Memorial Day Weekending

Thursday was Mr. G's birthday, so we extended the celebration into the weekend. Friday night started with a little road trip to Stephenville for supper at the original Hard 8 BBQ. The way to Mr. G's heart is definitely Texas BBQ.

It truly was the perfect Texas evening. The weather was in its late May sweet spot (not too hot, definitely not cold). A gentleman was covering all sorts of great old country on the patio, and the food was excellent. I think it checked all of the favorite things on the birthday boy's list. The only thing missing was golf, maybe?

Saturday was a day spent enjoying Fort Worth. It rained like crazy overnight, but cleared up to a beautiful day. We only got out for a little bit, preferring to stay at home and Lego build and bike ride. Saturday for lunch we checked out a pizza place that has opened up on Camp Bowie called Olivella's. The pizza is Neapolitan style, which is great, but the patio is AMAZING. It's climate controlled and has a retractable roof, along with just straight up being pretty. Its location makes it a hidden gem. If you live in Cowtown, definitely go try it. We also visited the new REI. Yep, we have an REI now! If we could only get a Nordstrom...

Sunday afternoon was church, then the guys went to Colonial while the girls went shopping. Little sister was not pleased to be stuck with me, until we ran into a random dance party in Dillards. Nothing cheers her up like a good beat, and apparently, a photo booth!

Monday we spent the day mostly at home. I picked up filets from Roy Pope's earlier in the weekend, and we grilled corn and roasted broccoli to go alongside it. This roasted broccoli I found on Pinterest is one of my favorite veggie recipes. I've parked in on my "Food Wins" Pinterest page here, which has every successful Pinterest recipe I've tried.

I even set a patriotic table to observe Memorial Day. I found some super cute "charming check" placemats by the Pioneer Woman at Walmart (found here) and couldn't help myself. Asking "why" the table was red, white, and blue opened up a good discussion with our oldest on freedoms and the sacrifice others have made protecting those freedoms. We are grateful for our men and women who serve and have served our country.

It was a great weekend of downtime, good food, and reflection before heading into the summer!

Why Weekending Is Coming Back to This Space

On Friday night, Mr. G and I were taking a little walk down memory lane and had varying recollections about a now-defunct restaurant in Fort Worth, and it hit me, "Maybe I blogged about that?" I searched the blog right then, and we spent the next 30 minutes laughing about what our life was like as DINKs back in 2007 through 2010 on a trip through this website.

All of that to say, I realized how much I have come to love this space as a diary of what's been going on with us. GROUNDBREAKING, I know.

So here's what I've been up to for the past many months that may or may not have landed here:

Raising two precious preschoolers and all of the fun playing, singing, and boo boo kissing that comes with it.

Serving on a strategic advisory team at my church.

Teaching a lot of Pure Barre, as well as growing my skills through additional training.

Taking a lot of Pure Barre, because I still enjoy it as a primary exercise.

Potty training a child.

Mentoring an awesome young lady at TCU regarding our mutual faith in Christ.

Reflecting on life with a child in kindergarten next year.

Laundering everything we own on Mondays and Fridays.

Leading a Ladies' gathering on Wednesday nights at church.

Writing for Fort Worth Moms Blog.

Currently finalizing the craft list and supplies for VBS 2016.

Reading a lot!

Taking time off from leading a Sunday school department, we've been part of a young adult Sunday school class since August.

Over the next several weeks, maybe I will find it in myself to break these down into separate blog posts, because a bullet does no credit to the amount of time I've actually dedicated to them. Especially those first and second items. When people ask how I've been, I usually say, "Busy." It feels good to list it out and see that I'm not making that up.

{Because you can't have a blog post without a picture.}

Am I the only one with photos like this on my roll?
I bought this shirt a while back and love it,
but not with a sports bra and tights. Found here.
I had a friend comment to me about how easy it is to be a stay at home mom. Yes, it's very easy to be a stay at home mother if you have no commitments to anything except your kids and the occasional playdate. I find it harder to balance when I'm volunteering at a high capacity with a child on my hip and the other pulling at my leg. I don't have a nanny, and the children always come first. However, it's absolutely my choice to take on those commitments, and my husband and I both find it good stewardship of my time to give back so much to the Lord through service to our church. One of the nice things about staying home is choosing how to spend the available time.

My heart--and my schedule--is full!

Weekending

Ahh, weekending. So nice to meet you again.

We kicked off Friday with an earlier than usual start to run my car to a body shop before they got too busy. Sadly, I was rear-ended on Thursday, but thankfully was by myself and am fine. My car needs body shop therapy, so I'm ankle deep in insurance dealings. It could be worse. The rest of the morning was spent with donuts, laundry, and legos. The house was in ship shape by the time Mr. G made it home from work. I grabbed a late afternoon PB class and headed home to get ready for...

Date night! This past weekend was Parents' Night Out at our church, which means awesomely inexpensive childcare. Such a great ministry to parents! It was also the last one before a break for the summer, so tons of kids were at the church. A good thing, I think. We ended up at Rio Mambo (very random), then shopped for socks for the kids (very wild). We picked up the munchkins a little early to head home for an early start the next day for a...

Road trip! Friday afternoon we were pining for Aggieland, so we grabbed up baseball tickets and headed that way Saturday morning. There was a 30% chance of rain, which I noted was a 70% chance that nothing would happen at all. I would make a poor meteorologist. The heavens opened up, and it rained like crazy. It made for fun to watch the grounds crew batten down the hatches. After we realized it would be a more than 2 hour rain delay, we dashed to Wings and More for a late lunch.

We toured the campus a little, then as we debated whether to head back to Olsen Field, the kids both fell asleep in the backseat. It was a sign to let it go. So we did. With a stop at the Czech Stop in West on our way back home with sleepy kids.

Sunday was an early start to church for me. We are no longer serving as directors in the 12th grade department, but I offered to help them with breakfast for Senior Sunday as I remember always feeling like I could've used another set of hands when I was leading it! I laid out everyone's clothes, and Mr. G did an awesome job getting them together on his own. After church we lunched with our Sunday school class, celebrating two families who completed their time at seminary and are departing to go out into the world beyond Cowtown to preach the Gospel.

We ended the day with a trip to the park and snow cones. Bring on the last week of school!