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'm glad this will be continuing in the new year, since it's become one of my favorite posts of each week. 

1. Did you make resolutions or set goals for the year we're waving goodbye to? How did that work out for you? Will you set any goals for this new year, new season, or new month? Share one or two if you'd like to tell us about this. I think I used to regularly set goals for myself in a new year, and for a long time I had a word of the year for my life. In looking through this year's earliest blog posts, I didn't set anything like that for myself in 2025. Honestly, at that point, I was still in survival mode. I still am, some days, honestly, and this feels like a lot of pressure that I don't need. I loved what I did for this year, though: I chose a Bible verse for my year, and I think I'll do that again in the new year. For 2025, it was Psalm 16:11, which says this: You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever. I love this translation of the verse; it's the NLT. I'll have to think about a verse for 2026, so stay tuned. 

2. When did you have the most fun this year? I had the most fun this year when I traveled. There is something magical about traveling with your best friend. I remember driving home from Louisville with Marilyn, and us laughing so hard that I could barely see. I almost had to pull over because of this, what ended up forcing a quick stop after our fit of laughter was my need for a restroom! Small bladder be damned. 🤣 I will always say that anytime spent laughing with people I love is a favorite of mine, and it's when I have the most fun. I am blessed to say that I had a lot of laughter this year. I laughed with my sons, my family members, and Chris. He is one of the funniest people I've ever been around and from date one, he has made me laugh. 

This one is an inside joke between Marilyn, Amy, and me and is what led to all the laughter between Marilyn and me as we drove home that day. 

Please note that I let Soulmate drive my car when we travel. I was distracted on this trip, and she needed to take over for a good long while. These were the times when I laughed the hardest this year! 

3. What's a song or lyric that you'll always associate with 2025? Tell us why. Well there's one that is probably inappropriate for this blog, but it's one by Ceelo Green that Marilyn and I listened to a lot this year. On a nicer note, there are two others that also come to mind and that are more reader friendly. One is this one by Phil Wickham called Love of God. 

And the other polar opposite type song is this one by Parker McCollom called Hell of a Year that I've shared before.

Not all of the lyrics are applicable to me, but a lot of them are. And just the title gets me every time I listen to this. You all know the reason for this: 2025 brought about divorce, my first full year of living life solo and paying all of my own bills, a brand new full-time job, a huge time of adjusting to this new reality of my life, the finality of my dad's death, and a brand new relationship. Yeah, it's been a hell of a year, alright. Sorry to curse, but you all know my heart, and I'm feeling reflective. 

4. Best (or a favorite) bite of something delicious you tasted this year? My friend and co-worker Karen has introduced me to her fabulous cooking; she has brought me lunch to work before, she has bought my lunch for my birthday, and she has baked many a cake already since July 28th. I would easily categorize her cakes as the best and most delicious thing/s I've tasted all year! 

This top picture is the birthday cake she made for my birthday. It was so freaking good! I could have eaten the whole thing alone. The second one is the carrot cake she brought after Thanksgiving. This woman can cook! How fortunate are we that she shares her love of cooking with us who eat lunch together everyday? 

5. What do you want to do more of this year? Less of? I want to do more savoring of the time I have. I want to hang out with my sons more when they invite me. I want to say yes to doing more things! I want to do less of the things that drain me, energy wise. I'm not really sure what that would be, off the top of my head, but I have to be careful with my time now that it's not my own. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to a playlist that I created on Spotify of my favorite music. These are the songs that have gotten me through this year! I have two of these, actually, one is a worship one and the other is secular music. Both have been lifesavers to me, though! I'm grateful for the gift of music, and it's awesome to hear songs from the people I've now seen in concert. I want to go to more concerts! I need more of this music in my life; I just need to figure out how to pay for my new and expensive hobby. 🤣

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

Jenn 

2025: a year in review

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm recapping this year a day early since Hodgepodge is happening tomorrow. I will try to condense this as much as possible as I walk through the months that defined 2025. I hope you enjoy walking down memory lane with me once again this year! 

I remember January rolling around, and feeling so thankful to be starting off with a fresh year. I was looking forward to being divorced at long last, because I was so tired of living a life filled with turmoil. I will never forget the gratitude I felt toward my sisters, who flew into Memphis from Denver so that Lisa could go to mediation with me on January 7th. The weather was frigid, and I was a nervous wreck! This snow came almost immediately after that day, and I was glad that it waited that long. 

The snow was perfect; it was the kind that was beautiful and didn't stick around for too long. I dislike driving in the ice, and thankfully I didn't have to do that. I did venture out of my city limits one evening and went for street tacos and that's when I took this picture of this beautifully snow-lit church.

February was full of ups and downs, per usual, but this time they were the emotional upheavals. I remember waking up on Valentine's day being so sad; even though it wasn't ever a day that we celebrated in my marriage, I felt fragile that morning. The week leading up to this day was one of the sweetest I'd ever experienced, and I was also feeling grateful. My friend Abbey and her littles did such a great job of loving on me that week. These sweet babies made me heart paintings that will forever sit on my kitchen window sills! They showered me with love and some of my favorite things: the heart paintings, sweet cards, and a tea towel with 1 Corinthians 13 written on it in fancy script from John Mark's. The morning of the actual day came and with it, the tears. I was feeling very down again and in need of some loving words. I was leaving to go to lunch with Mom when I checked my mailbox; inside them were some adorable heart earrings that Abbey had left in my mailbox! I dressed in one of my favorite shirts that reminded me of who I am, and I left for the day. 

Later that night, I was so grateful to have somewhere to go! My friend Zach, our youth pastor at church back then, had asked me to co-lead a group of teenage girls at the weekend's D-Now event at our church. I was more than glad to do this, and had a blast all weekend hanging out with a few hundred of my favorite people. 

March found me starting the month off in McKinney with Noah and my mom! Stella was born the previous month, and this was the month she would come home to live with us. I got to hold lots of babies at work, my friend Teresa came from Nashville to visit for the weekend and she, Missy and I had an epic girls weekend at my house. Jonah was in McKinney that weekend, so it worked out great! They stayed with me, and we had the best time. Finally, this was the month that my divorce became final! My best girls took me out for a celebratory dinner in Memphis, and it was the most fun night ever. It will always seem strange that I would want to celebrate a date like that, but I was so grateful to be done at this point. I was officially free to move on from the hell that had been my life since June 22, 2024. 

April brought about storms! This was the night before Drew's birthday, and he actually spent the night with us that night. It ended up not being much of an event, in the terms of a storm, but I loved getting to feed him breakfast on his birthday. Due to that storm, the next day we lost power at work and ended up playing a fun game as a staff while we waited on the power to come back on. It was such a fun day! We ended the time by going to lunch together and calling it a short day. I got to attend a fun gala with Marilyn, and got to go on our second annual blogger's retreat! This time we met Amy in Louisville, and it was the most fun ever. 

May brought about quality time with friends and their babies, Mother's day, and a fun weekend trip to McKinney with Marilyn and Tanya who met us there. I always love getting to see Noah; he introduced us to amazing brisket this time! It was extra fun getting to see Tanya for a second time so quickly after we'd just seen her in Louisville. 

June was a fun one! I had my last day of work at church, I enjoyed two amazing concerts (Treaty Oak Revival and Old Dominion), I had a wreck (that part wasn't fun), I leaned on Marilyn to combat a moment of weakness, I swam a ton, I enjoyed hosting Bunco at my friend Karen's house, and I loved having all my boys in the same city! 

July was the month of travel! It started with me in Colorado. This was a fun, fun trip! I had bought tickets in the spring when I found some airline tickets on sale for a great price. We visited Garden of the Gods while I was there, and I enjoyed lots of great quality time with my great nieces and family there. I was home for a few days, and then I left again for the beach with Marilyn. This was such a fun month! It felt great to have my toes in the sand, and I loved being there with Marilyn. We shared so many great laughs while we were there, and I was struck once again by how healing vitamin sea really is. This was also the month that I started back to work full time, and when I met Chris. 

 

August brought about getting to know my work family, country line dancing, dating Chris, me singing on the praise team at church again, and concerts galore! We saw Teddy Swims and Darius Rucker in August, and both nights were incredible. This was also when Kendra and I started our Wednesday nights at Rotolo's tradition, which we've continued all of this time! 

September brought about some fun nights at Rotolo's, listening to live music with Marilyn, and the season of bonfires. It's when I first introduced Chris into my life to people I know, so I started talking about him here on my blog and I shared pictures of us on socials. Marilyn bought me the most hilarious coffee mug ever, and I enjoyed a margarita or two in it. It was also the month that my sweet old man Crash crossed the rainbow bridge and left us with gaping holes in our hearts and lots of great memories. 

 

October brought about a fun visit from my dear friends and old neighbors, Katie and Travis. It also brought about an epic fall break trip to Maine! I look back at these photos and almost have to pinch myself to see if it really happened. It was the most fun!

November was a fun play at The Orpheum with Chris, Marilyn's last days in her family home, her birthday celebrations, a fun solo trip to McKinney to see Noah, Thanksgiving, and the first of Christmas lights date nights. I am still so pleasantly surprised over how much I loved traveling alone to see Noah; the hotel stay was the best, though! I never would have guessed how much I'd love staying in a hotel room by myself. 

December is always my favorite month of the year! I both look forward to it and dread it all at the same time each year, it seems. I dread it because of how quickly the time flies by; I look forward to it because of how much fun and festivity there is to be had. I thoroughly enjoyed working in a school environment again this year for Christmas; it's been years since I've done that! I loved spending time with my boys while they were all at home together, and it was one of the most fun and festive months ever. I hung out with my sons a lot this month, and I hope to continue in that as the months progress. Another favorite thing about this month were all the sweet birthday cards I got; look at that stack! Cares are the very best. 

Overall, it was a great year; it was infinitely better than my 2024, and honestly? That's all I can ask for. I met some new friends this year and my circle of (women) friends is growing who are in a similar phase of life. I am grateful for this! I'm also grateful for my tribe who is steadfast. Even when I don't see them for weeks (or months) on end, I know that they're only a phone call away. I've realized recently that I have not fully healed from the trauma of divorce in my life and am making plans to get back into some counseling through my work. In the first year of this new life that I'm living on my own, I've learned that I am tough; I can do hard things! 

I'm learning to be me again. The me I never really knew, the me I never had to know, because other titles defined me, titles of wife/mom/daughter. I was that person, I am those other people, but now I'm also fully me, the realest version of myself that I've ever been. I love Jesus with all my heart, but curse words come out of my mouth sometimes now. He knows my heart and He can take it when I'm like this. I'm always kind, but I'm tough, too. I can trust people, until I'm given a reason not to. I am capable of loving someone else again, and I am able to be loved. I am in the process of healing, though it may take years. I'm okay with this, as long as I keep making forward progress. I anticipate 2026 being even better than this year, and I am hopeful. 

Thank you for being here all year long to support and love on me! I appreciate each of you greatly, and mere words could ever express my feelings on that. I genuinely thank God everyday for this community. I look forward to walking through the next year with you! Love to all, sweet friends. 

Jenn