I was sitting there on my favorite spot on my deck, feet dangling over the side, legs rubbing against the scratchy wood, eyes gazing down the hills that roll down to the railroad tracks, down to the lush green trees that surround the creekbeds and river bottoms and stretch out until they rise up the majestic bluff way off in the distance.
I could taste the red wine on my lips and hear the birds sharing their melodic conversations back and forth through the trees, as if they were the dearest of friends catching one another up on their busy lives. The breeze moved through the trees with a delicate rush, gliding through the leaves before tenderly playing in my hair and across my skin. It was a warm breeze, just warm enough to remind me that it's summer, but not too warm that it was oppressive. This breeze was indeed the opposite of oppressive, it was refreshing. It was rejuvinating. It met me with such a beautiful urgency that I reclined my head back, closed my eyes, and melted in the warm embrace of a breeze that I believe was meant to comfort me.
Just a few minutes prior to basking in this lovely encounter with nature, I had been singing one of my new favorite songs, "40 Dogs" by Bob Schneider, aloud out there on that deck. I stopped singing it only to, out of nowhere, start singing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!". There was no subconscious reason for me to start singing this song; I hadn't sung this song in years. I think the only explanation was the true, authentic, overflow of contentment, comfort, and happiness I was feeling in that moment. A huge smile broke across my face and I just gave in, sitting on that deck, swaying to my own voice, singing a song originally meant to bring joy to children. I think there is a lot to be said for having a child-like joy. Children find joy in the simple things and that is exactly what I did this evening on that deck...I found joy in the simplicity of an evening outside with the intricacies of God's creation.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Perfect for Summer Salad
I usually don't post recipes on here, but I made the most delicious summer salad yesterday and just had to share it. I had been reading Cooking Light magazine and was inspired to go to HEB and buy a whole bunch of fruits and veggies that I could throw together and eat all at once. What I came up with was incredible.
Ingredients
1 peach
1 cucumber
1 large mango, barely ripe
1 small tomato
1 red onion
cilantro
3 chicken breast filets
Dressing:
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Mustard
Honey
Lemon juice
Directions
1. Preheat skillet on low-medium heat
2. Season chicken filets (both sides) with olive oil first, then Nature's Seasoning, garlic, celery salt, poultry seasoning, and whatever else you like to use. I usually just grab whatever I feel like using. I really like Adobo for chicken but my parents didn't have any of that.
3. Cook chicken until done and stick in fridge to cool.
4. Cut red onion into long, thin, slices, as thin as possible. Heat EVOO in a different skillet from the one you used for chicken over low heat. Place red onion slices in skillet and cook slowly until carmelized. (I only used half the onion. It just depends on how much you like onions as to how much you use.)
5. While onion is carmelizing, chop cucumber, peach, mango, and tomatoes into small, bite sized pieces and place in bowl. Pull cilantro off stalk and throw into bowl (I probably used about 20 cilantro leaves, just use as you see fit.)
6. Once chicken has cooled, chop into bite sized pieces and mix into bowl with fruit. Add onions once they're finished carmelizing (they should be soft/barely crispy and taste sweet) and stir salad together.
For the dressing, I didn't use measurements, I just did everything to taste. I also only made enough for one serving and put it on my salad as I ate it so that I could store the salad and it wouldn't get soggy. There is a majority of EVOO, only a squirt of mustard, a squirt of honey, a quarter of a lemon, and about a teaspoon of vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is preferred but we were out. This dressing concoction was complements of the lovely Pilar Mckay :)
Here is how mine turned out!
Very healthy and refreshing meal, perfect for a picnic or just a hot summer evening! Let me know what you think!
Ingredients
1 peach
1 cucumber
1 large mango, barely ripe
1 small tomato
1 red onion
cilantro
3 chicken breast filets
Dressing:
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Mustard
Honey
Lemon juice
Directions
1. Preheat skillet on low-medium heat
2. Season chicken filets (both sides) with olive oil first, then Nature's Seasoning, garlic, celery salt, poultry seasoning, and whatever else you like to use. I usually just grab whatever I feel like using. I really like Adobo for chicken but my parents didn't have any of that.
3. Cook chicken until done and stick in fridge to cool.
4. Cut red onion into long, thin, slices, as thin as possible. Heat EVOO in a different skillet from the one you used for chicken over low heat. Place red onion slices in skillet and cook slowly until carmelized. (I only used half the onion. It just depends on how much you like onions as to how much you use.)
5. While onion is carmelizing, chop cucumber, peach, mango, and tomatoes into small, bite sized pieces and place in bowl. Pull cilantro off stalk and throw into bowl (I probably used about 20 cilantro leaves, just use as you see fit.)
6. Once chicken has cooled, chop into bite sized pieces and mix into bowl with fruit. Add onions once they're finished carmelizing (they should be soft/barely crispy and taste sweet) and stir salad together.
For the dressing, I didn't use measurements, I just did everything to taste. I also only made enough for one serving and put it on my salad as I ate it so that I could store the salad and it wouldn't get soggy. There is a majority of EVOO, only a squirt of mustard, a squirt of honey, a quarter of a lemon, and about a teaspoon of vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is preferred but we were out. This dressing concoction was complements of the lovely Pilar Mckay :)
Here is how mine turned out!
To make it sweeter, you may substitute a strawberry for the tomato and to spice it up you could add or substitute a red bell pepper!
As a side, I had grapes and Parmesan Garlic Triscuit Thin Crisps.
The drink is a Salty Dog:
-Grapefruit juice
-Vodka
-Twist of lime
-Salt on the rim
Perfect pairing!
Very healthy and refreshing meal, perfect for a picnic or just a hot summer evening! Let me know what you think!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Covered with Love
Sometimes it's hard for me to love. I mean this as a pretty broad statement that applies to the broad definition of love. My favorite definition of love is the one Marcel LeJeune always uses, that true love is doing what is best for another person regardless of the cost to yourself. So when I say that sometimes it's hard for me to love, I don't really mean that it's hard for me to be nice to people, I mean that it's hard sometimes to always do what is best for everyone...including myself.
This could be something as simple as offering to cook or doing the dishes for my parents. They do those things so selflessly and never ask me to, and it rarely even crosses my mind to offer that sort of help. I want to always be thinking of ways that I can help them and others. It could also mean something deeper, like understanding God's plan in my life and still loving him even when it seems that he's holding some pretty great things back from me. I know that his plans for me are incredible and that I can't even imagine what great things he has planned, as evidenced by my current opportunities and blessings that I never would have imagined a few years ago, so in the meantime I am called to love him and the people in my life. I think I see some self improvement goals in the works :)
I was doing some painting the other day so I pulled out my little art supply bag and found one of my books by Max Lucado called A Love Worth Giving. I keep that book in there because it has some great quotes that I've often used as encouragement for friends and for myself. Max Lucado is so eloquent and gifted with words and he always seems to be able to bring me comfort with how he writes about God's love. Here is one of my favorite quotes:
"Why did Jesus do that? There is only one answer. And that answer has one word. Love. And the love of Christ "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7).
Think about that for a moment. Drink from that for a moment. Drink deeply. Don't just sip or nip. It's time to gulp. It's time to let his love cover all things in your life. All secrets. All hurts, All hours of evil, minutes of worry.
The mornings you awoke in the bed of a stranger? His love will cover that. The years you peddled prejudice and pride? His love will cover that. Every promise broken, drug taken, penny stolen. Every cross word, cuss word, and harsh word. His love covers all things.
Let it. Discover along with the psalmist: "He...loads me with love and mercy" (Ps. 103:4). Picture a giant dump truck full of love. There you are behind it. God lifts the bed until the love starts to slide. Slowly at first, then down, down, down, until you are hidden, buried, covered in his love.
"Hey, where are you?" someone asks.
"In here, covered in love."
Let his love cover all things.
Do it for his sake. To the glory of his name.
Do it for your sake. For the peace of your heart.
And do it for their sake. For the people in your life. Let his love fall on you so yours can fall on them."
This could be something as simple as offering to cook or doing the dishes for my parents. They do those things so selflessly and never ask me to, and it rarely even crosses my mind to offer that sort of help. I want to always be thinking of ways that I can help them and others. It could also mean something deeper, like understanding God's plan in my life and still loving him even when it seems that he's holding some pretty great things back from me. I know that his plans for me are incredible and that I can't even imagine what great things he has planned, as evidenced by my current opportunities and blessings that I never would have imagined a few years ago, so in the meantime I am called to love him and the people in my life. I think I see some self improvement goals in the works :)
I was doing some painting the other day so I pulled out my little art supply bag and found one of my books by Max Lucado called A Love Worth Giving. I keep that book in there because it has some great quotes that I've often used as encouragement for friends and for myself. Max Lucado is so eloquent and gifted with words and he always seems to be able to bring me comfort with how he writes about God's love. Here is one of my favorite quotes:
"Why did Jesus do that? There is only one answer. And that answer has one word. Love. And the love of Christ "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7).
Think about that for a moment. Drink from that for a moment. Drink deeply. Don't just sip or nip. It's time to gulp. It's time to let his love cover all things in your life. All secrets. All hurts, All hours of evil, minutes of worry.
The mornings you awoke in the bed of a stranger? His love will cover that. The years you peddled prejudice and pride? His love will cover that. Every promise broken, drug taken, penny stolen. Every cross word, cuss word, and harsh word. His love covers all things.
Let it. Discover along with the psalmist: "He...loads me with love and mercy" (Ps. 103:4). Picture a giant dump truck full of love. There you are behind it. God lifts the bed until the love starts to slide. Slowly at first, then down, down, down, until you are hidden, buried, covered in his love.
"Hey, where are you?" someone asks.
"In here, covered in love."
Let his love cover all things.
Do it for his sake. To the glory of his name.
Do it for your sake. For the peace of your heart.
And do it for their sake. For the people in your life. Let his love fall on you so yours can fall on them."
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Spring Break Cruise: The Last Leg
I'm just going to sum up the last few days of our cruise in this post because if I keep breaking it up I'm never going to finish and I'm going to forget more than I already have.
When I left you last, we were wrapping up a lovely St. Patty's day. The next morning we landed at our last destination: Cozumel. Pilar and I got up bright and early so that we could make the most of our day on land, while the boys chose to sleep in and stay on the boat since they had already been to Cozumel on their previous cruise. It did make me a little nervous to go into Mexico without the boys...by a little, I mean a lot. My mother watches endless episodes of Forensic Files and Cold Case and is always reading the Debbie Downer stories out of the newspaper about girls who got kidnapped/raped so she has passed that paranoia on to me BIG TIME. I wasn't going to let the boys know that I was nervous about them not going with us -they needed their rest- but you better believe that I was doing a mental review of all of my self defense moves the whole walk down the pier. Pilar assured me that we had nothing to worry about, that all of those sketchy things happen in sketchy places, not in the highly populated tourist areas. The devil's advocate in me kept saying that this was probably the perfect place for creepers to linger, just waiting to prey on a naive, young, American girl with her guard down.
Pilar and I made our way into the market area that was right off the pier and started walking toward where we figured some cabs would be waiting. Our only sketchy run-in was with a white guy who had rented a car and told us he could give us a ride to a beach. He had no credentials and was too insistent to not set off about 500 red flags in my mind. I got us the HELL away from him and latched on to a family that was heading toward the big cab drop off/pick up. This is where I was very thankful for Pilar's fluent Spanish. She was able to speak clearly with the cab drivers which put me at ease as, of course, I was assuming that everyone wanted to kidnap us and sell us into the international sex trade. Another big nerve easer was that we shared a cab with a family. The cab driver turned out to be super nice and convinced us to go to another beach that was a lot nicer than the one we had planned on going to. He also cut our rate down a little.
The beach we went to in Cozumel was very nice. It had nice lounge chairs, a restaraunt, and waiters who walked up and down the beach delivering food and drinks. Pilar and I just lounged, swam when we got hot, and soaked up our last day on a beautiful beach.
We stayed out there for three or four hours and then made our way back to the pier. Once back at the little marketplace, we did a little shopping, Pilar did a little bartering, and we set out for the ship for the last time. We spent the rest of the afternoon laying out with the boys and then went through our usual routine of showering/napping/getting ready for the night. On this night, Pilar and Travis performed "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira at karaoke and did a wonderful job, despite what they may tell you. We went out to the Lido deck of the ship after karaoke and made our own little dance party...we're really good at that :)
After our dance party we went back to the room and looked at the stars for a little while and all ended up falling asleep. Eventually, the boys went back to their room and we all went to bed.
The next day was Friday, our last "Fun day at sea". We laid out all day, cooking ourselves to a nice crisp. Friday night we went to the "Carnival Legends" show in the Ivanhoe Theater and watched all of the cruise guests who had been chosen to impersonate different celebrities like Elvis, Madonna, Johnny Cash, etc. One of the guys we met was impersonating Ricky Martin. The show was pretty impressive. After the show, we spent some time out on the deck again and enjoyed the beautiful night. This was the night that the moon was the brightest it had been in like 200 years (or whatever it was). The light was incredible! It was a little sad to think that this was our last night, but we didn't let that stop us from soaking it all in.
The next day was a series of packing, debarking from the ship, making our way back to the car, and leaving Miami. Although we were dreading the 17 hour car ride back to Houston, we were also thankful that we still had some time together and wouldn't just be thrown right back into reality. Again, I give mad props to our manly men for beasting the last leg of our journey. Somewhere between Miami and Houston, I decided that I would try to make the drive back to Austin at 2am in order to be able to teach my kiddos on Monday morning. I crushed a red bull and made it to La Grange, but I started hallucinating outside of La Grange and decided that I couldn't go another hour and a half on the remaining fumes from my red bull. I stopped and slept in La Grange and made it back to Cedar Park in time for lunch.
I had such an incredible time on this cruise. I was able to get in some incredible lady time with my little Pilar before she goes off to med school and I sell my soul to my class of 5th grade boys. I also got two great friends in Travis and Chris who I look forward to hanging out with more since we will all be in Houston next year!
When I left you last, we were wrapping up a lovely St. Patty's day. The next morning we landed at our last destination: Cozumel. Pilar and I got up bright and early so that we could make the most of our day on land, while the boys chose to sleep in and stay on the boat since they had already been to Cozumel on their previous cruise. It did make me a little nervous to go into Mexico without the boys...by a little, I mean a lot. My mother watches endless episodes of Forensic Files and Cold Case and is always reading the Debbie Downer stories out of the newspaper about girls who got kidnapped/raped so she has passed that paranoia on to me BIG TIME. I wasn't going to let the boys know that I was nervous about them not going with us -they needed their rest- but you better believe that I was doing a mental review of all of my self defense moves the whole walk down the pier. Pilar assured me that we had nothing to worry about, that all of those sketchy things happen in sketchy places, not in the highly populated tourist areas. The devil's advocate in me kept saying that this was probably the perfect place for creepers to linger, just waiting to prey on a naive, young, American girl with her guard down.
Pilar and I made our way into the market area that was right off the pier and started walking toward where we figured some cabs would be waiting. Our only sketchy run-in was with a white guy who had rented a car and told us he could give us a ride to a beach. He had no credentials and was too insistent to not set off about 500 red flags in my mind. I got us the HELL away from him and latched on to a family that was heading toward the big cab drop off/pick up. This is where I was very thankful for Pilar's fluent Spanish. She was able to speak clearly with the cab drivers which put me at ease as, of course, I was assuming that everyone wanted to kidnap us and sell us into the international sex trade. Another big nerve easer was that we shared a cab with a family. The cab driver turned out to be super nice and convinced us to go to another beach that was a lot nicer than the one we had planned on going to. He also cut our rate down a little.
The beach we went to in Cozumel was very nice. It had nice lounge chairs, a restaraunt, and waiters who walked up and down the beach delivering food and drinks. Pilar and I just lounged, swam when we got hot, and soaked up our last day on a beautiful beach.
We stayed out there for three or four hours and then made our way back to the pier. Once back at the little marketplace, we did a little shopping, Pilar did a little bartering, and we set out for the ship for the last time. We spent the rest of the afternoon laying out with the boys and then went through our usual routine of showering/napping/getting ready for the night. On this night, Pilar and Travis performed "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira at karaoke and did a wonderful job, despite what they may tell you. We went out to the Lido deck of the ship after karaoke and made our own little dance party...we're really good at that :)
After our dance party we went back to the room and looked at the stars for a little while and all ended up falling asleep. Eventually, the boys went back to their room and we all went to bed.
The next day was Friday, our last "Fun day at sea". We laid out all day, cooking ourselves to a nice crisp. Friday night we went to the "Carnival Legends" show in the Ivanhoe Theater and watched all of the cruise guests who had been chosen to impersonate different celebrities like Elvis, Madonna, Johnny Cash, etc. One of the guys we met was impersonating Ricky Martin. The show was pretty impressive. After the show, we spent some time out on the deck again and enjoyed the beautiful night. This was the night that the moon was the brightest it had been in like 200 years (or whatever it was). The light was incredible! It was a little sad to think that this was our last night, but we didn't let that stop us from soaking it all in.
The next day was a series of packing, debarking from the ship, making our way back to the car, and leaving Miami. Although we were dreading the 17 hour car ride back to Houston, we were also thankful that we still had some time together and wouldn't just be thrown right back into reality. Again, I give mad props to our manly men for beasting the last leg of our journey. Somewhere between Miami and Houston, I decided that I would try to make the drive back to Austin at 2am in order to be able to teach my kiddos on Monday morning. I crushed a red bull and made it to La Grange, but I started hallucinating outside of La Grange and decided that I couldn't go another hour and a half on the remaining fumes from my red bull. I stopped and slept in La Grange and made it back to Cedar Park in time for lunch.
I had such an incredible time on this cruise. I was able to get in some incredible lady time with my little Pilar before she goes off to med school and I sell my soul to my class of 5th grade boys. I also got two great friends in Travis and Chris who I look forward to hanging out with more since we will all be in Houston next year!
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