Fun Friday: May Randoms

 

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 for May!

Best Personal Adventure: My best personal adventure this month was actually work-related! I completed writing a Sunday School series for the college and career class at church. God put the idea on my heart last year about this time, and I’ve been working on the planning portion throughout the last year. I wrote the actual framework of the series this month and was thrilled as could be with how it all came together! The teachers for that class will present it this summer.

Best Adventure Together: This one was a tie. I loved working with Ryan to bring the exterior of our home to colorful life for the summer! We went to the greenhouses together to choose all our flowers, and then we worked together to plant them (and the garden) and get the boat ready to go back in the water. It was so much fun to spend those days together, and we both love how the house turned out!

I also loved working with Ryan to overhaul our home office (again). It took a long time and created QUITE a mess, but the end result was so pretty. We love it! (If you missed the big reveal post for this room, you can catch it here.)

Best Milestone: Our milestone this month was my birthday, and I loved everything about that day. Ryan made it so much fun for me. I’m thankful for another year of life and the chance to learn and grow in all the ways I have this year! (Recap here, if you missed it.)

Best Faith Grower: This was a hard one for me to answer this month, because I feel like I’m still in the growing. My birthday always feels like a secondary new year celebration (because it IS a new year for me!) and this year I was very purposeful in praying that the Lord would help me just remain open before Him for whatever He needs from me. I love my itineraries, so these open-ended yeses are kind of terrifying and exciting all at once. Just being in that place with the Lord is stretching and growing me, even though He hasn’t actually asked me to do anything new or different! (And He may not!)

Best Lesson Learned: When Ryan took me out for my birthday (to the uber fancy restaurant) the atmosphere there was so much slower than what we’re used to. It was so good for us to be forced to slow down, talk more, and enjoy the evening. In a season of life when I’m working to slow down more overall, this was a needed lesson.

Best Purchase: Ryan bought the spinning bookcase I had on my wish list, and I love it, love it, love it as much in person as I did online! I am so excited it’s part of our home now! (Note: This shelf comes in 1, 2, 3, or 4 shelf versions. I have 3, but if you want one in a different height, you have options!)

Best Habit Created: One of our chapters in the Nehemiah Bible study talked about living in the joy of the Lord. As we talked it over in our group, we discussed ways we can demonstrate the joy of the Lord. I talked about a friend of mine who posts to Facebook almost daily about the ways she’s choosing to praise the Lord for His presence in her life. I said I wish I had the guts to do something similar – to focus on joy. One of the ladies challenged me to actually do it, and I did. I’ve been posting each day since – about what’s bringing me joy that day. It’s been a great exercise for me and has pushed me to look for joy in each day.

Best New Recipe: It feels kind of like cheating, since this feels more like an assembly than a true recipe, but this Chicken Club Lettuce Wrap was the new thing I tried this month that Ryan seemed to like the best. Maybe after a long winter of warm soups and comfort foods, having a fresh-feeling dish was best?

Best Tradition: Before being married, I didn’t really plant flowers much, and I certainly didn’t have a garden. Our first year of marriage, we got a few flowers for the patio, and we’ve done a few more each year since. I feel like I’ve found my footing with it since moving to the lake. Lake houses seem to beg for good flowers. We also started an annual tradition of going to an Amish greenhouse for said plants, because that’s what you do here. So those two things were our best May tradition!

Best Little Luxury:  Having said that about our best tradition…the flowers are also the best luxury for my list this month. I remember years when we simply couldn’t spring for something as frivolous as flowers, and it isn’t lost to me that we are able to dress up the house a little bit with colorful blossoms.

Best Date: Oh hands down, my birthday dinner was our best date! I so appreciated Ryan spoiling me rotten with a super fancy dinner!

Best Answer to Prayer: It may seem like a silly thing, but I was so stressed over our plants that we bought! In our county, you have to shop early or they are gone. So we went on our monthiversary, but the plants had to live in the little seedling trays for over a week and a half. It was so cold, it wasn’t safe to plant them in the ground. By the time we did plant them, despite pulling them in and out of the garage daily, some looked really sad. I literally prayed over those plants – the flowers and the garden plants. And I believe God really did care about each little plant. They all pulled through! It was a great reminder to me that God cares about even tiny things like garden plants.