Houston Area Live Steamers

Jason had a fun event planned for us this past Saturday.   We packed a picnic lunch and headed out.  It involved this:

That is a miniature steamer train.   My kids love trains.   They cheer when I get stopped by a freight train in my wanderings around Houston.  Jason found these and we headed out to Zube Park in Hockley to check out the Houston Area Live Steamers.   HALS is open to the public the 3rd Saturday of the month from March to Novemeber.   We got there about 11:00.  There was a pretty long line by that time.   They start giving rides at 9:00.   HALS do not charge admission, but will accept donations.

We waited in line about 30 minutes, but it seemed to go fast.   We watched the trains pull in and out of the station.   They had 3 or 4 trains running at the time.  As we waited, we got to watch them service a couple of the trains.  The people running the club are really friendly.   The trains are fascinating to watch.   As we entered the station, this was some of the fun signage they had:

When our turn came we climbed aboard.   The passenger seats are benches that you straddle.  

The ride was about 10 minutes.   The weather was an overcast, slightly breezy day which made the ride enjoyable.  They had cute signage along the route.   My favorite was "The Badlands, watch for snakes and alligators."  Here is a sign I had my camera ready for:

At the end of the ride we headed to the other side of Zube Park for picnic lunch and then playtime on the play structures.  

This park had some interesting play structures, but I didn't get any pictures of them.  We headed home after playtime to check in on the puppy we are puppy sitting.  

Four Legged House Guest

Since Friday afternoon, we've had a four legged house guest.   Her person returns on Wednesday evening.  She has been a lot of fun.   Her name is Missy and she is a six month old Havanese puppy.   My kids have wanted a dog badly for a couple of years now.   This is a good preview.   Friday night we took a walk around our neighborhood as a family.   Saturday brought more walks.  That night we gave her a bath.  She tolerates the kids well.   They play with her every chance they get.  Jason and I joke that she thinks the kids are fellow puppies.   She has some pads for toileting while we are gone.   She didn't appreciate us leaving twice yesterday, first to church and later to small group.   When we got home last night, the pad was shredded.   The kids and Jason cleaned it up while I walked her.  This morning she went with us to take my daughter to school.   We played a little fetch yesterday and this morning.   

Tug-o-war is another favorite game.  We're enjoying our little house guest.   Marcy, Missy says, "Hi!"

Book Review: When the Soul Mends

This is a sweet story of relationships restored after an Amish girl chooses to leave her famly and the plain ways.  A tragedy brings her back to her family for a visit.  She must deal with her past in order to go on with her future.

I thought this book would hold a lot of promise.  I enjoy fiction novels particularly about the Amish.   This title is the third in a series.  Since I jumped in the middle of the series, I spent the first 30-50 pages just trying to figure out who was who and their significance in the book.   I liken it to going to a family reunion where you know no one and continually ask, "Who was that?   Who do they belong to?"  There is a chart of the characters at the front of the book which I referred to frequently.   Once I had the characters and back stories straight, I was able to enjoy the book.  I would not recommend jumping into this book without reading the first two.  The character is very believable in her struggle between her past and her present lives.  The author is obviously versed in Amish custom because the Amish people are not mischaracterized. 

This was a good read once I got past my initial confusion.   It was well paced and interesting. 

I received this book free from Waterbrook-Multnomah Publishing for the purposes of review.   All opinions expressed are my own.  

Holiday Posting

I noticed my last post was at Easter.  Now I am posting about Mother's Day.  I hope to have time to blog about more than holidays going forward.  We've finished a home improvement project that was a huge time commitment.  That being said, I had to let other things slide.  I am gearing up for VBS at my church.   My projects are planned, my materials list is in, and we have a workdays to start prepping stuff this week and next.   I must say I have been blessed by the wonderful people God has put on my team this year.  I can tell they will be fabulous.  We are doing the art room for preschool.   How fun is that???   I want to have all the prep work done well before VBS, so I can sit back, execute the plans, and not be stressed by it all.

Last summer, I was CRAZY busy all summer.   I will not do that to myself again.   I hope to spend many days at the pool teaching my kids to swim, AGAIN.   Every summer I teach my kids to swim, then we spend some time at the beginning of the summer relearning.  I really wanted to put them on a summer swim team, but I am also cutting back on activities to avoid the CRAZY summer.  I think my daughter is going to take gymnastics lessons this summer, while my son takes a break from gymnastics.   I really wanted to put them in classes at the same time, but the class times don't match up.   Also, I will say...classes are not cheap.  Little man and I will get some quality time while sister takes her class.   She looks forward summer gymnastics because I won't let her take during the school year.  I am planning some morning schooling activities for us as well.   I am the mean Mama who makes my children school year round.   There is tremendous loss of knowledge with a long summer break.   We do school to keep this from happening.  Maybe one day the successful professionals my children become will thank me or maybe they will just hate me for it.

I started this post to talk about Mother's Day.   On Mother's Day, the kids bounced up out of bed at 7:00.   Jason and I just groaned and rolled over.   We have worn ourselves out with our project.  The kids were so cute.   They made invitations to a party.   Jason and I each got one.  They also posted signs leading up stairs to the party room.   I sat in the hula hoop with a crown on my  head to open...THE gift.   My daughter's teacher made each mother a book.   The students in the class drew a page about why he/she loved his/her mother.  She them compiled them all into a book and bound it.  It was really cute.  Jason gave me a beautiful rose bush.   The flowers are white with red tips.   I love roses.   I nursed three bushes back from the brink of death at our house in Woodridge.   I haven't had any roses to mess with since we moved from Illinois.   I'm excited about this one.   My first challenge right now is to keep alive through our drought.  We had a great morning at church.   Our church always gives gift to the oldest mother.   They have ALL the mothers stand up to start.   At 33, I sincerely doubt I am the oldest mother, but I did it anyway.   I used to hide in the balcony and not feel weird about standing up, but now we sit on the bottom floor and well, it is weird.   Two sweet 90 year olds won this year in our service.   They were as cute as could be.  After church, we came home and later went to my Mom's house.   We ate and spent time together.   It is a blessing to be back in Houston and get to see my Mom and Grandmother so regularly.  I enjoy getting to see my family.

I have several things to accomplish today.   I'm off.