dirt don't hurt

This was not my idea, but it was so good I had to make one for ourselves. An un-official summer to-do list, complete with a bunch of ideas to turn to when we wake up and say, "what are we going to do today so that no one kills each other?" We quickly scribbled some ideas after they got home from their last day of school yesterday, and I hope to keep adding to it as we come up with other dreams and plans for our days in the sun and nights under the stars. Last night we sat around our annual last-day-of-school campfire, ate our favorite popcorn, and my daughter learned a C and an F chord on the ukulele. My son learned the in's and out's of a harmonica. It was one of those nights that was so perfect, I can't get myself to actually cross those items off our list... I want more.

It's Earth Week and I'm proud to say we'll be knee deep in trash this week, weather permitting. Three community clean-ups on tap for my family and just a general reminder of how important good, clean nature is to us. (Brace yourselves, readers. It's about this time every year I get a little nature crazy. There's a very good chance upcoming columns will be as much about wildlife as my wild life.) But in honor of this step into the summer outdoor season, when the plants all come back to life, I wanted to quickly share one of my favorite recipes. -For those who have used cleaner with bleach and stained their countertops (me)... -For those who have watched their children spray cleanser backwards into their tiny faces (me)... -For those who feel a strong sense of wholesomeness when it comes to things like soap and water (me)... -And for those who go gaga over the smell of pure lavender and tea tree oil (also me)... Make your own all-purpose cleaner In a 16 ounce conta...

This is not your typical post. This is the post meant for the person who late at night types "tonsillectomy story" into the Google window and really wants to know what another person went through. Or it's also for my mother, who I know will read the whole thing... So at the age of 33 I got my tonsils out. It was time, my doctor said, after having case after case of strep throat for the previous three years. I was on so many antibiotics that by the end they had to give me more than double the normal dose just to ward off infections. I had it done on a Tuesday morning, bright and early. I told the doctors I'd be a mess and I wasn't laying in the hospital bed 10 minutes before I started weeping, scared of what was to come. I have had three major surgeries in the past (and three lovely kids to show for them) and each one came with some sort of complications. Good endings, but complications. I'm just prone to being special, I guess. The surgery itself was a breeze...

We have this unwritten reward system in our house. Whenever life really starts wearing me out and I work super hard not to end up yelling at stuffed animals and throwing meatloaf, my husband says to me, “why don’t you take a bath?” And I do. Because I love baths. Sylvia Plath wrote, “There must be a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know any of them.” Amen, sister. A hot bath, coupled with locked doors, a humming fan, a good book and a glass of wine are just the things I need to de-stress and de- freak and relax. Coincidentally, it’s also a good time to slather my face in mud to de-tox my skin and fight with tooth and nail the inevitable wrinkles. (I’m no girly-girl, but having a face that looks like my old leather hiking boots is just plain wrong.) And so, after a long day of sifting through not one, not two, but three people’s clothes and rearranging one entire bedroom (see upcoming column on Thursday for full explanation), when he told me to take a bath, I sprinted up th...

When I sat down this morning to blog a recipe, I realized that I spent the majority of the weekend being a lazy lump of a person, pulling chili out of the freezer on Saturday and chicken soup out of the freezer on Sunday. (I did pull off an amazing Chicken and Dumplin ' recipe care of Paula Deen , but it took forever and I think I gained 18 pounds just making it.) Just when I thought today's post would be as bland as the plain noodles I had to serve my kids because they won't eat chili, my dear husband emailed me something i scribbled down on his computer during a recent very, very, very long car ride. Let me set the scene... Spring break, 2010. We and half of the state of Ohio, 1/3 the state of Michigan and a good part of Pennsylvania is traveling down Route 77 in search of weather that doesn't stink. Our car is loaded with children, suitcases, scooters, video games and DVD's , junk food galore and a few dozen empty coffee cups. We could have made the trip easil...

There are few things better than waking up to 17" of snow like we did on Saturday. In fact, the only better thing would have been waking up to 17" of snow on a weekday, and wondering if the snow day dance really did work. But when you are snowed in, you naturally turn to homey warm things. I know this because it seems all of my facebook friends were making soup, taking naps, cuddling in with a good book, or for the unfortunate few, shoveling out their driveways. I figured if we were going to be in all day, the house better smell good, and at the first chance I had I whipped out one of my favorite recipes, Oatmeal Bread. (recipe follows.) The house was smelling sweet, we all ate enough warm bread and butter to overbloat our stomachs, and I thought chili would be the perfect end to a long play session out in the snow. And there was no way we could not go in the snow-- it was a picture perfect afternoon. When the forts were all built, the sledding hill completely tuckered us...

I can't tell you exactly why, but the kids and I love to eat at Bob Evans. My husband does not. So any chance we have to dine out when he's not around, it's where we go. Tonight was one such occasion and we all had a little case of the sillies. The result is below. Note that the "K" stands for me, the "T" for my son (6), and the "E" for my daughter (8). And Mr. Evans, if you're out there and want us to rap this for your commercial, we'd be happy to. The Bob Evans Rap by Karrie and Co. K: I was feeling kind of hungry with my family, So we made a beeline for the B-O-B. T: The what? E: The what? K: The B-O-B. 'Cause we like to eat at the B-O-B. T: The Bob E: The Bob K: At the Bob Evans K: We pulled into the lot and to tell the truth, They seated us right at our favorite booth. Lemonade with curly straws is their favorite thing, And Bob's hot fresh coffee makes my heart sing! T: It's time E: It's time K: It...

Yep, it's as easy as a craft stick, some clipart, and a doughnut. The good part is that my kid has kindergarten snack on Groundhog Day, and I'm sending in enough giant doughnuts (and groundhogs) for everyone. The even better part is that they are going to have a sub. Haha! Nothing better than subbing a class full of sugar-high kindergartners! C'mon, shadow!

A snowman's life Is a pitiful thing, When it ain't exactly Winter And it ain't exactly Spring.

Flipping through the latest issue of Family Fun Magazine , I spotted a nifty little article teaching how to do rather clever Christmas decorations. And since we were last on the block to get ours up, I figured I needed to do something a little extra. A little special. A little morbid. And so, sans hubby's help, I concocted this: (A lousy photo, but you get the drift. Legs sticking out of the bushes, lights hanging down from the roof, a mysteriously placed ladder. HILARIOUS.) So very proud of my outdoor artwork, and running late to get the kids from school, I set our house alarm and ran out the door. But, whoopsie, I didn't shut the door all the way, which means as I was driving down the road and chatting with my friend on the phone, and while I was waiting for eons in the pick up line at school, the sirens at my house were blaring and the police men were on their way. My husband calls me and tells me to hurry home because the alarm had gone off and I needed to check things o...

Last night while our husbands watched the football game and the women played spud and otherwise corralled the many children, we also chatted about where we were going on Sunday morning. This church, that church. "I'm thinking of heading to "Our Lady of the Holy Mattress," said one very honest friend. I kept my mouth shut, but secretly had plans to head to my favorite place to spend just about any morning. The Woods. We took the kids on a four-mile trek up and down the hills and valleys of Wooster. If you think that Wooster doesn't have hills, you've never been to Wooster Memorial Park . You should go. It just may surprise you, and kick your butt all in the same wonderful visit. Down the ravine, across the creek, up the other side, etc. etc. etc., we were about 3/4 of our way through and I had a revelation . When you're in the woods, the air must be better and a little more oxygen gets to the brain. It lets you think, put things into perspective, ...

A fellow writer friend over at The Koala Bear Writer tagged me in this fun game. Here's my version... When Annie was just the tiniest of babies, I'd take her outside and sit her on a blanket in the yard. Within seconds, she'd roll or crawl off until she she was totally surrounded by Earth. She was the only baby I've ever known to really love the feel of prickly grass or crunchy mulch, and I couldn't keep her off of it. She was coined "my dirt baby." Late Winter/early Spring in Ohio is really not that pleasant, and this photo was taken in March when the entire outside was cold and damp and dreary. The wet and mud was just too much for me to haul the kids outside, but Annie wasn't going to give into the bad weather. At just over a year, she pushed the chair up against the back door, climbed up, and stared outside at the back yard. I had to snap a photo, it was just one of those simple moments of everyday life that are so easily forgotten, and ye...

The little toad in the fairy house poem won me some Starbucks cash. I never knew I loved toads so much...but now I do. Read more here and check out the rest of the Zook Book Nook blog too, she does an amazing job with it!

Earlier this year we constructed a fairy house in the backyard. (details here ) Since then we've been patiently waiting for the fairies to arrive, but apparently we've attracted other such visitors. We think he's waiting comfortably on his bed of moss for us to use our little iron-weathered sandstone dishes to serve him a little toad tea party. And little toadie will never know, but he's also inspired 20 little lines of verse, which I'm sure I'll tuck away for the kids someday... Thanks to Kim at the Zook Book Nook for inspiring me to write this little poem. Wooded lot, new carpet, dishes provided To build a fairy house, one must first Think just like a fairy. Things that sparkle, things that glitter, All colors light and airy. Make sure to add a touch of moss For their dainty little feet. Add flowers for some decoration And to make the air smell sweet. Prepare to serve your fairy guests With tiny cups of tea, Provide them with cups and saucers, In natura...

My grandmother passed away this week. It is less of a tragedy because she really hasn't been herself in quite a long time. Time and age had eaten away at her mind and her body so much that she was barely recognizable, and she certainly couldn't recognize anyone. But that's not how I want to remember Grandma. Grandma always had two things: a pitcher of tea in the fridge and a deck of cards nearby. She was a ferocious card player in her day, and if I close my eyes and think of her, the first thing I see is her sitting at the end of the table, a TV tray to her side holding an ash tray with a smoldering cigarette and a card shuffler. She'd be drinking either a cup of coffee or a glass of her special tea, which was nothing more than Lipton tea bags and crystal light lemonade. It was her specialty. She had a curio cabinet in her house. Gold, and shaped like a hexagon or something. In the bottom is where she kept crayons and old coloring books for me, although I'm p...

Before I post my flatulent recipe in the post that follows, I wanted to make two small annoucments. One, I've added a handy "follow this blog" section to the sidebar. It'd make me super happy to have a few extra faces there, so sell your soul to google and get yourself a screen name and c'mon over. Secondly, this has been happening for a few weeks now, but I wanted to say officially that my local columns are now running in the Holmes County Shopper and Orrville/Wooster This Week (a weekly wrap-up of The Daily Record , but if you get the DR, you won't get the This Week paper.) Thanks for supporting these publications!

Last Thursday was just an ordinary day until I made a mad dash to K-Mart to make a return and quickly buy some carrot seeds for the garden. In a whirlwind race through the store that ended with a very slow nearly standstill wait in the check-out line, I noticed the mini tent. I have always eyed these things up, these display models for the tents the store sells. They seemed the absolute perfect toy for someone like me who always hated Barbie and most doll-sized playhouses. Seriously, pretending to cook? Clean? Make beds? Rock babies? I had better things to do as a child. Like go camping. But back in K-Mart, there was, as usual, a few extra employees hanging around and not ringing people up, and on my way out I pointed to the tent and said to one of them, "you know, if you sold these things, people would buy them." "It's for sale," she told me. "Not anymore!" I said, the grin on my face forming instinctively , as if I finally got that Red Rider BB Gun. ...

As I'm sure I'll write about soon, I am returning to my roots (ha ha) and doing a garden this year...along with a zillion other people, according to the seed companies. While auto industries are failing left and right, the seed companies report booming numbers, some even hiring extra help for processing orders. The so-called "recession gardens" are all the rage. Me, I just like homegrown tomatoes and dusty beans off the vine. But that doesn't mean that I won't mind saving a buck or two on produce if our garden produces. As true as it is that love to dig in the dirt, I also love a good bargain. Free stuff makes my world go round, and I reckon that even if I won every lottery in the country I'd still clip a coupon and enter my name five times in a basket raffle. I'm just that kind of person. I was recently reading on another blog about RedBox and wanted to share this tip with any of my readers. Have you heard of RedBox? It's the vending machin...

(From a Facebook deal-- thought it would be fun to blog) Toby(age 5) 1. What is something mom always says to you? "No, Toby!" 2. What makes mom happy? When I am good. 3. What makes mom sad? When Norma died. 4. How does your mom make you laugh? When she dances in her underwear. 5. What was your mom like as a child? I don't know, but she has funny stories, like how she used to put a blanket on her head and pretend she was in a fort. 6. How old is your mom? 25 (ooh, suck up!) 7. How tall is your mom? 35 feet long 8. What is her favorite thing to do? Play outside with me. 9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Watch Spongebob 10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Singing and guitar playing 11. What is your mom really good at? Yelling at me. 12. What is your mom not very good at? Shaking a glass of chocolate milk. 13. What does your mom do for a job? Teach music class, do work on the computer. 14. What is your mom's favorite food? Guacamole 15...

It is a well known fact that the pick-up line at school gets my dander up. I have resorted to, among other things such as NPR and herbal tea, knitting while I sit oh so patiently for the morons who don't understand that they are not supposed to get out of their cars to get out of their cars. (Sense the frustration?) All of that plus the cold snap has brought back the little hobby that I tucked away when the kids were born. And even though I'm self-taught and rather stinky at it, I'm darn proud of what I've done this year. This pic goes out to my mom, who I think sometimes can't believe I find time for such trivial hobbies. But then, she's been through the pick-up line... Annie's hat. Not the greatest angle, but it's very cute. I'd post a pattern, but I totally winged it. It's a little small, so she'll wear it every single day...for the next three weeks. :)