The barn with a name

I have a dream.
A dream that's been growing since I was young, became real with the planning of my wedding, and has become a nagging obsession since.

You might think it sounds crazy, but I want to own a barn.

Yep. You read that right. A barn.

I don't want to raise any animals. I'm not really a big animal person.
I don't want to plant crops, although apple trees would be cool.
No, I want to own a barn as a facility to host weddings and other events.

Here's the story behind this dream:

When I was young, I somehow managed to think I was a country girl. I never lived on a farm. I never rode a horse. I lived in suburban Twin Cities MN. But the woods was my favorite place on God's earth, and I had a thing for antiquity. I used to dream up a wedding in my head where we set up hay bales in rows for guests to sit on during the ceremony, and where we retreated to the rustic stone and weathered-wood barn for a reception and dance.

I've always had a thing for barns. There is something about the architecture of them. They tell a story about a certain period of our history. And they are rotting and falling over in neglect in fields and groves all across our country. They are not being put to use, and so they are deteriorating. It makes me sad to see a barn sagging and collapsing- especially the giant old barns, skillfully built, that have been around for 100 years or more.

When it was time to plan my wedding, my mom and I drove every dang back road within a 20 mile radius of our home, looking for a barn in which we could possibly host a wedding. We checked out apple orchards, family farms, horse stables, wineries... What we found out was that there are really very few such venues in the area.

Click here to see some examples of the kind of setting I'm talking about.



There is a particular barn, in Nowthen, MN (No, really. You gotta love a town named Nowthen!), that I've admired for many, many years. Probably since I could drive a car. I remember driving with my brother, taking pictures of barns and silos as we cruised the back roads in the rural areas north of our home. And I remember once pulling over to take a picture of this one particular barn, and thinking that of all of the barns I'd seen, this one was the most... majestic.

Now, majestic may not seem to you like a great adjective to describe a barn. But it was strong and tall and held its own weight. Though you could tell it was neglected, and would have been entitled to a little sagging here and there, it stood proud. It was unique. It was a round barn, with a giant cupola, brick base, and windows all around. And it commanded a beautiful property, bordering a lake, with mature trees and a beautiful home.

Over time, I've stopped at or driven by this barn many times. And over time, the dream has grown. I WANT THAT BARN! And then I want as many people as possible to see it and enjoy its character.

Just for fun, I began think... what would I name the barn, if ever I were blessed enough to own it?
I prayed about it... I thought about it... I brainstormed... You know, just for fun.
A dozen super-stupid names crossed my mind, and were instantly vetoed. I just couldn't pin a name on the dream.

So I consulted Google. :o)
I started searching for "wedding barn" and "historic barn"... just looking at the names of different barns, both the wedding-venue type, and other. Then I happened to search "historic barns, MN", which led me to a page listing the barns in MN that are on the National Registrar of Historic Places. Just for fun, I clicked on my county, and took a look at the historic sites listed.

And then, holy moly! Guess what I saw?!? MY BARN! Staring at me from my computer screen! The link led to a Wikipedia page, telling me the history and THE NAME of my barn! (Please excuse all of the exclamations. I am fully aware that none of this is as exciting to you as it is to me.)


So there it is. Sparre Barn of Nowthen, MN.

Now I realize that this is sounding silly to some people. But what I'm about to tell you will sound even sillier (sillier is not a word- I know). I want to go knock on the owner's door. I want to show up with a folder of pictures and tell them about my dream for their barn. I want to give them my card (I don't actually have a card- I'm a stay-at-home-mom- but I'd make one especially for them!), and ask them to contact me if ever they were looking to sell the property. I want to research rules and regulations regarding properties on the National Registrar of Historic Places and think about business plans and finances.... and... and...

Halt!

I'm way ahead of myself, I know.
So for now, I will do none of the above.
But I will pray. And I will wait. And if this dream persists, I will probably go knock on their door someday. I will not bombard them with my silly dream, but I will politely give them my contact info and ask them to contact me if ever they sell. And I will pray some more.

Did absense make your heart grow fonder? ... I thought not.

Hi... I suck.
Yeah, I know.
It's been well over a year.
I have no excuses.
Don't hate me, mmkay?
:o)

So, I've been thinking. Since I just suck at this bloggity-blog stuff, maybe I should just delete my account and not pretend to be a blogger. (BTW, I don't, by ANY stretch of the term, think of or refer to myself as a blogger.) But I don't really want to delete my account, or my past posts. I like 'em. So can I just be an online journal-er instead?

Because, you see, the thing is that I don't really have much to share with you except my random shenanigans, my ideas, my dreams, and my point of view. I'm not here to share recipes with you or make in-depth tutorials. I'm still working on figuring out just about every aspect of my life, so I'm not going to sit here and dole out advice or wisdom. I'm just me, and I just randomly feel like creating a written account of what's up in my life and my head.

Is that acceptable?
Do you accept these terms?
Sweet. Thanks.

Updates and recent happenings :o)

I've been gone for so long! So much has happened! Where to begin?!!

OK, I will not try to recap the last 11 months. Instead, I'll vaguely fill you in on each of us- what we're up to and anything noteworthy that's happened since August of last year.

I quit working full-time shortly after my last post, and have been enjoying (It's been quite the adjustment, and I'm just now finally beginning to feel like I've got a grip on things) being home with the kids. Emrick did not like sleeping through the night until just about 2 months ago. 8 months of sleep deprivation will suck the sanity out of anyone, especially the mom who has little adult interaction or alone time. Thankfully, Joel is really pretty good about taking the kids and letting me get some time out, and we made it to the sleeps-through-the-night-every-night milestone- YAY!

I used to think that if I had the opportunity to stay home, I would be able to do all of these projects and crafts and activities. I thought I'd have time to stay in shape, bake, keep my house clean, refinish furniture, accomplish some DIY projects, take my kids to parks and museums, etc.
What I realized pretty quickly was that I have to pick my priorities, because doing it all, all the time, will never happen. So, I clean my house when I get around to that, I decided parks and museums are a little overrated (my kids seem to like the walking paths in our neighborhood better than any museum) showers are now a spectator sport, and everyone's better off if mom has a cup of coffee before anyone does ANYTHING in the morning. :o)

I did start running, and have actually learned to love running outdoors, which is something I never thought I'd say. I'm not fast, but improving. My 5K is averaging about 32 min. If you don't run, you might be slightly impressed that I can run 5K (3.1 miles) at all. But if you're a runner, you know how slow that is. But it's a start, and I'm improving, so... yay me!

And I've started some of the kinds of projects I had hoped to do. For instance, I refinished a table I've had forever:

 I made this quilt for Afton:

And I've gotten together with my friend Heidi (see her blog here) and her girls a couple of times to do some fun projects too:

for project info, see here

for project info, see here

So, that's what I've been up to lately. :-)

Gillian has been keeping busy playing softball this summer, having Kool-Aid stands, playing with the neighbor kids, enjoying a volleyball camp, biking with daddy, and all kinds of other good summertime fun. She's going to be starting 2nd grade in another month or so!

Afton is.... well, she's Afton! If you remember, I was a little worried about her lack of vocabulary. Well, we are definitely no longer worried. She caught up quickly and is now saying all kinds of stuff. She says "Oh my gosh!" all the time, and it makes me chuckle. When she says Emrick's name, it sounds like "Emuck", but she usually just calls him baby. She still calls Gillian "Gigi" and we all like it, so I don't think that'll change anytime too soon. She is quite the little spit-fire, and the terrific twos are upon us now, so life with her is almost always interesting and entertaining.

Emrick is already 10 months old and is growing like crazy. He's so laid back and happy most of the time! He's got 5 teeth so far, babbles all the time, crawls and climbs all over the place (no walking yet), and loves to play catch! He also LOVES the water, which is a really good thing with all of this hot, sticky weather we've been having. It makes a trip to the lake or the river, or even just the kiddie pool in the back yard, a lot of fun. :o)

Joel is doing well, not much out of the ordinary. He is focusing on biking a lot this summer. He has recently been biking home from work on Thursdays (downtown Minneapolis to Ramsey), which is around 25 miles, depending on his route. Otherwise, he's still working at Old Republic doing computer stuff (all of which is Greek to me), and enjoys spending time with the kids and I going for nice long walks.

So, that's where we're at. Here is where I would normally make a promise or state my intent to never, ever let so much time lapse between posts again. But.... I'm not prepared to make such promises. I can say that I will try to be better at keeping up on this blog now that life has settled back to something of a "normal" though. :o) Adios amigos!

Aaaaaand... I'm back!

Whew!
In case you were wondering, I am still alive and kickin'!

It's been almost a year since my last post, and things have changed immensely!

First of all, let me introduce the reason (or at least the only viable excuse I can come up with) for my hiatus. On September 22, 2010, we welcomed a perfectly healthy little guy to our family! We named him Emrick Matthew, and he was 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches, every bit of him perfectly wonderful!

Time has flown since then, and now he's 10 months old. YIKES!

Everyone is well, and growing as weeds- I mean children- should. ;-) More on what we've been up to later. For now I just wanted to resurrect myself from the land of the blogging dead.

Broccoli and Cookies- What a tasty Saturday!

Today has been a just-right kind of Saturday, straddling the line between fun and productive perfectly.


Most of the day was spent cleaning and organizing some areas of the house that have been neglected for too long. Joel and I cleaned out some kitchen cupboards, caught up on laundry, scrubbed the bathroom down, boxed up the fits-no-more kids clothes and brought out some next-size-up kids clothes... and even had time to listen to some Nickel Creek while drinking mid-morning coffee.


The remainder of the day was quality time spent with the girls.


I got a kick out of putting Afton's hair in pigtails for the first time. They were more like pig-stubs or pig-spikes, but cute nonetheless. She is getting so smart and developing such a unique little personality- I love it. We have some broccoli planted in our garden, and she goes right for the florets, picks 'em off the plant and puts them directly into her mouth- it cracks me up... a kid that little, liking raw broccoli so much... good girl! 

Picking broccoli in the garden

She does so many funny little things these days, so much fun just to hang out with her. She likes to back up to things and sit down. Now, that sounds dumb, because everybody backs up to things to sit down on them. But it's the way she does it that is so funny. She turns around quite a ways from where she plans to sit, and then kind of waddles backward carefully until she's just in the right position... and then, plop! It might be her little step-stool, or someone's lap, or just a particular spot on the floor or against a wall.... but the funniest is when she sits on the floor vent. Because the floor vents (where the cold air is coming out, since it's summer) are not a whole lot larger than her little bottom, she seems to take extra care in making sure the plop! is as accurately on spot as possible, and the look of satisfaction on her face when she sits squarely on the middle of the vent is just priceless!


After Afton went to bed, Gillian and I made cookies. I do not bake often, and Gillian usually doesn't get to stay up much past Afton's bedtime, so this was a special treat for both of us. Gillian is such a good little helper, and so eager to do things by herself, or on her own. She measured all the ingredients, and cracked eggs without getting any shells in the dough. She even took the pans out of the oven with the big oven mitts, which she seemed particularly excited about- as if that was a REAL grown up kind of task, and she felt really privileged to be considered big enough to do that part. :o)

The most entertaining portion of the cookie-bake was when Gillian told me to jiggle my belly before I tried one of the finished cookies. She explained that, "Everything you eat goes straight to the baby, but if the baby is sleeping, so are its taste-buds, and the baby won't even know how yummy they are!... So, you should jiggle your belly to wake the baby up before you try one." Agh! Sometimes she just makes me giggle- the way she thinks and the way she DESCRIBES the way she thinks... so funny.


So now, my belly is filled with cookie dough (and one actual cookie), and my head is filled with sleepiness, because my day was filled with simple joy. :o)

Havin' a ball!

Until recently, I was a little worried about Afton's lack of vocab. But she has debuted her first word (besides mama and dada)! She says "BALL" every time she sees something spherical. She loves balls- little balls, big balls, even my big pregnant belly- to her- is a "BALL!". As we walked into the store the other day, she excitedly started reaching for the big red balls along the sidewalk at Target saying "BALL! BALL! BALL!" I guess since it's the only thing she knows how to say, she's enjoying being able to say it. :o)

In other news (does something need to be qualified as news-worthy in order to be called "news"?...), my mom and I recently re-upholstered my couch. YAY us! (mostly YAY for my mom! Who is ridiculously talented and industrious- and generously helpful with her time--- you rock mom!)

Before
(please disregard the super-messy living room, and focus instead on the couch.
If you can't tell, those are reeds, cattails, and loons in the weave of that purple-based fabric)

During...

...And After- Ta-dah!

Oh, and one last tidbit. I got a new MacBook Pro for my birthday! (I'm feeling a little guilty and spoiled just tying that- hehe) So now I get to venture into the world of Mac and see what this little baby can do! So far, I'm impressed (and slightly creeped out) with the face recognition bit in iPhoto... so cool.... how does it do that?!!?

I am dweeb- hear me ROAR!

I am admittedly a huge dweeb. And I find that sometimes, the things that bring me pleasure are just absurd.

Yesterday, after finishing this project and standing back to look at it, I literally chuckled. I thought to myself, "now THIS is a total dweeb moment!".

Most of you who have children know that over the course of that first year, you can go through quite a few canisters of infant formula. For some reason, I saved a bunch of those empty canisters with the intention of reusing them for something. I got this desk from my cousin, who was giving it away, to use as a sewing/craft/hobby desk and storage spot. The side of it has little shelves that are just the right size, and I have a bajillion little craft/hobby items that needed to be organized and put away. And thus, a formula-can storage system was born.

I spray painted the cans & lids white, and used the old paper label strip that was on the formula cans as a template to cut strips of wrapping paper to wrap around them. One can contains cutting utensils (exacto-knife, whole punch, scissors, etc.), another is filled with ribbons. There's a can filled with sewing thread, one with rubber stamps, another with a rainbow of ink pads, one for jewelry-making stuff... and so on.

Now, as I was chuckling, I was also a bit nostalgic. It made me think of my grandpa and grandma Wasche, who both had a knack for making things no one else would think to make. My Grandma could make pretty much anything out of yarn- and she would if she so desired (have you ever seen an air freshener wearing a crocheted dress?!). And Grandpa was just the type to hold onto seemingly useless things (think formula cans) until just the right purpose came along. I loved and miss them, and am thankful for all of the wonderful and quirky things that made them special.