Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                It’s been one week since our big snowstorm hit, and I have to tell you, it’s been a joy to have the flexibility to work most of my week from home. Loved it! Whether you are stir crazy or happy to be hunkered down on these cold days, I hope you have a good Saturday. Here are some fun finds for you on this chilly Saturday!

I am sure that somewhere along the way, I’ve shared a post like this one, but even if I have, it bears repeating. I’m noticing a deep return to nostalgia, and if you fall into that category, you might need some ideas for some good, old-fashioned, slow-living hobbies. You know…things that don’t require the digital world? If you want something fun to explore, check out the ideas here and try something new in 2026!

Yes, I know Christmas was over a month ago, but in my opinion, it’s never too late for a good Christmas season story. Earlier this month, KariAnne from Thistlewood Farms released the story of this year’s handmade Christmas gift. Every year, her family makes gifts, and every year, she tells the story of the best handmade gift. The gifts themselves are always really neat, but the stories that go with them are even better. I loved the sentiment behind the one from this year!

February arrives tomorrow, so my mind is busy thinking of all the little decorative touches to add to the house leading up to Valentine’s Day. I don’t love to go crazy with red and pink, so I really love Kate’s ideas for neutral decorations that add joy without being too over the top! The thing I love about finding these sorts of ideas is that it helps me know what to look for at thrift store throughout the year. I can slowly modify our collection of decorations if I have a color palette in mind!

Oh this piece by Ann Voskamp is a GOOD ONE. You know, friends, I think sometimes the grownups need a good talking-to, in the style of our childhood. I shared a link a few weeks ago about a pastor who challenged his church to bring themselves up to maturity. This is a lesson in that same vein, and I urge you to not just read it, but to take it to heart. We CAN do hard things and we SHOULD do hard things. Let’s not be stagnant in our maturity!

Even with layers in the mix, for some reason I struggle with winter outfits at times. Once I construct an outfit, I can repeat it, but mixing and matching new options doesn’t always go seamlessly for me. If the same is true for you, read Katie’s post about winter outfit inspiration. I bet you’ll find something you can replicate with what you own!

This house is no longer on the market, but you have to look at the pictures! Can you imagine owning a lighthouse on an island?? It is just beautiful. All the rocks…the beautiful view…WOW! (Could you do it? Live on a private island?)

Friday Fun: January Randoms

 

                At the end of 2025, Callie wrote this post as a structured round up to the year. I loved it so much that I earmarked it to revisit at the end of THIS year, but I actually decided to use it as a springboard for a monthly recap. Today will be the first of those!

Best Personal Adventure: Choosing to participate in WBCL’s Reunion Lunch and Nostalgia Week was one of the best decisions this month. I loved getting to see all my old work friends and spending a few minutes on the air with Glenn and McKalia. I’m beyond thankful the Lord made it possible for me to step aside from work for an afternoon and kept the weather clear so I could enjoy this fun day!

Photo Credit: Amy Sprunger Photography

Best Adventure Together: I have two for this one. Ryan and I really, really loved getting to have our godson in our home for a weekend. Because we are not parents, it’s always an adventure to have a full time kiddo in the house, but we loved it. We also loved getting away for the marriage conference! It was good to get away, good to spend time together, and good to learn!

Best Milestone: This month marked one year of being in our sanctuary at church! I still remember that first day back, and the whole year has just felt like such a gift. Being away from home sure makes you appreciate being back all the more, doesn’t it? All the learning and worshiping and growing that has taken place in that space over the last year has been wonderful.

Best Faith Grower: I’m teaching Darlene Schacht’s study on the book of Nehemiah, and I am actively working to learn to be bolder in my prayers. (We studied that in the first chapter.) I’ve always been more of a broad pray-er, and I’m working to be more specific and bolder.

Best Lesson Learned: Earlier this month, Ryan and I served as photographers at a wedding. My first time doing that was almost a decade ago when Ryan’s sister got married and I was an assistant photographer. I enjoyed that job because Ryan was a groomsman and I couldn’t hang out with him anyway, so it gave me something to do – but I wasn’t ultimately in charge of the pictures. Then about a year and a half ago, Ryan and I photographed his cousin’s wedding. Everything about the photography went swimmingly until the ceremony. The sanctuary was dark and I am not well-versed in lighting adjustments on my camera. The pictures were okay – but not what I would have wanted for her. So when I was asked about this wedding, I did my best to talk the bride out of it, but she insisted she just wanted random, candid photos like she knew I was capable of taking. It was a second wedding for both the bride and groom, as both lost their first spouses several years ago, so their expectations were different. We did okay, I think, but I learned during that adventure that I really am better making the scrapbooks with someone else’s photography. Primary wedding photography is just not my gift.

Best Purchase: Can I have three bests? Starting with the most frivolous…the health coach I worked with during my WillowBridge days posted about a recent Aldi shopping haul. She raved about the fresh dill pickles in the refrigerated section, so we tried them. LOVED THEM! We’ve long been a Claussen pickle family, but I think we will be switching to these. Next up…back at Christmas I gifted Ryan a little travel white noise machine. We used it for the first time on our marriage retreat trip, and it was perfect! It’s about the size of a slider sandwich, and it puts out a powerful sound. It saved a lot of room in our luggage, so that was a win! And finally…I used Christmas money to purchase Britt Fisher’s Healthy HomeBarista Course. I’ve been perfecting my pour over game (so far) and am looking forward to learning more skills, especially for lattes at home!

Best Habit Created: I started following someone on Instagram who is working to handwrite the entire Bible. I am not ready to take on that big a project yet, but I had already decided to study the gospels this year, so I chose to begin handwriting them. Each morning, I sit down with my notebook and Bible and write out that day’s section. I’m in Matthew chapter seven and have really come to appreciate the art of learning Scripture from writing.

Best New Recipe: I think I narrowed it down to two from this month. The first? The Frosted Brownies I made for New Years. They have sweet potatoes in them and were so delicious! I also really liked the sloppy joe bowls I made toward the end of the month. I am a sucker for a good bowl recipe, and this one was pure comfort food in a bowl!

Best Tradition: I thoroughly enjoyed our New Year’s Day traditions this year. We stayed up until midnight, toasted the new year with sparkling grape juice and a kiss, enjoyed a day off work together, and went through our little box of memories. New beginnings are so important to me, and I was so happy to enjoy ours together!

Best Little Luxury: I have a meeting every week at the Shaka Shack (and random other meetings there throughout the month in addition to the standing meeting). The owner knows my drink by heart and all I have to do is walk in and sit down at my table, and as if by magic, a drink appears. I’ve told Ryan over and over that it absolutely makes me feel like I have arrived. It’s a complete first world luxury, and I hope I never get over the joy of it.

Best Date: I loved our hiking date on New Year’s Day! We elected to skip going to the state park for the organized New Year’s Day hike and instead, just do our own hike for three (we took Lexi along). It was so much fun. It was a cold, cold day, but we had the trails to ourselves, enjoyed fantastic conversation, and took so many great pictures!

Best Answer to Prayer: We have been praying for the last four years to find a “Ryan and Bekah” for Lexi. Remember when we used to dog sit for Phoebe the goldendoodle? We were her home away from home, and her people always knew she could stay with us. Unfortunately, most of our friends don’t really love dogs, so we have never had a home to take Lexi to when we go away. We’ve had a good place to board her, but it’s a business, and we always feel sad at night when we know she’s hanging out all by herself. This month, when we went to our retreat, she stayed at a new place, and the host said she did great! I know she may not always be able to stay there, depending on availability, but it sure was the sweetest answer to prayer for us this month!

Travel Thursday: Holmes County, Ohio

 

                As you know, Ryan and I tend not to revisit places more than once (or maybe twice) because we have so many places we want to see! But Holmes County is one of those places we have been to three times now, and I’m sure we’ll be back multiple times in the future. The first time we went, Ryan was still working at Love INC, and they had a training session there we needed to attend. The second time we went was last year, when we went to Marriage for Life. And now…we’ve been back a third time!

                The beauty of going back to a place is that you start to recognize businesses and find favorites. It starts to feel like home. And we’re starting to feel like Holmes County is a little bit like home…away from home.

                This county is in the thick of Amish Country and is quite the tourist trap. There are Airbnbs, Bed and Breakfasts, cabins, and hotels everywhere. You can probably find anything you want, including a Bed and Breakfast that is for sale, if you want to start your own business adventure in the area!

                Both times we have gone to the marriage conference, we have stayed at the Encore hotel in Berlin, and we love it. We would stay there if we just went to Berlin on our own. Last year we had a big room with a kitchenette, and this year we had a standard room, and we loved them both. They were clean and had everything we needed.

                The breakfast at this hotel is amazing. Ryan is a huge fan of the biscuits and gravy. I am a huge fan of the cinnamon roll cake. I could eat a dozen pieces, but I make myself stop at one.

                Because the conference is so short and we spend most of our time at sessions, we haven’t had time to explore things like the pool or workout room at this hotel, but they do have them. (And the conference is held in attached theater, and they do have shows throughout the year.

                Each time we’ve been to Berlin, we’ve stopped at Ginger House Coffee Shop. It is probably our second favorite coffee shop…period. We love it that they play Christian music, and it’s so clean with great food and great coffee. We went twice on this trip. The first time we got coffee and a snack (yogurt parfait for me and a blueberry muffin for Ryan) and before we left town, we had lunch: southwest protein bowls. We remembered them from last year and loved them.

                This year we had dinner at Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen in Mount Hope, about 15 minutes away from Berlin. We went with our friends, and the guys got the buffet. They loved it. I got cheeseburger soup, and it was so tasty!!

                The one other place Ryan and I checked out this time was Mission Thrift. We found some fun things there! The thrift store was very well organized, and it felt pretty clean! We would go back, and we’d love to check out some of the other thrift stores around there. (Why is thrifting more fun when it’s really far from home?)

                There are so many other stores in Holmes County, and maybe one day we’ll have enough time there to check out even more! But these were some of our favorites from this trip!

Wednesdays in the Word: Trust, Do, Dwell

 

Late last year, a conversation I had with a friend led me to schedule one morning a month as a time of concentrated prayer and communion with the Lord as part of my work. I call it “Jesus and Jammies,” because I have absolutely no intention of getting out of my jammies for these mornings. I have every intention of hunkering down at home, avoiding texts, phone calls, and emails, and simply being with Jesus. Studying the Word. Praying. Seeking His heart for the trajectory I take in my role at the church.

                This past Monday was my first Jesus and Jammies morning, and I decided to set the tone of my heart by spending some time in Psalm 37, studying verse 3.

                Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

                I learned so much and felt like the very words of this verse were perfect for a day of seeking God’s desire for the days ahead in my job.

                This verse, and the couple that follow, are frequently extracted as stand-alone quotes, but as I studied, I learned much by coupling it with the verses I studied the last couple of weeks. These words are the do this to the first two weeks of not that.

                The first verses talked about not fretting or being envious because of those who don’t do what is right. But you’ve probably learned, the same as I have, that anytime you remove a behavior from your life, you would do well to replace it with something else. And this third verse is the something else.

                We start by trusting in the Lord. These were words I knew but sure appreciated as a reminder, as I think about the days to come. Nothing ominous looms (to my knowledge) but all work, in or out of a church setting, depends on trusting in the Lord. It’s very true for me in the things I’m planning and designing. As I do them, I need to trust God for the ideas, the people, and the outcome.

                But if you think about these words in relation to what we learned the last couple of weeks, it might be fastest to say don’t put your ultimate trust in people, because they aren’t consistent or trustworthy, but God is. Trusting in Him is a worthwhile use of time.

                Then…we do good. I read this quote in a commentary – “The best way to keep the mind from fretting is to always be engaged in doing good, to occupy the mind in something useful.” It’s so true. Rather than spending all our hours wringing our hands about the things that bring fretting, take that time and put it to good use.

                Dwell in the land. Goodness, when things aren’t going well, it’s easy to want to run away to greener pastures, isn’t it? (I say this to myself, because winter hasn’t been going well, and I’ve been asking Ryan if we can move to the tropics!) What would it look like to dwell (joyfully!) in the place God has given us and do all the good we can in that very place?

                The last part of this verse can look very different, depending on your translation of the Bible. I study from the ESV and it says “and befriend faithfulness.” Other translations say things like “and be fed” or “enjoy safe pasture” or “cultivate faithfulness.” After doing some digging, I found that the bottom line is that when we are focused on trusting God, doing the good we can do, and staying in the land of promise God has given us, we will find that we’ll live by His faithfulness and provision. We’ll feed on His truths and offerings and not have to worry about our needs being met.

                And so, as I make my way through this week – and the weeks to come – I am turning my heart toward trusting, doing, and dwelling. I’ll leave the rest to God. He will take care of the wrongdoers. He will take care of my needs. He will take care of the outcomes. My job is to trust, do, and dwell!

Tuesday Tales: Marriage for Life

 

This year marked the second time Ryan and I have attended the Marriage for Life Conference in Holmes County, Ohio!  Our friends have gone for several years, and last year they invited us to go along! We said yes and were so glad we did. It was an easy yes for this year, even though we (okay, I) got a little nervous the closer we crept to the weekend, because the forecast did not look that great!

                The conference has been around for almost twenty years now, and it has grown significantly over the years. The main conference is held in Berlin, Ohio (Holmes County) and they offer several date options! Each conference is identical in content, but you can choose if you want to go Friday night/Saturday morning or Saturday evening/Sunday morning. (This year they also added a Thursday night/Friday morning for one of the weekends.) It’s just overnight, with the hopes that this makes it doable for parents of small kids who have to find childcare. Donors help keep the cost down, so the charge for each couple is as minimal as possible.

                Last year they also added a weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, and we heard at this year’s conference they’re looking at other locations, too!

                Ryan and I headed out mid-morning on Friday and had a great day to travel.

                This year’s speakers were Dave and Ashley Willis, who have written several books and have a podcast on intimacy. The first session (on Friday night) gave several ideas about how to do marriage even better. I should pause here to say that Ryan and I were surprised at how many people asked us if we were okay when we said we were going to a marriage conference. Many of them equated a trip to a conference with a crumbling marriage and hoped we weren’t struggling. So I want to say…we are doing great! But we also believe in investing in our marriage and learning skills to keep right on doing great! This session gave us some of those tools!

                We sat with our friends and all of us stayed for the Newlywed Game. You might remember that last year we were contestants for that game, and I was most relieved it did not happen again. (Ryan was sad.) It was a lot more fun to watch other people play!

                Saturday morning, we went in for session two, which was on intimacy. I was impressed that they were able to teach on a delicate topic with such care.

                We had a break and then the final session was on the power of words. It was a powerful session – for marriage and for life in general!

                Last year after the session, we hung around to meet the speaker, but this time we wanted to get on the road so we could try to get home before the bad weather began.

                Each year features a different speaker, but we are looking forward to next year already! If you have a chance to attend, we highly recommend! (The couples ranged in marriage time from 27 days to 52 years, so it's literally for everyone!)