Casual Fridays

Congratulations on making it through another week! I don't know about y'all, but April has been the crazy month this year. Our calendar has been slammed. But it's all good stuff so who can complain about that? I can. I mean, not that I'm complaining exactly, but I feel like I haven't slept in a year and a half. I'm ready for things to slow down just a smidge. I still haven't made it to the beach (notwithstanding my cruise to Mexico!), and it's looking like I won't be able to catch a beach day till about halfway through May. C'est la vie.

So in keeping with the craziness of this month, I'm just going to throw a bunch of random pictures at you and call this a Photo-Prompted Post. 

First of all, my pink camo iPhone case has officially bitten the dust. It never exactly fit properly in the first place, but now it is prohibiting the proper functions of my phone so it's time to go. Sad. R.I.P my happy pink camo OtterBox. You lasted almost two years so I guess that's pretty good.

Look at this gorgeous bouquet! As I was running around the house in a crazed everyone-is-coming-here-tomorrow-and-I-have-to-stay-through-both-morning-services-so-this-house-and-all-the-food-needs-to-be-ready-NOW frenzy Saturday night, my husband came home bearing these beautiful flowers and proceeded to arrange them into this fabulous bouquet which made the perfect centerpiece for our Easter celebration Sunday afternoon. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: he is the best. 

And speaking of Easter, it was perfect. The services at my church were poignantly beautiful, almost my entire family gathered at my house (we missed you, S-Baby! oh and you too, Oak and Caroline), and we ate a lot of food and shared a lot of laughter. Jesus is alive and He is good! And for the record: there were people in my life who thought I was a little ridiculous for registering for 16 place settings when I got married. But let me tell you, there were 14 adults and 3 children at my house Sunday afternoon and not a one of them had to eat off a Dixie plate, I'm just sayin'. The picture above is of the adorable salt and pepper shakers my mom gave me for Easter this year. How cute, right?!

Y'all. I got this letter from my Compassion girl this week, and I died. This is the first letter she has ever written all by herself, and she did it in English! She turned 9 last November, and up until now, she has drawn us lots of pictures, but an adult always wrote what she wanted to tell us in her "letters". I'm so proud of her. I want to frame it. How precious! 

My niece is playing soccer again, and y'all should see what an outstanding defensive player she is. She picks her man and literally becomes a human shield between that player and the ball. In fact, at the game after which this photo was taken, it was getting hot and the game was almost over and girlfriend had been working hard in that Florida sunshine, so she turned around to the little boy she was guarding and let him know he needed to "stop moving around so much!" I mean, really. Insert all the laughing/crying emoji faces here. Seriously. 

And while we're on the topic of my niece, she lost her very first tooth! How did this happen?? She was just born yesterday, wasn't she? I can't believe she's big enough to be getting visits from the Tooth Fairy. Go ahead and insert all the flat-out sobbing emoji faces here.

The new Christy book arrived Tuesday night, and I promptly read the entire thing on Wednesday. It was wonderful (of course), but in this book, Todd and Christy took a roadtrip to Glenbrooke so now all I want to do is re-read the entire Glenbrooke series. Stay on track, Hannah. For anyone wondering (since this blog is actually supposed to be about reading the books on my book list), I am slowly working my way through The Three Musketeers. It hasn't exactly grabbed me yet, so when I say "slowly", I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. 

I started a new Bible study this week, and it's Priscilla Shirer so naturally it's going to be good. For whatever reason, I find that Priscilla's studies challenge me the most. I've done a lot of Bible studies that encourage me or that I've learned a lot from, but Priscilla always seems to get in my face and tell me a thing or two I need to change or do better. In the very first video, she said the devil is strategic about his attacks on us so we need to get strategic about our prayer life. Ouch. How often am I haphazard about prayer? She's good. 

And to wrap this all up: Wednesday was haircut day for the boys! Don't they look sharp? The baby boy I nanny was not too happy that his buddies were missing most of the day Wednesday, but boy did they need some grooming. I love when their hair is long and shaggy, but I do not love how much dirt they bring in when it's like that. Yay! for not having to vacuum every single day. At least for a while. 

How's life with you lately? What did you do for Easter? Have you done any good Bible studies or read any good books recently? Do you sponsor a child with Compassion? What do you write in your letters to your Compassion child?