Speed Bump

We visited the house this week on a wet and gray day. The site was very muddy, but I'll take wet and mud over the cold from last week any day.

I must have blinked because this week Charlie has another birthday and he will be turning 4. 4! It does not seem possible.  This weekend I spent some time thinking about the day he was born - how it changed my life forever, and how scary the day was. We had a tough go of it, Charlie and I, on the day he was born. Only the people in the delivery room that day know how very close we came to losing him. I didn't understand it at the time, I just knew things weren't going as planned.  Reading back through my post from that day, it is mostly factual and doesn't really touch on the emotional ordeal we went through. I hadn't prepared myself for the complications, even though they tell you you should. Does anyone really allow themselves to think that something might go wrong? I think the fear would be paralyzing.  The versions of the delivery that ran through my head were never that long, that intense, and certainly didn't end with my baby being whipped off to...

I love our weekly house tours. I look forward to them and they are the highlight of my week. But this week, I wanted to be in and out and done. We toured the house when it was 18 degrees and I could not warm up for the rest of the day. Amazingly, they were putting the new roof on the house even in the bitter cold. It was a day I was glad to have my office job.

What a crazy weekend of warm and cold weather. It must be January. Friday evening was warm(er) and we walked a couple blocks from our loft to Pizza Bella . I highly recommend the Egg pizza, and the Brussels sprouts. Yum. The walk home was into the wind and a bit chilly, so Charlie bundled up... Hey Spidey! Can you see anything at all?   Saturday afternoon was a dream. We made our first trip to the park in ages. Oh how I miss the mindless and effortless entertainment of a park during these long winter months! Also a perfect day for a tour of the new house. Charlie and Izzy seemed thrilled with their new bedrooms. We invented a game of 'kick the duct tape' while Ryan gave a tour to a couple friends. Saturday night was a kid-free evening out with friends. Yes (anytime) Please. And Thank You. We ended up doing a sort of Westport pub crawl (remember Westport friends? It still exists and it was jam packed Saturday night). In case you want to experienc...

It's been another big week for our remodel, which was named last week and is now lovingly referred to as Modern on Meadow. In just a couple weeks we went from this....

Happy Friday! It is a beautiful 60 degree day in January. A day like this in January is always something to shout about, but especially when you are in the middle of a construction project in need of some warm temps. A little good luck going our way, hooray! Lots of flu going around, pretty scary. I hope those I know and love (and live with!) manage to avoid this fate. Maybe thinking healthy thoughts will help all of us stay healthy. I've included a link here to a video about how to think differently about the food we eat every day. The message is we need to care about our food, think about what it is doing for our bodies, and learn to appreciate it for the gift healthy food can be. I especially like this message because it is delivered by my very talented aunt, Cynthia Lair. Her TEDX talk was recently highlighted on the Huffington Post . Go Cynthia! Have a happy and healthy weekend!

This is an exciting week in our remodel process. We have the beginnings of our new second floor and our house has a name! A name? Yes, a name. See, it's kind of a big deal (our little home will be joining this lofty list !) and something I've been wondering about since we bought the house and signed on to work with our architects. All of their houses have names, special names that define the house and the design (check out Modern w/ Ranch  - the house that first drew us to Hufft,  Postcard House , and the Porch House , which was recently on the cover of Dwell ). They told us that they like to see the house start to take shape in the first couple weeks of construction before they finally give a house its name. It's akin to waiting until your child is born to see if the name fits. Are you ready for it? Are you? (Need to know detail, our street is Meadow Lane). Our house is now and forever more to be called...wait for it...

Happy Friday! I got my wish and the snow is gone, and they are getting ready to go up with our new upstairs addition. So exciting!     Lots of buzz in the news this week about a JAMA article that said overweight individuals live longer than normal weight individuals. Before you get all excited and ditch your exercise routine so soon in the New Year, read this .   ___________________________________________   Last night when I pulled up to daycare to pick up the kids, I found the street in front of the center blocked by 10 police cars, lights blazing. Police tape surrounded the nearby intersection and went all the way up to the front sidewalk of the daycare entrance. My heart stopped in my chest. We had received an email earlier from the school warning us about the police cars and that there was a traffic incident not involving the school, so I had at least some preparation for all the commotion.   The traffic incident quickly morp...

Remodeling in the dead of Winter has its challenges. Turns out that a roof full of snow makes it pretty impossible to tear off the roof and go up with the framing for a second story. And as the house is essentially open to the outside at the level of the roof, it makes for a very cold work environment. Brrr! Not to mention the ground is frozen, making it difficult to get started on new deck columns or any other exterior work. Of course we knew this was going to be the case when we missed our November 1 start date and began in early December instead. But this is Kansas, and there are warm days in December. But not many in January...

I need a post-holiday detox. Too much sugar and heavy, fatty foods and too little exercise over the past few weeks. Ugh. I just want healthy, fresh and light - my poor, abused body is craving greens. I made this salad a few weeks ago and it is my new favorite. I modified a kale recipe from O magazine, added quinoa (I used red quinoa) and came up with this easy and satisfying salad. If you've never tried a kale salad, you are in for a treat. Massaging the kale with a little salt and oil is all it needs to soften up and be salad ready. Izzy loved this salad. Just go light on the red pepper and let the kids get their green fix, too! Kale and Quinoa Health Fix Ingredients: 1 pound kale, stemmed and thinly sliced 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil 8-10 large Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced crosswise 1 clove garlic, minced 1 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar 1 Tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 cup quinoa, cooke...