Delayed Photo Fun!

Today's post is a completely random offering that I am adding because I can't bear to NOT have this documentation on the blog. 

Remember December 2, 2021? Yes, I am aware it was almost five months ago, but can we revisit it again for today?

If you've been reading here long, you know that Ryan and I have an annual tradition of recreating some of our wedding photos on each anniversary. Our 9th anniversary in December was no exception, but I did not have time to sit down and craft the collages until this very week. Does that tell you how busy our lives were at WillowBridge? 

It was high on my list to make those collages after we moved, because without them, I also couldn't make our scrapbook of our anniversary trip! So now I'm able to do that, and my heart is so happy. 

I share those collages each year, and some of you may have noticed they didn't appear this year. It wasn't that we gave up on tradition! I just had zero spare minutes to put together the collages. 

Before I share them, I must say that we have done these photo shoots in quite the smattering of places over the years. 

* The originals, of course, were taken on Siesta Key Beach in Florida, where we were married.
* Anniversary #1 had two photo shoot locations: a Christmas tree farm in Noblesville, Indiana, and our backyard in Marion, Indiana. 
* Anniversary #2 photo shoot was done outside a hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois, beside a busy interstate.
* Anniversary #3 photo shoot was done in a field behind a nursing home in Marion.
* Anniversary #4 photo shoot was done in a city park in French Lick, Indiana.
* Anniversary #5 photo shoot was done back in Siesta Key Beach, marking the first time we've ever gone back to a previous vacation spot!
* Anniversary #6 photo shoot was done in a busy city park in Louisville, Kentucky.
* Anniversary #7 photo shoot was done in/beside a shelter house in a park outside Cincinnati, Ohio. It was also the only time we've had to do our photos in rain/snow!
* Anniversary #8 photo shoot was done beside a waterfall in Richmond, Indiana.
* Anniversary #9 was done in a city park in Nashville, Tennessee!

We have many traditions, and I honestly love them all, but this is one I am so glad we began - mostly on a whim. I love watching the years unfold through these photo shoots!

And this one also includes our original engagement photo!

I also make a collage every year that includes every single one of our monthivesary photos from that year. Today I thought I would share all nine years - because they make my heart happy! Enjoy the many hair colors!

Thanks for letting me pause to celebrate a very belated anniversary tradition!

Beginning to Settle In

 

Last week I showed you some glimpses of our first day in our new house. I thought I'd show you a few more pieces of those first few days here! 

I took it extra slow my first morning to WAKE UP here. Coffee, fuzzy blankets, and so much silence. :) 

Braeya has ALWAYS loved our luggage. Whenever we have it out in preparation for a trip or after we unpack when we come home, she abandons all other seating options and rests exclusively on the suitcase. We used our suitcases to transport clothing, so they were all lined up in the bedroom, and there she was, in her spot!

Ryan installed our new stove/oven so we could start cooking! Works like a dream!

The chandelier for the dining nook was set too low, so he took out some of the extension pieces. (Side note: I love all the lighting fixtures in the whole house. Three cheers for the person/team who made all these decisions before I knew I needed to have them made!)

Ryan documented my first official meal prep in the new house. :) Looks like chicken!

I cook and they wash dishes. Isn't that how this works?

FINALLY our refrigerator arrived. It was not on time. (We even had confirmed delivery from the store the day of and then...just kidding! How about tomorrow?) By that time, our window of opportunity to live like Little House by storing food safely outside had ended, because it warmed up just enough to make it unsafe, but not enough to make being outside delightful. Fortunately, the bulk of our refrigerated food was safely stored at our friends' house in their spare refrigerator. 

Lexi supervised as I pulled off all the tape keeping the shelves in place. (It wasn't as noisy as the packing tape, so she was willing to participate.)

I'll have to tell you more about the new table later, when I do the room tours. But I am fairly certain this was the one piece of the whole adventure that tested Ryan's sanity. (Almost every single chair had one leg too short, so he had to do some unexpected construction.) 

Our friend Odie sent us the coolest housewarming gift! It was delivered right to our front door and contained little single-serving snacks! Perfection for keeping our energy up whilst unpacking!

I've said before that this house reminds us in a lot of ways of our Kokomo house, but this is one BEAUTIFUL way it does not remind us of that house. Our Kokomo house sat north-facing, and though we had large, beautiful windows on the front and back of the house, we had ZERO east/west windows. I had to go outside to get sunrise or sunset views, and sometimes that was not very convenient. This house gives us spectacular sunrise and sunset views, and I am so grateful. I take pictures just because I can. 

Hey look! It's the table! Our office wasn't set up yet, so this made a great spot for Bible study and working on the IF: Gathering talk that took place right after we moved in. 

I think I'll wrap up here today. I don't want to drone on forever and bore you! I shared about this on Instagram, but I'll share it here too. My dad built these bookshelves for me when I was single and living in Marion. My office was upstairs and there was one wall that seemed to beg for wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling shelves. So Dad built them for me. Then Ryan and I were married and eventually moved out of the house to be in Kokomo, closer to his work. Ryan carefully labeled every shelf and took the whole thing apart so I could have them in our new house. Then he did it again when we moved to Grabill to work at WillowBridge. And he's done it again here. This is the first time since Marion that both shelves have fit beside each other on the same wall. I adore it. 

Awaiting their cargo:

Anchoring to the walls. (I may not have been able to wait...started filling before he was finished anchoring.)

With each step, it's started to feel more like home! Room tours starting very soon. I promise! 

Happy Easter!

We woke up yesterday morning to a post-Easter SNOW!! I don't typically check weather forecasts unless I'm going to be driving or doing something outside that requires knowing the weather, so this was a surprise to me! I'm pretty much over snow for this season, so I wasn't upset when it melted off quickly. It reminded me of last year, when we had a fairly deep snow on April 21! I remember Ryan shoveling out the WillowBridge parking lot right there before his birthday! Good grief.

Yesterday I was able to upload my pictures, and now I can tell you a bit about our Easter!

Our church had an outdoor sunrise service, but we didn't attend, because we actually had our first houseguest that night! I'll come back to that in a moment. They said it was a chilly service, but they did get the most important component: a sunrise! Ryan captured this from our house. (Ignore the spotted windows. We've had a lot of rain.)

Back to our guest! Our little buddy who comes to stay with us now and then actually came over on Saturday to stay for a couple of days. In a rare twist that has never before happened in the history of his time with us, he did not sleep through the night. For some strange reason, he woke up at 3:15, so that was the end of my sleep for the evening. I was able to get him to go back to sleep, but only if I held him. So he slept, and I tried, and that was how we started our Easter.

Ryan was so gracious to get him ready for church (teeth brushing and all!) while I also got ready. He looked so adorable in his little button-down shirt and khakis. His hair was a little wild. We'd washed it the night before, and it was in cute little ringlets, but then he slept, so...

We made it out the door on time for breakfast at church and then I took pictures for one of my friends at the baptism service between breakfast and church. (Still editing those.) Busy morning!

We had a really beautiful service at church, and it was special for us to get to share our first Easter at this particular church! 

We were able to have Easter with my family, which as I mentioned in the blog on Sunday, was our first time in four years to be with family on Easter! My sister and her husband came to Easter too, but they left ahead of us, so they're not in the picture of us with Mom and Dad. 

We also saw some of Ryan's family while we were in the area! 

After we got home, Ryan and I exchanged Easter baskets, and I think we did well this year!

Ryan gave me a very thoughtful gift, which I loved. When I do the house tour, which I do promise is coming very soon, I will have to show you this little tray that now lives on our coffee table. In our previous two homes, it sat upright like a piece of wall art, but I decided to use it in a different way in this house. There is one little section of the tray that is open and is the perfect spot for a small vase of flowers. I've had some live flowers there that my friend Julie gifted to me, but I know I won't always have fresh cut flowers for that vase. Ryan found this really cute jar of faux flowers that has whatever-it's-called in the bottom that looks like water. It will be the perfect addition to that tray when I don't have fresh flowers on hand! He also gifted me some of my favorite Easter candy, which I will carefully ration over the coming weeks: peanut butter eggs, caramel Cadbury eggs, and peanut butter M&Ms.

The lighting wasn't great for my picture for him, but he did love his gift! 

When we went to that Seder meal at Jonathan and Julie's house a couple of weeks ago, Ryan saw the little pour-over coffee thing that Jonathan had, and he mentioned he really liked it. It looks like a coffee cup, but it has a hole in the bottom and sits on top of the cup you want to drink from. You put a filter in it and let the coffee pour right into your mug. He was pretty excited that he now has his own! (And he also received peanut butter eggs. He loves them!)

It was a good Easter, and I am grateful for the day beyond the baskets and meals. I want to close today by borrowing the words my friend Deanna Manning shared on her Facebook post. She offered up the obligatory family picture with her husband and four sons, but I loved her accompanying words: "It's my prayer that they pass along the hope and life that Jesus' empty tomb offers for generations to come. We can get everything wrong, and it won't matter...but Jesus...oh, that's everything!"

That is also my prayer for the times we get to welcome our buddy into our home. We aren't parents. We don't always get everything right or on schedule when he's here. I realized last night that I forgot to brush his teeth that morning. His shirt was one size too big because it's all I could find. He talked all the way through prayer at Easter lunch. We didn't get it all right, but in the end, it won't matter. But Jesus...He's everything. And if he can learn that and see it modeled when he visits our home, that's what matters. May he always see the hope and life that the empty tomb offers. It's everything!

The Starter of the Stories

 I had planned to tell you all about our Easter, but alas, I haven't had a chance to go through all the pictures yet, nor have I had time to sit and really think about the day, so I'll save that for another day!

Meanwhile, I had another thought I wanted to share, so I'll write about it today.

I follow a handful of Instagram accounts of people who have restored or are restoring old farmhouses. I have learned the very real and important distinction between renovating and restoring homes. I have followed along as some couples have taken painstaking efforts to peel back layers of walls, ceiling, and flooring in their homes to uncover the original design and materials. I've learned that they want to find original older pieces that would have been consistent with the age of their home and use those things, rather than renovating to update.

One of those writers said something a while back that caught my attention, and I've thought about it over and over as we have begun this new season of our lives.

She talked about cooking in their restored kitchen, which is beautifully reminiscent of the time period in which their home was built, and she said she sometimes thinks about all the meals cooked in that very room by the woman who lived there when the home was first constructed. She imagined the memories made, the stories told, and the meals prepared. Her goal, she said, was to honor the home and the memories made there by restoring life to what it used to be.

I probably don't need to tell you how much the storyteller in me loved that, right?

With much joy, I realized that I had experienced this in even greater proportion when I lived in my grandparents' home for the first sixteen years of my adult life. I learned to prepare and host meals in the same kitchen where my grandmother hosted every family everything for her whole life. I didn't have to imagine the memories of that tiny kitchen, because I remember a good number of them. (And I've heard the stories of so many more!) 

I thought about that post again as we began our move to our new home, which is not just new to us, but it is actually brand new. A little corner of my heart twinged, knowing that there are no old stories here to imagine - or to know for certain.

But then a beautiful realization settled over me: I am the starter of the stories.

We are the first people to ever live here. Every meal we host, every prayer we pray, every piece I write, every guest we welcome - they're all the start of a legacy. 

How many times in life do we get to be the start of a legacy? 

The storyteller in me sits poised to capture these stories for future generations. It feels like a grand gift has been handed to me - to us. We are the starters of the stories. 

Our prayer is that this home will be a place where all who enter feel God's presence deeply and know they are welcomed and loved.

We welcome the stories God wants to write in this place. 

Sunday Sentiments

 

Happy Easter, my friends! He is risen!

It is crazy to me to think that this is the first time in four years we'll get to spend Easter with family. 

Four years ago:

* I had blonde hair.
* We lived in Kokomo.
* We celebrated Easter at the Nazarene church in Kokomo, worshiping from our perch way up high, where I loved to sit.
* We had lunch with my parents and then joined up with Ryan's extended family celebration. It was our last Easter with Allen and Nita, though we did not know it at the time. 
* It was the last time I shopped for an Easter dress in person. 

Three years ago:

* Still had blonde hair...just a little less so.
* We lived in Kokomo.
* We celebrated Easter on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean, worshiping in a comedy club lounge with a bunch of people from a bunch of denominations.
* We had lunch in the dining room on the ship! Buffet for the win!
* I did not wear an Easter dress, but I did get a shirt for the occasion!

Two years ago:

* Still had blonde-ish hair. 

* We lived in Kokomo.
* The pandemic had just started, so we were quarantined at home and celebrated with a whole bunch of churches! We started by watching the Marion Easter pageant online at 6 a.m. Then we worshiped online with our own Nazarene church. Then we joined my sister and brother-in-law's church out in Kansas (via Facebook) to attend their service too!

* It was my first time ever to make the Easter meal, and I went ALL OUT. We ate together on the sun porch at our home and it was seriously one of my most favorite meals ever.

* I brought back the t-shirt from the year before.

Last year:

* I was wavering between blonde and brown hair. 
* We lived in Grabill. 
* We worshiped at the Missionary Church alongside one of our tenants - sitting about halfway back in the gym.

* We were on duty that day, so I made our Easter meal for us and our tenant, and everything turned out really delicious!

* I decided to wear a dress I had but had never worn on Easter Sunday! (I'd purchased several dresses when Nita died, because I wasn't sure which ones I might want to wear. This was one I ended up not wearing until later.)

You know what I love?

No matter where we worshiped...whether in Kokomo, the Caribbean, at home, or in Grabill, we worshiped the same risen Savior, and we have the same hope of Heaven! And the same is true for us this year in our new home, new church, and new dress. (The dress part is just for me. Not Ryan.)

Whether Easter is filled with tradition or change for you today, I hope you rejoice in our Living Hope! 

The Saturday Six

 

This week's Saturday Six is inspired by house tours - because we have looked at SO many houses lately, between shopping for a home and then looking for decorating inspiration. So enjoy a house tour or two...and maybe you'll find an inspiration piece to include in your own home!

One.

I do love a good coastal home - whether it really is on the coast or just looks like it was meant to live at the lake/beach. KariAnne shared this Cape Cod home where she grew up visiting her grandparents. What do I love even more than a good home tour? A good home tour with history and story! And this one has all of it. 

Two.

A greenhouse transformed into a living space? Not gonna lie: almost makes me wish for a greenhouse! (In truth I could only survive it at very select times of the year, because you know how I am with heat. Ha!) But it really is beautiful. Check it out! 

Three.

I'm not sure what impresses me most about this tour: that she has so much stuff in 240 square feet (without the feeling that there IS so much stuff in 240 square feet) or that she has lived there SEVENTEEN YEARS! But I think she has figured out how to make the most of a small space, and it is LOVELY! 

Four.

If you have five million dollars in your pocket and have always dreamed of living on Mackinac Island, today is your lucky day! Fully furnished home with unbeatable views! I will confess that the decorating style is not my own personal one, but the view...oh, the view!! And did I mention the view? 

Five.

You know I have a fond appreciation for tiny houses, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one before that was just a straight up skinny house! What a challenge for furniture placement! Having said that...I think the decorator(s) did a fantastic job! Could you handle a super skinny house?

Six.

And of course you know I have to have a renovated schoolhouse on the list. I still adore them. This one is so cute, but you know what my favorite part was? The antique stove!! Oh my goodness. It made the whole house for me.