Lanesboro!

We're six weeks from our due date, which made me think it was high time we head out on a Babymoon. For a few weeks we talked about going up to the North Shore, but we only had two nights and between the four hour drive back and forth and the cost to stay up there, we started thinking of other destinations.

I have heard about Lanesboro and Harmony for a long, long time. So I told Rory we would consider this trip a scouting trip more than anything, scouting out where we would like to stay next time, discovering our favorite places to eat, jotting down the things we'd like to do on future visits.  We dropped off the kids with Mimi and Papa on Thursday afternoon and went to see Mission Impossible, eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then went home to sleep, saving us a night's lodging. On Friday we got up and were out the door by 8:30 heading to Lanesboro, just under two hours away.

A few things to note: the countryside in this part of Minnesota is stunning. Like jaw dropping. It felt like we were driving through some lush and bluffy picture that I've seen on a jigsaw puzzle. Of course it is early August, and probably the most green and stunning time of the year. But I'd love to come back in the fall...and spring...and winter. I didn't get a single picture of the countryside, which is so odd, but I think it's because I was taking it in. Which is good.

When we arrived, we drove to find a place my cousin Sarah had told me about. Her friends were fantastically helpful in letting us know some great destinations (I'll write about their tip for caramel rolls below) including the Lanesboro livestock auction place. (Can't really remember the formal name...) Rory and I arrived and it was incredible. There was so much to take in. The bidding was serious, but the cows lightened the mood. And I sat next to the nicest retired farmer ever. He talked to me the whole time, knows everything about every kind of cow, told me which cows out there had pneumonia, where each breed originated from and how cows have been bred to be so big and huge but he, "likes the cows that are the way God intended." I liked him so much and in the end we swapped contact info and he invited us to his farm to see his calves in the spring.

The town of Lanesboro is adorable. It boasts that it is "the bed and breakfast capital of the world" and was clearly designed to be a little get-away destination. There are great bike paths, tubing companies that will shuttle you down the river, fun shops, good restaurants, a reputable live theater and even a Hawaiian shaved ice stand. It feels very vacation-y.

This is the bed and breakfast I would try to stay at next time:

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was fine, nice and clean. But on the whole I have issues with Bed and Breakfasts. They're really hit or miss. And I sort of don't love the colors mauve and forest green and I don't love doilies, and that seems to be problematic. B and B's also can have some awkward breakfasts in the morning, sitting with strangers, trying to make early morning small talk. And I sort of always wonder whose room I'm actually sleeping in...was it their daughter's room who is now at college? Or their grandma's before she passed away? All this to say, I put off making a reservation at any B&B because I was waiting to stumble upon an AmericInn or something. But we didn't so when we arrived we quickly grabbed the last room in town at a nice B&B that had a nice room, right next to the owners room. It was clean, and comfortable and had cable tv, so we were pretty set. And then we closed the door and discovered this clock:

Iowa Hospice. Love in Action. We laughed so hard. And then wondered who it was who had died in the bed we were about to sleep in, hoping she was a lovely grandma, filled with peace and sweet things. 

The town is charming and we did a lot of reading, napping, eating and exploring. It's so exciting to discover a new part of your state that is so awesome. We will be back. And when we go we will again frequent the Lanesboro Pastry Shoppe...a shop that has not been remodeled since the day it opened, apparently, and has also never strayed from its original caramel roll recipe. Which is a good thing. I had one each morning followed by massive sugar crashes. But man, those caramel rolls were so good!

Ivar art

Rory's folks graciously took our kids for the weekend so we could enjoy a bit of a babymoon. We went to Lansboro and I have much to report. It was a great overnight. While Ivar was at Mimi and Papa's, he drew this awesome picture of his dad and the barn. Pretty great, isn't it?

And then he drew this portrait of pregnant me:

That's about right.

the minnesota landscape arboretum

My mom has been telling me about The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for years. Telling me I should really get there sometime. Then my sister-in-law, Lisa, started raving about it. Next my friend Rachel started posting pictures on her instagram and wrote that they got a membership.

Last Monday the whole Harrington clan went to the Arboretum for a picnic and my jaw was on the ground the whole time. I just had no idea. It was so awesome. It was so stunning. We walked through rose gardens and vegetable gardens, we saw giant lego sculptures and got sincerely lost in a hedge maze. The grounds are spectacular and Rory and I started dreaming of landscape ideas for all around our house.

As a life-long Minnesotan, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get there. But I also believe that once I find something awesome, I must shout it from the rooftops. So hear me now: this place is AWESOME!

You know what else is awesome? Cousins. And Aunts and Uncles. And Family. After the Arboretum we drove to a cemetery nearby, surrounded by cornfields, where my Aunt Jan's ashes were buried. There were so many of us able to gather and it really was special. The day was glorious and it was good to be together. After her burial, we went out to Uncle Don's house on Lake Minnetonka, my first time to his home since Aunt Jan died, where we had a huge pot luck barbecue just like we used to. It reminded me of my favorite kids book, "The Relatives Came" when family all gathers together in one house. The books says, "You'd have to go through at least four hugs to get from the living room to the kitchen. Those relatives!" And later the book says, "And then everyone split into two's or three's where there was quiet talking and catching up." We lived that on Monday night and it felt so good to be all be together.

It was a precious time, and Aunt Jan would have loved every minute of it.

homemade bubbles!

Our third pinterest project was Homemade Bubbles. There are all sorts of recipes out there, but I used my mom's tried and true recipe with Glycerin, found in our church cookbook. She used to make this stuff when she taught preschool. I had hoped to make enough to fill a mini pool, but it turns out Glycerin is expensive, so I filled a big flat rubbermaid instead.

I doubled the recipe, and a few days ago tried making the bubble wands in this video and they are amazing. I used chop sticks, twine and a washer and made huge bubbles. Totally recommend making the big wands. And mom brought a crate, which made for awesome bubble caterpillars. You can't go wrong with bulk bubbles on a beautiful day!

Homemade Bubbles
3/4 cup Dawn Dish Soap
2 quarts water
1/4 cup Glycerin (I found mine in the Cub Foods Pharmacy. Call before you go...it was their last bottles and they said they don't always carry it. My Walgreens did not carry it. Drug stores and Pharmacy's seem to be the best bet.)

Mix Glycerin and Dawn together gently. Slowly add the water...you do not want the mixture to foam! Slow and steady is the key. Mom uses little plastic berry boxes as bubble wands, or cuts a circle out of cool whip/tupper ware lids. Or again, the string and sticks diy wand was pretty awesome too!

Have fun!

four square, kick lines and step stools

The five days my brother was in town turned into a family reunion, but rather unintentionally. My mom and my sister and I each took a day to host the whole clan and it wasn't until we were well into the week that we realized we basically had planned a family reunion, but without the planning. Each one of us was responsible for the food the day the group gathered at our own home. Last year we went to the North Shore, and we hope to again someday, but it really cost a lot to stay there. This reunion was way less money and at the end of each night, we were all in our own beds (except Mat's family of course). We were tired...the driving was a lot, but on the whole, I think it worked.

Sunday was the day everyone came to my house. We went to church, had subs for lunch and then my nieces and nephews recognized our barn as the perfect place to play Four Square. We all played and I started to remember how awesome that game is.

We hung out, made bubbles, got out the sprinkler, took a picture of the kids with my folks for the Christmas card, and my Uncle Mark and Aunt Jane and their great-niece Niu Niu came in time for dinner. It was then that were informed by the kids that there would be a talent show after dinner. They explained that everyone must participate and then they set up the chairs for the audience. As a former Bible Camp program director, the fact that a talent show was happening without my planning, at my farm, was about the greatest thing ever. It was so fun. There was dancing, my dad told a joke, Ivar flew his kite, the adults did a kick line while singing 'You are my Sunshine' and step stools were used as the stage to jump off of as the kids sang "Baby you're a Firework." It was a very, very good time.

moon sand

The second pinterest project we tried was Moon Sand. This is just baby oil and flour. Again, two easy ingredients. The recipe calls for a specific ratio, but just like the 2-ingredient play doh, we just kept playing with it. 

Nellie had broken her arm a few weeks before she arrived which meant she couldn't swim or jump on the trampoline, and this project in particular was sort of our special time together. She told me what she though the bowl needed more of and eventually she wanted to make it into dough with lots and lots of baby oil. And then we went back to sand and added lots and lots of flour. The actual mixing and making of Moon Sand turned out to be the fun of this stuff. I suppose we could have built a castle at one point, as it turns into wet sand, but mostly we just talked for an hour and added more of something to the bowl.

This was also the day that we went to a family friend's pool. Nellie was so good about keeping her arm out of the water. She was allowed to go in three steps and she did great. Mostly she played with Elsie and was so good and sweet to her. I love that about cousins and how the bigger ones take such good care of the little ones. And it's so fun to watch the once "little cousins" become the big ones. 

my favorite moment of our reunion

This here is quite possibly my favorite moment from our whole five days together. It was our first shared meal on Friday night at Annika's house, before we went to her town's parade. After dinner Simon started telling us a very detailed joke. He is an awesome storyteller and did not leave out one detail. Mat timed it and the joke was five and a half minutes long. It was like we were right there with the poor guy who was discovered to be a fantastic high diver on the cruise ship he was living on. His final dive was so, so high that when he hit the pool he went through the bottom of the pool, through 1st class, through 2nd class, through the cargo floor, through the boiler rooms and out the bottom of the boat. When he surfaced next to the cruise liner they pulled him up and everyone asked if he was okay and he said, "I have been through many a hard ship."

We laughed so hard. And were so pleasantly surprised that there was an actual punchline after so much story.

Then my dad tried to tell a joke that fell so flat no one knew the joke had ended. He scanned all of our faces to see if we got it and then his face fell and realized his audience was about 30 years too young to remember the song that was the punchline. And I fell to pieces. I laughed so hard because my dad is a master joke-teller and it is rare that a story of his doesn't go over well.

I just love family so much. I love how each person contributes to the personality of your whole family. And we have some awesome personalities in this clan.

2-ingredient, 2-dollar play dough

Earlier last week I got on a little pinterest kick looking for fun projects to do with my kids. The timing was awesome because by the time I had purchased the supplies the whole Harrington clan had gathered and I was able to bring one project each day. This first one was completely successful, even though I had my doubts.

In a large bowl we mixed Corn Starch and Hair Conditioner. I found V05 Conditioner at Menards for 73 cents. And I think the Corn Starch was 1.20-something. Which meant the whole experiment only cost $2. Even if it had been a fail, it wouldn't have broken the bank.

I should also say we just kept working with the ratio, which meant that each kid got a chance to stir. In the end we used 3/4 of the bottle of conditioner and used a whole Market Pantry box plus a little extra Corn Starch that my sister had because of over-zealous conditioner squirters.

Also! This is totally an outdoor project. I saw it listed under "boredom busters for rainy days," but this is a project to be done outside! Corn Starch is quite messy...really, don't do this inside unless you are making it without kiddo-helpers. :)

The end result was awesome. It was the softest play dough I've ever made. Later we realized we probably could have added food coloring to the conditioner when we first squirted it into the bowl to add a little color. Eventually the kids made the play dough into a volcano and with Simon's lead, they added baking soda and vinegar to make a grand eruption.

cousin time

My brother and his kids are flying back to Seattle right now after five very full days of family-together time. It was so awesome. We packed it all in. And at this moment I think I could sleep for three days in a row. We picnicked and went to a parade. We swam and made all sorts of play dohs and squishy concoctions I found on pinterest. We went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the Minnesota Zoo, saw lots of relatives, enjoyed a talent show and a fashion show and a slide show. We played four square and made bubbles and ran through the sprinkler. And a few even ran a 5K.

I didn't run the 5K, but in this moment, my 8-month pregnant self feels like I ran a 5K, which has to count for something. So many stories and pictures to pass along. But for now, I'm going to bed...

our farm's new barn

After Rory built his home-office-in-the-woods, I did a post that included sort of a step-by-step picture tour of each part of building his cabin. I thought many times while watching this barn go up that the step-by-step picture tour of building the barn would be quite the task, but also really fun to see from start to finish.

I suppose that is my warning to you: I have a lot of pictures coming your way. It also means that if Rory and I should ever have to build a barn ourselves, we'll be able to do it given our incredibly detailed documentation.

We started talking about our needs for a barn last summer and it was about then that Rory began sketching out what all he'd like a barn to house. Every barn ever built has three main purposes: animals, workspace and storage. With those three things in mind, he began drawing up plans on his computer and handing them off to me late at night to review. (I actually think a super fun post would be to show the evolution of those plans, all winter long, as we tweaked and modified along the way.) Even Ivar caught on that drawing barns was the cool thing to do.

Over the winter, Rory brought his plans to Menards where they would take his design and use their computer system to engineer the blue prints. Rory would bring those new plans home, we'd look them over and make changes and then he'd head back to Menards to adjust the prints.

We found local contractors who specialized in pole barns, decks and patios. They were two brothers and were awesome. All summer long we talked about how grateful we were to have committed, trustworthy workers building our barn. And that really was the story all the way through. The man who came with his bulldozer to set the foundation was awesome. The man who dug the trench for the waterline, the team that came to run the electric line, the inspector, and the crew that came to pour the concrete...from start to finish we had awesome guys working on our property. All small business owning, self-employed and hard working. These guys were the real deal.

I've said it many times before, but you only build a barn every 150 years. We built this building with 150 years worth of possibilities. Some parts of the building are going to be used immediately for immediate needs. Other parts are still unknown, but given a lifetime ahead, I'm pretty sure we'll have stories and uses that will fit every nook. 

So here we go: how to build a barn in a whole lot of pictures:

It took us a long, long time to determine where to place the barn. We spent so many of our nights in April moving stakes around, holding measuring tape and moving the stakes again. And that was when it became totally apparent that the barn/shed had to go down. We saved most of the barn wood and with the help of family and friends, and a sweet little kubota tractor, it came down.

We had trees to clear out, and for a week there we had a burn pile going every afternoon.

Then the bulldozer guy showed up to lay the site pad, a fascinating job of moving tons of clay from our field, followed by sand and seven dump trucks full of something else (no idea!) that made the site pad strong.

Two deliveries were made bringing all the supplies for the entire barn. And they were set all over my lawn. The first poles were set, and the process looked so precarious I had to stop watching for a day...

Each day more and more would get done. It was a really rainy spring which would cease work because it was so muddy. But if the sun was shining, the workers were hard at it. Also, there was a week there where a cross was so obvious (front and center in the second and third pictures above) that for a while I wondered if we were building a chapel...

The siding was put on and I was so relieved we had picked the right red! You pick your color based on a 1 inch swatch in a paper brochure. These pictures show the electrical line and water line going in.

And finally, the concrete was poured everywhere except the stables. I adore this picture of Ivar and Elsie watching the action. It has been such an incredible summer of tractors and workers and excitement. 

We still have garage doors that are coming in and we will need to extend our gravel lane. But then it's time to fill the barn up. If you ask Ivar what he wants to use it for he'll tell he he really wants an alligator and a bear. Which seem about as possible as anything else at this point!

So that's the official barn tour. It was a big project, and don't anticipate we'll ever build another barn in our lifetime...so it's a good thing we love it! 

fried green tomatoes: the recipe!

I'm about to share with you my "recipe" for Fried Green Tomatoes. I use the word recipe quite loosely here because I don't think I have ever made these the same way. If you're looking for exact measures, this very well may drive you nuts. But here's the thing about making Fried Green Tomatoes. You're basically just deep frying something. Which means it's going to be good...because it has been fried in fat. So, you have that going you. You can't really mess them up.

That said, at Elsie's birthday party I had Oma Zina help me make the Fried Green Tomatoes. Oma Zina doesn't waste anything, so after she dredged the tomatoes in flour, egg, flour, egg and panko crumbs, she heavily coated one side in the egg again before laying it in the oil. And it changed everything. One side was crispy, the other side was almost battered. And man they were good. So this "recipe" is sort of a mix of Oma Zina's special touch, my years of trial and success all based on this recipe from the Neely's. (Which I have greatly simplified...)

I start out by picking my tomatoes, wanting them to be really firm, with little juice and seeds inside. I cut them about 1/2 an inch thick and using a fork, dip them in three bowls: 1)flour with seasoning salt 2)eggs with water 3)panko bread crumbs with more seasoning salt. I have a pan (usually I use my electric fry pan) with vegetable oil in it (maybe 1/3 of an inch?) heating up. I test my oil by putting a bit of panko in...if it begins to fry, it's ready. 

That said, after Oma Zina's brilliant additional dip in the egg, I started doing my dredge a little different. Now I just use 1)gluten-free flour with seasoning salt and 2)egg and water. I dip mine back and forth a few times and in the end, the tomatoes have more of a breading than an extra crispy crunch. Sort of like the difference between Colonel Sanders Original recipe and Extra Crispy at KFC. You can see the difference in these pictures: the first picture posted used panko and the pictures below were the flour and egg (batter-like) dredge.

I fry them nicely on both sides, flipping occasionally, and then salt them when they come out and let them rest on a paper towel.

Now the actual key to awesome Fried Green Tomatoes is the sauce. Again, I have always used the Neely's sauce, but it's a little involved with lots of steps. And so just this week I tried simplifying my own version, and Rory said I nailed it. Unfortunately, I don't write down measurements when I go rogue in the kitchen, so here are my best guesses:

Dipping Sauce:

1/2 c. mayonaise

1/2 c. milk

2 T. bbq sauce

3 T. apple cider vinegar (I love Bragg's brand)

2 scallions chopped up (you'll taste these more and more the longer the sauce sits in your fridge)

And I think I used a squirt of lime juice...but I'm not totally sure.

Basically it makes a creamy, zippy (the vinegar!) sauce to go with your savory tomatoes. If you want it a bit sweeter, you could add more bbq sauce or even maple syrup, I suppose. 

Like I said, you can't really botch this one. And you may or may not even like them in the end! I made my first batch this year right after I had put the kids to bed and we had just eaten an hour before that. I wasn't actually hungry, and they didn't taste as awesome as I remembered. The next time I made them for lunch, I was famished and they were everything I dreamed of! :) So eat on an empty stomach and enjoy. Happy Fried Green Tomato Season!

bit by the city-bug

We live in the most charming town. I have a friend who calls it Stars Hollow. Another who calls it Hallmark Town. It's really adorable and quaint and big enough to feel like there is something to do and somewhere to go, once you get your landmarks down. But every few months I have a little city-bug that creeps in. It's the voice in my head that reminds me how handy it was to live 10 minutes from Ikea, 15 minutes away from great museums, 5 minutes away from glorious city lakes that always had a band or movie playing.

That little city-bug tries to eat at my joy for living out in the country. And now, three years in, I know exactly what to do when she surfaces. And the remedy is actually the opposite of what I once thought. I don't go towards the city. In fact, I have learned that often that will lead to a disastrous outing...that the goal for going to the city will be thwarted by the long drive...which was the thing that made it handy to live in the city in the first place.

So I drive the other direction. Anywhere out into the country to find places and destinations I have never been. This makes for some marvelous adventures and in the end is the best way to combat the city-bug: to go find the charm of the country.

Friday the city-bug bit me hard. So I loaded up the kids, googled a nature preserve one town over that I have heard lots about and we left for an adventure. We played in the nature center for an hour, making up puppet shows, watching humming birds out the window, looking at all of the living and stuffed animals in the museum area. Then we found a new park with a huge slide and ended by visiting the town's library. I came home feeling excited with plans to return to the nature center to snowshoe in the winter and to frequent the new-to-me, but very old and charming library.

We continued our country exploration on Saturday, driving to Zumbrota to visit The Covered Bridge Park. It boasts the very last covered bridge in Minnesota and even better, it has an incredible playground that looks like a castle. It seems to be divided into age appropriate areas, so my kids stuck mostly to one section and older kids were on the other far end. The park is covered in huge trees so there is SHADE! People of the world, playgrounds are hardly ever shaded. For some reason when people plan parks they find the sunniest, tree-less space and plop their playground right in the middle. But shade is so, so welcome on hot summer days. We went out for ice cream and then visited a campground we have heard a lot about and always wanted to check out.

The benefit of the city-bug biting is that I now have four new area destinations to venture to when I'm feeling far away from the action. Some of them do require a bit of driving, but the beauty of the country is that there is never any traffic, the drive is beautiful (stunning lately) and I do like to throw in ice cream to break up a longer drive. That's a win-win-win.

31 weeks pregnant and growing

When we first told Ivar we were pregnant, you may remember, I explained the timing by telling him that the baby would come right about the time the combines began to work in the field. At the time (February) there was still snow on the ground, snow that needed to be melted, fields that needed to dry out, seeds that needed to planted and a few hot months to grow that corn healthy and tall. It seemed very far away, but time flies, and here we are with corn taller than my head. The only thing left is for the corn to turn yellow and then for the combines to come. (And actually, this baby will come before the combines harvest the corn, but we're just going to go with it, since the timeline has been so helpful this long...)

Yesterday marked 31 weeks for this little one inside of me. The week we found out we were pregnant with this baby, two dear friends had devastating miscarriages. Both were life-threatening for the mom's and both led to emergency surgery in the hospital. It meant that we were quiet for a long time about our own pregnancy, feeling the sorrow of their loss.  But it has also meant that I have not taken one second of this healthy pregnancy for granted. I am grateful. 

I am overwhelmingly grateful. I have a very active baby inside of me, with flips and tricks unending. At night I can watch my belly roll all around with knees and elbows and a bottom somersaulting in my womb. I don't even have to touch it to feel it, I can see the belly waves through my clothes. It is a joy, and sometimes I need to tell my baby to please tuck its elbow or knee back in, because I feel like I have an internal bruise near my belly button from something jabbing me so hard on the inside. Much of this week I have walked around gently pressing that part of my belly, trying to get that little extremity to stop hurting me.

It's also good that I am grateful to be pregnant, because I have had more hilarious comments this time around than I could ever imagine. I am bigger with this pregnancy than the other two, and people seem to have noticed (pictures posted here are flattering. It's my blog, I can crop how I want to!). A woman in a bathroom asked when I was due and when I said "end of September" her eyes got wide and she said, "Oh I thought you were due any day!" Someone else recently told me, "Based on your size, I bet you'll be early. Really early." And then there are the "you sure it's not twins?!!" 

So far these comments have just made me more amused than hurt. Amused that people still think it's okay to say these things. And I do not let these words sink in very far because the truth is right within me: I have a life growing inside of me. It is a gift. And I won't pout or fret or wish this weight away, because I am carrying a life in my womb.

The very, very best part is that the joy and excitement and love I have for this baby is as strong as the anticipation and eager expectancy that I had with Ivar and Elsie. Sometimes I just smile because I am so happy to have another baby on the way. This baby is wanted, the extra pounds will be worked off eventually, and more than anything I am grateful to be undoubtedly inhabited once again. 

I really like instagram...

I've realized lately that my "quick post blogging" has really taken a hit now that I've gotten so excited about Instagram. It's just so quick and fast to post a picture with the little story that goes with the shot. It's convenient too, right on my phone. And I love capturing my day in one or two pictures.

I know a lot of you reading don't have instagram or want an account, and I totally get that. But if you're ever wondering where I've gone and why it's been a while between posts, you can usually find me pretty consistently over on Instagram. If you look on the right column of my blog there is a section that says "Subscribe" and under that are lots of circles with different icons. If you click on the blue circle with the blue camera, it will take you directly to my instagram page. And there you will find all sorts of quick pictures with quick stories.

If you click on a specific picture, it will pop up in a bigger size with the text I wrote to go along with that picture. And then there is a little arrow on the side to help you click through to the next picture.

Just thought I'd throw this out there. There are a few readers in particular that I think might enjoy these day-to-day shots of our family and farm and I wanted to pass these instructions along to you. Enjoy!