Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments from the Week

 

            This week has been full of many memorable moments, the majority of which were learning related and didn’t translate into photos. I sat with my journal the other night and typed out lesson after lesson I learned (or began to learn) this past week. I treasure those rich experiences, even if they aren’t scrapbookable. But, happily for both the scrapbook and blog, we also had some beautiful moments captured in photos! Enjoy…

As I shared with you a couple of days ago, I was unprepared for the overwhelming joy in my heart on our first day back in our sanctuary. It was a beautiful, meaningful, worshipful service, and though that entire day was a full-to-overflowing workday for me, this start to the day was deeply significant. Ryan and I were so tired by dinnertime that we slept instead of eating, but I don’t remember the last time I felt so fulfilled at the end of the day.

Lexi saw the Amazon truck pull up and barked at it with all her might. I called her back from the window, and she plopped her little rear end down next to me, and looked up into my eyes, proud as punch for saving me from a package drop on the porch. She stayed beside me forever, randomly looking up to say, “Mom, I just saved your life. You need me.” She makes me laugh every single day.

The last several days have been bitterly cold and filled with much snow and ice. While snow is pretty, I don’t feel like the days as a whole have been the most beautiful lately. But one night this week, as Ryan and I drove (slowly) out into the country to visit some people from church, we witnessed this stunning sunset. I love my lake sunsets with my whole heart, but when you live in Amish country, there isn’t a bad sunset out there. Barns and windmills and gorgeous views everywhere…I just loved it. I also loved our time with the ones we visited. Getting to know each other better, getting to talk with their kids, getting to pray with them…that was as much a gift as the sunset.  

This photo isn’t the best quality or composition, but that’s because I snapped it from a video! As we sat down to dinner one evening, Ryan called out to me, “DEER!” Oh how I adore it when the deer make their way close to the house. They normally stay farther back – toward the tree line – but every now and then, they venture closer. Lexi was upset that we made her stay back, but if she caught sight of them, she’d have barked until they ran away. (Remember the package delivery?) I adored watching them run through the snow. What a gift!

I have done some hard-core studying this week in some books I’ve been tackling. SO much note-writing has taken place, and it has also been a gift to be able to burrow beneath a warm, fuzzy blanket and tackle these projects. Winter was made for reading. And Lexi was made to be my helper.

It’s no secret that I love scrapbooking, and here is one reason why I love it. One day this week, while scrolling Facebook memories, I saw that I had been to visit my friend Julie…fifteen years ago. As soon as I saw the memory, I remembered that weekend. Jonathan was out of town at a winter youth retreat, and I came to spend the night with Julie and their daughter, and then I went to church with them the next day. Who would ever have thought that fifteen years later, I’d live here and go to that church and be part of that staff? I whipped out the scrapbook to show Ryan the memories of that weekend. What a fun time we had!

Ryan and I also enjoyed a date night filled with a new-to-us place to eat and some thrifting. Though the week was good in almost every way, it had also been busy and long, so a night out together was a welcome gift.

We knew when we moved into this house that a handful of things had an undetermined amount of life left in them. One of those was our water softener. It was a relic to behold, but it was ambling along okay at the time. In recent weeks, we’ve dumped more salty pots of coffee than we care to talk about, and the same is true for tumblers full of water that had to go…so we knew it was time to replace the softener. The new version is about half the size of the old one, so Ryan was able to take out one of the curtains we used to cover the softener area. Now we can open the dryer door all the way, and the small half bath/laundry room combo feels so much bigger! Upgrading a water softener may not feel like a fun home upgrade, but we sure are happy with the performance and size of the new one!

And finally…we hosted our small group this week. It was a small group of small group (did you follow that?) but we enjoyed getting to welcome them into our little wintry space for food and fellowship.

And that’s a wrap for this week! Come back next Sunday for some more memories and stories.