What I Learned in October

Today is Halloween, and it's supposed to be a mostly nasty day here in Indiana. I feel this calls for a day by the fireplace, with Hallmark movies running on a loop, extra candy at the ready, and scrapbooking. (The fireplace and movie thing will probably actually happen. I won't eat the candy because I don't want to see it later on the scales, and as much as I'd love a scrapping day, I have too much work to do. But a girl can dream, right?)

This has been a c-r-a-z-y month. So much happened, and most of it was unplanned. We are grateful, though. Grateful for the month and grateful to welcome a new one. Meanwhile, here are a few things I learned this month!

1. Black dogs are the least chosen and most euthanized in shelters.

Or so I read. One of the girls I follow on Instagram does dog fostering, and she and her husband are big on rescuing dogs from shelters. She took a new foster this month and said she chose him because he was a black dog and those are her passion. She went on to say they are often not chosen because they don't photograph well and sometimes don't seem as cute in person to people as other dogs. (That photographing thing is no joke. I have THE HARDEST TIME taking pictures of Phoebe and getting her to look like a dog rather than a mop. So hard to see her features!) Anyway. It made me sad, because this girl has fostered some super cute - and really good! - dogs.

2. You can't chew gum in Singapore.

So I will probably move there. I. Can't. Handle. Gum. Chewing. (This was a random fact I read on Facebook one night. My source was reputable, but I looked it up just for fun. Indeed it seems to be true!)

3. I enjoy the challenge of redecorating on a stupid small budget.

We had a guest spend almost a week here, so I decided to use that motivation to overhaul our guest room. (To be fair, I'd never really "hauled" it at all since we moved in, but...technicalities.) I wanted to do as much as I could for as little money as possible. Between gift cards, deal hunting, and shopping the house, I was very pleased with the outcome!

4. Kiwi grapes/berries are a real thing.

Have you ever heard of them? I hadn't. Saw them in Sam's Club one night. I'm not a huge fan of regular kiwi, so I didn't feel like spending the money to see if I liked this alternative version of them, but I guess if you're a kiwi fan, you could try these too!

5. This month went out of control in a fat hurry.

I had such nice plans when the month began, and then things began to pop up. Often. We are now at the end of the month, and I'm both exhausted from the obliteration of it all (Ryan's accurate description) and excited that God thought to use me/us in ways we never would have expected. I kind of hope November stays a bit more on track with what I think will happen, but I'm learning God enjoys loosening my grip on my plans. (And by loosening, of course, I mean removing.)

6. I can do harder things than I thought on a hiking trip!

Ryan and I went hiking at Turkey Run State Park this month (along with a couple of our friends) and I went over, under, and through obstacles I never would have been able to conquer at one point in my life. (And that point wasn't so long ago.) And I didn't just do it because I had to. I did it because I wanted to. I was really proud of myself at the end of that hike!

7. A week in the life of a truck driver makes for very interesting reading.

One of my game night buddies is married to a truck driver, and for a week this month, she traveled with him over the road. She documented their adventures on Facebook, and it was fascinating. She took pictures of the cab (I had no idea there was a closet in there!) and their "lunchbox oven" they used to cook their meals while driving. She also told stories of loading/unloading/truck stops, etc. Brand new info for this girl!

8. The cobblestones in Charleston came over on ships.

One of the couples in our small group vacationed in Charleston recently and said they learned on one of the tours that there are so many cobblestone streets because back in the day, ships coming to America needed more weight on the way over to keep strong against the winds. When they arrived, they needed to get rid of the stones, so they used them to make streets!

9. I don't like being without my laptop.

I had to be without my laptop for a week while it went to some distant place for repairs. Oh my word. I knew I was dependent on it for work and life, but good grief. A thousand props to Ryan for allowing me to exist on his while mine was gone, but it just was not the same. Welcome back, laptop, welcome back.

10. Life can change in a moment.

I knew that, of course, but it is worth repeating. Traveling this new territory with Ryan and his mom (and the whole family) has meant facing the truth that our life is but a breath. Make the most of yours!

Top Seven Things I Missed About My Laptop

It's podcast Tuesday, and we recorded this on Sunday before Ryan's mom's surgery (which took place yesterday). Here is the podcast, and below that is an update on his mom, and below that is today's actual post. If you can follow all that, you get an invisible medal!

 Listen here

UPDATE ON RYAN'S MOM: Thank you so much for your kind comments, texts, calls, etc. We definitely felt very loved! This is a strange update to give, because you'd think (right?) that it would be as simple as the surgery went well or things didn't go as planned. It's not quite all that simple. So here's what I can offer you:

The surgery didn't take as long as expected (two hours vs. four) and the surgeon told the family he was confident he'd removed all of the tumor. As he expected to find, it was a glioblastoma. (If you, too, were educated in the medical schools of Grey's Anatomy and ER, you might not know what that means...so let me help you. Hers, at least, was a fast-growing, aggressive tumor that just kind of showed up without warning or particular reason. If you want to read more in-depth information, you can find some here.)

The surgeon told us she was awake and talking in recovery. Ryan's step-dad and grandpa were able to go see her for just a couple of minutes and were encouraged by her appearance and responses. Having said all that, there are still many things we don't know right now. Pathology reports will take about a week, and the first several hours after surgery are critical to see how recovery goes. So maybe a few days down the road, we'll have a better idea of what's next. But for today, we are thankful for a good surgery, and we'll wait to see what comes next. Again, thanks for loving us through your prayers!

ACTUAL BLOG POST: Last week, Sarah blogged about her three week adventure without her phone. (Pausing for a moment...because oh my word.)

I know. It's just a phone. Except for most of us, it's not just our phone. It's our connection to almost everything.

I just finished a week without my laptop. Sarah has inspired me to reflect on what I missed most about that! Ryan and I both got new laptops almost exactly a year ago, and mine developed a broken hinge. I couldn't close it, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a portable computer, right? So before the warranty ran out, we had to ship it away, (yes, ship it away!!!) for repairs. I promise I heard phantom truck sounds and ran to the window to look for the FedEx truck, only to find out there weren't any trucks on our street at all. I panicked over that little computer until it was safely back in my presence.

So here's what I missed about my laptop!

1. My files.

I'm a writer. I spend half (if not more) of my day looking up things I've done in the past. Old writing. Old pictures. Old lists. Now, fortunately, I back up all this stuff on a hard drive, so I could access it, but it was so different from just popping into my recent files and grabbing what I needed. (And of course, I was in the middle of prepping for a retreat, so I was in massive need of old files.)

2. My email.

Yes, I can check email on my phone, but here's the truth of it: I don't like emailing from my phone. I appreciate the convenience of being able to read it there if I want or need to, but again, I'm a writer. Messages are akin to novellas. I can't novella from my phone. I can't save files from my phone. I can't email appropriately from my phone! I could have logged in on Ryan's computer, but it was such a hassle to toggle back and forth between our accounts, so I didn't mess with it. And I did have it pulled up on my old laptop, but the reason it's my old laptop is because it doesn't work very well. Painfully, painfully slow. So sometimes one medium-length email could take me an hour to write. BLAH.

3. My accounts.

There are some things I use that Ryan doesn't. And some things we both use, but we each have our own accounts. Trying to find logins and passwords to set up or trying to bounce back and forth was just a lot of headache for a temporary situation. So...Pinterest? I've missed you so much. (And I could repeat that a dozen times with other websites, but you get the idea.)

4. My big screen.

Ryan got a nice, small, lightweight laptop. Mine is a beast. He got me a big one mostly for scrapbooking and picture editing. He wanted me to be able to see it all better as I worked on it. (And he's trying to save my 20/12 vision since I'm on the computer for most of my waking hours.) I didn't realize how spoiled I'd gotten with my big screen until I downsized to his small one.

5. Picture organizing and editing.

Even though our computers are very similar (size aside), a few things work differently, and saving and editing pictures are among those things. I finally got the hang of it, but now I have to transfer everything back to mine, switch up the saving system, and hope that I don't lose anything in the transfer!

6. My worn keys.

Ryan's computer is so pristine. Everything about it looks as brand new as the day he got it. Mine had been heavily lived-in for the last year. Because I type for hours a day - with long nails - several of my keys were worn down with grooves and the letters are missing. I missed my broken-in computer home. And I feared breaking in Ryan's a little too much. Funny story: when mine came back, they had replaced all the keys, and now mine is brand new again anyway. I actually thought they sent me a different computer, because it looked way too nice!

7. My routine.

I do all my computer work in a very specific order every day. The lack of my own files and accounts meant that my order went out of whack, and that absolutely upended my Type-A self. I forgot to do things some days because I didn't do them in the order I'm used to observing. I'm way too much a creature of habit, I know.


I was so glad it came back when it did. I was able to take it to the hospital with me yesterday. I edited pictures and worked on upcoming speaking stuff...glorious. Welcome home, laptop. Welcome home.

We'll Take Some Extra Prayers Today

Some of you might know about this and some of you might not, but we'll try to get everyone on the same page for this Monday morning.

We found out last week that Ryan's mom has a brain tumor. It's very fast-growing, and it is imperative that it come out as quickly as possible. So she'll be having surgery today to have it removed.

Ryan and I (and the rest of the family) had begun to notice some changes in her behavior a few weeks ago. The changes were steadily increasing and a bit alarming, but we had no idea what could be causing them. The first night of our crazy busy week (in which we were doing child-care and hosting a missionary and all that), Ryan and his siblings actually went to her house to meet with her and express their concern and urge her to go see a doctor. She did, immediately, and that's what brought about last week's diagnosis of a tumor in the frontal lobe of her brain.

Ryan has great hope for this surgery, and he feels a great peace that things will go well. Nevertheless, it is brain surgery, which is a big deal! She has a mixture of peace and nervousness about this surgery, so I know she would readily welcome any prayers you have to share!

Because she and I share a love of pictures, I thought I would honor her today by sharing some pictures of her with Ryan and/or me. :)

This was the first picture I ever had with "the family." I went to a Women of Faith weekend with Nita, Aunt Ruthie, and Bre. (This was in 2012.)

The day of my bridal shower:

Wedding day:

Some other favorites:

These last two were taken this weekend at Ryan's sister's party:

We know that even though all of this has been a big surprise to us, it has not been absent from God's radar. He knew it was coming, and He has gone before us to prepare the way. (I was so grateful that trial got moved...I don't have to be on jury duty today, wondering what's happening at the hospital!)

We appreciate your prayers and trust God's plan!

The Shafferland Shuffle

This has been a week of the unexpected. Good days and hard days collided, and I just want to say that it doesn't matter to me which kind of day we're having...as long as I get to have it with Ryan. This real-life stuff makes me so grateful for a teammate like Ryan!

* Last Sunday I spoke at Hemlock Friends Church, where we met up with people who have become good friends to us over the course of the last couple of years. We appreciate them so much! They invited us to lunch, and Ryan found a burger the size of his head! :) I took the longest nap known to mankind that day (after living the longest week known to mankind). We made a quick stop at Phoebe's house that night to let her out while her people were gone. I think she'd missed us!

* Monday seemed to be a return to normal for us. Laundry, podcast editing, cooking, catching Braeya hanging out on the nightstand...yes. Back to normal. Well, except for a trip to the podiatrist that afternoon. That's probably not normal. And that night I found Ryan doing his final prep for small group. I love seeing him studying the Bible! It makes my heart so full!

* I spent Tuesday doing some work for a retreat I'm speaking at soon, and Braeya curled up to help me! That night was pretty decent outside, so I went for a run and ended up having a really great time (for me). I was so excited! And I made some 100% NOT healthy turtle cookies for our small group. My goodness, they were good. Granted, they were so gooey they didn't look so pretty coming off the pan, but the taste more than made up for that.

* We had one nice day this week, and that happened to be Wednesday. I took advantage of the nice afternoon to paint our deck, because I wasn't sure I'd get another nice day! (The boards have to be dry and the temps have to be above fifty to use the paint, so that combo is hard to come by anymore..) It took the entire gallon of paint just to do the floor of the deck. Those boards were thirsty!

* I went to Bible study on Thursday and had my annual handful of peanuts and candy corn. I could eat that stuff by the gallon but limit myself to one handful per year. It was so good! And that night, Ryan surprised me with a trip to J Edwards for a treat. It was so good. Funniest part of the night? When I found Ryan working on the couch while a Hallmark movie played on TV. (Wait...isn't that my job?)

* I reported for jury duty on Friday only to be immediately sent home (a bigger blessing than I even knew it would be earlier in the week), AND I got my laptop back on Friday afternoon. It had been in repairs for a week, and I missed it so much. I may or may not have met the FedEx man at the door, jumping up and down! That night, Ryan and I went to a surprise party for his sister, who turned 40 this past week. We had a good night!

* Ryan had to work yesterday, and I was CRAZY behind on scrapbooking, so I took advantage of my morning to get a little bit caught up. Then we headed out to his mom's house for dinner with his whole family. (I got to rock the baby and he fell right to sleep!)

The Saturday Six

One.

Oh goodness. This office! I love how assembled it is from all the most random places. Standard stores, Goodwill, auctions, free finds...this is a beautiful little room. I hope if I ever do a project like this, it looks just as put together. (I fear it may actually look like "oh hey, she has a thousand things from a thousand stores.)

Two.

While Beauty and the Beast remains my favorite Disney movie, I think Aladdin and The Little Mermaid are tied for second place. So naturally I cried over this video, where Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid) surprised a bride at her wedding by singing "Part of Your World."

Three.

An actually useful and practical list of homemade gifts to give this Christmas. (And you don't have to be talented to make all of them! Woot woot!)

Four.

This ends Sunday night at midnight Mountain Time, and if you love Christian fiction, you won't want to miss this scavenger hunt! You can enter to win freebies, plus you can read fun behind-the-scenes posts from your favorite authors and maybe even find some new ones to try! :) Here's the link to the first stop on the hunt.

Five.

I initially read about this in another article that had a lot more detail but it also contained some language I didn't approve of (why is there need for that in an informative article???) so I'm linking to this one instead. If you're looking for a way to be gone for almost a year, spend around 100 grand and see most of the world, check out this cruise of the world! (I actually think the cost is pretty amazing for all you get. The other article I read said the price includes some transportation, all meals, excursions at each port, and more. When you think what you might spend to do all that on your own, this seems like a pretty fair amount!) As a girl who really doesn't like to fly, this would be about the best way to see the world, I think. Can you imagine how many memory cards I'd need?

Six

Found this video this week from the Gaither Vocal Band Reunion rehearsals. One of my favorite David-featuring songs (and yes, I love all the songs that feature him) still well-done after all these years!!

This Could Be Fun!

People, I have to report for jury duty today. I cannot put into words the amount of anxiety I have over this, but it's enough that I am at a complete loss for blog material today. (I told one of my friends last night that my prayer for the first time in about 25 years is the same as I used to offer up during gym class: "Please, dear Lord, do NOT let anyone pick me!")

Meanwhile, I thought this could be fun! One of my Facebook friends started a fun-to-read post this week. She said, "Remember Oprah's favorite things, once upon a time? I am curious about your favorite things. Not experiences, but items that can be bought." Well, sign me up for that comment thread! I want to learn about what people love that I don't even know exists!

I'll tell you some of the things on the thread in case you need something new for your Friday. (And then you can tell me YOUR favorite things I should know all about.)

1. 100% Cotton Bedding.

I've never had this, and I don't know why it's so amazing, because the person did not elaborate, but it reminds me that it's almost fleece sheets season. Not flannel. Fleece. Sleeping on fleece blankets is the closest to sleeping in the hug of Heaven that I can possibly imagine. I know some people might sweat in them, but we tend to keep our house on the chilly side in cold weather, so we love our fleece!

2. Kind Bars. 

YES! Lynne Ford got me hooked on Kind bars when I worked at WBCL. The dark chocolate cherry almond (or something along those lines) was my absolute favorite, and there were seasons when I ate a Kind bar every single day for my 2:30 snack. They are expensive, but they are good! Every now and then I buy one for old time's sake.

3. Smart Wool Socks.

Heard of them? I hadn't! I wouldn't think wool socks would be comfortable at all, but per reviews, these actually are, and they wick away moisture. Who knew!? Any of you ever tried these?

4. White Board Paint.

THIS IS A THING?!?!!? I didn't even know! I know chalkboard paint is a thing, but white board? Oh, Ryan, you are so lucky this is expensive. I would absolutely be buying it. Can you even imagine having a whole white board WALL in our house?

5. Mattress-Sized Heating Pad.

YES. (You know, for two hot-blooded people, we do like to be warm when we sleep.) We have a heating pad mattress cover, and we love it. It has two controls, so we can each pick our temperatures and go! It's really great in this in-between season when it's not quite time for fleece sheets yet, but it's chilly at night.

6. Sharpie Pens.

Of course. And Flair pens. I love those too. (Funny story: when I did child care last week, the older sister made a birthday card for the younger sister and I let her use my Flair pens. 1000 points to me for sharing my beloved pens, but I digress. After she used them, she looked up at me with complete wonder and said, "WHERE did you get those pens?" Yes, my child. And now you know about Flair pens.)

7. Weighted Blanket.

I won't lie. I think I would really like one of those. I learned this when I went to the dentist and they put the weighted vest over me before they took an x-ray. It calmed my anxiety SO MUCH. I kind of wanted them to leave it there for the rest of the appointment, but something about other patients in the building, blah, blah, blah.

8. The Trtl Travel Pillow.

One commenter swore by this pillow. (No actual swearing. You know what I mean.) Intriguing. Given all the awkward sleeping photos Ryan and I take of each other in our travels, perhaps we need one.

9. Heated Throw Blanket.

I know it will shock you to see another body warmer on here. :) Ryan's mom gave me one a few years ago for Christmas, when we still lived in Marion and our house was ALWAYS cold. I lived under that thing in the winter. I still use it quite often, even though this house is warmer. And I have a small group member who regularly claims it. :)

10. Thinsulate Lined Gloves.

I'd never heard of this particular brand, but when I looked them up, I saw that they have some that are the fingerless gloves with the mitten covers. Now THAT is a genius glove. I have a pair of those (not Thinsulate) and used it on our hike last weekend. I could pull the mittens over my fingers as we walked, but when we stopped, I could quickly pull them back to use my phone or camera.

So there you go! Some ideas for you. Any of you have a fave product I should learn about/buy?

A Morning With Friends

At the beginning of last week, I received a message from the church where I sometimes speak, and they wanted to know if I was available to share with them the very next Sunday.

Sure!!

I normally spend weeks preparing to speak, but I only had days, so I had to pray really hard that I would come up with something worthwhile to share with them. (I have a newfound respect for pastors who do this every single week.)

This church feels like our second home, because we've had the chance to be part of so many of their services.

I happened to be studying the passage about the widow's mite (both for our small group study and for my personal work retreat last week) so I decided to use that same study for Sunday.

Even though it may not have been my most thoroughly planned time of sharing, I loved being able to pass on the things I'd learned as I studied. Hopefully I was able to offer them something useful for their own lives!

 Ryan took some pictures for me! I decided this was the best expression. (I have the most awkward expressions in most pictures!)

And this one wins for awkward gestures:

Totally failed to get a picture with Ryan at the church, but I got this one!

Our friends invited us out to lunch with them, and Ryan ordered a burger the size of his head. NOT KIDDING.

(I had a salad that wasn't as exciting for photos as this two-meal burger. But it was delicious.)

It was a great morning and lunch with people who have become our friends!

Rounding Out our Day at Turkey Run

I know! You could have hiked this park faster yourself, right? There were just so many experiences, I had to tell you about them, and I felt it would be so mean to make it the longest post on earth back on Monday! So here's the rest of our day at the park!

I mentioned at the end of yesterday that I walked across a suspension bridge. I have a love/hate relationship with bridges. I love them, but they terrify me. When we ended the first part of our hike, we had to cross the bridge to get back to the Inn. But when we started the second part of the hike, we had to cross back over to pick up the trail where we left off. There were a TONNNNNNNNNNNN of people on it that time, and a bunch of them were teenagers, so of course, they all thought it would be so much fun to make that thing sway and swing as much as they could.

Yes. Hilarious.

A guy walking past me nodded in my direction and said to his friend, "SHE looks like she's having fun." It may not have fun, but I did it! A total of three times, thankyouverymuch. Lots of quoting Scripture and prayer was involved. And hanging onto the side for dear life.

Amber and I thought this little root system looked like a fairy garden. LOL. 

 Those people are wayyyyyyyy down there.

 We stayed up here.

Bless Ryan and Shawn for organizing our trek so our adventures at the ladders took us UP and not DOWN. I'm not sure I could have gone down them as easily. Check it out:

There were three. We climbed two. I took this one and then Ryan got a couple of me going up:

 I DID IT!!!!!!

Ryan came up his own way:

 He did do the second ladder.

Here they are from the other side. I CLIMBED THOSE!!!!!

We went on for a while together - the four of us, climbing and hiking.

At that point, we split up for a bit. Ryan and Shawn wanted to hike one more section that was listed as extremely rugged, and Amber had not been feeling super well for the last part of the day, so she and I took an easier (?) route. I made the guys promise to document well, and I was so proud of them! They did!

About this time of day, the wind had kicked up fairly fiercely. It didn't really impact us, because we were so far down below the treetops, but in the area, there were actually wind gusts so strong that trees came down. (The Inn's power was even knocked out by the time we returned to it.) Ryan and Shawn told us later that they passed this tree, which was split, and when the wind kicked up they actually watched it separate several inches. They high-tailed it out of there before it had a chance to fall on them.

If you heard the podcast, you know that the guys actually RAN most of this leg and accidentally got off the trail at one point. Meanwhile, Amber and I were plodding through the "easier" trail.

We met up with the guys, and they said we made it farther than they thought we would. Mmmmm hmmm. We retraced our steps together. It was harder coming back down than it had been climbing.

We made it back to regular walking ground and had fun with a few last photo opps:

 One last trip across the bridge:

And that was our day! Shawn went home after we finished hiking, and Amber, Ryan and I headed back to Kokomo.

I promised the first day I'd tell you how we arrived at the "band name" of Punchbowl Chuck. You may have figured out the Punchbowl part yesterday, because it was one of the places in the park we visited.

The Chuck part came from our dinner at Wendy's. I was so hungry, and we were waiting for our food. I thought we were up next, but they called out that Chuck's food was ready. CHUCK! WHO IS CHUCK AND WHY DID HE GET HIS FOOD BEFORE WE GOT OURS?

Turns out that was the name Ryan gave them. It was our food. We're Chuck.

Punchbowl Chuck, to be exact.

So there you have it! Punchbowl Chuck takes on Turkey Run. Thanks for hiking with us!