Feel Good Friday: Mirror Talk

This is a good pep talk to give yourself in the mirror and to repeat as often as necessary until it sinks in.

Feel Good Friday: Spreading love the old-fashioned way

My youngest child is so full of love, he just can't help but share it. He is a giver, and he always thinks of others. And, lately, with the development of his writing skills, his love has taken written form. Every other day or so, he comes to me with a pencil and a piece of paper and tells me he needs to write a letter to someone he cares about. He often starts with "I love you." He writes from his heart (while I help with spelling and punctuation) and draws a thoughtful picture to go along with his words. He eagerly takes his letters to the mailbox, never expecting anything in return. He is a true spreader of love and joy, and I want to be like him.

Even if we aren't all writers, perhaps we would all do well to think about starting with "I love you."

Happiness on both ends of the mailbox!

Three Cheese Pumpkin Enchiladas

That sounds like something seasonal you could order in a fancy restaurant, doesn't it? Or perhaps a well thought out, Pinterest-worthy, homemade, First Day of Fall meal, complete with an orangish-brown, leaf-apliqued tablecloth and matching napkins.

Let me tell you what it actually is:

Holy cow! It's 5:30. I've got to feed my people (again!) tonight, and we ate up all the leftovers last night!

Mom, can I have a quesadilla?

No! 

But, wait. Tortillas. What could I do with tortillas? Oh, I know: enchiladas.

Hmm. I've got tortillas, but what to put on top of them???

Well, there's a can of pumpkin in the pantry. I wonder if there's such a thing as pumpkin enchiladas?

{quick Google search}

Hey, there is such a thing! Cool. Hmm. Looks like I have...very few of those ingredients. But, pumpkin enchiladas are totally a thing, so I'm going to go with that. What else have I got?

Salsa. Onions. Garlic. Taco seasoning. Cheese, sort of. Sounds like dinner to me!

Wait. This mixture is too thick. What can I thin it with? If I add more salsa, it might be too spicy. Water seems boring. Ooh, carrot juice, that's pretty much the same color as the pumpkin puree. And, VEGETABLES! Perfect. And how about a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, for creaminess?! And, boom! there's a baggie of chopped tomatoes in the fridge. Those are definitely going in. 

Alright. Now what to do about the cheese? We've got sandwich cheese, but not really in any Mexicany flavors. Well, would you look at that: two varieties of Mexicany flavors of Laughing Cow cheese I bought for the kids lunchboxes...and a quarter of a block of some kind of white cheddar, if I remember correctly.

Let's do this! 

So, I did. And, you know what? It was actually pretty good. In fact, there were no leftovers.

Wait. That means I have to come up with something to feed my family tomorrow, too! I wish I would have at least thought to tell them it was a special First Day of Fall meal. And taken a picture of it for Pinterest. {sigh}

Happy First Day of Fall! Here's something to feed your family tomorrow, if you're desperate:

Three Cheese Pumpkin Enchiladas

1 onion chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can pumpkin puree

1 cup chunky salsa

1/4 cup taco seasoning

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup carrot juice

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Salt and pepper, to taste

Laughing Cow Queso Fresco Chipotle

Laughing Cow Spicy Pepper Jack

White cheddar cheese

Corn tortillas, lightly fried for pliability

Optional toppings: cilantro, avocado, sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350. Mix everything but the cheeses and tortillas in a large mixing bowl. Add other stuff or different stuff if you like. Check your fridge and pantry for inspiration. Line the bottom of a baking dish with tortillas. Smother with The Mixture. Top with one of the three cheeses. Make another layer of tortillas. Cover with The Mixture, and top with another of the cheeses. Do it all again, using the last of your cheese. (Seriously, it should be pretty much the last of the cheese you have in the house.) Bake until warm through, maybe 20-30 minutes. You should be unclear on the exact time, because you should go pick up your kid from some practice while it's baking. (Leaving responsible people to make sure the house doesn't burn down, of course.) Top with cilantro, avocado, sour cream, or the tears of your youngest child, who is incredulous that you used his carrot juice.

Note: All measurements are approximate. Also note: Laughing Cow cheese does not ever melt.

Awaysick

away•sick

adjective

experiencing a deep longing to go away after a period of being in one place; the opposite of homesick: 
The boy began planning road trips, claiming to be awaysick.

Last week, Weston was studying native tribes around the world during his History class. It was a topic that captured his attention and made him want to learn more. So, he checked out some books from the library, and every day he would report on the interesting things he was learning, half-fascinated, half-horrified: Mom, listen to this: this tribe would skin their enemies and wear the skins as a covering for their own bodies. 

He was also eager to know where the tribes had been located and curious about any remnants left behind that visitors might be able to see. Mom, how long do you think it would take to drive to Ohio? Do you think we could go for a weekend, so we can see this burial ground shaped like a snake? Could we try to plan a trip to South America, sometime after football season, so we can visit these particular sites?

His enthusiasm was contagious, and one day I told him that I really liked all the road trips he was planning to go along with his History lessons. His response stopped me in my tracks: I'm just really awaysick. You know, the opposite of homesick. 

This boy, who has so often struggled to put words together in coherent ways, managed to wordsmith a word that expressed the very depth of his heart...and mine. 

We stared at each other for a moment with tears brimming in our eyes and then went about our day, because there was nothing else to do. But, that word keeps echoing in my heart. I think it's the truest word I have ever heard. 

I'm not going to lie, our adjustment back to "normal" life has been difficult for me. Waking up in the same house and bed day after day and going through the same routines wears on me. During our travels, the longest we ever stayed in one place was one month. We were always encountering new things and situations, and even laundry stayed just challenging enough to be interesting. I admit, I feel ready to move on, even though I know this is a season for being rooted. I know people who really love to be home and only want to go on the occasional vacation. I think that's awesome. But, for me, the awaysickness is real. 

My question for those of you who don't revel in the routines of life and who may have similar nomadic tendencies is this:  What do you do to combat the mundanity and soothe the awaysickness when leaving isn't an option? I am eager to learn your secrets and will take your suggestions to heart. 

Game Day

My voice is wavering on the edge of here and gone. That's one sure sign that it was game day. Three of my favorite teams were playing, and I gave them all the vocal support I could muster.

Clay and his Mud Hens had their first baseball game this morning. If you've never watched 5U baseball, you don't know what you're missing. That boy was excited...for most of the game. Then, he was tired and hot. But he played hard and had so much fun!

Handsome little batter

Making it home

Cutest shortstop ever!

Later in the afternoon, Weston and his Rebels dominated the football field, with a 28-0 win. Weston even put some of those numbers on the board and played an all-around great game, despite the ridiculous heat.

Leading the team onto the field,
with the "Come and Take It" flag

A catch in the endzone, for 2!

Returning a punt like a boss

Finally, our Aggies put the hurt on Auburn, with a 29-16 win. Whoop!

This is what our fall is all about. Ah, good times! 

Feel Good Friday: The Most Important Thing

First Game

Weston and the rest of the Rebels were supposed to have their first football game on Saturday, but they got rained out, and the game was rescheduled for last night. Rain threatened to shut it down again, but the sun finally came out, and, by game time, we had only the rainbow to remind us of the showers that moved through the area. If you know Weston, you know he lives and breathes football, so he was super excited to finally get his game on, especially after his hiatus last season. He was actually thrilled about the reschedule as well, because it meant an evening game and getting to play under the lights, which automatically makes any football game seem a bit more legit. The Rebels played hard and ended up with the W.

A good omen on gameday

By happy coincidence, Weston was given number 99,
keeping his glorious tradition alive.
All I can say is "Whoop!"
(But don't tell Weston I said that.)

The way football was meant to be watched

Feel Good Friday

The world seems so dark and crazy and broken and negative. It seems we are constantly inundated with bad news. I admit, I have a sensitivity to negativity and a tendency to lean that direction with the slightest provocation. Sometimes my brain takes in all the little (and occasionally big) bits of negativity and churns it around until it becomes difficult to believe there is any good left in the world at all. Bad news hit our family in personal ways this week, and after days of feeling the weight of grief and anger, I remembered Mahatma Gandhi's words: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." And that got me thinking: If the world is dark, I can be light. If the world is crazy, I can be sane. If the world is broken, I can be whole. If the world is negative, I can be positive. I don't have to be part of the problem. I can be part of the solution. As I have been at a little bit of a loss for words lately and in need of some direction for the blog, I have decided to spread positive vibes in a new weekly feature, Feel Good Friday, where I will share things I find to be positive, uplifting, inspiring, happy, and/or beautiful. Can it change the world? Probably not. But, according to Norman Vincent Peale, if you "change your thoughts, you change your world," and changing just my world seems like a good place to start. If anything I post helps change yours, all the better.

August Highlights

Just because I haven't been present in this space this month doesn't mean that stuff hasn't been happening. In fact, we've had a very busy month (which, come to think of it, could be one reason I haven't been present in this space)! Here are the highlights (not including all the football practices and horse riding lessons):

We took the big kids out to see Jeff's hometown, Wink, in west Texas.
Since we were so close, we decided to stop by the Monahans Sand Hills as well.

We spent some quality time with family and friends in the Davis Mountains.
The weather was gloriously cool, and we even had a monster hailstorm,
which was a first in my experience of attending Campmeeting.

Jeff launched his new business, Coconut Math,
and we participated in and hosted a number of
back-to-school events in the community.

I celebrated my last birthday that begins with a 3.

We bought some new furniture, which, in addition to making
our house more homey, also made eating meals
and doing school so much easier!

We started school. This year Watts Homeschool is proud to welcome its
first-ever high school student and its last-ever Kindergartner.
We also have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader studying with us this year.
 

We've been tootling around town on our bikes a lot.
Clay amazed us all by doing a seven-mile bike ride.
That may very well be a record for a bike with training wheels!

We have made some serious changes to our diet and have been experimenting
with new recipes. One of them called for buckwheat groats, which everyone
thought sounded pretty funny. Clay misunderstood and insisted on helping me look for
"BUCKWHEAT GROSS," at the top of his voice, in the fancy grocery store near our house.
We did not find the unique item there, and Jeff has been giving me a hard time for
being too "crunchy" even for the "crunchy" grocery store.

Jeff and I celebrated our 18th anniversary of (mostly) marital bliss.

We started CC on our new campus.
I only managed to snap a picture of Clay,
but the other two boys are also participating.
Ruth is not participating this year but is taking an
AP Biology class at a different homeschool academy.

Max has been really interested in cooking lately.
He checked out a cool kid's cookbook from the library
and made some delicious gluten-free, sugar-free
blueberry muffins for us.

Before and After

Our move back to Texas has taken my breath away...and my words right along with it. I'm hopeful that my voice will eventually return, but, in the meantime, perhaps you'd like to see some before and after shots of our remodeling project. (The "before" shots appear on the left. Click on photos to enlarge.)

New paint outside

The view from the front door:
Sunk-in living room to the left, dining room behind that, wine bar to the right

Looking back towards the front door from the dining room

Wine Bar

2nd Living Room

Kitchen

Home Owners

Yesterday, we officially became homeowners again. We've done this many times, but this is the first time we've immediately started a big remodel job on a new house. In fact, I'm not even sharing any pictures of the house, because, by the time we are finished, it will hardly resemble the house we bought. It's interesting and exciting, and we can't wait to see how it all comes out. We will be moving in next week, and hopefully the plastic will be removed from some of the surfaces by then and I can share pics.

My favorite thing about the house is the mature grapevine covering the back porch

Christmas in July

On Friday, Ruth returned from her three-week camp in NY, and we picked her up in Houston. We then got to spend the weekend with family we haven't seen in far too long, including one member whom we were meeting for the very first time. We also celebrated our sweet niece/cousin's 3rd birthday. Victoria picked a Christmas theme for her July birthday, so we had lots of fun with that. 

Birthday Breakfast

It wasn't hard to tell what these two were actually after!

Victoria and Clay had so much fun playing dress-up

Sweet birthday girl
(Flamingo is her favorite animal, so that's who you see
poking out from behind the Christmas tree.)

A new cousin to love

Spirit Day

Max (and Dad) totally rocked Spirit Day at robot camp

Eight and a half

Max has already been eight for six months, and I can hardly believe it! He spent most of his day at robot camp, which was just about as good as it could get for him. When we picked him up, we took him over to McDonald's, a place we rarely patronize, so he was ecstatic! Later, we presented him with a couple of gifts that made his little engineering heart flutter: a box of Kinex building toys and a Perplexis puzzle ball, which he has been eying for a long time. We are proud of this guy and can't believe how quickly he is growing up! 

Eight and a half

Several pretty big things

• Today, I drove a car for the first time in over a year. Part of that driving happened during a pretty major thunderstorm. But, I'm happy to report that I have not forgotten how to drive, and I got us safely to all our destinations (including taking shelter at a Sonic to protect our new car from falling tree branches and what felt like could turn into a hail storm).
• I got a much needed haircut this morning and am so happy with my new cut and what is sure to become my new salon.

• I bought a pair of denim shorts for about $5 at a cool little thrift store, because it is hotter than blue blazes here in Texas, and I don't have appropriate clothes for that. I passed up sweet deals on two pairs of shoes, though, because I don't have room for them in my bag, and I don't really need them. (And because I'm not quite emotionally ready to say good-bye to the shoes that have literally carried me all over the world, even though they seriously need to be replaced.)
• We signed a contract on a house today, in what may be one of the fastest real estate deals in history.
• We found the local Mexican food restaurant closest to our new house and gave it a try, because this is an important part of our option period. Anamia's definitely passed the test, so it looks like we'll be able to move forward with the purchase.

A Texas welcome

Texas greeted us this morning around 6:00 am with a warm embrace. And things just continued to heat up from there. However, he did manage to keep it below the 100 degree mark (just barely), which seemed to be his way of saying "Welcome back."

After a shower and a good breakfast, we jumped right into real world stuff, with trips to the bank and car dealership, in order to procure a new set of wheels. This is our first truly new car since before we had kids, so it kind of felt like a big deal. Of course, we have kids, so the new car smell will surely wear off sooner than it otherwise would. I'm including a picture, because this may be the last day the car is ever this pretty again.

Our new ride

With the ability to locomote, we were off to accomplish our only other goal of the day, which was to eat at Chuy's. As a bonus, my mom met us there, which was the only thing that could have made the experience better!

After lunch, Mom snagged the boys and whisked them away for a weekend of being spoiled silly. It's going to be awesome!

Jeff and I stayed behind so we can start the process of settling back in to something like normal life. Today, we mostly just drove around, trying to get a feel for this new land in which we find ourselves, a land just north of Dallas, which has up to now been utterly unfamiliar to us. Tomorrow, we will hit the floor running, as we begin the search for both a commercial space and a residence.

So, in case you thought our adventures were over, I would like to clarify that they are only changing. We look forward to embracing this new phase of  holo holo (adventuring), and we would love for you to continue to be part of our journey.

Surfer Dudes

This morning the older boys had an opportunity to take a surf lesson, which is something they have been looking forward to forever. In fact, I think when we first put Hawaii on our agenda almost two years ago, they put surfing on their list of things to definitely do here. They were naturals, and they had so much fun! They're hooked, so I guess we'll have no choice but to continue traveling to places where they can hone their skills. I'm willing to make that sacrifice for my boys, because that's just the kind of selfless mom I am.

First, the land lesson!

Ready to catch some waves!

A perfect day for surfing!
(Lanai, which we haven't had a good look at all week,
 even decided to come out from behind the clouds!)

The instructor was great with the boys and gave them every opportunity to succeed,
including pulling them along through the water on their first trip out.

Max was a rock star on the board!

Weston gives this activity two thumbs up!

Meanwhile, this little mess was trying to ensure that
we take as much of Maui back to Texas with us as possible!

Independence Day

We were among the last Americans to celebrate the 4th of July, but, boy, did we have a good time! The Westin resort where we're staying really did it up right, and we had such a fantastic day! It all started with the pool being completely filled up with red, white, and blue beach balls for the kids to play with and take home. We also received patriotic leis and frisbees and little flags to get us in the spirit.

There was supposed to be a flower drop in the middle of the morning, but there were technical difficulties and the flowers didn't actually drop. However, the nets were later ripped open and orchids were distributed throughout the crowd. There were also several fun lawn games, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Around noon, the boys participated in watermelon eating contests. Weston was the clear winner of the 6-12 division, but Max also won a prize. And, everyone in the 5-year-old division got a prize for participating.

Later, Clay participated in the hula hoop contest. When I was walking him over to it, he asked what you were supposed to do in a hula hoop contest. I told him he just needed to keep the hula hoop up around his waist. "That's easy!" he said. "Oh," I said, "Are you pretty good at keeping it spinning and not letting it fall to the ground?" "Well," he replied, "That part is hard."

After a lunch of footlong hot dogs, the older boys got in on the pie eating contest, which Weston saw as personal challenge, possibly the event his whole life has been building up to. He took it seriously and came out with one of the top prizes. We laughed and cheered and had a wonderful time.

And, then, we had shave ice. Because, that's what all the prizes had been throughout the day. And, because it was the 4th of July. And, what's an American celebration without a fair amount of gluttony thrown in?!

Before leaving the pool deck, we played three games of BINGO, but, though we were often this close, none of us managed to raise the victory cry. But, by then, we were all in a sugar coma, so the disappointment rolled right off our backs. Besides, we had a table at a Mexican food restaurant on the beach with our name on it, and chips and salsa can cure a whole lot of hurts.

After dinner, we walked down the beach to catch the spectacular fireworks, which were launched from a barge in the ocean. There were many that were quite unique, and, as always, we were dazzled by all of them!

Independence Day is one of our family's very favorite holidays, and this one was particularly fun, even though we definitely missed having Ruth with us. We may just have to give it another shot next year so she can join us! ;)

Having a ball on the 4th of July

Lawn games

Showered with flowers

Watermelon Eating Contest

Hula Hoop Contest

Pie Eating Contest

Shave Ice

Some beach time before the fireworks

Happy Independence Day!