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Your weekly guide to Houston: Five (plus) don't-miss events — including chicken raising

On tap this week are museum adventures, a chick lecture, a mobile fashion shopping event, a naughty nun, a class for raw foodies and cell phone art at one of the city's top galleries.

Try this: Click on the links below each event to make planning easier. You'll find a page with helpful features, like the ability to download the deets to your electronic calendar, as well as insider intel on where to eat, drink and shop en route to your city adventures.

The Museum Experience

No longer is Museum District Day an exhausting trek to take in every building in the area in less that 24 hours. Organizers split the day-long event into quarterly happenings that focus on a particular section of the cultural network. This weekend gears up for Zone 3, which comprises the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Jung Center and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and includes activities at all three locations.

Here's what to do: Partake in a Zentagle workshop (an art form that gets its name from repeating geometrical patterns) at the Jung Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and make your own pyramid book from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at MFAH as a nod to the exhibition Gifts from the Past.

The skinny: Saturday, 10-7 p.m.; Museum District; admission is free.

Introduction to Chickens with John Berry

Keeping chickens is allowed in Houston environs but only if you are wealthy enough to own a big property. Poultry is required to be at least 100 feet away from neighbors. Not all is lost, though, as a new city ordinance may change all that and make it easier for urban dwellers with a penchant for locavore cuisine to raise their own.

This lecture, led by fowl guru John Berry, pores over the basics of poultry. Perhaps fresh eggs from your backyard are in your future?

The skinny: Saturday, 1:30 p.m.; Wabash Antiques & Feed; admission is free.

Fashion Truck Festival

Taking notes from the food truck movement that gave birth to Houston's first food truck park, the fashion-on-wheels merchants of the city are following suit, sort of. This one-day shopping festival brings together Height of Vintage, Shoe Bar, Trunk Show Mobile Boutique and Urban Izzy in one location, and welcomes the Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library and the Picasso Bus to complement the fleet.

The skinny: Saturday, 6 p.m.; Liberty Station; admission is free.

Stages Repertory Theatre presents Late Nite Catechism: Sister Rolls the Dice

Just because this wicked sister wears the traditional God-fearing attire doesn't mean that she abides by divine law. Regardless of her leanings, perchance spiritual prowess is on her side — in Vegas? The trials and tribulations of this witty character performed by Denise Fennell brings back another chapter in the Late Nite Catechism series at Stages Repertory Theatre. This vestal knows bingo, so how difficult could organizing a saintly gambling soirée be?

Oy vei! She's about to find out.

The skinny: Runs through Sept. 1; Stages Repertory Theatre; tickets start at $23.

Eat it Raw: Preparing Raw, Organic and Seasonal Meals

Trust Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram, the founder of Rawfully Organic Co-op, to simplify the steps toward adding more raw fruits and vegetables in your life. If someone can clean up anyone's diet, it's this produce queen who's earned a reputation for uncooking up a storm to serve up dishes that satisfy cravings for unhealthy fare.

I could surely use a nutritional tune-up. Be honest. I am sure you could, too.

The skinny: Sunday, 2 p.m.; Houston Arboretum and Nature Center; $20 for arboretum members; $30 general public.

Smarty pants and in-the-loop arts maven Nancy Wozny's pick: Lillian Warren's Alone Together at Anya Tish Gallery

Nancy says: "Who could imagine a mashup of beauty and melancholy in observing a bunch of people waiting around looking at the their cell phones? Houston artist Lillian Warren captures that exact essence in her latest show, Alone Together, at Anya Tish Gallery, in conjunction with ArtHouston 2013.

"Warren, a master of making the ordinary extraordinary, contrasts a barren waitscape of isolation with vivid, watery and fluid use of color and form. What's so compelling to me about this new batch of work is how the portrayal of lonesomeness she so thoroughly investigated in her earlier landscapes of conveniences stores and traffic lights carries over to these new paintings of people."

The skinny: Through Aug. 24; Anya Tish Gallery; admission is free.

Learn about the basics of keeping chickens at Wabash Feed & Antiques.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family