My Happy Place

You know how you are supposed to have a "happy place" -- a place where you can mentally transport yourself when a nurse is about to draw blood or a someone launches into a painfully boring story?

This beach on Sanibel Island is my happy place. It is spectacularly beautiful and serene.

I have been happily sitting on this sand and splashing in the surf here for over 10 years now.

First, just David and I would visit this beach -- along with his family.

Over the years, we've added three more beach-goers -- making my happy place even . . . happier.

Hi There Park. It's So Good to See You Again

Thank goodness for the warmth, the sun, the hour and a half or so spent outdoors after school.

We have missed you so very much.

Use Your Noodle!

We eat a fair amount of pasta at our house. I like to serve it with a homemade pesto or a veal ragu or even just a simple tomato sauce (last night's dinner). However, sometimes I give in to the request for plain buttered noodles. I'm not thrilled about it, but I do it in the name of keeping the peace.

When I an whipping up some buttered noodles for someone's lunch, I often don't cook the whole box of pasta -- and then my cabinets ends up being cluttered with quarter-full boxes of pasta of various shapes and cooking times. So that's no good.

Those nearly empty boxes of pasta were the inspiration for my craft column in Chicago Parent this month. With the help of my handy glue gun, we built this "noodle choo choo train" with pasta shapes that we already had at home. Who knows what you can make with what you have in your cabinet?