It’s Valentine’s Day…a holiday almost everyone loves or hates. If today is a hard day for you, or even if you do have a Valentine this year, I just wanted to remind you how much you are loved. No matter who you are or what you do, you are loved unconditionally, relentlessly, sacrificially, and completely by the God who created you and sent His Son to redeem you and prove to you how much He loves you. Whatever your relationship status is, I hope these verses encourage you today!

“…But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love….” — Nehemiah 9:17

“I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul..” — Psalm 31:7

“Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.” — Psalm 33:22

“‘For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,’ says the LORD, who has mercy on you.” — Isaiah 54:10

“Long ago the LORD said to Israel: ‘I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.'” — Jeremiah 31:3

‘”For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.’” — Zephaniah 3:17

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” — John 13:34-35

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — John 15:9-13

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” — Romans 5:8

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:38-39

“Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” — Romans 13:8

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” — Ephesians 3:18-19

“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” — 1 John 4:10-12

 

This weekend, there was a lot of news made by the Women’s March in Washington D.C. I hadn’t heard much about it until it happened, but I knew it was supposed to be a protest against President Trump and in support of women’s rights. After hearing some of the coverage, I have some thoughts I want to share about how I view womanhood and femininity a little differently than the media would lead you to believe most women do.

Watching that rally would make you think that being a woman means being mean, rude, and vulgar. It would make you think it means supporting a woman’s “right to choose” to kill the child in her womb, to discard the unique gift we have that men don’t: the ability to bring new life into the world. It would make you think it means believing that screaming and yelling and getting angry will change things. But to me, that’s not at all what it means to be a woman.

Being a woman means being an image-bearer of God, made to complement and work alongside men. It means loving and encouraging our families. It means bringing joy and beauty to the lives of the people we love. It means serving the people around us, showing compassion and empathy. It means teaching our daughters how to be ladies and teaching our sons how to be gentlemen. It means standing up and speaking out about the things that matter, but with love and truth, not anger and lies. It means protecting the vulnerable; the children in foster care, the unborn babies, and the young, scared mothers who think they have no choice but to abort their baby. It means reaching out and showing love, especially to the people we don’t agree with, even starting with the women who marched in Washington, many of whom are genuinely hurt and afraid. As women, we have the potential to greatly impact the world around us with the unique feminine traits God has given us, but only if we act out of love.

Those women made the news last weekend because they’re angry and upset. And you know what? I’m upset about some things too, and I’m glad we live in a country where we can talk about those things and then do something. I’m upset that tens of millions of babies have been killed over the last few decades, before they even had a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I’m upset that a lot of their mothers felt trapped, like they had no choice. Some people celebrate these things as “women’s rights.” But what about the rights of the girls who never got the chance to become women? What about the mothers who were told the lie that it wasn’t really a baby, that they would be better off without the burden of a child anyway, and that no one cared enough about them to help them raise new life, that the only help available was to help their unborn children die? So yes, I’m upset. But mostly I’m upset with myself for not doing more to change things. Because you know what? Protesting doesn’t change anything. Screaming hatred for our new president doesn’t change anything. Only love, God’s love, has the power to truly change hearts and minds and souls. Only love can change things, and love, like faith, is a verb. It requires action, putting yourself out there, giving of yourself.

So whatever it is that upsets you, that makes you angry, don’t just protest, make a sign, post on Facebook, and go on your merry way. I’m all too guilty of that sometimes too, but I want to change. Whatever your issue is, go out there and fight for what you believe in. Start small; don’t worry about doing some grand gesture. Do what you can with what you have, where you are, but just do something. I’m reminding myself of this too. Because what it really means to be a woman? is to show love through action. Take the love and passion God has given you and use it to help support and encourage the people He’s called you to.

Well, it’s taken me long enough, but I think I’ve finally decided on some goals for this year. I haven’t quite planned out all the steps I’ll need to take to accomplish them, but I’m headed in the right direction!

I’ve never really had “word of the year” before. I follow a lot of bloggers who pick a word to define how they want to live that year, but this is the first year I’ve tried to pick one for myself. It may change, but here’s what I have right now: discipline. That doesn’t sound very fun or exciting, I know! But it encompasses a lot of the goals I’ve set for this year. My main, overarching goal for the year is to create habits (while I’m still fairly young) to set myself up for success later in life, and I will definitely need discipline to do that. Then maybe next year, my word can be more fun 🙂

So, here are my goals for the year:

Spiritual:

1. Set aside time to consistently read the Bible (possibly using She Reads Truth, especially during Lent, Advent, etc.).
2. Read Fervent by Priscilla Shirer.
3. Use my Val Marie Paper prayer journal. This is the one I have.

Physical:

1. Commit to eating healthier (probably the Trim Healthy Mama plan).
2. Drink more water! Work up to a gallon per day.
3. Exercise regularly (find something I can stick with).
4. Develop an evening routine and consistent times to go to bed/wake up.

Personal:

1. Stick to my EveryDollar budget (save money for the future!).
2. Read 100 books. That sounds like a lot, but I’m a fast reader and I got a Kindle Unlimited subscription for Christmas 🙂 I also want to read more nonfiction…maybe 1 out of every 5 books I read.
3. Learn how to get the most out my bullet journal and update it regularly. I just started a bullet journal at the beginning of the year, and I’m still figuring out how to use it, what things to put in it, and what things I can leave out.

Business/Career:

1. Blog regularly (2-3 times per week).
2. Start a Facebook page for my blog and promote it more on social media.
3. Interact more with other bloggers (commenting on posts, etc.).
4. Take a blogging course. I’ve been looking at some free video courses on Skillshare and Building a Framework by Abby Lawson of Just a Girl and Her Blog. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
5. Research some career possibilities I’m interested and figure out what the next steps would be (going back to school, etc.).

Well there you have it! My goals for 2017, which are written at the front of my bullet journal so hopefully I won’t forget 😉

What are your goals for 2017?

I know we’re already 11 days into the year, so it might be a little late to still be talking about 2016, but I’ve kind of been getting a slow start to this year. In fact, I really haven’t given much thought to my goals for the year yet…this blog is called Grace to Grow, right? So I’m giving myself to grow into 2017 slowly. There’s nothing magical about January 1st! So in the meantime, I thought I would share some of my favorite things from last year.

TV Shows: When Calls the Heart, Designated Survivor, and Fixer Upper // Last winter I started watching When Calls the Heart, and I loved it! Something about the sweet community and the simpler times made it the perfect show to watch while working on an embroidery project. This fall, we also started watching Designated Survivor, and it’s been really good! It’s a really intriguing concept, and fascinating to think about how a situation like that might really play out. It’s a good inside look into life as the President, too. And then, of course, everyone’s favorite: Fixer Upper! It’s been popular for a while, but I didn’t start watching it until the newest season started in November. My sister and I watched quite a few episodes while she was home for Christmas break, and now we’re hooked 😉

New (to me) Authors: Sibella Giorello and Sarah Sundin  // I couldn’t pick just one favorite author I found last year! They have really different writing styles and they write in really different genres, but I really love their books 🙂 Sibella Giorello writes the Raleigh Harmon mystery series about a really smart, capable, FBI agent who works on some really tough cases. Sarah Sundin writes WWII romance, and her most recent series has a little bit of mystery too! I’ve either read or ordered every book by both of these authors, and I can’t wait for their next books!

Kindle Unlimited Author: Jenn Faulk // I read a few of Jenn Faulk’s books during my free trial of Kindle Unlimited, and I was really excited when my parents gave me a year’s subscription for Christmas! I’ve already read 15 of her books since Christmas 🙂

New Series: Montana Rescue by Susan May Warren // My favorite new series that started in 2016 is definitely the Montana Rescue series by Susan May Warren, including the Montana Fire prequel series that came out in the summer. I can’t wait for the next three books in the series to come out this year, starting with a new one at the end of this month!

New Book: The Magnolia Story // I read so much last year, I’m really having to stretch to come up with different categories for all my favorite books 🙂 So my favorite new stand-alone book from 2016 is The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines! I read it right after I started watching their show, Fixer Upper, and I loved getting to hear about how they met, how they got their business going, and how they’ve overcome the challenges they’ve faced. Now when I watch the show I feel like I know them a little bit better!

Podcast: The Boundless Show // I never really listened to podcasts before 2016, but now I have several that I really like! My favorite, though, would have to be the Boundless Show by Focus on the Family. It’s geared toward single adults, especially young adults, and I love the variety of topics they cover.

Blog: Phylicia Delta // Phylicia’s blog is one of my all-time favorites, and I always read every one of her posts. I especially enjoyed her productivity series in December, and I love that she does live videos on Facebook to go along with a lot of her posts!

Blog Post: I haven’t written a whole lot of blog posts, since I just started blogging in September, but I think this post was one of my favorites to write. I love reliving the vacation my family took to Alaska! That was the best vacation we’ve been on, and we all have so many fun memories.

Instagram Photo: I love this photo I posted last April! It really shows how crazy our weather can be in the spring 😉 Plus, it turns out that this is one of the most recent pictures we have of our dog, who had to be put down in October.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a few minutes coloring outside in the sun. This afternoon, I spent a few minutes cleaning 2 inches of snow off my car. ?❄️ #springinmaine #spring #gottaloveit

A photo posted by Jen Newendyke (@jenewendyke) on Apr 26, 2016 at 1:23pm PDT

Well, now that I’ve relived some favorite moments from 2016, it’s time to get started on planning for 2017!

What were some of your 2016 favorites?

We’re in the final days of 2016, and honestly, I’m glad it’s almost over. This has not been one of my favorite years, mostly because of my job situation and struggling with finding a purpose and some semblance of a career. That struggle is definitely not over, but I’m hoping it gets better in 2017! It’s been kind of a rough year for our country too, with terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and of course our recent contentious election. But there have been some really good things about this year too, and that’s what I want to focus on today! So here’s what went down in 2016.

January: I don’t remember too much about January, honestly! But I do remember one fun day I had with my grandmother, when we went to New Hampshire to see Ted Cruz speak. We left early in the morning, stopped for coffee on the way, and got to go out to lunch after. It turned out to be a really fun day!

February: In February, I got to spend a few days house- and dog-sitting for my grandparents while they were traveling. It was fun to get a little taste of living on my own! Then, my parents and I were able to spend a weekend visiting my sister at college.

March: March was a busy month! We had our presidential caucus, which I volunteered at, right at the beginning of my sister’s spring break. Then I had my wisdom teeth out a few days later. That wasn’t exactly fun, but I’m glad my sister was home! I’m pretty sure March was also the month I bought my blog domain and hosting, but I didn’t start writing for a while.

April: A lot of fun things happened in April! Near the beginning of the month, I made my first solo road trip down to visit my sister for her birthday (and a Newsboys concert!). Then at the end of the month, I was elected to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in July.

May: In May, I started my job as part-time secretary at the Christian school I graduated from. My sister came home from college for the summer, and a week or so later, we had family come in from all over the country for my grandfather’s 80th birthday party.

June: Nothing really big or exciting happened in June; it was more of fun memories of spending time with my sister. We went to the beach, went to Panera a few times for lattes and scones, went to Bible study, went shopping, did errands…plus, school got out, so I was able to switch to working half days!

July: This was the month when I did the biggest, craziest thing I’ve probably ever done! My mom, sister, and I drove to Cleveland with one of my mom’s friend for the RNC. I was a delegate, my mom and her friend were alternates, and my sister was along for the ride ? It was quite an experience, and definitely an honor to represent my state. I’m so glad we could go, and even though my dad had to stay home and work, it was a fun family road trip with the added bonus of our friend! Another fun event was the wedding I got to take pictures of with my sister. That was my first time as her second shooter!

August: The Rio Olympics were this month! It’s always fun to watch our athletes (and see the USA blow every other country out of the water!), and I especially loved watching the women’s gymnastics. I wish I could be friends with those girls! We also spent this month trying to do fun things before my sister had to go back to college, like getting up super early to drive to the beach and see the sunrise. Then my mom and I drove my sister back to school and got her settled in at the end of the month.

September: I tried my hand selling something at our small town fair! We’ve talked about it for years, and this year we finally decided to sell iced coffee. My family helped a lot; we just wished my sister could have been there! She did come home a couple of weeks later for my birthday, and we had a great weekend going to a for KING & COUNTRY concert and going to a high school football game for the first time! This was also the month I really started blogging, at least semi-regularly ?

October: In October, I got to drive down and visit my sister for her fall break! It was just a 3-day weekend, but we got to do a lot of fun things because she didn’t have classes, work, or much homework. Plus, almost everyone had gone home for the break, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

November: The first fun thing about November was that a Chick-fil-A finally opened in my home state! It’s an hour and a half away, but we did get to make the trip the first weekend it was open, and it seemed like everyone in the state had the same idea. I also started my second job as a grocery store cashier, to add to my school secretary income. Then, of course, we celebrated Thanksgiving and started getting ready for Christmas.

December: December was a busy but fun month, getting ready for Christmas! At the beginning of the month, my mom and I spent a couple of weekends helping with the Christmas Spectacular at our church. My sister came home around the middle of the month, and I had a couple of weeks off from my job at the school. We had a great Christmas, going to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, then celebrating with my dad’s family that afternoon.

And now here we are! It’s been a year of highs and lows for sure. I love taking this time between Christmas and New Year’s to reflect on the good memories, try to learn from my mistakes, and figure out where I want to be this time next year and how I can get there. I’m excited for 2017 and my dreams and goals for this blog, and I would be honored if you want to follow along!

How was your 2016?

Today is the day we’ve been waiting for. Our Messiah is finally here!

There were 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. 400 years of silence from God, 400 years of waiting, wondering, the memory fading…no prophets to speak on His behalf, to remind them of His promise to send a Messiah who would finally fulfill the Law. 400 years of wondering if it was real, if He had really talked to them, if He was really coming to save them like He promised…and then He came. Quietly, humbly, without fanfare, born in a stable to a poor teenage girl and her fiance. Under the radar of everyone except the shepherds, told by the angels, and the wise men, led by the star. The silence was broken, but almost no one knew. God was with us, one of us, part of the world He created, in a way no one expected or anticipated. But that’s the way He works, because if we could understand Him, we wouldn’t need Him. Christmas shows us that we need Him, more than we could ever know. But He knows, and He came for us because He loves us.

This part of Friday’s reading in the She Reads Truth Advent reading plan was something my soul needed, and maybe yours does too: “This is God’s pattern. He always shows up. He always saves. He is always coming back, and that is never not true, no matter how thick the silence…the silence will end, the darkness will abate, and Christ is coming back.” This Christmas, there is a lot of darkness in the world. It may seem like God is silent, in your life and in the world. But Christmas is His promise that He is coming back for us, to set the world right again.

I hope that this Christmas brings you time to celebrate and reconnect with your family and friends, and experience the joy of the season. I hope you also have some time to reflect on and truly appreciate the great gift God gave us when He broke His silence some 2,000 years ago. Merry Christmas!

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned…For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you are able to have a day of rest and celebration with your friends and family. We are spending today with my mom’s family and tomorrow with my dad’s family (although I have to work until 3pm tomorrow 🙁 ) But today is a day for rest and reflection, and thanking God for all the ways he has blessed us this year.

This morning, as I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw that someone had posted part of Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation from 1863, when Thanksgiving was first established as the last Thursday in November. I looked it up and read the whole thing, and I was struck by the fact that he wrote it during the Civil War. If there was ever a time when it would be hard to be thankful, that would be the time. But still, even during the darkest period in our country’s history, we were blessed with a President who pointed us back to God and reminded us why it’s so important to be thankful.

He listed the blessings from the growth of freedom we had experienced since the beginning of our nation, and then reminded the people that “…No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

We may not be in the middle of a civil war today, but there is plenty of strife and struggle and suffering in the world, in our country, and maybe even in your own life. Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation reminds us that there is more to Thanksgiving than eating turkey, watching football, and spending time with our family. Those are all good things, and we should enjoy them when we can. But Thanksgiving is also a day to thank God for His blessings, ask for His forgiveness, and ask for His help when life gets hard. It’s an opportunity to humble ourselves, ask Him to heal us, ask Him to bring us closer to Him, and to thank Him for fulfilling His purposes for us, even when we can’t see the purpose yet. I don’t know about you, but that’s a reminder I needed today.

What are you doing to celebrate Thanksgiving?

I don’t know about you, but I am so glad this day is finally here. This campaign season is finally over, and not a moment too soon.

This has been kind of a tough election season for me. I worked really hard for one candidate in the primary, but he didn’t make it. But really, this has been a tough election season for all of us, hasn’t it? We are faced with two of the most disliked and untrustworthy candidates in our history. It’s a difficult choice for anyone, but especially for Christians. No one can dispute the fact that neither major party candidate is a good role model for our children, or that neither of them have the characteristics that make a moral and respectable leader. We have reached a new low, and I find myself in the position of not being able to vote for either one of them.

So where does that leave me, and the millions or at least thousands of other people who have serious problems with the candidates? Some people may decide that they have to vote for one candidate because they dislike the other one so much. Some people may decide not to vote at all, or to vote on every race except for president. Then some, like me, may decide to write in the name of a candidate they truly believe in (or vote third party if that’s an option in their state). What I have come to realize is that it’s a personal decision for each of us, between us and God, and it isn’t something we should allow to anger us or divide us. Whatever happens today, we will wake up tomorrow with our lives basically unchanged, at least for now. After the debates, the commercials, and the arguing are over, we will have to come together as a nation, with love and respect for our fellow believers and citizens, no matter who we voted for.

In the past, whenever I’ve heard someone say, “God’s in control,” or “Just trust God no matter what the outcome is,” I’ve agreed outwardly, but I’ve always inwardly thought those ideas were a cop-out. Honestly, I still do think some people use them as excuses not to get involved, but I’ve come to realize the truth in these statements even more this year. Yes, it’s important to be involved in the political process, to be informed and to vote for candidates who share our Biblical values, but God can work through anyone. That’s especially important to remember this year, when neither of the candidates are great options.

Something else I’ve wrestled with is that America’s happiness is not God’s priority. I do believe that our nation was founded on His principles and that He has blessed us greatly, but we can sometimes forget that His goal for us is sanctification as a church body and as individuals, not necessarily a return to our Constitutional principles or “making America great again.” God can use even a “bad” president to accomplish His purposes, for the nation or the church, to show us mercy or judgement, or to grow the church in the face of persecution. So while we have a responsibility to vote for the candidate we believe would make the best president, we don’t need to worry if they don’t win. After all, God is the one who raises up and brings down rulers and who gives them authority. We can trust that He knows what He’s doing.

So today, please go vote. Vote for a presidential candidate who shares your values, whether they are part of a major party, a third party, or even if you have to write them in. Remember what John Quincy Adams said: “Duty is ours; results are God’s.” Do your duty and vote, then leave the results in God’s hands, and trust that He will accomplish His purpose in us, through us, and for us. Then, no matter who wins, our duty is to pray for our new leaders, and for our country. That is the most important thing we can do.

I can’t believe it’s November already! A lot more leaves have fallen off the trees, and it’s starting to feel more like winter is coming. It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this month, and Christmas is next month. I feel like I have a lot to do to get ready for the holidays, and the fact that it’s November makes me feel like I don’t have much time! So this is a perfect time to check in on my goals for last month and the upcoming month.

Here are the goals I set for October:

1. Write at least two blog posts per week. Out of four weeks in October, there were two weeks when I posted once and two weeks when I posted twice, so I almost accomplished this goal.
2. Read five books (two non-fiction). I ended up reading 10 books, but none of them non-fiction. Oh well 🙂
3. Set up a budget. I haven’t done this yet because I may be getting a second job, so that would change my numbers.
4. Work on a machine embroidery project. Technically I did work on a project, but I didn’t finish it. I’ve been working on designs, so at least that’s a step in the right direction!
5. Plan a trip to see my sister. I drove down to visit her last weekend for her fall break, and it was so much fun! I’m really glad I had the chance to go. I also bought a plane ticket that I got a really good deal on so I can fly down and drive back home with her before Thanksgiving break. I’m really excited for that trip!

Well, I only ended up fully accomplishing one goal…so I guess that means there’s room for improvement in November 😉

1. Write at least two blog posts per week. I’m going to try this one again and work on doing better than I did last month!
2. Read 8 books. I have a lot of new books that I got for my birthday, so I’m going to forget about the non-fiction books this month and just read for fun 🙂
3. Set up a budget. I’m going to decide on a budget this month, no matter what happens with my job search. I’m going to need it with Christmas shopping coming up!
4. Finish my machine embroidery project. This has been on my to-do list for a while, and I do enjoy working on it, so I need to make it a priority!
5. Get a good start on buying/making Christmas presents. I know this isn’t an incredibly specific goal, but my general idea is that I want to at least figure out what I’m going to give to people, and then start shopping or making things. It’s so much more fun when it’s not last minute!

So there are my goals for November. Let’s hope I do a better job with these than I did with October’s!

What are your goals for November? Have you started Christmas shopping yet? 🙂

Happy Friday!! It’s a rainy day here, but I love rainy fall days. Even though it’s dark and cloudy outside, there are still bright spots in life. Here are five things I’m excited about today!

1. We had some beautiful weather last week! It was sunny and warm, with the colors of autumn everywhere. I have dozens of pictures of the fall foliage on my phone; I want to bottle it up and enjoy the beautiful colors all year!
2. Last week, I got new books in the mail from two of my favorite authors: Wild Montana Skies, the first book in a new series by Susan May Warren, and A Royal Christmas Wedding, the fourth book in the Royal Wedding series by Rachel Hauck. I’ve already finished Wild Montana Skies and loved it, and I’m excited to jump into A Royal Christmas Wedding!
3. Speaking of Christmas…it’s now less than two months away! Sure, maybe that’s a little early to be celebrating, but that means Thanksgiving is less than a month away, and I just love the whole season. I love buying and making presents, the music, the Christmas program at our church, and just the atmosphere in general. It’s never too early to start celebrating the real meaning of Christmas, anyway 😉
4. This weekend is my sister’s fall break from college, and I get to drive down and visit her! I’m excited to go on a little road trip and get to spend a few days with her.
5. There is a Chick-fil-A opening next week only an hour and a half away from where I live! It’s the first one in my state and my family is so excited 😉 We love going to CFA when we’re on vacation “down south,” so it’s going to be nice to have one so much closer to home! There was also a story in the news last week about plans for a second one about an hour in the other direction from our house, so hopefully there will be one even closer someday 😉

What do you have to celebrate on this fine Friday? 🙂