3 posts tagged “daily life”

The winning Austin downtown restaurant that was graced with me and my Daddy's presence yesterday was:
Sweetish Hill Bakery!  All I knew was that he would be at the Convention Center, but we didn't have a specific meeting point in mind, so I was a bit nervous about how smoothly it would work out.  You know me and my worry wart complex; I'm sure you can imagine the crazy thoughts that swirled around in my head on my way into downtown.  But praise God, it worked out perfectly!  He was standing outside right as I turned the corner, and we even had a prime parking spot at the Bakery...I was even worried about downtown parking 'cause I forgot change for the meters.  Seriously, praise God!  And seriously, Meg, get a grip!  Daddy was in the mood for the sandwich/soup/salad option, so I took him to the Bakery.  He parted with my list of other restaurant options in his hand for places to eat dinner with his colleagues.  We had a fabulous time together!  I love him so!

We're still waiting for the birth of our nephew, whose due date is TODAY!  Come on, already!  Don't you know that you have people who want to meet you?!  I went to the cutest little baby store the other day with my friend, Leah.  It took me about 5 minutes before I realized that I now actually have a reason to buy baby stuff:  I'm gonna have a little nephew to spoil!  It was a bit of an odd realization, as well as an expensive one, but mostly very fun!

This past weekend, Matt and I discovered a new shopping center on HWY 71 called The Hill Country Galleria.  With beautiful grounds and an amphitheater, we enjoyed eating our sandwiches from Which Wich outside and spent some time reading (and I also took a nap in the big comfy chair) at Barnes & Noble.  While perusing, I came across a small treasure by Henri J.M. Nouwen called With Open Hands.  As you all know from this post, the concept of keeping my hands open in surrender to God has been something I'm learning these days.  So the title of the book grabbed my attention right away and I had to buy it!  It's a quick read that I started about an hour ago and I'm half way through it. Boy, if you want a book that lays out my life right now, this is it!  It describes so well what I'm thinking and feeling these days, things I'm wrestling with and learning about prayer, silence, acceptance, and resting in the Lord.  It's incredible to read this book and feel like I'm saying, "Yep, that's it, that's it!", all the way through it!  I'll have to reread it to make sure I soak it all up, but I'm a bit stunned right now that it so poignantly and accurately depicts this season of my life.  Just to give you a glimpse, this is a quote from Nouwen:

Prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God's promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbor, and your world.

And there's so much more I could spout out, but I want to finish the book and not be rushed with sharing my thoughts.  This book, however, is a perfect segway (is that how you spell that??) to a post that I want to write over the next day or two where I will share with my Internet peep friends some things that I've been learning over the past three and a half months (I can't believe it's been that long already!) since I stopped my job.  So stay tuned.  In the meantime, have a lovely evening and say a little prayer that my nephew comes soon and is healthy!

Well, a good mornin' to you, Internet peeps!  For the third or fourth day in a row, it is an absolutely gorgeous day!  There's not a cloud in the vast Texas sky, the sun is shining brightly, the birds are chirping, and the temperature is just right.  It does my heart glad.  After waking up this morning at 5 a.m. to let Molly outside, I crawled back in bed and already had to pray for God to help me choose to have a good attitude today.  I don't know about you, but some days just feel like they're going to have some bits and pieces of rottenness in 'em.  And I'm learning that much of that depends on my attitude as to how rotten a day it will be.  Things kinda got messed up with our night schedule the next two evenings because of a lack of communication between me and my mister, spring cleaning is taking me much longer than I thought and I'm ready to be done with it, and I want to write the blog I've been mulling over for the past couple of weeks (keep expectations low though)!  So see, I have to watch my attitude as it's already creepin' out all rotten-like!  But the beauty of the day calms my heart and puts a smile on face.  So did this post by Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.  For you dog lovers, you gotta take a peek at it!

And this absolutely gets rid of any mere notion of rottenness:  I have a lunch date with my Daddy today!  He's coming to Austin on business for the day and I'm meeting up with him for lunch.  I want to take him somewhere new downtown to eat, so my friend, Liz, who is a downtown girl, and citysearch.com were most helpful in providing some quality options.  Depending on what he's in the mood for, these are the choices I'm giving him:

*  Sweetish Hill Bakery for light sandwiches, soup, or salad...and of course, something irresistible from the baker!  I have been here once for breakfast, but that was years ago.
*  The Onion:  pizza
*  Hickory Street Bar & Grille:  for burgers and other such American food
*  Iron Works:  for bar-b-que

Anticipating our time together today makes me reflect on the first time I came to Austin when I was ten years old or so.  My Daddy had some business to do in Austin for the day, but he brought me along as well for a little Daddy/Daughter day.  He took me to lunch at The Driskill and we roamed the Capitol where I was much more interested in the squirrels running around the grounds than anything else; I had never seen so many cute, furry squirrels before and I was quite enamored!  It was a special day together and I know this afternoon is going to be, too!  Yes, it's going to be a very good day!

Hi, internet peep friends!  One of the things I am doing this week is spring cleaning!  I've put it off long enough and now I must embrace the dreaded task.  Scrubbing.  Polishing.  Wiping.  Dusting.  Any cleaning verb you want to add, go right ahead 'cause I'm doin' it!  I'm even washing all of our baseboards and who knows what else I'll do!  To make it less daunting, I am cleaning a room or two at a time.  The downstairs is my least favorite because there's more to clean; we live in our downstairs area.  Upstairs is fairly unused and empty, so I'm saving that area for last and getting the larger, least fun areas done first.  Today I started with our bedroom, bathroom and the guest bathroom.  I hope to finish up on Friday and after that, just like my Momma said, it's U-N-T-O-U-C-H-A-B-L-E!  At least for a few days, Matt and Molly better not shed a hair, leave a streak, or drop a crumb.  Don't worry, I'm not that anal.  Oh, but I so am!  And it will feel so good when I've accomplished this week-long task! 

So I'm taking a bit of a break from the scrubbing to answer one last Q&A question left by my dear hubby, and also to tell you a little bit about our sleepover with Harrison.  Let me just tell you, first, how much I appreciate my man and how thankful I am for him!  Some of the things that come to mind just from this past weekend are:  I love how he can't get enough time with me; I appreciate what a diligent, faithful, and good provider he is; I value his care and concern for others and giving of himself to help them; oh, how I admire his pure heart--the guy never has a mean or malicious bone in his body; and I am thankful for his sense of humor and his desire to support and encourage me in my dreams.  I would marry the guy again and again!

Yes, yes, enough mushy stuff, but sometimes you just gotta know that I love him and why!  Matt wrote, "Meg, if you could learn one new thing instantly by simply snapping your fingers, what would it be? It could be anything from scuba diving to a new language (I had no idea translating would have been one of your dream jobs!) to how to tie a cherry stem with your tongue. The catch is that it can only be one thing."

Only one thing!?  He obviously knows me really well to have to put that requirement in the question!  Normally, I would choose something on the serious side of my left brain, but I'm gonna go for the right side this time.  And of course, there are a number of things that come to mind, but since my husband limited me to just one, I will have to go with ballroom dancing (all kinds of ballroom dancing).  The jive, jitterbug, waltz, tango, rumba, etc...all the dances they do on Dancing with the Stars.  How awesome would it be if I could just learn it instantly!?  Matt and I took swing lessons when we were dating and only remember a few basic moves, but it was so much fun.  He gets a really silly look on his face when we dance, and I have to look straight ahead at his chest because it hurts my neck to contstantly look up at him, so I'd either have to wear high heels, or I'd have to snap my fingers to do something about my height and his goofy look, too.  <grin>  I love him so!

In answer to Matt's second question:  Is there a time limit to posting questions that you have to answer on your blog? Or can we keep posting questions months from now and you'd still have to answer them? :)
Q&A session is now closed for this go around, but we'll do this again some time!

Now onto the slumber party with mister Harrison.  This little boy has had my heart since he was in his momma's tummy.  I actually got to hold him in the hospital for the first time when he was just about 12 hours old!  He's grown up so much since then. 

Our time this weekend was amazing...he was amazing, and so much fun!  At 2 years old at his first sleepover, he actually made it through the whole night!  He was such a good, sweet little boy!  We set him up on an air mattress next to our bed and right next to Molly.  We originally were going to camp out, but a severe thunderstorm came rolling through so we changed our plans.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, the park twice (once Friday night and once Saturday morning), and made pancakes Saturday morning, too.  It takes him a couple of minutes to get used to Molly but by the end of our time together, he was crawling all over her, throwing her balls, and talking up a storm about her.  Wanting us all to be together, whomever wasn't in the room, he'd ask, "Where's Matt?", or "Where's Molly?" and then go find that missing person or loved furry creature.  One of the funniest things was when Matt blew his nose Harrison said, "Matt's loud!" with a big grin on his face.  I'm giving you just a brief overview, and to be honest, it just doesn't even come close to how special it was for us.  I laid in bed, waking up throughout the night excitedly anticipating what he would be like when he woke up, and replaying each moment we'd had so far.  Sometimes I would even lean over the side of the bed to gaze upon my dear little friend sleeping soundly.  When he woke up, Miss Molly came on the bed with him and he just giggled away as she rolled around.  I'm not going to share everything because I'm keeping it near and dear to my heart, but it was just so fun!  And he's a joy!  I can't wait for our next slumber party!