Super Rachel Zana's Spot

It’s raspberry season, which in our household requires at least three different trips to the raspberry farm to fill buckets with those premium fresh red lovelies.  I know I say it every year, but really, is there anything in the world more tasty than raspberries fresh off the bush?  I…

Our neighbors up the hill spontaneously invited us to bring the kidlets and a pizza and relax in their yard with a cool breeze and an amazing view of Lake Superior.  How could we decline?  We stayed until the sun set, and it was good.

Friday morning was beautifully overcast, but by noon the sun was blazing and the temperature was climbing, and a decision was made to head to the sandy beach with our neighbors halfway down the street.  The sand was burning hot and sitting on it felt literally like I was baking…

Par for the course, we dragged Grandma Kathy around to all sorts of places while she was here: to the  rocky beach, Little Sand Bay on the South Shore, to the raspberry farm, out to eat, and up the North Shore to do some hiking at Tettagouche State Park.  You…

It’s one of my favorite beaches, the mouth of the Kadunce River.  Red stones stretch in a wide arc, and the forest glints ahead of the setting sun.  We don’t get there often, but I always feel peaceful when we do.  There was a bit of paddle boarding, a lot…

  Before the biggest kidlets came back from North Dakota, we took an overnight trip to Grand Marais with Mr. Trouble on Feet and The Banana.  Everyone was buckled into their seats and we were driving along.  We passed a rather large cemetery. The Banana:  Oh look!  It’s a wedding!…

This morning before Grandma Kathy left for North Dakota, we went to breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast restaurants.  Within the time span of five minutes, three glasses of water were spilled.

Breakfast in the bathtub (muffins!) started out a little bit rough, with some squabbling about who would sit where and when and I’m not sure what else.  The Banana was not happy, even though people offered to make room for her.  Eventually with a bit of persuading she did join…

A week ago I went down to the clinic for my regular monthly OB checkup.  During a hastily scheduled ultrasound, it became very apparent that our baby had no heartbeat.  The ultrasound looked nothing at all like the two perfect ones I’d had at checkups the two months previous.  Our…

Our next door neighbors are also from North Dakota, which is a terrific thing.  Their youngest child just graduated, and they are on the precipice of becoming empty nesters.  Yesterday afternoon, I looked out my kitchen window and saw the two of them relaxing on their hammock in their gorgeous…