Friday Favorites

Hellloooooo Friday. So happy to see you!

If you’re a blogger, link up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci and share your FAVORITES. If you’re a reader, so glad you’re here!!

This goes without saying…but my FAVORITE family is back in action tonight. Oh, I am pumped…as are most of you from reading everyone’s What’s Up Wednesday post this week.

I might stay up and see if it comes out at midnight (which will have passed by the time you read this) otherwise I guess I will have to watch after work sometime. Which is going to be interesting considering i’m working both my jobs today. NOOOOO I NEED MORE TIME TODAY!

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that our pastor challenged each of us to fast social media for one day.

And it was the best thing ever.

And then a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to go a whole weekend without social media.

And it was the best thing ever.

And now I do it one day every single week. It’s my FAVORITE day of the week now. I loved it so much that I could probably give up social media for an extended amount of time, but it’s also how I engage with you guys so I don’t want to! You’ll be surprised how difficult it is. I would open up Instagram multiple times, remember I wasn’t suppose to, and close it out immediately. But you’ll also be surprised with the amount of free time that you have. Communicate with your family! Get some work done! Don’t look at other people’s pictures and be like “wow she looks great why don’t I?” And in today’s world, I think a lot of us could use that every now and then.

I would seriously challenge you to do this. Just one day – no Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Pinterest, nothing. I told my girls to do it one day this week after a long conversation about comparison at our retreat.

Speaking of retreats, I want to recap this past weekend, even though I mentioned it on Wednesday. But it was just so GOOD and I don’t want to forget it!

Friday night we had to be at one of our campus for check in and I of course go in my signature outfit. Cute sweater? Check. Jeans? Check. Booties? Check. Long necklace? Check. Selfie? Check. A room that I just switched into and haven’t organized yet? Check.

Friday night they catered Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, we had worship and service, and then we went back to our host home for a Bible study and girl talk. After Bible study, the girls wanted McFlurry’s. Who are we to deny them such a glorious dessert? PS…I MISS MCFLURRY’S. They got a kick out of my wedges with socks, but I didn’t wanna wear booties and my feet were cold. So I improvised!!!

Saturday morning, we woke up and did a Bible study before going to bowl that morning. I sat at the kitchen table drinking some coffee and chatting with one of the girls.

After bowling we had free time and our first stop was to Starbucks because this was my group, remember???? Haha, total shocker but this was my first Starbucks in weeks!!

We hung out at our host home for a couple hours while the girls went swimming and took naps. Then we headed up to the Church for a cookout, service, and it was my FAVORITE night. So 15 passenger van selfie was in order.

We broke up into small groups and I had 3 girls with me who just opened up completely about stuff that’s been going on in their lives, things that were bothering them, and their relationships with Jesus. This night was the reason I started praying about volunteering with high school girls in the first place. There were tears, prayers, re-dedications to Christ, and lots of hugs. At the end of our conversation the girls said: “wow, that felt so good to talk about. We don’t have to do anything else this weekend because we’ve accomplished everything we wanted to”.

Cue the tears. Except I don’t cry…but if I did. I WOULD HAVE!

After service, we left the Church and the girls requested Braum’s. And thus #friesbeforeguys was born. BECAUSE I AM A GREAT LEADER AND KNOW WHAT’S TRULY IMPORTANT IN LIFE. 😉

We went back, hung out, snap chatted, and talked. Us leaders went to bed before the girls because we can’t hang! Megan and I shared a room so it was fun getting to know her a little better and realizing how much we have in common 🙂 I am so thankful that I was able to work with Jen and Megan this weekend.

We all went to sleep and woke up Sunday morning in desperate need of some coffee. Us 4 went to Starbucks again and the other girls went to Smoothie King.

And then we went to our third service and went home. I’m still trying to catch up on sleep i’m so tired. But it was SO worth it.

 

Because I have been getting so many questions about the food i’m posting lately, I decided one day next week I will post about them. If you’re one of those people, be on the look out. That means you’ve got to come back next week so I can share some of my FAVORITE recipes!!

If you have any requests for particular recipes I have talked about, for recipes you’re not sure that i’ve made, or recipes you’d like me to make…leave them in the comments or e-mail me.

As for being gone the past two weeks, it was so worth it. But coming back and seeing your comments about missing me?? Also worth it!!!! You all are my FAVORITE. I’m not sure what i’m going to do in the future, but it’s possible that I might start taking one week off a month or something like that. I could go into a lot of detail, but I learned a lot during that time. I’ll just keep you posted. But seriously thanks for your sweet words about my return. XOXOXO

Alright. That’s enough for one post. ‘Cause you know I could go on! 🙂

One more thing: Bible Study girls, I will be posting Week 8, 9, and 10 in the next couple weeks. Don’t forget about our study. Catch up beforehand by clicking HERE.