Farewell, 2025. You Were Good to Us.

 

There are years that are hard and years that are good. In general, I’d say 2025 was a good year for us. There were certainly hard moments, but it was a good year.

                Back on the first day of this year, I wrote a new year’s prayer, filled with questions. I know some of those answers now, so I thought I’d revisit that prayer on this last day of 2025.

                What adventures might You have written for this mystery of a year that stretches out before me? We had so many adventures. Some were big: we hiked in Hocking Hills, double-crossed the Mackinac Bridge and explored Mackinac Island on foot and by bicycle. We rode a UTV and lived to tell about it. (#dramatic) We were gameshow contestants at a marriage retreat – and came in second, winning a gift card to Top Golf, which provided more adventures. Some were small: watching sunsets from the back patio, growing a garden in an impossible year, and watching baby birds hatch from blue eggs and grow to fly away from the nest hidden in the hanging plant. Big and small, we welcomed them.

                What absolute delights await, far beyond anything I could dream, even if I scrunch my eyes shut tightly and dream with all my might? We came home – as a church – to our beloved place of worship, after months of renovations. It might seem silly for it to be such a delight, but it was. To be back in our sanctuary, to have our offices complete, to be able to do ministry to the fullest = a delight. Life on this lake, getting to host friends for boat rides and cookouts = a delight. Date nights to the thrift store where (every now and then) the perfect treasure just sat on the shelf waiting for us to arrive = a delight.

                What gut-punching griefs await that I would never choose – but You choose them for me because You see the growth and strength that come with them? This year was not laden with gut-punching griefs, and I am grateful, but there were hard moments. Saying goodbye to Ryan’s grandpa was hard, even though we celebrate that he is now healed and whole. My parents continued through health challenges this year that I haven’t shared publicly, but I have had to work my way through those things in my heart. I am SO thankful for Ryan’s generosity in letting me process (and sometimes grieve) as I need to. He doesn’t try to fix the hard. He just walks through it with me.

                What memories will I collect for my treasure trove?  We continued to make our little lake cottage a home, investing in it, sprucing it up, and enjoying our days spent in it. I’ve come to view home as a relationship – one that thrives when tended. And we made memory after memory in the tending. The journey to become licensed for ministry is a sweet memory that I will always keep close to my heart. I also loved my ministry firsts – including baptisms and baby dedications. My scrapbooks overflowed this year. What a gift!

                What images will freeze forever in photos and find their way into the words of my journal? I am thankful I was so vigilant to collect the ordinary this year. I’ve always done it, but I did even more this year. My photo albums and journals tell the stories of the events, yes, but also the daily. The naps and TV shows, sunsets and meals, books read and games played. My passion to do document the ordinary deepened this year! So many people post about skipping pictures to be in the moment, and that’s fine, but for me, collecting the ordinary is a priority.

                Which friendships will deepen and which will fade? We were able to host our friends who visit annually on their way to a marriage conference, and this year we joined them at the conference. We see each other annually, talk in spurts, and yet I feel like this friendship deepened in beautiful ways this year. We were able to spend the weekend with Mark and Lynnette for the Mackinac Bridge adventure, and I LOVED getting to spend extra time with them and getting to know their daughter in this age and stage. Living far apart stinks. I also realized how many new/deepened friendships I made at church this year. I learned a lotta names, but I also sat with so many stories and feel even more connected than I did a year ago.

                What new things will I learn and find myself skilled at in just one year’s time? I don’t know that I would call myself skilled, but I sure did learn many things this year about tending to people in hard times – hospital visits, funerals, and moments of prayer when life hurts. And on a much more frivolous note, I have worked hard to learn new skills for this attitudinal hair of mine! I also learned some new thrifting skills that have served me well.

                What parts of my everyday right now need to disappear to make room for something new? We set aside boot camp this year because it just didn’t make sense in our schedule anymore. Instead, we turned our attention to working out at home, which makes so much more sense for our schedule. I also scaled back fairly heavily on my speaking schedule to make more time for my job. I intend to keep that scaled back schedule in the year to come.

                What dreams will You put in my heart and urge me to pursue? God gave me dream after dream after dream for my work at the church. I explored so many things at His nudging this year. Ryan and I have also dared to whisper some dreams that we still don’t know if we’ll ever see in reality, but they sure are fun to imagine!

                What dreams will You put in my heart as tiny seeds, but You’ll ask me to wait long for them to grow? There is the dream of completing the ministry ordination piece, and it requires education. I began a degree pursuit this year and soon realized that it wasn’t a match for me. The amount of work required for the degree I chose took me too far away from the work I need to do for the church. It’s okay to realize something isn’t working, and I’m so grateful the church leadership supported my change of direction. I’ll still pursue ordination, but I will choose a different educational track.

                What things will You teach me about You? Oh the talks God and I have had this year! I did deep-dive studies into Ezra and Nehemiah, and I learned so many things. I’ve learned how to hear God’s whispering voice in new ways and am reminded to be still before Him.

                What notes will find their way into the margins of my Bible – and onto sticky notes when I run out of margins? Too many to tell in this space. I’ve been in my Bible for almost five years now, and it’s home. I love it so much. I love the memories that flood the margins.

                What books will I read and learn from as You guide me to the pages You want me to read next? I’m not sure I kept count of the books I read this year, but there sure were a lot of them. I worked so hard over the summer to read tons of books for my job, and I learned dozens of tidbits that I’ve employed as I lead my church teams! I would guess I read 50 books or more in 2025.

                What words will I write in all the spaces that hold my words? You’ve been here for those! I’ve written each day this year here on the blog and also many many pages in my journals. And scrapbooks. And probably more.

                What songs will become dear to my soul? It’s not a new song this year, but it remains high on my list: Goodness of God. I will probably always claim I Then Shall Live as my life anthem, but Goodness of God takes a close second.

                Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful year. Thank you for memories and life with Ryan and Lexi. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.

                Happy New Year, sweet friends.

Updates on Dreams and Goals from December

 

December is drawing to a close, and I wanted to look back on the goals I made for this month to see how I did! 😊 Are you ready?

Address and mail Christmas cards. This all happened MUCH later than I intended, for a variety of reasons, but I did it! (And now I have my return address stamper for next year. It was one of the delays this year.)

Buy and wrap gifts. Done! And it wasn’t all last minute, either…at least on the buying! I still can’t believe that year I left it all to Christmas Eve!

Enjoy some Christmas fun! I feel like we did a better job of this one this year than we’ve done in several recent years. Our Christmas fun included: seeing the tree on Monument Circle, decorating cookies from the cookie kit, watching a handful of Christmas movies, going to see the lights in Wapakoneta, doing the Christmas Tour of Homes in Adams County, going to see Annie, and taking part in the Christmas Eve service.

Plan for end-of-year speaking. I did it! The planning and the speaking. Now I’m looking ahead to 2026!

Undo all I did. I haven’t taken down the Christmas decorations at church yet. We have a wedding at our church in early January, and the bride wanted to have the trees up as part of her décor, so they are staying (at least most of them). At home, I’ve taken down all the decorations except the two trees in the living room. My hope is to have it all packed away by New Year’s Eve.

Prepare for 2026. I have been a planning fool over the past couple of weeks. In both home and work arenas, I’ve been planning and making lists and working as far ahead as I can!

And that’s a wrap on monthly goals for 2025!

Favorite Recipes from December

 

As we round out the year, I thought I’d share one more string of recipes with you. This month was NOT normal – far more eating out than we normally do. Hello, holidays. But here are some of the things we made at home!

Tomato Basil Soup – It’s a great comfort dinner, right? Tomato soup and grilled cheese? This homemade tomato soup has a lot of flavor, and the canned carrots throw in some extra veggies. I don’t have an immersion blender, so I just threw the canned carrots in the Ninja smoothie cup and pureed them before putting them in the pot to simmer.

Grilled Cheese – We had these with our Tomato Basil Soup, and they were yummy! We used a tortilla wrap for our bread. It’s filled with tomato, cheese, and avocado – so yummy!

Burger Bowls  - Kind of like a Big Mac Salad…so good!! We enjoyed it, and I made tater tots for Ryan to have with his.

Drop Sugar Cookies – I made these last month and they were so good! I made them again for the deacon training lunch. The frosting did better this time, but the taste was really good both times!

Greek Sheet Pan Meal – I’ve made this before, but I love how easy it is to put together! It involves a marinade, so it requires a little forethought to get maximum flavor. But SO GOOD.

Cheeseburger Chili – This was a huge hit. All the flavors of cheeseburgers in a thick and comforting chili. An absolute keeper!

Breakfast Hash – I had made this one before but brought it back. It’s a good one! The longest part of the prep (if you used frozen sweet potato cubes, which I did) is cutting the Brussels Sprouts.

Chicken Quesadillas – My favorite part of this was the seasoning on the chicken. I did chop the chicken, as the recipe directed, but I usually prefer shredded chicken on my quesadillas. I think I’ll do that next time, but keep the seasoning.

Raspberry Vinaigrette – This is the dressing from the salad I made last month. The salad was a hit that time, but I didn’t have the raspberries to make this dressing. I made the salad again this month and did the dressing this time. It was super easy to make (blender) and so good.

Cocktail Meatballs – Ryan took these to work for a carry-in. I’ve had them before but hadn’t made them. They were tasty! (We used grape jelly, but you can also use cranberry jelly if you prefer.)

Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments from the Week

 

As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve had the sweetest week. I welcomed the mix of rest and people, and today I’ll give you a glimpse into our fun!

Last Sunday was our Christmas program at church, and Ryan and I were both part of it! I was SO proud of him and all of those in our amazing choir. (I love a choir!) And Ryan also did a monologue, along with some others in the church, and they all did a fantastic job. So moving!

I had a massive gift-wrapping party this week. Nothing like waiting until the last minute and then wrapping everything at once! You might notice from the photo that Ryan was enjoying a massive football watching party at the same time. Ha!

We had Christmas with Ryan’s dad, stepmom, grandma, and one of his brothers this week. We all met up at Cracker Barrel and they had live music we could enjoy while we ate! And on the way home, we saw (but did not make contact with) two deer. My deer-spotting count from this week alone climbed to FIFTEEN with those two.

We had a beautiful service at church on Christmas Eve. I was excited to get to share a short message, and I loved all the Christmas songs we sang together! (I did not love the heels I wore. They were on for an hour and I ended up with TWO blisters. Perhaps it is time to shop….)

Christmas Day was a family celebration sort of day, and we got some great gifts. I’ll have to tell you more about the gifts another day.

Ryan and I went on a fun evening-after-Christmas shopping date that ALSO included a drive through some new-to-us Christmas lights! This effectively marked one item off my 50 Before 50 List! YAY!!!!

Last night we enjoyed Christmas with our godson and his Mama. This was the SIXTH Christmas we’ve been part of their lives, and it remains a tremendous privilege.

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

What a beautiful week it has been! I am thankful for all we’ve enjoyed in our little home and with friends and family. We have more Christmas fun today, so while we prep for that, here are some fun end-of-year suggestions for you.

I know Christmas is over now, and this is a Christmas-themed piece, but the words are still worth reading. I taught a Bible study on Ezra this past fall, and the very first week, we did some background reading that took us through this very passage from Jeremiah. We talked about the “famous” Jeremiah 29:11 verse and the importance of studying it in context. I love this explanation of it!

Here are some great ideas for decorating your house for winter, now that Christmas is over. Sarah gives some tutorials for using greenery and lighting to make a warm and cozy home in the winter. What do you do in the winter? Greenery up with decorations down? Or back to a basic, neutral decorating scheme?

Ryan and I did a first day hike several years ago. I’m pretty sure we were still living in Marion at the time, because I remember we had to drive a little ways to get to the hike. It was an owl hike – at night – and it yielded NO owls. But it was still a fun and different thing to do. This post talks more about first day hikes across the US – and there’s a map you can click on to learn more about hikes near you! We have a state park near us, but I’ll wait and see how the Indiana weather treats us before I decide if I want to venture forth into the cold! 😊

Maybe I’m just becoming too nostalgic for my own good…I don’t know. But I do know that I remember these little weaving looms from when I was a kiddo. I didn’t know they were back! What fun! Do any of you remember doing this?? (I also remember cross-stitching in my childhood and think that is a magnificent skill/hobby, too!)

Perhaps you just had the joy (?) of experiencing those hard-to-buy-for people? Here is a great post about a reverse gift list. You can start now, taking note of what people mention in conversations, and come next Christmas (or a birthday) you’ll have some great ideas for gifts!

It is entirely possible that I’ve shared this some previous year, but I do love a good, fresh, January start. If you need some inspiration for January living, check out these words!

Christmas in Shafferland!

 

Good morning!! Happy day-after-Christmas, friends. Oh, how I hope you had a beautiful day yesterday.

                I wanted to share with you some of our Christmas memories over the past few days.

                We met up with Ryan’s dad and stepmom, one of his brothers, and his grandmother for an early Christmas. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel, and they even had live music while we ate!

                We enjoyed being part of the Christmas Eve service at our church. Ryan is learning to run all the things in the tech area, so he was back there learning/working during the service. I had the opportunity to share a brief message, and then we had a beautiful candlelight conclusion to the service, complete with singing. What is it about candlelight on Christmas Eve??

                Ryan and I enjoy our Christmas mornings at home – just our little family. Lexi makes it extra lively!

                We had lunch at Swiss Village with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law, and then we spent the afternoon with them!

                Ryan’s extended family met Christmas night, but we felt like the timetable was too tight to try to make everything happen, so we didn’t make it to that one this year. We are back to work today and so thankful for a good celebration over the last few days!