Eat, Drink, and Be Merry...in Chambana

There are certain things that Chambana families should do to make the most of a Midwest summer, and we try to do as many of them as possible. Curtis Orchard apple cider doughnuts? Definitely. The Urbana Market at the Square? Absolutely. Local swimming pools, parks, and libraries? Check, check, check. But one of my favorites on our summer list? The Taste of Champaign-Urbana.

It's an event we attend every year. Millie goes for the more mild cuisine of macaroni and cheese, but there is something for everyone. Picture a buffet of all your favorite restaurants in town. It's so fun to pick our own meals and sit down at the park bench with a smorgasbord of ten different things. I didn't get to sample the craft beer last year because I was a week away from having Walter, so I'll make up for that this year!

For food, I'll be hitting up The Pop Stop and Ye Olde Doughnut Shop to get an in-between snack, and The Empanadas House food truck for dinner. I'm also eager to visit the Tryptich booth for some local pale ale, and JT Walker's for some orange and blue brew. However, food is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are dozens of activities for the little ones including a magic show, a juggling act, inflatables, a rock climbing wall, a sing along show...and did I mention zucchini car racing? Millie loved the balloon animals last year, and taking a break at the West Side Park playground, as well as the lemon shakeups we shared. Is there anything better than a lemon shakeup on a humid Illinois day? (The answer is no.)

And for the adults, in addition to the craft beer I mentioned, there are booths featuring art and handmade items for sale, a slew of fun bands playing both days, the Second Annual Pie Run, and a raffle for a new car. This isn't a dine and dash evening. This is a two day, take-your-time, relax and hang out event. And we love it.

The 2014 Taste will run Friday from 5-11pm, and Saturday from 11-11pm, so there is plenty of opportunity to stop by, sample some local favorites, shop for crafts, and listen to the great bands on stage. Make sure you use the hashtag #tastecu when posting pictures. (Even I will!) And be on the lookout for a way to text to vote for your favorite food vendor this year.

My friends at the Champaign Park District are generously giving away $25 of Taste of C-U food vendor tickets to one lucky reader! The contest will run until Friday at noon, so you will be able to use your tickets Friday evening and/or Saturday. Enter below, and good luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was provided Taste of C-U tickets in exchange for this blog post. All opinions are my own.

The First Snow

"I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us..." 

— Mary Oliver

We rubbed our eyes this morning, blinded by a snowy universe outside our frosted bedroom windowpanes.

Millie is sledding with her Grandpa and cousins. Walter is swaddled and sound asleep. Everything is white and silver, crystallized and sparkling. Cars and roads have disappeared and no longer matter. And the only sounds are the clicking of my keyboard, someone shoveling and scooping up and down and up again, and the laughter from the neighbor children, making snow angels and leaping through drifts that reach their knees.

Laughter in a frozen world.

Oh, I think, pulling my cardigan tighter around me, and stopping my fingers on the keys to be enveloped in snow sounds. Because this is Christmas. This very moment is what I wait for all year. What I hope for.

Oh, 
let your heart be light.

Septembers

"[T]hat old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, 

vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air ... 

Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee 

in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer." 

— Wallace Stegner

If there is one thing Illinois does right, it's Septembers. As a little girl, September meant only one thing: my birthday. But as time went on, it began to mean new pencils and notebooks, putting up tank tops and trading them for sweaters, and country fields being plowed over into dusty flatness once again.

We spent this evening walking a path that wound through a usually quiet park, made vibrant with jazz musicians and lumineers for a special jazz night there. And when my scarf, Millie's sweater, and the blanket in Sky's arms carrying a sleepy Walter weren't enough to keep us warm anymore, we turned back towards home before our teeth began chattering.

And during those hours, September tested the waters and slowly crept in, really and truly. It might sneak away again and not be back for a few more days, but we've had the first taste and can't wait for more. There are pumpkins to pick, boots to wear, and more chilly nights to brave together.

I'm ready.

Toast (and Monkeys)

I started writing a post yesterday. I was going to tell you how life seems to get busier and busier every second, and how I'm feeling pretty worn down. But I was going to counter all of that by appreciating the small moments the day hands me, like savoring the apricot gooseberry jam my mom made, emptying the whole mason jar within a few short days.

Minutes after Millie asked, "Mama, you're taking a picture of your food? Why?", our morning began rolling downhill, and fast. Millie was restless (and rightfully so), and Walter was having a rough day, needing to be held more than usual (which I didn't think was possible). By the time Sky was home for the day from his unexpected week on Army orders, it had escalated to either go out for Chinese or risk the house imploding. I still felt that pent up adrenaline and frustration after we left, though. I don't even remember my fortune, but it probably wasn't very promising.

As Sky was ready to turn towards home, we spotted a couple hot air balloons floating by. It must be something that happens every year, because I saw them from the hospital room window when Millie was born (and her birthday is tomorrow). Sky switched off the turning signal and spontaneously began driving the roads between high cornfields, trying to get closer to them. We didn't catch them that night. But on the way home, the sun was drenching everything in the most gorgeous, golden light. I snapped a picture of it from the window.

It didn't hit me until a few minutes later; I had witnessed the sunset. It was something I hadn't done for a good, long time. As fate would have it, only a little while after writing an entire post about it, I saw one after all. Surrounded by unusually cool July air, Midwestern scenery of crops growing tall, and with Sky beside me and the babies content in the back, it was there. It was brilliant.

Today has started out like a carbon copy of yesterday. There isn't enough coffee, and my wildest fantasies now include using my flat iron and finding a clean outfit to wear. And really, I don't expect it to change anytime soon. Having kids is exhausting sometimes, and having more than one of them is a whole other realm of challenging.

On mornings like this one, I will be trying to remember the sunset. I may not see many these days, but I saw that one. I needed that moment of quiet and beauty to get me through the million other moments of noise and messiness. If the only calm I get these days is a few slices of toast and the occasional sunset, then I have to stretch them for all they're worth. That, and keep remembering that someday, and sooner than later, I will miss the chaos of this time when even toast is a luxury.

*

I have one other story to tell you today, though. One that melted me completely.

While we were in the children's hospital last week, the nurse brought in a bundle and set it in the crib for Walter. It was a blanket (donated from Project Linus) and a blue sock monkey with a moon and stars sewn onto his belly. I thought it was sweet, snapped his picture with it, and brought it to his room when we came home.

But the next day, I stumbled on the story behind that monkey and I was blown away. It was part of a donation in honor of a little boy named Dawson. He passed away at the hospital before he had even reached one year old. His family decided to collect sock monkeys and distribute them to children in the hospital as a thank you for their son's care and as a way to celebrate him; they sewed the little moon and stars patches because his mother often told him she "loved him to the moon and back".

What would have been his first birthday was Walter's due date. As I scrolled through all the photos of this little baby, I noticed he was wearing the same outfit that we had bought for Walter before he was born (getting them for a little brother and little sister to take into the hospital with us). Looking at the picture of Walter in the crib with that monkey, I couldn't help but be moved to tears at how lucky we are. This family lost their precious son. We didn't.

I wrote Dawson's mother that night and told her our story, and she asked if she could post the photo on Dawson's page and the monkey donation page. Someone commented that it was as if Dawson was there, keeping Walter company. I'd like to think so. When we were leaving the hospital, Sky asked if I wanted to get him something from the gift shop, but I didn't. As it turns out, we had received the most valuable gift already.

It's Fall!

It's fall at last. Millie is already inheriting my love of pulling on long sleeves and warm coats, 

especially what she calls "Grandma's sweater"- this golden yellow peacoat my mom made for her. 

We love taking cozy, rambling walks and finding treasures like leaves and "pinecombs" along the way.

Our hair is windswept and our fingers a little cold by the time we get back home.
But that's what makes it all the more an adventure.

The other thing fall brings? Trips to the apple orchard for cider,
apple doughnuts, finding pretty pumpkins, and meeting goats.

Above: Our family photo just a couple days after she was born.
Below: Our family a couple weeks ago. Time flies.





Above: Millie in the same chair at a few days, 1 year, and 2 years old.

And now, we're craving lots of autumn recipes- all things cinnamon, spice, or pumpkin.
Let me know your favorites!

It's a Twister

(picture courtesy of WCIA, a local news station- this was the tornado a few minutes before I saw it)

This afternoon, Millie was napping. I was trying to rest, but only able to sleep between rumbles of thunder. I finally gave up and stumbled into the living room, noticing how gloomy it looked outside. I clicked on a weather website, and saw hail hitting the ground as the site loaded.

The weather site was full of bright red flashing notices, announcing a tornado warning. It had been sighted in a town very near to mine. I called my dad, who lives about 1/2 mile down the road and has a basement (we do not). He said he'd be on the way to pick us up. I finally heard the sirens began to wail.

I woke Millie and quickly put her shoes and jacket on, grabbed my keys, and went outside to wait for my dad. The rain and hail had stopped, and there was an eerie calm before the storm, a kind that only happens in the Midwest. The sky usually turns a otherworldly shade of green, but this time it stayed a deep, dark purple.

I noticed a few other people on my street were also outside and looking towards the direction of my backyard. I rounded the corner of our building, and my mouth opened wide. There, looming in the small space between my dad's house and mine, was a white, skinny funnel cloud spinning. Living in Illinois, a girl gets used to the strong storms and even a few rotating clouds that spin down and then back up into a wall cloud, but this was a tornado, and it was right there. It's the closest I'd ever been to one, and it felt like a scene from a movie.

As I watched, I called Sky at work, managing to squeak out, "I am staring at a tornado right now," before the phone went dead. Great, I thought, not the best thing to say before a phone call ends. My dad pulled up and by the time we got to his house, it was already over. Although the tornado did some damage just slightly to the south of us, nothing here was touched. It still made for quite an eventful afternoon.

I realized afterwards how ingrained blogging is in me, though- I kept thinking, "If only I had gotten a good picture!"

The Annoyed Army Wife Visits Chambana

The day started with the alarm ringing on my phone. I shut it off groggily, and then remembered- today's the day I'm meeting The Annoyed Army Wife! I bit my nails and thought about what to wear. It felt vaguely like a first date.

It got worse when I opened my closet doors. I found myself thinking, "What would chambanachik wear?" "Oh Lord," I said out loud to myself. After rolling my eyes at myself, I pulled out a sweater and got ready for the day.

I heard a knock at the door, and there she was! It was funny seeing someone who had been a picture and words on a screen turn into someone in 'real life'. My dad had picked Millie up earlier, so A.A.W. and I decided to head out for lunch.

We picked a great Mexican place in town that she used to frequent- she just happened to live here for a couple years during school, in case you didn't know! We walked in and saw a long table full of soldiers. It seemed fitting.

After that, we headed downtown to a place called the Walnut Street Tea Company- a tiny shop full of hundreds of teas, chocolates, and coffee. Because she's lived here, she knew a lot of the fun spots to visit, so I didn't even have to play tour guide. Walnut Street just so happens to be one of my favorite shops in the world.

We wandered around the area, snapping a few pictures, and then walked through campus and the quad. A couple older ladies tried desperately to convert us to something, but they were relived to hear we both believed in God. We ended the walk at the Alma Mater, where I get a couple more photos.

After we got back to the apartment, A.A.W. was able to meet Millie and and play for a few minutes. I think Millie was grateful to have another person reading to her!

As I told her, I don't really leave the house to do anything other than grocery shop anymore. It was so nice to hang out with someone my own age! There isn't a lot of introduction to be done, because, as bloggers, we tend to know more about each other than many of our 'real life' friends. Plus, it's The Annoyed Army Wife- it doesn't get better than that!

(P.S. Read her post about the day here.)

At the Mexican restaurant!

Shopping for tea

I won't share all the photos from the day, but isn't she sickeningly photogenic?

In downtown Champaign

On the U of I Quad

The Alma Mater

Millie's pretty excited!

A quick story