Joe's Serengeti

Joe called this his Serengeti.  Hensley Lake was beautiful and we enjoyed kayaking there but it was super hot!  The hills were all brown dotted with trees.  Hardly any shade but kayaking and swimming in the lake gave much needed cooling down from the heat.

It was a tremendous blessing to have Joe discover he loves kayaking!  I was getting discouraged that we were running out of outdoor activities to try out. Joe has been suffering from a series of debilitating back issues that have limited what he can do physically.  We got that yellow kayak a few years ago.  It was a cheap one for me to try out and it’s a sit-on-top type.  While preparing for this trip, Joe saw the blue one at Walmart and he wanted to try it out.  He ended up not liking it.  It was too rickety and unstable for him.  We ended up switching while at Hensley and the yellow one was a better fit.

We just kept kayaking throughout our trip and we even tried fishing!  We don’t have very good luck fishing but we keep doing it.  It brings back great childhood memories for Joe and it’s relaxing.  Joe got some really good bites, lost a couple and caught a bass which he ended up releasing before I can get a good look!

 

The Return

 

My last post was September 2012.  Nearly 5 years have passed.  The hardest 5 years of my life but through it all, the Lord remained faithful and generous.  Joe and I went through fire.  Bits and pieces of that will come through in my future posts but for now I find myself more in love with him than ever.  We are looking forward to this new season, marked by our return to gardening and cooking! So I get to revive this blog. 

 

You can't really see the details of these roses but they are from our home.  Our "new" home since 2012.  We moved to the Capitol in 2014 to be closer to the business which we sold earlier this year.  A glimpse of that fire.

 

Joe got our  motorhome all ready for our trip to Hensley Lake.  This is our 2nd motorhome trip and it was last minute.  It's a 4-day holiday weekend so we were very short on options.  The view is spectacular and the lake is very accessible for our kayaks and fishing.  Two buts:  no sewer hook up and the picnic table and fire pit are on hill which is quite a steep hike from the motorhome!  The backdrop of trees in the rose picture is that hill.  I told Joe going up and down that hill means freedom to eat!

 

When I got home Friday afternoon, Joe has the rig all ready and when I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the mason jar of fresh cut roses from our garden!  Such a sweet and beautiful gesture to make this rig our home.  Joe has been specially attentive and caring these past few weeks.  Honestly borne out of the fire we went through and the healing path that the Lord has ordained for him.  I feel so blessed and just so, so loved.

 

no preservatives!

My Hubby is really sweet and thoughtful. For Valentine's Day he got me the usual bouquet of beautiful long-stemmed red roses delivered to my work and a funny card. I ended up staying home sick and went to work towards the end of the day to get my flowers. When he came home after work, he surprised me with Annie's Organic Ketchup! I was really touched and let me tell you why.

I absolutely love ketchup and eat it almost daily with breakfast. I don't eat a lot of it but I eat it often. For Lent I've given up preservatives...just trying to get all the junk food out and try to be purposeful about what I eat. For Ash Wednesday we had cornmeal-breaded cod for dinner. Now Hubby had introduced me to spicy ketchup - which is ketchup with sriracha in it and it's great with breaded fish. That night I couldn't have any. Hubby later told me he couldn't imagine how I would live a month without ketchup! So the next day he did some research about preservative-free ketchup and found me Annie's! I was so blessed by his gesture.

I did find a great beer for him that he hasn't had yet. Being the craft brew connoisseur that he is, it is becoming harder and harder to surprise him with one. Also got him some fancy dark chocolate with hickory smoked bacon:-) A great Valentine's Day for both of us.

choosing to be thankful

Hubby and I went to a great burger joint in town last month and shared some fries. I love the small, thin, crunchy ones. I never liked steak fries - I've always loved shoe string ones. We started calling them crunchies.

Once Hubby found out I love crunchies, he'd dig around for them and give them to me. Sometimes there'll be plenty and he'd put them in a pile. I would always be thankful and thought that was so sweet of him. And then it came out that he loves them too! I was truly moved and said, "And you've been giving them to me all this time???!!!" It was a no brainer for him and he continued to find me my crunchies.

I know these are just fries but I am trying to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness, regardless of how small or trivial it may be. I read about a blogger who wrote about how things really are. I don't necessarily have a problem with that but it gets tiring when the focus is always on how bad or hard things are. Those already draw focus on them - I don't need to do that. So while my posts seem to be trivial or always positive, that is purposeful. Although my life isn't perfect, I will choose to be thankful.

And today I am thankful for my Hubby who gladly sacrifices his "treasure trove of crunchies" for me:-)

new veggies

A very dear friend and her husband recently introduced us to parsnips. I've never had opportunity before to try it. They baked it with other root veggies and it was fantastic! So good that Hubby's decided to buy some.

I found a great and simple recipe that called for parsnips and carrots sautéed in honey and rosemary. Hubby hates carrots though so I substituted yams. Yum, yum, yum!

I also decided to cook Brussel sprouts for the very first time! I simply sautéed it in crispy pancetta - can't beat that!

These new veggie side dishes bookend some delicious smoked tri tip by none other than my sweet Hubby of course. God bless this dinner to our tummies!

how's this for NYE dinner?

We spoiled ourselves silly with this dinner for New Year's Eve courtesy of my dear Hubby who really is an excellent chef! Grilled lobster, seared ahi tuna and I made some stuffed wonton soup. Hubby made delicious dipping sauces for both lobster and tuna. That lobster tail was huge; we split it in half and we still didn't finish our share. We had enough leftovers for lobster omelet for breakfast the next day. The Lord is so generous!

I should ask more often

My Hubby loves to cook and he is excellent and creative at it. I do it more often though because I'm more organized and it is how I unload after work.

But dinners like this makes me think I should have him cook more often! This was for Sunday dinner and I asked him to whip up something. I told him he's got prawns to work with - our own version of Iron Chef. He made prawns and pancetta soft tacos with red and yellow peppers. It was excellent! He threw in some of our homemade chipotle. Another fantastic meal! My Hubby blesses my socks off.