miles to go mommy

zoo

2012-01-29T21:43:00.000-06:00

huge

brave

white

aries

stinky

happy

saturday sunshine

2012-01-28T17:33:00.000-06:00

We spent Saturday afternoon in the backyard. It was a tad on the chilly side (for me at least) but absolutely beautiful.

One of Grace's backyard finds.

Our backyard lizard. He lives on the garden hose and is always there.

Ray and Carter played a bit of backyard football.

Grace and I started some seeds.

Over the past few years, I've assembled quite the pumpkin seed collection.

Sitting in the sunshine, planting pumpkin seeds. True happiness.

Some may even call it bliss.

When we were finished we'd planted:

Valenciano Pumpkins

Rouge Vif D'etampes Pumpkins

La Estrella Pumpkins

Calabaza Pumpkins

Howden Biggie Pumpkins

Racer Pumpkins

Bliss Pumpkins

Naples Long Pumpkins

Genovese Basil

Sweet Basil

Dill

Sage

and

Bibb Lettuce

Our small winter garden loved this week's rain. We have an artichoke, strawberries, cauliflower and brussels sprouts already in the ground.

And in the front, a few bright blooms to carry us through to warmer weather.

Flowers in the front, veggies in the back, pumpkin seeds in the dirt, eggs in the incubator.

Spring is just around the corner.

And I could not be happier.

filter friday at the farm

2012-01-27T08:24:00.000-06:00

It was a beautiful day at the farm.

Quack.

Elizabeth Taylor, the world's most beautiful goose, has taken Ryan and Bruce, our most recent hatchlings, under her wing. They are her babies now and go everywhere with her. At one point we had to catch Bruce to tape his wing. Liz was not at all happy with the situation.

Grace and Melissa heading down to the bus stop to pick up the boys.

Ike, the king of the farm and Miss Peacock, the first peacock we ever hatched.

Miss Peacock. No fancy tail feathers, but lovely nonetheless.

Grace and Melissa gathering eggs in the mud.

Ike's son, Ike 2. We hatched Ike 2 in May. There is no way to describe the enormous size of the Ikes. That is a full sized chicken standing next to Ike 2.

This morning we put 27 eggs in the incubator. Almost all of them are blue. Grace and Melissa found a chicken nest in an odd spot, so many of the eggs may be too old to hatch, but there's only one way to know for sure...

progress

2012-01-24T16:12:00.000-06:00

It rained all day - making today a great day to stay inside and get some work done on my current works in progress.

This week we launched "Project B" in Grace's 2nd grade class. As the room mom, I felt some sort of responsibility to attempt an amazing end of year gift for Grace's wonderful teacher. After much thought and deliberation I decided to make a kid art keepsake quilt.

My goal is to be finished with the quilt by the end of April, so I wont be last-minute-quilting in May. That's why we got started on the project this week. I wanted to make sure I gave myself plenty of time.

I put together four quilt square kits. Each one contains a set of fabric pens, one plain white muslin square taped to the front of a yellow folder. Inside the folder are complete instructions and a piece of test fabric so the kids can get a feel for the fabric pens.

All of the supplies are then placed in a padded manila envelope for safe and secret travel. We are trying to keep this project a secret so we can surprise Grace's teacher at the end of the school year.

All Grace's teacher knows about the project is the name, "Project B," and that there are envelopes going home and coming back to school Grace, my capable assistant, has done a great job of bringing envelopes home and taking them back to school.

Our first three squares. Grace would want me to tell you that hers is the one with the tulips.

I was a little nervous about launching this project. So many of the things that have to happen to make this quilt a success are completely outside of my control. But, so far, the quilt squares are coming back much quicker than I expected and are incredibly cute. I'm sewing a different colored fabric border on each square as they come in and love the way they are turning out.

I also finished my second Steelers pillow cases. One of the kids' friends, Jake, broke his collar bone last weekend so we made him a get well soon care package. Jake's entire family are Steelers fans, so today I made a pillow case for his little brother, too. (I simply had to get rid of all of the Steeler fabric, bleh!)

And I'm finally finishing Grace's quilt. I started the quilt last summer and would have had it finished a long time ago, but I keep deciding to make it bigger. Today, I added the last of the 48 squares.

A sneak peek at Grace's pretty curtains and walls.

I'm hoping to have the quilt finished in time for Grace's birthday in March. The quilt inspired new paint and curtains in Grace's room, so it would be nice to actually have it on the bed.

It's supposed to rain Wednesday and Thursday, too...

saturday

2012-01-22T19:29:00.001-06:00

Saturday, we hit the Austin boat show and tested out a few new boats.

The clocktower was actually attached to the front of this boat.

After a few moments of boat shopping, the kids decided they needed some action. So we watched as strangers zipped the kids into air tight bubbles, then filled them with air with what looked like a leaf blower.

Then, pushed them into a pool of water.

The kids had all kinds of fun in what looked like giant, floating hamster balls.

Then, they went fishing in a swimming pool filled with sleepy, very well fed catfish.

We "fished" until they told us it was time to take our poles out of the water so the next group could start fishing. Just before we were about to go, Ray hooked an unsuspecting fish so the kids could have some fun.

Doesn't it look like the fish is smiling?

On the way home we hit Torchy's Tacos.

Ray had the Trailer Park, Trashy, I went with the Green Chile Carnitas. Oh my goodness. I'm already planning my next trip.

filter friday (finally)

2012-01-20T15:45:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure about you, but I have started to become a bit jealous of the instagram photos popping up on Facebook and on blogs. So today I did a little searching and found this site which allows anyone to add instagram style effects to any picture on their pc.

It's free, you don't have to download anything, and you can save your filtered, framed, fantastic pics right back to your hard drive. I love it.

This afternoon, I enjoyed our near eighty degree temps with a run. I generally don't run with my camera but it has been so amazingly beautiful outside that today I brought it along. I'm glad I did.

Here are a few pics I snapped on my run. Each has had different filters, effects, and frames applied. I can already tell that filter Fridays are going to be fun.

My favorite geese at the duck pond. The big male on the right has the loudest goose honk you've ever heard and he's not at all shy.

One of my favorite running trails.

Budding branches. A sign that Spring is just around the corner.

These leaves really were this bright. Still holding on for dear life amidst a sea of bare branches.

Let the sun shine!

nothing says middle-aged mommy like paper pennants, homemade lotion, and flaming dr. pepper

2012-01-15T20:20:00.000-06:00

Friday was Ray's birthday, so the kids and I whipped up a birthday pennant.

Technically, we should have done this with fabric, but we were short on time so we cut up a few pieces of scrapbook paper with pinking shears, then sewed the triangles onto bias tape. The pennant turned out cute, now I really want to make one out of fabric.

We made chocolate cake balls dipped in white chocolate.

I found this card in Carter's backpack. I love the fact that he was thinking about his dad's birthday while he was at school.

Ray was happy when he came home to our little celebration.

Saturday, I whipped up something new. I'd found this lotion recipe on Pinterest, and thought it might be the cure for my winter-dry hands.

The recipe involves dumping Vaseline, vitamin e lotion, and baby lotion into your mixer then whipping them together until the mixture looks like fluffy icing.

The result is the smoothest softest lotion ever. Your hands stay soft even after you've washed them a few times. Good stuff.

I kept one container for myself and gave the others away.

Saturday night we went downtown with Lisa, Eric, Ellen, and Tony for dinner, drinks, and laughs at Esther's Follies.

So, I'm feeling pretty good, wearing my homemade lotion, walking down 6th street with my good friends and my just-turned-forty-three husband when we pass two musicians on the street. One is playing his guitar, the other is asking for money as people pass by. Our group passes by and he asks how much we think the song is worth. We smile, say nothing and keep walking. As Ray and I pass the guy asking for money yells out, "Come on Mom and Dad, give me some money!!"

Mom and Dad? Moments later, Ellen and I are in the ladies room at The Iron Cactus. Ellen walks over to the sink and a woman standing there looks at her and says, "Isn't it nice to be out without the kids?"

Um hello? Do we have the word parent tattooed on our foreheads? How do these people know we're not a bunch of happening UT grad students : )

After the food, but before the follies, we stopped by Touche' for their house specialty: The Flaming Dr. Pepper. Standing in the presence of a fire breathing bartender has to be enough to make anyone feel young again. I captured the awesomeness in the video above.

The Flaming Dr. Pepper is beer with a shot glass of some sort of liqueur inside. After the fiery explosion, the two mix in a way that makes the entire drink taste exactly like Dr. Pepper. Everyone enjoyed their DP, and Esther's Follies made us laugh so hard that today my cheeks are sore.

At least I hope my cheeks are sore from laughing and it's not some side effect of aging...

my sweet ride

2012-01-07T21:11:00.002-06:00

That's me in the middle. My hair is in Princess Leia buns and my pink Huffy was named "Sweet Thunder"

When I was a kid, I loved riding my bike. My sisters and I used to ride all over our neighborhood. We were absolutely fearless and handled our bikes with ease and grace. But, somehow whenever I rode a bike as an adult I always felt awkward, clumsy, as if I might fall at any moment, or worse yet, get hit by a car.

I sold my most recent grown up bike at my last garage sale. I just didn't enjoy riding a 12 speed mountain bike.

This year for Christmas, Ray told me he wanted to buy me a bike but wanted to make sure I was there to pick it out. So today, Ray, Grace, and I went bike shopping. I had decided I wanted a cruiser. Something with fat tires and a huge seat.

We found a great retro looking cruiser, but I was a little bothered by the fact that it was maroon and had stickers that said "good vibrations" on both sides. So we kept looking. After a few more stops, we stumbled upon the beauty in the picture above.

I loved the retro styling, the smooth tires, and the seat big enough for a Buick. The fact that it came in orange was an excellent bonus,

and this bike handles like a dream. After riding my new bike up and down my street a few times, I figured out why I was such a terrible adult bike rider. All of my grown up bikes had tons of gears to worry about shifting, bumpy tires, and brakes on the handle bars. But when I was a kid, I had always ridden a bike with just one speed, and stopping was as simple as pushing my pedals backwards.

And that, my friends, is exactly what this baby does. One speed. Pedals backwards to stop. That makes all the difference. Bike riding is fun again.

Ray, the kids, and I rode our bikes together this afternoon and I had a great time. It was, well it was just like riding a bike. I hadn't forgotten how, I just didn't have the right bike.

2011 - The Year in Sewing Projects

2012-01-06T09:42:00.002-06:00

Grace's vintage pillowcase dress.

I always love making pretty pillow cases. I sent these to the director of the kids' preschool while she was battling breast cancer.

I loved making this bunny for baby Max. Max liked it, too. This year I simply have to make more bunnies.

Ellie starred in her school play as the farmer's wife. You simply can't be a good farmer's wife without a custom apron. Love Alexander Henry's Farmdale line.

More pillowcases. This time with Moda's 1974 line, which, I'm pretty sure was made for me : ) I stashed away lots of 1974 (with Lisa's help) and am planning an Erica quilt soon...

Stephanie's quilt was a collaborative effort with Lisa.

Back to school headbands for Grace.

And, apple baskets for the kids' teachers.

While the Farmer's Wife quilt is still far from finished, I did complete six squares. Looking forward to getting back to this one in 2012.

Susan's horsie quilt. I found a bolt of the red toile (above) in Georgetown, it was all I could do to not buy the entire thing and hoard it away.

Wreaths. Technically not a sewing project, but I love making them so much that 2012 is guaranteed to be a big wreath year.

The angel throw.

Carter's Rudolph Christmas Throw. He did not use it one time because he decided that the abominable snow man was just too scary for bedtime. Maybe next year.

Finally, the wedding quilt. Love, love, love.

Looking back through all of my pictures from 2011, I was surprised at how many projects I'd finished. It was a good sewing year.

a very happy new year

2012-01-02T22:01:00.000-06:00

I've lived in Texas all of my life but I've never been to the coast during the winter. So, this year we decided to celebrate the arrival of 2012 in Galveston. My sister Susan and her foster son, T.C. joined us for the trip. We all arrived Friday evening, just after dark, and woke up Saturday morning to the thickest fog I've ever seen.

Serious fog.

Grace is an excellent cart driver and T.C. always has football on the brain.

The kids didn't let the fog slow them down.

A few hours later, the fog was gone and the weather was perfect.

We played in the soft white sandy part of the beach that is usually way too hot to walk on in the summer.

We buried Grace.

And Carter.

Our New Year's Eve dinner. Actually, I made everyone pose for a picture before I fed them. Worked like a charm.

While we were eating, the fog rolled back in.

This is what fog looks like when lit with a flash. It never rained a drop, it was just super foggy.

Running away from a freshly lit firework.

Sparklers!

New Year's Day we ate lunch on Seawall Boulevard.

The weather was absolutely amazing. No more fog.

The beach was chilly but beautiful.

The girls had a spa evening while the boys watched football.

It was a fabulous beach trip and a great way to ring in the new year.

go where your heart tells you and pay attention once you get there

2011-12-26T22:44:00.000-06:00

The San Fernando Cathedral

Our second day in San Antonio began with a brief morning walk with the kids. Or first stop, the San Fernando Cathedral. Plaques on the front of the church told us that the cathedral was one of the oldest churches in America and the final resting place of Alamo heroes, Bowie, Travis and Crockett. Fascinated by anything that has seen so much history, I had to see more.

Inside, the church was amazingly beautiful and filled with warm, welcoming light. There was no organized service underway, but the church was busy with parishioners moving about, praying, and lighting candles. Our visit was brief, my main goal was to make sure we, the tourists, didn't disturb anyone there on church business.

After the world's quickest photo op in front of the Alamo, we ate lunch at Chris Madrid's then made our way back to the hotel. The kids decided they had to go for another swim in the exceptionally warm heated pool and Ray was happy to take them. I just can't swim in December, so I decided to take a walk around the city by myself.

A few steps outside of the hotel, I found myself heading back to San Fernando. I wasn't exactly sure why, but I wanted to sit in the cathedral and be still for a few minutes. As I crossed the main plaza and made my way toward the cathedral, it dawned on me that if I wanted to spend a few quiet moments inside of a church, I should head for my grandma and grandpa's church, St. John's Lutheran, instead.

St. John's Lutheran had been my True North in Downtown San Antonio for the past few years. The hotel we usually stayed at was right next to St. John's so I had learned to navigate downtown with St. John's as my starting point. We were staying at a different hotel this year, but I could see St. John's from my hotel balcony, so I felt like I knew exactly where I was.

I took the long way to St. John's, enjoying my quiet walk and soaking up as much of San Antonio as I could. When I finally arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's church, I found the doors were locked. Disappointed, I crossed the street and snapped a few pictures of the church.

St. John's Lutheran Church

St. John's is no San Fernando, but it's no slouch, either. St. John's was founded by German immigrants and is, in fact, the oldest Lutheran Church in San Antonio. Ana Gombert, a member of my grandma's family which emigrated from Germany then settled in Fredericksburg before moving to San Antonio, was the first and only woman to sign the initial charter for St. John's.

I always look forward to visiting Grandma and Grandpa's church. St. John's was where they were married, baptized their babies, grand babies, and great grand babies, and celebrated their 50th anniversary. It was so much a part of my grandparents' life, that when I'm there I feel like they still are too.

I took a different route back toward the hotel, soaking up the sights and sounds of what has to be one of the friendliest cities on the planet. I still wanted to spend some quiet time alone, so I found my way back to the San Fernando Cathedral.

When I stepped inside, the cathedral was quiet. There were only a few people scattered throughout the pews. The light was soft and golden. I sat down on the end of the last row and felt my neck and shoulders relax. I had been walking for quite a few miles in the crisp December air. It felt good to be warm and still.

After a few moments of silence, I noticed a small group of people gathered around a grand piano at the front of the cathedral. I didn't remember the piano from our morning visit, and thought this was definitely a huge organ kind of church. Perplexed, I began paying close attention to the group around the piano.

It was a small group of only seven or eight. Having just been at a wedding the weekend before, my first thought was that these people were discussing specifics for a wedding ceremony. Except, this group of extremely fair skinned, blond haired people just didn't seem like they would be getting married in a church in downtown San Antonio that conducted almost all of its services in Spanish.

They milled about, speaking quietly around the piano, and then one of them sat down at the piano and began to play. The acoustics in this cathedral were absolutely amazing. Each piano note sounded clean and crisp and the tune sounded familiar. Then, the small, fair group began to sing. Their voices were so ridiculously beautiful, that as they echoed around inside of the sanctuary, it sounded like a band of angels singing. Absolutely Heavenly.

And, although the tune was familiar, the words were not. In fact, they sounded quite foreign.
Confused, I listened to the song, but it wasn't until the choir stopped singing and I overheard their director speaking quiet English with a thick German accent that I realized they were singing Christmas songs in German, my grandma's native tongue.

I was sitting in a mostly Spanish speaking Catholic Cathedral in downtown San Antonio, where, on a Wednesday afternoon, there was a small choir, gathered around a baby grand piano, singing Christmas carols in German.

I had gone to St. John's looking for my grandma. She had found me at San Fernando's.

As I walked back across the Main Plaza towards our hotel, I could still hear the echoes from the choir inside the cathedral and I tried to process the events of the afternoon. I have no idea how or why these things happen. I don't know how to seek them out or pretend to understand exactly what they mean.

What I do know it that Grandma and I have always had a special bond that wasn't broken by her death seventeen years ago.

Our final stop in San Antonio, new flowers for Grandma and Grandpa.

I've been writing this blog for more than four years, and this will be my nine hundred and sixty-fifth post. In all of those posts, I've never given anyone any advice. But, I'm ending this post with these words because doing these two things has made all the difference in my life:

Go where your heart tells you

And pay attention once you get there

You might be surprised by what you find.

christmas

2011-12-25T11:44:00.001-06:00

I made Grace a red sash for her flower girl dress, and viola, Christmas dress. She was so happy to get to wear her dress again.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom, dad, and Mindy's family at our house.

The Smiths

Grace with my mom's dog, Skip. Chloe was guarding the stairs.

I made my famous baked ziti for dinner.

The ziti was good, but Mindy's cake balls were definitely the most wonderful dish of the evening. Possibly the most wonderful dish ever!

The kids lit up their Christmas Trees so Santa wouldn't miss them.

There was a blizzard in the upstairs art niche.

Right before bed. Everyone was excited.

And then the wrapping began.

I love wrapping. I try to make each gift an event.

The first gift of Christmas.

Actual high heels.

Carter has quite a nutcracker collection.

Grace loved this bird in the nest wrapping, and inside was a Kindle Fire.

The kids were completely shocked that Santa brought three Kindle Fires or Fire Kindles as Carter calls them.

Working together to open the Wii.

The aftermath.

Not really cold enough for coats.

We were happy with spray snow graffiti on the fence.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

san antonio highlights

2011-12-23T23:16:00.000-06:00

This year we finally took a riverboat tour at night. The two million lights along the river were absolutely amazing.

We stayed at a different hotel this year. The outside of the building was definitely a little Frank Sinatra, but everything inside was fantastic.

And, it was right on the river.

And the heated swimming pool was more like a giant hot tub. What can I say? My kids have some serious cannonball skills.

Charlie found us in our hotel : )

The obligatory Alamo picture.

It wouldn't be a trip to SA without some Mi Tierra

We all had an amazing adventure in San Antonio and are happy to be back home and ready for Christmas.

the wedding quilt

2011-12-18T11:31:00.000-06:00

Before we start, I have to say websites that make you listen to music drive me a little crazy. But, this post would be better with music. So, if you'd like, click play and read.

It all started with this picture on fabric.com. I loved the fabric the first moment I saw it and knew it would be perfect for a wedding quilt. The Liberty of London fabric was traditional, yet modern, truly timeless.

There was only one problem. I didn't have the faintest idea of how to find the perfect coordinating fabrics for my lovely Liberty of London. Fortunately, Lisa and Carrey are true geniuses at matching fabrics. They helped me with ideas and Carrey even had a few swatches in her fabric stash.

Armed with the swatches, I set out for one of our favorite fabric stores, The Cotton Cupboard in Lakeway. Jessica, the owner of The Cotton Cupboard, is also a master at matching prints and colors. I showed her my swatches and she helped me with the rest of the fabric selection.

In the end, I wound up deciding to order more Liberty of London, which is why I wound up finishing the quilt the night before the wedding. Not ideal circumstances for quilting, but I loved the fabric so much I wanted it to be the feature fabric in the quilt.

The finished product.

Of course, I love it.

I tried to get Grace to sit on the quilt for scale, but she wasn't in the most cooperative mood. You can still get an idea of the size of the quilt.

I finished the quilt at four am, slept for several hours, then woke up to get ready for the wedding. Which meant I only had a few moments to photograph the quilt and admire its beauty. Folding it up and placing in in the box made my heart hurt, just a little bit.

Giving someone a quilt is like giving them a little piece of yourself. (I did visit the box a few times a few times at the reception.) I hope that Amy loves the quilt as much as I do and it finds her warm and happy for years to come.

party. party. wedding. anniversary.

2011-12-18T10:59:00.000-06:00

This week was a week of mayhem and absolute craziness. I'm happy to say that each of our events went off without a hitch, and extremely relieved the week is over. Here are a few highlights:

Carter's kindergarten Christmas Party. I made snowman pretzel sticks which were a huge hit with the kids. I also make each kid in Carter's class a fleece scarf. Red and white for the girls, and blue for the boys.

The scarves were ridiculously simple to make, and were a huge hit with the kids. One of Carter's friends liked his scarf so much that when he left it at home Friday morning, he made is mom go back and get it. And, Carter's teacher told me she took one of the girl scarves home for her 12 year old daughter and her daughter built an outfit around the scarf.

Grace modeling the girl scarf.

The boy scarves.

Carter and his friend playing a party game.

In preparation for Grace's party, I was all scarved out, so we went with gloves and hot chocolate for party gifts. The gloves were a big hit with the second graders. Thank you to my sister Mindy for this great and easy idea!

Grace, ready to party.

I'm the room mom for Grace's class, so I was in charge of party planning. For the party craft, Grace and I came up with a waterless snow globe with a picture of each child in her class. This was a huge hit with the kids and adults at the party. The globes easy to make and the kids loved adding hats, scarves, and other decorations to their globes.

The entire party was excellent, the food was abundant and festive, the games were enjoyed by all and this room mom was relieved that everyone was happy and entertained.

Our week ended with a very special event. Grace was a flower girl in her first grade teacher's wedding.

Our little angels during the ceremony. I made the flower girl headbands and was happy that you could see them sparkling under the lights in the church.

We'd been looking forward to the wedding for an entire yearso you cannot imagine how excited Grace was that the wedding day was finally here.

The ring bearer was a little shy about having his picture taken.

The wedding and reception were amazing and beautiful, and Grace was wonderful as a flower girl. On the way to the church, she told Ray and me that she was very nervous and a little scared but she knew in her heart that everything was going to be just fine. My daughter is so wise.

I used fabric from the quilt to finish the gift wrapping.

The wedding gift was a quilt I finished in all of my "free time" this week. It deserves its own blog post.

Ray and Carter after the ceremony.

Carter was a real trooper with all of the wedding hoopla. He did a great job at the rehearsal, ceremony and reception.

Since we were all dressed up for the wedding. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for a family picture. But the picture above is the only picture we even attempted to take at the reception. Nice, eh?

Ray and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in the blur that was this week. We're looking forward to an actual night out very soon.

My totals for the week:
48 gift winter party gift bags
24 scarves
prep work for 24 personalized snow globes
24 pretzel stick snowmen
2 flower girl headbands
and
one amazingly beautiful wedding quilt

The inside of my house looks like a Hobby Lobby exploded.
I'm looking forward to a week that doesn't include hot glue, icing, cutting, sewing, or crafting of any kind.

oh christmas house

2011-12-12T22:59:00.000-06:00

This weekend Ray put the finishing touches on what has to be our best Christmas House ever. It's lovely, and very well lit, but not in a Clark W. Griswold kind of way.

I love the giant ornaments on the front porch. Yes, they take up lots of storage room, but so worth it.

I went biblical with the front door. When I heard Carter refer to the people in one of our nativity scenes as "action figures" I realized maybe we weren't going biblical often enough.

In all fairness to Carter, I have to say that yesterday, completely out of the blue he wondered, out loud, what the God's Christmas tree in Heaven must look like. Grace quickly chimed in that they did have plenty of room up there and it was, after all, God's son's birthday. They both agreed that Christmas in Heaven must be on heck of a party. To tell the truth, I've never thought about Christmas in Heaven. I'm so glad my kids' hearts and minds are capable of such wonderful thoughts.

Inside, the lights from the garland and the tree cast a soft glow over most of the house. So warm and cozy.

Meanwhile, Charliespent his first week in our house hanging out in high, or out of reach spots. The kids know that touching Charlie will take his magic away, but Charlie wasn't taking any chances.

Finally, this morning, the kids found Charlie hanging out downstairs with the Santa's in the big red dining room box. Both Grace and Carter were touched by this sign of Charlie's trust. They were happy to see him up close but very careful not to get too close.

I think it could be time for Charlie to start pulling some crazy elf stunts...

comfort and joy

2011-12-11T14:13:00.001-06:00

Found this recipe for broiled grapefruit on Pinterest. I know, it sounds very strange, but if you like grapefruit, even just a little, you must try. I enjoyed an entire broiled grapefruit yesterday morning, yesterday night, and this morning. I made them less butter and sugar than the recipe called for, still seriously good.

Bruce the goose Ryan Gosling got to take their first swim in the luke warm bathtub.

We spent yesterday evening at Tony and Ellen's. While the grown ups were eating, drinking, and being merry...

The kids were hard at work on gingerbread houses.

Everyone was happy with the way their houses turned out, but together they made an amazing Christmas village.

Usually, the kids and I decorate an outside Christmas tree while Ray hangs lights on our house. This year, we enlisted Ray's help with our biggest tree ever! We couldn't have done it without Ray's two story ladder. And, of course, Ray to string the 120 feet of silver garland.

Grace and Carter worked hard hanging ornaments.

They even made sure the inner branches were decorated.

Our masterpiece.

This is how the tree looks from the road. I love the idea of neighbors driving by and finding an unexpected Christmas surprise.

friday

2011-12-09T12:31:00.001-06:00

Carter brought home is letter to Santa yesterday. I love that his letter is not a list of wants. Instead it says: Dear Santa, I'm so so excited about you coming! Love, Carter.

Makes my heart happy that Carter is excited about Santa, not just the stuff he brings. This picture is awesome!

Grace painted this Christmas tree painting yesterday after school. It's for her teacher.

While Grace was painting, I put the finishing touches on my latest wreath. This one is small but pretty.

Ryan and Bruce are getting big! We're taking the six chickens to the farm today, but holding on to the geese a bit longer.

In preparation for Tuesday night's hard freeze, I brought in all of my basil.

The freeze completely wiped out every single plant in my garden, so I picked the tomatoes while they were still green. I hate leaving them to freeze on the vine.

This was the first year with no pumpkins. Sad.

To keep our bumper crop of basil, I mixed it up in the blender with a bit of olive oil and froze it in ice cube trays. I've never tried this before but I couldn't stand the idea of our beautiful basil freezing and going to waste. This way I can pop out one tree of basil at a time.

I celebrated the harvest with one last backyard basil caprese salad.

charlie

2011-12-07T08:18:00.001-06:00

Last night our Elf on the Shelf finally made his first appearance. The book arrived along with a note from Santa, but by the time we opened the book to read the story, the elf was already missing from the box!

I quickly read the story while the kids stared at the untwisted red twisty ties that once held the little elf in place. Once the story was finished, Grace exclaimed, "Oh my goodness, the elf is already loose in our house!"

Moments later, we found our elf, which we named Charlie, sitting on top of our entry way chandelier.

The kids were thrilled with Charlie, but Grace was a little worried that he was sitting on top of a light bulb so she made us a reminder sign for the switch.

Everyone in our house is very excited to see where Charlie will go next....

december projects

2011-12-04T22:46:00.000-06:00

The Thanksgiving Box.

Revamped for Christmas.

I love it.

The kids and I got started on a special project that will last until Christmas. I didn't find it on Pinterest. I was flying by the seat of my pants on this one.

My thought was to paint a giant Christmas tree with 25 blank ornaments that we could decorate throughout the month of December. Kind of a progressive, Advent calendar type Christmas tree. I knew the kids would think it was cool if I presented them with an already painted, ready to decorate tree, but decided they'd like it even more if they made it themselves.

So I brought out the giant canvas and explained my plan. Carter was immediately overwhelmed and decided he'd stick to painting the ornaments and let Grace and I handle the tree. So we did.

The tree isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I like the way it turned out. Grace is absolutely fearless when it comes to creative projects, so I let her run with it and only jumped in when absolutely necessary.

I think it will be fun to paint one ornament each day of December, or more likely, a few ornaments every few days. The kids have already painted their first ornaments and have big plans for their next ornaments. I have a feeling that the ornaments will get more elaborate as we go along.

Finally, my early blooming, but amazing, Amaryllises.

our newest additions - ryan gosling and bruce the goose

2011-12-03T10:33:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, we got ready for our goslings to hatch. Even though they were still in their shells last night, they had lots to say. Listen...

The six chickens we hatched on Thanksgiving Day were eagerly anticipating the arrival of new friends.

We warmed up the goose bed and waited...

Finally, at 2am, Ryan hatched on his own. He was still wet and crinkled when I moved him to the goose bed.

I set my alarm for 3:30 to check on Bruce, and got to watch him hatch.

Bruce's little neck was turned the wrong way inside of his egg, so I had to help him a tiny bit, but once he was out of his shell he was fine.

Ryan and Bruce.

This morning the guys had fluffed up and looked more like little geese.

We're all so happy to have soft, cuddly baby geese again.

They're both incredibly sweet but already have distinctly different personalities.

For instance, Ryan was ok with the santa hat, Bruce wanted nothing to do with it.

** Sunday morning Update - Ryan and Bruce graduated from their baby bed to the big cage. The week-old chickens are all about pecking order and tried to show the baby geese who was on top. Little do they know the small, still wobbly geese will be twice their size and running the show in a matter of days.

our (unofficial) christmas tree lighting

2011-12-01T08:57:00.001-06:00

Last night we decorated the Christmas tree.

The kids were soooo excited. We raced through homework, dinner, and baths, and were finally ready to decorate! Grace donned a Christmas nightgown for the occasion. Carter has completely grown out of every single pajama he owns. This is as close as we could get to Christmas pj's.

Carter was the bead holder, Grace the bead hander, Ray the bead stringer.

We had to wrap things up in time for bed, so our tree is not quite finished. This year's tree is thinner than out past trees, no doubt a reflection of the ridiculous summer. We feel like it still needs something, but we're not quite sure what. I'm sure we'll figure it out and have proper Christmas tree pics soon. And, I have no idea what happened to Grace's Christmas nightgown. I just noticed it was missing.

tuesday - pizza and a peacock

2011-11-30T08:09:00.000-06:00

Tuesdays are our no commitment days. Nothing before, during, or after school. No classes, lessons, appointments. I like to stay home on Tuesdays and work on the house, work on projects, and plan great things for dinner.

Yesterday, I spent the morning putting together a Christmas wreath for my mom. Yes, I know, I wandered a off of the reservation a little bit with this one, but I did show my mom all of the fabric and the peacock before I started on the wreath. I wanted to avoid possible peacock shock.

And, I also realize that there's nothing Christmasy, per se, about this wreath. But love it or hate it, you can't argue with the fact that it's festive. This is going to sound strange, but I have the wreath hanging on my front door, and every time I look at it it seems to be emanating its own soft blue light.

Moving on to make your own pizza night. Last night was the first time Grace wasn't interested in making her own pizza, instead she wanted Papa John's. So, Carter helped me put the pizzas together.

I don't think I've blogged about this before, but I have perfected the art of cooking homemade pizza on the grill. After reading about this, watching youtube videos, and burning a couple of crusts beyond recognition, I figured out that elevating the pizzas makes all the difference.

I used that little metal bucket on the right side of the picture to raise the big pizza a few inches off of the grill rack to keep the bottom of the crust from getting too hot. The small pizzas cook well on the upper shelf. The result is perfect pizza crust. Crispy on the outside, but chewy on the inside. Everyone loved their pizza last night. Even Grace.

To accompany the pizza, I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest. Zucchini halves brushed with minced garlic, olive oil, and black pepper, topped with Campari tomatoes and baked. Then a sprinkling of fresh Asiago cheese and fresh basil and finishing under the broiler made these absolutely burst with flavor.

Grace completely devoured the artichoke before anyone else even had a chance to take a leaf. Just for the record, Papa John's doesn't do artichokes.

oh christmas tree farm

2011-11-27T21:22:00.001-06:00

The Elgin Christmas Tree Farm has become one of our best holiday traditions. We absolutely love riding out to the trees on a tractor pulled trailer, roaming around in a field of evergreens, searching for the perfect tree, cutting down said tree, feeding the farm animals, and stopping to eat at Meyer's BBQ on the way home with a tree tied to the top of our car.

This year,we left a bit earlier than usual, so we ate before we did our tree hunting. Grace has recently discovered that she loves smoked pork ribs.

My kids don't know that white bread exists outside of bbq restaurants, so Carter believes we stop by Meyer's to worship their white bread.

After we fueled up on ribs, sausage, turkey, pork steak, pickles, creamed corn and all the beans we could eat, we hit the tree farm.

Carter was so happy to be searching for a tree, he busted a few dance moves.

Grace and Carter were very interested in finding a tree that was exactly the same size as each of them. There were quite a few small trees at the farm, and we did see lots of trees that didn't survive the summer.

After searching several different fields of trees, we finally found a tree that we knew would be perfect for our living room.

The kids are anxiously waiting for Ray to cut our tree down. You can see the saw at the bottom of the tree.

This was all very exciting and we were happy to have found a tree, but I was thrilled beyond belief to have gotten tons of great pictures for this year's Christmas cards! Every year I try to take card pictures at the tree farm, but most years I fail miserably.

Lighting conditions are tough with bright sun and deep shade, wind is always an issue, and most of the time the kids are acting more like wild animals than children. But somehow, today was different. I captured the perfect card cover shot in only three takes.

Standing next to our freshly cut tree. Carter would want me to point out the he is, in fact, holding the saw.

Of course I'm not including any of my card pictures on this post. I had so many good pics that I wound up putting a picture on the front of the card, three pics on the inside of the card, and even a picture on the back. I was in happy picture heaven.

Meanwhile, our 9 and a half foot Virginia pine tree is relaxing in the garage. We always bring the tree home, set it up, and let it drink water in the garage for a day or two before we bring it inside and decorate it. That way we make the tree excitement last just a little longer.

happy thanksgiving

2011-11-24T20:16:00.001-06:00

turkey minus three days and counting...

2011-11-21T21:38:00.000-06:00

I finished Carter's Christmas throw this morning. I love it, not in the same way I love Grace's, but the cast of Rudolph just makes me happy. I can't wait to give the kids their blankets.

Grace and I finished the placecards for our Thanksgiving table.

I think they're cute and way more fun than your name tied to a napkin ring.

Meanwhile, my chicken eggs are due to hatch on Thanksgiving Day. All seven eggs look great as of last night and are officially on lockdown. This evening I saw one of the eggs jolting from side to side quite a bit.

My two geese are due a week from Thursday and both look great. Unfortunately, my one and only white duck egg stopped growing a few days ago which is a shame because we were really looking forward to hatching our first yellow duckling.

brown eyed angels - a gift for the season

2011-11-18T12:56:00.001-06:00

I try to savor each and every moment of the holiday season. To me it seems like kind of a waste to wait until Christmas Day for one big bang of celebration that's always over way too quickly. Instead, I like to do small things over the course of the holidays.

Our Advent Calendar is one of these things that lasts all season. A small gift each day reminds us all of the joy and magic of the holidays. This year, we're also going to have some fun with an Elf on the Shelf. I'm excited about, and looking forward to both of these traditions.

Last year, I made the kids (Grace & Carter and their cousins, Logan & Ellie) Christmas pillow cases and gave them their gifts on Thanksgiving Day. This year, I decided to continue the Thanksgiving gift tradition by making each kid a Christmas throw blanket to snuggle with over the holidays.

Funny, when I was searching for the picture (above) of last year's pillowcases, I realized that I was working on them on November 18th. Exactly one year ago. Must be something about November 18th that makes me think it's time to get a move on the Thanksgiving preparations.

Earlier this year, in a completely unrelated search, I came across this beautiful angel panel on Fabric.com. To say I loved this piece of fabric from the moment I laid eyes on it would be an incredible understatement, but I had no idea what I would do with the angel if I ordered her.

Seriously, I had no use for a 24x44 inch piece of angel fabric, but I had to order her and see her in person. And, she was even more amazing in person than any picture on the web could convey. Unfortunately, the folks at Fabric.com had trimmed her a bit too closely on one side, but when I called to tell them about it, they immediately sent me another and said that I could keep the damaged angel.

Once I received the second angel (who had the same cut too close problem as the first angel) I knew I would make the girls matching angel throw blankets for Christmas. One of the ladies at my local fabric store gave me some ideas for working around the parts of the panels that were cut too closely. I was going to eliminate the entire jewel border, but wound up sewing just on the inside of the outer pearl border and the problem was solved. Looking at the quilts, you'd never guess there had been any problem with the fabric at all.

I especially love the angel's brown eyes and (mostly) brown hair. I think she is breathtakingly beautiful and brown eyed angels are kind of hard to find. Look around this Christmas season and you'll see what I mean.

I found the perfect coordinating fabric at Poppy Quilt 'N Sew in Georgetown.

Below is a picture of the finished product. I backed the throw with soft, creamy white fleece. I wanted the blankets to be extra snugly for cold winter nights.

Angels are very special to everyone in my family. My grandma collected them so we always associated them with her while she was alive and since her passing, we like to think of her as our family angel, keeping close and careful watch over each of us.

Grandma also had very brown eyes. In fact, when she married my brilliantly blue eyed grandpa, his mother was overheard saying that there had never before been a brown eyed Cooper.

Of course, her brown eyes are still alive and well. Grace, Carter, Logan, and Ellie, who she never had the chance to meet, are all walking around with her dark brown eyes. And on Thanksgiving day, Grace and Ellie will each have a cozy reminder that they will always have one very special brown eyed angel watching over them.

My lovely workstation. This week has been a good week for projects.

my big thanksgiving box thing

2011-11-17T20:46:00.001-06:00

I saw the picture above a while back on Pinterest and filed it away in my fall file. I thought it was absolutely lovely of course, I mean, it's a large box filled with pumpkins, what's not to love?

It's big, bulky, impractical, will soon smell of foul pumpkins, so yeah, I decided I had to have one for myself.

For the past few weeks, I've been planning my big Thanksgiving table box. Picking things up along the way. Fortunately for me, stores start putting the Thanksgiving supplies on clearance sale at about the same time the Halloween stuff goes on sale, so this box hasn't been nearly the investment that it could have been.

Once I had my box fillers assembled, I enlisted my dad's help with building the actual box. Ok, he built the whole thing, but I was there for moral support.

Our finished, but still to be stained box. It looked like a very skinny pine coffin out of a western movie. A few coats of dark stain made all the difference.

This afternoon, I carried my big box inside and went to work on filling it up. I love the way it turned out.

I decided not to use any real pumpkins in my fall display. My plan is to switch out the pumpkins and fall colored flowers and candles for some more Christmas and winter themed items after Thanksgiving. That way I can get some more use out of my big Thanksgiving box.

Love, love, love.

My Thanksgiving centerpiece is so pretty I wish I'd put it together weeks ago. Now if I could just get the rest of my house to look like the house in the Pinterest picture...

mad scientists

2011-11-16T07:55:00.001-06:00

Grace and Carter are loving their after-school science class. Every week they learn something new and fantastic. So far they've worked with dry ice, black lights and invisible ink, and chemical compounds.

Last week the kids wrote their "Things I'm Thankful For" tags in invisible ink.

They always bring home an at home lab as well. This week the at home lab involved litmus paper and testing the pH of common household items. The kids had to work on this one the minute they walked in the door. So we did.

First, we rounded up some things to test. I made sure to include some that would be high on the scale, and some that would be low.

My little scientists at work. Carter is testing. Grace is recording the results.

A few of our test strips and the chart we used to determine the pH

Finally, we arranged all of the substances we tested in order from most acidic, the lemon, to most alkaline, the Windex. Just for the record, diet coke has a pH of 6, it's pretty much neutral.

It was a great experiment and the kids loved the fact that they got to use real test tubes with stoppers. I loved this kind of thing when I was a kid, I'm glad Grace and Carter do too. We can't wait to see what the next Mad Science experiment will be...

the fort worth margarita ball

2011-11-14T11:58:00.001-06:00

Saturday night Susan, Mindy and I hit the Fort Worth Margarita Ball. Last year we attended the Dallas Margarita Ball so we were all interested to see how the two would compare. After attending both balls, I have to say that the Fort Worth ball was to the Dallas Ball what Forth Worth is to Dallas - nice, but much smaller and not nearly as glitzy.

This was my favorite pic of the night. We were leaving the ball and the street was super windy.

This is what I looked like when we left Susan's house. I was going for an Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, Mad Men look but my sisters thought I looked like a princess which was also ok with me.

I can sum up my look with one word; painful. The shoes were obviously not comfortable but I was prepared for that, the dress was so very snug around the ribs that deep breaths were next to impossible, and the hairstyle could have been used as a medieval torture device. Maybe I have too much hair to wear up, or maybe the little diamond band was too snug, or maybe it was the spin pins, but I wound up taking my hair down shortly after dinner.

Looking at the picture of Mindy and Susan, I realize the my white dress in the middle of my sisters would have made a nice pic. We should have gotten someone to snap that for us.

My beautiful sisters.

Not sure what was going on with Santa's face.

Hook 'em.

The dance floor pic is as close as we ever got to the white dress in the middle pic.

The jury is still out on which ball to hit next year...

this week

2011-11-10T17:57:00.001-06:00

My mom decided to bring home one of the cute puppies from the farm. Ray is not a small dog person, so mom let us name the pup and assured the kids we could visit him often.

Skip in July

I am pleased to introduce Skip the amazing chihuahua, or chi wow wow as the kids like to say.

He's the cutest, sweetest dog ever.

And at two pounds, only a little bit bigger than Carter's shoe.

I'm happy and a bit relieved that my amaryllis bulbs straightened out and greened up immediately after I put them in the dirt.

Early this week I discovered that Dave Matthews just launched his new wine label - Dreaming Tree wines. I immediately rushed out and bought one of each in the collection, a Cabernet, a Chardonnay, and a 'Crush' blend.

Dave is a winemaker. This makes me almost as happy as if Johnny started growing pumpkins in his backyard.

Finally, after a week in the incubator I only had to remove one goose egg. It was covered with dog teeth marks, so I figured it was a long shot. Our chicks are due on Thanksgiving Day. Our two geese and one duck are due one week later.

we dig bulbs

2011-11-06T11:59:00.000-06:00

Bulbs are the eggs of the flower world, so it's no wonder I love them so. Inside of each bulb is everything the flower needs to produce strikingly beautiful flowers, so different from your run of the mill garden flowers. They spend most of the year beneath the dirt, waiting to put on a amazing show that only lasts a few weeks, but is definitely worth the wait.

Forcing Amaryllis bulbs during the Christmas season is a tradition we always look forward to.

Last year the bulbs I wanted sold out very quickly, so this year, I pre-ordered our Christmas bulbs.

Pre ordering was a good idea because it ensured I'd have the exact bulbs I wanted, but it also meant they'd be here a bit earlier than usual.

The bulbs arrived a couple of weeks ago with a note advising me to plant them right away or store them in a dark place that was around 55 degrees. The dark I could manage, but there is no place in or around my house that is anywhere near 55 degrees. When the bulbs arrived it was still hitting the high 90's in the afternoon and I hoped they hadn't been damaged by heat while they were shipped.

If I had planted the bulbs when I received them, they would have bloomed long before Christmas, so I left them in their paper sacks and in the box they were shipped in, and kept them in the coolest darkest place my house had to offer.

Yesterday, when I took them out to check on them, and instead of looking like the bulb above, they looked like this:

Bulbs are ridiculously easy to force, all you have to do is drop them in the dirt and water them. The only warning they come with is, "Plant them BEFORE the sprout." Um. Yeah. Looks like we missed that by a couple of weeks. I'm sure this is not a complete bulb emergency. They should green up and do just fine. I hope.

What I do every year with Amaryllis bulbs is called "forcing." You plant them inside, which simulates the conditions of spring, causing the flowers to grow. Planting bulbs outside is a bit trickier in Central Texas. Most of the bulbs I love require a long, cold, frozen winter to produce beautiful flowers in the spring.

I've tried planting bulbs outside in the past, resulting in various degrees of failure. This year I discovered a website called The Southern Bulb Company that specializes in bulbs that grow well right here in Texas.

Excited about the prospect of bulbs blooming in my front yard, I ordered five different kinds of flowers, and yesterday, I put them in the dirt.

This is a trial run for me, so I made sure I marked the spot where each bulb was planted with a popsicle stick. That way, if some of the bulbs don't come up, it will be a little easier to figure out what kind of bulb it was.

I also drew a simple diagram of each tree and the bulbs I planted there.

And, I kept all of the labels in a spiral notebook, which should make re ordering any impressive bulbs a little easier.

The bulbs I planted outside are bulbs that have been found in the gardens of very old houses and abandoned lots here in Central Texas. They are considered antique or heirloom bulbs and have proven they can survive our hot summers and mild winters and other Texas extremes. I'm excited and hope to see flowers as early as February. Here's what I planted yesterday.

The Chinese Sacred Lily is considered a winter bloomer.

We could see flowers in February.

The Golden Dawn Narcissus - both of the Narcissus bulb types I planted are supposed to multiply, creating more bulbs each year.

The Grand Primo Narcissus

The Blue Peruviana Scilla - I'm always looking for blue flowers.

The Tinka Tulip - Most tulips would have to be dug up and refrigerated over the winter. These are supposed to be fantastic Texas Tulips that come back year after year with no need for a cold winter.

I'm happy to have all of my bulbs in the dirt and excited to see what happens over the next few months...

back in the saddle

2011-11-04T16:45:00.001-05:00

Our last hatch ended rather unsuccessfully with the brutal slaying of all of our chicks on the back porch. We were all traumatized by the loss of our chicks, but knew we'd hatch again.

Our past few trips to the farm had gotten cancelled or postponed for one reason or another. But yesterday, we finally made it back to the farm!

Upon our arrival, we were immediately greeted by one of Sandy's chihuahua pups, Spud. Grace loved the little two pound pup and carried him with her everywhere she went.

Spud was a bit bigger than he was the last time we saw him.

We were so happy to see the first peacock we ever hatched is doing quite well. In the pic above you can see her beautiful green neck feathers. Melissa is pretty sure the bird is a girl, therefore a peahen, so this is as colorful as she will get. Below is a pic of the peahen a few days after she hatched in May.

And then there were the geese. Kate, Spence and the entire flock are all in fantastic shape. We loved seeing them and hearing them all start honking as soon as we arrived made us feel like they had something very important to tell us.

I'm sure you've noticed a very different looking goose in the center of the pic above. The white goose with the long feathers is a rare and treasured Sebastopol Goose. I discovered this breed of goose almost a year ago and thought they would be a great addition to Melissa's farm. The eggs are prized and generally sell for between $20 and $30 dollars each.

Melissa and I worked for several months to get our hands on six Sebastopol eggs, from those six eggs, I managed to hatch only two birds. The eggs had been shipped in the mail so they had a much lower chance of hatching.

Of the two eggs I hatched, we had one girl and one boy. Unfortunately, our boy goose passed away about a month after he moved out to the farm. We don't know why.

Above, our little girl goose right after we hatched her in June.
And, below, our girl with her brother later that month. He passed away shortly after this pic was taken.

So that's were we are with the Sebastopol goose project. One beautiful girl goose named Elizabeth Taylor who has the most amazingly blue eyes you've ever seen.

Melissa and I have pre-ordered some more Sebastopol eggs and will hopefully have a friend for Elizabeth Taylor soon.

I do love every single goose I've ever hatched, but isn't Elizabeth Taylor stunning?

In the pic above, you can see some of the black ducks we hatched last spring. They still hang out with the geese they hatched with, instead of the other ducks.

We returned from the farm with:

3 goose eggs - these are geese like Kate and Spence

1 white duck egg

5 chicken eggs

and

2 banty eggs

It was a great day at the farm.

practicing the art of gratitude

2011-11-01T19:12:00.000-05:00

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while back and decided it was a must for November.

I wanted a calendar small enough to fit on the back of a door, so I used two pieces of scrapbook paper instead of a poster board.

The instructions called for coin envelopes, which I wasn't familiar with. After searching all of the craft stores, I finally found these at a shop called PixiePaper on etsy.

Because 30 full sized coin envelopes would have made my calendar too big, I sealed them up and cut them in half, creating smaller calendar pockets.

Then, I glued thirty pockets on to my paper, added numbers, and a glued a banner at the top.

To make it exciting for the kids, I set out a bowl of paper tags, also from PixiePaper, and a cup of permanent markers. Permanent markers are a big deal at our house. I love them and have them in every color, but they are almost always off limits for the kids.

While we ate supper, we talked about being thankful, and how important it is to express gratitude for the things in our lives we appreciate, big and small. Then, we each chose a paper tag, wrote down one thing we were especially thankful for, talked about what we had written down, and finally placed our tags in the first envelope.

Everyone loved the calendar. I'm looking forward to this month long exercise in gratitude.

happy halloween

2011-10-31T23:45:00.000-05:00

For some reason Carter decided he could not be a gladiator this year, so Ray came home early from work and took Carter costume shopping. He decided to go with with the black spiderman. But then, at the last minute, he decided he couldn't wear the mask so we painted his hair black. Kids.

Grace was steadfast as supergirl.

I was Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Isn't she lovely?

This was the look I was going for with my costume.

It's the Audrey that I painted and have hanging in my Manhattan bathroom.

I dropped my camera, again, while we were trick or treating and broke it for good this time. I had to race my memory stick to the Walgreen's and burn the few photos I'd taken onto a disc.

Yes I would love to have more pics, better pics, but am happy to have the few I got before the drop. It was the gloves.

The kids raced from house to house and came home with more candy than they could carry. They were thrilled with their loot and I absolutely loved being Audrey for the night. I never put a cigarette in my holder. The kids thought it was my magic wand.

We all agreed it was the best Halloween ever.

pumpkin palooza

2011-10-30T22:37:00.002-05:00

Friday, right after the kids got out of school, we hit the road and drove up to Aunt Susan's house for some pumpkin fun. I'd been planning on taking the kids to Dallas to see the Fifty Thousand Pumpkins at the Arboretum since my last trip to big D in September. I knew they'd love it and I wanted to go again, too.

Susan and I decided to make Saturday a day of visiting pumpkin patches. A Pumpkin Palooza. I thought the palooza would be even more fun if the kids wore their costumes. They were both on board with the costume plan until Carter decided he no longer wanted to be a gladiator. Not sure what we're going to do Halloween (tomorrow) night.

The Dallas weather was perfect for running around in hay mazes and rolling pumpkins.

Both kids are in the pic with me and the giant pumpkin below. Carter ducked behind the pumpkin and you can see a sliver of Grace's red cape behind me.

The next patch we stopped at had rides and games. It was a little cheesy, but fun for the kids.

Pigs love pumpkins, too. This little guy was really going to town.

Grace rode a pony and got her hair painted. You'll see the hair paint in some of the other pics.

This was the best part of the cheesy pumpkin patch. The pumpkin chunker. Grace and I are pulling back a tiny pumpkin and getting ready to launch it towards the Charlie Brown and Lucy cut outs. (Check out Grace's striped hair.)

Below, the pumpkin, flying through the air moments after we let go. I'm soooo getting Ray to build us one of these.

After the kids and I launched a few pumpkins, we headed to the main event: Autumn at the Dallas Arboretum - the home of the fifty thousand pumpkins. I knew the kids would love this, so we paid our $47 dollars to park and enter the arboretum and then, well, things went downhill rather rapidly.

Neither Grace nor Carter were particularly impressed with the pumpkins and they didn't want anything to do with having their pictures taken.

We convinced Grace to take a picture of Susan and me in front of Cinderella's carriage, but Carter kept popping in front of the camera. Thus, the pic below.

Finally, I reached out and grabbed Carter's arm and pulled him onto my lap. Then, he bit me just as Grace snapped the pic.

We walked around the park for a few minutes and I let the kids know that their poor behavior was going to result in very early bedtimes when we got back to Aunt Susan's house. This perked them right up.

I was so happy that our visit to the arboretum ended better than it had started.

People had been trowing pennies into the leaves of the giant lily pads behind us. The kids wanted to throw some too, so I paid them with pennies to take this picture.

Yesterday, we picked up a pie pumpkin at one of the patches. This morning, we baked Susan a real pumpkin pie.

Pie pumpkins are smaller, but have much better tasting meat than the big jack o'lantern pumpkins do.

We scooped the seeds, baked the pumpkin until it was soft, mashed the meat, then mixed the mashed pumpkin with our pie ingredients.

While the pie was baking, we let Susan's horses try the pumpkin peel and seeds.

Calvin loved the pumpkin.

Our finished product. Fresh pumpkin really is completely different than anything that comes from a can. Susan loved the pie.

October is almost over. I will be sad to see the pumpkin patches disappear. Pumpkin palooza was an excellent way say goodbye to October and the pumpkin patches.

pumpkin carving - girls vs. boys - year two

2011-10-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Last year, the boys went with the barfing pumpkin and felt like that beat our sweet kitty pumpkin. This year, Grace and I came into the pumpkin carving challenge ready to play.

The boys tried to intimidate us right off the bat by bringing out the power tools.

We were like, "Is that all you got?"

Never underestimate girls with power tools.

Our design was

timeless,

simple,

elegant.

Our pumpkin totally kicked ass.

The boys' pumpkin was cute, sweet, nice. But there was no denying who the pumpkin champions of 2011 were. Carter actually shed a tear when he saw the girls' pumpkin.

The boys' pumpkin looks like it's casting an admiring glance up at The Bevo Pumpkin.

Girls rule.

Boys drool.

camping

2011-10-26T08:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Campers.

Our campsite had an amazing backdrop.

One of our many squirrel friends.

This woodpecker was easy to hear, much harder to spot.

These birds were my favorites.

Tony led the troops on several successful geocaching adventures.

Clear afternoon skies let to an amazing night of star gazing.

The animals at the rock were enchanting.

Our evening "climb". We made it at least 14 steps up the rocks.

Glowsticks and head lamps.

Fun with glowsticks.

My favorite of all of the animals who visited our campsite, this grey fox. He loved the Jiffy Pop.

camping prep: pre-made s'mores, angry bird acorns, and is this a porta potty or have i just stumbled into a field of orchids?

2011-10-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

We spent the weekend camping at Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg and had a truly amazing time. My limited experience with camping has taught me that preparation is everything. Efforts spent in pre camping planning pay huge returns on the actual trip. A few things I did to get ready for this year's trip...

Because of the drought we knew that campfires were out of the question, so I made s'mores at home the day before we left. I used chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, and toasted them in my toaster oven.

After smashing the lightly browned marshmallows together with melted chocolate chips to make s'mores sandwiches, I dipped each sandwich in melted chocolate and topped with Halloween sprinkles. The result - bite sized, easy to pick up, s'more treats that didn't require a fire.

The chocolate dipped s'mores were a hit with everyone.

I also wanted to come up with some kind of camp appropriate craft for the kids. Something easy, fun, outdoorsy. Something that the kids would actually enjoy doing. After much thought, I decided painting giant acorns would be perfect.

The kids and I had recently gathered tons of giant acorns for just such an occasion. I pried their little acorn hats off and sprayed them with a coat of primer for easier painting. I thought pumpkins would be seasonally appropriate and easy for the kids. But then, what would we do with the pumpkins? I thought long and hard, trying to figure out something the kids could "do" with their painted acorns.

That's when I decided we should paint them like angry birds and angry pigs. That way, after the acorns were dry, the kids could play angry birds at the campsite. I painted these two guys the night before we left but didn't take their picture until after they'd been beaten up quite a bit at the campsite.

The kids loved the idea! They all jumped right in and started designing their birds.

Even our youngest camper was excited about making an angry bird.

As soon as the acorn birds were dry, the boys ran up the hill and started chucking their angry birds around.

The boys threw their birds so hard that a few of them lost their hard shells right away, leaving a much lighter walnut looking acorn nut behind. Even though the bird shells had been lost, the kids thought the naked acorns were very cool too.

Later, when the dads took the kids on a hike, the moms stayed behind to get lunch ready. The moment our campsite was quiet and kid free, squirrels appeared. They were extremely interested in our freshly shelled acorn nuts. They carried away all of the naked acorns, then tried to break into the egg carton holding our freshly painted angry bird acorns. Later that day, they actually managed to steal my green pig acorn.

Grace loved feeding the squirrels. In this pic, the squirrel's little claw is holding on to Grace's finger.

The squirrels turned out to be very friendly and we happily fed them our angry bird acorns whenever they lost their hard shells. When we didn't have any acorns available, the squirrels were thrilled with peanuts.

A few days before we left for this year's camping adventure we discovered the park restrooms would be closed for repairs, leaving us with porta potties. The thought of using a porta potty for all of my restroom needs ranked right up there with having multiple root canals sans Novocaine.

So, I put together a porta pottie survival kit complete with antibacterial wipes, Lysol, disposable latex gloves, hand sanitizer and emergency toilet paper.

As luck would have it, the latch on one of the porta potty doors was broken, making that potty look like it was occupied, even when the door was unlocked and the potty was empty.

Because it looked like it was occupied all of the time, it had been used far less than the others. Far less. I knew this broken lock was a golden opportunity. I went in wearing gloves, doused the thing with Lysol, wiped down all of the hard surfaces with antibacterial wipes, then Lysoled again.

The result, a semi "clean" potty that didn't make you want to hold your breath upon entering.

My finishing touch was a solid air freshener. Our secret potty actually smelled good inside. It wasn't as good as a functioning restroom, but it definitely took the edge off of the usual porta potty foulness. And, because the lock was broken, our potty was alway empty and stayed much much cleaner than the others.

carter

2011-10-20T23:54:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Carter's teacher telling me he had been selected as that week's spotlight student and was going to be honored in the bi weekly student assembly.

Needless to say, Ray and I were excited to tell Carter about the special honor he was going to receive. When we told him at supper, he sat up straight and said, "I think I'm going to explode."

We told him that he was going to stand up in Friday's assembly and be recognized as the spotlight student. He didn't seem worried, or nervous, but we could tell that he was very proud.

Friday morning, we were all out the door a few minutes early so that we could get a parking place and watch the assembly.

I'm going to interrupt the story here to say that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a morning person. It's all I can do every morning to get up, make breakfast, pack lunches, make sure everyone is dressed and has shoes and socks. Then there are backpacks, water bottles, snacks. By 7:30 when Ray and the kids leave, I generally feel like I've just been through some kind of Sunday morning 5am boot camp.

Somehow, on this Friday, I'd managed to do all my usual stuff and found the time to make myself look halfway presentable. I stumbled out of the house with a vat of coffee in my hand, happy Ray was driving.

Carter's Kindergarten school picture.

When we arrived at the kids' school, Grace and Carter both took their places with their classes and Ray and I found a place to stand in the back. We watched as Carter's teacher approached him and explained what was about to happen. Our little boy was beaming with pride.

Then we saw Carter and the little boy who sits next to him in class leave the gym. There's something about watching your five year old disappear down a crowded hallway that's a bit unsettling. Ray and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows and waited for Carter's return.

A few moments later Carter and his friend reappeared. They were carrying something made of cloth.
The teacher's jacket? Some kind of banner? What exactly were we looking at it and why had Carter been sent to retrieve it so early in the morning?

Oh. My. Goodness.

It was a tiny, kindergartner sized cape with the school's mascot sewn onto the back.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I was standing there with an enormous mug of coffee but no camera! I tried not to panic, but I could feel the muscles in my chest tightening and the blood draining from my heart.

My little boy was having his first big cape-worthy occasion, and I had no way of capturing the moment.

Carter's moment of recognition went quickly, but at the end of the assembly, the principal invited all of the parents of spotlight kindergartners to head to the library for a photo op with our special students. Just thinking about the events of the morning makes me a bit short of breath.

On the way to the library, I spotted a mom I knew with a huge camera and asked her to please snap a few pics of Carter. Relief, at last. She did take pics of Carter, but weeks later, I still haven't seen them. Whenever I see her at school she tells me she will send them to me but it hasn't happened yet.

So, I discovered there was a display in the school honoring the spotlight students, and being the crafty photo fiend I am, I snapped a few pics of the pics. Not as good as originals, but better than nothing.

Above, the group photos, and below, a closeup of our caped spotlight student.

Pictures or no pictures, it was a morning we will never forget.

a few more wreaths

2011-10-19T15:40:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I gave Jennifer her birthday wreath. She seemed very happy with it and I enjoyed putting it together so much that I decided I needed to make a few more.

Jennifer's wreath

Yesterday I set up shop to work on three different wreaths. I'd been collecting supplies for the wreaths and planning them for a few days and was ready to get to work.

I like working on the wreaths at my kitchen island with the wreath hanging on the back of the pantry door. Last night I tried to finish a wreath while I was watching tv and I realized I had to be standing in my kitchen to get my wreath building creative juices flowing. Go figure.

This morning, I put the finishing touches on all three fall wreaths. This one is for my front door. I wanted to to be Halloweenish without being gross or scary. I love the way it turned out.

Next up, a fall wreath for Susan's door. I'll have to take my black wreath down after Halloween, but Susan can use this one all November long, and it might just work for December, too.

For my sister, Susan

Finally, I made one for Mindy's door. Her door is dark, not white like mine, so I made this one lighter to help it stand out on the wood. I love the way it looks on dark wood, but think it also looks lovely on my white door.

And, for my sister, Mindy

I absolutely love every single thing about putting these wreaths together. I'm sure I still have a few more up my sleeve. (Ten seconds after I publish this post, my phone will ring. The first words out of my mom's mouth will be, "I want one.") Don't worry mom, I already have your bird picked out.

p is for...

2011-10-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

Friday, P stood for Pumpkin Pedicure. Thank you to my sister, Susan, for a gift certificate to my favorite spa which I redeemed for some much needed pampering.

Today, P was for Pinterest. I was inspired by this pin, which gave me lots of ideas for decorating pumpkins without carving them. It's simply too hot and too early to carve a pumpkin in Austin. Carving at this juncture would result in a pumpkin implosion by Thursday.

I let Grace and Carter look at the Pinterest pictures of decorated pumpkins for inspiration, then we hit the craft store, searching for the perfect pumpkin decorating supplies.

Of course, the kids went off in different directions with their pumpkin projects than I had in mind. That's the best part about working with little kids. You never really know what's cooking inside of their heads.

When we got home, Grace immediately decided she wanted to decorate the tallest pumpkin on the porch. Um, no. The tall pumpkin is one of my favorites, and I had kind of a hard time digging it out of a pile of pumpkins in front of my HEB. The tall pumpkin was this season's trophy pumpkin.

Grace worked hard at convincing me that the decorations she had chosen would be perfect on the tall pumpkin.

And they were. I was amazed when I saw her beautiful creation. The perfect embellishments for the tallest of the pumpkins.

I let Carter work on his pumpkin by himself, and when he showed it to me, I was again surprised. He'd picked out ice cream cones to use as decorations, and I'd envisioned them dotting the pumpkin in a random fashion. I liked Carter's design much better.

Finally, I decorated my white pumpkin in a similar fashion to one I'd seen on Pinterest.

Grace joined me and decorated the dark red Cinderella pumpkin.

While we were at the craft store we were digging through some bins of 80% off items and Grace found a letter "P." She immediately blurted out, "P is for Pumpkins!" So we ponied up the sixty five cents for the "P."

P is for... Pretty Pumpkins on our Picturesque Porch.

rain!

2011-10-13T22:30:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning it rained for five hours straight, inspiring Grace, Carter, and me to suit up in our brand new rain boots and embark on a rain adventure.

We walked through the woods at the end of our street. The same woods we'd gathered acorns in just a few days earlier. But things looked very different.

There were rivers of running water where dust had been just a few days before.

And our favorite little stream was back in business.

We even discovered a family of turtles on the backside of the dam next to our pond.

We still need quite a bit more rain to put an end to our year long drought, but this was a great start. Many of the orange trees in our fall landscape are orange from heat stress, not because of the season. Hopefully, they will recover over the winter and come back strong next spring.

We stopped by the duck pond that was nearly dry and found the ducks were so very happy to have water again. We just love the ducks with the amazing hair dos.

Finally, we stopped by the round rock. Yes, this is where the city of Round Rock got its name. The pic below was taken in August.

And, on Sunday, the rock looked a little better.

We are looking forward to more rain adventures soon!

1492

2011-10-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

Last night while I was putting Grace to bed she asked why we celebrated Columbus Day. When I was a little girl, the answer to that question was simple: We celebrate Columbus Day because in 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean and discovered America.

But, I knew I couldn't give Grace that answer because it's simply not true.

The answer, like most things in life, has a bit more nuance and texture, and I wasn't exactly sure of the best way to present the truth to my seven year old daughter. I simply told her that we celebrate Columbus Day because Christopher Columbus was a famous explorer who did amazing things in his life and promised her we'd talk more about it when she woke up.

While I was trying to fall asleep, I remembered a field trip I'd taken to the LBJ ranch in Stonewall when I was a little girl. The night before the big field trip I was excitedly telling my mom and dad that we were going to see where LBJ grew up and where he lived after the was the President of the United States! My dad responded with, "That Johnson was a damn crook."

My dad, who I love dearly, has always had a knack for giving you his honest, and completely uncensored opinion. I didn't know exactly what a damn crook was, but I knew it wasn't good. The next day, as I was touring the ranch, I kept wondering if this LBJ guy was good, or bad? It didn't ruin my trip, but I remember being very confused.

I didn't want to leave my kids feeling the same way about Christopher Columbus. I wanted to find a way to make sure they understood the important things, the good and not so good, about Christopher Columbus, and why we named a holiday after him.

I rifled through our craft cabinets and found a ship building kit I'd bought on clearance eons ago and in the gift box I found a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean set. We were in business.

Carter worked on building Captain Jack and his ship's accessories.

While Grace worked on the ship.

While the kids were busy working on their projects, we talked about Christopher Columbus (a.k.a Jack Sparrow). I told them that in 1492, which was a very long time ago, Christopher set out on an amazing expedition and sailed all the way from Europe to America.

We talked about what life must have been like on the ship and how long his journey must have taken and how hard it must have been. We talked about navigating using the stars and what it must have felt like to not know exactly where you were going or what you were going to find when you got there. Christopher Columbus must have been a very brave man.

Finally, after almost two months at sea, Columbus finally arrived at land. He was in The Bahamas, not America. He never actually set foot on what would someday be American soil. So, he didn't discover America. He wasn't even the first European to sail across the Atlantic. Leif Ericson beat him by about 500 years.

But Columbus was important because his trips to the Americas established lasting contact between Europe and the Americas. Columbus' voyages changed the course of history because Europeans followed him and began to settle this part of the world.

So, he didn't exactly discover America, but he did set in motion a chain of events that lead to the European settlement of America. The kids and I decided that was a good reason to celebrate Columbus Day.

But the arrival of Europeans wasn't exactly great news for the native people that had been thriving in the Americas for centuries. The arrival of Christopher Columbus marked the beginning of oppression and cruelty to these native people.

Since that tidbit of info would have been a buzz kill for our Columbus Day project, the kids and I talked about what it must have been like for the native people to see Columbus' ships arriving and what they must have thought when they met the Italian Explorer for the first time. We asked ourselves how we would have treated these native people if we had just met them for the first time.

By the time we were finished with our project, the kids had learned a lot about Christopher Columbus and his voyages (there were three) across the Atlantic to the Americas. We learned what it means to be an explorer, but also how important it is to respect all people and their cultures.

The kids were thrilled with how their project turned out. They were so proud of all the work they had done and couldn't wait for Ray to see it when he got home. He thought their creation was amazing and was more than a little impressed by what they had learned.

With the exception of a lunch break and a quick blue poster board run, we spent the entire day working on our project. I can't think of a better way to have spent our Columbus Day.

2011-10-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

Decorating our house for fall has become one of our favorite October traditions. I try to mix things I think are beautiful with things that make the kids happy.

I love seeing all of our pumpkins as we come in and out of the house. And, we're always making small changes as we add new pumpkins to the mix. It's fun to watch the decor evolve over the course of the season.

I can tell you right now that with our ninety degree afternoons, not all of these pumpkins will go the distance.

This year, we had to set the pumpkin guy up on the porch. He's still in good shape, but needs a little help standing up when it's windy. Everyone loves the pumpkin guy. This afternoon I heard a little boy laughing so hard he was almost crying. I looked out the kitchen window to find a toddler standing on the sidewalk next to his mom, pointing at the pumpkin guy, hysterical with laughter. (Yes, we're still flying our Longhorn flags, but we did give some serious thought to lowering them to half mast.)

Our pumpkin porch is lovely and even looks pretty at night. I'm sure you can understand why I take serious exception to the things Ray and the kids do to my beautiful fall motif each and every year.

They come along with their bucket of creepy, crawly, and just plain scary stuff and insist on displaying right alongside and sometimes on top of my fall happiness. The screeching bats, which are motion activated, the skeleton people, and the fake rats make me go "ewwwww" every time I look at them and I try not to look at the spiders at all. The good thing about these not so pretty decorations - they come down at the end of the month. The truly beautiful fall decorations can stay up until Thanksgiving.

And speaking of truly beautiful for fall. I just finished making a wreath that I fell in love with on Pinterest. The wreath is a gift for a friend, so it wont be gracing the front of our Fall house at all. But, I love it so much, I'm making a second one for myself.

our first two pumpkin patches

2011-10-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the kids and I visited two of our favorite pumpkin patches. Our first stop was First United Methodist Church in Georgetown. This is always one of the best pumpkin patches in the area.

I love the old church building. The pumpkin patch used to be right alongside the beautiful church, which made for amazing pictures. But for the past couple of years, they've moved the patch across the street to one of their more modern buildings with more room for pumpkins.

For some reason, Carter decided to make strange faces in every picture we took yesterday.

I think he was trying to look like a major league pitcher in these two pics.

Even when we made silly faces, he wasn't cooperating.

First United Methodist in Georgetown should definitely be on your list of pumpkin patches to visit. It has a great selection of pumpkins and beautiful scenery for pumpkin patch pics.

Next, we stopped by St. Richard's Episcopal Church in Round Rock.

When we arrived at St. Richard's, we were greeted by a huge truck unloading an enormous batch of pumpkins in an area across the parking lot from the already full pumpkin patch. Immediately, I was intrigued. What had we done to deserve this bounty?

When I asked about the abundance of pumpkins I found out that the church usually receives one truckload of pumpkins every Monday in October. But this year, the pumpkins, which came from a farm in New Mexico, were threatened by an early freeze. So, they loaded all the pumpkins they could and hauled them down.

Walking through the patch, I did notice quite a few still green pumpkins and lots of very green stems. Some of these pumpkins had been picked in a hurry. That's not to say that there weren't thousands of wonderful pumpkins to choose from at St. Richard's. This patch is also a must on your list of pumpkin patch stops.

St. Richard's is another great spot for pumpkin pics.

Right after Grace took the picture below of Carter (who was still in a non picture mood) and me with a huge pumpkin, she looked at me wistfully and said, "Mom, you're never going to grow anything that big."

At least I'll always have the pumpkin patches...

fall in love with our acorn owls

2011-10-04T21:13:00.001-05:00

For the past few days, Grace, Carter and I have been picking up acorns. Our neighborhood is full of oak trees and we've found acorns that are bigger than Easter eggs on small trees, while some huge trees are filled with acorns the size of peas. Some acorns are very dark, some are light brown, and some are still green. We've put together quite the collection and today decided to make something with our acorns.

Carter and I found the perfect acorn craft on Pinterest and soon realized that we didn't have the right acorns. We needed acorns with flat bottoms and no hats. (You know, the top part of the acorn that connects it to the tree. I've always thought it looks like a hat.)

So, we set out on a great acorn hunt. It didn't take us long to find acorns that would work for our current craft.

We returned home with lots of flat bottomed, hatless acorns in a variety of sizes.

Grace hunted acorns and had fun working on the craft with us, she just didn't want to have her picture taken. Together, we cut and glued felt wings and beaks, then glued on google eyes and wound up with the cutest little acorn owls you've ever seen.

Our smallest owl was barely bigger than the tip of my finger.

While we were finding acorns, we decided that our owls would live on small branches.

Everyone loved this project. We were all amazed by how the huge variety of trees in the forest by our house and how very different the acorns were from one tree to the next. Carter and I remembered some smooth, shiny, dark chocolate looking acorns we saw on the way home from school earlier this week. Tomorrow we're going to put together some very brown owls...

october, oh how i love thee

2011-10-02T22:01:00.001-05:00

There are many reasons to love October, but by far, the greatest thing about October is there are pumpkins everywhere you go. Words cannot express how happy this makes me.

October gives me the perfect excuse to make my house as pumpkiny as I'd like, and no one even bats an eye.

And, October generally signals the start of much cooler weather. This year, summer has a death grip on Central Texas and doesn't want to let go, but the cool morning air inspired us to take a trip to the Capital of Texas Zoo.

The zoo was small, but lovely. Most of the animals were so close you could reach out and touch them.

The first thing we saw upon arrival at the zoo was a very loud gaggle of geese. The three in the pic above were some of the heaviest geese I've ever seen.

Our favorite part of the zoo visit was the time we spent in the bird enclosure. It was like being inside of a giant bird cage with dozens of bright, happy birds. This zoo is not big and fancy like the San Antonio Zoo, so there was no one selling sweet nectar for the birds and these birds were not trained to land on your head or anything glamorous like that. But, it was still nice to be so close to so many exotic birds.

There was one cockatiel in the enclosure that seemed wise and very friendly. He even let Grace pat the top of his head. Once upon a time, I was slightly traumatized by a large bird in a mall pet store. Since then, I prefer the big pet-type birds stay in their own cages. I know that seems strange for a crazy goose loving person like me. And yes I realize that geese are considered by many to be the scariest birds on earth, but there's something about the downward curve and sharpness of the pet bird beaks that scares the bejeezus out of me. Carter and I shied away from the little yellow bird, but Grace fell in love with him.

At the end of our zoo visit, Grace insisted that we stop in and say goodbye to her bird friend. When we entered the bird enclosure we saw that the birds had just been fed and were all busy cracking sunflower seeds.

We turned to leave the enclosure, but noticed the little yellow bird seemed to be heading away from the food and in our direction. We paused for a moment and he walked over to where we were standing. Then he took a few sips of water and looked up at us. I cannot explain how we knew what the bird was thinking, but we all understood the look in his eyes, and somehow sensed what was going to happen.

So, I switched my camera to video and started recording.

The little bird even knew when to look at the camera.

Carter couldn't help but pat the sweet bird on his head.

This little guy may have cured me of my childhood bird trauma. He was awesome. Even though I was supposed to be looking at the camera, I was captivated by his gaze and neither one of us bothered looking away.

I'd say October is off to an excellent start.

happy birthday susan

2011-10-01T09:28:00.001-05:00

Today is my sister Susan's birthday!

I drove up to Fort Worth to visit last weekend to celebrate her birthday a week early and deliver some birthday gifts.

Of course, I had to finish binding her birthday quilt before I could give it to her. (This is so something my mom would do.) We all know how I feel about binding a quilt, but nonetheless, I found the time to bind the quilt while Susan and I were having one of our whirlwind, don't sit still for a moment visits.

The front of the finished, washed, and puckered quilt.

The back, Susan's favorite part. You can barely see Susan's head and feet in the pic above. The quilt is a perfect size for her to snuggle with..

A close up of the quilting.

The quilt looks like it was custom made for Susan's living room.

Even the horses approved.

Happy Birthday, Susan! I hope today is a fabulous day and your quilt keeps you toasty warm for many birthdays to come.

almost there

2011-09-30T11:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Austin's 90th day to reach or exceed 100 degrees.

This summer we've had ninety 100+ degree days.

That's three months of triple digit heat.

That's one fourth of the calendar year.

This is what my garden looks like during the day. Lovely, I know.

Needless to say, these are not the best conditions for gardening.

And they are certainly not good conditions for trying to grow a pumpkin.

But I've been keeping my garden covered during the hot afternoons and somehow I've managed to keep most of my plants alive.

My pumpkins are doing so well that early this week, we discovered our first tiny pumpkin bud. I could tell Monday evening that this girl bloom would open Tuesday morning.

And, as luck would have it, we had a boy bloom that was getting ready to open, too.

Tuesday morning, I raced outside to discover both the boy and the girl were ready to go!

So, I stripped the male bloom down to his necessary parts and did what needed to be done.

We've been keeping a close eye on the tiny pumpkin and it has been getting bigger day by day. I was waiting for the flower to fall completely off before I officially announced our new pumpkin development.

This morning I discovered that our little pumpkin may have grown too fast. The backside of the still small fruit split wide open last night. I'm not sure why. Even though there has been some rainfall in central Texas, we've gotten only a few drops at our house. Not nearly enough to cause this kind of damage.

Yes, I'm heartbroken by this recent turn of events. I know this isn't as tragic as finding my chickens had been taken out of their cage and eaten, but I'm still feeling a bit of loss. It had taken me 21 days to hatch those chicks. I've been taking care of these pumpkin plants for over 121 days in the worst conditions central Texas has ever seen.

I would, very much, like to end this gardening season with at least one pumpkin. And, right now all of my pumpkin plants look great, so I'm not giving up hope. Whether or not I can produce a pumpkin, only time will tell...

disciplinary action

2011-09-28T08:12:00.000-05:00

Monday afternoon I was taking Grace's lunch box and agenda out of her backpack when I noticed an official looking piece of paper crammed beneath her pink jacket. It was a letter, neatly folded in thirds. As I unfolded the document, I read the words "Disciplinary Referral" boldly typed at the top.

The correspondence wasted no time getting to the point. The first sentence said that I was receiving the letter because my daughter, Grace, had been sent to the Principal's office for a disciplinary referral.

Yikes.

As I quickly scanned the letter, which had been signed, in blue ink, by the principal himself, my mind raced, wondering what Grace could have possibly done to land herself in the Principal's office.

It wasn't until halfway through the official document that I realized, with great relief, that this was a positive disciplinary referral. Grace had been commended by her classroom teacher and the principal for doing such a great job at school.

Still holding the letter, I called Grace into the kitchen. She burst into a huge grin when she realized I'd seen her referral. She quickly retrieved, from her backpack, the prize that her principal had given her along with the letter. I gave Grace a hug, congratulated her, the folded the letter back up and placed it at Ray's spot at the dinner table. Grace and I both giggled at the scare the letter would surely bring her dad.

Later that night, I was helping Carter with his homework. The first question on the page asked what number you should call in case of an emergency.

Carter thought for a minute, touching the eraser of his pencil to his forehead. Then he said, "Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven."

I just sat there looking at him with raised eyebrows.

He quickly corrected himself, "Oh wait, that's the number for jail release. You dial nine, one, one, if there's an emergency."

It seems my five-year-old son is preparing himself for an entirely different type of disciplinary action.

fifty. thousand. pumpkins.

2011-09-25T23:18:00.000-05:00

Autumn at the Arboretum. This is the description on the Dallas Arboretum's website:

From September 17 - November 23, the Dallas Arboretum transforms into a beautiful fall wonderland. The grounds will be filled with 150,000 blooming fall flowers and foliage plantings plus more than 50,000 pumpkins, squash and gourds. Guests will discover displays featuring 45 varieties at unexpected locations – stacked near the entrance, lining the Paseo de Flores and marking the steps to the Women’s Garden.

All of this, of course, sounded wonderful to me, so this weekend, while I was in Fort Worth visiting Susan, we charted a course for the amazing pumpkin festival. We were both eagerly anticipating an abundance of pumpkins, but nothing could have prepared us for what we found.

The moment we arrived we were greeted by pathways lined with thousands of pumpkins. As we began to walk around, we realized that the entire 66 acre park was completely covered with pumpkins. Miles and miles of pumpkins.

It was amazing. The landscaping was spectacular. The perfectly placed plants were absolutely gorgeous. You'd never guess Dallas had been, and was still experiencing the hottest summer ever. The colors and shapes in and around the landscaping were certainly suggesting Fall, even if the weather wasn't quite cooperating.

After a few breathtakingly beautiful steps along the pathways, we came upon an absolute pumpkin wonderland. There were pumpkins everywhere. So many pumpkins that there were moments I found myself just standing there, completely dumbfounded, wondering where to point my camera next.

There were acres of orange beauties, but not all of the pumpkins were the traditional variety. Not by a long shot.

This entire house was covered with just a few of the many varieties of squash and pumpkins on display. And the house below was covered with white pumpkins. There were actually more gourd covered houses than one could possibly imagine.

I was particularly impressed by the giant green pear shaped pumpkins. I'd never seen anything like the lovely curved-stemmed beauties.

There was even a special section of the tour dedicated to labeling almost every variety of gourd on display at the arboretum. I saw things I'd never laid eyes on before, and recognized quite a few I've tried to grow in my backyard.

But, by far, the best thing the arboretum had to offer were the giant pumpkins. Here are a few next to Cinderella's carriage. I have to stop here and say that Susan thought the carriage was fabulous. She stopped and asked a man and his little boy if they wanted her to take their picture. Looking back, I'm sure she was hoping the man would reciprocate and take our picture in the carriage. I did hear her ask if I wanted to have my picture taken, but by that point, I was gone. She'd lost me to the giant pumpkins.

These huge pumpkins are like no other pumpkin on earth. They are bred for one thing, and one thing only, to be enormous. Until Saturday, I'd only read about the freakishly large pumpkins.

Seeing the giants in person for the first time left me awe struck. I was so close, and there were so many, it was overwhelming. There were moments when I just wanted to drop down on my knees and love the giant orange orbs.

So I did. I can't say that Susan understands by affection for all things pumpkin, but she at least tolerates my madness.

It was such an amazing visit, I'm planning another trip to the arboretum this fall with the kids. This is something I'm sure they'd love, too. Yes, that's right, I'm going back as quickly as I can, but it's for the kids.

my fall garden - part one: calabazas and tomatoes

2011-09-22T09:50:00.000-05:00

I'm using the term "fall" loosely, of course. But this week, I finished planting my fall garden. Even though it's still hot as blazes outside, I have to say that I'm excited about my garden this fall.

It seems that all of my hard work to keep the Calabazas alive is paying off. The three remaining vines look great and are appreciating the cooler mornings and evenings.

Originally, I had four Calabaza vines, but I lost one a day after a lost my chicks. Not my best week by a long shot.

This fall, I'm focusing on tomatoes, specifically heirloom tomatoes. For the past couple of weeks, I've been hitting the local nurseries and garden stores, searching for the perfect heirloom varieties. Not just any old tomatoes will do.

Heirloom tomatoes (tomatoes that were developed by natural gardening and seed saving, then passed down through the generations) have gotten quite popular and I've actually been surprised by the wide variety of plants that I've encountered on my search.

I was even more surprised to discover that one of my favorite local nurseries didn't have any heirloom tomatoes for me to inspect. In fact, their entire tomato selection consisted of only a few small plants. Sure I was missing the big fall tomato display, I asked one of the people who worked there about the tomatoes.

Even though I was just asking if he had any other tomato plants, not for gardening advice, the nursery employee proceeded to launch into a full blown know-it-all lecture on why it was too late for me to plant fall tomatoes.

He seemed to be taking great pleasure in telling me it takes 70 to 90 days to grow a tomato (from a seed, it does), and that in 70 to 90 days it would be freezing here. The implication of freezing weather on the horizon made me want to laugh, out loud. He went on to say that if I waned fall tomatoes I should have planted the plants in July. The implication that anybody could have planted anything in the million degree month of July made me want to push him, hard, Elaine Benes style, knocking him back into the Azalea display and squarely on his ass.

Moving on to the next garden store, and the one after that, and the nursery I visited yesterday, I've continued to find tomatoes galore. Yesterday I asked about the tomato selection and the person who worked there replied that more tomatoes were in fact on their way and would be delivered today. So, I guess I'm not the only idiot planting fall tomatoes this late in the season.

And, just for the record, I have it on good authority that fall tomatoes can be planted as late as October, and depending on our winter, can be grown pretty much year round here in Central Texas.

So far this fall I've planted Chocolate Cherry Heirlooms,

My first heirloom tomato. It's a Chocolate Cherry.

and Brandywine Heirlooms. In the spring I planted an Heirloom variety called Mr. Stripey, but the summer was just too hot for any tomato production. The fact that Mr. Stripey survived at all is amazing. He's almost as tall as I am, and very skinny, but hopefully he's well rooted and the cooler temps which have to be on their way will encourage him to bloom very soon.

Yesterday, I picked up a tomato that wasn't an heirloom, but I couldn't resist because the name "Solar Fire" seemed to sum up our summer perfectly. Yesterday was the 123rd day in a row that temperatures have soared above 90 degrees. One hundred and twenty three days.

Stay tuned for part two of my fall garden saga: Things that look like pumpkins...

it's beginning to look a lot like the most wonderful time of the year

2011-09-20T08:42:00.000-05:00

Late last week, I found my grocery store had a few full sized orange pumpkins in the front. This week, they upped the ante to a full blown pumpkin display, complete with a much larger selection of classic orange carving pumpkins, a few specialty pumpkins like the Cinderella, and a smattering of ghostly white pumpkins.

Game on.

Pumpkin season has officially arrived.

My first (of what I'm sure will be many) pumpkin of the season.

a good day in bastrop

2011-09-17T21:09:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week, Ray and I saw a story on our local news about downtown Bastrop's business district. Due to the fire, business had slowed down to a trickle. In the news story, the shop owners wanted us all to know that they are open and ready for business.

Ray and I headed to Bastrop today with the kids. Our first stop was lunch as Gracie's.

After lunch we walked around downtown taking in the sights and shopping.

I absolutely loved everything about this antique store. Obviously it's an old house, but the rooms had been left intact. Leaving customers to wander from room to room, taking in all of the ancient treasures. I can't wait to return to Apothecary's Hall.

Our final stop in town was the Sugar Shack. We'd been using the shack as an incentive for the kids whenever they got bored or whiny. When we finally arrived, we each picked out a piece of fudge. Mine was jalapeno. It doesn't get much better than spicy chocolate.

We left town on highway 21 and were completely astounded by what we saw. There are no words to capture the magnitude of the destruction. There was no way to photograph the enormity of the disaster.

Driving through the fire ravaged forests you couldn't help but be struck by the absolute randomness of the whole thing. The fire jumped back and forth from one side of the divided road to the other with no apparent rhyme or reason.

Driving through the neighborhoods the random nature of the fire was more evident. An entire street would be completely destroyed. One melted house after the next, then for no apparent reason, one single house would be left standing, completely intact.

Looking at the burnt out forests, it was almost impossible to fathom the enormity of fire and what it must have looked like when it was at its peak.

The haze in this picture isn't smoke. It's rain. It rained on us downtown and continued to rain as we drove home. Looking at the weather radar this afternoon, Bastrop and the surrounding area finally got quite a bit of rain today. Making today a very good day in Bastrop.

fall

2011-09-15T07:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's a zillion degrees outside, yes we've broken every heat related record in the books this summer, no, there's no end in sight, but, still, it's September 15th, so we are moving right ahead with our plans for Fall. Whether Fall shows up or not, that's Fall's decision.

This afternoon we planted mums in our front porch planter boxes. While we were working on the mums, we found and caught not one, not two, but three tiny geckos.

Grace would want me to point out that all three lizards still have their tails. Geckos have a built in defense mechanism that allows them to eject their tails when they feel they are in danger. The tail shoots off and moves around on its own in order to distract a predator. It doesn't hurt the gecko, and the tail grows back, but it's more than a little creepy.

Grace has become such an excellent lizard catcher that she managed to catch all three geckos, remove fire ants that were attached to the gecko's bellies and tails, and safely return them to the grass. All with their tails still attached. Nice.

After we finished with the mums and lizards, we harvested our corn.

We pulled all of our corn plants out of the garden and the kids worked to remove each ear of corn. (We will be going ahead with planting a fall garden as soon as the temps drop below triple digits.) After we shucked all of our ears of corn, it looked like we were ready to stock a salad bar with those miniature ears of corn that you find in your Chinese food.

So, no, we're not going to become professional corn farmers any times soon, but this year's harvest was far more impressive than last year's. We're definitely moving in the right direction.

Finally, I brought my first pumpkins home from the grocery store a few days ago. They are the small, decorative variety, but pumpkins none the less.

Bring on the Fall!

crock pot mondays

2011-09-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

First of all, I have to admit that I missed the moonrise last night. By the time the kids were in bed, lights were out, and I had my camera and car keys the moon was already high above the trees. Of course, after two days of not seeing what I wanted to and realizing that if I had been on the top of the garage I would have seen the full moon rising in the dark sky, I was disappointed. I drove over to the highest point in our neighborhood and took a picture using every single setting on my point and shoot camera. This is the best I could come up with. Not my best night as a harvest moon chaser.

Now moving on to a new tradition in our home: Crock Pot Mondays!

For the last seven years, this is how my kids have eaten. Each compartment on their plate is filled with a different food. The meat is always separate from the veggies, which don't get anywhere near the fruit, and the grains always stand alone.

When my kids were first starting to eat solid food it was my highest priority to make sure they grew up to be good eaters. I focused on the list of power foods and took the idea that healthy eating meant eating foods that are ingredients rather than foods that have ingredients to heart. (Just for the record, I do not consider hot dogs healthy, but this one was at least a 98% fat free turkey weenie).

All of this healthy eating progressed along just fine. My kids to this day are great eaters, but they are still stuck in the single ingredient mindset. They wont even think of touching anything that's been cooked together. For instance, when I make baked ziti, I bake a dish for the grown ups, but keep things separate for the kids. They get a pile of plain ziti noodles, a slice of provolone, a bowl of grape tomatoes. We get baked ziti.

Same thing right? Not exactly. Here lately it seems I'm raising little weirdo eaters who ask for everything plain or dry and freak out when they see a speck of pepper on their Mahi Mahi.

To remedy this, I've decided that every Monday we are going to eat something I've cooked in the crock pot. A one dish wonder, if you will.

Mondays are Grace's night for dance class and we get home right at dinner time, so the crock pot makes sense. The food is hot and ready the moment we walk in the door.

For our first Crock Pot Monday I made Spanish Rice Casserole. I found the super simple recipe here. I thought the casserole would be a good one to start with because it contains hamburger meat, rice and tomatoes, all ingredients that my kids will eat separately.

To spice things up, I prepared a variety of things for the kids to put on top of their casserole. Cheese, sour cream, avocados, lime, green salsa, cilantro, tomatoes.

When we sat down to dinner, I laid out the plan: You like all of these things and this is what we're having for supper. You don't have to eat it, but this is the only food you will be offered tonight.

Carter was not happy, but eventually added some toppings and ate his entire bowl of casserole. Grace was a tougher nut to crack. She immediately tried a tiny bite and declared it was absolutely inedible. She went on to say that she liked all of the ingredients but did not like the transformation that had taken place after six house in the crock pot. Apparently, the crock pot had made them, "Dark and different."

Around this time, I quietly popped a small tray of teenie cookies topped with tiny m & m's in the oven. Ten to twelve minutes later we were still haggling with Grace, but Carter, who had eaten all of his food, was enjoying a few, warm, gooey, cookies.

I'll bet you can't guess who finished her food in record time. Yes, it was bribery. No I'm not entirely proud of it. No, it wont be happening every Monday. But, desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

harvest moon rising - part two

2011-09-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

Last night, the sun was completely gone by the time the Harvest Moon was set to rise.

And, we could make the moon out a bit closer to the horizon than we had been able to the night before. Seeing the full moon dimly lit against the darkening sky me wonder what tonight's 8:40 moonrise against a much darker sky will look like....

harvest moon rising - part one

2011-09-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

If you read my blog or know me even a little bit, you've figured out that I'm a complete weather dork. I'm always checking the forecast, paying attention to trends, and alerting anyone who will listen to changes on the way.

When we head down to the coast, I track the tide schedules religiously, and always know the exact times of the upcoming high and low tides.

And, I've been known to wake in the wee and darkest hours of the morning to head outside and observe meteor showers, passing space shuttles, lunar eclipses, or whatever else the night sky has to offer.

I can't help it. I come by these things honestly.

Today, I took note of the fact that we would be experiencing a phenomenon known as the Harvest Moon for the next several days. A Harvest Moon sounded right up my alley, so I looked into it. I mean, of course I've heard the term before, but I couldn't tell you exactly what it meant.

You can read a great article here, but basically a Harvest Moon is the full moon, and the moons immediately before and after the full moon, which occur closest to the Autumnal Equinox. What makes the Harvest Moons special is that in years past, farmers used the light from these moons to harvest their crops. Thus the name, Harvest Moon.

I can only imagine what an amazingly magical experience it must have been to harvest pumpkins by moonlight.

This evening, I gave the kids their baths a bit early and explained the Harvest Moon phenomenon. Tonight's moonrise was scheduled for 7:07, and the kids were immediately on board with a plan that included getting mostly ready for bed, picking up ice cream at 6:45, then finding a nice, high, east-facing spot to take in the moonrise.

As we were heading out of the house, I paused to answer a ringing phone. It was my mom. She was calling me to tell me that tonight there was going to be a very special moonrise.... Before she could get any further I told her we were walking out of the house to find the perfect vantage point. Her response, "I guess I raised you right." Yep, I come by these things honestly.

Our neighborhood is quite hilly and full of trees and we wanted to make sure we would be able to see the moon on the horizon, so we headed for the roof of a four story parking garage in Round Rock. From the top of the building, we had an excellent view of the sun setting in the west and a clear view of the darkening eastern horizon.

Tonight's sunset.

7:07 came, and went. No moon. 7:17, still no moon. We paced, we waited, we checked the time. Needless to say, the kids' patience was growing a bit thin.

At 7:20, I began to doubt the accuracy of my moonrise data, so Ichecked a couple more websites on my phone. Both sites verified the 7:07 time.

We paced, anxiously, scanning the eastern horizon. Where was the moon?

Our first view of the pale Harvest Moon.

Then, suddenly, the moon magically appeared. I guess there was a low, thin layer of clouds or haze or something that kept us from seeing the pale light from the moon as it cleared the horizon. The moon was already quite high in the sky by the time we could make it out.

Back in our neighborhood, we made our final turn for home and there the moon was, waiting at the end of our street. Grace took one look and blurted out, "We could have just stayed home for that."

Tomorrow night, the moon will rise at 7:37. The sun will be much further down, and the eastern sky should be a bit darker. We are planning on returning to the rooftop for another, hopefully better, view of this year's Harvest Moon rising.

my happy place

2011-09-05T23:11:00.004-05:00

It seems losing my chicks on Friday was just the tip of the iceberg.

Saturday we found out that our friends at the farm had to put down their thirty-five year old horse, Jojo. Sunday, I woke up to a ringing phone and found out Frank, my sister's fourteen year old basset hound died in his sleep.

And, all weekend, we've been watching helplessly as wildfires ravage central Texas, leaving us hoping we've seen the worst, but wondering what's next.

Times like these, a girl needs a happy place. Somewhere she can go and just forget about things, at least for a few minutes. Fortunately, I know of just such a place.

Taylor is famous for its fabulously friendly ducks. For years, the kids and I have been hitting the duck pond and love to see the ducks come running over to us as soon as we close our car doors.

A few months ago, we were leaving Taylor when I spotted what appeared to be a rather large gaggle of geese. Immediately, I turned my car around and headed for the park where I'd seen the geese. As soon as we drove into the park, we were surrounded by at least 30 of the biggest, loudest geese I've ever seen. I was in Heaven.

Since then, the goose park has become on of our favortie stops in Taylor and we drop by to feed the geese every chance we get. I didn't hatch any of these geese, so it's not quite like visiting the geese at Melissa's farm, but there's something about the way they all come running over at the same time, look you right in the eye, and tell you exactly what's on their minds, that makes these geese, well, irrestistible.

A snipit of video so you can get the full effect.

Good stuff.