2016 Christmas Card

I've confessed to you before that I am ridiculous about the mail. I wait every day for the mail truck to drive up and barely give it time to pass by before I fly out of the house and rush to see what treasures await. {And if the only "treasures" turn out to be bills, I'm sorely disappointed.}

So Christmas card season is just about my favorite. I love sending cards. Real cards. And I love getting them, too!! Since there are so many of you, and I don't know where all of you live, I'll send you my card this way, and I'll even include my letter! Enjoy!! :)

2016 from  A to Z in Shafferland!

Almost 9 months passed  this year before we resumed our quest to visit all 92 counties in Indiana. We did manage to get to Tippecanoe and Delaware counties before the year ended. But  if you keep reading, you'll quickly see why we were too busy to visit more!

Book time! Bekah released a new book this year, called Be Still: Learning to Know He is God. It's a combination of story and study, and we are really excited to see how God is using it! 

Clean eating! Starting with our 3rd anniversary last December, we began a journey of new, consistent workouts and improved eating habits. We feel so much better, and Bekah lost about 30 pounds!

Dog sitting was a new adventure this year. In March, we watched a Great Dane for a couple of days, and in May, we got to keep little Phoebe, a miniature Golden Doodle, for a week. Her people have let us watch her many times since, and we love her!

EF3 tornado came through Kokomo and flattened our Starbucks {and did a lot of other damage}. We were thankful that our home wasn't damaged and other than Bekah's panic attack, neither were we! 

Focus no more! We sold Bekah's car this year. We figured since I no longer drive to work, we didn't need to own three vehicles. So the Bekah-mobile, which turned over to 200,000 miles this year, found a new owner in a college student! 

Greensburg, Kansas, was the location of our summer trip. We pulled an all-nighter to drive 850 miles to attend Bekah's niece's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, and we enjoyed a few extra days in Kansas spending time with family and seeing the town!

Home improvements! We moved into a move-in-ready house and spent four months overhauling it to make it ours. Yes. We're crazy. But it really is perfect now! {Kudos to Ryan for HOURS of hard work!}

Ignoring Bekah's mom's wishes for NO PARTY meant we got to celebrate her 80th birthday to the hilt. We hosted a fun cookies and canvas party for her and her friends, and a bonus: both of Bekah's sisters came too, so it was a double surprise party!

Just a few side jobs popped up this year! Ryan dabbled in home health care in addition to his PTA job at the rehab hospital, and Bekah did some photography, writing, and editing, as well as joining the "carpool" ranks by driving one of our friend's kids to school every morning. 

Kokomo is our home now! In January, we put an offer on a house, we closed in March, and took possession a week later. We adore our new home and town and are thankful for the faith journey God took us on to get us here. 

Leading small groups! We hosted a small group in Marion {through our church} before we moved, and we co-led another group this fall, along with Ryan's boss and his wife. We love having enough time in our schedule to do this! 

Mommapalooza 3.0 was our first big party to host in our new home. We love having both our families come together to celebrate Mother's Day every year, and despite having a frigid-weather day for this year's party, we had a great time!

Newspaper debut! After Bekah blogged about the great garage makeover of 2016, we were contacted by a Wall Street Journal reporter, who included us in an article about the changing face of garage use! Never thought we'd see our names in the WSJ!

Our little Braeya kitty turned ten this year. She was unimpressed with the gift we gave her: a new home. She has finally settled in, but turning ten made her no less of a diva! Whew!

Podcasting continues to be one of our favorite things to do together! Every Tuesday, we release a new episode of Spill the Beans, a half hour podcast about life, where we try to balance much laughter and story-telling with a few things of eternal significance! And this month, Bekah added a second interview-based podcast called The Conversation Cafe.

Quality time together...on our dates! We kept up our tradition of observing our monthiversary on the 2nd day of every month, and we went on many dates, big and small, all year long! 

Retreats were our thing this year. Ryan served on a Brethren Way of Christ team in March, Bekah spoke at two women's retreats in the fall, and she spoke at a number of other events throughout the year as well. 

Sold our first house! The house Bekah lived in since 2000 {which had been her grandparents' home for their entire marriage} finally sold after five years of being on and off the market. So thankful!

Twenty years out of high school for Bekah meant attending a class reunion! 17 classmates got together for a tailgate party before a football game and we had fun seeing old friends! 

Unique new project we started is called "Tuesdays at the Table," which keeps us accountable to inviting someone over to share a meal with us every other Tuesday evening. We LOVE opening our home and can't wait to carry this into next year!

Visited Lake Webster with ALL of Ryan's family - 15 of us under one cottage roof made for a tight squeeze, but it was fun to be together for the weekend and to enjoy time at the lake!

Wisconsin...specifically Chilton, Wisconsin, was the site of our annual birthday trip this year. We combined business with pleasure to travel there so Bekah could speak at a conference. We stayed with our friends, Tom and Olivia, and they treated us to a peek at life in Wisconsin!

X-rays and hospital visits were part of our fall this year. Not for either of us, but for Ryan's Grandpa, who had brain surgery {twice} and then spent some time in the hospital where Ryan works, recovering and rehabilitating. We loved being close enough to visit him every day!

Yuletide is one of our favorite times of the year, and we are excited to decorate our new home for Christmas, make new traditions in our new town, and celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Zee end of zis letter has finally arrived. You're welcome. Thanks for reading along, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Card 2015

Before I show you our Christmas card from this year, I wanted to tell you that our newest podcast is up! This week we're talking Christmas traditions and wrestling...and no, the two are not related. Click below the picture to hear...hope you enjoy this one!

 Click here to listen

I love mail.

And it's possible that during the Christmas season, I practically meet the mailman AT the door to see what treasures he brought that day, because Christmas card season has arrived!!!!

I know a lot of people have given up the card-sending because it's so expensive, but we still like to send them. We can't send to EVERYONE, though, so I thought I would share the card here for you to see! :) It's a Merry Christmas to you from us!

The front of our card. {Click to enlarge}

...and the back!

Since our anniversary is so close to Christmas, we use the card-sending moment to document each season of our marriage, and our letter matches it. Here's this year's letter, if you want to see it!

No matter what comes our way...with you, I am home.

            And that sums up our third complete season of Shafferland, which we just celebrated on December 2. Actually, the 3rd season began away from home, in Chicago, where we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We did all the Chicago-ey things of visiting the SkyDeck at Willis tower, walking the Magnificent Mile, visiting the Bean, strolling through Lincoln Park Zoo, visiting IKEA for the first time, and having a romantic anniversary dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. And then we came home. 

            At that time, we actually still owned two homes, but on December 11th of last year, 141 days after we agreed to the offer placed on the house, Ryan's Greentown home finally sold, leaving us as one-home owners and greatly rejoicing in this change! It was the perfect way to end a calendar year and begin a marriage year.

            We spent a little extra time in our home in the early part of this year, because in January, I ended up in the emergency room and after a long month of tests, waiting, and  stunning medical miscommunications, I had surgery to remove the gallbladder that has apparently been the culprit of my 15 years of intermittent abdominal pain. I took two weeks of gallternity leave, and Ryan took excellent care of me as I recovered and got back to whatever normal is for me. 

            We continued the adventure we began in 2014 {though we didn't get very far on it this year} of visiting all 92 counties in the state of Indiana. We trudged through snow to visit Huntington County, went home to Howard County, ventured north to Steuben County, and squeezed in a trip to Madison County later in the year...returning to the same state park where we made our relationship official three years ago. We also packed in one last tour right before our 3rd anniversary, crossing Allen County off the list, too! We still have almost 80 counties to go in this adventure, so maybe in the year to come, we can pick up the pace a bit!

            Day trips to counties weren't our only adventures away from home this year. In May, we took our annual birthday trip and drove to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a long weekend away. We drove around in the mountains, hiked 5 miles round trip to a picturesque waterfall, went shopping, had the lovely caricature from the back of our Christmas card made, visited an aquarium, and had all sorts of fun. And then in October, we took our first long vacation since our cruise two years ago. In eight days, we saw seven states and two countries, when we visited Virginia Beach, Colonial Williamsburg, the Cape Henry Lighthouse, Furnace Hills Coffee Roasters, Letchworth State Park, and Niagara Falls. Braeya wasn't too happy with us when we finally came home from that trip. She made us pay for a while.

            As you know, for the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage, we've been double commuters. While we both loved our jobs so much, we were weary of four collective hours on the road each day, pouring our paychecks into our gas tanks, and coming home each night utterly exhausted. Once we only owned one home, we had more freedom to make changes, so our HUGE life change this year was my resignation from WBCL. It was difficult to turn in a resignation letter to a place that so changed the trajectory of my life and also held memories of the beginning of our life as the Shaffers, but we knew we were walking in obedience by making this change. After three months of preparing to leave and training a new producer, I left the station at the end of June, and both of us were eager to see what God had next for our little Shaffer home.

            Actually, our home itself has undergone more change this year. In January, we brought home a new couch, which we named Mo. It converts to a queen size bed and we spent a lot of happy weekends curled up on Mo, resting from busy weeks. {It also came in handy for that gallternity leave and recovery!} We redecorated our master bedroom, relieving Ryan from a three-shades-of-purple sanctuary and transforming it into a beach paradise, minus the beach, of course. And we had a new heating and air system installed, rounding out the changes - hopefully for a long time - on this home of ours.

            We put our house on the market this summer, hoping to move closer to Kokomo and Ryan's work, but so far, God seems to be indicating that our place is here in Marion, and we're learning {to be fair, I'm learning} to be content with our calling for this time. 

            This 3rd season of Shafferland brought so much more with it: a surprise 60th birthday party for Ryan's mom, some speaking engagements for me {one of them was to 350 women - eeek!}, monthiversary celebrations on the second day of each month, venturing into the world of essential oils, photography gigs, hosting game nights and family get-togethers, a new nephew, visits from family, training for a half marathon {that turned into a 5K}, taking a gun safety class and visiting a shooting range, holding our first ever rummage sale, jury duty {that was Ryan's week of fun - he was even elected foreman!} and many other adventures.

            It's definitely been a full year. We're grateful, as we look back to one year ago, that things are so different today. Though going down to one income has been an adjustment, we're grateful for the calmness we've begun to know, having me home each day and able to be a homemaker and pursue writing. {I finished a new book manuscript already, so I'm excited to see where that journey takes us.} Ryan is still driving back and forth to his PTA job in Kokomo and has added a side home health care job to try out that atmosphere and see how it compares to working full time in a hospital. We're excited to begin our fourth season of life together, to begin recording and sharing a podcast about life {we actually already have three episodes under our belt!}, to serve God together in our church, and to wait for His further direction on what He wants from us as a couple.

            A busy, fulfilling year. A year of change. But a year that has made us realize that no matter where we are, no matter what chaos upends us, when we're together, we're home.

Merry Christmas from Shafferland!

Originally I planned to share our Christmas letter with you here today, but after taking communion at church last night, I changed my mind.

Ryan and I usually go to a Christmas Eve service, but our church holds theirs at a time that conflicted with a family get-together, so we weren't able to attend. We were thankful, though, that they offered open doors for communion for a couple of hours prior to the service, so on our way to our Christmas celebration, we stopped by the church to at least participate in that.

Pastor Alex read some Scripture to us, and my mind locked in on a verse from John 1 - "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (verse 14)

We have seen God's glory.

We have.

In 2014, we have seen God's glory.

If you had read the Christmas letter I intended to post here today, you would have read about all our adventures for the year {possibly terribly boring for you since you already read about them when they happened!} - and that would have been the entertaining version. But the deeper version is that tucked into each of those things...we saw the glory of God.

We saw Him in the protection He offered in those long, long months of Polar Vortexing, when we drove for hours each day, just getting to and from work on ridiculously treacherous roads.

We saw Him in the money raised during our Share fundraiser last January, when our listeners shared not only of their resources, but of their hearts as they told stories of how God had been at work in their hearts through the music we played.

We saw Him in our travels throughout the state of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan, as we traveled through beautiful scenery and saw the magnificent creation He made - including the lamb that had just been born and lay, still wet and groggy, in the muddy field beside the road.

We saw Him in the exhausting journey of selling Ryan's house. In the days when we didn't have the strength to wait one more day, and then somehow we did. In the day when the offer arrived, and in the day 141 days later when the house closed and we were free from the burden that plagued us so long.

We saw Him in the remarkable way I was able to get through my dental procedure this summer and the subsequent healing that has taken place in the months following. We saw Him in the prognosis for full recovery.

We saw Him in the vehicle breakdowns - and the one vehicle DEATH - in our household this year. We saw Him in the way He provided loaner cars and a replacement truck for Ryan.

We saw Him in the times we shared together in prayer and Bible study - seeking always to know the next step He has for us and aching to be obedient in following.

We have seen His glory - all year long. Every day. He has been present in our lives and in our hearts, and we overflow with gratitude today.

We pray that you will also see His glory today. That He will be so present on His birthday and show you His love.

Merry Christmas...from both of us...

Ryan and Bekah

Christmas Card 2013

I wish...oh how I wish I could take credit for this year's Christmas card idea. Alas, I cannot. It's a take on a card I got last year - but I love how it turned out. And since I want to make sure all of YOU get a Shafferland card, I thought I'd share it here today. So here is our card and our letter {our apologies...it's a bit long...}, which matches the theme.

And now...for the accompanying letter:

Episode 1. December 2012. Shafferland begins on a sandy beach with warm sun shining down over thirty-one witnesses who gather to watch two become one. Following the wedding, Ryan and Bekah stay in Siesta Key, Florida, creating honeymoon memories with kayaking, tandem bike riding, a sunset dinner cruise, and many walks on the white sand. They arrive home in the thick of the holiday season and rush to find the perfect Christmas tree {naming him Chuck}, decorate, shop, and celebrate with their families – all while learning the art of sharing life under one roof. 

Episode 2. January 2013. The newlyweds celebrate their first month of marriage and tackle the challenge of staying connected while commuting an hour each {in opposite directions} every day. They learn to cherish Friday night dates and fun impromptu outings, as well as “the little things” – like sneaking in long phone calls during their commutes. Ryan becomes a volunteer extraordinaire, giving up a Sunday to work the Winter Jam concert and two days of work for the weeklong WBCL SHARE fundraiser just so he can be with his bride. The honeymoon marches on, despite Bekah’s multi-day frustration in becoming a legal Shaffer and the couple’s decision to add paint-Ryan’s-house-so-it-can-be-sold to their already packed schedules.

Episode 3. February 2013. Determined to keep the fun in marriage, Ryan and Bekah spend the month enjoying their dates – a day trip to Indianapolis to celebrate 2 months of wedded bliss and to register for gifts for their reception…a weekend in Fort Wayne at their first ever marriage retreat…and a romantic evening at home to celebrate their first Valentine’s Day together. Ryan puts his house on the market, and Bekah dives headfirst into pulling together the details for their at-home reception. And in the middle of it all, they continue figuring out schedules that work, invite their parents over for dinner, and do some dreaming for the unknown-but-welcomed future.

Episode 4: March 2013. In a crazy attempt to tackle two massive projects at once, Ryan and Bekah spend the first half of the month playing "divide and conquer," with Ryan devoting his time to finishing the house so the hopeful buyers could move in by mid-month, and Bekah investing her energies in last minute reception details. Exhausted, but pleased with the amount of work completed in a short time, the two meet up on March 9 to celebrate their wedding reception with their friends and family. The weather also plays divide and conquer, snowing Bekah in from work for two days - yet getting warm enough to allow the newlyweds to enjoy spring dates to the hot dog stand and Ivanhoe's for strawberry shortcake. They conclude the month by celebrating their first Easter together while saying goodbye to the first church home they shared as a married couple.

Episode 5: April 2013. The honeymoon marches on...with a month of much celebration! And work. The Shafferland holiday of the month is all Ryan’s, who turns 34. From Rise n Roll donuts and coffee {breakfast in bed}...to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner...to a Starbucks date and movie, they have a great day together celebrating Ryan's life! They continue merging and purging households, making the trash and recycling workers exhausted and the Rescue Mission elated. They begin visiting College Wesleyan Church on the Sundays Bekah doesn't have speaking engagements. And to try to further entice spring to arrive, they purchase a pergola {renamed “pirogi”} for their future outdoor living space and spend some time running and eating outside {not at the same time}.

Episode 6: May 2013. The first annual Shafferland birthday bash road trip takes the newlyweds to the Creation Museum – with a side trip to Dagaz Acres for a little ziplining! They also attend their first wedding as a couple {other than their own, of course}, and celebrate Bekah’s 35^th birthday with dinner at Casa Brava, coffee from Starbucks, and a photo shoot in the park! Then they take on the first great test of their marriage: ripping apart the entire kitchen to renovate it themselves.

Episode 7: June 2013. Ryan and Bekah don’t miss a beat at the conclusion of the massive kitchen renovation project…and spend the month of June landscaping the yard, organizing the garage, beginning renovation on the main bathroom, and replacing fixtures in a quest to make the house their home. It isn’t all work though…they manage to sneak in a horseback riding date and enjoy a romantic movie-esque dance under the newly-lit canopy of the pirogi – at 1 in the morning after Bekah arrives home from working a concert.

Episode 8: July 2013. Trying to pack an entire summer into one month, Ryan and Bekah take in their first drive-in movie/dinner date, go boating a couple of times with friends and family, celebrate their first 4^th of July watching fireworks over Morse Lake, pay two visits to the Howard County Fair {and the Ferris Wheel!}, participate in the Three Rivers Festival Parade and the Celina Parade, take pictures at a golf outing, and meet up with a variety of friends for dinner and catching up! And in their spare time, they rip up all the carpet in the house and finish renovating the bathroom, making it a more…ahem…manly space for Ryan.  

Episode 9: August 2013. In one week flat, Bekah survives her car dying on the Fort Wayne Airport Expressway and Ryan survives running out of gas in a dump truck. Just another day in the life of the Shaffers. They continue working on the landscaping and have a double date at the Melting Pot along with Ryan’s friends. But the crowning part of the month is their weeklong Caribbean Cruise aboard the Carnival Breeze. Bucket list items are crossed off when Bekah climbs to the top of a lighthouse in Key West and Ryan is selected as a contestant for Hasbro the Game Show {on the ship}. They also luck out with an afternoon on a deserted beach in Nassau and try their hand at a Segway Tour in Grand Turk. Not-so-astounding moments include trapping a possum in the garage and drama in the Miami airport {searched luggage and a puking fellow passenger}.

Episode 10: September 2013. The vacationers return home to a broken water heater and spend their entire Labor Day weekend ripping apart the renovated bathroom to repair it. The rest of the month is devoted to wrapping up landscaping projects, welcoming family and friends for dinner, and trying out Sunday School at their new church home.

Episode 11: October 2013. Ryan and Bekah ring in a new month by celebrating their engagement-versary and indulging in their favorite seasonal treat: apple pie chai. They also purchase a new gym membership that allows them to work out together and commit to paper the first sentences of their new joint writing project! They squeeze in a weekend getaway near Chicago, to visit some of Bekah’s friends, and while there, they visit a massive apple orchard, carve pumpkins for a contest, and savor Giordano’s pizza. Before the month is over, they rip apart the newly finished bathroom one more time to fix a leaking tub and make their way to Fort Wayne to work a Jeremy Camp concert.

Episode 12: November 2013: Racing against a self-imposed deadline of all-projects-complete-by-the-first-anniversary, the duo rips apart the final room needing renovation: Bekah’s bathroom. And just when they think life can’t get more chaotic, Bekah’s car dies again, leaving the commuters minus a car for a week and a half! They get through both debacles and as the month winds to a close on their first year of marriage, they celebrate Thanksgiving with their families, then pack up and head to Indianapolis for their first anniversary getaway. They get to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree on Monument Circle, attend a Gaither Christmas concert, and take in a Colts game, all while celebrating the joy of a full year together as…the Shaffers.

Stay Tuned for Scenes from Shafferland: Season Two…releasing next December.