A Mere 480 Words

Congratulations! Our Voices of the Year committees have selected “The Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin” to be honored at the 5th annual Voices of the Year Community Keynote!

When I read these words, I jumped up without even reading the rest of the email. I instantly thought of Mom and Grandma and the words I had written about them.

As I burst into my daughter’s room where my husband was reading the girls a book, I had to say that I was fine even though tears were streaming down my face. Ed jumped up to congratulate me; however, Lily and Emmy just wanted Ed to get back to reading Ella Enchanted. They love me, but they didn’t understand how I could cry if I was really happy.

Back in November, the anniversary of my mom’s death was getting close. As I was looking in the mirror and rubbing a chin hair, I remembered a story my mom had told me about my grandma. I was amazed at how much emotion one little chin hair brought out in me. I knew I had to write it down. As I typed out my memories, I realized it more more complex than just plucking chin hairs. It was all about relationships between mother and daughter, daughter and granddaughter. I agonized over my word choices as I struggled to explain my grandmother’s stoicism since I know the most important thing in the world to her was her family. Grandma didn’t express her feelings very often, but she felt them. Then I stumbled upon another theme: everyone grieves differently. Grandma didn’t shed a tear at my mom’s funeral, but we all knew she grieved deeply. As I wrote, I cried, read, revised, cried and read those 480 words again and again before I clicked “publish.”

I truly didn’t expect my words to honored as one of BlogHer’s Voices of the Year. I submitted them on a whim, wondering if anyone would even read my words. My sincere thanks to those panelists who did read my words and understood all the emotion behind them. At the end of this week, I’m thrilled that I’ll be at BlogHer13 in Chicago, where I can thank them in person!

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Pork-a-pa-zoo-la!

Hancock Building

We were surrounded by skyscrapers. But yet we were in a red barn, climbing up into a John Deere tractor and learning about pigs. Just what were we doing? We were in the farm area at Lincoln Park Zoo for Pork-a-pa-zoo-la!

We live (theoretically) about 20 minutes away from Chicago, yet we rarely go downtown. It requires some planning and strategy to go downtown, which mostly about transportation, traffic, and the cost of parking. We didn’t plan wisely this time around, so we spent $36 on just four hours of parking in the zoo lot. Fortunately for us, Lincoln Park Zoo is still a free zoo, and so we hope some of our parking fee goes toward the zoo itself!

When we first walked into the zoo, we were able to sample some pork burgers…DaBurgers! I’ve used ground pork in my meatloaf before, but I never thought of using it to make burgers! They were delicious. Then we were off to the “farm,” where Lily and Emmy played with soybeans, learned about pigs, and climbed up into a tractor. (Ed had just as much fun climbing up into the John Deere as the girls did…in fact, I think he liked it more than they did!)

John Deere
In a green tractor with piggy ears!

playing in soybeans
Emmy and Lily playing with soybeans.

Since I’m an Illinois Field Mom, I introduced myself to the volunteers running the activities. A couple of people approached me first because they recognized me from the Illinois Farm Families website. That made me feel a little bit like a celebrity! I was able to talk to one of the farmers who spoke at the Ward Farm about pigs. It was a farm visit that I missed, so it was nice to be able to ask him some questions about raising hogs. The girls also made pig ear hats, which we had a lot of fun wearing. Emmy is pretending to be one of her favorite pigs in the picture below…can you guess which one? (Click HERE to find out!)

Emmy as Mercy Watson
Guess who? Pay attention to what Emmy is eating!

The farm exhibit at Lincoln Park Zoo is a permanent exhibit; but some of the activities were there just for the day. After we completed all our farm tasks, we went to visit other animals at the zoo. One of the animals kept eluding us; we went to his cage three times and just kept missing him. Lily insisted on going back one more time before we left to try again…and finally we saw the tiger!

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