Flashback Friday - Texas

I haven't posted on my blog in two years!  I was looking around and discovered blogs aren't even what the used to be!  What they were isn't even "in" anymore!  My posts won't change a whole lot though.  I don't care about being "in" and the purpose of this blog stays the same - a diary of our family life.

We moved to Flower Mound, Texas late summer 2005.  The first day of school followed quickly.

Levi looks pretty confident and pleased that Micah's off to school for the whole day and he's not!

Uncle Blair had helped us find a great house in a great neighborhood.  It was close to green space with a path that led behind the middle school, through a park, and to the elementary school. Devon rode bikes to school with the boys sometimes on his day off.  Our great house however, had yucky carpet and wallpaper.  By the end of August, we started rectifying that situation.  The boys scraped the wallpaper off their bathroom walls almost entirely on their own.

They actually learned home projects starting in ABQ.  They've used their acquired skill on mission trips and to earn money.  In this picture you can see in to the boys' room.  They shared one bedroom and used one as a playroom for awhile.  Later, this room became Levi's and the one to the left of the bathroom was Micah's.

Our previous house was a new build.  This was the house we started a tradition.  Any time we redid floors or walls we used sharpie to write - here, our names.  Future projects included our favorite Scriptures.

First grade and Forest Vista was the beginning of Cub Scouts for Micah (Levi officially joined two years later).  We were blessed with a wonderful den and pack full of friends for Micah and parents we enjoyed.  One of the first den meetings was at our house where the boys practiced their cowboy skills with knott tying and "cattle" roping.

Although we're not pleased with the direction Scouts has taken - those 11 years we were a part were meaningful to our boys and our family.  Dev continues today his friendship with hiking buddies he met in Oklahoma Scouts.  We are blessed and thankful.

A New Chapter for Dad's House

Almost two and a half years ago, I ended a blog post with this " I am very happy to have this done though. There are some odds n ends left in the house, but it’s mainly cleaned out (but not clean!)."  It was in reference to cleaning out my parents' house. (You can read the whole post here.)

Now we're doing the odds n ends and the cleaning!  Really cleaning.  Hubby (with some M & L help) has taken out two closets and part of a wall, pulled up part of a floor and replaced it, made a water line to the fridge, moved the hot water tank out of the bathroom and moved the washer and dryer from the kitchen to its' new spot. 

We have a new dumpster, but not as big as the first.  All that demolition is going in - in with all the things we saved before and now aren't quite sure why.  After I left yesterday to pick up M., Hubby and L pulled up all the carpet and threw it away.

What's left? Well, Hubby would know better than I - he's good at this!  Replace some windows, take some furniture to an antique store if any family doesn't want it, sell the deep freeze, maybe move a doorway, replace the front door, fix some more floor, add in a kitchen cabinet, majorly clean, clean the cabinets and paint them inside and out (my job), have the fireplace checked, put in carpeting and linoleum, and anything else that needs done!

This project is perhaps physically and financially harder, but not quite as emotionally difficult as the first.  The hardest parts - picking the coins up in Dad's room and knowing they were ones dropped out of his jeans pockets behind his bed and cleaning out all the scraps of papers in Dad's spice rack.  The rack had absolutely no spices, but it was a good holder for all those papers written in Dad's handwriting - the four of us and Aunt's birthdays, our phone numbers and Dr's numbers, a recipe or two - and a few business cards from people who had fixed things for Dad.

It does make me wonder why we didn't do this for Mom and Dad ten years ago.  Dad probably wouldn't have let us!

On the Home Front - Only One of January (sigh)

A peek through my window…. much greyer than earlier today, but for January, there is nothing to complain about.  The tree in the front yard has some buds on it.

 

What’s going on this week… basketball game, I WILL make it to church Wednesday night and Sat., Hubby and I are going to do some “once a month cooking” together.

 

What “the boys” are doing… I’m not sure – it’s way too quiet J.  They are probably doing something electronic.  This morning, one of the boys and Hubby went flying.

 

On my mind… as I head into the second month of the new year, I need to get areas in my life in better balance.  Work has taken up too much of my mental energy lately.

 

On my bedside table…  I got three or four new books on my Kindle and I can’t wait to sit down with it after dinner and decide which one I’m going to read!

 

I am richly blessed…  with a lovely home and time to spend here.  I’m thankful for M’s basketball team and his invitation with friends.

 

I’m praying for… for the same friend who is still in a storm of life. Also, for summer and next fall plans and that my children will desire God more than anything.

 

Our home…  since the last time I wrote a daybook, we’ve added some living room furniture – a coffee table and two recliners.  It makes the room feel more homey and it gets used more often now.  Even though, I slept in late today, I’ve managed to get the house looking pretty tidy.

 

Menu planning… Hubby made minestrone soup last night; tonight is chicken/broccoli, stuffing and salad.  Later this week: meatloaf & mashed potatoes, chicken lasagna, beef chili and breakfast for dinner (on the night Hubby is teaching of course!)

 

A photo or two…

Fun Day With Family!

Hello Spring Break!

I started an online job this past weekend and it is keeping me on the computer more than I care too, but what should I expect from an "online" job?  Anyways, this is Spring Break and it is a nice change of pace.
When I was surfing blogs yesterday I saw a post that someone did called Hello Monday.  I think it was a regular thing and of course I can't find it now, but I liked the randomness of showing things in the day.

Hello Spring Break and learning to fix the garbage disposal.  Yeah, I'm not going into details here, but I did something stupid (and it's okay to use the "s" word here, because it applies!).  In fact, I think it was the most stupid thing I have ever done in the kitchen.  Hubby decided he was not touching the disposal so instead he graciously guided me through the process.  I am pleased to say it works now!  I'm so glad too because I was already in my mind bemoaning the fact that I was going to have to get used to making dinner and life in general without a disposal.  Now, isn't that silly!  It is after all a "convenience" and many homemakers live without far less than that!

Hello Spring Break and our new backyard swimming pool!  The rain has kept us in and relaxing instead of on the go and in a hurry to accomplish tasks.  It's also caused the need to call a roofer for a leak repair.

The puddle behind the gate is almost double in size now.  J, the dog managed to get in the picture.

Hello Asparagus!  I know that is really random, but I absolutely love asparagus.  I am always so excited for it to be fresh in the store in good quality at a decent price.  I found a simple delicious recipe:

Break off the woody ends of a pound of asparagus (right where it starts to "give" when you bend it)
Rinse off and pat dry
Place in a single layer in a glass dish sprayed with cooking spray
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (a decent amount)
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 min. (according to the tenderness you want).
Delicious and not as fattening as smothering with hollaindaise sauce!

Tomorrow I'll say Hello to some errands in the City and try to actually work on my Things to Do List.

Time Well Spent

Concussions are yucky. We did the whole thing (twice) with M. last fall. When L. got hit in a soccer scrimmage we were more aware of what was going on. One of the yucky things is that symptoms can come and go. For example, L. was doing great yesterday morning and I really thought it was going to be his first headache free day. By the evening he said his head hurt worse than it had all week. I tried for about an hour to comfort him and finally ended up laying down beside him so he’d fall asleep.

This morning when I woke L. up for school he was crying. I tried to give him medicine for his headache, but he said that his Dad had before he left. I let him sleep for another hour telling him I’d take him to school before I went to work. When I woke him up the second time, same thing, but this time I told him that he’d be fine, he had to go. When he actually got out of bed he said that he was dizzy. So this time, I called in for a sub. I am actually the sub so I feel terrible for doing this.

However, my friend at Our Breathtaking Life, has been encouraging me to treasure time with my children. I wish this were time another way, but I am happy to give L. more rest and to love on him. All to soon “time with my children” is going to be “time with my teens”.

On another “time” note, while Hubby and I were in Florida, we talked about getting back to something we used to do. On Saturday evenings, we turn off media around 6 o’clock to prepare our hearts for Sunday worship. We’ve done that for three weeks now and I’ve also seen other fruit come from it – great conversation about sharing your faith at school, finishing a puzzle, making brownies, the boys getting interested in putting models together. Who could have imagined what tuning out could accomplish? I think no video games is easier on the boys (they already have limits) – Sat. evening is about the time I would like to be blogging! But, yes, time actually spent with them is way better than time writing about them!

Hubby's Hands

These wonderful hands went back to work today.  Hubby is an extremely hard-worker.  It's one of the qualities I admire about him.  He's always careful to balance his work with caring for his family too.

Last night, Hubby started easing back into work - grading papers and such.  He didn't do much of that during break and I'm so thankful.  Not so much for me, but for him.  I think he truly feels like he rested and had a break.

Of course he finished a big project during his time off!  Over a year ago, he had the heater in his truck "fixed" (didn't last long) and those who fixed it cracked the dashboard.  However, they didn't take responsibility for it, yada, yada, yada.  During break, Hubby fixed the heater AND replaced the dashboard.

Thanks Hubby for being great at fixing things on our cars and around the house.  You have saved us thousands and thousands of dollars.  I think your hands are wonderful!

A Three Day Weekend

Four soccer games later.....

I attended three of the four games. One was dreadfully hot with most parents crowded under one shade tree behind a fence (but we could still see the game!) where it was still 110 degrees! The game the next morning was after the cool front came through and had me begging to borrow a blanket.

On Saturday night, we went shoe shopping and had dinner at Qdoba. Aunt and I were so excited to find this:

This was absolutely one of the coolest things I had seen in a long time! The sign on the front door advertised 100 drink choices and I believe it - you could have Sprite with one of 9 different flavors. Sprite!? Of course this was my choice...

Hubby ended up waiting in the truck while we took photos. He only got water so maybe he wasn't too excited to see the new machine. Or maybe he was embarrassed that we were taking pictures of it?

Between church and games yesterday, we mowed at Dad's. Boy did it need it - had been neglected way too long. That's a whole nother story. We need the "old house fairy" to come in and zap everything the way it's supposed to be. Exciting thing on this day is that M. got his first riding lawnmower lesson. I'll spare him the details.

Today we cleaned out the attic and I mean cleaned out the attic. We sorted and restacked and went through boxes we should have, but didn't on one of our moves. It was great to condense and Hubby and the boys made a trip to the dumpster that was close by for neighborhood cleanup and Goodwill. We had lots of great finds...

#1 Our china (confession I haven't used it - yet!) When we got married 16 years ago we registered for a beautiful ivory pattern that had silver and gold both on it. I still love it. However, it was probably expensive and not terribly practical. We have seven sets - I think I didn't use it because we didn't have eight. Pure silliness! Any time we have a special dinner (or even if it's just because I want to) and have seven or less people eating, I'm going to use it! Makes more sense than leaving it in a box in the attic! However, I did leave the dainty cups and their saucers packed away. I promise I will never use those - I don't drink coffee and if I drink hot tea it's at Starbucks. Now, if we could have registered for big plastic cups from BBQ restaurants....... (I digress).

#2 Our ice cream maker. This was a gift to Hubby from me several years back.. He's lucky enough to get gifts like this since his birthday is the Fourth of July. On their trip out to Goodwill the guys got all the ingredients for Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream. After reading the instructions and realizing the steps and time we opted for Easy Vanilla Ice Cream. After getting about $10 worth of ingredients into the canister and setting everything together right we plugged it in and nothing. Didn't work - Hubby took it apart and found gears were broken. Since we couldn't let all those ingredients go to waste I headed to Walmart where I found they sold out 4th of July. JC Penney and Ross also did not have them - I texted friends and Hubby put our dilemma on FB and checked with neighbors. While I was in the Big Lots parking lot, I got a text back from a friend who had one and yes I could borrow it!

We enjoyed bowls on the back porch after dinner and mowing for Aunt. It was nice to have a long weekend and a change of pace. Now, back to the new normal.

(Sidenote: Hubby hung my new picture for the boys' bathroom. That's not what I got it for originally, but it matches and I love it. It reminds me of all the fun travels we've had together as a family.)

The Porch Swing

For as long as I can remember there was a porch swing on my parents' front porch. I'm sure I sat there for hours at a time at all times of day and night just thinking. Sometimes when I sat there one (or both if we squeezed) of my parents would sit with me. My cousin and I would play on the porch and swing (especially if it were raining). I remember falling out of it more than once and often I'd have my dog, Fudge swinging with me. I loved that swing!

Our house now has a real porch and I asked if Aunt minded if I took the swing. Our grandfather made it. Hubby and both boys stripped, sanded, primed and repainted it - it was quite the undertaking. Mother's Day morning as I was still lying in bed, I could hear the new chains being put on the swing and it being hung. After my lovingly hand made cards, I sat on it a bit with the boys. Hubby asked "Which side did you used to sit on?". I smiled, it was the one I was sitting on at the moment of course.

Today's only day two and I've already spent time there. I've added something that I don't remember doing in the swing much when I was a kid - reading my Bible. I love my swing! I'm very thankful to Hubby and the boys for all their hard work done with love because they know how much it means to me.

Spring Has Sprung

It is definitely Spring here! My allergies can attest to it too - it seems no matter how I try to stay on top of it that I suffer, sigh!

There are some other signs of Spring too....

Hubby is getting the lawn ready. He also took the bird nests down. Please, hear me out...I know that doesn't sound very springlike or even kind. We had not one, but two nests right above the front door all last spring and summer. I'm not a bird lover, and I especially can't stand them diving for their nest as I'm walking out the door (I hated even more the time one came inside the house!) It's spring and we've had new? (who knows?) birds on the front porch. Hubby loves all creatures and couldn't bear the thought of taking down a bird's nest. It was an act of love for me.

There are new flags on the metal baskets at the disc golf course in the park, state testing is looming around the corner, spring soccer has started, people are starting to get ready for graduation and of course - birthdays - we'll have three in the first 19 days of April!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I was sad when our family left after visiting for about 10 days. I was excited for the carpet installers to arrive with our new carpet. They stayed until it was all done - yay! (I just knew they were going to have to come back today and finish). I was excited to meet L's teacher, sad that my Dad asked me my name when we visited, and excited to watch M enjoy football so much (scrimmage #3). What a day!

When I was considering my up and down emotions of the day, I was reminded of Hebrews 13:7-8:

Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn't change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he's always totally himself.

Now, it's okay for my emotions to flux, but I'm reminded to check my consistency. It's in Christ. The first part of the verse says to look at the way our pastoral leadership lives. Fitting as our Sr. Pastor celebrated 40 years in ministry this weekend. I haven't known him for long, but I can see that LP has lived a life of dependence on God, friendship, and laughter. So...in my sadness I can remember the fun we had during our family's visit. I can reach out in love to my Dad and tell him my name (and use my children's name whenever possible) and treasure the times he could remember. I can depend on God during all the exciting and sad times, knowing that Jesus doesn't change.

J on the new carpet. Boy do I have a lot to put back together in the house!

Today was the first day of school! M remembers his locker combo and schedule so all should go well. This is the first year the boys aren't together for first day photos. L. was just getting up and around when I was leaving with M and wasn't exactly dressed. When I dropped M. off he was so excited he left his lunch in the car. I handed it to the teacher on duty who called after M and handed him the lunch. BTW, I am super impressed with all the staff at this secondary school. Hubby went with us to take L to school. I'm so thankful he always makes a point to be there (and is able to) for this milestone. Now, although I have tons to do in the house so far I have shop vacced (how do you spell that???!) the car and garage (carpet strands) and am now blogging!

M wanted a picture with J, but the grass was wet.

L, first day of 4th grade