Urgent Prayer Request & Photo Challenge Update

If you haven’t read my last post you may want to pop by and read. 

I have an urgent request… please pray for my husband (Derrick) today. He has a full body scan to see if the cancer has spread TODAY at 11:30. If you could pray that it has not spread!!! 

Thank you all! 

Under the circumstances… I cannot commit to the September daily photo challenge. I hope you all understand. I may try to do a week of challenges later this month. We have appointments all week. Today the scan, tomorrow his oncologist appointment, Thursday his surgeon appointment. It’s just not good timing for a photo challenge. Everything is moving fast to get him care and I’m thankful for that.

Love,

Chrissy 

The Word No One Wants to Hear...

Hello everyone. My last post was Monday and that was only two days ago yet feels like a week ago at the same time. I wrote on seasons and the strange one I was in. Little did I know that "Little Note" post I wrote to you would make a little more sense why I have been feeling I didn't need to rush into anything again. The Lord always leads if we will be still and listen. To fully understand that post please read this past Monday's post if you would like.

Monday when I wrote that post my husband was preparing for a procedure for preventive screening. Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5 am to head to the medical plaza. We were laughing, make light of this "uncomfortable" procedure and the only reason I went to was because I had to drive him home afterwards. 

The medical staff was so friendly. The doctor and anesthesia doctor came in and went over everything. The procedure is one most dread, so the staff made him super comfortable and keep it jovial and lighthearted. We laughed and cracked some silly jokes with them and each other. We took a silly picture of him to send to the kids, and he rolled out of the room. I went to a waiting area and wasn't even in the waiting room but a few minutes and was told to come back. I was thinking that was quite fast.  He was in recovery and waking up slowly. He said he was hungry and I giggled. He was ready to eat. He had not eaten since Sunday at 6 pm. 

As he was waking up from sedation, he was silly and we were laughing a little. The doctor walks in and had the look like you knew something was wrong. What was meant to be a preventive health screen revealed my husband has a large tumor in his colon and it is cancer. He could not even complete the colonoscopy because it was so large. He had to stop the procedure. We sat there in shock. The doctor was in shock. The nurse came in with a tissue box and then information came out of his mouth like a fire hydrant had been opened and we were rolled out to the car and sat in the car weeping and in shock. 

I am asking if you pray, please lift up my husband and our family. To say that this has been a challenging year ALREADY is an understatement. 

Derrick has a long road ahead, the doctor has stated. They believe this tumor to be 5-10 years old and that it is very important this had not spread to other areas for the best case scenario. 

My husband has had no signs other than some change of bowels this year and some cramping. He thought it was age, IBS or poor diet. His bloodwork has been fine over the years. He has no medical history. He is on no medications. NO high bp, cholesterol or anything. Always had a clean bill of health as we know. He is also only 46. So, the doctor is very taken back and concerned. He has been very tired more this year than normal and mentioned he felt he needed to exercise more or cut some stress out. These are actually some mild signs of colon cancer, but they match normal aging things too making it easy to ignore.

With this said he goes THIS Tuesday to get a full body scan. Would you pray that this is contained and has not spread and that we have the best case scenario. A miracle!!! 

Thank you

Chrissy T

A Little Note

Hello dear friends,

It has been a few days (a week or so) since I have popped in. I am sorry to admit I haven't visited many of you dear friends either. I do pray that I can soon. I am in a strange place in my life at the moment and I am trying to learn, grow, and gently accept once again a SHIFT in my SEASON of LIFE. 

I often feel that my seasons change as soon as I get used to one. I often fall back to the title of my blog. One Season to the Next! I know there is a reason the Lord put that on my heart to name my blog years ago as I seem to always flow from one "season" to the next often. :) 

Seasons of life are really fickle, aren't they?  I mean as soon as you feel you have it all together the rug is pulled and we are heading a different direction. This is life, I suppose. I know one thing it keeps it interesting. That is how I am choosing to look at it. :)

To fill you in, as mentioned a few posts back I needed a little "breakaroo" from blogging. I had faithfully written a post daily almost all of May, June, and July. I love blogging. I love visiting you all and I love posting, writing, and sharing my life. It is like writing a letter to good friends and hoping everyone reads the letter. :) I love visiting you all too. I feel like it is reading a letter you are writing to me. Your recipes, reading about your days, seeing your pictures and family moments are so special. I love the blogging community. I am glad to just be posting as I feel led to at this time.

I am so blessed by you all. Thank you all for your sweet congratulations for our daughter's engagement. It was wonderful. The pictures I am sharing are from our quick weekend trip to the beach for her SURPRISE PURPOSAL. It was HOT! VERY! We did have a nice time. I will be honest I am still dealing with pretty strong fatigue. I am entering week 9 of recovery after my hysterectomy and I am surprised at the fatigue and discomfort I do have occasionally still. 

I kind of pushed myself (which I know you all encouraged me not to) and it set me back a little bit. I really tried to pace myself, but even with light exercise and trying to do basic normal things my body just was not handling as I thought and truly is still not ready for "normal" life. 

In other news, there has been a lot of resting, catching up with some friends, reading, doing the basic homemaking duties and church. I am still not serving in full capacity at church yet. If you do not know I am a pastor's wife to a growing church plant. This season has been good for me to step back and with a bird's eye view and prayer evaluate my return of taking on ministry obligations. As a church planter you often have to serve in MANY "roles." It can become challenging as you are building and launching church growth.

In agreement with my husband and through prayer we have decided that I will not return to serving in some of the MANY areas that I was serving in. All of it had really begun to be too much and was not serving our home, family or even my health well. 

I am thankful but also it feels very strange and is very hard for me to let go of certain areas. I also know it is what must be done. I am learning to trust more in the Lord and remember He is in control. He can take care of these areas, and He will fill these roles. 

Moving on from that topic..... I am looking forward to the Fall. The heat has been brutal here. The last few days have been 105-108. It is so hot. My plants are all super crunchy no matter the watering. I am ready to take cooler walks, maybe a short simple hike (maybe) and I am ready to bake some yummy fall treats. 

Until then, I must embrace the heat and make the most of these "dog days" that are left. Seasons come and go. I will try to be content in this one. :)

Love you all, 

Chrissy T

A Special Moment ~ Engagement of Our Daughter

 This past weekend we traveled to Alabama Gulf Coast to surprise our daughter Hannah for her SURPRISE ENGAGEMENT her boyfriend of two years planned. She thought she was joining their family vacation and that his mom and dad were getting their vows renewed (that was the "story") so Clayton (her bf) could pull all this off. 

We are excited for this special moment and next step for Hannah and Clayton as they were engaged at Sunset on Saturday, August 15th, 2026.

They are praying and thinking about wedding dates for now, but we are excited for this step for them both. 

I hope you all are doing well! 

With Love,

Chrissy

Hot Walks & Getting Movement

Hello friends. I have been enjoying longer walks although it is HOT! I am doing my best to keep up with them. 

I want to share my new water shoes!  I love my water shoes! They are so comfortable and look like tennis shoes. I had been using my hiking water sandals and while they work fine, they are heavy after a period of time in class. Since I have been going to class regularly for about two weeks I invested in some water shoes. I can also use for other things such as our cruise in November. We are doing some water tubing and activities and these will be great for that.

Here are my shoes. I am snapping a picture in the gym locker class before swim class.

They have cancelled water classes on Tuesday & Thursday for now starting this week. So, I have decided to go Mon, Wed, and Friday to class after my 30 minute morning walk. It feels so good to get in the pool because it is soooo incredibly hot after my walks. Tuesday and Thursday I am doing an hour walk in the morning and my evening 10-15 minute "after supper" walk. The classes are 45 minutes long. I have really been enjoying them. They are pretty nice to do at this time as I get back into exercise and movement. 

My walk today was HOT!!!!!!!!!!! I started at a park and walked 2 miles and then headed to the library nature trail to get the whole hour in because the trail shaded and I needed shade! I think I may just walk at the trail during this time.

At the start of the walk......

Halfway through..... HOT and SWEATY!

I am still thinking on the message from Sunday on Contentment. 

Currently I am reading these two books. I am really enjoying them.

I so appreciate you all visiting this little spot!!! 

A Lovely Weekend ~ Blogging Time This Month

Hello friends. I hope you had a lovely weekend. I enjoyed a nice "slowish" weekend. From nice walks, a little getting out, lovely church time, a special time with our daughter after church, and fellowship with some ladies from church. 

Saturday my husband and I had our date day, we took a ride to a shoe store for some shoes he needed. We then did our grocery pick up. I took a lovely evening walk, visited some blogs, and got ready for bed.

Sunday was a sweet day. Church service was so lovely, and we had such a wonderful message on contentment. I had prayed before church for a fresh reminder and encouragement over the season I am in. The message was right on time. Our daughter joined my husband and I for a lunch at Panera Bread Co. following church. 

It was so nice just having some time with her. We enjoyed a mini lemon bundt cake together. I had some soup and it was perfectly filling. We discussed the message together. I loved hearing how she felt the Lord also ministered to her about contentment, and she shared her heart with us on the subject. It was so wonderful!!!

The size of this cookie was crazy! HAHA!! The hubby didn't finish it but he said it was delish!!!

We relaxed a little after we got home and then I had to head out to a ladies dine out with some church ladies at a local pizza place. We had a nice, relaxed time. I got a mini tiny cheese pizza. It is called a Bambino pizza. It the size of a small dessert plate. It was perfect size and filling. I am still doing Weight Watchers and I was very happy with my results this week.

I have walked daily this past week from Monday to Sunday and attended 5 water exercise classes. I didn't walk super crazy speed, but I have for sure picked up my pace finally. I have been averaging about 7,000 to 11,000 steps a day between the class, daily walks, and evening strolls after supper, and daily life. 

It was a nice evening to walk. It was tad cooler this evening. It was 85 degrees at 8:00 this evening. HAHA! I am for sure not experiencing some of the cooler weather I keep reading some of you have. It was a tad humid as well, but it was still nice. You have to get up WAY early or walk WAY later during August in our area.

I hope you all have a lovely week ahead. My plan today is to do a water class this morning, laundry, vacuum, and then I am going to have some "planning" time. Basically, I sit down and get everything out of my brain that I want to do or need to do. I always feel much better when I just sit down and put things on paper. 

Hopefully, I will pop in on Wednesday. I am going to take August a little slower on my blog. I blogged daily "almost" all of June and July. I did miss some days, but they were few. I need a little time to get my footing on life after recovery from the surgery. :) I hope to pop in and visit all of you daily or often through the week but as far as posting I believe I will do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and share my menu on Saturday. Of course, I may do more or less. :) 

September is the daily photo challenge so I will be back to posting daily then. 

Blessings, 

Chrissy

Menu Planning

Hello friends. I am finally glad to have a system that is working for me when it comes to menu planning, cooking dinner and grocery shopping for this season of my life. I have done a similar system for years but with ever changing seasons of life, numbers of people eating fluctuating as well, the system has changed off and on. I keep an eye out all week for any new recipes I would like to try. Then on Friday and Saturday I finalize the menu, make a grocery list, purchase online and schedule pick up for Saturday or Sunday afternoon. My husband goes with me & we pick up the items and then he unloads and I put away. 

This is majorly different from the past. In the past, I made a general list of meals I wanted to make and then headed to the store on Mondays or Tuesdays and shopped and took care of it all on my own weekly. I like the new system. I have noticed I have been saving more money as well by not going inside. Don't worry.... I do make a stop in the store weekly or biweekly to pick up my own produce because I do like having a time out in my community and I like to pick out most of my own produce. 

For the last three weeks I have made every single meal I planned. Most of them have been very good expect for two. Last week I did not care for the Pasta Fiesta, but the family loved it. I also made a pizza recipe off Pinterest using the Red Lobster Biscuit Mix. I do not recommend it. We ate it and it was okay, but we all agree it was not our favorite recipe or style of "pizza."

This week I am really looking forward to trying the Crispy Chicken Tender Tacos. I am following a recipe I found but tweaking it to our liking. We are going to omit the Cilantro Lime dressing sauce because we do not like cilantro.

Check out the recipe here

I usually try a couple of new recipes a week. I like variety now that I have more time on my hands to try new recipes more often. When the kids were younger, we were on a very tight budget, and I made the same simple frugal meals over and over and over. As I learned more about cooking and budgeting as well as time went on in my homemaking journey I ventured out and tried at least one new recipe a week. This helped me build up an arsenal of meals over the years, but even so I still like to try new recipes all the time. 

Do you all like trying new recipes often? I guess everyone's seasons in life could make a difference when it comes to that answer.

When it comes to finding recipes are you a cookbook person, online cooking sites or Pinterest person or both?