Creating Lasting Memories: Our Girls’ Trip Tradition

August 28, 2026August 28, 2026 RefreshHerLeave a comment

Eight years ago my daughters and I started a new tradition. On the year that one of us has a significant birthday, we go away together on a two-night get-away. We leave our families behind and head off to enjoy “girl time.” It has turned into such a wonderful memory-making event! Over the years we’ve been to Boone, Lake Keowee, Pigeon Forge, and Greenville, SC.

This year we were celebrating my youngest daughter, Alli’s birthday and we generally let the one we’re honoring make the choice as to where we should go. She suggested we return to Boone, NC. It’s a mountain town with lots of really good restaurants, mountain views, and shopping. Perfection!

Our husbands always make loading those carts onto the elevators look so easy. Don’t ask how we did!

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Celebrations · Marriage

Backyard Anniversary Celebration

June 26, 2026June 22, 2026 RefreshHer2 Comments

Our 45th anniversary was last Saturday. What a blessing to have this milestone to celebrate! We both consider our marriage a true grace gift from the Lord. Oh, how He kept each of us from foolish decisions that obviously would have changed the whole trajectory of our lives! I know that Dale is the one the Lord had for me. He completes me so well, making up for all my weakness, leading me spiritually and also helping to equip me to serve God. I am a blessed woman!

As we considered how we would celebrate, we knew we wanted a date night with just the two of us (which we thoroughly enjoyed on the 21st). I also suggested to my husband that we have a family dinner celebration on our back patio on the day of our anniversary. He was in agreement, so we planned together for a wonderful night.

A young woman in our church is a culinary arts major. Dale asked her to make two charcuterie boards for appetizers. He also had her make a celebration cake!

We had the dinner catered by Olive Garden and they did a fantastic job! Everything was provided for the meal, including serving utensils, tea and even Andes mints!

Their salad and breadsticks
were so good!

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Celebrations · Marriage

Sentimental Anniversary Celebration

June 12, 2026June 11, 2026 RefreshHer2 Comments

With the upcoming of our 45th anniversary on June 20th, we decided that we would try to do something each day of the month of June that would “celebrate us!” Dale’s taking the odd days, and I am taking the even to create a tiny remembrance. These have been very ordinary events, but we’re trying to use our celebrations to reminisce over the early days of our relationship and marriage. It’s been fun – both to create the ideas for each day, and then do them! How about a little peek into a few of our “celebrations” so far?

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cakes · Celebrations

Chocolate Cake From Scratch – Easy and Delicious!

September 8, 2025September 7, 2025 RefreshHerLeave a comment

Birthdays and cake just go together! I think it would be a sad celebration without one! When my girls asked me to make a cake for our family vacation and family celebration, I looked at lots of options, then landed on our long-time favorite – Triple Chocolate Cake. I think deciding which cake to make was harder than actually making it! First on the list was making sure I had all the ingredients on hand. That didn’t mean a run to the store because I am enjoying the blessing of occasionally having my Kroger grocery order delivered. I was able to get a rate for being a Kroger Boost member $35 for the year. That allows me to have groceries delivered the next day at no charge. For the most part it’s been wonderful. Why?

It keeps me home.
If I forget something, it allows me to add things to my order up to about two hours prior to my delivery time.
For the most part, I’ve gotten everything I’ve ordered.

However, a happy accident happened when the Devil’s Food Cake Mix didn’t show up in my delivery. I was planning to make the cake layers for the Triple Chocolate Cake on that day. Since I didn’t want to undo the blessing of the delivery, I went looking for a cook chocolate cake recipe that I could make from scratch instead. The happy accident was that the recipe I baked made the Triple Chocolate cake recipe so much better that I’ll never use that box mix again!

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Celebrations · Family life

Fond Memories, Fun Times and 40th celebration

August 16, 2024August 16, 2024 RefreshHer15 Comments

Many of you who read my posts here on RefreshHer have also followed my daughter, Whitney at Come Home for Comfort . Her content on her blog and in her personal life are always a joy. I’ve missed reading her posts, and I know you have, too, but we all have to know when to step back even from something we love so we can give greater attention to that which is a greater priority. I admire Whitney for that! I’m also super blessed to be a part of her life and have the opportunity to spend time with her and her husband, when he’s not working!

I had that blessing this week as my other daughter, Alli and I hosted a 40th birthday celebration this week in Pigeon Forge with just the three of us! Her birthday isn’t until September, but this was the best time for us to get away. We spent three nights and nearly four days together, chatting, laughing, eating, cooking, shopping, reminiscing and also making new memories! It was the BEST time!

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