Friday Favorites - January 2025

Happy Friday!  The above is how my week kicked off - our friend, Lisa, in the middle (in the white sweater) is organizing birthday dinners this year each month and this was our first one.  Twelve of us got together at Chuy's to celebrate Debi - the tallest friend I've ever had at 6'3" (!!!) who is all the way in the back.  It was so.much.fun.  Next month it is me and Gaby (third from left) and we've already chosen our date and place.  One of the things we did was go around the table and talk about "where we are from" - there is one lady who, except for three months in her life when she went to CO and her college years at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, has never left the 16 square miles of one of our Knoxville communities.  The birthday girl was born in SD, mostly grew up in TX, and now she and her husband are calling Knoxville "home".  We have Eastern European, South American, Central America, Mexico, and one whose mother is Vietnamese represented here.  A couple weeks ago on MLK/Inauguration/CFP Day three other friends and I got together to play tennis (because we all have jobs that call that a holiday) and then two of us went out to eat afterwards. 

I didn't realize that it was the 25th anniversary of Mei Ling's arrival in America (Detroit, to be exact)!!  It was special to be a part of her celebration of that - she told some stories of growing up in China and some of her family still there and why she can't visit them - life is so hard and complicated for many.  I have been blessed to know these two ladies for almost as long as I've been playing tennis here in Knoxville - and it was the organizer of the birthday party above that brought us all together!!

Tennis has been a rich addition to my life - from the time I started playing it with my dad at a local park when I was 10-ish (he checked out a Tracy Austin book from the library and we would look at it to learn swings and stuff), taking lessons at the pool club (Tom Harrison was my first coach), playing in high school, losing the sport for many years throughout college and pregnancies, to picking it back up when the kids were little, "finding" people to play with at local parks in Centerville and Cookeville, to moving to Knoxville where they had tennis clubs like I had growing up and connecting with other people that play.  Now I've added pickleball to my life (which my dad has been playing for at least 20 years) and I've brought some tennis friends along with me into that sport :). I love that my inlaws, husband, and most of the kids play too - it's a great intergenerational sport!

Family Pickleball December 26th 2024

I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites this week - I think I'll just recap other January Favorites since most days in January are the same. . .reading blogs in the morning in the quiet before anyone gets up, going to work, playing tennis or pickleball 50-80% of the time after work, most nights a walk with the dogs, some tv with Tom and maybe Stephen, bed, repeat.  Not much excitement on the weekends either. . .January is just January. 

I mentioned blogs being a part of my day most days.  I keep a link list on my sidebar here and those are the ones I read regularly.  Since I read so often on my iPad I don't get to engage in the comments as much as I'd like b/c of the settings on my iPad/some blogs.  I'm not "techie" enough or care enough to figure it out so I do try to read from my computer at least once a week so I can type comments.  I do feel like I "know" many of these ladies - some I've been reading for at least 15 years! I have a friend who contacted me this week about an upcoming trip and, since we've been there, was asking for some ideas.  I sent her my info but then sent her links from Julie's blog because I remembered she had gone there also and had even more experiences to share!  What's funny is I started reading Julie's blog when I lived in Cookeville but after moving to Knoxville found out she lived in this area - such a small world!  There is another blogger that I've "found" in the last year or two, Maria, who lives in an area that I lived near for years and years so when she references things from her life I can actually relate because I know the area and places she is writing about - so fun!!!  Because I'm social I wish there was a better/easier way to connect (completely dependent on the other person to write and then only what they feel comfortable sharing publicly) but I think of all the ideas and perspectives and stories and recommendations I have gotten from these blogs and am blessed to have them all :). The neatest thing is being able to pray for someone you feel like you know - one has been going through an incredibly difficult life challenge this last year and another popped on quickly this week to say that her mother had died unexpectedly.  I felt the gut punch of that - she is so good about sharing her life openly and regularly that "we" know when she last saw her, health trials she has had, and the fact that she has sisters and colleagues and family to support and care for her during this time.  What a tight group a bunch of people that don't know one another IRL have here in blogland.  It's truly special.

Work - ha!  Home vs office

I spend most of my days in the office (and some I get to go on the road) but Fridays and sometimes another day during the week, I stay at home.  The "home picture" was last Friday near the end of the day.  I think someone was asking "what I was doing" and I snapped this picture.  It was toward the end of the day - can you see all the cups I collect throughout the day??  I don't have a better set-up right now b/c I can't figure out where I want it to be in the house.  In 2020 I was set up in our bedroom but I don't want to do that again.  We use laptops, have an issued phone, and they gave me a monitor so I'm all set up when I find a space here.  The other picture is my assigned workspace at the office - it was taken on my first day but not much has changed since then except a desk calendar I keep out.  I pretty much carry everything around in a backpack - not many people work full-time out of their cubicles so there's not a lot of decoration or "claim" that "this is mine".  I do miss the personality of people decorating their spaces - in my past companies I've put out mugs from tennis tournaments and pictures of my family.  Oh well.  It's nice to have a day or two at home with the dogs.  This is what they do all day:

In fact, I just snapped this picture:

Hard life

I have been reading (or should I say finishing?) a few books this month.

This was excellent.  The author's note at the end brought everything together - how she detailed the characters, their circumstances, and events during the London Blitz in this story.  Here is the Goodread's summary:  When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library

GoodReads has it at 4.14 stars.  I would agree.

Most of you have read this book because I have gotten the recommendations from blogland!  And my sister too :). This book took me almost a year to read because I kept having to "take a break" - it was just so HARD to read.  Funny, though, the minute I finished the book I wanted to restart it.  I never say that about a book or movie - in this case, though, since I know how it all ends, I feel like I could read it without as much anxiety because I would know how the situation was going to work out.  I highly recommend it - especially if you, like me, have not immersed yourself in this time period (1960's-1970's). 

I went to my Kindle app to see what else I've been reading and found this. . .kinda cool.

I'm currently reading All the Ways We Say Goodbye - so far, so good!  GoodReads has a current rating of 4.03 - "A glorious historical adventure that moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel."

I'm also reading Leaders Eat Last for work - I really like Simon Sinek and listen to his podcast "for fun" so reading a book for work is easy :). I'm listening to Ina Garten's Be Ready When the Luck Happens and LOVE it!!  GoodReads has it rated with 4.33 stars and I've already told several people about it even though I'm not finished with it.  She narrates the book, has many stories, and some of the recipes and/or shows she references I remember watching her make.  In fact, she mentions my absolute all-time favorite cake that I was referencing to Stephen's girlfriend the other day because my birthday is the only time of year I (or someone else) makes it!

It has really been a boring January if this is all I've got. . .this just opened in the area and we really like it.  The grilled chicken is very good and they make "my kind" of fries :)

Tonight we're going out for Mexican with friends of ours who live quite a bit a way out of town so we meet inbetween and then tomorrow night we're heading to Carrabba's for Barbara's and my birthdays.  Her's is next week and mine is next weekend but I won't be home so now seemed like the best time to do it.  We'll go with Tom's parents and her sister - it will be a nice night :)

Other than that, I have two other "food" pictures on my phone from January:

Last Sunday's meal - that's a smashburger that Stephen made on the Blackstone in the bun, homemade guac and potato fries that Tom and Erin made.  I could eat this every weekend!!

And something I picked up at Aldi's (I generally don't like prepared food) that I really liked and will buy again!!

Being in your 50's is funny - generally about 1/meal a day will cut it.  I know, not "good" for us (both Tom and I are the same way) and I do try to eat twice but generally just not all that hungry.  Plus, I live with people with all kinds of food restrictions so cooking and eating isn't really all that "fun".  We make it work though :)

It's now Saturday morning.  Busy work day Friday - met a friend for coffee at a new-to-me spot, very productive at-home workday, lunch with both my boys and in-laws (the oldest came to meet up with my youngest to head to Chicago for the weekend with friends), then out to dinner (as previously mentioned) and ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES.  Ugh.  I'm really off my blogging-and-picture-taking-game.  I do have a few pictures of a job Robert just completed:

There were two of them - apparently one was still full of DVD's - ha!

His sisters are huge DVD fans so he brought them to Knoxville

And this is how Erin spent her Friday night.  Seriously, I don't blame her - I see something that needs to be "organized" and I'm all over it!!!

Her grandparents wanted one, I took one, she grabbed a bagful for herself and there were still all of these leftover for "someone" to do something with.  Sounds like Sister #2 (or, #1 in birth order) wants a look-see through them now :)

And that's it folks.  As exciting as life gets in January for the Bell family!!  Boys are having a weekend adventure, I got this done and we are playing pickleball OUTSIDE tomorrow (60+ degrees!) and then a quick week at work before I head to Cincinnati Thursday after a quick stop in Cookeville.  

Since I've been so terrible about Picture of the Day, I've set my phone alarm for 5 p.m. each day - if nothing else I'll make a diary for myself about "what is happening at 5 o'clock in February 2025".

Have a great weekend and week!

Love,

Jenni