Festival of Holidays

The holidays are upon us, but I am reminiscing about The Festival of Holidays event that the women's ministry at my church hosted a couple of weeks ago.  The event was lovely, filled with great food, beautiful tables and a wonderful speaker, Brittany Price Brooker. 

Several of my friends hosted and decorated tables and they were all beautiful!

My friend, Amanda and her beautiful Thanksgiving table!

I just love sweet Mrs. Pat! She is always such a joy to be around and she is an encouragement to so many! I love calling her up and having coffee with her at a moments notice!

My good friend and life group leader, Ceal (center) was the host at the table that I sat at.  I loved the way that she decorated it with buffalo plaid and a rustic theme!  It was so fun to meet her daughter (right) and sit with sweet Sarah (left) !  Behind you can see these awesome men who worked all day and dressed up for the event and were our waiters for the evening! 

Ceal worked so hard on her beautiful table!  Sarah and I were joking that if we did a table it would be complete with red solo cups and plastic tablecloths! Ha!

Our speaker was precious Brittany Price Brooker.  She is a precious woman of faith and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her story. You can hear her story for yourself here. Warning, grab some tissues before you listen! She is powerful!

And...here are all of the other tables!  They were all so gorgeous!

This table was my favorite!!! It was the only table that I noticed had a New Year's Theme...

That centerpiece....wow!!!

It is hard to tell from the picture, but the placemats were made of black feathers and they were gorgeous!!! Each guest who sat here, left with a black party hat! So adorable!!!

I **may** get enough courage to host a table next year!!

Until Next Time!!!

Friday Favorites 11/3 Soup, Shirts, Songs and adorable clothes!

Happy Friday everyone!!!!!

I am so happy that it is Friday and I have NO plans for the weekend. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And I am completely fine with that!

And now it is time for my favorites for this week!

Favorite New Boutique Little Mistress! And yes, the name does crack me up!  I love the clothes, especially the dresses! I really really want to order everything on this site a few items!!!

Is it too early to order my Christmas shirt?? I don't think so!!!

Check Out these awesome Christmas shirts! From AwesomeThreadz.com

My favorite is  "Don't be a Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins!"

I really hate that time changes back this weekend.  The evenings are SO long when we can't spend time after dinner outside! I am striving to have more game and craft nights to keep the littlest one entertained without tv! Check Out these Cute Crafts! 

Annd it's also soup season!  I have been on the search for a new soup recipe and this one is my favorite!! Cheesy Enchilada Soup! Yumm!!! Check out the recipe here!

Romans 8:28 was everywhere I went this week!  I know that I posted Romans 8:28 from The Message Bible earlier this week, but I have re read it almost every day this week! I love it and IT definitely made my list of favorites this week!  Read it again here

And last, but not least....

I have begun listening to Spotify Praise and Worship on the way to and from the office and I love hearing different songs that you may not hear on the Christian Radio Station. This song had so many tears coming down my face that I almost had to pull over !! Listen to Bethany Dillon "I Believe In You"

Have a fabulous weekend!!!

xoxo

***Adorable Friday picture courtesy of Google Images

My Favorite Blogs...

Many people frequently ask me "So, you blog...why do you do that?" The answer always makes me blush, but I have always enjoyed reading blogs of other women, their words are always encouraging.  I remember reading different parenting blogs after having my daughter in 2006 and their words always seeped into my soul and left me feeling encouragement after realizing that parenting is much harder than I ever imagined.  When facebook and Instagram began to take off I noticed that most people began writing on their blogs less and less, but I still yearned for their descriptive postings and encouragement.  I began to get frustrated and I felt God tug on my heart and tell me one evening (while reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson) that "you are called to write." So...after procrastinating for what seems like eternity, I began to slowly put together my blog.

I also wanted to share a few of my favorite blogs to read, so that you may find encouragement also.

#1. Kelly's Korner  Kelly's blog is one of the first that I began reading.  She lives in Arkansas with her husband and 3 children.  I love Kelly's style, her openness about her faith and her honesty that parenting is HARD! I loved reading about her struggles with infertility and seeing how God provided 2 sweet girls and an (unexpected) baby boy! Kelly and her family were at Disney a couple of weeks ago when my family and I were and while my husband and kids were keeping their eyes peeled for Mickey, I was hoping and praying to bump into Kelly and her family (and no, I do not know her and I know that she wouldn't have a clue who I was, but we can all hope that she would have pulled me aside and asked to go and have ice cream with me in the castle)!!

#2 JoanneHeim.com I began reading Joanne's blog about 5 years ago.  Joanne has an amazing testimony from where God brought her through a massive stroke and the new challenges with life.  She has undergone intensive therapy and she now drives and does a lot of traveling!  She and her dog now help stroke patients as Maddie is a therapy dog! I love reading about all of her adventures and seeing God's faithfulness in her life!

#3 Before the Morning This is another wonderful story of God's amazing love!  The Williams Family has a special place in my heart (as their son, Jonah goes to school with my nephew). I began reading their story in 2008 shortly after Jonah was born. Jonah suffers from epidermolysis bullosa, which is a painful skin condition.  A better explanation is here. Parents Patrice and Matt have been faithful and done an amazing job taking care of Jonah and his new adoptive brother.  Their story always warms my heart!

I hope that you can find some encouragement in these blogs also!

xoxo