Friday Favorites

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

From last Friday night until today, here are some favorite things and memories from the week. First up on the list is going out to Mom's last Friday night. The sunset was beautiful! It felt so good outside, too, which is making me want fall weather. This week the weather has been incredible and several nights have found me outside on the deck.

Their neighbors were out of town and asked them to take care of their vegetable garden for them, so look at all the beauties I came home with. I've gotten more since then and they are delicious. 

Saturday was glorious because I finished reading two books. One book I was about a fourth of the way through, but I stayed up way too late that night to finish the second one. I've been buying books from a gem of a website I found called Thrift Books. They have books for sale for under $5, and even under $4. I've been reading like a crazy woman all week.

Robin Jones Gunn is my favorite author! These books are SO GOOD. I cannot put them down once I start one. I love reading books like this, and these just take me back to the days when I was young and staying up too late reading. Lately when I stay up, I watch Netflix, but I've read in bed almost every night this week.

Some of my favorite moments in life are when the Lord brings me across a verse I need at just the right moment. This verse above was one such moment this week, from Haggai 2:9. I needed to read these words that day when I saw this. This page is the beginning of the book of Haggai in my Bible, which is also my favorite Bible of all time. I'm linking it here, in case you're interested in seeing it yourself.

It's the She Reads Truth website, and you can shop and compare for the best price.

While I'm on the topic of Bibles, this is my giant study Bible that I use when I'm starting a writing project. I pull this out when I write certain blog posts or magazine articles, but on Monday I pulled this out to begin studying for our next women's Bible study that we'll be taking as a group of women in January of 2021. I can't say which book we're writing on yet, but I'm excited! I spent an hour and a half looking at three verses and taking tons of notes, so I had to make myself walk away on this day to get dinner started.

Writing is my favorite.

Wednesday night was beautiful. I took my book and sat outside to read for about an hour until all the mosquitoes started coming out. Todd joined me at some point; it made us both long for the cooler weather that's coming with fall! Fall is our favorite season. Give me cool nights, the warm scents that I love to smell that are associated with baking and the holidays, cozy clothes and blankets, bonfires and nights when the sun starts setting a little earlier. I know people have strong opinions on summer being over, but we have strong opinions about fall hurrying up to get here! This fall we will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. We're hoping to get away for a couple of nights to somewhere fun and we'll be dreaming and discussing what we'll be doing next year when we celebrate our big 25th! That's exciting to think about.

On Friday, I exercised my right to vote in the Tennessee primary elections. I posted this picture on social media to remind people to get out and vote in case they'd forgotten. I took this picture from my favorite spot on the deck.

Other favorites from the week include things like coming across old pictures like this one below. Some of these kids graduated this year and the rest of them are graduating next year, with the exception of one or two that are younger siblings. My Jonah and Noah were both there on this day, but Noah's not pictured; Jonah is on the far left standing under the arm of the birthday boy. They're still friends today.

I love this picture below that I came across on my memories this week. This reminds me of Hebrews 4:12, about the living and active Word of God. My Pastor says that as we read the Word of God, the Word of God is reading us. That's what that means; that it's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Isn't that amazing? 

I bought my first mangoes this week! They're my new favorite fruit. It's a pain to cut and dice so I don't know how many I'll be buying again, but they were delicious. For two days this week, that was what both Drew and I had for lunch.

This is little Chip, one of my favorite dogs. My other favorite dogs are Crash and Callie and my sister Debi's dog, Cowboy. Cowboy LOVES Auntie Jen and throws himself across me like he's a little lap dog—he's not, he's a golden retriever.

If you know me, you know that I love handwritten letters and messages, or even just inscriptions like this one below. My dad's handwriting in my Bibles is one of my favorite things and I know I will cherish this always. Poor thing, he's legally blind, so this was a labor of love for him to sign this for me. 💙

Oh, my husband. Do you see him way up there in this picture below? He was replacing a piece of siding that came off and he made me have anxiety by being on this crazy tall ladder. You'll be glad to know he's fine, but this is more proof as to why men die before their wives. It's stunts like this.

He told me later on, after I expressed my concern, "Imagine being up that high and staring a wasp nest with wasps on it in the face." 

I died. Jonah was running back and forth and sending things up to him by a rope Todd had with him, like wasp spray and his power drill. 

It was a good week! I hope you had a good one. Thanks for reading! Love to all.