A busy, floral week

Last week, my mom and grandma came into town to see the Texas wildflowers (oh, and us ;)  We saw a lot of plants, and made sure to visit a few of our favorite "Austin" spots. In particular:

East Austin Succulents. Even if you're only remotely interested in plants, you're bound to enjoy this place. Seriously. And you can't not buy at least one (we have several around our apartment because of this place).

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It was a rainy day, but rain or shine, it's a lovely place.

Driving around hill country. We  lost track of how far we drove (in the name of wildflowers!) and we clocked two-hundred and fifty miles that day. Oops. Our favorite part of the entire drive? The Willow City Loop. I've never seen so many wildflowers in my entire life.

Lick Honest Ice Creams. Um, yes. This is awesome ice cream made from local, grass-fed milk and seasonal ingredients. (I had Hill Country Honey and Vanilla Bean & Dark Chocolate with Olive Oil and Sea Salt). Can you believe how cute the shop is?? And I left with a punch card, because we'll be back.

Other highlights:

  • Tacos. At least three times. (Homemade, and from here and here)
  • Sitting by the pool, and perfect weather for poolside naps
  • Barbecue (you have to)
  • Thrifting
  • Late-night ice cream and family stories at the table
  • A last-minute IKEA trip
  • Taking selfies with my grandma and my mom ;)

It was a wonderful visit. Mom and Grandma Donna, I love you both (and I'm writing to you directly, since I know you read my posts ;) And anyone else who wants to come visit, we will gladly show you our favorite bits of Austin and eat all the tacos with you.

Other things I've been up to lately:

  • Seeing Punch Brothers live with Molly at Austin City Limits (above photo). Punch Brothers, you do not disappoint. Wow.  So shameless is my enjoyment of this band, I even bought a t-shirt.
  • finished reading 7: An experimental mutiny against excess. I wholeheartedly recommend it, and if you read it, you'll likely be challenged in a big way (I was).
  • finally finished knitting my sister-in-law's shawl and it's finally in the mail
  • brainstorming my next knitting project
  • researching dermatologists and ophthalmologists in our area, yawn
  • internally reevaluating my attitude about material stuff (see bullet point #2). Post on this tomorrow.
  • craving carbonated water with lime juice.
  • committing to doing my devotional regularly—and loving it
  • feeling excited to live in Austin. With this visit in particular, I feel more like a part of Austin and I'm eager to show family and friends around our city.

I have multiple, half-written posts in my head that I've been wanting to post, but haven't had a chance to do so. However, I'm in the middle of a three-day stretch off from work, so you can expect at least another post tomorrow!

Tags:

Related posts

Winter adventuring

Starting sometime in the fall, I made a point to be a bit more creative and find new to us trails to hike on and explore. Since then, we have found several new favorites for when we are in the mood for a hike, regardless of the season.

•5 min read

2022: A year in review

Welcome to my annual post of our life in the last year – a review of all the big and little events, travels, habits, heartbreaks, and joys. These posts require a lot of time and energy, in part due to sifting through all the posts I wrote in the last year, but also because these posts spur me to reflect and sit with the previous year for a moment, before stepping into the next one.

•12 min read

2021: A year in review

Every January, I assemble a blog post of sorts that catalogs our year. Largely organized in list-form, I touch on the big and little things, events and thoughts and experiences that shaped our life over the last year. I do find this incredibly helpful as a sort of reflection, a glance back on the Lord's faithfulness, to show me, time and time again, that He is a good God. And with that mindset, I feel less encumbered as we continue on into the new year, more ready to face a full year of new, fresh days, with the heart attitude that regardless of what the days will hold, mundane or exciting, difficult or good, I can walk into the future with hope and trust in Him. Plus, I do enjoy looking back on a lot of the little details of our life, the ones that make me smile or think, Oh, yes! We loved that! What a little joy in our life.

•16 min read