Five on Friday - My New Weighted Blanket, a Collection of Mirror Balls, Sunsets, Artemis II, and More

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Well, this has been a heavy week with all that’s going on in the world, and even though joy seems sometimes harder to find, it’s always there, just waiting for us to grab hold of it.  Today, as always, I’m going to share some of the things bringing me joy, and I have some good ones for you today.  Thank goodness joy and sadness are not mutually exclusive. 

O N E – My New Weighted Blanket

Brian bought a weighted blanket for me for my birthday and it’s even better than I could have imagined!  It is absolutely beautiful with its big, thick loops and beautiful stitching.  It was easy to wash and dry – I popped mine in the washing machine on delicate and then just threw it in the dryer – and it’s made from 100% cotton, so it has no synthetic materials.  The very best part – it’s like a permanent hug for your whole body when you drape it over yourself.  I took a quick nap with it the other day and I swear I fell asleep immediately because it made me feel so calm and relaxed.  And look how beautiful it is draped over our bed!!  This thing is incredibly high quality, well-made, and sturdy, and I think it will last a lifetime. 

Fellow friends who experience anxiety – a weighted blanket is a wonderful tool.

T W O – My New Giant Mirror Ball

My mother-in-law and step-father-in-law gave me this giant mirror ball for my birthday and I love it so much I can’t even stand it.  When the sunlight hits it the whole house lights up with hundreds of sparkles and it’s just the best thing.  It looks perfect with all the other mirror balls I have in the living room, and I think my collection may just be complete. 

 

T H R E E – Romeo + Juliet

Jacob just finished studying Romeo + Juliet in his Lit & Comp class, and his class got to watch the 1996 version of the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes before spring break.  Y’all.  That movie is ICONIC and I’ve seen it hundreds of times (my friend, Jeannine, and I used to start our VHS tapes at the same time from our individual homes and pause / fast forward to sync them up and we would watch it together over the phone), so I was thrilled when Jacob told me that he enjoyed it, too. 

That aquarium scene is, hands down, one of my favorite scenes in a movie ever and it will live rent free in my head for the rest of my life.  Leonardo DiCaprio has been one of my favorite actors ever since.

F O U R – Sunset

We had one of the most spectacular sunsets of my entire life on Monday night and I was grateful to be home to capture it.  The kids and I were watching live coverage of the astronauts returning from the dark side of the moon and I was making a grocery list when I glanced out the front window to see a rosy glow on the house across the street.  I abandoned everything I was doing and headed outside, and I was rewarded with one of the most vibrant sunsets I’ve ever seen.  It started out as orange and yellow and peach, but within minutes, it had morphed into hot pinks and deep purples.  I ended up staying outside for about 15 minutes watching it, and it was one of my favorite moments of the whole week. 

These photos are completely unedited and unfiltered… the sky was actually that beautiful, and of course, the pictures still don’t do it justice.  What a gift.

F I V E – Artemis II

And finally, one of my very favorite things from the week has been following along with the crew aboard Artemis II.  My little brother who works for NASA has been working on the Artemis II project for a couple of years now, and I’m just so proud of him for being involved in such an important mission for all of humankind.

Amidst a very heavy week – war, threats to humanity, and (more) evil spoken from the mouths of our own administration – all the Artemis II coverage has been such a bright shining light in the darkness.  Listening to the profound words spoken by the astronauts while 250,000 miles away from earth was like a balm to my soul.  I have cried more tears this week over this mission and this crew, and it has felt very healing after such a sad week/month/year since the current administration took over our government.  There is so much evil in the world, but there is much more good.  

 

Friday Funnies & Feels

 

On the Blog This Week

 What I Wore - March 2026

Our 2026 Disney World Trip by the Numbers

Our Week - The One with Getting Home from Disney, Easter, and My Birthday

 

Happy Friday, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.

  

Random Thoughts on a Wednesday

Hey, y’all!  We made it through January!  I know many people hate January… I used to be in that camp, but in recent years I’ve learned not only to embrace January, but to love it – the slowed pace after a very busy December, the coziness that you can only experience when the days are shorter and colder, and the extra time indoors that allows for lots of reading, writing, decluttering, cleaning, and working on puzzles.  I’m honestly a little sad that January is over, although, I am about ready to kick this cold weather in the shins… I’m just not built for 6 degree windchills.  ;o)

Anyway, today’s post should be a weekly recap, but I knew from the get-go yesterday that I would never be able to get it done by today, so I just decided to pivot and throw out some random thoughts instead.  My weekly recap should hopefully be up tomorrow, so if you’re looking for that, it’s coming!  ;o)

Ever since I started wearing my Invisalign retainers, my body has rather quickly started spiraling back into the face, neck, and jaw tension, headaches, dizziness, unsteadiness, sensitivity to light, and mild vertigo spins originally caused by my braces rubber bands that I have fought for so long to resolve. 

Four days after I started wearing the retainers, I started feeling that familiar ache in my jaws and within a couple of days, the rest of my symptoms were back in full force, save for the major vertigo, which has mercifully, stayed away.   

After having a couple of months of feeling almost totally normal, that was a hard pill to swallow, my friends.  I have been seeing my upper cervical chiropractor diligently for nearly eight months to correct the issues that the braces rubber bands brought on, and in the blink of an eye, eight months of work almost unraveled completely.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “Doesn’t it feel great to have your braces off?!” and I honestly don’t know how to answer because while yes, yes it does feel great to not have hunks of metal in my mouth anymore, I’m still not getting any relief because the retainers are worse.  The braces alone weren’t the cause of my issues – it was the rubber bands that caused the issues – and I hadn’t been wearing rubber bands for months.  The retainers put the same kind of pressure on my jaws that the braces rubber bands did, hence the reason why my body fell back into the same patterns.

Anyway, I was able to get in for an emergency visit with my orthodontist first thing Monday morning, and I *think* we have everything sorted out, so I’m praying that means there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel.  We are completely scrapping the Invisalign retainers – he told me those are risky anyway because they either work, they don’t work at all, or they cause people to have similar issues to the ones I’m having.  So, I’m not the only one… and trust me, a quick search of the internet will tell you that I’m definitely not the only one.  The Invisalign retainers can cause a plethora of issues, especially for people with TMJ issues.  I’ve had TMJ issues for 20+ years, so that explains that. 

The solution for me (well, hopefully anyway) is that they ended up putting a permanent retainer on my bottom teeth.  It’s just a wire that is cemented to the back of my bottom six front teeth.  It’s teeny tiny and hardly noticeable, so I’m hoping it’s the right solution.  Then for my top teeth, they’re having a traditional retainer made… like the OG roof-of-the-mouth 90s style that you think of when you hear the word retainer.  Neither should affect my jaw in any way (I pray they’re right about that), so I should finally get some relief next week when I get my new top retainer. 

And thankfully, I already had an appointment scheduled with my upper cervical chiropractor this Friday, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  I’m praying my atlas hasn’t moved out of place again with all the shifting my jaw did with the retainers in, but if it has, I know he’ll be able to get me straightened back up!  Then, hopefully all my issues will resolve as quickly as they came back.

So anyway, that’s what’s been going on around these parts, and I’m trying my very best not to let the setbacks get me down.  One day, I plan to write a very long, very detailed post about my vertigo and how the braces rubber bands caused it + my journey with the upper cervical chiropractor to get everything resolved.  It was a struggle to find any information out there when I needed it the most, so I’d love to have all the info in one place to help anyone else who might be out there suffering.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble on about my braces and retainers some more… this post was probably pretty boring, so cheers to you if you made it through the whole thing!  I’d originally planned to write about some other random things, too, but all this just came out, and I think that’s enough for today. 

Guess I should retitle my post to “Random Thoughts About Braces and Retainers on a Wednesday."  Haha.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Wednesday Things… Kind of Like Coffee Talk, Maybe?

Well, y’all are in for a treat today (sarcasm – haha) because I wasn’t able to put out the post that was originally intended (fall home tour) due to forgetting to photograph the house for said post (oops), so instead, you’re just going to get a bunch of ramblings.  You know how some bloggers do those “Coffee Talk” posts where they “talk” to you as if you were having coffee together?  This will be like that (maybe?) but less polished.  Like, way less polished as I had very limited time to get this post written and, therefore, couldn’t edit and re-edit it as I do with almost every post.  This will literally just be the thoughts tumbling out of my brain exactly as they come out…

(And sorry in advance, Brian, since you’re always so kind to read every morning and send me typos to fix… this one will probably have a lot.  Cringe.)

Ready?

It’s officially fall, y’all!  So why does it still feel like sweltering summer outside??  It has been HOT and I’m so over it.  Unfortunately, I fear we still have another month of this before it finally cools down for good.

Brian and I got tickets to see Ed Sheeran in the presale yesterday!  So, you can blame him – Ed Sheeran, not Brian ;o) – for me not having my fall home tour post up today.  I spent a ton of time scouring through seats on Ticketmaster and then signing up for Seat Geek because another location we wanted to purchase tickets for (Nashville) was using a completely different ticket company.  (Why, though??)  Turns out that I wasted time signing up for Seat Geek, though, because I didn’t even get the chance to log on to look for tickets there.  I had an appointment to get blood drawn for my annual physical and everything got all floopy (Phoebe terminology for those of you who don’t watch Friends) so I ended up having to be in the car driving when tickets went on sale.  Thankfully, I had already gotten tickets for the Atlanta show since they went on sale earlier than Nash, and then my ticket broker (Brian) was able to get us BOMB seats for the Nashville show.  Nashville was our #1 preference to see him for this upcoming tour due to the timing of that show (and something else special that we’re *possibly* trying to arrange) as it’s during summer break whereas the Atlanta show is on a college football Saturday in October.  Since ATL went on sale first, though, we went ahead and got tickets for it just in case we couldn’t get them for Nash, but it turns out that we were able to get both.  We will not be going to both, though, so now we have tickets to sell for ATL.

Speaking of the Ed Sheeran show, we are taking the kids this time!!!! EEEEKKKK!  I am so excited for them to join us!  They both love music as much as Brian and I do, but they’ve never been to a concert like this before.  They have seen Mannheim Steamroller, they have seen Pentatonix, and they have been to the Grand Ole Opry, but they have never been to an actual concert by one of their favorite artists that was not a Christmas concert or a variety show.  Also, THEY DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS YET, SO IF YOU KNOW THEM PERSONALLY, PLEASE DO NOT TELL THEM.  SHHHH.

Back to the blood draw getting floopy… my general practitioner has always had a lab right there in their office.  I have always had my blood drawn there before my annual physical.  They set me up for an appointment at their location for 10 AM Tuesday to have my blood drawn.  When I arrived, the lady asked me if I was there for my labs and I told her I was.  She proceeded to tell me that I needed to leave and go to a third-party location as they no longer have a lab in their office.  I asked her if that meant that I was late for my appointment with them since my date and time had been booked and she said nah, that I could just go any day and time that I wanted to without an appointment.  So why then, did I have an appointment for 10 AM… at my general practitioner’s office?!?!  And why oh why did they send me countless reminders for it these last few weeks instead of contacting me to let me know that I could just go to a third-party location at my leisure to get them done?!  It sure would have been nice to know so I wouldn’t have fasted all morning.  I could have just gone at 8 AM right after I dropped the kids and not been hangry for three hours.  C’est la vie.

In case you have missed my Instagram story ramblings, I just finished my fifth – yes, FIFTH – book in less than three weeks.  WHO AM I?!  These are our busiest four months of the whole year (aside from May) and I rarely make the time to read, yet I have read five whole books in just three short weeks.  That is more than I read in an entire month during summer break.  The author of all five books?  Freida McFadden.  So, if you have not read anything by her, let this be your sign to start.  Oh em gee, does she know how to write a page turner!!  But only if you like the suspense/thriller genre. 

Brian and I made the difficult decision to sell our Brandon Lake tickets for next weekend.  I have been looking forward to seeing him live for years, especially since he released the song Hard Fought Hallelujah last year… it was one of my favorite songs in all of 2024.  But with tension running high, gun violence running rampant, and a fresh wave of Christian Nationalism on parade, I just knew there was no way I would feel comfortable being there at this moment in time.  I pray every day that things get better in our nation, and I’m hoping that maybe we can catch Brandon next summer (assuming he does his usual summer tour), but until then, we'll just continue to worship in our church and in my car ;o) until we get the chance to hear him live.  I do feel at peace that we made the right decision not to go, even though I am sad that it had to be this way. 

Did y’all see that we were supposed to have the rapture yesterday?  Welp, we’re all still here so I think somebody got their information wrong.  ;o)  But seriously, I’d love to know how these rumors get started… like, who picks these dates?  It clearly says in the Bible that no one knows the day or the time when the return will occur… only God knows that.  So, I’m genuinely wondering how these dates get selected and by whom.  I only heard about it because of social media, and boy, was it everywhere these last few days.  That said, I did get a good laugh at some of the rapture memes on social media yesterday. 

While we’re talking about social media and the news, can we please talk about this whole acetaminophen causing autism thing?  Honestly, y’all.  I am so glad that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (among other organizations) are using their platforms to dispute our administration and put the truth out there since the administration is making declarations that are not rooted in facts or science.  Stating that acetaminophen use by pregnant women causes autism is extremely harmful rhetoric for a multitude of reasons, and my heart hurts for so many on the autism spectrum (and their parents) who have been affected by these baseless statements.  Can you imagine being a pregnant woman or a parent of small children with all that’s going on right now?  I’m so grateful that our family is complete and that both of our kids are done being vaccinated for their childhood vaccines.  Also?  If I was the head of Tylenol, I’d be suing since their brand has been dragged through the mud.

On a totally different note, T-minus NINE days until Taylor’s new album comes out, y’all!!!!  But who’s counting?!  <Raises both hands to the sky>  Olivia and I got tickets to her The Life of a Showgirl album release party in theaters next weekend and we’re going with three other sets of moms and daughters, and I cannot wait to spend some quality time with my girl and her friends and my friends.  NOW WHAT DO WE WEAR?!  (And also, how do we make the switch to upbeat tunes with all the heaviness in the world??)

Finally, did y’all see that there was a Dawson’s Creek reunion over the weekend?  Y’all!  That was my favorite show (besides Friends, of course) growing up, and my 16-year-old self has been squealing every single time a clip pops up from it on social media.  Every single original cast member came back for it except for James Van Der Beek (he said he had a stomach virus… it wasn’t his cancer that prevented him from coming apparently), and they did a live reading of the pilot episode.  The event was to raise money to benefit F Cancer, so it’s not going to air on TV, but what I wouldn’t have done to be there in person for that!  Oh, my word!  Those lucky people. 

And while we’re on that subject, can we please talk about how Pacey Witter AKA Joshua Jackson has aged like a fine wine?  He is still, 33 years later, one of my favorite celebrity crushes.  Some things never change.

Oh, and before I go, happy birthday to my Momma!  We celebrated her last weekend, but today is her actual birthday!  6-7 looks amazing on you!!  Not to mention you have a coveted number for your age this year.  (Parents of tweens and teens, you know!  LOL.)

Okay, well this honestly ended up being way longer than I had intended… I truly thought this was going to be short and sweet, but I suppose there is always a lot on my mind!    

I hope y’all are having a fabulous Wednesday!   Hopefully I'll have a fall home tour for ya on Monday!

Life - A Dichotomy

I read this poem on Instagram the other night and it resonated with me so much because it demonstrates so perfectly the dichotomy that is life, and exactly how I have felt this year, especially recently.

It’s a wild ride, this life.

It’s joyful.  It’s sad.  It’s crazy and wild and beautiful, and it’s so. very. ugly. sometimes.  But one thing I’ve learned more than ever this year is that joy and sorrow, beauty and ugliness, light and darkness, triviality and heaviness can coexist… and they do every single day. 

Some days, the sorrows of the world consume me, and some days I choose joy, and I completely tune out all the other noise.

We all must grieve the sadness in the world, and we cannot let ourselves become numb to it, but we must also allow ourselves to celebrate all the little things that bring us joy, no matter how trivial or insignificant they may be. 

 

Joy and sorrow.

Beauty and ugliness.

Light and darkness.

Triviality and heaviness.

 

We can hold all of them together.

Happy Monday.  <3

Blogs I Follow

I’ve had a few reader requests in recent months asking me to share the blogs that I read on a daily basis, so boy, do I have a treat for y’all today… there are so many ladies to love! 

I’ve been blogging for 10 years now, and I have “met” so many wonderful ladies along the way.  Some of these blogs I have been following for longer than 10 years and some I have just recently discovered.  Also, some of these ladies are blog friends (meaning that we have connected and they also read my blog) and some of them don’t even know I exist.  Hahahaha.  And a couple of these ladies were part of the reason why I decided to start my own blog!

I have read loads of blogs throughout the years, but most have stopped blogging somewhere along the way, so today I will only be sharing active blogs.  To give you some perspective, my blog reading list includes 143 blogs, but only 22 appear to be active now in 2025.  It’s wild how many people have started relying solely on social media and/or have stopped having an online presence altogether.

While I think social media is okay, I don’t really spend much time scrolling… I do pop in to check in with a handful of my favorite accounts each day, but I’d much rather sit down with my cup of hot tea and read blog posts.  So, I’m grateful for those who are still “opening their doors” and sharing their hearts with us via their blogs every day.

Without further ado, here are the active bloggers on my blog reading list.  I’m listing these ladies in alphabetical order by blog name, and I hope today you can find somebody new to love!

Carolina Charm – I have been following Christina since I started my own blog… she shares a good mix of recipes, life hacks, party planning, and family updates, and she takes beautiful photos.  She quit her full-time corporate job a couple of years ago to blog full time, so her blog is very professionally done/aesthetically pleasing, but her blog still has that OG blog kind of feel.  (I have stopped following some blogs over the years because their blogs became too “professional” and they lost all their heart.)

 

Chez Mireille Fashion Travel Mom – Mireille shares a lot about fashion, travel, and motherhood, and she’s so sweet!  She has been a supporter of my blog for a long time, too, and she lives in Georgia like I do!  One of these days it would be awesome to be able to meet up!

 

Curly Crafty Mom – Carrie runs a lifestyle blog with a good mix of fashion, favorite things, travel, and everyday life.  She has two kids, a boy and a girl, just like I do, and we have a lot of other things in common, too, so I find her incredibly relatable… we’ve had some good chats in our DMs.  She is also a runner, and she inspires me so much with all of her accomplishments!!   

 

Family and the Lake House – Marie and I found each other at the beginning of our blogging journeys… I think we started our blogs just a few months (weeks??) apart if I remember correctly.  She is one of the people who I clicked with instantly in blog world, and we have watched each other’s babies grow up.  She is the craftiest gal, and I just love seeing all of her projects, especially around the holidays.  I also love her posts about their travels! 

 

Green Fashionista – Kate is another OG blog friend, and she blogs about travel, fashion, and life.  I always love her recaps so I can see what they’ve been up to, because she and her husband and daughter truly have SO MUCH FUN.  They are always up to something – traveling, sight-seeing around their own city, and going to amazing restaurants – and I love to see everything that Kate wears!

 

Hall Around Texas – Crystal and I have been blog friends for a long time as well, and she is as real as they come.  Her blog centers around her love for Jesus and her love for her family, and she posts about daily life as well as their travels.  She writes beautifully, and she tends to see the good in everything.  She has also recently started sharing some thrifting finds, and I have been eating those up. 

 

Honey We’re Home – Megan is one of the OG bloggers, and her blog is very professionally done as it’s her sole job.  She shares about fashion, health, and home décor to name a few things, but I also love reading her blog because I appreciate her honesty.  She is very down-to-earth and she really seems to be authentic even though she is one of the “big” bloggers.  Fun fact, she shared Olivia’s baby nursery on her blog way back when I first started blogging, and it made my whole year!    

 

Life As Kim – Kim and I connected in recent years, and I absolutely love reading about her life with her fella and her two girls in England.  She is as real as they come, and she still does the OG style of blogging (documenting everyday life, participating in link-ups, sharing random things) which are my absolute FAVORITE things to read.  She is so funny and kind, and I just love to read everything she writes.  She posts every single day including weekends (I think?  Is that right, Kim?) and I admire her dedication… she has been blogging since 2012 and I’m only sad that we didn’t find each other sooner!

 

Living on Cloud Nine – Andrea and I started our blogs only a few days apart, and we found each other very early on in our blogging journeys, becoming fast friends.  She posts a lot about fashion, home décor, and traveling, and her home is gorgeous.  I’m convinced that she is a magician because her plants and flowers are INSANE.  She is a holiday décor queen, so I especially love all of her holiday home tours.  She is also the queen of Amazon recommendations!

 

Loverly Grey – My cousin told me about Brittany’s blog years ago because she lives in Athens, GA.  She’s a diehard UGA fan like we are, so naturally, how could I not love her?  Haha.  She is one of those influencing wizards who has turned her business into a full-time multi-million-dollar business.  She has a whole team working for her now (one of whom is my cousin’s girlfriend… she started working there long after I’d started following Brittany, so I fan-girled so hard when she got the job.  Haha.), and she semi-recently added a podcast to her ever-growing brand.  She shares primarily about fashion, and she also spends a lot of time in 30A, which is where we vacation every summer, so I always love following along with her on their adventures there.  She is primarily a social media gal at this point, but I do appreciate that unlike most other influencers, she hasn’t abandoned her blog.

 

Make Life Marvelous – Ashley is absolutely the sweetest human with the biggest heart, and she always leaves the most genuine and kind comments on my blog.  She blogs about organization and productivity, and y’all know organization is one of my favorite subjects, so I devour every single one of her posts!

 

Meet the Shaneyfelts – Hey Sarah!!  Sarah and I also started our blogs around the same time, and we found each other really early on in our blogging journeys.  She is another OG blogger who blogs about everyday life and family and her favorite things, and I love following along with her sweet family so much.  I have gotten many a good book recommendation from her, too.  Sarah is one of the few blog friends who turned into a real-life friend when we exchanged phone numbers years ago.  We text every so often, and we even got to meet one time at a Dave Matthews Band concert in Huntsville!

 

Memphis Bridges – Marylin is yet another blogger who writes about everyday life (my favorite kind of blog!), and she’s so genuine and kind.  She shares not only her highlight reel, but the parts of life that are tough as well.  As you know, if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, I also share the struggles in life, so I really appreciate it when other bloggers do the same.  Marylin also shares my deep love for music, and I have found new artists/songs to love from reading her blog.

 

Mix and Match Mama – Well, I think most people who read blogs probably read Shay’s blog (I feel like she is the OG blogger), but in case you’re one of the few who don’t, here’s a little bit about her.  She has to be one of the hardest working people I follow.  She posts not just one, but two posts on her blog every single day (one regular and one recipe), she owns her own travel agency, she has four very busy kids in tons of activities, and somehow, she still makes time to travel all over the world, read all the books, cook all the meals, and watch all the things.  I feel like she secretly has more hours in a day than the rest of us do.  Haha.  She posts about literally everything – everyday life, book reviews, fashion, home décor, organization, travel, and health, and I think at least 25% of the recipes that are in my regular rotation are from her website and/or recipe books.  I started reading her blog before I ever had my own and she was one of the main bloggers who inspired me to start my own.

 

Momfessionals – Andrea is one of Shay’s real-life friends (they live in the same city) and I found her a while after I found Shay.  She also posts about everything – everyday life, teacher life, book reviews, crafty things, travel, and recipes – and it’s been so sweet watching her family grow… one of her sons is Jacob’s age, and her daughter is only one year ahead of Olivia, so we are in similar phases of life.

 

My Glittery Heart – Heather is another one of my blog friends turned real life friends.  She lives in Georgia like me, and although we’ve never been able to meet up (yet!!), we do text every now and then.  She posts about everyday life (are you seeing a theme here?!  They are seriously my favorite kinds of posts!), favorite things, home décor, Amazon finds, fashion, etc., and she shares her bar cart dressed up for the holidays and seasons.  She also runs an Etsy shop, and I love to see all of the items she creates!

 

Not In Jersey – Dara is my book guru!!  I have gotten probably 90% of my book recommendations from her because she reads SO MUCH.  She has a beautiful family that she posts about frequently, and she also posts about travel and everyday life.  She dog sits, too, and I just love following along and seeing all her new babies.  She and I have been blog friends for a loooong time – pretty much since I started 10 years ago, I think?? – and I love following along with her.  Hiiii, Dara!!

 

Slices of Life – Joanne is the craftiest lady on this list, I think!!  She makes handmade cards, and she still does the old-school style of scrapbooking with paper and photos, and I adore seeing every single page that she does since I used to scrapbook myself.  She reads a ton and shares tons of book reviews, and she also shares about fashion, recipes, travel, photography, and her family.  She is someone who seems genuinely happy, she cooks so many delicious homemade meals, and the amount of stuff she accomplishes amazes me!

 

Southern Curls & Pearls – I’m sure many of you follow Caitlin on social media, and maybe you still read her blog, too?  She is another influencer who has turned her business into a money-making machine, and I love following along with her and her beautiful family.  She primarily posts about fashion (the reason I started following her), but she also shares home décor, travel, and family time as well.  She and her husband just built a brand-new house that is seriously drool-worthy, and she has been one of my favorites to follow long before I started my own blog.  Ever heard of the “Christian Girl Autumn” meme?  That’s her in the original meme, and I love how she has leaned into that over the years.  Lol.  She was another blogger who inspired me to start my own, and although she’s primarily a social media girl now, I’m so glad she hasn’t completely abandoned her blog.

 

Sunny Side Up – Erin is another professional blogger who I’ve followed for years, and she shares loads of organization products and tips and home décor… and her home is stunning.  Her organization skills, though… that’s what keeps me coming back for more.  It is next-level, professional-grade organizing.  I do love that she throws in real life updates as well!

 

The Other Side of the Road – Tanya and I have been blog friends for years, and I love everything about her!  She shares recipes, book recommendations, travel, products she loves, and lots of posts about everyday life… my favorite part of her blog.  I’ve watched her two sweet kiddos grow into independent, thriving, wonderful young adults, and watching her navigate that stage of life always leaves me feeling hopeful for the future when it will be my turn to navigate being an empty nester.

 

The Queen in Between – Shelly is another longtime blog friend, and I’ve always loved reading about her sweet family and their adventures.  In addition to sharing about her family, she shares about fashion, home décor, book recommendations, and so much more.  Shelly always puts her heart and soul into her writing, and I have always appreciated her authenticity and her honesty. 

 

Each of these ladies has inspired me in more ways than one, and I love nothing more than to grab a hot cup of tea, snuggle up in my blanket, and catch up on their lives every week.  The blogging community is truly a unique group, and I’m so blessed to be a part of it. 

And hopefully I’m not forgetting anyone!  Going through 143 blogs, most of which are now inactive, took some time, and I’m hoping I didn’t inadvertently miss anyone!  Blog friends, if I missed you, please let me know so I can add you!

Now I’d love to hear from you… who are some of your favorite bloggers?  I’d love to add some new ones to my list!

Happy Monday, y'all!