happy new year!

happy new year!  did you eat your black eyed peas for luck?  we did.  though i had to force three of my family members to swallow a spoonful, i'm pretty sure that still counts. 

today, the second day of the new year, i'm going to enjoy at home with my family.  this is our last day together before everyone starts back to work and school.  so far, we are still in our pajamas and the older two boys are logging hours in front of the video game they got for christmas.  i'm about to call a stop to it so i can take them with me to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for this amazing soup.  i made this soup several times last winter (which is short in houston)  but forgot about it until i was looking for something to make today.  of course, every one of heidi's recipes i've tried has been yummy.  this is unexpectedly delicious.   it's so good that i am willing to get out of my pajamas on this lazy day and go to the store.  you should probably try it.

make your own happiness

i do a lot of wishing that i had more time to do the things i think will make me happy.  the truth is, i have 3 kids, and a job, and a husband and we all need to eat and someone, someday has to clean this house.  so time isn't always easy to come by.  but here are few things that are making me happy lately:

mushrooms

 a little celebration of the small surprises in life and the joy of photographing just for fun.

around here lately

texas is reeling.  this june through august has been the hottest summer on record for any state.  ever. texans are battling wild fires and praying for rain that never comes.  

hundreds of families have lost their homes to the fires.  farmers and ranchers are struggling to survive the summer drought.  houston alone is estimating the loss of 66 million trees.   

where i live, the temperatures finally fell below one hundred. saved from the heat, the boys and i returned to playing outside.  i walked around and looked closer at the damage done to my little piece of land.  the yard was the reason we made this house our home.  we simply love it.  we typically choose not to water the grass very much. andy works hard to water the producing fruit trees and then we hope nature will take care of the rest.  this summer we have also been on water restrictions.

a lot of the yard is brown and crisp.  we've lost two trees. we are trying in vain to save the blueberries. even the palm trees are losing their color. but we've added a lot of native plants to this landscape, and they are thriving in the weather! i realized that even though we have not had a measurable amount of rainfall since March, there is a lot of life here. and i am so grateful for the green.

  

 (curse the weeds for being unfazed by the drought!

 and for being so lovely that i don't want to pull them.)

i am grateful for mushrooms the size of dessert plates that appeared in the lawn.

 and for the first two meyer lemons making it through the summer.

 

 

 

i am grateful for greyson's kumkwats, struggling but surviving.

 

and so, so grateful that there are oranges.  fewer than last year, but still - oranges!

 

 and i am grateful for the loves that share this space with me.