Friday Favorites, vol. xiii

Happy Friday!  Here are a few of my favorite things from this past week.  Maybe you'll find a new favorite, too.  I was really happy to hear this week that someone else found and loved the Flavia books.

1.  Joanna Gaines' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ella requested a cookie cake for her birthday, and while looking for a recipe on Pinterest I came across this one from Joanna's new cookbook and thought I would give it a try.  I didn't make the individual cookies, but as a cookie cake it was a huge success!  The biggest difference I noticed from other recipes is that it used only brown sugar instead of a combination of white and brown.  It was nice and fluffy and didn't flatten out like other recipes I've made.

2.  Aragorn going to fight orcs

I mentioned earlier this week that we watched The Fellowship of the Ring with the kids on Labor Day.  I was reminded of my love for this scene when Aragorn tells Frodo to run and walks out to fight the orcs alone.  It is 20 seconds of cinema gold.

via GIPHY

3.  Asking for help

I was reminded this week of how wonderful it can be to ask for help when you have situations in front of you that you don't know how to handle.  I thought I might have to take James to a doctor, and of course we don't have a regular doctor yet, nor do we speak much French, which can make me feel stressed.  But within five minutes of asking a friend who has lived here longer and knows how to navigate the system, she had found me an appointment.  I didn't end up needing it, but it was good to be reminded that there are people I can ask when I don't know how to do something, and it's often simple for them to tell me what to do.  I spent the rest of the week thinking about other things I could ask for help with.  😊

4.  FaceTime

I think this is a recurrence in my favorite things, but FaceTime makes it so much easier to share moments with family that would otherwise be missed.  In Alabama we would always watch Ella's birthday video with family, and with the miracle of technology, we were able to watch the cousins watching it from over 4,000 miles away.  It's such a powerful tool for connection.  

5.  The Expectation of Vacation

We spent our summer moving and getting settled, so we're taking our vacation this month, combining it with a conference for new pastors in the International Baptist Convention at the end.  We're hopping over the channel to the south of England where I have the expectation of familiar things, speaking English, and charity shops.  I'm excited.

What good things have you enjoyed this first week of September?  How many Pumpkin Spiced Lattes have you already consumed?

"What IS it about the English countryside--

why is the beauty so much more than visual?

Why does it TOUCH one so?"

- I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith -