weekending...the one about my friends taking me out to celebrate my divorce

 

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a great weekend; I know I did and I wanted to share the highlights with you today, focusing mainly on Friday and Friday evening. 

I thoroughly enjoy the mornings when I don't have to rush off to be anywhere, so the first thing that I enjoyed was that kind of morning on Friday. I'm behind in my Bible reading and playing catchup, so that was the first thing I did once my coffee kicked in. Before that I caught up on some blog posts...and I have to stop right here for a minute. I'm so behind in blog reading! I'm sorry; I love all of you and I love reading your blogs, but I can't seem to get it together enough in the mornings to read blogs at that time. I'm in the process of figuring out a new morning routine, especially since I offered to to handle Stella in the mornings; mornings with puppies are no joke! I'll catch up with you all eventually, but in the meantime, thank you for the fact that you keep reading my blog. You are so sweet to me, and I'm thankful for all of you. I'll get back to your blogs at some point, I promise! 

Back to Friday morning...once I finished some things here at home, I moved onto getting dressed for the day. I went with comfort for the day since I would be dressing up more that night, so here's what I chose. 

I'm still in the phase of life where I wear leggings as pants, so that's what I picked for Friday with Mom! She and I had decided that we would get out together that day; I didn't have anything to do, but I had one place that I wanted to go visit. She had a couple of errands, and then we had lunch together at my favorite place, The Salad Station. 

I'm still loving my ankle bracelets that my friend Teresa gave to me, and I'm thoroughly loving my newest sneakers. Here they are on Amazon. They're the Dr. Scholl's brand, and Friday was the first time I tested them out. It's interesting that when you lose weight, one of the places you can lose in is your feet; that's what has happened to me. I'm having to replace sandals this year because of this! I'll share those in a few minutes, but I actually needed more sneakers since I'm walking a lot now. 

I was admiring this beautiful tree as I waited on Mom. 

After lunch, we went to my favorite place—John Mark's! He just reset the store for Easter, and I wanted to see it in person. I loved these things that I took pictures of, but I will always love that ribbon room with the all the colors of the rainbow!

We went to J. Jill after that, and I found this top that was on sale with an additional 40% off! I love this color and know I will wear it a ton during the warmer season. It's a really nice material that feels like rayon, so it's very breathable. 

When Mom and I parted ways, I came home for a few hours in between events that day. I changed into this "divorce dress" as I know call it, because this was what I wore when Todd first told me he wanted a divorce. It felt fitting to wear it again on the night my best friends took me out to celebrate my divorce being final! 

I sat here and read a book while I waited to leave. Abbey came over to my house so we could ride together to pick up Missy, then we met Marilyn and Andrea and all rode to a cool area of Memphis together. See my sandals? Here they are on Amazon. I bought the exact same ones in black, as well. 

Here we all are! You may recognize them from my birthday dinner; right to left are: Abbey (in the pink and taking the picture), then me, Marilyn, Andrea, and Missy. I love these women! There are twenty years represented in this picture. Abbey is ten years younger than me, and Missy is ten years older; the other two are in between! Age really doesn't matter once you're over a certain age. 

I chose a place to eat in Midtown called Babalu. We had tableside guacamole and queso made in a skillet for appetizers. My dinner was steak kabobs with crispy cauliflower and served on a bed of small roasted potatoes. I ate every bite, and it was delicious!

I was texting pictures back and forth to my friend, and this was the one I sent. 

We all did what girls do, and we visited the restroom together! Abbey and I went first, and took the opportunity to take this picture together. I want this one in a frame! Abbey and I go back to when my sons were all in the youth group; she was the girls ministry leader and I worked closely with her helping lead groups of teenage girls. I loved those years, but I mostly love that Abbey and I became so close; she and I began meeting every week to pray together, and that was when we became best friends. I love that I've seen her "grow up", so to speak. I knew her single and prayed that God would help her to be content in being alone. I witnessed her meeting the man of her dreams, them getting married, and now becoming who they are today: a family of five. God is gracious to allow friends to go through life like that together! To say that I love this precious soul is the understatement of the year. 

I love the area of town we were in! The weather was perfect, so we enjoyed sitting outside for dinner. After dinner, we went walking and took the opportunity to take some pictures! 

Of course Marilyn had to be Elvis! Abbey was a local wrestler, Jerry Lawler, and I was BB King, as in the "king of the blues" here in Memphis. This was fun and we were cracking up, but Marilyn's snarled Elvis-like lip kills me! 

You all know how close Marilyn and I have become; every time I leave her, I thank God for giving us each other to walk through life with. She's the only one that I have here locally who completely understands what I've gone through and how it feels. I'm so grateful that we are able to see each other so often, because there are days when one or both of us just have to get out of our homes. I am so thankful for this wonderful woman; I would like to think that we're each other's biggest cheerleaders, greatest supporters, and complete confidantes. She's the only person I have that I can tell everything to, if you know what I mean, and she doesn't judge. We listen, and we don't judge! I love my Mare so much and cannot imagine a life without her presence. She's become one of my best friends this last year, and we're officially stuck with each other forever. 

This swing was so comfortable! I love the pictures we took while swinging. Abbey loves physical touch as much as I do, which is why we're sitting like we are. I love this about us and even have a picture of us one time from youth camp when we fell asleep holding hands. 

This is my Andrea on the right of the picture above. She and I met when I first started homeschooling, when Jonah and Noah were in the fourth grade (nine years old). We needed an outlet to get us out of the house, so I joined a homeschooling group called Renewed Moms; the kids went to fun classes (similar to a tutorial) while the moms attended Bible study. I was placed in Andrea's small group, and it was an instant heart connection. Years later when I left, we remained friends and have been meeting once a month since. I love our long history and that we've only grown closer over the years. I wouldn't want to go through life with her! 

This is my Missy! She's my best friend; the one I got to know through leading teenage girls in the youth, the one I trauma bonded with on a Sunday afternoon when the mom of my bonus son died. She and I have walked through so much life and trauma together over the last eleven-twelve years that it's almost comical. Between us we've walked through five deaths, the death of my marriage, and unspeakable things that I can never talk about here. Can you imagine what a great conversation that would be? The things I don't talk about on my blog? I literally couldn't do life without my Missy. We sit together in church every Sunday, and we always save a seat for Jesus to be in between us. We like our personal space and don't like to be on top of one another! 

Here are a few other areas and pictures that I loved and wanted to share: 

...walking back to my car...

...pretty peacocks on a wall that are shimmery...

...this heart made out of locks...

...and this sweet picture of us that made us laugh because of the reason I wanted to take one here...

,,,a few of the locks that I loved and the heart shaped bolt that holds this whole thing in place...

...a milestone moment for Mare happening on this same night and being able to witness it in person...

...a pretty tower in colors that I love...

...Andrea and me laughing ourselves silly...

I'll leave you with this one last thing, the words that you see above. Whether this pertains to friendships that we have in life or a relationship that we've invested in, we should all pay attention to these unassuming green flags. I don't know about you, but out of every relationship in my life from now until the day I die, these are things that I want. I want us to mutually support/encourage one another, I want us to invest our time and energy into our relationship, I want us to remember all the details (no matter how small or big), I want us to respect one another, I want us to feel inspired after being together, and I want to spend lots of quality time together doing mundane things in life. I am fortunate to be able to say that I have all of this and much more in the friends the Lord has given me; this was evident as my besties and I spent time together Friday night. It was evident in how obvious it is that they love me; their actions and prayers speak volumes. When I'm with my people, I always leave feeling leave feeling loved, cherished, seen, heard, and valued. 

Regarding my future, I don't know what the Lord has in store for me in terms of a relationship with a man. He may have one for me, but He may not; I'm okay with however it turns out, because the Lord will always be enough for me. I call Him the great Love of my life, and He is. He will never leave/abandon me, He'll never let me down, He'll never disappoint me. He is both my Dad and He is now my Husband! There is a prayer that I often pray based on a passage of Scripture from Isaiah; I'll write it out below. 

"For your Creator will be your husband; the LORD of Heaven's Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. For the LORD has called you back from your grief—as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband," says your God. 

This passage is Isaiah 54:5-6; I suggest reading the whole chapter for context, though. I'm so grateful for this life that I get to have! God has been faithful and so very good to me. He is my life, and my everything. Do you know Him? I'd love to talk to you more about this if you ever want to chat; you can email me for any reason at all at allboys@gmail.com. 

On a lighter note, 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! 

Jenn ❤️🩷