He Leadeth Me

It seems that these days, I am blessed to be the Nana  or the friend of young parents with small children.   A precious friend, Allison, shared this excellent Blogpost on  parenting in Facebook. Because she was kind enough to mention that I had once encouraged her when she was a young single mother,  I thought I owed it to her and to other young parents to make a confession. If you haven't already clicked on the link above, please click below Blogpost:  The Actual Pastor , and then read on. I confess, I have said the words “You should enjoy every moment now! They grow up so fast!” I now know, and should have remembered from when my children were little, that this is a  terrible thing to say to parents who are working hard  to do the very best job possible of raising children who love and respect God and their fellowman.   I also have had some actual experience knowing that alth...

I LOVE Muffaletta sandwiches! My mom grew up in New Orleans  which probably influences my tastes. According to Wikapedia   The muffuletta sandwich has its origins at the  Central Grocery  in the  French Quarter  of New Orleans. [ 4 ] According to Marie Lupo Tusa, daughter of the Central Grocery's founder, it was born when Sicilian farmers selling their produce at the nearby Farmers' Market would come into her father's grocery for lunch and order some salami, ham, cheese, olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or a round muffuletta loaf. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately sitting on crates or barrels while precariously balancing their meals on their knees. Her father suggested cutting the bread and putting everything on it like a sandwich, even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. The thicker braided Italian bread proved too hard to bite and the softer round muffuletta loaf won out. Shortly, farmers cam...

I LOVE lemons.  The other night, when I was slicing a lemon, my son commented, "I wonder how many lemons you have sliced in your life." I have no idea how many I have sliced, but I do know where the best lemons in the world come from. David's parents, Ruth and Leon, have a lemon tree in their backyard in California.  As far as I know, they don't spend a lot of time nurturing the tree. It just does its thing, and its thing is growing amazing lemons. Every trip that we make to California, you can bet that lemons come back home in the suitcase.  And before we use them, I always wash them with soap and water.  I never do that with store bought lemons, but Leon taught me that when you pick lemons from his tree, you wash them well. And so I do. YUMMY!  

This is the scene when the dads and Ducca watch the boys while the mama's talk. The room is a wreck. The chairs are turned on their sides. The guys are watching football. And the children are happy.

In our neck of the woods, the cherries have been both beautiful and delicious this summer. I didn't really know that I needed a cherry pitter, but every time Caleb ate one of my cherries he asked, "Do you have a cherry pitter?" Of course, Bed Bath and Beyond carries Cherry Pitters along with every other kitchen gadget known to man. I'll have to admit, cherry pitters are pretty handy devices. Happy Cherry Eating!  

OK, I'll admit to being a geek sometimes. This summer I decided that since we have so many visitors to our lovely city that I would see if I could spot all 50 states' license plates. We are a little over 2 months into the summer and I have spotted all but 4 states. I keep a sheet like this in each of our cars so I can highlight the states when I see them. As you can imagine, I am driving everyone who rides with me crazy saying things like "Speed up so I can see what state that is!" But they are being good sports about it and helping me out. I have even seen a Canadian province--Ontario. There are 4 states that I haven't seen yet. If you haven't already looked at the photos below, try to guess what they are before you peek. Rhode Island is understandable. I would have thought South Dakota would be easy, but maybe they have such a small population that there are not that many cars. The other two I don't have are Connecticut and Del...

After taking Sweetie to the Denver Airport to head back to Houston, Kelly, David and I stopped by the 16th Street Mall in Denver. A Canada Day celebration was in full swing. I think this little guy is definitely more excited about being a US citizen than about our relationship with Canada. I couldn't help but reflect on how blessed we are to have peaceful and friendly neighbors to our north. Happy Canada Day!  

Kelly and Adrian recently made a purchase that sounded interesting, until I saw "her" in action, and then it sounded FANTASTIC! and a Must Have! Meet our newest toy, or perhaps the newest member of our family, The Roomba , floor cleaning system. Yes, it is a robot, that vacuums our floors. As a matter of fact, The Roomba is cleaning RIGHT NOW while I am writing this blog. Now I need your help, loyal readers. Kelly and Adrian have already chosen the very best name for their Roomba. She is Rosie--remember Rosie from the Jetsons? We can't top that, but we sure do want a good name so that we don't have to say to each other each time we clean. Can you get out the Roomba Vacuum Cleaning System? Just a little too formal, wouldn't you say? So start those names suggestions coming in the comment section and the winning entry will receive................... DRUM ROLL!!!! OUR ETERNAL GRATITUDE

As many of you know, my husband is VERY creative. I have learned through the years to appreciate his ingenuity. Right now, he is in a cast on his left hand for a ruptured ligament which makes it very hard for him to clip his fingernails. When I am in town, I serve as his nail technician, but when I am traveling, he has had to come up with an alternate method of clipping his nails. Introducing the Clippers on a 2X4. Do you think he should market this? Maybe we could make a million. Gotta love being married to a smart man!!!

These pictures are of two sweet friends (Sue and Barbie) as they arrived to visit me at Denver International Airport. I will blog more about their visit later, but needed some airline themed photos for this blog. You see, I am flying between Denver and Houston and am actually blogging using Southwest Airlines WiFi. Amazing that you can use the Internet when flying thousands of miles high in the sky. Also amazing that I am a little bit disturbed that the internet connection is so slow. How spoiled we have all become!! If you comment in the next few minutes, I will read it while flying the friendly skies. (Oops! Guess I am mixing my airline phrases.)

I was tagged by Heather from Taste of the Texas Life The Rules 1. You must post the rules. 2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself on the blog post. 3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post. and then create 11 new questions for the people you tagged. 4. Tag people and link them on your post. 5. Let them know you've tagged them! 11 Fun (or not so fun) Facts: I am originally from Texas and have found that here in Colorado I see a Texas license plate at least once a day. When I do, I often break out into the song, "Texas, Our Texas". I am a breast cancer survivor. I have 4 wonderful children (2 biological and 2 who my biological children chose) who live close to me. I love to read children's and young adult books. My favorite food is Tex-Mex. I do not have a middle name and use my maiden name, Aven, as a middle name. This is not the first time in my life I have worn a wig. I wore one in high school because it was the rage. I have a habit of falling dow...

Who says there's nothing to do in Searcy, Arkansas? photo by Gail Aven

When my family was in town, this is where all the shoes landed. This picture just makes me SMILE!

There is a neat little Farmer's Market called Froberg's in Alvin, Texas The entire time I lived in Houston, I had never visited this wonderful place. When I was in Houston for my niece, Jenny's wedding, my mom, sister and sister-in-law spent one morning picking strawberries at Froberg's. The fruit was everywhere, and we were picking away. Aunt Kim Aunt Gail Definitely the pro--she takes her grandsons a lot during strawberry season. Sweetie Yummy! I must admit that after about 20 minutes of picking fruit for fun, I had a whole new appreciation for people who do this kind of work for a living.

Jeremy and Mandy's friends from Lubbock days, Jared and Rachel, along with their little boy Colton, visited recently. No wonder Jared and Jeremy are such good friends. They look like they could be brothers.

.......but you can't take the South out of the girl. It's snowing outside and I'm drinking iced tea.

I miss my blogging friends. Things have been a little hectic in my world. I will be back soon. Hope your Christmas is a happy one.

Being a Native Houstonian, I haven't experienced many "true" autumns except the one year we went "leaf peeping" in the Northeast. I am thoroughly enjoying the display of color this year. These photos were taken from my front yard, looking up and down the street. Thank you, God, for the beauty of Fall. "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus "Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." ~Elizabeth Lawrence

It is finally Fall here in Colorado Springs. The locals say that autumn is making a late arrival, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the lengthy summer! I must admit though that when I went out this morning and it was rainy, and the trees were changing colors, that autumn sneaked up and charmed me. These pictures were not taken at the local Farmer's Market, but from the display on my coffee table. Welcome Autumn! I had an e-mail from a sweet friend the other day questioning if everything was OK in my family. She said that I hadn't posted on my blog since the middle of September and she was worried. Just in case others have wondered the same thing, all is well! We are just super busy! I have been in the Denver airport for the past 3 weekends and will be there again this weekend flying to Houston and to Las Angeles. Busy, busy times but things should calm down in November just in time for the holidays. So, please don't give up on checking my blog. I will return when life gets a...

It is a Gibson family tradition to devour Mellocreme Pumpkins by the fistful during autumn. It's as American as Apple Pie. But this is crazy. Pumpkins in the stores already?? It's only September for heaven's sake. Miss Lea, you're going to have to wait a while for your pumpkins. (Inside joke--if you don't get it, it's OK).