Come Sit By Me: Volume 38

Inside: Welcome to the weekend and our weekly catch-up, Come Sit By Me. I’m spilling the sweet tea on what’s happened this week, what’s inspiring me, and a few things that have caught my eye that I think you’ll love too!

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Welcome to “Come Sit By Me”! It’s our chance to catch up on the little things I’d share with you this week if we could chat on the porch over coffee (or wine depending on the time of day).

Life Lately in a Nutshell.

This past week I took a little trip down memory lane—literally. I headed back to Louisiana to visit family and enjoyed some reminiscing (and some seriously good food). I spent the first half of my visit with my nephew and his wife, and met the newest member of the family: an adorable 9-week old puppy named Mongo. He immediately won me over because he loves to snuggle—which I fully soaked up now, because the next time I see him he’ll probably be the size of a small human.

We had rooftop cocktails at the Star Bar, drove around the college campus where I spent my first three semesters, and went by the two houses where his parents once lived—homes that hold so many family memories for us.

The real treat though was dinner. My nephew is an incredible cook and whipped up a meal that could’ve easily come out of a five-star restaurant. Blackened bass he caught himself topped with a spicy shrimp cream sauce—Louisiana cooking for the win. My niece made this TikTok of him in action:

The second half of my Louisiana visit brought me to my hometown to spend time with my oldest brother and sister-in-law. It’s been too long, and the visit reminded me just how fleeting time really is. We had two full days to catch up, walk our family property on the Sabine River, and talk about family business and life in general. Driving past our childhood home was disappointing because it’s not being taken care of—peeling paint, missing shutter, overgrown flower beds. But all those big old oak trees are still standing tall, just like they always have. A little piece of the home I remember still holding on.

Back at home, I made a lighting swap I’d been thinking about—I scored a chandelier I’d been eyeing at Pottery Barn with an open-box discount and had it installed in the family room. The deal on the light along with the fact that I needed to replace a broken ceiling fan in my bedroom made it seem like a practical idea. 😂

What do you think? I hope I don’t regret taking the fan out of the living area with triple-digit temps breathing down our necks, but I’ll find out soon enough—our first 100-degree day is just around the corner. But for now, I really think I like it! It seems ceiling fans have really gone out of favor design-wise. But I don’t care what they look like, I could never make the decision take them out of the bedrooms or I’d die in my sleep drowned in a pool of sweat.