The Musings of Mireya Browning

Tomorrow I’m having my MOPS group for a Coffee and Chocolate tasting. Everyone is bringing their favorite chocolate to share and we will have a variety of coffees from around the word and of different roasts.

My favorite chocolate is Moonstruck white chocolate.  Our local Whole Foods store was all out.  So I’ll be providing my guests with Green & Black’s organic white chocolate with Madagascan vanilla.  Mmm it’s so good.

My husband is so kind, he is taking some time off work to share a little more in depth about the coffee that he has roasted. There are five varieties, each from single-estate coffee plantations which gives the coffee a unique flavor sinc eno two estates are exactly alike. Then each variety is roasted to a different degree. City, Full City, Vienesse, and French. He likes to mix the bright, fruity City blend with the carmelized Vienesse for a cup of coffee that has lots of complexity.

We are gonna be soo messed up after the come down.

Every time I hug my daughter, I’m grateful for our veterans.  I have the freedom to love my family and raise my children to know and love Christ.  Sometimes I wish I could hug them and make them a meal, anything to give my personal thanks. Instead my deep respect drives me to pray and fast for their safety.

So I haven’t been posting faithfully.  Summer is here and we have been trying to take full advantage of the warm weather.  We have been filling our days with walks, swimming pools, parks, farmers markets, berry picking, summer movies, barbecues and sun tanning.  Well, tanning for me, not my kidlit.   I love the sun.  My husband and I have polar opposite relationships with the sun.  I love the sun, Dan curses the sun.  I love the heat of the sun on my skin, Dan avoids it as much as possible.  It warms, relaxes and revives me.  Dan gets a sun burn walking to the mail box and back.  I love it when my spanish pigment gets darker into an earthy dirt color.  My husband loves that.  Every summer I lay out in hope of turning my year around olive skin into a color that is more like a coal miner black.  Getting black from the sun is good.  Anywho, this reminds me of a Dan Browning joke.

I ask you, “Are tan from the sun?”

You reply, “Yes, I am.”

Then I say, “Oh, well I’m Browning from the Earth.”

This has been a joke with Dan, where no joke is too corny and no groan too loud in response.

My husband is a man of many hobbies; WWII buff, photographer, videographer, coffee connoisseur and amateur astronomer.   We love Dan and love to be apart of all of his interests, no matter how geeky or complex.  Today we tagged along to the SouthWest Washington Stargazers(SWS) club in Battleground, WA.  It was started by an astrophysicist and owner of Sean’s Astronomy Shop.  Sean is getting ready to travel to Mongolia for both business and pleasure.  Business means hunting for meteorites and pleasure as is for all astronomers, stargazing and viewing the solar eclipse.  He’ll have a excellent view of the southern skies.  He currently has pieces from mars, the moon and meteorites.  He hopes to acquire more for his collection.  They are available for sale if you care to spend $40-60k but I think they serve more as teaching tools than anything else.

The club meetings are interesting.  Talks are given about a variety of space related topics.  From information of what you can currently view,to space exploration and my favorite the space elevator.  Photographs of God’s handiwork are spectacular.  I would encourage you to look for a club near you or visit an observatory.  Seeing any object from a telescope is exciting and humbling.  You’ll never forget it.

I’ve always enjoyed the sciences but when I entered a room full of older gentlemen, I didn’t think we would have any shared interests.  By the end of the meeting I discovered an interest in astronomy and I look forward to the next meeting.

This is my favorite space object.  Through a telescope the stars twinkle like diamonds.

We had a low key holiday this year.  We invited the in-laws to our neighborhood 4th of July Parade.  Our little girl and I walked in the parade in our tricked out  Zooper Zydeco. And Dan shot video and pictures of us.  My little girl had the cutest patriotic Good Lad outfit.  She waived her little flag and kept saying America, which is what she calls our American flag. Our local fire station guys were there and gave us badge stickers.  They lead the parade in their fire truck with the siren blaring.  It was great.  Firemen are like celebrity’s at our house.  Our little girl loves fire men and firetrucks.  We met at the Fishers Landing elementary school at 11:00 and ended at our neighborhood park.  Once we got to the park they had food for everyone.  But we brought a picnic lunch instead.  I made sandwiches, fruit and cream puffs.  After the event, Dan watched the baby and I went to a movie with my father and mother-in-law.  We saw Kit Kittredge.  Focus on the Family said it was a great family movie.  It was cute.

Once it got dark we walked half a mile to the view point near our home to watch the fireworks.   It’s nice to have all this great entertainment within walking distance.   We had a great 260 degree view of fireworks.   The Gresham display was closer and easier to watch than the Fort fireworks, and people we’re lighting their fancy fireworks everywhere too.  It was hard to see them all.  If we looked in one direction we would miss the ones on the other side.  It was like watching Attack of the Clones on IMAX.  We had a really nice time.  It didn’t bother our little girl that we were out and it was past her bedtime, she just put herself to sleep even with all the noise.  She was so cute. I’ll have to post pictures later.

Dan is gone for the evening to teach astronomy to the junior campers at the annual church camp in Millersvania Park.  He loves both astronomy and teaching so I’m sure he’s in his element.

I got a lot done while he was away. Ironing, cleaning and my little girl and I spent some time out side blowing bubbles.  It was overcast and the air was warm and muggy.  So we were pretty much mosquito fodder.  We blew bubbles and sang “Hello bubbles” in Mandarin.

Usually when Dan is home we talk before bed.  Connecting before going to sleep.  When Dan is away, the baby’s asleep and the house is quiet.  I don’t feel like mentally going over the tasks of the day or the ones that await me tomorrow.   The night is still.  It’s quiet and I can hear the planes from the Portland airport, the crickets and the frogs. These rare moments are nice.  Sadly, it’s the times I can hear God best.  My mind is clear and I don’t feel an urgency to fall asleep.  I can just lay and rest. I feel peace and pray.

I’ve been MIA for a few days.  We’ve been taking care of the house and grounds as is inevitable for all homeowners.  We’re staining our fence, powerwashing the outside and patio, organizing our garage, painting and a few minor miscellaneous stuff.  Our little girl is so helpful.  She noticed me staining the fence and helped herself to a new paint brush and brushed along side me.  She also likes to help water the lawn and tomatoe plants.  I can’t describe or say enough about how cute she is.  Children really are a lot of fun.  She also likes to help me clean my floors.  I like to disenfect my floors every week, and I don’t use a mop.  It cleans up better with a little elbow grease.  Anyway, she gets down on the floor with me, on her hands and knees and scrubs.  Oh, and when I vacuum she follows me holding the cord, being careful not to tangle it.  I love my helpy helperton.

In honor of the day we are going to have our dear friends, the Bickhams over for a Browning BBQ dinner.  Our BBQ staples are potato salad, baked beans, chicken kabobs, carne asada or steak and apple pie for dessert.

We had a nice time with them and their children.  They are expecting another baby and we are elated for them.

After enjoying our meal and fun conversation, we watched Fool’s Gold with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.  It was a fun movie sans the nudity.

What better way to begin the summer season, than with friends, good food and fellowship.  Happy Summer.

In our home, Dan is the dental hygiene nazi. Everyone under the Browning roof must get their teeth cleaned at least twice a year, must floss twice a day and brush after every meal.  Dan prides himself on his good report from the dentist. Everyone must submit, even our little bundle of joy.  Our little girl has had to live by this law since she was 18 months.

We have been teaching her about dental hygiene.  She mostly learns from observing, so there wasn’t much to teach.  But before we began flossing her teeth I wanted to expose her to it first. I let her play with a 10 inch piece of floss.  She immediately knew what to do with it and she would thread it between her side teeth.  I must share that our little girl is the cutest,  not only does she like to floss but she also likes to pull her socks off and floss her toes.  It is so adorable.

I love where we live in the suberbs but I could see myself as a farmers wife.  Dan would like to move to the country someday and I would love to have cows, chickens and goats.  I don’t think we’re going anywhere soon.  Until we can afford acreage, I’m gonna have whatever country I can in my 20 by 15 foot back yard.  Thanks to my retired forester father-in-law, I have three tomatoes plants in the back yard.  Our tomatoes last year did really well.  We hope this will be another plentiful season.

I think farm life would be fun.  Raising farm animals, making meals from scratch with fresh ingredients from our garden.  No traffic, no smog and no rat race.  I could make our kids work to earn their keep.  There are a lot of benefits to raising a family on a farm. Although, I would have to sacrifice shopping, fast internet, local cuisine and things to do that only cities can offer.   Ugh, I don’t think I could live without fast internet. Maybe I wouldn’t be a very good farmer’s wife.