Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I have to admit that I am happy this day is here.  I will not pretend that my week has been anywhere near perfect.  Because, honestly, it's been rough.  Part of my struggle has been me and a grumpy attitude (keepin' it real) and part of it has been differing personalities between my kids and me.  I have struggled with having a good quiet time with God each morning, and I have struggled in praying.  I spent the first day of the week feeling totally overwhelmed by all that I had going on, and I couldn't seem to make good use of my time.

But.

It got a little better each day, thanks to God and friends and to good fellowship with like-minded people yesterday.

We started school this week.  Even though I struggled throughout the week, they did not.  I felt like they made a really good transition back into the swing of things.  We did have a few talks about electronics, though, and how I didn't want them to be on them all the livelong day.  One of the ways they fill that time is by playing games.  On Monday we played Phase 10 together, and throughout the week they have played more card games and Monopoly.  I love hearing them play games together, it's one of my favorite sounds.

On Tuesday, a favorite moment was seeing Graham as he was about to leave for a meeting.

He was selected to be on the Shelby County Youth Mayor Council.  He found out that he could apply to be on this council, and when he applied, he was turned down because all the slots filled up really fast.  Then, a few weeks ago, he got an email asking him if he was still interesting in joining the council.  There were some openings, and he was one they contacted.  To be on this, you have to make a year long commitment and you have to have a GPA of 3.0 or above.  They do things once or twice a month, and the meetings and such take place downtown.  On Tuesday, they had a meeting with the Mayor.  Last month, they had a "get to know you" event take place at a rock climbing place downtown.

He looks so handsome!  He is really growing up.  Sometimes when I look at him, I still see him as a toddler, or as an eight year old.  Time flies.

On Wednesday, I went to the funeral of my friend's dad.  He had been suffering through Alzheimer's and we had been praying for him for quite some time.  I went and picked up this sweet girl (one of my favorites), because it was her best friend's granddad.

The funeral was a beautiful memorial to my friend's dad.  And there were so many people there!  I think all the seats were taken, and that says something about him.

After the funeral, I took Emma home to change and we picked up her brother, and they hung out with us all afternoon.  And then Drew drove us to church.

While wearing my sunglasses.  This kid.  His antics that keep are always a favorite of mine.

He surely keeps us laughing.

On Thursday night, after a long day, and after we got home from my in-love's house, I settled into my chair and started working on this study we are doing with our senior girls in community group.

And because it was good, I kept on working on it while the boys watched tv.  In this book, she is telling how all the stories in the bible are one seamless thread.

Well, now that it's Saturday, I am going to be done with this post.  Yesterday got away from me, and I totally forgot about finishing this post.  Love to all.

the weekend and a few other things

There is a theme to this post.  See if you can catch on.

This was a great weekend, and though Thursday is technically not the weekend yet, it starts then.  We had family in town (Todd's side) from Chicago the whole weekend.  We haven't seen them in a few years, so I was glad they were here.  Todd's cousin Denise has three kids, but two of them came with her.  The boys and Katie are really close, thanks to social media, and by the time Sunday rolled around, they were every bit as close to Joe.

We had dinner at Todd's parents' house that night and then we did this.

This was a game called Shanghai.  It's similar to Phase 10, but way more difficult and more fun.  We laughed so hard during this game.  I love times like that.

On Friday, Jonah and I met them at the zoo.  The other boys spent Thursday night with Mimi and Papa and their cousins.  Friday was beautiful!

I think my favorite part of the day was watching everyone feed the giraffes.  I got really close to them and enjoyed watching the kids reaction to them.  And my mom in love.  She loves giraffes the most and had me take pictures of her being really close to them.

I went to dinner with a couple of friends Friday night to talk about our Sunday school class and then I met my family back at my in love's house.  Jonah and Noah spent the night at a friend's house and Graham and Drew stayed where they were again.

On Saturday, I went to breakfast with one of my community group girls, and when I got home, Graham and Drew were back.  We stayed close by the rest of the day and that afternoon, Denise, Katie and Joe came to our house.  Joe made hot wings as part of our dinner and then we played cards.

That picture of me is horrible, but we were cracking up.  It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Sunday we were at church and that afternoon I had choir practice.

I enjoyed sitting next to some sweet girls that I love.  Even when it included me laughing during one part.  Yesterday was our first official day of school.  It was an okay day.  It was great for the boys, so so for me.  I don't know what was up with me, but I am thankful that today is a new day and for God's mercies that are new every morning.  I was at church again last night for a womens' event, and was blown away by our youth as they shared what all they did over the summer, as service to God.  It was a great night.

Well, I need to get started on this day.  Thanks for reading!  Love to all.

Friday Favorites

Good Friday morning!  I am so happy it's the weekend.  :)  Hopefully my house will be full of kids again soon.  I am linking up with Momfessionals for this post.

My first favorite from the week came from my Timehop app on my phone.  (I love this app!  It's a "this day in history" on my phone, and it includes texts and posts from social media and pictures that I took.)  I love this bible verse and quote it all the time to my kids.

It's so true!  There's another verse that says "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks".  I love that one as well, and remind my boys of this all the time.

Another favorite of mine from the week, as strange as it may sound, was attending the funeral of my uncle.  It was a beautiful and touching service, and I was glad my boys were able to see what a military funeral was like.

This is a beautiful cemetery.  It gets me every single time we drive past, and I get a little emotional.

On a lighter note, on Tuesday morning, I woke up to this notification on my phone.  I had a moment of being a fan girl, so it was a definite favorite moment of the week.

How cool is that?  My kids were all pretty impressed.  Then they probably went to check their phones to see if he'd asked to follow them.

He had not.

Wednesday was spent hanging around home and cleaning and organizing, then we had church that night.  A favorite thing we do there at this time every year is a fall vision dinner.  We eat dinner and all the departments give schedules of their plans  for the school year.  I don't have a picture.  After this dinner, I went to choir practice, which is another favorite.  I have SO missed being in a choir!

Yesterday, our homeschool group started back, and I made my kids pose.  That was NOT their favorite, but look how handsome!

And where we meet is one of my favorite places, because it's beautiful.

After our homeschool group, we came home to change and grab Crash, and headed to my in-love's house for dinner.  Todd's cousin Denise and two of her kids are here for a few days, so we had fun visiting with them and catching up.  One of my favorites from the night was when we played cards.  We played Shanghai and though I won the first round, I lost by the most in the second.

Some of my favorite moments have been around the table as we played games.  I told Todd last night that we needed to start doing this more often.  We always laugh and laugh when we're together, and last night was no exception.  While we played this, the kids played Uno.  My mom-in-love was in rare form last night and had us all cracking up.  She acted like a blonde a couple of times, and we couldn't stop laughing.

Those are my favorite moments.

It's been a great week.  I hope yours has too!  Thanks for reading and love to all.

Honoring A Life

Today we celebrated the life of my Uncle John.  He was also in the Army during the Korean War, and because of that, his funeral was held at the West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery.

It's a beautiful place, and it was a beautiful ceremony.

Every time I go to a funeral, I come away so thankful that I know that my life won't just stop the moment I breathe my last.  In contrast, it will just be beginning, as I enter into eternity with my sweet Jesus.

Today as we honored my uncle, I couldn't help but think of how much the life of an American soldier reminds me of Jesus.  Life in the physical is always a picture of life in the spiritual realm.

Just like a soldier is sent to do a job, Jesus was sent to earth.

Just like a soldier is willing to sacrifice his life for our freedom, God sent Jesus as a sacrifice for us to have eternal life.

Just as a soldier is often considered to be selfless, Jesus was the same way when He walked on earth.

Today as we celebrated my uncle's life, I was proud to be an American.  But even more than that, I am humbled and beyond thankful to be a daughter of the Most High King.

In honoring my uncle's life, it has reminded me to live a life that is honoring to God.  Not only in what I say, but also in my thoughts, my actions and in my relationships.  I pray that I always point others to Him.

Love to all.

the weekend

This weekend was so much fun!  I feel like we did things that we usually don't, hence the fun times had.  To start us off, Todd was gone until later Saturday night, and that is NOT one of the fun parts.  But he was in Little Rock, in the wedding party of a friend from the sheriff's department.  It was a fun couple of days/nights for him, and I was glad he was able to go and get away for a little bit of fun.  Usually it's just work that takes him away.  We were going to go with him originally, but then we got the opportunity to volunteer with Compassion International at an amazing concert called Outcry.  There were tons of great artists~Passion City Band, Lauren Daigle, some rappers that I don't know, Kari Jobe, and Hillsong.

It was a little different than I thought it would be, but I was grateful that we were able to work with this amazing organization and hand out packets for children in poverty to be sponsored.  I handed out a lot of my packets and at least three children that I know of were sponsored that night.  I took my boys and three extra's.

I would have gotten more pictures, but I will be honest here and say that a couple of things hindered that.  One, it was hotter than Hades, and I thought I might die.  Two, we literally stood on our feet and walked from 6:00 until 11:00.  I was B.E.A.T.  We were disappointed that because of lightning and thunder, we had to evacuate the amphitheater right before Hillsong was to come on.  I thought about staying for two seconds, but then my feet were killing me by this point, and I thought to myself, "Nope."

So instead, we went and got some food, because it's not normal to eat dinner at four thirty in the afternoon, and hello, walking?  We were so hungry!

I died when I hit my bed.  I might have read two sentences in my book and I was falling asleep.  The next morning Jonah and Noah went to my dad's house to cut his grass, and I went to my mom's for a haircut.  Afterward, we went to lunch and invited Graham and Drew.  Jonah and Noah were still gone.

Then, I came home and took a nap with my dog.  He might be a teensy bit crazy, but he takes really good naps with me.

Hashtag sleepy Saturday.  We did this for a good two solid hours.  I slept for a few minutes, then I woke up and watched a movie on the Hallmark channel that had me doing the ugly cry by the time it ended.  Seriously.  It was so good!  It was called The Lost Valentine.

That afternoon, while Todd was still gone, the boys went to my mom's and stepdad's for dinner.  This was me waving goodbye.

And then I got in my car and met some of my favorite people at our church, for a night out.  It was my last night of community group for this school year with these girls, and we had so much fun!  I love them all so much.

This was us at Jerry's.  They have the best food there, if you are ever in the mood for more than just a sno cone.  I had one of the best hamburgers I have ever eaten.

We got back to the church around eight, and my husband was there working on my vehicle.  I was glad to see him, and when he was finished with my car, I was thankful for his handy man capabilities and that my brake lights were working again.

Sunday morning was church, and I was excited to be in a new class this year.  I'm with the junior girls on Sunday mornings, and with the senior girls on Sunday nights at community group.  I sang in the choir standing next to my friend Abbey (!!!) and our pastor preached an amazing sermon on a passage of Scripture in Hebrews.

I got a text from one of the girls in an ongoing text we have going with the senior girls and about died laughing during the service.  I am the queen of inappropriate laughter, and yesterday was no exception.

I mean, seriously, I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from laughing out loud.  She is so funny and is constantly saying random things like this.  Just one of the million reasons why I love being involved with an amazing group of teenagers.

Last night was a fun time at community group, listening to a young man share about his summer abroad as a missionary.  I took this picture while they prayed.

Such sweet times!  He was praying over their school year and he challenged them all to live intentionally this year and to make the most out of the opportunities given to them.

This brings me to today!  Graham and Drew had a couple of friends stay the night last night, and when they went home, we cleaned.  My morning looked a bit different than I thought it would, but I posted on Instagram that I was thankful for unexpected moments.  I am also choosing joy in all of my moments.

I was waiting on my sister in this picture, and I was so glad to spend even just a few moments with her today, thanks to a long line waiting to get her oil changed.  It's been a couple of weeks since we've seen each other.

After lunch and laundry and cleaning, I settled down at the kitchen table with my bible study homework.

In the midst of crazy and busy and chaos sometimes, Jesus alone brings me the peace that I need.  I am honored to be able to study His word.

How was your weekend?

Love to all.

Friday Favorites

This week has flown by!  It was our last week of the summer break, and for school kids around these parts, it's back to school on Monday.  We'll be starting on Wednesday, and we will be easing back in to the swing of things.  I am so excited about our school year!  I love homeschooling the boys.  I love the curriculum we choose.  I love our routine, our schedule, and just the way our days go.  I am so thankful to God for calling me to this!  All of that is definitely on this day's 'favorite' list.

Speaking of that, I am linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals for this post.

I saw this on Facebook last weekend and loved it.  I saved it to my desktop so that I could share it on the blog.

I think this jumped out at me because this year, with homeschooling, we are going to be doing a lot of reading.  I feel like I slack on this every school year, and I'm changing that starting next week.  The words in this image are so true!  And we all know that reading is one of my favorite past times.

Speaking of favorite past times, another favorite of mine is singing.  The poor friends of my kids who are always here.  They are always subject to my loud singing in the kitchen, because of my awesome kitchen radio, and because of K-Love.  And speaking of my love of singing, I went to choir practice Wednesday night at church.  And I found this meme this morning and I literally laughed out loud.

A favorite thing of mine to do is organizing our homeschool book shelves.  I took a picture of them and posted it on Instagram this week.  This is my most favorite area in all of our home, because of the color and the content on the shelves.

These shelves will NOT stay this way for long.  But they look pretty in the meantime!  I have gotten our curriculum for the school year sorted and divided and ordered.  I am expecting one more thing to come in from Amazon, and after it arrives we will be all set.

A favorite picture I've seen all week is one that Drew took Wednesday night.  I love it so much that I took a screenshot and reposted it on Instagram.  Officer Sean Bolton was killed in the line of duty on the night of August 1st.  Anytime an officer is killed in the line of duty, police cars from around the country come to Memphis (or any other city) to be part of the sea of blue.  It's a long procession line that goes from one point to another, with blue lights flashing.

Todd was a part of this Wednesday night.  He had to dress in his Class A uniform and wear a black line over his badge.

Our country needs prayer, my friends.  These times are disturbing, and I often wonder how long the good Lord will tarry in His return.  Are you prepared for that return?

On a lighter note, yesterday was a luncheon for the new moms in my homeschool group.  I have so missed these godly women!  Our classes start back next week.

Yesterday afternoon when I got home, Drew, Jonah, Noah and Alex and I went to church to visit (them) and pray (me).  My weekly times of prayer with my sweet friend Abbey are one of my most favorite things of all time.  While we prayed (which is NEVER a short thing), Drew was playing with her phone.

And then I took a picture of us.

I love her!

Another favorite was texting my dad this morning.

Is this not the sweetest thing ever?  Eighty four years young and texting like a champ.  I love him so much and am so thankful for our Friday's.

Well, speaking of that, I need to get dressed!  Love to all.

Life Lately

It's been a busy past few days around here!  We are witnessing our beloved summer wrap up right before our eyes, and I am trying to make the most of it over the next few days.  I don't know if we will start school on Monday, but we will at least start by Wednesday of next week.  Usually I take a few days and clean really well before we gear up for another year.  But.  More about that later.

On Wednesday, Jonah, Noah, Alex and I loaded into my car and left for Murfreesboro, Tennessee to see our friends and old neighbors the Dickson's.  The boys were so excited to see each other!

The ones I traveled with made for great travel buddies, including helping me with navigation when I needed the extra eyes.  We just hung around their house that day and night, but the next day we woke up and made a picnic lunch and went to their local community center.

The picture above is a little house they were exploring after our picnic lunch.  We stayed there most of the day, then that night I made dinner for us.

On Friday we woke up and visited and got all our things packed and had lunch together before we got back on the road to come home.

I have so missed this sweet friend.  We stayed up way too late Thursday night and were still talking and talking when Friday morning rolled around.  I might have gotten a little misty eyed again when we said goodbye, and when the boys all hugged each other.  It was a wonderful visit.

I got home Friday afternoon, and I got to go have dinner at Chili's with my best friend.  It was a fun hour and a half that we got caught up with one another, then we went our separate ways.  When I got home, I had another friend come over and we chatted and cried together until after midnight.  I know...that's a strange combination, but we are working through some things.  In that whole working through things process, I came across this verse from Nahum on Saturday morning.

We are fine, by the way, we were just talking and working through hurt feelings.  God is so gracious to see us through all of life's trials.  I love how He gives us little glimpses of His promises right when we need them.  He is infinitely good, my friends.  I love Him more and more each day.

I was so excited to get to church on Sunday morning!  I so love these precious girls.  I am so thankful for the two years we have had with them, and for the impact they've had on my life.  I am continually humbled and challenged by them, and by their texts we receive at all hours of the night.  God made me fall in love with teenage girls two years ago, and these are the ones He started me with.  I will forever be changed and I will be grateful to Him always for enlightening me to girls ministry in my church.

I pray that He always uses me in any capacity that He sees fit, and I pray that I am always open to His leading and willing to be used wherever He places me.  He has been showing me some things lately, and I pray that I always see and hear whatever He is trying to teach me.  

After church, we had lunch with some sweet friends, then I tried to come home and take a nap.  Instead, I laid on my bed and texted almost the whole hour or so I was upstairs.  :/  This little gal kept me company.

Skippy is on a new special food, special meaning "medicated".  She has major anxiety, but since starting her new food, she's like a whole new and relaxed kitty.  It cracks me up, that we have a medicated cat.  

Community group was fun as usual Sunday night.  I will be sad to see our swimming parties become a thing of the past as summer ends for us.  I love swimming!  

We had our community group girls over to my house last night, for movie night.  

Why yes, I love these movies!  We had so much fun and I laughed and laughed and laughed as these girls said every word they said and sang every lyric to all the songs.  On the first movie, we watched the sing a long version.  Halfway through, my dear friend joined us.

These were our excited faces over the fact that we survived!  I say that, but seriously, I love these girls so much.  I would do anything for any of the teenage girls I have the privilege of working with.  Missy is someone who is the exact same as me, that I have become dear friends with in the last year.  She is a fellow homeschool mom who has walked before me (her boys are grown now), she is my co-conspirator in Sunday night community group, and she is one of my very best friends.  We have been particularly close since she saw me through one of the hardest day's of my life in December.  We get into all sorts of funny situations and trouble together.  (Not really.)  I thank God for her friendship!  And just for fun, here's a picture of us and our friend Lori from youth camp.

One of the girls at camp had us hold her phone and selfie stick for a bit, and three hundred and something pictures *MIGHT* have gotten taken with it.  And the fact that we're all old and don't know how to properly use a selfie stick makes this picture HILARIOUS to us all.  

Sigh.  I want to go back.  

Maybe next year.  

Hopefully.  

It's been a great few days around here.  

Well, thanks for reading!  Love to all.