Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm joining in with Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond for today's post. I'll jump in with this week's eclectic hodgepodge of questions.

1. What's a childhood habit or preference you will never outgrow? Two things popped into my brain right off the bat when I read this question. The first thing is that I've painted my nails ever since I was a very young girl. My mom would make Sundays my "spa day", and she'd let me use her giant bath tub and bubble bath, then she would trim and then paint my fingernails. I will never outgrow wanting to have great nails! The second thing I thought of is that I will never be too old to lick the spoon after making cookies or brownies. Am I alone in this?? 

2. Did you know that July is beans month? What is your favorite bean? What's a favorite recipe that calls for them? Team beans or no beans when it comes to chili? I love beans! I think my favorite are black beans, and I like to eat them with rice and salsa. But seriously, I like all beans. I love the five bean soup mixed bag of beans that you can buy at the grocery store; I like to make that in the winter along with some cornbread. Yum! I also love chili with beans, but I can eat it without as well. I'm not a picky eater and will eat whatever is put in front of me. 

3. Some historical figures have a tag line after their name, like "William the brave"...what would your tag line be? Why? I think I would want my tag line to be Jennifer the one with unshakeable joy. Or Jennifer the faithful one. I want to be known for having unshakeable joy even in the darkest of circumstances that life can bring. I also want to be known for being faithful to my Savior, because He has been faithful to me. With everything in my life, I want to point people to Jesus and to His amazing love. 

4. The way to my heart is through kind words and quality time. I have always been a words girl; I'll take a card with a sweet and heartfelt note any day over a gift. I also love the gift of time and love to have conversations that aren't one-sided. I need eye contact, a listening and sympathetic ear, and I need to feel heard and seen. I don't feel like those are unreasonable things to ask for, you know? Also, because I put a lot of thought into words, I can never un-hear things that people say to me. I can never quickly move on from being deeply hurt by someone I love. 

5. The calendar rolls into August this week, but before we go, what are four adjectives you would use to describe your July? July was rough, in so many ways. My dad died, I'm having a personal crisis, and my head is still reeling from it all. That being said, I also have to say that July has been hopeful, because I know that better days are ahead. July was emotional, for all the reasons I listed above, and it was filled with lots and lots of friends, so maybe it was also friendly? It makes sense in my head. 

Look at me being here three days in a row this week! It very well may change next week, but this is me giving it a go and trying in spite of sickness that has kept me down a little. Thanks for reading my blog today, friends! Love to all. 

a July appreciation post

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! Can you believe that August 1 is this week? Before we know it, we'll all be knee deep in all things fall, the B-E-R months, decorating, and meal planning yet again. I have to confess that after the turmoil of this summer, all of those things sound delightful. I'd love to just skip ahead to the next year of my life; can someone make that happen, please? I'm not one to usually wish away my time, but I'd love to do that for my next phase of life as I transition from one thing to another. 

I digress. 

In an attempt to start something new here on my blog, I thought I'd start ending the month here with things from the month that I appreciate. I'll jump in!

You may not see my Jonah in many of my pictures because of how well he evades my attempts to capture him, but know that he is usually not far away from me. I've been asking you for prayer for all of us, but Jonah is the one I'm most concerned about and who is struggling the most, with the exception of me. I would love to say that they won't be traumatized by the events of the summer, but that will not be the case, unfortunately. I'm hoping they'll all consider some counseling eventually, but I don't know that they ever will. If you have any thoughts and/or suggestions for me being able to convince them, feel free to send them my way. 

I appreciated doing something new after church this week! I mentioned that Marilyn and I had lunch on Sunday, but this is where we went; a new Italian place here in my town called Rotolos. 

I appreciated great quiet time and podcasts this month to help me start the healing process.

I appreciated being able to sit in a room where people don't really know me last week, and couldn't ask about my life. I know people mean well, and I'm grateful, but I'm tired of talking all the time. This was me at the library board meeting for July. 

I appreciated delicious meals brought to us by friends this month!

I appreciated humor with myself and taking this picture of my very frizzy hair while it rained like cats and dogs for about a week straight. 

I appreciated doing new things, like making Saturday nights family dinner nights at Mom's and Bill's; I enjoyed the beautiful country sunsets, and these zinnias as you walk to their back door.

I appreciated having so many flowers in my home this month! These were given to me by my young friend, Madison. 

I appreciated thoughtful gifts like this book on prayer. I love the title!

I appreciated the passages that spoke to my heart from my Bible this month. Some of these are verses that I specifically read, and some are verses that people encouraged me with. I wrote them on these notecards to make them easy to grab and go for the times when I'll be gone for a while or for when I need to leave home in a hurry. 

I greatly appreciated receiving so many beautiful cards this month!

I appreciated time with my sons.

I appreciated words of wisdom from social media accounts that I follow. 

I appreciated hearing the sound of these beautiful wind chimes that my friend Karen gave to me.

I appreciated delicious things, like this beautiful strawberry cake that my pastor's wife made for us.

I appreciated times of relaxing at my mom's house.

I appreciate the promise and reminder that Jesus is the Light of the world, and that in Him there is no darkness at all. 

I appreciated every single item that was given to me in this gift basket, and in another one that a couple of my friends gave to me last week. 

This wasn't the easiest or best month for me, but this is me acknowledging the many good things among such a sad time in my life. It's true that there is beauty among ashes, and that joy and grief go hand in hand. I want to make sure and feel all the things I'm feeling, and not brush them away or pretend that everything is fine when my world is still falling apart. I know it won't always be like this, and that down the road I'll be able to look back and say how the Lord was faithful to get us through. And I know He will do that; everything is just still so raw and fresh that the pain is still great. I suspect it will be like this for a long time, but I'm happy to say that I will work through it with the help of a licensed therapist. I'm trying to be "healthy" here, but I'm also trying to be as open and honest with myself as I can be, and that spills over to this space on my blog. Thanks for bearing with me while my life is under major construction, and thank you for your endless encouragement and support. Love to all!

I'm linking up with Joanne for today's post. 

weekending

 

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

My weekend was super low-key, thanks to a summer cold I seem to have caught from one of my sons. I started feeling kind of rough on Friday night, and fell asleep by eight o'clock while another son and I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. (This is the last time I'll mention that, because not only was I not impressed, I was kind of disgusted with it all and won't be watching again.) Moving on...I went to bed early because of that and stayed home on Saturday for the same reason. I was trying to feel better by Sunday, because I can't really miss work right now. (I've missed so much this year!) 

This was me being the receptionist in the church office on Thursday. I enjoyed doing this, because it was very different from what I usually do. It was fun to see lots of people come in and out, and to hang out with the office people for a change. You'll be glad to know that I survived the messy desk debacle from last Monday when I shared it here. Remember? 

This was me killing time and spending more time in the reading plan I had read that morning. I love it when I open my Bible and find an old sermon; I needed to see these reminders again on Thursday! 

I came home that night and had this delicious leftover roast and sourdough bread for dinner. Drew came over later that night and had the exact same thing! And, he took home some leftovers for the rest of his week. I love being able to feed my sons! 

And this was me on Friday doing the same thing. That morning I was able to listen to a podcast titled "How to Radically Forgive", which I also needed to hear. There was one statement in the podcast that stood out against a host of others, and that was to pray to want to forgive. Whew. I have been praying that ever since! I also read the verses written out in the notes and copied them onto notecards so that I can quickly grab them and take them with me when I leave home for an extended period of time. 

I was so glad to be invited out to lunch that day with my work besties, and that they obliged me what I was craving: nachos from a local place here in town called Booyas. It was delicious and I devoured every bite! 

For the rest of the weekend I did mundane but necessary things like:

• washed my sheets
• cleaned the entire downstairs
• caught up on laundry
• binge watched a season of Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix
• cuddled with the dogs
• read my book
• cried
• got mad
• consoled one of my sons once again since the devastation of our lives began on June 22
• angry texted to get some things off my chest, so to speak
• washed my hair
• watched tv in bed
• drank copious amounts of water to ward off sickness
• rearranged a flower arrangement
• talked on the phone several times

I also went to lunch with Marilyn after church on Sunday! 

I am so grateful to God for friends who have walked the same path I am walking in life, and who push me to get out and start new traditions. Everyone needs a Marilyn in their life! Fun fact: after we took this picture, the sky fell and we took a shower walking back to our cars. I acted like a man and walked her to her vehicle with my umbrella since it caught us off guard and she didn't have the chance to completely put on her rain jacket. 🤣 

After lunch I came home and changed and was settling in for an afternoon nap when Graham called. He'd been to look at a house that afternoon and he wanted to come pick me up to take me to see it with him; I told him later that I could have been knee deep in several things and busier than ever, but when my sons call me wanting to do something, I will always drop everything for them and run. I know all of you can imagine how happy this kind of thing makes me! I love that they include me in their lives, and there is nobody on earth I love more than my sons. 

What did you do this weekend? I hope to be back here again this week, but I will definitely be here on Wednesday August 2nd for the Currently link party. Next month we'll be talking about the things we're currently loving, looking forward to, dreading, eating, and buying. I hope you make plans now to join us for that next week! As always, thank you for the encouragement you've sent my way, and for continuing to show up here even when I've not been faithful in posting. I'm hoping that turns around again soon! Love to all. 

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!