Best friends

I rediscovered this picture recently- it's a selfie of Nathan hiking in the Appalachian Mountains during one of his business trips to Virginia. He sent it to me to share the beauty of the Smoky Mountains. (He might be mortified I shared it, but I do so love this picture! If you're reading this and the picture is gone, you'll know I took it down just for him.)

I just have to say how much I love this man. I'm so blessed to have him as my eternal companion. He is constantly showing his love for me, and I am humbled to be the recipient of so much affection.

He takes delight in serving me in the most delicious ways. He loves to cook, but more importantly, he loves to cook me any dish that can dazzle the senses. I really dread cooking. I'd rather scrub toilets than cook on most days, so I really appreciate his knack in the kitchen.

He loves to make wonderful meals for the family when he's home on the weekends, and he delights our taste buds with amazing breakfasts every Saturday. This week Saturday breakfast was hot homemade biscuits topped with fresh lemon curd, peppery-and-sweet glazed bacon, hot herbal tea, and a fresh fruit salad made with apples, bananas, pineapple, dried apricots, almonds, and Greek yogurt. Scrumptious! It makes every weekend feel like a special holiday to be enjoyed.

Today I was in the mood for a hearty lentil soup to accompany the dark rye bread he made yesterday. He wasn't particularly in the mood for lentils, and wasn't even hungry- but he spent an hour making a delectable soup just because he knew I'd like it. He didn't even have time to eat any before leaving for his barbershop practice this evening. When I expressed my embarrassment that he made this meal without any intention of eating it, he swept me into a kiss and said he is happy just to give me joy. If lentil soup was what I wanted, that's what he'd make, personal preferences aside. How did I get so lucky?

He makes hearty homemade wheat bread for our family at least once a week- 6 loaves at a time. We all adore hot bread fresh out of the oven, topped with a bit of melting butter and a drizzle of honey.

I really appreciate the way he leads our family in spiritual matters. He has been so lovingly guiding family scripture study each night as we read the New Testament together. He is such a gifted teacher, and he does a great job of engaging the children in the verses and helping explain how Christ's teachings apply to our lives today. I love the way he leads with love and encourages our children to follow the Savior's example. I love holding hands with him every night in couple prayer and feeling our souls drawn together as we talk with the Lord. He is such a spiritual strength in our home, and I truly cherish this aspect of his character.

He makes life so fun in a variety of ways. He makes me giggle by doing an exaggerated pirouette when I'm feeling cantankerous. He livens our house with his playful guitar music. He is so enthusiastic about enjoying the magical moments with our kids each time they are proud about creating something new. He makes chore time fun, dancing and laughing with everyone while we clean the kitchen together.

He makes me laugh every day. He makes me feel beautiful and cherished every day. I adore him!

Day at the Beach

I was blessed with a fun client this month- a library near the beach hired me to perform in their town. Since my travel fees are the same whether I drive alone or whether I take along the entire family, we decided to have Nathan take the day off work and join us for a family excursion. What a treat to have a free family trip!

We've lived in Texas for ten years, but have never taken our family to a Texas beach. Appalling, I know. There's no excuse, really. So away we went to create fun memories. 

After my performance, we all drove to a pleasant beach in Rockport, Texas. The beach here is raked daily, so there is no washed-up seaweed, jelly fish, or lingering trash. It's also located in a very shallow lagoon, so there are no rough waves to contend with. (Matthew had a nasty encounter with a fierce wave the last time we were playing on a beach in Delaware. He came out of the water with a scraped face and very bloody nose- no fun!) 

We loved how gentle the water was here, and the lagoon was very shallow so we could wade out into the water for a hundred yards and still have water only four feet deep. We really loved this beach and decided we simply must come back again in the future. It was SO family-friendly, dotted with playgrounds, picnic tables and shade umbrellas. 

The kids played in the water for hours, riding the waves and catching all sorts of fascinating crabs along the sandy ocean floor. They begged and begged to take home some hermit crabs they caught, but luckily for the crabs the children agreed to set them free again. 

The birds here were a riot. They had a keen eye for anything that could possibly be edible. There wouldn't be a bird in sight until we opened a container of food. Then the air would be filled with dozens of seagulls, hovering right over our heads and waiting for any chance to steal a bite of dinner.

We brought out some stale bread to feed the flock, and had great fun letting the birds eat out of our hands. I always love close encounters with wild animals (although it's debatable how 'wild' seagulls are). It was almost magical watching the birds hover right over our heads. We couldn't stop laughing....even though after a while it was slightly creepy having so many birds watching you for their dinner. 

Nathan and the Big Kids all ventured out to play in the ocean, and Joseph was terrified of the water. So I stayed on the shore to play with him. We set out to build sandcastles for a happy hour. We built entire villages of little sand houses, then Joseph would growl like a monster and stomp all the houses down. He would act like a T-Rex in a growly voice, then switch to a teeny high-pitched voice to represent the villagers and say, "Aaaah! Run away!"

Later Sarah joined the fun and helped make several sand towers for Joseph to stomp down. He thought this was the best game ever. 

Nathan fired up a grill and we feasted on a picnic dinner we had carefully packed that morning. It was a bit of a trick eating dinner without losing any food to the daring seagulls, but luckily they weren't too aggressive. They would only close in if we weren't watching them. Here Joseph is keeping a careful grip on his last bite of dinner while the birds watch and wait. He'd walk away from them, but the flock would steadily follow him anywhere he went. 

We enjoyed beach-combing together, collecting pretty shells as if it were a grand scavenger hunt. Daniel and Matthew found the most lovely shells of the day. 

I am so thankful we finally had a chance to go to the beach, and we really enjoyed every bit of our stay. We played and played for hours until sunset, then started the long 4-hour trek back home. I wish we lived a bit closer to the ocean and could do this more regularly, but I'm immensely thankful we were able to visit even once. Days like this are such a privilege. I'm very grateful we were able to share this experience together and create memories. Life is such an adventure, what a blessing we get to share it!

Joseph's birthday

We started a new tradition this month with birthday cakes. Instead of piping on the phrase "Happy Birthday", we are piping on a phrase that the birthday child says often. It's a fun way to personalize the cake and make it unique.

The phrase Joseph uses the most lately is "Just kidding", and he'll laugh like it's a great joke anytime he says it.

It wasn't until after I piped the phrase that I realized it looked like we were playing a mean joke on him. "Happy Birthday, except we're just kidding. It's not really your birthday. Tough luck, kid." He loved it though.

His passion this year has been digging in the dirt, so we made a dirt-themed cake for him. (By the way, did you know it's pretty much impossible to pipe frosting onto a crumb cake? You probably did. I didn't, which is why the letters look kind of creepy and wobbly....there was no way on earth that frosting was going to stick to the cookie crumbs covering the cake. Live and learn...)

We added gummy worms all over the cake and made a worm border around the base.

This morning he loved running though the streamers we hung from his bedroom door...except at first he tried to keep them nice and perfect by carefully crawling under them. It took a bit of convincing to get him to run through them.

The birthday child gets to pick the  meals all day, and this funny boy really adores oatmeal. Matthew kept trying to convince Joseph that he'd really prefer fruit crepes compared to oatmeal.....but Joseph knew well enough what he wanted. So, oatmeal it was. The bigger kids weren't so enthusiastic about breakfast (we have oatmeal almost every day, so it's not special to them), but they ate it anyway.

The big kids all worked so hard making birthday presents for Joseph. In particular, Matthew and Sarah worked for days creating a giant castle playground out of some large boxes. Darn it all, I didn't get a picture of it, but their attention to detail was interesting. Matthew cut out construction paper bricks and built an entire fireplace and chimney inside the castle. He even cut out a brown roast chicken and made a turning spit for it, then carefully made layers of flames in yellow, orange, and red paper. It looked so great, and he worked on it for days. Another creative feature was a large framed portrait of a person, titled "Our Noble King". The face was cut out so Joseph could stick  his face in the hole and be the King. On the outside portion of the castle wall this cut-out hole was framed with a poster saying "Wanted. Huge Reward", so Joseph could be the bad guy if he wanted to switch characters. So fun.

They hid the huge box in my bedroom while they worked on it, then dragged it out into the family room on the Big Day so Joseph could play with it. He was SO delighted and they all played for hours.