2025

 Hello again!

Happy New Year! 

I’m really really going to try to post more of what I read and watch this year. Don’t look for daily posts but I am hoping for a couple times of month (at least). 2024 was a tough year for me and I have given myself some “goals” that I hope will aid in my emotional happiness and taking care of myself a little more.

I am not setting a books or pages read goal this year. I hope to read a few minutes each day (and if I have days I don’t read, that’s just fine!) and however much I read is where I land with that. I want my reading to be what I want and be enjoyable without feeling pressure to keep a streak going. I have found a bookish podcast I’m enjoying as well Books I Make My Husband Read

I want to try to finish watching the last 6 seasons of The Big Bang Theory. Nothing else big planned on the watch front for me but I’m open to movie and TV recommendations.

I hope you have a wonderful 2025 ahead. I would love to hear from you!

Monday Media

 I watched a movie over the weekend.

You can see the trailer Here 

This was an ok movie for me. It felt a little too slow and dragged out in places. It was a good story, it just needed a little more gas in some spots.

I would give it 3 stars. 

Have you seen it? What did you think of it?

Monday Media

 Formerly Movies on Monday…

Our family watched some movies that were randomly on TV channels over the weekend. Of note, I watched a couple of other things too.

The Harry Potter Reunion on HBO Max.

It was an enjoyable look with some of the cast and crew on the filming and stories behind the scenes. 

I felt like it was a little choppy in places with some of the segments but it was enjoyable.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

I also watched the Mr. Mayor Christmas special.

(Mr. Mayor is a sit com on NBC)

It was funny and snarky, like the rest of the series has been.

I would recommend the series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (For the special & the series)

Movies on Monday

 Unfortunately the holiday weekend is over and it’s back to work.

We saw a few movies over the weekend. 

We went to see The King’s Men in the theater.

It was mediocre at best in our opinions. It was very slow and not very original.

⭐️⭐️1/2

We watched Ron’s Gone Wrong on HBO

It was a cute kids movie. Glad we watched it and we were entertained.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

We watched Encanto on Disney+

It was ok. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

What did you watch the past few days?

Movies on “Monday”

 I know it’s Tuesday but I feel like I’m running behind on everything these days. Here are a couple of movies we have watched on Disney+ lately.

This was a fun Halloween Disney themed special. If you like the Muppets and/or the Haunted Mansion attraction, I highly recommend this one.

4 out of 5 stars

Black Widow is a mixed bag for how our family thought about this one. I think the general consensus is that it is overhyped. 

I won’t rate this because I’m not sure how to.

Side note: I am over all the Marvel movies, I feel like they’re being overdone at this point.

What have you watched lately?

Movies on Monday

We watched a couple of movies this weekend.

My thoughts on these:

Raya-I’m glad I watched it but don’t think I would seek it out to watch again.

Cinderella-well…. I wasn’t impressed! I felt like they had a pretty good cast but they didn’t give them much to work with for a script. So it felt like a bad musical to me.

Have you watched anything lately?

 

Weekend recap

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend.


Friday evening, we watched The Great Wall. I went into it with pretty low expectations but it wasn't terrible! I would probably rate it 3 stars.

Saturday was a lot of resting and staying cool.

Sunday, I took my Mr. and Young Miss to the airport. They are in DC this week (their pictures have been great so far). Young Mr. & I were back home by 7:30 a.m. so we had breakfast and took a walk by 9 a.m. We went shopping for my nephew's birthday then napped. 


We spent over an hour at the comic store - he was in heaven!

He hung out with some friends and it was early bedtime for me.

Here we are at Monday again...

Review Post

I am way, way behind on book reviews here. Sorry! So, here are a couple movies we rented this weekend and a book I finished last week.

2 stars

The movie storyline is bizarre and choppy. Then....it just ends.

3.5 stars

Not quite as enjoyable as the first Jack Reacher movie but still pretty entertaining.

4 stars

This is the first book in the Cupcake Bakery series. I loved the characters and the storyline moved well. I am looking forward to reading more!

Have you seen or read anything good lately?

Monday musings

Hello my friends! I know I was MIA last week but plan to be more "present" this week.


We woke up to a little snow this morning.

A couple of inches. Thanks Mother Nature - that's enough now.

To my friends on the east coast - be safe and warm!

We watched this on Saturday night:

Meh.... I don't feel smart enough about the workings of an oil rig to have really understood the first 45 minutes of the movie. The action the last half was intense though.

My husband got me a red velvet cupcake from our local cupcake shop and it was delicious! (A great end to the weekend)

I hope you all have a great week ahead!

Monday Musings - The Oscars

This is the only awards show I sit and watch in its entirety. I love the movies* and enjoy Hollywood's glitz and big night.

We watched about an hour of the Red Carpet. Lots of pretty dresses and tuxes...some - not my style or liking, but to each their own.

Here are some of my favorite dresses:

Nicole Kidman

Emma Stone

Charlize Theron

Viola Davis

Jessica Biel

Octavia Spenser

Justin Timberlake rocked the opening act-what a great way to open the show! Well done, sir!

Jimmy Kimmel did a great job as host! He was funny and for the most part kept things moving. There were candy drops; tweets; tourists (we LOVED Gary from Chicago - he was hilarious!); Matt Damon...

(This clip is pretty long):

Yes, there was a "plot twist" at the end of the show with the Best Picture award. I thought it was handled graciously and with humor.

Congratulations to the nominees and winners!

*I am a pretty lighthearted movie watcher and don't usually see most of the nominees and nominations.

Movie reviews

We rented two movies last night.

This is based on a teen book of the same title. A group of "Peculiars" lives in a loop of time to keep them safe. How will a stranger effect their lives?

I give this 3 stars.

Based on the "Miracle on the Hudson" events and the hearing that follows for the pilot, Sully.

I give this 4 stars.

Happy Oscar weekend.

Weekending

Here we are at Monday again. How do the weekends go so fast?! Here's to a good week to all.

I took this snap at 4:30 yesterday. It pretty much sums up the weather all weekend - hot, humid and pretty tropical!

Friday: Little Miss finished a week of orchestra camp with a concert. I just got to pop in for a little listen. My mom got to see the whole thing. They sounded great and I think she had a really good time!

I got some knitting done on Friday night

Saturday:

Little Miss & I ran some errands while Mr. and Young Mr. were helping a friend build bunkbeds for their daughters.

We all went to the matinee of Secret Life of Pets

We all thought it was cute!

Here's the trailer:

Another thunderstorm rolled through Saturday night so I settled in with a book and may or may not have snoozed a little in the chair

Sunday:

A pretty uneventful day.  Caught up on laundry then worked at the library in the afternoon.

And here we go with another work week.

Wishing you a great week!

It's Monday!

We went to see Finding Dory yesterday. I LOVED it! (I think I liked it more than Finding Nemo) The animation was spectacular!

Trailer here:

If you have a chance to see it on the big screen, I think it's worth it!

WILW

Happy Wednesday all!
Please check out Rachel and friends' blogs

It's only Wednesday....and the week has been full of ups and downs.

Little Miss's artwork. She's been drawing a lot!

 Little Miss's orchestra concert. The kids all did great!

Blooming flowers

 Taking Little Miss to the musical at her middle school. The cast was fantastic!

 

Little Miss's dance recital last weekend. She did awesome on her tap solo.

I know it's almost 10 months away but I am SUPER excited for this movie!

A long weekend is coming up and I have 2 photo shoots and yard work ahead of me. But that makes me happy!

My Mr's van is having troubles...again! We thought he was going to have to be towed home last night from 45 minutes away. Fortunately he got the van going and made it home.

I hope you are having a good week and a good weekend ahead.

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a good weekend. It went WAY too fast for me.
Saturday was a beautiful day here - sunny, 60. It felt like a springtime tease. I spent a lot of time finishing vacation laundry, cleaning and organizing.
We went grocery shopping on Saturday evening (always an adventure) and rented The Intern (with Anne Hathaway & Robert DeNiro) - we really enjoyed it!
I worked at the library yesterday and started working on some photography stuff.


As a photography reminder...if you have/know a senior, I am booking spring photos for them right now. I am also booking for just about anything else right now. Email me (photosbyjenmcgee@gmail.com) for dates or details.


How was your weekend?

A couple things...

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend and your coming week is great!

Have you gotten your copy of Center of Gravity? Where have you been reading it? Take a picture and post it to social media so we can all see. (use the hashtag [#] of #CenterofGravity).

I sat on the front porch with some iced tea yesterday to read.

The first 11 minutes of my cousin's directorial debut came out yesterday. You can check it out here:

 

They are trying to get the backing to finish the movie.

 

How was your weekend?

 

#CenterofGravity

#MaximumCoppage

An upcoming documentary

I am excited to see this one. I LOVE barn quilts!

Pieced Together 

is slated to be out early this year. The film tells the story of how one woman's (Donna Sue Groves) love for her mother changed the American landscape - and saved her life. 

Here's the trailer:

Here is a blog on quilt barns that I follow and really enjoy her travels and photos:
Barn Quilts

Looking for a quilt barn trail? Check out the map at this link: Barn Quilt map

Happy trails!

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a good weekend - you stayed safe and warm!

We had a nice weekend - here's a quick recap.

Friday night, my Mr. and I went to the Miranda Lambert concert. RaeLynn (The Voice, Season 2) opened - meh...she was kind of boring.  Justin Moore was up next and he turned me into a big fan. He was awesome and brought me to tears at one point!  Miss Miranda - we were both disappointed. She seemed almost bored and was going through the motions of having a concert.  BUT - it was nice to have a night out together.

I started this book on Saturday (after I got my butt out of bed...) - it's going to be a slow read but it's enjoyable!

 

 I tried a new crockpot recipe - teriyaki chicken. Let me just say - we went out for dinner... I was disappointed!

 

We rented Gone Girl - we enjoyed it. I had given up on the book because it was dragging on. In this case, for me - the movie was better than the book.

 



Yesterday, the Mr. and Young Mr. went to the Blackhawks/Bruins game. As Hawks fans, it was U-G-L-Y!!!!!

BUT - while they were at the game, Little Miss and I went to see my sister. We had late lunch, did a little shopping (in her closet and at a thrift shop) - found some good stuff too! Then we hung out at their place for a while.

Then we watched part of the Oscars last night and enjoyed relaxing.

I wish you all a great week!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Time for another "Loving Wednesday" link up with Jodi and Rachel.

1. Little Miss will be 11 tomorrow! She's excited that her age will be 2 - 1's.

2. The Mr. and I saw this on Sunday. It was GREAT - action; humor; Samuel L. Jackson.

 

3. I LOVE this podcast! 5 sisters - randomness discussed and LOTS of laughter!

4. Loving my Tuesday night TV again. Chicago Fire was starting to get a little dull for me but they have redeemed themselves the past few weeks.

 

5. 2 more days until I see Miranda in concert! SUPER excited!!!

 

What are YOU loving?