Blogging Block~ Around the Little Brick Street

 Hello friends. I am here! I made it to Friday! Blogged every single day!! But to be honest, the more I am reading other blogs, the more I blog daily, the more.... I just feel blocked. As in why in the world am I blogging!! I have so intensely (yes, that is the word) have enjoyed blogging this week. Honestly, it kept me accountable every single day to get up and move, to putter around the home, to find things to capture to share and I needed (need) that this time of year. 

BUT......

    Our city is actually a good size (population 30,000 plus) but we still have a small part that is dedicated to the beginnings and the founding buildings. It is known as Olde Towne Brick Streets. They decorate for Holidays and I love the cozy of it. Lots of Hallmark and Lifetime movies are filmed here. 

BACK TO THE BUT....

I began to feel outdated. I have been on and off the blog scene since 2004 and whenever I do come back, I always blog like the "old days" but to be honest.... I liked it better. I treasure those days and wish a lot of the times it was still like that. I enjoy visiting blogs that represent that. I tend to stick with those because they feed my soul, bring a smile, and make me enjoy this hobby of blogging. 

We have all sorts of old murals that I always love seeing when I come down to this area. I decided to take a 20 minute walk yesterday in this area as I was in between task. I had errands and a mentor lunch date with another young girl. It was so refreshing!!!

As much as I have tried to be more modern, updated, and in with the times..... I just always go back to this style. For some reason it has gnawed at me the last week that maybe my blog isn't interesting. Why would anyone care what I am sharing about my little ole life in the deep south. 

I was thinking maybe it is just time to hang it up for good. Just let it go and shut the door. But then I evaluated what my heart felt. How I felt this week. How it brought me joy to record my days. I love looking back my days. It helps me when I have the lows and highs. It is like a fun personal diary! 

This tree was on my walk, and it was fantastical!!! I loved all its gnarly branches and I wish I could really show you the massive nature of this beast of a tree. It is so random in the middle of our little Olde Town area. It has moss spreading all over it. It looks as if it is something out of a majestic forest. 

Today, I had a little block. I almost didn't post. I had a lot of negative self-talk. But as I got to thinking..... who am I doing this for. If it makes me smile and makes me feel motivated and I have a core few of likeminded souls that pop by then to me, it is worth it. I am going to just keep on keeping on for now...

P.S. ~ This is not meant to be a negative post. Just a real one. I believe in transparency. I believe in authentically sharing the highs and lows of life and blogging. I am not looking for comments or anything I just simply wanted to document how I am feeling currently! Because I know I will look back and smile and be thankful I keep sticking with this place of memory keeping. :) 

With Love, 

Chrissy T

Enjoying the Flow of My Week

Hello! I have had a good week this week. It has been long time needed. I have tackled some projects that were overdue. I have enjoyed reading. I have soaked up some sun, connected with others outside the home, caught up with a longtime friend by phone (it has been a long time) and enjoyed cooking some soups. I have been enjoying some blog reading. It has been a nice balance of productivity and slow enjoying moments too. Enjoying the flow this week. 

I ventured outside today to feed the birds! I love birds. They bring me so much joy! I have this app that is free that I enjoy. I use it all the time to identify bird sounds. 

 

I tackled the "office cabinet" which I really call the "bill cabinet" Haha! I do not have an office in our home. Well, I was going to, but our young adults keep coming back home. :) 

I am a Pastor's wife and also the church secretary. So, I do all the bookkeeping and paperwork. So, I have this little cabinet that looks pretty and fits perfect in my dining room to hide it acts as an office cabinet. 

This little basked I have had for 20 years!!!!!! I love having an organized spot to store current mail and paperwork. Keeps me organized and from piles!

After working on the cabinet and going through supplies, 2025 papers, cleaning out last year information and working on bills and church records; I took a nice refreshing walk. It was actually a lot colder than I anticipated due to the wind. BUT it was refreshing!!

LOOK AT THIS LEAF??? Isn't it just fantastic???? It was HUGE!

I came back home and set a timer and enjoyed reading two of my books for a little bit and resting. It has been a nice week, but I needed a tad bit of rest. I try hard to listen to my body!!! 

Today, is busy. I have church to do's, a lunch with a girl I am mentoring, then a meeting this evening. So, I am glad I had a little slower paced yesterday!

I have enjoyed recapping my days here on my blog. I don't know if it is even of interest to anyone. :) But I am just going to keep blogging! :) 

With Love,

Chrissy T

SUNSHINE~ SOUPS~ SMILES~PANTRY CLEAN OUT!!!

Hello Beautiful Friends! I hope you all are hanging in there!! I am so excited to say WE HAD SOME SUN!!!!!  I fully took advantage of that MONDAY and took a wonderful walk after I did some chores. One of my goals I shared Monday was that I wanted to tackle cleaning my pantry in the month of February! Posting that gave me just the boost I needed and I accomplished that the same day I posted!

Yes, this sun brought a MUCH NEEDED SMILE to my face. It did however RAIN all day yesterday (Tuesday) BUT the sun blessing on Monday kept me smiling during the rain. I raised some of my windows and listened to it as I did some chores.

It is sunny today but cold! BUT your GIRL WILL BUNDLE UP AND HIT THE WOODS at some point hopefully today! I even stepped outside this morning with my warm drink in hand in the cold and let the sun hit my face for a long bit. It felt so nice. 

I have been making a lot of soups this week. Normally, I never make a soup back-to-back. Monday is always soup night in the fall/winter season BUT my soul has been craving nourishing soups sooooo that is what we have been enjoying. Luckily, my family likes soups. :)  After I cleaned my pantry, I tackled my refrigerator and I made some potato soup on Monday with ingredients needing to be used up. I had mashed potatoes and I turned it into potato soup and it was probably one of the best ones I have made. I also used up some ham from Christmas I had frozen to use later.

I came across this recipe on Pinterest. It was just this image with no directions, but I feel it is self-explanatory. I loved finding the little star pasta to use in it as suggested. Thank you, Amazon. :) 

It was good. It was a brothy nourishing soup. Perfect soup for if you are unwell too!!!! It was basically chicken noodle soup with small star noodles and sprinkle of parmesan. 

Here is the pantry before...no judgement. Lots of things leftover from the holidays and it was just time to clean it out. Plus, our young adult sons have their own things they like. 

All nice and orderly! I have spaces for the guy's stuff. Our oldest is eating healthy and drinks protein shakes so he has his own little section. He has lost almost 90 pounds this past year. I am so proud of him. 

After I did this, it inspired me to clean our refrigerator and freezer. I will show that tomorrow to spare this post being so lengthy. :)

After I did these chores I went to treat myself to a cup of soup and drink and then went walking as I showed above. Monday night I had a devotional book club coffee meeting with ladies in my church that I lead at Starbucks. It was so enriching and a perfect ending to my day. 

How has your week been so far?? Let's do a midweek check in!!

With Love, 

Chrissy T

Tuesday's Tea at The Martha Vick House

Hello Friends!! It is Tuesday Tea! I am posting a Tea I went to the past December (2025). It was hosted at The Martha Vick House in Vicksburg, MS. This house was built for the founder of Vicksburg's daughter. It is considered a Greek revival style mini mansion for the time it was built. Martha's parents died and left her to raise 8 of her siblings. The home is a quaint and lovely place. This is my second time attending the Tea here. My friend Jen and I have been here twice for the Holiday season.

 I just loved these heads on the mantle. (weird, I know)

This was a new addition to the decor this year. They had very similar decor and set up in the past. I just thought these were so neat!

This is my TEA FRIEND (Jen) and her daughter, Hannah joined us this time. 

This was a table set up in the porch area. We sat here last year and it was nice looking out to the gardens in the back. This year we were seated in a different room. It was nice but I really like this area more. 

Our menu! I will be honest and say the food was not the best. The sandwiches were very and I mean very stale and dry. Last year was the same way and we discovered they premade things days in advance. You can taste that. They also didn't give us an option for different teas so that was a little disappointing. 

My teacup that was at my place. It was very pretty. I always love when I go to these Teas and see what cup I will have. 

Here is another area that was set up. Once, again this wasn't our area though. But I absolutely love the window covering!!!

This was one of the highlights I did like. This year they had Pear Rosemary Spritzers before the Tea started and a get to know you. This was actually very good! I loved the experience. 

This was our table. My favorite thing about Teas that we go to is getting to know other ladies. Normally, when we go, we are seated with random people and I love it. There were ladies we met last year and we just so happened to sit by them this year too. They remembered us! We had a nice time. 

Little more closer pictures. I am allergic to nuts and they were super accommodating and gave me extra of the nut free things. So, I review our food when I share these posts. As I mentoined earlier, it was definitely not the freshest and while could have had great potential the lack of freshness and too many unique flavors really brought this food review down. 

Savories section I didn't care for much other than the Cucumber Canape. 

Scones- the gingerbread scones saved the day with the clotted cream

Sweets- cream cheese cranberry tea cake was good

To wrap this post up.... it isn't always about the food. Although, your lady loves some food. BUT it is about the fellowship, the connection, the experience, and I wouldn't trade that. I enjoy the tradition of doing this with my friend. We may or may not stopped by Chick Fil A and ate on the way home after the event. HAHA!!!

Lastly, here we are....

Thanks for tagging along on my Tea Adventures. Oh, and the tea they served was a Rooibos Tea. It was pretty good. :) 

With Love, 

Chrissy T

One Simple Thing at a Time.......

Hello all my beautiful friends.

FEBRUARY!!! Insane! Time just ticks and ticks and goes and goes. 

I can honestly say it feels I celebrated December 31st blinked and February 2nd is here but AT THE SAME TIME...it has felt this month has painfully been drawn out. 

 Isn't that strange how that can happen?!

Really, all the things I had good "intentions" to do did not get done. Life is funny like that. I did accomplish my reading goal, a month long break from YouTube that I am continuing (except worship music) and I read my devotional and kept up with my Bible time. But really nothing else that I had planned was accomplished. :) 

I am dealing with TERRIBLE winter blues. As I have entered into perimenopause and closer to menopause, I can say it seems winter seems harder from me every year. But enough of that....

I can either be discouraged I didn't even get an inch of what I wanted in our home done, or eat the best I had intended, walked as much I had planned, I  didn't hike as much I needed, didn't do this or that....I am going to start fresh and look at it that my body and soul needed a BREAK. I needed to just rest. I think I can often forget that January is a harder month for me mentally and emotionally which reflects physically. 

I made TOO many goals for a month that I know deep down is hard for me. It has been that way for 20 plus years. All but one or two Januarys I have really had such a difficult time in those 20 plus years. With that being said, I want to set small goals or intentions to try to work towards in February. There is only 28 days and this encourages me that I can simply simplify my month to accomplish things that help me move forward after January's stillness. While I enjoy that stillness and I needed it I also know that if I don't push myself a tad I will get in a very dark place. So, with that in mind here we go....

I am breaking this up in a few different categories....

I will choose ONE THING for each category I want to do. I will do a tag in Mid-Month and if I accomplished the goal I will add a new thing. If I haven't, I will make sure to work towards it before Feb. 28th.

Spiritual- schedule my SOLO Prayer & Quiet Time Overnighter (I have done this for years and it does a world of good for me)

Physical- One Winter Hike 

Emotional- Journal emotions and moods or use a prompt to journal daily at night

Creative Outlet- Finish my miniature Book Nook Craft

Brain Boosting- Finish the three books I am currently reading

Homefront- Make a daily and weekly routine and put into practice this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Organization- Clean Pantry

Nutrition- Eat more vegetables

Ministry- create a binder and organize all ladies' ministry info

**I am a pastor's wife. A huge part of my life is serving in ministry and church so I have needs that I would like to set to accomplish in this category.**

Just for FUN- make bird feeders

What about you? Do you have some simple things you would like to do in February??? Please share!

With Love, 

Chrissy T

Scripture and a Snapshot- There is a RIVER!

It's Sunday!! Today, I am linking up at A Fresh Cup of Coffee, host of Scripture and a Snapshot. 

This week there was a praise song that kept coming to my mind called There Is a River by Rita Springer and it really got me thinking of this verse below!!

I have been studying the AWE of God. This verse just soothes my soul....

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” – Psalms 46:4

This is a waterfall I hiked to last spring. Talking about being in AWE......standing there feeling the wind of this powerful waterfall that actually had 3 more falls before it that led to this fall and hearing the mighty roar of this 104 ft waterfall made me feel so small but also in AWE of our wonderful Creator!!

Here is a version of the praise song I love....

There Is A River / #STNWorship / Feat. Jessica Goodman

Please stop by A Fresh Cup of Coffee and check out the other Scriptures and Snapshots. I am also linking up at Sweet Tea & Friends (February Link Up) 

With Love,

Chrissy T

January Reading Recap (2026)

 Hello friends. I wanted to share the books I read this month! I log my books I read on Goodreads. I set a challenge every year and I have met my goal for years. I keep my challenge pretty low and I usually read more than I set my challenge goal for but I try to not put a ton of pressure on myself if I don't go over. I would rather set it lower than to too high. Here are my January reads........

Ratings for each book are 1-5

1- Terrible 

2-I could have spent my time better 

3- Survived the read. Not bad and not great. 

4- Good 

5- AWESOME

The Dutch House- 3 (Part of a book challenge I had to read. Survived it. It was okay)

An Irish Bookshop Murder- 4 (Part of a book challenge I had to read. Good but some things I would have rather it not been in the book. But the plot and the twist was good)

Death By The Book- 4- (Part of a book challenge I had to read. Good but some things I would have rather it not been in the book. But the plot and the twist was good)

Elizabeth- Dealing with Disappointment- 4 (I enjoyed this)

Amazed: 30 Days of Growing in Awe of God- 5 (I LOVED THIS and Highly Recommend) 

Did you read any good books this month?  

With Love, 

Chrissy T