Share 4 Somethings (July 2024)

 

Happy Saturday, friends! I meant to post something yesterday about how I'd be here today, but I forgot. I'll fill you in on what's been going on this week later in the post. Today we're talking about the things we loved or disliked, accomplished, improved upon/needs improvement, and noticed this month. I'll jump in!

Loved/Disliked

This month I loved watching some of the Christmas in July movies on Hallmark Movies Now. I watched one last night called An Ice Palace Romance that was okay. I also loved some of the books I read this month! I'll share more about those on Thursday of this week, when we co-host the August edition of Share Your Shelf. I hope you make plans to join us for that link party! 

Though these pictures aren't from this month, this was my favorite way to read this summer: on the beach, breeze blowing, ear buds in my ears listening to music, seeing/hearing the ocean past my Kindle. 

I disliked the great disruption/changes in my life, but I'm working hard to get through it and develop new habits and routines. 

Accomplished

I didn't get much accomplished in the way of cooking, but I did enjoy some great bread days! Today would normally be that, but I pushed it off to Monday this week because of my work schedule last week.

Improved upon/Needs improvement

An obvious answer for me with this prompt is that I need to work on and improve upon my emotions. They're all over the place! I know it's normal, but I really hate when they get the best of me. I'm going to work on writing more this month, and getting outside of my normal daily life. This is a great week to start that, right?? 

Noticed

This month I've noticed how my potted flowers on the deck have survived my lack of attention. It's the Dipladenia flower; I will try to find those again next summer! 

Thanks for being here today to join me this month, despite the fact that I didn't check in with a reminder this week. I'm really hoping to be around here more in the days to come, including on Wednesday when we'll be here for the August edition of Currently. I'll share the prompts for the coming month on Monday, and promise to not forget. Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

weekending

 

Hi, friends, I hope you had a good weekend! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's post. 

Fridays are very different for me now, as you can imagine, with the passing of my Dad. Each week is a new one, though, and I'm embracing what my new life looks like now, even if it's not the life I'd always imagined. Thinking of and stressing about it doesn't do any good, so I might as well be like this, right? I'm learning every single day. On this particular week, I went into work for a couple of hours. I've asked for more hours as they're able to find for me, and this was one opportunity that I was afforded. I'll be working the front desk in our church office for two days this week, on Thursday and Friday, so this past Friday I went in to start learning. 

Just know that this desk almost makes me insane, because I struggle with working in chaos. 

I was given the sweetest gift from one of my young friends, Madison. Aren't these flowers stunning? I love the presentation of them and the craft paper. 

After I worked for a little while, I went to get my hair trimmed. Does anyone else hate having their hair trimmed? I never like how it looks immediately following this appointment, but I desperately needed this, so I'm glad I went. 

I had made tentative plans with two different people on this night, but I canceled everything when my son's friend broke his leg in two places. Jonah had to take his friend's little brother up to the hospital, and since Graham was working that night, I decided to stay home with the dogs. I wasn't upset about this, because I love to take a shower after a haircut, and then I just changed into my pajamas. I had leftovers for dinner, and I prepped the bread I had plans on baking the next day. Saturday morning I woke up and finished making the bread; it turned out beautifully!

I got out for a little while on Saturday with my mom and sister; it's been ages since we've done that! We just ran a few errands, and then we had lunch before calling it a day. After that my mom went home, and Trish and I went to my dad's house to collect some things that we wanted. 

And then I took Trish back home and had dinner with them that night. I love country sunsets! Bill made amazing BBQ chicken with slaw, potato salad, cucumbers with oil and vinegar, and garden tomatoes. This was one delicious meal! 

I hung one of the pictures I brought home in my bathroom that night. I love how it looks, and I needed to fill in the blank space since I'd taken something down that week. 

The zinnias at their house are beautiful! Those are one of my favorite flowers. 

Sunday morning dawned bright and early; I stayed home for the rest of the day after church, though I'd made plans to make a hospital visit. I may do that today instead, since I have a few errands to run this morning. I struggle on Sundays, friends. They feel long and lonely, and I may share more here someday in the future, but if you want to pray for me on those days, they'll never be wasted. One thing I started this weekend was the show America's Sweethearts on Netflix, and I binge watched the entire show. It was so good! Many of you have talked about it here, which was why I tried it for myself. 

What did you do that you loved this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

Friday Favorites, 7.19.2024.

 

Hi, friends! I hope your week has been good; mine has been better than last week, so I'm thankful for that. I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for today's blog post. 

I've been wearing extra earrings lately. They're my favorite!

It's been cooler here this week in temperature, and my favorite thing to wear on cooler days is a maxi dress. This one is in my favorite color: royal blue!

Books are my favorite! These are three I've been given lately. One is a book that the staff at our church is reading together, the other two are ones that friends bought me. 

Someone here recently asked about my favorite lipsticks, and these are the top two right now. 

In my Bible Recap plan this week, I read Isaiah 26; it's one of my favorite chapters!

This is one of my favorite dresses from last summer; I'd forgotten about it until this week, so I wore it to work on Wednesday. 

This strawberry cake from my pastor's wife has been a favorite for all of us!

Why do I love coffee mugs so much? The only thing I love more than these is when I'm given one as a thoughtful gift. I love that it says Mama inside; one of their friends gave this to me.

Monday was my favorite! I swam in this glorious pool with my sister. 

Chloe napping on me in the mornings will always be a favorite for me. 

This night at a great restaurant was a favorite! (Here's that red lipstick I mentioned above.)

Here's the inside of it; I love places like this!

This bread is my favorite! Sourdough bread has been such a stress reliever for me, and I'm getting better at the patterns I score into the top of the loaf.

I went to my visit my dad's gravesite last Friday. I sat in my car for half an hour and bawled my eyes out after I took this picture. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Dad's funeral. One is my two friends and me (Missy on the left, Teresa in the middle), the other is my sister Trish and my brother Paul, and this last one is of my boys being the pallbearers for Dad's casket with my nephew Devin in the back. This one makes me cry when I look at it, and I hesitated to share it here, but I love it so much. 

In case you missed them, I did write blog posts this week! I'll link them here. 

Tuesday was a post I titled Life Carries On. 

Wednesday was a Hodgepodge post. 

Thursday was about Getting Dressed Up Anyway, even when you don't always feel like it.

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

get dressed up anyway and a little bit of wisdom I've learned recently

 

Hi, friends! I'm linking up with Kellyann and Jill for today's blog post. It'll be a little bit of Fashion Files, and a little bit of wisdom in the form of vanity that's been making a difference in my life recently. 

As many of you know, in the last month, my life has been a trainwreck. I don't mean to be evasive here, but I am not really at liberty to share everything that this entails, but this is why I wanted to link up here today. Because even when life is a mess, you need to just get dressed up anyway. You need to carry on as best you're able, and if that involves putting on lipstick, then so be it. That's what I've been telling myself lately, and it's what I'm sharing with you today. 

Life isn't always sunshine and roses; sometimes it's ugly, painful, and just plain hard.

Sometimes it's all you can do to get out of bed, only to realize that this is not a nightmare that you've been dreaming, but that you are actually living in and waking up to it everyday of your life. On those days you get up anyway and carry on as usual, starting with making the bed. (At least, that's what I do.)

Sometimes you don't want to be around people, but life's circumstances prevent you from wallowing alone at home, so you put on your favorite lipstick, and you smile anyway. 

And somedays you just have to take a picture of yourself to share with your mom, sisters, and niece, because you feel cute that day and nobody has seemed to care. 

And sometimes on other days, you do stay home and wallow. You cry all day, and then the next day you wake up breathing fire, you're so angry. But you keep going and you keep walking forward. So, in spite of the days that suck, you go on about life. Some days all I can wear are comfy clothes, but on the days when I work, it feels great to get up, get dressed, and get out of the house. The walls have a habit of closing in on me at night, so I look forward to my daytimes. 

I didn't mean to be all gloomy here, but honestly, this is my life right now. Some days I'm sad and cry all day, other days I'm mad and I have to fight off the feelings of anger. I think it's why I've not had the emotional energy or strength to write very often. I didn't mean for this to feel so heavy, but it's what it seems to be, so I'll leave it as is and hope I don't run any of you off. 🤣 Thanks for reading along today and being patient with me! Grace upon grace, as I like to say. 

Love to all.