Our Weekend

Our weekends always start for us on Thursday nights. Thursday nights are our weekly date night away from the baby little one and then husband is "off" (I do that because no minister is ever off, let's be honest) on Fridays. 

This weekend the grass got mowed, bridesmaid dress for my brothers wedding got ordered, frozen yogurt and ice cream was shared on multiple occasions, and Stephen's spiritual birthday was celebrated! 

We also hit up our favorite breakfast spot for Cinnamon pancakes with my brother, John, and then had dinner with family. Our weekends are about to get a little busy ... again ... so this weekend was nice to not have a long to-do list to accomplish. Who's ready for football Saturdays? 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Favorite Posts of the Week

Finally, right? Summer has been my excuse not to keep up with my blog...though I've tried real hard! Here's to getting back to normalcy around here!

"THREE KIDS IS LIKE" by Little Baby Garvin

I love Jessica's blog. She's really the only blog that I stalk everyday. There are many reasons why I stalk but one is because she's authentic. I get sweaty hands thinking about caring for more than one child at a time but she adds such comic relief to having three very little ones to care for. She doesn't sugarcoat the fact that raising more than one child is hard and I can appreciate that!

Maternity Style // Summer Fringe and a Giveaway by Lauren McBride

Like I said above, thinking about having more than one child right now terrifies me, so NO there's no baby in there but I love posts like this because one of my rules when I was pregnant was to not dress like it. I refused to let being pregnant be my excuse to dress frumpy. Plus, it made me feel better!

A beyond stunning wedding by Mr. and Mrs. Powell

Everyone loves a good wedding, right? In the spirit of my family planning another wedding, I thought a wedding post would be appropriate! This wedding was so beautiful. A little bit of glam & vintage all in one!

Fall Home Tour by Life On Virginia Street

Okay, so, I would be lying if I said that my house wasn't almost ready for Fall. This is an old post but I came across it recently and it's a great "transitional" home tour - when you're ready for Fall but society is not.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Lord Have Mercy // Week 2

A lot of times we sacrifice ourselves for many things. We'll sacrifice ourselves for people, things, jobs, etc. and we forget that the Lord has commanded us to live a sacrificial life - daily! Last night we learned the importance of our response to God's mercy!

If Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, why wouldn't we sacrifice ourselves for Him? The cross has done everything for us. The only thing we have contributed to it is our sin.

God's relentless pursuit should result in a radical response to Him.

If we value Gods mercies for us, we become a living sacrifice.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

You can't offer your bodies without offering your heart. He wants your body AND your soul!

Don't crawl off the alter! We can't offer part of our bodies to the Lord. He wants it all.

The greater our comprehension of the gospel leads to our greater commitment to Him.

The extent to which we do not offer ourselves to God reflects the extent to which we don't understand the depth and significance of Gods mercy.

If we value God's mercy we'll be motivated to give Him our very lives. Is God pleased with what you're doing with your body? Is he pleased with where you're taking your body?

The proper response to receiving Gods mercy is to give yourself totally to Him out of gratitude.

WORSHIP is offering our EVERYDAY LIVES to Him --> It's not just something we show up to church and DO.

In response to Gods mercy we either ignore it or repent and worship!

Fall + Family Vacation

Happy first weeks of school, everyone! I love seeing back to school pictures because I love seeing the changes that students make in just a years time. At the same time, I hate them because they just make me feel older...and older...and older...and you get the point. It's especially eye opening in student ministry when you start seeing your 6th grade babies graduate high school. AH! I feel like that little boy, "is this really real life?".

Anyways, does anyone else other than me associate school starting with Fall? Can I just get my pumpkin-everything yet? I love Fall for many reasons but one reason is because Fall=routine. Ya'll know my Type-A self loves a good routine! And since vacation is over, Fall might as well start!

Here's some pictures from our family vacation two weeks ago. Better late than never. I feel like that should be my blog tagline. We celebrated John being back from his summer in ATL, our 5th Anniversary, Jessica's 25th Birthday, & my brother's ENGAGEMENT to Kaylin...and a lot of other fun things that haven't come into fruition quite yet :) We have lots of things going on here shortly but since Fall=Routine, I'll hopefully be on a more scheduled blog routine now!