I Promised Pictures!

Yesterday I told you about decorating for fall...but I didn't take any pictures. I thought I'd show you a few peeks at our fall decor today! 

This shelf is under our TV, and I just love it. This is the pumpkin I told you about that was gifted to me from one of the retreats where I spoke. 

The leaves we added to our tree behind our couch. So cozy!

I had a few little faux pieces left, so I added them to a corner of the kitchen!

Even though we eat at the kitchen island, I still love decorating our table! (Pretend I remembered to buy candles for the platforms...)

This is in our home office. Thanks, God, for the gorgeous day to accompany it!

A little touch for the guest room...

And another one, too!

Pumpkins for the coffee table:

And a welcome from our "back porch."

Can't call it complete without a wreath!

We love our cozy little bits of fall!

Hey There, Fall!

I had hoped to have some pictures for you today, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. I ran out of natural light today for decent pictures to take place.

Yesterday, while Sean and Sarah were there to cover the building for us, Ryan and I ducked out for a bit to get a little work done on our car. We decided to make a date of it, which was all well and good until the coffee shop closed way early in the day. (Guessing they ran out of staff. There was no sign saying they were closing early.) We wandered around for a bit and ended up back in the car shop playing word crush on Ryan's phone until the car was done.

But while we were out, I noticed the trees have started to turn already. It probably isn't early, but it feels early. The beans in the fields are morphing into yellow and the cornstalks are turning brown. The temps still scream summer, but the breezes, smells, and colors promise fall is lurking around the corner. 

I enjoy fall (as long as I don't think about the winter to follow) so I don't hate its arrival. 

And yesterday, I officially decorated our home for fall. I really haven't had time to seasonally decorate since Christmas, so there was something very soothing about pulling out tubs of things I haven't seen for a year and scattering them around our home. I shared with the building, too, and Sarah worked her magic in the Community Room and foyer to create a beautiful and welcoming display. 

So last night, while a storm blew through outside, I sat on the couch with Phoebe nuzzling next to me, watching the (granted, fake) fire flickering in our little stove. 

I glanced over at the little handmade pumpkin that was gifted to me a few years ago by some creative ladies at a retreat where I spoke. I think often and fondly of that group. They were the first group that ever experienced Ryan serving alongside me, and they made the weekend such a joy for both of us. They arranged for us to have our own private cottage so we could have a getaway of our own. They welcomed us warmly and shared meals with us throughout the weekend. (That place still wins the prize for hands-down best cinnamon roll I've ever had IN MY LIFE.) I remember the women so specifically and always enjoy unpacking that little pumpkin they gave me. 

I strung leaf garlands through our little lighted tree that sits in the corner behind the curve in the couch. I love adding the leaves to it. Makes it seem extra cozy and colorful in here.

I know we still have a while until Thanksgiving, but it's never an inappropriate time to be thankful, so I went ahead and scattered little gratitude signs around the house. I probably could use the reminders more than I want to admit. 

Oh! And we got some mums for outside the building, too. I can't wait until they are in full bloom. I think the yellow will really pop against the blue building. 

So yes, fall is here in full swing, at least in decor. 

Fall coffee drinks to follow - and maybe some pumpkin bread, too. 

Any of you excited about anything in particular this fall?

Pressing On

I've written before about how this work we do is much more about planting and watering seeds than ever seeing a harvest. I don't think that was something we grasped before we came here, but it was a lesson we learned pretty quickly. 

Let me be quick to say (for those of you who work in traditional/church ministry) that ministry itself is messy. It just is. I've worked for years in women's ministry and local church ministry, and I've seen some of those messes firsthand. I don't discount that truth at all. 

But I will also say that in the types of ministry I've worked in before, the people I worked with showed up because they wanted to. At least most of the time. They came to church or Bible study or retreats because they had (at minimum) a curiosity about the Lord and (at maximum) a deep hunger to know Him more. We could dive in to learning fairly quickly.

This work is different. Ministry rarely looks like Bible study around here. To clarify, it's not that we don't study or pray or talk about the Lord with our tenants. It's just that ministry looks more like working through issues of the past that still linger so profoundly. It looks like teaching daily life skills (sometimes over and over again) in hopes that sometime it will stick. It looks like trying to share wisdom and hoping it will be received. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. And the messes of this kind of ministry are completely different from what I had ever seen before. 

So we plant.

We water.

And we wait.

Not long ago, I had an impromptu chat with one of our tenants. We do regular apartment checks around here - mostly to make sure they are living in conditions that promote health and safety, not conditions that promote exterminators and interventions. This is also one of the ways we teach some basic life skills that many of us probably learned from observing our parents when we were younger. But not all our tenants had that chance. So I'd done an apartment check and took some time to offer words of praise to our tenant for her excellent work.

I told her I remembered when we first came, just over a year ago, and so many of the things on the checklist were a major struggle for her. We would go in to find kitchen cabinet doors (uppers!!) just hanging open with no one around. Her clean clothes would be wadded in a heap on the floor of her closet. Every light in the whole place would be on, even if no one was home.

But this time when I checked, the lights were off, the cabinets closed, the counters wiped down, the bed made, the clothes on hangers, and she even emptied the lint filter. I had a little happy-dance party right there by the dryer when I found that!

I told her how proud I was of how far she had come. I reminded her of the things I used to have to mention and how much nicer the place looks now. 

That same tenant was talking to me another day and said, "Is today your laundry day? Wait. No. It's tomorrow, isn't it?"

I didn't even remember I had talked to her about my laundry days, and I said so. She then recounted for me the entire conversation about how I wash clothes on Mondays, towels on Thursdays, and sheets on Saturdays.

And as she repeated my talk, the Lord nudged my heart that if she can remember what I say about closing cabinet doors and when I wash my towels, she probably also remembers the things I've taught her about the Lord and about faith...even if she doesn't verbalize it. 

This is why (and how) we press on when the discouraging days hit. We listen hard to the things our tenants say and remind ourselves that they're listening and paying attention even if it doesn't always seem that way.

It also reminds us that they are literally always listening and watching, so our words and actions matter. How many times has something stuck with me (for better or worse) that I merely observed from someone? I'm filling our tenants' days with my random moments of words, reactions, and decisions. I won't even pretend I've done it all right. I know I haven't. But I'm convicted to keep trying and keep being aware, because eyes are watching and ears are listening.

It may not look anything like any kind of ministry I've ever done before. But I'm pressing forward and trusting that words of life will stick alongside words of how to make a bed. 

Currently...

 Happy Monday, my friends! I hope this week is a good one for you! I thought I'd start off the week with some fun! Here's what we're up to...currently!

Beginning...to create some new ideas and processes for our work here in the building. We are always working to tweak and improve what we do and how we do it. We want to make some changes to the beginning parts of our tenants' time with us, so we had a huge brainstorming meeting the other day to think up new ideas. Now...we have to take ideas a step further and make them happen! The creative in me is extremely excited about this! :) 

Ending...our hunts for places to camp this season. We have only one more outing planned for this year (unless we do some "moochdocking" with friends or family) and can hardly believe this whole first season has come to an end. It went WAY too fast. We loved every second of it. But the good news is that with this first season under our belts, we know better what to look for next year! (The picture below is Ryan's handiwork and is one of my absolute favorites from this year.)

Loving...having Phoebe with us! She's staying for a few weeks, and our tenants are absolutely beside themselves with joy. They aren't allowed to have pets (for many reasons), so they think having a dog in the building is pretty much the next best thing. And we love having her here, too. She's been a blessing, for sure. And while I wouldn't go so far as to say Braeya also finds her a blessing, I will say that all four of us sleep in the same room every night and so far, that seems to work! That is significant progress!

Picking...out an itinerary for our anniversary getaway. I haven't started it yet (other than knowing where we are going) but I need to get busy on it! I've mostly been waiting for information to be released about what is available to see this year. The blessing of a December anniversary is that no matter where you go, you can find pretty Christmas lights. The hard part is waiting to find out where all of them are located! Apparently not all towns release their Christmas plans in the summer...ha!

Posting...here makes me happy. I just want to wrap up by thanking all of you for hanging out here, sending along words of encouragement and good ideas, and for being pretty amazing readers. I look forward to sharing with you each day and just want you to know I appreciate you!

Sunday Sentiments

 

Last night, Ryan and I sat down to watch one of the new documentaries released this year for 9/11. It told more stories of passengers aboard the four flights...and almost all of them were new to me. I sat, hanging onto every word of these life stories. 

Nicknames. Accomplishments. Quirks. Dreams. 

The people who died that day were made of the same things each of us are made of, and it is always an honor to me, each year, to sit with their stories and remember them for the people they were outside of 9/11. 

Earlier yesterday, I sat in some smashed grass, taking pictures with my right hand and video with my left hand of Ryan and one of our tenants participating in a pie eating contest. 

I can't say I've ever attended a pie eating contest before. I don't think Ryan had ever been in one before. But I documented the daylights out of it! And even as I sat on the grass, cheering on both Ryan and our tenant, it wasn't lost to me that we were making a memory in that moment. On the shelf of fat scrapbooks that tell our story, there will be a page with Ryan's face buried in a plate of blueberry pie.

It will be next to the page about our camping trip with Phoebe....her first camping trip ever.

And that will be next to the page about our 105th monthiversary and our coffee date to celebrate.

So it goes with our memories. These were the daily moments that were snuffed out for so many that day twenty years ago. 

That's why I never want to take for granted the opportunity we have to still fill our days with moments like these. And that's why I never want to stop remembering the people who did fill days with moments like these until it all ended so abruptly.

Hearing the stories yesterday also reminded me in fresh ways to live in such a way that I leave a legacy to others when I'm gone. 

Live fully, my friends. Enter the pie-eating contests and take pictures (even though they may not be the prettiest in the scrapbook). Make the memories. Live with intention and leave a legacy.

And let's honor the stories of those who have gone before us!

The Saturday Six

 

One.

Our temps have cooled off here JUST enough that I am ready to start thinking about decorating for fall.
Are you? And this post is the JACKPOT of fall decor ideas!

Two.

I read about this on Facebook, and though I've never heard of any of the people involved, it's a pretty cool story. And it takes place in Kokomo - where we used to live! 

Three.

You know how cool I think it would be to live in an old school or church, right? The Fort Wayne news did a story on an old school house here in our area that just sold. It's BEAUTIFUL!!!! 

Four.

Okay, baking friends...help me! I need to make a carrot cake for next weekend. (One of our tenants has a birthday and this is the request.) I've never made one and found this Paula Deen recipe. I kind of feel like I can't go wrong with Paula Deen...but do any of you have a best ever carrot cake recipe? Tell me if you do! 

Five.

Gateway has a 5K coming up this fall, and I really want to do it. But goodness...I haven't run regularly forever! So I found this month-long training plan to follow. I'm sharing it in case ay of you want to head out for a run of your own this fall! (Even if it's not an organized race.) 

Six.

I'm in love with way too many of these shirts. :) 

A Day of Bliss

It's hard to be upset about not sleeping in when this is your sunrise view:

And so began our Tuesday! Ryan bounded out of bed (per usual) and hurried outside to build a fire and start making breakfast (not per usual).

Eventually, Phoebe and I joined him and we all had a nice, quiet morning together. And breakfast? DELISH!!!

After a walk around the campground, we decided to head out on the kayak for a bit! 

We were not far from the boat launch, so hauling the kayak down wasn't too much of a pain. The day was gorgeous, but I'm telling you...we went against the current EVERY DIRECTION! The lake isn't huge, but we enjoyed exploring it.

We'd had such a big breakfast, we didn't want to make a proper lunch, really. But we were a little hungry, so when we returned to shore, we biked to the camp store and had a treat for lunch!

It was SO GOOD. Coffee with chocolate chunks for me, thank you! Raspberry chip and mint chip for Ryan.

Then it was naptime for everyone!! We slept HARD for a couple of hours - Phoebe too!

We noticed we were under a storm warning so as it got closer to dinner time, we began tearing down the parts of our campsite that could be damaged: awning, lights, chairs, rug, kayak. We put all that away, which was kind of sad for that night, but it sure made the last morning a lot easier!

Ryan wanted to try the inflatable obstacle course floating in the water by the beach, and he had SO MUCH FUN on it!

We had JUST enough time to cook dinner before the rain started - and we ate inside the RV. 

We played a few rounds of Dutch Blitz and then watched TV while it stormed!

It was a great day - storm and all. We were so grateful.