Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I always love this day of posting. It's so good to be thankful—I always feel like doing this and listing these things gives me a spiritual alignment. I'd love for you to join me this week! I'm still hosting for Rebecca Jo, who is focusing on getting her shoulder better and covering her friend at work. I know many of you are like me and miss her when she's not around! If you see her on Instagram, give her some love. I am sure she would love to be encouraged! 

I am thankful for God's provision. There have been times over the years when we struggled financially and we can still be that way sometimes today, truth be told, specifically because of inflation that is happening right now. We have never once gone without, though and I have to give God the glory for the many ways He has provided for us over the years. Speaking of this, or maybe because of this, I consider this passage below one of my life passages, because I often turn it into my prayer. 

Two things I ask of you; don't deny them to me before I die: Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need. Otherwise, I might have too much and deny you, saying, "Who is the LORD?" or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:7-9) 

The family business has struggled many times in the past and though that could always be the case once again, I am thankful for a busy summer and a thriving business. Summer is by far their busiest time of year! 

I am still feeling very thankful for my part-time job and how God provided for me in this. I still love it and am looking forward to going in today. 

I am so thankful for a handy husband. I haven't mentioned that in a while here, but he can repair anything. Yesterday while he was at work, Drew called him and told him his truck was running really oddly and he was pulled over on the side of the road on his way into work. Todd and Jonah made it to him and as Todd was about to get started, Jonah had looked it up and found that a blown fuse could cause the problem his truck was having. Todd just so happens to keep a box of fuses in his truck, so he replaced it and sent him on his way. In the meantime, before he knew what was wrong, Graham had come home to take him my car so that he could go on to work, because his boss was losing his mind over him not being there on time. My best friend offered to let me ride with her to church and I was going to, but Graham made it back here in time for me to drive myself there for choir rehearsal. 

I am also thankful for handy sons! They're not all quite as advanced as some others, ahem Drew and Noah, but they're all at least moderately mechanically inclined. 

I am thankful for an excellent first day of Bible study yesterday! We had around seventy women sign up to join us on Wednesday mornings and it was so good seeing a room filled with women who are excited about started Bible study.

Isn't that incredible?! It is so encouraging to see this, after us having a much smaller spring semester this year. 

Even though it was like an artificial fall day, I was so glad that the weather here yesterday only reached into the mid-seventies. It was GLORIOUS and rainy most of the day and it got me so ready for fall! Even so, lately our mornings have been cool. I can't wait to be able to enjoy the deck in our backyard again. It gets really humid and buggy out there during the summer, which prevents us from using it from mid-June until the weather starts to cool down. Sometimes we'll get a night or two that is cooler and we'll sit out there with our drinks, but that doesn't happen very often. The guys love to sit out there and watch football games on the tv that is mounted on one of the posts. 

Your turn! Tell me something good from your week that you're thankful for. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

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encouraging words on Wednesday

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! My pastor preached an excellent sermon on Sunday and I wanted to share a little bit about that here, adding in some of my own thoughts for what that looks like in my own life. I pray this encourages you!

My pastor preached out of Psalm 63 this week, which was written by David as he hid in a cave from King Saul, who was trying to kill him. Even in the midst of a desperate time in his life, David had passion, devotion, composure and faith in his Almighty God. He never stopped pursuing God, even as he literally ran for his own life and battled despair while hiding in a cave. I would be willing to guess that most of us here have never faced such times as what David went through when this Psalm was written, but isn't it encouraging to read his words? 

We may not have faced being pursued by someone who was after us to kill us, but everyone has faced their own adversaries. I know many of you here who have battled with cancer, who have lost children, who are struggling in your marriage, who may be discouraged and overwhelmed right now as you read this and you're wondering where your strength is going to come from. I know a mighty God who isn't surprised by any circumstance and I know that He will be your very present help in a time of trouble. It takes pursuing Him daily, though and this is where those points from Pastor Chuck's sermon come in. 

David compared his passionate pursuit of God with words like thirsting for and longing for Him. David was wholeheartedly devoted to God. Sure, he messed up from time to time, because he was a human just like you and I are, but when he sinned he repented of what he had done in genuine sorrow. David's devotion to God was an expression of worship. David had composure as he pursued God, and rather than focusing on all of the circumstances he went through, he focused on God and often listed God's attributes as he prayed. David had great faith in God and he knew that the best was yet to come. I equate faith with trusting in my holy and sovereign God.

What does this look like in my life? My passionate pursuit of God reminds me of worshiping Him. Everyone worships in their own way, but when I am by myself at home and listening to praise and worship music, or if I'm at church on a Sunday morning singing in the choir loft, I focus on the words that I am singing to God. I always prayerfully seek God before worship, because I never want anything hindering me from worshiping Him and often, that's when I'll ask Him to show me any sin in my life. He is faithful to answer this every time! Sometimes I worship and lift my hands, sometimes I just feel a certain way in my heart...it looks different all the time, but the point is that my heart is focused on Jesus.

My devotion to Him looks like me spending time with God daily. I love to think of this in terms of best friends—I spend time with my best friend. We are always talking on the phone, texting, or tagging each other on social media with some funny thing or memory. If I never spent any time with her, we would grow apart. We make it a point to not let too much time go by between meeting and catching up. It's the same with spending time with God. I read His word, I pray often. Just this week I was convicted of not spending time with Him in prayer and all too often just sending up what I like to call "popcorn prayers". Nothing is wrong with those, by the way, but I have way more time than just that. 

My composure in pursuing Him looks like focusing on all that I have to be thankful for. I try hard to be a positive and uplifting person, not that I always succeed, but I give it my best effort. I try not to complain or "vent" too much, I try to stay away from coarse talk about people (this one is HARD), I try to be kind by asking God to help me bear the fruits of His Spirit. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Again, I don't always succeed greatly, but I try to honor God in the way I am around everyone, even if it's just my own family. There is a reason for this and it helps me to be this way in spite of the ugliness I see in the world around me.

My faith looks like a lot like trust. This one is hard too, especially for us moms who are prone to worry. But nothing is gained by worrying and God is sovereign, which just means that all that worrying doesn't change the outcome. Again, somedays I am better at this than others, but I have to trust Him. I have to, because otherwise I'd drive myself crazy. I know He is good, regardless of any circumstance in life—He is good, because He is God. He is holy and righteous and His ways/thoughts/plans are far greater than anything we could ever dream up on our own. I know He does everything for a reason, even the hard things I listed at the beginning of this. I love Romans 8:28 for this reason, but that verse reminds us that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. 

I'm going to wrap this up with sharing Psalm 63:1-8.

God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. 

So I gaze on your in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.

My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

So I will bless you as long as I live; at your name, I will lift up my hands.

You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.

When I think of you as I lie on my bed, I meditate on you during the night watches

because you are my helper; I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. 

I follow close to you; your right hand holds onto me.

Thanks for always being kind to encourage me when I write these types of posts. I almost always hear of someone who needed to hear those words at that exact time, so I'll keep on doing this for those who may need to be encouraged. Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. 

life updates

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I thought I'd share a few tidbits about my family members and myself for today's post. I don't often share about our sons these days, but I still love looking back on this type of thing. I thought I'd share something about each of us that we've been up to and something you may not know about each one of us.

Graham:

Not only does Graham have some pretty great friends, he is a good friend to others. I'm so proud of him for this, because we always taught the boys to treat others how they want to be treated, just as most parents I know do. He spent most of his Saturday helping a friend install something fun in his vehicle. It was an all day project that lasted until eleven p.m. and his payment was dinner. I hope it was a good dinner! He had to come back in before he left for work this morning to rub some Icy Hot on his neck, it was so sore from the weekend. He spends his days at work and his evenings with Jessi. I love that he is attentive and it's fun to see the adult version of himself date an adult girl. One night he wasn't going to go see her at work because he was so tired, but she'd had a rough day and he didn't want to go a day without seeing her when she was struggling. I think that's the sweetest thing and the romantic in me swoons at that. 

Something that you may not know about him is that he is a defender. He has always been that way, but what I mean by that is that he can't stand to see someone treated poorly. He always jumps to the defense of someone, especially his brothers. When Jonah totaled my car in the summer of 2021 and we couldn't reach Todd, Graham flew down the stairs and took off faster than I could even blink. He was the first one on the scene of the wreck that night and I've never been so grateful that he's so responsible. These traits are my favorite thing about my Graham. 

Drew:

Drew stays so busy! He works nonstop and he goes from work to the gym. He loves to work out and lift weights and when I saw him in church yesterday, he looked way too big for the seat that he was sitting in. He is extremely muscular and looks great. In the year 2020, he dropped 50 pounds and since then he's put most of that back on, but in muscle mass. He is still working as a valet and feels like he will stay put at this job for at least one full year before moving on to consider another career. He has a couple of ideas of what he may want to do, but he wants to save money and build his savings account up before pursuing that. In the meantime, he does really well and makes more than enough money to support himself and to pay all of his bills. I do often make him promise me that he is eating properly. 

Something you may not know about my Drew is that he is super clumsy. He is the one who keeps us in insurance, because we use most of it on him. I am not kidding! He is so my child. He is constantly breaking/jamming/bruising/tearing/spraining something on his body. His favorite thing in the world to do is to play basketball and to coach his friends playing basketball. This usually doesn't bode well since he is so prone to injury. 🤣 My favorite thing about Drew is that he has the ability to laugh at himself often. He loves being with his friends and having them over to their house. He is super loyal. 

Jonah:

My cute Jonah. I LOVE his dimples. He is spreading his wings and abilities with his job. He's been working full time for one year now and he's learned a lot. He started with just the diagnostic testing of certain equipment they repair (they repair medical equipment), but he's learned to repair a few things around their shop and on jobs they go on. He's grown a lot in this, because he started by not even wanting to speak to customers, but one year later he doesn't think twice about that and all the customers love him and his dimples as much as his mama. Nobody believes he's almost out of his teens. He had his first big milestone yesterday and gained them a big customer they've never worked with before. He had to go and meet the man and give him an estimation of what they would do and what it would cost. I'm so proud of him! Like I said, he's grown in leaps and bounds this year.

Something you may not know about him is that he has the BEST laugh ever. He is full of joy and lives life to the very fullest and enjoys every second. His smile is ever present and his laugh is something I love to hear, because he laughs all the time. I think that out of my sons, he may be the most like me, regarding this. I love to laugh and have fun and I crack up all the time. Life is too short not to enjoy it as much as possible. 

Noah:

First, I had to look way too hard to find a picture of my sweet Noah. Apparently, he doesn't take pictures that often and all the ones I had don't look like him right now. This one was the closest I could find, even though it was a year and a half ago. Noah is loving his job! He works at a car wash right now, and though he won't do this forever, he enjoys the job and seeing people and working with the others that work there. I'm so happy for him about this! He had a job that he loved, but took our advice and quit, when we realized he wasn't being paid the money he was due. I still think the man he worked for was super sketchy and looking back, Todd and I had all kinds of red flags about him. I'm always thankful for how things work out, because God knows all the details of what goes on, when we don't. I consider it His hand of protection over Noah. 

Something you may not know about Noah is that he is an excellent communicator. He speaks his mind clearly and with ease and has excellent speaking skills. He writes well, as does Drew, and that may have something to do with how he speaks and communicates with others. I love that Noah is so affectionate. He's my only one that is consistently this way and is always telling me to stop so that he can give me a big bear hug. He towers over me at over six feet tall and his voice is big and booming. He's such a teddy bear and he is almost always in a great mood. Now, his brothers will argue this point, but this is how he is with me at least. Contrary to what they say, I do not have favorites when it comes to my sons. 🤣

Todd:

He is still having great success at losing weight. I'm so proud of him! I don't say that enough, but he looks so different. He's down two pants sizes and he could stand to go down a shirt size. He eats pretty much the same thing everyday, with dinners being different. I try to make sure he has plenty of protein with dinner each night and this week I made sure to have something on hand that is salty/crunchy for when he needs a bite of something like that to snack on. I keep hummus and guacamole on hand for him, because neither of those are too bad, as long as you use moderation. His hernias have been so much better since he's lost so much weight, but he will still need surgery once he's at a certain BMI. I do hate that for him, that he has to have surgery, but I know it'll be good for him in the long run. Did you know that hernia surgeries don't work if you gain weight after the surgery? It's true, which is why he's lost weight. He saw a surgeon about this and that was what he'd found to be true after years of research and writing papers on this topic. It's also why Todd's first hernia surgery didn't last.

Something you may not know about him is that he has grown a moustache! I've gotten used to it mostly, but sometimes it still catches me by surprise. I'll admit, I wasn't a fan at first, but it's grown on me. 🤣 (See what I did there?)

This is a terrible picture of me, but I love it of him! I think he's so handsome. 😍 

I don't think I have anything new to share, because I'm an open book here. All of you know about my new job by now, but you may not know that I love it. It feels so good to get dressed and leave my house everyday, which I'm surprised to say. I think I was more than ready to do something like this for myself, which is why I got a job to begin with. Todd didn't ask me to do this, and it wasn't for any particular reason, it was just something I wanted to do. I love working with my best friend and our day together yesterday was fun! We cracked up several times during the time I was there, so much so that I snorted in laughter, but we did also actually work. It felt good to be a relief for her, because I was busy with lots to do! It was one less thing she didn't have to do, and it made her day a smidge better.

Something you may not know about me is that I usually don't care for my hair. I hate (HATE) seeing pictures or videos of myself, because all I see is hair. I'm rolling my eyes at myself. I said that to say I had a good hair day this weekend, one time, and I took a picture to document.

I don't know where I was looking, but I liked my hair, the makeup I had on (with new eyeshadow and lipstick) and my outfit. This was when we went out to dinner Saturday night, where we ate at one of my favorite local restaurants. 

To wrap this up, know that I always feel a little weird about these posts now that my sons are older and I never want to say too much to respect their privacy. They do know I share about them here on occasion though, and they give me their blessing. I think. Maybe I should check again soon! I also never want to boast about anything we did for them to turn out a certain way—as those of you with adults kids know, all you can do is to try your best and cover them in prayer. Even then, things can turn out so differently! In some ways, we were wildly successful at this whole parenting gig, but in other huge way, we failed tremendously. I think every parent I know would go back and change some things, if they were given a chance. I have the thought regularly that they may all need counseling someday as a result of something I did or did not do. There's lots of grace in parenting here—both for ourselves and for people we know and love who have struggles with their own adult kids. Being a parent is a tremendous blessing and privilege, but it is certainly not for the faint of heart. Along that same thought, the same could be said of  marriage. It takes time, commitment, lots of diligent watering of your own grass, love and grace. It also takes God, because if you don't keep Him at the center of it all, the whole thing could just fall apart at any given second. 

I share that because though Todd and I have the best marriage to date in almost 26 years, it's nowhere near perfect and we've had our fair share of troubles. God is good, though and by His grace, He pulled us through and helped us too many times to count. I know that will be a recurring thing too, in the many years to come. I share this because I know so many who are struggling in their marriages. Because God loves it and honors it, the enemy is after the family, in the form of their marriages. I've had several friends reach out to me to pray for them and their marriages recently and my best friend and I were talking about this yesterday, because she's had the same. Neither one of us shared any details, but it's something we could ALL be praying for. I guarantee that out of every five marriages of people in your circle right now, three would be struggling in some way. I'm guilty of not praying for my own enough, and I would guess a lot of you would say the same. Maybe that can be our takeaway from today's silly little post. Maybe we should all commit to spending time in prayer for our marriages and for others. I'll end this with one of my favorite passages about the kind of love we should all display within our marriages. 

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

As always, thanks for reading my blog, friends! If I can pray for you in any way, let me know. I would be honored. You can email me at allboys@gmail.com. Love to all! 

weekending/Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm joining in with Holly and Sarah once again today for this weekly blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was really good. 

I told you last week that one of my sisters who lives near Denver was here in town for work for just a few days, so we got the weekend started on Friday by going to a nearby town in Mississippi for most of the day. She had a very specific reason for going, but I was just there for the ride and to keep her company. I'm so glad we had that time together! It was so good seeing her and just having uninterrupted time together in the car. If you know me at all, and most of you know me really well by now, you know that I love many things, but two of my all time favorites are quality time and really cute small towns. We got started with breakfast at Chick Fil A before leaving town, then I plugged my phone's USB chord into the rental car, and off we went with Waze directing and 90's country on Spotify helping keep us entertained. (You have to love technology and things like Android Auto/Apple Car Play!)

Debi took care of a little business first when we got there, and when that was wrapped up, we headed back into the little town square area of Clarksdale, Mississippi. I'd read a few things about the area before going—of COURSE I did, I'm very type A and a lover of organized plans, but nothing prepared me for how cute the area is now. Or, at least how cute it will be someday. You can tell the town was very run down in years past, but local business are trying to change that. 

There are lots of murals on the sides of buildings, the storefronts are being revamped and streets are being re-paved. 

So cute, right? This is one of the cities within the Mississippi Delta. We have family who lived here, so it's kind of a special place. I was so glad to see them trying to improve it, because as recently as two years ago, the town had a very bad reputation. I know a young lady who moved there for a short while right after she got married and she was dreading the move because of how bad it was known to be. It may still be like that, I'm honestly not sure or familiar enough with it to know different, but it was encouraging to see new life brought to old buildings. 

It reminds me of the show that  Ben and Erin Napier hosted on HGTV—Home Town Takeover. Have you seen this? First off, I love them on their show Home Town, especially her sense of style. I consider my own style to be similar to hers—colorful, eclectic, with things that are packed with memories and special meaning. On Home Town Takeover, they picked a small, once-booming town and slowly started bringing some new life back to it. They picked a few key spots to focus on, hoping it would spread from there. They renovated a beloved and well known house, parts of the main street in the downtown area, they renovated a place that can host a farmer's market and they painted a huge mural on one building. The town of Clarksdale had very similar vibes. 

We had lunch at this cute little restaurant, named Yazoo Pass before driving around. This used to be where the old Woolworth's was located. Here's a picture of what it used to look back way back when.

And what it looks like now. Pretty cool, right? The inside is really charming and Debi immediately recognized what it used to be, when she went there as a little girl.

Such a fun time exploring. Speaking of, we were also intrigued by this old mansion and stopped to take pictures.

This is the historical Cutrer Mansion, built in 1916, where the daughter of Clarksdale's founder lived. Blanche Cutrer often threw extravagant events held in this beautiful home, which attracted the attention of Tom Williams, who later became Tennessee Williams and wrote plays like A Street Car Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. This home is on the Southern Literary Trail, which now I want to see more of because I'm so intrigued. I've never heard of this until Friday, by the way and now I'm about to be chasing a rabbit trail finding more authors with homes nearby who are on the map. On the brief search I just did, I already found Harper Lee's home on this trail...see what I mean? 

Speaking of small towns that I love, our little town made it into Southern Living! I'm including this link in case you'd like to check it out for a different perspective. 

Anyway, I said all of that to say that we had a really nice day together. I spent the evening watching a really cute Hallmark movie, Love in the Limelight. I loved the entire story line and the main characters in the movie are married, which just adds good chemistry to the movie. Todd worked and everyone else was in and out. I had yummy leftovers for dinner and went to bed pretty early.

On Saturday morning, I was up early enough to watch a show on Netflix, then I went out for a brief while with my mom and sisters. We went to a little boutique that we love, then we had lunch and called it an early day. For dinner that night, we met them at one of my favorite places that I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, Jim's Grille. We were home again right after that and I FINALLY finished the book I was reading. It was good, don't get me wrong, it just went on and on. There's a second book, but I doubt I'll continue reading the series. I'll share about my August books at the end of the month, so check back! The 31st falls on a Wednesday this month, so I will share this month's books on that day. 

I was up early again on Sunday, even though I didn't have to be at church early this week, and watched what may be my newest favorite Hallmark movie.

I love the Hallmark Fall movies every bit as much as their Christmas movies...did you know that the fall ones are just as big a deal as the Christmas ones? I know, I know...some of you may shake your head at my love of Hallmark movies, but they're clean! There are some that are not good, don't get me wrong, but for the most part, they're clean and easy to watch. I've noticed that a lot of them are becoming more "inclusive" which in some ways is great, but in the way of how God defines traditional marriage, it's not so great. I hate that the higher ups in this corporation are pushing that agenda more here, but I just don't watch the movies I disagree with and I watch all the others. And, even if I don't watch them all and agree with them all, they're still the cleanest movies around right now, so at least there's that. I'm excited and intrigued about their new movies that start later this month, the Mahogany line. They look really good and I'm excited to see one. I like that they've changed up some of the story lines. I've been noticing that they're not all the same like they once were. In some ways, like I said, they've upped their game. 

Church was really good, as always, particularly the worship. I went to the grocery store right after church so that I could get my shopping done for the week, then I came home to eat a little lunch. I'm going into work today for four hours, so I'm trying to be creative in how I spend time, like with grocery shopping and blogging. I don't plan on changing up the frequency of  blog posts—a couple of you asked me that and I will still be writing here everyday, unless otherwise planned in advance, like when I'm out of town. I'm just having to be more mindful of my time, which is not a bad thing. I'm writing this post on Sunday morning, for instance, before I go get dressed for church. I came back later to edit some of it, like about church, then I scheduled it to post after midnight this morning, as usual and in case you ever wondered how I do things here. 😉 

After I did all of the after church things, I got comfy and took a nap. Later on for dinner, when Todd had gone into work, I finished my leftovers from last night's dinner (beef tenderloin kabobs, veggies and sautéed mushrooms) and started watching Chesapeake Shores on Hallmark Movies Now. I started the show years ago when it first came out, but I eventually had to stop watching when we got rid of cable. I added a streaming channel last night so that I can watch this show and I'll probably end up keeping it after the 7 day free trial. It's only $6 a month. Have I mentioned how much I love having Sunday afternoons free now? I do. I'm still loving Wednesday night rehearsals.

So, how was your weekend? Tell me something good! I'd love to hear from you today. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all. 

Friday Favorites, 8.12.22.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for this weekly blog post, where a bunch of us join in and talk about our favorites from the week. This is always one of my favorite blog days! How has your week been? Many of my friends have kids who started back to school this week and many of you who are teachers started back. I've been thinking about you all week long and have prayed for you several times. I hope if that's you, that your school year got off to a good start. 

I'll start with my first favorite from the week—this beautiful mural painted on the side of one of the buildings on our town square.

The reason I shared this the other two days this week was to give a life update and tell you that I started a part time job! I had my first "real" day on Wednesday and it was good. I'm easing into it, I have to say and will only be working a few hours a week to start off. I feel like it's a perfect fit for me because I've been out of the work force for so long and because my boss doesn't care what hours and days I work. 

I took this picture on Tuesday when I was waiting for my car to cool off before I pulled out of the parking space.

So adorable. It's such a pretty place to go into work! I know you're probably tired of me talking about it, so I'll share one more and I'll be done. This kind of thing is my favorite!

My architecture-loving self loves the inside of the buildings on the square. Lots of the woodwork you see is original, because you can smell it and hear it as you walk. I'm a sucker for details like dark wood trim and exposed brick walls. 

Aside from details of a building, I do have other favorites from the week, like the night our power went out and we were bored, so we ended up playing Phase 10. 

Have you played this game? It's one of our favorites! I won, by the way, in spite of the fact that I accidentally played the same phase twice in a row. I was distracted by a phone call. 

Surprisingly, some of the Bible reading I've done this week has been my favorite. I say "surprisingly" because I've been in Jeremiah and it's not my favorite book. I'm not a big prophesy type gal and don't understand the timelines and such, but I know others love these books in the Old Testament. 

I love what chapter 17:7-8 says: The person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is indeed the LORD, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water; it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn't fear what comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit." What a great reminder for all of us who walk with God! 

Reading has been a favorite past time this week.

Have you read this author? This is the first book in a series by her. I like it! I'm intrigued to see how it will finish with the end of this first one and I'll decide whether or not to keep going with the next ones. I borrowed this from my library with the Libby app.

Wednesday night choir rehearsal is my new favorite! Even if I'm tired on a Wednesday, I'll gladly take it over a Sunday. 

Our worship pastor took this picture and shared to our Facebook page. This is our rehearsal suite. We're up on the third floor and the orchestra practices in the basement in a similar, smaller room. We had a shortened rehearsal because of a church picnic, which I skipped, and I barely made it inside before the skies opened up and another torrential downpour started. I was glad to have made it inside before that started! 

Lunches or dinners like this are my favorite—this is what I had for dinner Wednesday night before choir. It was the perfect light dinner and it was extremely satisfying.

I bought the shrimp salad from Costco this week and it is delicious! Also, the naan bread is always good. I already knew I loved it, but I always forget to buy it for us. It would be good with anything on it.

Other favorites from the week include a slow morning at home yesterday, when I had a little longer before getting dressed for the day. I'm not complaining, I promise, because it felt great to get up, get dressed and have somewhere to be for the morning, even if only for a few hours. It's been so long since I've been in the work force! I just have to figure out my days...this week was different, because Bible study hadn't started yet, but that won't be the case next week. I don't know if I'll do Monday-Tuesday-Thursday or what, so I need to get that figured out over the next day or two. 

In case you missed out on any of my blog posts this week, I'll link them below. I also want to remind you/tell you for the first time that I have taken over a link party that happens on the first Wednesday of every month—it's called "currently" and it's when we share from the topics I pick for each month. Anne over at Anne In Residence used to host this, but she ended it recently and then I reached out to her about taking it over...I know several blog friends who loved being a part of that as much as I did, so I'm excited to keep it going! I'll keep the link open all month long, in case you want to join in last week's when we shared what we're currently loving, wearing, dreaming and hoping. On September 7, the topics will be loving, beginning, ending, picking and posting. I hope you join in! Here is the link from last week and then I'll link the rest of this week's post below.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

How has your week been? Do you have a favorite moment or thing from the week, or a high and low type event? I'd love to hear from you! Thank you for reading my blog, friends! Love to all!

Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! It's hard to believe it's already Thursday...this week is flying by. Today is kind of like my Friday, since my dad is coming over today. I made plans with my sister Debi for tomorrow, while she's here in town. She needs to make a quick trip to a town a little bit away, so I offered to go with her. It's a good way for us to spend quality time together. ❤ You know I love quality time. I'll jump in with my list for this week.

I'm thankful that I took the suggestion of my husband Tuesday night and nixed the idea of us having hamburgers for dinner. That had been my plan for our dinner that night, but we had major storms move in at the same time and the burgers would have been ruined. Instead, I made homemade meatballs with marinara and green beans for us and macaroni for anyone else who ate here.

Speaking of storms, we lost our power for about two hours on this night. Even our phones weren't working! It knocked out everything and though I was not bored, Todd was, so I put my Kindle away and asked if he wanted to play cards. He took me up on my offer, so he, Graham and I played Phase 10 that night. It was fun and I was thankful we did that together...we really should do that more often!

Bonus: I won! Graham tried his best to beat me and though he went out on his phase 10 first, I won in score, because I had less points. Do you and your family like to play cards? I never think to offer this, but when we do play, we have so much fun! 

I'm thankful for quality time with my sister that I already talked about. We always have fun together, no matter what we do. 

I'm thankful that the week has been mundane and that everyone is back to work. Noah's job finally started after all the processing finished and Drew is also back to work after having to rest for two weeks with a fractured foot. I don't see either one of them that much these days, especially Drew. Noah, as I've mentioned before, is still living here technically, but he's been staying with his friend all summer. 

I'm thankful for a steady job for Graham and Jonah, and that they both seem to enjoy their work. I'm proud of all our sons for their work ethic. I'm also thankful for another family member of mine who was able to find a job recently...I've experienced myself how tricky it is to be hired right now, even though every place just about is hiring. I don't know if it's a disconnect in communication or the processing of paperwork, but it's a real thing.

I'm thankful for a new job! I wrote about it yesterday—you can read about it here. 

This is the new mural on the side of the square I'll be working on. I shared this yesterday as well, but I love murals and I really love our town square. I think more places should do this kind of thing on the sides or backs of buildings...it's a great little touristy thing to do to encourage people to visit the area. 

I'm thankful that Bible study starts back next week! I've missed being in a study and am always anxious to get back to it once August comes. We'll be taking the study I helped write and I'm thankful for that too—that the Lord helped us muddle our way through the writing portion for this study. This one just about did me in for some reason and I struggled more than I ever have, but I'm excited to start. I can't wait to dig in deeper as we study 1,2,3 John and Jude. The name of the study is That You May Know. I'll share a picture here when I have a copy in my hands. ❤ Here are the other studies we've written together.

I can't wait to hold this next one in my hands. It's always a little surreal to hold such a labor of love. I'm thankful for the opportunity that God gives me to write! I don't know how long I'll do this, but I want to go for as long as He wants me to do this. It's such a privilege! Bible study in general is such a privilege and we have so many offered at our church! Isn't that amazing? I am thankful for this about our church—it's always so busy when I drive by! I love that our church is considered our town's church and many town meetings happen there. I used to have a different attitude about this, but the Lord has changed my heart about us being moved around from one location to another when it interferes with Bible study days. 

Your turn! I'd love to hear one thing you're thankful for this week. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all. 

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life update and a reminder

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I thought I'd share a little of what's on my heart this week. I have to back up before I begin. Remember a few weeks when I mentioned getting a part time job? I shadowed my friend for a day and then loved it and the owner was supposed to call me to set up a meeting and a time for me to come in—well, that never happened. Since she kept on not calling me, I kind of took that as a sign that maybe it's not what the Lord had in store for me. (This was the picture I shared that day.)

I never said anything—I just kept on waiting, but truthfully, I've waited on possibly getting a part time job for more than a year now. Once Jonah and Noah graduated from high school, I started thinking about it, and even really before their graduation. I sort of had it in mind all along that I would start to work when everyone was finished. Then Graham got a puppy and I gave him my okay to get her, so I put everything on hold. I didn't have to do that, I know, but I can't stand the thought of a puppy living in a kennel for too long of a stretch during the day. She needed to be house broken and she needed to be social around the other dogs. We've had her for a full year now and as the summer approached, I started thinking about working part time again. 

So, I ran into a friend of mine one day who works at a cute little shop on the square and she told me that I needed to come to work there. I waited a couple of weeks, then I sent them an email asking if they were hiring. She reached out to me the next day and asked me to come shadow them for a day to see if it was what I had in mind, which it was and I LOVED IT and I loved the people and the environment. But, like I said, the owner never reached out to me and in the meantime I was really wanting to find something part time. Fast forward to last Wednesday night when I went to dinner with my best friend after church. I was telling her this saga and she was just laughing and trying to finish the food in her mouth to tell me something. She finally swallowed the bite in her mouth and told me that her boss had been telling her for weeks to get me to come to work with them. We had actually talked about it before, but I wasn't ever really ready when we would talk about it. Then I found out that he was on board with me coming to work there part time and when I learned I could kind of set my own schedule, it sounded more and more appealing. 

So, yesterday I gave it a go. I didn't really, all I did was go into the office and talk to Missy about what I would be doing and she explained to me exactly why I would be taking phone calls and the right kinds of questions to ask, and I decided to go ahead and start this week! Part of why the other job held such appeal for me was it because it was on our town square, but guess what? So is this place! It's in the heart of the downtown area, it's an attorney's office and it's basically just reception type work that I can eventually do at home as well as in the office. I love that the hours are more flexible, and not for as many during the day because of our dogs and I love that I'll be working with my best friend! She was afraid it would be weird, but I don't think it will be that way. I'm perfectly fine with her telling me what to do and walking me through the first few weeks until I get the hang of things. Hopefully it won't get on her nerves. 🤣

I wrote all of that to catch you up and to get to the main point of what I was going to say in the first place, which is this: God is sovereign. I wrote that in my journal on Monday as I read in Jeremiah chapter ten. I know what was going on in this portion of Scripture, but I was so encouraged by one verse in particular that I stopped to write it down and I read it again. 

In this chapter (and in the whole book), Jeremiah was prophesying to the people what would be to come if they didn't turn from their wicked ways. They worshiped other gods, they turned their back on the one true God and they all did what was right in their own eyes. There wasn't good leadership for either nation and they were quickly going from bad to much worse. God was warning them that he would punish them for their blatant disobedience, but He was always good to warn them through Jeremiah. Of course, nobody listened to Jeremiah, but he kept speaking to them. God warned them of utter destruction if they didn't turn back to Him. They didn't, I'll tell you that now, in case you didn't know, and God eventually allowed them to be carried off into captivity to other pagan nations. They had no idea of what was to come and though the times were dark, there were still some good things happening here and there throughout history. This is the time period of when the book of Daniel opens up and as bad as the nation was where they were carried away to, Daniel and his three young friends were mighty men of God, whom He used to encourage the heart of evil King Nebuchadnezzar. 

Here is the verse that caught my eye on Monday morning, which is Jeremiah 10:23. 

I know, LORD, that a person's way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps.

You know who does determine our steps? Read Proverbs 16:9.

A person's heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.

I find it so encouraging that nothing that ever happens in life takes God by surprise. I love knowing that I don't have to strive to determine how things turn out. I'm all about working wholeheartedly for God and for being loyal to a commitment, but other than giving something my best for His glory, He is the one who is determining my steps, who knows what the outcome of my life is going to look like someday. It's comforting to not have to worry or to fret about things, which is what I want to remind you of today. Maybe someone needs to hear that reminder...all the worrying in the world will not add even one minute to your life, so why bother? I know it's hard to not worry, but we can rest than God Almighty has got everything in His hands. 

If you ever want to talk more about having a relationship with Jesus or how to pray, please feel free reach out! Do you know Jesus? I'm right here if you ever want to talk. My email address is allboys@gmail.com if you ever want to take me up on my offer. He brings me peace and comforts me like nothing else and it's one of the million things that makes me grateful to know Him and to walk so closely with Him. I pray these words encourage you today, friend. Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all.  

P.s. This is the side of the square I'll be working on...isn't this mural awesome? I love a great mural!