Hello Monday.

 

Happy Tuesday, friends, and happy September! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was amazing! Here's what I did:

After work, I came home for just a bit and talked with Chris on the phone for a while before finally hanging up and going to change. I had plans to meet my co-workers for dinner and a high school musical! This was a really fun night; we met at Chili's for dinner and drinks, then we caravanned to the high school for The Descendants. It was so good! It turns out that I love getting out off campus for fun with co-workers. I'm going to do this all that I can! I ended the night with a cookie and a Diet Coke from Chick Fil A; have you had their cookies? They're my favorite! 

Chris came to my house pretty early on Saturday, and we got a start on our weekend. I wanted to get a pedicure, so while I did that, he waited for me at The Home Depot. He is closing on a piece of land this week in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, and he's turning a barn type building into a home. He has all kinds of things planned for this; I had fun sharing all of this process with him over the weekend! We ate lunch, we went to Graham's house to check on the progress of the new patio covering he made with my stepdad on Saturday, we ran a few errands, then we came back to my house so that I could do some laundry. We started a documentary on Charlie Sheen on Netflix while we waited; eventually we left here to go to his house for a yummy Mexican dinner. 

I laughed at all of these drinks! We were trying to make our iced coffees taste better on Sunday, but we did not succeed. 🤣

We found ourselves in a tiny grocery store in Ripley looking for odds and ends that they sold along with groceries. We eventually ate lunch, had Sonic drinks, then did a few more things while we were in that area before making our way back to his place. One of the things we stumbled upon was this beautiful lake! 

He gets bonus points for asking if I wanted to take pictures, and then taking multiple shots of different parts of the lake. He gets me! 🤣 When we got to his house, we watched a movie, I tried taking a nap, then we got dinner again before I left again to come back home for the night. I laughed over how we ate dinner; we talked and he watched a race with one earbud in while we ate. I got home and showered so that I won't have to deal with my hair in the morning, then worked on blog stuff for this week as I watched Virgin River. 

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

Jenn ❤️

Friday Favorites, 9.12.2025.

 

Happy Friday, friends! This has been a week; I don't know how a week can feel so long and be the same five days as every other week. Maybe it's the memories of the last year that did it to me this week? I have some dates that have snuck up on me that might have been the cause for some of the things I've felt this week. Who knows? All that to say, I'm so glad it's Friday! I'm in need of the weekend. In the meantime, here are some of my favorites from this week.

They're all out of order, but here are my outfits from the week; getting dressed is one of my favorite parts of everyday! I pulled out some jeans and the wide-legged pants this week since our weather has been cooler; it's hotter again now, so it was fun while it lasted! I started with the khaki ones right above these words and my black CWES shirt; last Friday was spirit day. My Queen tee and leggings was Saturday; the pink pants were Monday, jeans and the mocha colored shirt were Tuesday, the black dress was Wednesday, and the new Halara jeans and red and white striped button down was yesterday for patriot day, since it was 9/11. 

Country drives will always be my favorite!

I follow all these relationship accounts on social media; these are some that made me stop for a minute this week. That first one is my favorite, though! Please forgive the bleeped out curse word, but it made me laugh ridiculously hard when I saw it on Instagram.

Sweet happenings in room 304 are my favorite! These are the third graders that come to us, minus the one who sits at my table. We separate them based on what they need; the one at my table needs more help with math, but these pictured need reading lessons, which is way more difficult to teach. I'm so glad I get to be an assistant at my job, and that I get to do the easier things. It makes sense, right? That isn't what happened when I worked at this school two years ago; I was thrown into doing something I didn't know how to do, and I had anxiety attacks a lot of mornings before I went to work. In second grade, I work with two very different students while Karen works with the other six. Second grade is a lot. 🤣

I sent this one to Karen on Tuesday, when they all walked out and our heads were spinning. She's like me and loves pickles, and we were both officially over the day at that point. We look at each other a lot and start laughing almost uncontrollably. 

The commencement of burning my wedding dress was definitely a favorite from this week! Monday was rough; this felt like free therapy.

I didn't feel good at all on Tuesday and Wednesday; I sent this to Chris while eating lunch. He had seen a Snapchat I'd sent him from Tuesday night, so he texted asking if I'd had to go home for being sick. I sent him this back as proof of life. Being sick isn't my favorite, but having someone ask about me and how I'm feeling is. 

Teacher treats were my favorite on Wednesday! Today we get Sonic drinks for lunch; I love special things like this to pass a week quickly. We have the very best PTA!

Wednesday nights are ours now! Rotolo's with Kendra (and a quick visit with Mar when she stopped by) have quickly become my favorite night of the week. I love our time together! We took this picture and then we each cried at one point afterward, both over different things that we've walked through in the last year (or more for her). 

Yesterday was an emotional day for me, with it being another date that passed by on the calendar. It was the year anniversary of me filing for divorce. I'll always remember the events that led up to me deciding to take that first step and then talking to my sister Lisa on the phone about everything. She knew I didn't want to do that, but she also knew it was something that I needed to do, since the outcome was inevitable. I'll never forget her thinking I would chicken out and asking what it would take to make me follow through; I said I needed someone to go with me. A few minutes later, she'd booked a flight home from Denver for two nights, just so that she could go with me to the attorney's office the next day to file. 

This was us the day she flew home. I cried over this so many times! It got me again on Wednesday night when I was with Kendra; the gift of sisters is like none other! I am so thankful for mine, and that they all have my back, especially in the worst year of my life. They will always be my favorites!

What was something that was a favorite for you this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog 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, What gives you energy? What takes it away? Marilyn and I talked about our answers to these prompts Monday night, and I told her that right now, work is giving me energy. I love making connections with different students, and our Resource S students are the sweetest. Seeing their smiles makes my day, as does them stepping out of a line to give me a goodbye hug every single day. I love these students so much, even the ones who are difficult! The ones who are tricky come from homes that aren't as stable as they need; many of the families are divorced, and that affects their kids in all the ways that you can imagine. Something that takes away my energy is when I have a setback like I did on Monday. I don't want to talk about that again, but I wrote about it yesterday. 

These are my sweet little first grade friends. I adore them! 

2. How often do you shop for clothes? What accessory do you always wear? I shop for clothes on an as-needed basis. I don't love shopping, but when I need things (like I do now), I'm always keeping my eye out for something. I've done a lot of online shopping for clothes lately; I'll post about that soon! I always wear accessories, period. Right now this is my Apple watch, my chunky gold earrings, a dainty gold necklace, and my favorite gold bracelet stack. 

3. What's something that's free that you feel grateful for? God's abounding love. Friendship. Communication. Laughter. Moments that bring joy. Hugs. Phone calls in the afternoon.

4. Breakfast, lunch, dinner...which meal of the day do you enjoy most? What's your go-to comfort food? I'm always the hungriest at lunch! But my favorite meal is always dinner. My go-to comfort food is something warm; last night I Door Dashed our dinner from a local Mexican restaurant. I had some delicious chicken tortilla soup since I didn't feel great, and I ordered veggies with rice and black beans. 

I plan on making my own soup when I start to feel better. I love to eat it for leftovers! Do you do this? 

5. This week the world remembers the tragic events of 9/11. Do you mark the day in any way? How do historical events shape your perspective on personal challenges? I usually take time to pray for the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11. I like to watch The Today Show on this day each year, but I'll be at work. I may record it, honestly. I think that travel has changed the most in the days since those terrorist acts. That's when TSA guidelines tightened up, and when they started forbidding non-travelers at the gates. 

I'm so glad I got to see this memorial when I was in NYC several years ago. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I spent some time scrolling on Spotify for a song to share with you, but I couldn't find one that was worth sharing. So I'll say this instead: I think it's important that we listen to our bodies. I was thinking of this as I came home after work yesterday; I had grand plans to go to the bank, get my car washed, and go for a pedicure all before coming home. I left work not feeling great, though, so I skipped all of that and came straight home to lay down. I wanted soup for dinner, which is why I Door Dashed our dinner; before it got there I washed my face and put on pajamas. It felt good to stay home all night, and I'm glad I made the choice to forego all of the plans that I'd had for that afternoon and evening. I'd also signed up for a women's event at church, but I definitely knew I didn't need to go to that. All of this being said, I think it's smart when we listen to what our bodies tell us we need. This week feels like it's kicking my butt, so I want to take it easy on myself, you know? Have you experienced this? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

Jenn