Updates on Dreams and Goals for September

 

September first dawned with the two of us in Michigan walking the Mackinac Bridge, and that honestly feels like it was just five minutes ago, so I’m not entirely sure how we are already here at the end of this month…but here we are! I am looking back over the dreams and goals I had for this month, and I’m excited to look at a new batch of goals tomorrow!

Plan our anniversary getaway. This took a surprising turn! I told you at the beginning of the month that we made a plan for where to go, but some of our other plans for what to do while we are there took some unexpected turns. Still, I’m really excited for this time away to celebrate thirteen years of marriage, and I think we are going to have a grand time!

Finish seminary orientation and start my first real class. In all transparency, this was far more of a struggle than I anticipated. The orientation for this program was quite thorough, and I struggled wildly to produce the work my professor wanted me to offer. There were many days of tears and discouragement on my part, because I did not see that coming. I’ve always been a good and adaptive student, and I did not anticipate feeling completely inadequate to get a good grade! I sent lots of questions to the professor, Ryan was unendingly supportive, and Jonathan (who serves as one of my mentors for school) gave me some great perspective that helped. I did finally get through orientation and am in my first regular class. Here’s hoping I am on an upward trajectory now!

Get the house fall-ready. Done! Inside and out, the fall décor sits in its place, and I just love how cozy and comfy the house looks. Ryan did some extra decorating outside, and it looks so nice. He has great vision!

Clear out the garden. Ryan did this for me, so I could work on orientation homework, and it looks so nice now that he’s finished it. He ripped out the dying plants, put down some fresh mulch, and now it sits, ready for spring!

Enjoy some fall fun! We have done that! We have done some porch and patio sitting, taking in the falling leaves and cooler temps. We hosted small group  this past weekend, which brought with it a boat ride and some roasted hot dogs and s’mores at the new fire table. The leaves are starting to turn, and we look forward to more fall fun as we go through October!

Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2025 Reads So Far

 

Good morning and happy Monday, my friends!

                I worked so hard all summer to read, read, read, read, read in preparation for school beginning, and now that it has begun, my reading looks much different. I still wanted to write this post this month, because these monthly recaps are how I’m keeping track of my reading. But I will warn you at the start of today’s that it will look a little different!

                The first book I read this month was The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor by John Piper and D.A. Carson. I can pretty much guarantee you that unless you are in school, this won’t be high on your reading list. 😊 The content of this book actually started out as a conversation between these two gentlemen, and then it was transcribed and turned into a book. It’s not a very long book, and it did have some quotable lines in it, but it’s definitely a school-oriented book. Piper and Carson spend their time talking about (as you might imagine from the title) pastors turned scholars and scholars turned pastors and how and why the two are intertwined.

***

                The second book I read was most definitely a school book: From Topic to Thesis: A Guide to Theological Research by Michael Kibbe. If you’re planning to go to grad school for anything ministry-related, this is a good resource. If you’re looking for a cozy, autumn, Friday-night read, you might look elsewhere. 😊

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                After thirteen weeks of study, I finished Nehemiah and the Holy Spirit’s Work of Restoration by Darlene Schacht. I learned SO MUCH about the book of Nehemiah from this Bible study and loved it so much that I am introducing my Growth Group at church to it! (We are studying her book on Ezra first, and then we’ll move into this one.)

                I had never spent much time camping out in the book of Nehemiah and found this study rich – both in learning the history of this time in the Bible and also in relating the lessons to my present day life. As always, I love Darlene’s studies because they are not fluffy, but they are also not time-intensive.

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                Finally, this month, I just finished reading Inside Out by Dr. Larry Crabb. This is a book I have to read for my current course in seminary, but it isn’t a textbook. It’s a “regular” read that I wish I had so much more time to sit with. As you know, I love a book I can hold in my hands, but this one was available to me as a free ebook on the software I use for school, so I’m reading it on there. I do see the value in getting this book in a hard copy so I can live in it, underline in it, make notes in it, and use it again and again in ministry.

                For now, though, I have to read quickly so I can move ahead with my assignments. So for today, I’m giving you my quick thoughts on it. I hope to one day really marinate in this book and offer deeper thoughts.

                Larry Crabb writes about how we tend to just change our behavior without allowing God to really search and change the deep places of our hearts. It’s a scary thing to really dive deep and allow God to uncover the root issues that cause hurt in life, but if we want to live in the full freedom of Christ, that’s exactly what we need to do. (This is also exactly what the class I’m taking is about, so this is an exercise I’m doing.)

                He wrote this book several years ago, it did well, and he revised it, which is the version I’m reading. I notice he does still have some “older” scenarios in his writing, but the premise is still so valuable and I appreciate what he has to say.

                If you’re willing to challenge yourself to change and grow from the inside out, this is a challenging but helpful guide to doing just that!

                These were my reads for this month. I read snippets of other books, but for full, book-length reads, this was it for me!

Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments from the Week

 

Yesterday I worked on my scrapbook for the July/August/September quarter, and I ran out of pages. I make my scrapbooks digitally, and the program I use allows 160 pages per book. For the first time, I could not cram one quarter into 160 pages. That might explain why picking snapshots from the week is sometimes hard. There are a lot of snapshots! 😊 Even so, here are some of the memories from this past week:

Last Sunday was our annual “Faith in Action” Sunday at church. Ryan and I were part of the team that did nursing home visitations, and we went to visit some sweet ladies. A young family joined us, and I learned that taking kids with you to visit the homebound is GOLD. The ladies loved those little kids!

The weather here hasn’t been very cold this week, but it did start to feel fallish with lots of fog and rain throughout the week. I have to say that it felt a little like living in a movie with fog over the lake and leaves blowing into the yard. I felt like an extra in You’ve Got Mail.

I tried to spend as much time with sweet Lexi as I could, but there were many other things on the calendar this week. Whenever I had some time to be home, I tried to do my work from the couch so she could stay close.

I’ve been following Instagram accounts about the company Olive + June (nail polish) for a couple of years now and finally decided to purchase their gel kit. I’ve been increasingly frustrated with the polish I have (for a variety of reasons) and wanted to try something new! My kit arrived, and it was so much fun to look at all the colors! I’ll tell you more about it soon, but unboxing day was a lot of fun.

Ryan hosted an open house at Swiss Village this week, and I stopped by to tour the apartment for fun. I’m so mad at myself for not getting a picture of him at work, but can I just tell you how I proud I am of him for the great work he does in this role? I loved watching him talk with people, answer questions, and share his enthusiasm for life at Swiss Village! (Also, can we pause to appreciate this coffee bar??)

Friday night we went on one of the most fun dates I think we’ve been on in a while! Not that the others have been bad…this was just extra good! I will tell you all about it in an upcoming post, but it sure was a fun night.

Last night we hosted our small group and it was perfect weather for eating outside, enjoying s’mores in the fire pit, and going on a sunset boat ride. (We almost missed the chance to see the sunset. It comes much earlier now.)

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

One of the Instagrammers I love to follow is getting married TODAY, and I am probably way more excited about this wedding than I should be, given that I’ve never met her. But her story is one of loss, deep grief, and God’s beautiful redemption, so I am eagerly awaiting the first glimpse of wedding joy!

                I’ll be watching for pictures and prepping for company, and while I do that, I found some fun little things for you to enjoy! Here you go!

I’ve never tried to keep a mum alive inside before – have you? I’ve had them outside our house every year, but never inside. Yvonne teaches how to care for them inside so they last the whole season!

You know how I love to look at houses for sale? Before I loved to do that, I loved looking at house plans. I used to purchase books of house plans (usually at garage sales) and mark my favorite ones. Or I would tear plans out of magazines and keep them in a file folder. (This was life before Pinterest, in case you’re wondering.) I don’t look at them as often anymore, but the other day I landed on a website that had a tab of house plans, and I couldn’t help clicking over to it. It amuses me that the Bekah of old always picked the biggest plans with the most square footage, because on this page, my favorite was Juniper Lane – the smallest one of all. (Though I did wish it had a garage.) Which one would you pick??

You know how Ryan and I have the travel map? The one where we print a picture from each state we visit? I saw this version of it this week – using watercolor pictures to fill the map. So unique! (I actually have that app, which is incredible, since I’m generally not an app-loving person. The app does work, though super detailed pictures don’t translate well.)

These makeup-remover cloths intrigue me. I read about them on a blog, and the blogger says she uses them and loves them. I’m usually a bit skeptical, in case such a recommendation is just an influencer at work, but the reviews on this are also pretty high, so they might be worth a try. The price is good! BONUS: Speaking of things I’ve not seen before that intrigue me? These stove top covers that are fabric on top and silicone/heat resistant on the back. I saw one at Swiss Village and loved it! Ryan’s mom had a wooden cover for her stovetop, and it was beautiful, but it was huge, and when she needed to use the stovetop, she had to find a place to put the big board. This cover is much more easily stashed away when the stove is in use!

I do love a good party mix, but I never make it – mostly because I would taste test it to the tune of eating the entire mix. 😊 I ran across this recipe this week and thought it sounded so intriguing, because while it has the traditional ranch flavor, it also incorporates sweetness.

I love advent calendars – especially the kind you can get and keep forever, refilling yourself each year. But I do have to say that thisOlive and June mani-inspired advent calendar may be one of the best prefilled ones I have ever seen in my life! I’m probably too frugal to buy it for myself, but I sure do think it’s fun!

Favorite Recipes from September

 

This month was NOT an impressive month when it came to cooking. We missed almost the first week because of vacation. Then I missed a few more days because of the staff retreat. Add in some dates and other events, and the cooking felt a bit lacking. But here are a few recipes I tried and enjoyed this month!

Avocado Egg Salad – I didn’t even know if I liked egg salad, so this one made me nervous. I still don’t know if I like regular egg salad, but I do like this! It involves eggs, avocado, bacon, and tomato. The avocado is what provides the creaminess, so it’s mayo-free! I added the avocado at the very end each time I served it so it didn’t turn brown. The only down-side to this is that when I made it, the eggs we’d purchased were super small, so it took two eggs to equal one. That was a LOT of peeling!

BLT – I don’t have a recipe for this, as it is fairly self-explanatory, but we did enjoy making them! I made mine using small tortilla shells, and Ryan made his on homemade bread. We used spinach instead of lettuce, because that is what we had on hand. But they sure were good, even with substitutions!

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Hoagie – I made this with pork rather than beef, simply because of the price. I also made it overnight while we slept, and waking up to the house smelling SO GOOD was kind of mean…when we had to work out instead of eating! But the seasoning blend in this was amazing, and even with pork instead of beef, it tasted so good. Because it’s a slow cooker recipe, it’s so easy to make! (I ate mine as a bowl instead of a sandwich.)

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake – Our small group met a couple of times this month, and one of them included a breakfast-themed dinner. Ryan wanted to take a dessert, so I went with coffee cake. I wanted to try the recipe from the Unsifted website, so I could use our freshly milled wheat. I hadn’t made this recipe before, but it was well-received by our friends. I loved it!

Pumpkin Spice Sauce – I shared this recipe on a Saturday Suggestions roundup and decided to try it! I’m still not a diehard pumpkin spice girl, but this was a fun deviation for my evening coffee. It is true that this is a very thick sauce – almost like apple butter in consistency. I learned to keep a spoon in my coffee so I could keep stirring it, because it would settle in the bottom. I did cut the amount of brown sugar to ¼ cup instead of ¾ cup and also used a better-for-you version of brown sugar.

Chicken Taco Rice Poblano Bowls – I made these earlier this week and we enjoyed them! Instead of a poblano pepper, I used a can of green chilies. I used brown rice for Ryan and cauliflower rice for me, and we both thought these were tasty!

Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon – I feel bad saying I made this, because I mostly framed a dish after this one. I didn’t have a whole chicken, so I used frozen chicken breasts on a sheet pan. I skipped the onion because I was too lazy to walk all the way back downstairs to get one from the pantry. And I forgot to add the lemon juice. But the rest of the seasonings were good! I served it with the potatoes (below).

Roasted Baby Potatoes – I made this with the chicken mentioned above. I DID follow this recipe more closely! I added some steamed green beans with these two things, and that was a tasty meal.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie – I like having a handful of smoothie recipes in my rotation for busy mornings. I bought a strawberry/banana frozen fruit mix to speed this one up. I did not add any additional sweetener, and I did use chocolate protein powder, because that’s what I have. It was good

High Protein Scrambled Eggs with Cottage Cheese – I’ve made these before and knew I would like them. Cottage Cheese is the new cauliflower, right? It’s in EVERYTHING now if you want extra protein. Even if you don’t love cottage cheese, you would probably be okay with this because I don’t think it’s noticeable in taste! 

Fun Finds from September

 

September brought about some new finds for our household, so I’ll share them with you today!

                A couple of years ago, I gifted Ryan a travel backpack that folds up into a tidy little rectangle – making it easy to pack – and our favorite thing about it was the chest clip that makes it easier to haul when it’s heavy. I’d still been using a Vera Bradley cinch sack my sister gave me years before I was even married. The straps on it were badly frayed from use, and there wasn’t a chest clip. (I don’t think it’s the Vera Bradley way.) So before our Mackinac trip, we ordered this bag for me, and I loved it. I wore it on the Bridge walk and throughout both of our days on the Island. It’s small and pliable enough to pack nicely and to fit in small spaces, like a bike basket. But it’s big enough to carry snacks and water bottles and all the supplies you need for a day out and about. It has a chest clip that was really helpful, and it even has a little pouch on the strap for a phone: easy access!

                This next thing was my FAVORITE purchase of the month, and sadly, I didn’t even get to use it. I haven’t had a swimsuit that fits correctly for a while, and Ryan really wanted us to be able to enjoy the hot tub at our hotel in Michigan. So I went on the dreaded swimsuit hunt and I learned about…THE SWIM ROMPER!!!! It’s made of swimsuit material, but it has flutter sleeves and shorts and POCKETS, and it fits like a little romper, so you can wear it without a coverup if you want. I am so excited about it, told everyone who would listen, and then the hot tub at the hotel was out of order and we didn’t get to use it. But I’m pumped about this romper, because it’s a good lake piece. If people come over, I can wear it and be ready to kayak or step into the water (which I rarely do) without changing!

                When we were in Michigan, we came upon a mealtime where we wanted and needed something to eat, but we didn’t want a big meal. We’d had too many big meals. We also just wanted to be in our hotel room, not out waiting our turn for a table somewhere. We stopped by Dollar General and I found that Banquet makes protein bowls that you can find in the frozen section! We each got the chicken fajita bowl (though there are other flavor options) and warmed them up in our room. They were the perfect size for a meal!

                Speaking of Dollar General, whilst perusing ours here at home, I found these darling little glass jars that come with tiny wooden spoons! They were in a display for a s’more/hot chocolate bar, so I think the idea is to fill them with peppermint pieces, chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, etc. They were $3 each and I purchased three for the top of our little tiered tray that sits on the island. I put peanuts in one, pumpkin seeds in one, and I’m still figuring out what to put in the third. So cute!

                I’ve been using Skinny Girl ranch dressing for a while now, and it’s okay, but it never really tasted like real ranch dressing to me. This month I tried G Hughes sugar free ranch and it tastes MUCH more like regular ranch to me. (It’s thicker, too.) It’s not quite as impressive on the calorie count, but I don’t use a ton of dressing, so I’m okay with that. Worth it to me to get a more authentic taste. If you’re not a ranch dressing lover, this brand has other flavors!

50 Before 50 Check-In List

 

As we close in on the end of the month, it’s time for me to start some of my recap posts, and I think you’ll see a theme throughout: this was a strange month in which not much of the regular things happened in abundance. The credit/blame for this lies in the combination of a vacation, a work retreat, and the start of school all falling in this month. But I bring you the offerings of what I have in each category!

                One of my goals is to recreate five dates we’ve done in the past, and one of those happened on our vacation to Mackinac Island! If you’re a longtime reader here, you might remember that on our honeymoon, we rented a tandem bike and rode around the Village of Siesta Key. We reprised our tandem bike date on Mackinac Island and had a lot of fun!

                Ryan lamented that our Mackinac bike didn’t have a bell for him to “DING DING, HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” like he did in Siesta Key, but I think that might have actually been a good thing.

                Here are the Shaffers on the original and recreated dates!

                My second item that I can note from this list is trying a recipe from the Unsifted Website. I have a goal to try all the recipes from that site (for our freshly milled wheat adventures). This one was the Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake and it received rave reviews from our small group! I will be making this again. I try, at least on baking recipes, to follow the recipe exactly the first time. This one does have a bit more butter in it than I like, so I think on a redo, I might swap out some of the butter in the cake for applesauce, and in the glaze portion, I’d just cut down the amount I used. The glaze will still be fine.

                I did work a little more on putting together my own recipe binder of our favorite recipes. (I try to update it a little at a time.)

                In my quest to learn to hula hoop, I purchased a hula hoop – at Menards, of all places. It was on a clearance rack, so I grabbed it. Turns out that hula hoops are on the long list of things that offend Lexi, so apparently I will be learning to do this IN THE GARAGE.

                I did try to start the Shaffer coffee house menu by learning to make pumpkin spice sauce for my coffee. It was a fun thing to put in my evening coffee at the start of this fall.

                See you again next month, and hopefully I’ll have some fun new adventures to share!

Fall Recipe Fun

 

You know what I did this week that I haven’t done in a long, long time? I read part of a cookbook. Remember those? In the days before Pinterest, we had actual books that sat on the shelf, and we’d look through them for recipes.

I’ve been trying to return to some printed recipe sources because the nostalgia of looking for recipes in books has overtaken me. It’s how I learned to cook and bake 25 years ago, and I’ve returned to my roots.

Today I thought it would be fun to send you down memory lane to some of my favorite fall-inspired recipes.

Halloween Party Mix – I have veered away from making this because it calls for corn syrup, and it’s something I’ve (mostly) broken up with in recent years. But it really was a yummy snack, and it’s perfect if you need a huge batch!

Pumpkin Bread with Homemade Pumpkin Spice Mix – Still one of my favorite breads. Not the healthiest version, but it sure is tasty. I need to make a new batch of the pumpkin spice mix. I just used the last of what I had.

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes – These feel like fall to me and are fun to make! Remember the year I did the monthly “Pancakes with the Princess” meals? These pancakes made a regular appearance at those!

Apple Pie Bites – These are quick, easy, and feel like fall! (And in a total side note, I looked through the pictures and realized how much I miss that ring! It went missing with all my rings a few years ago, and it’s the one I miss the most.)

Pumpkin Cake – I forgot about this one, which tells you how long it’s been since I made it. But as a girl who doesn’t really like pumpkin pie (texture), this is a fantastic dessert alternative! All the flavor and a much better texture!

Pumpkin Cookies – My food photography is horrible, but this recipe is so good! It’s an easy one to make, and I still agree with my assessment that they’re better with frosting.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – I don’t make these too often anymore because they are very messy. (The dough is messy and then trying to hang onto it to roll it…a test of patience.) But when I worked at WBCL, I made these often for my friend, Sheryl, and these still make me think of her!

Ryan’s Chili with Homemade Seasoning – We still make this ALL THE TIME in the fall and winter months!

Happy cooking and baking…and happy fall!

Adventures from the Retreat

 

Last week I showed you some photos from the prayer walks I took on the trails while I was on our staff retreat. Today I’d love to give you a few more peeks at my time away!

                We stayed at the Maria Stein Retreat Center, which was just an absolutely beautiful place for such a retreat. It was so peaceful and easy to feel at home there. I had my own room and shared a bathroom with my friend and co-worker, Chris.

                We used one of their conference rooms for our sessions (although the weather was so lovely that sometimes we took our planning and brainstorming outside and talked while sitting in patio chairs!

                We worked hard while we were gone, talking over events and ministries we have now, seeing what we could do to make anything and everything better (if possible), and dreaming for the future.

                But we also spent time talking as a staff, getting to know each other better, and having fun!

                The first night, we enjoyed dinner at a new-to-me restaurant and had ice cream at one of my favorite places.

                Chris wanted to see this wooden sculpture that I’d never heard of before. He is certainly an interesting thing to behold. (Be sure to look at the people in the picture for some size reference.)

                The second day of the retreat, I got up super early to talk with Ryan before work, have some Bible study time, and walk around the grounds during the sunrise.

                That night we enjoyed dinner at such a cool restaurant, and I can’t wait to take Ryan there! Chris took a video of me enjoying a little cheese bite!

                The last morning we were there, the sunrise was spectacular, and I appreciated it so much. It had been a long, prayer-filled night for my anxious heart, and this was a sweet gift. (Also – please note that I look decently put together for having pulled almost a full all-nighter!)

                I’m very grateful for a church that makes space for us as a staff to take the time for this sort of intentional planning. I have never worked for anyone who does this, and it’s brilliant.