Weekend Fun - Chasing Wildflowers

It has been no secret that I kind of hate West Texas, it is completely flat, it is part of the desert, everything seems to be dead, it smells like oil (so it stinks quiet often) and I am not convinced that I was made for small town living.

Over the last two years so much have happened, and I have stubbornly refuse to accept this new "fate," which by the way made me miserable.

Last year when the kids and I spend the last part of the year in South Africa, I had a lot of time to think (which can go either way - good or bad) and resolved - this is our time and season here - so what will I make of it.  The fact of the matter is that if mama ain't happy, then really nobody seems to be happy.

So I slowly but surely started to pick up the thousands of pieces of anger, unhappiness, frustrations, religious hurts, outlandish expectations, and a little bit of resentment - and I threw them all in the wind, and away they went - it is still a process because occasionally one of them will fly back to me.  I have been trying to make a conscious decision to choose joy - and the outcome have been kind of amazing.

It is also well known that I am a HUGE sucker for flowers, any kind, color, form, shape, and or size.  They make me smile, they make my heart skip a beat, and they just make me happy.

So on the weekend, we randomly decided to go flower hunting (which is absurd since we live where everything just dies) - but I just fell this tug to go.

And what we found was something so beautiful and explainable.

  All right here in, this little town, in the middle of nowhere.

   Also meet Lady (above) we have found little lady bugs all over the place and Hayleigh is convinced that they are all the same one - named Lady - and that Lady keeps finding her - lol.  She has this skill (surprisingly) that she can coax a lady bug to hang out with her for hours on end, I am not kidding.  They will ride in the car with her (contently chilling on her finger) till we get home and she will release them in the backyard.  It has been kind of fun to watch.

     

 All these beautiful little wild flowers popping up all over the place - a refreshing breath of beauty.

Since I am such a flower junkie (and Hayleigh seems to be taking after me) we had to go ahead and pick some.

  So we had to put some in vases all over the place.

One for me...

  and one for Hayleigh...

  I love food, and good food at that, the more nutrition you can put into it the better.

I spend most of my free time, researching food, trying out new recipes, and trying my best to expose my kids to wide variety of things.

I generally prep some things for the week on the weekend.

We made granola using this recipe - but I omitted the dried fruit and added chia seeds and hempseeds.

  We also experimented with some new smoothies - chocolate peanut butter.  Yummy!

  Also these beauties makes doing dishes a breeze... they are so pretty.

Also some of my fondest memories first with Nate and then again with the kids - Italy!  I so love love love that place.  Also Italian wine - yes please.

So it is just fitting that every once in a while we have pizza and Italian wine night (or as the kids like to call it, mama juice) ha!

Family lunch dates is always fun - we do still enjoy the occasional eat out - but we cook at home the majority of the time.  It is just better for all of us.

But it's fun to take the kids out, and they are getting so big that table conversations are so much fun with them.

Fried Okra is so yummy! 

  I so love these people that I get to call mine - the adventures we have shared together and continue to share together - I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Ian took this picture - not bad for a 6 year old.

 Happy Tuesday!

May you find your own wildflowers.