weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? Mine was really good, and my favorite kind of time off: partly social and partly at home. Here's a few of my favorite moments, starting with Thursday. 

I love repurposing things in the bookstore at work as much as I love doing this at home. I have this little chalkboard that I like to change out with the seasons; it was due for a change. I made one side to use now and one for Valentine's day. I love doing this! I bought colored chalk right after I took over the store last year, and I usually spend some time browsing Pinterest for inspiration. 

And speaking of the bookstore...

I have so much fun buying things to sell there! I try to keep things fresh with each season, so I place pretty big orders every couple of months; I did this a week ago, and I added it all to inventory and put it out to sell last Thursday when I was at work. I have already sold out of a couple things I bought, so I ordered more yesterday while I was at home. I brought my laptop home to do some work over the weekend, because I have to figure out a couple of invoices to send out when I get to work tomorrow. 

I had an appointment in this high rise after work on Thursday, so I went straight there when I left my church. After my appointment I went to dinner with my Book Club; I loved the book we read in January! We met at a local pizza place, and I finished that for dinner last night since I only ate half on Thursday. 

I enjoyed my Friday morning at home, but I left around nine fifteen to meet my friend Dedee for coffee at this adorable shop, Congregation Coffee. This building used to be a church; when it was bought, the church asked that they would use something pertaining to church in the name of the new business. I love this place! It's really cool inside with a spiral staircase, which I went up not once, but twice. 🤣

After breakfast I met my mom and we made a stop at my happy place, also known as my beloved town library. We borrowed some books! After that we went to Marshall's so that she could make a return, then we had lunch at my favorite salad spot. It was delicious! 

You know I never say no to visiting John Mark's! I swooned more over the Valentine's decor than I did the Christmas. I love to go here for inspiration; look what he did in this picture above with the wall covering. He literally tore it in pieces and hung it to create this basket weave look. He is so talented; if you haven't already, you should follow him on IG by clicking here. 

Mom went with me to pick up my order for the bookstore from Sam's, then we parted ways. 

I ran into Kroger to buy some coffee, then I came home to hang this bow that Mom made on my front door. I love it so much! I love how girly it is and its vivid color. It's Chloe approved! 

Guess who came over for dinner that night? Marilyn! 

I spent a leisurely morning at home doing the things I love: I watched a movie while I drank my coffee...

...and then I moved onto tea at the kitchen table while I had my quiet time. I lingered over the reading again as I read in Genesis. I want to talk more about this tomorrow, so I hope you come back! 

I spent the morning cleaning out some shelves in the closet under the stairs and came across this picture and poem that I wrote for Jonah's and Noah's first birthday. Hopefully you can read the poem from the picture.

When I finished cleaning in that closet (and the downstairs bathroom cabinet), I got dressed for my day and left home to run errands. I ran to the library again to return books and get a few more, I washed my car, and I returned something from Amazon at the UPS store. That night I went to Mom's and Bill's for dinner, but I didn't feel great. I came home pretty early and watched TV for the rest of the night before going to bed. While I was scrolling social media, I came across these pictures below from two years ago. 

My friend Wendy (pictured in the very middle in the gray cardigan and glasses) was diagnosed with breast cancer that year; the morning after these pictures were taken, she had surgery. The reason we were at her house that night was to pray over her; I led us in singing her favorite hymn (It is Well with My Soul), and then we all took turns praying for her. The people pictured are some of her school friends, her small group friends from church, and her choir friends. This will go down as one of those core memories for me; how fortunate are we to have friends who uplift us, pray for us, and inspire us? It's a tremendous blessing to have friends and to be a friend, you know? 

I'm showing you my nails because I decided to stop getting my nails done. I went for a manicure on Friday only so I could have the dip powder properly taken off; I've decided that I need to get my nails back to a healthy state, so for the foreseeable future, I'll be using only regular polish that I will do at home. I'm actually excited about this, because I love polishing my nails! This is the OPI color, Let's Be Friends. My nail polish collection is one thing I cleaned out on Saturday while I was doing things here at home; I threw away all the old bottles that were beyond salvaging. 

The sons that live here came to my house Sunday after church for lunch. I immediately followed that by getting comfy with a cup of coffee and Chloe, and took a nap. 

Later on, I tried something new with my hair that I found in a video I watched on IG. I pulled half my hair up into this high(ish) ponytail, then secured it tightly with an elastic; I pulled a piece from each side then crossed them underneath the ponytail and tucked them in. It sounds complicated, but it wasn't, and I like how it turned out. Do you have thoughts? A funny fact about me: I never wear my hair up in public, not even halfway. This may be my new go-to style! 

What did you do that you loved this weekend? Do you have a favorite moment? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Love to all!

Jenn 🩷❤️