Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals for this post.

My friends who are teachers or who have kids that went back to school this week survived!  I know this first couple of weeks is usually dreadful in the world of going back and finding a routine again, but I know they're thrilled to have the first week behind them.  I am ready to start our school week next week and look forward to our year ahead.

Before I go any further, I have to acknowledge that one of my most favorite people in all of the world turns TWENTY-NINE today!  (Why yes, I am a decade older than one of my very best friends, but we don't like to talk about that.)

I pretty much had my dreams come true when I got to be with her on three different trips this summer.  And let me say, you can learn a lot about folks when you travel across the country with them, but I learned nothing new about sweet Abbey.  She is the same one hundred percent of the time. The thing I love most about her is her love for Jesus, her love of prayer and the word of God.  I've not had that in a friend since my other bestie Christa lived here.  And speaking of Christa, they remind me of one another.  I really want them to meet and they've come close several times, but it's not happened yet.  Someday, though.

Some other favorite things about her include her style: she considers herself "grandma chic".  Think lots of pastels and floral prints.  I love that we are constantly texting pictures to each other of our newest finger nail polish colors.  I love that she loves picnics as much as I do.  She has the most beautiful, genuine love for the Lord, more than I've seen in anyone in a very long time.  I love that often times, God will give us the same scriptures without us even knowing it until after the fact.  I love to hear her pray.

I love that her arms are always long enough to take our many pictures.  I love that someone once said about us that we were the perfect type of friends, that I fit right into her when we hug.  I love that she, too, loves to hold hands when we pray and that she is affectionate.

There are a million other things, but I'll stop with my favorite: A couple of years ago, God gave both Abbey and me a desire to meet and pray with someone weekly.  We did not know that we each had that desire, but God brought us together in that way, and that is when our close knit friendship began.  I like to think that He knit our hearts together in this way and we quickly grew very close.

I want to encourage anyone who is interested in that kind of a relationship.  Pray and ask God to give you someone to do this with, and I promise, He will bring you someone.  We picked a day that is good for both of us, and we are consistent in meeting on that day, around that same time.  We don't let much stop us, it's usually a sickness or extreme busyness that sometimes cannot be helped.  I always tell her that after our times of prayer, I walk away feeling like I've had a counseling session.  Prayer is so good for us, but more than that, it's the most important thing we can do every single day and it is MUCH under-used.

I challenge you to find this kind of person you can do this with and start.

I do have some other favorite moments from this week.

A favorite from this week was definitely these guys being reunited over last weekend.  A friend of their family died, and our friends Katie and Travis attended the visitation and funeral.  Though we didn't see much of them, I was happy that we got to see their older boys, Myles and Zander.  The boys had a great time all weekend, and they got to spend both Friday and Saturday nights.

There are not many things I love more than hearing laughter come from upstairs.

One last favorite thing this week was catching Jonah's room so clean yesterday.  The other half was messy, which I think might drive Jonah a little crazy.  He is so my child and is a neat freak.  He also stress cleans and cleans when he's bored.  I love that about him.

This week has been good, though also quiet.  It's always weird when school starts back because the constant parade of teenagers stops abruptly.  I know they're excited to be with their friends again this weekend, and hopefully, we will have some of them stop by at some point.  I love their friends.

Have a great day!  Love to all.