Friends

It's no secret that I'm kind of an introvert. I'm perfectly content to work from home, sit in my office, and interact with no one all day long. Aaron, on the other hand, at one point decided to work from home a couple of days a week, and it lasted all of one day. He couldn't stand the quiet and the complete lack of interaction. Ha ha!

I don't like to admit it, but when I'm busy, one of the first things to go in my schedule is my friends. We've just come through a season of insane busyness (doesn't it seem we're all in that state a little too often) with a month full of weddings, followed by VBS, and all sorts of other things. So over the last couple of weeks, it has been incredibly refreshing that God has blessed me with time with friends. I wish I had gone out of my way to plan these times, but more often than not, these happy opportunities to sit and visit just seemed to drop in my lap. I wish now that I'd taken the time to snap a quick picture with each of these special friends, but I didn't, so words will have to do!

• Amy has been a great friend of mine since Aaron and I were first newlyweds. She is the wisest woman I know and I can always count on her for a listening ear and wise, Godly counsel. It was so nice to spend part of the day last week with her and her kids over lunch. Plus, we may or may not have a plan to arrange a marriage between our two oldest. Kyle is such a sweetie!
• I got the chance to sit with Amanda for a while last week when I stopped to drop something off at her house. I think that she and her husband Daniel are some of the most interesting people in the world, and I always love the energy, passion, and ideas that come up when we talk. Also, when I showed up, she'd made at pitcher of tea because she remembered I liked it so much. AND she sent me home with a loaf of banana bread. Yum!
• Growing up in Howe, and particularly in high school, Johnny was one of my good friends that I ran around with. A couple years ago, he introduced me to his wife Sarah via Facebook because we had a shared love of photography. I was excited to find out a couple of months ago that they'd be moving here. They don't live far from us, and it's been fun getting to reconnect! 
• Today, I was happy to finally meet Dawn, who I "met" online through Amanda. She's also the wife of a minister and she also happens to love Caedmon's Call like I do. She just moved back to San Antonio from Alabama, and it was fun finally meeting in person and seeing her kids, who I see in pictures all the time! 
• Of course, I always love time with my wonderful friend and sister-in-law, Natalie. You'd think we get to hang out a lot, but even though we usually see each other once a week, it's hard to find time to really talk. It was good for me to spend time today hanging out with her, talking over sandwiches and loud kids!

I recognize that I need to carve out more times like this -- with these friends and others. Thank you God for the blessing of friendship. And thank YOU, friends, for the special and unique gift each of you are to my life! And if I haven't gotten to see you lately, let's do dinner or coffee or a playdate soon!

"What good is popcorn if you don't have anyone to share it with?!"

That's what Carson said tonight. Abby has a friend to spend the night and they didn't feel like watching a movie, and I was finishing up a wedding. He said, "All I want is a movie, popcorn, and someone to share it with!" I assured him I'd watch a movie with him in the morning, complete with popcorn, but for tonight he may just have to have his own movie night, to which he replied, "What good is it to make popcorn if you don't have anybody to share it with?" Awww... It wasn't long after that that his Daddy got home and made popcorn with him and sat down to watch a movie. Sweet moments.

Popcorn is sort of a tradition in the Powers family (and it goes back generations). The family has a recipe and a certain way of making this delicious popcorn, but I have never achieved it. Sandy and Aaron are the masters. Perhaps I'll see if he'll share the family secret and I can post it.

For now, I'll share another popcorn recipe. Much to my husband's dismay, I occasionally make a different kind of popcorn... sugar popcorn. It's not as "pure" and wonderful as the family recipe, but I enjoy it!

Sugar Popcorn 
Equal parts (usually 1/3 cup each) of each of the following ingredients:

• Canola oil (other types like coconut work well too) 
• Popcorn kernels (Walmart brand is ironically our favorite)
• Sugar

Directions

1. Pour oil in pan, and turn heat to medium high.
2. Drop 3 kernels in and wait for them to pop.
3. Once they pop, quickly pour sugar and popcorn kernels into the pan, and put the lid on. Fast!
4. Give the pan a shake every 30-45 seconds or so to keep the sugar from burning.
5. Popcorn should be done in a couple of minutes. Pull off heat when the popping slows.
6. Dump in a bowl and add a pinch of salt, then toss.
7. Enjoy the sticky, crunchy yumminess!

Lately

Lately, things have been good. Crazy at times. Uncertain at times. But good. Now that the busy first half of summer is over, we've been able to get back into the rhythm of our summer family days. Despite the heat, we've been spending a lot of time outdoors enjoying each other and God's beautiful creation. It's been so much fun!

In other news...

-Aaron and I finally celebrated our anniversary last week. We went tubing on the Comal River, and then had dinner at the Huisache Grill in New Braunfels. In the midst of all the craziness in the weeks before, I had been very much looking forward to a night with just the two of us, and it did not disappoint! 

-Abby's been doing well. She had a wonderful time with Mattie and Grandaddy a couple of weeks ago. While she was there, she set up a booth at one of the local trade days and sold miniature plants she'd planted to raise money for kids with cancer. I was so impressed with her generosity. We had suggested she earn money for her to go to Girl Scout camp, but she didn't want to use it for herself, but to help others. Sweet girl!

-Carson is also doing well. He's been funny to hang out with over the past few weeks, because he's been working on perfecting his laugh. He has a friend who he thinks has a "cool" laugh, and he's been trying to match it. So he's always laughing. Pretty hard not to laugh right along with him. We got to hang out with our good friends, the Davis', today, and Kyle taught him how to shoot a paintball gun. He had a great time with that until he accidentally shot an elementary school custodian in the distance. I felt terrible, but at the same time I couldn't stop laughing. (After I finished apologizing, of course. He was pretty far away, so it didn't really hurt him, just REALLY surprised him.) Maybe you had to be there.

-Next week we're heading off to youth summer camp with our church. Aaron is the camp speaker this year. The whole family's really looking forward to it. I've kinda missed the whole summer camp thing since we left youth ministry.

-I'm still running and training for a 5k! The kids went running with me last night and they loved it! AND they kept up with me the whole way. I was incredibly impressed.

VBS

This week has been our campus' first VBS. It was a lot of work leading up to it, but now that it's here, it's been lots of fun! The kids have enjoyed it, and I'm humbled by all the awesome volunteers who have made it so wonderful.

Abby Week 2012

Abby left this morning to go spend a long weekend with Mattie and Grandaddy. This is ALL she has been talking about for a couple of months now. She's had a list going with Mattie of all the things she'd like to do while she's there, like going to IHOP (apparently we never take her there and she's always wanted to go), earning money by selling plants she and Mattie planted, making jewelry, and much much more. She's called us twice today to see what we're up to and tell us ALL the stuff she's already done. I'm sure we'll be getting some pictures and many many stories to come.

Happy 4th!

Yesterday we spent a lovely day with family enjoying summer and celebrating our freedom. Both of our families and the church interns joined us for dinner and fireworks and such. It was fun having everyone here!

Settling into Summer

This week it feels like we're finally getting into the rhythm of summer, and I love it. We started off the week with a trip to Bandera where we ended up spending the day at the river swimming, playing, and grilling all day long. It was perfect and I loved every second of it, especially after being apart all of last week!

Once our "weekend" was over, we tried to get back into our regular routine (whatever that is). I had to work quite a bit, but we made time for lots of fun, too! One day we spent the afternoon at Bass Pro Shops where the kids earned a pin for learning about dogs and one for archery. After that, there was a carousel, games, and crafts. The kids loved it. Another day I took the kids to the library to see Spikey Mikey, a magician. They laughed so hard and enjoyed it very much. There was also lunch with Dad on a couple different days, and of course, Sonic Happy Hour once or twice!

I'm so glad I get to enjoy summer with my kids!