Friday Favorites, 2.6.2026.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I've been off work for so long, that I can barely keep track of what day it is. So many people are calling this Snowmageddon event, "Winter Break 2.0". I think that's accurate! In spite of not doing a lot outside of my home the last twelve or so days, I have a list of favorites that I thought I'd share with you today. I'm starting with my home, which is my favorite place to be! 

Valentine's day decor is among my favorite decor! I love hearts, and I love the colors. I have thoroughly enjoyed my home being decorated for this day. I spent a good portion of yesterday cleaning and reorganizing the desk you see pictured. I do this periodically! This time I got rid of some books; I'm not quite finished and want to redo the top as well, but that's for another day. 

Speaking of decorating my home, when I asked Chat GPT how I should decorate mine based on what she knows about me, this was what she said. Isn't this fascinating? 

Favorite outfits from the week, all leggings and tops! Lounge clothes are my favorite clothes. 

A bookstack from my favorite place is the best! 

The Faith Filled Therapist is one of my favorite follows on Instagram. 

I don't really buy books these days, but when you hear about another one by your favorite author, you buy it and wait anxiously for its arrival. 

Laughing is my favorite; both of these made me do that.

This is my new favorite mug! My dear friend Abbey gave it to me a few weeks ago; I love to eat ice cream from it instead of using it for coffee.

This day of quiet time was my favorite; I read Exodus 14 on this day, the chapter that has the verse that says the Lord fights for you, and you just have to be quiet. I needed that reminder on this particular day; the whole day was a chain of events that was almost unbelievable, but in a really good way. Maybe someday I'll share it, but that's for a later time. 

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

Jenn 

thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! What a week. I can't believe that the last day I was at work was January 23rd. Yesterday was my eighth snow day; hopefully as you read this, I'm getting dressed to return to work. We'll see! (It's Wednesday morning before nine a.m. as I write.) 

(Updated to say that I'm on snow day number nine.)

Here's what I'm thankful for this week:

• extended time with Jesus every morning
• the living, active word of God (My pastor always says this means that as we read the Bible, the Bible reads us. This is why we see "new" things each time we read, even if we've read it through each year for over a decade.)
• music...we sang an incredible song in church last week, and it's been on repeat ever since (Trust in God by Elevation Worship)
• time at home to get things taken care of (I've had to make so many phone calls this week) 
• sunshine
• rain on Tuesday that melted a good portion of the ice on my road/driveway
• texting with friends
• long talks on the phone to catch up with my best friend
• my sisters (I literally can't imagine life without them)
• my mom
• extra time at home to give myself spa treatments
• being able to focus on a book again
• silly things to do online that make me laugh (the caricature trend)
• beauty in the landscape of my neighborhood
• late nights watching tv
• lunch with friends on the days when schools are closed in my town
• being able to be treated by a chiropractor, who also happens to be my good friend
• choir practice after two weeks of missing (one for sickness, one for icy roads)

What are you thankful for this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. 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. The winter Olympics kicks off Friday, February 6...on a scale of one to ten (one being the least), how excited are you? What's your favorite winter Olympic sporting event? I love the Olympics, and the winter version is my favorite. I have plans to watch the opening ceremonies this Friday night! Chris already planned to come over after work; we'll order a pizza for dinner and watch together. I can't wait! I love the figure skating, the ice skating relays, and the skiing/snowboarding.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Alex, my bonus son, doing what he loved to do. I always forget that basketball is a part of the Winter Olympics. Speaking of that and the media coverage there, have you hear about Savannah Guthrie's (NBC The Today Show host) mom has been missing/possibly abducted? I was watching The Today Show yesterday and heard more to the story. How sad and scary for Savannah and her sibling(s). I heard that she pulled out of covering the opening ceremonies (possibly all of the Olympics) because of this.

2. In other sporting news, the Super Bowl (American football's championship game) will be played on Sunday February 8th. So tell us...what's your superpower? First off, this question didn't go the way I thought it would! I was prepared to say that I'm not a fan of the Super Bowl, but that I'm a big fan of the snacks. My superpower has to do with OPI nail polish; I can remember the names of the polishes I use, because their names are amazing. When my sons were teenagers, their girl friends would come over and test me regularly. I always blew their mind! 

Proof of this; when I know the name, I remember the color. 

These colors above are a couple of my favorites: Vampsterdam and Shorts Story. I'd love to be the one who gives polishes their names!

3. Are you a romantic? I used to say that I wasn't, but guess what? I am. Here's my idea of a romantic date: a picnic filled with things that we love, eaten on a back country road in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the bed of his truck lined with blankets/pillows so that we can be comfy as we watch the sunset, then slow dancing to our favorite country songs (the acoustic version of Spin You Round by Morgan Wallen) in the glow cast from his headlights. 

 

I love it when he stands behind me and hugs me. He's so tall that he makes me feel tiny (I'm not🤣). I also love that he dances; we've definitely shared some kitchen dancing as dinner was cooking. He's mentioned us taking lessons together, which sounds like fun. I'm not a big dancer, though I can sway and keep up with a beat. I'm not a ballroom dancer, and that's what he'd love to learn.   

4. Bleu cheese...yay or nay? How about feta? If you said yes to one or both, what's a dish you like that calls for one of these? I love bleu cheese, but I'm not a big fan of feta. The dish I can think of that calls for bleu cheese is hot wings with bleu cheese for the carrot and celery sticks to be dipped in. I guess I should specify that I prefer bleu cheese dressing over actual hunks of bleu cheese. I like that too, though, and will eat it on salads or baked potatoes.

5. What's more important: doing what you love or loving what you do? Can I say both? I've often heard it said that if you have a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life. My dad loved his job, and I love mine. What a blessing this is to be able to say! I do think it's more important to love what you do; I say this to my sons all the time regarding their jobs. 

I love it when Drew has a job nearby; he'll often stop by to see me while he's in town. Speaking of doing something you love: Drew works his rear end off in the HVAC industry; it's hard work, but he loves what he does and he's good at what he does. I'm so proud of all my sons! Three out of four of them love what they do; the fourth one is looking for a job as I write this.

6. Insert your own random thought here. Like I always do, I'm going to share a song I recently came across. We sang this in church on Sunday, and I thought then that I'd like to share it here with you today. This is Trust in God by Elevation Worship. I needed to hear this song again yesterday; it goes along with where I read in Scripture yesterday (Exodus chapters 13,14,15) and I kind of tied it all together. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! 

I can't wait to read your answers to these prompts! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

p.s. Keep reading after this post to see this month's Currently link-up!

Jenn 🩷

Currently: February 2026

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm linking up with Amy for this month's edition of Currently. I'll be talking about what I'm loving, baking/cooking, watching/reading, planning, and savoring. I'll jump right in! 

I'm currently loving these things pictured below...

...also known as the skincare products I found and am using that came from The Dollar Tree! The lip oil is amazing, and I cannot talk about it enough. If you take my word for anything, let it be about Jesus and this lip oil. Run and get you some ASAP! I almost prefer it to lipstick/gloss nowadays. 

I'm currently loving the game Uzzle that my third grade friend likes to play on Fun Fridays.

I'm currently loving school dress up days; this was our blue out day for our first basketball game of the season!

And I'm currently loving playing cards while I have downtime at home, whether day or night.

I'm currently baking/cooking all the food in my fridge/pantry. I'm snowed/iced in at the moment that I'm writing this, and it's forcing me to cook. This isn't a bad thing! 

Chris made dinner for us over the weekend. This was delicious! It was blackened chicken with Alfredo, in which the sauce was from scratch. 

Other than this sourdough bread, I don't do much baking. But I've baked twice in as many weeks! I keep one loaf and I give the other loaf away; each time I bake bread, it makes two loaves. One went to Jonah's friend Nick, and the other went to my son Graham.

I'm currently watching/reading Landman on Paramount +. I'm also watching movies a lot right now. I watched His & Hers on Netflix; have you seen it yet? It's scary! I watched it while I was iced/snowed in last week since there were only seven episodes. I watched it only in the daytime hours since I'm alone all the time. I'm watching When Calls the Heart on Hallmark +; I'm always watching old shows I love on Netflix like The Gilmore Girls and Younger, and I started watching Love is Blind (the US version, starting with season 9) thanks to our lovely host, Amy. Do you have any recs for me? I can't do scary/suspenseful. I prefer reality or sweet/funny.

I'm currently reading an older Melanie Shankle book called, Nobody's Cuter Than You; the book is about the beauty of women friendship. I can attest to both the book and to the beauty that comes from having friendship like she talks about. I'm also currently enjoying reading the cookbooks I have at home that I've never read; I have one by Reba McEntyre, Ree Drummond, Joanna Gaines, and The Crockpot Girls.

I'm currently planning and working on two upcoming trips, one in March and the other in April. I had a trip to Dallas planned to go see Noah in February, but I've had to cancel. 

In March I'm traveling back to Colorado; my niece Erika is pregnant with her fifth daughter, who will be born in May. My sister Debi is hosting a "sprinkle" for her in lieu of a baby shower. Mom, Trish, and I are flying to Denver on Wednesday of my spring break and will be flying back home on Sunday so that I can return to work on Monday. 

The trip in March is to a new location for me! I've been to South Carolina, but only once, and to Myrtle Beach. It's crazy to think that this trip will be our third annual blogger's retreat! Our first trip was Tanya, Joanne, Marilyn, and me. Maria was supposed to come, but she had an injury that involved surgery, so she was forced to cancel. That first trip was in 2024; we traveled to Franklin, Tennessee, which is close to Nashville. Joanne and Tanya flew in; we picked them up at the airport and then finished the drive to our Air BNB. 

Last year in April of 2025, Maria and Amy joined us! This year it's Tanya, Joanne, Maria, Marilyn, and me. I don't think Amy can join us, but we're hoping to have her back next year. Joyce from the Hodgepodge posts will be joining us for part of the time that we're in SC! Marilyn has met her once, but the rest of us have not. 

It's crazy to think about how much of life has changed for me since that first blog trip in April of 2024. Graham and Noah still lived at home; I was still happily married, Dad was still alive. Now none of those statements are true. Noah moved to Dallas in May of 2024; Todd told me he didn't want to be married anymore on June 22 of 2024, Dad died on July 2 of 2024, his funeral was on July 11 of 2024, I found out Todd was cheating on me on July 13 of 2024 and that was the day he moved out. Graham bought his house in August of 2024 and moved out in the middle of September of 2024. I filed for divorce on September 11 of that same month, and by March 26 of 2025, we were divorced; by this time, it was just Jonah and me living in my home. It's still that way today! 

I'm a dates girl; are you like this? I can never forget all of these dates and their close proximity.

I'm currently savoring each and everyday. 

I'm loving being in a relationship with Chris; he's a wonderful man. My dad would have loved him! He loves to cook for me/us, and that's something I've never had. I think I fell a little bit more in love with him on this night last weekend when he cooked dinner for us! We enjoy being together; I trust him explicitly with anything and everything. We went for a ride on that same afternoon of the night he cooked last weekend; the roads were still icy, but he went slow so that I wouldn't be scared. I cannot say enough how great of a person he is; I think he's incredibly handsome, but it's his heart that is beautiful. 

These pictures made me laugh really hard at the time that I took them. Part of savoring life for me means lots of laughter; I'm thankful that my family and friends afford me lots of those moments. Life feels good and it is; it's not perfect by any means, but I take things a day at a time.

What are you savoring right now? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn