Adventures De Madre

My mom’s week trip to Kansas City was extremely busy which is no surprise. My mom doesn’t really know how to sit still. Let’s see if I can recap her trip:

Monday – I went to the office for work in the morning so she went and walked at Loose park, ate breakfast, cleaned out the tall closet to the left of my refrigerator that I’ve been ignoring since we moved in, showered, cleaned off my front door (it was very dusty), and swept my porch before I came back home at 1pm. Then we drove out and picked up my antelope which was finally done at the processor in Wellington, Missouri. On the way back to KC, we stopped in Lee’s Summit to look for a sewing machine and fabric. We found an awesome place to get some called Fabric Recycle which is right next door to El Maguey which is the best mexican food I’ve eaten in the Midwest. This meant we had nachos and margaritas for dinner.

Tuesday – we walked in Loose Park and drank coffee in Starbucks in the Plaza before stepping in Barnes & Nobel and Pottery Barn on the way home. After showering, we went out shopping for a sewing machine and some household items. Tuesday night I have Gospel Community so I left Mom at home to play with the sewing machine we bought. By the time I came home, she was already frusterated with the one we purchased and wanted to take it back.

Wednesday – took the dreadful sewing machine back and went to the Bernina store. The owner showed us several models and Mom ended up buying a Bernina 135 that was used.

It makes 25 stitches and has a semi-automatic button hole maker. It is a very nice machine! I am truly blessed to have parents that want to invest in activities I’m interested in. (It also helps that my mom sews a tremendous amount). It had to be serviced so we didn’t pick it up until Friday morning.

Lunch was at BRGR which has a great gluten-free hamburger bun. Mom was in heaven, see picture below…

My mom helped me hang pictures and art all around our house Wednesday afternoon. She has such a good eye for where and how to hang things (my parents have a tremendous amount of art in their house). She’s also really good at being helpful while hanging things. My Dad wants to make sure everything is exactly square and measured but my Mom wants it to look correct to the eye when the ceilings and walls aren’t straight. It feels amazing to have things hung on the walls again!

My friend Melanie stopped by the house for a couple glasses of wine. She and my mom were telling all kinds of crazy funny stories. It made my heart incredibly happy to have them both at my house.

Thursday – I went into the office for a half day and Mom worked on cleaning my house. She ended up finding the dryer line to the outside was full of lent (from previous renteres/owners) so she stood on her head to clean it out. (She’s also pretty ingenuitive since she duct-taped straws to the end of my vaccumn cleaner to suck it up instead of spending money to call an industrial cleaner). Apparently we were pretty close to having a house fire…

Post dryer rescue was a tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Mom is an artist (photography and fiber/quilting/sewing) so she loved it! The sculpture garden is also a top-of-the-list KC attraction.

Dinner was at Cooper’s Hawk Winery on the Plaza which has an amazing GF menu!! They have several locations across the country but it was absolutely, hands-down, the best GF menu I’ve ever ordered off of! Dessert was great, as was the Malbec…

Friday – dinner was so good we went back for lunch after picking up my new sewing machine. Then we got down to business – Mom taught me how to make dresses for Haiti (blog post coming soon with instructions).

First Fridays is the first Friday of every month so Mom and I met up with several of my friends for drinks at Snow & Co before walking around looking at art. I really enjoyed her getting to know my friends. I’ve never listened to her opinion of my friends in the past (little bit rebellous) but I am listening this time around…she’s always been right in the past.

Saturday – we got up early, swung thru Starbucks for coffee and made a bee line for the River Market’s City Market Farmer’s Market (how many markets are really needed in a title? haha). We bought flowers, pumpkins, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, spices, garlic, kale, and green beans. I must have made a statement about wanting to learn to can green beans or how much I loved the canned green beans my grandmother used to make because we brought home enough green beans for 10 pint cans worth and 2 quarts for dinner!! It was awesome for Mom to teach me how to can (post coming later on that one too). See picture below of the start of the process.

We shopped in West Bottoms antique dealers since Mom is such a fan of that too. It was a great time and I ended up with a great couple of buys. I can’t tell you what they are yet since I’m giving them as gifts 🙂

Saturday afternoon my friend Lee came over to learn to sew (with a free lesson of how to can green beans) which was a lot of fun! Mom then made chili and cornbread for my roomate, my friend Brad, her and I to eat for dinner. By the time we had cleaned up the kitchen and finished sewing I was completely exhausted! I hope I have as much energy as my mom when I’m her age.

We did can the leftover chili as well (which I’m eating while writing this):

Sunday – we ate breakfast at eggtc and then went to 9am service at Redeemer Fellowship. The preaching was good but the people sitting around us talked too much for my preference which was frusterating. Mom showed me her pictures from all her international travels this summer (Ireland, London, and Norway) before I took her to the airport to fly home.

It was a crazy busy week but I loved it! We’ve already got a list going of what she wants to do the next time she comes 🙂

Mom’s in KC

My Mom has finally made the treck to come visit me! She hasn’t been able to to shake her familial responsibilities to just have a good time with her oldest offspring due to my grandmother’s health, brother’s attitude, and father’s crazy schedule. Short point – she’s the one keeping this family going.

When my grandmother passed away in May, I gave my mom “I owe you” plane tickets to come to KC with the stipulation that I needed enough advanced warning to be able to not travel for work while she was here and that the first weekend of each month was the best weekend to spend in KC each month.

So…

She came yesterday and is here until next Sunday!

I picked her up from the airport around 12:30pm, gave her a tour of my house, went to get gluten-free pizza at Spin! Pizza, gelato at Glace, smelled the roses in loose park, and went to church at Redeemer at 7pm. Pretty busy first half day! Enjoy some pictures below 🙂