Bluebonnets of Texas

Bluebonnet season is fully upon us, and we ventured out into the mounds of pretty blue blooms to take some family pictures (mostly Willie of course) among them. We took a drive down one of the coolest roads in the Hill Country first, but found that while it has plenty of hill views, there aren't many bluebonnets there. So we ended up quite close to home where we found plenty. We started out on one side of the road where we were able to show some Texas hospitality to a group of ladies from Boston. Then ran over to the other side of the road where a landowner showed us some hospitality and lead us to a beautiful spot on his property where he welcomed us to take pictures. Here are some of my favorites. 

No-Sew Roman Shade

This was going to be my second time to participate in the Pinning it Down link up, but due to concerns about copyright material that link-up will no longer happen. I'm going to give some thought to how I use Pinterest to be sure it is lawful and following the intent of the creative people who make and post their material. I'd love for you to follow me on Pinterest, I have a link over there in the sidebar, and I'd like to see your boards too. So what follows is just an independent post about how I followed a wonderful tutorial from a blog I likely wouldn't have found without Pinterest.

When we ordered custom blinds for the entire rest of the house, I insisted that we leave the kitchen window empty. In part, I didn't want to lose my view of the back yard, the dogs, and the endless bird company we keep out there. Also, I wanted to hang my stained glass birdhouse in the window. It's going to go back up, it just had to come down temporarily. But mostly, because I knew I wanted to make something special for that window, I just didn't know quite yet what it would be. When my friend started pinning a series of roman shades, I suspected that's what it would be, then she successfully made this roman shade. The problem is, she has sewing talent and I do not.
Luckily, there's a pin for that. Do you use the words simple, or easy when you search for things sometimes, just to increase the odds that that's what you're going to get? I do. If you search easy no-sew roman shade, this is the one you get from the blog 365 Days to Simplicity. And it's perfect! Her instructions were so easy to follow that even I was able to complete this project in just 2 naps, with about 10 minutes of my husband's help the next morning to hang the blind.
Materials:
1 yard of fabric (more if your window is bigger than mine) $7.20 on clearance
cheap plastic mini-blinds $4.97
1 roll of Heat n Bond $1.72
A new roller cutter that came with a mat that I didn't need after all $14
Tacky Glue already owned

I bought a yard each of  2 different fabrics from Quilt Haus and thought I liked one of them best until I got them both inside and saw that the other has the exact same three colors I keep buying dishes, rugs, and even clothes in. These are my colors, I'm telling you. I think I'm going to stick with them as my Fiesta ware collection grows.
It's no-sew because you use Heat n Bond to hem the edges. I knew that stuff existed, but I'd never used it. I'll be looking for more uses immediately! The roman shade part comes from a cheapo mini-blind from Walmart that you remove all of the slats except a few. My curtain needed to be 35" long, so I did 5 7-inch pleats. Even math teachers like to work with easy numbers. Here it is all put together.

 And here it is hung. It makes me so happy now!

The York nest gets spruced up

We have owned our house for just over a year now and we've done a TON of projects to get the inside the way we want it. Brian did the lion's share of course. The outside remained pretty neglected as we put off any major landscaping for this Spring. Spring's here! Oh, not where you live? Well it's full-on here with temps pushing the 80s. So it was time to get started on the front yard.

This before picture is a before-before. We didn't own house, but it was the best one I could find. It looked a lot scragglier when we got started.

1. The dead plants were pulled out with the truck. 

2. The ugly chili pepper address plaque was replaced with this one.

3. The lava rocks and red scallops were eliminated, see.

 

 4. I weeded my fool head off and got a pile this size, but the lawn is still about 75% weeds.

5. Brian built a stone border. It looks great, and if you could refer to him as a stone mason in his earshot he would appreciate it.

6. Will sampled all the rocks, dirt, and weeds he could get his hands on. And by the number of pebbles that came out in the load of diapers I washed, he got quite a few down.

7. We trimmed up the yaupons and boxwoods and started to try to train them into a prettier shape.

8. We bought a bunch of plants and laid them out like this. We still have to plant them and we left space for a yaupon, a mountain laurel and some annuals.

It's still a work in progress, but I like it a lot better. Our next plan is to pain the front door and side lights aqua like the cover of this month's Southern Living.

I Heard the Voice of Jesus

We sang this at Mass this morning and it was just perfect!


Second verse:
I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one, stoop down, and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

Filed under Kids say the darndest things

It is a school rule here that students are not allowed to use electronics (cell phones, ipods) during class. I probably wouldn't care all that much as long at they're still doing their work, but I'd be in trouble if an administrator came in and a bunch of kids had ear buds in. I've gotten onto one girl just about every day for the last few weeks because not only is she using her ipod but she is connected to the girl across the aisle from her sharing one ear bud each. I even took up her ipod last class because she repeatedly had it out. So you'll imagine my surprise when that same girl comes up to me  during independent practice time with her ipod and the usb cord and asks to plug it into my laptop to charge it. Absolutely not, I tell her. I'm on you all the time to turn it off and put it away and you think I'm going to let you charge it on my computer? But it's going to die, she says. Let it die, then! I won't be attending the funeral.

Would you have asked your teacher to use her computer for any personal reason, let alone to charge the ipod you're not supposed to have?

These are not my students. They look nothing like my students. Image found here.

I love my CSA

How gorgeous are those veggies?! And if you think they're as beautiful as I do, you should have seen the rainbow chard we had this week. I wanted to put it in a vase in my living room, but I went ahead and cooked it up like this instead. It was scrumptious! We've been getting a box of veggies like this for the last 6 weeks and I couldn't be happier with them. They come from the family farm Scott Arbor in Seguin, not far from here. We went in the fall and helped plant garlic and had a good time, as long as Willie wasn't trying to eat rocks! I love planning my meals around what veggies we're going to have and I"m looking forward to picking this box up after work and making a big yummy salad to go with Pioneer Woman's pasta puttanesca.

A couple times the boxes have contained more than we could eat in a week and I've gotten to preserve some radishes and turnips by lacto fermenting them  so we can enjoy them a little at a time.

Are you a member of a Community Supported Agriculture group? You can find one near you by searching here. I strongly recommend it. It encourages us to eat locally and in season and sometimes stretches my creativity by forcing me to try new recipes with veggies I don't make all that often. I had no experience with Bok Choy before (that's what Joi Choi is up there) but now I've made it a few times and we really enjoy it, especially with this Salmon bulgogi recipe. Summer veggies are my favorite, I can't wait to see what's in my box then!

Thirsting for the Lord

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." -John 4: 13-14

Thirst is something I'm thinking a lot about lately. The word comes up frequently in scripture in a literal sense as a thirst for water, and also a thirsting only God can quench. I think in my life I try too often when I am thirsty to turn to something besides that which will really quench it.

Scene: I'm at home and feeling thirsty, what to I do? Well, that depends on what time it is, but I'm most likely to grab a cup of coffee, a soda, a beer, or if I'm trying to be healthy maybe a tea or juice. It's most assuredly not water except for in the middle of the night when I have to have water by my bed.

Scene: I'm feeling a little low, a little bored, like something is missing. What do I do? Play with Will, turn on the tv, turn on the computer, go outside, work. I'm trying more and more to turn to God when I am thirsting for him, which is what that "something's misisng" thing really is, I think.

So my focus this Lent is to try to retrain myself to recognize thirst as what it truly is, a desire for something that my body (or my soul) truely needs, and to quench it with the appropriate thing as opposed to covering it up with a lesser substitute. In that effort I've given up drinking anything except for water while reading what the Bible says about thirst and turning to the one who will give me eternal life.

It's been on since Ash Wednesday last week. I went around and around on whether I would count Sundays as an exception and I know there are different thoughts on that but on the word of a deacon at church, I decided to have a cup of coffee with Brian yesterday morning. Today I'm back to water alone and find thoughts turning to God with much more frequency.