Draft 2021

Well, it's official. Ivy is "one of the family." She has an anxiety disorder. Let me explain. The day after Christmas we decided it would be fun to go see the movie Marley and Me , about a family and its incorrigible, irrepressible, entirely loveable dog. We've been careful about introducing the kennel as a "happy" place to Ivy. Her nighttime kennel is upstairs in Melissa's bedroom, so she's never spent the night alone. When I needed to walk on the treadmill or take a shower, I would put Ivy in her downstairs kennel. She would whine and complain for a while, but eventually she'd settle down. She's never had an accident in her kennel, not even overnight. We thought we'd be safe leaving her at home for 3-4 hours in her kennel while enjoying our movie. Little did we know. We were pushing the 4-hour mark and I was feeling nervous about getting home to Ivy (and because the chicken coop still needed to be closed up for the night). We hurried ho

Well, kind of. I definitely spent less money this holiday season than I have in the past and only brought the charge card out a time or two. Those splurges should be paid off in-full within two months - definitely better than I've done in years gone by. Everyone was happy with their gifts and the kids didn't even notice my spending cut back. We gave used books whenever possible, bought some used electronics, and generally gave much more thought to our purchases than we have in the past. Last year, in the interest of being less wasteful, we started wrapping our gifts in newspapers. At the time, my youngest and I decided it would be fun to come up with a different "theme" each year for the ribbons. Last December found us in the ribbon aisle at Michael's tossing polka dotted ribbons of every size and color into our cart with, I'm embarrased to say, wanton abandon. I cringe right now to think of how much money I spent on ribbons alone last year! Determined to adh

http://thecornerstonegroup.files.wordpress.com I'm a believer in modern medicine. I immunize my children, tend to follow recommendations of the AMA and other medical organizations, and try to keep myself educated on the latest medical advances and how they apply to myself and my family. My experiences with medical professionals, unlike many of my friends', basically have been beneficial and satisfactory. But in the last two weeks two separate occasions of medical idiocy have certainly raised my ire. First, my oldest son, 20, will be traveling to South Africa for the spring semester, studying at a university in Peitermaritzburg. He needs a physical before traveling, which also seemed a good time to have some, what I thought would be routine, blood work. You see, Stephen has taken SSRI's for depression and ocd since he was 10 years old. About 6 years ago, an atypical antipsychotic was added to the mix. Thankfully, he has conquered the worst of his mental illness. But the long

We ate like kings after our visit to the Des Moines Indoor Winter Farmer's Market the Saturday before Christmas. Many of our favorite summer farmer's market vendors were there, selling everthing from apples, mushrooms, cheese, flours and other grains, to locally grown hand-spun yarn and wine, all produced locally. I think I was most excited to find the fresh spinach from Bluegate Farm . It was all I could do to restrain myself to purchasing only two bags. We bought apples, Honeycrisp and Jonagold, to replenish our supply of local fresh fruit. The pecans on the salad I'm considering local, as we bought them from a roadside stand in Missouri on our way back home from visiting my mom last October. I lightly toasted the pecans and sprinkled them over the tops of the salads. Finally, my favorite local goat cheese producers, Northern Prairie Chevre , supplied the feta. Though I purchased the tomatoes at a grocery store, they too are locally grown at Graddy's, a hydropo

Mmm. Simple can be sooo yummy! With the busy-ness of the season, a new puppy, frigid temperatures and icy roads, our local meals have been on the quick and easy side these past couple of weeks. Above you see grilled bison dogs from Dreesman Buffalo Ranch in Tama, Iowa. We aren't big meat eaters, though I've slowly added more locally and responsibly produced meats to our diet over the past couple of years. We broiled the dogs in the oven and they tasted great - not at all greasy, but perhaps a little tougher than the average dog. I thought they were delicious and so did my family. The dogs were served in buns locally made at South Union Bakery . I had a heaping helping of non-local sauerkraut on my bison dog. I have plans to make a batch of my own kraut this coming season. The crowning touch of the whole meal, however, was the roasted root vegetables. Oh my goodness, I could eat these every day! All the veggies - beets, potatoes and sweet potatoes - were from our CSA Small Pot

Back in September we bought a bushel of onions from a local farmer at the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market. I fully intended on chopping and freezing most of the onions, but along about the end of the month I ran out of steam. I pretty much came to a complete food storage standstill. Fortunately, the onions kept quite well in our basement until last month when some of them started to go bad. And believe me, when onions go bad, you want to duck and run. Pew! Enter my wonderful darling husband who spent hours chopping and freezing over Thanksgiving weekend. Some people I know have commented on how much I get done. There are times when I'm quite efficient and manage to can/freeze/create quite successfully. But I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that Michael does a fair share of the work. He's the one who processed all the corn we froze this year. He helped me make the pickles, can the tomatoes and peaches, and peeled and froze his share of apples for pies. Ba

It's been crazy cold here the past two days. I should know, since I've been spending a good share of the early daylight hours outdoors. With this pretty little princess: She's definitely feeling better since the antibiotics for her UTI kicked in, which is a relief. In a way. I'm no longer running outside with her every 5 minutes, but she's feeling better. Feeling better + puppy = crazy, frenetic energy = longer playtimes outdoors. Did I mention that the temperature at 1 p.m. today was 6 degrees? So, lately I've found myself bundling up and trudging outdoors with Ivy and Wally. Their relationship is slowly developing, but there is one problem. Wally is a grouchy old man. He will only consent to actively play with Ivy for 1/2 hour in the morning and that's it.Oh, and he won't play before he's had his breakfast, so that puts play time at approximately 7 a.m.Guess where I am then?Yup.From 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. each morning you'll find me in my yard try

This week was even more of a challenge than usual, due to our new puppy, Ivy. Actually, not just because of the puppy alone, but because of the puppy's urinary tract infection. Isn't this a nice way to start a post about food? Anyway, we've spent a good share of the week dashing outside into the cold - or with yesterday's warm-up, into the mud - with sick a dog who's having a hard time, shall we say, controlling her urge to "go." Thus, I present to you our local meal of the week. A little repast fondly called " Desperation Stew and Tragedy Bread ." The stew was thrown together in record time betwixt pee-stops. Thank goodness my refrigerator and freezer are well-stocked with local veggies and meat. I tossed a grass-fed beef roast from my CSA into the crock pot along with turnips, potatoes and the last of the white carrots , all from my veggie CSA. I added a quart of home-canned tomatoes from our garden and a little salt and pepper, turned the cr

alpinefarms .com Early in my marriage I discovered that Michael and I have very different ways of showing our love for each other. You might call it different "love languages." And I must admit, it took me awhile to learn to appreciate Michael's dialect. You see, I love presents. Getting them, giving them. There's just something about the idyllic gift that makes me all tingly inside. Give me a gift and I know you love me. Surprise me with something you've put a lot of thought into, that takes into consideration my likes and dislikes, something, oh, I don't know... perfect , and it will show me how much you care. I know, it sounds shallow, but it's how I viewed expressions of love, especially back in the 1980s.. There was my first Mother's Day in 1988. I had my precious Stephen. I didn't, however, have a card or a gift from my darling husband. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. I felt a little abandoned and explained to Michael how important holiday acknowledg

I've been a little busy lately. Meet Ivy Rose, 12 weeks old tomorrow. Ivy is a rough coated St. Bernard from Peoria, Illinois. She is sweet as sweet can be and quite calm for a puppy. We're in the midst of house-training, and have had only 3 accidents since we brought her home Saturday night. Ivy has already attended her first session of puppy preschool and is learning "sit," "lie down," and "come." Michael and I have decided it's a good thing we had our last baby 11 years ago, when we were young and much more resilient (apparently). We both are a little slack-jawed and weary, unaccustomed as we are to the demands of a 3-month-old. And so today, while you're nestled snug in your houses with your hot cocoa and fleece blankets, think of me: sitting on the cold floor with a drooling beast on my lap or frantically pulling on my boots for the umpteenth time as I hurry outside for an emergency potty stop. I promise not to hold your good judgmen

The best memories of my childhood are the summers spent on my grandma's farm in southeastern Iowa. Most of those, unfortunately, don't include my grandma, who much preferred the company of my older sister to mine. No, my memories center on the time I spent with my Uncle Clarence and my cousin Bill, who is only 18 months older than I. I spent nearly every waking moment of every day following Uncle Clarence around the farm, riding on the tractor with him while he mowed weeds, riding on the hay wagon during baling, and picking raspberries (you begin to see my experience was more that of a "tourist" than any actual help to my uncle). My cousin Bill, me, Uncle Clarence We went fishing and swimming in my uncle's ponds and rock hunting for geodes and fossils. My cousin and I spent hours doing "surgery" on horse weeds with our pocket knives, building "toad halls" in the gravel pile, dueling with sticks and having pillow wars in my grandma's living

This week's local meal was a simple hamburger and fries. The beef is from a small, local producer and has a flavor that's out of this world. Michael and I always used to use a package of Lipton Onion Soup mix to flavor our hamburgers, but we've discovered that adding onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper, makes the burgers even more flavorful than the mix. We sliced up our local onions and homemade dill pickles to top the burgers. The buns were from a local bakery. We used our CSA potatoes to make oven fries: just a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and 20 or so minutes in a 425 degrees and they're done. There's just no comparison with prefrozen, prepackaged fries. Plus, have you ever read the ingredients? Ugh! Dessert was leftover pie. I forgot to take pictures, but the apples and butter in the apple pie were local, as was the flour for the crust. The pumpkin pie featured our own home-grown squash. A simple meal, but oh, so satisfying!

The other day Sarah dropped her toothbrush. Yep, that's it right there, after the fall. She dropped it in the bathroom. Lest you think too badly of me and my housekeeping, the brush did fall back behind the bathroom vanity. You see, when we moved into this 1904 house, we did a lot of remodeling. Phew. Excuse me. I just had a flashback to the contractor from hell. Anyway, we - I guess I should say I - wanted to make the remodeled bathroom look as period-appropriate as possible. This involved purchasing a clawfoot bathtub, really cool circular free-standing shower, and a vanity that really is a separate piece of furniture. All this explanation is to let you know that there is a partial gap between the vanity and the wall that is nearly impossible to clean. In fact, I didn't even realize it was there needing to be cleaned until the toothbrush-dropping incident. From my experience, it seems old houses have many more such nooks and crannies to clean than newer, modern houses. Jus

Wally went out with Melissa to play in the snow. He ran around a little. But it was cold. Really, really cold. And that snow stuff? Did you know it's wet and sticks to your fur? Let me in! Ahh, now this is more like it!

In our efforts to cut costs, we've been working on actually using items we've purchased. I know that sounds strange, but we tend to accumulate products we fully intend to use, then fail to assemble, install or otherwise put them into use. Recently, I've been searching out these products and either returning them to the store of purchase or actually using them. Last week I asked Michael (for the umpteenth time) to either put together a laundry organizer for the basement we bought nearly a year ago or return it (probably for merchandise credit). He finally put it together and told me to go take a look in the morning. This is what I found: Yep, you're seeing exactly what greeted me first thing that day. A lovely laundry organizer. And a mountain of laundry lying next to it on the floor . I failed to take into consideration my family's tendency toward entropy. That, and how hard it is to form new habits. Despite owning more than 8 laundry baskets of various shapes and