Friday Favorites ~ December 5, 2025

In no particular order....Here are some favorites from my week:

After doing all my Christmas shopping last weekend, it is fun to get all the packages.  I also shopped for myself :).

I cooked dinner Monday night!  This is the first time I have cooked dinner since Brook has been home.  I made spaghetti, which I haven't eaten in such a long time.  I bought a baguette at Trader Joe's on Sunday and added butter and garlic to it before I baked it.  It was delicous.

I also picked up these Elderberry juice shots from Trader Joe's.  Here we are having our "shots" after dinner!

Monday, I babysat for this precious little boy.

There was this peaceful You Tube piano screensaver playing and I loved it.

She also had this display of a stereo with Christmas albums, which I thought was so cute.  

I made some sourdough bread this week, which is always a favorite!

Two favorites from Tuesday... I had a massage and then met a friend for coffee/tea.  

I subbed Wednesday and that was a good day.  That evening, I attended our women's church Christmas party/gift exchange, which is always a fun night! Our sweet hostess had her home decorated beautifully!

I made the Christmas bark in the back of this picture.  It is melted chocolate, pretzels and M&M's.  I have had about 90% of this tray this week.

Another favorite was the arrival of my new pair of tennis shoes/sneakers! I haven't had a new pair in 3 years so I am pretty excited about these!

It was fun to see my Spotify wrapped from 2025:

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!  

 

Currently Hodgepodging ~ December 3, 2025

 It is always a joy to link up with Joyce for Hodgepodge & Jenn for Currently!

1. What does it mean to have the 'holiday spirit'? On a scale of 1-10 how is yours this year? (10=off the charts, 1=still looking for it)

I think the holiday spirit means enjoying the sights, sounds and scents of the season.  It means thinking of others and a season of giving.  I think I am about an 8 as of now, so that seems pretty good to me!

2. What's your favorite character from a (December) holiday-themed movie, book, or TV special? Tell us why. 

Right now, I would say George Bailey or Carol Brady.  George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life" because he wondered what life would have been like if he had never been born.  Then he saw the value of his life.  This is a reminder that each of us has value of life.  

Regarding Carol Brady, do you remember the Brady Bunch Christmas episode? Carol had laryngitis.  I have had laryngitis since last Thursday, but it is finally getting better!

3. Do you like gingerbread? Are gingerbread houses part of your holiday tradition? 

I am not a fan of gingerbread.  I have tried assembling gingerbread houses, but have never been successful!  

4. Much of our vocabulary is determined by where we live or where we grew up. What say you-

sprinkles or jimmies? lightning bugs or fireflies? soda or pop? sneakers, trainers, or tennis shoes? sub, hoagie, grinder, or hero? freeway, highway, or motorway? frosting or icing? sauce or gravy?

sprinkles, lightning bugs, soda, sneakers & tennis shoes, sub, interstate, icing, sauce

5. Share a favorite holiday memory from your childhood. 

I have so many sweet childhood memories.  Each Christmas, my siblings and I always took a picture in front of the Christmas tree holding a present.  We always had a real tree until I was probably in high school.  We always took a night to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  My grandmother would go with us.  She lived on a very limited budget as a widow.  I remember she would treat us to a Frosty or something from Wendy's fast food. We also would go every season to something downtown Memphis called The Enchanted Forest. It was a walk through indoor event of Christmas decor and enchanted forest creatures. At the end, we sat on Santa's lap and gave him our wish list!  Every Christmas morning, my grandparents would come over and see what we got.  

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  

I scrolled through some random pictures from lately and found this one.  During my move, I had some random clothes in my car.  At work one day, I shared that I had them and our 2 interns tried on wedding dresses!  First, I love these 2 interns we have had this semester.  I have a few wedding dresses...the one on the left was the wedding dress I bought with my first engagement.  I loved it and never got rid of it, even though it was never worn.  (I was engaged to someone else before I got married).  The dress on the right is the simple dress I got married in while standing on a trail in Montana. I even have another dress that I wore during a vow renewal ceremony.  It was fun to see them try on the dresses and they filmed a reel!

That is some randomness!  Now for Currently....

Loving

I am loving my new rental home!  I am so, so thankful.  I posted yesterday an update on my housing. I have lots of space & I think I know where most things are at this point after being here for 3 weeks now.  

Hoping

I am hoping for a fresh start as I am in a new place and will move again next summer.  I am hoping to rebuild in so many ways. I am hoping for a peaceful December and sweet time with people I love.

Doing

At the time of writing this, I have been doing all of my Christmas shopping! From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, I bought all of my gifts! Outside of a gift card, everything else has been purchased online.  The amount of packages due at my door is ridiculous.  Now it will be sorting all the things and then eventually wrapping them. I am thankful to be done with my shopping (outside of one more gift card).

Wearing

Like most other places, winter weather is here so I have quickly gone to sweaters for work and sweatshirts when I am at home.  I bought a new pair of leggings recently from Amazon that have pockets and are lined to keep me warm.

Seeing

I am loving seeing all the Christmas lights!  I love seeing them on the tree and a few other places I have them in the house.  Here are a few pictures...I will be doing a Christmas post next week.  Also, I love seeing all the Christmas lights on houses as I drive at night.

Such fun posts from Joyce and Jenn! 

Hope you all have a great day!

Tuesday Talk ~ House Update

 Hi friends.  Today I am doing a house update. So much has happened, I needed a few things to calm down before blogging about this.

This is me at my old house for the last time. I loved this home.  It was our family home for the last 9 years.  It has felt different the past 2 years when my former spouse walked out on us, but it was still a great home. We did so many improvements to the house over the years.

I took a some pictures of a few unique things I liked about this house.

First is this window in the laundry room.  I always loved the shape and design of this window. It was great for peeking out to see who was in the driveway :).

The primary bathroom was remodeled in 2020.  An old jacuzzi tub was removed and a big shower was added.  This handle was added to the new shower.  When you stepped in the shower, this handle was right on the wall to turn on the water so you didn't have to step in under the shower head to turn on the water.  It is such a nice feature if you ever can customize your shower.

The primary bathroom has 2 closets.  One came with this hook on it.

I purchased this one as a gift to put on the other closet.  They looked so cute on the doors.

As some of you may know, the housing market isn't great right now.  Thankfully, my house sold in 9 days!  However, nothing else was easy about it.  Before I put the house up for sale, I had a lot of improvements done to the house.  Once it was time to move, I slowly did some packing.  I stored a lot at my parents house and then did the rest of the house mostly on my own.  My co-worker/friend came over one day to help me pack the kitchen.  This was the last thing I packed before the movers came.  In the midst of packing, I sold a lot of things on Facebook marketplace.

I hired movers for my furniture and boxes.  I took other things on my own of some open bags and all of the hang up clothes. It was a little surreal to see the moving truck and it just be me and the movers there that day.

I followed them to the new house and this was the only thing broken.  This is a bowl I used for serving chips at a party.  Thankfully, I am not too attached to material things so it was no big deal to toss the bowl.

The furniture was moved 2 days prior to my closing.  I wanted to have time to clean up my old house and move the rest of my little things.  My sister came over the first night I was in the house. We went to get Mexican food then she helped me kick start and unpack boxes.  I needed someone here to do that for me and she is the energizer woman!  She even spent the night with me, which was great to have someone with me on my first night.  She had to go to work the next morning, but it was great to have a semi-organized kitchen by the first morning.

 

This was the den the morning after the move. It felt like home very quick.

On the day of closing, Jenn and Wade (my daughter's boyfriend) helped me move a few more things and do the house cleaning at the old place.  Things began to fall apart for closing.  So many unknowns appeared from the dark and a few roadblocks I thought had been handled.  It was a mess and closing was off for that day.  Needless to say, this girl needed some yogurt.  However, I made my yogurt and then dropped it.  Things weren't going my way that day.  99% of the time, I never get a topping on my yogurt.  This day called for M&M's.

In the midst of all of this chaos, I got this reminder on my phone.  Not only did I need that reminder, but look at the time...3:37.  The address on my old house was 337.  This definitely was a sign from the Lord that he will take care of me and is Faithful, even when people here are not. 

Jenn and I got a picture at the new house. One of the best things about living here is that I am now only 10 minutes from her house!  It makes it so easy to stop by and hang out with one another.  I am also 10 minutes from my church now, as compared with 20.  I am 10 minutes closer to my sister and about the same distance to my parents, but it is a much, easier drive.  I do have a longer commute to work, but that's okay.  I am thankful I don't have to drive it every day though.

About a week and half later, I finally closed on my house.  All the paperwork/transfers actually just happened yesterday.  I am still exhaling from November.  Do you remember showing you that the week of my birthday my table number at a restaurant was 55?  I turned 55 a few weeks ago.  I went back to the same restaurant and got the number 155. I feel like I have aged 100 years, ha!  

Needless to say, I am so thankful to have a fresh start and for a wonderful transition place.  I am renting this home for about 6 months, then will move to an apartment.  I am getting spoiled with the space here and again, just so, so thankful for this place to call my temporary home.  

Thank you for your prayers in November for all of my ups and downs of the hardships of closing and even the emotional part of leaving that house.

Here is to brighter days and a fresh start!

Hello Monday ~ December 1, 2025

Welcome December!  We have made it to the last month of 2025. November is my favorite month, but it kicked my butt this year.  I am coming up for air and welcoming the month that celebrates the thrill of hope for the weary world that can rejoice.  

The past week, I have taken such joy in following the travels of my daughter.  She spent a week in Scotland, with a 24 hour layover in London.  She went to London 12 years ago, but it was her first trip to Scotland.  I was so proud of her planning and paying for this trip on her own.  She grew up with a mom who loves to travel and was a travel agent.  Here are a few pictures...

She is a HUGE William and Kate fan and I loved seeing this picture she posted!

Last week, Brook and I went out for a meal, which was our first time to go out since she had been home.  We shared this pizza which was half BBQ chicken and half pepperoni/bacon/feta.  It was delicious!

Thursday morning, I did a turkey trot with my co-worker.  When we reached this Mile 1 sign, we felt like we had a long way left.  We walked 4 miles and it was not bad at all.  We enjoyed it and it felt good to get some exercise and be outside.  I love time with her!

Afterwards while walking to the car, we were stopped to take a picture of a family. They had a huge group and were basically tailgating post race.  They poured me a mimosa and we  talked like we were old friends.

I freshened up at my friend's house, then went to my realtor's house for a Thanksgiving lunch.  She and I have been friends for about 15 years. *Side note...I will give a house update tomorrow!*

 One thing I didn't mention is that I woke up that morning without a voice.  I was able to strain and talk a little though.  

There were 9 pies!

And they even were playing Darius Rucker radio!  Made me very happy and I felt at home!

After lunch, I drove to my sister's house to help with my great nieces.  Their parents have been out of town, so I went down to help while my sister prepared food.  I stayed for dinner where my parents and other niece/nephew and greats joined us.  It was a long day and I was glad to get the day behind me.  I really missed my girls.  I tried not to think about it too much. I will be honest with my feelings here....divorce sucks and it just cuts deeper on holidays.  I felt so betrayed and another level of hurt knowing I didn't have my daughter on a holiday & I was left behind.  I miss my in-laws and all of that side of the family.  There are so many levels of grief that come with divorce.  I do wish I had someone special in my life, but I don't and it sure gets lonely.  But, I know I am just getting stronger and stronger as a single person.  

I spent Friday at home and didn't see anyone.  I had a quick phone call but otherwise, stayed quiet to try to rest my voice.  I watched a ton of Hallmark/Great American movies and a little football.  I rested and went through a lot of stacks of papers.  It did feel good to get a little more organized.

Saturday, I helped my parents decorate their tree and clean up a little bit. I made a Wal-Mart run, then met up with Jenn at Salad Station before we went to a play.

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Sunday, I went to church and was thankful to have Brook back home.  We ran some errands and sweet girl treated me to some frozen yogurt.  I tried to rest my voice the rest of the day.  It is still rough.

Have a great Monday and I will be back tomorrow with a housing update!