Tuesday Tales: Seder Meal

 

This past Saturday night our small group had a Seder meal together. This is not the first time we’ve shared such a meal together, and every time, it teaches me something new.

                Though we aren’t Jewish, we appreciate the tradition, order, and commitment to retelling the stories that are present in this fellowship-oriented meal.

                Julie always sets a beautiful table, and this time was no exception. I snapped this picture right before we began, so the candles weren’t lit yet, but I wanted to remember just how perfect it was!

                Jonathan led the meal, though all of us participated at different points in the evening.

                (I took this one as we did the handwashing part of the evening – so I could get the candles in the picture.)

                I loved listening to the different sections of Scripture, remembering together all that God did for His people, appreciating the symbolism that pointed to Christ, and enjoying time with our friends.

                Though this isn’t what the Seder is about, the meal also pushed me to remember that this is (I think) the very first meal we shared with our small group four years ago when we had just moved to this community. They invited us to come just days after we had moved into our new house, and it was such a gift. Each time we gather for it again, I’m reminded of how the same God who provided for His people in the days of Moses provided for us in our very own day and time.

                I’m thankful for our friends. I’m thankful for this meal. I’m thankful for how it prepares my heart for Holy Week! It really is the perfect start.

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                We had a good week of cooking here in Shafferland! I was pleased with the things we had – some new things and some tried-and-true favorites. If you’re looking for some ideas for this week, here you go!

Monday: Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies

What I Changed: I did not add the tomatoes (Ryan doesn’t love roasted tomatoes) and added mushrooms instead.

What I Loved: This was pretty easy to throw together…the chopping took the most time. The flavor was excellent! Here is a similar, free recipe.

Tuesday: Sheet Pan Breakfast Hash

What I Loved: This is an easy-to-assemble recipe that is also very filling. We’ve had it several times before, and it’s always a win, especially if you use frozen cubed sweet potatoes. (Here is a similar, skillet version, sans the Brussels Sprouts.)

What I Changed: I added avocado to it before serving. It was kind of like having avocado toast – without the bread.

What I Didn’t Love: We love eating Brussels sprouts, but WHOA. They really stink up the house. We left for a walk after dinner and when we came back home – ugh!

Wednesday: Chicken Salad and Carrots

What I Loved: I had made this before and chose it for this week so Ryan could eat on the go while leading his small group at church. It has a dill flavor to it (both from dill pickle chunks and dried dill) and that makes it just perfect in my opinion. He ate it on bread and I had mine on a bed of mixed greens. (Here is a similar, free version.)

Thursday: Grilled Chicken Thighs and Coleslaw

What I Loved: This is one of our favorite meals to make, but we tend to only make it in warmer weather, because the chicken really is the best on the grill. We’ve made it for lots of company, but this time it was just for us.

Friday: Date Night at Bob Evans

What We Chose: We ended up choosing the same entrée with different sides! We opted for steak tips with mushrooms and onions, and it was so good. I had mine with green beans and fruit and Ryan went for mac n cheese and potatoes with his. It was the first time we’d ever had the steak tips, and we would both get them again. Also – three cheers for a gift card!

Saturday:  Tossed Salad + Homemade Croutons

What I Changed: We had small group Saturday night, and we had a Seder meal together. We signed up to bring salad, so I just did this tossed salad. I made a few adjustments from the recipe: I used mixed greens, because that’s what I always have on hand. I skipped the radishes, because I know not everyone likes them. I also skipped the apple since I wasn’t serving the salad immediately and didn’t want it to brown. I skipped the onion because I wasn’t sure if the group wanted onion breath. I swapped out the cheese for cheddar because it seemed more crowd friendly, and I skipped the bacon because I didn’t have any on hand.

What I Loved about the Croutons: I haven’t made these in YEARS, but I brought it back for the salad, and they were a hit! I used our freshly milled sandwich bread, and I thought that was perfect for these.

Sunday: Chicken Fajita Bowls + Guacamole

What I Loved: I actually made the chicken fajita bowls on Saturday and knew my Sunday self would be so thankful that my Saturday self planned ahead. (I was right!) I had mine over spinach and Ryan had his over chips. I did make the guacamole fresh on Sunday, and it was good! (Here is a free fajita recipe.)

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

                Today is Palm Sunday and so begins a deeply meaningful week for my heart. Though it promises to be busy, I’m looking forward to it – and looking forward to how God meets me in tender ways as I remember what He did for me. As we start this week, I want to show you some memories from the last week that stood out to me!

                Last Sunday we stopped at Walmart on the way home from church, and we learned what happens when Ryan runs in for one thing…hungry! He comes out with a pie and rotisserie chicken. Ha! Lexi was MOST interested in helping him carve the chicken and seemed surprised that he didn’t actually need her help. 😉

                Monday night brought about such a pretty sunset. It’s true that there aren’t bad views on the lake. We love the view in every season and weather. But something about spring colors in a sunset is just extra hope-filled.

                Lexi’s been so cuddly lately. She just moves from one of us to the other, and we love it. I grabbed this picture of her napping with Ryan. (She actually dreamed so hard, she was talking in her sleep and woke him up!)

                I arrived at the coffee shop early for a meeting, so I spent a little time in Bible study, and that was sweet. (Bonus: it was spring break week, so the coffee shop was extra quiet. Not great for the coffee shop, but beautiful for studying!)

                Thursday was gorgeous…until it wasn’t. We went for a walk after work, Ryan grilled our dinner…and then we hunkered down to wait out the storms. Lexi was NOT a fan. I was super grateful the large hail missed our place!

                It’s been a while since I did a hospital visit for work, but Friday was just such a day. I was thankful for a non-stormy day to drive – and for coffee for the drive home. I cranked up the music and had a praise party in the car while I drove!

                Last night we participated in a Seder meal, and it was meaningful. It’s (I think) the third time we’ve done this with our small group, but every time something sticks out to me that I hadn’t remembered or recognized from before, and I love that. This was no exception!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Happy Saturday! I’m bidding farewell to March and eager to welcome April this week. It makes me hope for warmer days. Again. 😊 Today isn’t warmer for sure, so here’s to saying inside and enjoying some fun reads. Here you go!

Ryan and I have far more dreams and ideas for life than we have years in life (even if we had started at birth)! It’s fun to think about different adventures. Some may happen. Some may not. Here is one for the list: The Great American Wheel Route! It’s a bike trail that goes across the United States. Yes, I remember that I had to walk my bike up and down the hills on Mackinac Island, but still, doesn’t this sound like a grand adventure?? Check out the sections!

Here is a “what are the chances???” story…on repeat! It starts with identical twin brothers becoming fathers on the same day, but the similarities keep going. You have to read it to believe it…and it’s still mind-blowing!

You know I love a good home organization plan, right? KariAnne shared her office closet organization, and the whole post made me SO happy. But you know my favorite part? Her acrylic calendar! It is a thing of great beauty. I’ve seen them before, but the link she gave to one similar to hers was one of the best prices I’ve seen!

If you’ve ever considered making a Bible study notebook but aren’t sure how to go about organizing one, read this! It’s very comprehensive, and maybe not all the pieces and parts of the guide will apply to you. But I think you might find some really helpful things in here, so give it a read! I am a huge fan of recording dates of prayer requests and then answers…that’s such a faith booster!

I ran across Leanne’s spring capsule wardrobe ideas and was so glad I did. I own many similar pieces to what she featured, so I had fun creating outfits from my own collection to mirror what she suggested. In a week that was kind of mentally exhausting otherwise, it was nice to have some pre-made ideas waiting on me! Bonus – all her pieces in this post are from Walmart, so they run affordably!

In this tech-laden world, it sure is nice to step away from screens for a hobby now and then. Heidi wrote a whole piece about grandma hobbies you might want to explore. I was particularly excited to find a recipe for homemade lemonade concentrate, since making homemade lemonade is on my 50 before 50 list!

Friday Fun: March 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. I wrote posts for January and February, and now I’m back again for March!

                March was not our favorite month. We had a lot of hard things stack up in one single month – many more than you see here. Despite that, I am proud of us for powering through!

Best Personal Adventure: This feels hard to answer, because I don’t feel like I had any true fun, personal adventures this month. I held on for dear life and powered through. That feels more like survival than adventure to me. But I still need an answer so, I choose to talk about the booklet I created for those who begin attending our church. I rolled it out at our Welcome Lunch at the start of the month, and it was well received. I was proud of the hard work and creativity I put into it, so this is my pick for best personal adventure.

Best Adventure Together: This month was not fraught with fun dates, but we did successfully move both my parents (at separate times) into a new area of Swiss Village that better suits their needs in this season of their lives. It required a lot of decision-making and conversations among the family at large, and Ryan and I did the actual moving. Changes are never easy, and I was so grateful to get to do this together with him.

Worst Milestone: I ended my sixteen-year run of NOT getting stomach-flu-sick. Starting over. Almost a month sick-free.

Best Faith Grower: I teach a new Sunday School class at our church, and at the moment, it’s pretty small. I love that, because it gives opportunity for fantastic discussion. We started doing this course series from The Gospel Coalition, and I not only love personally studying it, but I love what we are learning together as a class. One of the first weeks, we ended up going down a side trail that led me to do this class through the Bible Project, and it was fascinating. (The class had asked me a question about the phrase “heavens and earth” from Genesis 1:1, and I took the class to understand depths of it that I couldn’t fully articulate.)

Best Lesson Learned: Consistency really does matter. At the start of the year, I took a year-long challenge to do ten push ups a day. Ryan and I talked about it at small group one night in early January, which led to me doing my push ups for that day in front of everyone. It was abysmal. Earlier this week I jokingly did them again in front of my friends, and they noticed I’m much faster now! Ten every day doesn’t feel like much, but I have gotten better in three months. (Next month I am focusing on form improvement.) If consistency matters in something as simple as this, what might it accomplish in bigger ways??

Best Purchase: I didn’t do a ton of shopping this month, but I am excited that I found some sleek little water shoes to wear at our baptism service next week. The water shoes I already own are very clunky – almost like hiking shoes. That works fine for playing in a state park, but it’s not a great fit for a baptism service. My new shoes are cute and dainty, and I’m excited about them.

Best Habit Created:  We didn’t do this every night, but we started eating by candlelight more often. I found some unscented beeswax candles that don’t interfere with the dinner aromas, and it’s really soothing and romantic to have dinner by candlelight!

Best New Recipe: This month was about making recipes I knew well…and a few fails thrown into the mix. But I think my new favorite was the Medicine Ball Tea I learned to make after having a version of it at the coffee shop when I was coming down with a cold. I drank it daily for a while and feel like it did help…plus it tasted good!

Worst Tradition: I still don’t love the time change, and if you’ve been reading here lo these many years, you might remember all the years I used to have a countdown on my blog to return to the time changing back. I’ve calmed down from that level of disdain (at least out loud) but I still don’t love it. I feel like the time change was the only tradition we had this month. Fitting for our March, right?

Best Little Luxury: It didn’t stay around consistently throughout the month, but we had enough spring show up that we were able to enjoy several days with the windows open! It was good to air out the house after all the germs – and welcome freshness at the same time.

Best Date: Okay so it might have been our ONLY date this month, but our first-day-of-spring outing to the smash burger place was really fun! It reminded me of that first year we were married and we kicked off spring by going to the root beer stand and out to the park for a date night.

Best Answer to Prayer: We have made it (almost, anyway) through the month. All the sickness, all the moving, all the decisions, all the hard…and we’re still going. Praise the Lord!

Travel Thursday: Where the Birthday Trips Began

 

One thing that always amazes my planner-loving heart is that when Ryan and I first married, we didn’t have a bunch of carefully scripted plans for traditions. Nearly all…if not all…of our beloved traditions you know us to hold so dear just…happened.

                Monthiversaries? We were not intentional about them the first couple of months, though we managed to note them in some way. Then we decided to start counting and we never stopped.

                Our family Christmas trees with ornaments collected from our adventures? Happened by accident on our honeymoon when the souvenir we chose happened to be an ornament.

                Those recreated wedding photos we take every year on our anniversary? Completely random idea pulled from Pinterest ON our first anniversary.

                We didn’t plan ahead, but once we started instituting ideas, they stuck. And one of those was our annual birthday trip. We crafted the idea right around this time of year that first year of marriage. If you’re new here, you might not know that we have birthdays three weeks apart. Ryan’s is in late Apil and mine is mid-May. We decided it would be fun to take a weekender trip between our two birthdays every year. Over the years, the timing of those trips – and their length- changed. Sometimes we took this trip later in the summer and made it a long trip. Sometimes it’s been as short as an overnighter. It has all depended on our vacation time, which has waxed and waned with our job changes over the years.

                But that first trip was a long weekend (Friday-Sunday) that fell smack in between our two birthdays. Today I thought I’d share some fun facts and memories from that first birthday trip.

                We started the chalkboard photo tradition with this trip, and you’ll notice it says we went to Cincinnati. We did not, in fact, ever go to Cincinnati on this trip. We went to the Creation Museum, which is relatively near Cincinnati, but we did not go to this city.

                Right before we left, Ryan gave me my birthday present so I could enjoy it on our trip. It was a new, fancy pants, big girl camera! I still have and use this camera, so I think it’s safe to say it was a good investment.

                This photo was all about playing with my new camera, but it, too, became a tradition. Every year in our birthday trip scrapbook, I have a page called “On the Road with My Baby” (as I titled it in the inaugural book) and I take a photo of Ryan driving.

                When we arrived at the Creation Museum, they did a photo shoot where they added backgrounds for us, and it’s one of the few times in life we did buy the photo package. But the funny part was that I did not know this was going to happen, and I wore a green shirt. And then I stood in front of a green screen. I was missing half my body in all the photos! They were kind enough to put me back together.

                I wrote in the scrapbook, “They also had interesting things about the ark – including a walk through of what a section might have looked like, ideas of how Noah fed all the animals, and a depiction of those who didn’t make it onto the ark.” Who knew, on that day in 2013, that eventually the Ark Encounter would exist, and that would be a different birthday trip in a different year!

                We stayed in a hotel and were on the junior high floor. There was some big junior high group out for the weekend, and I quite literally still remember their wildly energetic chaperone. I named her Pink (because she always wore neon pink) and she was just so so happy so so early in the morning. The photo is my reaction...

                This was my one-and-done ziplining adventure. We went to Dagaz Acres in Rising Sun, Indiana, and this establishment (per the internet) is now permanently closed. This was my idea, in my desire to give Ryan a fun adventure. I was terrified, I did not love it, and I was so happy when it was over. However, I am proud of myself for powering through my fears. And I can’t be angry that the most iconic photo of our entire marriage came from this experience.

                (Note: Our two guides were amazing, and the Lord was kind to arrange it so that Ryan and I were the only two on a tour that could have held up to 14 people. My blood pressure was high, but not as high as it might have been.)

                (Note #2: I still own those pants. They don’t fit so well. Maybe it’s time to let them go.)

                It was prom night in Rising Sun, so when we explored the riverfront after ziplining, we encountered many promgoers in ill-fitting heels. I was so happy to be in comfy clothes!

                We ran into a young guy in the hotel (whilst in the elevator) who told us he was in town to cheer on his parents who were running a marathon. He was from Washington state and his dream for the trip was to eat at Cracker Barrel. We got the biggest kick out of that!

                This trip will always be sweet and special to us, because it began a tradition we’ve continued every year without fail!