i heart supper club

I live in an awesome neighborhood. There are many many houses I can go to, not just to borrow a cup of flour, but where my family has been invited for dinners, playdates, craft nights, and parties. Our children are all around the same ages and count each other as best friends. We carpool and share babysitters. We meet at the park for cupcakes, and other kids in the neighborhood know where everyone else keeps the popsicles. It's the main reason my upcoming move will be bittersweet.
A bunch of us neighbors started "supper club" as an excuse to get dressed up and go out to dinner once a month, without the husbands. We've shared gossip and secrets and stories; appetizers, drinks, and always, the bill. We've celebrated births, talked trash about exes, and shared stories of our losses. And as some of us move away, or our lives change as they inevitably do, we always have supper club to look forward to.
Our first 'anniversary' will be this week, on the first of February. So I just wanted to say: to Polly, Tracy, Melissa, Jo-An, Claire, Hanna, Cara, Rebecca, and Tara: Thank you for your friendship. And probably for the ride. And sorry I don't have a picture of all of us!

my kind of town

This selling-the-house thing is becoming beneficial to our family in terms of quality time. Yesterday, during the showing, we went out to breakfast and then ice skating, which was super fun until Olivia got hurt twenty minutes in.
Today, we headed out to the Museum of Science and Industry. We usually take the kids here or here, and so I literally hadn't been to this particular museum in twenty years. What fun! It was an awesome, awesome experience, and one of the few times the kids have actually enjoyed an outing (it was seriously better than our trip to DisneyWorld); there's underground parking, ample restrooms, and a really nice selection for lunch in the 'brain food' court. We're now members. I think I might just move in. And, actually, I might just have to if my house isn't finished soon....
My only regret was that I didn't bring my camera. But with my new lens, the camera adds a lot of baggage that I really don't need to schlep around anyway. So my visual today is a map. Note the multiple lavatories. I think we used all of them.

little hands

Lots of crafty time with the kids this weekend. Olivia wanted to make an appliqued shirt for "winter day" at school, so we worked on that together. She did most of the work, and cut out all the letters to spell 'hot cocoa', I just did a bit of stitching for her. She's worn it two days in a row now.
Jackie just wanted to sew on Olivia's machine, so after I (finally!!!) got my office all cleaned up, I set up what looked like a little sweat shop and got both the kids sewing. This is my little guy on the machine:

Did I say my office is all cleaned? The skies parted in the heavens and I heard angels sing. And then I decided it was much too stark and barren to be good for creativity, so I'm all set to mess it back up in the coming weeks.

so much stuff!

I have literally spent four days trying to clean out my office. It has become the household repository for all gifts we give, all home and office-related files , a sewing room, an art studio, a guest room, a media center, ephemera library, and junk room. Plus I tend to hoard things and stockpile them (like ribbon, fabric, pom-pom trim, paper. and paper. and paper, and gift wrap). It's really hard to clean this room out because I have such strong recycling beliefs that I can't throw anything away. Plus since I sew and craft with scraps, I see a potential use for everything. Luckily the veterans called tonight and scheduled a pick-up. I say thank you every time they call because I look forward to the deadline. I'm actually sorting piles right now. I just needed a little break.
I found this while I was cleaning, and it made me smile. Another thing that made me smile: I found a little note where I jotted down a quote from Olivia last summer. Apparently, Jackie had bumped her off the computer, to which she complained, "He's ruining my life!" I'm so glad I write these things down.

I've got the minivan

We canceled supper club this past Friday and opted instead to have a quiet craft night at Melissa's. This means the converted barn that rests at the back of her expansive property. Not that she lives in the barn; that's just where her pottery studio is. We picked up some sushi and lots of wine and got to work. I made some etched tiles (we got to use the slab roller!!) for the new house, and realized what a poor excuse for a ceramicist I'd be. But boy oh baby, is it nice to have a friend with a kiln! It's a fair trade because Melissa says she uses me for my minivan - it's the only ride that will do when we head out to the flea market in search of treasures. I can't wait until garage sale season is back in full swing!

we now return to our regularly scheduled programming

Seriously. I can hardly remember what it was like to have both kids off to school. We've had such a tough winter with the boy that he's usually home. But today, all is well, and they're both gettin' their learning on. And me? I have to tackle my office after a late night of collaging.

what a day, what a day...

We're in the process (a very. long. process) of building a new house, and are now about one month from completion. Which means that I should be packing. But I can't really pack up my house because we haven't sold it yet, and nobody wants to come through a house with all the pictures taken down from the walls and boxes piled up everywhere. We just went about 9 weeks without a showing, so we started forgetting that we had to keep the house in "pristine" (mind you, we have two kids and two large-ish dogs) condition. It's obviously a relative term. How can I be expected to live like this? It's much too fussy.
We got a call that there would be a showing today at noon. Both of my kids have been sick since last Friday, and I kept them home today for one last day of recuperation. Do you know what it's like to get a house ready for showing with the kids home? Well, fine, I did it: I got the beds made, fluffed the pillows, vacuumed the floors, wiped the toothpaste out of the sink, put away laundry, corralled the dogs - you get the picture. I even got both the kids bathed and dressed and out of the house by the appointed hour. We went to the bookstore and out to lunch and came home to find a message (left at 11:56) that the appointment was re-scheduled. sh*t!!
On a bright note, while I was at the bookstore, I scooped up this beautiful book, which (I think) must've just been released. I'm so inspired to get sewing!
Before I get to that, I have to just sit here for a while and drool over this book I found in Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. Check out some of the sweet pages:

Chore #8: Relax

My daughter loves money. She's always coming up with ways to try to make more of it. Yesterday she wanted to sell water. She can't wait until summer when she can have a lemonade stand, and she's forever trying to come up with chores that she can be paid for. I explained to her that she needs to do chores just because she's a part of the family, and that she won't be paid for them. Her allowance is therefore not based on chores, but on the goal of learning about the value of money and how we save it, spend it, share it, etc.
Yesterday she insisted on making a chore chart anyway, complete with "chore" name and the days she will be executing said chore. As her school ecourages 'invented spelling' in first grade, I will go ahead and translate here:
Bed: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (I'm not sure if this means going to bed, or making the bed);
Dressed, Teeth, Hair: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Breakfast: Every day
Play or TV: Mabye Every day
Ready for School: Every day
Quiet time: Maybe Every day
Laundry: When there is laundry
Relax: Maybe Every day
Dinner, pajamas: Every night
teeth, bed: Every night

I think my favorite is #8: Relax , maybe every day. If I was getting paid for chores like that, I'd surely use my money to bid on something over at the Kim Family Auction. Holy moly, are the bids getting high! I bid on a few things yesterday, and already lost them, which is wonderful for the Kim Family. Kudos to Stephanie and Lisa and their mother for organizing the auction. In great Chicago fashion, be sure to get over there and bid early and bid often.