Friday Favorites - First Friday of 2025

As I contemplate HOW to "find time" to pursue this blogging hobby (I only got 15 posts up last year and, to be honest, I thought it was less than that) I came across this message from James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) today:

"Writing is the superpower of humankind. It is our truest form of magic.

Writing allows you to conjure up something of value where nothing previously existed. It costs little for you to write down the lessons of your life and yet those few minutes spent writing can be life-altering for the right reader. As I once saw it put: "there is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words."

Furthermore, writing is the foundation of nearly every technology and innovation because we have to record what we know before we can build upon it. And these innovations are passed down from generation to generation, allowing our children to inherit a richer intellectual fortune than what we were born into. The world is richer because we write and nobody is made poorer in the process."

With the above in mind, it encourages me that it does matter, to take this time to record our days, either to reflect on or to process or just DO because I enjoy it :)  Here's to at least doubling "15" (plus the one that will be in draft forever - Part 2 of our Italy trip - ha!).

I did a Day in the Life in January 2024 as well as a "What's Up Wednesday" at the end of the month.

I also got two posts up in February - Musings on a Monday (must have been before I hooked up with Sarah and Holly for Hello Monday) and our 2024 Gatlinburg Weekend.

In March I joined a 5 Things You Can't Live Without party.  I just re-read that - still all true!!  That was a fun thing to record :)

April I got out a Life Lately post and then in May I picked it up with FOUR posts!!  We then went on vacation, I came home, blogged Part 1 in Italy promising to come back for Part 2. . .started it but never finished.  Ashamed of myself for not being able to finish it I just didn't do anything until November.  Ugh.  There were so.many.times that I wanted to join in on something, write something, or whatever but felt like if I couldn't finish Italy Part 2 that I shouldn't get to do anything else either.  Can anyone relate or is that a "me problem"?  Regardless, I finally forgave myself in November with a post early in the month and moved on from there, finishing and publishing three more posts before the end of the year.  I believe there have been some years that I didn't even get 4 posts out so, as I always tell my kids, there is always going to be someone better than you out there and some things where you are better than others.  As soon as we (meaning the human population) can recognize and accept this, we can move on to be our very best at what matters most to US.  And that's my "lecture" for the day :)

Here we go - Friday Favorites #1 2025

I'm linking up with the ladies who host this every week (THANK YOU!) - Andrea and Erika.  (I think you all know that the green text are links???)  Head to Andrea's page to see who else is linking up this week - I think Erika has said she will be back next week.  Can't wait to hear about what her crew was up to over the break!

Believe it or not, I do NOT have many photos/stories from the week.  It's been very quiet - although we did go out for our traditional NYE dinner with the Maxwell's, we didn't even get a picture (even though we all dressed up!).  It was an early meal - 5-ish - and we were home for the night by 7.  I pulled the above from Instagram - in all articles/blogs/books/podcasts I've read and/or listened to about the enneagram, I believe I am a 2W1 so these should be my words.  I had already picked my "word of the year" - INTENIONAL - so I think these fit into that idea very well :)  Do any of you pick a Word of the Year?

I changed jobs this fall - my last day at NBZ was October 31st and my first day at SouthEast Bank was November 1st.  It was bittersweet - I loved the people I worked with at NBZ (including my daughter!!) but this new opportunity came up, literally out of the blue - I don't even think the position was posted -  and it all worked out.  Anyway, that background to say that I don't go into the office everyday anymore so Tuesday this was my Picture of the Day:  

It ended up being an incredibly productive day and I got to watch a great football game also :). I generally will always choose to be with people to work, but in this case I was doing some research and building some new ideas so this worked out.  

I'm home again today - pretty much always Fridays.  The doggies love it - passed out in their beds right now and a quick lunchtime walk earlier :)

Really, all I have left to show of the week are my "Pictures of the Day" - none of which I even uploaded to FB this week - just a very quiet, step-out-of-normal, week which wasn't hateful.

I finished this book this week. I really liked it!  It took place in the early 60's in Palm Beach, Florida.  The setting and era were both my jam, plus there were historical events in there that were interesting to me - some of the story revolved around Lilly Pulitzer.  If you click on that link the image that comes up is described in the book :). I love reading a story and learning something about history/culture/real people too.

I was clicking around this week and found the following graphic:

This is not ALL the books I read this year but many of them.  My favorite in this group was How to Stay Married.  Really good and I highly recommend.  

We watched Polo on New Years Eve.  

I knew nothing about the sport prior to watching it and found it to be interesting.  It is no different than any of the other reality/docuseries, probably nothing I will ever follow-up on but I understand it (and the "type" of person who plays/invests in it - reminded me of the F1 people) better now.  We took the dogs out around 10 p.m. to stretch legs but other than that, rang 2025 in quietly with Tom at home.

January 1 and January 2 pictures of the day - I'm telling you, nothing exciting!

I sent a picture of my breakfast to my brother only to have him reply "I had the exact same thing" - ha!  

Last night Stephen got home and Radar's mama was already in bed so the two of them were hanging together on the sofa.

Mundane, "everyday", life blessings.  I do not want to miss the small.

With that, I will sign off for today.  My workday is over and I have a few more things to accomplish before I start my weekend.

Since "intentional" is my word this year I'll try to be intentional with my space this weekend.  Keep what I need, purge what I don't.  Costco had a great deal on bins when we were there yesterday - I have been needing to get my clothes organized and these were the perfect size.  I did half my closet last night so will try to finish that and then my desk area from when I used to WFH in 2020.  Since I had to work from home 5 days/week at that time I had a dedicated space. . .not so much anymore - the space has just kind of been "sitting there" since then. I'm able to be mobile now and "carry" my office around plus the house is not full of people like it was then either.  

What space would you like to be intentional about this weekend/week/month?

I found this post when I was looking for my 2020-2021 workspace (it doesn't appear I blogged that year!) and found it interesting to look back to three years ago and see how little has changed in the last three years (except that I now have a job that pays me).  I don't know how I feel about that.  Maybe writing more this year will help me figure it out ;)

Stay warm, wherever you are,

Love,

Jenni