Tuesday Ten: 1-23-18

Hi friends! Since I haven’t posted in a while, I’m doing a Tuesday TWENTY today… A lot has happened in the past three weeks!

1. A few days after ringing in the new year, Moose, Bear, Maj and I hit the road to Texas. We left Virginia just in time, as it started snowing right when we began packing up the car (and supposedly didn’t stop for a while after we left).
2. The dogs are such troopers! We split up the drive with a pit stop in Little Rock, which made it much easier on all of us.
3. During our stay in Arkansas, we were woken up at 2:30 am by a fire alarm. We walked the dogs outside in the freezing cold and watched as the fire department checked everything out. Of course, it was a false alarm. God always has to add a little adventure to our lives. 😊
4. When we arrived in Texas, I took my baby brother to see The Greatest Showman. Again. I cannot stop listening to the soundtrack either; that whole production is brilliant.
5. On our second day in Austin, we celebrated Christmas with my family. It was a couple weeks late, but that is the kind of thing you have to do when everyone has such crazy schedules. I am just thankful we were able to make it down to Texas to celebrate with them – we have the best family ever!
6. Being home reminded me how much I have missed the South. Specifically, there is just something about Texas that I can’t get enough of… It will always have a special place in my heart.
7. Side note: I have a great story from our family Christmas that will be included with my next recipe. If you happened to see my Instagram story from that night, you already know what went down. If you haven’t… Just wait for it.
8. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Christmas? Reconciling our bank accounts after all the holiday cheer died down made me realize I may love it a bit too much, but the joy it brings makes it all worth it!

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9. After a great weekend with family, we finally returned HOME, to the house we have now owned for almost six months but had previously only lived in for three weeks. We got there just in time to see our backyard fence completed. Now our little Bear will not have the opportunity to make an escape – until he figures out how to get through the fence, of course.
10. While I was excited to see our Norman family, I ended up spending our first week home organizing. Since we never completely moved in when we bought the house, there was no rhyme or reason to our storage arrangements. I couldn’t take the disorderliness much longer.
11. In this process, I discovered Con-Tact Paper. I probably went a little overboard with it. I lined our pantry shelves, our kitchen drawers, our dresser drawers, our bathroom cabinets and shelves –  basically everything I could reasonably line with the paper got covered. It’s just so cute!
12. I also discovered that going back and forth between two places inevitably means forgetting things. I realized this when I was looking for my rolling pin halfway through a batch of cinnamon rolls; I ended up having to use a wine bottle. Needless to say, the Amazon delivery folks have been to our house many, many times in the past couple of weeks.
13. Being back in our house for the semester also means we have time to make it our own! As we bought it, the house is very trendy and super cute, but not really our (read: my) style. My style is instead pretty boring, so that’s basically what our new décor is going to be. 😊 Really, we are going for the “modern farmhouse” look, and I am super excited about it.
14. The first thing we did was paint our dining area. Most of the house is/was already gray (which I love), but I wanted the walls to be a bit lighter, and the ceilings to be white. We started with the ceiling. Let me just say… Painting ceilings is No. Fun. Not to mention the fact that, as an inexperienced painter, I apparently did not choose the correct type of paint, and we ended up having to do three coats. We started off with a short roller before realizing (during the third coat) that an extendable roller was much more efficient. We went up and down our ladder at least a hundred times each. There were paint spots all over our nice stained-concrete floor, and the painter’s tape we used peeled the paint off of part of our trim. But by golly, we learned a lot. Which is good, because I am not a fan of the shade of white I chose, so we will be painting that ceiling again. 😊
15. What I am most excited about is having the cabinets painted. They are actually being completed tomorrow. They started out as a gray color, a bit darker than the walls, and we are having them painted white. (I was going to attempt to do this myself, but I was advised against it by multiple people – probably for the best.) I cannot wait to see the finished product. It is going to look so good!
16. In an unimportant note, Maj and I started school again last week. Of course, I am kidding; this is probably the most important thing we are doing while we are in Oklahoma. I was excited to be back, but it is a bit odd being back in school after living a real “adult” life.
17. The (big) wedding is less than two months away, and the pressure is on! I feel as though I am constantly adding to my to-do list. One step forward, two steps back. The more it comes together, though, the more excited I get – partially because it will be fun, partially because weddings are not really my thing and I am ready to get it over with – but that part is only like 5%. 😉
18. Maj got his wisdom teeth out on Friday and it was hiiiii-larious. Head over to my Instagram page (@meganleigh32) if you haven’t seen the video yet. Thankfully, he has a very high pain tolerance, so he has not been a big baby like I was after my surgery. Coincidentally, Bear got neutered on the same day. My poor, poor guys.
19. As part of my new year’s goals, I decided I wanted to get back to spending time with God consistently. I am proud to report that I have made quiet time part of my daily routine again and now wake up every morning excited to dig into my devotional with my cup of coffee. Changing my mindset and creating a peaceful space have really helped motivate me.
20. Now that all the (moving) craziness has subsided, I will hopefully have more posts coming! I still have one recipe I have not yet posted from when we were in Virginia, I have a few other recipes I am excited to share with y’all, and I hope to soon give you a little before and after of the things we are doing with the house.

It’s good to be back!

<3 Meg