One thing I did do to get ready this year is…make wine. It’s true. Back in October, some girlfriends and I got together, went to Harmony Winery in Fishers and made a wine kit for the holidays.

It’s quite the process, making wine, even when you’re starting with grape juice and not in the vineyard.

After sanitizing our hands and donning aprons, we set to work creating the concoction that would then ferment for about six weeks. I don’t remember exactly what we were doing in all these photos- but it took about an hour, and we had a lot of fun!

After sanitizing, we took turns filling the bottles with Riesling. After bottling, came corking. After corking, came foil seals. After foil seals came customized labels. After all of that, we had a toast for a job well done, for done it was. We bottled about forty bottles total, and all five of us carted out a box of our creation.

Look at the finished product. Now the real dilemma is, do I really gift the fruit of my labor, or do I enjoy it myself?

No related posts.

A few weeks ago (ok, nearly a month ago), my grandma turned 98 years old! We kind of make a big deal about her birthday, because, well, how many 98 year olds do you know?

We had a party for her at my parents’ house, and of course there was cake. She brought her collection of birthday cards to share with us- she must have received over fifty cards. (PSA: Send birthday cards to the elderly people in your life! They love them!)

We had a lovely afternoon together, and as the day went on, she began to reminisce. As she gets older, her memories go back further and further. She used to talk about the sixties, now she talks about the thirties. She surprised us all by reciting, word for word, the opening monologue to the radio program, Our Gal Sunday. As she began to talk about the show, I started Googling for more details. She was wondering the exact year it began, and how long it ran for.

Between websites devoted to old time radio and Wikipedia, I was able to help her fill in the blanks. It was a fun way to share some time with each other.

Smart phones and the Internet, bringing generations together!

Related posts:

1. Happy Fall (or Autumnal Equinox)

If you live in Indy, you may have heard- the Container Store is finally here! If you’ve never been to one, you might not know why this is a big deal. If you’re familiar, well, then, you aren’t reading right now, you’re shopping.

Last week I had the opportunity to have lunch with some of my favorite people and tour the Container Store, all 25,000 sq ft. That evening, I attended the Preview Party, complete with live band, dance floor and 2000 of the Container Stores biggest fans.  It was a lot of fun, really overwhelming, and really left me wanting to reorganize my entire house. October 6, 2011 will forever be known as “Container Store Day” in my book.

The Container Store generously sent me home with a bag swag and I thought it would be fun to take some before and after pictures to demonstrate how useful their products really can be.

Exhibit A: The kids’ bathroom caddy. Ack.

Before: The basket actually held everything from toothpaste to a measuring tape, to hair ties.

Every time I need a paper, everything else held by the clip falls to the floor!

Sorting the papers I need each each week by topic make things easier.

There are more goodies to put to work- I think the FlipFold  might have to be it’s own post. I find it oddly relaxing to fold my shirts like they do at the Gap.

What do you need help Containing? Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure the Container Store Indy will have an answer for you!

(Top photo courtesy of Angie Six, local blogger and Container Store enthusiast!)

Related posts:

1. Admitting Defeat, or Plan B

I was standing at the Fox’s school, waiting for him to come out on Friday afternoon, when an announcement was made- Freckles, the class bunny, needed a home for the weekend. Some how, this weekend was overlooked on the sign up sheet, and Freckles needed a place crash for the weekend.

I looked off into the parking lot.

One nanny said no for the family she picks up.

I looked down at my shoes.

One mom said they were already signed up for the following weekend.

I looked up- and people were looking at me.

“Um, I guess we can take the bunny. What do we have to do?”

“I’ll email you an instruction sheet! Let me go get the cage and the tote!”

The cage fit in the trunk of the van perfectly.

Rabbits don’t actually make any noise (more on this to come in upcoming post).

Their poo is small & non-stinky.

They don’t eat much.

But still. There was pressure.

There was pressure to be sure that Freckles was returned in the same condition (plus clean cage) on Monday morning.

Could we do it?

BgK and I, at times, doubted ourselves. We used twitter to enlist a professional in case we needed him.

Thankfully, all went well. We did learn a few things however:

That said, it was a fun weekend, and really not a huge inconvenience. And there were some adorable moments:

I’m pretty sure it’s moments like this one that keep Freckles welcome on the preschool circuit. Even if he did chew our wireless router/modem power cord on his way out the door this morning.

No related posts.

I mentioned awhile back how in love I am with the Fox’s preschool. I can’t help myself, there’s something magical about the place.

On Thursday morning, the Fox and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up apple cider. See, his class was having an Autumnal Equinox celebration, and they needed something to drink.

“We celebratin’, Mom.”

“You are? What are you celebrating?”

“De earf. It spins and spins. And then, we get a treat!”

“It spins and spins?”

“Yes! And we get muffins!”

You can’t really argue with that, can you?

Today, he attended the celebration. I was home with MaM, so I didn’t get to see the decorations, but he tells me they were fancy. When I asked him what he did today to celebrate fall, he told me he celebrated the equinox, and he made a bird feeder.

“How did you make a bird feeder?”

“I take de icing and put it on my pinecone. De birds like de icing!”

“Did you roll it in birdseed?”

“Yes. They like birdseeds too.”

So welcome, autumn! The fox and his friends are ready for you. *

And for those of you who need a refresher on what, exactly the autumnal equinox is, I defer to Wikipedia:

An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth‘s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.

At an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point and the autumnal point. By extension, the term equinoxmay denote an equinoctial point.

An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the subsolar point) on the Earth’s equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.

Although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal [day and] night,” this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the “equiluxes” to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days. By convention, equiluxes are the days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.^[2][3]

Related posts:

1. Happy Birthday, Grandma!
2. Before I Put The Turkey in the Oven, Happy Halloween

Last weekend, however, this little blog was hacked, and it’s been restored to mid-August. Michelle: 1, Hacker: 0.

Anyway.

I’ll put the storage unit post back up, and maybe, just maybe, write a post or two for September.

Related posts:

1. Admitting Defeat, or Plan B
2. Seven Things You Don’t Ever Need to Store

Monday night we took MaM to her new school to see her classroom and meet her teacher, and she was mightily impressed with the classroom library. There were easily 500 books on the shelves, including a shelf full of the Magic Treehouse Series, which she loves, along with the Rainbow Fairy books, which she also loves.

After that meeting, I went down to the Fox’s Montessori school for their orientation and was delighted that the first thing they had us do was make a little something for our kids. The teachers had cast plaster of Paris in shallow bowls, and stuck a paper clip in it as a placecard holder. The parents all got to decorate their child’s place card holder for lunch with paint and ribbon- isn’t that fun? Then, instead of giving the parent orientation talk, I got to listen to it (and nod my head vigorously at all the good parts).

Unfortunately, both kiddos are under the weather, and MaM actually missed her first day of school. It was kind of devastating. I’m hoping with one more day of rest, she’ll be ready on Thursday.

When she does finally get back to it, I have a few surprises for her, including a couple of fun things sent to me by my friends at Hallmark. Their Back to School Confidence Care package features items from their Kids Encouragement collection,  including greeting cards from their kids collection, little lunch box notes, and a recordable storybook . The lunchbox notes are my absolute favorite- this set of 50 notes have sweet, funny, inspirational sentiments, and few to help on those rough mornings when getting out the door wasn’t easy. I plan to keep them with the lunch making supplies and use them as much as I can!

Aren't they cute?

{The Giveaway}

I am giving away a Back to School Confidence Care Package with the same items to one lucky reader this week. If you, or someone you know, is getting kids out the door for school, please enter to win by leaving a comment about your favorite thing when it comes to back to school. Be sure to fill out the email field in the form so that I can contact you if you win!

The second way to enter is to cut and paste this tweet, and then leave an additional comment telling me that you did, “I entered to win a Hallmark Back to School Confidence Care Package from @Gotchababy and you can too! http://wp.me/pVbJS-DO”

Comments will be open until Friday night around 9pm. The winner will have until 9pm Sunday night to respond to my email, or I will pick a different winner.

Disclosure: Hallmark sent me my own Back to School Confidence Care Package, and I was happy to give another one away. My opinions on the products are expressly my own.

Related posts:

1. Indiana State Fair: A Good Way to Wrap Up Summer {and a Giveaway}

The idea was, if I do say so myself, BRILLIANT.

We moved everything we didn’t want around while our house was on the market into this container, and then, when we sold our house, we could have the container delivered to our new home.

Flashforward 18 MONTHS and untold dollars later (I know how many dollars we’ve spent on this container, but I don’t really want to admit it, so I’m omitting this fact):

We’ve yet to get one offer on this house of ours.

I miss my blender.

The kids have outgrown half the toys we’ve stored.

We’ve paid the value of the items in the unit, along with what movers would have cost and have nothing to show for it, except that we don’t have access to the stuff.

And we just got a notice in the mail stating that the rental fee is going up in September.

So here’s Plan B:

The unit has been delivered to our home, and we’re going to unpack it. (eek!)

We’re selling a bunch of it.

We’re keeping a bit of it (Christmas decorations, love seat, limited number of toys).

We’re donating the rest of it.

This means one of two things- either our house will remain on the market indefinitely, and we will be satisfied with our savings OR we’ll sell this sucker next week and then be faced with moving all this stuff AGAIN.

Sometimes, being a grown up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Go ahead– tell me some of your worst packing/moving/waiting to move/storage stories. It’s not like I have any moving to do myself!

Related posts:

1. Pieces of the Puzzle

Here’s the part I wrote as the summer was just starting:

Happy June, Everyone! (how is that even possible?)

We are into hour 4 of summer vacation, and so far, so good. Actually, if I’m really, really, quiet, I think maybe both kids could fall asleep at any moment. Shhh…

This week, I called in a professional for something.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a repair, it was an enhancement.

It turns out, a friend  of a friend (whom I met through blogging four years ago) does house staging, and she graciously offered to help me out.

After looking at my house for nine years, I’ve stopped seeing it. After having the whole thing painted last winter, we didn’t put any wall hangings back up. I couldn’t picture our furniture being positioned in anyway that would change the visuals of the room.

I stole the before pictures from our MLS listing, and while it was clean in the pictures, in hindsight it was stark.

Living room, empty mantel

Kitchen, with one big table and one little table.

Dining room, with a side table and a large, black, trash can.

With a vision, talent and some furniture moving, my home was warmed up and rearranged, all with things I had either stashed in a closet or out somewhere already. The only thing I need to go find are two pairs of table lamps and matching nightstands.

July 28, 2011: The showing went well, but they’ve opted for another property (we think). Want to see what they saw? Here you go:

The kitchen, minus an odd table.

New living room set up, little visuals on the mantel, console table behind the couch with a new lamp....

Dining room has the side table at an angle, with a new lamp, and a print on the wall.

I still need to get night stands, and I ended up only getting one set of matching lamps. But it’s an improvement, right? Anyone interested in a townhouse in a nice neighborhood? You know where to find me.

Related posts:

1. Contain Indy

Inside v. Outside: One thing I did not foresee last summer- at least one thunderstorm per week in the month of July. Her three week session got extended to six, and they just squeezed in the last lessons the week before school started. This year, MaM is taking her lessons inside at the Fort Ben YMCA. Weather, except for lightning/tornado warnings, is not an issue.

Time of Day: I knew we’d have to do lessons this year on non-day camp days. There was no way I was going to attempt to get someplace in the evening on a regular basis on my two work days each week. We ended up choosing lessons around noontime. A friend of mine learned the hard way the morning swim lessons in June may not be the way to go- the water for the parent/child class was COLD at 9am!

Something to keep in mind: Distractions. Last summer, the outdoor pool was closed except for the class being taught. This summer, MaM’s lessons are happening next to another group lesson, a water aerobics class and an open swim. There’s a lap pool across the way, and there’s music on the entire time. She doesn’t seem to mind, but for some kids, that might be too much stimuli.

Size of Group: Most places offer group lessons, semi-private, and private lessons. Group lessons are the most common, and many kids are served well by the positive peer pressure presented in a group lesson format. Your child may not try tread water for 30 seconds with you, but with a few friends, motivated by an instructor, it could totally happen. The YMCA keeps a ratio of 1:5 for kids ages 3-5, and aims for 1:8 in the 6-12 age group. Semi-private guarantees a smaller group, and private means it’s 1:1 instruction. I asked Javier Urias, aquatics director at the Fort Ben Y when private lessons might be needed. He said that it will depend on the child, but that some children need more individualized attention. He likened it to hiring a math tutor- sometimes, your child just needs that extra time. (True story: I had private lessons at my hometown Y waaayyy back in the day so I could pass my Girl Scout swim test and swim in the deep water!)

MaM is halfway through her four week course, and is having a great time. Today she swam across our neighborhood pool, which just wowed me. It’s amazing how fast kids pick things up with some practice!

Disclosure: This is the third in a series of posts about the program offerings through the  Greater Indianapolis YMCA. MaM is being provided swimming lessons in exchange for these posts.

Related posts:

1. Learning to Swim: Jumping in Feet First
2. Swimming Lessons: What to Expect