the Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I love this day of the week with the weekly hodgepodge questions; don't you? I'll jump in since this is a late post for me.

1. Today is national Tell a Fairy Tale day...have you read one lately? What's your favorite? Do you believe in happily ever after? I haven't read a fairy tale lately! I haven't thought of one in years, but when I was young, I loved the story of Cinderella until Beauty and the Beast came along, and that became my favorite. I have a B&tB snowglobe in my bedroom that Dad gave me for sixteenth birthday. Even though life has made me a teensy bit jaded, I do believe that love (marriage) can last forever, even if mine turned out differently. Each week at church, we celebrate milestone wedding anniversaries of fifty plus years; last week we celebrated a couple for being married seventy years! Isn't that incredible? I do think the big and the small milestones should always be celebrated. Take the trips, go on the dates, do all the things you can to invest in your marriage!

2. Complete one of the following sentences with a thought relating to your life currently. 

Once upon a time....

A long time ago....

In a place far, far away....

A long time ago I had such a different idea of how my life would turn out. I was young and naive, and I was not the same person who is writing this today. I no longer lament what was lost in my life, but can honestly say that I'm grateful for how it's turning out. Even if my life was something surprising to me, none of this took God by surprise. 

3.  Which of the following fairy tale foods is your favorite? Which have you made or eaten lately? 

porridge/oatmeal (Goldilocks and The Three Bears), an apple (Snow White), a gingerbread cookie (The Gingerbread Man), pumpkin soup/pie/bread (Cinderella), peas (The Princess and the Pea), beans (Jack and The Beanstalk) or a cup of tea (Alice in Wonderland) 

Of these, my favorite and what I've recently eaten is an apple and I have one sitting out to take to work today. 

4. What's your idea of fun?

dinner with my people last night

spending time with my people

reading

listening to music

a summer day spent in a pool

being with a big group of people

traveling

making my home cozy and inviting

5. Next week's Hodgepodge lands in March. Is that right? I guess so.  Give us one noun, one verb, and one adjective that tell us something about your February. To make you think a little harder, you cannot use the words cold or snowy. 

noun- cozy

verb- active!

adjective- fun! 

I loved being busy and having a lot of fun this month. I can't believe Saturday is March 1! 

6. Insert your own random thought here. Here's my new favorite song! It's The King is in the Room by Phil Wickham.

Thanks for reading my blog today, friends! I'll see you back here tomorrow. Love to all!

Linking up with:

Jenn ❤️

February Randoms

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I thought I'd share some random moments from this month that are in the form of pictures on my phone. I hope you enjoy this kind of post as much as I do! 

My sourdough recipe is much loved! I've taught several people to make this, and I love doing that so much that I don't feel like I'll ever stop. I love that this piece of paper looks like this; I'll never forget the day that I transferred Marilyn's recipe over to my own sheet of paper. I was at Dad's house with him, because he was in bad health; while he napped, I wrote this down at the desk and watched him sleep. It was just a week later that my life changed, and two weeks later, Dad was in Heaven. 

I love seeing this truck pull up in my driveway! This was the last time I saw Drew. I postponed dinner to tonight, since his chances of coming over are far greater on this day than they were yesterday. 

Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese are something that I continue to love to eat for lunch! Speaking of food that's healthier, I'm down 17 pounds as of yesterday morning. The more I lose, the better I want to do, and it's motivation to keep going! 

I've been wearing lots of bracelet stacks recently. They're kind of my thing right now!

This picture cracks me up! This is Mandy, one of my two work besties. I was in her office one day and busted her doing this being nosy. I died laughing and made her stand still while I took this picture! And yes, she wears a full coat everyday all day inside of the building. 🤣

I love seeing my sons at home! This one came and visited one day, and I loved every second of catching up with him. 

This car is gorgeous! It belongs to a friend of my son's, and every time I see it, it makes me happy. 

This cracks me up! 

Hello! I'm Jenn and I have OCPD tendencies. My makeup has to be just so when I get dressed in the mornings.

This was me waiting on groceries yesterday and making good use of my time. 

Do you have any random things that you want to share from this month? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 🩷

Linking up with:

weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a good weekend; mine was so good. I had the perfect blend of family and friends to make it the best kind of weekend that I love. I hope you can say the same! Here's what I was up to this weekend. 

I love starting my day like this when I'm off work. I'm trying to do this throughout the books of the Bible this year as I read through it again. These are the things that I noticed about God as I read in Genesis. 

I lingered around my house for as long as I could before leaving to get a pedicure. This was a treat on my day off! 

I had told one of my work besties that I would bring her dinner after her surgery. She loves potato soup, so when I remembered that Newk's has the very best, I went to eat lunch there and then got hers and her husband's to-go. I also took them a loaf of sourdough bread that I'd made the day before. This week I gave away both of my loaves! 

I finally convinced Jonah to take a picture with me! We were cracking up when I took this; when he stood next to me at first he wasn't smiling. When I asked him if he was going to smile and he said, "I am.", we both lost it, and this was the result of that. It's less about the picture and more about the memory, right? 

I took dinner to Amy's house, and then came home for a few minutes before leaving again to spend the evening with Marilyn. I love our weekends together! 

We ate dinner in that night and had barbecue chicken, bird's nest scalloped cauliflower somethings, salad, and a tiny bit of this wine that I was excited about. It was good, but I only had a few sips. I took stuff for us to do our nails, but we ended up talking the whole night. Imagine that! I didn't stay long since I had to work for a couple of hours the next morning, from 7 until about 9. 

Early morning coffee and vitamins for the win!

I flipped through the latest AD that I got in the mail while I watched a really cute Hallmark movie. 

Then I brewed five gallons of coffee while I did things in the bookstore to get ready for Sunday. I liked spending that time there to get things done, but it was weird being there without being dressed for work. I went in leggings and a hoodie, and I kept my hair up in the messy bun you see with my morning coffee. I was a little embarrassed when I saw a few more people than I thought I would, but at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning? This is me not caring. 

I did actually get dressed, though, because I met up with Mom and Trish for lunch and a spring open house at my favorite young friend's decor shop, otherwise known as John Mark's. I was kind of bummed I didn't see him this time; I enjoy seeing him and talking with him. It's shocking that he is so young and such an entrepreneur! 

It was packed, but the store was incredible. 

I dropped Mom and Trish back at their vehicle, then I came home, but I left again to take something to a friend. Before I came home, I got a car wash to get all the salt off. I love having a clean car! 

Our snow always lasts forever in the front yard because it faces north. I went to Mom's and Bill's for dinner that night; Bill made the best salmon! We had that, steak bites, baked potatoes, and salad. It was delicious! 

I came home shortly after to shower and then I just sat in bed and watched tv with Chloe. Jonah wasn't gone long before he came home to finish moving his bedroom furniture to the bigger room at the end of the hall. I'm so irritated that Drew was here to help and I didn't get to see him! I was passed out in bed. 

I laughed at this image when I walked out to the garage this morning. Jonah and his friends like to sit out here at this makeshift table to play games. I think it's genius! And then I was at work by 7:15, ready for the day. That was just about all I did for the rest of the day! What did you do this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 🩷❤️

Linking up with:

Share 4 Somethings (#2 of 2025)

 

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm so glad you're here to join in with us for this month's Share 4 Somethings, where we'll talk about some things we loved, some things we learned, some things that went well, and some things we let go of. I'll jump right in!

Something I loved

I loved spending last weekend with my friends from church and teenagers! It was a youth event at our church that I helped with. I co-led the group of ninth grade girls and had the best time. Graham was the added bonus that I got Saturday night, which made my weekend. I needed to be busy that weekend, and am so glad I had a full weekend of plans. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but it was worth it! 

Something I learned

I learned a lot of things about myself this month, like that I am learning to love the puzzle of math and paying bills. I learned that I can continue to do things that nobody does for me anymore. This makes me feel strong and accomplished. 

Something that went well

Honestly, life feels like it's settling down and that it's going well. It feels good to have this new, normal life; I've moved past everything and have forgiven who I've needed to forgive. I'm at a point where I'm just ready for this chapter of life to be closed so I can up to the next new one. I don't really ever get sad or mad anymore; there was one day last Friday (the 14th) that I had a moment of extreme grief. I'd had a nightmare the night before, and it just got me thinking about what life used to look like when that would happen. I don't know if you remember this about me, but I am a BABY when it comes to nightmares, and I get scared to go back to sleep. When that would happen, I'd curl up behind him and then go back to sleep, knowing that I was safe. I had a moment that morning of the 14th when I thought about that, and why I was so tired; it's because I couldn't sleep after the bad dream. I cried over the death of my marriage for the first time in months that day. And then I asked God to pull me together, got dressed up in an outfit that I felt great in, and I went about my day. 

I reminded myself of what my shirt says: "I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who You say I am!" It ended up being a wonderful day and weekend despite a very sad start. Just keeping things real here in the blog world, friends. 

Something I let go of

I feel like I said this last month, but I've let go of so many things I did for so long. I have become the person who throws her clothes in the floor of the closet when things don't look or feel right, who doesn't clean the kitchen for a day, who says whatever is on her mind. I don't hate any of it, honestly! 

I'm excited to read your posts today! Thanks for linking up with me for this, friends. I'll see you back here Monday.

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