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. June 17, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing someone will say they weren't born yet, but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here. At this exact time thirty-two years ago, I was living my best life as a nanny! I worked with my friend Shawna; she was also a nanny, and she got me a job with her family's best friend doing the same. I distinctly remember this as the summer I had a crush on several boys at once, and one night, I had two dates to a sporting event. This wasn't anything unusual! 🤣 That's really all I remember; I made good money, and I had fun with my friends. Life was carefree!

2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional green tossed salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad, of course)? I don't know that it's a summer salad, per se, but one of my favorite salads is the oriental variety. It has shredded lettuce and red cabbage, wonton noodles, mandarin oranges, sesame seeds, and maybe some chicken for protein. The dressing is a vinaigrette type. It's delicious! I do also love the salads from Chick Fil A with fruit in them; there used to a market salad that I would get on occasion!  

But we all know my favorite salad is one that I make at Salad Station!

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be? No, and no way! I think men should be gentlemanly. I love it when Chris puts me on the inside of the sidewalk we're walking on. 

4. Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you would really like to see? How do you feel about Hawaiian pizza, also known as pineapple on pizza? Have you ever eaten baked Alaska? I would rather spend a week of summer vacation in Alaska; I've never been there, but I would love to visit someday. I loved Hawaii and would like to go back there as well sometime! I don't order pizza with pineapple, but if that is what is offered to me, then I would gladly partake. It's been a long time, but they used to offer this on the last night of a cruise; the last time I had this would have been when I was a young girl.

5. World Cup play is happening now...are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven cities hosting matches: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City with the stadium in New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. There are also three cities in Mexico: Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey, and two in Canada: Toronto and Vancouver. You get free tickets to one of these matches; what city would you choose and why? I haven't really been keeping up with it, though I did know that it was going on. I never played soccer, but all of my sons did! It was never my favorite. But now that I've watched Ted Lasso? I might take more of an interest. Of these cities offered, I would choose Boston. I picked this one because I've never been there to stay for a length of time; I've traveled through it several times, though...but one of these days, I will vacation there. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I saw this Monday night and almost choked I laughed so hard. It's true! 

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

Jenn 

Fashion Files, 6.16.2026.

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm linking up with Amy and Marsha today for Fashion Files. In last week's post I talked about my recent Old Navy haul; this week I'm showing it off! 

I love these gauze dresses! I bought one in yellow, brown, black, and a light blue that I thought was white. The yellow is a regular size, but the other three are all petit, and I like those better. 

I wore this for a pedicure last week; I needed pants that I could pull up while my feet were in a tub of water.

I wore this black gauze dress to dinner one night last week.

This was what I wore to an in-service day last week for our summer learning camp that's taking place at the elementary school I work at.

Here's the light blue gauze dress that I wore for parent orientation last Thursday.

And lastly, here's the denim dress that I bought and wore yesterday to work. 

I have some things to say about dressing for my current job: it's that anything goes! I can wear anything, quite literally. There's a man that I work with that wears gray sweatpants everyday. I kid you not. So that's why I say I can wear whatever. That being said, I don't plan on going loosey goosey with my clothes; I'll dress the same as I usually do. 

Do you have a favorite from my week of outfits? I'm open to thoughts! Thanks for reading today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 

weekending

 

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!

I had to work Thursday afternoon from 4:45-6:45; I was so hungry when I got home! I walked in the door, and my house smelled amazing. Chris had come over after work and hung out here until I got back home; he had dinner ready for me when I walked in the door! This was incredible: air fried pork chops and mushroom risotto. I can't say enough how much I love a man who knows his way around a kitchen and is an excellent cook! I will never stop saying this. We cleaned it all up together after and then talked while the tv was on in the background. I was so tired and fell asleep so early that night!

I'd made plans with Marilyn on Friday to sit by her pool; that morning I worked on laundry and cleaned my house again first. Right when I was going to get dressed to leave for her house, the bottom fell out of the sky, and it poured down rain for the next several hours. I canceled going to her house and opted for a cozy afternoon at home instead and took a two hour nap. I have no regrets! Chris came over after work, and we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. It was really good! We just came to my house again afterward and watched a movie. 

Saturday was a good day, too! We got breakfast/brunch at my favorite spot, Eggs Up Grill. I got breakfast, Chris got lunch. Ha! While we were in town, we drove around for a bit and looked at some of the new development that's taking place here in Collierville. There are some cute little areas right now, and I enjoyed driving around looking.

Later on, we decided to make the hour drive to an Amish bakery called Backermann's. 

This is in a little town called Whiteville; this bakery sells all kinds of homemade goods like breads, candies, dried soup mixes, jams, and jellies. We both got a bag of goodies, then we went to their deli and shared a hamburger and pasta salad. It was so good! After this when we were driving back toward my house, I took him to a lake near where I grew up. We walked around for a bit before leaving again, because it was buggy and muggy. 

I love a body of water! We came back to my house for a bit and then we left to grab dinner. 

We shared some fajita nachos, and I enjoyed another soft serve margarita. The sky fell out again right as we wanted to leave, so I was thankful when he offered to go grab the car for me. I let him. 

Something was said to me about dancing in the rain, and before I knew it, we were out in the rain dancing to music I had playing for us. This was all his idea, but I was obviously on board! And then we heard thunder and saw lightning, so we stopped and acted like responsible adults once again. I have so much to say about this sweet, sweet man. I love how romantic he is and that he comes up with simple things for us to do that make me feel so loved. Not only that, he also speaks the very best things to me; yesterday he told me how grateful he was for me, and that he was proud of me for starting a new (summer) job today. I'm a words girl, but I'm also an action girl; his are equal! Anyway, this is just me also being grateful for him. 

I wrote a bonus blog post this weekend on things I'm making time for right now; here's a link if you'd like to check it out!

How was your weekend? I'd love to hear about it today! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 

things I'm making more time for

Happy Saturday, friends! I hope this finds you well...it seemed like another great day for a bonus blog post. Today's was inspired by Shay Shull; I'm talking about the things I'm making more time for in my life. I hope you enjoy!

Here are the things I'm making more time for:

breakfast dates with Chris

We love getting breakfast together on Saturdays! I remember when this first started; he came over super early one Saturday and while I would have preferred to have lingered over coffee instead of getting dressed for the day, it's become a tradition that I love. I'm sad when we miss it now! Sometimes if one of us are out of town, he'll send me a picture of his plate and the empty seat across from him; it always makes me sad that I'm not there with him. 

reading

I am trying to make more time for reading; this means that I am actively putting my phone down. I haven't done as good with this in the last few days as I had been, but I'm still trying.

phone conversations

Ideally, this would be more of an in-person thing, but with my out of town family, it's not possible. I'm trying to be better at calling people that I love.

in-person meet ups with friends

There's this whole time thing again; I don't have enough of it sometimes. The opportunities are endless, though! I have several friends that I need to make the time for to see them and catch up. I miss this particular porch! I need to get back there ASAP; maybe I'll make sure and do that this week on Wednesday after work. 

connecting with my sons

I would love for us to meet up on Saturday night at a place I've been wanting them to try. I'd love to treat them to this...but I might have to wait a bit before I can do that. In the meanwhile, I'd love for them all to come here, or maybe we could all meet up at Graham's house. 

journaling

I had that thought this week as I was trying to pass the time at work. I love to journal and I need to do it way more often. It's so therapeutic to me! I was cleaning out my work bag this week and came across all of these notebook pages full of things I was grateful or moments I wanted to remember that had happened at work. More of that, please! 

reading the Bible

I know this is going to sound strange, but I stopped my Bible reading plan. I caught myself not paying attention, so I decided to leave it and do something new. I wanted to write out Scripture this summer, but I'm already behind...even so, I can still keep going and just start with today. I love to write out Scripture! It helps me to remember it; I love it when it's themed for a certain month. I had started one in June based on friendship; I should start it up again today. 

keeping my house vacuumed and dusted

This one isn't that fun, but my house makes me crazy, y'all. Noah's dog sheds horribly, but he's not home that often to vacuum for me. He will, don't get me wrong, but when it's bothering me the most, I just want it done right then. I love a clean and orderly home! I enjoy it more when I don't see dog hair on the floor and dust on the furniture. Did I mention that it drives me bonkers? I need you to understand this about me. Ha! (This is an older picture.)

sitting and connecting with the people I'm with at any given moment-- without any device in my hand

I had this thought when Graham came to visit on Thursday night. I love that he randomly drop by at a moment's notice! 

What about you? What are a few things you'd like to make more time for? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 

Friday Favorites, 6.12.2026.

 

Happy Friday, friends! How was your week? Mine was great, albeit busy. This was the week I worked two days of in-service for our summer school program called "summer learning camp" or SLC. I'll share some thoughts on that at the end of this post. Until then, here are some of my favorites from the week!

Words like this are my favorite! It's such a great and gentle reminder to myself...and maybe even for you. Frustrations will always be quick to pop up...praying is the easiest and best thing we can do to combat those feelings of anger or irritation. Words can never be unsaid! I wrote a whole post dedicated to that yesterday. Here's a link if you missed it!

I emptied a couple of tubs this week; I thought I'd share since that means that both must be favorites. The first is a body butter that smells heavenly; the next picture shows the gummies I take as part of my daily regimen. 

This is a picture of the classroom I'll be in the most over the summer for SLC. It's a room that is a third grade math teacher's class; I love that her alphabet letters are math terms and I also love the place value chart she has at the top of her dry erase board! As a SPED para, I appreciate that this teacher has this in place voluntarily; such things are accommodations for some of our students. I love that this one gets it! Aside from that, I appreciate all of her small touches; I've noticed that she has these little things on their desks that hold their pencils. Elementary students love to have theirs roll off their desks everyday! I also love that has hand signals for different things they might raise their hands for: one finger in the air might mean that they need a tissue. Two fingers means that they need to sharpen their pencils. Three fingers means they need a restroom break. Personal and thoughtful touches like that are my favorite! 

Hosting Bunco at my friend Karen's house was a favorite this week; so was the fact that Marilyn came with me as a sub!

Meeting my co-workers for lunch on Tuesday was a favorite! I opted for a regular margarita this time, but now that I'm writing this, I wish I had a soft serve one right now. 

Key lime pie has always been my favorite; so was eating the leftover filling for breakfast one day this week. 

This is one of my favorite passages in Scripture!

These were some favorite graphics I found on Instagram this week. 

Getting a pedicure was a favorite this week, and so is the color I chose: Funny Bunny by OPI.

I've also had lots of Chris time this week, which is another favorite. I won't take for granted the nights we get to share dinner together. I'm grateful for these times! I'm also grateful for the fact that I get to meet new friends at SLC. It's strange being in my building and not knowing most of the people. There are some very interesting people who are working with me this summer. I'll leave it at that. I'm excited about Monday! I'm a one on one aide for one of my normal students during the school year who also happens to be terminally ill. The job is easy, but being with her can be tricky. She's precious, but she has so many issues; I'm glad we're familiar with each other, though. I can't wait to love on her this summer! 

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

Jenn