life spices

Hello, Friends. I guess it has been awhile. Let's be frank. I have no energy for this ol' blog anymore. With soccer, school, and other life demands, life feels a bit like a hamster wheel. So my mama points are down with documenting our latest and greatest. The former late owl in me has converted to a fall asleep on the couch by 8 p.m. kinda gal. Life. It happens. What can you do?

Life  at this moment is much like a recipe that isn't quite balanced. So, you just try to throw in some good spices to cover up what isn't so palatable.

With this particular season of our lives, I'm soaking up every bit of time with my family that I can. It brings as much balance to my life recipe as possible.

Our latest life spices...

Crystal Cove with some favorite friends. Boys, beach, tide pools, and Ruby's shakes. Enough said.

The cottage behind Jack was filmed in one my favorite movies, Beaches. Remember it?

Another life spice of ours is Julian. Hiking and apple pie equals happiness for all in our family.

And last weekend, we added one more I need something to boost me up spice. Balboa Park.

And for the grand finale, 14 years of marriage, yo. We don't mess around. 19 years of togetherness. I dig him.

I wish you each a very Happy Thanksgiving. May we all be reminded of the many blessings we have to be grateful for.

Much love,
Katie

beach camping

There's no time like a Friday night after the 1st of week of going back to teaching 1st graders in addition to the normal back to school craziness of your own kids to blog, right? I'll be honest to tell you that this last summer wasn't our easiest for several reasons. Although we were thrilled to sell our house in 4 days, the stress of finding a new home and the wait time of escrow is not for the faint of heart. But we are in. The right house was found and is a hot mess, but we are in.

We left for beach camping, came back, and moved the next day. We cray cray like that, yo.

Beach camping.

It is my cup filling event of the year. And I'm not a camping girl. But, I'm a rent a trailer, sit on the beach kind of girl so it all comes together.

The beach is Switzerland in our family. Everyone is neutral.

I'm already waiting until next summer.

Much love,
Katie

we hate cancer

5 years ago Kevin walked into our home that was in the midst of witching hour and told me within seconds that he was just diagnosed with melanoma.

Time stood still for us as we wept and clung to each other in the entryway of our home. Meanwhile 5 year old Luke, 2 year old Charlie, and 6 month old Jack continued playing in blissful ignorance of the news that he just dropped.

I didn't know much about it. But, I knew it was the skin cancer you really didn't want to have.

It  turns out that the so very tiny freckle that kept on bleeding, was a deep cancerous tumor.

Kevin let it go for awhile. He thought it was just a freckle that kept getting scratched when he was getting dressed, surfing, etc.

The initial biopsy came back negative, but his dermatologist had a nagging suspicion and took a bigger sample to biopsy which came back positive.

As the oncologist said best, "If she didn't do that, you'd be a dead man."

Two invasive surgeries later and finding out that the cancer had spread to a lymph node, Kevin started a year of grueling treatment.

This spiraled us onto a new life path. Although he has been cancer free for 5 years, the long term prognosis is that his cancer can come back at anytime, anywhere. We have moved forward, but cancer is a lurker.

Melanoma is a beast. If you don't catch it early, it is hard to treat and the recurrence rate is high.

So it is with our story that I encourage you to be sun safe. Don't post photos of your sunburn on Facebook. Be preventative all year long. Wear your sunscreen. Use an umbrella at the pool, beach, or lake. Wear a hat and protective clothing. Get your skin checked.

Please.

Not only will you hopefully live longer, but you'll look cuter too!

Much love,
Katie

just in time for july 4th

A few days ago, my father-in-law generously shared a large bag of peaches with us.

While we adore peaches, we don't love them enough to consume multiple peaches per day in order to keep them from ending up as mushy moldy fruit.

I have to admit that cooking is chore for me. If it was not for the direct threat of my children and husband starving to death, I'd elect to remove dinner as a meal option and eat a bowl of cereal each night.

However, baking is an entirely different story, friends. Don't tell anyone that I sliced the peaches without taking the skin off first, which meant that I had to take the skin off the hard way.

Slice.

By.

Slice.

Behold, peach pie.

I didn't quite have enough enough crust to fully connect the bottom and top crust so the juice bubbled through, but trust me, if it happens to you, it won't change the fact that this pie will whisper your name and tell you that it is okay to have a 2nd piece. Not that I know anything about that.

Follow this simple recipe and you will be on your way to pure deliciousness.

I have one confession, though. I cheated this time and use a box recipe for the crust. Here's a great crust recipe that I make when I bake apple pie. It is from my father-in-law. He's a professional chef so he knows his pie crust.

Enjoy your 4th of July!

Much love,
Katie

7

My Charlie is 7 today.

He is such a blessing in so many ways.

Charlie fixed my broken heart after two miscarriages. I was not sure if we'd ever have another baby.

He is gentle boy who is squished in between two rambunctious brothers. I admire his ability to handle them so well. Don't get me wrong, though. The kid has some spunk.

We call him Fun Time Charlie because the kid is always up for anything and makes even the most mundane days an adventure.

Happy 7th Birthday Charlie.

We love you more than you will ever fully know.

Much love,
Mom