Dear January

Hi January, 

You were definitely interesting. We started the year off strong, with high hopes of a year full of abundance and joy and magic. We had SO many different weather patterns this month and I feel that I am settling into my own routine here too. I feel excited and rejuvenated. 

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Some things that stood out for me this month were:

Social Media Declutter//I started this in December. I went through my Facebook, Instagram Accounts, and Tumblr Accounts and unfollowed anyone who was making me feel icky. If I come across some content that used to make me happy but now is not, unfollow. I am not letting anything get in my way of happiness and joy this year. 

SNOW// We had our first real snowstorm of the year. It was really pretty once it fell and all the trees and everything else was covered in white and it was peaceful outside. Not to mention, we got a half snow day from work out of it too! 

36th Birthday// January is my birthday month and I felt the love all month long. I think  know 36 will be a good year for me. I can't wait to see what happens!

Wordle// It has made a come back in my life this month. I have been playing it for almost 3 weeks now and  I love the brain exercise each morning. (I've played 222 games in total since starting Wordle back in 2021?)

Still Sewing// I am going to try to sew one thing each month. This month was a pouch for mom's magnifying glass.  I used some old fabric (20+ years old) that I bought in Philly that probably was WAYYY too much for a beginner sewer but it was SO pretty! Picture: pink, purple, bright blue , and yellowish green brocade. 

Reset // I always think of the new year as a reset. A chance to start new and again. You get to be who ever you want to be and there is beauty in that. I love the new year reset. 

and finally...

Choosing Me// I am the most important person in my life and I need to put myself first and make decisions with myself in mind not others. I am really proud of coming to this conclusion and 

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Emoji of the month:

🥰
To Express feelings of love or a strong liking of someone/something.

I truly felt loved all month and I tried to show love all month, through my actions and words. I used this emoji ALOT this month and it was fitting to start the year off with it. 

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This Time Last Year

In 2023, I was finding myself again after a hard break up. I had no idea where 2023 was going to go and my 2023 Bingo Card did not call for another hard break up. Lots of lessons learned in 2023, but you all know that. 

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Gym Update

I went to Retro Fitness at 4:30 AM 18 times this month.  This, getting up super duper early and going to the gym, has been life changing. I promise I am not being dramatic BUT its amazing. I have an upcoming blog post to talk more about this. BUT seriously, you need to try it. :)

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Looking Forward

Galentine's Dinner | Valentines Day | More early morning gym times | Seeing my Favorite Doctor 

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Posts

Did you miss any of my posts from this month? Find them below:

Happy New Year | Random #24 | 2023 Family Photos | 2023 Book Reviews | Happy Birthday to ME! | A Year of Backgrounds | 2024 Word of the Year | unFOURgettable | 2023 Goal Review | 2024 Goals | What's Up Wednesday | WGJ Vol. 49 | Diary #49

Friday's Joy: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

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[[she just shines]] 

 

Diary #49

HI Friends! Here is what my camera saw this month. 

Starting the year off right with a gym session.

Still buying myself flowers

Found on our walk

Selfie

LOVE winter sunsets

Furry hoods and cold days

My shadow looks like it belongs in Alaska

A Ray of Sunshine

Took a chance; right place, right time.

Nothing to see here...move along

Somebody's watching over me

Saturdays at Starbucks 
Blog Sessions

Goodbye iPad, we had a good run

Dick's you have a great #ootd mirror

4:30 on a Sunday, already in PJS. PEAK adulthood

Birthday Lunch

Chick-fil-A you have my heart

Snowy Magnolia tree by the Courthouse

White and Blue

Blue Bird

Favorite place and favorite pastime

Foggy nights.

Duck, duck.....

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That is a wrap on January. 

[[There is magic in these moments]]

 

Friday's Joy

Hi friends!

I'm linking up with Erica and Andrea this week for Friday Favorites! I can't wait to read your posts:

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Look at that bluebird! 

Week in Review

Can we all agree this was another wacky week?! 

Friday we had a lot of snow (for our area) and we were able to leave work early. I stopped by McDonalds on the way home to pick up my Birthday Fries (!) and I spotted the bluebird in the photo above. I was so mesmerized to see him. He was so beautiful and he stood out against the white snow. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent inside resting, eating and doing the normal weekend things. 

Monday through Thursday were kinda a blur. I kept thinking it was a different wrong day; I felt that the days moved both very fast BUT also very slow. I also felt that I got nothing of real significance accomplished but when I look at my log, I did a lot this week. 

Also this weeks Friday's Favorites are all over the place, which is par for the course this week. 

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This and That 

Overheard:

"Do you want to go back to 2020?" NO very loudly by myself  in the car; then I got angry thinking about 2020. 

"I've been using my Calming tea as a crutch a little too much lately. " Said by Montana

Random Thoughts:

Grunting coffee maker- My little Proctor Silex single cup keurig machine, will grunt as it makes my coffee. Yes, think of how pigs grunt, that is my coffee maker.  I have googled this and tried to reason with it BUT I cannot for the life of me figure out why it grunts. Its kinda comical. and the days it doesn't grunt, I get worried. 

Seat Jam 3D and Find Out- I am not a gamer at all. These two games have been keeping my spare time occupied and I giggle every time I play these games. Seat Jam 3D is a silly logic game and Find Out is the generic Where's Waldo game. I love having these on my phone

and lastly,

THIS is the sweetest thing ever!

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Looking Ahead 

February, is that you?  Its good to see you!

End of month items at work; Planning out Galentine's Day and my next sewing project. 

Also, I am bringing back pink/purple/red outfits for the whole month. ALSO I am in the market for a tripod for my phone to take #ootd photos. Any recommendations?

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Links

16 year olds Stanley Obsession /// I don't this spending $3k on Stanley Cups is the smartest money move you can make as a parent for your kid. Perhaps, investing $3k into the Stanley Brand stock would have been better. 

Well well well// We all knew this when it went into effect. Do you know how many times I forgot a reusable bag and I walked out of the store with an arms full of stuff grumbling to myself thinking, I want the plastic back!?

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Posts 

Did you miss any of my posts from this week?

Find them below:

unFOURgettable | 2023 Goal Review | 2024 Goals | What's Up Wednesday | WGJ vol. 49

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[[Go where you feel most alive]]

 

WGJ vol. 49

You are so pretty even in the snow. 

New year, more new playlists. 

I had so much fun putting together this month's playlist. With the new year, always come new music from my favorite artists and new to me artists.  Enjoy my January playlist:

WGJ vol. 49

Ain't Missing You- Dylan Schneider

Word Around Town- Colt Graves

High Heels- Flo Ride, Walker Hayes

It's Only Midnight- LOCASH

Summer Never Ended- Dustin Lynch

Pretty Hungover- Trey Lewis

I Don't Wanna Worry- NEEDTOBREATHE

Ain't She- Adam Doleac

You're My Texas- Gabby Barrett

Everleave- Alexandra Kay

You're Still The One- Clayton Johnson

I'm Not Pretty- Megan Moroney

Winning- Kyle Clark

Before I Loved You- Josh Ross

FM Waves- Nick Smith

Tennessee Love Song- Anella Herim, Chase Matthew

QUIT!!- Hardy

I Remember Everything- Zach Bryan, Kacey Musgraves

Wild Ones- Jessic Murph, Jelly Roll

Right Now- Chris Young

George Strait, Jr.- Dustin Lynch

Listen Here.

[[ You shined brighter than them stadium lights- Winning- Kyle Clark]]

What's Up Wednesday

Hi friends! I'm linking up with Shay and Schaeffer today for What's Up Wednesday! I can't wait to read your posts! 

What I'm Eating// 

Everything as usual! Haha

Mama made her chicken soup last week and it has been delicious for lunch since we have been stuck in a literal freeze.

What I'm Reminiscing About//

After looking at some photos from New York City in 2007/2009/2010, I'm reminiscing about how life was so carefree back then, 15ish years ago. It seems like it's only been a few years BUT it also seems like it was forever ago all at the same time.

NYC 2007

What I'm Loving//

Girl dinners, mama's chicken soup, the prettiness and stillness after a snowfall, going home early (from work)

What I've Been Up To//

Working, planning my next sewing project and working lots!

What's My Workout Plan//

I want to get back to my  early mornings at the gym; they make me more focused and more alert during the day

What I'm Excited About//

Life and the future. 

What I'm Watching/Reading//

Watching: Reruns of The Hills & new episodes of Chicago Fire

Reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures By Shelby Van Pelt 

(I highly recommend listening to this audiobook. I am not sure I would have loved it as much as I have just reading it.) (Its also available on Spotify for free with a premium membership!)

What I'm Listening To//

At Work: Lo Fi Beats. It keeps noise on in the background and I am not distracted by knowing every song and singing along.  (anyone else have the distraction problem with music?)

What I'm Wearing//

ALL the sweaters and layers. New Jersey has been cold! This week, we should be in the upper 40s! WAHOO!

What I'm Doing This Weekend//

Girls Dinner Friday Night! I am so happy we started doing girls dinner in September. It has been a game changer for all of us and we really do look forward to it. 

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month//

Galentines Dinner | Seeing my favorite doctor | Accountant appointment

Favorite Screenshot Of The Month//

I don't know why this popped up as a targeted ad BUT it made me laugh so hard!

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[[We have to choose joy and keep choosing joy every day-Henri Nouwen]]

2024 Goals

New Year. New Set of Goals

I wrote these 4 goals down on New Years Eve. I started thinking about what I wanted my year to look like and those 4 goals came very organically. Last year, I set SO many goals that I was overwhelmed by them and judging from my goal review from yesterday, I accomplished only 30% of my goals and making attempts with 42% of them. I wanted to get back to basics and simplify things this year and I've learned that keeping things simple, makes everything easier. 

This year my goals are:

1. Focus on YOU

2. Save, Save, Save

3. Focus on friendships and connections

4. Workout to feel good

5. Romanticize your life

I have been working on these little by little since the Fall of last year. I really want to focus my energy on these and see what the outcomes are by the end of the year.  I think the best way to accomplish any goals is to make tiny, actionable changes allow you to keep moving forward without going into a mindset of "all or nothing". 

As you can see these goals don't have numbers attached to them (ie. save $1,000 or Workout to lose 10 lbs.), I think that puts a lot of pressure on me and I believe it can de-motivate me from trying to accomplish these goals. I want to do my best, whatever that shall be. 

I am really excited about these goals this year. 

Look back on previous years goals:

2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2016

[[Set goals that make you want to jump out of bed]]

2023 Goal Review

We can all agree that 2023 was a weird year, right?

The thinking that went into my goals for 2023 was weird. I think I over stretched myself in so many areas, you can read that post to see how cryptic and delulu I was. I tried to follow Dave Ramsey's idea of the seven areas of life to set goals in. I set two goals in each category. (What was I thinking?!) In 2021, I followed this same principle BUT I quote " I am not going to put pressure on myself et al" HAHAHA 2021 Gabrielle seemed to be thinking more clearer than 2023 Gabrielle. I honestly don't know why I was so cryptic either. Was I embarrassed I was setting so many goals OR was I worried that if I shared my goals then I wouldn't accomplish them? I would love to have a conversation with 2023 Gabrielle when she wrote out her goals. 

SEVEN areas is a lot of different areas to focus on in one year. I took it even a crazier step forward by setting TWO goals in each of the seven categories. I was truly delulu with a lot of things last year.

My 2023 goals are as follows:

I will mark each of the 14 goals with a 

➰if I attempted them

✔ accomplished them

❌ didn't even try

2023 Goals:

Career

Start my own business ❌

Continue to work hard at job ✔

Spiritual 

Use Prayer Journal Weekly➰
Small Moments of Prayer➰

Financial

$5 Bill Challenge✔

100 Envelope Challenge✔

Social

Try something new each month➰

Library/ Gravity Vault Events ❌

Physical
12 in 12 5K's✔

Gym/Yoga/Climbing Weekly➰

Intellectual

Read 1 Book A Month➰

Learn Six New Skills❌

Family

Family/Home Binder➰

Dinner out 1x on me ➰

Out of the 14 total goals, I accomplished,4 goals; I attempted 7 goals; and I didn't even try 3 goals. 

I am pretty pleased about my accomplishments and attempts. The 3 goals I didn't even try, I can honestly say, I was very gung-ho about starting a business BUT it didn't get past that stage.  With the other two goals- Library/Gravity Vault Events and Learning Six new skills, those are definitely up in the air. Thinking about it now, I don't think I attended ANY events at the library and I stopped going to Gravity Vault in March so it was just both matters of circumstances. Learning Six new Skills..... I learned ALOT last year but skills I am not so sure about. 

I was REALLY proud of the two financial goals I completed: $5 Bill Challenge and the 100 Envelope Challenge. I was continually getting excited every time I was able to save a $5 Bill or stuff one of the envelopes. If you want to read more about those check out $5 Bill Challenge and 100 Envelope Challenge . FYI, For the Envelope challenge, all you need is envelopes you can get from Dollar Tree, you don't need to buy a binder or special envelopes for that challenge. 

You can read all about the 12 5K's I ran this year, under the label 12 in 12. It was a fun experience and I am pretty proud that I accomplished 10 out of the 12 5K's. One of the 5K's I was sick and the other one it was rainy and cold. I learned that I love a race with a great theme and if I can dress up, its even better. 

Check back tomorrow to see what non-delulu goals I am setting for myself this year. 

Did you set your year goals yet?

[[Grace not perfection]]

unFOURgettable

wonder grace joy is FOUR today!

It has been a fun four years blogging under wonder grace joy with 625 posts written, probably dozens of post ideas that never came to publication and countless hours spent writing, editing, and thinking of ideas BUT I wouldn't trade any of that time because this (WGJ) is so much fun and so rewarding for me. 

I appreciate all of you who take time to stop by my corner of the internet. Thanks for making this adventure so much fun. THANK YOU!

Check out below wonder grace joy's other birthday posts:

Three | Two | One | The Beginning

I cannot wait to see where blogging with wonder grace joy takes me this year. 

[[This is where the fun stuff happens]]

Friday's Joy

Hi friends!

I'm linking up with Erica and Andrea this week for Friday Favorites! I can't wait to read your posts:

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Favorites at Lunch
Birthday edition

Week in Review

This was a funny week.

The weekend was great. Saturday morning I spent a few hours at Starbucks working on WGJ and people watching. Sunday we went to an early dinner at Hanger 21 to celebrate my birthday! The food and service were SO good as usual! Monday was my birthday and I went  to the Chiropractor and then the gym (which I quickly realized why I like going at 4:30 AM- there is significantly less people there.) I got a sweet suprise when I scanned my key card at the front desk, instead of the computer saying "welcome!" it said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" It truly stopped me in my tracks and made me smile. The attendants behind the desk heard that and all wished me a happy birthday.  Then in the afternoon, we went to Chick Fil A for lunch, the dollar tree to look around then Starbucks to pick up my free coffee. All in all it was a great long weekend. OH! It also snowed Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning. I love when the snow is freshly fallen and everything looks perfectly covered. Then after that, I think to myself, okay, it snowed, we can proceed to spring.  LOL

Tuesday I ended up taking a sick day due to a migraine and not sleeping the night before. I was proud that I didn't feel bad taking a sick day. (do you ever feel bad taking a sick day even though you are given specific days off, to use for said sick day?) By Tuesday night, I was feeling much better. 

I was happy to go back to work after an extended long weekend, even though the temperature on my car said some obscene number (16 degrees!) I was ready for the cold. I got the sweetest surprise when I saw the officer at the metal detector, he said 'good morning' then ' how was your birthday?!' Again, I was completely surprised he remembered. I love when people do that!

We're supposed to get snow...again today. I would like to opt out of the snow package this year. Please and Thank You!

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This and That 

Red nails// 5 weeks strong. Usually Friday nights I take the polish off to give my nails a break for the weekend and then Sunday night I repaint them. I love having my nails done each week. It sure does always give me a boost of confidence AND I look slightly more put together. 

No sugar/caffeine after 5 pm.// I learned this the hard way on my birthday. Two birthday cupcakes and a large Americano after 5pm does not bode well for a night full of sleep. I couldn't fall asleep until 2 AM and I awoke with a terrible headache. 

Modifying my gym schedule//I've been going to the gym for 430 AM since November between 3-5 times a week. This week I decided to give myself a break not to only sleep in BUT also to re-evaluate my gym schedule. I need something more sustainable; while I love my daily workouts, I need to change it up. I will ponder on this, this weekend. 

and lastly, isn't this neat?! 

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Looking Ahead 

The last full week in January? How did that happen? 

Girl Dinner monthly dinner continue this week as well!

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Links

NJ National Guard deploys// A family friend is deploying with the NJ National Guard and we are praying for both his safety and all the other soldiers being deployed overseas. 

Stanley Cup Craze// This makes me laugh. I held off buying a Stanley Cup for SO long and when I finally did buy one, I didn't buy the 40 oz one because it looks comically large. I wonder why sometimes why people buy multiple ones- you can only use one cup at a time AND furthermore where are you storing all of these cups?!

Menders at Broad Street Ministry // This story came out in December last year but it has popped up on my feed multiple times this week. I LOVE this idea of the "menders" fixing things while the customer gets out of the cold, eats a warm meal, finds some resources and then leaves with their clothing all fixed with love. 

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Posts 

Did you miss any of my posts from this week?

Find them below:

Happy Birthday to ME | A Year of Backgrounds | 2024 Word of the Year

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[[Grace upon Grace]]

 

2024 Word of the Year

 Word of the Year.....

You pick a word that is supposed to signify how your year is going to go; what's going to be important to you in the upcoming year. I like this year but I also think that it should come to you organically. You can't force your word of the year. 

For example, I didn't pick a Word of the Year last year- 2023. I wasn't feeling it and I didn't want to force it. The previous years, I chose Bloom in 2020; Focus in 2021; Power, Glow & Purpose in 2022. While Bloom was really transformative, Focus was hard for me and I think it taught me a great lesson; some times not being able to focus on a particular thing you are really focusing on what's important to you.  Power, Glow & Purpose were interesting. They ended up being really prominent in 2022 for me and they all felt right. 

I started thinking about my Word of the Year at the end of December. I honestly wasn't sure what it was going to be; then those silly word searches kept popping up on my Instagram feed, with the caption "The first three words are going to be prominent in 2023 for you." So I decided to do them, well 9 of them and then 3 of those "screenshot thing for your Word of the Year" reels.  I wanted options and I wanted to see what would mgically show up. 

Well between all of those 26 words that popped up, one stood out for me. You know when you get a feeling about something, that you cannot shake? Yup, that is how I felt about this word. If I am being honest, I didn't know the true definition of this word BUT I had a feeling this was going to be important for me in 2024. 

My Word of the Year for 2024 is:

Abundance (noun): 

• A very large quantity of something
• The state or condition of having a copious quantity of something; plentifulness
• Plentifulness of the good things in life; prosperity
• The quantity or amount of something eg. a chemical element or an animal or plant species present in a particular area, volume, sample, etc.

For my use this year, I am going to go with the definition that says " Plentifulness of the good things in life; prosperity" I like how this definition is vague; good things in life can have different meanings for different people. 

For me, The good things in life are good health, happiness, friendships/connections, family and moments. I want prosperity in life, as do everyone else BUT I have learned first hand that if your health is not in good, nothing else matters. I want this year to be a year of living life to my fullest and enjoying what I do and who I spend my time with. 

Here's to an ABUNDANT year full of good health, happiness, friendships/connections, family and moments ; okay, prosperity too!

What's your word of the year?

[[Abundance isn't something we acquire. It is something we tune into. -Wayne Dyer]]