Thrifty Thursday: For the Home

 

Last Saturday, my friend Kari drove up to shop with me…for the entire day. We had the best time hopping from thrift store to consignment store to antique store, and both of us came home with some treasures. On this thrifty Thursday, I want to tell you about the fun finds I uncovered for our house! I found some clothes, too, but today I’ll tell you about the house.

                Actually, my house-décor-luck started the day before that, when Ryan and I were coming home from the staff retreat. We stopped to grocery shop and I took a quick spin through the Goodwill before we went to buy food. I found two treasures for the house!

                This set of four wooden coasters cost $1.99 and felt perfect for our house. We had some coasters that I would guess we’ve had for over a decade. They were personalized but were so worn you couldn’t read most of our name anymore! I retired those and brought in these cute little coastal-feeling beauties.

                This basket was just $2.99, and I wasn’t even entirely sure where I would put it when I bought it, but it fits PERFECTLY in my closet on a shelf. I tossed a blue plastic Dollar Tree basket that had been holding all my workout shorts and leggings and put those in this instead. (We’re trying to eliminate plastic…and this particular basket was also cracked in multiple places. Now I just need to have this same basket luck about four more times to finish the closet! Ha!

                Okay, NOW we can move on to my Saturday shopping trip. When Kari and I were at Fraction in Bluffton, I found these three velvet pumpkins in blue and white! The big one was $4.00, and the two little ones were $2.00 each. I plan to put them either on my mantel or around the fireplace. I’m excited to have pumpkins that match our color scheme!

                Next, we went to a store called This and That. It’s an eclectic store with all kinds of things. They have some books, most of which are a dollar, but cookbooks are $2.00. I found a perfect-condition SkinnyTaste cookbook! (I cook from her website quite often and have always loved seeing her cookbooks in stores. I was excited to bring it home! 

                Kari’s favorite store was a new(ish) place in Berne called Cuckoo and Co. It has booths curated by different local people, so each one has a different feel to it. I found three amazing things at this store. Want to see?

                The first was this double-handled basket, which I have already started using as my garden produce basket. Until now, I’ve been using a plastic collapsable tub we bought for dishwashing in the RV. I like the basket so much better, and it’s perfect. I put a kitchen towel in the bottom to catch any tomato juices. The basket was $9.00 – which is more than a Goodwill price but was really good for a booth store.

                I also found this big round basket for 18.00. I am using it for a laundry basket! I also had a collapsable plastic laundry basket, but it had cracked in multiple places, and I’ve long wanted a wicker laundry basket. This is perfect!

                And lastly (and maybe the coolest of all), I found this amazing blue kitchen scale for 18.00. I’ve been eyeing these for a while but have never seen a blue one. I have a vision in mind for it and will show you what it looks like when I get it all put together!

                Next week I’ll tell you about the clothes I found!

Wednesday in the Word: He Fills In

 

It feels a little bit like an occupational hazard when I sit down to pray, and words just won’t come. People courageously share their hard, heartbreaking moments with me, and I open my mouth to pray and suddenly even my broad vocabulary falls short of meaningful.

                Yesterday I walked back and forth across a room, and when I opened my mouth, the only thing that came out was God.

                And then I remembered the words in Romans 8, where we read that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. While I may groan because my words fall short, He groans because words aren’t deep enough.

                It was so comforting in that moment to be reminded that I don’t have to come up with the words. If I can think of some, that’s great. If I can’t, He fills in.

                Maybe the words show up on command for you. But if you ever find yourself in a moment where you can’t muster up anything at all, it’s okay. He fills in.

Tuesday Tales: Staff Retreat Adventures - The Prequel

 

Are you ready for story time with Bekah? This one takes us back to almost a year ago, when I went on my first staff retreat with our church. They’ve been doing this retreat for several years, but last fall was my first time to be officially on staff at retreat time, and I was so excited to go. Spouses are invited (and encouraged!) to attend, but we had just gotten back from our Mackinac Island trip last year, and Ryan had some evening work commitments, so he couldn’t go with me.

                One of the other ladies on our staff was also on her own while her husband worked, so we shared a suite in the retreat center. We each had our own bedroom, and we shared the Jack and Jill bath.

                We were gone two nights, and everything went beautifully the first night. I didn’t sleep well, as is typical when I’m apart from Ryan, but everything went well. The second night, right after dinner, my suitemate became very sick, and she had to go home.

                That night, I finally fell asleep about 11:30. At 12:40 I the morning, I was jolted awake by slamming doors right outside my door, heavy footsteps running down the hall, and lots of deep voices talking. It was a terrifying way to wake up alone in a suite! My first thought was that someone in the retreat center had a medical emergency and EMS used the outside entrance not far from my room to enter the building. That thought quickly moved out of my mind and I went straight to intruders. My door was locked, but the doors don’t have peepholes, so I had no way to look out into the hall. I wasn’t about to open the door in case the people in the hall were intruders. The noises continued, and I was shaking and my heart was racing.

                I grabbed the phone and texted Ryan that I was scared, but he did not respond. It didn’t surprise me, because I didn’t imagine a text would wake him up. So I called. It went STRAIGHT to voicemail without ringing. Well, that unlocked a new level of terror. We never turn off our phones when we are apart, so I could not imagine any scenario in this world that would send me straight to voicemail. There I was, stuck alone in a room with something loud and scary happening in the hall, and because my suitemate went home, I had no access to another person without unlocking my door.

                I tried to call Ryan again. Straight to voicemail again. So while I would ordinarily NEVER do this at 12:45 in the morning, I texted one of my other coworkers, who was staying with her husband across the hall from me. She didn’t answer. So I called. Yes, I sure did. She told me when she answered that she had no idea why my call came through because her phone was set up to block all night calls except her family. I was certain Jesus sent my call through.

                Though she hadn’t been awakened like I had been, now that she was awake, she heard what I heard and sent her husband out into the hall to check on the source. There was a group of high school boys staying at the retreat center, and while none of us could imagine why they were out at that hour, he was pretty certain they were the source of the noise. I did not know that there was a gym in the lower level near our rooms, so we presumed they had been playing there and were making their way back to their rooms in another wing of the building.

                That calmed me down about intruders knocking down my door, but I still did not know why Ryan wasn’t answering his phone!

                Bridgette asked me if there was any chance that his battery could have died. I hadn’t considered that but decided it was plausible. His battery life wasn’t great, and I told myself that maybe he fell asleep after we talked on the phone late that evening, and he just didn’t plug in the phone…and then it died.

                But by that point, I was wide awake, pacing, shaking, crying, praying. I kept trying to call, every few minutes, and eventually the phone did start ringing…but he still didn’t answer.

                About two hours later, I finally calmed down enough to get into bed without shaking violently. But I couldn’t sleep. I would guess that I only had about an hour and a half of broken sleep all night. I kept calling and texting…no response.

                I was so scared that he’d had some kind of medical emergency and no one was there to help him. I had no other way to try to call him. I didn’t have a car at the retreat, or I absolutely would have driven home in the middle of the night to look. I didn’t know who in our group had the church van keys to borrow it to go home.  

                I checked his phone location, knowing it isn’t always exactly accurate, and it said he was in the yard. I started wondering if he got sick and tried to go for help and collapsed in the yard. It was dark. Who would see him, even if they drove by?

                I didn’t know what else to do except keep praying and waiting.

                Finally, at 6:30 in the morning, he answered. I was sobbing. He was still trying to wake up and had no idea what was happening. He had, in fact, forgotten to turn on his ringer after we talked, and he slept through all the calls and texts – and all his alarms. We never did figure out why, for a time, the phone went straight to voicemail.

                He did feel absolutely terrible about it. And later – MUCH later – it made a story we could giggle about. That next day was NOT that day.

                But now that you know this story, I am sure you can understand why this year, he went with me. And I was so happy to have him there.

                I decided to save my stories from this year’s retreat for another post. You’re probably exhausted from this story!!

                This concludes story time with Bekah.

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

                We knew going into this past week that we weren’t going to be able to stick to our tightened up eating plan, because we had many places to be throughout the week! We didn’t worry about it, enjoyed our time and meals, and we’ll be returning to the simplified plan today. But here are some of the fun things we enjoyed throughout the week!

Monday: Taco Salad

Thoughts: We were getting ready to be gone for several days, so we cleaned out the refrigerator with taco salad - complete with fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden!

Tuesday: Dinner at the Ballpark

Thoughts: This dinner was part of our free night out at Parkview Field. They had a buffet of options. I got a plain burger with a little mac and cheese and some apple crisp – and fresh fruit. Ryan did a full hamburger sandwich and hot dog with some mac and cheese. It was all really good!

Wednesday: Dinner at CJ’s Highmarks

Thoughts: Our first dinner at out the Staff Retreat was at a restaurant we really like: CJ’s Highmarks over in Celina, Ohio. I chose tilapia with veggies. I typically don’t order fish at restaurants, but I really liked it and would order it again! Ryan got one of their specials, which was a spring roll meal. He was imagining it would be a little bigger, but he said it was good.

Thursday: Dinner at Do Good

Thoughts: I first learned about Do Good (Osgood, Ohio) last year on the staff retreat, and Ryan and I have been over there a couple of times since to celebrate special occasions. This time I chose whitefish with green beans and cauliflower rice, and Ryan chose a personal pizza. Both were excellent!

Friday: Leftovers

Thoughts: Both of us had half our Do Good meal left, so this is what we ate on Friday night. It was tasty!

Saturday: Wraps and Subs

Thoughts: I went shopping on Saturday and got a Greek chicken wrap while I was out to lunch. I only ate half of it and brought the other half home for dinner. (And forgot to get a good picture of it. Sorry!) I stopped to get Ryan a steak sub at Subway for his dinner!

Sunday: Pizza

Thoughts: This one was NOT in the plan, but sometimes things aren’t, right? I had planned to cook Saturday night, and when that did not happen, we did not have leftovers for Sunday. It was baptism Sunday, so we got home really late and ended up ordering a pizza to eat on throughout the day. It was good. Not great for us, but tasted great!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

                It’s possible that I kept dozing on the couch as I wrapped up this week’s virtual scrapbook. Yesterday was a lot of fun, but it was a long day, and I’m sleepy! So much to tell you about this week, so let’s jump in!

                Last Sunday was a full day for your girl. Ryan and I taught Sunday School, I gave the message at church, and then we had a ministry fair, where I staffed one of the tables. WHEW! My feet hurt at the end of that! I welcomed my long nap and was particularly thankful for Ryan’s help throughout the entire day. Ministry is teamwork!

                Monday was the first day in over a week that we had enough of a break from rain to be able to work outside! (And by “we,” I mean Ryan.) Our yard was a jungle, and he was eager to get out there and work on it! I hunkered down with homework and he made the house beautiful again.

                Tuesday, as I already told you, was our date night to the TinCaps game. It was our first time to go to a TinCaps game together, and we talked about how much fun it was and how we should enjoy it more often. (In regular seats. Not in the fancy club. That’s not in our price point! Ha!)

                Our church’s annual staff retreat started on Wednesday. Ryan went with me this year, which came about because of a fantastic story from LAST year’s retreat, which apparently I never told you! I’ll have to tell you that one next week. But anyway, he went with me, and the first day was full of all kinds of adventures. One of the things that made me laugh was this: the staff had a meeting outside the retreat center, and Ryan did not attend this meeting. Every time I glanced up while we met, I saw this statue out of the corner of my eye and thought it was Ryan eavesdropping on us. It was so funny!

                Thursday was beautiful, and Ryan and I loved our free time in the afternoon. We went on many walks, had a little coffee date, and had some great talks. There were a lot of things (separately) about Thursday that were really hard for me, so I was ridiculously thankful to have Ryan there to boost my spirits and calm me!

                We came home from the retreat Friday afternoon (via grocery shopping and a little thrifting) and Lexi was excited to come back home, too! No rest for the weary, though. Ryan had a bunch of outside work to do, and I had a big paper to write for class.

                Yesterday rounded out the week with a lot of fun, because my friend, Kari, made the trip up here to hang out with me for the day – and we went shopping! We stopped by a bunch of my favorite thrift/consignment/antique stores in our area, and we had an amazing time. (Found so many treasures!)

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                Good morning, friends! I have to tell you…August has not been long on adventure until this week. We have packed a whole lot of fun into one little week – and it continues today. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise! Meanwhile, here are some things to make you smile!

Ryan sent me this video of dogs boarding the bus for doggie daycare. Goodness, if this doesn’t put a smile on your face, I’m not sure I know how to help that happen! What fun!! (Also, I can only imagine Lexi in this mix. She would just be beside herself. As long as they don’t use windshield wipers, that is…)

If you’re not from around here, you won’t know this story, but it might make your day to see a glimpse into it. We have a teen at our church named Cooper, and he has developed the best friendship with a guy from his school – Memphis. Cooper’s mama posted this video after 4H fair week last month, and she also posted these words about it: “If you aren’t in Cooper or Memphis’s circles, you probably don’t have any clue of the time and hard work that was put in by Memphis to accomplish this goal of being strong enough to show not one, but two calves this year. Memphis spends countless hours doing therapy and getting strong enough so he can stand to show his animals. What you also don’t see is a friend who treats Memphis like a typical kid without a disability, but shows a great deal of tenderness and understanding when needed. Cooper pushes Memphis because he knows he can do it. Watching them interact and work hard is a gift. Cooper and Memphis have a bond that makes my momma heart proud…Not for any banner that they received, but for their hard work and determination, even when odds were stacked against them at times. I could go on and on about their friendship and what this fair meant to both of them, but honestly, I think the video and the song does a great job of that.” Great job, Cooper!

I was SO GOOD and didn’t post anything about Christmas back in July. But it’s August now, and I can no longer hold out. 😊 KariAnne posted this home tour back in July – just to get us all in the Christmas mood, and it totally worked. I think it’s all her blue and white. I just love a blue and white home – and season of the year, even at Christmas. Maybe especially at Christmas. If it’s too early for you, just tuck it away for later. But the planner in me urges you to begin to get in the spirit… 😊

For the last few months, I’ve been posting a joy every day on Facebook. I try to find something throughout the day that brought joy to my heart and share it, mostly to try to get other people to see things throughout their own days that bring joy to THEIR hearts. Scotty Smith’s post has a similar feel, so I wanted to share it with you. What brings you joy today?

Obviously I’m not a teacher, nor do I have kiddos, so I am not going back to school this fall, but if I needed to…Audrey has some cute ideas for back-to-school outfits! She shared this post a few weeks ago, so I don’t know if all the sales are still valid, but maybe the outfits will still inspire!

I’m really not ready for soup weather yet. I’m enjoying summer far too much. But I am saving this for when soup weather finally arrives. A tomato soup with cottage cheese (pureed, of course) in it. I love the idea of the tomato acidity cut by the creaminess of the cottage cheese – and the extra protein! I’m going to try this one! But not today.

Friday Fun: A Night at the TinCaps!

 

                This week has been so full! Lots to tell you about eventually, but for now…I’m going to start with our date night on Tuesday.

                A few weeks ago, we were invited to an appreciation night to see a baseball game! It was a TinCaps game at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, and we had the most perfect weather night for it. With all the rain we’ve had lately, it isn’t lost on us that we were incredibly fortunate to have a dry night – and we didn’t even have stifling humidity. It was great!

                Our group met in the 400 Club, which is a wayyyyyyyyyyyyy fancier place than we would ever set foot, so I tried to get a commemorative picture. 😊

                I took this picture while we were waiting in line for food. We ended up sitting outside, but this was the sweet view from inside the club.

                They had a dinner buffet of ballpark food, so I had a burger and fruit and a little mac and cheese and apple crisp for fun! We found a table outside with a good view and settled in for the evening.

                The TinCaps played a double header that night, but we were only there for the second game against the Great Lakes Loons. We ended up not staying for the whole game (we had to leave the next morning for a retreat and still had packing to do) but the part of the game we saw was good and the TinCaps were ahead when we left!

                We even got one of the fun photos from the house photographer!

                On our way out, we had a view of the club from across the field, so I had to grab that picture!

                And then…oh boy. We had ourselves a little adventure. We wanted coffee, and we had learned that there is not a drop of coffee to be found inside Parkview Field. So we decided to go to the Starbucks that we knew wasn’t far from the field and we could walk there before it closed. Unfortunately we took the wrong gate out of the field and ended up on the farthest side of the field from the starting point we needed to be at to get to the coffee. We started walking, but I knew we either wouldn’t make it in time, or we would be walking in as it closed, which is just mean. So I told Ryan he could run and get there in time if he wanted, and I’d catch up. He took off in very fine form, and it was about two minutes ahead of me before I realized…I had not thought this through entirely.

                Ryan was, by this time, completely out of sight down the road, and I was walking alone in downtown Fort Wayne after dark. Immediate sweat-fest. It was, to be fair, very well-lit and since it was a game night, there were quite a few people walking around, so it wasn’t completely creepy. But I did speed up my walk.

                I arrived at Starbucks just as our drinks were served, and the MINUTE Ryan and I walked outside to head back, there was a full fight on the sidewalk in front of us between a couple of guys. We backed up against the building and stayed there until they broke up the fight and then we got out of there.

                The coffee was worth it, but WHEW! That was one eventful drink!

                I loved our date night. It was a lot of fun, a unique experience, and a good memory made.

Thankful Thursday: Parents and Prayer

 

My thankfulness is divided between two things today. More than two, really, but two that I’ll highlight…or else we’ll be here all day.

                First, today is my parents’ 72^nd wedding anniversary! I haven’t known too many people (personally) who have achieved this milestone, so I congratulate them on it! My sister is spending time with them today, so I celebrated with them a little early. I took them some treats and a card and we talked for a while.

                Earlier this year, when Dad was so sick and we weren’t sure he would survive his illnesses, I did not think visiting with the two of them together for this milestone would even be possible, so I am thankful that Ryan and I had this chance!

                My second piece of thankfulness today is for the opportunity Ryan and I have this week to spend some time in set apart prayer. I’ve been sharing with you the ways the Lord has been teaching and growing me in the topic of prayer, and I’m really glad to have a break from my normal routine to sit with the Lord and just be. Yes, I’m seeking. Yes, I’m listening. But sometimes I just am. And that’s important.

                This noisy world does not often afford this luxury, so I’m thankful for it today.

Wednesdays in the Word: Letters of Recommendation

 

Would you believe that I am almost done with my yearlong journey through the Bible with my friend from church? We just started on a random Monday in September, so don’t worry…you’re not missing any big holidays coming up. But we have less than a month left until we’ll have read all the way through the entire Bible. We are deep into the New Testament and having some great conversations about Paul’s letters.

                Yesterday we read in 2 Corinthians, and the first part of chapter 3 (vv. 1-3) talk about their lives being letters of recommendation for Christ. I read those words just hours after talking to someone about why he doesn’t want anything to do with church.

                You know what he told me? He had a church experience where the people pretended to be deeply devoted to God when they sat in the sanctuary, but the minute they stepped foot outside, they spent all their time gossiping and engaging in all kinds of behavior that the sermon 20 minutes earlier was against. Their hypocritical behavior soured him on church and on a relationship with God.

                Ouch.

                What a sobering reminder of the truth of these very words from 2 Corinthians. Our lives are indeed letters, and all those who come in contact with us read them. Some of them – maybe many of them! – are going to make decisions about whether or not they want to learn more about God based on our life-letter of recommendation.

                So I’m asking myself the same question I’m asking you today: what’s your letter of recommendation say? Do you need to make some revisions?

Tuesday Tales: Little is Rich

 

There’s an old Gaither Vocal Band song called Little is Much When God is In It. Truth, right there, but today it’s a slightly different word that comes to my mind. Little is rich. What does that mean, you might ask? Let me tell you.

                It’s no secret that we live in a world that celebrates all things big. Megachurches and world-record-breaking everything and all kinds of muchness. While those things aren’t bad or wrong, you’ll never convince me that there isn’t beauty in the smallness. I remember telling Lynne Ford that when I worked at the radio station. Toward the end of my time there, I told her that every now and then, I wished for a small life. Radio was fun, but radio was big. And sometimes I missed the small.

                This week, I’ve had a couple of moments when small things made a big impact, reminding me of the richness to be found in that which the world would consider little.

                At the end of July, I finally ordered something I have had my eye on for a few years…and indeed had been saving money to buy. It was this Cradle-to-Cross Advent wreath from The Keeping Company. Some friends gifted me money last year…a gift that held significance…and I put it toward one of these wreaths. And last month I added the rest of the money I needed and placed the order. The website said orders would shop mid-August, but much to my surprise, I received a shipping notification a little over a week ago.

                And then it seemed stuck for days…and then a week. I wasn’t upset, but I did want to check on it, just in case something was legitimately wrong.

                The company is owned and run by Ann Voskamp’s son, Caleb, and his wife, and they’re all located in Canada, so I thought maybe the delay came in international shipping. I emailed just to check on it, and when Caleb replied, my jaw hit the floor.

                He thanked me for my kindness and grace. He thoroughly researched every single step of the tracking from the moment it left their hands and was able to tell me a more detailed view than the tracking link I had would show me. He explained the probable reasons for the delays, and gave me his best estimate for its actual arrival, along with his gut feeling that it would probably be sooner.

                And it was. It arrived yesterday, beautifully packaged and even more stunning to behold than I could have imagined.

                I love it. I love it for what it is. I love it because it is partly a gift to me from a dear family. I love it because it came from a little company run by real people with kind hearts. I love it because it reminds me that little is rich. Little companies are rich in kindness. Little places are rich in story. Little pieces are rich in beauty.

                Little IS much, when God is in it. But also, little is just rich. I hope you have some little places that have made your life richer, too!