Weekend....uh, I mean 2021 Year in Review

 Happy Monday!  Before the year starts to fly right past us too quickly, I am sharing a little look back to 2021.  I am going to say, overall, 2021 was a hard year, one I was not sad to say goodbye to.  However, I also want to remember the good from the year, so that is what I am highlighting here.  These pictures help forget the hard moments of day to day.

January

My husband and I took a weekend trip to the Delta area of Mississippi for a food tour and we visited the Grammy Musuem in Cleveland, MS.  There is one other location, which is located in Los Angeles.

February

We celebrated my oldest daughter's 20th birthday.

We had record snow and we did not leave our house by car for 6 days.  We did take a walk to our neighborhood hill for sledding, but that was it. I loved watching it snow!

March

My youngest and I flew to Richmond, Virginia for Spring Break to visit my brother and his family.

We drove to Williamsburg for the day as well.

 

April

We visited a Buc-ees, the closest one to us, about 3 hours away.  It was quite exciting :)

The main reason for that trip was to see Nate Bargatze, who was hilarious.

I took a few days and drove to Indiana to see a sweet friend and her husband and new baby.

May

We went to a Redbirds game, our AAA baseball team.

My husband and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary.

June

Zoo date with my greats.

We took a family vacation to Florida.

I flew to Philadelphia for a few days to visit with a friend I met in South America who was in the states.  I was able to run the Rocky steps, a bucket list item for me.

 

July

My husband and I took a weekend trip to an area in Tennessee we had never visited.

August

I started work at a new part time job, which I love. We hosted our annual 5K race.

My youngest started her senior year of high school after a full year of virtual.  She never went in person any of her junior year.  

I took a long weekend trip and went to North Carolina to visit a friend and my in-laws too.

 

September

We were able to visit with some of our dearest friends who just moved back to the states from Bangkok as missionaries. This was a life giving day.   

We went white water rafting as a family Labor Day weekend.

October

After almost 2 years of waiting, my girls and I saw Harry Styles in concert in Nashville.

Brook celebrated a birthday!

I went on a girls weekend trip to Columbia, TN to see a live podcast of Big Boo with Melanie Shankle and Sophia Hudson.

Brook and I spent 5 days on a college tour in Georgia, ending in beautiful Savannah.

November

 I celebrated a birthday!

My husband and I spent a weekend camping....in a van, down by the river.

Thanksgiving

December

We saw John Crist live comedy show.

We got dressed up for a Christmas party.

Christmas with my siblings

Top highlights in review....

Snow days

Trip to Philadelphia/running Rocky steps

Laughter/trip to see Nate Bargatze

Visit with friends

Harry Styles concert 

White water rafting with family

Now, continuing on with 2022! 

linking up Holly

 

Friday Favorites ~ January 7, 2022

 Happy Friday! Today I am sharing a few favorites from the week.  Monday was back to a normal day.  The rest of the week was a little different, but all is well.

First, my great nephew was born, spent his first week of life in the NICU, but came home yesterday!

It was a cold week here.  My dear friend from NC came in town this week to see her daughter.  She spent a night with us.  We took her to one of our favorite local restaurants then had a fire at home that evening. It was so cozy.

Throwing it back to New Years Eve, we worked this puzzle of National Parks that my sister got for us at Christmas.  It was fun to do!

We have had two days with dustings of snow.  On our "snow day" yesterday, I pulled out this puzzle to work.  It is much harder and may take a while!  It was fun that my daughter had her first snow day her senior year of high school, even though there wasn't much snow :).

On our snow day, it seemed fitting, we went to Waffle House for breakfast.  I haven't been there in years!  It was pretty good and got me out of the house.

Have a great weekend!

Currently ~ January 5, 2022

  Happy Wednesday to you and hope this new year is off to a good start.  I am linking up today for the Currently series.  Today, we are discussing what we are anticipating, organizing, reading, resolving and scheduling.

anticipating

I am anticipating some fun travel this year!  I am looking forward to a visit to my college girl next month to celebrate her 21st birthday.  I hope to make a spring trip to visit an old friend I haven't seen in over 10 years.  It is crazy how time gets away from us, but I really hope this is the year I can go see her.  We have a family cruise in May....anticipating that all goes through without any Covid interruptions.  Hopefully, this fall, we will make a college trip to see my other daughter....location is to be determined! 

 organizing

Currently, I am organizing clothes & household items.  We have made a visit to the re-sale store, but most of the items will be donated.  In my mind, I would like to do a yard sale, but then I think about all that work for not a ton of money, so I probably will just donate.  

 reading

Currently, I am reading The Hard Good and Gentle and Lowly.  These are 2 books I have heard great things about that. I am just at the first chapter into each book.   As with every other year, I always hope to read more.  I think the key may be listening to books on Audible....or is there another source you would recommend for listening to books?

 resolving

Currently, I am resolving to have a calmer heart for 2022.  I am trying to relax and find balance more this year.  Not so much in a physical sense, but to attain these things in an emotional sense.  I am anticipating 2022 to be a better year than 2022!

scheduling 

Currently, I am scheduling the day to day to do lists of life.  I used a paper planner for the last year or two, but recently have just been using my phone calendar to schedule and keep up with all the things.  Most of the time, it is just small errands, but I need to write most things down in order to remember anything!

Linking up with Anne

Prime Purchases ~ January 2022

Good morning.  Yesterday I shared some Christmas highlights and today, I am joining in for Prime Purchases and linking a few gifts that were purchased for myself and family over the Christmas season.  

For my husband, he wanted a new system for his pour over coffee.  So far, he likes this product.  We have also seen it sold at Starbucks.

                                                        Pour Over Coffee Maker

For myself and my daughter, I bought this set of Soap Pocket Squares.  There is a local store that sells scented, locally poured bars of soap.  I received one for my birthday and gave my daughter one in her stocking.  These squares are the perfect size and loofah sponge to hold a bar of soap.  Typically, I like a liquid body soap, but I have enjoyed using this with my scented bar of soap.

Soap Pocket Squares

This gift was for myself and I ended up buying one for my other daughter once she saw mine and liked it.  I had seen this on other's blog and it really caught my eye.  I have 2 bags I have used for jewelry in the past, but the way this one has storage for necklaces and rings is so creative.  Can't wait to put this to use!

Jewelry Travel Case

This is a gift from one daughter to the next.  I haven't heard a report yet on how she likes it, but the colors are certainly so pretty!

Nail Dip Powder Set

Linked up with Tanya for Prime Purchases

Christmas 2021

 Happy 2022 Friends!  My goodness, there is nothing I like better than a fresh start.  I try to embrace that hope every day.  Wishing this year is full of fresh starts along the way and many blessings.  I am hoping you all enjoyed your Christmas and New Years holiday season.  Today, it is back to work and school for our family.  My husband and I both worked last week, but we did take some time off as well to enjoy family.  Here are lots of highlights from the past week.

The week of Christmas, our family joined my sister and her family to visit Zoo Lights. It had been a while since I had gone and I was so impressed with the lights.

My girls below walking into the tunnel of lights.

My greats....y'all know I love being with them!

The husband and me

My sister and I

Our Christmas Eve was a little different.  We did my side of the family celebration after Christmas, so it was just the 4 of us Christmas Eve. I made Christmas punch and Christmas lunch. I also had Christmas scents simmering on the stove.  Since it was warmer than usual, we sat outside.   After lunch, we exchanged our family gifts.  That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and looked at Christmas lights.

My gifts from my girls.  They did good!

Christmas morning, we had some gifts for our girls. The gifts seem to get less and less as they get more expensive :)

A few years ago, we started hanging wrapping paper they break through before they come downstairs.

These girls keep me going!

Christmas lunch was spent at my parents with cousins for an appetizer lunch.  That evening, I made my annual Christmas dinner of spaghetti and we watched The Nativity Story movie.

Monday after Christmas, my brother and his family came into town.  We had such a fun night of visiting over dinner and smores at my sister's house.

The next day, my girls and 2 of my nieces went to an Escape Room.  We barely escaped!

That evening, we went to my parents for dinner and opening gifts.  It was so fun to have my parents, siblings and their families there.

My girls and 2 of my nieces

My 2 youngest great nieces

My brother and sister with me

Me and my great nephew

My girls with my great niece

I am so thankful for these memories and know you treasure your memories as well from this season.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading!

Linking up w/GoodRandomFun