It’s been a whirlwind of activity since we have been back from our road trip. We have just getting back to “normal,” which means back to school for the kids.
I finally finished all of the back to school shopping this past weekend and yes it is a week after school started. Judah was all set last week before school started but Janea did not get her supply lists (yes with an “s”) until last week when she met her teachers. So my babies are good to go now.
But let’s get back to the end of summer…
For health reasons, physical, financial and familial, Ben and I decided to challenge ourselves to not eat out this school semester. If we lay our heads in Dallas, we will eat at home. (The Texas State Fair will be one of the few exceptions. Just saying.) It’s been fun coming up with different meals. (My palate gets bored easily so I like to make-up stuff.) One night I pureed pluots and fresh ginger and marinated chicken breast in it. I’ve made my first watermelon slaw, and butter sautéed carrots with ginger as a side dish to a cheesy penne chicken dish.
I enjoy this creative outlet and I am realizing I am spending just about the same amount of time, if not less, preparing a meal at home for the four of us versus gathering the family, getting in a car, driving somewhere, choosing the food and have other folk cook it.
We all love the family home meal. I love the time we can just set down and talk about our day. I love the satisfaction of having my family enjoy the fruit of my labor. I did mention that it is a creative outlet for me, so I get personal satisfaction from it too.
But before we decided take on this challenge, we went to Gloria’s in Bishop Arts. For those who don’t know, Gloria’s is a Salvadorian Dallas local restaurant chain. They have some TexMex dishes but if you go, venture out to the other side of the menu and tempt your taste buds with a different Latin cuisine. Here are some of the treats you will find:
Of course we had to have dessert on our last meal out. Did someone say plantain flambé?
The next day we started out with the kid’s annual check-up, followed by online school shopping for Judah (OfficeDepot.com was just what I needed), which lead us into a 30-year anniversary luncheon for the Parking Ministry and Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship – a ministry all four of us participate in. We concluded our last summer night at a 2.5 hour rain-delayed Texas Ranger baseball game.
How wet was it? See for yourself…
Our last bit if summer fun…
