how it blends together and looks like bumpy, muted glass. I’ve been loving fresh herbs straight from my deck. I bought this fancy…

It has become something of an annual tradition that Auntie Dot braids all sorts of fancy hairdos on cabin weekend:  french braids that zig zag, wind around and look better than most people’s prom hair!  She offered to braid the Devious Snail’s hair, and he said, “Sure, but I want…