Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Good morning, friends! I hope you are having a sweet-to-the-soul holiday weekend. I know for some of you, this is hard. Family can be hard. Holidays can be hard. 2024 has been hard. But even if any or all of that is the case, I hope you’re able to find something sweet for your soul – even if it’s some rest and solitude. Your weekend may be too busy for extra things, like reading and hopping the internet, but if you do need something to enjoy today, here you go!

ONE. 

Back in my Mid-Morning days, I remember an interview Lynne did with a gentleman who had photographed a tree every single day for a year. (The same tree.) It stood alone in the middle of a field, and he took pictures from different angles and at different times of day/night – and then he published a coffee table book featuring his artwork. I think of that book every time I pass a field with a single, lonely tree out there in the middle. This post gives ideas of different things to photograph, and it sparked an idea in my mind: what if you did choose one topic/object and photographed it every day for a certain amount of time? Fascinating!

TWO. 

You know I love reflection and dreaming – equally, I think! Author Jennie Allen released her 2025 Dream Guide worksheets this week, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you can download them free. I read through them and think they will be a great way to reflect on the year I just lived and dream for the year to come. The worksheets are simple and guide you to think through two questions as you evaluate different areas of your life. I’m excited to fill them out!

THREE. 

The Time Warp Wife has an Advent study this year – and you can purchase it from Amazon or download it from her website if you sign up for her newsletters. I’ll be reading my own Advent book as usual this year, but I am going to do this one also. Just wanted to share it with you, too! This will be my fourth study of hers to complete this year, and I’ve just learned so, so much. (Fun fact: I emailed her a few years ago, after I did the Armor of God study the first time, and she was so lovely and down-to-earth in her response. I really enjoyed hearing from her!)

FOUR.

I love walking tacos. I used to get one at the fair every single year (when we lived in Howard County) and I love it when graduates use this as their open house theme! Here is an idea for a walking taco board, which I’m sharing because we’re entering the season of get-togethers. If you need a great idea for an easy buffet-style dinner for a holiday get together between now and New Year’s, this might just fit the bill! (Chili Cheese corn chips or Doritos are my favorite bases.) BONUS: If you’re doing a breakfast or brunch get-together, you could do a biscuit board instead. Invite Ryan. 😉)

FIVE. 

I haven’t made one of these window garlands before, but I’m sharing it here today to tuck it away for my own future reference. I have little opportunity to decorate in our kitchen at the lake because there just isn’t room (on counters OR floors) to add too much. Putting up a pretty garland around the two windows we have in there might be the perfect way to add festivity without taking up space I need for other purposes!

SIX. 

So many people in our community have been grieving deeply in the last couple of weeks. There have been some losses that have been unexpected and difficult for many of my friends, and even though I didn’t personally know those who passed away, my heart hurts for my friends who are hurting! Regardless of the hard…perhaps these words will be a balm to your soul today.

BONUS!

            We have just one month left of capsule wardrobe ensembles. It has been a FUN year of creating outfits. And here are the ones from this week!

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Monday, November 25, 2024

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Friday, November 29, 2024

Updates on Dreams and Goals for November 2024

 

December starts on Sunday, so it’s time to catch you up on how the goals went this fine month!

ONE. Finish decorating Ryan’s office. CHECK! We worked on this one in parts, and like anything else, it will probably never be truly done, but it is at least home, now. We took in several pieces of wall art from our tub of “no-room-to-hang-this-at-home-but-don’t-want-to-get-rid-of-it” pieces and added in some pictures of the family so he doesn’t forget what we look like while he’s away from us. Brutus also moved into the office. I never minded having him in our home, but he does fit well at work. (Brutus is a metal rhino head, if you’re new here and confused.) The residents have complimented him on his décor, and I’m happy his work space feels cozy now.

TWO. Celebrate Lexi’s birthday. Well, my parents were under the weather on her birthday, so she didn’t get to go see them, but she did enjoy a party, complete with cake, a lot of pictures (which didn’t utterly amuse her) and even some phone calls and FaceTimes! I think she had a fun day, and that’s what matters!

THREE. Decorate the house for Christmas. The house is decorated, and we accomplished it just in time for the onset of super gray days. It’s been a real gift to have the soft lights twinkling in the darkness, and we love how it turned out. 

FOUR. Share about my book at an event. You read about this already, but I want to say again what a fun day this was for me! I enjoyed sharing the stories with the Swiss Village residents, and Ryan said he’s heard good feedback from them after the fact. I’m so glad they liked it.

FIVE. Figure out Ryan’s anniversary gift. Well, both of us skipped the “silk and pearls” themes for the 12^th anniversary, but I have his gift and reportedly he has mine! Stay tuned on these!

SIX. Do a Bible study on the Armor of God. This was the perfect study for me this year, and I am grateful to have completed it.  (Again!)

**

Other things of note from this month include…

I designed our Christmas card and mostly finished our letter. Typically, I mail those out right after Thanksgiving, but they are going to have to wait just a bit longer this year.

We completed one year of Boot Camp classes!

We voted early in the morning on Election Day and managed to beat the line!

We celebrated Ryan’s grandma’s 97^th birthday – and were able to see his grandpa while we were in town, too!

I worked on a social media project for my contract job – and helped Ryan with some creative projects for his job, too!

I helped the kids at church pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

I went to a baby sprinkle for someone in our church and Ryan helped with a flooring project at church!

Our boat is officially bedded down for the winter.

Ryan served on the worship team at church!

            November had its hard moments, for sure, but it also had some great ones. We are thankful for all we managed to accomplish in the middle of general busyness!

With Gratitude

 

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, (I know some of you are reading from other countries, but gratitude is universal, so feel free to join us in being thankful) and I wanted to pause to share some thoughts on the topic today.

            2024 has not been the easiest year we’ve ever lived. That might surprise some of you, because here in the land of blogging, things have looked pretty good – maybe even easy and fun. And certainly there has been much that has been good, easy, and fun. We’ve enjoyed good health, we watched so many beautiful sunsets, we went on some grand adventures, we’ve enjoyed the luxury of a warm and safe home, and we are very blessed with sweet friends who have been encouraging and supportive throughout the year. God has provided for our needs, and all of those things are wonderful blessings. We recognize them, acknowledge them, and receive them with deepest, sincerest gratitude.

            But intermingled with all the good, there has been a lot of hard.

            We grieved the loss of our sweet Braeya Jo. We knew, given her age and the decline we saw in her, that this goodbye would probably happen sooner than later, but that doesn’t make the moment of goodbye any easier. Eighteen years with her presence doesn’t make her absence instantaneously easy.

            We muddled through the unexpected projects at our house after experiencing water damage in the spring. Absolutely a first-world problem, but the weeks (months, really) of ripped up flooring, muddy yards, and then the weeks of repairing the neighbor’s yard that was damaged in the process took a bit of a toll on us. The outcome was beautiful, and we were dearly blessed with friends who pitched in to make it more affordable and less painful, and we are indebted to them for that. But the messy middle was…messy indeed.

            While we are so glad to have my parents living in the safety of their new apartment, we spent a lot of weeks helping plan on this end for them to move, driving to help them pack, doing the move itself, holding the post-move rummage sale, and then doing our best to help them acclimate to a new home and community. We are happy to do the part we’ve done (and my sisters have done just as much – maybe more!) to make this transition smooth, but every transition has its unwieldy parts, and this one was no exception.

            No one saw Mom’s heart attack coming and navigating that in real time and in the weeks after was an unexpected journey of the soul for me.

            I have not talked about this yet publicly at all, but I experienced a job change this year that is a whole story in and of itself. Perhaps someday the time will be right to talk more about that, but in the meantime, suffice it to say it was one of the most difficult parts of this year.

            The last few weeks have been more saturated with spiritual warfare than anything I have experienced in the last fourteen years. I have walked the house with my Bible in hand, praying, reading Scripture aloud, and doing my very best to not let the enemy get any kind of foothold in my life. Prayer warriors have surrounded and carried me some days when I simply did not have the strength to fight on my own.

            Our youth pastor said a service recently that our lives are like icebergs. Everyone sees the tip, but there’s much more below the surface than anyone could ever know. What a picture of our year. So much good and pretty floating by – but a whole lot happened beneath the surface, too.

            But here’s what I want to say about the hard: God is good. God is faithful. He has dried every tear, heard every fearful cry, and strengthened my weak knees. He has given me a rock-solid husband who has spoken truth to me, championed me, and helped me move forward through the scariest moments – including whitewater rafting.

            Every good moment and every hard moment have combined to make this a beautiful year. I didn’t see much of it coming, and I wouldn’t have personally chosen much of it, but all of it has made me stronger. All of it has shaped me. All of it will be useful to me going forward into what God has for me next. And for that, I am so, so grateful.

            Ryan, I am grateful for you. I remember a Thanksgiving Day fourteen years ago when I slumped in the Marion kitchen and told God I wasn’t sure how to be thankful when life was wrecked, and I saw no hope of it ever being any better. Eventually, a couple of years later, you arrived, and I saw just why God asked me to hold onto hope. You are my greatest earthly joy, and I couldn’t have done this year without you by my side. Thank you for being you and being here. I am so incredibly proud of you.

            And to you, dear daily readers: thank you for showing up in this space to read our adventures. You may not love every single day’s offerings, but I hope at least now and then, you find something worth tucking away and implementing in your life. Thanks for loving us, encouraging us, supporting us on the hard days (when they show), and for giving me a reason to put fingers to keyboard each day.

            Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun Finds for November 2024

 

Good morning, friends!! As we head into this weekend when many of you might do some shopping or decorating, I wanted to share some of my favorite finds from this month. Maybe you’ll be inspired for a gift or for something for your own home!

Back when Ryan and I lived in Marion, we invested in a set of dumbbells so we could work out at home. Over the years we’ve added a few little pieces of workout equipment – like kettlebells and medicine balls. It’s so helpful when we want to exercise but don’t have time to get to the gym (when it’s open). The one thing we can’t do at home is jump rope, because our ceilings are too low. But DID YOU KNOW…there are “no rope” jump ropes?  I did not know that until this month! They are made of handles with short cords that hold a weighted ball. This helps you simulate jumping rope without the actual rope hitting a low ceiling. (This also works well if you’re trying not to trip on the rope.) This is now on my wish list!  

I mentioned yesterday when I shared about what I read this month that I wrestled with some significant spiritual warfare over the past few weeks. At one point, when I was in the deepest part of the valley, I told Ryan I needed something tangible to sit in front of me to remind me to hold tight to Jesus. I found this art print by Yongsung Kim, and ordered it immediately. It features a rendering of Jesus from the perspective of Peter as he sinks beneath the waves. We framed it and hung it at my desk space, where I see it right over the top of my computer as I work each day. I love it.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve worked hard to curate the wildly growing Christmas décor collection so it wasn’t so massive and was more meaningful. This year, however, I found myself in need of a few little “filler” type things. Tiny bulbs to put inside empty lanterns…sprigs to tuck into vignettes of other décor, etc. Do you know where I found some good, affordable options? Dollar Tree! I even found Christmas tree skirts there for $5.00! If you just need a little finishing touch and don’t want to pay $10 or $15 for something tiny, check out the Dollar Tree!

I mentioned in the last month or two that I tried a new line of hair products – Kristin Ess. I started with dry shampoo, which has worked well for me, so this month I purchased a couple more items. The one I especially want to tell you about is the leave-in conditioner. My hair, as we’ve discussed before is very thick, very attitudinal, and tangles are FOR REAL. Ryan always cringes when I brush my hair, because it’s always a painful-looking (and feeling) experience. I always condition when I wash my hair, but still – that first attempt at detangling after washing is a mess. I purchased her leave-in conditioner, which I apply to wet hair after my normal shampoo/condition in the shower. The first time I did it, my hair didn’t feel any different after applying it, and I did not imagine it had actually worked. But then I went to brush it out to dry it – and that brush slid right through! And my hair was soft. I was shocked! I’m a believer. 😊

I don’t have this every single day, but I keep a canister of protein powder in the house to make a shake for a snack sometimes. The canisters are huge, and our storage space is limited, so I made myself pick one single flavor to save storage space. I prefer the chocolate, but sometimes I want vanilla for cooking, since Dashing Dish uses protein powder in some of her dessert recipes. This month I decided to buy vanilla and then just add some cocoa powder to the shake if I wanted chocolate. That worked – and then I decided to throw in some instant coffee to a vanilla shake to see how that tasted. I stopped in my tracks on the first sip. YES! It’s the perfect mocha shake. (And I don’t have to buy the mocha flavor in addition to the vanilla!)

So those are my finds for November! Hope one of them is a winner for you, too!

Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2024 Reads so Far

 

It has been a great month of learning from books! I finished four books this month and enjoyed all of them so much. I’m excited to tell you about them today.

 

            The first book I read was one I ordered in that big book haul last month. My friend Jodi recommended it to me, and she did not steer me wrong. Jodi has worked in church hospitality for years and now speaks on the subject at conferences around the country. She recommended several books to me that she has found helpful as she welcomes first-time visitors and helps them connect to people and ministries within the church.

            I confess I was curious how this pick fit in with that, given that the book, Excellence Wins, is written by Horst Schulze, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton. He may be writing about hotel hospitality, but his principles translate well to ministry and, honestly, to any person working with people anywhere.

            Horst is German and began working in the hospitality industry as a very young teenager. He knew from the time he was a child that he wanted to run a hotel someday, and although in Germany that was considered to be a very subpar career, his parents saw his desire and helped position him to learn the skills he would need to make it a reality. He worked hard, observed people, and learned everything he could. And now he oversees hotels all around the world and has been quite successful.

            The book focuses on how to serve people (customers and employees) well, offers practices for learning to truly evaluate the health of an organization, and shares extremely practical tips for discovering problems and finding good ways to correct them.

            I underlined so much in this book that I hope to implement in my own roles from this time forward, and I had such a great time reading this book that Ryan picked it up from the stack and started reading it too. (He is a leader and manager in his new role at work, so this applies to him right now!) Ryan really doesn’t enjoy reading, so for him to voluntarily choose a book, read it quickly, and love it, speaks louder than any review I could write here.

            I will also confess that I judged this book (not favorably) by its cover, but I was pleasantly surprised to be very wrong. The information is useful, and the writing is conversational and relatable. Even if you’re not a manager in a workplace, I think you can learn something about relating to people and living with excellence!

**

Source

            Back when we lived at WillowBridge, I did my very first Time Warp Wife Bible study, and it was on the armor of God. I’ve shared with you about Darlene Schacht of the Time Warp Wife a few times this year, because I did her studies on Jacob and James in the second half of 2024.

            Over the past few weeks, I have also been facing deep, dark, discouraging spiritual warfare that has threatened to undo me, body, mind, and soul. God unmistakably pressed on my heart that I needed to study the armor of God again, so I went back and did Darlene’s updated version of The Full Armor of God.

            Though it wasn’t the first time I have studied this topic or even THIS ACTUAL STUDY, I found it meaningful and helpful. The armor of God is a small passage (about ten verses) in the book of Ephesians, but it is rich and deep to study at length. I spent days poring over each piece of the armor and learning more about how to suit up and why I need to do it consistently and intentionally. Correlating the actual Roman armor to the figurative armor we must wear to protect ourselves from Satan’s nastiness has been a huge part of what I relearned in this study.

            Maybe you’re not going through a deep, dark season, but there is always a war waged against your heart. I would highly encourage walking through this study on this topic. It’s not terribly long and IS terribly important!

**

            And speaking of dark seasons, my friend Charity surprised and blessed me with a gift to also assist me in this recent battle. A package showed up on my porch one day, and inside was the book Walking Through the Valleys by her friend and former pastor, Dave Choutka.

            I read it immediately and felt a kinship with the author as I went through the chapters. He lost his dad to a glioblastoma – just like we experienced with Ryan’s mom. He went through a subsequent series of other hardships, some of which I also experienced and some I did not. But the wounding he described was so familiar, even if details were different.

            The book is written very conversationally – as one friend talking to another. It was easy to read, laced in Scripture, and even had questions at the end of every chapter if the reader wanted to spend time in reflection.

            I found so much encouragement in his words, including quotes like these:

            “You can’t rush out of the valley to experience the transformational work God wants to do in each of our lives.”

            “It is important to recognize that our expectations of God are often influenced by our personal agendas. And God is not trapped by our agendas.”

            “Courage is never the absence of fear – rather the commitment to continue in the face of it.”

            “He didn’t waste his wait.”

            I was so thankful for the blessing of this book in this month. It wasn’t on my radar. I’d never heard of it. But I was blessed by Charity’s obedience to a middle-of-the-night nudging from God to order the book and surprise me with it. I was grateful to feel like I had a friend in the fire (and in truth, I have had MANY friends in this fire, but this one – in the form of a book – could sit with me in the moments all the rest of them were busy).

**

            The final book I finished this month was Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. It’s rare that I read a book that is trending now, but this one came highly recommended by good friends, and it also served as the spine for a Bible study I’m co-leading through church. (Fun bonus: Ryan and I are also both reading this book and using it for great discussion in our home!)

            John Mark Comer is two months younger and a whole lot wiser than I am, and I enjoyed learning from him in this book. I have another of his books, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, on my to-be-read list, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.

            Practicing the Way brings a new vantage point to what most of us who have grown up in the church would call discipleship. He explains how those in the first century would apprentice under a Rabbi to become like them and do as they did…and essentially that is what we need to do in our relationship with the Lord. It’s not about head knowledge. It’s about learning to “be with Jesus, become like Him, and do as He did.”

            I learned so much from this book. One of the most profound (to me) things I learned is how the person we are when we are old is formed and shaped throughout the beginning of our lives. Who I am now directly impacts the person I’ll be when I’m 90. I learned so much about how each part of our lives – the silent, contemplative, solitude parts and the community-saturated parts – contribute to the way we learn about and live like Jesus.

            There is both conviction and grace in the pages of this book, and I came away challenged to live more intentionally, more simply, and more deeply rooted in God.

            This isn’t the kind of book you read just once. You go back to it again and again and remind yourself of the truths and reread the quotes from wise scholars.

            I still have a few weeks left in this book both with Ryan and with the girls in our Bible study, but I loved reading it for myself and would heartily recommend it!

Library Lady

 

Can you believe it has been fourteen years since His Advent: Still His Greatest Gift was born into the world as a book? When I first published the book, I had the opportunity to travel around and share about it to groups here and there. Understandably, as time has passed, I’ve done much less of that for this particular book but Swiss Village asked if I’d come and share about it with the residents this year.

            Yes!

            So last Friday, Ryan hauled my big tub of books into the Swiss Village Library, and their librarian set up a display table for me.

            I shared about my writing journey as a whole, told the story of how I wrote this book, and read them my favorite chapter.

            They had some great questions to follow up, and I couldn’t believe how quickly the time went!

            It was so much fun to get to share with them, and I enjoyed the bonus of having Ryan come to hear me, too!

            Thanks, Swiss Village, for the invitation!

Sunday Sentiments: To Pray

 

A few days ago, I ran across a quote, and while I’m not sure who originally said it, the words are worth noting: We may not always understand, but we can always pray.

            I’ve found myself praying often lately…for family, for friends, for myself.

            Some of my friends have just gone through hard losses, and I see and hear their grief overtaking them. I can’t fix or change anything, but I can pray for them.

            Others that I love are wrestling with health concerns, and that’s all-consuming, isn’t it? Pain and uncertainty take a huge toll. I can’t speed up any healing, but I can pray for them.

            Even as I walk roads in my own life, there are some days when I have no choice but to put aside my chores and pray for a while. Pray until my heart calms. Pray until hope returns.

            I don’t understand why all these hard roads must be here, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I spend time praying about them to the One who DOES understand the biggest picture down to the smallest emotion.

            I know you know this. I’m not bringing you anything today that is earth-shattering. But it never hurts to have a reminder of the little things that truly, deeply matter.

            We may not always understand, but we can always pray.

Saturday Suggestons: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Good morning, friends! Last weekend we had warmth and sunshine, and now the cold and gray seems to have found us in earnest. I have been thankful for my cozy lights and fluffy blankets the last few days. If today feels like a good day to curl up on the couch, please keep reading! I have some links you might enjoy!

ONE.

I follow Bryarton Farm on Instagram and have shared about things from that account on here before. Sara Jo is the Instagrammer, and she and her husband have adopted two girls from India. She writes often about adoption, blindness, and restoring their old farmhouse to its original glory. Sara Jo is also a very talented artist and creates calendars for each year. Her 2025 calendar features a different real-life friend of hers each month, and the paintings are just so, so pretty. They’ll be available for a short time, so if you’re interested, here’s the link! BONUS: And if you need more shopping ideas beyond a calendar, I thought most of the items on this blogger’s gift guides were unique and fun!

TWO: 

Ryan told me about this one; I was surprised I hadn’t run into it anywhere on social media! Remember how we followed the posts of some of the passengers on the Ultimate World Cruise over the past years? Well apparently there is a different cruise line that is offering a multi-year world cruise. It already started, but it will take a much slower approach to seeing the world. I know several of the Ultimate World Cruisers said that while they loved the trip they took, every single port was SO FAST, so if you want to immerse more in local culture as you sail, perhaps this would be a better (and more costly) option!

THREE. 

If the Little House in you is feeling extra strong this year, here are some ideas for DIY, handmade ornaments that can bring extra sweetness and coziness to your home. I love the ornaments we have collected over the years and the special stories behind them, but if I were just starting out on my own, I think I would probably go the route of some of these DIY pieces. They have such a simple sweetness to them.

FOUR. 

If you need last minute Thanksgiving ideas – from food to décor – this post has you covered! And if you already have everything set for this year, save the ideas for next year! I thought some of them looked pretty fun!

FIVE. 

As most of you probably know, I’m a huge fan of Janette Oke’s books – and I even have a letter from her framed and hanging in my office. Her work heavily shaped me as a writer, and when I stumbled upon this interview with her – from present day! – I was absolutely giddy! I have searched for updates on her in recent months and couldn’t find anything. To learn she is still writing books and involved in the work of the TV show from her books was so sweet! In case you’re a fan too, I wanted to share the link! (NOTE: The bulk of the video is an interview the host did with her several years ago, but at the end you’ll find the present day interview.)

SIX. 

I quoted some of this post straight into my journal. Don’t lose heart, my friends. If you’re walking a hard story right now and you’re starting to struggle to find and focus on the hope, keep going!!There is so much wisdom and truth found here.

And here are my capsule wardrobe ensembles for this week.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Monday, November 18, 2024

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Friday, November 22, 2024