Travel Thursday: Pandemics and Birthday Trips

 

                I am so glad I scrapbooked my way through the pandemic. While it’s not a time in life I particularly enjoyed (though I didn’t hate working from home one bit), I find that I’m now far enough removed from it to find the documentation of it fascinating.

                Our 8^th annual birthday trip fell during the pandemic, though we had it scheduled long before “pandemic” was a household term. We planned to go to Hocking Hills State Park and even booked a genuine tiny cabin for our lodging. We didn’t know if we would be able to take the trip, because so much was still closed, and Ohio was reportedly a pretty strict state, but we heard some trails were open, and so was our cabin, so we went!

                As I read back over our adventures of this long-weekend trip, I’d forgotten so much of what made it so very odd.

                We took all our own food and cooking supplies so we could eat in our cabin every meal if necessary. We had no idea if we’d be able to find anything open for getting food out.

                We were in the application process for WillowBridge and needed to submit fingerprints to move on. Alas, most fingerprinting locations were closed entirely or only open one day a week and booked months out. Ryan researched everyplace he could find between Kokomo and Hocking Hills and found an appointment in little Connersville, Indiana the very day we would be driving through. So our first stop on vacation? The Connersville, Indiana Police Department to be fingerprinted. That was a new one for vacation.

                Our tiny cabin remains one of my favorite places we’ve ever stated. It was entirely secluded and had a hot tub. It was so clean, so well-labeled, and the perfect place to be alone for vacation! I declared if we ever lived in a tiny house, it should be set up like this one.

                We loved the hot tub but were sad that the fireplace on the porch didn’t work. The owners even came to look at it, but it was broken.

                We weren’t far from The Coffee Emporium, which was open for business and had open air seating on the porch. We went twice on this visit and loved it so much that we went back when we had our do-over of this trip a few years later. It was (and still is) SO GOOD.

                Hocking Hills State Park was closed entirely while we were there, so we had to hike in nature preserves and other parks. It was still beautiful, because it’s all the same gorgeous land, but we did miss out on a bunch of waterfalls. Apparently those all live in the state park. This was the one-and-done waterfall we found.

                We mostly had the place to ourselves, and that was fun. We like seclusion.

                Signs you are living through a pandemic: you get a blister on your foot and use a spare mask to wrap your heel so it doesn’t blister more.

                Ryan thought this was so fascinating he took a picture. It was the first time we were inside a restaurant (McDonalds allowed ordering in for carry out) after social distancing markers were added to the floors.

                It was one strange vacation, but we were glad we got to do something, anyway. And our do-over a few years later was worth the wait!

Wednesday in the Word: Generous Giving

 

As I studied along in Psalm 37 this week, I found verse 21: The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives.”

                I have learned many good things from sharing life with Ryan, and one of those things has been generosity. I don’t know that I’ve ever known someone who is as ready to share as Ryan.

                If he hears of a need and has the ability to meet it, he doesn’t hesitate. He’s first in line to help.

                And while sometimes that means he’s helping financially (which is what most people think of when they hear the word “generosity”) – it also means he helps in so many other ways.

                Like the time we changed our mailbox and one of his coworkers asked if she could have our old one. He cleaned it until it sparkled, drove it to her house, and installed it in cement.

                Like the time (when I worked at WBCL) he found out one of my coworkers needed a car hauled from Fort Wayne to Muncie, so he borrowed his step-dad’s truck and trailer, drove to Fort Wayne, picked up the car, and hauled it to Muncie.

                Like the time(s) in our dating days when he drove to my house every week – or multiple times a week – to take care of the yard, because I was busy and commuting and didn’t always have time to tend to it.

                Like the time we happened upon a stalled car on a busy road in Fort Wayne (in the middle of winter) and he hopped out, somehow managed to talk me into doing the same, and we pushed that car off the road, UPHILL into a parking lot. I was wearing heeled boots, too. EEK!

                On and on it goes. He sees needs, and he generously meets them. He gives of his time, his talent, and his treasure, and in so doing, he has taught me that this is not only the right thing to do, but it’s the joy-giving thing to do. I am thankful to learn this from him – and to still get to learn this from him.

                My hope and prayer for my heart is that this will come to me as naturally as it comes to him!

Tuesday Tales: Gardens and Plants

 

Our Indiana spring was…frustrating…from a planting perspective. We had some warm days early on – the kind that get your hopes up and then disappear, rudely, never to return. The closer the days got to planting gardens and flowers, the colder and windier it became. As I’ve shared before on here, we had a bit of a learning curve with plants when we moved to our current county. We’d always purchased our plants at big box stores, but apparently when you move to Amish country, you start buying your plants at greenhouses, and you buy them early if you want to have any chance at selection.

                So we went early – on our May monthiversary – and bought all we would need for this year. And then for the next week and a half, we played a not-so-fun game of pulling the plants out of the garage every single morning and put them back in every single night. It was frustrating. I did not think some of the plants were going to make it until we could get them in the ground!

                At last, we were able to plant, and it was such a joy. It took two days to get complete all the planting, and for the first time, I permitted myself to slow down enough to thoroughly enjoy the planting. I soaked in the beauty of being outside. I prayed as I planted. I breathed deeply. I told those little plants to take root and grow tall and strong.

                After three summers at the lake, I feel like we’ve finally figured out what grows well and what colors work best. I love the way it all looks this year, and I am excited to take another round of pictures in a month to see how much they have grown in these few short weeks!

                Summer feels alive at the lake, and we love seeing how beautiful it looks in our little planters and garden beds!  

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                Good Memorial Day morning to you, friends! If you’re here today looking for a lot of inspiring recipes, I fear you’ll be disappointed. This week has been about fun dates, leftovers, and oddities, more than anything else. But maybe you’ll find something to try, even if not everything has a full recipe!

Monday: Leftover Amish Breakfast Casserole and Air Fried Chicken Tenders

What We Did: We needed to use up leftovers before they started going bad, and we hadn’t been to the grocery store in a little while, so I tried to work with what we had. I air fried the last of the chicken tenders we had in the freezer and paired them with breakfast casserole. A strange combo, but it worked! We were fed.

Tuesday: Slow Cooked Brisket, Tater Tots, and Salad with Candy Shop Pizza

What We Loved: The last time we shopped at Aldi, they had some pre-seasoned brisket on a pretty major sale. We bought one and froze it for someday. Someday came this week! I decided to put it in the slow cooker with a little water and let it cook all day. It was so good. It was seasoned with black pepper and was tender and tasty. I had salad and just a tiny bit of tater tots with mine, and Ryan had a more generous serving of tater tots. Ryan also took Candy Shop Pizza to work for a carry-in. I used plain M&Ms on it this time, and it was so pretty!

Wednesday: Leftover Slow Cooked Brisket, Tater Tots, and Salad

What We Loved: We both ended up working long days, so coming home to leftovers was the best kind of gift.

Thursday: Cobbled Together Breakfast Made from Leftovers

What We Did: You know it’s almost grocery day when you are scraping out the last of the refrigerator leftovers to eat dinner! Eggs, biscuits, gravy…it was a good, odd dinner.

Friday: Boiled Egg

What Were We Thinking? We were on our way to visit some friends and did not have time to eat dinner so…we each had a boiled egg from the snack bag. Possibly the saddest dinner I have ever shared with you in this history of this roundup. 0/10 recommend as a dinner in its entirety! There is (understandably) no photo of this meal.

Saturday: Date Night: Seafood!

What We Had: Ryan and I enjoyed a Saturday date night, and we tried something different: seafood! He chose a cheesy shrimp and grits dish, and I tried blackened redfish. (I didn’t eat the bun and gave Ryan half the fries.) I’d never had redfish before, but it was not too fishy, so I liked it!

Sunday: Chicken and Pasta Salad

What We Had: In a nod to the picnic-style of Memorial Day weekend, we purchased some chicken and pasta salad. These are rarities for us, and they were quite delicious!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

Good morning, friends! I hope your weekend is treating you well. We’ve had a good week around here, and these are just a few of the highlights.

Last Sunday evening we took the first boat ride of the season! It was a perfect evening…a good breeze, a sweet sunset, and Lexi couldn’t have been any happier to be back on the boat! Here’s to a beautiful summer of boat rides.

Is there much that is more fulfilling than beginning a new paper planner? I frequently start mine in the summer, and this year is no different. Writing in the first items, adding the pretties and the color coding…ahhh.

As I shared with you, this week marked 30 years since I graduated from high school, and I marked the day by writing a sermon and going to a meeting at Swiss Village. I also carved out time to reflect on the beautiful life God has allowed me to live in the last 30 years. It hasn’t been perfect. Some parts have been really hard. But God has been so faithful, and I celebrate the goodness He’s allowed me to live.

Though the week has been good, life has been quite overwhelming on many fronts lately. I was at church this week and found myself unable to catch a deep breath, so I put down my work, walked to the sanctuary, and sat there for a while, praying, taking breaths, and allowing the Lord to calm and settle my heart. I am so thankful for this room and the chance to steal away and pray here when life is too much. (Or even when it’s not!)

I worked from home on Thursday, and Lexi was ALL SNUGGLES all day while we worked on everything on my list. (It was garage sale weekend here, so we had SO much traffic. This offends her, so we had to hide away in the living room where she couldn’t see the golf cards and cars and trucks with trailers and…and…)

Rain has slowed us down from taking walks, but we were able to get one in early in the morning this week – even though it was coat-worthy weather. As I shared in a Facebook post this week, taking walks has been something Ryan and I have dearly loved for our entire marriage. Everywhere we have ever lived, we’ve found walking paths and visited them as often as possible. We have our best talks on walks, and now we have Lexi to love the walks as much as we do! (As long as Hank the Heron isn’t hanging around…)

We had a chance to visit some friends yesterday – friends we haven’t seen in a long, long time. They invited us to sit with them on the screened in porch, talk, and drink coffee. It was raining, and it was just so serene. I was thankful for the slowness, the friendship, the conversation, and the sound of the rain hitting the roof. We should sit on porches in rain more often.

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Good morning! Happy Saturday of a long weekend to you! I’m so looking forward to this weekend, and I hope you are as well. Maybe you’ll have extra time to read/watch videos, and if so, I have just the links for you!

I think I’ve told you before that I dearly love looking at floor plans for houses. It was a hobby of mine growing up, when magazines used to carry floor plans. I’d tear out my favorites, put them in a file folder in my file cabinet (because what teenager doesn’t have her own file cabinet??) and dream about the day I’d have my own house. I have my own house now, but I still love looking at fun floor plans. I’ve noticed my tastes have shrunk significantly. I used to pick out three story Victorians and now I love something that looks a little more like this.

I’ve shared, once or twice before, a YouTube video from the “Darling Desi” channel. Her storytelling in video format is such a refreshing change from the typical content creators. In this video, she redecorated her bedroom and embraced all the 90s things most of us have just thrown away: an old, boxy TV,  landline phone, actual DVDs. It was so much fun to watch. If you need a half hour of good storytime, give it a watch!

Sometimes when we travel, we stay in hotels, and sometimes we stay in Airbnb rentals. Anymore, unfortunately, hotels are cheaper, so we are returning to those, primarily, but whenever do get to stay in a short term rental, I always love exploring the home itself. We’ve had some definite favorites over the years. One of those was in Louisville, and while we didn’t fall in love with the city itself, we loved the cute little carriage house where we stayed. We remember declaring it felt like the kind of place we could actually live in, even though it was small. I stumbled upon this floor plan of a house that reminds me a lot of the layout of that Airbnb, and it’s still so cute. I still think we could do it. It would take some downsizing, but we could do it!

I dearly love a good object lesson, as you might know if you have ever heard me speak! Yvonne’s object lesson here is so good. It’s one she presented to her kids to teach them truths about what they allow themselves to think about, but honestly, I’m confident we can all benefit from the wisdom of this little lesson!

Summer is here! I’m declaring it. I love a white skirt in summer, which reminds me – have I ever told you my white skirt debacle? I had one in high school and wore it to school one day. I looked down halfway through the day and there were giant holes in the front of my skirt. I had apparently leaned against some skirt-eating chemical during our Chemistry lab and destroyed my skirt! Now I can’t think about white skirts without thinking about that. Anyway. That was a side story for free. 😊 What I really want to tell you is to check out these outfit inspirations to accompany a proper summer white skirt!

I am excited that our garden is FINALLY underway, and I look forward to seeing produce ripening out there! Jami writes here about vegetables that are easy to grow and some that are not. I concur with the ones I know about! While I haven’t planted everything on her easy-to-grow list, the ones I have (most of them) have done well for me, except for last year when nothing did well. I haven’t tried any of the not-so-easy-to-grow except the peppers, and it is true that those usually give me some fits. How about you? Any of these work for you?