2021 in Review

Y'all! Hiiiiiii! Enough is enough already.  I hope to be back in this space more regularly - shooting for twice a month, but at the very least once a month (is that timeframe considered regular??) Anyway, I've been reflecting back at 2021, so thankful for our blessings, for our health, family, and even for the hard stuff.  That being said, I do sorta hope that 2022 is less eventful! 

A look back at the highlights of each month....

January: we got to fly to visit Grandma and Grandpa (and Aunt, Uncle, and cousins too) in Barrington, IL.  And also SNOW!

Henry is 17!

Happiest of birthdays to my Henry.  Henry, everything you do, you do you do BIG.  If it catches your interest you go all in.  I love your tenacity and hard working approach to what you take on, whether it's audio engineering, harmonica, morse code, Rubik's Cube, Braille, or mastering the perfect grilled cheese sandwich (three types of cheeses, honey, and occasionally some ham).  I love your sense of humor, and I love your tender heart.  I love YOU big, kiddo.

(This year's cake was homemade lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting.)

The Summer of the Burger

Granted it’s nothing out of the ordinary to have a burger every week, but it has been a really fun (new) summer tradition for us to grill burgers on Saturday nights. We try and go with a different theme every week, often copycatting our favorite burgers from Red Robin and Whataburger. Every week Havalah preps all the veggies, I do the sauces, and Jon grills the burgers. We usually pick some variety of french fry to bake as a side to round out that restaurant feeling. 

Some of our favorite toppings (besides the traditional tomato and lettuce )include:

•grilled onions & mushrooms (w/ Swiss)

•pineapple marinated in a copycat Red Robin teriyaki (w/ provolone)

•guacamole (w/ cheddar or provolone)

•refried beans topped with a crushed tortilla chip (w/ cheddar) This one is another copycat recipe from a burger place in San Antonio.

•peanut butter (this sounds SO weird, I know, but trust me) (w/ cheddar or provolone)

•crispy onion straws or oven baked onion rings (w/ bleu cheese)

•pimento cheese w/ extra veggies

I often have my burger on gf (oven toasted) bread - which is just as yummy as the traditional bun (this was a hard switch for this burger bun loving girl, but it really is good)!

Basically the taller the burger the better 😋

My garden, summer 2021

Ahhh, the gardening highs and lows. I think this year I ended up having more highs than lows??? Ever since my friend, Whitney, suggested keeping a garden journal I've been able to keep track of what works, what doesn't, and what I'd like to try going forward. See last year's garden update here. 

What worked:  My pots turned out well this year.  I figured out which annuals like both pots and full sun (vincas and begonias were the real heroes), and relied heavily on colieus, and elephant ears. (A few weeks ago, a neighbor gave me around 20 elephant ears, which ended up being exactly what I needed to give the pots some height.)  I tried to follow Joanna Gaines' tip which was to have a thriller, filler, and spiller in planters.

This was my second go around with the Loofah plant.  Last year I dipped my toes in this process, and got a few small fruit, this year I'm on track to have quite a few.  What will I do with all of them? I have no idea, haha.  Let me know if you want some seeds!

I also moved my wildflower garden from the front beds to the one right off our bedroom in the back of the house.  Although I love seeing the zinnias when I pull into the driveway, by mid summer the bed looked pretty ragged.  So the Zinnias, Queen Anne's Lace, Cosmos, and a few others I don't know the names of, are all in the back yard now.  

This was also my first year doing cucumbers and basil.  I planted pickling cucumbers, which as it turns out, aren't as good for snacking.  Basil was easy and fun.

This was also my first year with Caladium bulbs. I purchased 75 of them from the local garden club and they've been a great, leafy filler.  It'll be fun to see if they come back next year, or if I need to put new ones in.

What didn't work: I lost a LOT of perennials after the Texas freeze.  Last fall I had planted nearly 40 flax lilies, and all but a handful were lost.  Also not thriving are all my citrus trees.  They've started sprouting, but a friend said not to count on the fruit being nearly as good.  Something to do with the trees coming from a graft, and the sprout coming up from below the graft.  So, I feel like I'm losing time waiting to see what happens there.  My gut says to bite the bullet and buy all new trees...but...I haven't done that yet.  Stay tuned 😜

Also I wished that we had put down mulch last spring.  I am outside watering 2-3 times a day to keep things alive.  By this point in the summer I'm kinda over that.  When we lived in the Seattle area we had a big truck load of bark mulch delivered, but with that mulch came carpenter ants.  Quel nightmare.  We called the local place (here) and asked about ants, and were told that it would probably happen again, and to be ready to spray the mulch.  Ugh.  Anyway. I love the look of mulched gardens SO MUCH, plus all the water retention benefits.  We'll see what happens. 

the silver licorice plant took off this year

Five Happy Things - late summer edition :)

Hey hi! I'm coming off a wonderful week having had my sister, Mary Beth, in town. I think we covered all our bases including doubling up on Tex Mex, shopping, and talking about how much we miss each other, hahaha.  But seriously.  It was so nice to have her here and get to hug her neck.  

We made the drive to Waco for a quick visit...starting things off at Magnolia Table.  Avo toast for MB, light breakfast for H (toast, avocado, tomatoes and an egg), and breakfast taco and cold brew for me.

Margot Lucie

On July 3rd we welcomed sweet Margot Lucie into our family.  Let me tell you, the rumors are true...puppies are are no joke lol.  A lot of work but also completely adorable.  I have to be honest and admit the first week she was home I had some regrets over getting such a young puppy, but I've adjusted now and can't imagine life without her.  :)  

If you've had a puppy in your life, leave me all your tips, please and thank you :)

The breeder also happened to be a veterinarian.  Here she is post bath, getting one more quick check up.

In the car and on the way home.  We picked her up in Tolar, Texas, which is just under 5 hours away. She was totally relaxed and easy on the drive, thank goodness!

Spring and Summer

One of Havalah's graduation presents was an appointment with Laura at House of Colour to have her color season analyzed. Even when Havah was around eight nine years old I can remember her telling me that she didn't enjoying wearing this or that color because she thought it might clash with her hair color.  So I knew that this experience would be right up her alley. Coincidentally a few weeks before the appointment Laura called me to go over a few details, and before I realized what I was doing, I was booking my appointment at the same time as Havah's lol.  It was a splurge, but I keep telling myself (and Jon!) that it'll save money in the long run since I'll hopefully no longer buy clothes that don't do anything for my skin tone.

Laura began by draping silk, colored cloths across H's shoulders to first identify if she was a cool or  warm season.  After identifying warm/cool (in Havah's case, cool) Laura then began draping either summer or winter colors, going both fast and slow to see how Havah's complexion changed.  It was easily apparent that Havah was cool, and also that she looks nicer in the lighter of the cool colors, which put her in the summer category! We had both thought she might be a summer, so we were happy to be right haha.  Laura then did a makeover on Havah using colors from her palette, which was really fun.  We bought Havah a lipstick and a blush, and both look amazing on her pretty, cool toned summer skin.  

Next it was my turn! I've been told my whole life that I'm a summer, so fully expected to be identified as a summer.  Laura struggled with me for quite awhile, specifically to identify if I was cool or warm.  It came down to the greens, which showed that I tend to look better in a warm green, rather than a cool green. Yada yada yada, I'm a SPRING! Specifically a blue spring.  This means that the blues in my season are my best colors.  This kind of rocked my world, honestly, haha.  I never knew that I was warm toned, and I usually purchase cool toned clothing and makeup.  Finally I also had a makeover and purchased a lipstick that's in my palette.  I struggle to find a good lip color all on my own, but I'm now wearing this warm toned one confidently. :D

We had such a nice time together, and meeting the adorable Laura.  I haven't yet purged my closet of the colors that aren't necessarily complimentary, but going forward I'm trying to shop within my season.  Such fun.  :)

May in review

Although May was a busy month, with wrapping up school, graduation, and a visit from family, somehow I didn't take many pictures.  One of the highlights was taking a family bike ride almost every evening throughout the month.  We had absolutely perfect temperatures in May, and I'm happy to say we took full advantage. On one occasion we counted 5 gators that were also out enjoying the nice weather :| Fortunately they are quick to jump back the water when they see someone.  But still...  

A low for us this month was a massive sewage explosion that took out our three downstairs bathrooms.  The utility district was working on our line, something went awry, and the next thing we knew we had sewage literally gushing from all three toilets and two bathtubs.  Thank the Lord Jon was home.  I don't even know what I would've done.  He acted fast, grabbed the shop vac, Henry grabbed the neighbor's shop vac, and we managed to keep it from entering the main part of the house.  But it was completely traumatic you guys - it was several inches deep throughout.  We now have all flooring, molding, doors and dry wall cut out of those rooms, and are awaiting repair.  It was one of those crazy fluke things, but we'll get through it!    

Here's a little peek at our month...

Our new Scottie is in this litter, born on May 12th. Our Scottie longing is REAL, and I can't wait to get my hands on our new baby!

Bella 2008-2021

Before I begin I just want to say that most of you all have already heard about the loss our our pup, Bella, but I haven't been ready to document it here until now. Thank you so much for all your love as I was/am grieving her.  Sending you a million hugs.

Bella came to us quite by surprise in August of 2009.  When we lived in Wenatchee one of the things that my kids and I did on a regular basis was visit the Humane Society.  It was a win win, really.  They needed people to come in and handle and love on the kitties, and well, we just happen to be really good at that. One day when we happened in there she was, a stray, mop of a dog that the employees told me was a Scottish Terrier.  We fell in absolute love with this bouncy, affectionate, sweet girl and adopted her pretty much on the spot. I'll never forget picking her up from the vet after her initial check up; he asked me if I knew what I was in for with a terrier and two young children. Uhhhhh, no? Yes?  Queue the deer in the headlights look.  However, Isabella or Bella or Bellie, as she quickly became known, was a sweet as sweet could be, and we were ecstatic to have found her. 

Back in November when we started noticing some strange skin lesions we figured she had an allergy or something along those lines.  Our vet couldn't pinpoint it either but gave us some cortisone pills and cream that kept it calm while we waited (six weeks!) to get into a dermatologist.  We finally saw the derm who told us what we really didn't want to hear; advanced Lymphoma. Because she wasn't showing any signs of slowing down or sickness at this point, we kept her on the meds to keep her comfortable, which ended up slowing the spread a bit as well.  The weeks ticked on until finally Jon convinced me it was time to let her go.  She had gotten to the point where she seemed uncomfortable, would occasionally cry out when she was asleep, didn't want to do much of anything, and for the first time ever, didn't constantly follow me around.  We lost our first pup, Decatur very suddenly in 2010, but because H&H were so little I wasn't present when we euthanized him. All this to say I had no idea of the trauma I was in for when we took her for her appointment.  I won't go into it because honestly, it still feels so raw, but I will say it was horrible.  I'm not exaggerating when I say I was hysterical.  Even though we had all those months to prepare ourselves for our goodbyes, I wasn't ready. It felt so very wrong to end her precious life, and I don't know if I'll ever recover from that experience.  If it's possible to be kindred spirits with a dog, she was without a doubt mine.  I miss her so very much.

Sweet Bella.  Thank you for being in our lives. Thank you for protecting our children and our home.  Thank you for making us laugh and giving me that soulful Scottie stare. Thank you for "playing piggie" with Jon, and hide and seek with us. Thank you for never turning down an opportunity to play fetch.  Thank you for keeping Chip kitty from being too big for his britches. Thank you for being ours.  You were our best friend and we'll always love you.

sweet thing

Y'all, we have a graduate! Alternate title, We Did It! :D

Graduation is such a special time, but honestly, for a homeschooling mom/teacher/lead learner, I think it is extra thrilling. All those years ago, when it was time to think about sending Havalah off to pre-k, this former classroom teacher and her husband looked at each other and said, "what if...." Many, many, MANY prayers, and 14 years of homeschooling later and we have a high school graduate on our hands.  I couldn't be more proud of this wonderful, hardworking, precious girl.  

We were fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa fly in from Chicago for the graduation festivities, which included a graduation dinner at Taste of Texas, a church graduation ceremony, and an end of year celebration with our homeschooling co-op Classical Conversations. 

Last January Havalah made the best decision for her and opted out of the city wide homeschooling (traditional) graduation ceremony deciding instead to keep things on a smaller scale celebrating with our church group and co-op. We had no idea what to expect from the ceremony at church, but it was so well done. It was a luncheon that began with a slide show of each of the kids, followed by each of the parents sharing some words of wisdom to their child, then most kids stood up to talk about what's next for them, and finally our youth pastor (pictured below with Havalah) shared a special message.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos from the end of year CC celebration, but I did grab a screen shot from a video. It was a lovely weekend of celebrating this milestone, and my heart was/is ready to burst with pride for my darling Havah. 

The photos are a little out of order, but wanted to share some fave pics both from her senior photo session, but also our weekend celebrating! :)

A new cage for Daisy and Josè

A few weeks ago Henry came up with the bright idea to take his built-in desk space, (which is mostly unused since he has another desk) and turn it into an aviary for his parakeets, Josè and Daisy. He designed and built the whole thing himself, including the framing, chicken wire, and wooden tray, but also the 3D printed door and perch brackets. (I need to do a separate post on all the things he's designed with his printer.)  Henry also added an Alexa controlled light that turns on and off at programmed times of the day.  Ahh, kids these days.  Always keeping their old parents in the loop, amirite? Anyway, D&J went from a smallish metal cage to this large, cool space, where they have lots of room to flap around and chirp at the top of their little bird lungs (you think I'm kidding about that haha).  Very cool, Henry!

 

Birthday stuff

We had such a nice day celebrating our wonderful 19 year old.  After breakfast (sausage biscuits, yum) Havah and I headed out to pick up her favorite boba tea and then intended to head to Barnes and Noble for some book browsing.  However they don't open until noon on Sundays, so we ran a few errands instead (harbor freight wasn't in the birthday plan but she rolled with it ;).  Lunch out at our fave sushi spot, Kuri Sushi, which we were happy to see was as full of people as it has always been.  (Does it make anyone else so happy to see crowds of people living their lives?) After lunch we headed to the city pool, to hang out for a few hours. One of the things we like about this particular pool is they are the only one around here that still has diving boards. (Is that the case where you live?)  Havah and I mostly floated around watching Jon and Henry jump/dive/flip off the diving boards.  Side note: were laughing at how it's (mostly) all boys who love to get up there and show off.  After swimming we headed home, turned up the k-pop and all pitched in to make her fave birthday dinner, Larry's chicken.   Top off the night with maple walnut birthday cake (made entirely by the birthday girl), presents, and Downton Abbey, and it was a really special day for a really special girl.  

Happy Birthday, Havah!

Happy 19th Birthday, to my darling Havalah Ruth! It is my greatest joy to pause and celebrate this precious soul, my wonderful Havalah. Havah, your joy and inner beauty radiate from your face.  God is, and will continue to do wonderful things through you, my darling girl. Another year more amazing, another year more loved.

                                      We love you forever,

                                                      your mama

And these are some of her current faves. Take it away, Halla! :)

1. Favorite animal: Lion

2. Favorite color: Currently a tie between rose pink and hydrangea

3. Favorite OC (original character): Lysander (the protagonist of her novel-in-progress, Foxhunt)

4. Favorite food(s): "Larry's chicken," a unique fried chicken recipe that's special to our family

5. Favorite drink: Any form of matcha green tea

6. Favorite dessert: Texas sheet cake

7. Favorite thing to cook/bake: Anything involving pie dough

8. Favorite restaurant: Tie between Red Robin, Carmelo's Mexican Grill, and Taste of Texas

9. Favorite hobby: Writing

10. Favorite book: Pride and Prejudice

11. Favorite movie: The Lion King (1994)

12. Favorite TV show: Pride and Prejudice (1995)

13. Favorite male fictional character: Mr. Darcy

14. Favorite female fictional character: Jo March

15. Favorite music artist: BTS

16. Favorite song: "Dear Me" by Nichole Nordeman

17. Favorite artist: Thomas Cole

18. Favorite vacation destination: Tie between England and Disney World

19. Favorite school subject: Literature

20. Favorite thing to wear: Tie between a cute, comfortable sweater, a sturdy wide-brimmed hat, and the perfect pair of jeans

21. Most prized possessions: Her stuffed lamb, her Warren (another of her characters) plush, her Bible, her Austen books

22. Favorite thing about being 18: Tie between getting to vote, being able to sign up for various birthday rewards, and graduating high school

23. Funniest thing you can think of: Her favorite meme, which says, ""My babies!" I scream at a group of men who are actually older than me."

24. Goals for the next year: Spend more time getting to know God, finish the first draft of Foxhunt and outline the next draft, get an article published somewhere, get a poem published somewhere

25. Best memories from the last year: Being at Disney World with the Sherwoods, relaxing at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort, exploring Fredericksburg and Luckenbach, just being in her room on a warm, sunny afternoon

It snowed in Houston

As y'all have heard, we got snow in Houston a few weeks ago. What started off as a pretty innocent cold front, actually ended up turning pretty ugly as Texas lost power and water, and sadly, quite a few lives were lost. Some relatives of a friend of ours lost their lives while warming themselves in their car while in the garage.  Just tragic.  Not to mention all the chaos that comes with frozen pipes and no water or electrical.  

We lost power and water for just under 24 hours, and fully expected to lose it again, but somehow never did.  So many of our neighbors, and even a couple friends, had burst pipes and collapsed ceilings, but thanks to Jon's planning, we managed to avoid those catastrophes. So, as there was definitely a downside to 12* weather in Houston, I did try to capture some of the positives. Not pictured are my family fully bundled up in parkas, scarves, balaclavas, and mittens, indoors. All of us sleeping in the same room to stay warm, the warmed bricks to keep our parakeets from turning into icicles, (and also the warm bricks that Jon kept near the outdoor pipes all night to keep them from freezing - Texas homes have all exposed pipes). However, we had some sweet moments, including cards by candlelight, shadow puppet shows, waiting in the Chick-fil-a drive-thru line for over an hour for a hot breakfast, and reading aloud by flashlight.  So, by the grace of God it wasn't all bad for us, but I would be lying if I said we didn't cheer when the lights (and heat) came on!

Life Lately

Happy February! Here's a little peek at life lately, primarily Valentine's Day weekend.  We are in the midst of a huge winter cold front, something that Houston hasn't seen since 1989.  Our low today is 14* (!) and the high is 20*.  We even got an inch or so of snow, which I'll be sharing on the blog soon. Unfortunately Jon's office lost power and closed, however the silver lining is that he's NEVER had a snow day, so...  :D

One of the biggest changes in our household in 2021 is we pulled Henry out of the new CC community that we joined in August, and are continuing the curriculum with just one other family.  We still meet each week (at one of our homes or a coffee shop) and go over assignments, discuss books, read papers, do experiments, you know...all the things.  I just placed a huge order with Carolina for the boys' dissections this semester.  It was actually pretty fun to unpack crayfish, worms, frogs, grasshoppers, and a pregnant shark. Biology labs are so cool. 

Our weekend was spent winterizing the house and yard, aka, wrapping the citrus trees, covering the plants we don't want to lose to cold, and wrapping all exposed water pipes (in Texas they aren't underground). The kids keep commenting that it had the feel of getting ready for a hurricane, and I guess they're not wrong.  The difference is we (Lord willing) won't be flooding!

Be back soon with snow pics! 

 

Henry's gift to me for Valentine's Day (as requested by me ;)

Five Happy Things

Five happy things on this Friday morning!

Over the River and Through the Woods

Last week we took a quick trip to Barrington, Illinois, to visit Jon's parents.  Although things started off a little crazy (we woke up an hour and a half before our flight left, and we live an hour from the airport. ACK! A real Home Alone situation getting out the door). Miraculously we did actually (barely) make our flight, so everything worked out ok. And I'm the proud owner of at least a dozen new gray hairs ;)

Once in the sky we had our noses pressed up against the glass taking in the gorgeous sunrise, and not long afterwards SNOW! It was part hilarious, part sad how all the Texans were gleefully pointing out the foreign white stuff on the ground.  So funny.  Besides one night a few years ago when Houston had a quick snow fall, my kids haven't seen snow in 9 years! So yeah, it was pretty exciting!  

After arriving at G&G's cozy house, H&H were immediately out the door to play in the snow.  And build.  And throw snowballs.  And maybe even eat some!  It was a marvel that all the near by lakes were all frozen solid, and some even had ice fisherman.  We were gratuitously impressed, seeing we've only seen such things on TV haha.

We had a wonderful visit with Jon's mom and dad, his little sister and family (HOW I didn't get any pics of anyone else, I have no idea), and came home feeling very relaxed and refreshed, and not just by the cold air lol.  

So, if you like snow pics, here ya go: :P

 

Happy New Year!

The prettiest cat in Texas ;)

Happy New Year! So grateful and thankful for another year.  If you're reading this, thank you! 

I enjoyed looking back over my goals for 2020, and, actually I didn't do too badly.  A few goals were to blog once a month, (haha, such a low goal for myself), and to read 12 books.  I'm alllll about a few attainable goals, and am happy to say that I achieved both things. *bows* I actually ended up doubling my reading goal and rediscovered my love for historical fiction. 

As far as blogging goes, this year my goal is to blog TWICE per month.  I know.  Hold your applause, please.  Along those lines, I am working on a new blog, which will "launch" lol, hopefully, by the end of February.  The new one won't be family centered, but will help me move in a new direction with my kids getting older.  I love blogging, and the hobby that has been - I've been here for 13 years! So, yeah, I'm excited about that! I've even started a blogging calendar for myself. Super official. ;)

Some other things that I was able to check off the list in 2020 was getting all caught up on all my doctor visits and well checks.  Included in that, but much more fun was finding an esthetician, which included getting a few facials and a chemical peel.  If only I could go back in time to my sun baking days and reverse that damage, then I'd really be all set. 

2020 was also the year of Disney for our family - getting to visit so many times really was a dream come true. We hope to go back this year for their 50th, but we're also looking forward to hopefully visiting Hawaii.  We haven't been there since 2011, I think?? HOW CAN THAT BE POSSIBLE? We have a few free airline tickets that we need to use already, so hopefully that trip will happen.

Havalah and I did a full Whole30 in 2020, as well as two short ones.  We both loved it and how we felt afterwards, so we're putting that on our calendars again for 2021, starting in a few weeks!

House goals for 2021 include the finishing touches on the kitchen, new bathroom lights for all the bathrooms, painting all the doors and installing new doorknobs, and lots of little projects that probably don't need to be recorded here lol.

I am SO looking forward to seeing my sister, Mary Beth in the next few months.  I can't wait to hug her neck in person.  The last six months have been, well, really hard.  She's on the other side now; full hysterectomy, lumpectomy, 12 weeks of chemo, and a mastectomy DONE, and healing like a champ. So proud of her.  

So, happy new year to you! Thanks for reading.  {{hug}}

A Mother Daughter Christmas Brunch

A few weeks ago Havalah and I hosted a mother daughter Christmas brunch.  We had such a fun time being together with these friends, and getting caught up.  The girls all brought a gingerbread house to decorate, and Havalah planned some Christmas ice breaker questions as well. 

In true Kristen fashion I agonized over my menu until calling in the big guns, Whitney, party planner extraordinaire. She sent me so many great ideas, including how to host a brunch on a budget.  I am doing you a HUGE favor when I tell you you have to try her Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies. A couple of the girls who attended were overheard saying the smokies were "literally the best thing I've ever eaten." So yeah, you gotta make 'em.

Our menu:

Fruit Platter

Mini Quiches

Mini Muffins

Lemon Poppy Seed Scones

GF Scones

Christmas Cookies

Bagels and Cream Cheese

Cracker Barrel's Hashbrown Bake

Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Hot Chocolate Bar

Juice, Tea, and Coffee

Here's what I learned, my friends don't eat very much, haha, but my daughter's friends weren't afraid to dig in.  I made way too much food for the ten of us, (I will say that I was expecting four others who had to cancel at the last minute).  Next time, I'll keep it simpler.  ;)

We had such a great time, and I'm so thankful that Havah and I were able to kick off the Christmas season with something so special. There's been talk of making this an annual get together, so we shall see! :)

I forgot to take many pics, sadly, but I did get a few...

Venice

So, it's been over a year since our trip to Italy in October/November 2019.  Now so much time as has passed blogging about it feels totally overwhelming, haha.  Havalah graciously volunteered to help me in this task, so here's part one of our trip, our two days in Venice.... 

A long plane ride to start the trip! We spent most of it attempting to sleep, lol.

I'm not actually sure if he slept like this, or...