My kids are growing up right in front of me.

The older one makes movies that make me wonder what its really like to be in high school in 2009 and he talks of going REALLY far away as soon as possible. Unlike when I was sixteen, his talk isn’t teenage wishful thinking. He has a year left of high school and, if he gets into the language immersion program he applied to, even less than that. He’s already been places I’ve never been. He knows, so much better than I at that age, what he wants - or what he thinks he wants. (Does one ever really know?)

The younger one is unrecognizable to me: On the soccer field, the tentative kid that danced and skipped around the action while exhorting her teammates a couple of years ago is suddenly jetting her body up and down the field with graceful gangle and excellent footwork. She submits her writing to competitions and gets recognized. Next up: belting it out in the school musical. She is tall and lovely. Compassionate. Excellent manners.

While a lot of this comes as a relief (they’re growing up well), it’s also terrifying (now what?). I’m just nodding my assent that yes, there is work to be done and no, it has little or nothing to do with the kids. They have their own lives.

I noticed yesterday that the radishes, peas, and spinach I planted a couple weeks ago are up. Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs are going in the basement. I guess there’ll be another garden season after all.

::gets up, stretches::

While I waited for the bleach to do its thing to the roots of my hair, I started two flats of seeds - nothing fancy this year. There are a few different heirloom tomatoes, a couple peppers, basil and Italian parsley… and that’s it. I’ll direct sow everything else. The people at Seed Savers must be wondering what happened to me and my huge order this year, but that’s just the way things shook out (sorry, Seed Savers). While I’m very excited to get outside for Play In The Dirt 2009, I’ll admit to feeling sort of dull and uninspired when it comes to growing things right now. The garden is a mess at the moment, due to uncooperative weather at times when I can get out there, and last spring’s incident with a neighbor’s dog has affected me more than I realized. I’ll get back out there, I know, but for now… plain old tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

The flats were done at about the same time as my hair. I looked at the clock but decided it was too late to bring you my latest idea, which is to get some music from my friend Stelt once a week and reflect on it here. It can be something I’ve heard before, something I’ve never heard before, something rock, something prog, something jammy, whatever. Bob has the best record collection in downstate Illinois, easily; he was my radio show partner for at least 5 years and was the only person I was worried about when Jim and I started hanging out 14 years ago, because he seemed like a bit of a tough customer. Of course, he’s now one of my dearest friends. I have a photo of him holding Lilly when she was a couple of days old - he’s 6′6″ and she looked about the size of a loaf of bread in his hands.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago when things were kind of crappy after AWSM CHGO WKND, he lent me the CSN&Y box set Atlantic did years ago and it totally helped me shake it off. I’ll be writing about that first.

Now I’m looking at the clock and am thinking I’m up past my old lady bedtime. xo

… for inspiration:

I think the first photo, the prairie burn, speaks loudest to me today. So does this quote from the article linked above:

The hardest thing about restoring a prairie for us is controlling the weeds that come up when you plant the prairie,” says Barnhart. “The weeds can sometimes be 100 times bigger than the prairie plants you are trying to establish, and it is very frustrating.”

Yep. I can totally relate.

I’m on a cleaning jag (and have only 50 minutes before I go skate), but I thought I’d pause to share…

… a photo of my 10 year-old kid meeting a one day-old kid today at Prairie Fruits Farm:

… and my 16 year-old’s TSOOL soundcheck video from 13 March. The sound is terrible because the poor little mic on his D90 couldn’t handle the noise, but the visuals are what’s important. He may re-use the footage, setting it to pre-recorded music:

To the kitchen!

I went to work outside home almost 3 years ago (is that all? it feels like a lifetime) after almost 8 years at home with my children. And I do mean with my children, since the older one didn’t go to school for most of this time and the younger one was a baby, then a toddler, then a wicked smart little girl (now they are 16 and 10, both in school, both doing very well, though Cody’s Twitter feed stated “Off to the dungeons” regarding another day at the high school). It was and still is a difficult transition for me, this working-outside-the-home thing. I miss the freedom and the time spent together, and I also miss my backyard chickens - Julia Child, Emma Goldman, Mae Brussell, and Betty Friedan.

Now I content myself with chickens at my desk like the kyckling above. And it’s no accident the Market’s artwork is heavy on the chickens…

Yesterday was such a good, putzy, hangout kind of Sunday. It was warm enough to plant the above cool-weather spring things in the garden, but before that could happen, this had to be cleaned up:

So I put on my galoshes:

… and got to work.

Still much to do:

Spring things were planted to the sounds of Lilys’ Better Can’t Make Your Life Better (1996).

Friday morning we scooted over to Schaumburg to check out doings at IKEA, as we don’t have one here on the prairie. There was terrible traffic on 290, as there often is, but when we arrived at the store we were chuffed to discover it wasn’t at all crowded; it was all about the Friday lunchtime vibe in there. Indeed, the store was practically empty relative to prior experience, which has taken place primarily on the weekend. We spent a lot of time in Lighting:

We found Solutions, as one usually does while at IKEA. So many Solutions that we had to unpack and repack the trunk.

When we were done letting the Swedes help us solve out lighting and storage issues, we headed back into the city to meet up with Meghan the Glassblower and Damon the Architect, two of our family’s most favorite people in the known universe.

[Longtime readers know that Meghan taught art to my kids during the Homeschooling Era and became one of my closest friends; when Damon arrived on the scene, he was a total natural at dealing with our family. They moved to Chicago a few years ago and we never, ever see them enough.]

We all hung out in their very cute Wicker Park apartment for a couple of hours, catching up and waiting to hear back from Holger the Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Road Manager with a soundcheck time. He called with an answer and we walked the two blocks to the venue at about 6:30.

Holger TSOOLRM met us at the door when we arrived and informed us things were running behind a bit, that not everyone was back from shopping and naps, and they’d be ready to get going in another half hour. We headed down North Avenue to window shop (I thrifted a pair of orange galoshes for rainy Market mornings) and check in at Reckless, and then headed back.

After the kids met everybody, Guitarist Ian handed out TSOOL chapeaux:

Soundchecks are usually half-performed songs and a lot of “I can’t hear myself” or “Can I get more guitar in the monitor?” and the drum tech hitting the floor tom what seems like hundreds of times. Not so this soundcheck. Instead, they played three full songs that “just happened” to include two of Lilly’s favorites; her opinion was solicited afterward. Here she is while the band plays “Bigtime”:

Before we left, I chatted with a nice young man who worked at the venue and explained that my driver’s license was missing and, you know, I knew I was going to get carded at the door despite the fact that a) I don’t exactly look like I’m under 21 (or under 31, for that matter), b) we were on the guest list so, um….? He made a couple things happen, so I’m giving mad props to Nice Security Guy for helping me out. My license, by the way, was safe at home, sitting all innocent-like on my desk.

After Penny’s for dinner, we installed the kids at the apartment with ice cream and movies and went back to the venue for the show. Outrageous Cherry, whose Stereo Action Rent Party is one of my favorite records ever, was playing when we arrived. Lots of people from C-U were starting to show up; many of us were slightly horrified to discover that Stella Artois in the bottle costs $7 in CHGO, and that Bud in the can is $3.50, but we shook it off. Cheers!

The show was fantastic. Here’s the setlist for the Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Chicago show on Friday, March 13, at the Double Door:

SOUNDCHECK

Nevermore

Bigtime

Saturation Wanderers

SHOW

Babel On

Universal Stalker

Independent Luxury

Thrill Me

Fly

Saturation Wanderers

Second Life Replay

Everything Beautiful Must Die

The Fan Who Wasn’t There

Believe I’ve Found

Flipside

Confrontation Camp

Sister Surround

Ra 88

FIRST ENCORE

Broken Imaginary Time

Dow Jones Syndrome

Instant Repeater ‘99

Galaxy Gramophone

SECOND ENCORE

Mantra Slider

Although we had scoped out and generally remained in an excellent spot with great sight lines (hard to find in this particular venue), the best place to watch a show, in my opinion, is from the side of the stage:

We stayed at the venue until Extremely Douchey Security (Nice Security Guy was not part of this group) got too douchey, even for us. We said rueful goodbyes, laughed a little at a “Mel Moment”, and got the f*ck out of there, just as Extremely Douchey Security requested. When we got back to the apartment, the kids were totally passed out. We followed their lead.

After a few hours’ sleep, we got up and feasted on strong coffee, pancakes, and eggs made by Meghan and Damon while bright sunlight took over the apartment. We were sad to pack up and go, but were also excited to get home and have it be only Saturday. Our last stop was Ragstock, so we could say goodbye to Dan, Cody’s Dad, who went in to work early. Here’s a picture of Cody’s step-bunny, Caruso:

And here’s a little video Cody made using footage he shot in the car on the way up - he’s still figuring out how to take video and do edits:

It’s been a fine weekend so far. Now it’s time to plant peas and spinach.

Good morning from one of the greatest cities in the world - Chicago, IL. While I don’t miss city life, I’m very, very glad I can find some just up the road (quite literally - it’s up I-57 about 2 hours).

We’ve come north to see bands. Last night was the Mazes show at Schuba’s; the band was even better than I’d expected them to be, and Jim went into Publicist Mode, not me. The hipster kids were mostly drinking Stella Artois on tap out of the fancy Stella Artois goblets, my drivers’ license went missing (I think I lost it at home, actually), and I felt pleasantly removed from the Scene. We left a bit early, went to Arturo’s to pick up some burritos for Jim and Cody and a taco for me, and were back at Cody’s dad’s place by 11.

Today: heading to IKEA and hopefully hooking up with Soundtrack of Our Lives for photos and dinner. Swedes in CHGO! Today cannot miss!

A few people have asked me my thoughts on HR 875, also known as the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. I’ll start by saying I have not give the proposed legislation more than a cursory reading, but just reading the definitions of “food establishment”:

… makes me think that organic farms, backyard gardens, CSAs, farmers’ markets, and the like are not affected in an OMG-the-world-is-ending kind of way by this particular bill as written (by the way, small farms are excluded in section 14 - just click on the link to read the whole thing). I’m not in love with what I’m reading (mainly because, once again, small farmers would bear large paperwork and inspection burdens if it went through as proposed, there being no exemptions for the truly small farm), but I also figure it’s going to change and morph, particularly as there are several other food-related pieces of legislation making their way through Congress. I’ll do some reading over the weekend and keep you posted.

Today I have meetings with people to discuss underwriting on public radio, getting excess produce to people needing it most, wine and beer sales at Market at the Square, local food in C-U, child nutrition and farm linkage programming called Sprouts at the Market, and branding. While all fascinating and fun, no work will get done today.

Then we rock.

Mr. Teacups has it made in the shade.

This has been a busier week than usual, and the weekend, which starts tomorrow, will prove to be busier than usual as well. It’ll be fun to catch up with old friends.

My teenage boy never seems to hear his alarm. Must go parent.