Life, uh…finds a way

We decided to take the family on a Sunday outing today. So after church we went to Mercury Burger Bar. In my opinion (the only one that counts, right?), Mercury is THE  best place in Detroit for burgers. We’ve been told that the milkshakes are “the bomb” but we’re always too full to order dessert. Next time.

Just across the street is my favorite building in Detroit – Michigan Central Station. Construction on the building started in 1912 for Michigan Central Railroad. It has apparently been the subject of many restoration projects but so far, no one knows what’s going to happen to it. Recently it gained a few new windows so hopefully something will be happening and soon. I love to see Detroit building and improving. And I love it even more when the old Detroit can be salvaged. One day I will go inside of this building. I might have to wait till it’s open to the public since I’m not keen on the idea of spending up to 30 days in jail and paying a $250 fine. But if I did decide to sneak inside (I think have a couple of friends that are up for the adventure), I’m sure it’d be the most fun I’ve had in all my life. 

There’s just something about this house:

This is the side view of that house. The house is huge, right? The hope that is found all over Detroit is nothing short of amazing.

And I’m not sure who planted these flowers as the house is obviously uninhabited.

Don’t let anyone tell you Detroit is dead. It’s alive and well. Sometimes you just have to look to find life.  Just like Dr. Ian Malcolm said, “Life, uh…finds a way.”

Introducing Tina

When we moved to Michigan we knew only two people and both of them were almost 200 miles away. One day I happened to read in our local newspaper about the TimeBank and decided to join. A TimeBank is “a community of people who support each other. When you spend an hour for an individual or group, you earn one Time Dollar.” I figured it would be a great way to meet people. It didn’t turn out to be exactly what I expected; I envisioned making lifelong friends where we would share our days and common interests. While it looked different than I thought it was going to, it gave me one particularly lovely connection.

Here’s how it went down: Sue, an elder lawyer and a member of the TimeBank, saw my offer to visit people that are homebound. She has a working relationship with Tina and thought I would be a good match. Each time I visited Tina, Sue would pay me one hour.

Tina is 96 years young. She’s sharp as a tack and a great conversationalist. She’s a little hard of hearing and almost completely blind. She loves to talk about her kids and things she did when she was younger. She grew up in Michigan but has traveled all over the world. In fact, she tells me the best strawberries she’s ever eaten were in Switzerland. I’ve learned that her husband was a doctor and I’ve also learned that he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world. Being a doctor’s wife, she has known riches. Being a divorcee with three children, she has known lack. Even still, she might be the happiest person I have ever met. She tells me, “Life is so beautiful” every single time I meet with her. And she doesn’t like to say “goodbye”. Instead she says, “Ciao, Baby.”

When Sue didn’t have any more hours to pay me, I decided that I wouldn’t stop visiting Tina. In the five short months that I had known her, I had grown to enjoy our visits. Sure, like anything else, there are some days I just don’t feel like going. Sometimes I’m having a lousy or lazy day and would rather stay on the couch and watch TV or lounge around the house. But that’s so selfish. So I go anyway. And I promise that when I leave Tina, I’m in a much better mood. Works every time. Funny how doing something for someone else gets your mind off your own problems or worries or “pressing” schedules.

These are Tina’s sweet hands. These are the hands that raised three children. The hands that baked countless batches of cookies and crocheted untold amounts of scarves and hats. The hands that now have to do the “seeing” for her failing eyes. The hands that reach out and hold mine. While Tina doesn’t have the youthful beauty that society tells us we all must have, she’s so very beautiful. I’m so privileged to have met her and look forward to many more visits.

Ciao, Baby!

 

So very Wright

Before heading back to the real world we decided to check out the cute little city of Oak Park (thank you, Teresa!). Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked in Oak Park. In fact, Oak Park contains the largest collection of Wright-designed properties in the world. He spent the first 20 years of his 70 year career (!!) in Oak Park. You can actually take walking tours of the area but we didn’t have time (this time) so we spent just a little while taking our own tour around the neighborhood where his studio and many of his designed homes are situated. And we drooled the entire time. So much talent in one man. 

 The above property (Edward Hills House) also includes an original ticket booth from the 1893 World’s Fair:

This house, the Moore-Dugal house, was actually built twice. From the plaque outside the residence: 

“Completed in 1895, this is Frank Lloyd Wright’s first independent commission in Oak Park after Wright left the offices of Adler and Sullivan in 1893. On December 23, 1922, at 2:24am, a spectacular fire destroyed the third and fourth floors of the home. Wright immediately returned to Oak Park in 1923 to redesign and rebuild the home for a second time.
‘A porch on a half timber English tudor, that never happened before.’ Frank Lloyd Wright”

So not only is this house designed by Wright, he built and designed it twice!

And now my favorite house in the neighborhood. I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. I imagined what it looks like inside. What stories could it tell? Who lived there now? How could I peek inside? (OK maybe I didn’t really try to think of a way to peek in the windows, but oh how I would have loved to!)Those windows! That arch! The lines! Even the simplicity of the yard with the two huge planters is so brilliant.

After we came to the conclusion that we probably couldn’t afford to purchase this house (not that it was for sale) we agreed that it was time to head home to our boys. Thanks, Chicago. Thanks, Oak Park. It was a delightful weekend and we shall be back. You can count on it.

Oh, the places we’ve “Bean”

Once upon a time, two kids fell in love. After a few years of dating, they got engaged. They had the most magical wedding ever with lots and lots of guests. And after living happily together for 19 years, they decided to celebrate with a trip to Chicago. This is the story of our little weekend get away.

I try not to make you guys think that my life is perfect. But this weekend came pretty darn close. The weather was sunny, warm (well, warm-ish) and it was an all around delightful weekend.

Ken found our place on airbnb.com. If you’ve never tried it, I recommend it. You rent accommodations from regular people all over the world. You can rent a whole house, a floor in a house, a room, a tiny house (some of these look enchanted) or even an artists’ flat (that’s what we did). We stayed in a house built in the 1880s in the Historic Pullman neighborhood in Chicago. George Pullman built the town and the row houses for the employees at his railroad car company. He charged them rent and even established behavioral standards that his employees had to meet in order to live in the area. After a depression in 1893 the demand for his rail cars declined and the company laid off many workers and changed many other employees to pay-per-piece work. Even though the company went through these cutbacks, rent was never reduced for employees. After Pullman’s death the state of Illinois told the Pullman company that they had to sell the town since it was operating outside the company’s charter. And within 10 years the company sold the houses to its occupants (seemed to me that was a long time coming). Since that time, the town has gone through many changes (including being absorbed into Chicago) and was almost demolished for an industrial park! The residents were responsible for saving their neighborhood and I’m so glad they did.

This is the outside of the house. Charming, isn’t it?

The owner is an artist and you can see his touches all over the house. I could have stayed there for a month!

I love how he left the lath and plaster still visible inside the medicine cabinet.

And then we were off to the city. We were walking distance to the train station and it was a short 15-20 minute ride and there we were. The city was in bloom all over the place. It was a perfect Spring day. Our first stops were Millennium Park and the Bean:

And of course, we did our jump/levitation photos:

We had lunch at one of our all time favorite places:

Hey, it’s our anniversary and we’ll celebrate how we see fit, thankyouverymuch.

After lunch, we walked all around the city, went to the top of the John Hancock building: Navy Pier, along Lake Michigan and to Lincoln Park to theeee best pizza place I’ve ever been to, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. It’s a tiny place in Lincoln Park that has the best only pizza pot pie I’ve ever had. Yes. Pizza.pot.pie. There’s the cutest little old man who doesn’t keep a host ledger. He remembers your face and comes to find you when your table is ready. Even if there are 10 other parties ahead of you he will remember your face. It’s amazing. If When you go, I suggest you get the Mediterranean bread, the chef salad (and try both the sour cream/garlic and sweet and sour poppy seed dressings) and the meat lover’s pizza pot pie. You will not be disappointed. After we had finished stuffing our faces, we decided that the walk to the train station was too far so we took a bus there instead. We’re such the city folk. Well, ok, maybe the real city folk don’t get excited about taking a train, bus and walking all over the city. But I can pretend.

It was the perfect day in such a great city. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing. The next day we got up and drove to Oak Park. Can’t wait to tell you what we saw there!

A pick-me-up from me to you

Am I the only one that needs a pick-me-up now and then? A while ago, I started a little “movement” (it’s really not all that grand but I couldn’t think of a better word) to give random strangers a little pick-me-up. I’m not sure I want to spill all the details since it’s sort of an anonymous thing I do and if I tell all of the internet world…then it’s not so anonymous, now is it? Sometimes I feel that I need to give myself the same pep talk I give to strangers. When I stop to think about it, life isn’t all that terrible (That’s what we all think when we’re having a bad day, isn’t it). As I was walking a neighborhood dog today, I started thanking God for all the things I’m thankful for (ok, maybe not all of them but I had quite the list going). I started off with the big things: family, health, etc.

But when I really started thinking about it, I’m thankful for the little things, too:
a dishwasher (Those of you who know me and my house from Florida will know how much thankful I am for that.)
the sun (Moving from Florida to Michigan will make you appreciate the perfect sunny days.)
the silly weeds that look like flowers (So maybe the homeowners may not appreciate them, but I like to smile at them as I pass them. By the way, my boys call them hobo flowers.)
social media (How else would I keep in touch with my friends that are 1200 miles away??)

I tried to tell myself to not get caught up in the little annoyances of the day and to stop being so hard on myself. Like that time when iTunes wouldn’t sync my playlist to my iPhone and I could not, for the life of me, figure it out. And the time I was responsible for the misinformation in the church newsletter (sorry again, Chris). Or the time I did some sales training role playing at work with my boss’ boss and it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. (Two things: #1 Yes, I’m a working girl now and #2 “working girl” and “role playing” in the same paragraph don’t mean when you think they mean.)

So, let’s enjoy life even when we make mistakes. Let’s enjoy the little things and the big things, too. I’m sure if you look around, you have a lot to be thankful for. Just don’t be too hard on yourself. Have fun. Don’t let life pass you by. Stop looking at the small picture. 

I recently read this quote by Anne Lamott. I’m not sure what else she’s written but this excerpt really struck a chord with me. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Stop it. Right now. Stop being hard on yourself and start enjoying this great big life that you’ve been given…

“…Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen. Repent just means to change direction—and NOT to be said by someone who is waggling their forefinger at you. Repentance is a blessing. Pick a new direction, one you wouldn’t mind ending up at, and aim for that. Shoot the moon.”

Beautiful, no? Now, stop reading this and go enjoy your life. It’s waiting to be lived. And it’s amazing out there (as my weather app likes to remind me every time I open it)!

Chasing fall

Do you ever feel like you just cannot wait for fall to arrive? Do you ever feel like you can’t wait for it to come to you so you decide to just go chase it down? That’s just what we did when my mom came to visit. On Saturday we went Up North to find fall. As it turns out, the best color was found off our beaten path. Is it that way with just us or do you find that happens to you as well? Our trip was originally only going to take us to the tunnel of trees on M119 (you can read about this beautiful drive here) but when we stopped for lunch about 1/2 way we changed our plans a little, thanks to hashtags and a very nice gentleman at Bear’s Den Pizzeria in Grayling, MI. If you’re looking for a yummy pizza with super friendly people, this is your place. All morning we had been joking about hashtags and how they’re getting out of control. (And if you know anything about my family, you know we beat that dead horse for hours and hours.) Before I go any further, if you haven’t seen Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake poke fun at the hashtagging phenomenon, then do yourself a favor and watch this:

Back to my story. I went to Instagram, put hashtags to work for me and happened upon a picture from Deadman’s Hill (for you Michiganders, this is near the Jordan River Valley). One of the employees heard that we were trying to find it and was so kind to come back with written directions. Talk about going above and beyond! After devouring the pizza, we were off! Here are some photos I snapped on our way…My mom has become quite the Instagrammer!
This is the view from the scenic overlook. Beautiful, isn’t it?I need your opinion. The overlook is situated on a hill. Should this photo stay as is and have a wonky fence and straight horizon…

OR should the fence be straightened and the horizon become crooked?
Which one looks better? Obviously, I think both are perfect since this hottie is in them. By the way, he has lost over 40 pounds this year and I think he looks simply looks amazing. 

After some more picture taking, we were back on the road.I’m pretty sure I could live here:It was a great day and I’m so glad my mom was able to see some color. Hopefully next year my dad can come along, too! And since it’s been a while, I made a movie of my mom’s visit.

How do you like them apples?

Can’t have fall without apples, right? I convinced Ken to visit an apple orchard over the weekend. It took some work but he ended up admitting that it was fun. Last year the apple crops were devastated due to some crazy weather back in the spring so many of the orchards weren’t even offering U-pick apples. This year is suspected to be the biggest harvest in decades. The weather was perfect and the apples were abundant.

I had to battle the light coming in from the trees and other people getting into my photos. That made for some interesting light on my subjects. But I think they’re cute anyway.However, that pesky light gave me images like this:

My mom is coming in a couple weeks and I plan to take her back with me. Now all I have to do is eat this 1/2 bushel of apples. Have a favorite recipe? I’ve already made a German Apple Cake (thank you Steffie) and I have a recipe for applesauce. What else do I need to make with these beauties?And, of course, what adventure isn’t complete without jumping pictures?

So…bring on those apple recipes! 

Heading north to Up North

When my parents came to visit in August we finally made it “up north”. When we first moved here people would always ask, “Have you been up north yet?” My response was always, “Wait…we just drove I75 north for 1,200 miles…isn’t THIS up north?” Now that we’ve been there, I totally understand why everyone asked.“Up North” actually starts at the middle of the state. Confused yet? See this article for further explanation.

Today I’m going to show you pictures from our trip to the Upper Peninsula. We started the day off at the Mackinac (pronounced mak-in-aw) Bridge. 

There’s a beautiful lighthouse in Mackinaw City. (And no, I don’t know why the city is spelled Mackinaw and the bridge is spelled Mackinac. You’re on your own for that one.)

And here’s the cutest boy taking a picture of said lighthouse:

And here is said boy’s picture of said lighthouse (yeah, I know…”said, said, said”):

From there we drove two hours to take a boat tour of Pictured Rocks which are situated on Lake Superior. Simply breathtaking is the only thing that describes it. Let me introduce you to Lake Superior. Gee, I wonder how it got its name:

See the tree up there on that lone rock? Well, it’s only there because the roots are reaching across to the island. Here’s a closeup: 

So there you have it. I have a few more pictures in my flickr account if you’d like to peruse them. I figured I wouldn’t bore you with all my vacation pictures here (go here for the Pictured Rocks flickr set). 

God’s sneaky peak

Yeah, so I haven’t been around lately.

I could tell you that I’ve been super busy or that we’ve been to Florida and have had three visitors since May or that I took up running like Forrest Gump and I’ve been running all over the nation or that I was abducted by aliens and they just returned me back to my home planet last week. I could tell you any one of those things. Some of them are actually true. I’ll leave you to decide which ones are and which ones are just a little fib. 

Things are starting to feel different around these parts. Summer is on her way out and fall is sneaking in on her shirt tales. It’s a funny thing, fall. Just like spring, it’s an escort for another season; almost like a sneak peak of what’s to come.

And sometimes I need a sneak peak.
Sometimes I need a change of pace.
Sometimes I need something different.

Not that things are terrible the way they are but who doesn’t want a change in (at least) one area of their life? I think I got a sneak peak of the good things that are on the way. Forever the optimist, I know that good things are always ahead of me. But I also like to think that God put this little leaf right in my path today to remind me of those things. If I looked around the neighborhood, most trees are still green but a few are showing speckles of color. The changes are starting to take place but you really have to look for it. Fall is not in full swing just yet and most of the leaves that have already fallen are brown, not pretty like this little gem. I’m choosing to believe that this was God’s way of saying, “Pssssttt…just look what I have for you. Just wait till “fall” comes and you see everything I have waiting there.” Do I really think that as soon as September 22nd rolls around that some amazing change will come my way? Not really. But I wouldn’t turn it away if it did. I’m just believing that this little leaf was a taste of what’s to come:

Beauty all around me
Everywhere I turn, a wonderful feast for my eyes
Things bright and beautiful

So, welcome back to my little blog. I probably won’t wax this philosophical all the time. Probably not. But who knows? Maybe along with the change ahead of me comes a change in how I blog?

Tulips, Lake Michigan and a sunset

This weekend we went to the other side of the state to the Holland Tulip Festival. I’ve been wanting to see this for over a year! There were two different weekends we could have gone. I was afraid that if we went on the first weekend not all the tulips wouldn’t be blooming. But I was also afraid if we went on the 2nd weekend that all the tulips would be dead. It was a gamble either way so we decided to go on the first weekend and, just as I thought, about half of the tulips hadn’t bloomed yet. No matter, though. We had a great time. Well, almost all of us. Jackson was less than thrilled to be there. He felt that we were “wasting a Saturday.” We’re terrible parents and told him that memories are made by doing things rather than playing games. See? Thrilled, I tell ya. He was thrilled to celebrate spring, flowers, tulips and family time. He couldn’t contain his excitement. In fact, while a traditional Dutch dance was happening in the streets he was so excited he just had to look away: 

After the festival, we headed to Lake Michigan. With the exception of Ken, none of us had been to the western side of the state. Except for when we left to grab dinner, we stayed there until sunset. As you’re well aware, I’m not in love with the beach but few things are prettier than the sun setting on the water, don’t you think?