Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments from the Week

 

Good morning, and happy Sunday, friends! I had the best time catching up on some scrapbooking this weekend, and it was so soul-filling. The week was full of other good and memorable moments I’d love to share with you. Want to take a peek?

Ryan and I enjoy watching TV together in the evenings, and one night, we decided to sit on the same side of the couch…and Lexi got right in between us. I realize it seems like a silly thing to have as a memorable moment, but there’s something about being here with the two of them that reminds me of all the many years I prayed for a moment just like this one.

Ryan picks my coffee cup every morning, and on this morning, I’d been having a very intense dream and then woke up really fast – thinking the dream had been real. Apparently it took me a while to get with it that morning, because Ryan went with the “I only needed 45 more minutes of sleep” mug.

I do most of our meal prep, but Ryan is also an excellent cook, and I love it when he makes our meals. He’s just started learning to poach eggs, and this week he made avocado toast and poached eggs. It was my first time ever to have one, and I have to say, I like them!

I had a crazy busy day this week, and I didn’t have any time for dinner. No time to make it and really, no time to eat it. Ryan was such a sweetheart and picked up Subway and met me at the church so we could have a dinner date together before a meeting.

After some extra long work days, I decided to take an hour one afternoon to do some reading. It was still for work, but it involved a couch, blanket, and cute dog! We sent Ryan a “we miss you” selfie!  

I had a fun coffee meeting with my friend and coworker Chris this week. We had the best time talking about work, life, and anything else that popped in our minds. Chris was hired on about two months before I was, and we worked together in children’s ministry throughout last fall. I have loved getting to know her and work alongside her!

Ryan and I took Lexi on a super long walk yesterday and had the BEST time. We haven’t gone on a long, long walk since last year, and I have to say, I’m hoping for many more of these in the weeks to come.

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 Good morning, and happy Saturday! Hope you have had a good week. Ours has been full and busy – and I will tell you more about it tomorrow! For today, I’m excited for my Sabbath, and while I enjoy that, here are some links for you to check out.

The world’s longest yard sale doesn’t fit into my schedule for this year, but because we live relatively close to the route, I have to keep this on my radar for a future year. Have any of you ever shopped any stretch of this? It sounds absolutely delightful to me!! Hey Ryan! Want to put this on our 2026 calendar??

It’s been almost a year since our friends came to stay with us for the Solar Eclipse party, and their daughter gifted us one of the plants she’d grown from propagations. It has done really well over this past year and I decided I needed to learn to propagate to help keep it healthy and to share it with others! I found Amy’s tutorial, and it turns out she has posts on a variety of plants, so if you want to learn how to propagate what you have, maybe she has a post for you, too! (BONUS: And if you have a lot of indoor plants, how cute is this plant stand with grow lights?!?!)

Ryan and I have added a lot of wooden items to our kitchen over the past five years: cutting boards, rolling pin, spoons, spatulas…so stumbling upon this tutorial about how to care for and condition the wood was really helpful. I’d like to keep adding this material to our kitchen, and I want to find ways to make it last for the long haul!

Starting back in our Kokomo days, I found myself drawn to the look of houses that had well-placed outdoor lighting. I remember one particular house that sat across from a couple of fast food restaurants we frequented, and when we went at night, I always remarked about how I loved the look of the lighting against the house. There was nothing overly spectacular about the house itself. I mean, it was a nice house and well-kept, but it wasn’t an amazing house. But something about the lights shining against it at night seemed to level up the look, and I loved it. I’ve continued to be drawn to homes that have pretty landscape lighting. I spent some time reading through this Better Homes and Gardens article that gives all kinds of tips and info on outside lighting, because I’d love to add some here at our home!

If you have kids or grandkids and need some ideas for celebrating a Christ-centered Easter, here is the ultimate list of ideas. Activities. Coloring pages. Recipes. Books. So many ideas. I’m sure you won’t need or want all of them, but my goodness, it should be a fine springboard for getting started! (BONUS: And if you don’t need ideas for kids, but you want the cutest, simplest table setting idea, look at this from Ann’s blog. I think this might be my most favorite Easter table ever!)

You’ve heard me talk about our friend Brent Vernon, who travels full-time in concert ministry. He’s also a gifted author and illustrator. AND Brent is a ventriloquist! This week he posted a blog about how ventriloquism works. It’s fun to read about things I don’t know how to do…and if you think so too, give it a read!

                I haven’t done this one yet, but I’m sharing it here, so I remember to do it. I need to go through our kitchen and weed out things we haven’t used in a long time. Some things need to go entirely, and others just need to be moved farther away from the main hub of the kitchen so things I use more often can have a prime spot! Maybe you can join me in a kitchen-cleaning party of your own!

                Speaking of kitchens, this also a great time to make a note of things you want to keep an eye out for this summer – on sales or at sales. Need some new measuring cups or dishes? Make a list and keep it handy for when you’re out and about!       

Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2025 Reads So Far

 

I didn’t have as much time to read this month as I hoped…because this month was heavy on writing and creating and all manner of other fun projects. But I do have a couple of books to share with you from my reading time.

                Early this month, as I scrolled Facebook, I happened upon a sponsored ad for a new book from Annie Downs. I don’t follow Annie and honestly have no idea why this ad showed up in my feed, but I clicked on it. (I also rarely do that with unsolicited ads.) Annie has been writing for years and (fun fact!) was the first full-hour interview I ever had at WBCL. This new book Annie has written is for children and came about after Annie’s sister lost a baby boy. The book is designed to help children whose families have been touched by infant loss.

                It caught my eye, because you know this is a topic tender to my own heart, and now that I work in ministry, it’s a topic I know I’m likely to run into upon occasion, and I want to be prepared. I told our children’s ministry director about the book, and she ordered a copy. She brought it to staff meeting one day, and I read it before the meeting started, and that’s why I wanted to share it with you today.

The book is called Where Did TJ Go? and I wanted to share my thoughts after my (admittedly) quick read of the book. To be honest, I wish I would have asked to borrow the book so I could read it another time or two, because I feel like I could be more accurate in sharing my thoughts. Alas, I did not, so this is based on what I remember from that day.

Grief is complicated for anyone, and so much more so for children. I’ve walked that road as a child, and I’ve walked alongside others navigating it with their children. There isn’t a universal way to approach explaining it that works for everyone. (A couple of the low-star reviews I read took offense that this wasn’t good with dealing with grief on the whole. It wasn’t intended to, though. It is specifically a book about infant loss and trying to explain Heaven to kids. That’s a lot to pack into one little children’s book.)

Personally, I appreciated that the book honored the truth (and mystery) of Heaven without bringing in common grief consolations that aren’t actually true about Heaven or people who die.

I don’t know of many books for children on the topic of infant loss, so for that reason, I’m excited that this book exists, while also absolutely hating the need for this book to exist.

**

                The other book I read this month was a new release from Rebekah Binkley Montgomery, called Ancient Secrets of Ten Bible Women.

                Rebekah and I are name twins who attend the same church! I had the privilege of going to visit Rebekah a few weeks ago, and we had the best time talking all about writing and our love for it. When I left, she sent me home with several of her books, and this was the first one I pulled from the stack to read. It was also my first time to read any of her writing.

                This book is a ten-chapter book that covers the lives of some women in the Bible – from Rahab to Dorcas. The book can be used as an regular read or as an individual or group study. (The end of the book contains notes for Bible study leaders.)

                Her style reminds me so much of my own. (She’s been writing longer than I have, so maybe I should say my style reminds me of hers!) She approaches these chapters as I did when I wrote my Advent book: sticking to the facts of Scripture, but weaving in some imagination of what these people might have been like in personality. One benefit Rebekah has is that she’s studied in Israel, so she’s seen some of these places in person and has learned about the customs of the ancient days.

                I learned so much and even made notes in my Bible about some of the things she taught in her chapters. The book was easy to read, but not simple and fluffy in content. The words and lessons were so rich. I enjoyed reading it on my own, but it would work so well as a group study if you want to use it that way. The main part of the book is 98 pages, so if long books are off-putting to you, this is a great choice! I’m excited to jump in to some of the other books she sent home with me!

Favorite Recipes from March

 

March has been busy in ways I did not fully expect, but it has still given me enough time to try some new recipes (and revisit some favorites), so I thought I would share with you some of the finds from this month! Maybe one or two would be great for you.

Skillet Lasagna – I love lasagna. I do not love the time and detail work required to make lasagna – especially in this season of my life when my time at home prior to dinner is hit-or-miss. This dish was fast to make, easy to put together, and gave us all of the flavor of lasagna without any of the layering headache. I used the chickpea pasta I buy at Aldi, because it doesn’t sit with that heavy feeling pasta now seems to give.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad with Lemon and Oil – I had never shredded Brussels Sprouts before, and I have to admit, it was kind of fun! It reminded me of the texture of shredded lettuce, but with much more nutritional value! I shredded it on one of the plates in my cheese-shredding kit, and it went really quickly. This salad was simple and flavorful, and I liked it.

Turmeric Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potatoes – I’ve not done a ton of cooking turmeric, but I like the flavor and the color it provides. I used frozen sweet potato cubes for this dish, because they are so much faster for me than contending with peeling and chopping a potato. I actually used all boneless chicken thighs instead of mixing thighs and drumsticks and messing with bones, as the recipe called for. We really loved the flavor of this.

Creamy Taco Soup (Crock Pot) – This creamy taco soup was easy to make and really flavorful. I did not make it in a slow cooker and just did it on the stovetop instead. Easy, flavorful, and so good!

Smoked Turkey Breakfast Skillet – I don’t have an oven-safe skillet, so I made this in a regular baking dish, and it worked just fine. I know this is a hard dish for right now, with the price of eggs, but we had a week where we actually had several eggs left, so I didn’t feel guilty dipping in to use so many eggs. It was YUMMY.

Cookie Bar – When I’m super busy, I do not have time to mess with scooping out cookie dough, sheet by sheet. Cookie bars are such a time saver when I need a cookie and don’t have time to make them one by one. Ryan actually made this recipe for me this month, and I took it to a couple of events where I’d signed up for dessert. Easy, fast, and reportedly good! (I couldn’t taste test this one.)

Ground Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry – This was another quick and easy – and yummy! – recipe. I made another one recently (see below) with chicken as the protein, and I liked having a similar recipe that features two different kinds of protein!

Caramel Surprise Brownies – This isn’t a new recipe on this blog, but it’s been a while since we made it. Ryan whipped up a batch of these for the party at his work, and he said they were so good. (And I know they are!)

Cottage Cheese Pancakes – I’m forever on the hunt for a pancake recipe that has some fluff and flavor – without all the carbs. I’ve tried dozens over the years. Not long ago we tried a recipe that uses our freshly milled wheat, and while I liked the flavor, we don’t always have time to mill and wait for a quick pancake meal. This one was really good – but you know what I forgot to add? THE BAKING POWDER! I want to try them again and not forget that important fluffing ingredient to see how it helps. (You really can’t taste the cottage cheese – and it has all kinds of protein!)

Low Carb Teriyaki Chicken Broccoli and “Rice” Bowls – Here is the chicken and broccoli version of the recipe I made this month. I threw in a bag of riced cauliflower to this one and it was a good extra veggie without that overwhelming riced cauliflower taste.

Salsa – This was my favorite find from this month. I’ve never made salsa before, and I stumbled upon this recipe on a blog. It was so good and we gobbled it right up. It was super easy to make, and the only change I made was not adding in the jalapeno. (Personal preference.) I will be making this again and again.

Lasagna Roll Ups with Cottage Cheese – This recipe was good, but unlike the skillet lasagna recipe, this one was more time and labor intensive. I don’t know how often I’ll make it just because of that. This is also meatless, which isn’t always our gig, but it worked just fine! (You could add in ground meat if you want.)

Fun Finds from March

 

Today begins the tour of the end-of-month posts here on the blog, and our first stop on this tour is a list of all the fun things I discovered this month – or at least all the fun things I remembered to write down. 😊

                My first item this month is root touch-up spray. For years, now, I’ve used a Clairol root touch up kit that is actual hair color. I mixed it up in a little tray, applied it to my roots, and then washed it out, just like regular hair color. It has always worked well, but it costs about $8.00 per box, and the farther away from my regular salon appointment I get, I find I need to touch up about every two weeks. (I only color my hair at the salon 2-3 times a year.) As I shopped at Walmart one night this month, I found the root touch up spray and decided to try that. It was $10 for a can, and I’m guessing one can will last me 2-3 months. I spray it on my roots when I style my hair after I wash it and then touch it up (if needed) again before washing it again. I only wash my hair once a week, so one application usually lasts the whole time. It’s quick, easy, effective, and appears that it will save me money. WIN!!!!

                I can’t link to this one, because I bought it at the little boutique at Ryan’s work, but I love it so much, I have to show it to you! This little nest is a planter! It was only $3.00, and I thought it would be the perfect addition to our dining room table for spring.

                I can’t link to this one either, because I can’t find the link – ha! Do you remember the birthday party Ryan was in charge of at work earlier this month? One of the things we bought at Walmart for the build-your-own-trail-mix bar was a bag of popped popcorn that we found on an end cap. It was a long skinny bag and was only $1.00. It was a hit on the trail mix bar and we found it to be pretty tasty. I doubt it’s any kind of healthy, but it was affordable and a good addition to the snack bar.

                Several people I follow on Instagram offer makeup contouring tutorials regularly. I have NO idea what I’m doing with it, but it intrigues me, so this month I purchased an e.l.f. contouring palette and started playing around with it. I’m using this in place of concealer, and even though I’m fairly confident I’m not doing it right, I like how it feels and settles on my face better than concealer. It’s not as heavy and feels much more natural. (Ryan actually even commented on how he thought I was having an exceptional makeup day after I started using it.) I’m going to keep working on my technique, and I need to get some new makeup sponges, but I’m enjoying it!

                I have always loved makeup with a hint (or lot) of glitter in it. It’s just one of those fancy-feeling things I enjoy. While I was shopping in the makeup aisle for the contouring palette, I also saw this single eyeshadow and bought it in the White Hot color. I love it. There are other colors, but I wanted to try this one. I like the full eyeshadow palettes that come with ten or so colors, but I always run out of the light colors before the dark ones, because I use them so liberally in comparison. So this is filling in the gap from my dwindling light colors in my palette.

Ryan and I have struggled with colds more this winter than we have in years. I’m pretty sure the fact that we are both around so many more people now than we used to be is the biggest contributor to this, so one of the steps we’ve taken toward trying to have a healthier spring (and year going forward) is to add a multi-vitamin to our day. I’ve never taken a daily vitamin, and if Ryan has, it’s been a long time. We’re trying this one, and I appreciate that it’s not scary to swallow. I know multi-vitamins have to contain a lot of things, but some of them contain SO MUCH, I can’t swallow the pill! LOL! Stay tuned to see it helps us stay well!

When we had Bible Bingo day at church, Ryan won a set of these little taco holders, and I’m pretty sure this was the highlight new item of his month. We had tacos several times just so we could use them, and I admit, they are super handy!

It’s been a good month of discovering new things all across the board. I’ll be back (hopefully!) with another round at the end of April.

Leading By Example

 

We started a new topic at Bible study last night. For the next few weeks, we’ll be digging into how to approach reading Scripture so it really sinks in and sticks.

                One of the discussion questions from our book asked how Scripture was studied in our homes when we grew up and how that ultimately shaped how we study (or don’t) in the Bible.

                I loved that question and really enjoyed hearing the thoughts shared from those in the room.

                I thought back to my own childhood and remembered trudging out of my bedroom in the morning (which I liked with as much fervor then as I do now) to find Mom sitting in her chair, sipping hot tea, eating toast, and reading her Bible.

                And I remember seeing Dad reading his in the evening, which was his preferred time of day – just like it is for me.

                They made a point to do family devotions together with me every evening, even when I protested, which was often. (As I mentioned at Bible study, my protests were largely tied to my understanding that devotions meant bedtime loomed, and I was afraid of all I’d miss if I went to sleep.)

                Back then, those moments were just happenings of the day. I didn’t even notice I was noticing.

                 But now I see that each of those days served as a stone in the foundation of my life. I learned how to make time to read and study because they took time to read and study in front of me.

                I don’t know if you’re a parent (or grandparent), but if you are, just know that all the little moments matter. Whether you’re reading your Bible or doing anything else, those little lives are watching…and learning…even if they don’t know they’re learning. Live your life, and live it well.

                You’re leading by example.  

Polishing the House

 

Last year I shared a series of posts about my desire to re-see our house after living in it for over a year. That first year of living here helped me understand a bit better how to use the space we had, and I tried to shop both the house and thrift stores with this re-vision in mind. I’m so pleased with how it came together as I did so, and this year my goal is to polish the place just a bit. Our home is functioning so well for us, and now I want to polish the rough and unfinished places.

                Last week I took the first step in polishing, and I could not love it any more than I do. Let me show you what I did!

                Ever since we moved here, I’ve wanted to add a rug to our dining room. Though I have loved how the room looks and functions as it is, it’s always felt like it lacked just a tiny bit of polishing, and I was certain a rug would go a long way in bringing the missing polish.

                Years ago, I read some great rug advice on Megan’s blog. She said she likes to use outdoor rugs in her dining room, because the material is already intended to clean up easily and handle liquids and spills. Plus, most outdoor rugs are very thin, which makes it easier for chairs, if some legs are on the rug and others are off.

                I’ve watched for rugs these last two years but haven’t managed to find one that had a pattern I liked…with a price I could handle.

                And then last week, as I pushed my cart through the garden section at Walmart, I found the rug! It was right there in front of my face: blue and tan, the right size, and just under $40. I felt like that was doable for a house investment.

                I brought it home, Ryan helped me move the table and roll out the rug, and we both agreed, this was a HUGE finishing piece to this room. It works so nicely with the curtains we have at the dining room window, and it has awakened inspiration in my heart for the next tweaks I want to make to this room. I can see in my mind how it will look when it’s all done, and it makes me so happy!

Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments From the Week

 

Good morning, friends! Happy Sunday to you. Whether this week has been good or heavy for you, I hope you find some rest and peace in this day. And if you have a moment, I’d love to share with you some of the moments that stuck out in our week!

Last Sunday I started teaching an elective Sunday School class at our church. It’s a short term class – just a few weeks – but I am having the BEST TIME preparing for it. Last week we learned about verse mapping, which is something one of our previous small groups did for an entire year. It’s a beautiful way to explore small sections of Scripture, and I loved trying my hand at it again!

We took Lexi to visit her grandparents this week. She was so excited for a car trip and to hang out with her grandpa for a while. (Honestly, I’m not sure which one of them gets more excited…Lexi or my Dad!)

Ryan and I spend time each week prepping for our role in helping to lead GriefShare at our church. Yes, it takes some time to prep, and yes, it’s an extra commitment each week, but oh my goodness, the information we are learning in this group is so valuable. The program itself is so well done, and I’m scribbling a billion notes about it, but I’m also learning so much from the participants in the group. They share their hearts SO bravely, and I’ve learned so much that I never considered about grief. What a rich experience!

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with meetings. Part of the hate side of that could be traced back to meetings that were totally unnecessary in content or length. Hours of my life I’ll never get back. But I have to say, I am thoroughly enjoying the meetings I attend for this job. Sure, coffee helps, but even that aside, I just enjoy all I’m learning from the conversations in the meetings!

Spring started in a calendar-official way this week. It’s really too bad the weather did not get that memo. Here was the view outside my window on the first day of spring. Sigh.

You know what is a good part in ANY day? Meeting a sweet new baby. Got a chance to spend some time with this cutie this week, and it made my whole day. Lots of smiles and giggles and yawns. (From the baby, I mean. I wasn’t yawning!)

Ryan surprised me with a coffee and some fresh flowers this week. Such a sweet gesture of love. Thank you, Ryan!! It really is the littlest things that make the biggest impact!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

Good morning and happy spring to you! (I’m willing the matching spring weather to come back and stay by greeting it enthusiastically in this space.) How has your week been? Mine has been full in all the best ways, and I’m excited for this day. I found some treasures for you this week, so I hope you enjoy!

Is life overwhelming you right now? One of our friends told Ryan not long ago that she was so tired and so overwhelmed by life that her body physically hurt. She was about to take a vacation, and I’m not sure she was even going to enjoy any of the “things” of vacation, because her main goal was to simply sit. Sleep. Rest. Crash. I’ve had seasons like that, for sure. SO many days at WillowBridge felt that way. The short span of time between engagement and marriage had a few days like that. If that’s you, read these words. And I send you the biggest hugs… (BONUS: And if you are overwhelmed and can’t find the words to pray, take a look at these short, ongoing prayers that you can offer when words in general fail…)

If you have kids or grandkids in your life, and you need some fun ideas to keep you occupied this summer, check out this post with some free summer-camp-at-home ideas! I love it that you can download her plans directly from the post and don’t have to subscribe to anything. Such cute ideas in here!

I’ve share from Megan’s blog before – especially her advice on moving. She’s a military wife with a ton of experience in moving. But this recent post really caught my attention, because I don’t think I’ve read a post on moving plants. Our moves have always been fairly short distance, so we’ve been able to move our plants with us, but she gives some good insights here. If you’re moving soon – or know someone who is – you can learn from her!

Candace has offered her annual post for ideas for family Easter outfits or just combinations for spring pictures, if your family likes to update photos in this season. I always love seeing her ideas, even though we don’t have kiddos to dress for Easter photos. I have gotten some good ideas from her posts like this, and she also links to the outfits if you really like anything and want to find it. I’m likely to use it for thrift store inspiration, so the links may not matter for me, but it’s still fun to look! (BONUS: Audrey did a post recently on her favorite spring wardrobe staples. I was happy to see I owned most of them! Not the exact pieces she has, of course, but the general types of pieces. Confession, though: I’m ready to ditch the sweaters!!)

Here’s a question for you. Would you try this recipe? It’s a blueberry peanut butter sweet potato. I’m torn on this one. These ingredients do not seem to be compatible in my mind, but I’m also weirdly intrigued that maybe it could be good! I have learned, in my adult years, to like sweet potatoes, but I don’t like sweet potato casserole. I don’t like all the sugary stuff with the sweet potatoes. So could I handle the sweetness of blueberries with them? I might just have to give it a shot for kicks. What about you? Yes? No? (BONUS: Speaking of recipes, if you dabble in breadmaking and would like to try recipes that don’t make eggs (hello, crazy prices!), here’s a roundup of eggless bread recipes.)

You might already know about this, but if you don’t…you can put your zip code in this page from the Farmer’s Almanac and learn when you should plant…well…just about anything! I’ve been perusing it to narrow down my planting window for my little garden!

This is a great time to replace your loofah in the shower if you haven’t done so lately!

It’s also a great time to replace your toothbrush/toothbrush head (if you use an electric one) if you haven’t done that lately!

Spring Break = Travel Dreams

 

Spring break starts today around here, and it’s been fun to hear our friends share their travel plans. (None offered for me to stow away in a suitcase…)

                Ryan and I still haven’t settled on where we are going for our birthday trip this year, or our anniversary trip, for that matter. We do have one fun getaway planned, but I’ll share more about that later.

                But it’s possible I went down a little rabbit trail of vacation dreaming this week, and I thought I’d share some fun finds with you. If you don’t have time to travel, you should at least take time to dream, right?

                I absolutely saved this post written by Linda at the blog As We Saw It. She has a whole travel itinerary for the six New England states we haven’t visited yet. I dearly love doing my own travel planning, but this one is so good, I’d be tempted to borrow a big chunk of it and save some time! I’m hopeful that in the next couple of years, we might go up to New England and fill in that whole side of our travel map.

                What caught my eye about this itinerary? It included Acadia National Park in Maine – and honestly, I’d probably skip Salem/Portland on the first day of the itinerary just to spend two days at Acadia. The Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Vermont? Oh yes, that’s on my list. Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut? Already on the list. Linda’s itinerary included other things I hadn’t heard of, but they sure sounded fun. Maybe I should just pack our bags right now! Spring at the seashore…it all sounds so very Sarah, Plain and Tall.

                I confess I never thought about spending ten days in Arkansas of all places, but I happened upon this post that suggested just such an adventure, and it caught my eye. I know for sure I want to visit northwest Arkansas after reading Kelly Stamps’ blog and social media for so many years. (I also want to see that gorgeous glass chapel in Eureka Springs. One of the Duggars got engaged there, and I have loved it ever since I saw those pictures!) But I did not realize there were so many great hiking options in Arkansas, so now it appears I need another ten days of vacation. 😊

                This trip won’t happen for a long time, because we won’t have enough time off work for it until…well…retirement, but it’s still fun to dream about: The Great River Road. We would start at the headwaters of the Mississippi, up in Minnesota, and travel all the way down to the Gulf. This path crosses back and forth across the Mississippi River all the way down to catch the states on both sides! (And if we had both unlimited time and funds, I think it would be fun to take the full Mississippi River Cruise!)

                And of course, I haven’t given up on the staple dreams of Route 66, the Pacific Coast Highway, and Prince Edward Island. But it’s fun to add to the list. Thanks for listening to my out-loud travel dreams today!

Blue and White

 

The other day I looked at a gift registry online, and it reminded me of the day – not all that long ago – when Ryan and I registered for gifts for our wedding. We did a tour of stores, walked around with the scanning gun, and picked out things we thought we might need. That feels like such an archaic story now, but then I remember back back in the day when registries were all handwritten, and if you wanted to make a purchase, you had to go to the exact store where the couple registered. You couldn’t go to one in another town. They wouldn’t have the handwritten registry on file.

                Those were also the days when couples would pick theme colors for every room of their home. Do you remember that? Living room colors? Bathroom colors? Bedroom colors? They were likely all different.

                That was a very long lead-in to say that I think we have finally learned, after 40+ years of life and 12+ years of marriage, our colors and our style. Better late than never, right?

                I’m not sure if it comes from living by the water or being married to Ryan, but I have realized that I love blue (in varying shades) and white, little accents of vintage pieces in wood tones, and some industrial touches on the side.

                It simplifies shopping choices so much. From stores to yard sales, we know the pieces we look for now fit within a small range of colors and materials, and it’s easier to pass by things that don’t quite work.

                To be clear, not everything in our house is blue or white. We collected some items before we figured out our style, but we don’t want to throw away perfectly good things just because they’re the “wrong” color.

                For example, we have many red pieces (appliances and dishes) in our kitchen, and we’ll use them until they wear out! We have black bedside tables, and one of these days I’ll get around to painting them navy blue.

                But I love our little blue and white home. I love the continuity of colors and textures that flow throughout the whole house. I love it that we have figured out what describes us. And I love it that we don’t have to make fresh design decisions for every room.

                What’s your style? Same throughout the house or different in every room? 

Twists on Ordinary Moments

 

A post showed up in my Instagram feed last week that made me pause and think. The premise of the post was a list of cute little habits people do to make ordinary life feel more whimsical. Here were some of the offerings:

I wear matching pajamas every time I change my sheets so I can have what I call fancy sleep.

I say ‘My lady’ whenever I walk by a mirror.

I teach the dog how to do things either to make them more interesting for me (Let me show you how to start a load of laundry) or just to make him feel included (Do you remember how to make coffee or should I walk you through it again?)

I tell my dishes it’s bath time.

I wash my dishes by candlelight…

I call my to do list my TA DA list and do jazz hands as I tick things off.

Whenever I buy something online and it asks “Is this a gift?” I write a little gift message to myself.

What is it about doing something cute and fun in the ordinary little moments that twists them into something much more fun?

I had to consider whether or not I already do anything like this…and here were the things I came up with.

When I head to the bathroom to get ready every day, I tell Ryan “I’m going into hair and makeup.” It’s the closest thing to being an actress I’ll ever become. 😉

I despise overhead lighting and am always adding a lamp to every possible corner so the house is ambient and cozy-feeling.

When Ryan and I cook together, I always (always) read the ingredients out loud in Julia Childs’ voice. I literally can’t stop, even if I try.

I transfer almost all our grocery ingredients into cute little matching storage containers so the inside of the cabinets are as much fun to look at as the rest of the house.

Whenever possible, I like getting a little bouquet of flowers to make me feel extra fancy. We used to have one all the time, but when grocery bills went up, this scaled back to be a treat.

I love playing the fake coffee shop YouTube channels that feature soft jazz. I turn these on often when I’m working just to make it easier to focus.

It’s a fine start, isn’t it? Little silly things that make life feel a little fancier, a little classier, a little more joy-filled, even in the mundane.

What about you? Any cute little habits to dress up your days?