Bluebonnets!

Well, I may be too busy to post pictures, but I am taking them.  Here's some proof from yesterday.

Texas bluebonnets!

These were taken in a patch of bluebonnets near our house, with some careful framing in order not to include the cars and street which were 15 feet away or the ugly buildings in almost every direction.  I was pretty proud of the framing, actually! 
I took these a little after 4:00, and the sun was still very strong.  Next time, I'll wait another hour or two until the light is more diffused and softer, which will help with the deep shadows and the squinty children. :)

"Fall" in Houston

So earlier this week, as I was watching the morning news, the weather girl came on and gave the forecast for the next few days.

"It's going to continue to be hot and humid into the weekend, with highs into the 90's through the rest of the week," she said.  "But once Sunday gets here, it's going to feel like fall!  I can't wait!"  Then, she added, "I'm going to pull out my tights and put on a pot of potato soup!"  "Ooo," I thought, "Tights and soup?  Weather like that will feel amazing!"

Then the high and low temps for the following several days popped up.  I want you to guess what the forecast high was for the fallish day.

65, maybe?  That, to me, would feel like fall.  But, let's be realistic here; we're in Houston.

Okay, so maybe 72?  It's been so warm lately that 72 would be fantastic!

Nope.  The high for the day in question was 84.  EIGHTY-FOUR.  Really?  Who puts "tights" and "soup" in the same sentence as "84 degrees"??

I'm still laughing about it.  I guess that if we're anything, we Texans are optimistic.  We take what we can get when it comes to cool weather.

When it's Hot

When you live in Houston and you go on a picnic when it's 100 degrees outside, and all of a sudden you see a fountain, well . . . 

I mean, what option do you have, really?

 

Soaked to the skin and so happy!

Awry

How does a free outing turn into an expensive outing?

This is how:

You go to the museum on the free day.  "Thursdays, 3-6pm," they say on the website, "come and enjoy all the exhibits for free!"  What they don't say is that half of Houston shows up at 2:55pm, and that you should not expect to find a parking spot.

So, because your son has been looking forward to this museum visit for WEEKS and has especially been excited about it all day today, he cries and cries that he will not get to go, regardless of the fact that you promise that you'll cough up the admission fee and take him in the morning.  So you take all the kids to get frozen yogurt as a consolation prize.

Then, you go home and look up the cost of admission, which turns out to be more than you expect.  A museum membership for the year will pay for itself in two visits, so it makes more sense to get that.

FREE---------------------->EXPENSIVE

How did my plans go that wrong??!?

Well, you know, at least they are super adorable.  (Especially when they get frozen yogurt.)

Cheap Therapy

I read a quote somewhere online the other day that said something like, "Gardening is cheaper than therapy.  Plus, you get tomatoes."  It made me laugh, because, truly, that's a good summation of my first year gardening.

We had just moved to Houston from Boston, and as I lamented with true disgust the Houston summer heat, my friend, Courtney, told me to plant a garden. "That way, you'll appreciate Houston's long growing season," she said.  For some reason, the idea of gardening took hold, and Nathan and I went to town learning about it.  In the end, we had put a whole lot of work into the little plot that we worked that summer, even though we were only in that house a year.  All that work building a bed, hoeing and amending the soil, weeding, carefully choosing plants and sowing seeds, anguishing over exactly where to place something so that it got the optimal amount of sun, and so on, was still very much worth it.

Because it really was therapeutic for me.  Awakening to the wonder of how a huge plant can grow from a tiny seed.  Walking out into the garden in the morning and feeling a thrill to see what has sprouted or how a tomato I've had my eye on has ripened.  Feeling the sun warming my hair as I pull weeds.  Finding another spot to squeeze in just one more plant.  Listening to the birds sing.  Dew on the grass.  The first tiny vegetable forming.  Breezes.  Quiet.

Quiet.

The quiet.  The swapping-the-craziness-of-a-house-full-of-small-children-for-birdsong kind of quiet.  Putting the demands of a full life on hold while I crouch down, smell the soil as I pull a weed, feel a breeze, feel myself breathe.

In that period, when I felt my most crazed and chaotic and hectic, gardening was a welcome new hobby.  And, yes, quite therapeutic.

For My Houston Readers

***Hello peeps!  After reading Andrew's comment with the knowledge that he 1.) is a counselor and 2.) works in the prison system, I take it all back!  Ha!  Follow his advice, not mine.***

We get a neighborhood newspaper at our house which we hardly ever read.  Although it does have some value, hardly any of the articles are applicable to me, and I usually find myself thinking, "What a waste of paper this is" when I dump it into the recycling bin every week.  But for some reason, I felt like reading it the other day, and it had some information in it that I felt was worth passing on.

I don't think it comes as any surprise to most Houstonians that homelessness is a problem in our city.  When you drive through certain areas of town or along the access roads of just about any highway, there are people out asking for money.  In fact, this article said that there are an estimated 8700 homeless people on the streets, which was far more than I would have thought.  The general wisdom is that you should not give money to these people; that many of them are dishonest or are addicts.  And who wants to be taken advantage of or to promote an addiction?  This article also points out that your personal safety is a consideration.  But I always hear Jesus' words in the back of my mind:

'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'  Matthew 25:35-40

So what to do?

The best advice that I've heard in various settings is that there are shelters where these people can go to receive help and food, and that the best thing you can do is to point homeless people there.  But where are they?  What am I supposed to do, drive them there?  If I am concerned for my personal safety, definitely not.  So I feel fairly helpless on this issue, yet I do know it would honor God to care for people in need.  A few times, if I've had something handy, I've given some food, which seems like the most immediate help, but that still doesn't help them beyond the next few minutes.  It feels like a drop in the bucket.

The person interviewed for the article, though, had a great idea: he said he hands out nutrition bars with a Help Card attached.  The Help Card is available for download through homelesshouston.org, and it lists all the shelters available in the city and what services they offer.  Now, this seems like something very practical that just about anyone can do.  And, considering that some panhandlers are either not actually homeless (looking for a work-free buck) or choose for whatever reason not to get help from shelters, giving them a snack plus this card not only gives them some immediate nutrition but also puts the burden of responsibility on the recipient--they can accept the help or choose not to, but at least they now know help is available and how to get it.

So one of my projects over the next day or two is to assemble a small box full of cereal bars with these Help Cards attached.  I'll put it under the front seat console in my car so it's within easy reach when I want it.  And the next time the opportunity presents itself and the situation seems safe, I'll be prepared.

I just thought I'd share, since this seems like something small yet practical, and some of you might want to do it, too.