end of summer family updates

With the summer nearing the end, and school about to resume, I thought I would take a break from vegetarianism, scary legislation, recipes, healthy living, and overall preaching from my soapbox, take a step down for a moment and post a quick update on my family news.

My oldest son got home from the summer session at Stanford on Sunday, and will be here for 3 weeks before returning. As a junior, he has been preliminarily approved for the post graduate law program they offer, which is pretty exciting. We probably need a good lawyer in the family! The next 3 or 4 years are going to pretty intense for him, but he seems ready for it. Right now, he is resting and piecing his brain back together after taking a grueling 15 hours over the summer.

My other two children are getting ready for the start of school, which begins on Monday, the 24th. Cheerleading practice has already begun for my daughter, and they started 2 a day training this week. They had a Back to School kick off pep rally last week. Its pretty exciting for her this year because this is the first year that she is on varsity, and the school's football team (5A school) won state last year and is expected to do well again this year. Down South, football is a huge deal, and alot of fun, so this should be a exciting season. She is a junior this year, and doing the International Baccalaureate diploma, so she will be BUSY. But, she thrives on busy-ness, so I am not worried about whether or not she can handle it. This is just "her".

My youngest is starting his first year of high school, and he is SO EXCITED! It's really cute. he has decided to follow his sister's footsteps into the advanced programs, and is pretty gung-ho about it. He is capable of the work, as he is a smart kid, but never developed very strong study habits.... so we will see. I know boys develop more slowly than girls, so this might be the year that it all comes together for him. If not, that's fine too. As long as he is happy, well balanced, and all of that, I am not overly concerned about academia. I subscribe to the theory that it is is meant to be, it will, but there is more to being a well rounded person than grades and school (Blasphemy, I know!).

Hubby and I recently decided to add another canine to the household. We had been thinking about another pet for awhile, so when the opportunity for a precious, 10 week old Shih Tzu came up, we jumped on it. So now, in addition to our tabby cat, Beans, and our Shih Tzu, Bella, we have Lola. She is absolutely adorable, and such a sweetie.

Lola meeting her new "sister":






My semester begins on Monday, as well. I am taking 3 classes, and 2 of them are online, so this should be a pretty light semester for me. I also have decided to go back into the salon and do hair 3 days a week, and will start that next week, as well. I am pretty excited about it. I am ready to do something I enjoy and is creative, if only for a few days a week. I still maintain my insurance business, but it doesn't require anything close to full time- thankfully.

The gardens are all doing very well. We have already harvested quite a bit, and there will be much more to come in the next few weeks. I am beginning to think about fall plantings, getting the beds ready, and all of that fun stuff.

My husband is getting his team ready for the compulsory gymnstics season. USAG recently had it's yearly Congress in Dallas, so we were able to attend that without going very far. They always have the Visa National Gymnastics competition in conjunction with Congress, and we were lucky enough to have access to a suite at the American Airlines Center! It was a great night, and the gymnastics was amazing!

Greg and I are also actively looking at having a child, and hope to be pregnant by the end of the year. I will keep you posted on that front;)

my love affair with herbs

Herbs, to me, have always had a sort of magical quality to them. Perhaps they evoke some distant, primal instinct, harking back to a time long ago when ancestors needed these little miracle plants for survival in a harsh world. Maybe I just love the tastes and smells of fresh herbs in my food and teas. For whatever the reason, I have been mesmerized by herbs and all of their many functions most of my adult life.

My love affair with these amazing plants began back in the early 90's when I went to visit a friend who was back in the states after moving to France. We met at her mother's townhouse, a shabby looking older building in a slightly run down part of town. You can imagine my shock when, upon entering, I was faced with a breathtaking, light-filled living room; soaring ceilings, beautiful furnishings, exquisite artwork. Yet, with all of this beauty, the most stunning feature of the room was the wall of floor to ceiling windows which looked out upon one of the loveliest herb gardens I had ever seen. As Lisa took me through this small grotto and pointed out each of the many herbs, I felt myself falling in love. Since that visit, I have had some form of herb garden, whether just a small container garden or a larger kitchen variety, in every place I have lived.

Back in the 90's, my ex husband and I purchased a large, older home in a lovely, well established neighborhood. The home had plenty of space, a beautiful, double sided stone fireplace, and large, arching mulberry trees. The one thing it didn't offer, however, was convenient access from the kitchen to the front or the back yards. The kitchen was tucked away in a corner of the house. As a solution to the dilemma of where to put the herb garden, I ended up having a door installed off the kitchen, opening up to the side yard. This served me quite well for the remaining 5 years in which I resided in that house. I grew everything from the basics: basils, parsleys, oregano, mint, thyme, dill- to strawberries, tomatoes, zucchini.

The house I inhabited when my children were very small was Spanish styled, with the entire house built around a center courtyard. This courtyard was flanked on the east side by the kitchen and breakfast nook, the north side wall was the living room, and the west side wall was the master bedroom. The south wall was the garage, with a narrow opening between the garage wall and the master bedroom wall which allowed for a gated entry to a charming little path which lead to another small garden area, which lead, through yet another gate, to a larger yard. This area was complete with a pool, a lawn, flower beds, and a gazebo. In the courtyard, we had all of the herbs that I needed for cooking, with the mint (as mint will) extending well past its borders and down the little pathway leading to the children's play yard and the other small garden. I didn't mind that wild mint, though, and will never forget the fragrance as I watered during the long, hot Texas summers while the children played amongst daisies that were as tall as they were.

After my divorce I moved into a pretty little townhouse with a nice view of a golf course. This was a time of my life, when, much like an adolescent, I was trying on different persona's, deciding who I was going to be for the rest of my life and exhilarated by the possibilities. During this time, I grew a small container herb garden on my patio, although as I write this I have to wonder: was I growing the herbs, or were they helping to grow me?

We are now in our 4th year in the house my husband and I bought together. A lovely home in which we have unleashed our creativity, passion for beauty, and love for all things do-it-yourself. A smaller house, yet a nice open floor plan, tons of windows, and 12 foot ceilings. Best of all, the kitchen/family room overlook a large backyard complete with a small pool, a lawn, full sun, and extensive garden beds. Since our first year here we have had a nice herb and kitchen garden right outside our door. This year, though, I was inspired to take the next step in my knowledge of herbs and all they can do.

I have always been very interested in herbalism. We are a family that has a passion for health and natural medicine, so it is quite logical that herbalism would call to me. I decided this year that I would begin to study it more seriously, and as I have began to delve into to this, I realize just how much I don't know, which pushes me to learn more. My daughter has taken an interest in it as well, and we have learned some basic remedies. This has also caused us to expand our herb garden by more than 4 times, boasting now well over 40 plants in our backyard alone (we keep plots in a community garden as well). This, in turn, has lead us to expand our culinary knowledge, as we have so many wonderful herbs- what to do with them all!? So, in the end, we have learned some practical remedies that we now use in our household, we have had some delightful new cuisine, we enjoy learning, cooking and eating together- all of this due to the remarkable, miraculous herb!

The Family

Me and my wonderful husband, Greg:





Me and my son, Nick:




My 3 children:

Jason, Nicolas, Jessica