What We’re Eating…

Well, a few days ago, Livy hopped on her play phone and I heard her say “Uh huh, a go. Nuggets. Fwies. Ok. Tank you!” Meaning that girl has heard us order take out one too many times and thinks dinner comes from the phone. So… time for me to get back in the kitchen, haha!

We did try the Turkey Taco Skillet from Christina at The Whole Cook on Monday and it was really good! (especially for our first time trying ground turkey). Her cookbook Clean Paleo One-Pot Meals comes out next Tuesday and I’m so excited to get mine! (and let it be known that we don’t eat clean or paleo, or even typically with one pot, but I do love her recipes! Don’t let the name convince you not to get it because her food is delicious and easy!).

And we’ve discovered when we are cooking at home that things are just better the more you do yourself (maybe that’s a duh kind of thing, haha!). So, we’ve started grating our own block cheese instead of buying pre-shredded, and the last few times we’ve made pizza, I’ve made the dough instead of buying it– so much better. And easy! It’s only a few ingredients and takes only about an hour to rise, so not that much bigger of a time commitment. We did cast iron pizzas Sunday night this way and they were pretty tasty!

What I’m Reminiscing About…

Well, my Amazon Photo app has been telling me the last week or two that two years ago we were in the thick of fellowship interview season! In about six weeks time, Steven interviewed in El Paso, New Orleans, Little Rock, Houston, our home program, New Orleans again, and Dallas, so we spent plenty of time in the car and ate a lot of good food! We had some fun adventures going all over, and made some fun memories all to ultimately get our first choice in staying right where we are, haha!

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What I’m Loving…

Buckle up because I’m about to be the ninety hundredth person on the Internet to tell you about Grove Collaborative… 😉 If you have spent any time on social media or listened to any podcasts over the last few years, I’m certain you’ve heard about Grove Collaborative, the online subscription/ box service for natural cleaning supplies. I was already mainly using Method products, but recently started using more Mrs. Meyer’s as well. So, it’s nice to get it all in the same place, with a little bit of a discount, and with a bigger selection than Target or the grocery store. But y’all- the low key MVP of Grove? That bubble up scrubber! It was my free gift with my first purchase, and I wasn’t expecting that much out of it honestly, but it does a good work on my cast iron, y’all. The bristles are much stiffer than I expected, so it’s good at really scrubbing, and then it completely rinses clean with no staining afterward every time. If nothing else, don’t sleep on that bubble up scrubber situation if you use cast iron skillets, pans, etc.!

What I’ve Been Up To…

Remember last month when I said the motto of 2020 was “Well, I just don’t even know”? I think the runner up is “Well, who would have thought?”

Case in point- Who would have thought that in the first quarter of 2020 we would have bought our forever dream ranch still in the first year of fellowship training, and then by the last quarter of 2020 we’d be full blown registered longhorn breeders and ranchers?? Not me, haha!!

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At the end of the summer, Steven’s brother and his wife started their longhorn herd and Steven got the bug. He started looking around and ended up finding a few that he liked, so we decided to take the plunge. After picking up those 3, I was hooked and starting researching on my own, which led me to the website of the absolute sweetest 90 year old man that’s been ranching/breeding longhorns for probably longer than we’ve been alive who was selling part of his herd about an hour and a half from us. We went out to visit him one Tuesday night and left having committed to buying 6 more that weekend. We’ve got 2 more coming from another ranch this weekend, but our base herd is about 13 now and we’re really happy with it! We never dreamed we’d get this into it, but it has been so, so fun and we’re just getting started. We registered with the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, and we are looking forward to really growing this herd over our lifetime. Right now we have all cows and heifers, with three that are pregnant so I think we’re doing pretty well for beginners! And they look gorgeous out by the lake when you drive by the ranch! 🙂 Since they are all registered, they have official names from their pedigrees and we’ve only gotten to name 2 so far and each one is named after our grandmothers- ‘Rece’s Pieces after Steven’s granny and Sweet Lady Sue after my grandma that passed away last December.

Steven has contemplated a cow dog for months now, like an Australian cattle dog or Border collie, but when he asked our 90 year old BFF about cow dogs, he said the only cow dog he’s ever had was a bucket of food because his cattle have always been that gentle and easy to work. So, Steven’s convinced now that this bucket is the only cow dog he needs 😉

This is a little long, but this was our first time to feed the girls by hand. They are all so gentle and sweet! Obviously we know they are still animals and keep an eye on them, but it was so fun to feed them! Also, I can’t get over Livy yelling “Woo hoo!” to them like the shopkeeper from Frozen (“Woohoo! Big summa blowout!”)

What I’ve Been Working On…

Not too much other than our normal day-to-day crazy. We are going through the book of Romans for our Side by Side Bible study, and we aren’t crazy about the MacArthur book we started with, so my mother-in-law kindly shared a bunch of her Romans resources and I’ve been cobbling together a Romans lesson from about 4-5 different books for the last few sessions. I am a very, very far cry from a Bible teacher so it’s been a lot of researching and work, but very informative and good for me! It’s been a great example of how hard work creates good fruit and good results even though it’s hard.

What I’m Excited About…

Cooler weather! It feels like we’ve had the snap where it’s not necessarily going to be cold any time soon, but I think we’re done with the absolute smothering heat. It’s cool in the mornings/ evenings and not as hot during the day. We need jackets for evening rides in the Gator at the ranch, so we’re headed in the right direction! 🙂

What I’m Watching/ Reading…

We are watching The Office through again just because I’ve been listening to the Office Ladies podcast but that’s about it. Normally I’m a big Dancing with the Stars fan but I haven’t really been able to get into this year.

I’m still finishing up The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi and then I want to read The Heir Affair and Majesty next, both sequels to books I loved!

What I’m Listening To…

My usual podcasts and whole lot of children’s music, haha! Livy has become a tiny parrot so I’ve been trying not to listen to my stuff in the car while we drive just because I have no idea what she’s going to repeat. What I listen to isn’t explicit or anything, but it just seems safer to rock that Baby Shark, haha! Plus it’s fun to hear her sing and dance along!

What I’m Wearing…

Scrubs for part of the week, athleisure for the other, haha! It is getting a little cooler, so I’ve been wearing more jeans and fewer tank tops, which is nice.

And remember that giant bag of clothes I’d cleaned out of my closet last month? Explain to me how even after that, I opened my closet one day and the L bracket had fallen down on the long side and the rod had completely fallen out, I guess due to too much weight. Steven tells me I need to get rid of stuff if my closet rod won’t even stay up, and I thought, I just did, how am I supposed to clear out more?! Clearly I have way too many clothes, haha!

What I’m Doing This Weekend…

We are picking up more longhorns! 😉 We are getting two from our new 90 year old BFF for us and my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law is getting a few from another ranch for himself and us. Then we’re all meeting back at the ranch for the rest of the weekend.

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month…

I can’t think of anything in particular I’m looking forward to, but October seems to be shaping up to be pretty busy, maybe more just like regular life again. Steven’s birthday is next month, so we always look forward to celebrating him!

What Else is New…

Well, on Labor Day weekend, Mama got a new car!

Since we’ve been married, I drove Steven’s mom’s old 2008 Expedition. She was really good to us, but Harriet (that’s what I named her when she became new to me 😉 ) was staring down the barrel of needing a lot of upcoming repairs, and with all the good deals on new ones, we decided to just bite the bullet and upgrade! The dealership here local to us had one on the lot that was exactly what we wanted, and now we have Rosita the 2020 Expedition! And I have to say, it does look pretty cute to have matching vehicles on the driveway. And she looks good with my Tech emblem and alumni license plate frame!

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About a week after we got said new car, we drove to Round Rock to get take out from our favorite Mexican food restaurant and go to the park. When we got to the park, all the picnic tables were taken, so we decided to have a tailgate picnic like we usually do, only we were in my Expedition and I don’t have a tailgate… Steven had everything spread out in the cargo area/ folded down 3rd row but Livy seemed just a little too unwieldy and I had visions of queso flying all over the back of my brand new car so we pivoted to the ground. And it was fun! Livy got filthy, but she enjoyed it. 😉

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These are all from the first weekend we brought longhorns in. It was fun, but Livy girl was tuckered out from all that ranching!

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We brought the other 6 out the next Friday, and Steven’s parents had his granny out for the weekend. We had fun playing with our sweet cousin, and we were still pretty tuckered from all our longhorn ranching 😉 It was fun to show Granny her namesake and take her for a tour of the ranch since she hadn’t seen it yet!

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The Perini Market near the ranch has the adorable stuffed longhorns. Steven and I ran in to grab some new t-shirts and Daddy couldn’t resist getting his little ranchers their own herd 😉

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We geared up to watch Tech play UT last weekend only for a sour ending (they lost in overtime after blowing a 15 point lead with 3 minutes left…). Henry is growing so fast and Livy is so petite that they are actually both wearing size 12 month outfits here… It’s going to be sooner rather than later that he becomes her younger brother instead of little brother!

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Even though we didn’t do church in person, I still snapped a few Sunday porch pictures since those munchkins kinda matched. I’m really hoping Henry survives his childhood because Livy can be a little aggressive with her love, haha!

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And our little love turned five months last month! He’s not really all that little… He’s wearing 6-9 and some 9-12 month clothes and moved up to his big kid car seat this week because he was getting too heavy to carry in the infant seat. He’s now able to sit independently, roll all over the place, and will get up on all fours like he’s going to crawl, but so far has only made it backwards. That sweet little grin just melts me!

Alright, that’s a wrap on September, y’all! Happy Fall and Happy October! 🙂