7th Grade, Here He Comes!

I took the picture this morning.  He said he had a little bit of a sore throat.  I gave him some motrin and he was off.

Ya'll!  The boy came home at 4:30pm with chills and a fever of 102!  :(

When I asked him how long he felt sick, he said since the second period.  Oh no.

He didn't realize that he should go to the school nurse.

My poor boy.  

Not a good way to start the new school year.

Please pray that whatever bug he has will go away quickly.

Patty

Back-to-School (College & Homeschool) 2018

We were on an amazing vacation last week and had so much fun that we decided to stay one more night.  This meant our re-entry into the 'real world' was going to happen at warp speed!

We had less then 48 hours to unpack the camper, regroup, go to Confession, Mass, and turn around to take Sarah back to college.

David and I moved her into her first apartment on Sunday.  I feel so much better about leaving her this time, but she will still be missed terribly.

She is a member of the Welcome Week committee this year and will do a great job helping freshman adjust to college life.

We arrived home so tired and climbed into bed right away because...

this morning, our home school year began its 2018-2019 school year :)

Miss Ester is a senior, Miss Mabel is a sophomore, and Miss Clementine is a (big) first grader :)

(Stan the man begins later this week.)

I think it is going to be another early bedtime for David and I tonight.  Ha ha!

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!

Patty

Camper Closet

My husband has plans to rebuild some of the camper's interior over the winter to improve on storage space.  (Campers really lack in that area.) 

Since we are ready to hit the road on another camping trip, I thought I'd give you a peek into what our "closet" looks like ;)

This is it!  Ha ha!

It's under the one bunk bed. (That ladder can be removed.)

There are 3 large cubbies.

I bought puck lights and stuck them inside.  (This was Miss Mabel's bright idea!)

I also bought a couple of shelves for each cubby. 

Shoes go underneath the shelf and clothes go on top.

Each person gets a shelf and 1/2 the cubby space.  Honestly, since these are tight quarters and I like things neat and tidy, I handle everyone's clothes (except when a teen camps with us).

I typically put beach towels, beach blanket, suits, and board games in the bottom cubby.  (No puck light in it since it's hardly used.)

I keep a a lightweight laundry bag in the camper shower, out of the way.  When someone needs to use the shower, the bag is removed temporarily.  Easy peasy.

When we camp in cooler weather, I plan to put sweatshirts and jackets in the bottom cubby in place of the beach towels and swimsuits. 

It's tight, I know, but this is camping (or as my hubby said, RV-ing).  We've never gone more then a couple of nights, and this trip is going to be longer.  Honestly, I don't stress since finding space for more clothes on a camping trip is such a first world problem ;)

Patty

Kielbasa, Pepper, Onion, and Potato Hash

Cooking on a camp out can be tricky, and when you live in the southwest, creating campfire meals is more difficult since burn bans are more the norm due to the droughts.

Cooking something healthy can be even trickier.  I'm always on the look out for healthy recipes that are easy to put together while camping.

I just tried this one and it was a home run!

Kielbasa, Pepper, Onion, and Potato Hash

INGREDIENTS

1 (14 ounce) package turkey kielbasa, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow, red or orange bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced (I substituted onion powder.)
3 small or 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced (I used hash brown potatoes.)
olive oil
salt and pepper


Stan the man and David helped me with this meal.  It was so hot out that night (our camper has an outdoor kitchen), and we were tired from being in the sun.  I found that we really enjoyed cooking together!  (Not always the case at home - ha ha!)

I chopped the peppers.

Stan the man prepared the kielbasa.

1.  In his cast iron skillet, David heated 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.  He added the potatoes and seasoned with salt and pepper.  They were fried until golden brown and stirred a few times to ensure even browning.

2.  In a separate skillet, I browned the sliced kielbasa for about 5 minutes in 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.

3.  Next, I removed the kielbasas from the pan and set aside.  I placed the peppers (and onion powder) into the skillet, seasoning them with a pinch of salt and pepper.  They were cooked for 5 minutes, or until soft.  I also stirred them occasionally.

3.  Add the cooked potatoes and kielbasa to the skillet with the onions and peppers and mix everything together.

This serves 4 people (which was fine for our camp out), but at home, I have to double this recipe.

Enjoy!

Patty

23 Years

Our anniversary date was a hot one ;)

We celebrated 23 years!

It was so hot that we went out for an early lunch and then had some yummy and refreshing yogurt for dessert.

I love this guy!

Patty

La Hacienda RV Resort and Cottages

When we bought the camper in May, David insisted (and did so in a guy-kind-of-way to get his point across about not wanting the camper to just sit around not being used), "We will take this out once a month!"

Well, shoot.  He didn't have to tell me twice.

I love to get out and coupled with the fact that I have put all the comforts of home into this little baby, well, it's been a blast so far.

Our test drive (May)

Girls' Weekend (June)

And for July, we headed to Austin and Lake Travis in the beau-ti-ful hill country region of Texas.

Y'all!  Texas is so huge it is broken into 7 regions, each having its own distinct geographical feature, (the Hill Country is one region).

Our first stop was at a famous, Texas swimming hole.

Barton Springs is a spring fed swimming hole that stays a constant and cool 68 degrees.  That's cold!  But when our temps were in the triple digits for almost one week, it felt SO good.

Hard to see, but toward the top right of the photo is the diving board.  These swimming holes can run deep!  And yes, there are fish in there.

Panning to the left now...

Panning to the far right now...

This is the shallow end.

There are entrance ramps and stairs strategically placed for people.  To get to the board you can swim across or walk all the way around.

(That's Stan the man way out there.  The sun was so bright, that was the best phone picture I could get of him.)

The dude in the swimming cap in the above photo?  I had to chuckle.  He never went in beyond his waist.  Haha!

I also loaded up two videos of this place because my phone pictures cannot do it justice.

Our bellies were rumbling after a couple of hours, so we loaded up and headed to our the resort we had reservations to camp.

La Hacienda RV Resort & Cottages is on Lake Travis, about a 30 minute drive west of Austin.

We set up "camp" and headed to the pool for the rest of the day.

On day two, we checked out the resort grounds, getting to know the facility a little bit more.

"The Original RV"

We wanted to explore Lake Travis, and it did not disappoint.

The lake is really low right now, at least 20 feet, so it was kind of a rocky beach area.  We didn't mind.

This lake is DEEP!!!  There are life jackets (all sizes) on a rack for anyone to use.  We all wore one!

They were watching all the fish swimming in the shallow area.  LOTS of fish!

Okay.  So in the above photo?  David is sitting on the edge of a cliff.  The branches in the water are tops of trees that are at least 20' below.  And that's the shallow part!!

Lake Travis was created when they damned up the Colorado River.  Hill Country is notorious for its gorgeous cliffs hence the reason why almost the entire rim of the lake is made of cliffs.

IMG_1876 from Patty Hughes on Vimeo.
IMG_1882 from Patty Hughes on Vimeo.

The two videos above give you an idea of how much fun they had swimming and looking for the fish.

By noon, we had enough of the sun and headed back to the shaded pool.

I stopped in the resort's store and found these ice creams being sold.

David, "This is not camping.  This is glamping!"

We spent two nights away and headed back for home on day three.  It was such a fun get-away!  I love traveling across Texas (it never gets old).

She was worn out!

Our next trip is in early August when we head (with two other families) down to Galveston Island, and the little ones are so excited to be going to the ocean again.

I am so grateful to have this camper, something that allows us to get away from it all more often (and doesn't cost a small fortune doing so). 

Grateful and hot in Texas,

Patty