oh there’s a lot that we want to write about on our “moving from the suburbs to the city experience”:
change-growth-home-challenge-creativity-people-diversity-needs-letting go-working hard…….

but for today I just wanted to share some of our “thrifty fun” ideas.

Whether rich or poor, we are committed to using monies wisely, trying to recycle, repurpose, DIY, work hard with our own hands and live on less. This takes us a wonderful world of creative and collaborative people, which is super inspiring. For me it feels “healthy” and somehow “right”. I even discover more creativity inside of my own self when in this space.

In the past month we have:

-taken our old poker table..and made it into Spencer’s desk, using only a saw, screwdriver, strong arms and our secret tool: industrial velcro !

-took an old piece of barnwood that we found and made it into a table with: sandpaper, wipe on Read more...

When we adults opt out of important moments in the lives of kids, we rob them, their kids, and ourselves; we are fools to think anything is unseen.

So, the fun began with Jessie in our home.
My oldest son shared his solo bedroom. He no longer sat in the front seat of the car, Jessie did. He had someone older to watch older kid movies with. Sometimes they shared friends and play sports at a more mature level. He moved his role in the family as first born, to some extent. I dont think it was so easy for him. He listened to a LOT more talking than his brothers did. He listened to talking about bad hair days and feeling fat days. He helped her with math. She tells him he is smart, she is very expressive. He learns how to empathize and relate with well chosen words.

I observe kids “loving without agenda” better than adults. These kids did not chose their Read more...

Jessie is in my life one of those wonderful moments, lived on.

I was total “koolaid mom”, lived on a block in suburbia in a 1920′s bungalow with charm all its own, its wooden red door always open for the neighborhood kids to become family with my 3 boys. We had tons of fun: made those tents from blankets and chairs on rainy days, ran around outside with sticks on all days, played baseball in the neighbors yard on nicer days and made stuff from playdough on special days. I made lots and lots of plates of grilled cheese sandwiches and swept lots and lots of crumbs.

Jessie is the only girl on the block, a couple years older than the crowd of elementary school boys; mostly happy that her super high energy and, in her teen girl mind, menacing little brother, was always at my place. She lived at first with both parents, then mom, then grandma, then dad. Troubles in her home the same as many folks Read more...

the whole picture thing is not natural for me, im not a limelight person. but i write because i think i tapped into something deeper about me yesterday at “the photo shoot”

i not only fail to be one of those “picture perfect women”, i dont think i really  want to be? its not a fear. its a choice…………..

it was all about my hair…

i got the call to come take photos. i had just gotten my hair colored and had new aveda smoother products. AH! perfect!, i thought. i can be a perfect hair woman. i did the hair and makeup. all perfect like, highlights, shine, volume etc. and it felt….perfect.

not me. 

i live in chicago, and it was a cold and windy out (perfect hair ruin weather), so i walked to my photo shoot and did Read more...

Today my oldest of 3 sons turns 18. and i think back to all of the things that boys just do. because, they are boys. i guess. although of course, as we train our boys not to just throw food in the snow, i find a crazy beauty of manhood in such behaviors. and i know that without some of these male desires, the world would not have bridges or spaceships and airplanes, or meat.

life is choked by control. it is fed by guidance and nurture. i wonder if we sometimes choke men and actually just squeeze the life so that if it cant do what it was made to do, it then does what it was not made to do, for Read more...

I grew up learning to cook from my mother and grandmother, a treasure like no other. My mother is a gifted and passionate cook and hospitality person. If you told me today that 100 dignitaries were coming to my home, i could serve a fine and delicious meal with ease, no recipe to read. With mom i made pierogoes (polish) hand rolled dough, golumpki (meat and rice stuffed cabbage in a tasty tomato based broth), baked goods finer than all bakeries, creamy mashed potatoes. i learned all the how to’s from folding batter to frying – which pans and oils are best…..i could go on and on and write books and books. My German grandma grew some of her own herbs and veggies. Every summer i would spend in her Iowa home learning to garden, harvest, can, cook and Read more...

as a child i was steeped in school system during the school year, language and math

for the summer it was dreams i was steeped in as i played outside from dawn to dusk

as a new wife it was making him better and being the woman i should be

as a mom it was my boys, steeped in discovering they are and how to help them be all they are to be

in the suburbs it is: our home.

when i had less it was surviving, when i had more it was thriving.

in spiritual life it is sacrifice and service.

i suppose this is life, in part: to create a place within this big bad world for people to be steeped in the breathing in and out of love. one where people act out as they seem to be made to be. where they focus on what to give, not to get. where they love without an agenda. where help is given to one in need. one where emotions are as physical, both in need, both feel pain, both heal and give life.

there are so many causes Read more...

we learned to pack our insides, too. our emotions and character needed to grow ready too.
we learned to pack for a big big life, where we have a part to give to. we learned that its far more Read more...

I was instantly overcome by the feeling, vibe or ETHOS in the room. I had never felt or seen anything like it in a competition based group setting. As a disclaimer I will say that I directed youth groups and camps for years and am no stranger to the world of kids, teams and to the “how to compete” discussion.

Instantly while standing in the room of robotics students, I was aware of JOY. calm joy. not zany and chaotic kids vying for attention. CREATIVITY. not wacky emo stuff where kids strive to be different and yet are just like the other dressed in black purple haired kids they hang with. The kids dressed with creative self expression. non-emotionally expressive engineer types did the macarena. they named their own teams: exploding bacon, thunder chickens , chipenguineers, cheesy poofs and the like. INTELLIGENT Read more...

As i have progressed from being a staff ministry leader in an organized church setting, to its structurally opposite: organic community, I have discovered that there is indeed a “COMMUNITY QUOTIENT”.

A community quotient is a measure of ability to live in community.

It is a powerful life skill.

Taken from the simple observation of folks who have learned to live in community along with me I can look back and assess Community Quotient Characters:

1. Humility-understanding oneself as an vital part of a whole. Humility ultimately leads to all of the proceeding C.Q’s. Humility naturally kills competition and consumption mindsets, replacing them with collaboration and giving. A community mindset is the antithesis of a consumption mindset-the 2 cannot coexist. It is the soil in which another can Read more...