This post is a little random today.

Starting off with this wonderful cinnamon roll (and coffee, always coffee) that I had for breakfast.

My husband had to work this morning and thinking I had to move my car (snow day problems) so he could get out, I decided to go to the grocery store since we were out of a few basics. And not so basic things as well. I ended up going to two stores since my non-regular store was having a sale on a few things we really enjoy (and blueberries!). While I love my Hy-Vee so much, I’m sorry to say their bakery stinks. Might be a good thing as I’m never all that tempted. I can’t seem to make it out of the other store without something. See case in point, picture of cinnamon roll.

Smells so good!

I’m not a huge fan of Target candles but J gave me 2 of these little jar candles for Christmas. And this one smells so good and has impressed me with how it fills the whole bedroom with scent.

An Unexpected Surprise!

I planned to only work a few hours in the afternoon yesterday but ended up going in earlier. And 2 of the sweetest little girls (sisters) could hardly wait to hand me this card. They had them for all the teachers in that classroom and included me! Really made my day.

As if the sweet words written above weren’t enough (they were!), the card also contained a coffee gift card! (Note: the card is signed as well but I’m not showing that part for privacy reasons)

Christmas lives on!

The poinsettia my husband brought home as surprise around Thanksgiving is still going strong. I don’t why but that makes me happy.

Now, if it could just talk to the Christmas cactus about blooming times…

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Not really too much going on around here today. My coworker mentioned it looked like it would be a cozy weekend in as we were leaving yesterday. I think she’s probably right. There’s a chance of rain (yes, rain) later this afternoon. No idea what that’ll do to the 5 foot drifts where they plowed the snow. Or the roads for that matter. Probably going to be a football watching weekend over here. And I do need to spend some time getting the house back in order and doing a bit of laundry.

Otherwise, I’ll probably be enjoying another cinnamon roll maybe with a cup of tea and finishing up the last of the cozy romance book series set in Iceland. How do you plan to spend your weekend?

While we’re waiting for snow-maggedon over here in KC, I’m still pondering my word of the year for 2025.

Right now, we’re getting ice. It’s actually pretty nasty out with lots of major highways shut down. I’m very glad I ran to the grocery store this morning (we were out of milk anyway) and that we’re all safe at home tonight. No exciting pictures to share, just a couple of plant pictures I took maybe yesterday when the sun was out for a few minutes in the late morning/early afternoon.

Back to my word of the year for 2025. As I said, I’m still pondering. I have narrowed it down to the following choices:

Open

Being more open to whatever opportunities might come my way. Also being open with others, sharing what’s on my mind. Taking chances.

Savor

Slow down and notice things, make a point to enjoy the year. A direct attempt to not look up and go “where did this day/week/month go?” like I often did in 2024.

Ask

Ask for the things I want and need without fear. All that can happen is an answer of no.

Trust

Just trust that everything will work out. Fun fact, I took a word finder quiz and it gave me the word surrender. That sounded a bit too hard but I don’t know is that the same as trust? Hmm…

Joy

Sort of explains itself, I think. Though a phrase, joy in the journey keeps springing to mind.

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So as I ponder which one gets most of my focus in 2025, tell me did you pick a word for the year? What was your choice?

Or if not, do you have any suggestions for me or favorites from my choices listed up there?

If I want to be technical, we’re still in the Christmas season. Since tomorrow starts a brand new year, I just wanted to take a minute and share some things about my lovely Christmas season of 2024.

I think we’ve all had some hard Christmas seasons by now. If that’s you, I pray your next Christmas is a truly wonderful and magical one. Remembering the hard ones whether there was illness, grief of loved ones, or financial hardship, or even something else that I’m forgetting here, probably gave me a good reason to sit up and take notice of this Christmas.

And no it wasn’t “perfectly perfect” as I didn’t even get a chance to read Mooseltoe (look it up if you have young kids!) to my preschoolers. However, it was full of fun and love. And I’m sharing the highlights here so I can remember them. I just hope you’ll enjoy reading about a few of my special Christmas season moments.

Christmas Season Highlights

Random photos sprinkled in for fun.

I enjoyed joining in with Tamy over at Chasing My Life for Blogmas until life here got busy (good busy not bad busy) and I fizzled on blogging.

That was sometime after my birthday which falls in December. It was also a wonderful day (I can’t even begin to share how unusual that is…): on my own Christmas shopping and peppermint coffee, easy dinner night of sandwiches from Subway followed by a fun game night with the family and the most thoughtful cards and gifts!

A surprise outing with my husband, pizza and then, we drove around looking at Christmas lights! A fun street renamed Santa Claus lane where all the neighbors had blow up Santas, then Gingerbread lane, etc.

Time with girlfriends touring local homes some historical decked out for the holidays. Another girlfriend’s White Elephant Christmas party, so much fun! The 5 pound package of pasta I wrapped as one of the gifts brought lots of laughs. More time shopping with my husband.

Christmas Eve breakfast with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, we hosted last minute but it was so nice to spend time with them. And as always, a beautiful candlelight service at the church (J did indeed play).

Christmas morning with lots of gifts and laughter. A Christmas morning phone call from my brother who lives in Texas. Christmas dinner with my other 2 brothers and sister-in-law, her sister, and my niece. Of course, we missed the family who opts out but still had a fun time with amazing food and conversation. Just listening sometimes can teach so much. (Lesson for myself)

This week with lots of lounging, television, and togetherness. (Okay, I’ll be honest a bit much togetherness at times but overall it’s been great)

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I’ll end here by saying Thank You for reading along, bearing with me as I disappeared for long stretches here and was entirely too slow to respond to comments, and did not visit my fellow bloggers nearly often enough. Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement you share in the comments. So nice to read and often a lift just when I need one.

Happy New Year! May 2025 be full of magical love, kindness, and blessings for all of you!

Hope everyone who celebrated had a great Thanksgiving. I thought of this blog and all of you reading it (Thank you if you are still hanging here with me through the silences) when thinking of thankful things yesterday.

My fees for some sort of the behind the scene magic of this blog were due recently and I considered letting the blog go as I’ve had trouble keeping up lately. However, I decided in the end it brought me too much joy when I did hop on here to let go of it just yet. I’ll have a bit more time during Christmas break.

And I do like to blog during the holiday season. Be ready for a 2 post day from me as I plan to join Tamy over at Chasing My Life for her Blogmas.

If you’re wondering, yes I know it’s technically black Friday but we can’t call it that in KC when the Chiefs are playing the Raiders (Their colors are black and silver).

On to my random thoughts.

You don’t have to like someone else’s politics to still love them.

This thought occurred to me yesterday while having Thanksgiving with my brother. He graciously hosts every year and to say our politics are a bit different is an understatement.

We had a great dinner including an order for me to bring 2 chocolate pies to Christmas (the pie went fast!). Lovely conversation about many non-political topics, we both love plants and gardening, birds, and sports. I enjoyed talking to my sister in law about teaching (she taught middle school for years and has good stories) and my late nephew.

The one big argument on the afternoon was actually over Tyreek Hill, LOL. And in the end, we just agreed to disagree.

Another family member chose to estrange themselves from most of us over politics. And thinking about it made me sad. If I’d have passed on dinner simply because of politics, I’d have missed out on spending time with people I love and some very yummy food as well!

Maybe my viewpoint is different because our house here is divided but please, don’t let politics blind you to loving and spending time with your family.

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Love the people around you and don’t let politicians in far off places stop you from doing it. Just something I felt compelled to share this morning.

Oops, once again I seem to have disappeared. I just can’t seem to get back into my blogging rhythm over here. And also, I feel as though I’ve typed that sentence in a previous post. Recently.

So much for a slow September, here we are at almost the end of it. I worked a lot more than I expected during the “slow” time. Guess I’m going to have to make an effort to create my own slower paced schedule for a bit.

Anyway, I do have a plan to get back into blogging regularly in this space and spending some time checking in on all my favorite blogging buddies (I apologize as I’ve not kept up well with that at all either).

October is the unofficial 31 days of blogging time. Used to be official with a site to link up to and all that. However, I just like to do it on my own now. And I’ve decided it’s exactly what I need.

One month, 31 straight days of blogging, one topic (sort of).

I’ve decided to get back to the roots of this blog and keep my 31 days in a chit chat style. So, starting in October, I’m going to do 31 days of questions!

Topics that might come up if you and I were sitting have a cup of coffee (or tea or whatever your favorite beverage of the moment might be….maybe we can pretend were out having margaritas if that’s more your style).

So as just a preview (and because I’m not quite ready to go back to cleaning the house/laundry), here’s one for you.

31 Days of Questions Preview

I don’t have any fancy graphics made yet and I may change the title. Or I might leave it as it’s pretty straightforward. Anyway, here’s an idea of what I’m thinking of doing every day in October.

Spotted this huge rain cloud at dusk one evening and was fascinated by it. I could see the lightning within the cloud striking at different points.

Have you ever watched a storm cloud where you could see the lightning in it before? Are you a fan of a good thunderstorm?

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So be ready to grab your coffee/tea/margarita/water and join me in October for some fun questions and (hopefully) a few answers!

My answers: I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cloud like that before though my husband thought it was much less fascinating so maybe I have and simply forgot. And yes, I do love a good thunderstorm as long as we’re all safe at home. Driving in one, not so much of a fan.

I stole this post idea from a radio program I heard on the way home from work yesterday. They were talking about their favorite nonfood smells.  The idea was that most of us love the smell of fresh baked cookies or bread but what about our favorite smells that aren’t food related.

Some of the ones mentioned on the program:

1. fresh-cut grass
2. the smell of gasoline
3. a crisp fall morning
4. your significant other
5. sunscreen
6. brand-new books
7. a grandparent’s basement
8. air conditioning right as it starts in the car.

A wide range. Some seemed weird to me until they explained. For example, gasoline reminded them of trips to the lake and filling up the boat for boat rides.

Here are a few of my favorites in no particular order.

1. Hot asphalt
2. Laundry fresh out of the dryer
3. Summer rain after a hot day (just summer, fall rain smell different)
4. Plants and flowers right after they’ve been watered (especially herbs)
5. Lavender, mint, and sage…

I think my answers have a theme: outside or clean. Hot asphalt is my odd one, I guess. It reminds me of working a few summers at a local amusement park, happy memories.

What are some of your favorite nonfood smells? And all this talk of smells made me think of another one of my favorite childhood books. Did anyone else ever have this wonderful story?

PS: Am I the only person left who actually listens to the regular car radio? Just wondering…

While technically, it’s still summer until September 21, the schools around here start back up next Monday. And so it feels as if summer is ending. It’s gone by in the blink of an eye over here.

I spent a lot of it working. In between, I did do a few fun summer things. Here’s a quick glimpse.

MAY

May? What happened in May? Doesn’t that feel like last year?

J and I went to visit a local fountain in the “northland” part of Kansas City. I was telling him how this fountain runs all year. It really is fun to see frozen in the winter. Still also pretty in the summer.

Also, I found a feather from a barred owl in the backyard one weekend while mowing. I had fun sharing it with my preschool kids.

Other things that happened in May: Preschool graduation (I always help out), Mother’s Day (Thai food, yum!), and G’s birthday! Oh, and he started working (maybe before May?) at one of the local community colleges in the advising offices. He even has his own office.

JUNE

June was actually a fun month despite some minor (though at the time they seemed quite major) work frustrations. Suffice it to say I spent some time checking out my options for other employment for a bit. Ultimately, I decided to ride out the summer. Anyway, back to the fun stuff.

The second weekend in June, I went on a girlfriend weekend trip to Hermann, MO. So much fun. It’s a community rich with German heritage pretty much right on the Missouri River. And also known for all the local wineries. 

And I discovered something called a wine slushie (though full disclosure I preferred the ones at a winery different from the one pictured above). We also had fun touring the historic homes in Hermann. And seeing their kitchen gardens. If only….

On the way home, we stopped for brunch at a cute outdoor cafe along the Katy Trail in Rocheport, MO. It’s mostly a biking trail though you can walk it. It runs for 239 miles along our state. Near Rocheport, it runs along the bluffs of the Missouri River. 

Also in June, lots of random garage sales with friends (it was our Saturday thing for a while), Father’s Day (we took my husband to a local Mexican restaurant he likes), and the start of a fair amount of working for the summer for me.

JULY

I worked a lot in July! Somewhere in there I did get my hair permed though it’s mostly grown out. It worked well for our excessively hot days. We had a quiet family Fourth of July (J and I bought a lot of fireworks and our neighbors put on quite a show as well).

Always exciting to see what the kids find on the playground. This actually came from a little girl’s backyard. Google lens told us it was a woodpecker feather! I can’t remember the exact species anymore.

Later in July was the visit to the Rabbit HOle Museum. They’ve re-created the whole scene of Goodnight Moon.  Smaller children can go inside the little toy house as well as climb up in the bed, not pictured below. Also, again not in my photo, you can pick up the red phone beside the bed to hear the story. It’s so fun!

My photo came out too blurry to share but the museum even had a section for my favorite children book series by Russell Hoban. I still have my Bread and Jam for Frances and Bedtime for Frances books.

I didn’t get to spend as much time in June or July or this month yet tending to my front porch flowers. One thing about brown-eyed Susans is they don’t demand much. Oh, and mine are apparently plotting to take over the world.

At least the pink petunias are behaved despite being a bit neglected.

I did spend some time during the weekend mornings/afternoons hawk watching. Have you ever seen a hawk laying down? A first for me!

And finally, we closed out July with a trip to Saint Louis, Mo for the music festival J participates in annually. This year, he chose to only play with his brass band ensemble so it was a pretty relaxed trip. Other than, I forgot to schedule the weekend off and had to scramble to find someone to cover me half a day. Over all though, it was a nice weekend. Here’s my other photo of the Missouri River in Saint Charles, MO (the only 2 pictures I took that weekend).

August So Far…

If you made it this far in the post, then you are all caught up with my summer activities. Mostly work but a little bit of fun in there. I’ve already noted to myself that perhaps I overscheduled my summer work hours a bit. I worked more to start this month and am finally ready to slow things down enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Once I get over being sick, UGH. Currently, I’m downing vitamins and watching every Fast and Furious movie (I’d only ever seen X all the way through, enjoying these movies way more than I expected).

Perhaps I’ll make a list of the things I’d like to do to close out the summer season. I’ll share it in a different post.  How has your summer been? What things do you still have on your summer list?

Well, I sort of took summer off of blogging!  Didn’t exactly mean to do that but I was getting a bit burned out with things. Started working full time hours for the summer at the preschool. I love it but it’s a bit exhausting.

However, I’m winding down my last days of full time subbing in the next couple weeks. Sometime in mid to late August, I’ll return to this space.

I haven’t even had a lot of time for “plant rescue” from my local garden centers but I did pick up this hibiscus on clearance when I had a few days at the beginning of the month. So I’ll end this post with a phone picture of the blooms which just make me happy.