Hello, Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's post. I hope you had a good weekend! Mine was really nice, with fun things, family time, friends, and some time at home alone. I'll jump in!

I switched it up again on Friday and picked Dad up at 9:45. I had to go to Jackson again, which is an hour away from his house, for an appointment I had to get screened for TSA pre-check. After we left there, we drove to a small town named Whiteville for lunch; we stopped at an Amish grocery store/cafe for lunch. 

This is Backermann's; I wish I could say how amazing our lunch was, but honestly, it was just mediocre. We both got the "quirky turkey" sandwich on homemade sourdough, but my lovely friend Marilyn has forever ruined me for any other sourdough bread that's not hers. Speaking of Marilyn, she was involved in my Friday night plans. After I took Dad back to his house, I came home for a bit to let the dogs out and change clothes, and to make something to take to her house for our dinner. In case you don't already know this, I have started a book club! We met for the first time two weeks ago, and Marilyn came that night, armed with a loaf of her amazing homemade sourdough bread. And thus, the monster was created, because the men in my home inhaled that loaf in the five days that followed. Friends, it was (IS!!) so delicious that I asked her if I could come over on a Friday night and have her teach me her ways. So that's what I did Friday night!

She made us a delicious dinner, and I took pasta and fruit salads, and a bottle of delicious wine that we had with our dessert.

This kind of dinner is my favorite! It was delicious and it all kind of went together miraculously without either of us knowing what the other was doing. We enjoyed a (healthier) chocolate chip cookie with the fruit salad I brought, and we each had a small glass of this wine that you see pictured above. I thought this was a different brand when I stopped in our local Cheers; I love the Stella Rose brand, and this bottle was right next to those. I didn't see the one I went in to buy, but this one caught my eye, and I went with it. The label says it has bright notes of orange blossoms, wildflowers, and honey. It was delicious! I left it with Marilyn to enjoy. 

We had such a fun night, and I'm so thankful she taught me how to make sourdough bread! She was so thoughtful to even type up the recipe with instructions for me, and she also walked me through it as she got hers ready for baking on Saturday morning. One "batch" of the recipe makes two loaves, so she kept one and sent one home with me to finish on my own Saturday morning. I followed the final instructions before baking it, and look at how amazing it turned out! 

Not only does it taste amazing, but it's also beautiful! I was shocked at how well it turned out and didn't expect it to go like that; most times when you try something for the first time, there's lots of room for improvement. 

I swam and floated most of Saturday. It was glorious! My mom, Bill, and sister Trish came over to swim with me. It was the nicest day! Trish and I stayed after they left, and I finally got out when my fingers started to look like prunes. 

I came home and showered, then changed the lights in my bedroom, and then later on I got dressed to meet my young friend Holly for dinner. 

One (of the million other things) of the things that's cool about having such a young friend is that she teaches me all her ways. Have you heard of this resource? Chat GPT? I hadn't, and she showed me how to use it Saturday night. 

Sunday was church! Afterward, Drew came over and ate a very simple lunch with us, then Todd worked, and my sister and I went to see Dad. We took dinner with us and spent a couple of hours with him. I saw Bill on Saturday, and tonight Wiley and Phyllis (the in-love's) are coming over. 

I lingered over my quiet time on Sunday morning, since I forgot it on Saturday.

And then when I fed the dogs across the street and walked back home, I took this. It always surprises me to see this in our driveway! Todd brings it home when he's the CDO (commanding officer) for the weekend. He worked on Saturday and Sunday nights this weekend, which isn't ideal, but sometimes just can't be helped. We'll have a date night this weekend, for sure. 

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

Jenn 🖤

Friday Favorites, 6.14.2024.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for today's favorite blog post of the week. How has your week been? I hope you can say that it's been a great one! I've had lots of favorites this week, starting with my current favorite summer products.

The first two that you see pictured together are what I use as my foundation in the summer. You'll see that neither are foundation! I love that Elf brand Whoa Glow; combined with a drop of that hydrating face primer achieves a dewy look that I love in the summer. Or maybe that look is just because I'm always hot? It could be either! My next favorite is the tinted eyebrow gel in dark blonde. I had always used a brunette shade for this, and did not love the look of the dark brows on me, so when Tanya recommended this one, I went for it and made the change! 

(The picture below is me without makeup; look how light my eyebrows are, even though my hair is naturally very dark brown. You can see why I didn't love the dark brow look on me, since it looked too unnatural! And yes, that's ironic, since my very dark hair is dyed very light blonde. 🤣 I'm a conundrum, what can I say?)

Thanks to Amy, she mentioned this nightshirt to me when we talked on the phone last week. It's my new favorite thing to sleep in, thanks to hot flashes night sweats. I'm rolling my eyes over myself; 

Having a made bed everyday is my favorite! Do you do this every morning? I wasn't doing this every morning, but out of the last seven days, I've made it five out of the seven—it feels good to take the time to make it before coming downstairs before leaving for work. 

This popped up on Timehop this week! A friend of mine took it one year when my sons attended beach camp. That's where they go most years now when they go to youth "church" camp: the beach. Nice, right?

Memories like this will always be my favorite! We used to go to Branson every year with Todd's parents, and we always had such a great time. We would go to a Dixie Stampede show/dinner, we'd go to a water park, and Silver Dollar City (which is basically just another Dollywood), and we always loved hanging out and eating dinner at The Branson Landing. One of my best friends (Christa) used to live nearby (in Springfield), and she'd always come visit and/or spend the night, and we would have the most fun together, especially if we swam at night. 

For reference, here's my Christa.

This picture above was taken fourteen years ago, with her, hubby Jason (before he was her hubby), and my boys—left to right are Graham, Jonah, Noah, Drew. We've been friends for as long as Jonah and Noah have been alive almost. We're going on twenty years! 

And this picture was taken eight years ago while we were there, and after her daughter was born. This will always go down as one of my favorite nights ever: fresh from night swimming and showers, and having a grown up sleepover. Annalise was about three here, now she's going into sixth grade this coming year!

Dinners have been my favorite this week! We had chicken and veggies one night, quiche another night, veggie supreme pizza, and Mexican inspired fare. 

Chloe putting herself in timeout for eating trash is my favorite! I'll say it again: it's a good thing she's cute. 

This little set up was a favorite for several people at church on Wednesday! I had to leave early and wanted people to have access to coffee, so I pulled this little table out and got everyone settled in for their day at work.

Showing up matchy-matchy with my work bestie was my favorite! This is my sweet friend Mandy that I've mentioned here before. 

Hair day will always be my favorite!

Have you seen this image online? This was Charles Schulz, cartoonist, and this was his dog that inspired the character Snoopy. This was my favorite thing that I saw online all week!

Lastly, this hot pink Walmart dress is one of my favorites right now! So are these Amazon sandals that you see. I wore these sandals all day at work yesterday, thanks to Tanya. She was right in her assessment of them. Thank you! 

Did you catch all my other blog posts this week? There were a lot, so I'll link them below. 

Saturday was the second edition of my new series, The Cozy Chronicles. 

Monday was a double post day, with Hello Monday, and Share Your Lives. 

Tuesday was a post about music that I titled, The Soundtrack of my Life. 

Wednesday was a Hodge Podge post, and also the Let's Look linkup talking about summer schedules; I'd link it, but Blogger won't me link it here. Just know that it's before the Hodge Podge post. 

Thursday was Thankful Thursday. 

And you know what? I may be back here tomorrow, but who knows? I've been inspired a lot lately, apparently. 🤣 

What was your favorite from this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. I hope you have the best weekend! Love to all.

Jenn 🖤

Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I am so glad you're here today for the Thankful Thursday link up. I'll jump right in with some things fresh off the pages of my journal. This week, I'm thankful for: 

• new beginnings
• lunch with my friend Dedee
• getting my teeth cleaned after lunch on Monday and getting a good report about my dental health
• friends that work at our dentist; we've been going there for over twenty years and we love and know those people as well as we do some of our own family members
• jeans weather
• the amazing salad bar place that my friend introduced me to and the yummy one I made for myself
• a slow week in the bookstore and the time to organize and clean out

• my work bestie Mandy

When you show up matching, you need a picture! 

• for the millionth time, a job that I love
• my friend's son's successful surgery
• new hobbies 
• a great book and a funny TV show
• beautiful weather and a pool to swim in this week
• quality time with my people, whether in person, on the phone, or in a text or Snapchat 

I'll take any of those things any way I can get it! 

What are you thankful for this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let's Look: summer schedule/routines

Happy bonus blog post day! (Why are these coming more frequently as of late?) I am joining in with Shay and Erika for this fun link party. I don't participate in these every single month, but I love the idea of a summer schedule, which is what they're talking about today. I'll jump in!

I'll start by saying that I'm at the stage of life where my life doesn't change that much from one season to the next, but I do different things in the summer, which is always fun. Now that my sons are grown, it's funny how life looks so different; I do think that I will always love summer, no matter my age. 

Every morning when I wake up, I let the dogs out, get my coffee, and read for about half an hour. Chloe the pup cuddles in my lap during this time, then when she gets down, I'll read blogs and work on my own and respond to comments. I get up from my spot around six (I'm always up at 4 something, or 5 something at the latest) and start on laundry and then will have my quiet time while the clothes refresh in the dryer. After that, I get started on lunches for the day, both theirs and my own. 

I'll finish lunches, fold one small load of laundry, then by 7:45 I'm upstairs getting dressed for the day. When I finish, the last thing I do before coming back downstairs is make my bed. Do you do this everyday?

Depending on my workday, I'll be home either at 12:40 or 3:10. When I get home, sometimes I like to come home and shower and then get comfy for the rest of the night. Other times I'll wait to do that until five thirty or six, but I do love to shower each night before bedtime at some point in the evening. In the time between getting home and starting dinner, I'll eat lunch (or have a snack if it's later), I'll drink water (since I'm bad about not drinking enough at work), I'll spend time on the computer corresponding on my blog or working on my upcoming posts, I'll read, or sometimes I'll watch a show. I like to clean on Mondays and Fridays, but I also spend time everyday doing this in some form; I'll wipe down the bathrooms everyday, clean the counters, vacuum, Swiffer dust the furniture downstairs (thanks to the dogs), and I love to light candles, even in the summer time. During the next two weeks (starting today), I'll be spending some time swimming in my neighbor's pool! They leave to go out of town for two weeks today, so I'm excited about just being able to walk across the street to do this again.

In the afternoons are when I talk to Noah, like I did on Monday when we talked about meals that he's been making. He asked me for this recipe that I've been making of Shay's that's his favorite. It's good that he's 21 now so that he can buy the beer that this requires! 🤣

Sometimes after work, I'll go get my nails done. Today after work, I'm getting my hair done! 

We'll eat dinner (either I'll eat alone, or Jonah and Graham will eat with me since Todd works almost every night), I'll clean up afterward and sometimes start the dishwasher, then I'll make sure that my blog post for the next day is ready before I schedule to post. I'll start other posts when an idea strikes, or sometimes I'll use the evening time to catch up on a show, like I did last night when I watched the latest episode of When Calls the Heart. The last thing I do each night is to load anything left in the sink into and start the dishwasher. I always either read in bed or I'll watch one episode of a shorter show that I don't mind falling asleep to, but I am always asleep before ten because I'm up so early each day. 

What does your summer schedule and routine look like? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my second post today, friends. Love to all! 

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm linking up with Joyce from Joyce from This  Side of the Pond today for her weekly Hodge Podge post. 

1) June 12th is National Simplicity Day. In what way is your life simple, and what's a way that it's not? I love the thought of having a simple life! In some ways, my life is like that, in the fact that I have such a routine with things. I feel like I do the same things all the time, which is something I don't necessarily want to do, so I try to make an effort to switch things up on occasion. I have done this recently with my mornings, and more recently I've started doing this on the weekends, thanks to Todd's new job. 

Do you ever wish that your life looked totally different? Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to live in a completely different place, or to have a totally opposite lifestyle. I blame Ree Drummond for this, and the years the boys and I spent watching The Pioneer Woman on The Food Network. 🤣

My life is not simple in that I feel like it's complicated at times with schedules, dogs, and routines. I feel like we're all over the place, Todd and me, and I'm constantly adapting and coming to grips with changes. 

2) What is something you remember from a simpler time? The thing that comes to mind for this one is when our sons were little. I hope I enjoyed all the moments, you know? I think I did; I also remember how I thought things were so difficult when they were little. Oh, Jenn. If you'd only known! 

3) Do you like squash? If so, which variety is your favorite? What's a favorite way to prepare it? I like squash! It's not what I would consider a favorite vegetable of mine, but I do like it and will it at someone's house. That being said, I really don't cook it here at home, but my favorite way to eat it is in a casserole at Thanksgiving and Christmas with cheese, onions, and Ritz crackers. My sister Lisa makes the best squash casserole! 

4) Do you shop the warehouse stores? How often? What's something you always try or buy from there? We shop at both Costco and Sam's! At Costco we get protein bars, hummus, tortilla chips, drinks, toilet paper, salsa, soap, shampoo and conditioner...I could go on. At Sam's (I have my own card through my church because I order for the bookstore there and can use it personally), I buy our Premier brand protein drinks. 

5) Father's day is this coming weekend. Do you have plans to make the day special? Tell us about your Dad, or your husband as a dad. I don't really have plans for Father's day, but I plan on us swimming on Sunday. I'm hoping that the two boys that are in town will want to hang out at some point. Todd is such a great dad to our sons! He always has been, and let me tell you, they wear him out in their adult years! If it's not car troubles, it's something else, but he is so patient with them. I am also fortunate to have some wonderful men in my life who are such good examples of what a dad is. Not only is this true in my dad, but also with my dad-in-love Wiley and my stepdad Bill. I'm so grateful for all of these amazing men! 

What are your plans for this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends! Love to all. 

Jenn 🖤

The Soundtrack of my life

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start. I thought I'd talk about my favorite music today; these are the songs that would be on the soundtrack of my life. Summer takes me back to my younger years, and I am so nostalgic about movies that I loved with great soundtracks. Remember when that was such a big deal? If I loved a movie, I'd buy the soundtrack. I am still like this today and will follow a playlist made from certain movies that I see and love. 

An example of this would be the Topgun Maverick movie that came out two years ago; I love that soundtrack playlist on Spotify! If you want to follow me there, here's my public name, since I can't link again: allboys-us. Not to brag or anything, but I have excellent taste in music and there are some great playlists that I've made! Be thinking about your own soundtrack, so to speak, because I'm asking you to share yours at the end! 

I love worship music and the whole Christian music genre. My kids grew up listening to this type of music, and sometimes a song will come on and I'm flooded with memories of them singing at the top of their lungs from the backseat. Those were the days! Here are a few of my favorite artists/groups from this genre of music right now:

• Cain
• We the Kingdom
• Sovereign Grace
• Shane & Shane
• Phil Wickham
• Toby Mac

This song is one of my favorites right now; it's Won't He Do It by We the Kingdom. 

I also love this one below by the same group, Tabernacle. 

If I'm not listening to worship music, I love eighties music! Here are a few of my favorites that I listen to on my playlist on Spotify:

• Chicago/Peter Cetera 
• Phil Collins
• Bryan Adams
• Journey
• Toto
• Peter Gabriel
• Richard Marx
• Lionel Richie
• Stevie Wonder
• Elton John

I could go on and on, but I'll stop. 

One of my favorites is The Glory of Love by Peter Cetera, which was made for the movie Karate Kid II. 

Did you ever hear Tod Tilghman audition for The Voice? This was what he came out singing, and it blew me away! He sang We've Got Tonight by Kenny Rogers. 

I'll wrap this up with one last type of music that I love, and that is 90's country. It takes me right back to when Todd and I were dating, and some songs still make me swoon when I think of us as teenagers. Here are a few of my favorites:

• George Strait 
• Shania Twain
• Jo Dee Messina 
• Tracy Byrd
• Deanna Carter 
• Martina McBride
• Reba McEntire
• Tim McGraw
• Faith Hill
• Pam Tillis
• Collin Raye
• Kenny Chesney (his early stuff)

Here's a song that I still love and would sing at a karaoke bar if I ever went to one of those; I remember every line of the song, Strawberry Wine by Deanna Carter.

It's your turn—what would the soundtrack of your life be? I'd love to hear from you! I'm joining in with Joanne today for her Talk About It Tuesday link party. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.

a bonus post: share our lives

 

Happy bonus post day! I wanted to link up with the ladies today because they're talking about making food for other people. I'll jump in!

I've been both on the receiving and the giving end of this kind of thing so many times that I cannot even count. The great thing about friends and church family is that when someone is in need, they all step up. This happens for the birth of a child or the death of a loved one; remember when my bonus son's sister died early this year and I talked about friends, a funeral, and a mercy meal? I've taken meals to people whose spouses have had surgery, to friends that are sick, or just because someone I love is struggling. My friend Barbee takes homemade pans of brownies to people that she loves just because. I want to do more of this kind of thing as I get older! 

Here are some of my favorite things to make or give people right now:

• taco soup
• their favorite takeout

My friend had surgery last year and I took her some soup that she loves from her favorite Mexican restaurant. I thought that was genius when she asked for it; I also ordered her hubby's favorite meal, and something her little girl would eat. 

• pizza, soft drinks, and dessert (for when there are lots of littles)
• any type of casserole that reheats well, along with salad, bread, and dessert
• sandwich trays, fancy breads, and cheese and fruit plates
• snacks for when there's a death in the family and there are lots of extra people in the house for several days
• breakfast foods that are continental in style, along with a hearty casserole

I love learning about what people take to others in need! Thanks for reading my bonus post today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 🖤