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8.30.2017

Semi-Wordless Wednesday {End of Summer Catch Up}

A few pictures from the end of summer, before Gwen headed back to school:

Beautiful, color breakfast. Matcha (of course), red raspberries,
and bright yellow eggs... from a student's own chickens!

I love my doula babies!

Healthy, sweet treat... frozen banana with honey and cinnamon.

Parker Farmer's Market weekends...


I love me some food...
my own version of poutine! Mmmm...

Playing around on my porch, Eagle Pose variations, with a beautiful sunny sky.

8.28.2017

Certified!

Its official!!!


I'm a CD(DONA) - an officially certified Birth Doula through DONA International!!


After over a year of work, I was able to send in my completed packet in back in May. I actually got the official word I was certified before my last doula birth in July, meaning that I had my first certified doula birth just a few days after I got the phone call. Pretty amazing!

Because of a supply issue, its taken until now to get my official documents, but how amazing it was to get that envelope in the mail!

8.25.2017

Visitors - E and E, Take 2

After our trip, with the recovery from that and the prep for the new school year, it was nice to have a little break to look forward too. That came with the arrival of my Brother, Ethan, and my Sister-in-Law, Elise. Last Friday, the end of Gwen's first week of school, I dropped her off in the morning, then headed down to Colorado Springs. A great deal had them flying in down there instead of Denver, and it was the perfect opportunity to show them a different part of Colorado to start their visit.


We headed just outside of Colorado Springs to Pike's Peak, a 14er that you can drive straight to the top of!





An amazing view! And some pretty good donuts at the top.  😊



(Meanwhile, some friends started a group message about an upcoming wedding we're part of... so I came back to my phone like this... EEP!)


Daisy was a little happy to see her Uncle. Gwen was just as happy when we picked her up from school, though I didn't get a picture of it.


Saturday we had a special appointment to attend, at my brother's request (which I was happy to accede to!)... 




A little home state love for me, and Vonnegut for Ethan. Plus, sibling love at its finest. 😄

Sunday we wanted to show Ethan and Elise one of our favorite weekend activities, the Farmer's Market and Park! We packed a picnic, and headed over to do some shopping, sampling, and perusing. We got some great fruits, some treats, and drinks. Then headed to the park and playground to spread our blankets and relax.


It was a wonderful morning!


Ethan and Elise made me a little birthday treat that afternoon, apple cobbler!



And that night I was so excited to have them join me for my Restorative yoga class! What a treat to have them in my class!


Monday was a little busy and a little crazy, but a great last day.
Ethan and Elise joined me to drop Gwen off at school, then we headed back to the apartment so I could make some French toast from some amazing white chocolate lemon bread that I picked up at the Farmer's Market. After a walk with Daisy, it was time to head to class.

I have to say, this was the strangest yoga class I ever taught, with a break for an eclipse and some cherry cheesecake halfway through!



Odd, but very fun.
We headed straight to the airport after that, and I scrambled right from the airport to pick up Gwen, just making it in time! 

 
It was another full, fun visit with my baby brother and my lovely sister-in-law. I can't wait for the next one!  

8.21.2017

Creation

I think that we are all artists in our own way. Our mediums might vary greatly, but we all want to birth something beautiful, taking an idea and bringing it to life. I have picked up and put down so many devises of creation throughout the years, ones that felt fun but not like mine. Ones I enjoyed, but clearly had no great skill in. The medium I've stuck with the most is word. Poetry at various points, storytelling, and for the past 15 years, blogging.

I still long to create physical things of exquisite beauty that one can touch. Paintings, pottery, or clothes; I want my creations to be displayed! Alas, I think I am "just" a writer, and a stuck one at that.

Perhaps because one of the best things I've written in any near past was about a damn breadbox, or because as I've grown in this life, I've lost and re-found a sense of voice more times then I can count; but I'm left looking at my medium with both a greater sense of pride and of disappointment. Perhaps that is the most artist-like thing about me!

I've set goals for my writing, to hopefully help things along, but in the meantime I've started gathering the means for a very handmade Christmas this year. Prepare yourself friends and family, this girl is going to create.

8.18.2017

35

This past Tuesday I turned 35. I actually kept accidentally almost saying 36 before correcting myself, as I've been thinking of myself as older for a few months! 35 feels good though, it feels comfortable.

I'm not going to lie, I absolutely love birthdays. Its fun to celebrate and be celebrated! This one was a great one too.

The whole breakfast didn't make the picture.... but I got to eat it in bed!

In the morning, I was able to join SaraMarie for one last monthly coffee date before she heads East to Connecticut (wahhhh)!


It was the perfect little chatfest, and happy little present exchange for my birthday and her very fond farewell.


She gifted me with one of her lovely paintings... a beautiful, little chai tea latte, to remind me of our monthly dates!

I made her some chocolate lavender loaf...

There was a lunch date with my husband for sushi, a deposit left here (details to follow...), and phone calls and texts from friends.

Plus, that night, I got what a good Philly girl needs for dinner:


I so appreciated all the birthday love, and I cannot wait to see what year 35 brings!


Bonus pictures... the killer lamp my parents had done by a artist friend for me! How amazing is this?!



8.14.2017

Summer Round-Up

Back at the end of the last school year I talked about my excitement, and yes, nervousness for the summer ahead. As it turns out the summer was both better and harder then I could have imagined.

I've already written about our travels, so I won't recap all that, and we had some of our bigger events that I wrote about (concerts and Celtic Festival for example); but we also had smaller, but no less significant activities.

Over the past 2.5 months, I fell in love with matcha lattes... and learned to make amazing ones in my blender. Gwen learned a love of cooking. We discovered an amazing new park. We had playdates with a few of Gwen's friends from school. We made new friends when we got new downstairs neighbors, who we've hit it off with amazingly! She spent more time then ever before at Trav's office, amusing his coworkers and giving me the chance to go teach. We went to swim lessons and dollar movie days. I had the labor and birth of another doula client. We spent Sunday's at the Farmer's Market and nearby playground.


We spent more hours then I can count together, during the week, and as Trav worked events on some evenings. We also fought and got bored, we grew tired of each other and couldn't wait to be reunited.

I made some decisions on how things will be different next summer! 


I'm excited for the school year ahead. While summer was so full and fun and amazing, it was also disorienting. We were in so many states, and time zones, the days were such a blur of random activities that I often found it hard to even know what day of the week it was! It was hard to keep up with my routine of preparing and teaching my yoga classes, since it was hard to remember when the next one was! I'm ready for a little more schedule, and I think Gwen is too.

8.11.2017

Northern Trip Home

After our great time in Cape Cod, it was time to head back West. We took a Northernly route again, leaving straight from the Cape this time and hitting up a few new states... and a new country!

First we just headed out to Boston where we spent some time walking around the Boston Public Market before grabbing an early dinner, then taking Trav to the airport. Gwen and I didn't have far to go after that... just over to visit with the quadruplets a bit West of Boston. 


Its insane to me that they are starting to look at life after high school, preparing for colleges and jobs! (It makes me feel a little old!)


We had a great visit with then, but after a relaxed Monday morning, headed out for our next stop... and Gwen's first trip out of the country! 


We headed into Ontario, got set up in our campsite where we ate some dinner, then took the shuttle over to see this:



Niagara Falls is absolutely stunning!



We walked around for a while, checking out the falls view with the sun setting, and enjoying the truly multinational experience as dozens of languages were spoken around us.



That above is why we went over in the evening... they illuminate the falls at night and it is spectacular!

We took the last shuttle back to our campsite, then tucked in and slept hard until morning. A quick jaunt for donuts, then it was back to the campsite to repack the car and check out. We took the shuttle back to the falls one more time.


We had lucked out with campsite neighbors yet again. Then people next to us were from Germany and they had a daughter Gwen's age. They played at the campground play area together while I broke down camp, and the mom gave me some bus passes that still had time on them, plus were loaded with tickets for the White Water Walk that they hadn't gotten to use!


So that's what we did with our morning in Niagara.


While we waited for the shuttle back to our car, there was one more thing I had to check off my list:

Poutine!
It was delicious! And since we were in Canada, where you can actually get them, I grabbed one of my favorite treats:


We headed back into the states then, and made the quick trip to my Uncle's place in Northern Ohio, outside of Cleveland. A nice dinner at their house, then we headed to a local park so my Aunt Chris could show Gwen some of the great wildlife, and Gwen could burn off some energy!



We stayed out a bit late, enjoying the park, then enjoying some ice cream... so we all headed to bed not long after we got home.


My Uncle and Aunt had to head out early for work, so we planned to leave early as well... but all the late nights and thrown off sleep caught up with Gwen and she slept until I woke her up at 9 a.m.! That's what vacation is for though, and it was an easy enough drive that day to get to our next destination.

Around 4 p.m. on Wednesday we pulled up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to stay with my friend Jean, her wife, Lori, and their three awesome kids.


Gwen was able to run around like a nut, and play with all the new to her toys; and I got to put her to sleep on time in a bed, then hang out with other adults! Jean headed out with the kids early the next day for their own camping trip, so Gwen and I got up and out the door pretty early as well.

We asked for suggestions, and that's how we ended up at Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan.


It was such a fun, beautiful place! Full of interactive sections based off of different books!


It was a bit overcast, with occasional sprinkles (and it actually opened up a bit into real rain right after we left), but it was a great place to kill an hour or two.


After that we headed the rest of the way up to Green Bay because... well, why not? I ate cheese curds, so Wisconsin was very much a success.


After that it was time to cut across the state and head into Minneapolis, Minnesota! We met a girlfriend and her daughter for dinner, and while we waited for our table we checked out the best little kids bookstore.


If you are near Minneapolis, go to Wild Rumpus! Go in the kids door, pet all the animals, and read lots of books!


We ate a nice dinner, then it was time for Gwen and I to head about 20 minutes outside the city to Baker Park Campground (in Maple Plain). It was a great little campground in a Park (with a lake, of course - land of 10,000 lakes!).


We got settled in and into bed pretty quickly that night, and were up and ready for the day on Friday. We fueled up with some pancakes, sausage, and hot chocolate (I think I totally stepped up my camping food on this trip).


We checked out the park a little, looking into the green space behind us, and then venturing over to the playground and the lake beach.




It really was a great place! After that we decided to check out something I've heard of many times before... the Mall of America!


I cannot even begin to describe how big and crazy this place is, but the fact that it has an amusement park and an aquarium INSIDE the mall might give you an idea.


We spent the whole day there, even going to the aquarium twice (do yourself a favor and get the combo pass that gets you onto the Fly Over as well... it might have been our favorite part!).


We returned to our campsite in time to cook up some grilled cheeses for dinner. We snuck in a quick shower (yay for another campground with free, warm showers!), then headed back to our site to read for a bit.

As we were about to head to the bathroom to get ready for the night, our site neighbors invited us for a game of Kubb, and before we knew it midnight had come! It was another group of amazing campground neighbors, and we exchanged information so that hopefully we can camp together again somewhere!

The next day, Saturday, we got a slightly sleepier start to our day because of our late night. But we ate a quick breakfast then hopped in the car and headed for Nebraska. We originally were going to stay in a little state park outside of Omaha, but here was my first "oops" of the trip: half of our campsites were booked out beforehand, and about half weren't (mostly because they couldn't be). It had worked out fine every other night, but I had forgotten it was a Saturday... and we got that late start, so when we got to the campground we were supposed to stay at it was completely full! Same thing for the next site we stopped at.

So, we plotted our route home, and started driving figuring we'd either see signs for more campgrounds to check, or if it started to get late we'd just stop at a hotel for the night. We ended up doing the latter and it worked out just fine. Since we stayed in a hotel, there was no campsite cleanup, so we were up and on the final leg of our journey home nice and early. My 3p.m. we were walking in the door to the most exuberant greeting from Daisy!

Another week, 2 new states and a new country, and 2,550 miles added to our journey! In total we spent about 4 weeks and over 5,300 miles on the road! Its almost surreal being home.

Now its time to unpack, settle in, and prepare for the new school year!