Friday Favorites, 8.5.22.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for today's blog post.

Reading has been my favorite thing to do recently. When summer started, I kicked it off by watching several different shows on Peacock or Prime tv, and though some of them were really good, one in particular took a wrong turn and I had to stop watching it. I get really convicted over certain things in shows and when it goes there, I can't keep watching in good conscience. In light of that, I turned the tv off and picked up my Kindle and had the best month of reading to date. I loved so many of the books I read, and wrote about them Sunday in a bonus post.  

You should read the post to hear my thoughts on each book! You can read it here. I'm still going strong and hope August is equally as good as July was. Do you still read summer-y books in August, or do you transition into different genres? I still read books that are beach reads, since it's still summer. I love to read books that are set in the same season I'm currently in, but that can be hard to do. In the fall, I read more suspenseful books. 

Journaling is my favorite. I am still in the process of cleaning out books/shelves in our house and this basket below are all the journals I've filled in for the last twenty years. What in the world does one do with these? I ask rhetorically, because I actually asked my sons and two of them told me to keep them. So, I'll buy a bin and fill it up. In light of not wanting to keep them, I'd thought about not using actual journals anymore and switching to notebook paper kept in a binder, so I bought a cute one I found on sale at Target on Tuesday. 

And as cute as it is, I've changed my mind and will go back to a journal. I've tried this before and made the same choice to go back to a journal, so I don't know why I even try to switch it up at this point. Target had some really cute journals, for the first time in a very long time! I'm a bit of a snob with them and I like them to have a certain "feel" to them, for the pages to be thick and for the lines to be college-ruled. Like I said, journaling has always been one of my favorite things, for as far back as I can remember. Here's the one I picked out:

This lawyer's cabinet is my favorite piece of furniture in our home. I've had it since I was a teenager! 

It's one of the areas I cleaned out this week, though it's hard to tell by looking at it. The only problem with using this for books is that the height of each shelf isn't very tall, so I have to lay some of the books flat instead of standing them up. On the top shelf are all my nostalgic books and Bibles. As strange as this may sound, there is also a brick on that shelf. The elementary school that I went to in first grade, that my sons attended for all of their younger years and the same school that I also worked at went through a major renovation in Graham's first grade year. This happened in 2004 or 2005—the old wings that extended from the building that were connected to the main part by breezeways were demolished and in their place, attached wings were added to the main building. We were there one weekend to look at the progress that had been made and ran into a friend working at the site. He gave us a brick from the old building, so that's the brick you see on the first shelf. I'd like to have it painted someday, with the school name and mascot. The second and third shelves are books that I can't part with, that I loved or that my sons loved. The bottom shelf is full of their favorite childhood books that I will never get rid of. These books will be perfect to read to my grandchildren someday, if the Lord has that in store for my sons. 

You won't find this hard to believe, but words and beautiful cards are one of my favorite things. These are all the cards I've received since I've been married and in cleaning out this week, I moved them to a different and more sturdy box and read through them all again. I cried, some of them were so sweet, like the one Dad gave me on our wedding day almost 26 years ago. 

My other favorites were the ones that Todd and the boys have picked out over the years. I love seeing their very distinct personalities in things like cards they pick for me. Drew's are always really funny and slightly inappropriate, for instance, while Graham's are always very thoughtful and sweet and make me cry. Jonah's cards are always full of words expressing his gratitude for me and Noah's are always very sweet with notes in his writing of how much I mean to him. This is one thing I would grab in case of fire. Words have always meant a lot to me.

On a lighter note, swim day was my favorite this week. 

It started off cloudy and cooler, but quickly grew hotter with intense sun. I was boasting to my mom on the way there that I'd gone all summer without one little sunburn and yesterday I came close to being burned. I'm not quite, but if I'd been out ten more minutes, it would be a different story. I am diligent about sunscreen and use 50 at least, but on my face I use some by Neutrogena that contains zinc and I wear a hat to shade my face. You know how your skin feels hot when you've had too much sun? That's what mine feels like, even on Thursday morning as I write this. 

This one's random, but this is my favorite picture of my Jonah.

I don't remember what he was doing, but all the things that make this my favorite are still true today—beautiful baby blue eyes, great curls in his hair and the biggest dimples of anyone I've seen in my family. I love coming across reminders of years gone by! All of the boys were adorable when they were little. They still are, as adults! 

Lastly, early morning reading has been my favorite this week.

I actually slept until six a.m. one day this week, which is so unusual, but most mornings find me awake and drinking my first cup of coffee for the day around five fifteen. I read blogs, check emails, browse Pinterest, then have time to kill until 7:30, when I feed the dogs and make lunches. This week I've been reading during that extra time. I finished this book today. So good! 

In case you missed any of the posts from this week, I'll link them below. 

Sunday's bonus post about my July reads

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 

Thursday

Your turn! Tell me one favorite thing from your week. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!