I Don't Have Time to Write This

Strange men are coming with sledgehammers to take apart half our house. This is not a bad dream - it says so, right here on the estimate. We need to pack up the beloved toys and stuffed pets and stow them away. Instead of starting this work last weekend, as industrious little ants preparing for winter would have, we grasshoppered away to Omaha for the wedding of the little sprite pictured above.

Here she is now, with her princely groom. My Eleanor walked up to Stephanie, her second cousin, after the ceremony, placed her little hands on the bridal skirt and said, "Excuse me, excuse me! You look like a princess!"







Nearly every corner of downtown Omaha was its own little Hopper painting. Small town? The woman who sat down next to me at the children's museum belonged to the church across town where the ceremony took place.

New MGMT Video!

"The Youth"

Happy Birthday, My Big Girl!

This is Randy's cake from last week, but you get the picture. Just picture less Spidey, more princess. Much much more princess.

Mia's birthday (I write of my party planning here at Chicago Moms Blog) turned out to be a wonderful couple of hours (despite Mom and Dad nearly biting our heads off as the clock ticked down to go time.)

The children loved the water, and splashed, slid and swarmed Randy until their lips were purple and their bodies racked with shivers. Then we hit the party room where three camp counselor-type assistants provided by the Glenview park district had already set up the tables, the food, the balloons, the Bozo Buckets, and the tape-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Sweet! I had no idea how much there was to do until I didn't have to do it. They manned the boom box, hung up the six 8 X 10s of Mia through the ages and knew all kind of party insider stuff like remembering the lighter and reminding the children to keep their hands at their sides when looking at the cake.

Nora had pink and green icing on her finger, then I turned around and she had more on her nose. Her innocent, blinking face. "What?"

So good to see our friends. Randy and I kissed and made up. Mia was tuckered, but happy. And Nora, while Mia opened her presents, sat in a little chair, her hands in her lap and watched, curious and content. Just happy for her sister. "Oh look, Mia!"

Beautifully Green

_Here's a million dollar green idea!! Mowtown is a completely green lawn care service. Mowtown will bike to your home (if you live on Chicago's north side) towing their push mowers and make your yard beautiful with no noise, no emissions, no muss, no fuss! And they'll help you set up composting and weed your garden too.

_This Sunday morning, October 5th, Chicago will celebrate its boulevards with the first ever Sunday Parkways. Beautiful boulevards from Kedzie and Logan all the way to Woodward and Jackson will be closed to car traffic. From 9am to 1pm the streets will be open to foot traffic, bikes, strollers, skateboards, and scooters for fun, exercise and play!

Through streets will continue to have crossing access, so watch those street signals! Neighborhoods along the way will be having a giant block party with music and dancing and activity stations, including yoga, Mexican folk dancing, children's games and a free awesome CHIC-A-GO-GO dance party in Garfield Park at noon at Madison and Central Park.

The fun continues on October 26, when the boulevards are closed to cars from 24th and California to Lake and Central Park.

More info: http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=1550_0_8_0

October

I said to a friend over lunch yesterday, "October is just whipping by!"

I remember these days when I was teaching - once we broke through the August heat to the invigorating cool of September and once I recovered from the nervous insomnia of the night before the first day of school, energy set in. I said "yes!" to everything and everyone - chair a committee? Yes! Be the school's sole speech and debate coach? Absolutely! Take some club to Great America's Spook Fest? Abso-friggin'-lutely!

Even now, when my committee meetings have only three in attendance, two of whom are likely to strip off their clothes to run screaming around the living room in their undies, I feel this capability that wants to fill fill fill the calendar now while we are still full of summer's light, now at the commencement of the great holiday arc. The season is a beautiful pendulum's journey that begins with the start of school, gains speed and momentum with Mia's birthday, then flies through our communal celebrations - the laughter at death, the remembrance of gratitude, the lighting the darkness, and the beginning anew. The pendulum slows as we have yet another cake for Eleanor on January 7 then with my birthday at the end of January, dumps us into the slush pile of lethargy that is Februarymarchapril.

But now is a time crazy with possibility - both wonderful and terrifying. The Cubs AND the Sox in the playoffs? Unbelievable. An elderly hothead and a newbie who can't name a magazine or newspaper may end up leading the nation? Where's my suitcase? A wise and equanimous pair may end up leading the nation? Where are my noisemakers? Our entire economy is in crisis? Vancouver would be a lovely place to live. The $700 billion will be returned to the nation with interest? Pass me an apple, please. The Honeycrisp would be lovely.

Help Chicago Schoolchildren!

One of the great things about Donors Choose is that you don't have to make a huge commitment to make a huge difference. Public school teachers who live in cash-strapped districts are only asking for modest sums to fund wonderful classroom projects.

Click on the "Chicago Moms Blog" link above and choose your own classroom to help!