Things I want to do in New Jersey this summer...

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It's official ~ the tickets are booked!  Luci Belle and I will be spending the entire month of August in New Jersey, and Steven will be joining us for two weeks in the middle.  Bye bye, horrific Texas heat!

So I've been making a list...

Things I want to do in New Jersey this summer:
All photos from last August 2011

* Spend lots of time with these zany folks.

* Meet up with long-lost friends such as Lauren and Allison.  The last time I saw Lauren was in 2006 in Philly when I was on tour with Matt Wertz for Mocha Club.  Unacceptable.

* Go to lots of local Farmer's Markets - Madison, Chatham, and Morristown, to name a few. 

* Go hiking again at Jockey Hollow.

* Swim at the Madison Pool.  Of course.

* Visit my favorite Jersey Shore town - Point Pleasant - for the day, so we can swim and play in the sand and walk barefoot on the boardwalk and eat vinegar fries at Jenkinson's Pavilion.

* Perhaps also visit Cape May - I've always wanted to go and see those Victorian houses.

* Eat again at Fresh in Basking Ridge.  I've been waiting approximately 297 days to have this ice cream sandwich.

* New York City trip, take 2.  Last summer's trip was...interesting.  Let's just say that quick daytrips to the City are quite different now with a small child in tow!  Poor Luci Belle was teething badly that day and developed a 102 degree fever while we were there.  She threw up on me and Steven at the Union Square Farmer's Market, and he and my cousin Colleen had to buy all of us new clothes at Filene's Basement. 

This was taken when we arrived first thing in the morning, fresh and clean and non-thrown-up-on:

The following photo sums up the 15 minutes we spent in Central Park.  I was so excited to show her the park, one of my favorite places on earth and where her mommy and daddy got engaged, and as soon as I put her down on the grass she burst into tears. So sad.

So let's hope for a better trip this time!  We're planning on staying overnight in the City so that should help.

* Feed the ducks at Loantaka Pond, one of my favorite places growing up. 

* Go to Alstede Farms in Chester.

* Do a lot of walking around the neighborhood and sitting in this grass, enjoying summer outside, as it should be.

Can't wait!  And I can't believe how wittle my Jersey girl was last summer.

Top 5 Instagrams.

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I'm playing along with my friends Marisa and Annie and sharing my Top 5 Instagram photos.  Fun!

I love Instagram for its simplicity. There are no fancy apps, games, or whatever - you can only upload photos, or like or comment on others' photos.  I absolutely love seeing snapshots of my friends' days - especially those who live far away.

So here are five of my favorites...

1.  Joyride.  This is easy - my husband completely in his element, when we took my mom's Jeep for a joyride last August in New Jersey.  Looking at this photo, I can practically feel the breeze on our faces and the freedom we felt that day.

2. Tree.  I pass this tree almost every day, but this day, I looked up.

3.  Daddy+daughter.  A sweet moment between my two loves.  Even better - it was during a massive thunderstorm.

4. Petals.  On one of my normal walking routes in the neighborhood about a month ago, I turned a corner to this exquisite sight.

5. Lips.  This photo makes me smile every single time.  Taken on a cool, cloudy day visiting friends on a farm in Athens, TX.

As for my favorite Instagram filters, I tend to use "Rise" and "Sierra" the most.

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YOUR TURN!

Link to your favorite Instagram picture [of your own or someone else's if you don't have Instagram]. Or write a post today on your own blog with five of your favorite Instagrams and link us to that! 

What is your favorite filter to use?

Return of the backyard homestead...

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Remember once upon a time, several years ago, when our backyard looked like this?

Remember a cute little couple who spent hours upon hours there tending to their beautiful veggie garden?

Well, things have changed a little.  Here's what the backyard looked like in January...

...and now...

Yikes.

For the last few years we didn't grow as much as we could have, but we do have an excuse - we were sorta busy running a demanding small business and then raising a newborn.  Thankfully, that newborn is now a very active toddler who loves being outside, digging in the dirt.

What's never changed is our dream to have our own farm one day - not in the city, but just outside a small city (Nashville?) - where we grow delicious organic food and host farm dinners at a big rustic table on a patio with white twinkle lights and our children grow up frolicking freely in fields of flowers and horses and goats and chickens.  It's a wonderful, worthy dream, but if we cannot grow food in our small urban backyard in Dallas, we surely won't be able to grow it on 40 acres of land.  Anywhere.

So instead of waiting for a someday dream, we decided it was time to get dirt caked under our nails again.

Here's the grand master plan that Steven drew up for our backyard "homestead":

Much of our recent inspiration came after reading the incredibly fascinating book Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (featured in the movies Food, Inc. and Food Matters).   Salatin sites, "As early as 1946, nearly 50 percent of all produce grown in America came out of backyard gardens."  A pretty shocking statistic, don't you think?  My mom was born in 1946.  That's not very long ago.

Somehow between the mid-40s and now, convenience began to trump wholesomeness, and growing your own food is mostly viewed as a "hobby" for people who "have time," not as a necessity.

It's not easy.  And I know it's not realistic for everyone to grow all their food in their own backyards these days.  But everyone can plant a few seeds and grow something.  Even if it's just some herbs in a few pots on an urban patio.

So, I wanted to give you a further glimpse into our garden this year.  It's far from perfect, with unrelenting grass sprouts and weeds threatening to overtake our food crops every single day.  Somedays I wish our backyard was an idyllic haven that pruned and weeded itself, but that's not life. We were created to tend the land God created, and I believe that there is a deep satisfaction in doing so.

And most of all, it's ours.  And it will bear food to eat and to share.  And that's something.

Wild cilantro

Lavender flower

Bees love lavender

Trusty red gardening Crocs Teensy salad greens

Red chard

Kale

Garlic

Iris before blooming

Iris unfurling

Clematis vine // Summer squash plant

Persimmon treeTaking a breakWe've already harvested enough greens for a few simple salads, and like the Frances Mayes quote says, it's true. There is something special that happens when you eat something you grow. Maybe it's woven into our very being to be connected to the dirt in a way that sustains us.

A thankful prayer for today.

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I woke up this morning feeling so amazing, non-allergic, well rested.  I texted this to Steven, who was at an early morning meeting and he said, "That's because I prayed kisses and God's love all over you!"

Thank you, Lord, for sweet gifts like this, for another day to live walking with You.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
~ e.e. cummings

 

Impromptu trip to Austin.

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What's one of my favorite things about living in Dallas?  That we're only 2.5 hours away from Austin!  One of the best cities out there, in my opinion - excellent food, great shops, rolling hills and beauty, and a ton of hippies like us.

A few weeks ago, we had an important task for Urban Acres to attend to there, so our family of three went together.  What a fun day.

All road trips make me sentimental for Nashville, so we popped in my "Nashville Memories" track list and started the trip off right - belting out "Check Yes Or No" by George Strait as we cruised out of Dallas in the rain.

The little one was excited to finally face forward in her car seat, armed with a banana and a Dr. Seuss book.  What more could you want in life?  

Steven and I were happy to have some undistracted time together to talk.  That alone was worth the trip.

The drive to Austin was pretty uneventful...that is, until we pulled into the parking lot of our first stop, Daily Juice, Austin's famous juice/smoothie bar and home of the super fat straw.  At this very moment, after holding it in for 2.5 hours, our carsick-prone daughter decided to puke up her entire breakfast.  A shirt change and an entire case of baby wipes later, we made a dash for the front door of Daily Juice in the pouring rain.

Once we were inside and saw their amazing menu board, all things were redeemed.  You've never seen a smoothie bar like this place.  We ordered one of the Serious Smoothies - the "El Paraiso" with added raw pecan butter.  YUM. 

After some work stuff, it was time for lunch, so we shuttled our grumbly tummies over to the highly recommended Elizabeth Street Café for French Vietnamese food. 

Luci Belle tried to figure out chop stix while we sampled the Bánh mì - a warm Vietnamese bun stuffed with pork belly, cucumber, cilantro, and a delicious sauce.

And then of course, Phở.  A steaming hot bowl of beef broth and noodles on a cold, rainy day?  Yes, please.

It hit the spot and gave us the energy to traipse around S. Lamar Blvd. in the rain looking for some new TOMS, to replace my beloved plaid Cordones that had worn holes through the toes.

Luci Belle was unfazed by the rain and was in heaven jumping in puddles, but Steven and I were soaked and just about to give up when we decided to seek shelter and warmth at Whole Earth Provision Co.  Just in case, we checked the sale rack, tucked into a dark corner on the second floor.  And there they were, just one pair, in my size, in the right color, and for $30 less.  Seriously?  I tried them on, and they were so comfortable they felt like socks.  Then as I was modeling them tentatively, Steven remarked, "Oh, those are SO you," and it was a done deal. 

I love them.

Even the rain couldn't keep us from a successful road trip - delicious smoothie, the perfect noodles, new shoes, and the companionship of my two favorite people in the world.

I'm a packrat.

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Ugh.  As I've been working through Project Simplify and the book Organized Simplicity the last few weeks, I've realized something about myself that's painful to admit:

I'm a packrat.

I might not be this bad, but it's close, especially when it comes to keeping letters, notes, bits of paper, and other sentimental memorabilia.

Let me illustrate.  In the process of attacking the beast that is our guest room closet, I found a smooth wooden box that I made in 7th grade shop class.  And here's a list of some of the "treasures" I found inside...

  • A letter I wrote to my "future husband" in 1994.
  • An entire key ring full of soda can tabs.  Why??
  • Name badges from Centrifuge summer camp.
  • My True Love Waits commitment card.
  • An entire set of Lee Press-On Nails.  French manicure, of course.
  • DCTalk after-show access pass.
  • Several notes from my friend Beth, addressed to "Christine McIntyre," signed from "Beth Wahlberg." 
  • My best friends' autographs.  Ya know, just in case one of them was famous someday.
  • And the crown jewel of them all: a folded-up piece of notebook paper that has written on the front in pink pen, "New Kids' phone #s (that don't work)."  HAHAHA!

As you can see from the contents, I think it's pretty safe to say I had a very strong New Kids On The Block phase in middle school.

So, here's an actual conversation Steven and I had as I carefully sifted through the contents:

Me: Oh my goodness, you're not gonna believe what I just found.

Steven: What?

Me: All the New Kids On The Block's HOME ADDRESSES!  Do you think I should keep it?

Steven: Babe, seriously?

Me: (grinning sheepishly)  Ok, ok, I'll toss it. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches me trying to slip it back into the "keep" pile.

Steven: BABE!  Throw it away!

Me: OK, but what about THESE?  I saved all the pages from all my date books for the past 11 years.  This way, I can look through them and see what I did every single day!

Steven: WHY would you want to keep that?  Can't you just look through them now for 3 minutes to remember and then throw them away?

Me: Yeah, I guess so.  (start flipping through them, acting like I'm doing what he suggested)  UGH.  I'm sorry.  I just can't do it.  I can't get rid of them.

Steven rolls his eyes as I put them back in the "keep" pile.

See what I mean?  I need serious help.

That little wooden box was just ONE of the items I've been going through, but to my credit, I do have an entire garbage bag full of trash (the Lee Press-On Nails didn't make it) and another huge bag of papers to be recycled.  Various items have been added to the "give" and "sell" piles.  I've organized all the "stuff I really want to keep" into two small neatly-labeled plastic storage boxes.  

As my life is becoming more organized, I'm learning that I don't necessarily need a piece of paper to remind me of a special moment I already carry in my memory.  

And I guess I'll just have to give up on trying to get Joe McIntyre's mom on the phone for now.  Sigh.

Celebrating my love.

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My husband is a man I highly respect.  He's been through some of worst circumstances in life and has risen on the other side with such a beautiful humility and a sincere desire to help other people.  He loves me and our daughter well.  He hears me and knows me and sees who I really am, sometimes better than I see myself.  He can be rambunciously silly or reflectively serious; he can make any dish seem gourmet; he has the softest hands and the warmest eyes.  And he just turned thirty-three.  It's not everyday that the love of one's life turns thirty-three.  So several days of celebration were in order!

It started with a double-date in the Big D with our friends Josh and Audrie Patterson.  We met at Tei Tei Robata Bar for an early dinner. 

Josh & Audrie

Tei Tei was completely authentic...with menu boards in both Japanese and English, and an uh-dorable little Japanese man in his 70s (on the left in the white Nike bandana) who was serving up his native specialties with such diligence.

It's not even possible to see how cute he was from this photo.

Steven deemed the meal "one of his top 10 of all time" which if you know him, is really saying something!  It might have had something to do with the mini popcorn crab.  Everyone at the table except me was crunching on 'em like they were potato chips.  Blech.

Right before leaving, Audrie and I both had quite the interesting experience that capped off our dinner at Tei Tei.  On an innocent, ordinary trip to the ladies' room, we each noticed the unique Japanese toilet that had an assortment of buttons.  One button had a diagram of a person sitting on the toilet with water spraying "the front."  Next to it was a similar button with water spraying "the back."  Little did we know that once the spray started, you had to push "STOP" or...it wouldn't stop.  Oh geez.  So let's just say we each left the restaurant giggling, with shocked and embarrassed looks on our faces, and a nice cleaning.

To finish off our date, we went next door to the restaurant The Porch, which has one of the absolute best desserts in Dallas: the Gooey Butter Cake.  Imagine the tastiest, chewiest sugar cookie made into a pie crust, covered with buttery yellow cake and topped with vanilla bean ice cream.  Drooooooooool.  I wish I could say I had photos of it, but we all four shared the dessert and gobbled it down in less than 2 minutes flat.

I'd also had quite a bit of wine by this point.  Tee hee.

He is darn cute.

All in all, a fun evening!

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The next morning, we had brunch for Steven at a very crowded and popular restaurant in our neighborhood called Smoke.  Love their style - the walls are covered in wood pallets and funky artwork, and their dishes are so creative.

We were joined by some of our very favorite people: Tommy and Linda, and Justin and Autumn.

Here are the adorable new parents, Tommy and Linda.  Linda had just popped out a baby, NATURALLY AND AT HOME, 5 days before this.  Are you kidding me?

Tommy & Linda

BuddiesJustin & AutumnBrunch was delish - light and airy biscuits, and fluffy ricotta pancakes...

And of course, since there was bread involved, Luci Belle enjoyed herself.

I love our sweet friends and family.  Thank you, Lord.

I'm also honored to have spent over 8 years of my life so far with this man.

Here we are 6.5 years ago the day before our wedding...

And here we are now...

Not.too.shabby.  Not too shabby at all.