Meet the Shaneyfelts

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday, y’all! I was just talking to my dad last night about how busy our summer has felt but we haven’t really done anything. We’ve got swim lessons twice a week, library once a week, Harrison had VBS, and some appointments…so we’ve been busy, but haven’t gone anywhere yet.

Today I’m sharing a few FAVORITES with. y’all!!

one

Monday, I published a post on how I do my daily quiet time. I don’t know about you, but if something happens and I can’t do it when I wake up and have to do it later in the day, I can really tell that my day is thrown off.

two

I got a new blush about a month ago and I really like it! I’ve been slowly moving all of my make up products over to a clean version. I used to use Nars blush, but it was very easy to make the swap to a nontoxic blush. I’ve used both Milk and Ilia blush sticks, but the last time I had to replace a few make up products, I wanted something a little cheaper than $30 blush. I saw a new-to-me clean brand and decided to try it. The color I got is Happy Hour and I love it! It’s very pigmented, so use a little at first and build from there. It gives you a very sun-kissed look and I’ve found that it stays all day.

three

Harrison and I made homemade lemonade earlier this week out of my Cotton Country cookbook. Banks even pitched in and helped by removing the stickers from the lemons. When it was time to taste it, both boys were HUGE fans, but Harrison did say it was a lot of work for a little bit of lemonade haha!

four

Excuse the slightly blurry picture from Harrison, but my best friend (who so rudely lives 3ish hours away), was in town for just a little bit on Wednesday so she swung by my house for about 30-45 minutes. We talk all the time via Marco Polo, but it was so nice to see her in person!

five

I snapped this picture yesterday while we were outside playing. Yesterday, I received some really disappointing news. I had made plans in my head for one thing and found out those plans weren’t going to happen. I know in my head that God’s plans are always greater than anything we could plan for ourselves, but I had a hard time just really accepting that. That is, until I watched my kids playing with the water table yesterday and was reminded of how my idea of motherhood and plan for myself was NOTHING like the actual way I became a mother and had children. If my plans would have come to fruition, then I would not have Harrison, Banks, and Merritt–which goes to show me (and remind me again) that God’s plans truly are way better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves. And that real life reminder helped me feel a little better about my disappointing news yesterday 🙂

I hope y’all have the best weekend! Apparently, it’s going to rain AGAIN here….ughhh!

How I Do My Daily Quiet Time

Happy Monday, y’all! It’s a rainy start to our week here, but that’s okay because it’s SUMMER and we don’t have anywhere to be….except swim lessons 🙂 And those will probably be canceled today.

I know I’ve written before on my blog about my quiet time, but I’ve never dedicated a post for it and I don’t know why because it’s a pretty important part of each of my days. In case you are confused on what I’m talking about, a daily quiet time is a time each day that Christians set aside to spend intentional time with the Lord by reading their Bible, maybe a commentary book of some sort, and praying.

Just to give some background info, I did not grow up in a Christian household (please note: this is no judgment toward my parents; I’m just simply stating facts and not faulting them at all), so I did not have this modeled for me. I wasn’t introduced to the concept of quiet time until I was in high school and my youth minister would randomly ask those in my youth group how our quiet times were going, so I started reading my Bible daily so I could be ready for when he asked me ha! I didn’t know what a true quiet time looked like until college when I lived with my best friend and had it modeled for me in that way.

I used to do my quiet time at night but I realized that sometimes I was so tired at night that I would cut my quiet time short because of that. Maybe 5 years ago (I can’t remember…maybe 6?) I decided to start doing my quiet time in the morning and I haven’t looked back since!

Today I wanted to share how I do my quiet time in case you are like I used to be and don’t have a model for it! I also want to add that you will go through different seasons of life where your “quiet” time isn’t necessarily quiet. There have been times where I’ve either had a newborn or even recently where Merritt is up super early, so my quiet time is done with her beside me watching tv. Instead of me getting aggravated that my quiet time is interrupted for the day, I remind myself that I’m modeling for my children what the life of a Christian looks like in hopes that one day their lives will look like that, too.

First, you need to find a “spot” in your house where you do your daily quiet time. I LOVE doing mine in my bed because my bed is so comfortable and soft. It helps that Dustin is an early riser and once he’s awake, he’s up and out of the bed, so that’s why I can do mine in my bed. Sometimes I do it in the living room, and once our upstairs playroom isn’t used as a playroom anymore (aka toys everywhere), I will probably do it up there where it’s really quiet.

Next, you need all of your materials. For me, that’s…

my Bible–I use the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible where the commentary points to Christ and the gospel. I would also recommend just the ESV Study Bible, too!

a study book–I am currently going through The Bible Recap each morning, but there are lots of different study books to choose from! I love Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries for the books of the Bible (this one is for Romans), and with those, I’ll read a few verses and then read the commentary on them. Sometimes I will do a study during Lent and Advent, and other times I will read through my Bible and read the commentary in my Bible.

Bible highlighters–these are made to highlight in your Bible without bleeding through and they are the best! I have this pack but they also now make pastel colors and once I’m done with the ones I have, I plan on buying those next!

a pen–these pens also don’t bleed through so I use them to write in my Bible and in my book

After I make myself a cup of coffee, I start by praying and asking God to open my heart and mind to His word. Then I read the scripture assigned for the day and then read the commentary in the Bible recap book. Then I write down my prayers in my book as I pray and I’ve decided that once I’ve finished doing the recap at the end of the year, I’m going to get a special notebook for writing my daily prayers down because I’m really enjoying doing that.

That’s it! It doesn’t have to be super fancy and some days, I get to spend true quality time with God and some days I have kids running around :).

Friday Favorites!!!

Happy Friday, y’all! I hope y’al have had a great week–I am definitely living my best life this summer! My kids (who are notorious early risers) are finally sleeping in later, so while I’m still getting up early, I’m getting lots of time alone in the morning which I really thrive on.

As always, I have a few FAVORITES to share with y’all!

one

I stayed up late last night finishing Carley Fortune’s latest book, Our Perfect Storm, and I LOVED IT!!! I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads! I loved her first book, Every Summer After, but it seemed like every book Carley published after that followed the same formula–one chapter is present day and the next chapter is a flashback. I was starting to get tired of that formula because they were all the same. This book does not follow that!!! It has very minimal flashback and most of the story is present day and it’s the sweetest storyline ever. It might be my favorite book by her!! Our book club will be discussing this book this month and I’m going to have nothing but great things to say about it.

two

My friend Sarah recommended the show High Potential for me to watch on Hulu, and I’ve really loved it so much that I recommended it to my friend Janie–who is also loving it! It’s kind of like CSI in which they are solving crimes each episode but it’s not gory or bloody like CSI was. It’s really good! There are two seasons out and I read that season 3 will be coming out next year? Or maybe the year after that, but it’s coming!

three

Speaking of tv, please tell me you’re watching Summer House!!!! This season has been WILD since all the stuff that’s come out with Amanda and West and then it made it more interesting to watch the season knowing that they were probably together last summer. The reunion has also been so eye opening and we’ve got one more reunion episode to watch before it’s all over. I wonder if they are even going to have another season of SH because of all of the stuff that’s happened. This is all me thinking out loud. Oh, and if you’re a SH fan, are you also watching In the City??? I’ve loved Lindsey since season 1, but I know not everyone loves her.

four

I am loving all of the patriotic things I’ve seen this summer–especially this cute and fun sweatshirt!!! My kids have lots of patriotic outfits to wear this summer, but now I’ve got to work on getting me and Dustin clothes.

five

We took a few pictures after church on Sunday but I forgot to share them! It’s hard to get 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time, so getting 2 out of 3 is a win to me. It’s always wild at our house, but I love it 🙂