Holiday Happenings: New Year's Celebration

 

            I really loved having both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on a Sunday this year. It provided a great opportunity for me to prepare my heart for Christmas and New Year’s Day!

            We started our New Year’s Eve at church, and one of our friends from small group was a guest speaker for our morning service. He always does a great job when he shares, and I was scribbling notes in my notebook quite rapidly.

            We came home and rested for a little bit, but we had friends come over for New Year’s Eve, so I ended up in the kitchen, making these Dashing Dish Copycat Starbucks Fudge Oat Bars and some Chickenless White Queso Chicken Chili for our party. (Our friends are vegetarians, so we made the chicken separately and those who wanted meat could add it and those who didn’t want meat didn’t have to eat it!) I’d gotten some New Year’s plates and napkins at Dollar General, and though everything was simple, it felt festive and fun.

            Our friends brought a charcuterie board, and we set up camp at the dining room table for a couple of hours – eating and telling stories.

            Eventually we made our way to the living room, where we kept telling stories, played a Would You Rather game, and spent some time filling out a bucket list sheet for the coming year. It was more fun than I imagined it might be to share the stories of why we chose the bucket list items we did! I highly recommend doing something like that with friends if you’ve never tried it before.

            I’d gotten some photo booth party props on clearance at Hobby Lobby earlier in the week, so we had some fun with those – even Lexi participated!

            When we got close to midnight, we watched the ball drop, toasted with sparkling grape juice, and welcomed 2024!

            It made for a late night; we cleaned up the house after our friends left and I think it was about 1:30 before we finally fell asleep. Thankfully, we both had New Year’s Day off work, so we were able to sleep in pretty late (for us) and had the most glorious day at home together. We absolutely treasure days like that. They are rare, but we love them.

            The weather here on New Year’s Day was kind of lousy. I’d had a loosely-held idea that if it was nice, we could go for a hike on some local trails – and take Lexi – but it was too cold and drizzly for that, so we just stayed in.

            I touched up my roots, tried out my first outfit from my capsule wardrobe, spent some extra time in Bible study, journaling and prayer, and did a little scrapbooking! Ryan cleaned out his closet and reorganized everything (something I had done the week before, so now we both have a fresh start!) and we did our annual tradition of going through our memory box and reflecting on the year we just completed. It was so much fun to see some of those memories again!

            Ryan ended the night watching a documentary series and I read in a stack of books I’ve been working on.

            It felt like the perfect start to a new year. We could have taken four or five more days at home together like that, but we celebrate the chance we had to enjoy the very first day of the year in such a leisurely fashion!

Dreams and Goals for January 2024

 

            Today is a very special day in our home. As Ryan and I awaken and return to regular routines, we are also celebrating 133 months of marriage. What a gift! I never want the idea of another month of married shared to feel routine or mundane. Ryan, I love you so much, and I am excited to mark this milestone with you today. Happy monthiversary!

            Another tradition I’m keeping today is that of marking some goals for the month that stretches before us. For the last few years, I’ve chosen to create monthly goals rather than year-long resolutions, and I am excited to continue that in 2024. Today I want to share with you the goals I’m making for this first month of the year!

ONE. Go to the gym twice a week. As you might remember, Ryan and I joined the gym this past November when he began teaching a boot camp class. I have been going to his class each week for the past month and a half and have really enjoyed it. (He’s great at what he does!) But because of the busyness of the season in which we began this adventure, going to class is all I’ve done so far. I haven’t gone to do any working out on my own. But as I’ve come to learn, good habits are built slowly, so as I return to weekly classes this month, I also want to make a goal to go one other time each week for my own workout. As the year progresses, I’d love to build on this, but for now, I feel it’s manageable to add just one time each week for a total of two weekly visits.

TWO. Prepare for upcoming speaking events. I will be speaking two times each month (that I know of so far) in January through March. I have already been working hard on the material for January, but I have determined to be purposeful in working ahead for each of the events in the coming months as well. This will require carving out time on weeknights and weekends (as I’m able) to pray, research, outline, and write for each of those days. There are many hours that go into being ready for even just a half hour of sharing, and I want to do my very best with each commitment I’ve made!

THREE. Host our friends for their annual visit to our home. For the last few years, one of my friends from my Financial Aid days and her husband have stayed with us on their way to and from a marriage retreat in Ohio. We really love having them, and this year will mark the fourth home of ours they’ve stayed in during their visits! I’m excited to welcome them and even though we spend most of our time just talking and enjoying their company – I want to try to make it a fun and unique visit!

FOUR. Pick out my plants for my new little greenhouse. You might have seen that one of my Christmas gifts from Ryan was the most adorable little greenhouse from IKEA. I plan to put herbs in it so I can use them in cooking, but I need to choose the ones I think I will use the most. I want to get that filled sometime this month and get a little indoor garden going!

FIVE. Continue my garden planning for this summer. Yes, it’s “just” January, but taking the information I learned in the little garden class I took last month and adding in the information I hope to learn in webinar this month, I want to map out the plants I hope to grow this year in my outdoor garden. It may not be time to plant just yet, but it’s not too early to plan!

SIX. Use my capsule wardrobe elements each day. At the end of 2023, I assembled my winter capsule pieces, and I’m excited to mix and match them throughout this month for some comfy outfits! I’ll have to write more about this project as the month progresses, but I’m looking forward to exercising creativity with these outfits. This post from the Clothed in Grace blog served as my inspiration as I built my capsule.

SEVEN. Find a fresh routine for my time with the Lord. Our Sunday School class has committed to reading a passage of Scripture each day (all of us reading the same passage each day...see below) so we can talk about what we’re learning on Sundays. I’m excited for that – and even more excited to be able to talk it over with Ryan each day and learn from one another! I also have a new daily reading book that my parents gave me for Christmas, and I have some specific prayer topics I want to commit to each day. I need to make some new routines to make sure I’m doing these studies and prayers well…and without distraction. Having a discipline to spend time with the Lord each day isn’t new, but I need some fresh routines for it.

            So there you have it! Seven areas of focus seems like a lot for one month, but I believe these seven things are doable. Thanks for letting me be accountable in this space, and I’ll check back in at the end of the month to let you know how I did!

New Year, Same God

 

            2023 was a good year for us. We were grateful for the opportunity to find heart-healing and to settle into new routines and ways of life. We also recognize that 2023 was a hard year for others, just as other years have been hard for us. With 2019 and 2021 being particularly heart-destructive for us, it just felt nice to have an odd-numbered year that didn’t undo us entirely.

            This new year before us comes packaged with several lofty dreams. We’ll see if they come to fruition, but it’s exciting to think, from this first-day seat, that they just might. We dream of how God will use us in ministry, of enjoying (and sharing) this home God has given us, of continuing endeavors we began in the last year, and of growing even deeper in love with each other than we are today. Even writing those words makes me smile with hope.

            As we start this new year, I want to remind you (as I remind myself) of the words of Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

            I am so thankful for that. When we began 2019, with Ryan’s mom so sick and her death looming, Jesus was the same. He was the One who carried us physically through those long days and nights of caring for her. He was the One who carried us emotionally and mentally in our days, weeks, months of grief and adjustment that followed her death. He was the One who carried us spiritually when our faith was rocked and we clung to the foundation of what we had always known to be true. He grew us, sustained us, carried us, healed us, and loved us through every hard day. He brought joy in the middle of grief.

            When we began 2021 at WillowBridge and had no idea the gut-wrenching hard that would be ahead of us, Jesus was the same. He was the One who carried us physically through those long days and nights of work that never ended. He was the One who carried us emotionally and mentally when tenants challenged us, made hard decisions, and caused us to question everything we were doing as building leaders. He was the One who carried us spiritually when we found ourselves empty, depleted, and rocked again in our faith. He grew us, sustained us, carried us, healed us, and loved us through every hard day. He brought joy in the middle of confusion.

            When we began 2023, packing up one house and finishing renovations on the other, Jesus was the same. He was the One who carried us physically throughout the year as we made change after change in our life. He was the One who carried us emotionally and mentally as we healed from the griefs and heartaches of years past. He was the One who carried us spiritually as we began to step forward in service and ministry again. He grew us, sustained us, carried us, healed us, and loved us through every beautiful day – and the challenging ones mixed in. He brought joy in the middle of new beginnings.

            He was the same in every yesterday, regardless of the circumstances in front of our eyes. He is the same today, as we begin a brand new year. And He will be the same forever, whether the year ahead is full of things we enjoy or things we dread.

            None of us knows, as we embark on this year, what sits before us. We don’t know if this year will end up classified as exciting, interesting, hard, or a pure trial. But we do know that our Jesus is the same as He’s always been and that won’t change.

            Happy New Year, my friends. It is always a privilege to write for you in this space. I hope God continues to keep that door open this year. I enjoy the discipline and your friendship as you read and leave notes. Ryan and I are grateful for each of you and the friendships we’ve forged through a little blog space on the web.

            May this new year with the same God be one that grows and encourages you, regardless of the details!

Sunday Sentiments

 

Today we close a long chapter…365 pages in the making. A couple of days ago I looked back through every single scrapbook page for our 2023 (because yes, I am caught up in our chronological book) and what I concluded was this: I’m so grateful for this year. And today, in typical end-of-year fashion, I want to reflect on the highlights of this year.

Has every day been great or perfect? Not at all. There have been hard days and seasons woven throughout the year. There have been tears and times of struggle. But I want to close the year by offering thanks for the year as a whole and how it grew and shaped us.

In January – We raced against the clock to get our lake house renovations completed, devoting our evenings and weekends to that project and the start of packing our home. We made sure to squeeze in some dinner/coffee date nights each week – mostly so we could see each other! I took a week of intense online classes for work, and Lexi was so good while I sat for hours each day on Zoom calls. And, somehow in there, we managed to host our friends for an overnight visit. You know they’re good friends when they’re willing to come and stay when your house is torn apart for a move!

In February – We kicked the packing into high gear and worked endlessly to do the final (necessary) touches on the lake house. We celebrated Ryan’s Dad’s 69^th birthday, Celebrated Valentine’s Day, hosted a Super Bowl party, and attended a Bible quizzing meet for our church kiddos – and I have no idea how we managed to do any of the things on that list with all the packing. I took another week of intense online classes, and that’s when Lexi reached her saturation point with such things. Ryan left his job at Love INC, we moved into our new house, unpacked it, patched the newly-leaking roof, and Ryan began his new job all within a week’s time. For the shortest month in the year, we sure did pack a lot into it!

In March – We kept settling into our new home, and Ryan kept settling into his new job. (He powered through his first week while suffering a kidney stone, so I think that’s pretty impressive.) We went out for some low-key date nights and enjoyed being able to be together again every evening and weekend, rather than dividing and conquering. My sister and brother-in-law came for a visit and became our first overnight guests in our new home, though March in Indiana isn’t ideal for savoring lake life. We rounded out the month with a repaired roof, celebrating our godson’s birthday, and I spoke at a women’s retreat on a blustery Indiana Saturday!

In April – We observed Holy Week with a Seder meal, Love Feast at our church, Good Friday services, and Easter services. All of them were so meaningful and I was grateful our church puts so much emphasis on this week! We had friends over for meals and snacks, including our small group. I broke my wedding ring (GASP!) – which we quickly repaired. And we concluded the month by celebrating Ryan’s birthday and closing on our previous home.

In May – We started the month by keeping our godson for a few days while his mama gave birth to her new baby. Braeya turned seventeen, which seems like quite a milestone for a pet! We put out our first landscaping at our new home, and it made my heart so happy! I left my job in the world of grants and reentered the world of ministry – all within a couple of days. We celebrated my birthday and Mother’s Day. Ryan took up paddleboarding and realized he loved it. I planted my first full garden (thanks to the guidance of my friend, Julie) and we ended the month hosting a garage sale!

In June – We celebrated the high school graduation of one of my college roommate’s daughters. (It’s so weird to me that people my age have kids graduating, getting married, and having babies.) We kept working on our house, mostly on the outside, putting our own stamp on it. We loved the warm weather and the chance to watch sunsets from our patio each night. The big event of the month was participating in the Amazing Race with our friends and coming in second! We hosted my parents for a belated Father’s Day and hosted our small group for a cookout!

In July – We kicked off the month by helping some friends move and enjoying a long weekend at home for the 4^th of July! The garden started thriving, and it was both fun and rewarding to see the growth! Our godson came to spend another weekend with us and we took him to our nephew’s birthday party. We enjoyed our birthday getaway to the Traverse City, Michigan area, where we went to a fish boil, saw some lighthouses, did some dune hiking, and got some really good, full nights of sleep. We went to a local parade, took Lexi to the vet for her first sickness, and enjoyed a fun date night at the flower patch! We survived being apart for three days while I had to travel for work. (We still do not relish being apart.) We ended this super busy month by participating in a parade and Ryan came in second in the brat-eating contest!

In August – I took a friend to girls’ night out at the flower patch, which was so fun! We helped with our church’s back to school bash, we had some visitors to the lake, and our refrigerator died! Ryan helped some of our friends put a new roof on their house. This was also the month we took up milling our own wheat and baking bread! Our last big event of the month was the women’s conference in our county, where I served as the speaker.

In September – We celebrated Ryan’s dad’s retirement, closed our garden for the year, and kept experimenting with breadmaking. We hosted our small group for one more outdoor night, went on some fun dates, and had Ryan’s aunt and uncle over for dinner to thank them for all the help they gave working on our house during renovations. We participated in Faith in Action Sunday with our church and ended the month with a day trip to our friend Jamie’s wedding! It was a beautiful and challenging ceremony that made a lasting impact on us.

In October – We celebrated our engagementversary and had fun at our church’s night at the corn maze. Our backyard was destroyed by raccoons, which was fun (eyeroll), and we celebrated a year of owning our lake house. I filled in at our church for two Sundays and enjoyed the privilege of sharing with our congregation. I served as a presenter for a training day at work, and we had our annual fall photos taken, which was really fun! We explored a local nature preserve on one of the last warm weekends. We’ll be back to see more of that!

In November – We started the month by having our godson come to stay for a weekend, and we took him to the Children’s Museum, which was really fun! Ryan sang at the funeral of one of the residents where he worked, and I spoke at a women’s gathering at a local church. We hosted our small group for breakfast-at-dinner, Ryan traveled for his grandma’s 96^th birthday party, AND he started teaching boot camp classes at the gym. (This also means we both joined the gym!) We decorated the house for Christmas, Lexi turned two, and we celebrated Thanksgiving with my entire family gathered under one roof. We had an unexpected night apart when I had to travel to record some training videos, and then we traveled together to St. Louis for our 11^th anniversary trip!

In December – We started the month in St. Louis, enjoying some much-needed rest and sight seeing (and rain), and then we returned to reality. We squeezed in as much fun Christmassing as we could, overhauled our home office, and went to see our friends Julie and Amos in A Christmas Story Musical. I shared a message at a church back toward Kokomo, we had Christmas with our godson and his mama, and then we had all the other Christmas celebrations, too! We’ve put the house back in order, and we are ready to welcome 2024.

            Thank YOU for being part of our year as well. Thank you for reading here in this space and for loving us with your messages and presence in our lives! Grateful for you and looking forward to sharing more in the year to come!

Happy new year!

 

Ryan and Bekah
Braeya and Lexi Grae

Saturday Suggestions

 

Today is the final list of suggestions for this year. It has been fun to prep these lists for you this year. I’ve found many fun ideas personally, and I hope you’ve enjoyed at least a handful of them, too! I plan to continue this Saturday tradition next year, so come on back for more!

ONE. 

Sometimes it’s fun to have a list to propel you into planning a new month. This January list has ideas for kids, yes, but it also has really good ideas for cleaning and organizing parts of your house, ideas of what you can find on sale, and more! Even if you don’t use every idea, you might find some inspirational things in here!

TWO. 

If this in-between space at the end of the year is difficult or awkward for you – in your heart and in your life, read these words. Find joy and hope in pondering like Mary and trust the Lord to use these in-between days for His good in your life!

THREE. 

If you scroll down a little bit on this post, you’ll see some super cute free printables of winter houses. (You can print them with or without the words at the bottom.) I printed two of them for our house as I transitioned it back to winter décor. So cozy!

FOUR. 

Tomorrow is the final Sunday of this year, and as you head to church, it would be wonderful to start a new tradition of preparing your heart for worship. Church isn’t just a check-it-off-the-weekly-list activity, but something that can be (if we allow it) deeply meaningful to our hearts and our walks with the Lord. GREAT ideas here.

FIVE. 

Ryan and I still use essential oils regularly – diffusing them in our home and applying them topically as well. I always love looking up blends to use in my diffuser, and here are some specifically for winter. (This post is also not a sales pitch for any company. The writer simply loves oils.) If you haven’t tried them yet, this is a great month to start! One of the things that amazes us the most is how, since starting to use them, we have grown accustomed to their scent over synthetic candles and wax melts. We love our oils!

SIX. 

To be transparent, I haven’t tried any of these, but I’m always fascinated by the idea of growing veggies from remnants of previous veggies. I’ve seen the onions in real life – but some of the rest of these ideas were new to me. Have you tried these?

            Happy end of 2023, friends! Enjoy your New Year weekend!

Updates on Dreams and Goals for December 2023

 

Our month is wrapping up…and I am excited to report in on the goals I made a month ago.

ONE. Celebrate our anniversary. Done! As you know from reading the recap, it didn’t turn out to be the trip we envisioned, thanks to some lackluster weather and plans gone bad, but we still had a really wonderful time away together. We got to rest, spend time talking, and full nights of uninterrupted sleep. It was really sweet, and we are thankful for it.

TWO. Start (and finish) our Christmas shopping. Done! Just in the nick of time. It wasn’t the most low-stress shopping experience, but we got it done, and that’s what matters.

THREE. Enjoy some Christmassing of our own. Yes! I feel like we did a good job of this! We kicked it off on our anniversary trip, going to the St. Louis zoo to see the lights. That was our favorite part of our whole trip, and it was a good start to the season. We went to see the Christmas tree displays at Ryan’s work, and they were GORGEOUS! I got to have some extra Christmas merriment at my work team planning day. We saw our friends in A Christmas Story Musical, and that was SUCH fun. We did a little in-person shopping, complete with a coffee date. We drove around and looked at lights, sent cards, wrapped our gifts, and watched our favorite movies. (Lots of Tv movies played in the background.) Listened to Christmas music in the car, and enjoyed my mom’s annual Christmas candy. We’ve been able to celebrate with some friends, too, which is good.

FOUR. Keep brainstorming for 2024. I don’t know that I’ve ever planned and brainstormed for an upcoming year as heartily as I have this one. I’ve spent hours working on it (so far) and am not done yet. But I feel good about what I’ve accomplished so far!

FIVE. Start preparing for next year’s speaking! I have a color-coded spreadsheet now. It makes me SO HAPPY. I have also added some dates since I even made that goal, so I’m keeping that spreadsheet busy already.

SIX. Put the house back in order before January 1. I did it yesterday. It was a lot of work, and had Ryan not helped, it wouldn’t have gotten done in that time frame, but…it’s done! I am always so sad to see Christmas disappear, but I rest in a fresh start. I do love those.

Also…

·         We overhauled our guest room/office into more of an office and less of a guest room. We also spent hours working to organize the clutter that had gathered in the closet. Ryan worked SO hard to organize paperwork and filing. It feels so much better in that space now. I never dreamed this would be done before the new year starts, but I’m thrilled that it is!

·         Ryan ended up picking up extra classes to teach at the gym. He filled in for a coach that took the month off, and I was so proud of him for getting up for early classes, going back for late classes, and doing extra planning for all of it! I was proud of myself for attending (some) of the extra classes. He lost me on the early morning ones, though.

·         We got to see our former WillowBridge coworkers for the first time in over a year! We went to their daughter’s birthday party, and my GOODNESS is she ever grown up! So good to catch up with them.

·         I took an online garden planning course and have some new ideas for my little spot in the yard for next year.

·         I also got to watch the training course I filmed in Ohio last month. Goodness. Teleprompters and videographers are the BEST.

·         I started taking some other classes online that have been good for my learning heart! They’re self-paced, and I appreciate that. 

GiGiven the craziness of this month and all the extra added in, I am really thankful to have accomplished so much! How about you!? How did your goals go?