Weekly Round Up: A Cookie and a Bunch of Dog Stories

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I made cookies, and I have a bunch of dog stories to share.

Weekly Round Up: Yardball

 

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition Doggo found that special tennis ball, I made a tasty dish with spicy peanut sauce, and I've got books to dish on.

Weekly Round Up: Pictures or It Didn't Happen

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week we celebrated Thanksgiving with an epic family get together, but you'll have to take my word for it because we had so much fun that we took zero pictures.

Weekly Round Up: A Trader Joe's Review and Epic Books

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I have a TJ's taste test to share and OMG we gotta talk about books.

It's That Time Again: The Seventh Annual Weekly Eats Roundup

Friends, where does the time go????  Once upon a time I was a recipe blogger, and one day I sat down in front of the computer and got the urge to write a weekly recap of my meals, my workouts, what I was watching, and what I was reading.  That was seven years ago and I've never looked back.

Every year around the anniversary of the first weekly roundup post, I write a "Birchwood New Year" recap of the best of the best things of the year.

Let's Go Places: Charleston and New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia

 

Last weekend was...you guessed it...Boy Scout camp weekend.  Hubs and the boys went to the woods, the puppy went to Doggy camp, and I went places.

If you've ever driven through West Virginia on I-77, you've seen the golden dome of the State Capitol as you've passed by Charleston.  I've driven by it many times in my life, and now it was finally up next on my travel list.

Weekly Round Up: The Best Time to Plant a Tree

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition we did a lot of hiking which lead to a lot of eating. 

Weekly Round Up: Feeling Fall

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I've got food stuff, I'll tell you the very surprising turn that my reading took this week, and all about my weekend hiking bender.

Weekly Round Up: Chicago and a Spinach Save

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I actually cooked something, I've got books, and there was a family getaway.

Content warning: the family getaway involved a stop at the Trump Tower in Chicago.

Weekly Round Up: A Millionaire Mishap

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I made millionaire bars and Doggo upped her counter surfing game.

Let's Go Places: The Ohio Lighthouses of Lake Erie

Friends, today we are going back to the beginning of my solo travels.  How did I go from being someone who wasn't really into travel to someone who now drops everything to build a long weekend trip at the drop of a hat?

It started with lighthouses.  Let's go back to the summer of 2022 and I'll take you with me on my first tentative steps outside the house.

Weekly Round Up: Back at Home

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I have a killer good taco recipe to share, the Hubs and I hit a new biking milestone, we saw a funny movie, and I might have read a few books since we last talked.

Let's Go Places: Rochester, New York

 

Oh man oh man have I got a travel story for you.  It's about winning the lottery, FLW, and lighthouses.

Don't get too excited about the lottery thing.  It was for a slot on the 2024 tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Boynton House in Rochester, New York.  This is a privately owned home that does tours once a year to benefit the Landmark Society.  Due to popular demand, you can only buy a ticket if you win their lottery.

Rochester is four hours away, and I figured that I'd cut out of work a little early and get there on Friday night, tour the house and whatever else I could find on Saturday, and come home on Sunday.  As soon as I saw what the offerings were in Rochester I adjusted my schedule to take a full day off on Friday.

Weekly Roundup: Another Pumpkin Report

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I've got the pumpkin cookie or all pumpkin cookies, the Hubs and I got up to hijinxs on our bikes and in our movie watching, and I've got a few books to chat about.

Weekly Round Up: Pumpkin Eater

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I have an incredible pumpkin pasta recipe to share, I've been hitting the books, and I'm sure there will be a few dog stories as well.

Let's Go (Back to) Places (and Meet People!): Buffalo, New York

 

I had a good time last weekend.

In March of 2023 I had the pleasure of spending a weekend in Buffalo, NY, and it was on my list of places that I wouldn't mind going back to.  My interest was renewed last month when Wayward went there.

In the meantime, I've been chatting with Kyria, who is currently biking her little heart out all around the US and Canada.  She was in Ontario, and suggested a meetup somewhere in the vicinity of Ottawa, Toronto, or Buffalo.  Getting to Ottawa or Toronto would have been tough with my work schedule, but Buffalo is just three hours away.  However, I didn't want to drive three hours to say hi and drive back...I wanted to stay a few days to make the drive worth while and see more of Buffalo.  That's how the blogger meetup went from being a few hours to a mini vacation for both of us.  Good times were had, incredible food was eaten, and postcards were sent.

The Birchwood Postcard Club

To the best of my memory, before this summer I had not sent a piece of snail mail for anything but bill payments since 2001.

That all changed that day this summer when I met up with Engie and Anne at The House on the Rock.  Engie bought a few postcards from the gift shop, and afterwards we had a postcard sending party.  It was fun!

Weekly Round Up: And Then There Was One

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition a garden surplus turned into a delicious meal, I've been reading up a storm, and my number of employers has been reduced to one.

Steal a Post: 20x20

Friends, I am working through a patch of blogging burnout.  I have a ton of stories of food, family, and puppy mayhem but for whatever reason they are not wanting to get written.

What do you do when you don't want to write something?  Skip it and write about something else!

Weekly Round Up 1 of 2: Sandwich Crush

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  Last week was split between life as usual and family vacation, so guess what we need two posts to recap it.  Today I'm going to rave about my latest food crush and in a day or so I'll be back to tell you about family vacation antics.

Weekly Round Up: Cool Bloggers Edition

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I'm going to skip food talk in favor of telling you about the latest Cool Blogger's Thing, I found a buddy for my bike trail adventure, I had a miss on the reading front, and I'm sure there will be some puppy talk and maybe some deep life thoughts.

Speaking of Cool Bloggers, yesterday was my turn to join in on the countdown to Engie's 20th Blogging Anniversary!  Join the party here!

I've got 20 things on my mind...

...and I'm sharing them with Engie.  Come join us!

Weekly Round Up: Classic Round Up Edition

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  For the first time in a long time I have an old school traditional round up!!! I've got a new way to prep tofu, surprising fitness news, the latest in hot couples TV shows, and a 😻😻😻 book that's making me very happy.

Weekly Round Up: Christmas in July

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads plus puppy and werk talk.  Let's start with a dose of cute.  The reason why Doggo is tearing into Santa Claus in July is that the pet store had Christmas toys on sale for a steal.  She already "opened" the present, but Santa is holding strong.

Let's Catch Up: Books

 

Sigh, vacation is over and it's time to return to our normally scheduled blog content.  Let's ease our way in with a cheesecake-ish pic of Doggo and talk about books!  Soooooo many books.

Let's Go Places: MegaVacay Wrap Up

 

Oh friends, we've had such a wonderful vacation but all good things must come to an end.  It's now Sunday, and we're going home on Monday.

Let's Go Places: Spring Green, Wisconsin

It's now Friday and exactly one week into MegaVacay 2024.  Our travels are now taking us about an hour west of Madison to the small town of Spring Green.  How small?  Population 1,500.

What's in Spring Green you ask?  If you said Frank Lloyd Wright, then give yourself a gold star.  His ancestors emigrated to the area in the 1800s, and ended up owning a bunch of land here.  In 1911, FLW moved here and built his dream house on a hill, which is called Taliesin (Welsh for "shining brow" as in "the shining brow of the hill that the house is built on").  Spring Green is the ultimate FLW destination.  But wait, there's more...so much more.

Let's Go Places (And Meet People!): Madison, Wisconsin

 

Picking it up from last time...we're on MegaVacay 2024 and it is now Wednesday afternoon.  We're zeroing in on our final home base of the trip.  But it's only Wednesday and we're not going home until Monday, so we've got quite a bit of stuff left to see - and people to meet!

Let's Go Places (and Meet People!): St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

Let's pick up the story of MegaVacay 2024 where we left it last time.  We were headed somewhere four hours away from Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Specifically we're going across state lines to the twin cities of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Minnesota.  But why?

Let's Go Places: Two Rivers WI

 

Friends, it's time to continue with the story of Mega Vacation 2024.  We've just spent a few days in Rockford IL and now it's time to go three hours north to the town of Two Rivers WI.

One of the hardest puzzle pieces to fit into place was the Still Bend Schwartz House in Two Rivers, WI.  Two Rivers is about 90 minutes north of Milwaukee, and it is only open three days a week for tours, so I couldn't fit it into my Milwaukee trip last month.  The only reason that I was able to go on this trip is because I had an entire day to devote to getting there and moving on to my next stop.

I had driven too far not to go there, but also I didn't want to go to Two Rivers just to see one Frank Lloyd Wright house.  I hoped that I would find something else to do there as well, but there were so many moving parts to this trip that I had planning fatigue and didn't do any research before I got there.  Spoiler: in this case failing to plan did not mean planning to fail.  I found that special extra thing to fit into the trip.

Let's Go Places: Rockford, Illinois

 

Friends, it's time to start dishing the deets on Mega Vacation 2024.  If you're new here, the rest of my family spends all of their spare time at Boy Scouts, so I have a lot of solo time on my hands.  When they go camping, I go "glamping" - aka I take solo trips.

In the summer they go on an extended camp, so for the second year in a row, I've gone on an extended vacation.  Last year I did an island bender, and this year I'm doing a Frank Lloyd Wright Binge/Cool Blogger Meetup in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, with a bonus stop in Minneapolis.

Weekly Round Up: Vacation Mode

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads or at least as many of the above as I can coherently tell you.  The big news is that Mega Vacay 2024 is underway!  On Friday morning I kissed Hubs and Doggo goodbye, loaded everything and anything that I could possibly need for the next week into my car, and hit the road.

Weekly Round Up: The Graduate

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, reads, plus the usual puppy brags.  In this week's edition we had a family party, I'm reading the latest It Book, and everybody in my house now has a diploma.

Weekly Round Up: The Life of the Party

 

A weekly round up: it's supposed to be eats, workouts, watches, and reads but in this stage of puppy life it's puppy updates, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week Doggo achieved not one but two huge milestones, Hubs and I saw a cute date night movie, I've got books to dish on, and I need your recommendations.

Let's Go Places (and Meet People!): Racine & Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Last weekend was Boy Scout camp weekend in our house.  You know the drill: my family went off to the woods, our puppy went off for boarding at our vet, and I hit the road in search of adventure.

Normally I don't talk about my travel plans in advance, but I need to tell you what I have planned for June in order to explain this trip.  Just like last year, the rest of my family has a Mega Boy Scout camp trip, and I will be taking a Mega Solo Vacation (though not at the same time as them because of the puppy).  In June the only member of our family who will spend every night at home is the puppy.

The location for my June Mega Solo Vacation is northern Illinois/Wisconsin and the primary agenda is a massive Frank Lloyd Wright bender.  However when I started planning the trip, I realized that there was too much FLW stuff to cram into one visit.  Clearly this needed to be two trips, so last weekend I focused on the Racine/Milwaukee (MKE) area and in June I'll tackle northern IL/central Wisconsin.

Weekly Round Up: Poetry and a Twist

A weekly round up.  Normally I say that the round up is "eats, workouts, watches, and reads", but this time around it's going to be "puppy poetry, watches, a lotta reads, and...hmm...there's something else that's new...huh there's something else that's happened that I need to tell you but I can't remember what it is right now...let me start writing the post and maybe it will come to me".

Let's Go Places: Indianapolis, Indiana

 

Here's what happened for Boy Scout Camp weekend in March:

• My husband and stepsons headed out for the woods
• Our lovely puppy headed off to the vet for boarding.  On arrival she recognized the vet tech from her previous stay and greeted her like a long lost friend.
• Yours truly packed up the car and headed off to the fair city of Indianapolis.

Weekly Round Up: Squad Goals

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition we had a family Taylor Swift girls night, a family eclipse viewing, and Doggo started school.

Weekly Round Up: Journey's End

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I tried a new-to-me tofu product, I finished my hiking challenge, I've got book stuff to talk about, and I'm sure there will be a few puppy pictures as well.

Weekly Round Up: A Doctor in the House

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition someone in my family was awarded a PhD and a celebration ensued, there was puppy madness, and what else is new - I have books to talk about.

Weekly Round Up: Snow Snoot

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads, or at least as many of the above as I can remember with the puppy distraction.

Since we last talked we had another round of Boy Scout camp, which means that the family all went off on their own various adventures (camp for the fellas, boarding at the vet for Doggo, and a long weekend trip for me).  I'll be back with that story in a few days.  Today I want to show you a cute pic of my puppy in the snow and tell you about an incredible book.

Weekly Round Up: A Breed Apart

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  The big news item of this week is that the results are in on Doggo's DNA test!  

Weekly Round Up 2 of 2: Food n'Stuff

 

A weekly round up:  eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  Picking it up from part 1, lemme tell you the usual stuff that I talk about in these roundups.

Weekly Round Up 1 of 2: The Great Catch Up

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on, so let's split this up into two posts to keep it manageable.  Today I'm going to tell you about our winter getaway and the dog, and then I'll come back tomorrow with food, workouts, movies, and books.

Weekly Round Up: It's All a Blur

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, reads, and Doggo.  It's a dog's life when you have two balls and you can't figure out how to bite both of them at once.  Let's see if I can remember anything about this week besides Pup Life.

Weekly Round Up: The Days are Long

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This was a week of long but delightful days with our new puppy.  In other news we tried a new stir fry, I've got workout musings, and a read-the-book-or-see-the-movie went down.

Spoiler alert: I will be discussing the book/movie On the Beach.  I can't figure out how to do it without spoilers, but I've kept them as vague as I can manage.  Skip that section if you don't want the deets.

Weekly Round Up: The Future is Now

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. If there is one update that I did not expect to be giving you this week, it is that the future is now.  We were adopted by Future Dog!

Let's Have Fun With Vinegar: A Cleaning Success Story

Friends, we're here today to talk dirty.

Or clean depending on your point of view.  This is the story of how our master bathroom went from looking shabby to spiffy thanks to a $3.79 investment in a gallon of distilled vinegar.

A Matter of Planning

Hey Friends, today we're talking about my understanding of planners and bullet journals.  This post was inspired by Anne's comment on this post (PS here is the link to Kae's blog that she mentions).

 

Takeaways:

• Yes we need a central Cool Bloggers Forum to discuss Cool Blogger Stuff in detail.
• I wanted to tell Anne more about how I organized my "I made it up myself" Excel sheet, but it was too bulky for a comment.  Is it enough material for a dedicated post?  Let's find out!

Weekly Round Up: Let's Not Go Places

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week a winter storm meant giving up the weekend that I planned for the weekend that I was meant to have.

We have quite a bit to talk about just for the normal "weekly round up" and I've got at least two posts' worth of other stuff to dish on, so I think we're looking at a Monday - Wednesday - Friday posting schedule this week.  The extra topics are planners and cleaning.  Hey come back!  I'll do my best to make the cleaning one interesting.

Today let's talk about my winter weekend at home, epic food, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the hot new documentary that rubbed me the wrong way, and books books books books books books books.

Heads up: I will be discussing (and dissing) a show called You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment so skip the watching section if you don't want the spoilers.

Tales of the Sheprador

 

The biggest criticism that I have of blogs in general and mine in particular is that there is not nearly enough dog content.  Today I am here to do something about that.

ICYMI Stepdog passed away in November after a mercifully brief battle with cancer.  When I wrote about it I said that I would come back later and tell the story of everything that came before.  This is the promised happy post about this wonderful dog's long and healthy life.  

Her backstory.  How she went from being my husband's ex-wife's dog to my stepdog.  What she meant to each member of the family.  A Day in the Life Pre-Pandemic Edition and a Day in the Life Pandemic and Beyond Edition.  Her many nicknames.  A bunch of random dog stories, lots of pictures, and some Sheprador Poetry.  Her Dog Ambassadorship which led to many of our friends and family adopting dogs.