Sister Shenanigans

Yesterday involved so. much. sleeping. It was grand and glorious. We have been running nonstop for weeks – months, even – and we finally tuckered out. I think I took three naps. I did about a hundred (literal) scrapbook pages. Ryan organized in the garage we haven’t been able to see the interior of for weeks. (There will be much organization yet to come, but it’s a fine start.) We took Lexi for a walk. We ate leftovers and pieces of pie that Ryan baked on Sunday. It was a perfect day.

            But before I tell you much more about that day, let me tell you about last week!

            My sister from Kansas flew in to help me prep for a garage sale. You see, when Mom and Dad downsized and moved, they sorted through things from the last 60ish years that they’d lived in the same house. About half their moving truck was full of things for a garage sale. The other half was for their apartment. So since Easter, our garage has been full of sale items, and we’ve had no time to look at any of it.

            So Lori flew out here, and we spent most of last week working on sorting/pricing/arranging for the sale.

            First up, though, we got a new picture taken of the three of us. I was the weak link in this one. Fun fact: my eyes are super sensitive to light, so when I’m outside without sunglasses on, I just look angry. Or asleep. Or angrily asleep. This was one good one before I flew into an angry sleep.

            We spent Sunday night enjoying a sunset on the patio before launching into the week of sweating.

            I wasn’t kidding about the sweating thing. Summer arrived in full force right about the time we had to get working.

            We had some fun along the way, documented some key moments, and sent pictures to our husbands with funny stories.

            Lexi was SO excited to have her Aunt Lori here and the two of them did a little bonding.

            And when the bulk of the prep work was done, we went out to eat to celebrate!

            On the last day, we did a little thrifting at some of my favorite shops, went to see Mom and Dad, and then Ryan and I took her back to Julie, who took her to the airport!

            Thanks for coming to help, Lori! I never could have gotten it all done without you! 

Speaking Snapshots: May 2024

 

Good morning, friends! Yesterday wrapped up quite the eclectic month of speaking for me, and today I want to recap the adventures. You’ve seen snippets of some of these in other stories sprinkled throughout the month of May, but for the sake of posterity, I’ll create this post as well.

            My first stop in May was back on our monthiversary, when I shared briefly at a service for the National Day of Prayer. I represented the media and shared ways that people could pray for those in the media. The service was held outside, and I was really grateful for a decent-weather evening! I was able to see old friends, pray together with Ryan, and pray specifically for some of our friends.

            About a week later, we traveled to Greencastle (you saw this one in the Day in the Life post) to speak at a women’s event at a Baptist church there. They did a really sweet little tea with sandwiches and treats, all kinds of tea, and then some fellowship time at each table. We gathered in the sanctuary for music and then I shared with them about pouring into each other’s lives.

            This was my first time to speak at any church in that part of the state. I don’t think I told you in the previous post that after the event was over, I was talking to one of the women who came, and she told me about her daughter and where she had gone to college. Rather randomly, she asked me if I knew a lady named Brenda, and I said, “Actually, yes I do! Brenda was how we ended up with our sweet Lexi Grae! It turned out that Brenda’s son and this lady’s daughter are married. What are the chances?!

            A couple of days after that, on Mother’s Day, I spoke at the little church near home – the one where I’ve been serving once a month all year. I will sure miss that congregation this summer. They are such sweet people. They were so kind to us and even gifted us a hanging basket as a temporary parting gift!

            Yesterday I began my summer speaking at our own church! I’ll be doing a ten-week series on what it means to be an ambassador for Christ. To start the adventure (which, ironically, was the first theme of the series – the adventure of being an ambassador), everyone received a wristband that says AMBASSADOR.

            I am so excited for this summer and the opportunity to share with my local-church-body brothers and sisters in Christ!

Sunday Sentiments: Commencement

 

            Last Sunday marked 28 years since I graduated from high school. While it doesn’t seem possible that so many years have gone by, I am also profoundly grateful that I graduated then and am not trying to muddle through the obstacles that today’s students have in front of them. I’m not sure I could have handled it.

            Today is graduation Sunday around here, and I’m also grateful it’s not sit-in-a-hot-gym-for-hours day for me today. (Why does graduation always fall on the hottest day ever?)

            But today is a commencement of sorts for me. (Commencement, by the way, means beginning. I don’t think we often think of that when it relates to a graduation ceremony. Feels more like an ending, doesn’t it?) Today commences a short season for me in which I share a series of messages at our church.

            I’ve known about this commitment for several months. I’ve been praying over this time and am excited that it’s finally here. But it comes with a healthy weight of responsibility over my soul. I have combed through my message over and over this week, trying to make sure each piece of it is what it should be. Yesterday, during lulls in the garage sale, I sat and reread the passages, praying again that if there was anything I should change, that I would know.

            If you think of me today and throughout this summer, will you pray for me? I want to do well with this assignment. I want to represent God well. I want to honor Him with my words. I want to lead well and learn much.

            Today commences a new season. I can’t wait to see what it brings!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Good morning, friends! Ryan and I had a fulllllllllll and busy day yesterday – day one of our garage sale! Today’s weather is supposed to be hit-and-miss, so I am grateful we sold so much yesterday! While we’re selling thrifted treasures, I have some fun finds for your day!

ONE. 

Some of you might remember that a couple of weeks ago, I shared some words written by my friend Dave after the sudden death of his father. Well, this past weekend, Dave’s daughter got married, and he posted the message he shared at the wedding. I thought it was beautiful and impactful about marriage in general, so even if you don’t know the family or the happy couple, I think you can find something beautiful in here!

TWO. 

I was talking to my sister this week about cottagecore, which was a new term for her. Maybe it is for you, too! This post explains what it is – in a house, in clothing, and in activity. (Although I will say I don’t think the author meant to say that the decorating was homely. I think she meant homey. Big difference!  BONUS: This post is similar – not so much about cottagecore, but just about simplicity. Both, I think, are calming to read!

THREE. 

Back when we lived in Kokomo, I fell in love with quilts for bed covers, and we have one for our guest bed and our own bed. The guest bed one is holding up great. The one for our bed has fallen victim to life with two pets…a few times. It still works, but I always keep my eye out for one that looks a little less (literally) chewed up. I looked at some this week just for fun and particularly loved this one. This was another favorite – and reminds me quite a bit of what we have now! How about you? Love the quilts or prefer something else on a bed?

FOUR. 

Ryan and I still have lofty traveling dreams for someday, but since moving to the lake, we have found a fresh love for just being home. We’ve certainly had seasons where we have loved home-life more than others. How about you? I found this post this week for ideas on how to love being home more, and we do many of these already. They really do work!! If you’re struggling to love being home, check out this list. You might find some fresh ideas!

FIVE. 

Ryan and I had the first day of our garage sale yesterday and it so felt like a Saturday that I’m half afraid I’ll go to church today! We’ve been so consumed with prepping for this event that I have not even remembered it’s Memorial Day weekend. But it is, and that means cookouts abound! If you’re going to one and need some ideas for some better-for-you recipes, here is a whole list! Some of them look pretty yummy!

SIX. 

Summer has arrived, and with it – fun adventures outside! If you’re planning any day hikes at state parks this year, this post has great ideas for what to take along with you to make sure you stay safe, healthy, hydrated, and fed! It’s so easy to forget to pack a major item, so maybe this will help make the experience more enjoyable for you! 😊

BONUS: 

Enjoy this week’s capsule outfits. This coming week will be my final one in the spring capsule, and then we move on to summer!

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Monday, May 20, 2024

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Friday, May 24, 2024
* Please note: I had been in the garage sale all day and it shows! *

Flashback Friday: Writing Your Story One Week at a Time

 

Happy Friday, friends! Ryan and I are hosting day one of our garage sale today, so I don’t think I’ll be doing any writing or reminiscing on this day. But perhaps you have time to work on continuing to chronicle your story, so I am here with some ideas of things to think over!

            As Lori and I prepped the sale this week, we had a couple of boxes of books, and that has inspired this week’s post.

            Did you like to read when you were growing up? What books were your favorite? What authors did you love? Did you go to the library or buy books?

            I have always loved reading. Mom taught me to read when I was a toddler, and I devoured every book I could find.

            When I was really young, I loved the Berenstain Bear books. Remember those? By the time I was in elementary school, I was already into chapter books, and I loved The Boxcar Children. It also won’t surprise you that I loved all the Little House books.

            I bought every single Mandie book when they came out – and though I eventually outgrew them, I still have them! (I aged out before the author stopped writing, so I would love to someday get the rest of the books and have the complete series!)

            I was a sixth grader when I discovered Janette Oke, and I read (and bought) all her books. I also started reading Lori Wick, and I was known to drive to the bookstore on book release day to get every one of her new books the day it hit the shelves!

            I only read fiction until college, and though I did use the library, I loved owning the books!

            Janette Oke was one of the most formative authors of my young life. She was the one who made me want to become a writer. I sent her a letter in high school after one of my standardized tests featured many vocabulary words I’d learned from reading her books. She was so kind and wrote me back!

            We didn’t have cable when I grew up, so reading was my #1 hobby. I wish I had time to read now as much as I did then!

            I’m so grateful Mom taught me to read so early in life, and I’m so glad for all the things I learned along the way from the places and times I visited in the pages of books!

            How about you??

What Day is It?

  

           Well, friends, it’s been a week. My sister has been here since Sunday, and we have been working hard to prepare a rummage sale for this weekend. When my parents moved out of their house, they downsized significantly, and we’ve been hanging onto the excess, waiting for this sale time to arrive.

            All week long, we’ve sorted, priced, bundled, organized, and prepped for this sale. Several times I’m pretty sure we were just chasing each other around the garage, moving piles from one side to the other.

            Sometimes it felt like a game of memory – trying to think of where the one matching piece was that we knew we just saw and put in a safe place.

            Sometimes it felt creative and adventurous – bundling like items together and imagining how they could be used in tandem.

            Last night we celebrated our progress by going out for dinner and resting our tired feet while we ate. We came home, where I spent forever making nerdy little signs to post in the yard and on our tables.

            I’m not sure we know what day it is, but I am sure we’ve had a lot of fun preparing and talking while we worked. And I’m also sure we’ll be thankful when the sale is behind us and the garage is back to normal! 

Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2024 Reads So Far

 

This month I finished two books, and I’m excited to tell you about each one!

I mentioned before this first one, because it’s taken me a while to read. (This is zero reflection on how good the book is and completely a reflection on how little time I’ve had to read lately.) 

The book is called Crucial Conversations: Tools for TalkingWhen the Stakes Are High. It’s written by a group of authors: Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory, and the fact that the book is in its third edition with over 5 million copies sold should tell you that it’s a good one.

I’d never heard of this book until over Christmas, when I took an online course in how to navigate hard conversations. Not only do I resist conflict, I’m fairly terrible at it, and I know this is an area of life where I need to improve. The gentleman teaching the course taught from a Christian perspective, but he often mentioned this secular book, and I put it on my wish list. Ryan purchased it for me, and I dove in immediately.

This is the kind of book that needs revisited often to truly master the material, but I learned a ton on my first read. The book approaches all kinds of hard conversations – from marital chats/spats to family friction to business and boardroom navigations and it is so insightful! I learned about how to differentiate the truth from the stories we tell ourselves (and believe), how to stop when something isn’t working, reframe, and start again, and how to say hard things.

I have already used some of the tools and skills in the book in conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks, and while sometimes the outcome didn’t change, I felt more confident about how I approached it from my own end. I am proud of myself for learning new skills and trying to be bold in conversations that terrify me.

Though this book doesn’t pull any biblical models, it has tremendous life advice, and it can be used in so many settings. I will be going back to it every time I find myself facing a tough talk, and I am going to try to learn the concepts so I can just allow them to flow, rather than coming back to research.

It’s a good read for anyone who has any interaction with others (in any scenario) but it’s especially wonderful if you struggle with conflict like I do!

**

The second book I finished this month was Seamless by Angie Smith. Angie is an author I’ve read before – multiple times, and I do love her writing style. She’s married to Todd Smith, the lead singer of Selah. This book is a Bible study and it’s one my friend Julie and I led over the past few weeks with some young ladies from our church. We just wrapped up this week, and now I can share my thoughts on this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Seamless is a six week study on…the entire Bible. The subtitle of the book says Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story, and indeed she accomplishes that. Angie did not become a believer until she was an adult, so one thing I especially appreciate about her approach to teaching is that she understands why some people don’t have this obvious lifelong foundation in Scripture. She talks openly about how her early days of Bible study were done from children’s picture Bibles, because it’s all she could understand at that time. So while she does comprehend the deeper pieces of Scripture now, she presents it all in a very conversational and easy-to-understand way.

The book is a workbook style offering and has corresponding videos which you can stream from the Lifeway website using a code that comes with the book. (I love that – no keeping track of tangible video recordings.)

If you’re looking for a deep-dive into Scripture, this isn’t it. If you’re looking to become familiar with the overall structure and theme of the Bible, this might be for you.

The only thing that really frustrated me about the book is that the study is only six weeks long, and the first three covered Creation to the Promised Land. Week four covered the entire remaining portion of the Old Testament (WHICH IS A LOT!), week five talked about Jesus’ life as told in the four gospels, and the final week went over the rest of the New Testament. So the first part of the book felt like a jog and the second half felt like a massive sprint, and I’m not that good at running.

I would still recommend the book – especially if you’re trying to introduce people to the overarching theme of Scripture. Our hope is that the participants in the study would be able to find (from this journey) what they want to study next, and likely at a slower pace.

Snapshots...

 If you need me this week, you’ll find me in the garage, preparing for a sale. Not much about garage sale prep fosters creativity (at least that I’ve found yet…) so I thought I would take today to share some snapshots of life so far this month.

Coffee at a little shop nearby...it's quickly becoming a favorite for me.

Trying lots of new recipes...

Date nights with my love!

Hauling the last of the things away from my parents' house before it sold.

LOTS of gorgeous sunsets. 

Boot camp! 

Prepping to speak.

Lots of evening walks!

Some falling asleep while Pinteresting...

The beginning of open house season:

And we still have ten more days this month! :) More snapshots to come...