Casual Fridays

This post is probably just going to be all over the place so try and stick with me. Wait? What's that you say? All my Casual Friday posts are all over the place? Well, I'm tapping into a serious stream of consciousness today so it might even be more random than usual. Don't judge me.

First of all, this is my jam lately. I am not ashamed to admit that I love a totally mainstream, upbeat pop hit. In fact, I'm probably the biggest Jonas Brothers fan you'll ever meet. (When they were a cute, brother-band. Not all this ridiculous solo nonsense they've got going on recently. I can't even.) Anyway, this song has got me car-dancing in a major way. I think it's super-fun.

**Disclaimer: I have no idea what else these guys sing so if you're the kinda person who likes one song so then you go and listen to all their music, do not hold me responsible if the rest of it's crap. Just sayin'.**

My mom sent me this little poem this week. (She and my husband totally supply me with blog fodder for days. My husband is probably responsible for like, 63% of the Link Love I shout out here. So thanks, babe. Thanks, Mom.) 

Isn't that perfect and just so true? And speaking of making friends, sharing tears and laughter, can I just say....

I mean, it's just the truth. And why isn't my new Christy book here yet? I'm dying to catch up with her and Todd and the rest of my BFFs. Twenty-two days and counting. Not obsessed or anything.

Can I just share a few quotes from my Jonah Bible study that squeezed my heart this week? Here they are:

"While we may want to find the easiest road to complete obedience, our heart must be set on doing God's will--His way and in its entirety--even if it takes longer than we'd prefer or requires more effort."

"Jesus knows a thing or two about timing...While our insatiable desire to know it all seems to rarely be satisfied, we must discipline ourselves to place confidence in His decision to give us the information we need to successfully accomplish the step we are on in the journey. He doesn't withhold information because He doesn't love you but because of His great love for you."

"Knowing the endless kindness of our God should not only catapult us to our knees to experience it but to our feet, to walk out a lifestyle of obedience that prioritizes submission to His will over all else." (See Romans 6:1-2 to really get a handle on this particular quote.)

So this is where my husband proposed marriage to me on January 13, 2012:

I know, super-dreamy, right? It's only the most romantic spot on God's green earth, and I only wanted to be proposed to in that spot since I was 10 years old. He nailed it.

And this is me showing my niece the exact spot where her Uncle Cody popped the question:

And here I am going in for a smooch because, hey, we were re-enacting the magical moment, ok?

Where is this gorgeous and wonderful place, you ask? The beautiful (and historic) Cypress Gardens. Which is now a part of LegoLand. Which I have mixed feelings about. And when I say "mixed", I really just mean that I don't like it. I don't like change, alright? I wish Cypress Gardens was exactly the same as it was when I was a kid. But I loved going on a spur-of-the-moment trip to LegoLand Wednesday with these chickies (not pictured: my mommy-in-law and my other niece, although Lynds, you made a heroic effort trying to fit her into that selfie. You are so pro.):

Anyone still with me? I'll wrap it up soon. 

Maybe.

I did want to share a Psalm of the Week. So let's do that now.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful;

Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

The Lord is good to all,

And His mercies are over all His works."

Psalm 145:8-9

This hit me when I read it because you know what? God is good to ALL, His mercies are over ALL His works. Even those who will suffer His wrath because they rejected Him. He is good to even them. God loves His creation, and He is slow to anger, steadfast in lovingkindness. Why should I be any less? I'm not God. My job is to love unconditionally and show kindness and mercy without exceptions. Oh that I would get this right.

My honey is taking me on a date-day tomorrow. The Cheesecake Factory is on the table as one of our destinations. Have I ever mentioned he's the best? Wild Blueberry White Chocolate Cheesecake, here I come.

Okay, okay, I really will wrap it up now. How about we end this post with a picture of my other sweetie since I feel like he's been neglected on the blog lately and I'm sure you're all dying to know how he's been. 

Early morning walks with the Colonel. Good times. 

Peace out, cub scouts, and I'll just go ahead and tell you that there may not be a post on Monday because jury duty. Yay. (I used the sarcasm font there, can you tell?)

Oh and tell me all your favorite pop songs that I can jam to. I won't tell anyone. Promise.

Casual Fridays

Y'all. I bought a new book yesterday and proceeded to read the whole. entire. thing. I may or may not have been up until approximately 2:11 AM devouring every word. I have a problem. Cody doesn't understand this about me, and he thinks I'm a total nut-job. He's an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kinda guy, and I am a Night Owl who is the opposite of a morning person kinda girl. Somehow we make it work. 

What book, you ask? Not telling. And it's not on my book list. You'll just have to check back Monday for the recap. *mwahaha* How's that for suspense? 

In other news, I have been in a cleaning craze this week. I have scrubbed and vacuumed and mopped and bleached and febreez-ed every surface I could get my hands on. When the inclination hits, I just go with it. My house and our cars smell fabulous. Now if only it would last longer than 10 minutes...

In light of this recent cleaning frenzy, I think we'll do a new segment of my Favorite Things: Clean House edition.

Ok, first up: Febreeze Air Effects with Gain : I guess it's only fair to tell you that I like for things to smell nice. And half (alright more than half) the things in this picture are air fresheners. If you come to my house and say something along the lines of, "Wow, it smells great in here" I will take it as the highest compliment and you will be my new favorite person for life. Or at least for that day. I spray this stuff everywhere, all the time.

Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Lime & Rust Remover : When we first moved into this house, I innocently squirted down the toilet bowls one day with my whatever toilet bowl cleaner that I always bought and walked away to let it do it's job. When I came back to scrub them, I nearly died from the toxic fumes emanating from our Great White Throne. I'm pretty sure our pipes are old and very rusty, and, on a sidenote: we're probably going to die prematurely from drinking rusty water. It's fine, we're fine, we run it through a Brita. Anyway, back to the point: I immediately went out and found this toilet bowl cleaner that has "Lime & Rust Remover" and it is perfect. It gets the job done without killing my brain cells, and it smells awesome, which, if you read my first point, you know is important to me. I recommend it.

Febreeze Car Vent Clips with Gain : I mean, this tiny little pod makes my whole car smell divine. What more could I want? Do I even need to say anything else about this? You just stick it onto one of your AC vents and voila: fresh, sweet smelling vehicle for up to 60 days. Winning.

AirWick Freshmatic Ultra Automatic Spray Refill: Island Paradise Fragrance : What can I say? For our wedding, someone gave us an AirWick Freshmatic. I'm sure they had no idea it would be one of my favorite gifts. You stick a can of air freshener in it, and it sprays by itself every 36 minutes. (Or 9 or 18 minutes, but I set it to 36--gotta get the most bang for my buck, ya dig?) This is the best summer fragrance out there. I'm convinced.

Febreeze Noticeables with Gain : As if my neurotic impulse to spray down the house with febreeze every few minutes and the AirWick Freshmatic weren't enough, I also have a febreeze wall plug-in right by the front door. You know, just in case. (Oh quit judging me, at least my house will never be accused of smelling like a trash heap.) Between this plug-in and the current AirWick fragrance, my house smells like an island paradise fresh out of the dryer. Seriously. The two fragrances in the plug-in are dubbed "Gain Island Fresh" and "Tropical Sunrise". Bless all the air freshening innovators in the world. They're doing it right.

Swiffer WetJet Multi-Purpose with Gain : Have you noticed a trend here? I have a total crush on Gain. Whatever genius decided to partner Gain with all the cleaning and air freshening products in the world: he has my undying devotion forever and ever, amen. And to the other genius who created Swiffer, thank you for giving me an excuse to never fill another bucket with soapy mop water that instantly turns disgusting again. I love you too.

And finally, Lysol Disinfecting Wipes : Probably the best find of my adult life. Why spray down all the countertops with cleaner and then have to wipe it all up with rags creating laundry in the process, when you can just swish one of these babies around with the same effect? Give me easy cleaning and less laundry any day. The Clorox wipes work equally well, but apparently Lysol was on sale last time I was buying.

And there you have it. You are now privy to my obsession with Gain and all the smell-good things of the world. I hope you still love me.

With today's theme in mind, let's close with a most fitting Psalm of the Week:

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

And sustain me with a willing spirit."

And all the youth group kids said "Amen" and sang the song. Have a clean-tastic weekend!

Casual Fridays

Happy Friday, everyone! We have some things to talk about, but first, I have found who I want to be when I grow up. Watch. This.

Y'all. That lady (in the red...pink?...jacket and cute little bandana headband) is 60 years old. SIXTY! She is my inspiration. I can't even dance like that now, but it is my new goal in life to be able to bust moves like this when I am 60. I could not wipe the grin off my face while I was watching this. You KNOW that gym was going c.r.a.z.y. I so wish I had been there. How awesome is she?! You go on with your bad self, Miss Shirley Clements.

In other news, the Publix bakery is my kryptonite. 

First off, let me express my sincere condolences to you poor, miserable souls who don't know what a Publix is. If you just arched your back and exclaimed, "I'm not a poor, miserable soul! How rude!"--bless your heart. You're living in misery, and you don't even know it.  

My sister-in-love was over here a lot last week while my niece was at VBS, and she commented at the end of the week how impressed she was that there were still a couple chocolate fudge cupcakes (which were from the Publix bakery, of course) in the fridge that had been in there at the beginning of the week. I breezily replied that they just weren't my weakness.

Lynds, pies are my weakness. Sunday afternoon, the hubs and I hit up Publix after church to get some subs for lunch, and we ended up in the bakery. Typically, when I'm shopping alone, I have to avoid the bakery at all costs or inevitably, I will come home with 3 dozen donuts, 6 dozen cookies, cupcakes, and maybe even a birthday cake for good measure--nevermind that it's nobody's birthday. But Sunday afternoon, with my husband there to control my impulse to buy all the sweets, we wound up in the bakery. 

We ended up with two pies. Apple and pumpkin. Both pies are gone, y'all. We bought them less than a week ago, and they're gone. Lest you try to console me with the fact that I didn't eat two whole pies by myself in less than a week's time because I live with a big, strong man who surely ate more than his fair share of the goods, let's just say that we split the apple pie equally, and my husband doesn't like pumpkin pie. You do the math. 

Moving on. It was time to update my look this week with a new toe color. Yes, I have been rocking Barbie hot pink toes since the middle of April--don't judge me. I decided to actually go buy myself a fun new color. I haven't bought a new nail polish in quite some time, but this one caught my eye whilst I was doing my grocery shopping, and I ended up bringing it home. It's my first essie nail polish, and the name of it is "turquoise & caicos". Cute, right? Anyway, I like it a lot, but I have something to say:

I am cursed. Every time I paint my toenails, one of my big toes ends up smudged. Every. Stinkin'. Time. It doesn't matter how long I let them dry, somehow, they get smudged. Why does this happen?! I realize this is not a very big deal, and if people even notice my toes in the first place, they certainly don't notice that the polish on one nail isn't perfectly smooth: but I do. And it kills me a little. Does anyone have any tips on this? Cody says I need to dry them with a hairdryer...something about the heat locking it in?....he's so pro. Anyone tried this? Does it work? Am I crazy for even talking about this?

Colonel's Corner

This little guy got his hair cut yesterday. When we couldn't see his eyes anymore, we decided it was probably time for a trim. At 10 AM, I dropped off my big, fluffy, cuddly dog. At 2 PM, I picked up this skinny little dude. I didn't even recognize him! I told his groomer we wanted to go a little shorter than last time since his hair grows so fast. Well, they definitely took me at my word, although they left his tail and ears a bit longer so you can definitely tell he's got some kinda poodle going on. He's still the cutest puppy in the world, but it's taking some getting used to. If it were up to me, he'd just stay a shaggy overgrown mess all the time, but people give you nasty looks when you're walking a long-haired dog in the heat of the day in summertime in Florida. Whatever. He's a dog. He'll live. 

Confession time: (what? you thought my pie-eating habits and the fact that I left my toes alone for over two months were confession enough for one post? think again) I bought another movie adaptation of Little Women. This brings the grand total of Little Women movies I own to three. If you read Monday's recap, you know how much I love Little Women, and you also know that I already have two Little Women movies. 

The ones I already own are the 1949 June Allyson version and the 1994 Winona Ryder version.

The one I bought this week is the 1933 Katharine Hepburn version. To date, my favorite is June Allyson, but actually, I haven't seen the Katharine Hepburn version since I was a little girl. I plan on watching all three my new one this weekend, and I'll let you know if June Allyson still holds first place in my heart. I like watching movie adaptations while the book is still really fresh in my mind so I can be hypercritical and snobby about how much better the book is comparatively. 

Ok, let's wrap this post up with something redemptive, shall we? How about a Psalm of the Week:

"Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God."

These words are in three different places in two Psalms: verse 5 of the 42nd Psalm, verse 11 of the 42nd Psalm, and verse 5 of the 43rd Psalm. This hit me because how often do we get something right the first time around? We have to consistently remind ourselves of the truth, and cling to it with everything we've got. 

Hope in God. 

Hope in God. 

Hope in God. 

Have a fabulous weekend, and please, send me all the tips on how NOT to smudge your toenails after you paint them. 

Casual Fridays

Where do I even begin this week? I skipped Casual Friday last week because I pretty much poured my soul into this post, and now I feel like we have a lot to catch up on. Because, you know, I'm sure you're all dying to know every last little detail about my life. Right? Wait, Lyndsey and Christina are the only two reading this? Why aren't you two doing a better job of promoting my blog already? Kidding. (kindof) Anyway, here goes nothin'. 

First on the agenda: I started a new Bible study last week. Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer. My sister-in-love is leading this study in her home, and I'm already being challenged by it in a big way. This is my second study by Priscilla Shirer. I did Gideon a while back and LOVED it so I was really excited to jump into this one. 

*SAP ALERT* Skip ahead if you're not into it.

Last Thursday (after our new Bible study group met for the first time), I came home to these gorgeous roses. It had just been one of those weeks, ya feel me? And even though my man had just worked his third 12-hour shift in a row, he went out and got me roses. 

I don't know if you've picked up on it yet, but flowers are my love language. What? You didn't know there was a sixth love language that was just FLOWERS? Gary Chapman ain't got nothin' on me. I'll write my own dang book. 

The point of all this? My husband is the best, and he speaks my love language fluently.

I mean really, how pretty are those roses?!

Friday night and Saturday was Living Proof Live in Tampa, finally! I've been looking forward to this all year. Not kidding. And believe me when I say, I was not disappointed. It was a powerful, Spirit-filled weekend of worship and edification, and I was so glad to share it with all these sweethearts:

Our motto for the weekend was "R-E the most beautiful prefix in history." We talked about reverberating, restoring, reframing, replanting, repenting, and remembering. It was awesome. And of course, we Siestas had to meet up for our clandestine photo op with Mama Beth afterwards:

It was a fabulous weekend, and it left me begging for more. I mean, seriously Ms. Beth, don't throw out the idea of a Women's VBS if we can't follow through on that, amiright? Anyway, if you want to watch the beautiful recap they made of the weekend, click here.

Moving on...

I'm well into the Psalms right now, and I think we may have to install a little Psalm of the Week segment here on our Casual Fridays posts. This first one comes out of the 37th Psalm verses 23-26 (NASB):

"The steps of a man are established by the Lord, 

And He delights in his way.

When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,

Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

I have been young and now I am old

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken

Or his descendants begging bread.

All day long he is gracious and lends,

And his descendants are a blessing."

What a beautiful promise: I will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is holding my hand. That's something I can hang on tight to.

Elisabeth Elliot, December 21, 1926 ~ June 15, 2015

In other news, Elisabeth Elliot went home to be with our precious Lord this week. This dear woman has influenced thousands--maybe millions--of people during her life, and I am so thankful for her dedication to God and furthering the truth of His Word. Her books have challenged me and also encouraged me during some dark times. She lived a good long life, and I hope that her words continue to challenge and encourage the generations to come. One quote of hers that I love is this:

"Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering."

Colonel's Corner

This sweet thing went under the knife this week, y'all. There will never be any little Colonels running around because on Monday, June 15, Colonel's manhood was stripped from him. 

Poor guy.

He apparently did really well. When we got there to pick him up, we could hear him before we could see him, and the techs informed us that he was ready to go home 5 minutes after the surgery was complete.

Excuse me?! Why didn't you call me to come get my baby immediately?? (Yes, I'm turning into that girl.)

Anyway, the pain meds do weird things to him, and so far, I haven't observed him being any calmer than he was before, which is supposed to be one of the  benefits of neutering a dog. 

But it hasn't even been a whole week yet, so here's hoping.

Let's close this week out with a little Link Love, shall we?

One of the Biggest Lies the Church Has Taught You : I know, I hate posts with buzz word kinda titles, too. But this one is really good. 

Doghouse Diaries: Self-Diagnoses : Because HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Benny the Bull Kiss Cam : Because pay attention to your woman!

Disney Princess Medley : Because Bonnie Milligan is frickin' hilarious.

Annnnnnd....I think that's it for this week, folks. Do you feel sufficiently caught up on my life?

Oh and P.S. I didn't win the contest if anyone was wondering. I know. Devastating.