The Story of Us...in Pictures

Here is a fun fact you might not know about me. Back in my high school days, I was a huge fan of Point of Grace. (It's not that I'm not a fan now, but back then, I wanted to be in Point of Grace.) I guess maybe there are a few of you who might not know who I'm talking about, so if that's you, let me help! :) Point of Grace began back in the 90s when 4 college girls sang together at their school - and then stayed together after they graduated. They ended up recording many albums, and most of the early ones I know by heart - including all the background vocals. Along the way, they had a couple of personnel changes and are actually a trio now, but they still travel and sing! (They are also much more country now than they were when they started, but I still love their sound.)

I realized that I actually wasn't following them on social media, so I started doing that a few days ago, and I scrolled through to read a whole bunch of posts. I found one that felt profound to me, and it has inspired my thoughts to you today. It was written by Leigh, and she said, "I was given some great advice after I got married... Keep pictures of one another close to your heart and in view. I love that advice! This picture was taken after our baby shower for my daughter. Dana and I are so happy in this picture; we couldn't wait to meet our baby girl. Do you have pictures of your loved one that remind you of sweet times? I would advise it."

Well if that doesn't just speak our language, right?

Though I just now read the advice, it's something we have always done. I look around our home, and I love seeing the story of what God has done for, in, and through us told in pictures. 

* In our kitchen, we have a picture from our engagement photo shoot. Ryan's mom took it (which I love), and we're sitting on a park bench drinking coffee and gazing lovingly at each other. I choose to keep that particular picture in the kitchen because of the coffee, but I loved that whole night of photos. We went to our favorite park and she took dozens (hundreds?) of photos of us having a great time together. 

* In our foyer, we have a picture taken at the front of the church this past Easter, when we had our little buddy with us for the weekend. I had worked so hard to put together our outfits that I hoped would kind of match, and we were excited to be able to take him to church on Easter Sunday morning. It was our first Sunday in this new church. I didn't keep the dress, because everyone hated it. But I love the picture (one of the few of the three of us that we were able to get someone else to take!) and am so glad we have it. 

* On our living room wall, we have two 8x10 frames with pictures from our most recent fall photo shoot. Each year I update to new pictures from that year, and for that year, I love remembering the fun we had at the most recent photo shoot. (We always have a blast at them.) This past year, one of our Gateway coworkers did the pictures for us, and she was so much fun to work with. We actually had to do it in two parts, because it started raining as soon as we showed up for our original appointment! We appreciated her making time to work us in a second time!

* Also in our living room, we have a picture of us sitting on the beach on our honeymoon, a picture of Ryan proposing to me, and our first family picture with Lexi - who is SO TINY!!!!! We also have pictures of us with each of our immediate families, and a picture of us on the beach with our wedding party. So many memories wrapped up in each of those pictures! 

* In our office, we have the photo of us walking away from the camera, hand in hand, and this was the photo we sent in to have our cake topper made! (Our topper was a black acrylic cutout of that picture, and I still LOVE IT!)

* Our office is also full of group pictures of the Bible study groups we have led and the various groups of coworkers we've shared life with over the past few years. Each of those people shaped us in ways that continued to make us who we are.

* Though our bedroom mostly has wedding pictures, we have a few others scattered around, including the collage of hand pictures (pinky promise swear, holding hands, praying together, and wedding ring display) printed all in black and white. Every single one of those pictures tells the story of how we began, and I treasure them! 

I think Leigh was given great advice, and I join her in passing it on to you. Display the photos. They matter. They don't have to be pictures from professional settings, although they can be. Just take pictures that share a memory that inspires you to continue to press on toward becoming who you are in Christ with the people God has put in your life to walk beside you. If you don't have a spouse, don't think that pictures aren't for you! Display your friends, your family, the kiddos in your life...all the people who help shape you! This is the story of you!

Couples' Bucket List - Part 2 (SOMEDAY!!!)

 

Today concludes my mini-series of bucket list items. It's been fun to write these...thanks for reading along on these memories and dreams!

If you are just catching up, I found this bucket list for couples and read through to see what ones we had done. I shared about some of them on Monday and Tuesday, and then yesterday and today I'm listing ones I hope we do in the future!

60. Start a side hustle together.

We actually have an idea of something that we would love to ultimately do full-time (would make a fun retirement job!) but it occurred to us just this week that maybe we should test it out as a side hustle now. We can find out if we like it, and if we do, then we have a head start on full-time life. And if we don't like it...well, we haven't poured everything into it, right? 

66. Spend a night stargazing at a national park. 

Yes! This would be so much fun. Also...just visiting all the national parks. YES!!! Remember that 12-route cross country trip I have dreamed up? It includes most, if not all, of the national parks. I follow way too many full-time RVers, I'm afraid!

72. Plant a fruit tree in the garden and photograph its growth.

Well, I don't have a garden, but I do love documenting trees as they grow. So maybe once things stabilize around here in the growing department (do not ask about our landscaping...I'll cry...) we can do some tree-growing documentaries! My parents planted trees for each of their grandchildren, and it is fun to look back at how tiny those trees were when they first planted them!

73. Go fruit-picking and bake a pie together.

THIS would be really fun. We've never been fruit-picking, and I think it would be a lot of fun to do. I am a pie failure, and I think that's a fairly well-documented fact, but perhaps if we worked together, we coud figure it out? And pie IS Ryan's favorite thing!

85. Create a calendar of woodland fall photographs and sell copies for charity.

Hmmmm, if only we knew a charity! Oh wait! We work for one! :) I've never made a calendar that wasn't just a gift for one person, but I do enjoy making calendars! This could be fun! A working date!

86. Have a Christmas movie marathon in onesies.

YES!!! Anyone think I can talk Ryan into this?? It wouldn't even have to be sappy TV movies, although.... ;) Onesies and coffee! And Christmas cookies! This would be a perfect date. 

87. Decorate your car like Santa's sleigh and drive around your neighborhood playing Christmas songs.

Does it count if we just stick a wreath on the front? I'm not sure I could talk Ryan into doing more than that. But it would be a fun way to go see Christmas lights!

Couples' Bucket List - Part 1 (SOMEDAY!!!)

For the last couple of days, I've had fun reminiscing about memories we've happily made from a bucket list we didn't even know existed. But we certainly haven't done ALL the things on the list. (And some don't appeal to us, which is also okay!)

But today I thought I'd note a few of the things that do sound really fun to try! Maybe you'd like to try one of them too!

3. Design a treasure hunt with clues about your relationship and important spots and places.

WHAT FUN!!!!! I'm sure there are multiple ways to do this - from actually revisiting some of those spots to just finding clues to take you back to those spots in your memories. I think this one is such a sweet idea. 

5. Hike a famously tall mountain.

The other night, Ryan and I watched a show about these people who climbed Mt. Bertha (didn't even know that was a place) in Alaska. And when I say "climbed," I mean straight up vertically with ice picks. And then they skied and snowboarded back down. It was terrifying even to watch. So when I put this on the list, I do NOT mean Mt. Bertha. And I don't mean anything like Everest, either. But I do think hiking up a mountain to a pretty view at the top would be a lot of fun! (A manageable mountain, that is.)

9. Rent a sports car and go for a sunset drive.

This is not the time, of course. Between the price of car rentals and gas, it's probably not a cost-effective date. But it would be fun to rent a sweet car that we would never be able to own - and go to some picturesque area to enjoy a sunset! 

11. Go on a hot air balloon ride.

The original suggestion was to drink champagne on a hot air balloon ride. Well, we don't drink, and I can promise you if we do a hot air balloon ride, I am not peeling my hands off the sides of the basket to drink ANYTHING - even water! I have actually ridden in a hot air balloon before, as a child, before I was tall enough to see over the basket! It is scary (for people who don't like heights, anyway) but I know this is on Ryan's bucket list, so I'd do it for him!

12. Write a giant love message to each other in the sand on the beach and photograph it from a nearby hillside or viewpoint.

We've never stayed anywhere with a beach view to be able to do this, but I think it sounds so fun if we ever do! There were some places behind our wedding spot that would have been the perfect vantage point to read messages in the sand!

13. Create your relationship playlist, including all the songs that hold special meaning to you as a couple. 

This would be so fun to work on together. From the song we had our first dance to...to the song that played on the air right after we got engaged...to the songs that played (and were supposed to play) at our wedding...and more!

18. Take a couples photo once a day for a whole year and scrapbook the photos.

We take a lot of pictures, but we've never done this! Doesn't it sound SO FUN????? I wonder how many funny faces Ryan could make in the course of a year!

20. Write love letters to each other to open in five years.

We write letters to each other every year on our anniversary, and then we open them the following anniversary and write a new one, but this is a fun idea, too! 

27. Book a hotel room for date night and order everything on the room service menu.

I put this here just to see if Ryan's still reading. LOL!!! Okay so maybe not EVVVVVVVERYTHING on the room service menu. But I will say this: once upon a time, we had planned to stay at one of the big downtown hotels in Indianapolis on our wedding night. Then we got married in Florida, so that didn't happen - and we've still never stayed there. I think it would be fun to stay there - on an upper floor with a sweet view - and order room service. Just one thing.

29. Book a night at an ice hotel.

I've seen these on TV and think they look fun (to try just once). I have no idea if there are any in a respectable traveling distance from here, but I think it sounds like a fabulous adventure! Update: I looked it up and apparently the only one in North America is this one in Quebec!

39. Apply for your dream jobs once a month until you retire or until you get it.

I actually read this one to Ryan a few days ago and told him it's not a bad idea! Worst case scenario, nothing happens, and best case scenario, you get to enjoy something really really fun at some point in your life! We still have some dream jobs on our wish list, so maybe we should give this one a try!

41. Take a cross-country road trip together. 

I may or may not have 11 of these earmarked for us. Or is it 12 now? I added one after the original set. Anyway. I have several years of travel in the hopper. This is one of our dream jobs. Can we combine it with the last idea?? :) 

44. Visit all 50 states.

YES. We want to do this!!! Absolutely! See the last item and the one before that, too. :) 

Couples' Bucket List (Part 2 - Checked!)

Yesterday I started sharing some ideas from a couples' bucket list I found on Pinterest. I shared the ones in the first half of the list that we have actually completed (though that is purely coincidental...I just found the list). Today I'm going to share ideas from the second half of the list!

There are actually a handful of items on the list that have to do with finances, which was intriguing to me. I don't think I've seen financial bucket list goals mixed in with date ideas! I'll skip over those, since finances tend to be a more personal thing, but I do want to say two things on this topic. First of all, I want to say that I'm really grateful that Ryan is financially responsible and that our goals and priorities on this topic have always matched. I know in a lot of marriages, money is a tense subject, but I'm grateful we have matching vision when it comes to spending and saving and such. That definitely helps! 

Secondly, the former financial aid counselor in me wants to say that one thing that mattered significantly to me (personal decision) before we were married was to completely pay off my student loan. I was fortunate that in the grand scheme of life, I did not have to take a huge amount of loans for school. I had paid consistently on them throughout my post-college years, but I was still working on them when Ryan and I started dating. I did not want to take that debt into our marriage, so I used savings to pay it off before we got married. It wasn't anything Ryan asked me to do, but it was something I wanted to be able to finish on my own - a chapter to close before marriage. I'm so grateful I was able to do it!

Okay! Moving on down the list.

62. Spend a weekend at a lake house.

Before Allen and Nita died, we usually spent a weekend at Allen's family's lake cottage every summer. The house is co-owned by a handful of family members, but Allen and Nita always had a few dates earmarked for them throughout the summer, and they graciously extended the invitation to visit to their kids. That was a real blessing for us! We both love the lake SO MUCH and miss being able to go now. Good memories from those weekends! (The photo is from one of our many boat rides on Lake Webster!)

68. Go on all the rides at a water park.

Does it count if Ryan went on the rides and I documented? We did enjoy a date day (years ago, now!) at Holiday World, and Ryan rode all the scary water rides, and I stood on the observation deck with all the moms, taking pictures. It was a fun day and we both got to enjoy doing what we loved!

69. Have an island-hopping vacation in the Caribbean or Mediterranean.

This one is a stretch, but we did take a couple of Caribbean cruises and hopped from places like Aruba to Curacao! Does that count? Ryan LOVES to cruise and used to go every year. That has slowed down since we got married, partly because air travel is SO expensive and partly because there are so many places here in the USA we want to see. But I have to say, I never imagined in my LIFE that I would get to see Caribbean islands. Those were some sweet memories!

71. Ride a well-known trail on your bicycles.

Well, I'm not sure how well-known it is, but one of my favorite dates we took was the day we did the Hamilton County tour and rented bikes to ride the Monon Trail down by Indianapolis. It was so much fun (minus the busy streets we had to occasionally cross and that one overpass that almost killed me on the upswing). I LOVED that date! We also rode the Pufferbelly in Fort Wayne a couple of times. I appreciate how that one ends at a cookie store! :) 

74. Have a romantic picnic at the park or on the beach. 

Did you know that a picnic was part of our first date? Everything about our first date was a surprise to me. Ryan planned the whole thing, and it started with a picnic in a park! (Photo above is one he took of me on that date.) He has since planned a handful of other picnics in parks, and I've enjoyed each one. I have a few picnics on the itinerary for our tenth anniversary extravaganza, too!

77. Go on a tandem bike ride by the beach or in the park.

DONE!!! Do you guys remember this one? We did this on our honeymoon! We rented a tandem bike and ride it into the village of Siesta Key. We had a great time and on the way home, it was dark, so we decided to ride the beach instead of the road. It seemed safer until we got out there. The sand was packed down so hard, and the back seat of that bike didn't have great shocks. It was an adventure for sure! 

78. Try a workout class together, such as Pilates or cycling.

Oh my. The working out together. Back in our Kokomo days, we joined a small local gym that had classes at FIVE THIRTY IN THE MORNING. I lasted about a month before the early morning hours and the intensity of the class participants got the best of me. Ryan loved it and continued going until we moved. He actually even became an instructor for a while! I don't think our skill sets are ever compatible enough for this, but I am glad we tried it.  (Picture is from our first trip to the gym. I wasn't awake.)

80. Sign up for a fun challenge, such as the 5K Color Run.

I was actually training for a 10K when we started dating, so Ryan joined me in the training and ran the race with me too! We ran the Fort 4 Fitness 10K right before we got engaged! I don't know that I would call any part of that fun - except getting to say I had done a really hard (for me!) thing. I was so glad Ryan was with me that day. It was far less intimidating with him by my side! We ended up running a 5K together a few years later, but we haven't run a race together since! (I included a picture from each race.)

81. Host a Thanksgiving with both of your families.

Another cheat answer! We did host my family for Thanksgiving the year Mom was in the rehab hospital following her knee surgeries. And we hosted Ryan's family for Christmas the year his mom was in the rehab hospital after her brain surgery. (This is what happens when you live three houses from the hospital and your husband works there and is qualified to take people home on passes.) But as you may remember, our joint-family hosting always came with our annual Mommapalooza! We did about six of those, I think, in an attempt to gift all the mothers in our family with a no-cook Mother's Day! We love hosting, so ALL these were fun for us! (Pictures are from the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and two Mommapaloozas!)

89. Do a skydive or run for charity.

Ryan did skydive once - before we were married. :) And we already talked about running, but that Haiti Half 5K we ran (featured above) was for charity, actually! The entry fees raised money for health care in Haiti! 

94. Host a snowman building competition in your neighborhood.

We haven't hosted a competition, but back when we lived in Marion, we did build a snowman together during one of the Polar Vortex winters! It was so much fun! We named him Jeffrey. We also made snow angels and snow ice cream that day. It was a fun, proper snow day.

99. Host a Super Bowl Party.

We did this right before we moved away from Marion! We had some friends from church over and had a great time! And apparently we have NO photos of this night. At least not ones I can locate quickly! 

So there you go! Some of the bucket list things we've checked off. I have a few ideas of things from that list I want to try, so come back tomorrow, okay? 

Couples' Bucket List (Part 1 - Checked!)

 

The other day, while scrolling through Pinterest, I found a list of 100+ fun things to do for couples, so I read through to see how fun Ryan and I have been in the last ten years! I was excited to learn we haven't been entirely boring. I was also excited to find some ideas that looked really fun for future dreams, but we'll come back to that for another day. 

Here are some of the things we have done that we've loved and I would recommend if you're looking for date ideas! I'm just marking off things on the first half of the list, so this doesn't go one forever!

1. Have date night at least once a week.

We did this pretty much until the pandemic, actually. We were super careful about it, but when the quarantine came, our options were limited. I think we did a good job of dating at home during that time, but our official "date-night-out" adventures came to an end. Then we went to WillowBridge (during the pandemic) and it still didn't happen. We are returning to this now and it is so fulfilling! Even if we keep it low key, we still enjoy our dedicated time together, and I think this idea is so important! This (really terrible) picture of us is from our last date out, which was a breakfast date to the Pancake House! It was early. I needed to wash my hair. We both needed coffee. LOL!

2. Plan an adventure at least once a month.

I feel like we were really good at this until the pandemic, too! All those county dates were adventures. Last summer, our camping trips were our adventures. We LOVE planning adventures, and we've had some good ones. We are learning our new groove with this one, with Lexi in the mix. But we are getting back to it - and getting back to our county tours, too. We have missed those! This picture was from our adventure this month: to the fair!

4. Fill and bury a relationship time capsule and open it in the future.

Okay so this is kind of a cheat. We did not make a relationship time capsule, and we will not be able to open it in the future. But we DID make a time capsule when we lived in our Marion house, and we hid it in the house! Do you remember this? If you've read here many years, you just might! We replaced the carpet in the house, and when we pulled up the old carpet, we discovered the first step onto the stairway opened up and had a little cove under it. So we put together a time capsule and hid it in there for a future owner to find. I have no idea if the guy who bought the house from us found it or not! But it was fun to make - and we did write about our relationship in it! 

8. Run a sporting event and raise money for charity.

Again, a slight cheat. We did not RUN the sporting event, but for a couple of years, we helped with a golf scramble that Lynne Ford's husband ran to raise scholarship money! I was the photographer, and Ryan helped with registration and drove my golf cart so I could zip around the course and take the pictures. We had a lot of fun doing that scramble!! Lynne's husband isn't in charge of it anymore, so we haven't done this in several years. But it was a fun date for sure!

14. Kiss atop a Ferris Wheel at sunset.

We did not kiss atop the Ferris Wheel, but we did have a funny adventure on one! I had always wanted to ride one, so one year at the fair, Ryan took me. The line was long, and they put us in a car with two kids we had never met! There went making out at the top, right! Here is the story of how the kids almost gave me a heart attack mid-ride! (At least we did get a picture on the Ferris Wheel!)

22. Take a road trip to each other's high schools and make out on campus. 

Well, when you went to the same high school, and you live pretty close to it for most of your marriage, this may be a lackluster idea. And we did not make out on campus - ever! But back when we did the Howard County Tour, we did visit both the elementary and high school where we attended. And we got a picture with the elementary! (And it was fun to go back to both buildings and talk about our memories there. 

25. Re-enact the famous scene from Titanic in as many places as you can for a whole year and photograph it each time.

Another slight cheat. We did not do this multiple times for a full year, but we did do it once! We were serving at a women's retreat and they had a scavenger hunt challenge. All the women on the retreat divided up into teams and had to complete challenges around the property. Reenacting the scene was one of the challenges, so we did it! 

26. Dress up and pose as a celebrity couple in Hollywood.

Several years ago, we attended a red-carpet movie event - in Fort Wayne! It was for a Hallmark movie called For Better or For Worse. It was based on a book written by DiAnn Hunt, who passed away before the move was released. Her friends and family did the red-carpet event to celebrate her life! We dressed up and walked the red carpet and felt so very Hollywood. It was a fun night - I think even for Ryan. (We all know he totally did this out of love for me.)

31. Buy your dream house together.

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you about the house we dreamed of building (years ago)? We had to let go of the dream because we found out zoning laws had changed and we could no longer build on the land we owned. We had picked out a house we wanted to put on the land, and after we moved in here, I realized this house is almost exactly like the dream we had picked out! So it sure feels to me like we've done it! (This is a picture of us with our Realtor the day we closed on our house!)

38. Visit every single town and city in your home state or country.

Do our county tours count for this? We started in 2014 and I really thought we would have been through all 92 counties by now. I did not foresee some of the obstacles (the months of Ryan's mom's illness, the pandemic, etc.) that have slowed us down, but we have LOVED this project and intend to complete it!

40. Establish a new tradition as a couple.

We have a lot of traditions we love! I love them all and am sure I can't even think of all of them right now. Monthivesraries...recreating 10 of our wedding pictures every year on our anniversary...getting Christmas ornaments as souvenirs to tell the stories of our year and reading the story of every ornament as we put it on the tree...so much fun!

Sunday Sentiments

Yesterday was a delightful, perfect kind of Saturday. We had much to do, but little of it required an appointment outside the house, so we were free to accomplish our tasks on our own time, and I loved it. 

In the afternoon, Ryan went outside to clean up scraggly-looking areas in the yard, and I headed into the office to do some writing and Bible study. And it was from that time that my thoughts for today were born. I don't have anything earth-shattering to share, but if I needed the reminder, I'm guessing maybe someone out there needs it too, so I shall share it!

My writing prompt for Scripture was based on Ephesians 6:11-12, which say, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

When we lived at WillowBridge, I did a long study on the armor of God, and I plastered the verses for each piece of armor around our apartment, because the spiritual warfare in that place was THICK.

It made a lot of sense, actually. The young adults we worked with came to us from all sorts of backgrounds. Some had more church exposure than others. But all of them were caught up in things of the world. It was what they knew. For many of them, it was how their families had lived, and it certainly was how their friends and circles of influence lived. They were consumed by curiosity, at the very least, and sometimes even dabbling (or more) in activities that certainly weren't helpful or affirming. And in some cases, those habits were destructive and very evil in nature. 

We worked patiently with them, trying to teach them why some of these things were harmful and how to find other ideas and activities to fill their days, their investments, and their thoughts. But twenty or more years of one way of thinking usually isn't undone overnight, so it was a slow, slow process of change - if they even wanted to change. Some didn't.

But because we lived and worked in the same building, I know that the sinful struggles around us were permitted entrance into the place where we lived. Those rulers and authorities and powers and forces were alive and well in that place, and we could sense it. I can't fully explain it except to say I knew we were always, always, always in a spiritual fight, even in our own home. 

So I studied the armor of God. I prayed for each piece over myself and Ryan - even the pets, actually - to live day by day. It was, without a doubt, the deepest, hardest, most consistent spiritual warfare I have ever known in my life. 

I put on the full armor of God to be able to breathe. To be able to move. To live. 

But yesterday, as I wrote about the armor and thought back to those days, I was struck by the truth that I don't need it any less, simply because I now live in a home where we daily invite the presence of the Holy Spirit and feel Him surrounding us. Yes, the relief of warfare is noticeably different in our present home compared to our last one, but it isn't some sort of magical home base, immune to warfare. 

The wrestling may not feel as intense or frequent, but maybe it's just that I'm not showing up for battle like I should. Maybe I need to be more aware of Satan's subtleties and how he sneaks in when I'm not looking. Maybe the previous suffocation of it all was actually to my benefit because I was aware of the fight before me. 

Maybe I'm just running around out here without my armor on, unaware of how many flaming arrows of the enemy are being thrown my way.

My days need to begin with the full armor. FULL armor. Not the pieces that feel prettiest or most comfortable that day, but the FULL armor of God that can protect me from every attack - the ones I can see and the ones I cannot see. 

May I not become lazy and comfortable. That is the biggest threat of all. 

The Saturday Six

 

We noticed at the store this week that school supplies are clogging the main aisles already! While I'm with everyone else who isn't ready for summer to end, I really do love school supplies, so I'm not mad about sales! :) But let's continue to embrace summer while we can, alright? Here are some ideas for hanging onto summer as long as we can!

One.

Ryan and I don't drink alcohol, which is our personal preference and conviction, but it doesn't mean that we don't enjoy fun, fancy drinks! (Yes, we do drink things besides water and coffee.) I found this list of a BUNCH of cold summer-related drinks, and none of them contain alcohol. They're pretty, many of them are fruity, and they're fun, different, and easy to make. So if you're in need of some fun chilled drinks for these hot days, check out these ideas! 

Two.

Our church is having an ice cream social soon - and I am super excited about it. (Brings back memories of the time we had ice cream socials at summer camp, where the ice cream was served in gutters. Clean, food-prepped gutters, of course, but still gutters. You just pulled up a chair and grabbed a section for yourself! It was pre-pandemic.) Anyway!! I'm not sure much says "summer" more than ice cream, so it seems appropriate to share this idea for an ice cream sundae board. Looks fun for family or friends. If you do this, please consider me a friend and invite me! 

Three.

We learned this year that the fastest way to meet EVERYONE in your neighborhood is to get a dog. We have met a TON of people in our area just from taking Lexi out on walks. People want to meet puppies. There is one little section of a street with a couple of couples who just LOVE her and even bought special treats just for her. One evening, one of the couples invited us around to the back of their house to see what they'd been doing to renovate their deck. While we were back there, they showed us their outdoor movie screen and said they love watching movies outside during the summer. I do think it's a fun idea, for sure, but if you don't have the budget for a big fancy retractable screen - what about this DIY idea? It's much more cost effective and probably shows a movie just as well! 

Four.

If you need some inspiration for summer scents that rely on essential oils rather than candles, here are some blend ideas for your diffuser! The best part is, you don't have to worry about open flames or extra heat - and all the scents are natural instead of artificial! The smells of summer really can be more than fertilized fields! :) 

Five.

They say you eat with your eyes first, so I don't see how this idea could be anything but a wonderful start to a snack (or meal). Rainbow veggie pinwheels. Such vibrant color - and the benefits of veggies in there, too! While the gardens and farmers markets are full of fresh produce, give this idea a try! I think it looks so delicious!

Six.

And finally...a fruit-filled breakfast that is healthy, filling, and doesn't require heating up the stove. All the perfect things for summer! If you love fruit pizza, check out this idea!

Currently...

 It's Friday!! Hope you all have had a good week and are looking forward to a restful (or fun...or both!) weekend! I thought I'd do a currently post today - just for fun!

Currently I'm...

...enjoying having Ryan in the house again in the evenings and having a little bit more freedom to leave home. Why is this, you ask?? It all has to do with the yard, but multiple reasons factor into this newfound enjoyment. First, we actually had several days of rain, so our yard isn't as parched as it had been. Last week brought several rainy days for us, and we appreciated each one so much. Secondly, we were able to purchase some hose timers, which allow us to have a little bit more freedom to be gone for a few hours in the evening if we so desire. We're not to the point where we can take a trip, but we're able to at least go for dinner! And finally, our yard is actually growing! That reseed Ryan did took off so much better than the original planting, and we have some grass! We also have some weeds and some bare spots, but it is OH so much better than it was. We are abundantly grateful for this blessing, and I am enjoying every minute of having Ryan inside with me in the evenings. 

...having fun planning our tenth anniversary. I'm probably about a third of the way through the planning, and it's so much fun. I love researching the locations, the restaurants, the activity options, and now I'm piecing together the itinerary. This is one of my favorite things to do, and it has been a joy to work on. We are both excited for our celebration!

...hoping to see some very specific answers to a handful of prayers I've been praying lately. God has been nudging me to be specific in my prayers, and as silly as it may sound, it's a scary thing for me. I'm one who tends to pray very generically for general big pictures, but I am working hard to pray over specific needs. There are a couple that are short timeframe needs, and I'm placing my hope in the Lord to meet them! 

...picking out some new clothes for a long-term wish list. I told you a few days ago in a blog that I had taken the Putting Me Together master class about how to put together a wardrobe that works. I learned so much in that class about the styles and colors of clothing that work best for me - and the needs I have for the outfits I own. (My needs have changed a lot in the last few years.) I've realized that the majority of what I own is actually pretty old - much of it between 5-10 years or even more - and a refresh wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I want to be very careful and selective about what I choose, so I've been making a wish list! It's been a lot of fun!

...using new skills at work! Love INC rebranded with a new logo and fonts and colors, so we are trying to make all new publications and signs. I've been learning to use Canva and to be creative in ways I've never had to be at work before. It was daunting at first, and sometimes it still is, but I'm also having a great time with it. I appreciate the freedom he gives me to try new things. I'm learning I can do things I didn't know I could do! 

So that's what's happening here. How about you?