TWENTY-ONE

This photo should simply be captioned: All the meats. 

2016 week twenty-one

The party never stops in Texas. Let this be a lesson to you to come visit me if you live far away.

All the meats pt 2.

 Eighteen years ago I started at a new school. On that first day I walked to school by myself wearing blue shorts, blue tank top, and blue button up gauzy shirt -all of which I had sewn (rather dreadfully) myself. I was dark brown from a long summer and my bangs weren't quite long enough to tuck behind my ears. I was careful not to smile too big as I had just become self conscious about the gap between my front teeth. Every other person seemed to know each other standing outside of the fourth grade classroom. Except one girl. This girl was standing by her father. She was shorter than me (who wasn't) and had glasses, and a long gold brown braid down her back. She wasn't talking to anyone. She probably was new too. I, uncharacteristically for my age, introduced myself. "I'm Lana. Are you new too?" Her name was Adrienne. She informed me that she already had a best friend, but undeterred I decided we could still be just normal friends. Through the years we became better friends (Can you believe it, she had a Felicity American Girl doll too?!) and stayed friends even through high school and then university several hours apart.  It might be years since we saw each other but we would always have hours worth of things to talk about. Eighteen years later, we're still friends and could talk about preserving food and gardening, and food, and plants, and traveling, and food, and more food. A true sign of a friend to me is how much we can talk about food. :) I was so pleased to have Adrienne and Evan come to stay with us for a few days. The only way their trip could have been better is if they hadn't left. Vera wasted no time adoring them and cried the whole way home from the airport.

We took them to a rodeo!

We walked on mosquito ridden trails around Lewisville Lake.

Someone took an amazing nap this day. 

We found a spooky old log cabin at the end of one of our trails. 

And I gave myself free reign to cook and cook and cook! Lunch: Parmesan soup, cantaloupe with prosciutto, fresh peas from the garden and arugula with a lemon vinaigrette.  

We took them to a festival in Grapevine where they got to enjoy a local beer tasting, while we found Grandpa who painted Vera's face. Naturally she chose a giraffe. 

Then she saw the huge Geico "lizard" and just wanted to touch it so badly. But touching the feet wasn't good enough for her,

she had to touch his hand. 

Dinner: Carrot salad, kielbasa cassoulet, fresh blueberries and peaches.

Early morning splash in the rain. 

We also went to the Dallas World Aquarium where Adrienne was the clear favorite. 

Vera wanted to belong to their family so badly. 

Look at the terror in Theo's eyes.

It suddenly got a lot more magical. 

Adrienne and Evan left us with half a box of macarons and I enjoyed them while Vera slept. And look at those peonies! They were pure white two days later. 

She dressed herself this day. She was channeling Christopher Robin again. 

Cupcake decorating for a friend's birthday. V ate all the candy and left the fantastic cupcake for me. 

Visiting teaching is much better when you can be a Lion-Wolf the whole time.

Or a pirate -naturally.  

Quotes:

If I eat enough frozen blueberries, I will turn into a frozen! Just like Elsa is a frozen!

I wish my wings were like bugs wings. Bugs just stick their wings on! They don't even have to use straps!

Green bean animal. (that is what she calls her eel bath toy.)

I just love to say blonde fond!

I'm using the whale nail brush so now I am a whale. Mama, look at my whale face!

This swing is a little bit tricky so I'm going to take a break and come back when it's not tricky. Ok? That is a good question, ok.

Stories:

I was growing a little weary of listening to the Frozen soundtrack, so the last time we went to the library I got Vera a short book on tape with a corresponding book. We got "Little Bear's Visit" by Else Homelund Minarik. Though we have now listened to it at least 50 times (it's a short book) I am as excited as Vera to listen to it. Well not as excited, but certainly more so than if it were Frozen again. I have deep rooted childhood love of Little Bear. I watched the show when I was far too old for it but it holds all the same fascination for me that Beatrix Potter and Laura Ingalls Wilder do. The agrarian simplicity and general loveliness make me feel as cozy and peaceful as I did as a child discovering this brand of loveliness. Even still Little Bear and the Peter Rabbit shows are the only ones I have no difficulty sitting down and watching (admittedly too much) with Vera. I love having the simple beautiful writing of Little Bear being read on repeat in my car while Vera flips the pages following along. She already recognizes which page she should be on while the story is being read, and maybe some day she will start to recognize words that are being read. I'm in no rush to teach her to read. I'd rather teach her at this time to just love books. That will eventually translate into a desire to read. And through all of this, I hope most of all to show her the beautiful stories that make her own home seem a little more dear, her own backyard seem a little more bountiful, her own childhood seem a little more magical, and her own life with our family seem a little more meaningful.



Happy Memorial Day! Come visit us! We'll treat you to all the meat Texas has to offer, I promise.