Friday Favorites, 9.23.22.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for today's favorites blog post. How has your week been, friends? I had a sneaking suspicion that my week was going to fly by and it did. I worked in our office for two days this week, but on Tuesday I worked from home and it was GLORIOUS. I did not get out of my pajamas until after lunch. I can't tell you when the last time was that my morning went like that. Actually, yes I can—it was before I started working. I'm not complaining! I still LOVE my job and am so grateful to have it. Also, having a little bit of extra money is both mine and Todd's favorites. 

This was me about to get started with some work on Tuesday. 

Speaking of Todd, last night was my favorite night. We went to dinner, then we ran by UPS so that I could return something, then we ended our fancy night out at Costco. It was fun and multi-purposeful. He had to exchange something and I wanted to shop with him for food for them all for dinner at night while I'm gone next week. I always like to leave home with plenty of things for everyone to eat. I hate the thought of them having to eat out and spend all that extra money, so I like to leave a well stocked pantry, fridge and freezer. I have to take care of my guys! 

Favorite nights at home consist of us watching a show together, or even him watching something while I read a book. I would say it's the dogs' favorite as well, since they're always so happy to lounge around us while we sit. Todd and I are both such homebodies and we love evenings just like this. The only thing better would be if a fire was burning in the fireplace. We love wintry nights even more, because we love to have a fire going a lot. It's so cozy. We move the dog beds when we do that, though, because all of the crackling scares them. 

It's my favorite thing in the world that my mom and I always text pictures to each other of our haircuts. I sent this to her after I had mine trimmed on Tuesday. I will say that getting a haircut is never my favorite. I always hate it immediately after, because even an inch makes a difference in the curls and this time was no different. It always takes some getting used to, but I'm already adjusting and I feel better about it now than I did on this day. I had to wash it last night so that I could have my own stuff in it to make it do right. 

Can you even believe that it's almost October?! I cannot. I'm not sure where September went, but time should slow down now. 

I've talked a lot this week about one of my favorite online activities—browsing and pinning on Pinterest. Did you know they have great screensavers for your phone? They do! I enlarge it a bit by zooming in a little, then I take a screenshot, then I edit the screenshot in my phone's gallery. From then I use it as my lock screen and my wallpaper. Isn't this one cute? I like to change it out from month to month, but I really love the neutral pumpkins on this one. Do you follow me on Pinterest? Here's a link to do that, if you want. I have some great pins and boards!

It's no secret that blogging is one of my favorite things. One thing I love about it is what you see here—the brainstorming and planning phase. I always start a draft and I always write a post at least 24 hours in advance. Having a blog notebook and schedule has changed how I write and the frequency in which I do so. I write out each month with the five days of each week and title the posts I know that happen each week. I almost always have Tuesdays and Wednesdays free, unless it's the beginning of a month and there are other link parties I want to join in. It's fun doing this! At least, for me it's fun. The other thing I do is that I try to comment back on each comment, even if the reader never sees it. When I see an odd number of comments, it makes me a little crazy, so I try to stay on top of that.

Monday night was also a favorite night this week. We had a family dinner for the first time in AGES. Even Drew came home. I made their favorite thing—gilbertini. I don't know if this is a real recipe or if it's something my sister Lisa made up. Either way, it's delicious. I brown a pound of breakfast sausage and cook some penne pasta at the same time. I drain most of the water from the pasta, add in the sausage, two jars of alfredo sauce, a pinch of salt and a dash of garlic, then top it all with parmesan and mozzarella and bake it at 350 for thirty minutes. I served it with garlic breadsticks and salad. I made two pans and by Wednesday night, all of it was gone. 

All of the inspiration I am seeing on Pinterest is my favorite! I'm just a little extra happy seeing things like these above images. Isn't that outfit so cute? I am so ready for the fall weather and I'm excited to experience that in New England this coming weekend and next week. I mentioned already this week that when my plane lands in Boston on Saturday, it will be 63 degrees! I am so excited I can hardly wait. I will end on that note, along with the reminder of a couple of things. One is that I am taking a blog break all of next week while I'm away, so I will see you back here on Monday, October 3rd. I'll miss you! 

Secondly, I'd also like to remind and invite you to participate with the upcoming "currently" link I have coming up on Wednesday, October 5th. In October, we'll be talking about what we're currently anticipating, admiring, spending/consuming, wanting, and purging/deleting. I appreciate my friend Jennifer for sharing some recommendations for topics! I know many of you write and plan out your posts weeks in advance, so I hope I've given you enough time to consider joining me next month. That is a fun little link party with lots of friends who link up. I love going and reading everyone's, so consider this your formal invitation to join in with us. 

Lastly, in case you missed out on any of my blog posts this week, here they are for you below.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday 

Tell me something good about your week, friends—I'd love to hear from you! As always, thank you for reading my blog, for always being so sweet to encourage me with your kind words and for being my friend. I consider all of you just that and I always hope you know I mean it and that I pray for all of you often. Love to all! I'll see you back here the week after next. 😘

Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends, and happy FALL! There is some debate on which day is actually the start of the fall season, but more pointed to today,  Thursday September 22nd as the fall equinox. This time of year is my absolute favorite and I spend all the other months counting down the days until it's back each year. It doesn't take much to make me happy, friends, in case you didn't know that. 

For today's post, I am linking up with my friend Rebecca Jo, who is back in the blogging world once again! You should check out her latest posts. We would love for you to join us this week! 

Obviously, the first thing I am thankful for this week is that it's the beginning of the fall season. Pinterest is my favorite way to be inspired right now, other than blogs. At the risk of sounding redundant, I love to have something to look forward to, which is why I love bucket list blog posts and inspirational pins, boards and blogs. Maybe it's just my optimistic personality, maybe it's the Jesus in me that looks for good and joyous moments...I just like to enjoy life. And you know what? Life is short, so we should enjoy it and fully embrace all the moments we're given. I always try to not take things for granted. 

I'm thankful that the Lord made me this way. I would say it is how He made me, it's nothing I've done to be optimistic. I just know I have much to be thankful for and He is the Giver of every good gift. 

I am thankful for opportunities that the Lord gives me! This past week I was asked to sing a solo for our choir song in church on Sunday and I am glad to say that I said yes and that I wasn't even nervous. I used to really struggle with anxiety about such things, but I fully believe that God healed me of all of my anxieties. I had many—possible health issues, fear of what people think of me, flying, being on stage alone and singing or talking into a mic, thinking on all the things that could go wrong—you get the idea. I have not had any issues with anxiety in over a year, though! Not even once. I don't say this lightly and I promise you, I do not take it for granted. I've had panic attacks and anxiety since I was in high school, just ask my husband, because he has witnessed most of them. Anyway, even though I never thought I'd say this, I am thankful our worship pastor asked me to sing the solo. I'm not the best singer, but I never want to waste a talent the Lord was faithful to give to me. I want to always use those for Him and for His glory. You never know how He will use it to minister to others.

I am thankful for my upcoming trip! I will not be blogging next week while I'm gone, but I will be back on Monday, October 3rd. Because of that, Rebecca Jo will be hosting this link party next week, so make sure and join her! I'm looking forward to getting away and to having a real vacation. My sister and I have agreed to ZERO work while we're gone, and even though this blog isn't anything I'm paid for, it does take a lot of time and effort to write and manage. I'll be taking lots of pictures and writing down memories in my journal while we're gone so that I can share them here when I return. 

I'd also like to remind and invite you to participate with the upcoming "currently" link I have coming up on Wednesday, October 5th. In October, we'll be talking about what we're currently anticipating, admiring, spending/consuming, wanting, and purging/deleting. I appreciate my friend Jennifer for sharing some recommendations for topics! I hope you join me for that! It's a fun post with lots of people who link up with me. If you want to read this month's "currently", you can check it out here. The link is still open if you'd like to join in before it closes next week. 

Thanks for reading, friends! I will see you back here in a couple of weeks, if you're one who only comes around on Thursdays. If you are, you should check out my other daily posts! For the rest of you, I'll see you back here tomorrow. Love to all! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

all about getting ready to leave town for a few days

Happy Wednesday, friends! I love to hear about how people get ready to travel, so I thought I'd share the things I do before leaving town. I hope you enjoy this little post! (The above pack has no relation to what I'm writing today, I just think it's adorable and looks touristy.)

I love to leave home with a clean house. This is especially nice when we're all going out of town together. I've been known to put a little Pine Sol into our toilets, to help keep things smelling fresh in the house. Since I'm the only one leaving, I will still leave the house clean. My husband and sons are awesome and always make sure that things are as I left them on the day I return home. Now, I realize that probably means that the house is a disaster while I'm away, but I'm not here to see it, so who cares? Jonah especially is so nice about vacuuming really well and making sure my bed is made just like I like it. 

I always try to have grocery shopped before leaving. Hopefully Todd and I will do this on Thursday night when we go to Costco. (He doesn't know about this yet, but we'll take the opportunity to have a date night, then we'll go shop.) I like to have things on hand for them to eat here at home, without having to cook and so they won't have to go out to buy food. I utilize all the yummy and healthier food  choices from Costco for this, much of which come from the freezer section. I make lunches during the work week, and though there will be things here for them to make their own while I'm gone, that may or may not happen. I'll make sure we have everything they will need for their sandwiches, though, just in case. 

I start planning and making lists a few days before leaving home. This time around I am flying with just a carry on bag, so my packing space is limited. That just means I'll buy some things at a Target when we get there, which works well for us, since we will also want some snacks for our stay at the hotel. I am the kind of person who usually travels with my own food. I'm used to drinking protein drinks for breakfast and eating protein bars for snacks and I always take something with me when I leave home. I am very prone to getting hangry, which is a side to me that is not attractive and that NOBODY wants to see. Seriously, my blood sugar drops, I get irritable and then I get nauseous if I go too long between meals. The products I'm buying there are (cheap) mousse for my hair, a bar of soap and a small travel toothpaste. I don't like flying with things that are likely to explode, not that soap does that, but you get my drift.

I like to have a plan when I travel, so I have all kinds of notes on my phone for this. I keep a "general plan", because I want to leave room for flexibility, but we have an idea of what we want to do on which days, even though it's not exact. I try to be as laid back and flexible as possible and at all times. When I'm like that, I'm less likely to become irritated when something changes last minute. Tell me I am not the only one like this! It also makes things far less stressful if something doesn't work out the way we hope. New York City was a classic example of this when Todd and I went there a few years ago. We'd purchased city pass tickets to several things, but one thing we tried to get to, we walked to the wrong place and missed the opportunity. We didn't stress about it at all, we just took the time to leisurely make our way back and we rested on benches in parks along the way. 

Because I'm traveling light, I am packing very minimally. We'll be gone from Saturday to Thursday, so my plan is to take two additional pairs of pants, one additional pair of shoes, and options of mix-and-match tops for variation that can be dressed up or dressed down. I will carry my regular crossbody purse, but I will also pack another smaller purse for when we're out and about that's also crossbody. I plan on "practicing" this one night while I'm home this week, because my best friend lent me a tiny rolling computer bag that I'm hoping to use as my carry on bag. We'll see if I accomplish this, but I think I can do it. I am a classic over-packer because of our years of camping, so this will be my first time to pack so lightly. I'm challenging myself, because sometimes I feel high maintenance. 🤣 

I've been reading a few articles on how to do this since I'm a newbie at traveling light. Pinterest has been a great resource! One other thing I do is that I watch the weather like a hawk so that I am prepared. I will be packing a small travel umbrella when we go, for instance, and the shoes I planned on packing have changed since I've been watching it so closely. I also pack things like Bounce dryer sheets in Ziploc bags so that things will keep smelling fresh while I live out of a suitcase. 

When I'm going somewhere without my husband, I always make sure that he has all of my information for where I'll be while I'm gone. He knows my flight information and we talk often during the day when I'm gone. Even if we don't talk, per se, we communicate over Snapchat videos. If I have an itinerary, I'll leave a copy of one hanging on the fridge, but who has those nowadays? One last thing I do is clean out my purse before leaving. I only keep the things I will need easy access to on the flight, like glasses, lipstick, a charger, my handheld rechargeable fan, my wallet, my phone. It will also carry my Kindle, since I'll need that on the flight and I'll make sure to charge it the night before I leave. I'll also make sure my books are already downloaded there, in case I finish one and want to start another. 

Do you have any tips or tricks that you want to share, if I've not mentioned it already? I'd love to hear your thoughts! I am officially on countdown mode. Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

Tuesday- It's Almost Fall edition

 

Happy Tuesday, friends, and happy almost fall! I'm sharing a few ideas I have for a fall bucket list today. I used to do this kind of post when the boys were little, but these days, this is all about things I want to do with my husband and our sons, if they're able to join us. When they were little, I always used to let them write down a bunch of things they wanted to do during summer and any break that they had in school. I never knew that would become such a thing, but it has and I LOVE reading about what people do or like to do during each season. This feels like another old fashioned blog post. After I share about those, I will share some ideas that I have come across and love on Pinterest, regarding personal style and décor inside of our home. I hope you enjoy reading this post!

When the boys were little, we started using a firepit each fall. I credit this activity to what led us loving to go on camping trips. It feels rustic and it's so much fun having a meal over a firepit. I would love to do this sometime when the weather cools down. I'll probably make the hot dogs inside in my oven, but I'll let us make our own s'mores desserts. 

We had this tv out on our back porch, but the screen was shattered last year. We need a new one to replace the old one, because they loved sitting outside to watch games. Todd and I liked to sit outside and watch a show or two while we sipped our adult beverage of choice. This actually leads me to my next one, which is that we need to clean the back porch from all the bugs/webs/acorns from the summer and get it to where we can sit and enjoy it again. 

I want to visit the shops that I love to see decorated for Christmas during the fall season. I hope to do this the weekend after I return from my trip with Mom and Trish. There are a couple of them that we really love that I know will be decorated so cute. I love to window shop, do you? When we go out on these Saturdays, I usually don't buy much of anything, but it's fun to look and dream. 

(These are the shops: Le Fleur and Social. Both are in Memphis.)

I would love to go on a drive with my hubby in search of some fall foliage. We have the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway nearby, and it's a great and scenic way to do that. I'd also like to take him to my favorite little Amish bakery on that same day, so that we can splurge on something yummy and baked fresh as a dessert. We will have to wait for a day in November to do this, most likely, because that's how late it is when our foliage starts to turn.

Or, we could just go to Dad's and hang out there. His fall foliage is my favorite! 

I would like to clean out our attic one day or evening when the boys can help for about two hours. If we bite it off into small chunks, I feel like it won't be as overwhelming. 

I want to become good at dating my husband again. We are so hit or miss with this! Our anniversary is coming up, so that's a great place to start, right? I'm also trying to talk him into a one night stay in a hotel in our city. We'll see if that happens or not, but I would love to stay at our favorite hotel downtown. It's reminiscent, because we always hung out there while we dated, up on the rooftop. 

I am looking forward to handing out Halloween candy with my main guy and chatting with our neighbors who always sit in their driveway at the same time. It's always a fun night and I love seeing all the cute little trick or treaters! It's also always great to see neighbors we don't usually spend time with. 

I would like to go with my dad to the town he spent a couple of his boyhood years in. It's the nearby town of Dyersburg, Tennessee. He is always talking about this town and I'd love put a visual picture with the many stories he has told me. We will most likely get my sister Trish to join us, if we do this one day, but an upcoming fall day sounds like as good a time as any. 

And now onto the Pinterest inspired portion of my post. Here are some things I am inspired by right now. These outfits pictured below are all versions of how I like to dress and what is most "my" personal fashion style. I'm not big on prints and textured fabrics, but I love solid colors that are mostly neutral with a few options of an eye-popping color, like this beet color below. I am the heaviest in my tummy area, so tops that hit right at my hips and that are flowy like this are the best for my figure. I can't wear long, straight tops for all of those reasons. 

I love a heel, but in the style of a wedge. I think they're flattering for me and the heel gives me the illusion of height and longer legs. I love, love, LOVE these leopard print shoes, but I do not like booties on me. I have one pair that I never wear, so I prefer to stick with more casual shoes like loafers or flats. 

My favorite type of shirt is a poncho, so both of these pictured styles appeal to me. My friend Melanie, who is a personal stylist says that if you have a solid colored blank canvas, you need to add a long necklace, or some layering necklaces. She also suggests that a created "v neck" is the most universally flattering neckline. Again, I don't love boots on me because I am short and my legs tend to look short and stumpy in them, which they're not. I really wish I loved boots. The only time I have ever worn boots that I liked was in high school, and I wore those carpenter style boots that were a yellow-tan color and that laced up. I also had combat boots that I loved. I love neutral purses the most, but my favorite of all time is a saddle brown color. In my opinion, that shade of brown looks good with every color. I am in a phase right now of not liking black accessories or shoes. I do have two pairs of black sandals that I've worn the last couple of weeks, but they're not my favorite. I really prefer a neutral taupe for shoes, or an animal print, like the ones below. 

I love cardigans! I have one or two that I love and wear often, one in olive and one in a blush color that is more for spring. I basically dress the same all year long, switching out tops and shoes for the seasons, but my go-to bottoms are black pants, dark cropped jeans or faded jeans. I have two pairs of some thin pants from Old Navy that I also love and wear in the fall/winter that are dark green and cranberry. I lean toward neutral tops that are mostly solid in detail, or with a pattern like stripes. My favorite colors to wear are olive green, black, charcoal gray, navy blue, blush pink, the beet color that you see pictured above, and variations of brown. I think that by keeping it pretty simple and neutral, it's easier to dress minimally and to change out looks by switching colors and accessories. 

That is all just my opinion, I am certainly no expert, but I am good at camouflaging the extra pounds I carry by dressing in a way that is most flattering for me. I like to feel good in my clothes and a non-negotiable for me is that I have to be comfortable. I've never been one to sacrifice that for style, so I've never worn anything that I consider to be fancy. I must look okay, because I get compliments on my outfits, but my advice is to wear what you love and what makes you feel confident. Also, it's good to buy the correct size that your body needs—if you carry weight in your tummy, I would flee from anything fitted. I also think it's good to dress age appropriate. This eliminates a lot of things for me, like jeans that are too ripped, tops with too much of a cold shoulder or something cropped.

I love these shoes! I need to go shoe shopping this week, before I leave town on Saturday. When I land in Boston on Saturday, the projected temperature that day is 63 degrees high. That means, I need some new comfy shoes. 

Switching gears again, I love the style of both of these homes and porches. This one underneath reminds me of a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. It's very Cosby Show-esque, is it not? 

One last thing, and I'll wrap this fun post up. Have you seen these floating around the internet?

Just in case you're in need of some fall movies next weekend, here are some great ones! Todd and I spent the better part of early Sunday afternoon looking for Dead Poet's Society. It was on Netflix, but they've removed it! Our only option was to buy or rent the movie, so we did neither. I'm rolling my eyes, because it's going to accidentally show up here soon. I love my husband, but he can be such a cheapskate! 🤣

I had fun writing this post, so I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did creating it. What are some things/styles/decorating ideas that you love for the fall? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all. 

weekending/Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I am linking up with Holly and Sarah for this weekly blog post. How was your weekend? Mine went by so quickly! Probably because I spent hours watching countless episodes of a show I'm trying to finish. (Grey's Anatomy, because someone is going to wonder what show it is. Also, please don't judge me! I need to see how Shonda Rhimes wraps the whole thing up with the last season...IS it the last season? I don't even know, but online looking doesn't confirm anything either. She needs to be done! My son told me I had to finish watching it, because I'd stopped.)

Anyway, onto the weekend. I got started with Dad on Friday. He came over for lunch, which was delicious. I made us fish tacos for lunch, because I wanted to enjoy the whole day at home. 

We had tacos and chips and guacamole, which Dad loves. He loves spice, so I loaded us both up with that sriracha sauce. He was excited about their upcoming trip they left for on Saturday morning. They decided to get away to their favorite weekend spot for their anniversary, then were going onto Dallas for a funeral, and slowly making their way back here. I was glad for them that they got to do this, because Dad has always loved to travel. I think this is the part about aging that Dad dislikes—not traveling as much. He will tell you his favorite trip was when they got to go to Israel about ten years ago. He says he would go back tomorrow if someone gave them the trip! 

After he left, I got comfy for the night, because I was SO TIRED. I have lost so much sleep in the past week, because I've had a lot on my mind. Everything is fine and it was nothing earth shattering, it was just causing me to be unable to sleep for consecutive amounts of time. I fell asleep shortly after he left for a half hour and felt better after the little cat nap. I ordered my favorite pizza for dinner again and watched episodes of Grey's all night, in between giving myself a pedicure.

Yes, that is a long flannel nightgown you see—everybody was gone and I was freezing! This helped. I love the color I chose for my pedicure, Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees. Callie pictured in the background sums up the night at home. I'm not complaining!

I was up early on Saturday, so I did all of my Bible study homework for the week, then I caught up on my chronological Bible reading. I almost always get a day or two behind during the week, now that I work part time. I did some laundry, cleaned in the kitchen, then I got dressed for the day. My mom and Trish and I went out together for the first time in a couple of weeks. I wanted to go to my favorite little boutique, where I didn't find the first thing, then I needed to go to Target. We ate lunch at Carabba's, which was so good, then we called it a day and dropped me back off at home. Todd was working again, so Noah and I ate dinner together at our favorite Chinese buffet. (Nobody else would come!)

He is always up for some Chinese buffet. We caught up while we were together, I made him pose with me, then we were both on our way. This weekend there was a hot air balloon festival in our town, so after seeing them when we were out, I went driving to look for more. 

(This last one is one I got off of Facebook, so I do not own the rights.)

There is something so beautiful and peaceful about a hot air balloon! We usually have them in our area pretty often, but this weekend, there were many. We saw even more walking into to church early Sunday morning.

This was a ticketed event, so I did not go into where it was all going on, but I just enjoyed them around town. I rode to church early with Todd on Sunday, because I needed to be there to rehearse the song I was singing the solo on. That is something that is WAY out of my comfort zone, but I'm so glad our worship pastor asked me to do that. Even though I always prefer to be on a team of people singing than the one singing the solo, I not only survived, I enjoyed doing it. I felt like it was an honor that he asked me to sing, and I love singing in worship to the Lord.

Todd likes to come home and listen to it all over again, because he's the one who does the mixing for our online streaming. I didn't want to listen to myself with him, so I disappeared to the upstairs for a bit and watched in private, then came back downstairs after having changed into comfy clothes. It's weird that we're like we are, but we both think the same way. 

For the rest of the day, I took a short nap, I read my book, and we watched movies together. It was the first night Todd didn't work for three nights in a row, so I was glad to have him home. On the agenda for today is work, then grocery pickup, then a family dinner tonight! I'm excited. I won't see Drew again until the first weekend of October, because I'm leaving bright and early Saturday morning. I know my week is going to either drag slowly or fly by. What was something fun you did this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Come back tomorrow, I'm sharing about the things I'd like to do this fall and some fall ideas for décor and fashion that I love, via Pinterest. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all. 

Friday Favorites, 9.16.22.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for this weekly blog post. I'll jump right in!

Our town is my favorite. It really is like our own little version of Stars Hollow. Events like this prove that to be true. I would go to this in a heartbeat, if I were in town, but I'll be living it up in Boston that day with my sister Lisa. 

These views never get old walking into work on the days when I'm there. This little park area used to be one of my boys' favorite places to hang out. We would go there every Friday night and listen to Bluegrass music as they ran around with friends and play hide-and-seek. Those were the days!

This quiche is my favorite version! Check at the end of this post for my other blog posts from this week. It'll be on Tuesday's dinner inspiration post. 

I mentioned this yesterday, but my blog friend turned in-real-life friend Marilyn and I met at my favorite coffee shop on the town square Tuesday afternoon! That hour and twenty minutes FLEW by as we caught up with each other and shared. Also, every time I walk into the coffee shop, I am struck all over again at how cute it is! I love the brick walls and the cozy vibes it puts off. 

This is my favorite pizza! Honestly, I may order it again for my dinner tomorrow night. Their cheese pizza is TO DIE FOR. So is the marinara, for that matter, and I could eat it with a spoon. 

This is not original to me, but my friend shared it and I agree. I love Gilmore Girl all the time, but there is something extra special about watching it in the fall! I love to start over every year at this time. 

This is my current favorite candle. It's one that my oldest son Graham bought for me, and it smells divine! It will last forever and hardly even melts every time I burn it. 

I've mentioned how much a thoughtful gesture is my favorite thing...these lights are proof of that. My sweet husband replaced the ones that had been out in our bedroom for me and had planned to surprise me with them, but Jonah kind of ruined it. It's okay, though! It's definitely the thought that counts. 

I'll wrap it up with this last picture. It's my favorite when I read a book that is seasonally appropriate! This is a book I had pre-ordered and am currently reading, but I really don't like it. That being said, I bought it for full price, so I'll push through, but I am ready to be done with it already and I've got more than half way to go.

It's your turn! Tell me something that was a favorite from your week. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all and have a great weekend!