Ending the school year with a bang (and a drill or two)

Last day of school! Last day of school!

Today was the kids' last day. I think St. Paul is the only school district in the country that hasn't been out since last week. I think it's nice to end in the middle of the week -- makes a Tuesday seem like a Friday.

It's been an emotional and exciting week for all of us here in Gronauland. Lucy had her Kindergarten graduation last Friday. Many tears were shed as her cohort of 15 said goodbye to the teacher most of them had had for two years.


Golly, we love Ms. Kristie! She gave a lovely tear-jerking little talk about the class, and then as they got their "diplomas," Kristie announced what each child said he or she wanted to be when they grew up. Lucy said "a teacher." We watched a little slide show of the year, followed by cookies and juice. It was small and simple and touching and perfect.


Lucy's graduation dress (yay Valu Thrift!)


She REALLY wanted to wear my hat, but chickened out.


Our big brand-new first grader!


And here are a couple pics from her piano recital the weekend before:

Ms. Mary, a sweet and patient woman.


I did 2 duets with Lucy, and she played one piece on her own. Piano has been a struggle this year -- Lucy hasn't really enjoyed it, and it's been really hard making time to practice. But she enjoyed performing (surprise, surprise) and has been working much harder and more diligently on it the last couple of weeks, and we're all (by which I mean "I am") starting to get more disciplined about her practicing.

Also, we've been assembling a playset:
This is the kind of project that would take one full weekend if you had 2-4 grownups working all daylight hours. We, unfortunately, do not have that kind of free time, but we spent large chunks of 2 weekends putting this thing together. The picture above shows maybe 20% completion. It's now probably 90% completed (even the monster slide is fully assembled but just needs its bolts tightened and the whole thing needs to be attached to the fort) but finishing that last 10% is going to be tricky. The kids already are enjoying the swings and I'm excited to have people over when it's less of a safety hazard.

Oh golly there's so much more! But I have to go get the kids from the bus. I hope to find time in the next couple of days to let y'all know about roller derby tryouts. In the meantime, bon soir!

Wednesday night

Stink! I SWORE I was going to write more as tryouts approached. Well, I'm a bit of a failure because tryouts are in 4 days. I suppose now is as good a time as any to do some processing. But first: what the devil have we been up to around here?

Lucy had her first piano recital last Saturday. Her teacher, Miss Mary, is an incredibly sweet and patient woman with an adorable South African accent. Lucy likes her but has not enjoyed piano for most of the school year. It's hard to find time to practice (and Mary only asks for 10-15 minutes per day)... and Lucy ALWAYS has something she'd rather be doing... and I'm not always home in the evening to sit with her... and Lucy has had other rehearsals stealing her time... anyway, it has been a struggle.

But just days before the recital, I finally happened to be at a lesson with Lucy and during a natural break in the action, I mentioned to Mary about the difficulty we'd been having, and Mary gently-but-firmly encouraged practicing immediately after school, before any other distractions could jump in. And I realized that our normal after-school routine had been extremely wishy-washy: all snick-snacking and shoe-tossing and backpack-unloading and completely unstructured. So, I thought, we could try some structure. I set a timer when the kids got home and let them know that they should grab something to eat right away, because snacktime was OVER when the buzzer buzzed. And I let Lucy know that at the buzzer, she'd start practicing piano. And you know what? Not a single complaint. They ate, they finished, and she practiced -- at least 15 minutes and sometimes more.

Now, it's only been a week (and we've had to mix it up a bit this week because I've been teaching at the kids' school... more on that later)... but today Lucy even had the forethought to practice BEFORE SCHOOL because she was having a playdate after school. What a kid! She played beautifully (I mean, for a 6-year-old who has been taking piano for only 9 months) at her recital on Saturday, and I'm just so proud of her. She's matured so much in the last few months, and while I mourn the loss of her babyhood, she is truly growing into a lovely young girl.

Eddie had a rough evening tonight. I'm guessing he had a nice morning with Grandpa Books (those two are like peas and carrots), and I think his school day was OK (albeit a little off-kilter; there was an assembly (more on that later)), but Lucy had a playdate after (that Ed wasn't invited to) and then we had to drop Grandpa off at the airport (Eddie says "I miss him already. He's my biggest fan."), then I dragged him to a roller derby store to get my wiggly plate looked at (the housing for my toestop has come unglued -- not a dealbreaker, but will need to be fixed soon). Then we had a loooong drive to McDonald's, then I took him to the Roseville Oval so I could skate a few laps, and he had no playmates and was booooooooored. And, I suspect, quite tired after an exciting week. We've had some unbearable heat here (today was lovely, but the last 2 days have been 100+ degrees) and I think Ed got a bit too hot Monday and is still recovering a bit. Anyway, he calmed down by bedtime and, I might add, passed out almost immediately.

For the last 5 school days I've been teaching a "High School Musical" camp at the kids' school. Every three years, Nokomis does an "Artist in Residence" program for their 4th, 5th, and 6th-graders. The students get to choose between 5 or 6 art programs and then spend 5 days participating in them. Ashland Productions arranged it for me (with only a bit of prodding from me) and I was honored and excited to get to teach at my kids' school.

The kids learned a 10-minute song-and-dance medley, and we played some theatre/acting games to break it up a bit. It was intense. For one, some of the kids didn't follow instructions and accidentally put the HSM camp down as their first choice. Ooops. And... remember that 100+ degree heat I mentioned? Yep, and I was in an upstairs, west-facing classroom with 25 kids and noooo air conditioning. It was brutal.

We made the best of it (and occasionally escaped to the much-cooler gym). And, as always happens, the show totally came together at the end. Over half the kids chose to sing solos, and with the wonder of modern sound amplification, you could actually hear them. At least six different teachers stopped me afterward and said they had been crying the whole performance -- evidently my group had a large number of children with various behavior and/or emotional problems. Some of the kids had NEVER gotten up to speak in front of their classes before... but they did a solo. Some of these kids aren't having much success in math... reading... any of the traditional school subjects... but they shone while performing. Some of the kids came in wanting nothing to do with singing and dancing, but I totally caught them having a good time and actually trying up there. It was a beautiful experience. Nokomis had to cut their music teacher a few years ago, and a bunch of the teachers said this experience was a perfect example of why music is absolutely necessary in school. I was astounded and humbled by the whole thing. It sure wasn't easy -- I came home completely wiped out those first 4 days. But I am so dang proud of those kids. I am so blessed to get to do what I do.

OK right, so I'm trying out for the Minnesota Rollergirls on Sunday. Tryouts start at 2pm and I ought to know by 6 or 6:30 whether I've been selected to attend this summer's boot camp. If I make it to boot camp, then we practice 3 days a week until the draft on August 11. I would be feeling pretty darn confident about the whole thing... except I think there are only 6 spots available. Aaaaannnd there are a couple of the girls on my Debs team with whom I cannot keep up. Aaaaand you never know what kind of transfers or other super-amazing girls might stroll in off the street. Aaaaaaand in some ways it's like a theatre audition -- they might be looking to draft only taller, larger girls (in dance, I am definitely taller and larger. Not so in derby). Or girls under age 30. Or -- God forbid! -- redheads. Anything is possible.

But I'm so grateful for how roller derby has impacted my life already. I am in better shape than ever. I get really sweaty on a regular basis, which makes me so happy (ask Joel). And when I really push myself and dig deep and try something new or hard (or new AND hard), I've had an amazing group of women standing right there, cheering me on until it's time for us to trade places. I've never experienced such support, such positivity, such great motivational mojo. And I've been in wonderful groups of people before. I've had life-changing experiences with awesome people when I was in West Side Story and Joseph. I've loved my softball and volleyball teams, and I'm grateful and fond of the relationships formed during those experiences. But to have 80 women working together encouraging each other, without a single stinker in the bunch... there's nothing like that power.

So, I'm going to rest and hydrate and hope for the best on Sunday. And I'll be honored if I make it, but still delighted just to continue with the Debs for another year if I don't. And I'll let you know, either way!

Thursday afternoon

Tonight are my three final dance classes of the session at Maplewood. It's been a long session -- 14 weeks -- and it culminates in a dress rehearsal tomorrow night (Friday) followed by 2 blessedly brief recitals on Saturday.

This has been such a fun year, getting back into teaching again. Like anything, it gets SO much easier with practice. Just a few short months ago, I had a ginormous class (15 girls age 3-5) and it took every once of energy I had to keep it together. But a little experience goes a long way -- I'm learning how to enforce order right off the bat, which gives me much more leeway to be fun, later. Now I've got a class of 16 girls and -- gasp! -- I actually look forward to teaching it.

I just got back from a 33-minute jog around the neighborhood. I was dreading it, but it felt pretty awesome. My 'hood is a really nice amount of hilly, and quiet enough to be able to stay on city streets but not worry too much about having to break stride to wait for traffic. This was my 3rd run in the Vibrams -- I sure love how my body feels when I run in them (though this might more accurately be attributed to the other regular exercise I've been getting), but 50% of the time they have give me wicked blisters on my arch. (Is that the same thing as an instep? Well, whatever.)

MNRG tryouts are now 1 month and 1 week away. We (the Debu-Taunts) had a good skating practice last Sunday on the concourse at Xcel again. This, of course, means that we didn't get to scrimmage... AGAIN... and it's now been SO long since we've scrimmaged that I would feel incredibly uncomfortable scrimmaging at the moment. Hah! Not that I ever felt comfortable scrimmaging! I cannot begin to describe to you the black hole that forms in my chest and stomach the instant someone says "scrimmage." Look, I just typed it 5 times and I think I need to head to the bathroom.

Wow, I think I really might be allergic to cheese.

Anyway, it was a really good practice. Led by our coachesWe did several warm-up laps, a group-stretch, then broke up into groups to work on skills. We did some whips (for the first time! ever!), which were surprisingly anti-climactic; some pacelines-with-weaving-and-butt-blocking; shopping carts; weaving-around-cones; hockey stops; sprinting relay races (my favorite!); and A Few Minutes of Hell, which basically means you sprint FOREVER until they tell you to stop. This is to help prepare us for tryouts, when they do 10 Minutes of Hell (which I'm guessing is longer than A Few Minutes). On Sunday they mixed it up a bit and had us sprint one lap, then skate one lap as fast as we could without lifting our skates off the floor (also known as "sticky skates"), then go back to sprinting, then back to sticky. I think we did it for 5 minutes. I was feeling OK and I think I kept pace with the fastest group.

Last Wednesday (now over a week ago) I hit Terrors practice again. We did some drills all together with the traveling team (my favorite of which involved fast-feet in place, then dropping to "sprawl" (laying flat on your stomach, usually in the puddle of sweat left behind by the guy in front of you) three times, then getting up and sprinting once around the track). When the traveling team split off, our group (all the girls in attendance, plus undrafted boys) asked Medusa and JukeBoxx (two supertalented MNRG All-Stars) to help us with footwork, so we practiced things like skating only on our front (or back) wheels, and only on our inside (or outside) wheels, etc. (remember, we're on quad skates). I had never tried this stuff before, and it was really fun and challenging -- great for core strength and balance, and good just to test our limits. We also did some backward skating with crossovers, and "spread eagle" (skating sideways, with both feet turned completely out). This last one is a major challenge for me -- my hips, legs, and feet naturally turn in. I fell over many times. Again, always good to stretch those boundaries.

OK, time to set a timer and do a little cleaning-tornado for about 25 minutes. Woo hoo!

Happy Easter!

Last night Joel and I got a lovely night out with his family -- it was Donna's bday (and John's and her anniversary) on Friday night, so Joel's sister Julie and Kaz invited us over for a really lovely crab-and-steak dinner and then we all went to Jersey Boys together in Minneapolis. It was really wonderful to have an adultish night out. The food was great, and the show was very fun. In the Orpheum lobby I ran into Katie Allen, with whom I'd performed many years ago -- her boyfriend is playing Tommy DeVito, one of the Four Seasons. I'd only met him once, very briefly, but it was fun to have kind of a personal connection to the show.

Today the kids woke us up nice and early to look for their Easter eggs and baskets. It was a blast and they were just so cute. Joel's parents came over and we dressed for church -- Ed choosing the 3-piece suit he wore for Julie & Jeff's wedding exactly 1 year ago. Fortunately when I shortened his pants back then, I made it really easy for myself to let them back out again this morning. Lucy also wore her dress from that wedding.Eddie kept repeating, "Mr. President, may I have a word?"

(Right now Eddie is peeling himself a pink hardboiled egg and he just said, "I'm ALL about Easter. The whole darn thing.")

We hit church, then came home to do an outdoor egg hunt and eat brunch. I made a crockpot egg bake, some crockpot cheesy potatoes, some fruit, and Jane Peterson's sour cream coffee cake, and everything turned out swell.

After lunch I got a nice 20-minute nap out in the sun on the deck (until a bug flew into my ear). At 2pm it was time for my derby team's Easter Wall-Sit. Wherever we were at 2pm we were supposed to "sit" on a wall (back flat against the wall, knees bent at 90 degrees) and hold it as long as we could. I about died after 4 min, 30 seconds -- a couple gals were in the 10-minute range and one said she made 22 minutes! Jean came over and assured me that there are many ways to cheat at a wall sit... but I suspect I probably just stink at it.

This is at about 3:30 in (Lucy started bawling after 10 seconds, then came back on & off for a bit):


After the Gronaus left, Jean and Joel and I took the kids up to Lake Phalen -- Joel took the kids to the playground and Jean and I ran the 3.1-mile loop in about 28 minutes. It was only my second run in the Vibrams and I *think* I love them... I had none of the blister issues from the first run, and I felt fantastic the whole time. It helped that it was 60 degrees and sunny for the first time since September.

We practiced our cartwheels, answered several questions about my shoes, and mocked the bicyclist who complained about us jogging in the bike lane. (I was, like, You're not from this neighborhood, are you?) And now I'm chanking on a salad (I ended my no-desserts Lenten fast by eating many, many sugary things and now my tummy is feeling unfortunate) and threatening to throw the kids in the bathtub. Perfect ending ot a very happy Easter!

The hills are alive!

Eddie and Joel got to watch about 10 minutes of Lucy's Sound of Music rehearsal tonight. Did I mention Lucy is in the The Sound of Music? Omigosh I don't think I did! OK Lucy is playing Gretl in a local community production. Oh here! I forget this isn't a facebook post and I can be verbose. It's up in White Bear Lake, through Lakeshore Players. Yes, WBL is a haul (25 minutes one way) -- though there are parents driving from the Highland neighborhood and Cottage Grove (each an extra 15 minutes) so I am not complaining.

I'm also not complaining because the rest of the cast is totally outstanding. They have double-cast the seven Von Trapp children so Lucy is in 8 of the 16 shows. (She is in the "Trapp" or "T" cast if you are looking to buy tickets.) Of the 13 other kids in the show, I'd worked with all but 3 or 4 and even those I'd heard good things about. Also one of my absolute favorite singers (and a very cool mom), Peggy Sutherland, is playing Maria. Lucy's first show is April 30! Can't wait!

Anyway! So Joel and Eddie got to watch the last 10 minutes of rehearsal, and as Lucy sang her solo last line of "So Long, Farewell..." Eddie jumped all over Joel and stage-whispered "That's MY SISTER!!!" He's so proud of her. Love it.

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I had a pretty good derby practice on Sunday. We were on the concourse of the Xcel Energy Center, which is cool to get to skate in, but not an awesome practice space. We can't scrimmage there, but we do "stations" where three coaches each set up spots and we divide up and rotate. We did sprinting, stopping, falling, and turning relay races with Betty LaRude... Pacelines (skating fast in a long line) and shopping-carts (one skater pushing 2 girls in front of her), and sticky-skates (skating without taking your wheels off the floor) with Lydia Punch... and fast-feet and weaving drills with Wet Spot (our lone male, who cleans up spilt beer and water at the MNRG bouts; plus he runs the t-shirt cannon and knows gobs about gear).

On Wednesday I went to Terrors practice. The Twin Cities Terrors are our local men's derby league (they are sometimes referred to as MMRD -- Minnesota Mens Roller Derby). They practice at the "Terrordome," AKA the Minnesota National Guard Armory in St. Paul. They -- most generously -- open their practice to anybody in skating gear with $5. Sometimes we can practice with the guys the whole time, and sometimes they are prepping for a bout and we skate on the side (usually with the guys who have not yet been drafted to a team), but no matter what it's an amazing workout and learning experience.

Terrors practice is never the same place twice, which this variety-lovin' girl thinks is awesome. We've done 30-lap pacelines at nearly a full sprint... then done sprinting/turning/stopping drills. We practice going clockwise (typical derby direction is going counter-clockwise around the track, and once you've been building that muscle memory for a while, it's strange and scary going the "wrong way.") We've scrimmaged... then played roller-freeze-tag (which COMPLETELY ROCKS). We get to learn from other skaters who have different teaching styles and different ways of explaining things. I'm not self-motivated enough to enjoy skating at the rinks very much, so Terrors practice is kind of a perfect fit for me. Oh, except news flash: Boys smell dreadful.

MNRG Tryouts: 1 month and 29 days to go

Hey there! I'm going to be trying out for the Minnesota Rollergirls (MNRG) on Sunday, June 12 -- and in the next almost-2-months I'd like to use this forum to document my training and prep for tryouts.

Background: last July I signed up for the recreation-and-training league of MNRG: the Debu-Taunts ("Debs" or DTs). I'd only ever been to one roller derby bout, but I knew I could skate OK, and after eschewing sport in favor of theatre/dance for the past 20 years, I was looking for a new athletic endeavor. DTs practice once a week, on Sunday nights, and I try to get in at least one other skate each week, so I'll let you know how those progress.

People always ask about injuries in roller derby, so I'll probably give you some injury updates as I go. Right now I've got the remainders of a really cute bruise (about 4" in diameter) on my right hip, from falling hard at practice 2 weeks ago. My wristguard took a bite out of my right arm last Sunday, so there's a tablespoon-sized donut-shaped bruise there. My arches each have a blister, from running in my new Vibram shoes 2 days ago. Other than that: pretty healthy.

More later!

Blown away

Here's what I want: a Community Ed class on how to blow-dry your hair. OK -- my hair. I'm embarrassed even to say that it's only been in the past year or so that I am finally beginning to understand how much better hair can look when properly blow-dried. OK -- my hair. Like, it has fullness! Body! It doesn't need to lay limply on my head like overcooked spaghetti! AMAZING!

When I go get my hair cut (which -- OK fine -- I last did 7 months ago), the gal wields her fancy blowdryer with the precision of a surgeon. I get home and try to duplicate her efforts, and I can't even reach parts of my head... and how do you dry the underside without getting knots on top?... and how do you hold the dryer in one hand and a brush in the other? And never mind even attempting to switch hands to get the other side. My hair, in its natural state, is wavy when wet and crazy-frizzy-tangly when semi-dry. It's thick, and there's a lot of it. By the time I get a small section dried, the areas around it have woven themselves into a coarse mesh. When I try to comb out the mesh, my fingers get caught in the knots and I can feel the strands ripping and breaking. My arms fatigue and I start to sweat, which of course makes my hair wet again, and the cycle repeats, and more often than not I wind up chucking it all and pulling up a ponytail... which is how I end up with a pixie cut. Aaargh! It's hard being a girl.

Next week: bras.

Sunday night

Joel's parents came in last night for a little visit. We sat and laughed and ate popcorn and played cards... some of my very favoritest things. Playing games late into the night always reminds me of my later adolescence. Memories stir of my parents and grandparents and sisters and Aunt Jan, playing cards or Pictionary or Dictionary, squealing with laughter: stomachs aching and faces spasming from grinning.

John and Donna brought Toby, Jamie's little shih-tzu doggie. Sweet little guy... but I just don't do dogs. He poops in the house if you leave him alone for more than 3 hours. We knew this ahead of time and I am thankful that poop is easy to clean off a hard floor... but still. Ugh.

We had a really nice visit with the Gronaus -- I do wish they'd come down more often.

AAAIIIEEEE!! Just found the Les Miz 25th anniversary special on PBS... AGAIN. And it happens to be RIGHT AT THE SPOT I LEFT IT last time it was on. Woohoo! It's been playing one one of our six PBS stations on and off for the last couple of weeks. I never, ever get sick of this show. It's brilliant. And I have a new crush on this Iranian guy (Ramin Karimloo) playing Enjolras. I never make it through "One Day More" without weeping.

Had a dryland roller derby practice this afternoon. "Dryland" just means we're not on skates. In summer we have dryland practices to prep us for skating, but now, in winter, it's when we can't have room to skate at our practice venue, the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. Dryland is very important, and usually awesome, but it's a giant bummer when we don't get to skate, and I think everyone was feeling that. We got to talk with Umpire Strikes Back, the MNRG head ref, and he's wonderful, but of course we'd all much rather actually be skating. We did a tiny bit of sprinting (always my favorite), some "plyo" (I don't really know what that means, but we did a few horrendous wall-sits, a bunch of 8-count burpees, line jumping), and then finished up with about 20 minutes of core (pushups, leg lifts, and every kind of sit-up known to man). It was OK. I miss skating.

YESS! My favorite Javert line: "The law is inside out, the world is upside down!" Uh, OK. One of many, many favorites.

Oh oh oh! And a moment of silence for "Bring Him Home."

Incroyable.

Saturdy early-afternoon

Trying to buy Twins tickets via the internet... on the first day of public sale. Just. Sitting. I've been in an "electronic line" for 20 minutes without moving. The whole thing is very silly and if I didn't want it to be springtime (and thus baseball season) so badly, I probably would chuck the whole thing.

It's a beautiful Saturday here; sunny and warming up nicely. My teaching spring break is officially over -- I taught ballet/tap for 3-4-year-olds this morning, and in about 5 minutes I'm heading out for a Peter Pan musical theatre class for 3-6-year-olds. On days when I'm in even a halfway decent mood, which really is most days, I just love goofing around with the little ones (and getting paid for it!). This morning's class was great -- we started some new dances, which always rejuvenates a looooong session.

Joel is out puttering in the yard, which is still mostly snow-covered but melting quite well in spots. He moved our brown Christmas tree from the front yard, where it toppled during the warm spell a couple weeks ago, to the fire pit, and he finally unearthed the lightup reindeer from the deck. They did not make it through the rough winter so well -- alas.

Neverending 5th birthday

Eddie has been turning 5 for like three weeks. We celebrated with Joel's parents after our vacation...

This is Lucy's "NOT FAIR!" face:

His Superman cake, which I must admit I whipped out of thin air in about 1 hour, PHEW:
My parents came up for a visit, and I didn't get any pictures, because I stink.
His Actual birthday, March 7 (just the 4 of us):
Friends party at Wooddale Fun Zone last night (check out my sweaty son; and how much does Evie look like Carol!?):
I have to say, he has chosen some REALLY cool friends.
I also want to highly recommend Wooddale Fun Zone for kids' bday parties. They have a great deal on Wed nights because they're only open for 2 hours (but really, who needs a party to go longer than that?). The kids got to play in the indoor playground, and skate, and got dinner, dessert, and prizes, and I didn't have to do ANYthing.
The Gronaustein Bears and Too Much Birthday
Just kidding; he's been an absolute darling through the whole convoluted affair.

Wednesday

Just got home from Eddie's fourth and final 5th birthday party -- this was his "school friends" party. We went WAY out on a limb and had it at Wooddale Fun Zone, a skating rink that also has an indoor playground. Eddie had 4 little friends from school, plus the Dalys. It was an excellent deal... SUPER easy... and I think the kids had fun. And I didn't have to cook or clean.

I decided to try to give up sweets/desserts for Lent, and let me tell you that IT'S HARD. Especially when your kid's birthday parties fall in there! I did really well, though, and I have stuck to my rule -- basically, I only eat a dessert my kids have taken and then left unfinished. Fortunately one of Eddie's friends asked me to remove the frosted top of his cupcake SO HE COULD EAT THE BOTTOM. Jackpot. Benjamin, would you care to come over for dessert every night?

The biggest ramification of the no-sweets rule is finding other stuff to eat. I really like to graze, especially when I'm home for the day. Right now it's 9:15pm and I'm making a box of mac-n-cheese because I can't have another cupcake. See? This is not even good for my health. Grr.

Tomorrow's St. Patty's Day and I am THRILLED to get to eat corned beef together as a family. Relaxed family dinners are far too rare around here these days. This week is spring break for all my dance classes, and it could NOT have come at a better time, with Ed's bday party, my newspaper deadline, etc. all landing on this week. It's been a nice week off, and I'll be rejuvenated and ready to start up again on Saturday. And then MY kids' spring break starts, meaning it will be another unusual week next week. I crave change and upheaval, and these 2 weird weeks are good for me.

Gronau news

Welcome back to me! Things have become a little wild around here. Last summer, with the kids starting school in September, I decided to start working again. I picked up about 8 hours per week teaching kids' dance through Mayer Arts. It was a blast, and manageable, so when Mayer went on maternity leave I picked up 3 more classes per week. Then I got excited about Ashland Productions' ACT program and demanded to direct a show. Then I saw an ad for Editor Wanted for a small community newspaper and thought I might as well apply. I didn't get the job... and then I did.

Meanwhile, way back last summer when I decided to pick up some more work? I also picked up roller derby. I'm playing on a rec league (the "Debu-Taunts") under the umbrelly of the Minnesota RollerGirls (MNRG). I am hoping to try out for real, live MNRG this spring.

So... this has all been amazing and wonderful and scary and stressful and I am JUST so delighted to get to do it all. I'm hoping to write more, if only to document the wild times we're having.

Eddie is in school afternoons this year, so he and I are getting some wonderful time together most mornings. He turned 5 -- FIVE -- last week and got to be "Star of the Week" this week at school. He adores his teacher, Ms. Ione, and wanted to invite her to his birthday party. He's starting to read, with maybe 15 sight-words under his belt. He recently discovered drawing -- not only is he making all the letters and numbers, but he comes home from school every day with 10-15 pages of drawings. Of monsters. And more monsters. And people getting eaten by monsters.

Lucy is also really blossoming. She's gotten mad-tall and not a small amount sassy. She works her way through problems, and I'm so proud of that. She has read (by her count) 11 "chapter books," most of which are the dreaded Junie B. Jones. Lucy will be playing Gretl in a local community production of The Sound of Music this spring -- in fact, she's at a rehearsal as I type. I'm so proud of her for going through the nervewracking audition/callback process, and continuing to review her lines, songs and dances outside of rehearsal. She is SO EXCITED to be on stage. She's still taking piano (about which she is NOT excited).

OK, well, I've got a couple extra minutes -- what else do you want to know about? Let's start with roller derby. I was looking for an athletic challenge outside of co-rec softball and B-league women's volleyball, and going for the occasional jog. My then-really-only-an-acquanitance-but-now-dear-friend Sherry told me (probably in jest, now that I think about it) that I should join her in this new rec/training league roller derby that was just starting up. Sure, I thought -- it was summer and I was itching for new activity -- Joel approved the purchase of new skates; I got great deals on the rest of my gear; I didn't die in the first couplea dryland practices. Anyway, the skating muscle-memory came right back (I'd rollerbladed a handful of times since college, and when I was about 7 I used to skate up-and-down the sidewalk lots), and it was FUN to go fast and fall down.

The rec league started with 40 skaters in September -- we practice once a week for 2 hours. Spring session has 80 skaters and, we hear, a waiting list in the multiple-dozens. That first hour is the scariest hour of my week (and that's including the hour I spend with 3-year-olds in tap shoes). I spend all of Sunday afternoon in the bathroom, in prep for DTs practice. At practice we do endurance drills, falling drills, sprinting drills, starting drills. Hitting drills, blocking drills, partner drills, stopping drills. And we get to play roller derby. No joke, it makes my tummy flip over just thinking about it. But it's awesome. I have never before tested my endurance, my physical fitness, my mental toughess, like this.

Well, would you look at the time! I hope to update more often now -- as sometimes happens, the busier I get, the better I am at actually accomplishing things. Cheers!

Amazing Roasted Tomato Sauce

Hi gang!
Listen, I know Lucy turned 6 and I haven't posted, and Jean got married and I haven't posted... but I made this tomato dish tonight and NOW I AM POSTING. Make this, and you'll see why.
It's from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver -- I discovered it when our CSA (crazyboyfarm.com) posted it on their website.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

8 cups tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 cup onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic whole (I used minced)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (I used a diced jalapeno pepper)
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix together in shallow baking pan, and roast at 450 degrees for 35-40 minutes. As it cools mash with potato masher or fork and add 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil.

It honestly ought to have a warning attached -- you can go ahead and plan to freeze some for later, but it'll be really hard to keep it out of your mouth first.

I served this tonight over penne pasta and the kids devoured it. But my FAVORITE way to eat this is hot or cold, on top of a toasted slice of crusty bread. It's RIDICULOUS how good it is.

The blog is dead; long live the blog

I just like saying that. Thank you to the four of you who continue to check this thing despite my completely sporadic postings.

First, business: Congratulations to my cousin Bridget, winner of a copy of The Weight of Shadows by Alison Strobel! Bree, your book will be in the mail. Eventually. Everyone else, thanks for your interest -- you can borrow my copy!

And a note from Alison:

Hey there! I just wanted to say thanks to my fine blog hostess and to her readers. I have been really excited to see how many people are thinking of picking up the book because of the reviews they read during the blog tour. And thank you to everyone who entered the contest! I'll be drawing a winner on July 18 and posting it on my blog. If you haven't stopped by my blog or website yet, I hope you'll pop over sometime and say hi in the comments or on the guest book. Also, if you're interested in hearing about my next releases and any other exciting news that happens to come up, please sign up to receive my announcements--the sign-up is on my website. I have another novel coming out in September, two more next year, and two children's books that my husband and I wrote (the first of which comes out August 1), so there will be plenty of news coming, and I try to host contests now and then on my blog, too.

Thanks again! And if you do decide to pick up The Weight of Shadows and give it a read, please come tell me what you thought of it. I mean it. :)

~Alison

Now back to the personal stuff. Our summer has been wonderful so far, if super-hectic. I'm happy to say it's... well, I was about to say "slowing down" but I'm not sure that's accurate. Today was a perfect, lovely day: got up early, walked with my mom, kissed her and Gpa Books goodbye after a great long visit, went rollerskating with the kids and my friend Sherry and her son Marty, kissed my kids goodbye as they went off to gymnastics class with the Dalys, taught a quick dance lesson, made my kids' lunch, took a teensy nap, mowed the lawn, washed the sheets, took the kids to the library/community garden/free snack at the rec center, then home for dinner, baths, and bedtime. And the All-Star game is on! Sorta a perfect day.

Except it fell on the heels of several heavy-exercise days, all coming on the tail end of an icky cough, so now I can neither walk nor swallow without 12 daily ibuprofen. I sure do like to walk and swallow. God bless ibuprofen.

So anyway, last 2 weeks Lucy participated in Ashland's theatre camp -- they put on a production of Tom Sawyer. LUCY LOVED IT. And it was a great experience for her. She got to be at camp all day, got to practice eating lunch with other kids. And she got to be ON STAGE. Which she loves. The grandparents and aunties all made it out to see her and it meant the world to her. She has not stopped singing the songs, and she KEEPS ASKING ME when she can be in another show.

Yesterday my friend Rob and I auditioned for "Joseph" at the Ordway (the biggest pro theatre in St. Paul). We learned a difficult but fun dance combo, and we both were asked to stay and sing ... we sang... then they asked us to stay again(!) and then we learned another, more difficult (but also more fun) dance combo. Then they sent everyone home so it seemed like they just really wanted to give us a superlong, free, mostly awesome dance class. Which it was!

So also, yes, I am in a recreational roller derby group. I do not have a fancy name, and I've only been on my skates once, but I think it's going to be super fun.

I am also going to be in a Minnesota Fringe Festival show! Every summer the Fringe Festival is a massive bunch of short theatre pieces that are ... well ... on the "fringe" of mainstream theatre. I'm dancing in the opening act of "Kathy Jensen is Pretty" (a one-woman show about an LA nude model). So that's in August.

And I'm going to be teaching dance again in the fall -- young kids' pre-ballet and musical-theatre dance in Maplewood, Inver Grove and Shoreview. I'm excited to have a paycheck again! Gotta support the new derby habit -- skates are spendy.

Off to check the All-Star score. Later!

Win a copy of Alison Strobel's "The Weight of Shadows"!

You've maybably heard me mention my friend Alison, who I met back in high school and who has gone on to become a fabulous published author.

Here she is:


Alison has been a Christian since she was a little kid -- her dad was a journalist, and then a pastor (and is now a very well-established author himself). Alison was the first Christian I'd ever met who had a personal relationship with Jesus. My family had always gone to church, and I went to Catholic school for 8 years, but I was intrigued about this different kind of spirituality. After college, I read her dad's first couple of books and they really blew my mind. (I recommend those to you, as well -- but I digress.)

Alison is the author of novels Worlds Collide and Violette Between, and has written a children's book, That's Where God Is, with her husband Dan.

Her latest book, The Weight of Shadows, has just come out, and I devoured it in just a couple days -- and mind you, I am a sloooooow reader. The tagline goes like this:

Kim finally found a release for her guilt--but is her penance more important than her daughter's life?

Sounds a bit melodramatic, but it's totally not. Which doesn't mean it's not gripping! Because it totally is! Argh, I am the worst book-reviewer ever. Anyway, I read a review of "The Weight of Shadows" that called it "an important book" and I totally agree. I read about domestic abuse in the papers all the time... yet how is it that I've never before read a novel about it? Alison intertwines a small handful of storylines involving very real, sympathetic, flawed characters. And the Christianness of the book is so natural, so integrated, that I hesitate even to call it a "Christian" book. It's just a book about people -- some of them know Jesus, some don't, some find Him, some don't.

The way Alison writes it is very realistic, I think -- sometimes some of the characters burst into prayer. (People mock musicals because, they say, "People don't just burst into song!" But I assure you: They Do. Same thing with prayer.) Reading the book, it struck me how little faith of any kind is portrayed in most of the books we read. Why is that, do you think? I mean, I know in lots of books the characters dash off a quick prayer before heading into one dramatic situation or another -- but rarely do you read real characters, of ANY faith, actively practicing that faith. OK anyway. The Weight of Shadows is not just a character study, although the characters are indeed compelling. I grew to love the characters in all their damaged humanity; I cried in several spots. And the storyline is also fascinating and engaging. It's a very well-written book that I highly recommend, and it's my birthday and I'm tired so I'm just going to leave it at that!

And TWO Contests!

First, from me (Meg):

If you comment on this post (below), I will send you a FREE copy of The Weight of Shadows. Seriously! And I know I'll get, like, one or two comments so your chances of winning are exceedingly high. Comment!

And second, from Alison:

On July 18th, which is one week after the close of the tour*, I'll choose one commentor from a randomly selected blog to receive either autographed copies of my first three books or a gift card to their favorite bookstore.

*Meg again: I didn't do a good job of explaining that I'm part of a "blog tour" Alison has put together to get the word out about her book. Basically lots of other bloggers are also writing about The Weight of Shadows. Who? Why, funny you should ask -- click the "Who else is blogging..." link below.

So there you have it. It's a great book, and you can get it for free. Comment now!

LINKS:
Alison's website
Who else is blogging about this book?
The Weight of Shadows at Amazon
The Weight of Shadows at Christianbook.com

Eating... GOOD

Hey there! Got back from out 10-year anniversary trip to Holland and Belgium and it was awesome! All my pics are on facebook -- I'm hoping to put my journal up on here but I can't really see that happening any time soon. It was a great trip -- loved experiencing how they do things across the pond, loved the challenges and surprises of travelling.

Joel and I brought home about 5 pounds of cheese: Gouda, Emmenthaler, and some delicious, mild variety that was served every morning in our B&Bs. What a difference REAL cheese makes! Wow. Anyway, we also got our first box of organic produce from our CSA: mustard greens, pac choy, mint, rhubarb, and a couple kinds of spinach. And it, also, is awesome.

AND we've been getting farm-fresh eggs for the last couple months. I think they're from part-time free-range hens. And Cameron bought me some wild rice! ANNNNND being gone for a week earned us a couple extra bucks in our grocery budget, which I'm hoping to put toward the occasional grass-fed-beef and free-range-chicken purchase. Joel likes to have meat every day for dinner, and even though the food experts say meat is one thing that it's really important to buy organically, it is truly prohibitively expensive. I mean, I can get 90%-lean ground beef at Aldi for $2.99/lb. or I can spend almost three times that on the good stuff. So I don't know. I think we can do the occasional splurge, especially if I can cut back on the meat -- like, for example, I made spaghetti last night and just didn't put the sausage in (all right, if you're really curious, I forgot to defrost it) and the kids actually preferred it that way. Incroyable! Of course, tonight I made a fab egg bake (with wild rice and mustard greens sauteed in soy sauce) and the kids hated it. Win some, lose some.

Hey, I turn 34 tomorrow at 8:47 am. Watch this space early-morning June 25 for my review of Alison's book (and a chance to win free books! Plural!).

Soupy-cute-a-saurus!

Tonight, Lucy and I had our dress rehearsal for our dance recital this week. I'd gotten my costumes ahead of time, but I hadn't even seen Lucy's yet. And, I'll be honest, I was thinking, hmm, little girls in dinosaur costumes -- how will this work?

But, can I just say, she has The Cutest costume in maybe the whole show.

They're dinosaurs!


Rrrraaawwrrrr!!
The tail is totally the best part.


The face of a Gronau; the shoulders of her mama.

Tomorrow, we add makeup. Craaaazy fun!

Hmmm.

Lucy came home from school today with a book from her class library, entitled:

Yes... that's right. I mean, really. I believe someone at Rigby publications is having a BIT too much fun choosing their titles.

More teasing about Alison's book

Watch the trailer for The Weight of Shadows by clicking here.

Or going here:
http://www.alisonstrobel.com/trailers/

Teaser! Win a free book (for serious!)!

Way way back in 1990, my freshman year of high school, I met my friend Alison Strobel. Skip ahead 20 years and she's a published author! Her third novel, The Weight of Shadows, has just been released, and I am part of Alison's "blog tour" to help promote this latest offering.

So... WATCH THIS SPACE on Friday, June 25 for my review and your chance to win a free copy of The Weight of Shadows, delivered to your very door. You'll have to figure out how to leave a comment here in order to enter the drawing for the free book, so if that's been difficult for you, I suggest you practice. Like, starting now.

Happy Friday!