Friday Favorites, 10.22.21

 

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

Every once in a while I wonder if y'all get tired of these linkups that I participate in weekly/monthly, but when I look at my blog's statistics from each day, those are the days that appear to be everyone's favorites. I'll give an example—a regular post with no linkup might receive anywhere from 30-100 views in a day. When I do a linkup post like this one, sometimes that post will get up to 300 or more views. See what I mean? I am kind of a nerd when it comes to statistics like that and I also love to see the monthly demographics of my blog. I'm always shocked when I see how many people from other countries read this old blog. If you're new here at all, you know that I love "fluffy" blog posts with the linkups I mentioned, but way more than that, I love to share about Jesus. If you're ever reading this and want to know about Him, please reach out with a comment and I'll send you my email address and we can chat there. 

Moving on now, here is my weekly run down of favorites.

Most of you also know if you've been here for any length of time, that my husband volunteers with our county's sheriff's department. He worked all last weekend doing that, so I was here alone most of the time. He bought this new dog bed for our Crash and I crack up every time I see our German Shepherd Callie laying on it—she NEVER lays on a dog bed. She prefers either the floor or the small couch in our living room. Isn't she pretty? 

It's like a doggy daycare in my house with all those toys spread around. Dogs are my favorite. Also last weekend, I watched my oldest son's puppy all weekend while he was out of town. I really am like a doggy daycare. I keep telling him he owes me a nice gift for my birthday and Christmas this year.

Christmas is my favorite! Most of you know I'm in choir and this was a picture I took at choir practice last week. We've been rehearsing our Christmas music for a few weeks now and it makes my heart happy. It's not the actual day of Christmas that I love so much—it's the time that leads up to it that is my favorite time of year. From November until New Year's day, people are kinder. I love that this season represents Jesus, even if the date is not historically correct. That's not what matters. What matters is that the season is all about Him and my goal in life is to love Him the most, to love people and to point others to Him with my life in every way that I am able. 

That is why the holiday season is my favorite and that is also why I will probably be decorating our home for Christmas early in November once again. I'm going to plan a night at home where I make a good dinner and invite Drew and his roommates over and I'm going to put them to work! I'll have them get our Christmas stuff out of the attic and assemble the tree for me and help with the decorating part of it, then I'll do all the rest earlier in that day or on the next day. It's not a lot of work with all the helping hands, it's just that I love this season so much, I want to enjoy it every bit that I can. 

Two things from this picture above that are my favorite—reading and reading on my Kindle. I never thought I'd love a Kindle so much, because I'm a huge fan of actual books. That being said, I love the screen with no glare, I love that I can enlarge the font size and I love the backlight. I had a tablet that I used to use with a Kindle app for years, but it's not the same at all. In fact, there is no comparison. I tried to read an actual book last week and stopped and found it to read for free on my Kindle instead, because I hate having to mess with a reading light. 

Such a first world problem. Reading is my favorite hobby and I've read an astounding number of books this year. I write a blog post each month about the books I read that month, so check back here the last week in October to see which ones I loved and which ones I didn't.

Another favorite for each of us in our house, even our dogs, was the cooler weather we've had this week. On Tuesday afternoon I decided to open all the downstairs windows and this was what they did for the rest of the evening. Crash's favorite thing other than riding is to stand at the windows and watch the world go by. He loves to smell the air outside too, and he stood like this for a long time. Eventually we have to shut them because they won't stop barking at people. 🤣

Favorite things that I agreed with or that made me laugh that I saw on social media this week. 

Some of my favorite moments this week have been while I sat right here and either had my quiet time or finished Bible study homework. I love it when the Lord feels so near! I experienced that several days this week as I soaked in His Word and spent time with Him in prayer. 

This was my favorite lunch this week! My mom-in-love came over after Bible study on Wednesday and this was what we ate. And yes, that is candy corn with peanuts in that bowl. She gave me some much needed godly wisdom and advice about something that was weighing heavily on my heart and I am so grateful for her. 

I don't have pictures for these things, but my dad came over yesterday instead of today because it was the only time I could get scheduled for a hair appointment to get my hair colored. Any time with him is always a favorite. 

And finally, hair day is always my favorite day. I was going to get my hair toned down a little bit for winter, but I completely changed my mind and just decided to get more highlights. I really prefer lighter hair these days, mainly because I think it makes me look younger. (Sometimes I just need my mom to speak truth to me like she did this week. I'm so thankful for her!) Who wouldn't want that? I was having some fickle moments in the weeks leading up to this appointment, which is why I waited two weeks between my cut and color appointments in case I changed my mind. If I've learned one thing in life, it is to NOT make rash decisions because I always end up regretting them. Like when I got bangs that one time. Bangs on me are NEVER a good idea.

Well, thanks for reading my blog, friends! I hope you all have a great weekend. Love to all!