weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was really good! 

As usual, I got the weekend kicked off with my sweet Dad. It was a really good day with him! He was relaxed, we laughed, we talked, we listened to music, we talked and caught up, and he got in some cuddle time with Chloe. I had the thought while he was here, and particularly since he doesn't remember much these days, that something good for us to do would be to watch old videos of the choir singing at my church.  And then I remembered that even if he has heard me sing before, it had been a while, so I played the video of me singing solo in a song we did at church about a year ago. (I got this picture off the video the church shared on our YouTube page.) 

He heard it in person later that fall, but even so, he probably doesn't remember. He really enjoyed seeing me on the tv and hearing me sing, and at one point he closed his eyes and just listened. He said the sweetest thing to me, though—that he wished his mom was alive to hear me sing in church. I immediately had tears in my eyes when he said that, because my grandmother was one of the most godly women I've ever known. Actually, I can say that of both my grandmothers! My mom's mom was the same and she knew Scripture and would quote it or pray it out loud effortlessly. How fortunate am I to be able to say that? 

Meanwhile, it's officially time to start taking pictures of Dad every single week. I never know when it'll be our last Friday, so I document each one these days. I've been doing this since the end of May, but I don't always share the pictures. This one below was worth sharing this week. I really should get more pictures of us together. He gets a kick out of this and always willingly smiles for me. 💙

Also, look at him with little Chloe! I love this picture of him holding her. This didn't last very long, because she jumped down right after this.

Right before we left to go to his house, I found out that Tony Bennett had died. I love jazz music, and  actually went to see him in concert with my dad as a young girl. It was at The Orpheum here in downtown Memphis, and it was a Christmas concert. Needless to say, I've been listening to his music all weekend long, starting with the drive to Dad's house on Friday.

 

I always take Dad home each week, and this one was no different. I stayed and visited for a bit, then left to come home. I took this picture at the end of their driveway, because I thought everything looked so beautiful and green. Don't you love the way things look after it rains? It had rained that afternoon, so everything looked so healthy and vibrant. 

On Saturday, I dropped Jonah off at a tire place and had Chloe with me. Look at how she rides in a vehicle! She is absolutely ridiculous and loves to ride behind your back and on your shoulders like this. 

I came home and got dressed and met Mom to run a few errands. It was such a beautiful day on Saturday! I had to buy a couple of birthday gifts for friends, and I needed to make an Ulta run for a new lip pencil sharpener. The day called for a dress, one I haven't worn since last summer, with a kimono thrown over it for added color.  

And then we ate lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, for this delicious tortilla soup. I dream about this stuff at night it's so good! 

At one of our stops where I bought the birthday gifts for a couple of my friends, I bought this cute little bracelet stack. I had plans that night and had picked out my outfit, and I knew these would be a great way to top if off. 💖😍

Someone else likes my chair as much as I do.

My friend Christa (in the middle of the picture below) had a birthday this week, so to celebrate her, we met at her parents house and rode together to see Barbie. Have you seen it yet? Do you not want to and are sick over the fact that I did go see it this weekend? It's pretty controversial, according to all the things I read about it, but I will say, it wasn't anything like I'd thought it would be. I hated one thing in the entire movie, and it was the fact that they made men sound like incompetent and sexist human beings. As a boy mom, you know this subject gets me fired up! That is just not the case, and you will never read or hear of me bashing men. Anyway, other than that, the rest of the movie was squeaky clean, and there wasn't anything blatantly wrong, other than what I already said. I am glad I saw the movie, but I really did not love it. Even so, it was a fun night. How fun to dress up for a night and to wear all the pink?

Left to right: Shelby, Melissa, Christa, me, Charli. We're all similar in age, with the exception of Charli who is a mature 33 years of age. They all have kids in 4-6th grades. After the movie, we ate Mexican food for dinner. Mine was delicious! It was marinated chicken breast with sauteed veggies and corn tortillas.

My sweet friend and prayer warrior Christa. I adore her! I'm a few years older than her, but we've been best friends for about fifteen years. We met at my old church and sang Alto in choir together. We used to always laugh during rehearsal at the most unfortunate time, and it was usually highly inappropriate laughter. Isn't that the best kind? We also bonded over a weekend women's conference, when we shared a hotel room, and we've been fast friends ever since. She and I are similar in that we both love to sing, we love music and musical movies, we love reality tv shows and used to watch The Bachelor together every single week, we love makeup, and we love to get dressed up for a fun night out. 

And this tells you how long we've been friends.

Jonah and Noah were five in this picture! Drew was eight, and Graham was nine. I remember this night like it was yesterday. She had come over to watch our show, and the boys made her homemade cookies to celebrate her birthday. She had probably eaten dinner with us, as well, but right after this picture, they all surrounded her and one of them braided her hair. She was always such a good sport about this and has always loved having people play with her hair. 

After dinner, we went back to her parents' house for a surprise dessert party. It was such a fun night with her and the other ladies.

I love this book, and have added it to my quiet time routine each day. Do any of you have this? It's called this because there is a devotion for each day and night. I love Charles Spurgeon! I'm adding it here in case anyone wants to check it out.

I was at church yesterday morning to run the screens for our worship pastor and choir in the tech room. I love being up there and I really love running lyrics for them. It's way less pressure than running the front of house screens. It's always fun up in the A/V room! (A/V stands for Audio/Visual.) 

Drew and his girlfriend Caitlyn came to church, then back here after lunch. It was good seeing him, and her again. She's leaving for a couple of weeks before her school starts mid-August, so I know he is going to miss her while she's gone. She plans on coming home most weekends, and I figured that when she doesn't come here, he'll go to her. 

For the rest of Sunday, I scheduled blog posts for the week, I talked to one of my sisters and my best friend, I cleaned a little and folded laundry, then I ate dinner and watched movies. All the Tony Bennett music I listened to this weekend had me wanting to watch an old favorite, so my first one of the night was Sleepless in Seattle. 

I'm ending this post with the question below. My pastor preached a great message yesterday and started and ended it with this question from Sean McDowell.

This is me asking you the same question; how would you spend your remaining time? I could not stop thinking about this question after the sermon! For me, I would keep things similar to what I do now. I would keep having my time with Jesus each morning, but it would probably be even more. I'd spend all the time I could with family while I was able to be on earth with them, because some of them are not believers. How would you spend your time? I would love to hear your answers to this.

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