Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

Welcome to the first Sunday in October! Ryan and I have been taking full advantage of the beauty of fall this week. It’s felt and looked like fall around us – how about where you live?

                Here’s a peek at our week!

Last Sunday I stayed at church for a baby shower after the morning service. At our church, showers for second babies (and following) are usually diaper showers! It was fun to hang out with this class that I haven’t gotten to talk with much lately. Ryan came on home to get a start on the football festivities – ha!

While at church on Sunday, one of my Bible study friends gifted me this mug and a beautiful, handwritten note, thanking me for praying alongside her about some big stuff in her life. I will treasure that note always, and I immediately washed the mug so I could drink out of it first thing Monday morning while I did my Bible reading!

Ryan had his first leadership team retreat at work this week. (He’s new to this team.) They did a carry-in lunch, so Tuesday night he set up camp in the kitchen and put together the most beautiful berry trifle dessert. We’ve made this many times, but he wanted to do all the work for it this time. I made him get a picture with it!

Wednesday evening we went to visit Mom and Dad, and Ryan took a new picture of Dad and me. Dad’s had a pretty rough go of it lately, and it’s hard sometimes to watch him struggle. The early part of this week was particularly hard for him, so to see him acting a little more like himself that evening was good for the soul.

Fun trivia fact: I have a matching outfit with several people in our church. Different outfits with different people, but I can think of at least four matches. One of them is this blue shirt that Julie and I both own. We don’t usually wear them on the same day, but it happened this week! So of course, we had to get a picture!

Friday night was our 166^th monthiversary, and we had a fun date! (Tried to make up for the last couple of months when the celebration was maybe too low-key. I will tell you more about it this week, but we went to an apple orchard for a fun concert night, and we had the best time. It was really good! (Also really good that we did not hit any of the deer we saw while out and about.)

Yesterday was the perfect fall day, and we took a bike ride in the afternoon! It was gorgeous out there, and we only saw a couple of people out on the trail, so we had it mostly to ourselves! (And I was able to procrastinate my homework a while longer…but I finally did it.)

PS  - Happy engagementversary, Ryan! Thanks for choosing me! I choose you right back!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                Good morning! Ryan and I are in the middle of a celebratory weekend in our world. Monthiversary yesterday and engagementversary tomorrow! I’m very thankful for what both of these represent and the length of time attached to each now! I’ll tell you more about our fun next week. But for now…enjoy these links!

I’ve never tried drying orange slices before, but I do think it would be fun to try – for simmer pots and Christas garland, especially. Yvonne wrote a very detailed post here about how to do it. She offers multiple methods, gives some extra hints and tips, and even shows how different kinds of oranges yield different color results when dried. If you’re looking for a little project for fall or winter, give her suggestions a try!

I’ve told you before about my fascination with Appalachian Trail stories. THIS ONE might just take the cake. This guy held the record for being the oldest thru-hiker…when he was in his 80’s. Then his friend took his title. So he took it back – AT NINETY-ONE! I am not sure I could complete it now. At 91???

One of my favorite things we have done to the outside of our home since living here is adding string lights to the front and back porches. We love the soft light they give, and there’s just something about string-lights that make a home look a little happier. This post gives several ideas of how to use string lights outside your home if you’re looking for ideas!

I’ve shared on the blog before about prayer Bibles, but this was a new version I’d not seen before! Prayer Bibles are regular Bibles that you add tabs to, corresponding to themes you might want to study. I make them for our deacons, focusing on themes they might find helpful as they tend to congregational care. But one of the ladies in my Bible study sent me this idea to make one using The Lord’s Prayer as a model for the tabs. I love this idea!

Need some dress ideas for fall? I like so many of these because they don’t feel too heavy and hot. I love clothes that look like the appropriate season without causing me to sweat to death in the process. Lots of options from lots of stores, thanks to Audrey’s searching skills!

This is a totally random video that I actually watched for work purposes, but it was really entertaining, so I’m sharing it here. I oversee church hospitality, so I’m currently pondering how we can improve our visitor/new attender processes. There is a book I have on my to-read list called 52 Churches in 52 Weeks. It’s written by a guy who visited a different church every week for a year. He wrote about his experiences, and in this video, he shows the gifts he received at these churches. The video is about a half hour, he has a dry (but funny!) sense of humor and WOWSA. Some of the gifts. Really something. I’ll just leave it at that.

Friday Fun: September Randoms

BONUS: Did any of you notice that yesterday's picture at the start of the blog said Friday Fun instead of Throwback Thursday? I guess I was REALLY excited for the weekend. So welcome to the SECOND Friday of the week here on the blog. Oh, bless my heart.  

At the end of 2025, Callie wrote this post as a structured roundup 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 have written posts with this theme each month so far this year, and I’m back again to share September’s (even though it’s now October)!

Best Personal Adventure: I completed my first class in my new educational program! To be fair, it was an online class, and the last week was “just” turning in a paper, so I personally finished up a few days early, but that was the official end of the class. I learned so much more in those 8 weeks than I could have imagined I would, and I am already implementing what I’ve learned! I had a two week break and then launched into my second class, which will be my final one for this calendar year.

Best Adventure Together: I loved our day-of-reunions that I just told you about this week. I was so excited to have a whole day with Ryan after several days of the divide-and-conquer life, and I enjoyed what the reunions represented.

Best Milestone: I don’t think we had any milestones this month, so I’ll borrow Mom’s birthday as the best milestone. 90 years is pretty amazing!

Best Faith Grower: For the past year, my friend Jenn (from church) and I have worked our way through The Bible Recap and a read-the-Bible-in-a-year adventure. We completed it this month, and even though it was not my first time to read through Scripture (ever or in a year) it was my first time to explore this with someone else, and it was SO encouraging to me to see her growth and depth of understanding as we went! She had good questions, some of which I did not know, so I was challenged to learn as we went!

Best Lesson Learned: I’m not sure this one really classifies as a lesson learned, as much as a lesson remembered. I was reminded this month that I never regret taking time to take the pictures. I do regret NOT taking them sometimes. I’m sure it boggles your mind that there might ever be a time the shutter is not snapping over here, but it does happen. And every now and then, after I’ve either chickened out or spaced out, I regret it later. So I’m freshly reminded to make (and capture) the memories.

Best Purchase:  This mirror from Hobby Lobby was the very best find of the month. I am so glad we went back for it, because I’m convinced it was meant to live in our house, right in the very little spot where it hangs.

Best Habit Created: I am the world’s worst flosser. My teeth are tight, and flossing on the regular is a hassle. But I am determined to make it a daily habit and did it every single day this month. That has to be some kind of record for me!

Best New Recipe: I have (on my 50 Before 50 list) a desire to bake my way through the Unsifted website – all fresh milled flour recipes. So this month I tried the Cinnamon Coffee Cake, which Ryan took to GriefShare. It was really good, and the bonus was that it made 2 round cakes, so I froze the second cake in single serving packages so we can have them in the future for treats!

Best Tradition: We hosted Swiss Village boat rides again this month, and the people had a lot of fun. We had a perfect day and many repeat visitors!

Best Little Luxury:  Ryan and I have used over-the-counter teeth whitening strips before and they didn’t work great for us. I couldn’t handle all the overflowing gel, and he just didn’t feel like they worked for him. So earlier this year, he did an official whitening kit through his dentist – with a custom tray for his mouth and everything. It has been really effective, so I asked my dentist about one too! (That was a whole story that I should tell you sometime. It was pretty funny!) I dedicated this month to it and was extremely pleased with the results. Now it’s just a maintenance thing for me.

Best Date:  I loved our Labor Day bike riding date! It was so much fun to enjoy the trail – almost entirely to ourselves – and spend some time together on our day off!

Best Answer to Prayer: This is always an awkward one for me to answer because sometimes they aren’t things I really want to share in a public forum. This month is such a month, but I will say that I was more intentional about writing down my prayer requests this month and therefore I was better able to see just how many beautiful answers come to these prayers. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that answers really happen, because I don’t always record them!

Before you go…happy monthiversary, Ryan!! Love you!

Friday Fun: Reunions for Days, Part 2

 

A couple of days ago, I told you about our trip to Ryan’s family reunion. When we left that, we ran a few errands, and then it was time for my thirtieth high school reunion. I have absolutely NO idea how this happened.

                I like to think I look a little better than I did when I graduated.

                The main part of the evening was held at Blondie’s Cookies in Greentown. It’s an old drugstore-turned-restaurant-turned-fireplace-store-turned-event-center. It’s a really cool space, and I hadn’t been in it since the restaurant days. Our class president and some of the other ladies from our class did a great job decorating.

                We have only lost one classmate (that we know of, anyway) in thirty years, so they had made a memorial table for him.

                A local catering company provided our dinner, and the dessert table included cake and (of course!) Blondie’s cookies!

                Ryan and I sat at a table with my friend Amber, who has been part of my life story since story hour! I was so glad she came. Also at our table (which we named The Kids’ Table) was a guy named Brad.

                Ryan won a prize when he found the hidden star under his chair.

                Some more of the evening and photo booth fun!

                After the main part of the evening, we had the option to drive over to the high school and tour our old stomping grounds. We decided to go!

                Look who I found in the hall!

                He was excited to see the updated (much nicer!) wrestling room.

                This performing arts center did not exist when we were in school. Our musicals were in the cafetorium. 😉

                Found my locker from junior year.

                I also got a picture with Dad’s old classroom.

                The pool is a lot nicer than when we were in school.

                And this extra gym was not even a thought in anyone’s mind when we were students!

                We had a great time and I’m so glad we went. We’ll see if Ryan’s class has a reunion next year!