Morning brew & bunnies

I'm not sure how or why, but I never developed a taste for coffee. Even the heavily sugared and milky sort. The advent of the coffee culture didn't move my needle on morning brew. The husband finally caved and became a fan in the last decade or so. And of course our girls drink coffee since their generation grew up with it on every corner thanks to that green-and-white siren logo caffeine pushing company with their own lingo for small, medium and large... that I can never remember correctly. Thus it was a no-brainer to add a dedicated coffee station in our new house, mainly so I didn't have to lose any counter space in the kitchen proper to their machines and trappings. We're just waiting for the two floating shelves to be installed so I can pretty it up and call it done.

This weekend I'm doing my annual volunteering - cue the bunny theme - at a local residential facility for children who have been removed from abusive homes, many who are diagnosed with emotional/behavioral issues. I've developed a connection as well as affection for the girls living there, having sponsored them through our Sunday school class every Christmas as well as having taught them as a public school teacher and then while serving as a child advocate. It's difficult to comprehend, adults who mistreat the innocent, and yet it's much more common than most of us care to imagine. The system struggles to provide what these kids need, and so we should all be doing more to help the least of us as God tells us many times in the Bible. What a remarkable gift, that as God blesses us we can bless others through our prayers, presence and gifts.

The sweet lady who heads up these efforts for girls in the facility told me they were in need of things like shampoo, hairbrushes, and toothpaste. Yep, things most of us take for granted. So I decided to make personal hygiene Easter goody baskets for each of the girls, in addition to the craft activities I've planned. I'll also be whipping up six dozen homemade sugar cookies and decorator icing on Friday so the girls can make some edible bunny treats to round out the fun. It's crucial to let these precious girls know someBUNNY is thinking about them and cares, rather than ignoring this great need in our communities. This Easter season I pray the Lord leads you to a volunteer opportunity where you can be the hands and feet of Jesus to make a difference in the life of a child.

Spring Break 2023

Old habits die hard. As a teacher, I always enjoyed spring break. Especially when the girls were still at home. Now instead of getting a break from school, I get a break as a Bible study leader.

 

The husband and I did some rather mundane things, but that's fine by me. They built a fun looking new frozen custard place not too far from us, so we hit it up for a birthday celebration shake and double malt malt. I gotta say, it was worth the hype and calories. 

The day before, my husband needed some home improvement items. So we zipped into our local Lowe's after lunch at one of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurants. While he was getting things, I perused the outdoor furniture section. Now that we've officially passed the first day of spring, it's time to start thinking about cushions for our two new porch swings that were installed under the pool pavilion yesterday. Plus some umbrellas to shade the sun shelf in the pool. 

 

At the end of the break, our sweet old man Ollie started whimpering in pain after eating. And not eating much because of it. And so this morning he's off to the vet to be put under anesthesia to have his teeth cleaned and mouth checked out. They think it might be a couple bad teeth causing his issues. Please, Lord, let it be something obvious that can be remedied quickly so our precious boy isn't in pain anymore. Having sick critters is just as bad if not worse than when our girls were feeling bad because pets can't tell you their symptoms and where it hurts.

 

The only constant is change

The college senior and I enjoyed a lovely trip to Dallas during the second half of her spring break to look at apartment options for law school. It's hard to believe she graduates on May 4. With light at the end of her undergrad tunnel, we scoped out apartments in the upscale areas around SMU. Once she pays her seat deposit next week, it will be official. 

 

While in Dallas, we couldn't resist eating in some wonderful restaurants as well as visiting a few outstanding local bakeries while checking out the area she'll call home for the next three years. The husband and I lived in Dallas during the summer of 1995 while he was interning at a couple law firms as a 2L. That seems like a lifetime ago, and yet that part of Dallas appears to have only improved in the intervening years. 

As our youngest contemplates a change in cities and colleges, the older daughter is about to begin the process of planning her wedding. She and her boyfriend of two years got engaged this weekend and we're so happy for them! I've been praying for years that the Lord would send a kind and patient Christian man for our girl. And by golly He did just that. Our future son-in-law comes from a lovely family and we look forward to getting to know them all better through this process. 

 

 

 

After taking a look at the bride-to-be's Pinterest board of wedding ideas, I imagine it will take a solid 12-15 months to get all of the many details in place to get them married. And every penny of the budget we're giving her to work with. She has some big dreams when it comes to flowers, y'all, not to mention the reception. Our first order of business in Operation I-DO is to hire a wedding planner to get us all organized and kick it off on the right foot!

 

Little by little

We've been in the house for a week now and it's slowly starting to come together. Our master bath and coffee station bases were set in place a couple days ago, then the quartz and granite countertops were added. Now we're just waiting on the cabinet drawers, shelves and doors. In the meantime, our master bath items are having to hang out in boxes in our respective his and hers master closets while we use the guest bathroom downstairs. Once this is completed, the cabinetmaker will move on to creating my office built-ins.

This morning the mirror and glass company came to take measurements for the master bath mirrors, as well as glass tops for both dining tables, coffee table, end tables and my office desk. While I was waiting on the guy to arrive, I busied myself in the formal dining room. I love that back accent wall as much as I imagined I would when I told our contractor what I wanted. Alas, there's only so much decorating I can do since we can't unpack living and dining decor until my entertainment centers are repainted. So I mainly just did some organizing and decided on shelf placement after giving everything a good dusting.

My sweet cleaning lady did an outstanding job of starting to unpack the college coed's bedroom while I was at Bible study yesterday. I had thought the coed and I would tackle this during her spring break next week. However, we will be spending several days up in Dallas looking at apartment options. Our girl was accepted to law school at SMU and we're so happy that her hard work as an undergrad at UT Austin has paid off with this next step in her education. She was super pleased she received a dean's scholarship for 20K per year. What a blessing, y'all!

Escaping to the country

After several weeks of slowly packing up our city house, the movers arrived Wednesday and Thursday to haul all of our belongings to the new digs out in the hill country. One of the younger guys in the crew brought his twelve week old frenchie puppy because his dog sitter couldn't watch the little fella. His name is Sonny and he was so stinkin' cute. I enjoyed a game or two of fetch with him.

 

 

On Friday we worked in the new house, trying to get some of the basics set up like kitchen, master bedroom and at least the downstairs living area. Saturday we went back to the old house to make a final sweep after the cleaners did their thing, and load up the animal mounts as our final items to get to the new place.

Alas, there's only so much I can do at this point since we're still waiting for the custom cabinet maker to do his thing. When we thought we had several months instead of just the one month since our house went under contract lickety split, the cabinet maker was in no particular rush to make new cabinetry for the master bath, powder room, my office, butler's pantry and coffee bar. Poor guy - now it has become chop, chop and hurry it up. Our contractor has promised us that the master bath will be done by next Friday since the bases should be set tomorrow. That will allow the stone fabricator to make countertop templates in the afternoon so our quartz can be cut and installed once the cabinet guts are placed the following day.

My office consists of a lonely desk and chair right now, along with stacks of boxes waiting to be unpacked. At least my desktop computer is up and running thanks to the husband. Unfortunately, I probably won't have my lovely new office cabinets in place until the end of March. At least the views out to the pool are relaxing. Maybe I'll ask one of the workers to put my porch swings together so we can start enjoying them in this nice spring weather.

Wedding weekend

We attended a family wedding over the weekend. With our move looming, we were glad the venue was only about an hour's drive from our current house. The weather certainly didn't cooperate with ominous clouds, humidity and gusty winds both days. However, it was still a beautiful rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception. The husband and I appreciated this opportunity to see our girls and be together as a family for a couple days.