five finds friday. (the driving. the giving of thanks. the funny video. the perfect measuring cup.)

I have a friend with as many children as I have who are all at about the same ages as mine.

Sometimes when we see one another, we make eye contact and we don’t even have to open our mouths.

We just know.

Life. Is. Busy.

It is full.

We spend HOURS of our days in a gas-guzzling tank of a car driving someone to something.

It’s where we are. We aren’t complaining. We’re just – tired.

It is a literal part time job to drive our prodigy to and fro.

It is a line item on the budget to foot the bill for the gas for all the back and forth.

(And this is even with young drivers living in the house.)

That is how our weeks go right now.

funny

We love a Hallmark-esque movie at this house.

Correction: SOME of us love a Hallmark movie.

But all of us watch them, even the fourteen year old boy who thinks they are full of nonsense.

Yesterday we watched one that involved a single dad (don’t they all?) and a job loss that turned into an opportunity for his family to learn the real meaning of the holidays.

They’re predictable. And poorly acted. But they’re irresistible – even in their lunacy.

So this mocking video from SNL makes me laugh.

fashionable

The most fashionably dressed person in our lives these days is Riley’s sweet baby Saylor.

flavorful

Do you remember Pampered Chef? The company that sells bake ware and those stones that were all the rage for baking pizza instead of a cookie sheet?

You would host parties at your home and the Pampered Chef guru would make all these delicious foods using the products?

I didn’t realize that they still existed until we visited my cousin recently. And I was reminded that Pampered Chef made a lot of really handy gadgets. (Some incredibly unnecessary ones, but also some really convenient ones too.)

And I was reminded also of one of my favorite products of theirs – the measuring cup that works perfectly for peanut butter.

And since we do a lot of baking during the holiday season, I figured I needed this back in my life.

Plus – oh my word – they have a mini one too.

I am a sucker for anything in miniature form. (Take Yoda, for instance.)

faithful

These little leaves on our tree on our Thanksgiving table were full of things and people we were thankful for.

It was easy to fill up and we could have kept going.

Our Thanksgiving table was full and our bellies were full and my heart was full because in a year where so much could have gone wrong and so much could have sent us down a path in a different direction, instead God faithfully and fully held us together and moved us forward.

feels

These sort of scenes are all I want out of a holiday.

Goodness, how I wish there were more of them.

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