Top 10 of 2024

Social media is great for memories, but the social aspect of it all is draining for me. I decided to switch back to my blog...and I'm hoping no one reads it anymore. Ha. 

Here are my Top 10 of 2024 so I don't forget. 

Every Dollar

Every Dollar is the Ramsey Solutions budgeting app. For years we have toyed with the idea of using this app, but have just stayed with our excel sheet. Finally this year, we took the leap and we are never going back. It is easy to use, keeps us on the same page and really helps us save money. 

10 out of 10 would recommend this app. 

Puzzles

Several years ago I found my love of puzzles, but hesitated to commit to them because of the hassle of moving them all the time...until I found a puzzle board. It's perfect. I love getting up early, listening to an audiobook and working on a puzzle. I love that the boy's girlfriends come over and work on the puzzles with me. I love that people come to this house and just jump in. It serves as a reminder of what 15 minutes here and there can do. 

10 out of 10 would recommend working puzzles on your dining room table. 

The Measure by Nikki Erkick and Beartown by Fredrick Bakman

I finished the year with 28 books read, but didn't have too many favorites. The two listed above really stood out. The Measure is science fiction and that's not my normal genre, but I loved it. The concept presented in the book really captured my attention and proved to be a great conversation starter. 

Beartown was also a pleasant surprise and I'm not sure why. Fredrick Bakman to slowly becoming one of my favorite authors. He wrote two of my all time favorites, A Man Called Ove and Anxious People. Beartown was right up there with these two. The cadence at the end of the book was captivating. There are three books in this series and I'm trying to decide if I'll commit to those. 

10 out of 10 would recommend these two reads. 

Our Patio

Listen, our patio has been a whole thing. I've wanted to cover it for years. We had three people come give us estimates and never get back to us. I bought patio furniture from a friend in anticipation of the covered patio. One day I was at Sam's Club and saw a pergola on clearance. I asked Fred if it would be possible for us to build this. He immediately said yes, assembled it and we put a clear roof on it. We added a TV and a hot tub and our patio is now one of my favorite places. Perfection. 

While it may seem silly, I sit under the patio and feel God's presence on my life. I had a dream for a covered patio. He heard me and gave me something even better. 

10 out of 10 recommend waiting on God's timing. He's always on time. 

Sanctuary Counseling

This summer was rough and low and difficult and I knew I needed help. Enter Jessica with Sanctuary Counseling. Sanctuary Counseling is counseling specific for ministry families. Jessica listened, gave me things to think about and helped me move forward in a healthier light. 

10 out of 10 recommend getting help when you need it. 

Working leads-Methodist and Ramsey Solutions

This fall Stephanie and I divided up our responsibilities. I took over working all of our leads and I love it. It's definitely my lane. Working in the ways God wired me is such a gift. 

10 out of 10 recommend doing work that you love. 

Tiffany at Champalou Spa

I never thought I'd be a person to get facials, but here I am. Tiffany and I meet up every other month and if I could I would meet with her every week...no, every day. She is a delight and so good at what she does. While I know I have wrinkles and lines and signs of aging, I just really don't care at this point. 

10 out of 10 recommend unplugging every so often and meeting with Tiffany. 

Evening Walks

In the evenings, there's just something lovely about a walk. Now, when the time changes and it get dark at 5:00 it's not my favorite, but I always love it once I go. I think another thing that's great about it is not having anything on the calendar in the evenings. 

10 out of 10 recommend a walk at night. 

Sunday Lunches

On Sundays I cook lunch. Fred, Renee, Beulah and any of Clayton's friends come over. We will have anywhere from 5 to 15 to 20 people. There's always plenty of good food. College kids sit around and work the puzzle, talk or take a nap. It's just delightful. While we have responsibilities most afternoons it's good to just pause. 

10 out of 10 recommend gathering your people and eating at home. 

Mr. Bill

Our 92 year old neighbor moved to Collierville to a senior living facility. He really doesn't have any family in the area so I eat lunch with him every couple of weeks. He has five restaurants at his apartment complex. Once night we went to the fancy Passport restaurant for a six course French meal. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, but we laughed the entire night...and when I say entire night I mean that dinner took almost three hours, but goodness we have a blast together. 

February 2019

The end of January and the beginning of February have gotten off to a great start. It's been rainy, cold (most days) and dreary, but we've still enjoyed our time together. One of my goals this year is to update this blog on a monthly basis. I'm a little late for February, but better late than never, right?!?

Jack took an elbow to the eye at practice. Thankfully, it didn't last too long or turn too black. He's a tough little fella. 

 This is 40. I now have to get all the gray taken out of my hair every couple of months. It's delightful. Sweet Holly makes everything better though. But man, getting older is a process. Whew.

 This is where I sit each morning for about 5 minutes before taking the boys to school. Dash thinks I sit down for him. I don't, but regardless we snuggle on the couch every morning while I sip my coffee.

We headed to Jackson from my dad's 70th birthday. My brother, his crew and me and my crew came in to celebrate. We weren't there long. It's never long enough, but we really enjoyed our time together.

Jack was in a basketball tournament and we got beat. We played our final game in mid January. I've been cheering with this crowd for a long time now. They are my people. It was an honor to sit with them and cheer on some of our favorite middle school basketball players.

Stephanie...or me...I really can't remember, "needed" to stop at Muddy's. I thought I heard a familiar voice. When I turned around my mother in law was sitting there talking to a friend. How funny. In this big ole city we happened to be at the same place at the same time.

We had a women's event at church called "Gifts of Grace". It was a fun Saturday and honestly, who doesn't like chicken salad?!?

My sweet friend, Melody, came and spoke about Grace in Disguise...meaning sometimes grace comes through circumstances that don't seem like they should. I left the women's event to head to work an open house. I was in the turn lane on a very busy street in Memphis and my car died. Literally died. Dead...as in the hazard lights didn't even work. I called Melody and told her her talk was real nice, but I wasn't looking for any grace in disguise that day. hehe.

Andrew finished up his basketball season this month. He scored 2 points the final game. Mimi and Tee and Mawmaw were there to witness it. In fact, we had the bleachers full of people cheering him on. Apparently we cheered too loudly because when he came back down the court he put his index finger over his lips and shushed us. I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the bleachers. 

Speaking of wrapping up basketball...our man in the middle wrapped up his season as well. He took home the Most Improved Player Award. It's been a good season and we sure do love our basketball friends.

Team Stephiner attended a class at MAAR on a system that we use in our business. Our sweet broker even met us there. She's in the background. We all had a fun day together!

And Team Stephiner also walked at Shelby Farms on morning. Shelby Farms is one of my favorite places in this city and Stephanie went with me. It was a cold, crisp morning and it was glorious.

Hello 2019

It seems that some sort of stomach virus has hit the youngest member of our family. This means a few things:
1. Andrew is living his best life. The worst of the virus was yesterday, so today he is missing school, doesn't have to share the internet signal, and is watching YouTube. Honestly, I don't know how life could get any better!?!
2. I am able to catch up with a few chores around the house...and by chores I mean updating this blog.
3. My prayer life has never been better. "Please Lord, don't let me get this stomach virus."

Here is an update from what I can remember. I'm not taking as many pictures these days because I'm trying to be "present" at events so I can't rely on just my photos...here goes...

Right before school started back we decided to do an impromptu trip to the beach. My people love the beach for about 3 days and then they grow weary of it. So we left on a Wednesday and came back on Saturday...right in time for school. We staying on an actual island so we had to take most of our food in to avoid paying "island" prices. We did buy 3 pounds of shrimp. We had shrimp gumbo, shrimp tacos, shrimp fettuccine alfredo. By day three I was beginning to feel like Forrest Gump, but man we love some shrimp.
We basically woke up each morning, went down to the beach all day, and then had dinner in the condo where we ate some form of shrimp. One night we ate out. That was $125 well spent. Gulp.

School started shortly after we got back. Sniff. Sniff.  We have 10th, 7th, and 3rd graders running around here. Seriously, I blinked.

This was Dash the day they went back to school. I don't think he moved the entire day. It's hard working keeping boys safe ALL SUMMER LONG!!!

In August I met up with my childhood friends for a weekend at the lake. Since this year was a pretty epic year where we all turned 40, we felt like a celebration was in order...and celebrate we did. We talked and laughed and ate cake and talked and laughed and cried a little and reminiscenced and had the best time ever. Man, I love these girls.

In October we had my birthday and Andrew's birthday. We celebrated by going to Incredible Pizza with a few family members. It was the best party ever.

 When your great grandmother, Mun, gets to come to your 9th birthday party you know it's a good birthday!

Speaking of 40...this now happens more often than I care to admit.

October was a big month. We also went to Utah to hike at Zion National Park. My parents went along with us. It was really a fun trip. On my actual birthday we were hiking the Narrows, which is one of my favorite places on God's green earth. The morning of my birthday we went to Kanab Creek Bakery. I had the best croissant and iced coffee I've ever had. In fact, that iced coffee was so good I ordered a second one. I dream about that coffee almost daily. Said all that to say, if you are ever in Kanab, Utah you should go to the Kanab Creek Bakery. Have an iced coffee and a croissant for me!

Our church hosted a Mother Son Nerf War for kids. They had the gym open with thousands of Nerf bullets available. Liz and the cousins joined us. We ran around and laughed and shot each other with Nerf guns. It was a blast. When it was all over we were supposed to put on our game face for a photo. Andrew and I didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. 

Sweet Jack has had 17,000 basketball tournaments...not regular season games. Tournaments. It seems like every tournament they have they come in second place. So consequently, every picture I have from tournaments they look furious. Make no mistake. They are furious. We still got pictures though. 

We had a quiet Thanksgiving without a single picture. It was glorious. Just imagine a family sitting around a table eating turkey and dressing. Yep, that's us. 

After Thanksgiving (and the above mentioned basketball tournament) we had our annual cutting of the Christmas tree. It dawned on me while we were cutting that down that Clayton has two more Christmas trees to cut down with us before he graduates. Yikes. 

Once we got the tree we headed into Christmas like a boss. But first, there was an issue with a squirrel in my attic. We had to call in the big guns. Pun intended. My brother came to town for business and we put him to work. I could not resist snapping a picture as he put his very life on the line to do battle with the squirrel that took up residence in my attic. Please note, I was standing in the chair in the corner of the room while snapping this picture. I was there for moral support and nothing more. 

Jeffrey did not have any luck so he left a pellet gun with us, the city dwellers. One beautiful Saturday morning Fred and I chased the squirrel all around our house. I'm sure our neighbors got quite the treat watching us from their windows. In fact, our neighbor directly across the street from us came outside and asked if we were okay and if she needed to call 911. I assured her we were okay, but I'm sure seeing us running, yelling at each other, and one of us having a gun did look a little unsettling. Ha!

 It's Christmas so Clayton had a choir concert. As usual he was behind the director so I could barely see him, but that's okay. I still snapped a picture.

 Team Stephiner, as we call ourselves, had a company Christmas party at P.O, Press in Collierville. It was really good, but it was the longest meal I've ever sat through in my life. We got there at 6:00 and didn't leave until 9:30. Way past my bedtime!

 Jack had his Christmas dance at school. He said he didn't want to go, but at the last minute he told me he was going with a "friend" and she was wearing navy, so he needed a navy sweater. What?? I had so many questions, but as you can see he made it to the dance with a navy sweater.

 Then the boys had the youth Christmas party. Dress for the party was fancy this year so fancy we were. Jack tried to wear sweatpants to the party, but we wouldn't allow it. He felt certain Clayton would win so he didn't really even see the point of trying. Fred photo bombed this one.

 Oh, I forgot to mention that Jack was nominated by his class for the Snowflake Court. Apparently this is a big deal, but since he didn't tell us until he was walking out the door, I got these pictures from a friend. Does he not look huge by this sweet girl from his class?!?

 We had Christmas, which means there were three generations sitting on the couch on their phones. I'm so proud.

 I've mentioned basketball tournaments, but don't let me forget that our soccer coach threw in a Christmas soccer tournament. Sounds like a good idea to me. We didn't have anything else going on, right?? Currently, Clayton is conditioning for soccer which will start in March. He starts conditioning for soccer in October.

I have no pictures from Christmas day either, but I do have Christmas Eve breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We think this year was our 20th year to eat at Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Christmas Eve. After breakfast we shopped with the boys so they could buy gifts for one another. That really is one of my favorite things that we do. They always have a good time shopping for each other. 

 This year I let each boy pick a dessert for Christmas. I did not have to ask Fred. I knew he wanted my grandmother's homemade boiled custard. And it did not disappoint. Here I am lovingly stirring it for the necessary 21 minutes. Clayton picked Chocolate Chess Pie with whipped cream and Andes Mints. Jack picked Peanut Butter Pie, and Andrew picked Lofthouse cookies. You know, "the cookies that you buy at the store that are perfectly round and really soft." (Andrew's words.) I'm going to try not to let it hurt my feelings that I told him to pick his favorite dessert that I make and he chose store bought cookies. I'm gonna try.

 Grandma Beulah gave Jack this quilt. It was made by Fred Shackelford Sr's wife. She started it and then Grandma Beulah's mother finished it. Beulah said that Jack was the first and only baby to lay on it and she wanted him to have it. What a priceless treasure. Jack now possesses a quilt made by his  great, great grandmothers. Beulah thinks that Big Mama (that's what they called Fred's wife) started it in the 60's.

In typical Grandma Beulah style, she even had the picture of the first time Jack was on the quilt. I mean, precious. 

Our boys get three gifts at Christmas. We really don't do that much, but we always give some sort of experience. This year we let each boy pick an activity and a restaurant. 

Jack picked Mexican and climbing at High Point Climbing. 

Andrew picked Incredible Pizza with his cousins. 

Clayton picked the Spider Man movie and OEC, which is a Japanese restaurant in Bartlett. 

Clayton and I got to spend a little quality time together at Campbell Clinic. His knee has been bothering him. Thankfully, the doctor said it's a very common problem and gave us a few exercises to do. He also told me not to buy any new pants for Clayton because he has a year and a half of growth left. Oh dear...

I went shopping for a black dress the other day and came home with this. I think sweatpants and a sweatshirt are the new black dress. 

Well, there you have it. A little update. Hopefully in 2019 I'll be better at updating, If I'm not, just know that we are at a basketball or soccer game, practice, or tournament. And if we're not there, we're in the car going to or from one of those places.