Monthly Musings, May 2026

 

Happy bonus blog post day! I love being off work for this kind of thing...these posts rarely happen during the school year for me. I wanted to post again, because I love reading these types of things! I'll jump right in, but I'm linking up with Patty over at Good, Better, Best for this extra little tidbit today. 

1. Tell us about your Memorial day weekend. It was rainy and very low key because of that. I spent the better portion of Saturday exploring my city with my guy, which was fun. We went to a new to us car museum, and had breakfast at a place we'd both heard of but had never been to. It was a fun day! The rest of the weekend was very chill. I missed doing something this year, though...not that we usually do anything from year to year, my sons and I, but this year it would have been nice. 

2. What were your summer jobs when you were younger? My best memories are when my mom and sister owned a flower shop with a tanning bed salon upstairs. I loved working there at the florist with them, and our friend Patti (and owner of the tanning salon) would ask me to work for her on occasion. And I got to tan for free! Don't come at me for this, please...it was something almost all of us did. I loved laying in the tanning bed! It felt like I was at the beach with the smells, fan blowing, and music playing. My other summer jobs were always babysitting. 

3. Ice cream or popsicles? Favorite flavors? Ice cream all the way, please! I love chocolate and strawberry mixed. 

I often go out with Chris at night to make an ice cream run at the local Baskin Robbins! The first picture contains my all-time favorite flavor and brand of ice cream. I became obsessed with this on the first ever blogger's trip I took in the spring of 2024; Jeni's ice cream shops are all over Nashville.

4. What do you like on your hamburgers and hot dogs? On my hamburgers, I like lettuce, onion, pickles, and mustard. I'm my dad's daughter! On my hot dogs, I like mustard only or sometimes grilled onions and mustard. I rarely eat hot dogs...and I don't know why. They're so delicious, even if they're not great for you. One every once in a while never killed anyone. 

Huey's is a local favorite; I love their hamburgers! I also really love a Sonic burger.

5. Beach, lake, or mountains? Yes, please! I love them all, honestly. It'll be a lake season for me this summer, and I'm okay with that! But I do love the beach and the smell of the salty air the minute I reach the ocean. 

The first lake picture is Drew jumping into one several summers ago; that was one of the most fun days we had as a family of six. We spent the day of the fourth of July with our friends Tiffany and Jeremy. I was in a boot that summer, so I did a lot of sitting, but my sons all had the time of their lives. 

6. Share any travel for summer of 2026! So far I have two long weekend trips planned! One will be visiting Amy in Louisville, and the other will be with Chris when we celebrate a year of us being together. I'm excited for both! I don't know what else is in store, though.

7. Do you visit any amusement parks in the summer? Tell us your favorites. I'm not one for amusement parks, to be honest. 

8. Do you enjoy dining outside in the summer? I love dining al fresco when the weather's nice! I love doing this while I'm on vacation and there's water nearby. 

9. Favorite summer beverage? My favorite adult beverage would be a margarita or some other cocktail with coconut flavored anything. Rum comes to mind? Or maybe this year it'll be this new viral soft serve pineapple margarita!

10. Favorite side dish for summer parties? Feel free to share recipes! My favorite summer recipe is hands down this key lime pie.

It's so easy! All you do is mix together the juice of 6-10 lemons or limes and zest, two cans of condensed sweetened milk, and 1/2 a cup of sour cream; pour into a graham cracker crust and bake at 350 for ten minutes. It's amazing! Another side that I like in the summer is a cold pasta salad; I use the boxed kind, but I spice it up with Olive Garden Italian dressing, olives, capers, and lemon juice. 

Thanks for reading my second blog post of the day, friends! I'll see you back here tomorrow for Friday Favorites. Love to all!

Jenn 

summer bucket list

 

Happy Thursday, friends! Don't think I didn't pause before I said the day of the week. I'm always confused by the days when there's a holiday at the beginning, no matter if I'm working or off for summer break. I digress. I thought I'd talk about a few things I'd love to do this summer! I hope you enjoy this and are inspired to create your own list of sorts. I think it's great to have things that are both realistic and out of the box; also, I am one who likes to romanticize life, because I always need something to look forward to. Are you like that? I'll jump in now. 

I'm excited to travel again this summer! I don't have anything extraordinary planned, but I'm taking two long weekend trips that I know of so far: one will be to Louisville to visit my girl Amy with Marilyn, and the second will be with Chris as we celebrate a year of being together (location TBD). I'm excited about both! 

On the travel note, one thing I'd love to do is to take some day trips to a nearby town or city. There are some great options near me, and I think that sounds like so much fun on a random Friday. 

Because I don't have a lot of travel plans so far, I would love to be able to sit by a pool (or float in one) while I catch some sun and read. I'm looking forward to using Marilyn's pool when she gets back home after the weekend! I also have plans to help out friends and neighbors with their dogs over the summer, and a few of them have pools I can use. 

I'd love to continue to explore new and differing things with Chris this summer. We got off to a great start this past weekend and spent the better part of our Saturday trying a new restaurant and going somewhere we'd never been. I would also love to witness him at the racetrack again, which is something he loves to do. I think it's fun to watch people do what they love, and I love seeing him on or around motorcycles.

I'd love to visit the farmer's market that's near me more. I'd like to incorporate more fresh veggies into my cooking and eating this summer. I feel like I always say this, by the way. And I'm pretty sure I never follow through with this one. 

I have a few things that are mundane that I need to get done this summer: I need a new copy of my divorce decree papers because Jonah's dog Chloe ate mine, I need a new driver's license with my new legal name, and I need to get my utilities put into my name. That last one will require a visit to them in person, not that I'm looking forward to that, but I also need to just get it done. One other thing that is mundane is that I need to get my teeth cleaned! Is that TMI? 

I want to use the time I have off work catching up with my friends in real life. I have people that I never get to see because I'm too tired at night; now is the perfect time for lunches, lunches, and more lunches! 

(This was me enjoying the first of such outings yesterday! I met my friend Andrea at a local favorite, and we sat there for three and a half hours catching up on all of life.)

I want to see my mom and sister Trish more this summer. I'm doing this today, actually! We're meeting for pedicures this morning.

I want to nail down a couple of trips for the fall of this year: one for fall break and another for my birthday. I had wanted to go to NYC for my 50th birthday in December, but realistically, I don't know that it'll happen. It's okay, though! I have a great plan B.

I want to spend some time getting rid of things in my house. I need to clean out my kitchen cabinets, the hutch in my dining room, and a couple of upstairs closets. I spent part of Tuesday cleaning out my own closet again; I've done a great job of keeping it organized, but as time has gone on, it had gotten messy again. I purged a few things, straightened some items on hangers, and refolded the things I have situated on the shelf inside where I keep pajamas, leggings, and tee shirts. 

I would love more outdoorsy date nights with Chris. Things I love are picnics, sunset watching, and listening to music under the light of the stars. I'd also love some pool date nights! We'll see...

I want to read all the summery books I can! I finished one yesterday and immediately jumped into another one, only to be sucked right in immediately. I love it when that happens! 

I'd love to find a summery show to binge watch! I'm here for all your recs. 

What would you add to this list? I'd love to hear and am open to suggestion! Thanks for reading 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. Do you like your name? Are you named after someone? If you have children, how did you choose their names? I'll be honest, I've never loved the name Jennifer. I never hated it, though...until two years ago, and I decided to rename myself Jenn. I've always preferred that anyway, so it's a win/win situation. I have always loved my middle name of Mellyn...it's very Southern, even very Steel Magnolias! My sons are all named after grandparents of some sort...the names (Graham) Douglas, (Andrew/Drew) Myles, (Jonah) Raymon, and (Noah) Lloyd are all from their two sets of grandparents. 

2. A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one...which will you choose? If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose? Of the choices listed, I would choose red velvet cake. If I could pick any other dessert, I would pick a slice of cheesecake with strawberries on top. 

3. What's a job you'd like to try just for one day? This one is a hard one for me to answer, for some reason. Maybe a labor and delivery nurse? It's the only thing that sticks out to me, because I considered going back to school for a stint in my twenties to pursue a career as that. I think it would be miraculous to witness a child being born, and I think I would be a really kind and comforting nurse. 

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer? I'm not really big on patriotic decorations, honestly. I always keep an American flag flying in my front yard. 

5. It's the end of May, so let's exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word "May". We can do it! 

Many celebrations for the end of an amazing year

All the emotions are ones I experienced this month as I walked through the last thirty days

Yippee to the (un)official start of summer! 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I can't believe I forgot to share this before today, but my friend has been giving me books to read as she finishes them...I was looking at one last week and came across this on the first page! A book that comes with its own playlist? Yes, please! I think every author should do this! Now the series that she's given me aren't books that I think I'll love, but how cool, right? 

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

Jenn 

a weekend recap

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! How was your weekend? Mine was great! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. I'll back all the way up to Friday...

I went to work comfy and casual; it was yet another rainy day, so I paired this look with my giant black umbrella and frizzy hair. It was a busy day at work! Somehow I managed to stay mostly dry...then it was time for the fifth grade drive by parade. This was fun! Families decorated their cars for this, and our fifth graders waved goodbye. 

None of us were amused at the dad who blew black smoke in our faces from his diesel truck. 

We had another goodbye send off for our principal Kristie, then I walked around saying goodbye for the summer to my sweet friends. The one at the top of this portion is Carla, who I did kindergarten and fourth grade intervention with. She won't be returning next year. Heather is right above this, and I was with her for first and fifth grades; I am so glad she's not going anywhere! I am so blessed to call these ladies friends. 

And this is my sweet, sweet Karen, whom I was with for second and third grade intervention. I love her so much! I can't believe I hardly knew her this time last year, and by now she's one of my favorite people on the planet. She has been such an amazing friend to me this year! I literally can't picture life without her in it; all of these women are such amazing humans and teachers. My life is so much richer because of them! 

After work, about twenty of us went to grab a late lunch and we might have day drank.

And this, my friends, is the viral soft serve margarita, a pineapple flavored one. It is probably the best drink I've ever had! It was a little like a dessert, and tasted similar to sorbet. This is sneaky strong! It was a fun couple of hours spent with people who have come to feel like family this year. Not all of us talked since there were so many of us, but the ones by me were fun to chat and laugh with. After this I came home and laid down for a few minutes for a nap, but it was interrupted by Drew! I didn't mind a bit. It is always good to see him! 

Chris came over after work and we went to dinner at a wing place; I literally had about three bites of what he ordered, because I wasn't hungry from my late lunch. This is the only picture I got.

I hope our newness never wears off! At this point we're about ten months into our relationship, so we might be safe from that. We are always touching in some way when we're together and out; we're holding hands, or one of us has a hand on the other's leg, or his hand is at my back. When we're together on a couch, I'm right next to him and we're cuddled up together. This is what we do at restaurants when we're not sitting on the same side of the booth...we reach across the table to hold hands. I think we just feel so grateful to have found each other; our relationship has had its share of ups and downs, but I feel like we're in a great place right now. Hopefully it'll be here to stay! 

We decided to do something different on Saturday! We had a really great breakfast at a place that was new to us both: Brother Juniper's.

We shared all of this food; we ordered an open faced omelet loaded with meats and cheeses, then we also ordered one cinnamon roll pancake. We both only ate half of all this, so we brought the rest home. After this we went to a car museum called Edge Motor Museum. 

It was really interesting, and who doesn't enjoy looking at vintage cars? That blue one is called a Shark...can you see the resemblance? That Trans-Am is my one of my favorites; my dad owned two in his lifetime. After this, we drove around to look at murals. 

Is anyone else obsessed with murals painted on walls around a city? 

So we used to have a club in Memphis called Mongo's. Mongo's was owned by a man who called himself Prince Mongo, and this was where he lived: a legit castle. It's being worked on now; I'm curious to know what they'll do with this iconic Memphis landmark. 

Then we found these old mansions that I always forget about. One of them was hosting a wedding party that afternoon or evening; how cool of a place for a wedding, right? The rest of the day was pretty chill. We came back to my house and watched a movie. At some point we got hungry enough to get salads from Zaxby's, but we couldn't even finish those. 

Sunday was more of the same! Very laid back. We got out to grocery shop at one point, then that afternoon, Chris was feeling ambitious and made a quick version of gumbo. Drew and Mallory came over to eat later in the evening, but we ate with Noah when it was all finished. He also made something called pastalaya (like jambalaya) that was a Cajun chicken and sausage pasta. Drew told me the next day that it was the best pasta he'd ever eaten! 

I went a little crazy seeing Drew with his girlfriend's nephew...kids have always loved him! I think she melted a little, too. Because of the rain, Monday was super lazy. We just watched a series all day long and finally left at five to get some Mexican food, but we came right back. 

He was freezing even in a hoodie and sweatpants, but I think he was getting sick at this point. Poor Chris! It was a great weekend that felt fun and also relaxing; those are my favorite, honestly. How was your weekend? Mine may not have felt super summer-y, nor does this week as it's the kickoff week to mine, but I am here for the lazier days and catching up with friends and on life that I've gotten behind on. I hope to be here everyday for my blog! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!

Jenn