Adventures in Texas - Sculpture Days!

So, this summer I decided to make the most of my six, yes, 6 weeks off from school and have adventures with the children and S. We have gone and done some pretty fun things. Look for more updates about the things we did this summer as the weeks progress.

In no particular order......

Adventure 1 - Sculptures, sculptures everywhere!

Managed to get into the waterfall with getting soaked!

Today was Family Day at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Zilker Park. I saw a posting for this event last month in the Free Fun in Austin blog but I didn't go because, well..... I was too lazy. I mean, pack up two kids, go to an unknown event where Superboy might have to behave just scares me. Today though, I was looking for something free to do and this posting popped up again so I thought, why not give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that he breaks a few million dollar statues right? I packed up the kids, called a friend and she packed up her kids, and then we went off to see what the hoopla was all about.

We got to the Umlauf, and I was so pleasantly surprised! The building itself reminded me of a cross between the Botanical Gardens on St. Croix and an art gallery. There was this great little waterfall to the right of the building that the kids loved exploring and that filled the air with the melodic sounds of water flowing down rocks.  From there we entered into the atrium and listened to a story being read. It was about an Octopus - how appropriate! Superboy ended up talking to the nice lady from Book People all about animals like rattlesnakes, wolverines, and badgers and how cool they were. I think she left that conversation missing an ear or two!

Scavengers on the hunt.

The wonderful ladies at the Umlauf gave each child a photo scavenger hunt of different sculptures and a dry erase marker so they could cross off the sculptures as they found them.  The little little ones LOVED this and had a great time. The older ones liked the challenge of finding different statue hands, but were not as excited as the littles.  The Umlauf also had a sand pit where the kids could make sandcastles, volcanoes, and roadways.  There was sand and water involved so my island kids had a BLAST!  I would say that this was the highlight of the trip.

Playing in the sand.

In short, other than the slight heart attack that I had when we were inside and Superboy almost knocked over a 3 million dollar statue, it was a highly successful day where they ALL had a blast. Do I recommend taking your kids to the Umlauf? Yes, should you expect them to want to go back every week - umm, probably not, but I think they will be up for it once every few months.  This trip gave me the idea that doing a scavenger hunt for all ages would be the way to go when we go to a questionable locale on our next adventure.

In order to end our day, we went Amy's Ice Cream in the Arboretum.  It was cool - they had great flavors. I got Mexican Vanilla, Superboy got Sweet Cream with gummy bears, and A got a Melon Sorbet - I think A's was the most refreshing. We then went to go see the granite cows in the little park behind the shops.  The kids all loved climbing on these statues and riding the cows off into the sunset!

Tandem cow riding!

Go have a sculpture adventure today and tell me about it sometime.

The Ease of Living?

Who cares about playing in the mud and looking
funky if it's for a good cause right?

I was talking with a friend on the East Coast the other day - HELLO! (you know who you are) - and she asked me what was the most surprising thing about moving. I had to think about that one. There are really two things that super surprised me - no wait, three.

1) The move was easy. No, REALLY easy. I don't mean the packing or the actual planning of the move. Nor do I mean the sale of the house or all the angst of picking a place, but the settling was/has been easy. I remeber driving down Ben McCullum - see Anna, I know the lingo - about two weeks after we moved and I caught myself thinking how I felt like I had been here for years not weeks.  I had settled. I was still unemployed at that point, didn't know where anything was, didn't know anyone, we didn't have our stuff, but it(Texas) felt..... right. It was scary. How could I uproot myself and my family from all we had known for YEARS and move to an alien place and it feel right after all of two weeks? Was I a traitor to my island blood, my Caribbean way of life? On the contrary, I think living in such a wonderful place like St. Croix actually prepared me to assimilate and adapt as well as I have.

2) It is EASY to live here. Everyone is SO friendly, helpful, and prompt that life is easy. I can call the gas company and almost before I hang up, someone is knocking on my door to help out with whatever issue I had. I can get home and open the rice and there are no weevils (STX peeps know what I mean), I can take said OPENED unweevily rice and RETURN it with no receipt, no questions asked!!! There are 2 groceries, 3 drugstores, 4 gas stations, 3 banks, 3 community pools, and a MALL(!!!!) around the corner from our house.  The selection in all of those places is unbelievable, the prices are cheap, and there is way more than I could EVER want in any of those places.  Oh, did I mention there is are 2 Targets AND Walmarts within a 6 mile radius of us too? OVERKILL!

My kids moaning about the cold.

3) Everyone blows small issues out of proportion - and not in a good way.  The other day A had a swim meet - her first of the summer and it rained! Which, by all reckonings is rare in drought prone Texas. It was a nice morning between 5:30 and 7:00 am, but then it started to downpour. The kids were all under tents out of the rain, they all had chairs or shared, the meet was going on even though it started a whole 15 minutes late, it was all good to me. Heck it could have been worse right? No, it wasn't comfortable and it wasn't ideal, but kids have to learn to roll with the punches right? Apparently, I was the only one that thought so. Parents were incensed that the meet started late, that the relay's got cancelled due to time constraints, that it was raining, and horror of all that the kids had to stop swimming due to lightning. SIGH. It COULD have been WAY worse. I have noticed, that people complain if it doesn't rain, complain it if rains, complain if the DMV takes 15 minutes instead of 10, b!tch and moan if they can't do what they want when they want, etc.  Sometimes I want to jack slap all the whiners and tell them that spending time together and with family is what is important, that life could be so much worse. They could pay .50c a KW for electricity and NOT have AC, have to choose between wilted lettuce and tasteless tomatoes, have to prep for a hurricane, etc.  I know NOT everyone is this bad, but I do notice a trend of people that don't look on the bright side of life and forget to be grateful for what they do have.

All in all, I love living here. We now have some great friends, have done things that took us out of our comfort zone, gotten a job, bought a house, and enjoyed our experiences here. I do hope that both children remember to savor the bumps or potholes in the road, go with the flow, but appreciate the ease of life here.  C still dresses up as whatever he wants to when we go out. He still LOVES his pirate boots, but has now discovered super heros. A still prefers climbing trees to wearing dresses and shopping (thank goodness!). S still loves to clean and keep house(can I get down on my knees and thank my lucky stars?), and I  still like doing too much with too little time.

Living here in Texas has given me appreciation for the easy way of life that could be mine, but I still like to throw curve balls in everyone in a while, like trying to be two places at once that are 50 miles apart.  It makes life ............... i n t e r e s t i n g.

Life, Crazy life

I feel like my life has been crazy. What am I saying? Life HAS been crazy and I don’t see it getting any easier in the next few months either. SIGH  Between school, family life, and trying to keep us going on a sane schedule, we made the mad, crazy decision to leave St. Croix.

SSIIGGHH. 

Don’t get me wrong, we are excited to start a new adventure, to expand our horizons, and try new things, but you know, leaving is SCARY, hard, and WAY too much WORK!  There are tons of reasons why we chose this time to leave here, and tons of reasons why we could have stayed, but once we laid the cards on the table, it made more sense to leave STX than stay right now.  I know those of you living up where it gets cold and whom have know us since I was little are probably just shaking your heads right now in disbelief. I don’t blame you; I shake my head in disbelief and can’t really grasp the thought that in (hopefully) less than a month we will no longer be on this bright little jewel in the Caribbean. St. Croix will ALWAYS be where my heart is and a HUGE chunk of my heart will be consumed with my love for this island; but it is NOT the island of my youth anymore.  It has changed so much in the last few years- but especially in the last 8 months – that I almost don’t recognize her. 

People don’t seem to care for our way of life here anymore, yes things are getting hard economically, but that isn’t even what I mean.  What I mean is that there are so many more people here now who are being bad elements. There are more burglaries, shootings, hold ups, rudeness, drive by shootings, and just general disrespect going on that it saddens me and makes my heart feel burdened. I feel that we have lost our way and need good government and sensible people to help bring us through our rough times.  We need visionaries who can give up their own agendas to bring St. Croix through her hours of darkness and back into the light.

Will St. Croix be what she was when I was growing up? Probably never again – we have gotten too big, been exposed to too many outside “values”, and been shown how the outside world lives to ever return to the good ol’ days. Will St. Croix once again become a place where many people can live in harmony, support one another, look out for their neighbors, and where people will stop to help those in need? Yes. Will that happen over night? No.

I think this transformation needs to start in the home – if you see your child being mean to another – STOP them. If your child disrespects you because you haven’t been a parent who has rules – make some rules and give your child consequences. If you allow your children to be disrespectful, take wheat doesn’t belong to them, and have no consequences then you will get more of the same as they become adults.  

Maroon ridge view

After giving our children consequences for their actions, we need to look to our governmental leaders. If they aren’t working to better this place we call home, why keep them in office? Why do we pay them the money we do? Is it so they can pass legislation renaming roads? Maybe it is so they can return money that the Feds give us for our schools so our children fall further behind in education? Hmm, no? Oh, I know, it’s so those politicians can steal more money from us and further weaken our economy.   Heck, if I didn’t do my job, I’d be fired in an instant – why can’t we fire our Senators if they don’t do a good job?

ANYWAY – this post wasn’t supposed to be about St. Croix’s ills, it was supposed to be about our crazy life and how by leaving I have made it crazier.  SO yes, I have been a hermit these last 4 weeks trying to do school, pack, not kill my husband or kids when things got crazy, empty the fridge, learn all about the moving process, and not tear my hair out trying to figure out how to do EVERYTHING I want to do before we leave. Life is CRAZY here right now, but we enjoying all of our remaining time on St. Croix because I want to impart my love of this place to my children before we leave. 

We have gone hiking, chaney hunting, ruins rambling, Taino Indian learning, taken part in food events, gone to the farmer’s market, spent time with friends, played on the beach, etc.

There is still so much to do!

Sunrise over St. Croix

If you don’t see me out and about it is because I am trying to get in a last minute dive, go to Buck Island, walk the beach at sunset, watch the sunrise over Point Udall, go down that road I ALWAYS wanted to explore, climb that mango tree, snorkel the reef at Jack’s and Issac’s, and generally just explore this beautiful island paradise.  I want to drink Tamarind juice, eat Armsrong’s Ice Cream, have another Pate, eat another Roti, have a rum drink at Buck Island, swim a beach I have never swam before, take pictures of everything, lime in Christiansted, explore the back streets of Frederiksted. I want to go horseback riding in the rainforest on a fast horse, see the tide pools at Annaly, go to Maroon Ridge, I want to breathe in our salt air, smell the rain on the hot ground, feel the Tradewinds caress my skin after coming out of the ocean. In short, I want to take all my favorite parts of St. Croix wrap them up in my heart and carry them with me so that when the going gets tough on our new adventure I can pull out each memory or experience and remember what a charmed life we had here and what a truly special place this little island in the Caribbean is.

St. Croix is where my heart is. Where is your heart?

These boots were made for walkin'.......

deep sea explorer

In about February, my friend Anna was leaving island and while at her house I saw these über cute cowboy boots that I thought would be super fun and super cute for C to wear. She gladly gave them to us as handme downs. I think we were the 3^rd child to get them.  They were some well loved footwear by the time we got them.

beach boots!

These boots have been used as cowboy boots, firemen boots, astronaut boots, exploring boots, and most recently fisherman boots. They have been used for stomping on gongolos, running, climbing, holding swords, hiking, hiding things like toys and leaves, cars have ridden in them, they have been worn to town, the grocery, to the beach, to see horses, on boats, and to bed. THANK YOU ANNA for providing fun hand me down footwear for my kid for the last 7 months.  I can count the times on one hand that C has worn other footwear in that time frame – umm, 5 times. HE LOVES those boots!

During this whole time that C has been wearing the boots, it has been without socks so you can imagine the stench that emanates from them when they are removed. They must be taken off outside and they never come inside anymore.  Even the bugs that get put into them come out gasping for air! He has sweated in them, put dirty feet into them, had pee accidents in them…. You get my drift.

boot love!

It has gotten such that when people see C and he doesn’t have his boots on they ask him what happened to the boots? He will answer I left them at home, or they needed a rest.  He hears EVERY reference to his boots when we are out(EVERY SINGLE ONE) and answers with a “Tanks! I love my botas”. He even asks complete strangers if they like his boots.  He would sleep with them on if I let them come into the house off his feet.  He models them - naked.  When I ask him if he wants to wear his shoes and am holding the boots, he says “Not papos mami, botas(not shoes mommy, boots)”! The kid cracks me up!

garbage boots going
on assignment!

Sadly though, the age of these particular boots must come to an end.  On Friday he decided to go wading into the sea to catch fish while wearing the boots.  Salt water, sand, and fish are not friends of leather boots.  Not sure how I am going to explain to him why the boots must be trashed, but would you want to wear something that has foot stench, salt water, fish, and sand smell? He probably wouldn't mind but I and the rest of the family on the other hand.......

So Adieu dear boots, adieu. It has been fun, and one day we will get another pair, but for now – out you go.  Enjoy your well deserved rest in boot heaven where all well loved boots must go.

       

The Summer of Ice Cream!

Pure ingredients

It seems like in years past each summer has had a theme. Last summer was jams and jellies. This summer has been ice cream!  When I was little my Dad made homemade ice cream every once in a while.  I don’t know why he didn’t make it more often, but I do remember that we had an old White’s Mountain hand cranked ice cream maker. It was the kind you had to put rock salt and ice into.  Maybe we didn’t make it more often because my Mom didn’t like the egginess of homemade ice cream, or maybe because finding rock salt on the island was hard back then.  Who knows, but I do remember being sad when Hurricane Hugo destroyed it.

The secret to tropical ice cream!

A few years back, my Dad got a new Cuisinart ice cream maker that was electric and had a freezer bowl. It was genius! He started making ice cream again, and since he usually had an excuse to make it when we came for dinner, it became tradition for A to tell him what flavor to make. He started making Cinderella and Ariel ice cream….. what is that exactly? It’s vanilla ice cream or almond flavored ice cream that has been dyed the appropriate color to match the Princess in question’s dress. Hence blue ice cream for Cinderella and pink or red ice cream for Ariel.  My niece L also got into and started asking for Aurora ice cream, and then later Pocohantas ice cream. I am sure that is Disney got a hold of this site, they would make an even larger fortune!

Mixing

Anyway, I have an attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer that promises to make ice cream. I tried it once and it worked marginally. This summer, I was determined to figure it out and make it work!  So, I experimented – a lot J

Tricks to using a KA ice cream attachment in the Caribbean:

1.     FREEZE your bowl for at LEAST 5 days.

2.     Chill in the freezer your cream for at least 2 hours before you mix it into your base

3.     After mixing your base, CHILL for 2 days in fridge or FREEZE for 8 hours.

4.     Start mixing as EARLY in the morning as possible(5 am is NOT too early in this case)

5.     Cover your KA with a fluffy bath towel while it is mixing.

6.     Once mixed and soft serve consistency, place into metal or ceramic bowl and put back into freezer at least overnight

7.     Eat with friends and family outside while admiring the lingering heat of the day

Basic ice cream recipe:

1C whole milk*

1C sugar

2C cream

4-6 egg yolks(large)

flavoring

*The more whole the milk you use, the creamier the ice cream

Scald milk and sugar in pan. Beat yolks in separate bowl. Add scalded milk to yolks once milk is slightly cooled. Mix continuasly so yolks don’t cook.  Return to stove top and stir until the mixture coats the back of your spoon. Once it is thick and coats spoon, mix into super chilled cream, add flavoring and chill in fridge or freezer.

Some notes: If you are using whole flavorings like mint leaves, cinnamon, rosemary, etc steep those in the scalded milk for at least 30 minutes then rewarm milk and add to yolks after removing flavoring(or not – your preference)

Some of our favorites this summer were:

Mango and Morita Chili

Rosemary, Blood Orange Olive Oil, and roasted Pepitas

Chocolate Decadence with Cocoa Nibs

French Vanilla

Mint Chocolate Chip with real mint leaves

Mamey, Cinnamon, and Piloncillo

Mango

Mamey

I have a few other flavors up my sleeve but will not tell you about them just yet!

We enjoyed this summer’s theme. Did your summer have a food theme?

Where has it gone?

Sailing camp

The summer is at an end.  About 3 months ago I had all these plans for our down time. I was going to clean out closets and under beds, go to the beach 3 times a week, finish a quilt, pick up a few other sewing projects, cook up some great meals, fix the garden beds, explore a different part of St. Croix every two weeks, etc. 

Here is what I ACTUALLY accomplished – cooked great meals, ran errands, took A to multiple camps, ran C around to different play grounds, played with both kids, started tutoring, became a mom mobile, hung at the beach, made new friends, explored science stuff with the kids,  cleaned the house,  read, put our dog to sleep,  rediscovered Buck Island, realized that I NEED salt water, built multiple train track configurations, did arts and crafts with A, and had a GREAT time.

Watermelon Ice Pops!

Did I accomplish what I wanted to accomplish – no. Did I get frustrated when I realized that my closet and under my bed is still a mess – yes, but did I also get to create some wonderful memories with my family – YES. Was it a good summer despite not getting through my to do list? Most definitely!

I think that A has had the best summer of her life to date. She was in Danica David’s art camp and got to do art 5 days a week for 1 month, she made new friends, went of field trips, and got bitten by the art bug.  Here is a video clip of their end of the camp song:

Then she met not one, but two new friends named Alex. If she doesn’t marry the one later in life I’m going to be crushed. She made new girl friends who allowed her to stay multiple nights in a row for sleepovers, she swam in someone’s pool or the ocean everyday, she learned how to sail, she had friends over to play all the time, and she had 2 birthday celebrations!

Birding at the Buccaneer

C got to go play at the beach a lot, he played in his sandbox, got Mommy all to himself, and missed his sister ALL the time! He took walks, learned how to speak a ton more, came up with some great witticisms, and started requesting odd, odd, odd songs at bed time. Anyone ever hear of the song about the Farmer who ate his chickens pollos, the big friendly dinosaur who played with horses, or the some about the bleeding dog in the bushes? I hadn’t before this summer, but now I know them VERY well.

I LOVED my summer and I’m not really too disappointed that I didn’t clean out the closets or under the bed. There are more important things in life.  How was your summer?