Jonah's and Noah's senior banquet

 Happy Wednesday, friends! Last night was such a special night for us and Jonah and Noah. It's hard to think it's already the middle of April and that we are winding down the boys' senior year of high school. As May quickly approaches, the days are getting a little more and more real. Last night was our third and final senior banquet to attend for our sons. This is something I wasn't sure would even happen, thanks to the dreaded c word and due to so many things being shut down. I'm so grateful this was able to go on!

In years past, it was held at a country club and while that was okay and pretty, I am glad it was at our church. It was a catered meal and our Pastor spoke to them, the youth pastor spoke, and the young adults pastor spoke as well. I'm sharing this so that I will be able to hang onto all these memories.

This man is one of greatest men I've ever known! I am so thankful to call him Pastor and friend. I'm also thankful that my sons can also call him that. He has invested so much time into them as their Pastor and last night he encouraged them to always guard their hearts. 

Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Nice picture, funny picture. 

I love the look on Todd's face as he hugged Jonah. They're twins. 

Oh, Jonah, with his closed eyes. He felt terrible all of yesterday, thanks to our changing weather and his sinus issues. He actually took a nap yesterday, if that tells you anything. He only sleeps in the day like that when he's sick. It's also why he decided not to dress up so much. 

Left to right: Noah, Mom, Bill and Jonah. 

Noah, Sandy, Dad and Jonah. (I wish I'd noticed the blur of this one.)

Noah, Wiley, Phyllis and Jonah. 

Jacob, Jonah and Noah. 

And finally Haisten, Colby, Noah, Carter, Jonah and Jacob. These guys are their very best friends, minus one or two other guys that weren't there. I'm so thankful for the friendships they have with one another. These guys have been lifesavers over the last couple of years and have become more like brothers to my boys more than anything else. 

These days are slipping right by! I'm treasuring up all these things in my heart, though. I'm so proud of my youngest boys and pray they always love Jesus with their whole hearts. I pray they stay friends with these guys forever! I think most of them are staying in town after graduation. 

Thanks for reading! Love to all. 

taking the time to rest, according to an eighties love song

(That title caught your eye, did it not?) 

I was driving home yesterday listening to eighties love songs, when one of my favorite songs came on—Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. I was driving and singing along every lyric that takes up residence in my brain and I noticed our breathing patterns were the same as we sang our duet. (I'm laughing as I write that.) If you listen to any song, you can hear the artist stop to take a breath.

In the world of music and reading sheet music, there are rests at certain spots in every song. Why? Because if there wasn't one, two things would happen: one is that you wouldn't know where to pause to take a breath to be able to continue singing and two is that you would pass out from not breathing right. (Maybe that's just me.)

I had that thought and then the Lord gave me one of his spiritual pictures that I so love. That is this—if we don't schedule times to rest periodically, we will burn out and be of no kingdom good. And just like a musical rest is a scheduled or planned rest, that is the same thing that we must do on a weekly basis. Did you know that rest is one of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and for us today?

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8)

As a human being, rest is crucial for a well balanced life. I had a friend in high school who would always become physically ill when she hadn't slept enough. I could always tell when she'd gone without sleep and her body was telling her to slow down. As a believer and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, rest is crucial for our spiritual well being. Think of a pastor and what would happen if he never took a day off? You know they don't get weekends off—they're fine tuning their message and praying through it on Saturdays and then Sundays are a long day for them as they preach. 

As a mom, it's important to take time off to rest occasionally. Whatever that looks like, you can spare some time for yourself for a bit. I see so many moms struggle because they let motherhood end their quiet times with the Lord. While it's normal to not have a lot of extended time to sit and spend with Jesus, don't let that stop you altogether. Whether it's five minutes of an entire hour, any time is better than none at all and the Lord extends grace to those who need it in this area and many others. 

I was so fortunate in this area when I was a young mom because I had a husband who encouraged me to get out of the house on occasion and enjoy dinner out with friends. If you can't swing that, put them all to bed early and unwind by doing your nails or taking a bubble bath or watching your favorite movie.

As an employee, it's important to leave your work at work as much as you're able so that you can leave it and go home to rest and get a good night's sleep. 

As a wife, it's important to take a night off and to do something with someone other than your spouse and vice versa. It's unfair to both spouses to count on each other as both spouse and best friend. Those roles are two entirely different things and while I do say that mine is my best friend, I also have a female best friend that is a different type of friend. 

The reason I mention all of those things is because that is one thing we can do to make time for the rest that we need. Sometimes it means that we need to be alone, other times it means we need to be surrounded by friends. The Bible has some things to say about rest. 

(According to Vine's Expository Dictionary, the word rest in Psalms is from a Hebrew word that means wait. In Matthew 11:28 comes from a Greek word, meaning "to cause or permit one to cease from any labor or movement so as to recover strength. It implies previous toil and care. To refresh.")

I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. (Psalm 62:1)

You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. (Psalm 139:3)

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Whatever rest looks like for you, make some time for it in some areas in your life. Don't be so busy that you never spend time with God and if you are that busy, perhaps you should re-evaluate some things in your life. We all have the same amount of time in a day and we seem to be able to find lots of time for the things we want to do—just don't do those things at the expense of neglecting God. As a believer it is impossible to find rest that restores without spending time with God in prayer and Bible reading. 

You may wonder what this looks like and while there is no one way to go about achieving rest, I'll tell you what I like to do. First off, if I am busy in the week, I really like to have at least one day scheduled in a week to be at home all day. Depending on what my life has been like leading up to that time, I may be a little lazy in my day "off", or I may spend time catching up on things around my house. I am a very organized, structured person and I cease to thrive when my home is a disaster. I like things neat and orderly and preferably clean and picked up. One thing I don't do is neglect time with God. I may not always have that time with Him right at the beginning of the day, but rest assured that before I go to bed, I'll have spent that time with Him. I mentioned that we have the same 24 hours—I can surely get carried away with reading a book or watching a show, so I have to make myself stop doing those things to devote that time to the Lord.

I don't say any of this to brag, you all know me well enough by now to know that's true, but it takes self discipline. I don't always want to spend that time with Him, but I do it anyway. I'm likely to miss it altogether if I'm sick and catch up when I feel better. If I don't spend time with Him, I don't feel as if I'm at rest in my heart. 

So, dear friend—schedule you some time to rest, whatever that looks like. Take a day, if you're able, but it not just take some time to spend with Jesus and then maybe go away by yourself in a spot in your house and take some time to really pour out your heart to God. I've been talking a lot about prayer here lately because of a book I'm reading, but if you want to talk more on that, reach out! My email address is allboys@gmail.com. Most of us never give God the adequate time that He deserves. Just like you can't get caught up with your best friend in just five minutes, we can't pray for just a short amount of time and expect to remain close to Him in our relationship. If you're in a rut in the area of prayer, consider how you're praying—it's not just giving God a laundry list of needs, it's praying according to the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (for yourself and for others). 

I pray these words encourage you today. Love to all. 

weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! I am linking up with Tanya today for this blog post. 

My weekend was really good! I got it kicked off with my dad, as usual. We ate a good lunch and then we went shopping. One of the graduation gifts Dad and Sandy give to their graduating grandchildren are navy blue blazers. We went to a couple of stores and found one for Jonah, then they went back Saturday and found one for Noah. We haven't ever really done any shopping together like that, up until just this past Christmas. I'll take all the moments I can get. 

Friday night, my hubby and I went on a little date night. We were going to eat Mexican food but settled for Chinese instead. It was delicious! We came home quickly to beat the rain that was heading our way and watched a terribly cheesy movie on Netflix—Thunder Force. It did have some parts that were funny, but otherwise it wasn't that great. 

I slept in a bit on Saturday and then watched a really good Hallmark movie. Because of that when I went to have my quiet time, people were starting to wake up, so I spent time reading in my Bible, then went and did a bit of laundry, got dressed and left my house. I never got the chance to pray, so I went and parked in a corner parking spot at my church that faced a pretty green area, and sat there and prayed. It had rained that morning, but the sun was shining, a breeze was blowing and it was cooler in temperature. I loved that time that I was able to spend there and it also helped me to pray for the service today and for the pastors and staff. Here is a picture I took—

I feel so fortunate to attend this church. Our Pastor is the very best of the best and I love his heart. He is also just a great and approachable man and even my sons all love him. I'm so thankful for him! I live right by our church, so when I leave and go somewhere on Saturdays, I always see his truck there for most of that day. I always take that time to pray for him, when I drive by and see him there.

I went to Walmart for a few things, then came home and stayed put the rest of the day. I watched tv, all the people in my house left and it was like that until I went to bed around eleven. Graham and Drew went to Starkville, Mississippi  to see some friends for that night and came back home on Sunday.

These pictures above were while I was outside with the pups. It was a beautiful night.

And Sunday Todd and I were at church bright and early. He had to go do a couple of things afterward, but I came home to take care of the dogs. I had choir practice at three, then came home and ate a very simple and delicious dinner of scrambled eggs and cheese toast. 

All in all, it was a great weekend. How was yours? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all. 

Friday Favorites, 4.9.21

 

Happy Friday, friends! I am linking up with Andrea and Erica for my favorite blog post of the week.

It's been such a great week, one of my favorites to date, if I'm being completely honest. I'll tell you why at the end of this post. 

I was totally making fun of myself when I shared this on my Instagram story yesterday, but this is probably my favorite kind of lunch. I had slices of sharp cheddar cheese with that same amount of crackers, celery with salt, fruit and Twizzlers. The Twizzlers is why I was laughing at myself. It's all about a healthy balance, right? I love to munch on things like this for lunch and I try to have some variation of this same thing everyday. 

I rarely brag about my sons, but I have to do that for a few minutes. It's not my nature to do this, but sometimes we have to just profess to someone how proud we are of our kids. I looked out the window yesterday while I was cleaning and found one of my favorite scenes playing out before me. Jonah is such a great young man and one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. All of my sons are this way, actually and you can tell by the way they treat other people and animals. Anyway, Jonah picked up our little neighbor yesterday from his elementary school and after he finished cleaning his truck and put all of his equipment away, he went across the street to play basketball with Lane. Lane is basically Jonah when Jonah was in the third grade. I think this is the sweetest thing ever and Jonah has no idea the impact on this young boy's life that he is making. I got a little emotional over this picture.

Jonah (in the black shirt) was about that age that Lane is now when I took this picture of this group of boys at kids camp one summer. I can't believe they're all graduating. All of these young boys have remained friends over the years. I love that!

I took this yesterday as I was sitting and writing on the new Bible study we're currently working on. Thursdays are for writing, apparently! I got a lot accomplished. Twinkle's favorite thing is to get up in the window sill and watch the outdoors unfold before her. She wants to go out so badly, but she doesn't have claws, and I think it's mean to put her out there with no defenses mechanism. 

According to all the comments, a favorite blog post that I wrote this week is this one called Currently. I love writing these types of posts and having them to look back on each month.

I needed a boost one afternoon before I started on dinner and enjoyed this snack above, which is one of my favorites. The salty of the cheese-its and the cold chocolate milk are all of my favorite combinations.

This is my favorite picture of my dad! Sandy sent this to us this week. It was him dressed up for church on Resurrection Sunday. 

Nail days (and hair days) are my favorite days! I love this shade of  turquoise. It's been ages since I've done a shade of blue. I've become boring and usually go with white or shades of pink. In the cold months, I lean a little gothic (thanks, 90's) and go with dark purples and blacks or grays. 

One of my very favorite things in all of the world is for this table to be full of guys. I love to feed people! The more, the merrier. This was us having a special dinner for Drew on Sunday night. I love having all these guys come and go from our house. It's very rarely just us for dinner. 

These last two pictures are why this week has been one of my favorite weeks to date. I started reading this book last week because I am in a class on Wednesday nights that my Pastor is teaching on it. This little book has changed the course of my week, friends. I know most of you know that I am a believer and I am very consistent in how I spend time with Jesus each day, but sometimes I get into a very deep prayer rut. Do you know what that feels like? Your prayers feel dull and mundane. Well, I picked up this book and come to find out, it wasn't that I've been in a prayer rut, it's that I've not been spending enough time with Jesus in prayer. I have a terrible of rushing through prayer and then spending time reading His Word, but it shouldn't be like that. So, each day since I started reading this, which was last Friday, I've been spending a solid 30-45 minutes in prayer each day. I know that seems like a long time, but when you pray according to the acronym ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and spend a good amount of time in each of those areas, it FLIES BY. 

I don't even remember what I pray, I just know that before I know it, I am pouring out my heart to the Lord in prayer and all of that time has slipped right by. I've felt closer to Him all week long, because I've been drawing near to Him. James 4:8 says that when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. It's so true! I share that not to brag, but to encourage you. Try it for yourself! Don't spend this time as you're doing other things, get somewhere quiet and alone and dedicate a set amount of time to Him everyday. The author of this book does suggest 30-60 minutes a day with Him and that's the amount of time I've been setting aside for Him. He includes Bible reading in this time with God. 

If you want more information, reach out to me! My email address is allboys@gmail.com. I'd love to talk to you more about this. Prayer is such a vital part of our relationship with God. Imagine not talking to your best friend everyday—after days in a row of that, you will eventually grow apart. That's what happens between us and the Lord when we don't spend time with Him. I just want you to know that you can start this daily habit NOW. I firmly believe there is no time like the present. 

I've been getting creative in my spots for this time each day. I have to move around and switch up my routine or it becomes rote. On Wednesday morning, I made my second cup of coffee and went to sit on our swing on the deck. I am sure the neighbors were probably wondering who I was talking to, but I didn't let that stop me. I encourage you to do the same!

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

"currently", 4.7.21

 

Good morning, friends! I'm linking up with Anne from in residence today for this blog post.

Here is what I am currently arranging, craving, discussing, enjoying and preparing. 

Arranging—if you know me at all, you know how much I love to make our home look warm and inviting. I love to decorate and remember loving going with my mom when she used to decorate other people's homes. I remember being fascinated by Mom's talent for this. I do believe this kind of thing is handed down through family lines and three of my sisters are also very good at this! (We all also sing!) All of this being said, I love to change things up in our home and I love to repurpose things I decorate with around the house. These days this is called "shopping your house", but I've been doing this since I first got married. I love to do this in the downstairs of our home and it seems like there are a few areas down here that I can't seem to get right. Because of that, I keep on arranging and rearranging things.

This is one area of my kitchen that I love and that gets changed up pretty often. 

Craving—this is so strange, I know, but I had a craving for Twizzlers so intense last night that I asked one of my sons to go pick some up for me. I'm rolling my eyes at my own self, trust me, because apparently I'm like a ten year old kid or Lorelai Gilmore.

Discussing—all the things! I love to talk to people, particularly those in my family and who are my friends, but I've also been known to be able to talk to a brick wall. I particularly love talking to my best friend and talk to her almost every single day. We talked yesterday and dreamed about another girl's trip soon. Fingers crossed that we get to do something fun again!

Enjoying—all of the beautiful flowers, bushes and trees with green! I love this about spring every year. The only thing I'm not enjoying is the pollen that makes us all sneezy, particularly my Graham. He struggles with allergies every spring. 

Preparing—I'm working on writing my portion of the next Bible study I'm helping write with a team of ladies from my church and we're all preparing for our girls' mountain getaway next week to finish up the writing! I'm excited about getting away for a few days and particularly with these ladies. We always have so much fun together. 

This was me writing last Thursday with all of my helps and Bibles spread all over the bench and kitchen table.

That's it for today! Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. 

Prime Purchases, March edition

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm linking up with Tanya once again for this monthly link-up. 

First up for the month, I ordered three books. Two are a pre-order by one of my favorite authors and the other was one I kept hearing good things about.

I ordered some leggings to bum around the house in that I have ordered before and love. I can't find the ones I ordered now, though, so I'm not sharing a link.

I ordered some detangling spray for the first time in over a decade that I already used and love.

Here is a link for the spray. 

I ordered this leave in conditioner for the guys.

Here is a link for the conditioner. They love it and it moisturizes their dry, curly hair.

And lastly, I ordered Jonah and Noah their favorite socks. 

Here is a link for their socks.

I also ordered some vacuum bags for my sister, but that's nothing super exciting. Actually, none of this stuff is super exciting, but these are all things I order repeatedly. 

I'd love to hear from you! Have you purchased anything fun and exciting lately? Thanks for reading! Love to all. 

weekending

 

Happy Monday! I am linking up with Tanya from The Other Side of the Road. 

I got the weekend started off with Dad. It was a little cool still, so I made us some really good taco soup for lunch. Afterward and per usual, we just sat and visited and solved all the world's problems. People should ask us our thoughts and opinions, I must say—we have great ones. ;)

While I took him home, Jonah was having new wheels and tires put on his truck. I love this picture I snuck of he and Alex comparing the sizes of his old ones versus the new ones.

He is proud as punch and sat out there for the next two hours and just stared at them. It makes my heart so full to see my sons so happy.

I went shopping with Mom and Trish on Saturday—my mom had several errands to run and we ate lunch, then I came home and went out again on my own. I picked up some candy for all my guys and then for the rest of my night, I watched my show. One Tree Hill took another turn and all of a sudden it got really good again. Todd worked both Friday and Saturday nights. Jonah and I got Zaxby's for dinner on Friday night and Noah was out with a friend for his birthday. Graham and Drew left town for the weekend to spend it in Nashville to celebrate Drew's 21st birthday.

Drew's been fake smiling all of his life. I made him hug me several times, because he hates to hug and be affectionate, so of course I had to get pictures of him being sweet.

We were at church early Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus' resurrection! It was a phenomenal service, both services. The worship and preaching were incredible and it felt SO GOOD to be there in person this year! We came home afterwards and celebrated that night with a big family style dinner for Drew's birthday—garlic butter sautéed shrimp, angel hair pasta and crusty garlic bread. 

We had a full dinner table! I insisted on standing while they all sat. 

It was a great weekend! I hope yours was too! Love to all.