WGJ # 35

Another month, another playlist full of all the songs that I fell in love with.  

WGJ vol. 35
I Like You (A Happier Song)- Post Malone, Doja Cat
Before You Ask Her- Matthew West
Have a Little Faith in Me- Olivia Penalva
getting into- Ashley Cooke
This I Gotta See- Jason Aldean
Sunshine-Goalkeeper
Act Like That- State Champs, Mitchell Tenpenny
Old Church Choir- Zach Williams
I'm So Blessed- CAIN
I'm a Mess- Avril Lavigne, YUNGBLUD
Face In The Crowd- Walker Hayes
Good In  Me- Andy Grammer
Part of It- Jordan Davis
Try Jesus- Elle King
Go Flex- Post Malone
End of Time- Beyonce
In This House- Granger Smith
She's Somebody's Daughter (Remix)- Drew Baldridge, Lathan Warlik
The Good Parts- JP Saxe
Tell Somebody 'Bout You- Adam Sanders
Keeping Your Head Up- Birdy, Jonas Blue

Listen Here.

You can find all the other playlists at the top of the screen under WGJ Playlists. 

[[Memorize you in my arms, Tryin' to hold on to the good parts- JP Saxe]]

friYAY Favorites

 

Hi Friends! I am linking up with Erica & Andrea for Friday Favorites this week. 

Hello vacation hangover! 

 

Kyle and I got back from Panama City Beach last night. 

This vacation was definitely different than the other vacation we took together in the best way. We had no real agenda and we spent a lot of time relaxing and watching the sunsets. It was something we both definitely needed. 

I am in the process of writing a full recap of the vacation that will be published next week. 

I am truly grateful for being able to go on vacations and take time off of work. This is one of the things I used to dream of when I was very sick. It's nice to see how things have changed. 

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I was able to find this pretty heartwarming article this past week.

Teen climbs with Alex Honnold /// sweet sweet story. Be sure to have some tissues around. 

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This weekend will be laundry and relaxing.  I found a new cookie recipe that I would like to try, maybe this will be the weekend to do it. 

I will also put the finishing touches on the Kyle's Christmas Tree. Speaking of Christmas, I need to start to get my butt in gear with gifts! Christmas is less than a month away! 

Did you miss any of my posts from this past week: 

Adoption Day | WGJ Travels: Adventure Awaits | What I'm Looking Forward To This Holiday Season | What's Up Wednesday | Thankful and Grateful

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What are you up to this weekend?

[[Stay patient and trust your journey]]

Thankful and Grateful

 Happy Thanksgiving. 

I hope today inspires you to live a life full of gratitude and thanksgiving. 

I am so very thankful for my family, my health, my life and what I have become. I am also very thankful for all the people who read this blog, you guys are all awesome. I look forward to the upcoming holiday season with a heart full of gratitude and joy. 

I pass on to you my sense of thankfulness and hoping you can continue to see the good in each day. 

[[What if, today, we were grateful for everything- Charlie Brown]]

What's Up Wednesday

 

Greetings from Florida! 

Since starting to do these What's Up Wednesday posts, I have truly been loving them.

As always, I am linking up with Sheaffer & Shay ....Let's jump in shall we?

What I'm Eating// 
Everything! HA! My appetite has been really great lately and I have been loving everything. 

What I'm reminiscing about//
Past Adoption Days, past holidays and all the Christmas fun I had as a kid

What I'm Loving//
Decorating for Christmas and getting into the Christmas Spirit early this year.

What I've been up to//
Working, running, blogging, planning and adventuring.
I'm currently in Panama City Beach, Florida for a short gateway before the holidays. Take a sneak peak of how pretty PCB is... the balcony view of the beach. 

What I'm dreading//
Nothing, I am pretty happy to be in the here and now.

What I'm Working on//
 Posts for the upcoming month; my next podcast and what I am going to eat for a snack.

What I'm Excited About//
Life!

What I'm Watching/Reading//
I think I've completely fallen off the reading train. Nothing has been interesting to me. I have been trying to watch Abbott Elementary and Chicago Fire but I have fallen behind on those. I have been watching Greek on hulu; its like the office, its comforting. I did watch the new Netflix Christmas movie "Falling for You" with Lindsey Lohan.

What I'm Listening to//
ALL the Christmas Music I can find

What I'm Wearing//
Sweaters and my blanket scarf

What I'm Doing this Weekend//
Resting and getting back to real life. 

What I'm looking forward to next month//
all holiday fun!

Favorite Amazon find of the month//
HKCLUF Crossbody Bag- This is the perfect size and it looks a lot more expensive than it actually is. WIN WIN!

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Thanks for joining me this week for What's Up Wednesday! 

[[Sun, Sand, Sea- those three can make almost anything better]]

What I'm Looking Forward to This Holiday Season

Christmas is here! Well, I think it's here because I've been playing Christmas music since the end of October. Retail store stores have had Christmas stuff out since the end of August. So its technically Christmas. 

I do feel bad for our turkey friends but that is just one day, Christmas is a whole season! 

I am here for all the Christmas fun I can pack into this season! 

Some of the highlights I am looking forward to are: 

ALL the Christmas movies/// Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+. I love the Christmas movies  all equally and the cheesier and more Christmassy the better! I have my favorites and I am so excited to see what new ones have come out this year. 

Christmas markets/// I love all the little knick knacks you can find and all the personalized ornaments. I especially love the ones where the gifts are home made- you can totally feel the love in each of those items. 

Christmas Theme 5K's- ever since running the 5K in August. I set my sights on both the Asbury Santa Run and the Jingle Bell Run in Downtown Toms River. This year, they happen to fall on the same weekend. Ha! This will definitely be an adventure. I am going into these 5K's with the thought of "this is something fun. I am dressing up and enjoying the moment"

Longwood Gardens/// It's a tradition now right? 2 years in a row now. I am forever looking forward to Longwood Gardens and I truly wish I lived closer because I really enjoy this place and what they have to offer. 

Spreading Christmas Cheer//  I always like to give back in some way during the holiday season. At Starbucks by Kyle, they had a Christmas Tree set up with a sign that said this store adopted a family from the Big Brothers & Big Sister  of Monmouth County; the sign told the names and ages of the children and what kind of gift cards they would like. I snapped a photo of the sign and grabbed one of the tags. 

Christmas lights/// I love driving around and look at all the houses decorated with lights and decorations AND then judging them harshly when the house mixes bright white and cool white lights. If that is my downfall, I am okay with it! 

Christmas cookies/// I made the first of many (i hope!) Christmas cookies last weekend. This year I feel like I am being pulled to bake a lot and thanks to Instagram and Pinterest, I have an unlimited amount of recipes that I want to try. Friends and family, cookies are coming to you HA!

and lastly, 

Christmas parties/// For some reason, parties are even more special and festive during the holidays. I have my office Christmas luncheon; Kyle has his Christmas Party; I have a Christmas Lunner (late lunch, early dinner) and I am hoping to get some friends together for an happy hour before the Christmas Craziness starts. So much Christmas Cheer!

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Whew, I think that is all that that I am looking forward to outside of spending time with friends and family. 

What are you looking forward to this Holiday season? Let me know in the comments below. 

[[The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear.- Elf]]

WGJ Travels: Adventure Awaits

.....and we are off! Today starts Kyle and I's Florida adventure. I cannot wait to share all the goodness that is to come. 

Wishing you a lovely Sunday full of self-care and all the things you love. 

[[Wherever you go, bring your own sunshine]]

 

Adoption Day

It is my favorite day this month! ADOPTION DAY!!! 

This is my 9th year working on Adoption Day.

Ocean County is participating in its 16th Adoption Day and four families are being forever families today. 

Being able to facilitate adoptions as a part of my job has been so rewarding and its an absolute pleasure doing it. I love the stories behind the adoptions that families choose to share with me. Making forever families over the past 9 years has been fulfilling in more ways than I can express.  Over the summer, I counted how many adoptions I have processed and in eight years, it's a little over 1,000 adoptions! How incredibly cool is that? 1,000 forever families passed through my office. 

The adoption symbol featured in the image above depicts a triangle with a heart through it. The triangle represents the child at the top point and the two bottom points represent both the birth family and the adoptive family. The heart joins them all together. I love this image and it wasn't until an attorney told me about it, I even knew about it. This is a perfect representation of adoption, the birth family, will always be apart of the child life. 

To read my other Adoption Day posts, find them here 2020 | 2015

Do you have a connection to Adoption? 

[[Adoption: Building a family through the process of concentrated, dedicated enduring love, rather than biology. ]]

friYAY Favorites

 

Happy friYAY Friends!

Whew! This was an interesting week. A week after a short week and the week before vacation always spells chaos. Between getting things ready for Adoption Day and my other daily items on my to do it was a busy but also weirdly productive week. WHICH makes me feel better leaving for a week; even though I know not much would get done anyway because of the holiday. 

I shared on Wednesday that I have a podcast-Happy To Be Here and it feels SO good to actually tell people now. I thought I was terrible at keeping secrets but keeping this secret was kinda easy.  I am still learning and tweaking how I want the podcast to be- format wise and it really has been a fun adventure. You can listen on Spotify and Anchor FM. 

This is probably something that is very niche but I like to organize the apps on my phone so there are only the messaging, phone and camera app on my front page then I swipe up and they are all organized in little groups so its nice and clean looking. Well the other day, within the groups, I decided to do a little cleaning and organizing within the groups and the order I was used to is not there anymore and its taken some time to get used to. HA! As I am typing this out, it sounds ridiculous but its real life and I love sharing those silly things.

I found this image on Instagram from Tiny Buddha Official and I am an early-Christmas-decorator and this is perfect because if I can spread joy even more during this season, WHY NOT?! I will still have turkey's out but they also might be wearing  Santa hats or holding some Christmas item HAHA :

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In between all the craziness, I found some really fun articles:

Disneyland's It's A Small World more inclusive/// I love this ride and  and I love this!

Taylor Swift's Karma Fan Theory /// THIS.IS.WILD. I can't even image how this even got started or how long it took to figure out. I can just image the meme of of the guy standing in front of a wall covered in black and white news clippings with strings connecting things, is how this was figured out. 

Foster Care Christmas Ad ///Its National Adoption Month and this is such a sweet advert! Be sure to have tissues, it's going to make you cry. 

Life Hacks /// These are some great life hacks. I love the one about having two alarms- I am all for a slow morning.

 

A Simple Favor Sequel ///Loved the book, loved the movie. Can't wait to see what the sequel is about.

NJ World Cup Connection ///YAY! I love seeing New Jersey in a positive light! Go Matt Turner!

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Today is Adoption Day and 5 families are becoming forever families today! I love this part of my job and I still get teary eyed with every adoption, even after 8 years! 

This weekend will consist of last minute checking and packing then vacation starts early Sunday Morning! I have some fun posts planned for next week!

What are you up to this weekend?

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Did you miss any of my posts from this week?

Find them below:

Veterans Day | Organizing Photos: Digital | Happy To Be Here: The Podcast | WGJ Travels: Airbnb Essentials

[[I found that growing up means being honest- about what I want, what I need, what I  feel, who I am]]

WGJ Travels: Airbnb Essentials

Hi friends! This week on WGJ Travels, I am talking about Airbnb Essentials. 

Kyle and I will be staying in an Airbnb next week. This is my very first time ever staying in one and I am beyond excited. When we started look at different Airbnb's in the area we wanted to stay in, I realized each one had different amenities. I had no idea about that. There were a few things that I definitely wanted:

A kitchen

View of the ocean

Ability to walk to places

There were a bunch of places where were wanted to be that matched those three things. It was hard choosing a place because they all looked great. We decided on the one we choose because of the amenities that they provided and it looked like a pretty place to stay. Not saying the 1950's diner decor in the one Airbnb we found wasn't charming but I felt like it would get old real quick; also it didn't have a kitchen, just a hotplate. After the trip, I will share the listing of the Airbnb we stayed at. 

Now there are a few things we definitely are bringing  in to make it more cozy:

Hair dryer- the rental does not come with one

Food- we are planning to use the kitchen; lets be real, I don't go anywhere without snacks and I am not loosing precious luggage space to food. #priorities

streaming service passwords- catching up on bingable TV while eating all the food

Easy peasy. This vacation is going to be full of relaxation and not much planned. I cannot wait for this and  I am so excited to stay in an Airbnb. I cannot wait to tell you how it went. 

Click on the WGJ Travels link on the top of the page to find all my other WGJ Travel posts. 

[[You're magic. Don't ever apologize for the fire in you.]]

Happy To Be Here: The Podcast

 

Surprise! 

I have a podcast! 

I kept this secret for over a month and I am so glad I am telling the world. Whew! That was hard to keep!

Happy To Be Here is a weekly podcast where I talk about my week, what I am posting on Wonder, Grace & Joy and anything else that pops up. Its a sister to Wonder, Grace, & Joy; a complimentary bonus to go more in-depth with things I write about.  Since I am named GABrielle, I do have the gift of gab in me and clearly, talking for 40 minutes, is not a problem. 

I have been truly enjoying recording these and I can't wait to see where this goes. 

Why did I name it Happy To Be Here? Great question, thanks for asking, let me explain. I started to notice when I was in certain places waiting, others would start to complain  and say ugh, this wait is so long! This minute is dragging by!  I would listen to what they say and I wouldn't say a thing because it didn't bother me enough to complain about it. A few times the person I was with would say something to me and my response was always I am happy to be here. Why? There were years when I was sick and all I wanted to do was normal things and be out and about. I doesn't bother me enough to complain about waiting because there were days I dreamt of being able to wait to catch a cab or get out of work. 

I have an attitude of Happy To Be Here because of the circumstances I've been through. I am beyond grateful that I can do all the things I have dreamed of.  I hope I can inspire you to be Happy To Be Here  too!

Thank you to my readers for you continued support with my blog. It truly has been a passion project over the years and I can't wait to see what's in store for me next. 

Thank you to Kyle and Krys for being my first listeners and giving me feedback each week. I really appreciate it more than you know. 

You can listen to Happy To Be Here on Spotify and Anchor FM. 

If you would like to join me one week, let me know by sending me an email at wondergracejoy@gmail.com. I would love to have some guests! 

Let me know if you have listened to Happy To Be in the comments below.

[[The art of happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.]]