Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Ah...Summer!

I have to say...summer is my favorite season! Even though when the air turns cool in October and the leaves change and I think Fall might be my favorite...or when the flowers start to bloom and everything turns green and I think Spring might just be the best time of year (I don't care what you say...I'll never like Winter)...then summer rolls in with the 95 degree heat and 100% humidity and I'm reminded of what it means to truly be from the south. We don't just tolerate the heat and humidity...we live it. We don't hide from it...in fact, we intentionally plan our days outside, right in the middle of it. This past weekend was the perfect summer weekend...


I spent most of Saturday out by the pool which is practically in my back yard!

Sunday I spent out on the lake with good Greenville friends and forgot to take pictures but CLICK HERE for a synopsis of the last lake trip I took with these friends and you'll pretty much get the gist of the day...sans Sierra!



I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday filling planters with pretty plants that hopefully will make it through the summer alive!

For some reason, I think a chair is one of the best spots for a plant...


And then last night, as I was walking up the steps to my deck after turning Sierra out for the final time, I smelled something that always reminds me of summer...so I clipped a few, threw them in a bud vase and sat them on my bedside table...just like my mom used to do when I was growing up.

Is there any better smelling flower than a Gardenia?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I'm Back...

...but who knows for how long! When I wrote the last post, I thought I'd follow it up very quickly with a long one about what I had been up to. Well...it's been two weeks, and I'm less motivated to fill you in on all of my 'happenings' than I was back then...and I'm sure by now you're thinking, "Geez Megan...we are so not interested anymore!" :)

Well...just in case any of you were curious about what my month of April consisted of...


The first picture in the previous post was the glass ceiling of the botanical garden in the Bellagio in Las Vegas! I took a girls trip out to Las Vegas and then on to Pasadena to visit a childhood friend from April 16-22! It was amazing and definitely worth a post all of it's own. Hopefully, I'll get to that one of these days!

The next picture was a piece of the one above. This was another Edisto wedding for another one of the daughter's of the Mother Daughter group that gets together every Christmas. Below is my favorite picture of the night with all the Moms. Look at Gretchen (the bride) and her mom holding hands...




And finally...I've started a new project. I'm knitting again. But I'm still going to keep this one a bit of a secret because I haven't finished the project yet and it's going to someone who checks this blog from time to time, but let's just say there will be another little one besides my precious Godbaby that I'll get to spoil very soon and I can't wait to meet her!



Other than that...life has been pretty normal lately. I've been in and out of town so much lately that I haven't been able to go to my Bible study all that much and tonight was the first night I was able to go in quite a while. We are studying a book that I started reading one year ago today! Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World is a book I would recommend to any girl out there trying to figure out how to fit it all in! I thought at first that I wouldn't be able to relate to the book because I didn't really have a household to run or family to raise...but oh, how I was wrong! Ladies...if you haven't read this one yet, stop now and click here and order it right now! It is so powerful!

Anyway, I found this group of women shortly after I moved to Greenville through a Catholic young adults group. Some of the women are married with and without children, others are single. Some are Catholic, others are Protestant. All are very nice. But I've struggled with this group for some time because there's not a particular leader to the group. I am used to a Bible Study that someone prepares for and actually leads. We normally sit around and go page by page through a book and discuss what we have underlined. One of the things I enjoyed about Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World so much was the discussion questions for each chapter in the back. So tonight, I suggested that we discuss each question and actually read the Scripture passages that the author suggests (imagine that?). We had such a wonderful discussion and I think each one of us walked away having learned more about each other and the work that the Lord is doing in each of our lives.

The reoccurring theme of the night was trying to overcome discouragement. Whether it's dealing with the struggle of being perpetually single (wonder who's struggle that is???) or not being able to conceive a child or never ending stresses at work...all of us realized that we were putting these discouragements in place of our relationship with God. I have prayed over and over and over again for a husband and have started to realize that the better prayer is for peace, contentment, patience and most importantly trust in God that He will provide and that all things are beautiful in His time. It was a wonderful night of coffee, discussion, Scripture and the Spirit!

"He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. I recognized that there is nothing better than to be glad and to do well during life. For every man, moreover, to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor is a gift of God. I recognized that whatever God does will endure forever, there is no adding to it or taking from it. Thus has God done that he may be revered. What now is has already been; what is to be, already is; and God restores what would otherwise be displaced." Ecclesiastes 3:11-15