top moments of 2024

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! As all of you know by now, it's been the hardest year of my life to date. Me being me, I don't want to end this year in a negative way, so I thought I'd share my top moments from this year. In spite of all that has gone on in my life, God has been so very good to me and to my sons. I have so many things to be thankful for that I don't ever want to forget. I'll try to keep this as condensed as possible, so here goes!

January brought this epic sunset that was taken at my mom's house and a massive amount of snow. I loved the cozy vibes it gave for the first day or two, but I quickly became a little claustrophobic and was so glad when it finally melted so that I could leave the house again. Have I mentioned that I don't drive in ice? Here's to hoping there is none of that this year! 

My sister Terri died in February of 2022; one year later, on the weekend of her birthday, the family came together to celebrate her life at my dad's house. This was an incredible kindness of God, because it would be the last time that the family would be together before Dad died just mere months later. How precious is my great niece Claire? She's a favorite of mine, for sure, and is one of the coolest people I know. Actually, the same can be said of her mom, my niece Amanda. 

March was the beginning of birthday season for my sons! We had a family celebration for them, and also in that month, I began the habit of using my Mondays off as a day to soak in some vitamin D while reading a book. As you can see, Crash enjoyed this activity immensely. 

We celebrated Dad turning 93 on March 29th! Look at his sweet smile. 

In April, Marilyn, Tanya, Joanne, and I started a new yearly tradition of a blogger's retreat! Maria was supposed to join us on this trip, but had to back out at the last minute due to an unforeseen injury. 

May brought about something new for both my church family and me; we hosted an event called Collegiate Summit for about a thousand adults in our church. I made literal tens of gallons of coffee over the course of three days and worked overtime in a week for the first time ever since having my job. It was exhausting, but so much fun! I remember feeling grateful for all of the help I had for this massive event. 

Also in May, Jonah and I started dog sitting for our neighbors and they let us use their pool. I loved getting to do this and working on a tan! 

We had a fun work outing as a church staff and attended a baseball game together!

Dad and I made a fun one day trip to the town where I attended college, and made memories to last my lifetime. 

I had one last night with all of my boys living in the same city before Noah moved to Dallas...

My niece and great nieces came into town...

...and we took Noah to Dallas with a trailer. That'll be the last time I say "we" here on my blog. 

June brought more pool days!

It also brought about the major life event that now defines my life...life before and life after. I appreciated getting to go away to the beach with my friend Dedee during the worst week of my entire life. She was exactly who I needed to be with, and I'm glad my sons forced me into going. I even swam in the ocean for the first time since I was a teenager! 

We rushed home on the last day of our trip, and two days later my sweet dad ran into the arms of Jesus. This was what my July consisted of. 

And in August, all my sisters came home and we celebrated my mom's birthday with a surprise party!

We cleaned out my dad's house and got it ready to be put on the market...

...and my Graham bought a house!

In September I made the trip to Dallas with Missy and Teresa to see my Noah...

...and bawled my eyes out for two hours as I began the drive home. I cried a lot in this trip, and at one point, Missy literally climbed into the bed with me and held me in her arms as I sobbed myself nearly to sleep. 

October brought about surviving a huge first for me, and Marilyn and I got to meet Sophie Hudson at a book signing. It was so much fun!

I confess to fangirling a bit when I finally got to meet John Mark. I could be his mom! 🤣

This was a month of doing things I've never done before, so this was us at a music fest! Also not pictured are the Oktoberfests we attended, one of which was in the sketchiest part of Memphis. 🤣

The end of October and November brought about a Denver trip! This was much needed and a relief to get away and be together with my sisters. Being with my greats is healing! 

And on Thanksgiving night, I spent the night at Mom's house. This was "my" bedroom. 

As much as I dreaded the day of Thanksgiving, I was glad that the day was so much better than what I'd hoped. 

December brought about many moments that I loved; getting to spend time with my best friends, seeing two plays at The Orpheum that friends treated me to, time with family, seeing Christmas lights, and lots of reading by the light of the Christmas tree. 

More than anything, I love and appreciate that my sons were like a wall of strength around me. They've stepped up their game this year in my life and have supported me, cried with me, laughed with me, held me while I sobbed in their arms, talked me through anxiety and panic attacks, called me often to check on me, hugged me even when they're not huggers all the time, and have stood behind and beside me. I am so grateful for the strong and kind men they've turned into, and that even if we're all a little worse off from the wear and tear of life this year, have somehow managed to stay positive for me. I don't know when the roles changed from me encouraging them to the exact opposite, but that happened this year. I would say we mutually encourage each other and continually remind one another that this will all be a distant memory this time next year. 

Lastly and most importantly, in case I didn't talk about it enough here this year, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Bible through again in chronological order with The Bible Recap community. I loved it so much that I'm starting all over again tomorrow! If you'd like to join me or are interested in learning more, here's a link with all the information you need to get started. In 2024 I mostly listened to the Bible being read aloud to me on the YouVersion Bible app, but next year I'm going to mostly read it again with my own eyeballs while using my new Bible. Here's how it works: you open the YouVersion app and click on Day 1; start with the "devotional" tab, which is just a prayer that you pray before you get started; you read or listen to the reading for that day, which is usually about three chapters give or take; then you go back to the "devotional" tab, scroll down, and watch the Recap video for that day, which is always less than ten minutes. All in all, this takes about twenty minutes a day. 

All of us have that time to spare! Care to join me in 2025? If not, what plan have you made to grow closer to God this year if you're a believer? I'd love to hear what you're doing, and I think it's great to talk about it, because it gives us accountability. 

Thanks for being a huge part of my life here each day, friends! I look forward to time spent here and the encouragement that we bring to each other. Many of you are bloggers yourselves, and others of you are readers. I appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you for the many prayers, words of encouragement, emails, texts, and cards that you have sent to me this year. I love this little online community and look forward to being back everyday of the week in the new year. I have lots more that I want to share and I'm working on some new ideas for each month; what would you like to read more of? I hope to incorporate one day a week to talk about Jesus, what I learn from His word, and how I walk out that faith everyday of my life. I'd love to hear any ideas or suggestions you may have for me! Today is not my only post; I'll be back later today for a book recap for the year, so check back tonight if you have some spare time. 

As always, thank you for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!


Jenn 🖤

weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a good weekend! Mine was super laid back and absolutely wonderful as I concentrated on my home and putting it back together after taking the Christmas down. I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's post. 

 

I'm picking up from Thursday; I woke up early and enjoyed one last morning with the Christmas tree being up before taking it down the next day. It was up the next morning, but I didn't sit to enjoy it on the other mornings like I'd been doing. I am always sad when I take the Christmas down, but I'm also always ready for it all to be put away after the day of Christmas. I love this season so much, but the minute the day is over, I'm done with it for the next ten months. I read a book and watched a show on Netflix while I did blog stuff on my laptop; it felt good to be at home and to have a leisurely morning. 

I ended up getting dressed and going to get my nails done eventually, because the red was on my last nerve. I had a gift certificate from my birthday, so because of that I decided to give the chrome a try for the first time! It's the perfect time to do that kind of thing and all the money I was out was $5. For that reason I won't do the chrome again, because I can't justify the extra money that it costs. On that note, I'm contemplating changing up how I do my nails and am considering purchasing something to do them at home. I have a friend who does this with gel polish and hers always look great; I am starting to research some of the best at home nail kits. I think it sounds nice to not have to schedule a whole outing just to get my nails done, and it will be nice to be able to change the colors more often than once a month, which is what I do just to save money. 

I've loved having all the baby dogs at my house this week! I know it's nice to have a break from them, and that Graham has enjoyed having a clean house for more than a day or two; he'll come and get them today at some point. I insisted that I didn't mind them staying longer when his weekend started filling up with plans. I know sweet Crash loves being here, and it makes me feel better about sending him to live with Graham. 

See? He also loves living with Graham, don't get me wrong. He is living his best life going back and forth between us! He just loves being with people in general and is such a happy buddy. 

That night all my guys came over for dinner. Noah's roommate ate dinner with us, and Marilyn came as well! I made twelve sirloin steaks, tater tots, air fried broccoli, and garlic bread made from my sourdough. It was delicious!  

The guys all eventually left, and Marilyn and I hung out there for a while before going to check out the after Christmas sales at Target. It was a fun night, and I'm glad she joined us for dinner.

I spent Friday between my house and work. I got started with the process of undecorating the house, then I paused to work for a couple of hours, then I came home and got back to undoing Christmas. That afternoon, Jonah and Noah helped me get it all packed away and put back upstairs. I'm so grateful they were both here to help! My back is almost one hundred percent better now, but I still can't do the stairs too many times in a row, and I can't do a ton of stretching and reaching above my head. Here's the house put back to normal.

I love this light tree that Mom and Bill got me for Christmas!

My mantel and hearth that took me a minute to get it to where I liked it again. 

I cleared the counter tops of clutter, and I'm loving how it turned out. 

This is a little bench that becomes a catch-all for everything. I spent some time Saturday morning cleaning out mail, and reclaimed the space to make it mine. The mail gets put in the baskets, but for now, it's clean again. I sent mail with Jonah when he and his brothers joined their dad at the paternal grandparents' house for their Christmas celebration on Saturday. (Everything about that sentence was weird to say.)

I still plan on using this mug for my coffee, because it's adorable. 

I cleaned up this desk area and rearranged some of the things to make it more visibly appealing to me. Something that I love to use as decor in my home are the things that I love; I love coffee, books, writing, and touches of green throughout. Because of that, I like to prominently display those items. 

Here's a close up of the tree that Mom and Bill got for me. I love it so much! Here's a link to the one I picked. Mine is the four foot tall one. It was very easy to assemble! 

Have I mentioned that I love quirky home decor items? I consider this owl just that, but I love him. 

I pulled out some of my pink books and decided to use them more this time around. 

Ignore how stuffed this shelf is; I have plans to start majorly decluttering this week. I got a big start on Saturday and plan to do more while I'm off this week before I go back to work on Thursday. Wish me luck! 

I've decided that in my next home, I want a coffee table so I can display my coffee table books.

 

Chloe plays with her toys all over the house; I went around and collected them Saturday afternoon and put them all right there together for her. She loved having several in one spot!

I browsed Pinterest to look for future smaller home inspiration (I'm going to go with a cottage style), and I found this image for my phone's wallpaper and lock screen. I was back at church on Sunday and home for the rest of the afternoon. I was going to leave, but I decided to stay in for the night. I will be around this week, so come back and visit! Because the first Wednesday is a holiday this week, I'm postponing Currently until the following Wednesday, the 8th. We'll talk about what we're currently loving, doing to stay warm, resolving, organizing, and wearing.

Here's a new graphic for you to use if you want! If not, no worries. I'll see you back here tomorrow, friends. Thanks for being here today to read; love to all!