• Food,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago

    Chinatown Square

    The title of my post may be a little on the boring side, but I think you’ll agree that my photos make up for it. Yesterday I enjoyed my first (ever) visit to Chinatown on the near south side of Chicago, where I ate lunch with a friend. Being smack-dab in the middle of Chinatown Square was a lot like being in a whole other world: I guess that’s probably true of a visit to any city’s Chinatown. The culture, the sculptures, the signage, the sights, and the smells have a way of enveloping you in such a lovely way. Want more? I thought so.

  • Amazing People,  Family Fun,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    All In A Day’s Work.

    I’m home from the city and my meeting on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), which happens to be Skydeck Chicago, otherwise known as the observation deck and home of The Ledge! I have so much to share with you and yet today I will only scrape the surface. I am thrilled to announce that I have been chosen to be (along with three others) an Ambassador of Skydeck Chicago for the summer. It will be my job to showcase and share the various features that make up the whole Skydeck Chicago experience, and hopefully get a bunch of you to go and visit so…

  • Family Fun,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

    In addition to the traditional dinner out for D’s birthday this week, the birthday plans included something really special: the Opening of the Pig. My sister purchased a beautiful, white ceramic piggy bank either for my baby shower or when D turned one (I’m guessing it was for my baby shower because that’s what Julesie thinks and she usually remembers things better than I do). Ever since D knew what to do with a piggy bank, he’s been squirreling away money but never opening the pig to make a withdrawal. This was a separate savings plan from actually using his savings account at the bank, another method he actively uses.…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  I'm Apparently Old.,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    Hey, Nineteen

    THIS BABY? The one who HATED how grass felt on his feet that first spring? The one who used to chew on my dirty shoe laces whenever he could? IS NINETEEN TODAY. Despite a babyhood that left Jim and me wondering if we’d survive parenting him (the aversion to grass, the shoe lace-chewing, oh, and the fact that he cried for most of his first year if he wasn’t in the same personal space with me), THIS KID has grown into such a wonderful human being, way beyond our expectations (which, admittedly, were still pretty high even after that first year) and still pleasantly surprises us on a regular basis.…

  • Family Fun,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago

    Ferris Bueller: Still Looking Good After Twenty-Five Years

    Unbelievable as it is, to me anyway, it’s been twenty-five years since “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” hit theaters for the first time. The film, one of John Hughes’ best (in my opinion), features Matthew Broderick as the high school senior who decides to skip school for the day and enjoy some fun with his best friend and his girlfriend, acting on his belief that “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” One of my Facebook friends asked me how many times I’ve seen the movie, and I replied that I thought I had seen it two or three…

  • Random Thoughts,  Writing

    The Ride

    I was going to write a really cool post about how, yesterday, I was finding some great parallels between riding a bike and life itself. I was going to write about how interesting it is that, just like in life, when you ride a bike it doesn’t do you much good to look behind you very often, but it serves you well to keep a good eye on what’s coming up, both up close and in the distance. I was going to write about how, with just a quick decision or sometimes by accident, you can take a different direction altogether. Sometimes it ends up fine, and sometimes it doesn’t.…

  • My Kids Have Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Reflections on Parenting

    Sometimes It’s Hard To Wait For What’s Worth Waiting For.

    We have worked really hard to teach our kids all about money and the importance of making good decisions with it, since they were old enough to know what money is. They know first hand that when you work hard for something, you appreciate it much more than if it were just handed to you. As a result, I’m proud to say that my kids have purchased their own iPods, computers, guitars, and cars. Well, car: only one so far. J has been talking about a car for a couple of years now, and naturally when he turned sixteen in February, he went into overdrive, so to speak. Suddenly the…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Roxie

    One Pet Peeve Down…

    If you’ve ever known the joys of owning a beagle, you know that the breed comes with all kinds of eccentricities and baggage that show themselves just often enough to keep you in line and remind you who’s really in charge. When Roxie was a puppy, a friend of mine took care of her for a weekend while we were camping, and upon our return said to me, “She’s just cute enough that all of your friends will want to watch her…ONCE.” Roxie has electrocuted herself once. She has been skunked once. She has escaped from the back yard around five times (including the time she was discovered running down…

  • Best Thing Ever,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    How To Avoid “Mom, I’m Bored!”

    Step 1: Have children. Step 2: Do your best to keep them entertained all the time when they’re babies and then toddlers. Step 3: Rejoice when they start preschool and then kindergarten, because although you adore your children and love spending time with them, that’s two and a half hours less (on 3-5 days per week) you’ll have to make sure they’ve got stuff to do, and two and a half hours more (on 3-5 days per week) you’ll have all to yourself. Step 4: Do the Happy Dance when they begin full-day elementary school. Step 5: Feel overwhelmed when that first summer vacation begins, because you’ve forgotten what it’s…