Neal and I enjoyed our 17th Anniversary yesterday and I thank you for all of the well-wishes on Facebook. We didn’t have much time to go and ‘do’ so I kept my ‘surprise’ day pretty close to home. We were only about 1.5 hours away in Brehnam, Texas.
If you are not from Texas then you won’t know the significance of Brehnam, Texas is that it’s the hometown of BLUE BELL ICE CREAM. The ‘Best Ice Cream in the Country.’. It is absolutely my favorite (I ate a bowl of mint chocolate chip every night when I was pregnant with Ryan…could be why I gained 50lbs for that first pregnancy. ;).) But I didn’t go to Brehnam to see the Blue Bell Factory (I took the boys a few years ago) I chose Brehnam because it is also home of a few wineries and a lavender farm.
Yes. A lavender farm. Why? You might ask. Because Neal loves the smell of lavender so I thought, ‘Let’s go to a lavender farm, hit up some wineries and then stay in a B&B.’ So that’s what we did:
By the time we’d reached the Merski Bed & Breakfast we had a total of a glass or two of wine in our system, enough cheese and bread to feed the masses and were content to veg on the bed and watch old movies. It was too hot to truly appreciate the massive landscape of the Murski B&B but the historical home in which we had our room was lovely and quaint. What makes the B&B such a true home is the proprietors Pamela and Tom…a lovely couple that is the lineage of the Murski homestead and they bring the ‘real’ life back into the home that was built in the 1800’s. 
Pamela was our host and the resident chef who prepares the breakfasts and, on request, can provide a 5 star gourmet meal. I had chosen that ahead of time already drawn in by the pictures she had posted on her website of other delicacies she’d created. We were not disappointed. Dinner was delivered to our room at 6:30pm and even though our stomach’s were still digesting what we’d taken in all day we couldn’t help but have eyes bigger than our stomachs looking at the feast before us.
It was divine. If I had brought a cooler with me I would have packaged up with I simply could not eat and I’d be having it for a second meal tonight. If you are into Bed & Breakfast’s I highly recommend a quick get away to Murski B&B in Brehnam, Texas.
Along our route that day we were told by many that it was the first weekend of the free Downtown concerts in Brehnam. At first we were too stuffed to want to move but we realized we needed to make the most of our one day adventure so we headed the few short miles to the downtown area.
Being among the throngs of patrons and citizens of Brehnam amidst this historical downtown area made me miss my own hometown. Nostalgia kicked in and as we departed I began to feel a bit anxious about the upbringing we’d given our own boys. I was so used to being from a ‘smaller’ town where we had the historical buildings, the downtown area, court house and where everyone knew your parents, grandparents, or cousins.
If I think about what makes Kingwood a ‘hometown’ for the boys it all falls upon our church community. From the beginning the boys school has been St. Martha’s, their parish has been St. Martha’s and when times have been hard or there has been a need to reach out it’s been our St. Martha community that has come through.
There is nothing wrong with that, in fact, in many ways I like to think that what makes this town their ‘home’ is our Christ centered community. It is different from what I knew of as a ‘hometown’ but one is not any different than the other. What makes a ‘town’ a home is where the heart is, whatever that looks like for you.
Blessings
Shannon