Friday Fun: July 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 July!

Best Personal Adventure: Ryan went with me to this, so hopefully it still qualifies as a personal adventure. 😊 I spoke at Steele Farms’ Flower Patch this week, and it was a delightful adventure. I loved preparing for it. I loved seeing the women there have such a great time. I loved what I learned in the process. It was the sweetest. Recap coming next week!

Best Adventure Together: Though these weren’t big and grand, I think our best adventure together this month was all the fun we had working on little projects for the house! I told you about them already, but Ryan recovered dining room chairs and my little footstool – and he sealed all the concrete on our porch and patio. I worked on adding/reconfiguring wall art in a variety of rooms and dreaming for some projects to come. We love investing in our home, and we did more of that this month than we’ve done in a while!

Best Milestone: Two gospels down, two to go with the handwriting! I finished writing the book of Mark this month and leapt into Luke. I think I’ll be in Luke until October and then I’ll be on the home stretch. This really has been one of the best commitments I’ve made in terms of marinating on Scripture in ways I’ve not seen before.

Best Faith Grower: As I shared in my Saturday Suggestions last week, I read the book Lead With Prayer and it was transformative and convicting for me. I learned that while there’s nothing bad or wrong with my current prayer life, it could be so much more, and I want it to be so much more. Implementing what I’ve learned has been such a good practice for me, and I am excited to see God at work!

Best Lesson Learned: When I went to my orientation week for school, I was NOT expecting to stay in a room that had only two-prong plugs. My computer and other things require a three prong plug, and of course, I’d left our traveling plug adapter at home in another suitcase. It never occurred to me I’d need it! Lesson learned: ALWAYS travel with a plug adapter.

Best Purchase: Ryan’s new office at work shares a thermostat with several other offices. He is not the controller of the temperature, so it is always, always hot in there. Like it is so hot that it’s uncomfortable to the point of feeling sick on the hottest days. And we had a lot of hottest days this month. One day, whilst scrolling Facebook, a post popped up from Trista Sutter. You know – the original Bachelorette? I don’t follow her, but this post popped up anyway and it was a curated Amazon list of what she was buying her son for her dorm room. I noticed a fan on the list, so I clicked on it. She said it was touted to be an amazing cooling device for un-air-conditioned dorm rooms. I sent the link to Ryan with full disclosure that I’d been influenced and had no idea if it was really any good. He was desperate, so he bought it, and it turns out it’s worth the hype! In fact, it was so good that one of his coworkers (on the same thermostat) bought two for her office! (Note: The exact one he bought won't pop up for us anymore, but this one is almost the same. His is black, this one is white, and his has 8 speeds, and this one has 5. Otherwise it appears to be the same.)

Best Habit Created: This was also born out of the book Lead with Prayer! I have been intentional about creating new prayer habits in my life – especially going to sit in our church sanctuary and pray at length. I still have some work to do in refining this, but I am thankful for what I have seen and done so far.

Best New Recipe: This month felt like a recipe fail to me. Not because I messed up anything I tried, but because most of our meals consisted of cobbled-together-whatever-I-could-find or trusty old recipes, but I did like this new-to-me chicken salad that had grapes in it. I’m not usually one to put grapes in chicken salad, but this was a good one! I would absolutely make it again.

Best Tradition: We didn’t really have any true traditions this month, since our 4^th of July celebrations look so different now that we have a dog in our lives. But I’m still going to list this as our best tradition, because we did get to enjoy a proper weekend. We had lots of fun at home, time outside, and for that, it felt like a good holiday.

Best Little Luxury:  Speaking of time at home and outside, I’m going to name “living at the lake” as our best little luxury for the month. Most of the people who live on our lake are here year-round. The HOA has a rule against short term rentals, so we don’t have that kind of traffic, but we do have a small handful of houses that are second homes for families. They come in on weekends throughout the summer, and then they head back to their regular lives for the week. Every time I see them pack up to leave, I’m reminded that it’s a privilege to get to stay all week long. Years ago, on an episode of Beachfront Bargain Hunt (or some such show) I heard the buyer say, “I get to live where you vacation.” That stuck with me, and I try to always hold extra gratitude in my heart that this is our year-round view.

Best Date:  I probably don’t have to even say this one out loud. You know. THE DAVID PHELPS CONCERT!!! Ryan knew my month had been challenging, and he surprised me with this beautiful date. We had the best time. Like I think even RYAN had the best time! It was wonderful in every single way, and I loved it that Ryan was so thoughtful.

Best Answer to Prayer: So far, anyway, it seems that the new school program I chose is a better balance fit for my life. I am learning, I still have time for my job and my life, and I am thankful.

Now…let’s see what August has to offer this list!

Travel Thursday: Not Every Vacation is Amazing

 

                Remember last week when I reminisced about our RV trip out west? We had so many amazing adventures on that trip, hung out with the best people, and fell deeply in love with RV travel. If I had to rank our birthday trips (which is nearly impossible to do) it would probably be one of the top contenders.

                And then there was the following year, which I honestly think might have been our least favorite birthday trip ever. (And it was our tenth trip, so that’s sad. Tenth trips should be extra special!)

                That was the year we left WillowBridge and moved to Bluffton. We didn’t have jobs yet, Lexi was a baby, and we felt like it might be a little bit irresponsible to take a big trip. So we planned a two-day-one-night trip to see the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. And then…we brought our godson home for a weekend, and while he was with us, his mom had emergency surgery and wasn’t able to take care of him for a few days. So a weekend visit to our house turned into a whole week, and we moved our trip to the next week.

                We do have one fun fact about our destination: our first annual birthday trip had been to the Creation Museum, and they were in the early stages of either planning or building the Ark Encounter at that time. One decade later, we made this our destination!

                I do remember that our drive over was super rainy and gross. Kind of set the tone for the whole trip! I was also sick with a cold, so I felt about like the weather.

                Our first stop? IKEA in Ohio! We had fun shopping and – napping. Yes. Ryan can fall asleep in stores.

                We stayed in an Airbnb. It was a tiny one-room cottage that was part of a grouping of cottages on the grounds of an event center. This was post-pandemic, when people were still really into cleaning, and this one was SO clean, it reeked of chemicals. But it was cute. I did make this note in our scrapbook and I giggled reading it:

                “I did have to get a picture of the exit map for the room. I thought it was hilarious that they gave us directions ON THE BACK OF THE ONLY EXIT for how to get out. ‘You are here.’ Two inches from the exit.”

                We arrived at the Ark before it opened and got in pretty quickly. We learned a lot as we walked through and read. There were many interesting ideas of how life during the flood might have gone.

                We visited their little zoo, but we were there right before the main season began, so I don’t think all the animals were on display.

                We got our obligatory photo.

                And that was a wrap on that trip! Less than 48 hours out! Despite this going down as my least favorite of our trips, I’m glad we went to see the Ark. And we did have fun and collect stories.

Wednesday in the Word: Beautiful Creation

 

I’ll tell you more about my beautiful night at Steele Farms next week, but may I just say we had the perfect weather for enjoying the Flower Patch? The sunset…the gorgeous flowers…it was just amazing.

                At the end of my short message, I invited all the ladies to walk slowly through the flowers and just enjoy. Appreciate. Consider the beauty of the flowers God created and consider the Creator of the flowers.

                I took my own challenge and made my way slowly though the rows of all sorts of flowers. I only know about three of the names, but I know their beauty. I inspected the fragile petals and marveled at the intricacy of it all. I watched them blow in the breeze, and I didn’t miss the chance to admire a proper Midwestern sunset.

                And as I did all these things, I kept thinking about Job 38. I’ve been thinking about those words as I’ve studied Beth Moore’s summer series on Job. This chapter is God’s answer to Job – and He walks Job through creation and reminds him that he wasn’t there for ay of that. It was all God’s work.

                What must it have been like to watch all these beautiful, colorful, magnificent flowers come into existence? As gorgeous as The Flower Patch is (and it is…) it’s nothing compared to the perfection of Eden and the original, perfect flowers created at the beginning of this earth’s time.

                I went back to read Job 38 again last night (and you should too, if you haven’t read it for a while!) and found myself in awe of our magnificent Creator God. The power, might, splendor, and majesty of all that He made is beyond my comprehension, but I never want to lose the wonder of it all.

                It’s been a hot summer, and I feel the draw of air conditioning as much as (maybe more than) most people. But if you haven’t gotten to spend some time outside, enjoying and appreciating the beauty of what God made, I encourage you to make some time for it. Let it soak into your soul. Worship the Lord in the splendor of the world He spoke into existence.

Tuesday Tales: Swiss Days

 

Ryan and I had a fun date Saturday! This weekend was Swiss Days – the big festival in Berne every year. Two summers ago, he drove a golf cart for Swiss Village, and I walked with LifeWise. Last summer, Ryan walked with Swiss Village, and I didn’t have an assignment, so I sat on the sidewalk and watched. I decided that was the worst, so this year Ryan and I walked the parade together for Swiss Village.

                We were quite thankful that it wasn’t AS hot as it has been, but when you’re hanging out in a parking lot, waiting to begin, it’s still hot!

                At last, the parade began! The route was a little under a mile, and we handed out candy as we went.

                Toward the end, we found some of our church friends. I was so excited to see people I knew!

                We stayed to have dinner from the food trucks. We had wraps that were really more like quesadillas. We were both impressed.

                You know what my favorite part was? We made our way to this grassy area to eat our dinner. Just planned to sit on the grass, but when we walked up, a gentleman offered us seats in his folding chairs. He told us that every year, he comes to the festival on the first day, brings his chairs, and then shares them with people throughout the weekend. We sat and talked with him while we ate, and it was the best time. I decided that having a folding chair ministry is a great idea.

                You know what my least favorite part was? As I walked away from the food truck clutching my dinner, I looked up and STRAIGHT into the lens of a TV camera. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I mean, is it really anyone’s best day when they’re waddling away from a food truck at a festival, after sweating through a parade?

                You can bet your bottom dollar that come Sunday morning, about 5:30 a.m. I was scouring that TV station website to find their coverage of the thing.

                Found it.

                Thankfully she didn’t get the food-clutching waddle. Or she chose not to share it. We were safely turned the other direction, yapping a mile a minute when she found us.

                Our one festival for the year – checked off!

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                How in the world are we back around to Monday again already?? Last week went so much faster than I imagined it would. Whew! Thought I’d share with you some of the fun things we enjoyed for dinner! I don’t think I made a single “real” recipe this week. It was all about cobbling together what we had until we could do a proper grocery run – which we finally did by the end of the week.

Monday: Chicken and Broccoli

What We Enjoyed: We did NOT enjoy being almost out of groceries. The week before had made it impossible to get to the grocery store, so this meal was a combination of what we found in the freezer. The last two little pieces of chicken and some steamed broccoli. It wasn’t the most glamorous meal ever, but it sure does pay to have something fast and easy in the freezer!

Tuesday: Brisket and Broccoli

What We Loved: Speaking of things in the freezer, I remembered we had a brisket in the deep freeze, so I tossed it in the slow cooker – and before I knew it, the house smelled amazing. To be fair, it smelled a little less amazing once I cooked the broccoli, but it was a tasty meal – with leftovers!

Wednesday: Taco Salad

What We Loved: Still hadn’t had time to go to the store, so we ran to the local market for some ground beef and made taco meat. We used up some mixed greens, salsa, and cheese we had on hand, sprinkled some chips on top, and had taco salad.

Thursday: Leftover Taco Salad

What We Loved: Who doesn’t love leftovers!?! I made dinner and then I made a grocery list!!!

Friday: Dairy Queen Burger

What We Loved: We don’t do Dairy Queen often, so this burger was a rare treat for us. Ryan was Subway-ed out.

Saturday: Wicked Wraps

What We Loved: We went to the Swiss Days parade and grabbed dinner before we left. I don’t know if the Wicked Wraps food truck was new there this year or if we just hadn’t seen it before, but we liked it. Ryan got a chicken bacon ranch wrap (which is more like a quesadilla) and I chose BBQ chicken. So good.

Sunday: Taco Tots

What We Loved: Still finishing up the taco meat! I had a few tots under mine, and it was pretty tasty!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

I wrote on Instagram this week that July has been my least favorite month this year. It feels a bit like a misrepresentation to say that, because there have been SO MANY beautiful and fun moments throughout this month. They aren’t lost to me. But there have been a lot of challenges too – on every front. But of all the weeks in this least-favorite month of mine, this one was probably the best! We squeezed in a lot of fun and saw a BUNCH of friends. Want to take a peek?

                I did not feel great on Sunday…probably worn down from traveling and not sleeping well while I was away at orientation. After church, I laid down on the couch and slept for FOUR HOURS. It was amazing. Pretty sure Ryan slept almost that long! It was a proper day of rest, and we appreciated it!

                Monday night, we had so much fun, as I told you about a couple of days ago! Our friends from church came over for a sunset cruise, and we just had the best time with them. They have a new little puppy that has only lived at their house for about a month, and they brought him along for his first boat ride. He thought he was big stuff next to Lexi, even though he was about ¼ of her size!

                I had a grand day of writing and planning for events at church. It filled my heart to overflowing! I love it when I have enough uninterrupted hours to get completely lost in the zone and turn out a lot of work in a short amount of time. I wrote prayers and talks and sermons and accomplished so much. Ryan was a gem and represented us at a meeting so I could keep going while the inspiration flowed. (It’s always risky to stop during inspiration. Never know when it will return in full force!)

                I haven’t seen Lynnette in TOO LONG, but she and her daughter were traveling through our area this week and I had the flexibility in my day to meet them for lunch and a little bit of a hangout, so that was a beautiful gift! We went to a coffee shop for lunch (and coffee, for me) and it was the perfect weather for eating outside. A couple of hours later, I left with a very full heart tank!

                This week really must have been my week to see friends, because I had a little Mary Kay party at my house on Thursday night and had a tiny group come in to hang out and play with makeup! That was so fun! And after everyone left, Ryan and I sat on the back patio and drank coffee while we watched the sunset. It was pretty glorious!

                Ryan was on grill master duty at work Friday. Every year Swiss Village does “Gipfel and Grill” during Swiss Days. (Tours and brats.) Ryan grilled the brats, danced to the music, and answered a ton of questions – the king of multitasking! I was able to stop by on my way home from the church and had a brat while I watched him work. Made my heart so happy!

                Yesterday was the Swiss Days parade, and Ryan walked in it, representing Swiss Village. Last year I went alone while he was in the parade. I vowed never to go to a parade alone again. It was not a fun experience for me. So this year he invited me to walk with him! We handed out candy and waved – and looked like a walking billboard for our high school, whose colors were also green and gold. LOL!