Los Porchs

I have a very talented friend who 'dabbles' at many crafts and ends up doing amazing things (see this adorable hat , for example).  I complimented her on this unique ability and her response was that her talents do not extend to housekeeping.  Okay.  Listen.  Housekeeping is not a talent.  It's just something we do (maybe this is just me) to keep from being judged by visitors. Amiright?!  Sure, I also do it because our infant daughter is like a mini Roomba who moves from room to room in search of whatever pieces of food and non-food items she can find.  But really, it's because I don't want to be considered a slob. Which I am.  That feels so good to say.  My name is Danie and I am a slob.  I go through phases with cleaning.  I am super gungho about it and keep things nice and as time goes on, I give up. I suspect I give up because I feel defeated.  My living room is OWNED by infant and toddler toys and push toys. Sure I put them away, but she's just going to pul

I cannot even begin to describe how quickly the past 10 months have flown past. I say this every month. It took me 10 extra days to get my poop in a group to squeeze those cheeks into a white onesie and slap that sticker on her! If it wasn't for my strong desire to collect all 12 shots, I probably would have let this month pass by unceremoniously. Life is busy. Super busy. Walking around hunched over, holding little hands busy. This was a month in which Charlotte took off. Literally. She is always on the go. She mastered crawling & now wants nothing to do with sitting. This revelation makes bathing a new Mama Olympics event... an event in which I am not even close to being medalist. She loves to eat, but you probably knew that by glancing at those cheeks, right? We really didn't do Baby Lead Weaning like I had such high ambitions of doing. We have been doing purees and adding new textures as we progree. We skipped rice cereal. We are currently doing the Lil Bit

Los Porchs  2015 Family Summer Bucket List  pick strawberries   watercolor painting camping splash in the lake Summerfest go fishing pizza on the grill watch fireworks feed the ducks play in the baby pool visit the splash pad picnic at Wilson Park  go hiking   visit Lake Park read books in the yard walk by Lake Michigan storytime at the library   make a busy board blow bubbles plant a garden 4th of July parade

This weekend we had some great weather and even better company!  Friday night, our friends from college came to town with their darling daughter, Baby J, who is about 6.5 months and all kinds of cute. Saturday we went to check out the Art Walk on Brady Street with my brother and sister-in-law.  We took Charlie and their puppy and made it a family affair.  Perfect weather, cold beer, and amazing people-watching made our afternoon fabulous.  We brought the party back to our place and threw some chicken on the grill for dinner and enjoyed the evening on our new deck.  One of our neighbors had a rummage sale and seems to have had a very challenging time getting rid of his treasures as he continued to knock on the fence and ask us if we wanted stuff (even into the morning/afternoon).  When we politely declined (we've got enough junk of our own, thanks), he muttered, "I can't even give this shit away" as he sulked away.  The night was made by our other neighbor's back