books and bedspreads

We had a pretty quiet weekend.   We did change the look of our bedroom by getting a new (and long overdue) bedspread.   I love TJ Maxx -- we found this beauty and it was a good price - I'm never sure if I should believe the 'compare to' price on their tag, but still know it was a good deal.  A bonus of this one -- since it has so many colors we were able to leave the brown bedskirt that we already had on the bed (this one didn't come with a skirt) and just retire the bedspread.  The lighter color really brightens up the room!

Leaving the old skirt on the bed also made it MUCH easier to make the swap.

While we were at the store I saw a sign for "toss pillows" -- when did they stop calling them "throw pillows"? My first silly thought was that throw pillows was seen as too intimidating, so they lightened it up with that name.  I canNOT call them toss pillows, nope they'll be throw pillows.....and 2 pillows that came with the bedspread say they are 'boudoir pillows'   - that's a new one to me.

We also made a trip to Lowe's, our home away from home.   Home ownership involves many trips to Lowe's.

Sunday I started making dessert for book club.   I'm hosting this month and the person hosting selects the book, leads the discussion and provides refreshments.   I'm making a dessert that is featured prominently in the book, I debated whether or not to do so since it is a dish I'd never heard of and couldn't even find a way to taste in town -- several Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants and a grocery store and none of them had it.  But, I decided to go ahead with it since we usually try to tie the dish (or dishes) to the book and since the recipe is IN THE BOOK its pretty much begging me to do so.   I broke the steps up into several evenings and finished it up tonight.   The dish is called ashure (or asure) and also referred to as Noah's pudding.   It had grains and beans and dried fruit (and sugar), ever heard of it?   Its unique, not my regular dessert but I can see the appeal.   I definitely would never have tasted it otherwise, hope my book club group likes it.   I love trying new things and learning about new places, and this dish and book very much achieve that -- book: Bastard of Istanbul, and in getting ready for book club I learned the author faced possible jailtime for some of what she wrote!   Here is the recipe i used.

April Fools

No April Fool here!    Mostly because I avoided social media and the web today.

Every year I fall for something, I've got 4 more hours so something will probably get me.

Its feeling like spring here in Houston and we are so happy about it!!

Mr Fix It

I have to brag on K for a few minutes - he's become quite the Mr Fix It.  Neither of us are very handy and so we are always so surprised when something we do actually works - I think he may have to admit to himself he IS handy now!!

Our blender had been leaking for a while, not a lot but it was definitely getting worse and was making a mess when we'd use it -- we use it a lot since we blend veggies for soups (its a texture thing).  Anyway, I'd resigned myself to having to buy a new one -- way back we'd tried to buy just the glass pitcher and couldn't find it so I figured parts weren't sold separately.  He kept at it, and found a way to buy the gasket and blade assembly and we figured out how to swap it out, and its like a new blender!  it cost $15 instead of $100+.   I also love that it allowed us to only replace what was really wrong and not toss an entire blender in the trash. I'm far from green but really do try to 'reduce, reuse, recycle'.

His other accomplishment was huge!   Our refrigerator is still fairly new and it infuriated us that the ice machine has never worked well.... we even had a repair man come out when it was under warranty and he did nothing and told us he guessed people in the country it was made in didn't use ice....what?!?!   ridiculous.

So we've gone on for years with ice trays, buying bags of ice and being annoyed (our old fridge had the water line FREEZE in the door, so we were used to ice/water dispensers in the door not working).   K did some research and found that ice maker is known to have issues, he ordered a new one, installed it (all by himself I never even saw the part) and suddenly we have ice to spare!  Why we waited so long, I'll never know, but I love it....We tossed the ice trays.....

It really is the little things that make my day, I'll drink more water now since I like it cold and he can have real 'iced' tea which he loves!!

Spring Break

Its beginning to look like spring around here and we are greeting it happily!   Still chilly some days, but there are afternoons when it feels and looks just gorgeous outside.

In preparation for the spring, we spent last weekend working on our patio.   By 'working on' I mean some retail therapy.   Most of the patio furniture we have is pretty old (its moved houses at least once, in some cases twice) and was showing a lot of wear and tear.  We got some new pieces, and accents for some old pieces and it looks like a new space!

It took trips to FOUR different stores, but we finally got what we wanted:

- new umbrella - with built-in solar powered lights (no more stringing up Christmas lights for us) - red - Home Depot
- two new chairs -- anti-gravity...sooo comfortable!  -- green - Sams
- an outdoor rug -- red and gold - Lowe's
- cushions for the chairs we did keep - multicolored to tie it all together - Lowe's
(we'd also gone to Ace looking for some equipment for the grill, had to order it)

Some of the pieces we didn't keep - a loveseat and table - will get a new home with brother-in-law.

The space is very relaxing and we'll be spending a LOT of time out there.

To kick off the season, we even ate dinner out there today!   We treated it as sort of a picnic, and I felt like I was playing hooky since we ate before I would get off work.   I wasn't playing hooky - we actually had a holiday on the work calendar!   Very nice to get a one day spring break from the university, faculty and students were off all week (read: ghost town).  K also had spring break this week - he relaxed and did a lot of grading!!

We really celebrated our spring break last night with a happy hour with some of my coworkers and their husbands.   It was our first time to all hang out, and won't be our last.   We started off at a tapas restaurant downtown, Batanga, and had so much fun we continued the evening next door, at Okra Charity saloon.  What is a charity bar?   I don't fully understand it, but part of their proceeds go to charity - and we get a say in which charity by voting with tickets we receive with each drink purchase.    The evening sped by, and when we finally did leave we were surprised to realize it was after 11 (we'd met up about 6)!

Kids' energy

Hello March!

I keep saying I don't like hot weather, but after this winter (and yes i know its a HOUSTON winter), I may have to admit that I prefer the heat to the cold...I think I like snow, but I like visiting it and getting to and from work in the cold is no fun (the garage we used to have at work spoiled me -- now when its cold/windy/raining I am out in it for a few blocks - also makes me realize a walkable city is great in nice weather but tough to deal with in extremes..

All that said, yesterday was gorgeous weather!   much appreciated after the cold, wind and rain we've had much of February (I still think we lucked out with the weather being fairly good for the conference).

We took some advantage of the weather and spent part of the day with our niece and nephew (and their daddy - Kevin's brother).  Glad we took advantage of yesterday since today will be rainy and this week we are back to cold... reminds me of a book i just read that talked about how March couldn't decide if it belonged to spring or winter.....


We spent part of the time at their daddy's house where we

- watched them on their skates/roller blades - nephew is getting pretty good, niece is having a tough time  - her feet go in opposite directions and I was always hopeless on skates so I'm no help.   She wears them and runs in the grass to keep up with brother, so she's still happy....

- took turns playing with them on the trampoline - they were on it constantly, and one of the 3 of us adults would get in there with them and bounce and try to 'pop' them up by jumping while they laid down on the trampoline.   My last time in there I dropped to my knees which popped nephew way up in the air, so far that it startled him and when he came down he had to go clean himself up - he'd actually peed his pants a little and admitted it (so glad he was laughing).

- gave nephew the book K found for him - he is a serious reader and kept asking us to be quiet while he read in the car.

We also went to eat at a restaurant along Lake Houston, Sharky's.  We'd wanted to sit outside, so did everyone (30-40 minute wait) so we settled on sitting inside - probably for the best so the kids would actually eat a bit.   We got the best table, one side was a long couch and both kids went to that side.

Great place for kids with their menus being color sheets and the whole table being covered with paper so even the adults could color and draw while we waited.

After we ate (K got niece to eat by timing the bites with her) we all went outside and they ran around a bit and we walked down the shore to see the boats tied up (a few people arrive to the shopping center on their boats).   Niece couldn't take her eyes off the boats, would've jumped into one if we let her.  We even got to see one group get into the boat, untie it and drive off......they want daddy to get a boat now, good luck to Daddy.....the only kind of boat i could get would be the kayak i saw one fisherman in....

We stopped off for froyo -- the concoction nephew made would've made me sick (chocolate ice cream and a ton of toppings including sour patch and gummy bears).

We had a great time, and I wish i could harness their energy -- back at the house it was back on the trampoline, and then to the skates as we were leaving.    Very glad they live close by....