Share 4 Somethings, October 2025

 

Happy Saturday, friends! Can you believe we're at the end of October? This year has flown by with lightning speed! I'm glad you're here to link up with me today for Share 4 Somethings, when we talk about some things we loved, some things we learned, some things that went well, and some things we let go of this month. I'll jump right in!

This month I loved all the moments I had to enjoy my favorite season! Locally our weather has been phenomenal; it's been cool in the mornings and in the evenings, and I've been wearing sweaters to work each day. I love this so much! Additionally, I loved being in New England during this season. When I was there a couple of weeks ago for fall break, we visited quintessential fall towns, where each home looked like it was fresh off the pages of a magazine. 

I'm so grateful that I got to go on this amazing trip with my sisters! It was the best I've ever been on, honestly. 

Something that went well for me this month was continuing to see the same man I've been seeing since early August. We're about to be at the three month mark, which they say is when true character makes its appearance. I'm not sure how true this is, but it feels significant since it's the longest I've dated one man. We've been learning what works and what doesn't; we've learned what not to talk about (our pasts in excess) and we've learned to communicate. 

I love both of these images I saw on social media; they both reminded me of this phase of life that I'm in. I'm so glad to know that I can always trust in God's perfect timing and plan for my life. 

This month I learned that there are days when my patience runs thinner than others. Thursday of this week was this for me; by the end of day, my nerves were shot. I love the students that I get to be with, but there are some that drive me bonkers. I don't tolerate bad behavior very well (defiant might be a better word), and I definitely don't like being kicked or growled at. Seriously, both of those things happened this week at work, and I was ready to go by the end of Thursday. It wasn't just me that felt like this that day; the whole school felt like it was on edge. There are things that have to be dealt with that are heavy; kids are mean and say really hateful things to their teachers. Our special needs friends can be destructive and abusive. I'm telling you...it was a day. 

Even though this is the case, I'm still so grateful that I have the job I do. I'm not one to hold onto things from the day before, and I treat each day as a clean slate. I pray for this a lot of mornings, and I pray for the teachers that I work with and the students I'll be seeing. Some days are great, others are anything but, but I'll always be there for it all. I consider a huge perk of my job being on the receiving end of so many hugs. They're the very best! 

And this is what I will always greet my little friends with: a smile that may or may not always meet my eyes. Even if I'm having an off moment, it's important for me to remain neutral with them. If you ever want to pray for me, maybe you can pray that as well. 

This month I let go of things around my house. This isn't necessarily a good thing, friends! My closet was a disaster area until yesterday afternoon after work. I was talking on the phone with Chris, and it was something I was able to get done at the same time. It feels great that it's clean again; I was able to go through it some and get things ready to donate this weekend. 

I can't wait to read your posts! Thanks for being here with me today, friends. I'll see you back here on Monday. Love to all!

Jenn 

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Friday Favorites, 10.24.25.

 

Happy Friday, friends! Before I forget, I want to remind you that you tomorrow is the last Saturday of the month, which means it's time for the Share 4 Somethings link party. I hope you'll join us! Can you believe we're already at the end of the month, and that a week from today is Halloween? I can't...time is flying. It seems like I blinked and went from the end of July to now. Speaking of time flying, this week also went by quickly. I am so glad to say that I never dreaded going back to work after fall break; by the time Monday rolled around, I was more than ready to see the students. I love these little people so much already, and I am so thankful that I get to work in a school environment. It's super fun getting to love on them and have fun, and then come home to a house without young students. 🤣 I'm sure you understand why I feel like this. I'm looking forward to next week with them, because it's a dress up week with a costume day on Friday. I'm not sure how I'll dress up just yet, but I've got an idea or two rolling around in my brain.

Moving on the favorites from this week, I've got several!

Having flowers from Chris in the house was a favorite of mine this week. I want to keep them alive and healthy for as long as possible! This was a very small gesture that went a very long way. 

Graham's new baby dog Jack is my favorite! He adopted him from the animal shelter when I was away on vacation; I sent him the Instagram post, and it was love at first bark. I'm always happy to welcome a new fur baby into the family, but I have no plans to keep him until he's tolerable. I realize this makes me sound like a terrible person, but welcome to the We No Longer Care Club, friends.

It's the week (month?) of animals! Jonah's girls make me laugh and shake my head; I love how Chloe was laying on the couch looking out the window. Stella sits like this for Jonah all the time, as he pets her. Marilyn witnessed it this week! Drew has a new dog at his house, Bear, a baby dog that my bonus son Alex (who is now Drew's 3rd roommate) adopted. He's adorable, too, but I haven't met him just yet. And Noah adopted a new cat a couple of weeks ago to add to their duo of them at his house. And speaking of him, he also moved into a house this week! It's been a busy week for my adult sons. They're my favorite! 

Getting dressed each day continues to be a favorite for me. I love my clothes! Is that strange to say? I'm still in love with Halara jeans in the two washes that I bought. The top picture is a maroon colored top from the Moco boutique you see online. My Hello Pumpkin sweater came from Amazon last week; here's a link for you! I'll wear this into November and I may wear it at Thanksgiving this year. Lastly, this sweatshirt that I'm wearing that says Forgiven is from Eternal Light. Here's a link!

Monday night dinner with Kendra and Marilyn this week was my favorite! We needed to catch up, and I'm so glad we did. We talked endlessly for at least two hours, and our food was delicious. I ordered the tempura green beans and pad Thai. 

And yes, we still met Wednesday after I got out of church! We were long overdo for a night at Rotolo's. I love these ladies, and am so grateful for their friendship! 

Getting boo'ed at work this week was a favorite! I passed it on the next day, and included different types of items than what I received. That was fun!

One of my co-workers makes and sells these adorable cookies, but she brought us some as a treat on Tuesday. I ate it at 2:40 yesterday, because it was a day, and I was in need of something sugary.

Fourth grade is one of my favorite groups of students! I get to work with them all twice on some days. This was one such day; I was helping this young man write a four paragraph essay. Part of my job consists of helping meet accommodations that all of our students have. Many of them are dyslexic, have ADHD, or are on the spectrum, so this means that they have more time to test and resources to help them succeed. They're allowed to have a scribe, so that's what I was doing. He was telling me what he wanted to say, I would write it on a white board, then he would copy it onto his paper. This was painstaking, but I enjoyed working closely with him. 

Christmas music is my favorite! This was me at choir rehearsal Wednesday night. This song may seem simple, but holy Christmas lights, it's anything but! 

This pumpkin pillow is my favorite! And apparently, it's also a favorite for Chloe. She thought it was a toy this week, but she didn't mess it up at all. 

This artwork that lines the halls is my favorite! The art teacher hung all of these yesterday, but I loved the look of this one. It's so much fun working at my school! 

Seeing him midweek was also a favorite. We always sit side by side for a few minutes when we're together eating and in a booth; once the food comes, he moves back across from me, then we come back together before we leave each other again. I love this! A hand hold or a hug does wonders for my heart after a long week, and he's said it does the same for him. 

What was a favorite of yours this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. I'll see you back here tomorrow for Share 4 Somethings! Love to all. 

Jenn 

the Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends, and happy October! 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. What do you like most about your family? There are a million things I love about my sons. They're kind, they're funny, they never complain, they're best friends with each other, they're always smiling, their attitudes are almost always great, they love other people, they're helpers by nature. I could go on and on all day long, honestly. They're amazing human beings!

2. What's something nice that happened to you recently? I was boo'ed at work yesterday! This just means that someone gave me this little Halloween basket filled with goodies; it's anonymous and after you're boo'ed, you then pass it on to someone else. Isn't this fun? 

3. Do you like the color orange? Besides a pumpkin and an actual orange, what's something orange that you love? I actually hate the color orange, but I love a golden/orange colored sunset. 

4. What's something you have now that you couldn't have imagined having five years ago? How does that make you feel? What's possible now because of it? The life I have now isn't one that I'd have imagined having five years ago, but you know what? I'm okay with it, 99.9% of the time. Some days it feels sad and shocking, but I love it almost all the time. It's possible for me to work and have this carefree life now because of the fact that I'm without a husband. I fluctuate all the time about what I want in the future...and I don't know if I ever want to get remarried, honestly. I love my freedom that much. (The picture below is of my two favorite single ladies! I'm so grateful for their friendship.)

5. Let's wrap this up with an October this or that...

pumpkin bread or apple cider donut

cozy sweater or cozy hoodie

apple picking or pumpkin picking

scary movie or Hallmark movie

hayride or corn maze

twinkle lights or candles

autumn hike or autumn bonfire

6. Insert your own random thought here. This is late! So my random thought is that my life usually takes precedence over my blog these days. I sometimes run out of time and don't have the time to plan ahead. I'm not complaining! Thanks for always being around to read here even when I don't show up regularly. Love to all!

Jenn

talk about it Tuesday: the vacation recap edition

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I have so much to share about my recent vacation to the New England area; because of that, I'm going to do my favorite kind of recap, where I'm heavy on the pictures and short on words. Buckle up! 

We all had an early day of travel! Our planes landed within fifteen minutes of each other once we got to Portland. (My blog is going to be dumb and load all the pics in reverse order, so bear with me.) This first day we stopped at a CVS first for hair products, then checked into our super charming inn for the first leg of our trip. We got situated and then left to head into town; the first thing we saw was the house with the pumpkin patch in front! We ended up in downtown Kennebunkport, where we walked around for a bit before our first dinner and my first of many cups of clam chowder.

The first restaurant we enjoyed was one that I follow on IG, The Boathouse. It was good! I got this chowder and then Lisa and I shared crab cakes and we each got a dinner salad. I had a spicy margarita to go with mine! 

After breakfast, on Monday we loaded up in the rental and headed back into town. We stopped at two different cemeteries first! Debi has a thing for them; we had fun taking pictures and looking at old graves. 

For the rest of the day, we toured Kennebunk/Kennebunkport and then we made our way over to several beaches to look for sea glass. We saw the Bush family summer house, we traveled into Ogunquit, and we saw a lighthouse. I can't remember where we had dinner this night, but I had seafood with almost every meal that I ate while I was there. I know that I had some sort of seafood pasta on this night that I shared with Lisa. 

On Tuesday we took a walking tour of an historical home, and we walked back into Kennebunk for literally a few minutes before leaving for lunch. We ended up having to drive to find a place to eat lunch, because there aren't a ton of food options there. We did find a brewery place, and I had more clam chowder. We drove to a beach that was about thirty minutes away, and that turned into going to two other beaches as well. We went back to Ogunquit in the late afternoon and walked around a bit before eating dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant. I love the picture of all of us around that fire pit. This was a really fun day, and we were beat when we got back to the inn that night. 

Wednesday was moving day! We packed it all up and checked out of the inn and started making our way to Salem.

I had to have my picture made on Jenny Lane on our way out of town! The Salem we saw on Wednesday was one we didn't like. We went to a very underwhelming museum, and we walked around on Essex, the main street that goes through this particular area. People were scaring us, as you can see they were dressed up and did this to everyone, and it just felt a little dark and seedy. It reminded us of New Orleans, honestly, and we were regretting leaving Maine. We rallied and left to check into our room at an inn in Gloucester. After getting settled in our adorable beachside room, we went to dinner. We had seafood again (I had baked cod), and it was delicious. 

Thursday was my favorite day! It was Debi's birthday. We had a huge breakfast and then ventured out to see a lighthouse before heading back into Salem. We stumbled upon this beautiful beach that had tons of sea glass! Debi loves sea glass, and for about an hour, this was what we did: we searched for this beautiful treasure. It was incredible! I brought some home as well and I love it now just like she and Lisa do. After this we drove to Salem for our last full day. We loved this day there because we saw the historical side of it in a walking tour. Our guide was incredible and we saw some beautiful homes and heard a lot about the town, the witch trials, and the movie that kind of put this place on the map (Hocus Pocus). We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Turner's and this gorgeous cake that Lisa ordered. She made the topper herself, though! 

And just like that, it was Friday and time to leave. We ended our trip with one more lighthouse sighting, the Portland Headlight. I was there 29 years ago, but I loved it more this time. This was a phenomenal week of vacation! Everything was nearly perfect, and we were all on our best behavior. In case you don't know this, sisters can get salty. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to do this with them! We made memories to last a lifetime, and I will always love our time together. 

If you're still here, whew! Thanks for sticking around to read about my trip. Love to all!

Jenn