Happy happy Friday!
Here are 5 favorite things from this past week o’ mine…

|| ONE ||
Last week, I mentioned that I was heading to a ladies retreat. What a refreshing {& FULL} time we had!

I originally used the word full to describe the events that took place in 24 hours. But upon further reflection, we can also apply the full word to my stomach. So much good food & drinks happened during that time.

Early Saturday morning, I snuck away to the coffee shop to snag a little quiet time for reading and prayer. Although the late Friday night made it painful to get out of bed the next morning, I’ve gotta say this was one of my favorite moments from the weekend. Alone. Quiet. Woods. My Bible & a spiritual book. Delicious coffee. And after this time, I headed in for more good spiritual food during the morning session with Denise Cunningham. What a blessing!

 

|| TWO ||
Saturday afternoon found me stealing away in between 2 workshops to ride a zipline over some waterfalls. I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to considering my pregnancy, but it turned out to be a very smooth, safe, and non-scary experience. I took this picture below to send to Jonathan and my kiddos. Crooked hat and all, there I am – still very much alive after the zip-lining experience. Huzzah!

 

|| THREE ||
I’ve been experimenting with smoothies a lot lately. Here’s proof from yesterday. Sometimes my experiments turn into something my kids and I love. Sometimes it’s something I drink alone. But usually, Nate will always declare it to be yummy and drink it right along with me. Train ’em up. 😉

 

|| FOUR ||
We had family visit this week! My brother-in-law, his wife, and their little guy stayed with us for a couple days and we just loved our time with them. It was the first time we had seen them in over 2 years! This pirate moment happened the day they left and is, sadly, they only picture I managed to take of all the kids together! We’ll get to see them again tomorrow, so I’ll try to be a little more attached to the camera on my phone and snap some pics for posterity.

 

|| FIVE ||
I am still going strong in my 90 day Bible reading goal. And by “going strong” I mean I’m only 2 days behind. #fistbump

The Bible Gateway app is my BFF right now and we spend a lot of time together. When I’m reading through something my kids will be able to follow along with, I usually play it out loud during our breakfast time. I’m almost entering Psalms, so I anticipate lots of Bible listening during breakfast over the next week.

 

other items of note:

• I’m halfway through this pregnancy. unbelievable. (here’s my 20 week pic!)
• My new-to-me clothes arrived! (I mentioned them in #2) There are a few things I’ll send back, a couple pieces I want to get Jonathan’s opinion on, and a couple others that are keepers for sure. I’m hoping to get pics of the keepers this week and share them in next week’s Friday Faves!
• Did you catch this week’s Dwelling Richly interview with Mardi Collier?

Here’s a snippet:

“I knew that spending time in God’s Word was important, but the busyness of ministry and being a Mom with young children would often win out and I would constantly feel guilty because of my failure.

…eventually I realized that the purpose of having devotions was to show my “devotion” to God and to grow in my relationship with Him. That realization changed everything! When I began to look for Jesus and God in the pages of Scripture, I had a hard time putting my Bible down.”

Find the rest of the interview here!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!