Here It Comes

In Texas there is a saying, "If you don't like the weather just wait around for 24 hours!"  Well that is fine if you don't like the weather, but I was getting spoiled.  We have had the mildest spring and early summer, so I was being lolled into believing that I would have another month of non-sweating outdoor pleasures.

BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In came the 100 plus degrees  busting my bubble.

We had been enjoying outdoor concerts every Tuesday evening....the highest temps of 85 degrees,which for this Texas girl is almost sweater weather.  We have enjoyed a group singing old Beatles songs, another singing songs from 70's to 2000's....that one Benjamin danced while my teen and I giggled.... a great concert for making you feel young again.  We even enjoyed, through crisp breeze, a concert with bagpipes and violin.  But remember I live in Texas, so as I packed to go hear another free outdoor concert, this time a jazz player on trombone, we decided to check the temperature.  It was 104 degrees                                          at six o'clock....................No Way!   I wasn't going to make it through 104 degrees outside, even if a fountain sprinkled near by.

So what does a girl do?  Well she stops canning....I mean hot is hot!  She places a wreath on her door, hoping cooler weather will return, in order to continue her sail pail inspirations, and she adjust the A/C inside.  She heads for the skating rink...yes I put on my skating shoes and the moms out skated the kids!! (skating goes in the spunky category)

In case I am ever thought to be too logical...which is really my nature, I  reserved three days and two nights at a  camp site in a  State Park. (tent camping believe it or not)  Now hopefully the heat of Texas summer will take a deep breath and give me a July 4th breathier.

Now for some Home-made Big Red Ice Cream,  old time movies and reading, what else do you do when the temperatures zap your plans????  Oh, to stay up with the trends and the colors I am enjoying...I also painted my toes L'oreal Now You Sea Me, which is exactly what happens with that color, you see me...and it seems to make me feel cooler (both in style and body heat)  I haven't decided on it, but it has been fun.

I hope you are staying cool.  Prayers for rain for Colorado and New Mexico...blessings to all and to the fire fighters, rescue teams and restoration that will be needed.

Big Red Ice Cream has been made in my family since I was a little girl.  You can use any soft drink.  One 2-liter drink ( ours Big Red), one can of condensed milk and I add one small carton of whipping cream.  Stir together and put in your ice cream maker...that is it....easy, easy and so good.

Back into the Pot

I was so excited I could strike the once-familiar pose of decades ago (when I was on the drill team), the  Broadway pose with one arm up in the air, and shout, "La Tee Da"!  All my little jars were lined up on the counter and I had camera in hand to record my success.  I had accomplished something.  I texted each of my "un-interested" adult children announcing the number of canned Chipotle Salsas, as well as Strawberry Chipotle Jams.  Yes, I had found a new ingredient and proud of the fact of experimenting with unusual combinations which would add a little zip to our old favorites.

The next morning, "reality check" came as I began to move the jars.  WHAT??? NO!!!  It couldn't be!!!

The jam had refused to set and what I had so excitedly proclaimed as Jam...well, it was syrup!  I ran to my now-trusted source for all information...the computer.  I had a choice. I could just act like that was what I was supposed to have produced...now how much syrup can you use?  I could just give it all away with a disclaimer or I could..................RETURN IT TO THE POT!  Now doubling my work.


What did I do?  Well, it seems God had a lesson for me to learn in this process.  It sure isn't my children, who are being taught all the time....it seems to be me.

Remove all the jam...(ok, syrup) from their jars and pour into the pot.  One jar resisted, causing jam to spill on the floor and counter.  Sounds like I probably don't go willingly into the pot myself.

Wash out all jars, removing all evidence of what was once there.

Return cleaned out jars to boiling water for sterilization

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Turn up the heat on the pot of jam and add more pectin.  Let it boil.

Skim from the top of the jam..that which has risen to the top. Are you starting to get the spiritual lesson here?

Return the syrup to the jars for it to become the jam it was meant to be.

Another round of boiling.

The color is deeper red.  I didn't have as much to pour back...some ended up on the floor, the boiling down reduced the amount...it is a stronger jam.

At the end I was glad I did the right thing..that I didn't cop out. I also praised God through the process that He never cops out on me.  He makes sure that whatever processes need to be done in order for me to "fulfill" my calling, He will take the time to complete it.  Now my once, "mistake syrup" fulfilled its destiny as "get ready for some zip" Strawberry Chipotle Jam.
(See, I might have left my bed unmade...but I was busy, however, bed was made this morning!)

Unmade Bed

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We live in such a time of unrealistic expectations.  Women are bombarded with "how-to" books giving instructions in perfect parenting technics, while maintaining an unrealistic "in-shape-photo-shop"model body in order to greet guests to her "magazine-cover-decorated home" and still fulfill all the duties of wife and mother with a smile on her face, while usually advancing a full-time career.  The world can really hand us all Pinterest, blogging ideas that are beyond human ability, and yet, we seem to easily take these unrealistic thoughts on life and try our hardest to bring them about.

Somewhere in our journey we realize that what we thought was realistic was only a dream, forcing us to wake up and walk in wonderful reality. Stopping the "rat race" can be freeing.

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I am entering a "reality" summer with my boys, the first of which I am going to have "Don't Make the Bed" weeks. This may make you laugh...but for this "make your bed when you get up" mom, this will be relaxing my idea of running a half-straightened home. No, I am not a neat, control freak...far from it...I have a household of boys and to keep my sanity and health, I tossed that false standard out the window years ago. Now if I had of had a maid along the way, I might have kept higher standards...but those standards would have killed this "solo" mom years ago.  That said, my standard lowering isn't saying much.

My bed, however, has been one area I have kept up a standard.  You do not sit on my bed.  You do not use my accent pillows to sleep on at night, they are removed and put away.  You NEVER use the comforter to sleep under...it is folded at the end of the bed each night...not for use other than decoration.  You make the bed each morning..except Sunday, in which it is a reminder to relax.  My bedding lasts for a decade due to this care.  Yes, that means I don't change my bedroom except once every ten years...good thing, because the budget has never had the luxury of doing it more often.

This week I looked at the bed and said..."so what!"  Who sees my bedroom anyway?  Rarely, I mean, rarely does anyone enter my room, and I am usually warned when someone is coming over.  I no longer have just small children around, which is when I started this standard, because at the end of a day when I thought I hadn't accomplished anything, I saw that I had at least made my bed.


Benjamin and I enjoyed crawling up into the bed during the week with our adventure books.  The pillows around our heads allowed us to float into our imagination.  The cool sheets took the sting out of the summer heat of the day...we slowed down.  Summers with little boys crawling up on my King Size bed for reading time is just too short.  Time to just leave the bed unmade!!


Note to self....time to buy new sleeping pillows...these old ones have lost their fluff.

What are you doing this summer that reminds you to be realistic and enjoy?
I am sure most of you threw out the 'unrealistic' years ago, but it is still easy to find oneself there again with all of our mass media.  I hope you are welcoming wonderful reality.