Updates

A lot has happened in the last few months...I've been way too busy to put my thoughts on paper (or keyboard). So, here are a few updates...in case anyone is reading :)...

The Auction:
The Westwood Auction ROCKED!! It was a TON of work. Jenina makes it look easy, but it's not. :) I was so proud when the auction was in full swing and everyone was having a great time. Then I was even more proud when the numbers started trickling in...all told, we made $125,000! To give you a reference, the largest amount raised before was $75,000, so we rocked the house!

There was a LOT of "clean-up" or loose ends after the auction...actually, Jenina is still dealing with a problem...bu it was a great learning experience and went pretty well for the amount of changes we made in the process from years past.

My co-chair for next year and I are already brainstorming and making plans...

The Boys:
Reid is really enjoying reading the Magic Tree House books. He and Brent are currently at the library exchanging books. He has been through 9 and is so hungry for more. OK, they just got home and he checked out 9 more! His newest thing is reading a few chapters in one, picking up another and reading a chapter or two, and then either getting into a 3rd story or going back to the first...I guess his brain needs a little challenge?!? He has informed us that although he is very excited to get his new prosthetic on Wednesday, he doesn't think he'll really need it because he plans on "staying home and reading all summer." (BTW, "staying home" to him means not getting dressed and just hopping wherever he needs to go. ) This child is SO "my child" despite the fact that he looks like Brent.

He just read Brent to sleep:
Grant is VERY BUSY. He is fascinated by remotes right now...control from a distance! I never know what he will do next. He doesn't want help doing anything and is very offended if I suggest that maybe he should have solved a problem another way to decrease mess. It's as if he's saying, "Mess?!? Mommy, I'm creating/doing/etc.! I really don't have time to worry about mess!" He is SO "Brent's child" despite the fact that he looks like me.

Here he is yesterday wearing a fashionable cow [hide] loin cloth of his own design:
Citric Consulting:
Brent's company is doing great! He was consulting "on the side" for a while and when he got a contract offer for a huge project with his beloved Southwest Airlines, we decided that he would do Citric full-time. He is loving his work so much that it's actually hard for him to leave it behind! I love that for him! Sometimes he will get so excited he will work himself into a stupor. I can relate, after all he does support me when I read myself into a stupor!

Chameleon:
I have been sewing and sewing (though not as much since school let out) and I have sold them all immediately ...which is great, but also kinda stressful because my retail locations would really like me to sew faster.

Also, I have been going to a great, semi-local store (in Richardson) that sells all sorts of amazing baby products geared more towards natural and/or attachment parenting. Peppermint is awesome so if you have time, check it out! (Have more time? Peppermint is close to two other favorite places, Sushi Saki and Happy Feet...don't knock it 'til you try it!) Anyway, when I was there for a talk about natural cleaning products I talked to the owner and mentioned Chameleon...but I *can't* even really talk to her because I'd need a manufacturer before I could keep up with orders. That leaves me feeling...hmmm, I don't really know. I love to succeed and do my best in what I do, but I'm not sure that making Chameleon bigger would actually make me happy as a person. More to ponder...

In the Kitchen:
Busy life led me to botch a double-batch of kombucha. I miss it. First, buying it doesn't taste the same and second, it's $3 per bottle! So, I will get a new SCOBY and start over. It's not hard, people, and it's really fun to feel like a mad scientist! :)

Today I made tortillas (recipe and inspiration on One Busy Mama). It was fun! I used a recipe that was half white and half whole wheat and I let it soak overnight to increase their digestibility and our absorption of their nutrients (but soaking is not necessary for the recipe to work). The boys helped to flatten them today. We had them with sour cream, very cumin-y taco meat, and avocado...YUM!! I also baked a banana and served it with sour cream and chopped almonds...mmm.

A few tortillas:

The House:
Two major things have happened with the house lately.

• My amazing cousin-in-law (really a term?) designed a front landscape for us. It involved taking out a diseased, gigantic magnolia and I had NO IDEA what that really involved past paying someone to cut it down and haul it away. Lots, people, lots! We had a man come to grind the stump, but that only takes care of the stump and first 4" of the trunk's depth. The root system is very shallow in magnolias so we not only had to work around the main trunk root but all the others in the whole garden. Digging the holes to plant new plants was a very difficult job for Brent that took weeks and involved a shovel, pick-ax, multiple chainsaws, and lots of blisters. BUT, it looks AWESOME!

• Our a/c went out last weekend. We slept here the first night since it went out in the late evening and we have ceiling fans in the bedrooms. We ran errands on Sunday and were only here a little bit once it got warm, but we stayed in town in order to have dinner with my younger sister, two of my cousins and their families. We don't get to see them enough and I was so glad to spend time with them (even if it was so loud in the restaurant that I didn't really talk to anyone much!). The a/c worked a little that night (enough to make it bearable) and the boys and I headed out of town to my parents' the next day. Thankfully, it could be repaired! We enjoyed the time at the ranch, but it was nice to be home again.

In the Garden:
It's fig time! Our tree is producing the most delicious figs and we are having fun checking it almost daily to look for ripening figs. YUM

I am enjoying my herb garden. I use them in a lot of things. To use a lot of my parsley on Friday, I made a parsley-almond pesto for a snack.

My mom gave me a couple of tomato plants and some cantaloupe plants. I almost killed them by not re-potting them for over a week (I was holding out hope that my square foot garden, or SFG, would be ready), but I re-potted them and they are fine. I even have a baby tomato.

I'm excited about the SFG, but haven't made a spot for it yet. Each fig I eat reminds me that I do love growing our food...then again, I'm hard pressed to get a fig with these adorable children begging for them!

Inspiration:
I was inspired last night by a blogger to start running. I really need to do something on the exercise front and it should be easier now that we don't have the school schedule to maintain...right? Anyway, I've never really gotten running. Brent loves running and would really like to do a marathon as a personal challenge. I've seen him look exhausted but happy after a run and this post just hit me. It talked about how being competitive can make running dangerous (for a novice like me)...plus you won't keep it up because you'll get tired before you get a benefit. Well, that's ME, she was talking to ME!

Example: Brent and I backpacked across Europe one summer in college. In one village we rented bikes to explore the canals, bridges, restaurants, parks, etc. I couldn't go slow...I just didn't know how. I kept speeding ahead. I missed out on the relaxation and I didn't see anything! I knew I was doing it, but I didn't know how to stop. I felt frustrated and I wanted to stop.

Anyway, I am going to don my old running shoes (technically they should just be called shoes in my case since they haven't ever been used for running) and give myself 30 of running, of zen alone time, of effort towards a more fit me.