Random April Bits (2018)

It’s a lot of ‘bits’, friends, so be forewarned.

So hey you guys, it’s been a hell of a month. Mostly a super cold annoying month. That’s the part that made it ‘hell’, mostly. But that didn’t stop us from pretending it was a normal spring and wandering around our neighborhood trails anyway. Several times. Even that day that preschool was closed and Linus rode his bike and it was 25F and we were pretty much numb from the cold about 30 minutes in.

There’s a new coffee shop down the street from us. In the past it was always restaurants, with 4 different names/owners in the time we’ve lived in the Madison area (ouch). Linus and I ducked in after our frigid day out on the trail and it’s a solid spot: the coffee is good, and it’s all unassuming with its mismatched mugs/plates and some old school 80s indie playing on the speakers. It is a huge space, but as a coffee shop it somehow still seems cozy. Plus the baked goods are pretty solid, which is a nice plus. We’ll be back, a lot I am guessing. Hopefully this iteration of the spot sticks around for awhile.

Dude they even have a huge floor set up for chess/checkers.

In other news: snow. April had Some Snow. Way more than normal. Coldest April on record for our area. The irony is that we got more snow in regular periods than we have in the past 3 winters at least. And even with this, we were still behind on precipitation at that point. Didn’t make it any less annoying, though.

The boys dealt with being snowed in, in their usual way: jump on our bed. UGH.  Annoying, but also a decent photo opportunity, so…

By Day Two Linus was getting some good air, I have to admit that.

By the end of the month it finally warmed up. These pictures are from a weekend walk down our nature trail, when it was ~50F.  Windy, but still. They took off all outerwear, that’s how warm it felt. SUN BEAUTIFUL SUN.

There were some remnants of last fall on the trail, but the walk still made me optimistic that decent warmth is coming.

(Linus finds an ‘L’ everywhere.  L FOR LINUS OMG.  Yes, dear.  We all know…)

And then when we got home I noticed our lilacs are starting to bloom so guys: there’s hope.

Even Linus was smiling about the nice weather.

Random bits…

A few rummage sale scores.  I got Linus ready (Linus!  Not Peter!  HE’S FINALLY OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE THE JOY OF RUMMAGE SALES) and we hit up a few this past weekend. The first one was not far from home, but still out in the country on a farm.  They had SO MUCH STUFF FOR SALE, Linus scored a ton of vintage Matchbox cars, some still in their original boxes, and one table in particular was covered with beautiful wood cutting boards.  Apparently the man of the home was a retiree, and woodworking was his hobby.  I bought 2 boards, this was the small one (the other is much larger and is maple framed in walnut).  I paid $35 for everything we bought at that sale, a total steal.  All in all it was a good haul.

(And hey Linus loves his salted cucumber.  Even better if you add some butter, a la Muzzy. This is a new development for the kid that up to this point, only would eat broccoli [or things I called broccoli, like: round broccoli!  white broccoli!  etc.].  PROGRESS, GUYS.)

At the 2nd rummage sale we hit up this past weekend, the woman had lots of cuttings/slips from her personal collection. Once she noticed I was focused not on the actual sale items but her small table of cuttings, it was fate. We chatted about plants, our moms, and the next thing I knew she pulling me in her house and was giving me a personal tour of the secret green house built on to the back of her house. It was glorious. She sent me home with a steal of a price on some baby planties and I won’t lie: I am pretty sure I made a new friend. We exchanged emails and I promised to stop by in the future.

In addition to starting the rummage sales starting back up, I had a few nice St. Vinnys scores too.  Including this new ceramic pot. It’s funny how sometimes you go and come up empty handed, and sometimes it hits all the right notes.  I was able to find 2 new coffee mugs and 3 ceramic pots, all 25 cents apiece, plus some other awesome vintage things and Linus scored with even more 80s Matchbox cars.

This, friends, is my newest 25-cent mug find and I love everything about it, especially the glaze drips on the inside.

And as long as we’re talking about scores, I had a pretty good run at Target lately. Including this clearance $2 pot, meant for plants but works great for the kitchen. The sunshine-y reflections are a nice perk.

Linus found his Baby Jesus he got from his preschool back in December.  He loves his baby Jesus, he dotes on his baby Jesus. One day he tagged the inside of our garage with a bunch of ‘L’s, but then drew a bunch of crosses on the ground and he rotated his baby Jesus on all of the crosses.

That’s a boy who loves his Baby Jesus and talks about him every day.

As another side note: His dance teacher is pregnant, and asked all the kids what they think the gender might be.  Linus very confidently told me the baby was a girl, just like his teacher Mariana.  He then said he didn’t know the baby’s name, but he’d guess it would be Baby Mariana.  “You know, just like Jesus.”

I asked him, “like, wut?”. He responded like I was an idiot, wave of the hand at my stupid self, “you know, Jesus had Baby Jesus, so Mariana will have Baby Mariana”.  Ah yes, stupid me. You know, Baby Jesus.

(I don’t want to be the one to break the news that the baby is actually a boy, sorry to ruin your Jesus Theory, my son.)

In other news, I tried this recipe for a hybrid banana bread/chocolate-chip bread a few weeks ago and then I found myself making it again as soon as the last slice was gobbled up. The kids could not stay out of it. It is legit, is what I’m saying.

Anyway.

This past weekend we hit the 70s (!!!OMG!) so we walked down to the new ice cream shop in the ‘hood.

The shop was packed (and also: HOT, there are walls of windows in this strip mall and it faces the evening sun) so we enjoyed our treats outside.

Pete branched out and got a mint-Zanzibar hybrid (niiiiice), while Linus got his regular, the Superman.

The kids insisted on sitting by the Hurts Donut Ambulance.

And then we walked home and no lie I got in 19,000 steps that day, which is a bit out of the ordinary (thanks, spin class) and life is good and THANK GOODNESS WARM WEATHER IS FINALLY HERE.  Have a great week, friends, and may we all stay safe of tornadoes (uh thanks, spring).