Friday Favorites – Let it Snow

Tis the season we tend to let the hustle and bustle carry us away and we become just a little caught up in the rush of things. This week was a little crazy to say the least but then something utterly unexpected happened. As I drove home from work Thursday, I realized the drizzle I was seeing was in fact snowflakes and not rain. By the time I rushed the kids off to baseball and dance it was really coming down.  Y’all, nowhere did I see snow in our forecast this week!  We were literally running our a/c on Tuesday!  It was an unexpected gift and we were practically screaming let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

While the actual snowfall was beautiful, I think what is most amazing is how our entire little town, children and adults, stopped whatever we were doing and embraced this gift.  Homework was excused, bedtimes were modified and those dirty dishes in the sink were able to sit just one more day so everyone could experience, some for the very first time, this wonder.

Lesson learned, we are utterly unprepared for cold weather and there was not a hat or a pair of gloves to be found.  I have zero clue where I’ve packed these things away but I definitely need to keep the stash a little more organized.  We also learned if you drop a cell phone while making snowballs while it is still snowing, the chances of finding it are slim to none.  Pour Keith raked the entire backyard looking for Dillon’s phone!  Carly worked her hardest to make a snowman while we searched for the phone and we definitely need to watch a you tube video on snowman making it appears.

So here’s what else I learned from the snow.  Sometimes our unexpected gifts are big and bold and so obvious we have no choice but to stop and embrace the moment.  Some days these unexpected gifts are not so bold but they are there every single day.  I challenge you, heck I’m challenging myself, to find the unexpected gifts.  Embrace it, find joy in it, cherish it, praise it!  The one way to combat the hard in this world is to see all the gifts and we just get so busy at times we fail to open our eyes.

I mentioned in one of my prior Friday favorites the book, The Greatest Gift, and I am reading the daily devotional again right now.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book through day 7 by Ann Voskamp.

The greatest gift we can give God is to let His love make us glad.

You will be experienced as a blessing to the extent you have first experienced yourself as a blessing.  You must fill the fullness of your own pitcher before you trust the pouring out of yourself.

Laughter – it’s all oxygenated grace.

God provides grace in the gaps of our lives.

I hope one of these hits a chord for you today and offers a little extra peace as we head into this weekend where many of us will be scurrying around working to tie up our Christmas shopping, decorating or other holiday planning.

Happy Friday friends!  Wherever you are I hope you find an unexpected gift today!

And if you loved the Anthropologie sweater I showed off last Friday, it’s 30% off today and still available in black and a beautiful green!

Poncho

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