work and play

I’m proud to say I’ve been diligently studying all morning, so I’ve decided to take a break for a a visit here over a bit of a late lunch. I’ve just come off of yet another delightful weekend (which, per usual, was less full of school work than intended), and now I’m heading back into a week of exams. I think I’ve fallen into a pretty good stride with school and work and play. Work tends to take my mind off of school, school takes my mind off of work, and piano focuses my mind in an entirely different direction. In addition (as I’ve said before), it really does help to take some serious time off in the midst of a hefty stack of responsibilities. Gardening and recreation have provided much needed mental breaks, as well as a little perspective on everything else.

Pretty much every time the weather is relatively nice, I bother Jeremy to take me somewhere on the motorcycle. Last week, he agreed to a mid-week, mid-work-day gelato run back to our old stomping grounds in Wicker Park. The place is called Caffe Gelato, and it totally beats the trendy neighborhood competitor, Black Dog, where you’ll get a hefty dose of ‘tude along with your generally mediocre gelato.

No gelato shop could ever truly fill the Scoops-filled hole in my heart since we left Los Angeles, but this place comes darn close. Probably because it’s run by Italians. Those Italians know gelato.

Friday I had my third agency shift at a hospital in Humboldt Park. I stepped in poop on my way there (which I didn’t notice until I tracked it into the hospital), admitted a patient who’d undergone emergency surgery whose blood pressure was 56/35 when I arrived at 7am, and wound up working thirteen hours without eating anything more than a strip of fruit leather. Surprisingly, it was not an awful day. For the first time since starting agency, I felt like I knew what I was doing again; like my real nurse self was back, despite having to navigate paper charting and an inability to remember where anything is located. I ended the day with two healthy patients, a poop-free shoe bottom, and a dinner date with my husband at my favorite Thai food place. I had prayed hard for peace in the midst of difficult circumstances on my way to work, and I think God seriously enabled me to make it through the day without falling apart. I left thankful and encouraged.

This weekend was freakishly hot (which felt amazing), and we spent a decent chunk of time working on our vegetable garden. We’re nearly done planting. So far we’ve got tomatoes, onions, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, brussels sprouts, green beans, romaine, butter crunch lettuce, bell peppers, hot peppers, and strawberries.

We had some scattered thundershowers last night, and I felt so happy for the plants! I can’t wait until things start growing large enough to eat!

Well, it’s been a lovely little break, but I better be going. I’m off to do a bit of practice before my lesson this afternoon! I’ve been working on a simplified version of this piece. Cheers!

Operation TOTBY

I can’t even begin to tell you what this gorgeous weather we’re having is doing for my soul. My dream job as a kid was a meteorologist, and sometimes I still think I would make a great weather woman because of how much I LOVE discussing the weather. It’s a perfect 70 degrees outside and our backyard is a breezy, sunny dreamland. I spent the morning outside with the chickens, also first accompanied by a delicious cup of coffee and el Biblio, followed by the more exciting company of my friend Elsbeth (+ adorable Madeline, of course) and her sis-in-law. I do not take for granted my privileged life as a grad student on mornings like these. What a blessing to be free to be outside when the weather is so favorable!

In light of the gorgeous weather and the arrival of summer right around the corner, the latest project we’ve taken on is Operation Trick Out The Back Yard. It started with the canopy of lights Jeremy put up over our patio (here’s a snapshot at dusk from the other night):

And then came the chickens, of course, which you know about. We’re planning to build them a proper run this weekend, so that they can have free reign of backyard space, without ruining all of our soon-to-be-planted new plants. The run will essentially be the entire strip at the back of the yard, along the garage between the compost and the sidewalk (which this picture is taken from):

The bulk of operation TOTBY involves the things we’ll be planting. We’re pretty pumped about finally having our very own real backyard for the purpose of having a go at vegetable gardening on a bigger scale (at least compared to our attempt at container gardening on the ledge of our Los Angeles pad). One of Jeremy’s best Christmas gifts this year was a collection of heirloom seeds, which will be fun to try, but before getting our veggie planning and planting on, we’re focusing on the big picture of the yard. Wednesday evening for Jeremy’s birthday, we took a trip to the most incredibl nursery I’ve ever stepped foot in: GETHSEMANE GARDEN CENTER.

This place is amazing. Every gardeners dream, I think. We had a wonderful time perusing the vines and veggies, collecting inspiration and ideas for our back yard. We decided to start out conservative, and picked up these two Trumpet Creeper vines to spiff up our fence:

So the actual planting is about to start happening! But we’ve got lots to work on. Here’s our current yard, as is:

You can see the raised, rectangular beds Jeremy built (filled with mostly unopened bags of soil). Those will be home to all of our vegetables, and we’re hoping to plant vines of green beans that will grow up the fence to the right of those beds. To the right of the big tree, Jeremy made a little pseudo-container for annuals and herbs. Along that side of the fence, we’ll plant the trumpet creeper vines, which will climb up the fence and fill with yellow and salmony trumpet flowers. The chicken coop, which you can see at the back left of the picture, will get moved pretty much where the compost bin currently lies (in the back right corner of the yard), to make a little more room for chicken wandering. Behind the run along the garage, we’ll have some more vines (we’re thinking Clematis vines) growing up those trellises currently leaning against it. Our last major endeavor (as of yet) will be a stone path, which will run between the two raised beds, past the chicken run, and right to the sidewalk that leads to the garage door.

Can’t wait to show you our progress as things start to (hopefully) shape up. I have to say, I didn’t think I would really get into yard work (I think I associated it with being really hot and tired and forced to pull weeds), but I’m beginning to see why gardening is so therapeutic for some people. I had the most delightful evening staining a trellis with the chickens wandering around the other night. Looking forward to getting back to it after a day of studying. Cheers!

befores and afters

In the spirit of following through on my 2012 resolutions, here I am. Winter has finally come to Chicago. We’ve got winter temps, snow on the ground, and more on the way. It’s the end of what has been a surprisingly productive week, so I’ve given myself the gift of a guilt-free morning of relaxation, coffee drinking, and wearing grubby clothes. This afternoon I’ll jump into pharmacology, but for now I’m making good on a promise I’ve made. I’m posting some befores and afters of our new place. I’m warning you now: it’s nothing fancy. I do not have a great camera. But those of you who are far away have been waiting to see what we’ve done, so I’m giving you a peek at our new and improved apartment.

Here’s how we found the place:

Notice the yellow paint that extends to the ceiling! While the color wasn’t awful, it wasn’t exactly our style. Here’s what it looks like now:

True to form, we went with grays again. The dining room is a much darker gray, almost charcoal with a hint of blue. Here’s a shot of the built-in on the opposite wall of the dining room:

I don’t have a great before picture of the hallway, but we snazzed it up with a bit of paint and “artwork” (some old favorites: one of our Audubon prints and our LA map):

We haven’t really done anything to the bedrooms or bathroom, so the last thing I’ll show you is the kitchen. Please excuse the incredibly poorly-taken, blurry before picture:

The kitchen has become my new favorite room. Here’s how it looks now:

We painted (obviously), installed some under-cabinet and above-sink lighting, and (my favorite part) added the island. Jeremy bought it on Craig’s list and then replaced the top with a piece of butcher block. We’re still planning to paint the base of it, but it has added SO MUCH counter space as well as extra storage (the other side has doors, and two shelves inside).

Working on the house has been such a lovely pastime. There’s something so rewarding about making a living space your own. It’s a great combination of creative expression, problem solving, and just plain work. So far homeownership has been much more than it’s cracked up to be. Sure, it’s stressful at times, but I’d say so far the benefits far outweigh the costs. So thankful for this place.

2% milk makes the world go round

It appears the rain is finally coming after holding off all weekend. It’s my favorite kind of gloomy Monday morning. My husband is working from home, the dog is staying out of trouble, the windows are open, and I’m sitting at my dining room table with a delicious creamy cup of coffee, compliments of a little 2% with sugar. The house is clean and I feel delightful.

My family was in town for my cousin’s wedding this weekend and we had a fabulous time. My parents got to tour the latest house we’re thinking of buying, we had some of the best deep dish pizza in all of Chicago with our cousins, and we all seriously danced the night away at the Trettel-Sullivan wedding.

My parents, sister, future bro-in-law, and husband are hands down some of my favorite people to spend time with. There’s just nothing like having the whole Moore family together in one place. It’s going to be near impossible to wait for my sister’s wedding in September.

Our mini vacation came to an end yesterday afternoon and I’m thankful for Monday off to ease back into real Chicago life. The junior Manns have got a lot going on. Jeremy is finishing up the bulk of his teachers’ first year, I’m waiting to hear on a major scholarship that will determine how I begin school in September, and we’re trying to buy a house as the end of our lease is quickly approaching. It’s a bit unreal not knowing what our lives will look like just a couple months from now. It’s freaky, but mostly exciting. I take solace in telling myself that we’re still young and resilient.

On the greater Mann family front, I’m practically counting down the days until the big Mann Family Vacation in Door County, Wisconsin. The last time all of us were together was for Jason and Natalie’s wedding TWO YEARS ago! Our lives have all drastically changed in some way or another since that time in Stinson Beach, and it’s going to be incredible to spend an entire week together. Also Jeremy and I will finally get to meet our little nice, Mercy!

Life is very good, and I am continually amazed at where God has taken us in the past three years. Can’t wait to see what’s up ahead!

April

Well it’s finally April. The dead of winter is over and this year spring really feels like spring. Ok, well spring hasn’treally sprung just yet and I hear April is an especially wet month here in Chicago. But this year the changing of the seasons is uniquely coinciding with a whole lot of new and different in my life.

We’re coming up one one year in Chicago this July, which makes it feel like a legitimate home. I’ve felt settled in and connected here since pretty early on, but being able to count ten months between moving in and now is concrete proof to myself that we’ve actually been here a while. I like it here. The Midwest is my true home more than I ever could have guessed and Chicago is growing on me all the time. And I’m thoroughly enjoying that can’t-wait-for-summer feeling you can only get in a place that experiences the sub-zero temperatures of the Dead of Winter.

I’m finally beginning to hear back from graduate school programs. I didn’t get into UIC, but De Paul accepted me and I’ve got faculty interviews at Rush in a week. It’s incredibly exciting and a bit surreal to think of myself in NP school this fall.

Our lease will be up in July and Jeremy and I will move out of our neighborhood. We like our apartment and our landlord is wonderful, but we’re excited to leave Wicker Park in hopes to find a more diverse, lower income community we can be a part of. Lately we’re spending lots of time perusing pad mapper, analyzing all kinds of Chicago maps, and going on neighborhood reconnaissance treks with our friends. We’re also entertaining the idea of buying something. Our dream life includes us buying an old (late 1800′s-early 1900′s) stone three or four flat building to live in and rent to some of our friends as well as local neighborhood peeps.

In other very EXCITING news, my siblings-in-law Josh and Bex Mann have finally arrived to the states with their baby girl, Mercy! It’s funny. It’s not like we get to see them or even chat with them much while they’re in Oregon, but it feels so good to have them back in Salem! Maybe it’s just knowing they’re a quick, easy, good connection of a phone call away that feels so great. We got to chat with them on the phone the day after they got home and it was so refreshing to hear their voices. I don’t think I would have known before they took the step, but it feels so wonderful to have parents and a baby among this generation of Manns. I’m so thankful for their new little family, and I am so looking forward to taking notes as these two incredible people raise a daughter.

I could write about a handful of other wonderful things I’m looking forward to and excited about, but this should do for now. So thankful to be alive!

Some of This and That

Another beautiful morning in this fair city we call Los Angeles. Jeremy is having a large group of man friends over today, so after waking at a nearly leisurely pace and helping him clean a bit, I skeedadled over here to Chango for some breakfast burrito and wake up time. It’s really quite pleasant to be doing all this at 10:30am on a Saturday.

A lot of small dogs without leashes keep walking into this coffee shop sniffing peoples’ pant legs until their owners peek their heads in to retrieve them. I’d like one of those. I’m working on Jeremy already because I’ve decided that we will own a Yorkie within the next ten years. I mean who in their right mind DOESN’T want one of these?:

Two days ago I found a pet rescue website with a little Yorkie named Dickens who had been hit by a car. He had a cone on his head in the picture and was going to be available to be adopted once all his broken bones were healed. I think I actually could have gotten Jeremy to get the little guy. Unfortunately, this pet rescue requires their adopters to be 25 or older, homeowners, and people planning not to have children during the entire lifetime of the dog. Whoa.

We’re redecorating our living room, which I have to say is quite an enjoyable endeavor. We both love variety, exercising our creativity, perusing craigslist, and taking trips to the fabric district downtown. Last weekend we headed down to Michael Levine’s on the motorcycle in search of new fabric for different curtains. We’re planning on going more of a blue direction, although our red curtains still do match nicely. What do you think?

We’re also looking for an old upright piano to take the place of our desk, which is sort of where the camera is shooting from.

I suppose it’s of note that I got my six month promotion at work last week. It’s nothing huge, basically a promotion you get as long as you don’t get fired before six months. It is kind of exciting though, because I am officially a “CN-II,” which means no more probationary period: I’m just a little bit more legit.

Jeremy and I still don’t have much of an idea what our next few years will look like. It’s exciting sometimes to feel like we’re still young and a little bit flying by the seat of our pants. Other times, it would just be nice to know how to plan for what’s next. I’m sure as time passes we’ll have more of that, and that peace and patience are things we’re learning to have in the face of the uncertainties of life.

As always, we hope you are well, and we hope that you always feel welcome to come see us and stay with us. I’m off to pick up the produce and listen to one of my favorite NPR programs, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

summer art inspiration

It’s summertime. Real summertime. Weekends are long and relaxing. Weekdays are delightfully packed with time for productivity in all the areas I wish I could focus on when life gets crazy. Dinners can be long and lazy and eaten on the porch.

This summer has possibly been one of my best so far. I’m excited to go back to work, and the short time I have left before that happens leaves me inspired to make the most of each day.

Jeremy and I are working on all sorts of projects this summer. My favorites: finally getting to the kitchen and the bedroom. We did a lot of decorating and home-improvementish projects the first few months we spent here. Most of our creative efforts went toward the living room. We didn’t totally neglect making the kitchen and bedroom feel like home, but now we’re working on really giving them their own looks.

We spent some time at the Americana in Glendale this afternoon where we visited my all time favorite store: Anthropologie. Pretty much every time I leave that store, my mind doesn’t for at least a few hours. I’m no artist, but anthropologie leaves me feeling inspired and ready to make my home (and myself, for that matter) a sweet looking place to be. I like the creative juices this store squeezes out of me. I enjoy the kick in the pants it gives me everytime I walk in.

Sure, a part of me would like to just buy everything anthropologie sells and rearrange it in my own home. That’d be expensive, but easy–and our apartment would look really awesome. But the very nature of the stuff this place sells challenges me to use my own inner artist and inginuity to re-create the kind of feeling the store’s designs evoke in me, regardless of whether I could afford to simply buy it all. It says to me, “Find an old piece of furniture and fix it up a bit, Erin.” “Learn to sew, Erin. Make your own home-made-looking oven mit.”

This is the kind of store we should hope our culture keeps creating. And we should hope the people that shop there are challenged in the same way. Let’s not lazily admire other people’s work and abandon our own efforts to inspire others. Let’s see well-designed houseware and wonder how we can create our own great kitchen. Here’s to becoming all kinds of artists in any realms of our lives we can.

peppers and tomatoes

Jeremy and I love living in the city. We do. Believe it or not, Los Angeles has snuck into our hearts and stolen many of our affections. For those of you without close relations to this city, it has nothing to do with famous people or paparazzi. Maybe some of my love for LA stems from other peoples’ disgust with the place. (you know… “Uh, I hate LA. It’s disgusting. Have you SEEN the smog?! And the driving! I don’t know how people LIVE there.”) Generally, I’m a lover of the underdog.

Anyways, our love for the city has not made us strictly cityfolk. We’ve been working toward self-sufficiency in our little urban homestead. Someday we’ll get fresh eggs from chickens we keep in a small backyard; for now, Jeremy’s putting together a vegetable garden.

He fashioned two self-watering planters with a few 5-gallon buckets, some PC piping, and our new drill:

Now we’ve got tomatoes, green peppers, and lemon thyme happily growing on our bottom steps.

We’re hoping these little guys will allow us to fashion our own salsa and pasta sauce. Until then, we’re eagerly awaiting the veggies of our labors (well, mostly my husband’s labor.)