Relaxing in March

In no particular order, here are a few random little pictures I've taken lately...
This book ("That's Not My Dinosaur") is Alex's all-time favorite so far! In fact, its one of Amy's favorite books, too. As such, there are strict rules of fairness concerning its use: Alex gets it whenever he wants (it was his Christmas gift from Aunt Sue, after all!), Amy gets it whenever Alex isn't reading it, and we all snuggle up on the couch to read it together first thing in the morning!

A classic Alex moment! And if you can take your eyes off the cute guy in the middle, you'll notice the new rug we've put down in the dining room. Alex enjoys lying (and rolling) on it while Amy plays nearby (Amy was in the sun, though, so my pictures of her did not turn out this time...)

We and a few friends went to the zoo a few weeks back. The weather was perfect, it was fabulous to catch up with old friends again, and the kids had a wonderful time. What more could you ask for?!

Here, Amy enjoys "riding" a turtle statue when we stopped for lunch. She had a fabulous time at the zoo, is now in love with penguins, and frequently announces, "Tomorrow I am going to the zoo!" :)

The Best Way To Start The Day...

I suppose you could call it our first date -- the first time Eric and I met at a little French coffee shop a few miles from my parents' house. Now I am introducing Amy to the coffee shop, and she loves having breakfast there!

Cookies for breakfast, anyone?! Who IS that child's mother??

Amy loves coloring on the children's menu and sharing her food with her kitty cat.

My happy girl (who loves to pick out all the pink sugar packets and arrange them on the table)!

"Uncle A'thy" comes to visit...

Last week, Br. Anthony was in town for his annual home-visit!


Just because he likes to (or, as he said, because pregnant women and people with broken hips shouldn't have to cook!) he made almost every dinner. Mmmmm!!


We took him to Cabela's with us -- his first time at the store & I'm sure not his last! Here, he and Eric check out one of the many amazing animal displays (I think this is the safari one). Unfortunately, I was having so much fun myself that I forgot to take very many more pictures here...


... although I did snap this one. I think Amy wanted the camo chair! Or maybe it was me who fell in love with it -- have you ever seen such a perfect toddler-sized recliner?!


So I didn't buy the recliner. Instead, we left the store with two tents -- Br. Anthony's purchase so the monks can do camping trips in the gorgeous Italian mountains. I wonder if they'd take us along if we suddenly showed up at the monastery......!


Br. Anthony with Mom and Dad...


Br. Anthony with Amy and I.

Photo Essay: our visit to Stillwater, MN

Last weekend we flew to Stillwater, MN, for a dear friend's wedding...

I couldn't resist including a couple pictures from the day before we left, though! Amy got these balloons from the cashier at the grocery store.


She loved them...


A lot!


We didn't realize Amy had found this exciting new game... until the entire roll had been unraveled in the hotel room!


Here, Amy plays with a puzzle she received as a gift from the bride. She was enthralled for hours!


The happy couple!!


Amy and her Godmother -- such a beautiful bride!


Amy enjoys a milkshake to boost her energy after an evening of dancing and running at the reception!


Watching planes zip down the runway -- so exciting!!

Girls' Morning Out

It's finally starting to feel like winter down here! Well, enough like winter that it's a little too chilly for a morning walk. Instead, Amy and I ventured over to the local coffee shop for some "girl time" together.


The muffins here are to die for. At first, Amy tried to eat hers with a fork... but using a fork is so slow and the muffin is so yummy. Time to pick it up with two hands and bite in "chipmunk style"!


Amy and I shared some tea, too. I drank mine from a ceramic mug while Amy sipped from one of those little plastic creamer thingies. To my delight, she couldn't get enough of the warm, milky goodness. A tea-drinker after her mother's own heart!

Yeah for cold, wintery mornings with my favorite toddler!

Owls

Just when I think I've seen all the wildlife our desert home has to offer something new crosses my path... or Eric's path, in this case. You see, last week a strange bird flew just a few feet in front of Eric's face as we were walking back from an evening at the park. My first thought was, "Wow, that looks like a flying log!" -- the bird was very stout around the middle without a well-defined head or tail. With the help of binoculars, we spied the unusual bird atop a nearby pine tree and discovered it was a Great Horned Owl!

Since then we have seen the owl two or three more times in the pines. His majestic stature and resounding hooting have really been a treat to see and hear!

source

Let It Snow!

When we woke up to snow -- yes, snow! -- on Saturday, Amy and I decided it was time to make some yummy, warm, homemade bread! Here we are deciding which recipe to use. I think Amy picked a tasty one! Try it yourself if you have a bread machine:


CLASSIC WHITE BREAD
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
3 cups Bread Flour
3 Tbsp. dry milk
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast

Put ingredients into the machine in the correct order (every machine is different, so check your manual if you're unsure), and press start!

Spring is Here!

Almost every afternoon, Amy and I take a stroll through the neighborhood. Lately we've been noticing the first signs of spring -- light green buds and tiny wildflowers. Incidentally, almost all the wildflowers here seem to be... yellow! Now do you think that is a coincidence?! I suppose I will never know for sure... but I am curious!

Basketball

On Saturday afternoon, Eric, Amy, and I went to a basketball game over at the University. For Amy and I, this was our first time watching live basketball! Everyone had a great time... and our team won, to boot!!


The teams getting ready before the game...


Amy getting ready before the game, too! (Finding that "perfect spot" on Dad's shoulder!)


Eric watching the game & Amy looking serious (did the other team just score?!)


Amy and Eric relaxing during halftime...


Eric watching the our team win... Amy mesmerized by a couple girls behind us who kept cheering and waving red pom-poms!

October Days...

Praise God, all is well at the Cozy Holt! All is quiet. All is peaceful. And not much is new these days, honestly. Eric continues to enjoy his teaching, studying, and researching... and I continue to enjoy my washing, folding, and organizing all-things-baby in anticipation of our Wee Holt's arrival! Fall is teasing us with frequent cold mornings, and the few deciduous trees in town are turning shades of yellow and brown.

Meanwhile, we've given ourselves a taste of The Southwest these last couple weeks, with two evenings at the college rodeo competition (which included lassoing adorable little goats and tying their legs together -- it nearly broke my new-Mamma's heart!) and a visit to the nearby National Park. Last weekend we even gazed across the Rio Grande into Mexico itself! (To my surprise, it looked a lot like the United States side. I guess I was half-expecting serape-clad men reclining under huge saguaro-cacti with their burros tied up nearby. Somebody's been reading too many O. Henry stories...)


On the agenda for the near-future are little adventures like trying new recipes in the kitchen, performing with the community choir, enjoying a visit from my parents, and taking a quick road-trip to Houston for a math conference. So stay tuned!

But best of all I'm looking forward to more peaceful & quiet Fall days around the Cozy Holt...

My Sprouts

For years I have dreamed of growing a garden from seeds -- not just purchasing little seedling from the nursery, but starting the process from scratch and watching my little brown specks transform into herbs and vegetables of all kinds. Determined to make my dream a reality, Eric sawed and sanded and nailed... until he had constructed the following amazing contraption:


Complete with a florescent plant light, this wooden stand is the perfect spot for tiny flower pots with just-planted seeds!


The light hangs from a chain, which can be adjusted as the plants grow taller.


As you can see, they don't always grow at the same rate!


Here are my tomato plants -- they have really taken off!


Soon it will be time for the plants to take their place in the outdoor garden...

* Special thanks to Ted Schaaf for his expertise & advice on starting plants from seeds; and for his original design for the unique seed-starting stand. We wish you could be here to enjoy our produce with us!

A place to read

The public library in our little town doesn't look like much from the outside. In fact, it's really nothing more than a couple of houses tucked behind the courthouse. But this morning I strolled inside for a look around, and I couldn't have been more delighted!

The house-like structure of the homes was carefully preserved when the library moved in, and each room had it own unique charms. One contained bright paintings of scenes from the wild west, and books about Texas history. Another had a small wooden table tucked away by a window -- the perfect place to curl up with a book. A third even had a fireplace! One of my favorite rooms to visit was the children's library -- which offered not only books but also a long, low table where half a dozen toddlers were doodling on colorful paper. Best of all, the children's library faced an outdoor garden, full of flowers and wrought-iron chairs shaded by trellised wisteria vines.

I've seen larger libraries by far; but I've never seen a library so tastefully designed... or so bewitchingly capable of making one want to read. You may be sure I'll be back many times!

Reflections on a Lazy Friday Morning...

Growing up in my family, you were not allowed to be bored.  Ever.  If your eyes began to glaze-over and you seemed to be wandering aimlessly around the house (gravitating ever-closer to the TV in the process), Mom would be sure to appear out of nowhere and innocently ask, "Oh, are you having trouble finding something to do?!"  

My brother and I quickly learned that the answer to this question was always a passionate, "No!!"  The few times we goofed up and told the truth, a dust-rag, windex bottle, or (worst of all!) the vacuum would be handed over to us with a list of jobs that fully occupied a span of time which felt like at least a year.

We quickly devised key life-saving phrases to use whenever caught in the dreaded state of boredom. "I'm just taking a short break from my [mumble, mumble, cough!]" we would call out while suddenly seeming to remember where we were going, and rapidly leaving the room.  Or "I am on my way to [name of some random location on the other side of the house]!" Or -- my favorite -- "I'm just looking for something around the house to help me in my [deep breath to allow precious seconds for thinking].... project of, uh, making, um, uh... golf balls... uh, that are biodegradable, and...uh, uh..."  This last one could go on for quite some time, and it was often hard not to start laughing mid-way through as the story got more wild-sounding by the minute.  But whether Mom knew we were creating excuses on the fly or whether we really pulled the wool over her eyes, the life-saving phrases always worked.

And in the process, they usually did jump-start our grey matter with ideas for something to do.  Many crafts began with, "Um, I was just on my way to find, uh, blue paint for an, um, uh... birdhouse!... I'm making." And a few days later, we'd be finishing up the aforesaid avian dwelling.  For awhile, we even took up manufacturing biodegradable golf balls from mud and straw... until we realized we had over 100 golf balls and absolutely no idea what to do with them!

While it's true that the boredom-is-bad mentality left me with a few workaholic tendencies to tone down as an adult, I'll always be grateful that Mom promoted playing outside, forced me to use my own imagination (although some people would argue I've over-developed it!), and indirectly led me to discover skills such as how to crochet and embroider, how to sketch and paint, how to groom the dog and unclog a sink that's stopped-up with shredded paper (don't ask!)... and even how to make biodegradable golf balls.  

Anyone care to T-off?   

Ah, for wings like a bird...

It's a crisp, sunny day in north Texas -- the kind of day when the sky is so blue and cloudless that you can't stare at it for long without tearing up from the sheer brightness.  At least that was my experience this morning while watching a dozen pigeons flutter across the University of Dallas campus.  Their snowy wings flittered so peacefully, yet looked for all the world like some student's stack of papers cast to the breeze.  

Being a full fifteen minutes early for my next class, I had time to enjoy the peaceful scene and muse on the words of Josef Pieper: 

Leisure is... detachment of the human spirit which enables a

man to contemplate and be at peace in those worlds from 

which he draws strength and nourishes his soul.  

Okay, so I didn't really remember that quote... but I was vaguely reminded, by these winged prophets and their flying poetry, that days such as these stir up a sort-of settled gratitude for life.  That they relax the soul.  That to ignore them is to keep one's self locked in a wearisome state of hustle or boredom...

But my musings were punctuated by a sudden bolt from the blue.  No, not an insight of some philosophical sort... a parrot.  

I think it was the green head, silhouetted against the blue sky, that first caught my attention.  At the time I spied it, the poor bird was in a decidedly un-leisurely position -- namely, clutched in a campus safety officer's hand.  He (that is, the bird, not the officer) had apparently been found wandering around the science building, and was being carried toward the math department for safekeeping.  At least that was a snippet of story I was told as I approached a growing circle of students, trailing behind the constrained bird.  Young men offered to help secure a cage and young ladies moaned for the poor, dear thing and wanted to stroke its feathers.  And we all stared, rather mesmerized, as the bird squeezed its eyes shut and stared back at us by turns.  

Incidentally, this calm behavior lead the officer to state that the bird was tame.  Instead, I thought he looked squashed by the officer's large hands, and rather resentful... but maybe that was just because he had such bushy eyebrow-feathers.  In any event, the officer whisked his small green charge down to the basement of the science building.  And we all went on our way while the shadows of pigeons danced, teasingly, overhead.