Texifornia

Welcome to This is Wherever Wednesday (um...Friday)!  SORRY I'M LATE.    Here's why:

1. May was CRAZY!  A good kind of crazy, yes.  My birthday, our anniversary, Mother's Day, and all sorts of end of the school year activities all happen this month.
2. For the last two weeks I've been sick as a dog.  
3. This was the last week of school and I've been going to school stuff with my kids nearly every day of it.  

So anyways, THANK YOU to everyone who posted last week.  I enjoyed every single post.  Here are a few of my faves:  

• Crazy Running Girl shared a post about her first six months in Austin, Texas.  She moved there from Brooklyn, NY.  I always say that when people move to a new place they notice things about it that long time locals just take in stride, and this post is a perfect example of that.  Loved seeing Austin through a New Yorkers' eyes.  (You might also enjoy her 10 Things about NYC post, and for the same reason.)
• Bailey from Let Birds Fly shared a lot of great posts...but my favorite was a post about Lost Maples State Park, TX.  I loved all the beautiful pictures, and wished I had known about this place while my mom was still here.  She was from New England and would have loved the reminder of home--I wish I could have taken her there.  
• Tayla of Grits, Grace and Gardening shared a beautiful comparison of Spring and Fall in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

So, if you missed any of those last week I hope you'll take the time to check them out now.

And, if you're new to Wherever Wednesday and are wondering what's this all about...every month we share those little moments that really show the character of the places we live:  your "This is Wisconsin,  Boston,  India,  WHEREVER" moments.     If you're still a little uncertain what that means, this post over at Budget Blond will help you out.  And, though it's not required, I'd love if you would grab the This is Wherever button on the sidebar and share it in your post or somewhere else on your blog!  

The linky is open all month!  Thanks for participating!

Last year Christmas came on a Sunday...and sitting in Church that Christmas listening to our pastor's sermon I was touched by the way children receive gifts. Yes, I know sometimes they can be greedy, and seem ungrateful, and they can be all too transparent when they don't like a gift. But I was struck by something else about their receiving I hadn't thought of before.

Our pastor talked about how the Shepherds came to Jesus with nothing...no gift in their hands like the wisemen who came later. He went on to say how we tend to have trouble receiving when we don't have anything to give back:  There's that awkward feeling when we are given a gift, and don't have one to give in return. But when we come to Jesus that's how we come...empty handed. And that's how he takes us.

As he spoke, I noticed the children sitting in the pew in front of me, and my own children beside me, and I thought of how they accept gifts. They accept them freely without any expectation that they should have anything to give back.  And I was reminded of the verse that said that if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to become like a child.

^"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "
- Matthew 18: 2-4, NIV

That is the only way we can come to him, like a child.  Even the best we have could not "pay him back" for the gift he gave...so we come with nothing but gratitude in our hands...gratitude and repentance and trust.   And we receive the costly gift of salvation...and all the other numerous gifts He loves to give his children.

I was with my kids at the park when all of a sudden five horseback riders came galloping through the park, slowing to a nice trot near the playground. They stopped by the restrooms there and a couple of them stood outside and held the horses while the others went inside.

I brought my littlest, carefully, over to see the horses.  There were two horses being held by one of the riders, and one of them seemed restless not to be tethered anymore.  He kept stomping his foot, and I held my little one's shoulder's firmly.  

Another rider was holding a single horse nearby, and this one seemed more calm.  I asked if we could pet him.  "Sure," he said.   "No worries.  He doesn't bite." 

Then the man looked down at my son and asked me,  "Would he like a ride." 

Soon my son was being helped up onto the horse and carefully lead around.  He gave rides to to several other children on the playground,  including one of my older sons before he left.  I was touched by his graciousness and the pure wonder of the moment. 

This month my dad passed away.  He was a native Californian...grew up in Hollywood when it was more farmland back then than movieland, though he later joined the studios as a Grip (back then putting up backings and setting up camera mounts paid more than being an aircraft mechanic...that still floors me). He would have fit in here in Texas, though he had no desire to move here.  He wore this cowboy hat he had beat up to look like the one John Wayne wore.  "Never got it quite right"  he said.  And though I never knew him to ride a horse, he was a cowboy at heart.  He flew planes, lived on a 50 foot converted navy launch (i.e. a big old boat, emphasis on the old) until my mom convinced him to move to the mountains when I was ten, and he shot guns from when he was a teen (probably earlier) until he couldn't anymore.

Since he died, a song has been running through my head...just the main verse, which I changed drastically because I wasn't sure how it went and thought it was a Christian song.

My lyrics go as follows (the first line is the same as the original):

Walk on the ocean
Step off the shore
Hope becomes water
Grace becomes sure

Here's the real song with the real lyrics...



Of course, the song below is the kind of song my dad would have liked (He loved big band marching songs). One of the versions I looked for on YouTube that didn't sound as good had big navy ships firing artillery...and my youngest said "Ships..(pause)...we got to fight them!"  (Guess the whole military theme wasn't lost on him...LOL).



Anyways, that's why I missed all the regular things I do each month like the gardening tips and Wherever Wednessday. That and the case of bronchitis that hit our whole family the day after Dad's memorial. The nice thing about blogging is you can stop when you need to...and I needed to.

I stumbled on a meme started by Farewell Stranger where you post a picture for each month of the year...a Photo Farewell to 2011.  I loved the idea and decided to go back and pick out some photos from the past 12 months and share them here.

January


 
January brought a trip out to California.  It was originally supposed to be a trip out just to visit my dad, but shortly before the trip he had a bad fall and it became apparent that he could no longer stay in the two story home in the mountains he'd lived in for the last 20+ years.   It was a gut-wrenching trip which forced me to come to grips with how far his Parkinson's had progressed



February

We don't get much snow here in Texas...but it seems like February is the most likely time to get it!  3 of the best snows I remember happened in February, and 2011 saw one of these.   We woke up that February 4th to a blanket of white and an announcement of no school.  The thick white fog that filled the sky that morning gave way to a clear, vibrant, blue dusted with whisps of puffy white clouds.   The snow was thick, and soon snowmen started popping up in people's yards (including our own).   It only lasted a day, but what a day!

March


In March I broke my wrist roller skating with my kids, and I got walking pneumonia...both of which I had for far too long before seeing a doctor about.  The wrist had hurt like crazy at first, but by the time I had it checked it had practically healed...it was the pneumonia that knocked me out like a two-by-four over the head.  I was coughing up blood, and couldn't walk across the room without getting winded.  When the doctor said he needed to x-ray my chest I asked if he could x-ray my wrist too, and came home with anti-biotics, a cast, and instructions to lay on the couch and not do anything for the next two weeks.

In the midst of this, our hearts went out to the people of Japan who suffered such devestation in the Tsunami.



April





May is always a month for celebrations... Mother's Day, My Birthday, Our Anniversary.  This may brought a new celebration...my sister-in-law's wedding!

June


June brought our second year at church doing Holy Land VBS.  It's been a wonderful experience, transforming our church into a Bible land and then getting to watch the kids experience it.  This year we "went back" to Nazareth.  I got to be a 1st century farmer who grew up in the same town as Jesus.  We had fun  decorating peat pots and planting a few seeds which grew in 1st century Nazareth, and sharing our character's stories with the kids. 

July


Texas summer is always hot...but the heat this year was RELENTLESS.  After days of staying inside to beat the heat, I started taking the kids to the park at 8:00 at night just so they could run off some steam.  Even at night it was hot...though somewhat endurable.   In the midsts of a 108 degree day my littlest found this winter hat and scarf and donned it to go outside.  I titled the picure "Missing Winter."

August

September
The heat continued right into September...and I was relieved to have my two older boys in school where they could work out their energy in the school gym.  But, I was very happy they were home the day our back yard burst into flames!  The fire actually started in our neighbour's yard, and my middle son was the first one to spot it creeping under our fence.  Luckily only the fence and some of our lawn got burned, and with our neighbour's help it was out before the fire department got here.



October

Hello!  I'm participating in Aloha Friday, where I ask a simple question for you to answer in the comments (if you want to).

Every now and then I have trouble sleeping.  Not for any reason I can pin-point.  Not for caffeine or worry or my husband's snooring...none of that.  Usually my mind is just full...won't shut down and be quiet.  Night before last was like that.  I couldn't sleep and couldn't sleep and finally it was  5:00 in the morning and I just gave up because the alarm would be going off in a couple hours anyways.

So, my question this week is...

Do you ever have trouble sleeping, for no particular reason?

I've been talking on this blog about the fires in Austin, and today I experienced one much closer to home.  Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was damaged except our fence.

Hi, and welcome to Texifornia...the blog for Californians in Texas and Texans in California!  Which one am I?  Read on...

I was born in California. Until I was 10 I lived on a big, yellow, converted Navy launch named SNAFU  (since this is a family friendly blog we'll just describe that acronym like my parents did:  Situation Normal All Fowled Up). Here it is....





...and there's me.  It was a unique life:  the biggest swimming pool on earth right out our back door, but also very little living space, a sailor's sway that I took with me to class, and quite a bit of isolation.  My mom got sick of it eventually just about two minutes after I was born...but it took years to convince my dad to sell the boat, and then more years to actually find someone to buy it.  I don't know whatever happened to the boat I grew up on.  Would love to know, if anyone's seen a boat like this chugging along somewhere. 

So, then we moved to the mountains (my parents didn't care for big cities)....




Twin Peaks, specifically  (yep...same name as that TV show.  Different city though)!  We loved living up right in the middle of all that beauty.

Then I went to college, met and fell in love, and followed the man who would become my husband to Texas...where there are no mountains (um, at least not the 5,000 ft high mountains like the ones I had lived in)  and the oceans were brown (Galvaston) and summers are 110 degrees (at least)!   Needless to say, I was homesick!  And so, Texifornia.com started...a little site for Californians from Texas, and Texans from California.

This blog started out mostly as a place to post news for Texifornians, and I still do that, but it's become more a place to post photos, share about places I've been, talk about my crazy gardening "techniques", and share about our backyard wildlife. 

I've been in Texas over ten years now and have learned to love a lot about it...the wildflowers, the sunsets, the slower pace of living!  I still miss California sometimes, but I'd miss Texas too if I left (except for the allergies and that 100 degree heat!).

(UPDATE:   In August 2017 I moved back to California and am currently living in San Diego.  I DO miss the dear people I got to know in Texas, but not the heat or the allergies!)

Well, wherever you're blogging from, glad you're passing through!  And if you happen to be a Texifornian yourself, I'd love to add your blog to my blogroll and maybe interview you on the blog, so please let me know!

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This post was originally written for the The Ultimate Blog Party, a huge blog hop put on by 5 Minutes for Mom.

Hi! I'm having a blog party at Scribbleprints (one of my other blogs) to celebrate reaching 100 followers!  That's my shop blog, where I share about all the cool funny and artsy things I'm designing and selling through CafePress and Zazzle.   I hope you'll all stop by.  I have games and giveaways and free coloring pages!  

The giveaways are pretty easy to win too, since there aren't a lot of people entered (some of the giveaways NO ONE has entered).  Here's a few of the fun "party favors" you can win...

School has started, and  summer is over...but what a fun one!

This was the summer that...
We had vbs in Egypt (living history style)
My oldest lost his two front teeth.
My middle child learned to ride on two wheels.
My youngest learned to say a gazzilion new words, and rejected his high chair.
I started a garden.
Our backyard got overgrown (in spite of the garden).
We got our first kiddy pool.
Our youngest discovered SPRINKLERS!


I'd love if you would tell me about your summer!   In the comments, please share your own...

This was the summer that....

(This post has been shared on Throwback Thursday)

Several weeks I shared a story that involved the button collection I had as a child. Several of you asked if I still had it. Yes, I do...but most of them are somewhere in my dad's house where I grew up. However, three of the originals that started the collections are sewn to an unfinished vest hanging in my closet. The vest is no longer a style I would wear, but I keep it for the pretty pattern...and of course, the buttons.




The picture shows them a little larger then they are.  They are only about the size of a penny, each.  Aren't they cool?  I found them as a child in a large box of buttons in a shop called "The Sea" in San Pedro, California.  They were only 25 cents so I picked out these and a couple others I liked which weren't quite as intricate as these.  I've always thought they looked Victorian and wondered if they were really that old.  I should take them to an antique shop and find out.  Either way, they're lovely.


This post is linked in at Mosaic Monday and Mosaic Tuesday, where you can find a lot of other great mosaics.  It's also linked in at 2nd Time Around and ...






Throwback Thursday

Hey...it's Friday the 13th! My lucky day!

I'm kidding a little...cause I don't actually believe in luck...but I'm not being sarcastic. I actually like the number 13...and it started with a specific Friday the 13th from my childhood.

When I was a kid I liked to collect old and unusual buttons (it was one of the many things I collected then). My button collection started when I discovered a box full of beautiful old buttons that were being sold for a quarter each at this wonderful shop in California called "The Sea." Can't remember what city it's in now, but it's an amazing place...they have a whale skeleton on the wall, shells inlaid into the floor, and hundreds of nautical nick-knacks. Buttons don't exactly fit into their theme, but for some reason they were selling them that day, and I picked out some beautifully ornate ones which were the first in my collection.

After that I started going to antique shops trying to find more. That takes us to Friday the 13th in 4th grade. In class the students had been talking about how "SCARY" the day was, and wondering what strange horrible things would happen that day. The teacher even told us some spooky stories.

After school that day, my mom took me to an antique shop. Inside I found some pretty glass buttons with flowers painted on them, and asked the shopkeeper how much they were. "Free," she said. "You can take them."

Next door was a different antique shop where I found a little black button with a fake diamond set it it. Again, I asked the shopkeeper how much it was, and he too said I could keep it.

So, I decided that the whole Friday 13th things was a bunch of bunk...because it certainly hadn't been an unlucky day for me!

Much later I discovered another piece of trivia that makes me like the number 13 even more.   A chapter in the Bible many of you may be familiar with, the chapter on love, is 1 Corinthians 13...and it is exactly 13 verses long. For those of you not familiar with it, here's what it says...

1 Corinthians 13

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9-10. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 It's hard to think of 13 as a "scary" number in light of that.

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear."
  - 1 John 4:18a


Then, when my oldest son was born on the 13th, I found one more reason to like the number. His birthday will always be a special day for me, even when it falls on a Friday.

This week's Small Talk 6 (which I'm a couple days late for) was 6 things you'ld like to change about your living room.

Here's what I'd like to change about my living room!

1. The couch with the torn up cushions would be GONE, replaced by a satalite couch.
2. There would be SOMETHING on our walls...other than paint.
3.  The furniture would all be the same color wood.
4.  It would have some shelving or cupboards of some sort to store stuff in. 
5.  It would be self-cleaning (a girl can wish, can't she?)

If you blog, you can share your 6 on your blog and post the link at Small Talk 6 at MomDot.  If you don't blog, why not share your 6 in the comment below?

Letting my yard go wild was one part laziness and one part curiosity.  After I discovered the Mexican Evening Primrose, I began to wonder what else was out t
here!

I didn't put weed killer on my yard, just went after the stuff I knew I disliked with a vengeance, and let the rest grow.  Here's what I discovered.

Today I accidentally put my hand in a wasp's nest I didn't know was being built under our picnic table.  Me and the boys had been sitting at this very table just a few hours earlier and I'm surprised we didn't notice any wasps around.  Later I needed to mow and when I went to move the table I reached my hand under and felt my fingers go into something soft (more a strange feel than gross, but definately felt "organic" - like putting your hand into old ashes).  I jerked my hand out and  saw something move past and felt something in my hair and swatted it away...but I was still thinking I had dislodged something flaky and it had blown up in my hair, or possibly that it was a spider.   Then I saw the wasps, and backed up quick.  Backing away I could see the wasps nest I had just put my hand in with 5 or 6 wasps on it, and several more flying around.   Amazing that I didn't get stung!

(The photo above was NOT taken by me...oh, no, I was not that brave. That's a picture I borrowed from an artist/photographer on Zazzle. You can visit their shop here.  The wasps in my nest were orange but about the same shape.  The nest looked similar, only slightly bigger and a darker gray. )

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This week's Small Talk 6 (which I'm a couple days late for) was your 6 favorite summertime drinks.

My favorite summertime drinks are...

1.  Pomegranate Berry Smoothy (at Taco Bueno)
2.  Cherry Lime-aid
3.  Peach Tea
4.  Raspberry Tea
5.  Real Lemonade in a chilled glass mug (like at Cracker Barrel...but you can do that at home, too).

If you blog, you can share your 6 on your blog and post the link at Small Talk 6 at MomDot.  If you don't blog, why not share your 6 in the comment below?

My husband made us a raised planter box for us to do square foot gardening in. It was great fun mixing the potting soil and amendments and planting the seeds with our kids. But, then I gave it a good watering and the bottom fell out! Just didn't make it strong enough (wood too thin, not enough supports underneath, etc.).

Well, in the weeks afterwards while we tried, and failed, to find ways to fix it, the seeds started growing in the dirt anyways (even though the dirt was on an angle, tipped where the bottom gave way and spilling out).

So, I decided before the thing collapsed completely (it was only a partial collapse) I would find a place to move them. So, I sectioned out a square of earth, poured boiling water over it to kill the grass and weeds, and started tilling the ground today. (If this sounds like I'm making up this plan as I go you're exactly right--I was.) I gave my middle son a spade, and he was a hugh help digging and mixing. Later his brother came home from school, and him and the neighbor kids came to help. We mixed the some vermiculite and peat moss in...and I was kinda glad they had to leave before we got to the compost (didn't want to have to tell their parents why they would need a bath). Then we moved the surviving seedlings over and planted some more. The water looked like it was pooling up when I watered it, so I don't think I mixed it right. OH WELL! I figure whatever plants survive my gardening attempts are the hardiest (and any seed collected can tout the lable "Hardy Enough to Survive Gale's Garden!")

While I've gotten some wreck-worthy cakes for my kids parties before, I'm having a good track record on the ones I make myself. See below:



When my son decided he wanted a Star Wars Party, I thought of these TIE fighter cupcakes I had seen online. Only, I didn't want to make 10 or 20 of those! That's just a whole lot of work, even for something so cool. So, I decided I'd just add one to a regular cake. Came out pretty cool...I have to admit! The birthday boy was happy with it even though he really wanted a Yoda Cake (Which would have been wreck-worthy for sure, at least if I had made it! That's just a little beyond my cake-making skills.)


It was a fun party. The kids got to "use the force" to navigate an obstacle coarse blindfolded, make robot droids out of misc. stuff we painted gold and silver, and defeat a Death Star Pinata (which was really a Disco Ball Pinata, but honestly I thought it looked more like a Death Star than it did a Disco Ball). For party favors we gave out printed paper masks which we found on the Star Wars Site and light saber bubble wands (which Wal-mart was selling for a dollar each for Easter). We didn't dress up during the whole party as originally planned. The guests had started to arrive before I could dress the kids, and the one family that brought costumes didn't come wearing them--but brought them with them--so we just dressed up after most of the party was done, which worked out better since it was a warm day and some of the costumes would have made the kids sweaty.



Here's the birthday boy in his Clone Trooper costume. He's grown so fast. Time flies.

See, he's adorable!