Friday Favorites, 7.30.21

 

Happy Friday, friends! I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week's version of all my favorite things. 

The weather this week has definitely NOT been my favorite, but these memes helped some.

Let the people say amen.

I listened to my favorite podcast yesterday while I made lunch and coffees for the guys here to take to work with them. 

Sophie Hudson and Melanie Shankle are two of my favorite bloggers/ authors and they are no less than hilarious as they talk about all the mindless things. I laughed particularly hard at this one because they started off with a topic I've heard my guys talk about this week―the SEC adding two more teams to their conference. 

What podcasts do you listen to that are funny? I'd love some suggestions.

This white polish is my favorite in the summer! I got my nails done this week, but this will be the last time I'll get this extra bright white until next summer. I only do this shade when I have a tan.

As much as I love bright and light colors (and all the other fun colors I've worn this summer), once September arrives I wear dark colors. It's my favorite time of year that we're almost at!

Aren't my sunglasses cute? They're my new favorites. I love Target's collection of sunglasses.

My favorite day this week was Tuesday, when I met my sister here and swam for a few hours.

My second favorite day was Wednesday, when I had a meeting at our church. We had lots to talk about and it was SUCH a great, productive meeting. I feel like we hit our sweet spot and were on a roll as we talked about things to come for the women's ministry.

How has your week been? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all. 

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday, friends! Each Thursday, Rebecca Jo, Leslie and I co-host a blog link-up party in which we list out the things we're thankful for from that week. We would love for you to join us, so write your own post and link back to us!

Every single time I open up the word of God to study as I begin the process of writing my portion for our next women's Bible study, I am deeply humbled and thankful that I get to do what I do. All of my life, all I ever wanted to be was a stay at home wife and mom, but I worked part time jobs until I started homeschooling our sons. Now that they're all out of school and graduated, I have this extra time on my hands. I use it in several ways, but my favorite way to use it is by writing. Now that I have even more spare time, I plan on trying to write at least three days a week. I have some other ideas rolling around in my brain and I can't wait to implement some of them in the coming months. 

I was feeling particular grateful for this today because the writing team got to be together yesterday. We love meeting! There are five of us that go to my church and we have the most fun when we're together.

I am so thankful for time with our parents. I love that we live in the same (general) town, and that we see each other often. I try to see my in-love's at least once or twice a month, I see my dad every Friday and lots of times in the week, I see my mom twice― once in the week most times, and on Saturdays when I spend the morning with her and my sister Trish.

I don't take any of this for granted! I know how fortunate I am and I thank God for this time with them.

I am thankful for random Tuesdays at this beautiful pool with my sister. Our friend let us swim there since she was out of town this week.

I am thankful that I get the privilege of helping lead worship at our church. We do have a choir, orchestra and praise team, but we've had the summer off and just the praise band and team have been leading in worship along with our worship pastor. I love getting to be a small part of that! I don't take it lightly and spend time preparing for it on the weeks when I'm holding a microphone. I appreciate all the work and effort that goes into this, because it's not easy! I also do this for our women's Bible studies each week on Wednesday mornings.

I am thankful for the million little ways that my husband expresses his love for me. This might be how he fills up my gas tank, compliments me, goes to Costco for emergency coffee runs, or putting in a new car radio for me, one of our sons, or his mom. (As I write this, he is getting ready to do this for his mom tonight. They're coming over so that he can do this and will be joining us for dinner.) I pray I show him that same kind of love that he shows me. I think I do, but I always pray for this.

I am thankful for the little pop up showers we've had this week! They cool the temperature down and the Lord waters my flowers. 

Your turn! Link up with us and share your lists...I can't wait to read them!

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what's up Wednesday

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I am linking up with Shay and Erika for this blog post today. I'll jump right in!

What we're eating this week:

We had meatloaf one night last week and it was DELICIOUS. My favorite, all time favorite, recipe to use for this is Ina Garten's recipe for her amazing meatloaf. If you want to check that out, click here. 

We ate buffalo wings on Monday night, salmon last night and the rest of this week is to be determined.

What I'm reminiscing about:

Ummm, currently, the trip to Nashville we had a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun and I wrote about it yesterday on here, and lots of things I talked about made me smile.

What I'm loving:

My new car! I love it so much and it's fun to drive! And on a much cheaper note, I love this new coffee mug.

What we've been up to:

All the things. Noah was at the beach last week, Graham and Drew have been working, Jonah has been working a bit, Todd has been working, I've been hanging out at home or at the pool with my sister.

What I'm dreading:

I can't think of one thing I'm dreading at this present moment.

What I'm working on:

A new blog link-up I'm cohosting on Thursdays, our next Bible study that we're going to write for January of 2022, getting music ready for our Bible study on Esther that we'll start in August...I could go on. You get the gist.

What I'm excited about:

All of the things I just listed above! I always love starting a new Bible study and I'm looking forward to meeting new people.

What I've been watching/reading:

I'm on a Christmas in July Hallmark movie kick right now and watched a really good one yesterday while I ate lunch—Crashing Through Christmas. As far as reading, my friend Missy alerted me to a new author, one who is local to me named Patricia Bradley and I am loving the book I'm reading by her right now. 

What I'm listening to:

Currently, a podcast called The Bestie Breakdown, and it's hilarious because they turned the mics over to their husbands. 

What I'm doing this weekend:

Great question! I know for sure I'll be at church on Sunday, but aside from that, I'm not sure.

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Well, it's not next month, but I'm excited about September and all the B-E-R months. I love cold weather and fall and fires and candles...I'll stop now. 

What else is new:

Our dog Crash had his second surgery recently (it's similar to a knee replacement thing) and he is struggling right now! I don't know if he has pulled something in the same leg or what, but he is really hobbling around. I feel terrible for him! I also pray for my dogs. I figure if I care about them, the Lord cares about what I care about. Am I right? 

Well, thank you for reading my blog! I'll see you back here tomorrow for the (new to me) Thankful Thursday link-up. I hope you join us! Love to all. 

share four somethings- July 2021 edition

 

I love linking up with Heather each month for this blog post! It's a great way to document how the month went. This is a post where I share about something loved, something read, something treasured and something ahead. I'll just jump right in!

Something loved:

So many things! I loved all the quality time I spent with Drew as he cleaned out his old room and packed up to move out. I love that I still see him often and every single time he comes home, I get a hug from him. 

I love that he loves living on his own and that his new roommates are also his best friends. I love that my other boys go over there almost every night and I love how close they still are, even with him gone.

I love our town! It's not a small town, but it feels like a small town. Did you know that I was born and raised right here in Collierville, Tennessee? What a privilege to have lived in the same town for my 44 and a half years. This is our town hall, pictured above. I was there for something I'll mention eventually.

I love getting my hair done four times a year! This was the morning after I got some more blonde added, that I then sent to Mom to show her. Here's the back:

I loved spending a weekend in Nashville with some of my favorite friends. We had a blast! 

I love this picture of Drew my mom-in-love took of him while I was out of town and I love seeing his genuine smile!

While I don't love that my Jonah had a wreck one night (on the interstate and in the rain), I do love that he was okay, that nobody else was hurt and that I have a new (to me) car. (It's the blue VW on the left in the picture below.)

Something read:

I'll write about this more this week, but I read a crazy amount of books this month. One of the ones I loved is by a local author—Patricia Bradley. She writes mysteries that take place in or around Memphis, Tennessee, so I loved knowing where she was talking about as I read. She has several series of books, so I foresee her keeping me busy for quite some time. She is a Christian fiction writer.

Something treasured:

Time spent reading the Word of God. I love my quiet time every morning, when I read in a daily Bible for the year and write out verses from a Scripture writing plan. I also added studying into the mix recently, as we start to get ready to write for our next Bible study at church that will begin after the new year. (We'll start studying Esther this fall, and we will be writing for the next study simultaneously.)

Something ahead:

Exciting things! Possibly. ;) I do have some things on my horizon, but I'm not quite ready to talk about them just yet. I don't mean to be purposefully elusive, I'm just not certain about anything yet and don't want to write about it until I know for sure. 

I can tell you what I'm not looking forward to that is looming ahead is seeing my son's best friend move away for college. He's already getting a little sad about it, and my heart aches for him. I don't love this phase of seeing their friends move away and this season brings about a lot of change for them. Change is never really that easy, is it? 

Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. 

Friday Favorites, 7.23.21

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for this weekly blog post. 

How has your week been? Mine has been good, albeit a little crazier than normal, but still really good. Do you just have those days where it goes completely opposite of how you thought it would? That's been me all week and I feel like it's been the same for my husband. He and my oldest son are working themselves half to death with work right now! Again, I am thankful for this, because it's business the Lord has provided for them. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but they repair medical equipment for doctor's offices, some hospitals, dentists and veterinarians. My days have been minor compared to theirs. As of last night, my oldest son had already worked fifty hours this week. 

Anyway, here are some of my top favorite things from this week, in no particular order.

This is one of my favorite verses―and one thing I love to do is encourage people I know who need prayer and the reminder that no matter what they go through or what happens in a certain situation, God is going to help them through. I texted this to a friend on Sunday night. 

Another favorite? This girl on TikTok. There is something extremely satisfying about watching her videos! She inspired me to clean out my fridge on Wednesday and my friend and I are both talking about buying some clear bins and doing this in our kitchens. I told her when she does hers first to invite me over so I can watch her like I watch this girl on TikTok. 😂

First it was cute dog videos and now it's cleaning and restocking ones. I can easily fall down into the rabbit hole of watching these. 

Another favorite is still my car, the one on the left. I'm still trying to come up with a name for her and am leaning toward Peri(winkle), Dory or Iris. 

I took this at church on Wednesday night to show my friend that I was meeting for Bible study. Even our cars are cute together, the little VWs that they are.

Why yes, I am still wearing my favorite dresses nonstop! I took this at church on Wednesday night as well. I've worn and washed them so many times already, and they've held up extremely well. If you're new to the blog, they came from Walmart! I'm so impressed with their quality. I bought two in the store and came home and bought three more online.

Did you know that the art of handwriting is one of my favorite things? Even when I was younger, I loved when the teacher would assign vocabular words to define. I took such pride in my neat handwriting and I still love to sit down and write a letter or in my journal. 

My favorite pen to write with a Flair felt tip marker pen. I have them in all colors, but black is my go to.

Another favorite from this week are the Hallmark Christmas movies I've watched. (Two.) Crashing Through Christmas and Holly and Ivy were both so good! I watched one on Wednesday and one on Thursday as I ate my lunch.

My favorite dinner from the week was Tuesday night when we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. If you've never made Ina Garten's version of meatloaf, you are missing out! It's the best. 

Lastly, starting the process of studying to prepare to write our next Bible study for women at our church is always a favorite. I am on the writing team at my church and this will be our fourth study to write together. 

I have this process that I always go through―I start by reading the book(s) out loud several times, then I read it in different translations of the Bible. I start to kind of try to come up with an outline for myself, thinking about breaks for days and which verses should go with each day, then I just start writing. I pray first and usually it starts to flow. Once I start, it's easier, but getting started is often hard. I started all of this last week, but I really dug in deep yesterday while I was alone in the house. I am starting to get a plan in mind and I made lots of notes. 

Well, that's about all I have for this week. It's your turn! What was something you'd consider a favorite from the week? It can be an item, event or memory. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog. Love to all!

Thankful Thursday

 

There is tremendous power in practicing being thankful. Oprah (whom you'll not often read me talk about) said it herself years ago when she aired her show on the practice of gratitude and keeping a journal. More than her talking about this, the Bible talks about how we are to always give thanks to God, if we are believers in and followers of Him. I thought I'd share a few here.

Praise the Lord, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. (Psalm 106:1)

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12L28-29)

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. (Psalm 107:21)

And my favorite—

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

When we focus on all the things we have to be thankful for, our eyes stay fixed on Jesus. I've experienced this in my own life many, many times and I know some of you have as well, which leads me to this blog post and a new thing for me. I'm joining in with my friends Rebecca Jo from Knit By God's Hand and Leslie from Once Upon A Time & Happily Ever After for a once a week link up. Read my post, read their posts and then join us in your own! Link up with us each week and then make sure and link your blog back to each of ours, then settle in for some great blog reading. I've come to love the blog communities I'm in and consider each of these ladies personal friends. I'm excited for y'all to join us! For now, we do not have a graphic for you, so feel free to find or make your own.

One thing I am thankful for this week is the fact that I have the gift of time. Most of you know that I have a new (to me) car—I had to spend several hours in the dealership this week with it. They had to replace the whole side mirror on the passenger side because the blind spot sensor was not working. It's an easy fix, but the calibrating part is hours long and because of other vehicle issues this week and the crazy work schedule of my husband, I was forced to stay there and wait most of the day on Tuesday. I literally thanked the Lord for the fact that I had the time to do this. It's no big deal for me to throw a bunch of things into a bag and take it all with me to keep me busy while I wait. I took my lunch and I worked on this blog post, all while I sat and waited.

(I feel so techy, too—I have the hotspot on my phone turned on and my laptop is running off of that WiFi. I had to brag on myself, because I am NOT AT ALL techy.)

I'm smiling as I write that.

I am also thankful for my new (to me) car! I don't love car shopping and my sweet husband did this for me while I was out of town a couple of weeks ago. I'm thankful that he was able to find something dependable, pretty and that drives so well. Like houses and employees, there is high demand for used cars right now and as I sat and waited, a salesman came and talked to all of us who were waiting about them buying our used cars. 

I'm thankful for godly friendship. I am always thankful for this and talk about it often, but I'll never grow weary of this topic. It's so important for us to have friends in life. Family is great too, but it's not quite the same as friends. If you're not a regular attender of church services, what is stopping you? I encourage you to go and to get plugged into a small group. That's where relationships are formed and you can't do that if you don't faithfully attend each week. 

I attended a fascinating meeting after church last week and we talked about the core group of a church—it's a very small few group of people who are at and do everything. The next "core group" is a bigger number, but they're not at all the things as that small inner core. The next group are church attenders who consider that church their home, but who go once or twice four to five weeks, or even every other week.

I mention godly friendship because several times this week, I've had the privilege of praying for friends. They pray for me as well, and there is a very small number of people who truly know everything about me and my daily struggles in life. These are the people who know all of my faults and love me anyway, without pointing them out on a regular basis. I pray for each one who reads this, that the Lord will grant you this wonderful gift of godly friendship. Trust me when I say I don't take this lightly! I know the gift this truly is and I thank the Lord for it every day of my life.

I'm saving the best for last—I am thankful for my wonderful husband. He does so much for us! He is my husband, of course, but he is also my best friend, the greatest dad to our sons and my personal hero. There is nothing he can't do! He is the hardest working man that I know and his work ethic is a beautiful thing. He's crazy busy at work right now, for which we are thankful, because the Lord has provided this work for our family business, but he also desperately needs another employee to replace the one he lost recently. If you want to know the truth, I am praying that the Lord would turn Jonah's heart to go to work for Todd. He would be so good at it, but we don't want to put any pressure on him. If someone pressures him in any way, he will want to do the exact opposite, because he is stubborn like that. 

So I'll wrap this post up with that last one. I hope you join in with us for Thankful Thursday! Add your blog to the Inlinkz at the bottom of this, then link your blog back to one (or all!) of ours. Thanks for reading and thanks for joining us! Love to all. 

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girlfriend's getaway to Nashville recap

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! 

I thought I'd share about a weekend trip I took with some girlfriends a couple of weeks ago. We left bright and early on a Friday morning and began the drive to Nashville, Our friend Teresa (sweet T) had never been there to visit and we had lots to show her. Our first stop was an old distillery. We ate lunch, we shopped and we drove around the upper and lower 'hoods. (That's an inside joke.)

When I took this picture of this church, you should have heard us laughing. T asked what the place was and Missy said it was a church and T said back, "Of Dracula?" and we all just died.

You probably had to be there, but we got kind of got turned around and that just made it all even funnier.

After this, we went to see the Parthenon, which I had not ever seen either.

It's beautiful! I'm such a sucker for architecture. Then we went to one of our favorite places—McCay's Used Bookstore. We were all basically in Heaven.

After that, we checked into our hotel and unpacked, then we went to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel. Know that the whole time we were gone, Todd was here in Memphis finding a car to buy me while I was gone and I kept having to walk away for conversations. I was so thankful that he did that while I was gone, because I hate car shopping!

I was asleep by nine forty five.

On Saturday we got up and had our quiet times, took our times showering and left around eleven to go into Franklin. 

While we waited on a table at Pucket's Grocery, we sat outside and across the street. It felt so good for most of the day and while we sat there, it was so windy. After lunch we shopped some more, then we went back to our hotel.

There is this really cool store in Franklin called Philanthropy. They donate a portion of their profits to help impoverished people around the world and this church is in the middle of the store—you can go inside and write out a prayer request and hang it on the wall. This made me cry the first time I saw it, and T had the exact same reaction. I got teary eyed myself as I read some of the sweet prayer requests little children had written in their handwriting.

Missy would not pose with us in front of the happy wall, because she wasn't very happy at that exact moment in time. All the stores were so humid inside and I'm pretty sure the three of us were sweating profusely.

We all rested for a bit inside of the frozen tundra that was our room and (napped—me) chilled. Literally.

(I made myself laugh when I said we chilled.)

We ate dinner at American Taphouse (also in Franklin) and because it felt so good, we had dinner outside. It was delicious!

We called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. Missy called her hubby and T and I swam until we ran out by little kids. We stayed up until midnight watching Friends, then we all slept soundly and late the next morning.

It was GLORIOUS.

Again, we all had our quiet times and took our time getting showers/dressed and packed up, then we left to go to a couple of stores before having lunch. We ate lunch at Schlotzky's (SO GOOD), where we all had yummy sandwiches and cinnamon rolls as big as our faces.

Leave it to good ole Missy Byrd to take a picture of me eating a huge bite of a cinnamon roll. I'm rolling my eyes.

After this we started the drive back home, because none of us felt great. Maybe because of the sugar we consumed?? Missy and I both had sinus headaches and T just felt kind of bad as well. We made one last stop before we got home and then Missy dropped us each off. Thanks to a wrecked vehicle, she was our chauffeur all weekend, for which I am so grateful! It was a blast of a trip and it turns out that when we got back to normal on Monday, both T and Missy would see how much they needed that sweet little getaway before the crazy of life set back in, either from a work thing or an unexpected family death. 

That is just one of those sweet things about the Lord. He knows what we need before WE even know what we need, and He has this way of helping us rest before things get busy again. He is so good like that and I'll never get used to how amazed I am that He is always in all of the little details of life. Do you know Him?

Well, thank you for reading along! This one's for my memories, so I never want to assume anyone else reads posts like this. Have a great Tuesday! Love to all.