Friday Favorites

My preschooler graduated yesterday! I guess I should say he completed his first year. Summer break has begun and my life will  be different. All three kids home, nowhere to be in the mornings, finishing the last trimester of pregnancy and then we will be a family of SIX before I know it. Sharing a few favorites today that may be very helpful in these transitional days or become some I bid adieu to for a while. Only time will tell. Be sure to check out the rest of the Kitsap Blog Circle posts – and their Friday Favorites. I shared their links below too!

Favorite Mindless Read

Affiliate links provided.

Right now I totally need a coffee table magazine that I can snag when I have a few, rare minutes to engage in something mindless. Even better this “mindless read” often leads to inspiration or motivation! The Magnolia Journal was gifted to me by a sweet friend, when I received the “gift email” I literally had tears in my eyes. Such a thoughtful gift to receive a subscription of any kind. Now whenever it arrives I think of her thoughtfulness and honestly it motivates me to be thoughtful in return. I also love that the articles are substantive, funny, inspiring, and diverse. It really hits on all my favorite topics. Faith is often entwined, home life, food, decor, life issues – it is just a really fresh take on my favorite things! I hope you’ll grab a copy off your local bookstore shelves or even better subscribe! (And one extra tip, use this affiliate link if you haven’t read the Magnolia Story and start there – I LOVED it on audio because Chip and Joanna Gaines actually narrated it themselves, I got it for free from my local library using the Overdrive Application!)

 

Favorite Inspiring Instagram Account

Okay so I love to following inspiring accounts on Instagram. For the most part I follow faith based accounts and look for ones that have God’s Word at the forefront. There are so many that share Scripture, Bible Journaling and Illustrated Faith entries, or other life stories that incorporate faith. That being said I love to follow my favorite authors too. Seeing real life of these ladies is so special, and thanks to Insta Stories you don’t just get their top 9 edited photos you get a fun look into daily real life.



One of my current favorites is actually a duo. Jess Connolly (@jessaconnolly) who wrote Wild & Free is so refreshing, candid, real, and inspiring. Read my review of that awesome book here, and know she has a new one coming called Dance, Stand, Run in October that I am just dying to get ahold of. That lead me to find her sister’s account. Her name is Katie Walters (@katiewalters) and she is the mom of 6 kiddos, mostly elementary aged, but she just had her 6th baby ( not to mention is in ministry and works with an awesome nonprofit called Francis + Benedict that “exists to empower and equip skilled Togolese seamstresses by providing them with dignified and sustainable employment”) and I just adore this sister duo.  I honestly watch their stories almost like a favorite sitcom, but I love that they also encourage me toward Jesus. Check them out!

Favorite TV Show
With my guy: We adore the “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago PD,” and “Chicago Justice” powerhouse duo times two! Man I’m on the roll giving you a bunch of 2 for one (Instagram sisters) and a 4 for one (tv series) this week. But, we love that these four series are intertwined and that the characters really are lovable. We’ve watched from the start and just can’t get enough. Plus it’s fun to have  several options to watch together. They are put out by the same guy who did the Law & Order series’ and we loved those too! (Coming in at the top of my list also is Designated Survivor – but I’ll save that for another “Friday Favorites.”)

On my own:

I have several shows I watch on my own without Ben and most are on the CBS Network. (Also a few others on ABC Family) Yes your observation is correct that I do like television. My favorite to watch right now is “Madam Secretary.” I really love the political flares to quite a few shows out now and this one has some family values and is fairly clean which I also appreciate.

Old Show on Netflix: We are re-watching “One Tree Hill” from the start, it’s the first show we really watched together. However, Ben jumped in at the current episode at the time and missed SO much. I forget everything I watch so it really is like watching it for the first time for me too. I will say this one has surprised me though. For being a teenage flick that I watched at a fairly young age, and for having been on “The WB” later “The CW,” I really am surprised at how much risqué behavior there is. Just a fair warning. I’m saving “The West Wing” to watch when baby comes as I always save a show I’ve never seen, that gets great recommendations, and has several seasons to watch during those early couple months of long nights with little to no sleep. To be honest when the show has been good enough it was very motivating to get out of bed and nurse. (insert chuckle here)

Favorite Dinner

My go-to favorite to throw together for our family or a crowd is Japanese Chicken Curry. All I need to have on hand is rice, onions, carrots, a chicken breast or two, and a trusty S&W curry bar. I have many versions of curry I make but this is a favorite. You can get the full recipe here from when I did it in my Cast Iron Cooking series, but you can make it in any kind of cookware. Bonus if I have tomatoes and green onions (maybe even peanuts, raisins, coconut, or bananas to put on top). You can read the full recipe here but I’m telling you just grab an S&W curry bar next time you are at the store  – you won’t regret it. I honestly have at least 3 people who have told me “I don’t like curry” who have tried this rendition and LOVED it. (Also easy to make vegetarian by using vegetable broth and substituting the potatoes  for the chicken!)

Favorite Makeup Tip/Tool


Okay so being “on trend” is not my forte.  At least I won’t pretend to be an expert. Lucky for me I do enjoy being “put together,” I have a very stylish and informed younger sister who also passes me her hand me downs, not to mention two sisters by marriage who both have fun and different senses of style. When it comes to makeup I am a traditional type girl. I do my make up 6 days out of 7, but it has to be easy and simple. My Friday Favorite tip (that is also on trend) is my insight into eyebrows. Now I’ll tell you my experience is limited. I have substantial eyebrows, what can I say they run in the family. This makes me so grateful that a more natural and full eyebrow is “in.” My life hack on this one… black (told you they were dark) Mac eyeshadow applied with a bit of water using a Mary Kay eyeliner brush just to fill in spots where they are sparse. Mostly near the bridge of my nose. Then I follow with CoverGirl mascara. This gives the hairs (or spots that are lacking individual hairs) a bit of texture and differentiation. I use the natural lines of my face, the basic eyebrow rules, and some tools I already own to frame my face with my eyebrows. And I’ll tell you, since I started experimenting with what I like and what I don’t like to create the look I personally prefer, I’ve had more people comment or notice my eyebrows. It is also the least amount of pain or work I’ve ever had to put into them. Thank God for this trend and my easy hacks to getting my eyebrows just how I like them.

These monthly Friday Favorites are brought to you by the local Kitsap Blog circle and I hope you’ll check the others out!

Whitney of Whitney Coudray Photography who unbeknownst to me read my mind and shared THE SAME Favorite! (PS we don’t talk about these ahead of time! That’s crazy.)

Nicole of Let’s Go, Lovely

Facebook Comments Box

You may also like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.