Friday Favorites! 2.3.23.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for this favorite weekly blog post. I'll jump right in and start with last weekend.

We had beautiful weather on Saturday of last weekend, which is always one of my favorite things. I went out that morning with the dogs and noticed how bright the sky was. I've been seeing gorgeous sunrises, sunsets, and cumulus clouds lately. Pretty skies with clouds is also a favorite of mine. I've said this before, but I'll say it again—both remind me of one of my favorite verses, which is Psalm 36:5 and says this—LORD, your faithful love reaches to heaven, your faithfulness to the clouds. The Lord knew I'd need a beautiful day to get me through the weather we've had this week! On Sunday it started raining, then it stayed dreary, then the rain turned to freezing rain, and as I sit and write this on Wednesday afternoon (snow/ice day #2), there is still ice on the ground with more coming tonight and early tomorrow morning. 

Thoughtful gifts are my favorite! My best friend Andrea gave me this candle a while back, maybe in the fall? I put a question mark there because I can't remember the timing. It doesn't matter, but she knows how much I love candles, so she gave me this one above as a gift. I love the smell of it, the saying on the outside, and the way it smells up the house. I'm a bit of a candle snob and have my favorites—Yankee Candle, Bath & Body Works candles, and the DW Home brand of candles from Home Goods, TJ Maxx, or Marshall's. I don't know what this brand is, but it'll be one I watch for from now on when I'm in one of those stores. 💚💙💜🤍

Baby toys and baby showers are among some of my favorite things in life, and so are great friends. My best friend Missy is going to become a Mimi for the first time in the spring of this year (hopefully in late March, but maybe not until the first week or so in April), so my friend Carol and I are co-hosting a baby shower tomorrow morning for Missy's daughter-in-love, Katelynn. It's going to be such fun to see all the sweet baby girl gifts for Baby Byrd! I can't wait for it all to come to fruition. Carol and I have been talking about and planning for this day since early December. I'll share pictures from this fun time on Monday on my weekend recap/Hello Monday post, so come back then to see how it turned out. I am so excited to do this for Katelynn and Tyler (Missy's son), but more than that, I am just excited to love on their new family and to share the love of Jesus with the ones attending who need it most.

This movie first came to Netflix in the summer of 2020, but it's one of my favorite movies that was inspired from the book, The Lost Husband by Katherine Center. Have you watched this?

Katherine Center is one of my favorites right now, and I found some books by her that I haven't read yet. Speaking of reading, did you see the post I shared on Tuesday? It was all about the books I read in January. You should go check it out here!

I haven't shared anything like this picture above in a long time, but one year for Christmas, my dad made place cards for their table as we gathered around it for Christmas eve. I snuck these into my purse, but the others accidentally got thrown away. Handwriting from the people I love most is one of my favorite things, and I keep treasures like this on the inside cover of my Bible. Do you use that space in your own Bible, if you have one that you read often? I have other things in the same spot than just what you see pictured here. I have notes that my boys have written me trimmed down to fit that I've taped on the inside cover as well. Obviously, it's the written word that I hold near and dear to my heart.

I forgot to share this then, but a few weeks ago, my writing team friends and I met on a Wednesday afternoon and planned for the next study we're writing, on the book of Judges. One of my favorite things to do is to meet and catch up with these beautiful friends that I am so privileged to have. They are some of my favorite people on earth and we have so much fun together every time we meet. Speaking of writing, I was able to get some accomplished on Thursday, our third snow/ice day in a row. Thankfully the day was productive and I finished my first portion, even though I'll go back and tweak it here and there.

Productive writing days are among my favorite things! I had started making extensive notes before Christmas and planned on using them, however after the meeting I mentioned, I learned that they weren't going to be useful to me. We are writing in a new way as we write on the book of Judges and rather than using my own notes I'd started making in December, I used the notes I made the day we had our meeting. I'm so thankful that we met and discussed this, because it was extremely helpful as I wrote on my first portion yesterday. 

This shirt below is one of my favorites. I wore this to church on Sunday, but I keep mentioning this color that I'm loving, magenta. It's one of my favorite colors and has been since I was a young girl!

When I work, it's one of my favorite places to be. I love the theme that was chosen for the 2022/2023 school year—CWES is my happy place! I took a few new things to work on Monday when I went—shoes for the rain, an umbrella, a holder for more of the colored pens I added to the collection of them I have there, lotion, and hand sanitizer. 

I love it when the weather is like this and our sons drive to this favorite road of theirs in our town for pictures. These are Noah's and Jonah's vehicles. Noah is our tallest son and drives the tiniest and shortest car known to man. I do not know how he doesn't mind squeezing his 6 feet and 2 inches into his Genesis, but he loves his car with the bright blue wrap. I also love Jonah's truck! He recently did a lot to it with the Christmas money he had, and I love how it turned out. His roof is wrapped, as are his mirrors, and he just had something done to his headlights to make them silver instead of the amber color that comes stock on most vehicles. 

These protein bites that Todd and I made this week are a new favorite! My friend Kim gave me the recipe, and it's super easy. For about 30 bites, we used 3 cups of old fashioned oats (NOT the quick ones), 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of honey, 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, and 1 tbsp of vanilla. We refrigerated the mixture for an hour, then rolled them into 30-ish bites. Two of these are about 150 calories, so while it's not terrible, we can't go too crazy with how many we eat. I had three and it was too many, because I felt sick afterward. These would also be good with just honey, cinnamon, and finely chopped pecans. They are delicious with coffee! And they're dog approved. We gave them little bites of what we had left in the bowl, minus the chocolate. 

You all know how much I love waking up and watching a movie on weekends! I've enjoyed doing that this week on the unexpected days off from work. On Wednesday morning I woke up and watched West Side Story on Disney plus. Have you seen this? It was really good, and though I've seen the older version of it, I'd forgotten how much I loved the music. I had also forgotten how many songs I knew from the original! 

I'm memorizing Scripture again in 2023, so my favorite thing to do with what I'm working on has been to make it my phone wallpaper and lock screen. I didn't like the one that was sent to me this time, so I found my own wallpaper on Pinterest, and added a verse to it, using the YouVersion Bible app. This is it, pictured below.

While I did get bored by Wednesday afternoon, it was also a favorite to have some unexpected time off from work. I stayed in cozy, comfy clothes for three days straight and enjoyed wearing no makeup. This was me on Wednesday afternoon letting the dogs out. I had on fleece pajama pants and my favorite Hallmark sweatshirt.

I have mentioned this creamer before, but because it's been a while, I thought I'd tell you again how delicious this is in my coffee. I used to make my coffee with two tablespoons of sugar, and one tablespoon of powdered creamer. When I started eating healthier on December 26th, I cut the sugar back to one teaspoon, and I switched the powdered creamer for cold creamer that stays in the refrigerator. After a few days of doing that, I traded the teaspoon of sugar for honey, then I stopped that as well and now I only use the cold creamer. It's delicious! 

Treats are their favorite! 

Last but not least, it was a favorite this week to do a little repurposing around the house. I have shown you a few pictures with things I have out for Valentine's day, but I took some more and thought I'd share again since it's February now.

Once March arrives, I will pack away all the evergreen, the pallet tree with white lights and exchange all the pine scented candles for ones that are more fruit and coconut scented. I know it seems strange that all of this is out at the same time, but somehow it all works together in our home. 

Before you go, did you read my other blog posts from this week? Here they are below.

Saturday was January's Share 4 Somethings link party. 

Monday was a weekending recap and Hello Monday.

Tuesday was all about the books I read in January.

Wednesday was the Currently link party for February.

Thursday was Thankful Thursday.

Tell me something great about your week—I'd love to hear from you! Whatever you're up to this weekend, I hope it's great and that you stay cozy.

Thanks for reading my blog, sweet friends! Love to all. 🖤