As a captain's wife - I have a lot of fears. I worry about Mike anytime he's out on the water. What if something happens to him while he's on the boat? I trust his abilities as a captain implicitly - he's very experienced and learned from some of the best charter captains in Destin. He knows the water and knows boats.
It's the unknown that scares me. I always worry about him getting hurt or having a heart attack while he's out fishing. I find comfort knowing that we have a Coast Guard station in Destin - and they would be able to respond quickly if there was ever an emergency.
His days start early and end late when he's fishing - he's up around 4 a.m. and back home at the earliest after 5 p.m. and last night he didn't pull into the driveway until almost 10 p.m.
I learned a long time ago not to worry too much - it was the years he spent charter fishing that taught me how to keep cool when the sun went down and he wasn't back at the dock. He knows what he's doing and there are plenty of other captains out there - and they look out for each other on the water.
My afternoon quickly turned from peaceful to turbulent this afternoon when my brother called to say his best friend was out fishing and heard on the radio that the Coast Guard was looking for my husband.
Immediately I was suspicious - my husband's nickname in the fishing community is Budlight (has nothing to do with beer!) - and I was curious as to what name his friend Brian heard on the radio.
"Mike L. Hinze"
You can't get much more specific than that - I asked him to call Brian back and ask what boat they were looking for. The man who owns the boat they are on recently purchased a different boat - a change from a Regulator to a Contender.
"Contender"
That was two for two and I knew it was a legitimate call.
I felt my heart drop - and the "what if's" started to go through my head.
I placed a phone call to one of our dear captain friends - in the hopes that he was not fishing today. He was home and I explained what I'd been told and he offered to call the Coast Guard for me.
In the meantime I called Mike's partner's wife to see if she knew anything.
BINGO.
She told me that at the request of the owner's wife she'd called the Coast Guard to track them down. His wife expected them home around 2 p.m.
To say that I was upset is an understatement.
The Coast Guard is for true emergencies and a boat that is 2 hours "late" isn't an emergency.
Don't get me wrong - I understand her anxiety because I've dealt with it for years.
However I felt it was overkill and a waste of worry.
What really upset me though was the fact that Mike's partner's wife didn't call me to either ask what I thought or to give me a head's up that she was calling the Coast Guard to look for my husband.
Maybe she didn't realize how well connected my husband is to the fishing community - within certain circles he's very well known - he should be - he's been fishing with those guys for 20 years.
I had to hear it from someone out on the water - and that caused me undue worry because I reserve calling the Coast Guard for a true emergency.
Mike is back in now and the story has been told.
A faulty fuel filter caused them to leave the dock much later than planned and Mike says he should have called me to let me know they were running late. Although it wouldn't have really mattered because even though I would have known - if I wasn't called prior to the Coast Guard - it still would have played out in the same way - except I could have put a stop to it earlier.
Mike says it is all ridiculous and certain parties are upset that I lit into them about this -
Well my only apology is that I'm sorry that I get a little worked up about having to hear from a third party that my husband is being searched for by the Coast Guard. That got me just a little worked up - as it should have. I've got two very young kids to worry about and Mike is the only income we have. We've got plenty of life insurance - but I'd much rather have my husband.
If she would have just called me to let me know - it would have made things a whole lot better -
So I'm thankful that he's safe and everything is fine. My kids will be happy to kiss and hug their daddy tonight when he gets home. They miss him - they haven't seen much of him these last few weeks.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Jammin' Out
I feel like a domestic diva today!
And no, for those of you wondering - I HAVE NOT been cleaning my house! Nor have I suddenly become uber organized or neat in my household. HA! That will probably never happen, but if you're a close friend you're really not surprised now, are you?
I'd rather spend time with my kids and doing little projects here and there.
So today in my domestic glory I baked fresh bread in my breadmaker - my favorite recipe yet - Milk Bread - I'll post the recipe later if I think of it.
I also washed and hung out my diapers on the line - although I had to put them in the dryer eventually because it started to rain.
I tidied my kitchen and living room (see? i cleaned, kind of)
And then I made 3 different batches of JAM!
It was about 4 or 5 years ago when I first attempted to make homemade jam. I started with strawberry and blueberry - both wild successes.
The year I had Madeleine I believe I made strawberry and maybe blueberry but Mommy Brain is keeping me from really remembering.
Last summer I made a triple batch of Peach jam, which is Mike's absolute favorite.
I knew it was time to start working on more Peach jam because I gave my last full pint to my dad for Father's Day - because he covets it as well.
Barely a tablespoon is left in our jar in the fridge and that's a bad thing. Now I gave a lot of it away last year, but the majority of it was tucked away in our pantry - and that's a LOT of peach jam.
I started out today planning to make blueberry jam. It's not my absolute favorite (i am a strawberry girl :) but I bought 2 pints of blueberries last week and they were on the tart side - so it's into jam they go!
Six half-pints of blueberry jam later I hear the phone ring and it's my girlfriend Rebecca L. who lives down the road. She recently blessed me with a bag of okra and a few figs from her tree in the backyard. Well she was calling to say she had some figs for me!
I love this fruit - they're so sweet and yummy. It's great to pick them straight off the tree and just pop them in your mouth!
Plus they're beautiful! This picture really doesn't do the color justice, though. The middle is a bright pink - not dull brown like in the picture...
I found a recipe for mock strawberry jam - using figs - so I decided to try that out. It uses figs, strawberry jello and sugar. Mashed figs are nasty looking, but the end result is so good!
It sure smelled yummy while it was cooking!
Last was a single batch of peach jam. I bought two kinds of peaches today. The local grocery had Southern peaches for 79 cents a pound, but they were rock hard. I bought a bunch anyways and stuck them in brown bags - hoping they'll ripen...
They also had these dark red peaches from california. I'm not sure what variety they were, but the skins were barely fuzzy. I can tell you one thing, they were NOT freestone peaches (where the pit pulls away from the flesh). I "mashed" these by hand - trying to get the darn pits out!
I ended up putting some of the huge chunks in the food processer, but not that much of it. I forget each time that it really cooks down the chunks, so next time I'm gong to leave more chunks.
For a moment I was scared that the concoction was going to boil over the pot, but it stayed at that level for the most part. It was really foamy - I never use butter to cut down on foam, but I almost wished I would have this time. I scraped most of it out thankfully.
Here is my end result of all the hard work canning today.
I'm including the pickles I made last week, too :)
7 assorted size jars of fig preserves
6 half pints of blueberry jam (2 missing from pic)
3 pints, 3 half-pints and 1 sample jar of Peach
And no, for those of you wondering - I HAVE NOT been cleaning my house! Nor have I suddenly become uber organized or neat in my household. HA! That will probably never happen, but if you're a close friend you're really not surprised now, are you?
I'd rather spend time with my kids and doing little projects here and there.
So today in my domestic glory I baked fresh bread in my breadmaker - my favorite recipe yet - Milk Bread - I'll post the recipe later if I think of it.
I also washed and hung out my diapers on the line - although I had to put them in the dryer eventually because it started to rain.
I tidied my kitchen and living room (see? i cleaned, kind of)
And then I made 3 different batches of JAM!
It was about 4 or 5 years ago when I first attempted to make homemade jam. I started with strawberry and blueberry - both wild successes.
The year I had Madeleine I believe I made strawberry and maybe blueberry but Mommy Brain is keeping me from really remembering.
Last summer I made a triple batch of Peach jam, which is Mike's absolute favorite.
I knew it was time to start working on more Peach jam because I gave my last full pint to my dad for Father's Day - because he covets it as well.
Barely a tablespoon is left in our jar in the fridge and that's a bad thing. Now I gave a lot of it away last year, but the majority of it was tucked away in our pantry - and that's a LOT of peach jam.
I started out today planning to make blueberry jam. It's not my absolute favorite (i am a strawberry girl :) but I bought 2 pints of blueberries last week and they were on the tart side - so it's into jam they go!
Six half-pints of blueberry jam later I hear the phone ring and it's my girlfriend Rebecca L. who lives down the road. She recently blessed me with a bag of okra and a few figs from her tree in the backyard. Well she was calling to say she had some figs for me!
I love this fruit - they're so sweet and yummy. It's great to pick them straight off the tree and just pop them in your mouth!
Plus they're beautiful! This picture really doesn't do the color justice, though. The middle is a bright pink - not dull brown like in the picture...
I found a recipe for mock strawberry jam - using figs - so I decided to try that out. It uses figs, strawberry jello and sugar. Mashed figs are nasty looking, but the end result is so good!
It sure smelled yummy while it was cooking!
Last was a single batch of peach jam. I bought two kinds of peaches today. The local grocery had Southern peaches for 79 cents a pound, but they were rock hard. I bought a bunch anyways and stuck them in brown bags - hoping they'll ripen...
They also had these dark red peaches from california. I'm not sure what variety they were, but the skins were barely fuzzy. I can tell you one thing, they were NOT freestone peaches (where the pit pulls away from the flesh). I "mashed" these by hand - trying to get the darn pits out!
I ended up putting some of the huge chunks in the food processer, but not that much of it. I forget each time that it really cooks down the chunks, so next time I'm gong to leave more chunks.
For a moment I was scared that the concoction was going to boil over the pot, but it stayed at that level for the most part. It was really foamy - I never use butter to cut down on foam, but I almost wished I would have this time. I scraped most of it out thankfully.
Here is my end result of all the hard work canning today.
I'm including the pickles I made last week, too :)
7 assorted size jars of fig preserves
6 half pints of blueberry jam (2 missing from pic)
3 pints, 3 half-pints and 1 sample jar of Peach
whew! I'm ready to go to bed now!
Peas please!
My kids don't care for vegetables really - Maddie will eat cucumbers and avocados and Wyatt just throws them on the floor.
What they lack in eating - they make up for in helping to prepare!
A few weeks ago when we were at Publix I noticed that they had fresh English peas - still in the pods. I thought it might be fun to get them and let Maddie help shell them. I was hoping that maybe if she helped in their preparation she might try eating some, but that didn't work...
She had a blast helping shell them, though. She can't quite pop the pods open (even I have a hard time with some of them!) but she loves pulling all the peas out one by one. After a few pods she figured out how to run her finger down the pod and get all the peas at once!
I bought some more pod peas - not because we just love peas in this house, but more because it's a great learning experience for both kids and makes Maddie feel really important to know that she's helping!
Wyatt decided to try his hand at shelling peas, too. Unfortunately he wasn't really that interested and insisted on calling them balls and well - you can imagine where things could have gone with that!
Unfortunately you don't get a whole lot - even though it sure seemed like a lot of pods. A few were duds and some only had 1-3 peas in them.
They were super yummy when cooked. Mine were cold - as all my food is generally these days..
What they lack in eating - they make up for in helping to prepare!
A few weeks ago when we were at Publix I noticed that they had fresh English peas - still in the pods. I thought it might be fun to get them and let Maddie help shell them. I was hoping that maybe if she helped in their preparation she might try eating some, but that didn't work...
She had a blast helping shell them, though. She can't quite pop the pods open (even I have a hard time with some of them!) but she loves pulling all the peas out one by one. After a few pods she figured out how to run her finger down the pod and get all the peas at once!
I bought some more pod peas - not because we just love peas in this house, but more because it's a great learning experience for both kids and makes Maddie feel really important to know that she's helping!
Wyatt decided to try his hand at shelling peas, too. Unfortunately he wasn't really that interested and insisted on calling them balls and well - you can imagine where things could have gone with that!
Unfortunately you don't get a whole lot - even though it sure seemed like a lot of pods. A few were duds and some only had 1-3 peas in them.
They were super yummy when cooked. Mine were cold - as all my food is generally these days..
The Great Huntress
Our tabby cat Azzie is more of an outside cat than an inside cat these days. She's front de-clawed, but still manages to catch many varied things in our backyard. Mostly she brings us lizards, frogs and sometimes these snake looking things we call legless lizards (why they are called that, I'm not sure!) Note: I looked these up and they're actually called glass snakes or glass lizards - they are definitely lizards, just no legs. The Glass part is because they will often "break" into pieces when threatened. It's just the tail part that breaks, but the tail is a majority of the length of the reptile. I guess the lizard just decides how much he wants to drop each time!
She loves to bring her live prey to the backdoor and patiently wait for me to open the door. I just happened to walk into the kitchen this morning and there she was with a legless lizard hanging out of her mouth. Other than losing the end of his tail (hey, she's smart- she doesn't fall for that one anymore!) he was fully intact and quite alive, although a little stunned.
I wish I could have grabbed my camera for the shot of it hanging from her mouth, but she'd already dropped it by the time I found it.
Maddie and Wyatt were squealing with delight - they love that kind of stuff!
Fortunately the lizard slithered off to be caught another day - unlike the small graveyard of anoles we have by the bean plants...
Here are some pictures of her prey today:
She loves to bring her live prey to the backdoor and patiently wait for me to open the door. I just happened to walk into the kitchen this morning and there she was with a legless lizard hanging out of her mouth. Other than losing the end of his tail (hey, she's smart- she doesn't fall for that one anymore!) he was fully intact and quite alive, although a little stunned.
I wish I could have grabbed my camera for the shot of it hanging from her mouth, but she'd already dropped it by the time I found it.
Maddie and Wyatt were squealing with delight - they love that kind of stuff!
Fortunately the lizard slithered off to be caught another day - unlike the small graveyard of anoles we have by the bean plants...
Here are some pictures of her prey today:
Friday, July 4, 2008
a happy fourth...
We braved the Destin traffic once again this year and had a spectacular display of fireworks over the Destin Harbor and Gulf of Mexico.
Much to my surprise there was no screaming and crying like last year and both Maddie and Wyatt were entranced.
We had a lovely day with Mike (daddy). It's rare for him to have ANY days off lately so a full day with him at home was fabulous! He mowed the yard, got a hair cut and ate a nice breakfast of homemade bread - french toast.
We packed up and ate lunch at Callahan's - one of our favorite Destin restaurants. We also stopped in to see Dr. Alonzo and his wife Maria - and their three children (all grown). Maddie loves Maria and Doc insists on being called grandpa alonzo! They have no grandchildren yet and none of their children are married yet... They're anxious!
It's always a joy to go visit with them - they treat us just like we're part of their own family and it's so nice to see them when they're in town.
We left their house and went to my parent's house for dinner - ribs, macaroni salad, watermelon, baked beans... It was yummy!
After a quick rest we loaded up to head to Destin to watch the "fire booms" on the Mixed Nuts boat (50' Riviera - brand new!).
The kids both fell asleep in the car on the way home and I'm following suit as soon as I finish this entry!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
I'll huff and I'll puff....
I'm not exactly sure how this got started, but the other day Madeleine and Daddy started saying "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down," and then dissolving in giggles.
Not to be outdone by his older sister, Wyatt also decided to give his rendition. He's gotten a little better than what he says in this video and you'll have to watch carefully because after the blow-your-house-down-part he blows air with his mouth, but he does it so quietly you can't really hear it.
I think it's adorable and it's saved me through several diaper changes because he likes to show off!
And can you believe that my baby is 18 months old today? How fast time flies!
<
Not to be outdone by his older sister, Wyatt also decided to give his rendition. He's gotten a little better than what he says in this video and you'll have to watch carefully because after the blow-your-house-down-part he blows air with his mouth, but he does it so quietly you can't really hear it.
I think it's adorable and it's saved me through several diaper changes because he likes to show off!
And can you believe that my baby is 18 months old today? How fast time flies!
<
Unconditional Love
When I was pregnant with Madeleine I received this little "Snow Babies" box from the pastor's wife at our church. I didn't know Lisa as well as I have come to know her - and I don't know her as much as I'd like to one day...
But the profoundness of the gift she gave me has touched my life considerably.
It was just a cute little figurine when I first received it - I thought it was neat that it said "Unconditional Love," but I didn't really give it much thought.
For reasons that I won't go into here - most who are close to me will know what I'm referring to - this little icon has come to mean a whole lot more to me in the last few years.
As parents we are given one of life's most important responsibilities - to love our children unconditionally.
They may stray - they may do things that we don't like or don't approve of - but we are still called to love them no matter what.
I am reminded every day that God is a god of unconditional love - of forgiveness and grace.
Whether it's in the quiet moments of snuggling with Maddie and Wyatt early in the morning - when my heart swells with such love for them - or the humbling moments when I discipline Wyatt and see Maddie comforting him because no matter how much he annoys her she loves him with a fierceness I truly understand now.
There are things in life that I will never understand - never be able to wrap my head around. There are questions that I have that will remain unanswered until the day I can ask God and Jesus...
But one thing I understand and practice in my life is the concept of unconditional love - there is nothing either of my children or any future children could do to separate them from my love.
To do so would also separate me from God as I would no longer be obeying his word for parents to love their children.
So each time I pass by this little baby and her box of unconditional love I am thankful for the reminder not only of my unconditional love for my children, but also for the unconditional love of a Savior who, despite my flaws, loves me unconditionally.
And my prayer for all who are parents - and really anyone - is that they would also show unconditional love for their children - just as Christ loves us unconditionally.
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