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This week while Aaron was at Royal Family Kids Camp, the kids and I decided to hop in the car and go visit my parents in Howe. We just got back this evening and had a great week! Some highlights...

• American Girl store in Dallas
• Swimming and catching up with my cousins Shanda and Shaira and their kids
• Braum's Peppermint Ice Cream
• Loy Lake
• Frontier Village
• Front porch sittin' (mornings and sunset)
• Playing frisbee
• Good food
• Trips to the Driving Range with Grandaddy for the kids
• Watching Lost with my Mom and staying up way too late
• Lots of ice cream
• Sleeping in until 9:00
• Visiting Nanny & Pawpaw
• Lunch at La Mesa
• Eisenhower State Park/Lake Texoma
• Putting on a bee suit and checking out Dad's bee hive
• Late evening golfing with Dad
• Visiting Wynne Chapel on our Anniversary (where we got married)
• Time to kick up my feet and relax
• Hanging out with my parents
• All around good times!

Summer Clubhouse

I've been thinking for a couple of months about ways to get the kids playing outside more during the summer. I'd been trying to think of ways to build a "clubhouse" of sorts for free or cheap with mostly items we had. I was kinda stumped until one day I realized that a couple of years ago, my Grandpa gave us an old little tent. So today I set it up in the back yard for the kiddos. I'm going to add some extra touches, but it was fun hanging out in this little corner of the yard this afternoon!

Mini-Getaway

Sunday after church, we loaded up the kids and the camper and took off for a few days. We drove down to Lake Corpus Christi, set the kids free with their bikes, and set up camp. The weekend traffic had already headed out, so we had the park nearly to ourselves. We spent the evening relaxing, swimming, game-playing, bike riding, grilling and eating.

Monday, we got up and made breakfast tacos and then headed for Port Aransas/Mustang Island, one of our favorite (nearby) destinations. We spent the whole day there and had a blast, as always--well, except for my botched attempt at pulled pork sandwiches (the seagulls loved them though!) and the fact that we all burned to a near crisp (turns out three applications of sunscreen is not enough for these pale folks!). We made it back to the camper that evening with plans to grill burgers, but we were all totally wiped out, so we drove to Dairy Queen for dinner and ice cream in the air conditioning. Heaven!

Tuesday, we decided we'd pack up early and head home. We were kinda underwhelmed by the park we were staying at (the lake was SUPER low due to the drought). We made it back to San Antonio and finished off our little vacation by going to the theater to see John Carter in 3D.

All in all, it was a great little trip. Looking forward to putting more of these on the calendar!

Garden Update 6/14/12

Well, summer has arrived and the garden looks a little different than last time. First off our little corner with the cucumbers, blackberries, and flowers (I have no idea what kind I planted) has taken off! Aaron found me some pallets a couple of months ago and I decided to use them as a trellis for the cucumbers. So far they seem to like it!

In our raised bed, we finally had to pull the pumpkins after harvesting about five of them. I think I may have sorta killed them when I trimmed them back (they were taking over our yard!) and they weren't doing so good. We'll be planting them again in July in preparation for Halloween. The tomatoes are taking off! We had so many tomatoes I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I've made several batches of homemade salsa lately,and it's been yummy! (I'll put the recipe below.) I pulled all but one of the brussel sprout plants, and I almost pulled that one up today, but lo and behold, there are sprouts nearly ready to harvest. Not sure if they'll be good or not this late in season, but we can try!

Fresh Salsa

Ingredients: 6-8 medium sized tomatoes
1 jalepeno, diced
2-4 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 to full bunch of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
Cumin, Salt, and Garlic Powder to taste

Instructions: Bring water to boil in a large pot. Once water is boiling, add tomatoes and boil for three minutes, then remove from water and let cool. While cooling, combine remaining ingredients in bowl. Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel skin from tomatoes, then pulse in food processor until tomatoes reach desired consistency (I like to leave it a little chunky), then add to other ingredients and refrigerate! Lasts up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

Comfort

I've been in sort of a weird place spiritually lately. I won't go into all the details, but I'm at a place where I'm trying to really dig deep in seeking God and his truth (without the lenses or bias of my culture/society/upbringing). It's been challenging, but I feel like it's worth it. I sat down last week with my Bible and came across my favorite verse, Psalm 73:23-26, and it was like a warm blanket for my soul. I just felt God's presence and peace come over me, and I really felt him speak into my life.

I'm so thankful for the gift of his Word and his voice speaking to us. It's easy to let his voice be drowned out by all the other (sometimes even seemingly good) noise we let fill our lives.


Father, may I make seeking you my one priority.