Hey y’all-can you believe it’s February? January simultaneously dragged on and flew by! I don’t know about. y’all, but I’m thankful for a fresh start with a new month. To be honest, January was a bit “blah” for me. It was extremely hard for me to get back into the swing of things after the holidays, and I feel like I didn’t get nearly as much accomplished as I hoped! Nevertheless, there were still some bright spots in my January, so today I’m recapping my January 2020 Favorites. If you’re new around here, at the start of each new month I like to round up my favorites from the previous month. So here goes my January 2020 faves!
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Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale
I shared a full post with my January 2020 Lilly Pulitzer After Party sale haul on the blog last week, but had to mention it again here as a highlight of my month. I’m proud of myself for showing self control and sticking to under $100 in spending. The four things I bought add some variety to my Lilly collection, and I’m especially loving my new pajama set I bought during the sale! Check out my full Lilly After Party Sale haul in this post.
Kate Spade Cat Ring Dish
I love cats, so when Kate Spade had an extra percentage off their sale items promo, I couldn’t resist this cat ring dish for only $15. However, it functions as any type of trinket tray. This makes a nice addition to the side table by my couch in the living room. It’s still available here.
ChocOLAF Swirl Ice Cream
During a recent trip to Harris Teeter, they had Edy’s ice cream buy one, get one free. This limited edition Frozen II ChocOLAF Swirl light ice cream caught my eye, and I had to get it. It definitely didn’t disappoint. ChocOLAF Swirl features light chocolate and marshmallow ice cream with a fudge swirl and Olaf candy pieces. The candy pieces include brown twig arms and orange carrot noses. If you love ice cream and love Disney, you definitely need to grab this while you can. Confession-I actually haven’t seen Frozen II yet, but it’s coming to Disney Plus soon, so I will have to catch it then.
Prayer for China
The last week of January my church had an event where we enjoyed a delicious Chinese dinner, and then prayed for the persecuted church in China. This coincided with the Chinese New Year, and the Chinese church desperately needs prayer right now. The Chinese food was delicious, and reminded me that I need to get Chinese food more often. But more importantly, watching video testimonies of pastors and other Christians in China and seeing the extreme joy they have even in the midst of being imprisoned for their faith really put my struggles in perspective. For more info about the current situation for Christians in China and how you can pray, check out www.chinapartnership.org. Also, check out this post on Instagram for more of my thoughts.
Sweet Heat BBQ Trail Mix
Technically I first bought this Archer Farms trail mix from Target at the end of December, but it was after I published my December wrap-up post. And this has consistently been one of my go-to snacks for January, so I feel like it makes sense to share in this post. My favorite pieces are the BBQ flavored cracker-coated peanuts, and the honey-roasted sesame sticks. I also like that it includes almonds for a good source of protein. Definitely recommend grabbing some on your next Target run!
UNC Swim Meet
I like to catch one live swim meet at UNC every winter, and I had the opportunity to see one in January. Although I was nowhere close to swimming competitively in college at a Division I school, watching this meet still brought back memories from my swimming days. Even though I didn’t compete after high school, I am forever thankful for the life lessons from my time as a competitive swimmer. Also, it’s hard to believe that it’s literally been half a lifetime since my final race as a high school senior!
College Gymnastics
I also really love watching college gymnastics during the winter. I spent almost every Friday night in January watching “Friday Night Heights” college gymnastics on the SEC Network. It’s perfect for January, when there’s not much going on and it’s mostly cold outside. In addition, I went to a UNC gymnastics meet one Sunday afternoon in January, and it was fun to get to see gymnasts perform in person!
Encouragement for Singles
Brighton Keller, a mega lifestyle blogger, got married at the end of January. She shared an encouraging blog post about how she met her husband, Duncan, at church, but had a crush on him for months as a surface level acquaintance before he finally asked her out. Furthermore, Brighton had basically convinced herself that Duncan either had a girlfriend or just wasn’t interested in her not too long before he finally pursued her. During her wedding week, Brighton also shared a throwback video of an Instagram story she posted two years ago while she was still single. In the caption, Brighton shares some of the doubts and frustrations she felt while she was single. I resonated with so many of these things. Although Brighton is several years younger than me, she still spent a good bit of her young adult years single.
Anyways, if you are single, you definitely want to check out this blog post and this Instagram post from Brighton. They encouraged and reminded me that God is so much bigger than the limited perspective of what I can see. And it’s my prayer that one day I will have my own unique story from the other side that God will use to encourage others still waiting on His perfect plan and timing.
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I hope that y’all enjoyed reading my January 2020 Favorites. Even though January was a bit “meh,” writing this post reminded me that there was still goodness to be found. I’m currently clinging to Habakkuk 3:17-18 as my theme verses:
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
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-xoxo Liz
