Date Night Fun!

 

Ryan and I had a fun date night last week, and I wanted to tell you about it today! As I mentioned a couple of times, we photographed a wedding on Saturday, and it was far enough from home and a long enough day that it wasn’t practical to leave Lexi home alone for that long. So Friday evening after work, we took her to her little puppy hotel, where she loves to board. (She has a lot of friends there and is well-loved.)

            We imagine that dropping her off there feels like what parents feel like when they drop their kids off at Grandma’s for the weekend. What do we possibly do with all this time???

            Our first plan? Go to the park for an actual picnic. I had made grilled chicken salads and packed them in a cooler, so we went to this little park by the river, pulled out blankets, and sat on the grass to eat and enjoy the quietness.

            Granted, the river is completely muddy, but it’s still serene. It was rushing pretty quickly, the birds were out chattering, and it just felt so sweet to sit and enjoy a leisurely dinner and conversation out on the grass.

            (There was also a nice breeze and no bugs, so that helped!)

            Ryan may or may not have taken a brief nap after he ate. It takes me forever to eat, so it was a fair nap.

            We packed up our dishes and drove over to a little town not far from us that was having a “Final Friday” festival. (You know – like a First Friday, but not on the first?)

            They have a little coffee shop and bakery that I follow on Facebook, and I had seen that they were doing a pie and coffee night. Pie is Ryan’s favorite, so I didn’t want to miss this! And it wasn’t just pie. It was good, homemade (from complete scratch) pie. They had several kinds of fruit pies, and we chose triple berry – like our beloved razzleberry pies we love.

            It was nice enough to enjoy our treat out on the patio. They had a concert nearby and people were making their way down the sidewalks toward the concert. It felt like a proper small-town evening, and we loved it. The music wasn’t really our style, but we enjoyed hearing it as we ate – and then we decided to walk around town for a while just to explore. Cute little place!

            We came home, watered the flowers and the garden, and then we sat out on the back patio for a while with the fire pit going and the lake rippling in front of us. I read some chapters in a book on preaching that Ryan bought for my birthday.

            It was the sweetest evening, and though we missed our girl tremendously, it was fun to use words other than “sit!” for a minute!

138 Months of Love

 

This past Sunday was our monthiversary! We celebrated 138 months of marriage, and as always, we tried to do something special to honor the day.

            We started the day with a deacon meeting – which might not be the most romantic way to celebrate a monthiversary, but it was a reminder to us of how much we really love serving together at church! (I actually really enjoy going to deacon meetings, so it was not a bad way to start the day at all, in my opinion.)

            I am speaking at our church throughout this summer, so I left the meeting a little early to get prepped for the service. Not-so-fun fact: I had a nightmare about this message as I slept the night before. I’ve never had a nightmare about speaking before, so that was new, and it rattled me! I was really thankful for Ryan and some friends at church who prayed extra for me, because it was rough in my head! I actually felt fairly ill for the majority of the message, and then suddenly, about ¾ the way through, I felt fine! I’ve had that happen to me before, and it’s always such a relief to not feel sick!

            After church, Ryan and I had to go pick up Miss Lexi Grae, who had been boarded for the weekend while we were away photographing the wedding. She was so super excited to see us and to come home! 😊 She was also exhausted from her fun weekend, so she conked out while we had lunch!

            We spent the afternoon resting after a super busy weekend. We watched TV, napped, I read and did some scrapbooking, we took a walk, and then we decided to have our adventure for the day.

            A few weeks ago, we got an ice cream maker for FOUR DOLLARS at a thrift store. We’ve been wanting to try out a recipe in it and just haven’t had time. I’ve been doing all kinds of research, trying to find some healthier ice cream options.

            We tried one.

            We’ll skip straight to the verdict.

            Yeah. So sad. It was AWFUL. Both of us hated it entirely, and it was so nasty, it was just funny.

            Thankfully it was just a small batch, and we were able to focus on the fun we had trying and not the disaster of the result. (Also, happily, the maker works splendidly. It was just the recipe that was a fail.)

            The evening ended with a pretty sunset over the lake and good conversation from our hearts. Oh! And we made bread, too. That went much better than the ice cream.

            It wasn’t an extravagant monthiversary, but it was a good one. No one I’d rather have adventures (and fails!) with than Ryan. He makes it all fun!

Goals and Dreams for June 2024

 

Four days into the month, and I’m finally unveiling the dreams and goals for June! I’m really excited for this month – even though there are some things about it that remain unknown to me/us right now!

ONE. Finish writing messages for my summer speaking. I have six more messages to write and hope to accomplish that between this week and next. I am learning so much as I study and write, and I am excited to continue that.

TWO. Finish planning our vacation. The bulk of the work is done. But there are a few final details I need to accomplish before it is HERE!

THREE. Edit wedding photos. Like I told you yesterday, Ryan and I photographed a wedding this past weekend, and I need to edit all the photos. I have started on it. (Couldn’t help myself the night I came home from the wedding.) But I need to finish it!

FOUR. Set up fall photos. It feels weird and wrong to even be thinking about fall photos when summer is technically not even fully here yet, but slots fill up fast and I need to let her know we want to be on her schedule again this year!

FIVE. Sort through remaining boxes and totes. Both of us are most eager to have our living room space restored to its toteless glory, so we need to work hard to sort through what remains in there. I am learning much about what matters in keeping memories – and what so does not. Perhaps there will be a post – or series of them – on this topic at some point.

            Those are my main goals for the month. I know there will be some other things that appear in the pipeline as we go along, but those are the main things on my list. I also have some books I am reading/want to read, some house projects I want to tackle if there’s space in the schedule, and lots of summer enjoyment to soak in, too!

            How about you? Any plans for June?

Updates on Goals and Dreams for May 2024

 

        I accidentally ran out of days in May, so I’m just now sharing the updates on my dreams and goals for last month!

            Here were the goals I made and how I did on them:

ONE. Prepare for a giant garage sale. SUCCESS!!!! You already read all about it, but with my sister’s help, I was able to sort, organize, price, and arrange the sale, and then with Ryan’s help, the sale actually happened! We are in the process now of donating the remainder of the things that did not sell and reorganizing the garage after so many months of being out of it entirely!

            TWO. Plan for and plant the flowers and garden. SUCCESS! You already read about this too, but I was able to plant pretty flowers around the house that I’m utterly enjoying right now, and I also got the garden in! Now we shall see how it grows!

            THREE. Prepare for a summer of speaking. PARTIAL SUCCESS! I have the first four of the ten messages I’m giving written, and I hope to write the rest this week and next. There are a lot of moving parts to this adventure, and I am excited it is here and happening! (I’ve shared the first two messages and have loved doing it.)

            FOUR. Work on my coffee bar idea. SUCCESS! I was hit with inspiration one morning and just knocked it completely out. Perhaps one of my next goals should be to work on my latte game.

            FIVE. Prepare for photographing a wedding. SUCCESS! The wedding is now done…and I'll tell you all about it soon!

BONUS:

            Here were some other things that happened that weren’t on the list:

·         We finished cleaning everything out of my parents’ house – and guess what else? They accepted an offer AND closed on the house in May! What an enormous answer to prayer!

·         We served at a welcome lunch at our church – for anyone new within the last year. We met some new friends, and I loved that so much!

·         Finished setting up my new day planner. (My planners run June-May.) I am so excited to be in a new one!

·         Brought my parents’ kitchen island into our home. I’ll have to do a whole separate post on that one sometime, but we love having it!

·         Made “license plates” for my parents’ rollators. (You know…those rolling walkers with seats?) They each have one now, as do most other people where they live, so I made cool little plates for theirs so they can find them easily in a rollator parking lot.

·         Bought jars to hold our wheat berries in the kitchen for when we make bread. I’ve been hunting for these for a while and finally found some affordable ones at TJ Maxx – and I had a gift card! Win-win!

·         Finished (I think!) shopping for my summer capsule wardrobe mix.

·         Caught up on scrapbooks. (I was over a month behind. I am never that far behind.)

·         Started sorting through the multiple boxes we brought from my parents’ attic. These are mostly our childhood memories, and we are deciding what to keep and what to let go of. It’ll be an ongoing project, but it’s started!

·         Got my first haircut and color since AUGUST 2023! It was such a mess, but I had the best time with my friend, Amber, who did it for me!

What a wildly busy month! Here’s to June and some fresh goals and dreams!

Sunday Sentiments: October 4

 

Yesterday Ryan and I had the honor/privilege/tremendously terrifying responsibility of photographing a wedding.

            A wedding!

            I’ll have to tell you more about it on a different day, but it was a grand day and so much fun.

            It felt appropriate to have the opportunity to serve in this way the same weekend of our own monthiversary: 138 months today! I love weddings and have always loved them, but attending them now always reminds me of how much I loved our day.

            Before a wedding, of course, there is the proposal, and so many of you remember ours from hearing it live on the air or reading the recap of it here. What you might not remember is that it took place on October 4, 2011. (We celebrate that day every year, too! The more reasons to celebrate, the better, in our opinion!)

            I’ve always loved our engagement day and now I have one new-to-me reason to love it. Are you ready for a good story?

            When we moved the last of Mom and Dad’s things out of their house, we brought a big stack of tubs and boxes that we had been storing in their attic. Most things were from our childhood – or early in our marriage. We are in the process of sorting through it all, figuring out what we want to keep, and getting it ready to store. (Massive undertaking!)

            A couple of days ago, I sorted through a bunch of letters my family and friends sent to me back in 2009, when I was away at a retreat. The envelope on the top of the stack was from my Mom, and I opened her letter to read it again.

            She told me about the day she found out she was pregnant with me – which is a bit of an infamous story I’ve heard many times.

            This time, though, she included the date: October 4.

            I sat and stared, goose bumps forming on my arm.

            I love God’s story-writing so much.

            Thirty-five years to the day after my parents were surprised with a life-twist, I was surprised with one, too!

            It’s a tiny detail – silly to most, I’m sure. But I love it. It matters to me. It’s significant to me in ways that I can’t fully articulate.

            This year’s October 4 will feel a little extra special to me, and I look forward to it. But in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy sorting through these wedding pictures!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

        Good morning and happy June, friends! Goodness, the sunset was stunning here last night, and it just felt like it was ushering summer right in. I am ready! I have quite the random smattering of finds for you today. Enjoy!

ONE. 

I think I’m (significantly) behind on this story, so perhaps some of you might know it already. But for those who might not, give it a read! One of my friends from my Marion church shared this on Facebook. He has the same last name as the family in the story, so I will use all my best sleuthing skills to presume they are related. But either way, what an incredible story of survival and God’s hand!

TWO. 

I’ve shared before on these weekend collections about a little retirement cottage that a blogger and her husband added to their home for her parents. This post shares the spring look at the cottage, and it’s as adorable as ever! BONUS: She also shared some links to fixtures in the cottage, and I kind of fell in love with this planter and these throw blankets.

THREE. 

And in the spirit of home tours, here is a video tour of a loft apartment that used to be a Wonder Bread Factory! (I love homes with stories!) You might remember that Ryan and I have stayed in some Airbnb lofts before, and while we aren’t great with city living, if we were to ever become city people, I think a loft would be our choice. We love all the character. The owner of this loft is an interior designer, and I find I typically don’t love designers’ style, because I’m too…well, Goodill. But I really liked her choices. Beautiful home! BONUS: If you have five or so million to spare, guess what house hit the market? The Home Alone mansion! It is gorgeous inside!!!

FOUR. 

A few weeks ago, I shared our laundry routine with you, and when I did, I told you how we had started using Branch Basics for all our cleaning supplies – from laundry to household cleaners to soap. They also have a travel size kit, and this week they posted ways you can use it when you’re on the go! If you’re thinking about trying it out – or you’re traveling a lot this summer, check out these tips!

FIVE. 

If you have littles at home (or visiting at some point over the summer), this post has an idea for every single day. Each one is a fun and pretty cost-effective thing to do together as a family, and they could be great to avoid the dreaded “I’m borrrrrrrred!” from popping up! BONUS: This looks like a real-time series, so maybe there will be more as the summer goes along, but week two is also already there!

SIX. 

If you’re having friends over this summer, here is a fun thing to do together: an at-home Chopped challenge! This post has some ideas for free and an ebook you can purchase if you want even more ideas and resources. The food might not be a winner, but I bet the memories would be!

BONUS!

            Yesterday I rotated out some of the warmer pieces of the spring capsule, kept the cooler pieces, and added in a few more to make a summer capsule! I am excited to start wearing it today! Here are the photos of the last week of the spring groupings:

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Sunday, May 26, 2024

Monday, May 27, 2024

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Friday, May 31, 2024