Category: Life as I know it

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Are you there God? It’s me, SM

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a post on the blog Not-Calm, and after I read this paragraph from it I felt like my head had been struck by lightning. Or 1,000 light bulbs had gone off inside it. Or something along those lines. (emphasis added by me)

When Lex was in kindergarten and went through a time where he couldn’t sleep at night because the idea of dying was upsetting him too much, I told him that before he was born his whole world was inside of me.  He could hear my voice, in an underwater, warped way, and he maybe knew that he wasn’t alone, that there was something else keeping him company.  And, I told him, it would have been impossible for him to imagine the world that he was about to be born into.  Light, colors, air, trees, smells, cars, houses, seashells, rockets, food, even his mother – everything he could think of – all of it was so close to him all the time but he had no way to know.  I told him that we have no idea what happens after we die, but that if we have the sense that there’s more out there, then I think it’s because there is.  That there’s something holding us that we can’t see or imagine, but we can still feel is there. It seemed to help him.  I know it helped me.

That part in bold is basically the exact view I hold of religion, yet have been unable to put it into words. Thank you, Jenijen, for doing it for me. Now that we have a daughter and will hopefully give her a sibling or two someday, the concept of religion and my feelings toward it has been in my thoughts a lot more often than it used to be.

I do believe in God, or a god of some sort, but my religion basically stops there. Which may seem pretty odd, considering I grew up going to Sunday School and church pretty much every week, was baptized as a baby, and went through Confirmation in my church. I was raised Presbyterian, and R and I were even married in a Presbyterian church. It was a very non-denominational church, but a Presbyterian one nonetheless.

I have never denounced organized religion or anything like that, nor have I ever had a bad experience with the church either. I guess I basically just got bored with it, and never saw the point of having a book that was written thousands of years ago govern my way of thinking and living. Although we attended church regularly, my family was not overly religious when I was younger, so it’s just not something that was deeply ingrained in me with much importance. And quite frankly, the highlight of the sermon for me each week was counting the pipes in our church’s organ. There are 152. That is a number I don’t think I will ever forget.

So when we decided to have kids, I knew I probably wasn’t going to feel the need to raise them with a strong emphasis on religion either. I felt I may get a little pressure on this from R’s family though, who are pretty devout Catholics.

And for some reason, and this will probably totally expose my religious ignorance, Catholicism has always seemed to me to be a religion that wants to push you until you join them and follow their rules. And man do they have a lot of rules, something I’ve discovered in the 11 years R and I have been together. He’s not even a strict Catholic anymore either, more along the lines of barely even practicing. He’s given up on the no meat during Lent thing, and neither of us has been to church in years. And no, he has not forsaken his religion either, it’s just not something that is high on either of our lists.

Some people may be gasping in horror at this lack of faith in our lives, but it just is what it is. It’s not even a complete lack of faith really, but maybe a lack of practicing that faith actively anymore. And personally, I don’t see this as having had a negative impact on our lives at all.

But back to the having kids without really having religion. What then? From the start I just assumed we would not have our children baptized as infants, but let that be a choice for them to make on their own when they’re old enough to make it.

Seems fair, right? I mean, why force a religion label on a baby who has no idea what any of it means, and whose parents are not only 2 different religions but don’t really practice either of them anyway? Which one would we choose, and why?

I know scads of people will disagree with me on this, but I kind of find the notion that God will shun any life simply because it has not been baptized ridiculous. Many people hold the baptismal rite as something profoundly sacred, and I fully respect that. It’s just not for me. I think if, god-forbid, D passed away before she was baptized, she would not spend eternity rotting in hell simply due to that fact. It just doesn’t jive for me. I think if there is a heaven, her spot has been reserved for almost a year now, no matter what happens from here on out.

There are so many different religions out there, 99% of which I know extremely little about, it just makes sense to me to allow our kids to discover them, learn about them, and see if there’s one that they really feel drawn to. Just as long as it’s not some crazy unibomber kool-aid-drinking cult, I’ll be satisfied. And who knows, maybe someday I’ll feel the need and/or desire to go back to church, and then maybe I’ll even see if D wants to be baptized into it, but right now I’m happy how we are.

Here’s kind of how I see things. Like I said, I do believe in a god figure of some sort. Is it the exact God I learned about in the Bible, the one who we all grew up picturing as a grandfatherly man with an enormously long gray beard dressed in enormously long flowing white robes who lives up in the clouds? Eh, maybe not. But I definitely think there’s something out there.

I do believe in evolution, and the Big Bang theory makes much more sense to me than the story of Creation (a person from a rib? does not compute), but something had to have caused that spark that ignited the Big Bang. Something had to make that second in time happen so that the entire universe could then spill forth.

That something is kind of more how I picture god. And I think I’m more comfortable with it being a lower case g god, too. I’m not convinced it’s a human figure, but more of a spirit. Like those words above say, it’s that sense we have that there’s more out there, because I totally have that sense.

And you may find this part really weird, but yes, I do say bedtime prayers. In fact, I say the exact same “Now I lay me down to sleep…” version that I made up with my mom when I was little that includes all of my family members, pets, and my youngest sister at the end since she came along after I already had the list solidified. I have come to add my own touches here and there too as I feel the need, especially now that I have my own little family. D always gets a shout-out for protection, and R makes the list too on those days when he’s being nice to me.

But what about Baby Jesus? I don’t know, what about him? Did he exist? I don’t know. Why do we celebrate Christmas as his birth then? Good question. Don’t ask me, I didn’t devise the religious calendar for that part of the world’s population who believes in it.

See here’s the other thing. I don’t know why, but for as long as I can remember I have always gotten the weirdest feeling about the Bible. Like, how do we know it was really written by the people by whom you believe it was written? I know there are the Dead Sea Scrolls and all, but still. And how did its words come to stand as the law of the land? Um, that’s why it’s called faith, SM. Yes, I get that, and I guess that’s just where mine differs from many others’. I place my faith in the something more out there instead of those ancient pages.

This kind of turned into a jumbled vomit session. Sorry about that. Point is, though, that no, we’re not baptizing D. At least not anytime in the foreseeable future. And fortunately we never did get the push-back I was expecting about that either. R’s mom did ask him a few months ago if we were going to, he said no, we hadn’t planned on it, and that was pretty much that.

And as for my religion/faith, I think it’s better described as a spirituality that I have, and I have finally found the right words with which to express it. It’s not a rock-solid foundation that I turn to in times of need or weakness like many people have in their own spirituality, but it’s the sense that there’s something bigger than all of us out there keeping tabs on everything and maybe giving a little nudge here and there so things don’t get utterly cosmically out of whack.

I have no idea what happens at the end of it all, but it will work itself out when the time comes. And to me, that strange little notion is kind of comforting.

 

 

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I told you I hate politics

Today begins the latest saga in the messed up world of our state’s political struggle between Republicans and Democrats. 16 groups filed papers to recall state senators as a result of the melee that ensued after Scott Walker was elected governor last year and everyone started fighting over the budget bill in Madison earlier this year. 8 Republicans and 8 Democrats are being recalled. Only 9 districts are having actual recall elections, however, with today being the primary for those districts. The general elections will occur on August 9 in those 9 districts, and then there’s 1 district that only has a general election later this month. Of those 9 districts, 6 Republicans are being recalled and 3 Democrats.

Now here’s the new idiocy of it all – the Republican Party has chosen Republicans to run as fake Democrats in today’s primary elections against the real Democrats who are challenging the 6 Republicans who are being recalled and having elections. Follow that? Basically if a Republican is the target of a recall election today, there will be 2 people running against him/her – 1 real Democrat and 1 fake Democrat planted by the Republicans.

Seriously?? I have freely admitted that I am by no means a political expert, but how is that even legal? I mean, I know there are write-in candidates in practically every election, but planting fake members of one party to try and take votes away from your opposing party? Sounds like a bunch of crybaby bullshit to me. Have the balls to run fair and square – if you lose, you lose, I don’t care which party carries your allegiance. So go vote! Just make sure you’re really voting for who you think you’re voting for, not an imposter.

See, politicians are stupid. Maybe I’d actually enjoy paying attention to the government of our state, our country, and possibly even other countries if it just wasn’t so goddamn annoying.

 

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NY, my thumb, and a dog

Random much, SM? Yeah, I know it’s a weird title, but I didn’t have any good way to connect the 3 totally unrelated topics I wanted to write about this morning. So there ya go.

I know this is old news, but I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning it. On Friday of last week, NY became the largest state to recognize same-sex marriages. Awesome!! This has been a contentious issue across the nation for a very long time, and probably will be for years to come, but I was very happy to see this law passed. It’s one step in the right direction, anyway, in my opinion. I know so many people feel gay marriage is wrong, since in the Bible it says marriage is between a man and a woman, but you know what? I don’t care. I’m not religious (another entire post in itself), I’ve never read the Bible (i actually did start on that endeavor years ago, but didn’t get far at all. does anyone else find trying to read that language about as enjoyable as pulling out your eyelashes one by one?), and I don’t understand why a book written thousands of years ago is still considered relevant enough to rule our laws today. If 2 people are in love, want to spend the rest of their lives together in a recognized union just like the rest of us, and are doing no harm to either themselves or anyone else anywhere on the planet, why should they not get married? I still have not heard a good answer to that question, so I personally hope the rest of the states eventually follow NY’s lead. I knew I liked that place.

So remember how I was all excited about the gardens I planted last month? The veggie plants, the veggie seeds, the mulch? Apparently my green thumb wasn’t so green after all. None of the seeds had sprouted a few weeks later, so I just kept patiently watering and waiting. I was showing R where I’d planted everything one night, and he said, “You didn’t mulch over the seeds, did you?” Well yeah, don’t you see that beautifully spread mulch before you, right where I said the bean, cucumber, pea, and lettuce seeds are? “You can’t mulch over seeds, it’ll suffocate them, just like it does to weeds.” DUH, SM. Seriously, I’m stupid. Why this obvious and most logical of facts escaped me as I laid bag after bag of mulch over the entire seeded area, I have no idea. So yeah, I totally failed at the veggie gardens. The seeds, anyway. The plants are doing swimmingly, especially now that the sun has finally decided to remember that the Earth is down here. I pulled the mulch back in those areas where the seeds were to uncover the dirt and try to resuscitate them, but unfortunately only a couple pea plants have sprouted – no beans, no cucs, and no lettuce. So I finally had to resign myself to the fact that I killed them and needed to start over. Last night I got a chance to reseed the barren areas, so I planted more beans and lettuce; unfortunately the cucumber seeds were gone, and I figured I’d take my chances with 4 pea plants up so far before planting any more seeds in that part. Fingers crossed that this round survives and the sun helps them out this week, since each day looks like it’s going to be gorgeous. I had a little helper last night as I was working in the gardens, too.

Mommy & D in the backyard

 

And now for the dog part. This morning on my way to work I saw a dog, running with its leash attached, right down the middle of the road and onto an onramp to the highway! What the?? It was a pretty small little guy (i’m calling it a guy. it could very well have been a girl, for all i know), but he was moving like a bat out of hell. I didn’t see anyone chasing him, but I did see one car that was stopped just behind where I first saw him, so maybe she was his owner and he’d gotten out of the car somehow. She had to stop since the light changed, which allowed the dog to get even farther up the ramp toward the highway, so I really really hope that lady was his owner and was able to get him once her light turned green. I felt terrible for not stopping to try to pick him up. I always think oh yeah, I would totally stop to help an animal, but here I had a chance and totally didn’t. But I’m honestly not sure what I would have done with him had I nabbed him. I guess just taken him back to wherever his tags said, because I don’t know where any vets or animal shelters are around here. I still couldn’t help feeling a touch heartless. Please little doggie, be ok and back in your owner’s care!

 

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Another F

I had to give myself another F for Mommy for Saturday. The story goes a little something like this…

D’s torso and head were covered with a red, slightly raised rash Saturday morning, so I called her doctor’s after hours care line. Fortunately her doctor was at their clinic taking patients that morning, so we got her last appointment and headed in. Turns out D’s allergic to the antibiotic that was prescribed for her double ear infection last week. Awesome. Her doctor said it was either that or roseola (very similar symptoms – spiking fever followed by a rash in the shape of rose petals once the fever subsides, and apparently D’s just the right age for it), except roseola doesn’t itch. And as R put it, D was itching like a motherfucker. I’ve never seen her rub and scratch at her head like she did all day and night Saturday. Ok, allergic reaction it is, says the doc. And her ears of course weren’t better, so the doctor prescribed a different antibiotic for those and recommended children’s Benadryl to help get rid of the itch. Okey dokey, back to Walmart we went to get the medicine. My favorite place on Earth. (please sense the dripping sarcasm)

Why did we have to put her right away on another antibiotic instead of letting the allergy-causing one get fully out of her system before trying something new, you may ask? Well you see, we’re heading on vacation in less than 2 weeks’ time for a week, wherein we will have no cell phone or internet service, so if we need D to be on medicine to clear all this shit up we have to get her on it with time to spare to see the doctor again before we leave to make sure all the nastiness is finally gone. Whew.

They gave her the first dose of Benadryl at the doctor’s office to help her stop scratching, and by the time we got home from Walmart D was exhausted. So I gave her a bottle (she didn’t want any lunch) and put her down for a nap pretty much right away. R left for the afternoon to go to a WI craft beer festival, so it was just me and D. Little did I know what was in store for us. I thought great, she’s down for a nice long nap, I’ll sit out in the sun for a little bit to catch some rays, then get the house cleaned before R gets home. No sweat. HA! Damn, SM, why do you keep thinking your luck is so good? Let’s just say things didn’t go exactly as I had planned or hoped.

D napped for maybe half an hour the entire rest of the day. And that was from about 5 combined attempts, minimum, before R even got home. I knew from my days on maternity leave that accomplishing stuff around the house is a carefully choreographed art involving a combination of stealth and acute time management during the precious minutes of baby’s slumber. An art, I may add, that I mastered. I could get every chore and all the laundry done while D napped, no problem. So I thought yesterday was going to be a breeze. However, the doctor and pharmacist only mentioned that Benadryl may make D drowsy, not turn her into a demon spawn. I have never seen her so upset and miserable. This rash itched her so badly she clawed at her head constantly, and every time I tried to put her down it was like her crib was a bed of pins and broken glass. So she didn’t want to sleep, she didn’t want to eat, she didn’t want to take her medicine, she didn’t want to be put down, and then she’d decide she didn’t want to be held either. Well what the hell?? I couldn’t win – I couldn’t make her stop hurting, I couldn’t make her happy, I couldn’t get anything done, I just felt like a total failure. By the end of the afternoon I had reached my breaking point. I couldn’t take it any longer. She kept screaming harder and harder and nothing I did was working or seemed to be right, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I put her in her crib and walked away. If I couldn’t just have 5 minutes to get 1 thing done, I was afraid I was going to scream at the top of my lungs, and then what would the neighbors think?

I felt horrible. I was so mad, and I didn’t know how to make it stop. I wasn’t mad at her, I was mad at it, the sickness that was torturing her. I was so frustrated that I could neither placate her nor get anything accomplished, and it just took me to my boiling point. Of course R came home not 5 minutes after I’d left her crying in her crib, and when I said, “Welcome to hell,” he said, “Oh please, come on.” In case you were wondering, that was not the correct response. Yeah, you’ve been drinking beer out in the beautiful weather for 6 hours while I’ve been battling an inconsolable infant who’s sicker than she’s ever been. Come on? I’ll come on you with a swift kick to the nuts if you’re serious.

And so the evening continued. D alternating screaming with brief interludes of play and seeming relief, yet not going to bed, while R and I took turns trying to comfort her. What happened to the drowsiness of the Benadryl? Was that supposed to be a joke, or were they just flat out lying to me? For it seemed that drowsiness was the last side effect it caused for D. Finally at 11:00, hours after her normal bedtime, I was able to get her to sleep after a bottle. Ahh, fingers crossed. Holy hell! 1 hour later and she was back up crying. It was during this round of trying to get her back to sleep that Ryan said we were going to have to take shifts, I told him to just go back to bed, and he told me not to get mad, as I was holding the sleepless, writhing, monster that had possessed our child. “I CAN’T HELP IT!” I shouted. Seriously! I couldn’t. After that day and that night and my feeling completely inadequate, all I could do was get mad. But again, I wasn’t mad at him, I wasn’t mad at her, I was just mad. Because what else could I do? I had no more nice, patient Mommy left. It ran out hours ago. I know that wasn’t the right answer, but it was the only one I had at that point. And then an hour later, she was back in bed. Only to wake up at 3:50, when R had to take her out to the couch again, like we did earlier in the week.

And I had planned on being the one up early with D yesterday so R could sleep in on Father’s Day, then here he was the one dealing with her in the wee hours of the morning. Plus I didn’t wake up until 8, when he stomped into the bedroom to get his cup of water. Shit. Another F. When I saw what time it was I felt terrible, I’d ruined his Father’s Day morning. So I quickly got up, took over the D patrol, and he instantly climbed into bed. I thought maybe just not being around was what he wanted, so I took D to the store to get milk and diapers, since we’d run out of both during the night in her maelstrom of sickness and itch. I ended up driving around with her for a couple hours since she fell asleep and I knew he would be too, then I stopped at McDonald’s for his favorite breakfast items just before they switched over to lunch, to try to do something right.

I hate those days. Those days where all forces combine to create the perfect storm of my parenting failure, and I just can’t take it. I did what I could and it just wasn’t good enough. What else am I supposed to do?

 

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Happy Father’s Day!

To R, a more amazing dad than I ever expected. D is one very lucky girl to have you as her father.

I love you, Daddy!

 

To my dad. A great man who is now on a good path.

I love you, Dad

 

To my stepdad. Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do for us.

Thank you, JCG!

 

To all the dads out there – none of us would be here without you.

 

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Family vacation #1 in the books

R said that last night as we went to bed, and he’s right. This weekend really was our first little family vacation, and it was awesome. We took tons of pictures (surprised? i didn’t think so), but I haven’t had a chance to go through them all and get any uploaded yet. I promise I will post a full photographic recap of our brewery tour weekend as soon as I do though, so you can get a little glimpse into the extracurricular activities of these Wisconsin beer lovers.

In the meantime, here’s the low down on everywhere we went. It sounds like kind of a whirlwind excursion, but we actually did everything at our own pace, with no set schedule or agenda, so it felt very leisurely and relaxed. Exactly what the doctor ordered!

Friday: After taking roughly an hour just to get out of Milwaukee County on our way out of town (mind you, it’s only a distance of about 15 miles), and being thoroughly disgusted by the traffic and highway construction in our city, we were finally moving at highway speeds on our way westward. We arrived in Mt. Horeb around 7pm, checked into our little motel, and headed to the Grumpy Troll for dinner and a sampler. And just as last year, it did not disappoint. Oh yeah – as we were unloading our stuff in our room before dinner, D took her first nose-dive, right off one of the beds onto the motel room floor. Lovely. The good thing about kids, though? They’re apparently made of rubber, so fortunately she survived unscathed. Not even a scratch, just a little shaken up. Whew. Nothing a good beer sampler won’t cure. 😉

Saturday: We took D for a couple mile walk on the Military Ridge State Trail right after breakfast, which we were able to pick up just blocks from our motel. Then we packed up, checked out, and headed over to New Glarus. For those of you who have never been to the new New Glarus brewery, GO! It is out of this world fantastic. I never visited the old brewery, but their new facility is beautiful – it’s a little over a year old now, and they have the outdoor bar set up and the inside tasting room is complete. The tour is self-guided and free, and you can buy either a 3-taste sampling or as many full pints as you’d like. We sat outside on their patio and enjoyed a couple pints while enjoying the day. D had a blast playing in the grass and entertaining everyone at the tables around us, and they also had a bags game set up that a couple people were playing. We both agreed that we could have easily spent the entire day there, lounging around and drinking down their delicious brews. However, more places awaited. We stayed at New Glarus until mid-afternoon, stopped at a super old timey awesome bar in the little downtown area called Puempel’s Olde Tavern for a drink, then headed further west to the Mississippi River and Potosi. This is another really cool place. The town itself is nothing, so if you’re not going to the brewery then I don’t think I’d recommend a stop. But the brewery has a beer museum attached, so we checked that out too. The tour is $5, which also gets you a complimentary 12 oz. pour from the bar afterward, and it was very interesting. They have a ton of old beer memorabilia housed in a couple different levels, so it made for a really neat place. The bar is a nice arched stone, open room, and they have a beer garden patio outside as well. We had samplers and ate dinner there, and their food was tasty too. After our free beers from the tour, we hit the road to our rest stop for the night, Galena, IL. It was only about half an hour south of Potosi, so we were there in no time. We did get a glimpse of the might Mississip on our way out of Potosi, for the brewery doesn’t sit right on the river. We stayed at the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel in Galena, and it was great – cute Irish theme, nice rooms, extremely comfy bed, Irish dancers in the pub downstairs Saturday night, and a complimentary hot breakfast in the same pub Sunday morning. We were spent by bedtime that night and a little sun-kissed from the hours at New Glarus (not D though, no sun on that fair little skin please), so thankfully D decided to be nice and sleep in until 8:00 Sunday morning. Thank you sweet Jesus, our prayers have been answered by room-darkening curtains.

Sunday: After that nice breakfast, we checked out and drove into downtown Galena for some sight-seeing and moseying. That is an awesome town. It’s very quaint and historic, and the main street downtown is beautiful. Full of shops, bars, restaurants, and an outstanding winery (in Galena, IL? who’da thunk it). And guess what else we found? Another brewery! So we spent a couple hours meandering through town, having a sampler, then doing a little wine tasting at the winery on our way out. Their wines reminded us a lot of Door Peninsula’s wines in Door County, which we love. So of course we got a couple bottles as our souvenir from Galena. Then it was off to Madison – wahoo! We headed right to the Great Dane downtown, and our friend G met up with us there. We had one of their giant 15 beer samplers, of course, and lunch, then went out to the east side to Ale Asylum. Neither of us had been there before, so we were excited to check it out. It rocks! We got one of their samplers, of course, and sat out on their patio to enjoy the gorgeous weather (finally!). I was very impressed there – their beer was excellent (i’d only had a couple of their brews before) and the place itself was really nice. So we chilled there for a few hours, bid G farewell, and started to make our way home. We’d originally planned on spending Sunday night somewhere, but decided it was unnecessary. We’d gotten all our stops in in those two days, so why not just sleep in our own beds that night and save the hotel fare? Okey dokey smokey. Just a short ways outside Madison we were in Lake Mills, and guess what’s in Lake Mills? Tyranena, duh. This was the last non-Milwaukee brewery on our list for the weekend (we decided to scratch Minhas and save it for another trip), so we popped in for a pit stop. I got a sampler since I couldn’t have one when we were there last year, and R got a couple pints. D again made friends with everyone and their dogs there, so she was in heaven. It was late evening by the time we finished up at Tyranena, and then we were homeward bound.

Monday: Yesterday was a rare vacation day at home, and it felt great. We started off with some nasty thunderstorms, so I thought it was going to be a hunker down kind of day, but the skies cleared by mid-morning and the sun came out blazing. I got the hammock out of its winter storage in the garage and spent an hour lying in that, then we walked over to Sprecher for a late afternoon tour to cap off the weekend. Nothing like a local brewery in your own backyard! It was a steamy walk, but I lathered up D with sunscreen, put her sun hat on her, and got the extended canopy on the stroller to try to give her more shade. Sprecher’s tour is fun too, if you’ve never been. It’s short, sweet, and to the point – their beer. $5 gets you a 10 minute tour (it’s not a big place), then you get 4 good-sized samples afterward. Yesterday they were in production bottling their delicious root beer, so the whole place smelled great. R grilled up some outstanding brats for dinner when we got home, and we called it a weekend. And a mighty successful one at that.

Oh, in case you’re wondering why we did all these brewery tours, R joined the WI Brewers Guild this year and got a ton of coupons for tours, pints, schwag, etc., at breweries around the state. Well, that, and we just like good beer. 🙂 And don’t worry, at no point were we too impaired for driving. That sounds kind of bad that we went and had samplers, drove to the next place with more samplers, drove to the next place with more samplers, and so on and so on around the state. But I assure you – there was plenty of time and food mixed in with every stop that no one was in danger of an incident at all. We’re not that stupid (i think).

So there you have it – the wonderful world of WI breweries. And there are so many more we want to visit! We think the next one will be a central/northern WI tour. I think we’ve found our annual spring mini-getaway theme.

 

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Road trip!!

Yesterday after work we loaded up the car and headed west. Before you start picturing us trucking through wide open spaces and the wild wild west, let me tame those ideas of grandeur. I mean more like Mt. Horeb, WI. 🙂

R, D, and I are taking a little family vacation, a much-needed respite from the daily grind. D’s been on longer car trips than this before and did great, so hopefully this one turns out to be equally as uneventful for her. (we drove up to Minneapolis for a long weekend when she was only 6 weeks old, and she traveled splendidly)

Last May R and I did a similar Wisconsin weekend getaway to the Madison area and had a blast. So this year we decided to extend it by a day (we’re taking Monday off – 2 3-day weekends in a row, yay!!) and see a couple new places.

The over-arching theme of that trip was Wisconsin breweries, and we have a couple on the agenda again this time. Last year we visited New Glarus’s new brewery, and it was amazing! It was completed that winter before we went, so everything was brand new and shiny. We loved it so much that it made the list again for this year.

Then we’re heading over to the far western edge of the state to visit Potosi and their brewery along the Mississippi River, then down to Galena, IL, for a night to see what that little corner of the world has to offer. After that tiny sojourn we’ll head up to one of my favorite places on Earth, Madison, and bum around it and its local breweries for a day or two before making our way back east.

Monday we’ll drive home through southern Wisconsin, possibly detouring down to Monroe to check out the Minhas brewery, but most likely at least stopping in Lake Mills to quench our thirst at Tyranena. Last year D was cooking away so I couldn’t fully partake in the tasty adult beverages, so this year I’m planning on making up for that. Work has gotten me kind of down lately, so this little break will hopefully be just what the doctor ordered!

I’m sure we’ll throw in plenty of sight-seeing along the way, too. We’re planning on talking D for a walk on the Military Ridge state trail, maybe visiting Cave of the Mounds, and basically just exploring the natural wonders our great state has to offer.

The southwestern corner of Wisconsin is beautiful, and now that the weather has finally warmed up it should make for some great scenery. There will be plenty of pictures taken along the way, so I’ll be able to give you a full report upon our return. Have a wonderful weekend!