Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                A quick reminder as we jump into this week’s suggestions, though unfortunately this one is not a suggestion. It’s happening. Time change weekend!! Remember that tomorrow morning or you might end up with an interesting church experience!

Since November begins tomorrow, you may not be thinking about planning bike outings – at least in the Midwest. But I am hanging onto this one for next year, because it looks so fun! A bike trail in Ohio that covers 78 miles – all paved!! And if biking isn’t your thing, maybe you’d rather do this tour of used bookstores in Michigan. (Doesn’t it look GLORIOUS??)

Oh how we need a good laugh now and then, don’t we? Leave it to the Babylon Bee to come through for us! (Should you happen to be unfamiliar with the Bee…it’s satire. Please read it as such!) Anyway. This one made me laugh out loud ALL the way through. Songnals for the win!

As you know, Ryan and I love thrifting, and we decorate our home with many such treasures and finds. It’s true that it can be quite tempting to just buy everything at the thrift store if it’s a good deal catches my eye, but that’s not practical. (And it sort of defeats the purpose of thrifting.) Andrea wrote a great post on how to be intentional about your home décor thrifting. If you need some guidance, check it out!

One of the very first messages I ever shared at our church was about the importance of hiding God’s Word in our hearts, because we never know when we might need to rely on Scripture and not have access to a Bible for one reason or another. I used the example of missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham who were taken into captivity 25 years ago and had no access to a Bible except what they’d memorized. For a whole year, the only Bible they had was what they scribbled down on scrap paper. Elizabeth shares a similar story here that is worth the read and the good reminder!

This was a fun post Audrey created! She writes about how the same pieces of clothing can look very different if you accessorize differently! My only sadness in the post is that she did not actually model the four versions of the outfit. (She just did a vision board of each outfit with accessories.) But it makes me wonder how many more outfits I could create if I tried this!

For Dad’s final hours, I wanted to play piano hymns for him, and I landed on this playlist on YouTube. We played this for almost all of the last 48 hours, starting it over every time it cycled out. It’s a good list if you need some calming background music!

Friday Fun: October 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 to share October’s.

Best Personal Adventure: I finished handwriting the book of Luke! I am on a quest to write all four Gospels by hand this year, so now I’m on to the last one! Luke was the longest book, so I feel like I was in it forever (because I was!). It was an accomplishment to cross that finish line!

Best Adventure Together: We started teaching an elective Sunday School class on marriage! Our church offers elective classes a handful of times each year, and this year Ryan suggested we teach one on marriage, so I wrote it, and we are teaching it together. Our first Sunday was supposed to be Dad’s birthday, but we ended up being with him that day, in his final hours, so we started a week later. We’ll continue this class through the end of November and are so excited about it!

Best Milestone: This one is easy! We celebrated the 14^th anniversary of our engagement! It is still one of my favorite days and is/was one of the easiest and best yeses I’ve ever said. We celebrated this year with a lunch at the burger restaurant I’d wanted to introduce Ryan to, and he loved it as much as I thought he would!

Best Faith Grower: Feeling upheld by the prayers and tangible kindnesses of God’s people taught me in new ways that God does the unexplainable. This is what we are focusing on in our Acts study this fall, and MAN. I am seeing it unfold in real time! I have no way to explain how I was able to minister, give Dad’s funeral message, or offer the message at our church two days later aside from the peace that passes understanding. And that was a faith boost for sure.

Best Lesson Learned: I think this one is really a lesson reminded…but PLAN AHEAD!!! I had worked really hard on Dad’s funeral service and obituary and picture file, and I was so glad I had done all of that because it made the days after his death less logistically stressful for me. I had also worked hard to write the curriculum for our elective class and two sermons, and I was so glad I had done THAT, so all I had to do was deliver them, not construct them, in the days after his passing.

Best Purchase:  These belts! I have had them on my wish list for several years but never made the purchase. I got them right before Dad’s visitation to wear one with my dress. (The thee-pack offers black, brown, and white.) Then I used it with my denim dress for family pictures and just love how well it accessorizes. Another thing I love is that when I add it, I make pocket-less dresses potential outfits for speaking at church. I have to wear a mic, so when I don’t have a pocket or a belt…that dress is out.

Best Habit Created: This month was about survival, not habit creation. Nothing new under the sun in our household this month.

Best New Recipe: The pot roast I shared on Sunday was my favorite thing I made this month. The food was good, but I think it was the nostalgia of eating a “fancy” Sunday lunch that took it up another notch!

Best Tradition: We had our annual pictures taken this month! We had the most perfect night for it, which is always a gamble, since we book our appointment so many months in advance. We learned that our beloved photographer is retiring, so we are sad about that, but we have so enjoyed all the many memories we’ve made along the way with her!

Best Little Luxury:  I mentioned a while back that we thought about getting faux mums for outside. Choosing the ones we wanted about undid us. We looked at dozens of versions online and could not find any that felt right. Then we saw some in Hobby Lobby that we liked (as far as the look) but we didn’t care for the color. Ryan looked at their website and found the color we wanted, so we decided to give them a try. We have loved them! They’re made for the outside, so we have great hope that the intensity of the color will last!

Best Date:  I loved our monthiversary date to the apple orchard. We had perfect weather, the food was good, the music was fun, and it was just good for us to get away for an evening. This was in the thick of my dad’s last days, and we didn’t get away too much! This was good for us.

Best Answer to Prayer: It may seem strange, but I celebrate that my Dad received total and complete healing in Heaven and is no longer struggling on this earth. The last month, especially, of his life, was so hard to watch every single day. The loss of strength and ability, the increased pain and weakness. I hated it for him. I knew he was ready to go and it was an answer to prayer that he completed his race here. Also answers to payer? He lived to the scheduled move with my mom…and he lived to his 94^th birthday…and I made it through officiating his funeral! So many answers in that one story.

Throwback Thursday: Annual Photo Shoot Memories

 

Ryan and I received our gallery back from this year’s annual photo shoot. This has become one of our favorite traditions, and it all started back in 2012, when we had our engagement photos taken – just a couple of weeks after Ryan proposed. His mom took the photos for us – over the course of two evenings. The first night we went to the park in Marion, and the second night she took pictures at the log cabin in the woods. This was one of my favorite pictures, which we used for the newspaper engagement announcements! (Remember those?)

As we approached our first anniversary, we asked Nita to take pictures for us again so we could make a Christmas card. We went out to the cabin and enjoyed a fun photo shoot that yielded this card! I don’t think I ever posted pictures of the full photo shoot, but that might also have been because the whole things was cobbled together – as were many of our first year traditions.

By the following year, we had pulled our act together and went “on location” (ha!) to do a photo shoot. Nita took the pictures again, and this was the year we noticed how hard it was for her to breathe as we trekked around for pictures. We went to Huntington and ended up with some great poses. This is one of my favorites because it makes me laugh. 

So in 2015, we did a photo shoot at home in Marion. We chose the location so Nita wouldn’t have to walk so far, and that was a success. What we didn’t know was that by the next year, we wouldn’t live in Marion anymore, so I treasure that we have these pictures from our house. This one was taken out in our pierogi (pergola) and makes me laugh. 

We had many changes in life by 2016. I was blonde, for one thing! 😊 We lived in Kokomo, and Nita was struggling harder than ever to breathe, so we didn’t feel like we could ask her to do our pictures. My parents’ neighbors had just posted their annual photos, and I loved them, so I asked who took them. She was a college student at Ball State, and she had time to take our pictures for us – if we could travel to Muncie! So we did and had a beautiful location at Minnetrista. She took SO MANY pictures, and this is still one of my favorites.

But college students graduate, so we were in trouble by 2017. I started asking local friends who took their pictures, and that is how we ended up with our beloved Barb! She had some locations near Kokomo where she loved to take pictures, so we had these taken just ahead of our fifth anniversary. This is still one of my favorites EVER taken of us, and Ryan had it turned into wall art for our room.

In 2018, we had pictures scheduled with Barb, and the day we were supposed to meet with her, the forecast was AWFUL. I took a chance asking if she had any other days, and she could get us in one day sooner…which ended up being the last day any pretty leaves were on any trees. I LOVED this gorgeous red tree in the park and am so glad we have a picture with it!! (This was also a day after Ryan’s mom’s brain surgery.)

I had found a fun Christmas card theme for our 2019 photos, so we had some pictures taken in a coffee shop and some in the park. I loved them all, but this is one of the most unique poses we’ve had, and I still love it! 

And then came 2020. Ohhhh the pandemic year. We moved away from Kokomo, landed in Grabill, didn’t have a photographer, and I ate all my feelings! We ended up asking the wife of one of our coworkers to take some pictures for us. She was a hobby photographer and did a great job, but I did not love how I looked or my outfit! So I don’t think I ever posted most of the pictures, but the card did turn out kind of cool. I loved this bridge! 

The next year I fared a little better in self-confidence. We were still at WillowBridge, but we had made friends with one of the counselors at work who liked to take pictures, and she took them for us that year. We had them done on two different nights because it started raining on us the first night! We had so much fun with her, and consequently, we got some great pictures!

By 2022, we lived in Bluffton, had a dog, and needed someone to take our pictures! I learned about Andrew through my sweet friend, Shari, and he met us at our house to take pictures of us with Lexi! Our neighbors tagged along to try to get her to smile, which did work, and then we did some recreation pictures of our engagement poses, since it was 10 years past our engagement! We had so much fun! This is not a picture that features Lexi or a recreated photo, but it is one of my favorites. 

In 2023, we had moved to the lake, farther from Andrew, but closer to Barb, so she reprised her role as our photographer. We had a GORGEOUS night for pictures and had fun exploring trails near home together! 

She came back in 2024, and we did some of our photos on the boat! She said it was the first time she’d ever done a boat session! I loved these so much. Again – the most gorgeous night. It was perfect.

Last year we did a home session again – and I loved it. Lexi had fun with it too. 

And soon…this year’s photo shoot! Here’s a sneak peek…

Wednesday in the Word: Restoration

 

Sometimes the best reminders are right there in familiar verses, and we miss them, because we can’t get past the familiar.

                That’s what happened to me this week. I was reading a Facebook post, of all things, and the writing style was almost like a mini blog post. The writer talked about a season of her life when she felt depleted and she happened upon Psalm 23. She talked about the familiarity of the chapter, but how the line “He makes me lie down…” reminded her of what God wanted to do for her. I decided to go back and read the familiar words, myself, and the line that leapt out to me was “He restores my soul.”

                That’s the part I need right now.

                And I needed the reminder that restoration is HIS work in me, not my own work on myself.

                I need the restoration of confidence, where I’ve believed too many lies about who I am. I need the restoration of strength where I’ve worn myself out with striving. I need the restoration of peace, where anxiety has taken over.

                The words were right there. I know them by heart. But I hadn’t remembered them, and I hadn’t been praying them. Now I am.

                Maybe a restored soul isn’t the thing you need most right now. Maybe it’s not even anything in the entirety of Psalm 23! But I wonder if there is something meaningful hiding in plain sight in a Scripture you know? Look back over some of the ones you know the best. What do you need that’s right there in one of them?

Tuesday Tales: Date Night

 

Last Friday evening, we had a fun date night! I saw that our friend, Brent, was going to be in concert right here in our area, so we decided to go hear him!

                First, we tried out the new Culver’s that just opened on the south side of Fort Wayne. We love Culver’s, but most of our regular shopping areas don’t have one. I happened to notice this one under construction a few weeks ago, but this is the first time we’ve been!

                Shared a Mixer. 😊

                And then we went to the little church where Brent was in concert! We love his music, and whether he plays the ones we know or new ones he’s written that we haven’t heard yet, we love them all so much. This time he played a Norwegian hymn that was just beautiful. I’m going to need him to record that.

                Sam made an appearance too, and I told Ryan later that I think he loves Sam as much as the little kids do. (Ryan said I wasn’t wrong.)

                Brent was highly in demand after the concert, but he took some time to chat with us and to get a picture. Because have we even really been to a Brent concert if we haven’t gotten our picture with him??

                I think I went to my first concert of his about 22 years ago, and I love it that I get to go with Ryan now!

                (And then we went grocery shopping…because have we even gone on a date if we haven’t also gotten groceries?)

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                It’s been a couple of weeks since I cooked anything (other than scrambled eggs), but at the end of last week, I sat down to make a proper meal plan, and yesterday we had what felt like an equally proper Sunday lunch. In honor of that, I thought I’d share a recipe for the first time in forever, and after I share how it nourished the body, I’ll tell you a little story about how it nourished the soul.

Sunday Pot Roast

2 pounds Lean Chuck Roast
½ Onion (diced)
½ Pound Carrots (chopped)
1 Bag Baby Potatoes (quartered)
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
1 ¼ cup Unsalted Beef Broth
2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke

Place roast in bottom of slow cooker. Cover with diced onion, chopped carrots, and quartered potatoes. Sprinkle garlic powder, thyme, and seasoned salt over top of vegetables. Pour beef broth over all ingredients and top with liquid smoke. Cook on low for 8 hours. Enjoy!

                When I was growing up, Mom had a rotation of meals she made on Sundays, and most of them involved a slow cooker. Our church was about a half hour drive from home, so by the time we arrived back at the house, everyone was hungry. Mom would get up early on Sundays, put meals in the slow cooker, and that made life so much happier after church.

                One of those meals? Pot roast with potatoes and carrots. I loved pot roast, though I didn’t particularly love the carrots and potatoes. I ate them because I had to, but meatatarian Bekah really was just there for the pot roast. As an adult, I’ve not made pot roast terribly often, and I’m guessing it was the disdain for the carrots and potatoes that kept me away.

                But in this season of our lives, I’m all caught up in nostalgia, and I find myself craving some of my favorite experiences of life. And one of those happens to be a nice Sunday meal. So I sat down last week and worked to find a recipe that felt like a healthier version of the pot roast I grew up with, made some adjustments, and then I came home from church and set the table like a fancy Sunday lunch deserves. And it was my favorite. (Ryan’s too!)

Here are some of the things I did that made the difference:

*I actually put this meal together super late Saturday night. Just before midnight, I assembled it all in the slow cooker and then I began the 8 hour cooking as we went to sleep. Our slow cooker (we have the gray one) has the beautiful feature of automatically switching over to warm once the cooking is done, so I knew it wouldn’t dry out or burn once it was done cooking, and I also figured the bonus time would make the meat even more tender – which was true!

*The late-night assembly made for an even easier Sunday morning, which I always celebrate. And the house smelled amazing when we woke up and when we came home from church which added to the whole nostalgia thing.

*I decided the thing I didn’t like about the potatoes and carrots when I was growing up was the size of both. Mom would quarter whole potatoes, which are still pretty big. And the carrots were pretty big, too. I don’t know if the texture or flavor got to me more, but I didn’t care for either. Choosing to quarter baby potatoes and chop baby carrots made all these issues disappear.

*Mom always made gravy to pour over the roast, which I liked on the original serving day, but I never liked it for leftovers. The texture always changed. So I skipped all gravy for ours. I just did the broth over the meat and veggies, and I didn’t miss the gravy a single bit.

*We ate ours with some homemade organic bread someone had given us after Dad died, and it reminded me of the homemade dinner rolls Mom used to make. Note to self: make a batch of dinner rolls and freeze them to thaw in small batches for Sunday lunches!

*We commissioned the cloth napkins, napkin rings, and fancy glasses, and that made it a proper Sunday lunch. Ryan lamented that we hadn’t thought to get sparkling grape juice, and I agree. We should do that at least once a month. Let’s bring back those beautiful Sunday lunches!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

                What a healing, restful week I had. (I was sad that Ryan didn’t get as much time off as I did, but I am thankful for the freedom to enjoy what I had!) I did a combination of a whole lot…and nothing at all…but here are some glimpses of the week!

Long before we knew when Dad’s last day would be, I had signed up to fill in at church while Pastor Jonathan and Julie went on fall break. God had nudged me to complete writing both my messages (I was up for today, too!) and I was so glad He did. Everything was ready. I just had to deliver it. And with the Lord’s help, I did! And as soon as we got home from church, I hit the couch for the rest of the day.

I took Monday as a full bereavement day, never getting ready at all! I spent most of the day on the couch, scrapbooking. We had such an unseasonably warm and beautiful week here in Indiana, so that evening, Ryan and I took Lexi for a long, proper walk. She loved it, and it was good for us, too! Between Dad’s illness, death, funeral things, and bad weather, we hadn’t taken a single collective walk for over a week!

Tuesday I went thrifting and found some treasures, but I also stopped to see Mom and talked her into taking a walk (well, she rode in a wheelchair and I pushed her) outside on the trails around Swiss Village. We had a great time! (And I regretted my sweater.)

I did have to work a little bit on Wednesday, so I took a trip to Fort Wayne for a hospital visit. Other than that, I spent the day deep-organizing and cleaning the house! When Ryan came home from teaching GriefShare that evening, he brought the biggest, most beautiful flower arrangement I have ever seen (or owned)! It is from one of the Sunday School classes at our church and was just amazing. I have enjoyed it to the fullest ever since!

Thursday held many beautiful moments for me – including finished up my transcription of the Gospel of Luke, a goose-bump-inducing God moment, and having our annual fall photos taken with our beloved Barb. She told us she’s retiring, and we are so sad to not get to do pictures with her anymore, but we are happy for her that she gets to start a new chapter of life! Can’t wait to see what she has come up with from behind the lens!

Our Friday night date night included a chance to see our friend, Brent Vernon, in concert – here in our own county! That was so much fun! It was great to talk to him for a little bit and enjoy his music, which we always love. He sang some new-to-us songs that we really enjoyed!

Yesterday was the last day of this restful week off, and I slept in late, did some homework, went for a walk with Ryan and Lexi, enjoyed putting together a new treasure I purchased, and we wrapped up the day with our small group friends! Thankful for this week!