Friday Favorites, 3.25.22

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for this weekly blog post. As you read this, I'm out in the country at a beautiful retreat center with the ladies from my church on a two night retreat. It's basically an adult sleepover, which are always my favorite! ;)

I'm jumping right in with a favorite memory from this week that popped up on Timehop.

Look at young elementary school aged Noah and Alex! Those days were my favorite. At that time in life, I drove a Suburban and I always had a carload of boys to drop off and pickup. I had my own, plus Alex, two other next door neighbors Myles and Zander, and sometimes I had a boy named Ryan and even a friend or two on special occasions. I loved those days! We always had morning devotion on the way to school. Someone would read from our devotional book and then I'd pray for them all before they got out of the car.

I sent this picture to my sister Debi this week as she and I texted one morning.

This is my favorite coffee mug. I got it at Home Goods a few months ago. I love an insulated coffee cup with a lid, even if I don't use it all the time. I love my coffee to be piping hot and this cup keeps it that way.

I have a favorite book for the month, and maybe even the year. 

Have any of you read this? This particular author has only written two books, but this is one of the best books I've ever read! Check back at the end of the month for all the books I read this month.

I have a new favorite pair of sandals for the summer and I sure did pull them out on Monday when the weather was in the seventies! I love these. I wish I could share the brand name with you, but that would involve me having to get up, so I won't. These are so comfy! I have issues with my feet, so I have to wear good, supportive shoes at all times. These check off all the boxes. My issues include tendonitis, one foot that's been fractured twice in the same spot, and plantar fasciitis. 

It's also my favorite when I get to sit out here on our deck.

And last but not least, you all know how much I love when my sons are thriving and Jonah's new truck is his favorite. 

Isn't this awesome? It's a 2014 GMC Sierra and he is proud as punch. He took me for a ride in it Wednesday night, which was my favorite.

Happy family = happy mom. I can't post about Jonah without sharing about what each of my sons drive.

First up is Graham's truck, with is the biggest and appropriate since he's the oldest. ;)

He goes to truck shows and loves that little kids look up (literally and figuratively) to him. This was in Nashville last weekend after he had the grill on front painted to match the rest of his truck. It was gold.

Next up is Drew.

This was him at his house on Wednesday night. I love that sunset behind him! The Jeep you see is his roommate's.

And finally, Noah.

Forgive the angle, but he took this and posted to Snapchat. His is the first car you see, the turquoise, which I love SO MUCH more than I thought I would. The second car is also pretty. Blue is my favorite color! I'm so proud of all my boys. They all pay for their own vehicles, and I love that they're so happy with what they drive. 

How was your week? Do you have a favorite part that stands out? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. I'll see you back here on Monday. Love to all! 

Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I'm glad you're here! I hope you join in with us this week for our weekly link party on being thankful. Link back to me, Rebecca Jo or Leslie for your own. 

As I sat down to write this, I just realized I never made a list of "good things" in my journal like I did last week, so I'm going to try and do this by memory. I'll start with Friday and end with yesterday.

I'm thankful for our parents! We have a huge extended family and we are so very blessed by them. I'll get to the rest of this story in a moment, but I love that I get to spend every Friday with Dad. I won't be able to this week, though, so I'll have to settle for a phone date instead.

I'm thankful for slow and lazy weekend days. I spent all of Saturday at home was glad for the chance to not have to rush to do anything. I alternated between being productive, reading and watching Downton Abbey.

I'm so thankful for our Pastor and worship pastor. Both are a tremendous blessing to me and I am glad to have both of them to look up to. I say this because of last week, when the preaching was wonderful and our worship pastor was a great example to find something to be thankful even when life's circumstances are hard. 

I'm thankful for celebrations! We had most of our giant family over on Monday night to celebrate the birthdays of our boys. We were missing the ones who don't live here and three that do and weren't able to make it, but as we were in the kitchen talking and laughing, I remember thinking how grateful to God I am for our families that love each other so much. My best friend was here as well that night and she called me the next day to say the same thing. My heart swelled to twice its size, at least. I am so thankful for so many who love our sons well.

I am thankful for days at home to get the house back in order, to prepare for Bible study and to recharge. In case I haven't mentioned this lately, I am an extroverted introvert. That just means that I love people and being around a bunch of ones I know and love, but it makes me so tired and I recharge the next day by being alone.

I am thankful that we started back to Bible study this week! Yesterday was a great day and it was so good to see some of the small group ladies as we discussed the first couple of weeks of homework. We could have gone on and on, I think, but it was so good to be back together. 

I'm also thankful for something to look forward to and that happens today! I'm joining some of the ladies from church for a two night retreat at a nearby retreat center. I can't wait to share about it next week! Because of that, I'll end on that note, but I'll be back tomorrow for a Friday Favorites post, so I hope you come back to check it out! Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all. 

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Wednesday in the Word

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I thought I'd share some more of where I've been reading in the Bible lately. When I post these, thanks for always encouraging me with your words! I never know for sure who reads this or who this is for, or if it's just me sharing about my quiet time. 

We finished reading in the book of Deuteronomy yesterday and started Joshua. Also we crossed over from one era to the next, which is explained here if you want to read more about each era and where they fall in the Bible. Joshua and his leadership puts us into the Conquest era. So much happens in the Exodus era! The Israelites are slaves in Egypt at this point in the beginning, after the death of Joseph, and God sends plague after plague upon the people in Egypt as a result of Pharaoh not letting them go. God delivers them through the tenth and final plague, which is Passover, and the parting of the Red Sea. It's in the Passover plague that God demonstrates His holiness by the shedding of innocent blood on behalf of the guilty. 

God provides for the Israelites continually, despite their constant moaning and groaning, by sending manna from Heaven. He leads them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He gave them the Law, or the ten commandments and later on in Leviticus, He gave them more specific and ceremonial law concerning the tabernacle. We read of God's holiness and His sovereignty. 

In Deuteronomy, Moses is nearing the end of his life and he gives a recounting of sorts to the people one last time. We read bits of what God did for them throughout this era and we're reminded that even in forty years of wandering in the desert, on what should have been an eleven day journey, their clothing never wore out, their shoes never broke down and their feet never once swelled. God sustained them through all of that time of wandering! Where I read the last few days, Moses gave the people a song to remember all that God did for them and his death is foretold. God did that because He knew His people would not keep His commands and they would have that song to remember Him by. We read Psalm 90, which is a Psalm that Moses most likely wrote. I loved a couple of verses that I read there—verses four and twelve. I'll share them below:

For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. 

In yesterday's reading, Moses died once he made it to the mountain God told him to go to as he looked out upon the promised land one more time. He died and the LORD buried him there, in the land of Moab. I'll share two verses that I loved. They are Deuteronomy 34:5-6

So, Moses the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, just as the LORD had said. The LORD buried him in a valley near Beth-Peor in Moab, but to this day no one knows the exact place.

How God loved Moses! I read in verse ten from the same chapter that since then, there's never been another prophet like him, whom the LORD knew face to face. Can you even imagine knowing God face to face? We will someday, praise His holy name. It was at this point that I wept and every time I read chronologically, this part in Deuteronomy gets me. In spite of sinning against the Lord by not displaying God's holiness, God loved him and was merciful. Don't you just marvel at the love He had for Moses? I do. But you know what? God loves us just like He loved Moses. 

He loves us by offering His free gift of grace and salvation, He loves us by watching over us, protecting us, providing for us, strengthening and sustaining us, by caring deeply for us and by wanting us to cast our cares upon Him. His love is like that of a Father who loves his child, even in spite of the many times the child messes up in life, but it's even better than that, because it's a perfect love. Our love for our kids is imperfect, but the love of God is perfect and wonderful! 

Do you know Him? How I long for you to know Him. If you don't, or if you have any question whatsoever, don't hesitate to reach out. You can email me privately if you'd like at allboys@gmail.com.

I pray you're encouraged by these words, friends. Love to all. 

what we did last night

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I thought I'd share about our family celebration last night. In years past, we have celebrated three out of my four sons' birthdays right around the early March birthdays. This year I finally got my head on straight and decided to make it a later date so that we could celebrate all four together. Poor Drew has gotten left out every year, as far as an actual "party", but all the grandparents and aunties are always great at getting him his card on time. Also, about him being left out with the party, this is the story of his life, I feel like. Poor Drew! His birthday is always close to Easter as well, which makes it even more complicated. 

If he were any other type man, he would care, but he's pretty chill and go with the flow.

So, most of the family came over! Plus some of their friends and my best friend. 

We always have hot dogs and chips and dip for this party. The hot dogs are cooked in my oven at a low temperature for about an hour. They come out tasting grilled and it's the easiest way to cook a bunch when you're feeding a crowd. My awesome stepdad made his famous buffalo chicken dip, and we had two types of cake—cheesecake and chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Costco cakes are THE BEST.

Todd cleaned off the deck over the weekend, so we put it to good use and encouraged folks to go outside. When I say "folks", I mean the younger crowd. This is an easy party and dinner to pull off for me. I always dust and vacuum before everyone gets here and make sure the bathroom is clean with a fresh towel downstairs, but that's all I do. Even with, or maybe because of our dogs, I am always running around with a duster and the vacuum. I never want our house to smell like we have four dogs living inside with us. I'm rolling my eyes as I wrote that sentence, because who in the world am I that we have this many dogs? I used to think one was too many, but my heart keeps growing in size by the amount of dogs we have. 

I completely failed to get any pictures with the boys with their grandparents, but I did take some pictures around as I was getting ready earlier.

I was sitting on that swing while the dogs were running around. We have a bench that stays on our deck that all of the pillows and cushions stay in unless I pull them out while people come over. And the bench is one additional place to sit. I still love our deck! It was built almost two years ago exactly, while the world was shut down from Covid and we were all stuck at home. All our sons, Todd and my stepdad Bill built this thing in about two days worth of time. The guys actually did most of the manual labor part and even measured and cut the wood that was laid for the flooring. I'm still so impressed with it! 

Bill was here almost everyday for about a week's worth of time, though as they planned, measured, marked off and put it all together. That was back when I was in the kitchen all the livelong day and made lunch and dinner for my people everyday.

I digress.

Welcome to Mama Jen's Doggy Daycare. Please excuse all the toys.

Just showing that all the surfaces were cleaned and some things were changed around, like the tulips on the stack of Jane Austen books. I always keep a basket out for extra toilet paper and room spray.

When Todd and Jonah came home, they immediately started doing something to Jonah's truck and our little neighbor came down with his tool box to help them!

Is that not the sweetest thing you have ever seen? He was telling all of us what each of those tools does.

It was a fun night! Everyone was gone and the house was put back together by eight o'clock. That's my kind of party! 

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

Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. 

My weekend kicked off with a beautiful day with Dad. I was surprised by the weather, because it was supposed to be rainy, but all of that happened overnight and when I woke up, it was clear. The weather was a tiny bit cooler still, but my dad didn't need a blanket! I'm smiling as I write this, because he always needs a blanket at our house. I do try to remember to adjust the temperature for him, but I usually forget.

We had a yummy lunch—tilapia fillets and roasted asparagus. 

I took him home around four, after we got to see Graham for a minute. He came home a little early to pack, then went to Nashville for the weekend. Todd worked that night and Jonah and Noah went to hang out with Drew, then to a car meet that took place in Memphis later that night. Noah and I had pizza from Domino's for dinner. They have the best thin crust pizza! That's what I had, but Noah had buffalo chicken.

I watched Downton Abbey after I had dinner and went to bed close to eleven, believe it or not. That's late for me!

On Saturday, Todd and Jonah left in the morning so that Jonah could go luck for a new(er) truck. He found one and brought it home later that day, but it was an all day thing. He's proud as punch of his shiny new toy and is already making all the plans to change it up. Noah came home from Drew's, then they all left again. I actually did Bible study homework all morning and then after I ate lunch, I settled in to read for the rest of the day. That lasted until eight o'clock! Here was me with dinner that night.

Loaded down nachos that were leftover from this week. My book that I was reading was SO GOOD that I could not put it down. 

I watched more of Downton Abbey, then went to bed early. Todd and I left bright and early on Sunday to work in the tech ministry at church, then came home for lunch and a nap afterward. I was back at three for choir and home again by five thirty, and found my hubby cleaning off our deck. I made us egg sandwiches for dinner, then I settled in to read the rest of the night. Graham got back home late last night and Jonah and Noah had fun with their friends in the beautiful weather with their friends. It felt like an appropriate first day of spring. 

How was your weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

Friday Favorites, 3.18.22

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for this weekly blog post on all the favorites. You can click on their names to see the rest of these posts. I love reading them! 

In some ways this week has been long and not my favorite for lots of reasons, but in other ways, it's been a really good week. This is the week of Spring Break for our local schools, so even though it doesn't effect me anymore, we did not have Bible study this week and that did make a difference in the routine of my week. I enjoyed a week's break from routine and used the days to be productive in other ways. It's my favorite when that happens! 

Speaking of Bible study, this part two is going to be my new favorite!

We just finished part one of this and part two is going to be even better! I'm excited to dig into week two this morning and tomorrow. We're studying the characteristics of biblical womanhood, according to Titus 2. 

This was my favorite view as I did Bible study homework last Saturday. The snow was pretty and by Sunday afternoon, most of it had melted. 

I love a pretty view while I have quiet time.

I have a new favorite color for my nails—it's called Fancy Princess. (The name is NOT my favorite.)

I love lighter colors when the weather turns warm.

The book of Deuteronomy is always one of my favorites to read.

It's always a little sad, too, because Moses is nearing the end of his life.

This was my favorite night of dinner this week. Taco Tuesday! This was actually a salad, though. It was delicious. Todd enjoyed it as well, so I wrote down all the nutritional info for us to do this again in a couple weeks.

I have a new favorite coffee creamer! A friend and I were talking last week about what we put in our coffee and at some point, this stuff was brought up. I decided to give it a try and to reduce the sugar I put in my coffee and it worked. This stuff is delicious! 

I didn't realize until yesterday morning that it's soy milk, but it doesn't taste weird or anything. I will be buying this on repeat! 

I have a new favorite show!

I realize that I am WAY LATE to the Downton Abbey craze, but I am hooked. I love the castle, the accents, the clothing, the formality, the old-fashioned habit like all of the butlers standing when Mr. Carson enters the room. I love Matthew Crawley and Lady Grantham and Anna and Bates. I'm midway through season two. 

Other favorite things this week are:

Long phone conversations. I've had plenty of them this week! 

Days of nowhere to be. I am always fine with staying at home.

The feeling of accomplishment I mentioned earlier. I set about with a goal for this week and I got it done. That is always my favorite! 

That's about all I've got for this week's favorites. What was one favorite thing from your week? I'd love to hear from you! As always, thank you for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday, friends! I'm joining in with Rebecca Jo and Leslie for today's edition of Thankful Thursday. I have to preface this post by saying that not every week is wonderful. There are some weeks that are that way, but there are others that just about knock the breath out of me. Lately I have had lots and lots of things to pray for that are very personal and won't post here. I know some of you probably think I never have a bad day and that's just not true. I do tend to be a look-on-the-bright-side, the glass is half full kind of person, though, and I try to put more of my focus and attention to the many wonderful things I have to be thankful for. The Lord is gracious and He is faithful. All the things that I keep private here are reserved for the times when I pour my heart out to Him.

That being said, I have lots of things that stick out from this week so far. I've been writing out an actual gratitude list again recently. I start with Sunday and end it on Saturdays, but in my journal it's titled "Good Things". These are things that are straight off of the pages from my journal.

I am so grateful for great worship and sound preaching every week at church. It was really, really good on Sunday, as it always is and my heart was overwhelmed with thankfulness at that and how privileged we are to be able to attend church services each week. I can never thank the Lord for this honor without stopping to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who would give anything to be able to have what we experience each week. 

I'm so thankful for my friend Laura at church and that I was able to help her out on Sunday. She's our worship pastor's assistant and she is who I am with when I work in the audio/visual booth certain weeks. I love her and have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her better and getting a glimpse into her beautiful heart. 

This was me on Sunday afternoon, sitting in our little library or kitchen area at the back of our choir rehearsal suite. People sign in here and pick up music, waters and mints if they so choose. 

Also on this note, I am thankful for worship ministry fellowship. I love that we're like a family within a larger family and enjoy talking to them each week before the service starts. I am almost always there early, so there's always a handful of us who talk about all the stuff going on in the world, Hallmark movies and enjoy a cup of coffee together. I actually listed some of their names in my journal. 

I was glad to see a friend back at church this week. He had been really sick with pneumonia and hasn't been there in weeks. so it was good to see him walking around again.

I am thankful for days at home this week. It's spring break for the schools in our town, which no longer effects me at all, but because of that we did not have Bible study on Wednesday. In lieu of that, I've spent the time writing that I would have usually spent in preparation for Wednesday. This means that I've finished my first portion of the next Bible study we're writing on! You have no idea how happy this makes me. I had a very productive day doing that yesterday and hope to have another day just like it today. I need a quiet house and to cram it all into as few days as possible. I don't do well with long drawn out deadlines. I've learned that I work best in a crunch.

I'm thankful for good books! I've read several this week and each one seems to get better and better. I'm still stuck on my newest favorite author, but I know I can count on her books to help me escape. 

I'm so very thankful for praying friends. I've unloaded on my best friend a few times this week and she has done the same on me. I'm so grateful to have friends to walk through my life with. 

I'm thankful for times of laughter. I've had several times of that this week with my husband and in a couple of other phone conversations. I'd hate to think of what life would be like if we couldn't laugh! 

That's all I have written out so far for this week. What about you? What's something you're thankful for this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

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