Friday Favorites, 10.16.2026

 

Happy Friday, friends! I hope your week was good; mine went by really fast. I have some favorites from the week that I thought I'd share today! 

Receiving flowers will always be listed among one of my favorite things in life. Sure, I can buy them for myself, but when someone else thinks of me and gives them? Even better. 

Once I got home Wednesday, I realized that I didn't want to cook dinner or even go pick something up, so I texted my kids and asked them to meet me for dinner. And guess what? They were all able to come! It made my whole week, honestly. These are my favorite people! I have to say that aside from me loving Mallory for all the obvious reasons, I love it that she makes my sons comply with me when I ask for pictures. She's amazing and I'm so glad she's a part of our family! 

Reading with this view over the week was a favorite.

This porch was also a favorite over the week. It was cool enough in the evenings and mornings that we all needed blankets!

Monday in Estes Park was a favorite, and so were the views we saw on the drive up there. 

I love Debi's home; it's very Southwestern and I love that they embrace that and the mountain theme in their decor.

Cowboy Mountain is my favorite! 

Being reunited with my sisters was my favorite this week! 

And so was meeting my newest little great niece, Ella Blake. I love these sweet girls so much! 

Lisa's Halloween tree was my favorite; I wish I'd done one!

My cute little porch is also a favorite; this was the picture I shared before I left town Saturday. 

Anytime spent with these amazing and beautiful women is my very favorite. How fortunate am I to have such a strong relationship with these sisters of mine? I don't take it for granted. Every time I'm with them, I come back home with a full heart. I remember my friend and I talking about this at work last school year. She told me that spending time with her girls is what fuels her, but I can't say that about my sons, because having sons is different than having daughters. I love spending time with them, don't get me wrong, but having uninterrupted sister time is what fuels me. I can't adequately describe how my heart feels when we're all together. I love it the most when we travel together, so I'm beyond excited about our NYC trip in December. I don't want to wish time away, though...I have a lot to look forward to between now and then.

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

Estes Park, Colorado

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I thought I'd share what we did on Monday while I was in Colorado. In all the years I've been going there, which is twelve years, I've never been to Estes Park. Debi and Lisa have only been once, so that's what we did!

I started my day with this cute mug full of coffee, then we were on the road by eight. 

The drive there was stunning! Because of the drought, most of the leaves had already changed colors and fallen off the trees. I was a little sad about this, but it was still beautiful. I love a Colorado mountain town! 

Anyone ever watch The Good Witch series on Hallmark a few years ago?! This made me think of the show. 

You know I love a bookstore! Put it in the mountains like this, and it's even better! I took the picture of the book to show Marilyn. 

It was beautiful! 

We went to The Stanley Hotel while we were there; this is where part of The Shining was filmed. None of us have seen that, so all of that was lost on us, but it was still a cool historical hotel. We ate lunch at their restaurant, The Cascades, and walked around a bit before leaving to look for elk. 

We found lots of them! It's incredible that they just walk around like this in the downtown area. Lisa even spotted and filmed two of them fighting! It's rutting season, so they were also making lots of noise. I was blown away. We learned that Trish had a good eye for spotting them! We let her be the guide from then on. Ha! 

We drove back to Littleton, dropped Lisa at her car, and picked up Chinese takeout to take home to Debi's. This is what I did for the rest of the night. It was nice! It was a great trip; we ended the stay by resting on Tuesday, which was what I needed. I didn't feel my best the whole time I was there, so I enjoyed reading and napping for most of the day. We flew home yesterday and I was glad to be back home! I'm always grateful that I get to travel; many people don't ever get to do this, and I am thankful for what I can do on my own. I'm proud of myself for this, because I do it in a way that I can afford. And I think it's cool that I can do this on my own; one of you mentioned that this week, and I was glad someone said what I'd been feeling. 

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

Jen 

the Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm linking up with Joyce for today's hodgepodge post. I'll jump right in!

1. Do you think you're driven more by curiosity or comfort? Explain. I am definitely driven more by comfort. I have enough curiosity to want to travel, so there is that in me, but mostly I am driven by comfort. I seek this out in the clothing and shoes that I wear and in the things that I like to do. 

2. What non-food item is in your refrigerator or freezer? One non-food item that stays in my refrigerator is aloe vera. It feels so good on a sunburn, and the colder it is the better it feels. 

3. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need background noise? Do you seek out times or places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence or to be silent? I am comfortable with silence, and the people I can practice that with are my people. If I'm home, I like to have background noise. You've heard me say this, how I find a show I've seen a hundred times and will put it on just to have some noise. The only time I seek out silence is in my car immediately after work. I need to decompress for the five minutes it takes me to drive home; this is the time when I experience the saying that silence can be almost deafening. My favorite place to seek this out is in my bedroom when I lay down at night. 

4. Carpentry, plumbing, electrical, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today? I wish I could do carpentry work; there's no reason why I can't learn! I watch videos of women doing things around their homes to improve the look, and I'm always amazed by them. I watched a video just the other day that my sister showed me of a woman repurposing an old ladder and painting it; she installed it onto the wall where her staircase is, and it was a new handrail! I've also seen a lot of cool things made from wood pallets. 

(I love this picture of Jonah and Noah building the deck in the back of my house!)

5. Do you lean more towards being too needy or too independent? Which do you find harder to deal with in others? I lean more towards being too needy, I feel like. I would say this was because of the amount of years I spent being married and having a husband who took care of all the things. I've learned to be more independent over the last couple of years, but even so...I feel like I could still learn to not be so needy. I will say this: I do not like asking for help. I think it's more difficult to deal with people who are too independent! 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I will miss this view! It's where I sat and enjoyed quiet time each morning that I was in Colorado. I miss Cowboy already! 

Thanks for reading my blog today, friends! Love to all. 

Jen