Jersey love: Italian family.

I'd like you to meet my Italian family: the most hilarious, silly, fun, generous, loving, rambunctious bunch of crazies you will ever meet.   I love them with a passion. 

Luci Belle and I with cousins Colleen and Paula

My first cousin Paula (whose mother was my Aunt Lucille, Luci Belle's namesake), her husband Steve, and her children Colleen, David, and Brian, all live just a few towns over from Madison.  After a short 10-minute drive, you pull into their driveway that seems to be crammed with cars at all hours of the day and night.  Open the screen door on the wide covered front porch and feel yourself exhale as you walk into their inviting home that's always welcoming friends, their kids' friends, relatives, and neighbors.

Together, we are mostly smiling, laughing, generally being boisterous, and, of course, EATING.   Feeding people is one of the ways they love, and they do it well.  A casual weeknight dinner?  There's no such thing at their place - every meal is an occasion.  And it makes you feel special to be cooked for, to be fussed over, and to be fed their very best - carefully prepared, delicious comfort food.

And did I mention there's a lot of silliness?   Paula and I don't look alike or anything...

We were thankful to have several amazing dinners at their home while we were in Jersey - grilled meat and eggplant and peaches slathered in honey and sprinkled with almonds; a full Italian spread with an antipasto platter, bubbling homemade sauce and Aunt Lucille's meatball recipe, lasagna, eggplant parmagiana, Italian cookies and cannoli for dessert, espresso with a twist of lemon; and finally, a birthday dinner for Luci Belle with sausage and peppers, a chocolate birthday cake, and of course, coffee with Sambuca.

Every bite, every taste, was amazing.  I think they actually inject love into their dishes.

Paula's husband Steve at his manly-man grill

Mother/daughter lasagna-making

A good Italian girl

So many people showed up for dinner that Steve had to extend the length of their already long dining room table and add a card table at the end.  Sitting around their table eating, laughing, everyone talking over one another at high decibels - one of my very favorite things...

A very typical Steve pose

Cousins Brian and Colleen

My daddy

And here are some moments from Luci Belle's Italian birthday party.  Even though the poor baby was cutting a molar and had a 102-degree fever, I think she still had fun...

Playing with cousins Michelle and David (my godson)

Cousins Michelle & Julia helping her blow out the candle

I know you want to be a part of my family now.  And they would probably adopt you, set a place for you at the dinner table, and ask you to stay all weekend.  Because that's just what they do.

Jersey love: summer = swimming all day.

What is better than moonlight at the pool?  All day at the pool!  It's where I spent practically every day of summer from the time I was born until I left for college, and I couldn't wait to share this experience with my daughter.  She loved it, as I knew she would.

Just arriving, checking out the scene, enjoying her baby-sized beach chair

Post-swim SNACK TIME! Pumpkin seeds = yummy.

Jersey love: moonlight swim.

We arrived in New Jersey on a Friday afternoon, just in time for the last "Moonlight Swim" of the season at the Madison Community Pool.  As I've shared so many times before, this pool is like none other. First of all, it has a social director, who just happens to be my mother.  Throughout the pool season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, there are all kinds of events from luaus to magic shows to jazz bands to massages.

The Moonlight Swim is magical - the pool stays open until 10:00pm, and you get to swim under the stars, eat delicious food, and dance to live music by local artists.  In the evening, the grass is actually chilly under your feet, and townspeople are wrapped in sweatshirts and towels as they contentedly sit, watch, and listen from the lawn.  Others swim laps or gather in groups in the water and chat.  The crickets in the woods that surround the pool on three sides provide the real soundtrack for the evening.

So, being in town to catch the last Moonlight Swim?  I could hardly pull on my bathing suit quickly enough.

As I unpacked the diaper bag and re-stuffed it with swim diapers and towels, my mom informed me that there had been a few changes to how she attends Moonlight Swims now.  "Oh, really?" I asked, my interest piqued.  "Yes," she replied matter-of-factly.  "I don't swim at the Moonlight Swim.  I dance.  I wear a bathing suit, my body glittah, and sneakuhs and socks.  And tonight, I'm gonna dance with my grand-daughta."

And that is exactly what she did.  If only we could all be so uninhibited.

While Mimi danced with her granddaughter, I had the luxury of swimming laps {by myself!} under the moonlight.  As I backstroked down the length of the Olympics-sized lanes, I aligned myself with the swim team pennant rope to stay straight, and my ears immersed underwater muted everything.  It was just me, the water, and the moon overhead.  I stroked slowly, not wanting to speed up this peaceful moment.  I wanted to bottle up that feeling and bring it back to Texas.

From the water, I could spot my mother across the pool, whisking my daughter across the deck to the Oldies as dusk settled.  My parents danced cheek-to-cheek to their favorite song, "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton, as they usually do. 

At almost closing time, I exited the water and went to find a towel.  My toes were pruned, my hair a tangled mess.  My daughter's eyelids were heavy.  Mom's friends were sitting on the benches watching her, wishing they all had the guts to dance in front of a hundred people in a bathing suit and tennis shoes.  And I knew the evening was nothing short of perfection.

Jersey love: summer = playing outside.

God speaks to me through nature, that is for sure.  I think that's why it grieves me to spend summer indoors where I currently live.  It breathed such life into my soul to enjoy summer outside in New Jersey, spending morning through evening with toes in the grass, swinging with my husband, spending time with my parents who work so hard to cultivate beauty on their piece of land, watching our little girl so contentedly fall in love with nature, too.

She could have played all day with all of Mimi's "critters" - squirrels, rabbits, turtles, birds.  I walked to the very back of the yard and admired my favorite trees, ones with trunks so wide you cannot get your arms around them.  Under those trees, we have buried beloved family cats, dogs, and even a pigeon named Rainbow.  We had badminton tournaments.  I made mudpies and sat on the grass playing my tennis racket guitar. 

It's amazing to be in places that have held you all your life and then to be able to introduce a new little life to those sacred places.

Here are some of my favorite moments...

You give Jersey a bad name.

We are {reluctantly} back from New Jersey.

While I was there, I was struck with the notion that so many people still think New Jersey is just one giant, ugly turnpike flanked by industrial buildings and factories with guidos and guidettes walking the streets.  I'm not sayin' that doesn't exist in Jersey, or that the show Jersey Shore isn't authentic.  Admittedly, I rocked my share of Aqua Net back in the day.  But New Jersey is so much more.  To me, it's...

• Revolutionary war towns
• Boisterous Italian family
• Quaint farmer's markets
• Deep forests with moss and streams and hills
• The best delis and diners
• Walking into town
• A place where summer is enjoyed outside

Every morning, we shuffled outside to enjoy my parents' back yard first thing, drinking coffee and tea while Luci Belle played with all of my mom's yard critters and watched cardinals and orioles and bluebirds gleefully feeding in the morning light.

We felt rain on our skin and took two walks after the rain, just to celebrate it, because we've missed it so much.

I even had purple lips after swimming one evening and left the Madison Pool wrapped in a wet towel with goose bumps on my arms and legs.  We went home and ordered Rocco's pizza for dinner and ate it in our bathingsuits.

That is summer.

So in case you don't believe me, I'm going to show you.  Through a series of short posts, I'm going to share some of the beautiful moments we captured in my home state. 

Until then, I leave you with this photo of our little Jersey girl...

Off to the land where summer is wonderful...

Our little family is leaving on a 7am flight tomorrow morning for New Jersey, where it's thirty degrees cooler than Texas (highs in the 80s, 60s at night).  Thank you, sweet Lord!  I can't wait to lay in the grass, drink the rain, and swim to my heart's content.  And of course, I can't wait to introduce our daughter to my homeland and to party with the Italians! 

More to come...

6 years.

It's been six whole years since I married the love of my life in a friend's backyard on a rainy July day.  And it's been over two years since had a fancy date, over one year since we had a "real" date at all.  It was high time to dress up, treat ourselves to a gourmet meal, and have uninterrupted time to talk about life, our marriage, where God has us and where we're going.

We've had our share of unimaginable struggles over the last six years.  But through much hard work, struggling to communicate even when we don't want to, and forgiving each other and ourselves on a regular basis, we have made it this far, and we are still committed to this life together, this one that God has carved out for us.  That, to me, is definitely worth celebrating.

Our dear friends Josh and Terrica graciously agreed to watch Luci Belle for the evening.  I tried to picture the last purse I used before I adopted the orange canvas diaper bag and honestly couldn't remember it, so I grabbed lip gloss and my phone, and we hit the town. 

Our new prepared foods chef at Urban Acres, Sean Blanchette, works at Fearing's at the Ritz-Carlton and hooked us up with a special tasting menu.  Dean Fearing is a celebrity chef here in Dallas who is known for incorporating southwestern flavors into his dishes.  Yes, please.

We arrived at the valet outside the swanky Ritz-Carlton, and only 15 minutes into the date I was already neurotically checking my phone.  "I wonder if Luci Belle is okay!  They haven't texted us.  So she must be fine...right?  I wonder if she's eating her dinner.  I hope she plays nicely with them!"  That's when Steven decided my phone was not coming into the restaurant with us.

We entered the hotel and were greeted by a mountain of pink flowery gorgeousness...

Inside Fearing's, with its cozy leather sofa groupings and bright, lively dining room, we were seated at a small table near the open kitchen and greeted as if we were special guests.  Small things were a special treat: having the waiter pull out my chair and flip open a napkin so it fell perfectly on my lap.  Water glasses were filled and the wine list was reviewed.  The "tasting" menu allowed me to try 3 different wines, so they first poured me a Riesling.  I wasn't sure about white wine - there's only one white wine I've ever really loved...but this one so delicious, refreshing and sweet, I had to pace myself or I'd be dancing on the table before the entrée.

After three sips, I told Steven I was already a little tipsy.  "Drink more wine, babe," he said with a smirk as he pushed my glass closer to me.  And gee, who am I to argue?

And then the food started coming.  First, this chilled potato soup shooter that was perfectly creamy, smooth, and a bit tangy...

 And unlimited amounts of soft biscuits and jalapeno cornbread with cute glass jars of butter and honey.

Next came Dean's famous Tortilla Soup in a bowl piled with unpredictable dry ingredients like radishes, and then the waiter poured the thick buttery broth on top.

By this time, we were well into our list of things to discuss over dinner and jumped from item to item with a childlike excitement: "So, what do you want to talk about NEXT, babe?"  Should we move somewhere else in a few years, somewhere in the mountains?  Or the country where we can have our own land?  How are we doing as parents?   We also decided to start reading Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne together on weekday evenings. 

It was so refreshing, so essential, to have this time together.  I sure do love this man.

Surprisingly, my favorite dish of the evening was the "Barbecued Shrimp Taco with Mango-Pickled Red Onion Salad and Smoky Citrus Vinaigrette."  I don't even like shrimp unless it's battered and fried, but this was divine...

Then, I tried a few new things: quail and scallops.  The scallops ended up on Steven's plate, but I have to say, the teensy quail breast was tender and delicious.  Even though I felt like I needed to cut it with a Barbie-sized fork and knife.

The entrée was "Maple-Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin on Brazos Valley Jalapeño Grits, Tangle of Greens and Butternut Squash Taquito."  At this point, I was getting full but wasn't about to waste any of this incredible dish!

Finally came dessert, during which I embarrassed myself by saying "MMMMMMM" so loudly that the server passing by stopped and eyed me suspiciously.  But I couldn't resist - it was the "Peach 'Short Stack' - Vanilla Shortdough Cookies, Caramelized Texas Peach and Blueberry Compote, Peach Frozen Yogurt and Housemade Granola."  Are you kiddin' me?

Afterwards, we drove back to our neck of the woods and took a lap around the Bishop Arts District hand-in-hand.  I absolutely love our little girl but have missed these special times just with Steven.  They are so deeply needed.

At 9:30pm, we returned home, and our little night owl was still awake and happily watching Ratatouille.  A love of food and cooking runs deeply in this family!

Instagram love.

Yes, I know.  I'm the last person on earth to use Instagram.  But after my daughter recently threw my old phone in the toilet, I started using an iPhone generously given to me by a friend.  I love taking photos with a real camera, so I didn't think I'd get into Instagram.  But the more I played around with it, the more I became hooked on how it enables me to take a quick snapshot to capture an ordinary moment or mood in my day.  And some of the photo effects add such a beautiful timeless quality.  So, here are some of my Instagram photos lately...