A Reading Goal for 2025

As I get back to regular blogging, one of the things I plan to share here are my reads. I love to read and am in an online book club with a group of my sorority sisters. We started it during the pandemic, and it's blossomed from there. The group has even gone to the Savannah Book Festival together, and I'm excited to make that trip this February! The photo above includes all but one of the books I read in 2024. I finished number 31 on New Year's Eve after I pulled this graphic together! If I get super ambitious, I may back post my reviews from 2024 that I posted on Instagram. We'll see!

And below, ta da, is one of my big reading goals for 2025: War and Peace! I learned of a slow read of War and Peace here from my friend Hanna and decided to give it a shot. I even have a few friends joining me! The book is about 1,350 pages and 361 chapters, divided into four sections. For the slow read, we are reading one chapter a day, taking a day off between each section, getting us to the end of the year. I'm reading my chapter over breakfast since I read my book club reads before bedtime. It's not too late to join in since the chapters are pretty short! Drop me a note in the comments if you plan to join in! What do you like to read?  

Sunday Gratitude: Traditions

 

One of our Christmas traditions is to take the dogs to hike the Black Rock Beach trail on Big Talbot Island on Christmas morning - tides allowing! Occasionally we'll have to go later in the day if the tide is too high in the morning. It's our Christmas present to the pups. We've been doing this since the girls were little, before they could even walk the dogs! But since they've gotten big enough to walk them, I've taken a photo like the one above. The pups have changed over the years - I wished they lived longer - and the girls have gotten quite a bit taller, but today, on this Sunday Gratitude day - I'm so grateful we have kept up this tradition. My girls are 21 now, and I know these days are precious as they continue to get older. Have a favorite holiday tradition of your own? Drop me a note in the comments!

 

 

 

The First Free Bling Friday of 2025!

 

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season. I've never been much for New Year's resolutions, but I do try to set some goals for the year, and one of them is to get back to blogging here regularly! I've realized that having a regular blog schedule seems to keep me focused a bit better than all that scrolling on short-form social media (I'm talking about you, Facebook and Instagram!). One of things I'm doing this year is bringing back Free Bling Friday, so the first Friday of the month, I'll be posting some pretties that I plan to send out into the world to a lucky reader. Maybe you! 

So pictured here is the first Free Bling Friday of 2025! These little beauties are made with freshwater pearls, resin blooms, and sterling silver. Want them to head your way? Leave me a comment below with your location and a favorite memory from the holidays to get your name in the hat. Due to shipping charges, the giveaway is open to US residents only; my apologies to my out of country readers. I'll draw January's winner on January 31, so you have a few weeks to get your entry in! Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here to get a reminder of Free Bling Friday and other updates, including newsletter only discounts. 

Whatever your resolutions and goals for 2025 are, I hope that you give yourself some grace to take a step back, take a breath, and re-evaluate whenever needed! 

25 Years

If you're popping in here this week, I hope you've had a joyful holiday season, no matter how you celebrate! The holidays can be a challenging time for some, so if you are one of those people, I'm sending you a little extra love today. It's a tough time for me some days as well, especially today. Today marks 25 years ... 25 years! ... since my mother left this earth by her own hand. I have some ornaments on my tree that are special remembrances of my mom, and this is one. I gave this to her for Christmas in 1999, two days before she chose to leave us. The beautiful cloisonne egg in the lower left was also hers. The photo below was taken on Christmas Day that year, me at the top, Mom and my sister Kim below. In case you're new here, I'll share this post with you. It starts with a story that quickly poured out of me through a prompt from a mothers' art group I was part of at the time; I followed the initial writing with a 10-year followup in that post.

At 25 years, time hasn't changed much.

Sunday Gratitude: The Gift of Aging

So this past week brought a birthday for me, my 59th! I started my day at my gym, Burn Boot Camp. I try to get in there anywhere between two to four times a week depending on my work schedule, and I do a good three mile power walk through my very hilly neighborhood on the days I don't make it to the gym, so most days, I'm doing some sort of exercise. This photo was taken after camp the morning of my birthday with one of our trainers, Xavier. For reference, I'm 5'10"!! So Xavier is ... very tall!! It was a cardio day, so I'm super sweaty. 

I don't take this for granted! I'm 59 years old and am pretty darn healthy. Yes, I have chronic vertigo, but I manage it pretty well. And yes, I have bad knees, but I'm getting one of them replaced - total knee replacement - in March. And I have those bad knees because I spent years beating them up as an athlete. So I feel that the fact that I'm 59 and still exercising every day is a thing to be grateful for. I'm now five years older than my mama was when she died. That's not lost on me. I'm thankful everyday for my health and my family to share it with. What are you grateful today?