Tuesday Tales: Office Overhaul

 

                As you know, Mom and Dad moved to a different area of Swiss Village this year, and as a result, there were several things they didn’t have space to keep. We moved with them anything and everything that would fit in their rooms, and then we cleaned out their apartment. Some items were sold or donated. Some were shared with family. And some came to live here at our house.

                Our house isn’t huge, so we have to be extremely intentional about what comes in the door. We’ve reached the point where everything that comes in means something else has to leave, because we simply don’t have more floor space to rearrange it all.

                One of the hardest things for Mom to leave behind was her beloved rolltop desk. Dad gave it to her when I was in junior high, because she didn’t have a desk space and needed someplace to write cards and lists, to store her treasures, and to call her own. Dad was newly retired and when Mom and I came home from school one day, the desk sat in its new home. At that time, I’d just discovered my own love of writing and dreamed of such a space to sit and craft my stories. Alas, my desk was a Walmart special that Dad and I had assembled together, and suddenly it felt very lackluster when compared to this stunning Amish-made desk.

                Mom told me that very day that someday I could have the rolltop desk, and now that day has come. We brought it home a little under a month ago, and it’s been sitting in our home office with piles and stacks surround it. Last week we worked so hard to re-see the office, and while rooms are always a work in progress, this one has made much progress and is once again usable.

                Though I am often the queen of the before/after pictures, the way in which this room transformed meant that I didn’t get a proper before picture. So I will direct you to this post from July 2024 to see the most recent photographed layout of this room. We had made one change since these pictures – switching the cube shelf with a dresser – but otherwise, it’s accurate.

                The dresser was the one piece that didn’t stay in the house. As you know, everything we have tells a story, and it is always hard to part with a piece of the story. But of all the furniture we owned, I felt the least attached to it, so we carried it off to the church sale to be donated for a much better cause than our little house, and then we moved forward with this room.

                This overhaul felt like a game of Tetris, because we knew things had to fit just so. It started with the reshaping of the shelves.

                These bookshelves have been with me since my single days. Dad built them for my office in the Marion house, and when we left that house, Ryan took them apart and reassembled them in our new home. He’s done so each time we’ve moved, and I’m so glad we still have them. The sentimentality of them matters.

                They had been on this wall – two shelves butted up against each other.

                But I asked if Ryan could cut them down, because while I hated losing precious shelf space, I wanted to put them on either side of this window and create a built-in look. He did this project in the span of two evenings, and I reshelved everything as soon as he was done.

                I love this look. We kept the sit/stand desk we bought at IKEA a few years ago, because sometimes I do want to stand to work, and sometimes we both want to work at the same time. This also allowed me to keep my extra wide office chair I just purchased a few months ago. (I can sit cross-legged on it, and I love that.)

                For now, the turquoise bookshelf stays. Ryan and I bought it (upcycled barn wood) at a shop in Kokomo, and we love it. One day we may put a Murphy bed here, and if we do, we’ll have to rethink this shelf, but for now, it gets to stay. It holds my Bibles and some other treasures, and I love it. The window on the wall belonged in my grandparents’ house, which became mine for the first sixteen years of my adulthood. We found it when we moved out and kept it as a memory piece.

                And here is my beautiful, beloved rolltop desk. I had the best time decorating the top and choosing the pieces that would go inside. Lexi’s bed gets to stay in this room, and on the other side of the desk is my new, early birthday gift from Ryan. I’ve had this spinning bookshelf on my wish list for about three years, and now it’s mine! I love it and am still trying to figure out which books should live here. I put in some, but I need to make a plan for the rest.

                There are so many little details to this room, but they’ll keep for another day. For now, I’m just happy to have a functioning space to enjoy working, creating, and inspiring!

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                

Happy Monday! It’s a new week, and we have enjoyed some tried-and-true recipes over this past week. Here have been our favorite things about what we’ve tried!

Monday: Egg Casserole

What We Changed: This recipe makes a 9x13, so it made dinner for us and leftovers for any kind of meal later in the week! I did not use 24 eggs like it called for, because, first of all, I didn’t want to burn through that many eggs at once, and secondly, I wanted to make it a little healthier. So I used half the eggs and half egg whites from a carton. Tasted great to us! This is a bread-free recipe, so if you’re watching carbs, this is a good one!

Tuesday: My Take on Stuffed Shells with Steamed Green Beans

What We Changed: Well…I couldn’t find jumbo shells at the grocery store, and shells are a pain to stuff anyway, so I modified the recipe. I used chickpea rotini pasta and boiled it in a small pan. Meanwhile, I wilted the spinach in a bigger pan, added the cheeses, spices, and pasta sauce, and then I added the cooked pasta. I let all that marry on the stove and called it done. It was faster and just as good. (And eliminated all the hassle!)

Wednesday: Pulled Pork and Coleslaw

What We Loved: These are two tried-and-true recipes from our box, and they did not fail. I love how quickly both of them come together and how many meals we were able to get out of the pulled pork. This was so helpful on a busy week!

Thursday: Pulled Pork and Coleslaw

What We STILL Loved: Same as above! Busy nights + leftovers = happiness!

Friday: Soup and Salad at McAlister’s

What I Chose: Ryan and I went out for a date at McAlister’s, and I chose the southwest salad and the chicken tortilla soup. They were so good! Ryan picked two also – but he chose a sandwich and an appetizer. I don’t remember appetizers being on the choose two menu before, but it’s pretty brilliant! Ryan picked nachos, which really don’t warm over well, so this was perfect!

Saturday: Grilled Chicken and Spinach Berry Salad at Small Group

What We Loved: These are also two tried-and-true recipes. We normally do this recipe on chicken thighs, but we got a big bag of chicken tenders at Sam’s Club and that was what we needed to feed our group plus have some leftovers! The spinach berry salad is always a hit. I love it.

Sunday: Pulled Pork and Steamed Green Beans with Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

What We Tried: I used an old-fashioned cookbook from my shelf to make strawberry shortcakes to take and share with Mom and Dad for Mother’s Day. I loved it that the recipe called for baking the shortcakes in a muffin tin, so each one was a little personal cake. True shortcake is more like a biscuit and not cake, so it wasn’t very sweet. I’m not sure this is the perfect recipe, so I’ll keep looking, but I do think I want to keep trying the muffin tin method!!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

This week has been the best mix of full and good. I have had small moments of time when I’ve been able to read…and cook…and appreciate time with Ryan…and work on the house. Those things feel like a gift after how busy life has been. Here are some of my favorite moments from this week!

Last Sunday was my last message (for right now) in my series. I’ll do two more later. I was admittedly nervous about this one because of the topic (giving) but trusted that the Lord had put the topic on my heart, given me the words, and would be faithful to do complete His purpose with it!

We are doing yet another overhaul on our home office, this time to accommodate my mom’s desk, which came to live here when she went into healthcare. The room has been a disaster for weeks, because we haven’t had time to work on it. Monday evening, Ryan declared the time had come to begin the project! I can’t wait to tell you more about it, but suffice it to say, I was able to sort and shelve books Monday evening, which was beautiful.

We continued the bookshelf project on Tuesday, and while I waited for Ryan to do his part, I cleaned the aforementioned desk. I have a whole story about the desk to share with you, but until I can tell you the full story, just know that this desk has a long history with me and my writing journey. It was a privilege to get to clean it up and imagine what I’ll get to do in this space!

Perhaps this week was just all about offices, because Ryan continued to move into his new office space at work, and I just love how he’s setting it up. I think it will be a place of productivity and comfort – for him and those who come to meet with him, and I just love that. So proud of how he’s making it all look and function!

We went back in the office on Thursday to do a bunch of work. We had grown tired of the mess and chaos in our home. I want to show you what we did, but it’s so beautiful that I have to wait for a proper reveal. 😊 So how about you just enjoy this beautiful sunrise that started the day??

I had the privilege of taking a personal retreat day on Friday, and it was entirely life-giving, but that night, Ryan and I went on a date! We had dinner at McAlister’s, which we love, but we hardly ever get there. We also just finished the entire Gilmore Girls series, so we spent the car ride looking up trivia about the cast members! (We had refrained from reading much about the show until we were done, because we didn’t want spoilers!)

Yesterday was a full day, but in between cleaning the house and continuing to work on the office project, I had time to make tiny strawberry shortcakes to share with Mom when we visit her for Mother’s Day. They turned out cute as a little tiny button, and I can’t handle it!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                What a beautifully productive week we’ve had. We have made incredible progress on our home office overhaul and Ryan has made incredible progress on his work office move! We have more to do both places, but we are excited about all we’ve accomplished so far. I haven’t had much time to sit and read, but maybe you do, so here are some links for you today. Enjoy!

I know s’mores are a fall thing in some books, but I love them in the summer, too. If we get an evening that isn’t SO hot, I love a little fire by the lake with s’mores. And this post made me want to step up my s’more game. These are FANCY!

Bill Gaither turned 90 years old a little over a month ago, and WTHR news anchor Scott Swan did an extended interview with him. (It’s about 20 minutes long.) I am not much of a news-watcher, but I do appreciate Scott Swan, and this interview was excellent on both sides. If you’re a southern gospel music lover, check it out!

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. This lakeside home gives me all KINDS of design inspiration. Also, I would never be able to achieve the level of loveliness she has given to her gardens and yard, but I wouldn’t hate living next door to her. I need to save this one for my own future decorating purposes!

I love Caleb and Kelsey’s voices…in my head, I can sing like Kelsey. (In reality, I sing like Barney Fife.) Anyway, they put together this medley of *all* the 90s worship songs, compressed to about four minutes. If you want a sweet trip down memory lane of 90s worship music, I am here to grant your wish! How many do you know??

Penny Pincher Fashion has some cute inspiration outfits for the days of summer that are just ahead of us…right? Comfy, flowy pants and skirts, cute shirts, and even some fun hats and bags here in the mix. Here’s to date nights looking super cute!

I know we are already past some of the early planting days of the season, at least here in Indiana, but this planting guide might prove helpful to you! (And if you are not from my general geographic area, you can change the zone to fit your location.) This is one of the most thorough and helpful I’ve read, so I want to save this for sure!

Friday Fun: A Tuesday in Ministry

 

A few weeks ago, I shared with you what a Monday in ministry looked like for me. That day was a work-from-home day that was very heavy in writing projects and creating resources and documents. Each day looks different in the ministry world, and sometimes the same day each week can look very different. This month I thought I’d show you a recent Tuesday, so you can see other things I do.

                My day begins at 8 a.m. with a monthly breakfast gathering for ministers in our city. I’ve been going to this (nearly) every month since starting my job and have formed some new friendships along the way. We order breakfast and coffee and run through the business for the month: National Day of Prayer service agenda, installing new officers for the term beginning in the fall, sharing the current happenings in our local churches, and hearing from our guest speaker. Today our speaker shares about a local ministry to help with food scarcity. I pay extra attention so I can pass along the idea to our church’s mission coordinator.

                When the meeting is over, I hang out for a little bit to chat with my table-neighbor, who happens to be a friend. He just returned from a conference, so he tells some stories from that.

                Then it’s time to head to the church for staff meeting. Our agenda varies from week to week, but some things stay the same – like praying for families in our church, praying for other requests we know about, talking through the upcoming Sunday service, and then moving through events down the road that need our attention now. Even though most of us are wearing long sleeves, all our conversation is geared around summer activities. So strange to think about church camp when it still feels like winter!

                Of course we get sidetracked along the way, but those little trails usually result in good stories and some laughs. One of the board members stops by to say hi and thank us for our work – so kind!

                After staff meeting, I return phone calls that have made their way into my voicemail, send Ryan a Marco Polo to check in with him – so he can watch at his convenience – clean out my inbox, and stop to talk with the cleaning staff. It’s almost time for lunch by then, so I decide to gather my lunch and work through it.

                During lunch, I write an encouragement card to one of our new members and prepare it for mailing. One of our teens wants to talk about baptism and has requested to meet with me, so I send a message to set up that meeting. I’m also prepping my lesson plans for our final week studying Darlene Schacht’s book “Nehemiah and the Holy Spirit’s Work of Restoration.” This will be our 13^th week of study, and I have absolutely loved leading two groups through this book!

                I print out my lesson plans, add a fresh page to our party sign up (next week is our end-of-year party!) and tuck everything neatly into my binder to be ready for tomorrow night. Much like a schoolteacher, I’m sure, I both welcome and dread the end of this semester. I have loved learning and meeting with these ladies and will miss them so much over the summer, but I also look forward to a lesson-plan-writing break so I can plan at large for next year’s groups!

                I have Growth Group signs that I hang over the Sunday School signs each week, and I like to hang them on Tuesday because I don’t often work from the office on Wednesday. I grab my stack of signs and hang them in preparation for our midweek studies.

                While I am out hanging signs, I walk by the Sunday School room that houses our elective Sunday School class. They are about to wrap up for the session that has been meeting for several weeks, which reminds me I wanted to send a message to the teachers to encourage them on the home stretch and offer some suggestions for gathering feedback from those who attended!

                I have received some information I need to send along to one of the committees I oversee, so I pause to do that while I’m thinking of it. I always text all the committee members to let them know when I’ve sent an email – especially if it is time-sensitive. I send my texts and file my paperwork.

                I have two storage tubs taking up space in my office, and I need to move them into long-term storage. Both are from Holy Week, if that tells you anything about how crazy life has been. I need to print some pictures from our Journey to the Cross event so we can reference them for future setup, but technology is NOT my friend today and the pictures will not print. Without them in the tub, I can’t put everything away, so I decide to table this project for another day. On to more adventures!

                It’s snack time and I’m hangry, so I pull out my yogurt/granola/fruit snack to eat while I make lists of things I need to do another day when my brain is clearer.

                I have some texts and emails from church people to respond to, and I need to update my time log for today. I pause to do those things – and stop to have conversations with our staff and people coming through the church for meetings. The joy of a day IN the office is getting to interact with my coworkers. (Our church doesn’t have regular office hours for the ministerial staff, since all of us do ministry in different locations. Anytime we happen to converge in the office at the same time gives us a chance for team bonding!)

                I am giving some announcements at church Sunday, so I write out my notes and print them. I don’t want to forget, and I don’t want to get brain freeze in front of the church!

                By this point, I’ve been at church for seven hours, so I decide to go home and start working on dinner and chores there. I have grand intentions of doing another hour or two of work, but it doesn’t happen.

                Every night, though, I do study The Bible Recap by Tara Leigh Cobble. I am choosing to listen to the Scripture passage on an audio Bible (something I’ve never done before) and then I read and study her recap. Then I discuss it on Facebook Messenger with a friend from church who asked for accountability in getting through the Bible in a year. I am SO proud of her for sticking with it, especially through the long, hard book of Jeremiah. This hasn’t been an easy read, and she’s still going! I do my study time and then I can call it a day!

                Thanks for coming along for a day in the ministry life!

Travel Thursday: Maddening Times in Madison

 

This week I sat down to read our scrapbook from our 6^th annual birthday trip (back in 2018) to Madison, Indiana. It was delightful to read this book! I felt like I finally found my storytelling stride in the land of scrapbooking! I had forgotten so many of the “are you kidding me??” stories and it was a lot of fun to revisit that trip.

                I had just turned 40 when we took this trip, and I’d so been looking forward to visiting this sweet little riverfront town on the Ohio River. I’d heard it was a great place to visit – and it was! But oh, how many mishaps we encountered on this trip!

Because this is such a touristy town, it’s not cheap to stay there. We hadn’t yet discovered Airbnbs (though we made their acquaintance immediately after this debacle) so we picked a riverfront hotel. Allow me to share the story as I wrote it in the scrapbook:

“The lady behind the desk was super nice and beside her was a gentleman taking swigs from his beer bottle. We later determined he was an actual employee and even on duty at the time. The lady took our info, told us about the continental breakfast the next day and the live music coming up later that night. Then she handed us two tickets and said our first two beers were on the house. Then she handed a real key to another young lady who walked us to our room. Our room was not river view, nor was it even in the same building as the lobby. As we walked with the lady we went by a rough looking couple sitting on the patio furniture outside their door. They were both smoking, directly under a sign that said no smoking, and they were each holding a dog. (We had been asked when we checked in if we had pets, because they’re not allowed.) When the lady opened the door, I wanted to cry. It was decorated nicely, but it was the size of our car and smelled like a wet sock.”

I DID cry when the employee left, but we stayed (no choice, really) and made the best of it.

It rained most of the weekend, so all my photos include humidity-big hair.

Our attempt to find dinner the first night went as follows:

The first restaurant we wanted to try was not just waterfront, but floating IN the water, and it the ramp to get to it had been destroyed by a flood, so it was closed. (Facebook hadn’t been updated in the last three months to reflect that, but it was, in fact, closed.

Next, we tried a pizza place, but there weren’t any places to park, so we figured there also wouldn’t be tables left.

We went to a coffee shop that also served food, only to be told they had stopped serving food for the night because they weren’t very busy.

Our fourth attempt restaurant was a winner, but that wore us out!

The continental breakfast at the hotel was so bad that we never went back after the first day.

The Ohio scenic byway…wasn’t. I’d try it again. Maybe we just had bad weather after a significant flood. But it sure was a fail on this trip.

We hiked in Clifty Falls State Park, which was a great experience and remains one of our favorite parks we’ve hiked in Indiana. But the start of our day was so foggy that the overlooks didn’t yield much! And it had rained so much all spring that our shoes and socks were soaked with water and mud by the time we left.

Never fear, though! The shower pressure was so intense, it just pressure washed the dirt right off!

We elected to walk across the bridge into Kentucky and then come back (a mile total) and a storm hit while we were walking home. (Even though the radar was 100% clear.) Even though we could see our hotel from the bridge, we couldn’t get to it without getting soaked, s we had to hide in a shelter.

Whew! What a trip! We really did have a lot of fun. We drank so much coffee, learned a lot about the history of Madison and some other small towns. We loved hiking the park and wandering through antique shops. But oy…there were some real doozies on this trip!

Wednesday in the Word: Depart to Pray

Well, friends, Ryan and I have begun a house project (office overhaul…yes, again) that is fun and lifegiving, and simultaneously quite time-consuming. We made great progress last night, and then I sat down and it was 10:30, and I hadn’t even started studying the verses I wanted to write about from Psalm 37. A quick read told me my required time in the commentaries exceeded the itty bitty time I had to read and write. So I shall pause that and come back another week.

                Meanwhile, you might remember I recently finished handwriting Matthew’s gospel and moved on to Mark. I’m still in chapter 1, and earlier today I wrote the section where “while it was still dark, he [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”

                I felt like I had a greater appreciation of his exhaustion level, because I spent the last few days reading and writing about all the people who sought Him for healing and care. He had been so kind to tend to them, but He led by example in recharging his own soul before moving ahead again.

                The words are timely, because here in a couple of days, I’m taking a recharge day of my own. All of us on staff were challenged to take a retreat day refill our cups so we are at our best to do the things we do.

                Weather permitting, I plan to spend the day outside, appreciating God’s beautiful creation – and praying. I have so many things saturating my mind. So many things that have saturated my mind for the past few weeks. It’s time to clear my head, and allow God to help me regroup. Reading that even Jesus needed such an opportunity gave me great permission to do the same.

                I don’t know if you have the chance to do something similar. Maybe your job builds it in. Maybe you have to use vacation time for it. Either way, I think it’s so worth it. Step aside from whatever is regular and routine for you, depart from the busyness, and spend some time praying and recharging!