Friday Favorites, 4.24.2026.

 

Happy Friday, friends! How's your week been? I hope it's been good; mine has passed by more quickly that I had thought it would. I'm glad for that! One never knows how fast/slow a week will pass with testing like we've had. I can't say that I'm looking forward to the additional four days next week, but I won't think about that now. I am so glad it's the weekend officially! I can't wait to meet up with Chris after work and then leave town for a weekend getaway. I hope this is the first of many for us! 

Here are a few of my favorites from the week...

My new favorite home away from home, also known as Marilyn's. I've stopped by there several times this week on my way home! I love that we're so close to each other now. 

The new Ella Langley album that released a week ago is my favorite music to listen to right now. I love her voice, and every song is gold! This one is a favorite, though...Butterfly Seasons.

Mexican and margaritas with Kendra Sunday night was a favorite! It had been way too long since we've had a good catch up session. 

New nails are always a favorite! I went back to an old favorite: Let's Be Friends by OPI.

My sweet friend and coworker brought me this sourdough breakfast sandwich from Dunkin Donuts on Tuesday; this was a favorite, delicious treat! 

Another sweet friend and coworker brought us both Diet Cokes from McDonald's on Wednesday! Is this a favorite for any of you? Their soft drinks are the most crisp! Also, how fortunate am I to work with such amazing people? I love that we try to do this kind of thing often for each other. We all seem to take turns. 

I think my favorite work outfit so far this week was the pink striped button down outfit. 

Sitting all cozied up next to this one is always a favorite. His ideas to take pictures with me will forever and always be a favorite! I love that he always makes plans to do this kind of thing with me, and that he knows we always need to take several. 

My sweet friend and coworker Heather gave me this adorable little knitted "plant" this week. How cute is this? I love having things like this at work that make me smile; the kiddos love it as well! I love that Heather knows that hearts are my favorite. 

My after work pedicure was a favorite yesterday; it felt so good that I fell asleep in the chair! I love this bright red; it's Big Apple Energy by OPI. 

Seeing my precious little first grade friend yesterday morning was my favorite! I haven't seen sweet little B all week, due to state testing and a wonky schedule. 

Last but not least, this is my favorite spot to sit while I sit and talk to Marilyn every morning before I go to work. I'm so thankful for her friendship and that she never minds my 7:30 a.m. phone calls. 🤣

What was a favorite of yours from the week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. I'll see you back here on Monday! Love to all!

Jenn 

the Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm here with Joyce again today for the weekly hodgepodge...this is a post that I dearly love; thank you, Joyce, for your inspiring and thought provoking questions each and every week! I'll jump right in! 

1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most "out of this world" place that you've ever visited? Tell us something about it. Without a doubt, the most beautiful place I've ever seen was Iceland. I went on a mission trip there years ago when my sons were little, and I remember having to pinch myself as I looked around at my surroundings. I can't find a picture of it to share, but you can imagine the splendor that I saw with all the natural geysers and bodies of water, including the Blue Lagoon. I got to float around in that! It was incredible. 

But honestly? You don't have travel outside of the United States to see such beauty. I remember being equally as awestruck last fall when my sisters and me went to Kennebunkport, Maine last fall. And before that, it was the gulf in Destin that had me awestruck. Sometimes it's just a brilliant sunset. 

It doesn't take a far away trip to make me happy; I just love to travel in general, and I am always in awe of God's creation. 

2. A favorite quote, verse, song, or lyric with the word earth in it? There's a beautiful song that we sang in church on Sunday that I love called Psalm 150 (Praise the Lord) that talks about the Earth being created by our loving God. I can't get the video to embed to save my life, but here's a link to YouTube if you want to give it a listen. It's beautiful! I love it when songs are taken straight from Scripture. 

3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? I kind of think that I feel strongly about lots of things. The most trivial of them is probably something regarding organization. I am a strong believer in putting things away pretty quickly. I'm a believer in making your bed everyday. I'm a believer in utilizing the dishwasher space for the smaller things and handwashing the larger items like mixing bowls, pots, and pans. I believe strongly that one should decorate for Christmas whenever her little heart desires, and not wait for a certain time or date to pass. I'm a believer in using words that encourage others, and not tear them down. 

4. What's your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What's the last thing you made using that tool? Two came to mind: my coffeepot and my air fryer. I use them both daily, it seems! I use the air fryer as a microwave a lot, and I even toast bread in it. I always wonder what I ever did before owning one, because it gets used daily. And the coffeepot is a given; I just about wear mine out with all the cups/pots of coffee I brew on a weekly basis! 

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book with 3,000 questions, and I'm going to use on in the Hodgepodge every week. Here's is today's:

What is your greatest extravagance? My greatest extravagance in life is that both my time and my life are my own. I love the freedom that I have as an unmarried woman. I don't have to consider anyone else for the first time in my life, and I have to say...it feels pretty amazing. I love getting to just pick and choose what I want to do (or not do), and knowing that it only affects me. 

If I want to eat pizza on the couch at ten o'clock on a Friday night with my boyfriend, guess what? I can do that. I don't have to worry about young kids wanting a bite or making a mess or anything. If I want to leave the kitchen a mess before I go to bed, then so be it. These are things I never really felt the freedom to do, and I am here for all the parts of my new life. I keep saying "new" like it's a new thing, and it's not. It just makes me wonder if the newness will ever wear off; I am not sure if it will, honestly! 

6. Insert your own random thought here. My random thought for this week is how much I love doing little things that bring me joy. This could be getting my nails done with a new color (I'm talking to you, Monday night!) or playing Bunco with ladies from my church. It could be knowing what's for lunch for me tomorrow at work, or knowing that I have a trip to look forward to this weekend. It could be as simple as sitting and talking to my sons, or knowing that when I lay my head down on the pillow tonight, Chris's voice will be in my ear, almost talking me to sleep. (We talk on the phone every night.) I have said it before, and I'll keep saying it: I'm a huge fan of romanticizing my life. Are you like this? 

I can't wait to read your posts today! Thanks for being here to read mine. Love to all!

Jenn 

Tuesday Talk

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! Today's coming at you with another totally random post about the things that I think about when I lay down at night. 🤣 I hope you enjoy this and get a laugh over some of this! 

I can't believe that I forgot to mention this in yesterday's post, but state testing started yesterday for our kiddos. I was so nervous, because I had to give part of it to a fifth grade student. It's a big deal! I could lose my job over something misspoken or a big enough mistake. I was thankful that it went off almost without a hitch! I did misspeak one thing, but I just kept going. I told my co-worker about it, but she said it wasn't big enough to report it as a testing irregularity. Whew! 

The schedule this week is a little bit all over the place, but I'm okay with this! It's nice to have something different to do for an entire two weeks. I'm kind of excited about it; does that make me sound nerdy? Or burned out? Ha!

On the note of things that are work related, I love my co-workers so much! Karen is stopping to get me breakfast tomorrow morning! I'll take a turn and pick some up for her on Wednesday. I am so thankful that I have a job and co-workers to love! I don't say this lightly; I literally thank God for this everyday as I get dressed for work in the morning.

I've seen Marilyn again since Sunday night, and we talked on the phone for sweet forever last night before I started writing this post. I don't know how we have so much to talk about on a regular basis, but y'all. We never shut up! 🤣

I finally saw my guy last night! We hugged and hugged and hugged in the parking lot before ever making it into the restaurant. I can't go too long without seeing him! We ate pizza for dinner across a table, then he slid over in the booth beside me so we could hold hands. And maybe kiss a little. 😉 It's funny how I used to hate PDA, and now I'm an active participant in it all the time when we're out in public. I'm so thankful for this man and that I get to call him mine. 

I've gotten spoiled to having good pizza. I no longer do the cheap kind; this particular spot is a favorite. I eat it once every two weeks, and I like to order it in the diet version (thin crust). 

In talking to Marilyn last night, she encouraged me to listen to worship music reminding myself of Who I belong to (not Chris). I immediately found a playlist on Spotify called Child of God. I came across a song I love called Jireh, by Elevation Worship. Take a look at some of these lyrics...

I'll never be loved more than I am right now

Wasn't holding You up

So there's nothing I can do to let You down

It doesn't take a trophy to make You proud

I'll never be more loved than I am right now

Going through a storm but I won't go down

I hear Your voice

Carried in the rhythm of the wind to call me out

You would cross an ocean so I wouldn't drown

You've never been closer than You are right now

You are Jireh, You are enough

Jireh, You are enough

And I will be content in every circumstance

You are Jireh, You are enough

I could honestly keep going with this, but I need to shower and get a move on with the day. Most of you know I shared pretty candidly last week about how I still get on the struggle bus every once in a while. I never could make myself go back to that post and thank you for the comments, so I'll do that now. Thank you. Thank you for loving me and for not judging me here. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for understanding, even if it's not something you've ever walked through, and for being a constant source of encouragement and joy for me. Mere words could never express how grateful I am for all of you. 

I'll see you back here tomorrow for The Hodgepodge. Love to all.

Jenn 

Hello, Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a great weekend! I can't wait to hear from you at the end of today's post. I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. I'll jump right in, starting with Friday. 

Our PTA at school is amazing; this week we had two treat days. And now that I write this, one might not have been from the PTA. We had teacher treat day on Wednesday, and Sonic drink day on Friday. Any day that I get to enjoy my favorite Sonic drink at lunch is a great day! 

I came home for a little while after work, mainly to change clothes and to tell Jonah and Noah my weekend plans. I talked to Noah for a while about his day...which I loved. It's moments like that I've missed since he moved away two years ago! Jonah was outside doing something when that happened; I love talking to him about his day as well. He likes to talk more at night after he's come home from being out. I love that they do this! I talked to all of my sons that day, and I remember being grateful for that. 

I went to Marilyn's house (the one she was moving out of) and helped her do a couple of things while they loaded my car. I wasn't there long, honestly. She ordered pizza for us for dinner (her, her daughter's boyfriend, and me), then I left to go pick it up for us. I drove to her apartment complex and sat in the parking lot until they showed up. Isn't this picture so pretty? She's living in my favorite part of town, and if I were to ever move into an apartment, I would want to move into the same ones. I love how convenient it is to everything! It felt amazing outside. Once they got there, we ate dinner, then unloaded our vehicles. It was just the two of us after the boyfriend left; we hung out and talked and did a few things before calling it a night. She needed to run one errand, so I met her there, and then we parted ways for the night. 

First new home picture! I love this woman so, so much. I still refer to her as Soulmate. 

I came home and stayed up long enough to put my things away from the day, then I headed upstairs and took a shower. I fell asleep pretty quickly! I slept in as long as possible on Saturday before waking up and coming down for coffee. On Saturdays I watch TV! I turned on Virgin River and did a few things around the house while that was on. Mare didn't need me early, so I didn't leave my house until noon. I made a run for our lunches, and then coffee for me. 

I smiled really big when this fell out of my Bible. 

I found and saved these images to my phone for a new screensaver/wallpaper. 

Finally! Iced coffee to help with my massive headache. I took all this to Marilyn's just as the movers were leaving. We sat and ate for a few minutes, then we got to work with the heaps of boxes. We made huge progress before her sister got there, then we took a break for dinner around 5:30. We walked over to a place called Cheffie's and I got this delicious salad.

I came home after dinner. I needed to shower and wash my hair to get ready for church the next morning, so I crashed pretty early. 

I went back over there one more time for the weekend after church. We ate lunch, and then worked on a couple more things, but she and her sister had it looking great from the night before! I was so impressed when I walked in with her Sunday afternoon. I stayed there all afternoon until I met up with Kendra for dinner at 6:30. After that it was home and straight to bed for me. I have a long week coming up, so I wanted to be refreshed for Monday morning. 

It was a great weekend, but the giant missing piece was Chris. He was supposed to have been out of town for the weekend, but he ended up not going because rain was canceling the races he'd planned on either being in or watching. I hated not seeing him even once over the weekend, but we made plans to meet today after work. I miss him! I haven't seen him in almost a week, and I'm not okay with that, honestly. 

What did you do that you loved this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all! 

Friday Favorites, 4.17.2026

 

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you've had a great week! Mine has been really good. I mentioned here Monday that because I'd planned to be traveling that day this week, I had taken the day off. Even though I ended up not being able to go on the trip, I kept that day off. It was glorious! It'll be my last day off before school ends for the semester. It's been a busy week for us at CWES! We're preparing for the big state test that will start next week. I'm so ready for it to be here so we can move on from all the reviewing that we're doing. After the test, it's all downhill from there, and tons of fun is headed our way to usher out the 2025/2026 school year! This year has flown by with lightning speed, as I knew it would. 

This was me on July 28, capturing my first day back to work for my memories. Looking back is my favorite! Okay, well...onto my favorites from this week.

Catching up with Mare when she got home Monday night was my favorite! Of course I went straight to her as soon as she got home from the blog trip! We ate dinner and enjoyed catching up and making a game plan for this weekend, when she moves. I'm hers for the weekend! 

I preordered this book by Diane Shiffer; do you follow her on Instagram or TikTok? I love her videos and was delighted to hear that she'd written a book of compilations that are similar to the videos she shares. Isn't the cover beautiful? Little details like that are always my favorite. 

The kiddos at school this week have been having Glow parties in P.E. God bless the coaches for doing this five days this week! They all dress up in neon, and the music is pumping as they dance and play games with black lights on in the gym. This is to get them pumped up for TCAP next week! Glow parties are their favorite!

Little things like this on IG are always my favorite. I don't know how true this one is for me, but I still liked it enough to save it to my phone and to share here. 

Chris sent me these pictures yesterday; this is where we're going next weekend! I can't wait to travel with him. I feel like it might be my new favorite! 

This is a terrible picture, but one sweet little (favorite) student brought me this tiny flower yesterday! She made my day. 

Looking out the windows and seeing all this green is a favorite right now.  

Getting dressed is still a favorite! I am loving dress season right now. 

My new favorite thing at home are these curtains and this rug! I love the change that it brought about in my home. I've got some more things on the horizon, so stay tuned!

What was a favorite of yours this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all! 

Jenn