We Made It!

As we greet this final day of May, I have one thing to say:

WHEW.

We knew when we said hello to May 1st that this month was going to be crazy in ways we couldn't imagine. Mommapalooza, my birthday, five speaking engagements, a vacation, a bridal shower, and a few other things thrown in for good measure made for a wild ride. A good ride, but a wild ride.

BUT WE DID IT!!

This past Sunday, our pastor preached on where do we go from here? Great question! This month marked a chapter change for us. I have some time to work on writing projects, to reflect on the almost first half (can you believe that?) of this year, and to dream about and pray over the possibilities in the future.

It's exciting, really. I told Ryan the other day that this time in life feels like a time of many possibilities, and that is a great place to be! If we findourselves in a place of waiting for direction, at least it's also a place of hope that whatever is out there ahead of us is good and chosen.

Maybe your May was exhausting, and maybe it wasn't. Maybe you're in a waiting period, and maybe you're not. But I wanted to share this with you today to give you some hope. Where do you go from here? Maybe you know and maybe you're waiting to find out. Either way, I hope you see the brightness of possibilities awaiting.

Most of all, I hope you dream. I've always lived in a head full of dreams, and I still do. Those dreams inspire me. Some of mine have ended up reality and some have not. But even those that never burst into being were still beautiful.

Still dreaming, still praying, still waiting to see what God has ahead. (And now that the calendar isn't so full, I have more time for all of it!)

Dream big in June, my friends! 

What I Learned in May

PODCAST TUESDAY!!!

I know this is the most random conglomeration of stories ever, but I promise it's worth it!!

Listen here

 Yes, I know it is not the last day of the month, but two things caused me to post my "What I learned" a day early. First, I don't plan on learning anything today, so I should be safe. (TOTALLY KIDDING!) Secondly, yesterday was a super busy day, and I didn't get a chance to write  a post just for this day. So without further ado, here are the things I learned in May!

1. My body rebels against a detox/cleanse.

And don't we all, I'm sure, in some way? Isn't that kind of the point of a cleanse or detox? To shock your system back to health and life? But seriously, I learned that my body freaks out in unhealthy ways. Not sleeping at all and feeling like I'm hallucinating? Not worth it to me. I think I'll just be more conscious in my eating choices. It works better for me.

2. Ryan and I still hate being apart.

We were told the longer we were married, the more we would "get over" the need to be together all the time. Hasn't. Happened. Yet. Ryan was gone all day for the Saturday and Sunday of one weekend, and the following weekend, we were apart all evening Friday and most of Sunday afternoon. We decided that's too much. We love being together, and we don't apologize for it!

3. In busy seasons, we rely on color-coded itineraries.

We had a couple of stretches this month that were too busy. TOO busy. The kind of busy where you have to schedule in bathroom breaks if you really want them. So I resorted to creating color coded documents that outlined our every waking hour and told us what we needed to accomplish and who was in charge of it. We couldn't live like that every day, but when we have to, we must have organization.  

4. I love, love, love, having our garage finished for entertaining.

Truly one of the best decisions we made (even though it nearly cost us our sanity when it was in process) was to finish off the garage so it could be used as an additional living space. Hosting Mommapalooza 4.0 out there was so freeing!  Everyone felt a lot more comfortable with the extra space!

5. The Ninja has revolutionized our coffee grinding experience.

Ryan gave me a Ninja system for my birthday, which was THE most perfect gift. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet (hello, busy May!) but we used it to grind our coffee right after we opened the box, and my GOODNESS. What used to take 15 minutes to complete took about a minute and a half. No. Way.

6. Ryan and I make a great team at events.

I love being in a partnership with Ryan, and I love having him accompany me to events. It makes me so happy! But my visit to IWU was the first time he stood up front and helped me with a presentation. It went seamlessly. We had rehearsed several times, but I was so excited to see how well it went in real time. I am thankful beyond words for a husband who doesn't just support the work I'm called to do, but he crawls into it with me and takes an active role.

7. I love writing curriculum.

Back in the day, I wanted to be a teacher, but I elected not to pursue it once I saw how the education field was changing (even 20 years ago). This month I wrote some curriculum for a workshop I'm leading this summer, and I adored every moment of that work. Ryan would come home to find me in the same spot I'd been in when he left for work, and I was a TERRIBLE wife on those days, but it fed my soul in amazing ways to write for teaching purposes!

And that's been May in a nutshell! Here's to learning even more in June! 

School's Out for the Summer!

Last August, I told you about my new little side job of helping a friend getting her kiddo to school every morning. She and I set up that whole adventure on our own, and I'd never even met her son before my first day on the job. It felt a little creepy to drive up to their front door and pick him up when he had no idea who I was or anything about me.

And as I told you back in August, I had no idea what to talk about when he was in the car. At the start of the year, he was pretty into Pokemon (along with the rest of the adult and child universe) but that fizzled out fairly quickly. And so we returned to driving in silence, because he's not a morning person and I'm not nine.

Over the last week, I've been watching a lot of my friends post first-day-of-school and last-day-of-school comparison pictures of their kids, and it's been fun to see how much they've grown in a year's time. And though I have no comparison pictures to show you, I can see how we both grew as this year went by. Not in stature, but in learning to relate.

I stopped stressing out about finding topics and just waited for topics to show up on their own. Sometimes we really did drive in silence. But as the year went on, we tentatively talked about things, and the conversation on his end began to be longer than one word answers!

Our city is apparently playing a game of "how many streets can we simultaneously close" right now, so nearly every day, we had to take a detour of some sort. It became a game for the two of us: how far into our drive can we get before we have to find a new route?

We also watched some building projects and demolition projects (both great sources of conversation for boys), and learned a few lessons along the way (don't drive through flooded streets, the meaning of a BLT sandwich, and more).

By the end of our final day, talk was more than a good morning and goodbye. We talked about the future, as near as summer plans and as far as college plans. We wished for two hour delays (which we almost never got) and counted down to the end of the school. Cracked me up that when he got in the car each morning, he had already crossed that day off the countdown, even though he hadn't even arrived at school.

I learned about fidget spinners, dojos, Fun Fridays, the ridiculousness of long spelling words, and the unfairness of being grounded from an iPad.

But the best moment came on the last day. He crawled in the car, and while I fully expected him to shout about the last day, he was mostly just upset about his new haircut. It looked fine to me, so I waited while he explained why it was so awful. When he finished his story, I said, "Well, that does stink, but the good news is, hair grows. Unless you're Ryan. And then you're in trouble." He laughed right out loud over that line, and that was my end of the year school award. I made him laugh!

Transporting anyone to school was never on my list of things I thought I would do, and there were some days it was hard to juggle it into the busyness of the day. There were winter days when I panicked to Ryan about getting there and back safely. But I have to say, I think it was a good growing experience, and I'm glad I did it.

But for now, can I just celebrate? Because SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER, BABY!!!

Linking up with Tamar!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we were waking up for our last morning in Michigan. Sigh of sadness for the end of vacations! We enjoyed a beautiful and peaceful hike through a state park and onto the shore of Lake Michigan before driving back home. (In the warm sun, of course, which showed up for the first time in days.) Still had a great vacation and it was good to be home!

* Monday was get-back-to-normal day. Ryan returned to work, I did a bunch of laundry and unpacked, Braeya wavered between being glad to see us and punishing us with much crying, and the best part of all? OUR ROSES BLOOMED!!!! They are so pretty!

* Tuesday morning I met Ryan's brother and his wife and kids out at the park to do a photo shoot for one of the kiddos. It was a really fun morning, and the colors in the pictures really popped because it was just a little bit overcast! Because I'd been busy all day with pictures and writing, Ryan suggested we use a gift card and go out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. No problem! :) On the way home, we saw more good news: Starbucks is being rebuilt! YESSSSSSSSS!

* Wednesday was blah and yucky, but it cracked me up that I had to wait for ducks to cross the road while I was out running errands. (They were NOT in a hurry.) I picked up a fresh stock of kiddo supplies since I had the fab five for a little while that evening. Coloring books, crayons, games, puzzles - and this one kind of disturbing box that encourages "learning with Pooh." I try to stay poo-free in my learning, thankyouverymuch.

* Ryan had a carry-in at his work on Thursday, so I made cheesy potatoes and this photo is the last I saw of them. That dish was nearly licked CLEAN! I spent the entire day writing, and it was amazing. I was in the same spot when Ryan came home from work that I'd been in when he left for work! AND I got a new toy! Stand to hold my notes while I rehearse my talks. No more using the back of the recliner!

* Friday was the last day of school! I'm not sure who was more excited: my kiddo that I take or me! I decided it was a good stop-for-a-latte-reward day, so I did! (Took one to Ryan too since he filled in for me once when I was sick.) Speaking of Ryan: I LOVE IT when I see him reading a book. Makes me so happy! He started reading my brother-in-law's book this week, and I just had to get a picture. :) And Friday night we actually got a whole night at home together, just the two of us, with nothing to do.

* Ryan had to work a long day yesterday, so I did more writing and Pinteresting while he was gone. I had to record a promo video for a workshop this summer, so that was a fun little adventure. He took me out to eat AGAIN (thank you, gift cards!!) which was a real treat. Although I have to say, the restaurant and I have different takes on medium well. Yikes! And after that? A quick stop at Lowe's for Ryan's favorite thing: holiday price checks for appliances!

The Saturday Six

One.

 Loved this article, which features the lovely Emily Fussner, a young lady I had the privilege of knowing for several years. She grew up in the church I attended a few years go. Emily is every bit as sweet and kind as these words would lead you to believe, and as the writer says, she carries herself in such a way that you really do forget she has physical limitations! I really enjoyed learning more about the specifics of her art. I see many pictures of it online, but it was fun to learn more about what is behind the scenes!

Two.

Trust me. Just trust me. You need to watch this. Especially if you love the song No Longer Slaves.  

Three.

 I will probably do a post on this sometime next month, but I must say I am loving the day planner I made for myself this year. Finally hit the jackpot on what works best for me! I use a lot of printables from the Scattered Squirrel website. She makes quality stuff, and it's FREE! WOO HOOOO!! She just released some calendars for 2018, which I'm excited about since I'm already beginning to have things ON the calendar for next year. So if you're dreaming up a planner for yourself for next year, check it out!

Four.

I kind of forgot this was Memorial Day weekend, because Ryan is working the whole thing, so it's just another weekend for us. BUT! If you are having a cookout on Memorial Day, this is a very cute ice cream sundae bar with printables and the whole bit!

Five.

STOP IT. JUST STOP IT. (I'm back in day planner mode.) This lady uses color coordinated Washi Tape to further organize her planner. I must do this next year. Can you even IMAGINE how pretty????

Six.

Source 

A few weeks ago, I saw this book, Never Give Up, by John Mason, was available for review. It looked interesting, and I hadn't read in the inspirational genre for a while, so I requested it. And now that I've finished reading it, I have a handful of bullet point thoughts to send your way!

* Though I have apparently been living under a rock and had not heard of John before, he is a bestselling author who began as a self-published author. Impressive! Even more impressive, he shared a story in this book about how he chose to continue running with his first books on his own, even though publishers tried to pick them up after they proved successful with sales. I like that philosophy!

* If you're looking for deep an philosophical, look elsewhere. This is not a dive-in-deep sort of book. But please don't think that I find it to be a waste of time, just because it's not deep. This felt more like a conversation-starter/journal-entry-starter book to me, and I'll elaborate more on that in a moment. I just wanted to clarify that if you're looking for something deep and academic, this isn't the choice for you.

* The chapters are short - 2 to 3 pages each - and and there are 52 chapters total. Do you see what I see? A one year study! Actually I think I would have preferred to read it that way, because each chapter really does stand alone. It's not really meant to be read all at once, though I did it that way.

* You know what I think this book would be PERFECT for? High school or college graduation gift. Seriously! Great zingers in each chapter, really wonderful life advice from his own experiences and backed up by appropriately used Scripture passages. A few funny stories and illustrations round out a book of good life advice for those starting out in a new season of life.

* You know another setting I think would be perfect for this? Mentoring. If I had a mentee right now, I would absolutely spend the next year going over the topics of each chapter, a week at a time, fostering discussion and application from them.

* While we're at it, I think it would be great for a small business team too. If you have weekly staff meetings and employees you want to motivate and mentor, this would be a great outline.

I'm keeping the book, and I hope I have the opportunity to use it in some setting in the near future. And since graduation season is upon us....gift idea!


** Revell sent me a copy of this book at no charge. All opinions are my own! **
 

What's That? A SUN??

I forgot to tell you yesterday that while we were hanging out in the living room of the boat Saturday night (so I could finish Sunday's blog post), I got a text from a friend of mine back home that said, "Be safe."

Uh oh.

I texted back (knowing I did NOT want to hear the answer), "Ummmm I'm on vacation. What's happening?"

Tornado warnings. Boy I'll tell you what. Not much scares a boating vacationer more than the thought of a tornado. Because, incidentally, where DO you go in a tornado when you're on a boat?

Fortunately the storms didn't leave any damage at our place, nor did they travel to Saugatuck. But we were awakened at a very dark and early hour Sunday morning to a pretty spectacular thunderstorm. (And that is when I became very impressed that even in all that, the boat didn't move.)

Know something else impressive? Breakfast. Sally outdid herself with her berry cream waffle. Oh my word. Here was the thing that amazed me about it. Normally when I eat a waffle, I feel stuffed when I'm done, but then an hour or two later, BOOM, it wears off completely. Hers did not. We stayed full all morning and into the afternoon! Well done, Sally!

After breakfast, we said our goodbyes, packed up the car, and headed out for our final activities before coming home.

Our former neighbors spent an anniversary in Saugatuck and recommended Pumpernickel's Eatery. They're only open 8-3, and you can see that our mornings were well supplied on the boat, so we had to devise a way to enjoy it without forfeiting Sally's cooking! We stopped by after we left the boat and each picked out a baked treat to bring home. Man, our neighbors weren't kidding. That was one tasty cinnamon roll!

The weather app promised the skies would clear, so we headed to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park to do a little hiking. I have to say, I was pretty surprised that the majority of the hiking was done in the woods like a regular state park. I was expecting to actually hike the sand. But even though I was surprised, it wasn't disappointing. Very pretty, actually, and serene! Not too many people out and about!

But thennnnnnnnnnnnn...it came out on the edge of Lake Michigan!

We walked up and down the beach for a while. Loved it!!

Ummmmmm....is that BLUE SKY over there?

In fact, it was blue sky. That's right. ONE HOUR before we left Michigan...BOOM. Sunny and 70.

I am so not even kidding.

 Shut. The. Front. Door.

So that's how we came home to a gorgeous, sunny, Sunday, after a perfectly cold and rainy birthday trip.

Welcome to Shafferland.

And for your viewing pleasure...a little bit of lake love.

Good Times in Saugatuck!

We didn't let a little (lotta) rain stop us from having fun on our Saugatuck vacation! Want to see some of the fun we had?

We did explore the town a little bit on Friday evening, once we had settled into the Sea Suites. Saugatuck has lots of little touristy/artsy shops, so we scoped them out to see what we might want to come back to visit the next day!

We had dinner at this little diner in a house called Lucy's Little Kitchen. Honestly, I picked it because the building was cute. (Yeah, that's my style. Ryan picks based on food reviews. I pick based on cuteness.) It was a little on the pricey side for our dollar-menu tastes, BUT, if you heard the podcast on Tuesday, you know that we declared that this place served the best burgers we've ever had in our entire lives.

 Sorry I'm so dark here. Again, the halo! (HA!)

 Ryan's burger was loaded with onion jam and all kinds of stuff. Mine was plain, but so full of flavor and so juicy. I adored it! (And had half of it to take home with me! HUGE!!!!)

Of course we needed dessert and coffee, sooooooooooooooooo, we found a little frozen yogurt/gelato place called Notties and stopped in for a treat. The girl who was working that night was a high school student with a TON of personality, and we really enjoyed talking to her while we ate!

We went back to the boat kind of early and just went to our room to watch TV (read: fall asleep) and slept for SO MANY HOURS. We were exhausted and needed our rest, apparently!

The next morning, we got ready with our delicious coffee (thanks, Pete and Sally!) and then ate breakfast on the boat. Omelets and hash browns - way more than I could eat! So good!

The weather app showed we had a few hours of clear skies before the rain hit, so we went back into Saugatuck to walk down along the marina and through the shops.

 Ryan and I both absolutely DESPISE this saying, but it seems to be the most-used phrase for both our mothers, so we paused to capture the sign.

 If you heard the podcast, you heard about my beloved bookstore........sigh of happiness.

 A book for Ryan!!!

 Hello, Captain!

 Annnnnnnnnnnd that's when the rain started.

We walked around in it for a while, but it ended up being a cold, nasty rain, so we left and went to check out an orchard in Fennville that we'd heard offered pie tasting! WHAT!?! This is like our love language!

The place was called Crane's Pie Pantry. There's a whole orchard/winery/restaurant/bakery all together there. 

 I confess I was not in the best of moods when we arrived. The rain had gotten to me, though I was doing my best to be upbeat about our frigid, rainy getaway. And then we didn't get treated all that well, which was sad. We don't drink, and sometimes when we go eat at a place that serves alcohol, we are treated just fine, but other times we really get snubbed when we order something else. So skipping alcohol PLUS sharing one flight of pie apparently put us on the naughty list. I'm not sure. So for my review of this stop, I'd say the food was fantastic, but I wouldn't go back based on how I felt I was treated. Sadness.

ANYWAY, I'd never seen a pie tasting before. They brought samples (IN THE CUTEST LITTLE JARS!) of four kinds of pie. (They picked the kinds. Rhubarb, cherry, blueberry, and apple.)

 Ryan did get hot cider. He LOVES cider and said it was really good. I'm not really a cider girl, so I got water. Didn't put me in any better graces of the place, let me tell you!

 We polished it all off and stopped just short of licking the bowls. I didn't care for the rhubarb pie. It had great flavor, but apparently I have a texture issue with rhubarb. I didn't know that because I haven't had it in probably over 30 years, but I now know I do! So Ryan ate all of that one, and I thoroughly enjoyed my part of all the rest!

That was our lunch. LOL.

We went back to the boat and rested some more while it poured, and much to our surprise, the rain let up mid-afternoon, even though it was supposed to rain hard the rest of the day and night. We were able to get back out later, visit a few more shops, and even see a BEACH!

We started with a late afternoon snack of ice cream from Charlie's. The smell of his waffle cones had been taunting us for two days and we finally gave in. DELISH. 

 Hee, hee, hee.

I'd marked down in my planner to go to Oval Beach, but I didn't think it would ever work out because, you know, RAIN. But it did! We managed to get over there Saturday evening, and if we had KNOWN the rain would hold off, we would have walked the whole length of the beach. Alas, we were too nervous and didn't go far.

 They have their own version of the Dixie! (That will only make sense to Lake Webster People.)

 What? You haven't tried to shake hands with a duck?

 That's my man!

 Hee, hee, hee again!

We drove up to Holland for dinner that night. Got some good old fashioned BBQ! (Well, Ryan did. I was so full I just had some chicken chowder. LOL.)

A full, but good day! :) Next time we'll shoot for better beach weather!!