Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, my friends.  I am so excited about this weekend!  More about that in just a minute, though.  I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals, and her friends, for this blog post. 

What a week!  It's been a whirlwind, and it started with last Friday.

Every year, the ladies in my church host an in-town women's conference, and it is always so good!  I've helped lead worship the last few years, and I always look forward to doing that and serving in that way.  I was there by about five that Friday night, and on Saturday, I was back around seven thirty that morning.  Singing that early is NOT for the faint of heart, by the way.  The two ladies in that picture above were our speakers, along with my friend Amy, and it was PHENOMENAL.  We had a good amount of women there, too, which was exciting. 

I went to lunch with my friend after the Saturday portion, and came home and put on pajamas and took a nap.  Praise!  It was glorious.  I had nowhere to be the rest of that day, so there I sat.  I did do some laundry, and I ate some leftovers for dinner and read my book, but I watched a lot of television shows and relaxed.  It was GLORIOUS.  Being at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go is my favorite thing of all. 

Reading the new testament with my church family is also my favorite thing, and this verse spoke volumes to me this week.  There are some things in my heart that I am praying for, and I felt like the Lord Himself gave me this verse to encourage me to keep praying this week.  It was a sweet time of worship as I sat at my kitchen table and thanked Him for doing that for me.  He never has to do that kind of thing, but He always does, as a way to encourage me, and my heart always rejoices when that kind of thing happens. 

These pictures are from Monday and Tuesday, during my quiet time.  My favorite spot to sit for quiet time is at my kitchen table. 

On Tuesday night, we celebrated one of my favorite dads, my dad-in-love.  I made him a birthday dinner and even though all these boys are in this picture, they were not here for long and all left after a few minutes.  When they left, we stayed at the table and pulled out the Phase 10 cards and played for a couple of hours.  We always love playing games with these two, and we love to tease each other and mess around.  It was a really fun night. 

These two cuties (my favorite twins) went from playing the game of baseball to being score keepers for our town's parks and rec department.  They each got this job last weekend and started training this week.  It's the perfect job for a high school student and pays just enough to give them money for gas and eating out with their friends.  They wouldn't let me take a "first night of work" picture, so this is what they get for saying no.  I'm rolling my eyes. 

Shelley Giglio posted this on Instagram yesterday, and when I saw it, I had to share it myself, and then it prompted a blog post on the top of our enemy the devil.  It was not at all my usual kind of blog post, but I felt like I needed to share some things God had me talk about with several different people this week...when He does that, I feel like that someone other than me needs to hear that.  Who knows...and maybe that's not the case, but I wrote it and posted it, and then I prayed over the ones who would read it. 

My favorite passage in the bible is about spiritual warfare, and it's found in Ephesians six.  My favorite movie is on the same topic, The War Room, and one of my favorite bible studies on the same topic is by Priscilla Shirer, called The Armor of God. 

We had another birthday celebration last night, this time for my sweet daddy.  He turns eighty-eight today!  Doesn't he look amazing for his age?  Trish made our favorite kind of birthday cake ever, and we sat and ate and talked and laughed and caught up.  Three of the boys had to work and then once they were done, they had a basketball game, so they got to say hello basically, and then were gone the rest of the night.  It was weird, them not being here, but it was also nice in a way.  We're in a weird new phase.

Tonight, my favorite bible study teacher and author is in town for a conference at Bellevue, and me and two sweet friends are going and treating it like an out of town experience.  We are staying at my in-love's house tonight, because they live close by the church and it'll help cut down on drive time.  I can't wait!  My favorite worship leader will also be here, of course, and I am counting down the minutes until three thirty, when Missy comes to get Teresa and me. 

Have a great weekend!  Love to all.