the power of our words

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I was thinking about the topic of words one morning this week and thought I'd talk about it here today. I hope you enjoy today's post!

Since I was a young girl, words have been important to me. I've always collected cards and letters that people send me; I still do this today and will hang onto something for a long time before letting it go. I actually pull things out and re-read the words from time to time; I do this because it's a good exercise on a day when I'm feeling less than. 

Here's a small sampling of the cards I've collected over the last two years. I threw away a bunch of what I had in my keepsake box two years ago. 

I say this today, because words are powerful. It's important to choose them wisely! I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else here today. How do you use your words? I asked myself this as I wrote this out earlier this week. Before I tell you how I like to use my words, I feel the need to confess how many times I have fallen short of what I am about to say. And that's okay, and even normal sometimes. We're all human and our emotions can overtake us from time to time. The goal is to keep trying to do better. 

I like to use my words to encourage. 

I like to build others up. There's a Bible verse that I love that talks about this.

Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29

Have you ever been the recipient of really kind or thoughtful words? I have too many times to count; it's because of that reason that I like to pass that small act of kindness forward. I try to interact with people in such a way that I leave them smiling or laughing. Have you ever had a really bad day and experienced a sweet compliment from a stranger? I have! I don't try to flatter people; there's a difference in that and a sincere compliment. But if I see something about someone that I like while I'm out, I will always say something. At the very least, I will ask them how their day is going, if I'm out and interacting with someone.

On the flip side of this, have you ever experienced negative words from someone? It's even worse when it's someone you love that does the lashing out. I have experienced negative words a lot. I think most of us would say the same thing, honestly. And here in the blog world, where we all live pretty open lives, it puts us in a position to be easily attacked. I've gotten a lot of flack for being so open here on my blog about my life in the last couple of years. I get that not everybody understands this little community and how it works, but it was a choice I made to be like that here, and I don't regret that choice. My thoughts are that even if someone doesn't understand why I would be so open here, from my point of view, if it helps even one person who is going through something hard, then it's worth it to be an open book here. 

I like to use my words to remember. God has been faithful for all of my life; never once has He forsaken me or left me on my own to figure things out. He has always provided for me, in every sense of that word. I love to talk about this with people! I love to remember through story; one of my favorite things in life is to sit around a dinner table with my sons and talk about the memories we share. I have so many wonderful memories of their childhood, that the stories are too many to count. I also know that almost every time we're together, I learn something new that I've never heard before. This is life with adults for kids, particularly a bunch of young men. They were into all kinds of crazy things that I was clueless about! 

I love to use my words to get to know people. I love to ask questions and often have many. Do you do that, when you're getting to know someone? I think it's a great way to show someone that you're paying attention. All of this post today is to say that our words are important. I think there are times when I don't pay close attention to mine, and that isn't good. I always want to strive to use my words for good! What about you? Are words important to you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 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. How would you define 'the good life'? I love this question!

I would define the good life as a non-perfect life. It's not about having everything I want, avoiding every hardship, or always feeling "happy". For me, the good life is learning to find meaning in the life I have right now. This would mean learning to love people well and letting myself be loved in return. 

For me, gathering around a table with family, laughing at stories I've heard or shared a hundred times, and realizing I wouldn't trade those moments for anything in the world would be the good life. 

The good life would be having work that matters, even when it's difficult or stressful. 

The good life would be finding beauty in ordinary days—a sunrise, a good book, a favorite song, a quiet conversation, the person I love curled up next to me.

It would be knowing what truly matters and not letting the urgent crowd out the important.

The good life isn't measured by what I accumulate, but by what I cultivate: gratitude, faith, kindness, peace, resilience, and connection. Perhaps most of all, the good life would be able to look back and say:

"I loved deeply. I was present. I trusted God through the highs and lows. I paid attention to the gifts hidden in ordinary days. And I didn't let life pass me by while I was waiting for something better."

That's the good life—not a life without storms, but a life with purpose, love, and gratitude while the storms come and go.

2. What's the most used app on your phone, and are you proud of that? Another great question! (I texted Joyce and told her how much I loved the questions this week.) I was going to answer this by what I thought it would be, but when I pulled up the stats on my phone, I was very pleasantly surprised. I would have guessed social media would have been my number one, but it was text messaging! And look at that usage; I am great with these numbers. I was down 43% from the previous week. 

I love stats like this! It inspires me to do even better next week, so here's to a week of choosing my book over my phone and real people over looking at someone's social media feed. What I wouldn't give for a nineties or early two thousand's summer! 

3. 'Every rose has its thorn', 'everything's coming up roses', 'looking through rose-colored glasses', 'it's no bed of roses', or 'stop and smell the roses': which rose idiom best relates to something in your life currently? Explain. At this present moment, I would say of these that 'stop and smell the roses' stands out to me. I feel a bit like a broken record saying this, but I am loving my current phase of life. I am wanting to savor the days and soak up all these magical moments. Can I be honest for a few minutes?

I'm not used to life feeling this good. I almost feel like I'm waiting on the bubble to burst and for things to come crumbling down around me. I'm used to that, after the last couple of years. I'm not used to a man like Chris; I will never get used to the way he treats me, the way he adores me. I hope I do half as good a job as he does. I'm not used to having someone around who loves to cook with me and who is so adept in the kitchen. I'm not used to being wholly loved, treasured, and valued. I'm not used to someone being so open to do all the things I want to do, and who goes along with all of my crazy ideas. I'm not used to this level of calm, of peace...I've read all of these things about what it feels like when your nervous system regulates, and I'm experiencing all of them. 

And you know what? I'm grateful for this life, for how it has turned out. I never thought I would be able to say that and mean it, but here I am making that known. It's true! 

4. How do you feel about floral flavorings in your food or drink (hibiscus, rose, elder flower, or lavender)? Since I've been so wordy today, I'll try to shorten this a bit. I love floral favors in tea drinks, or specialty drinks from Starbucks. My sister Debi introduced me to something floral from Starbucks in Denver last summer; it was so good! It seems like it was hibiscus something or other. 

Cheers!

5. Over the course of your life, what have you probably spent more time pondering than anything else? I think maybe I've spent a lot of time pondering the many ways of God. I don't understand how He works, and never will, but I know that He loves me and that He is trustworthy. I always wonder what His plan is for my life, too...and how that will play out. It's nice to be in a position of being able to trust Him and His plan. I know that things will happen exactly as He intended. For now...I'll sit back and enjoy life knowing that He's got it all in His hands. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I have a favorite song of the moment once again! This is I Choose You, by Sheffield.

I guess I'm feeling sappy in this current phase of life. I sent this to Chris one day last week, and he admitted that he listened to it over and over again. I love when he sends me songs in return, which he does sometimes. For the moment, I have more time on my hands than he does. 

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

Jenn 

ps. I work two days this week, starting today! I'm praying and hoping that it goes well and expect to be in training most of the day. Maybe say a prayer for me, if you think about it at some point? Thanks in advance! 

Fashion Files: summer haul from Old Navy

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm linking up with Amy and Marsha today for Fashion Files. This week I'm sharing about the clothes I bought from Old Navy last recently. I had been thinking for a few weeks (since the weather first started to warm up again) that I needed some new clothes. Mine have been great, but the dresses were ones I have had for about three summers now, and I was honestly getting tired of them. I'm not a big shopper, and it's not anything I love doing. I will buy things as the need pops up, but I'm just not one to keep buying things all throughout the year. I will occasionally pick up something that I love if it strikes me when I'm out, but I also don't really go looking at clothes all that often. 

All of that being said, it was past time for me to do this, as it was much needed. So here's my little refresher haul from last week.

It's the summer of the skort for me! I love this little athletic skort with the tee pictured above (the tees are linked at the bottom of this post). I wore this the day after, but I paired it with another tee I'd bought from ON while I was in Denver over Spring Break.

I love these shorts with their summery print! The chambray shirt is fun, too, and can be worn with a thousand things. It's considered a cropped shirt, but I'm short, so it's not very cropped on me. I have searched and searched for a link to this chambray shirt, but I cannot find it online. I also don't have a link for the neutral/gold strappy flip flops, but I bought them last year at The Rack Room. Any neutral/metallic strappy sandal would be fun, though! 

Same skort, different tee, recently purchased Reef sandals.

I love this hot pink tee shirt dress! It's very basic: a straight shape, no pockets, no frills. I love it, though. I went back and bought it in the other colors: green, black, red, and the striped one. I think these will all be great to carry me into another school year! Actually, most of what I bought will carry me into another year of working. This is basically my once a year shopping spree...

Another skort...I wore this out to lunch on Friday with Marilyn. Here's a link for this one. Here's a link to my favorite Dr. Scholl's sandals that you see pictured. Flip through all those colors! I love the leopard ones, too. I own these in black as well, but I just do not love a black sandal, even if I'm wearing black. I will always pick a neutral to go with a black dress! 

I didn't buy this one on Tuesday, but I couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the day. I went back to buy it on Wednesday while I was out; I also picked up some white linen pants that aren't pictured. I can wear anything with the linen pants, but my plan is to wear a denim shirt with them the first time. Also, I bought this same dress above in four colors: white, brown, black, and this yellow that you see. I love the dress! It's that gauze material, so it's lightweight and breezy; I love that you can tie it with the strings, or you can leave it open, and I love that it has pockets. This particular dress is on clearance for $11 at the moment! Here's a link.

I also bought one additional dress on Friday, thanks to an email they sent me. This one is on clearance for less than $20. Here's a link for that one.

I tried on this white skort, but didn't love the feel of it for some reason. I put it back and bought the one pictured in the link instead. I love that poppy color!

Here's a link for the Hawaii tee; this one above is just like it, with different words. Here's the Montauk version. Not pictured is this white button down shirt that is a boxed style; it's cropped as well, but when you're short, it's not that cropped. Another item I bought that I didn't take a picture of is this pair of athletic shorts.

So that's my recent fashion haul. I feel like I did great and will wear all of these into the fall. All of the dresses I bought will be great for now as well as when it's a little cooler and can be paired with a denim jacket. Do you have thoughts? Anything you love or hate? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 

Hello, Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? Mine flew by! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. I'll back up to Thursday evening and will jump right in!

This new bookshelf finally came on Thursday afternoon! Chris put it together for me that night. I was so glad that he was here to do me such a huge favorite! This kind of thing is way above my pay grade. I can put smaller pieces together, but this would have made me bonkers. I mentioned last week that I sold the bookcase that had been in this corner; I love this airy and lighter piece of furniture that holds my books and beloved trinkets. 

Just for reference, this is what this corner looked like before. Isn't it so much better?! 

For the rest of that day, I met Marilyn for lunch, then did laundry and home stuff. Once again, it felt good to be home to be able to do all of this! 

It had been ages since we'd been to Salad Station! It was good to see her and catch up; I also got to give Brook a quick welcome home hug when I picked up Marilyn.

Chris and I went to dinner and then we drove to the town square. We decided to get out and walk around a bit before finding a bench to sit on. We also got Sonic ice cream before we did this! We've been on a kick with that lately. Ha!

Saturday we got some breakfast, then went to swim for a few hours at my friend's house. The water felt great, but the sun went behind clouds for practically the whole time we were there. We didn't stay long. That night Trish and I went to see Beauty and the Beast at The Opheum. This was the last of my season tickets that I bought in my dad's memory for the 2025/2026 season. The best was saved for last!

It was a beautiful night to be downtown! This show was incredible; it was my favorite movie once it came out around my sixteenth birthday. I have a snow globe from the movie that Dad bought me that year that still sits in my room today! I was living my best life and dressed in my yellow dress, because why not? 

It was amazing! The costumes, acting/singing/dancing were all phenomenal, and I was blown away by the talent. I know I sat there smiling the entire time! Dad would have loved that we did this together, and I'm so thankful for the year of shows I've been able to attend. It was a great way to honor my dad's life, because he was the one who taught me to love theatre from a very young age. 

And then on Sunday, I tried a new church!

This one is so outside of the normal that I'm used to; it's small, and I really enjoyed that several people spotted us immediately and came to talk to us when they saw that we were new. I loved this! We might go back next week or we might try another small one that's near my house. Either way, we will be back to this one. This is in a small neighboring town about ten minutes down the road. For the rest of the day I did laundry, I took a nap, I went to Kroger, and I made dinner. 

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

P.s. In case you missed it, here's a link to the bonus post I made over the weekend. I'd love for you to check it out!

everyday images and weekly gratitude

 

Happy Saturday and bonus blog post day! I thought I'd combine a couple of things in today's post...this everyday images challenge that Kym hosts each month, and some things from the week that I'm grateful for. I'll jump right in! 

flag

simple/complicated

I've enjoyed some simple dinners this week; this one was marinated steak tips, rice, and zucchini/squash that Chris brought to me from work.

at home

Wednesday weather

doorway

movement

I love how the water moves with the wind.

branched

And some things I'm grateful for this week:

• beautiful weather
• time with Chris
• a new piece of furniture to represent my new life
• good talks with my sons
• an amazing second week of Summer 
• the friends I have
• plans to look forward to
• clean sheets
• being home to clean and stay caught up on things
• music
• a catchup phone call with my best friend, Missy, on her birthday
• having a plan to visit a new church on Sunday
• a week to be social while I'm off for summer break
• friends who have pools I can use
• Saturday night plans with my sister
• a home that I love
• all the things I have that I don't ever want to take for granted

I hope you're enjoying the weekend, friends. I'll see you back here on Monday! Love to all. 

Jenn

Friday Favorites, 6.5.2026.

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you've had a great week! My week was excellent; the first week I was off, I was getting used to being off work and catching up on things. This was the week that I fully embraced my days off. I was out every single day doing lunch, meeting friends by the pool, and shopping. I won't do that every week that I'm off, but this week it felt amazing. It's been a busy one for me, but here are some of the things and moments that stuck out to me. 

I introduced Chris to one of my favorite places last weekend: Taziki's! Their hummus and oven baked pita chips are my favorite. I could just about eat this hummus with a spoon! That olive you see in the picture was scrumptious!

Going to the pool with Marilyn on Monday was my favorite! She has the best pool where she lives; those chairs in the water are amazing. The water felt amazing, which I was surprised by, since it hasn't been that hot for too many days in a row. How cute was our little friend we were sharing the pool with? 

Bread making day is complicated, but it always ends up being a favorite when it's all over and done with. I say bread baking "day" like it's just a day, but it's not. It takes the better part of a day and a half! The day you pull the starter out to discard and start the rising process is not the day that you bake; you won't do that for at least twenty four hours more at that point. My bread didn't want to rise this time, so I didn't actually bake it until the late afternoon of day two. Isn't she pretty, though? The heart is my signature design; I don't have tools for this, I just use the tip end of a very sharp knife and free hand it before closing the lid of the Dutch oven and baking. I've tried a fleur de Lis and a flower; neither turned out well. For me, a heart is the easiest, and it's kind of my thing.

 

Dinners this week have been a favorite! Monday night was Mandarin orange chicken and chicken fried rice from Trader Joe's; Tuesday night was hamburgers (not pictured), and Wednesday night was steak, fresh squash and zucchini, and sourdough bread. 

I loved this image that I saw on Instagram this week! It's all true, right? As I went four days without washing my hair, I'm grinning. I was going to wash it Wednesday night, but I skipped it since I knew I'd be at the pool on Thursday. 

I had a fun day out Wednesday! I'm hosting Bunco next week, so that means that I get to shop for the gifts and provide the food for our next get together. I don't love shopping for these gifts, though...it's harder than it sounds. My friend Teresa loves to shop, so I asked her if we could go and do that together before I hosted in June. Wednesday was that day! I picked her up and we got started immediately. We went to Ross, then Marshall's, then John Mark's (I didn't buy anything there), then to lunch at a new to me place called Rio Lobo (which is in the building where another restaurant was that I went to for my senior prom), then ended the day at a cute little place called The Truffled Pig. 

It was such a fun day, and we got some great gifts! I would love to win any of them, honestly, which is how I like to go about shopping. We got some great things at Marshall's! I also have the menu planned for that night: rotisserie chickens with dipping sauce, chips and guacamole, a summer salad of some sort, sourdough bread, fruit, and key lime pie (with cool whip) for dessert. 

On a side note, the margaritas we had were delicious! I got a regular; hers was a mango one. The food was just mediocre and the service wasn't very desirable. Twice this week I've been out and had wait staff that weren't friendly. What in the world? I sound like I'm full of complaints today...I'm not usually like this, but with everything being so expensive, you would think that people would be friendly in restaurants. Am I being unreasonable? 

This song is a current favorite; have you listened? It's Younger You by Miley Cyrus. I don't typically listen to her music, but my sons watched Hannah Montana when they were young, and I was a huge fan of the show and of her for a long time. She went a little haywire as she got older, though, so I haven't listened in a long time. This song is a tribute to her younger days and to the show as it was the twentieth anniversary of when it first aired. That doesn't even seem possible, but I guess it's true! Anyway...this is a great song and I love what the lyrics say.

This was another favorite from Instagram this week. I love what this says about who God is! 

Having a second pool day yesterday was a favorite! My friend Wendy came over while I floated and we caught up on all of life. I haven't spent time with her in ages, and it'd even been months since we'd spoken. She is a friend I met through choir; I've traveled with her, and she and I went to see Peter Pan together at the Orpheum in December of 2024. It was so good to see her!

Lastly, reading has been a favorite this week! I finally finished this book; it was so, so good. I will be thinking about some things I highlighted for a long time to come! 

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

Jenn