Tuesday, October 30, 2012

{pretty, happy, funny, real} at the farm

round button chicken
~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life~
Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter


{pretty} 
a pretty day out at Little Way Farm on Monday last week
lots of time for fishing...

love the eyes and cheeks on this pretty boy!


{happy}
happy to have made a catch!

my happy son playing football with the boys!



my happy, grinning godson. love his lashes!

{funny}
no one could figure out how to get the hook out of the poor fish.  they were just all looking at it quizzically.  poor fish!


{real}
some real pictures from my iPhone and a friend's...
Ellie and her big catch!

real good friends forever!  all the moms have been friends since high school and/or college!

and a ride filled with our Aggie kids.  Gig 'Em Ags!

fishing, farm, and friends make for fantastic, fun memories!  thanks for having us, Veronica and family...and thanks for meeting us there, M and J!

(and wow, I'm a day early for the link party...oops!)

Tommy at the Park









Monday, October 29, 2012

The 3 big kids at the park

After Sunday Mass during our trip last weekend, we got our favorite fast food chicken fingers and had a fun time playing at our old neighborhood park. I miss these trees!
Spinning spinning!
Too funny!

Proud climber

Happy girls



They are really growing up!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They were ages 4 and 1 when we moved into our first house here.  Now they are growing up before my eyes.  Take a look at the sweet sisters in February 2007...a little walk down memory lane...so many fun times at this park, from playdates to Christmas carnivals to birthday parties...lots of fun times to remember with these sweet kiddos who aren't so little anymore...I miss those chubby cheeks!





Sunday, October 28, 2012

Monday Motivation and random thoughts

Well, last week we spent most of the week in Houston!  We did a bit of schoolwork and I can actually cross a lot of things off my list.  This week will be filled with saintly celebrations, prep for 4H food contests this weekend, and another hunting excursion for Steven.

Goals from last week:
1.  Daily prayer/readings Laudate App for the kids to listen to
2.  Call list for Nutcracker donations
3.  Pick up Texas History book at learning store down the street
4.  Morning routine, start by 9 and finish by noon
5.  Schedule well-checks, dental appt for MC
6.  Work on saint costumes and decide on travel plans
7.  Home inspection
8.  Pay bills, update budget on Mint
9.  Work on Thomas' baby book on MyPublisher
10.  Meals: Leftovers, Pizza, Cream Cheese crockpot chicken, enchiladas
 
Goals for this week:
1. Bills
2. Daily readings, use Laudate App
3. Call last few people for Nutcracker donations and reminder email to others
4. Schedule well-checks and dental appts
5. Prep for All Hallow's Eve celebration, costume for Thomas
6. Prep for 4H food show and food challenge
7. Meals: Crockpot Roast, Carnitas, Leftovers, Baked chicken and rice, food at church
8. Checklist for school, stay on schedule!
 
A few thoughts about this past week...
 
We enjoyed our time with friends and family once again, but boy do we keep busy when we're in Houston!  We go from one place to another and somehow fill every day with lots of activities.  It's fun, but oh so exhausting.  At least it got us to start on an earlier bedtime and now I've been able to wake early each morning.  Hopefully this continues because I really need to be a better morning mom!  I'd love to do my exercise in the mornings, but I'm not sure how/when I might fit that in.  I'll probably start to look for some options near our new house! 
 
Some friends had a child come down with head lice this weekend.  They were at our house two days in a row.  So I've been paranoid and waking up in the middle of the night panicked about head lice, and have checked the kids several times each day.  I also nearly had a panic attack today when Thomas woke up from his nap screaming inconsolably.  He appeared to be in pain, which I assumed was gas or something, because he wouldn't let me hold him and was walking funny.  It was so odd, and I woke up Steven to help me figure it out.  I realized tonight that it has been so long since I've had panicked nights about illness or surgery or money problems.  I am grateful that we've been in a season without excessive stress or illness in our own little family.  But it definitely makes me more sympathetic to others who are undergoing those struggles.  And I do have several extended family members dealing with a lot of these problems.  I need to remember to pray for them often.

I miss my friends.  I know I say that a lot.  I still have hopes that I will form those close friendships here in our new town, but I also still feel like there is some kind of barrier that is keeping that from happening.  Maybe it's time, maybe it's my hopes of this being a temporary home, maybe it's just that my friends here will be different from my friends in Houston.  Maybe it's the necessary forming of my own family life here and my spiritual life, before I am able to bond with new friends.  I guess we'll see. 
 
Tonight was the big All Saints Festival at the farm back home that had been our yearly tradition for probably 6 years.  I was hoping we could continue this tradition, but it was not meant to be.  Instead, I spent several hours with the girls trying to find saint costumes.  They kept changing their plans, and I thought I was going to end up having to sew the costumes.  Turns out they chose saints that allow for easier costume purchasing!  But "easy" is a relative term.  I could have "easily" bought them costumes on Amazon a few days ago with no trouble.  Instead, we ended up at Party City, Target, Walmart, some Dollar Stores, and Halloween City, plus a few others.  You'd think a Native American and a white doctor coat would be easy to find!  
 
I do not recommend the Party City/Halloween stores for somewhat sheltered children.  I think they were a bit traumatized by all the gore.  And the racy costumes for women.  Right by the Native American costumes there were plastic breasts misplaced right at their eye level.  Ellie kept saying, "that is the weirdest thing I have ever seen!"  Then Mary Clare wanted to buy a "cute" little set of doctor accessories that I think included a lace garter.  I didn't have the heart to tell her.  Oh, my sweet girls...I wish I could keep you sheltered forever!

Better continue with that early bedtime.  Have a great week, friends!
 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sunshine Day

I think I'll go for a walk outside now
I just can't stay inside all day
I gotta get out, get me some of those rays!
(A fun walk on a sunshine-y morning with NeNe and PaPa last weekend; I got a peaceful shower with everyone gone!)

Friday, October 26, 2012

7 Quick Takes



--- 1 ---
Road trip!  We got back at 11pm on Wednesday night from a little 6-day trip to Houston!  I left Friday afternoon with all the kids, while Steven spent the weekend on his annual camping and fishing trip on the beach with his nephew.  He flew into Houston on Tuesday evening for meetings there on Wednesday, and then we drove back together.  We had another fun, eventful trip and got to see lots of our good friends.  I did a lot of shopping for our new house and have a bunch of photos to share!

--- 2 ---
Here are the iPhone photos, collage done on pixlr.com/express:
From our trip:
1st row: drive by an old family house, T scared of fan, E and NeNe reading, driving to IKEA with SJ, shy with the clown at IKEA.
Check out at IKEA-SJ: "I hate this store!," T loves Holly dog, fav fastfood at fav park, E stuck in swing at friends', Rico's with friends.
Fishing at Little Way farm, how to get the hook out?, ride on the Gator, posing with E's fish, T playing in the car outside the frozen yogurt place where roaches were flying outside!
Chuck E Cheese for bday party!  T rode with the mouse about 20 times and has the photos to show for it!
On my way to the airport I stopped to pray at the big Planned Parenthood while the boys slept in the car, they say it's the largest abortion clinic in the Western Hemisphere :(, me and my boy, Elmo saved us in the car ride home, and fun times at HEB!

--- 3 ---
Word verification.  I know lots of people have requested that bloggers take the annoying word verification off the blog comments.  I did it when I was changing my settings a couple weeks ago, but I started getting about 10 spam messages a day!  So I'm sorry, it's back to weird words for my blog.  I know it's annoying; I think I just had to try 4 to leave a comment on a friend's blog!

--- 4 ---
I got pulled over by a cop at 10pm with the boys in the car!  We had just finished a long dinner out with our friends, and I dropped the girls off for a little overnighter.  It took me about a mile to find a lighted spot to pull over, and the cop wasn't happy about it!  But, I wasn't speeding...my tail lights were out!  Turns out it was a blown fuse which Steven finally fixed during a pit stop on our drive home.  I haven't been pulled over in about 10 years, so I was a little shaken up!0

--- 5 ---
A couple house purchases:

I bought the rug off Craigslist for our upstairs playroom when we move.  It's a really nice rug, but turns out it has a really nasty smell.  I hope it dissipates in a few days.  Also bought some new plastic dishes and placemats at IKEA.  Aren't they so colorful and cute!  I also bought some other kitchen goodies and some bedding.
--- 6 ---
All Saints' Day.  I have less than a week to put together costumes!  I guess this weekend will be the time for costume-making.  We'll have a St. Therese, Blessed Imelda, St. George, and not sure about Tommy's costume.  I hope my sewing machine survives.  I think it needs a cleaning!

--- 7 ---
Quiet weekend?  This weekend should be pretty low-key, with no plans other than a t-ball game and Nutcracker rehearsal.  And of course the costume-making.  Things will rev up once November arrives, so I'll be enjoying the "calm before the storm!"  I've actually been doing better with getting to bed before midnight and waking up early.  Hope it continues.  And hope you all have a great weekend!


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Dreamy Kitchen and Reflections on this Blessing


The house of my dreams would always include a light and bright white kitchen open to the living room, and that's what this one has! I love the colors, the wood laminate floors, the moldings, those kitchen cabinets with glass doors, and the newer stainless steel appliances. Our last two kitchens have been pretty much original from the 1960s and 1970s, so this is quite an exciting change! If this all actually works out I will be pinching myself every time I get to cook in here :)


The breakfast area is one of my few concerns about the house. We are already getting cramped around our 6-person table, so I'm trying to decide how to arrange the breakfast area and the dining room, which I plan to use as the schoolroom. Maybe at some point we could take out that wall to the left of the back door to open the space? I'm sure it will work out fine for now, and it's fun to think about how it might all come together when we put our own furniture in here.  It will definitely lose the "model home" vibe it presents from all these pictures, but it will be our own colorful, messy, kid-friendly space!


Of course there are still drawbacks, as with any house.  We're actually buying a kind of "front-loader" home with the garage in front, which we don't prefer.  We'll have a much longer drive to our ballet school, and I'm not sure how that will affect our evening family time.  The neighborhood isn't our favorite, and there are quite a few homes that aren't well kept with fences falling over and overgrown yards. 

But overall, the location, the yard, and the condition of this house just can't be beat.  I drove by the other day and noticed the school children jogging around the sidewalk that went down the road to the church and back across a bridge near our street.  I can't wait to take walks and hopefully attend some morning daily masses.  And we know we will be hosting many parties and visitors in this house!

This week I have shared all these photos and excitement, and I sincerely hope it doesn't come across as boastful.  Steven has worked so hard, for so many years to get us to this point.  And we have had support from family members and friends as we went through the years of ministry work, going back to school, and the challenges of jobs that weren't ideal for our family.  I am so grateful for that support, and for the humbling experiences that allow us to look at this new home as a total blessing which we don't deserve.

I am also very proud of the hard work and sacrifice we have all undertaken, and am so happy that we have finally found the right job fit for our family.  I just wish it wasn't far away from our extended family and longtime friends.  They are missing out on the weekly dinners, the birthday parties, the ballet recitals, the t-ball games, and the other events that they would very much wish to share with us.  But we do get to visit them for extended times, we can talk on the phone daily, and maybe we'll figure out video conferencing and FaceTime when we move.

For now, we know we are in the place where God has asked us to be.  The place that will allow our family to learn and grow in the ways that God is asking us.  We are truly living in Corpus Christi, "the Body of Christ," who shows us His love and mercy every day, but also through special blessings like this.  Thanks be to God, and thanks to you, our friends and family, who have prayed for us on this journey!
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