The Shafferland Shuffle

How in THE WORLD is it the last Sunday in January already?!!?!? On the flip side, after last weekend's unseasonably warm weather, I'll take it being the last Sunday in January, because it means we are that much closer to SPRING! Yes, please! :)

* Though we dearly love our Sunday naps, we had abbreviated versions of them last week, because we met up with Ryan's family for dinner and the celebration of his sister's 30th birthday! Dinner was at Half Moon, which is a local restaurant, and Ryan LOVES their food but hadn't eaten there in a very long time. It was his first really big meal post-surgery, and he ate every single bite and loved it! AND he didn't get sick. BONUS!

* Ryan had to return to work on Monday, and it was so busy, he didn't even get to come home for lunch. Sadness!! But I baked snickerdoodle brownies to take to his work friends, along with a thank you note for how they filled in for him while he was off work on gallcation. (Ryan fed a piece to Brutus. Ha!) We didn't schedule anything for that evening, because I feared he might be tired from his first day back, so we just hung out and I started reading my novel for the week, which I loved.

* Tuesday was a very busy day, including a podcast interview and some other work I had to get done quickly, and I had to do my workout early in the day. I know some people enjoy working out early in the day, but I'm not one of them. I MUCH prefer to do it later at night. So it was kind of a struggle, but I got through it. We had Bible study that night, and Miss Pheebs was there and snuggled up between Ryan and me for the whole thing. No arguments from me!

* Wednesday morning, I saw the most BEAUTIFUL sight! A tree full of fat robins! I know it's not spring and we have more winter to come, but I called it my tree full of hope! That night, Ryan and I enjoyed another night in and we actually cooked dinner together. We love to do that, but normally I have it ready when he gets home from work, so we don't have the chance. It was fun to work side by side! And then - the workout. Back in its regularly scheduled slot. And not as much fun as eating. LOL!

* Thursday, Braeya and I hung out together for a reading party, and then while Ryan worked overtime, I headed out to get my hairs done. (Not a fair gig for him, is it? But he got pizza for dinner, so I think that made it worth it for him.) It had been MONTHS since I had a highlight, and the hair was, well, white. Sigh. After marinating for a while under some foil and saran wrap, I came home a new woman!

* Friday night, our church had a chili supper and bake sale to raise money, and I wanted to take a dessert for the bake sale. I made buckeye brownies, and they're not hard to make at all, but they do have multiple layers and require cooling time, so I was up at 6:30 in the morning baking the brownie layer! We went to the chili supper when Ryan got off work, and it was delicious! We rounded out the night with some grocery shopping and coffee and (of course) DATELINE! lol! We're so old.

* Yesterday we started a new thing, which I can't wait to tell you more about! Alphabetical dates! Throughout the year, we'll go on a date themed by each letter of the alphabet. {I found the idea on Pinterest. Don't think I'm more creative than I actually am.} We were supposed to go on the "A" date a couple of weeks ago but had to postpone it until Ryan could eat real food again. So yesterday was our day! I'll tell you all about it next week, but we had a great time and I think this is going to be a fun adventure.

The Saturday Six

One.

Listen here.

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing Jackie Drew, who is a small-business owner, along with her husband, Rick. They own Rad-Joy, where they make Surrender crosses: wooden crosses that provide a way for you to write down your burdens and concerns and nail them to cross in an act of surrender to the Lord. I went into the interview eager to learn more about their business, and I did learn that, but I walked away encouraged tremendously in my faith after hearing Rick and Jackie's personal faith journey. This particular Conversation Cafe is a bit longer than the rest, but Jackie is a great communicator, and I think you'll find her story well worth your time! (And then check out the crosses because they are unique and beautiful!)

Two.

 Back when I was single, I shopped at Aldi regularly, because it helped the old budget. After Ryan and I got married, we gave up shopping at Aldi because our double-commuter schedule put grocery shopping in a very late-night slot, and Aldi was always closed when we went. This year, we've returned to shopping at Aldi and are enjoying getting good deals {and some really good food!} there. Mandi at Life Your Way did a post this week on how shopping for her growing family was putting a strain on the budget and she details what she can get at Aldi for under $300 for 2 weeks {for eight people}! If you've never shopped at Aldi and want to see what the fuss is about, check out her post! The picture of her purchases is impressive!

Three.

 I told you in my "Day in the Life" post last week that a friend of mine had called to interview me for a class project. She finished her article and shared it with me, so I'm going to share it with you! I offer it not because it's about me, but just because I am so proud of Amy for her journalism skills and for being bold enough to share her work (she doesn't do that often) and I wanted to pass along the love!

Four.

 Is bravery as hard for you as it is for me? {Spoiler alert: I'm pretty terrible at it.} My friend Hether wrote this beautiful post on being brave. Maybe you need to hear it like I did.

Five.

Ahhhh, children of the 90's. Here's a trip down memory lane for you. Own any of these shoes? A special shout-out from me to number seventeen!!

Six.

Every now and then, I read an author's debut novel, and I never know what to expect going in. They're often good, but this week, I have to say my experience with a debut novel was exceptional. Ann Marie Stewart's novel Stars in the Grass was so well-written that I consistently forgot I was not reading a memoir. She was that in tune with her main character. Fantastic work.  

The story is told in first person from the perspective of nine-year-old Abby McAndrews, the middle child of a preacher and his wife. They're living a common life in 1970 in Ohio, shepherding a common Presbyterian church, and taking a break for a common vacation to visit family. And that's when the unthinkable happens: Abby's little brother Joel, just three years old, dies in an uncommon, freak accident.

And that's where the common ends and the uncommon, confusing, unpredictable trail of grief begins for the McAndrews family. Four remaining members and four very different ways of processing the deepest kind of loss. Not only that, but grief was handled very differently in the 70's than it is today. Emotions weren't spoken out loud quite as freely. Counseling wasn't as heartily recommended. So the days go by, where Abby works to process her own feelings, guilt, curiosity, and confusion, while watching her family do the same. She's wise and intuitive beyond her years, and yet her little-girl heart is so innocent and tender.

I would easily say that the characters in this book were the most well-developed of probably any book I have ever read. I knew them better than I know some of my own real-life friends and family, by the time I closed the book. The book itself is both captivating and heart-wrenching. It's not a light read by a long shot. The suffocating grief is hard to read, and yet you can't stop, because you're cheering for this family and you want to see them make it to a new normal.

Ann's description of the 70's is well-written. Enough detail to remind you how different things are today, but blended enough that it doesn't scream of another era and distract from the story line.

The only disappointment I had in the book was that it did contain one swear word. (I'm a stickler about clean language in books I read and won't read books that don't meet that standard. It's just a personal preference.) Having said that, I will add that the word was understandably placed, as part of a grief-stricken rant, and I do realize that even in choosing that word, she was making the point of  debilitating grief . It just caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting it from a Christian-marketed book.

But that does not keep me from loving this book and being astounded at the craftsmanship of Ann's writing. This was one of those books that made me want to be a better writer and story-teller. I appreciated it and will add it to my permanent library.

And as a side note, I will add that if you have experienced a deep loss that still marks you, even if it was years ago, this book might be a perfect pick for you. It will be hard to read and will stir up much emotion, I have a feeling, but I think you'll find a camaraderie, even in the friendship of a nine-year-old girl from the 70's.

*  This book officially releases on February 1, so you still have a couple more days before it hits shelves, but when it does, check it out! I received a complimentary copy from Barbour Publishing and was not required to give a favorable review. All opinions are my own! *

An Update on Miss Braeya's "Adventure"

Several of you asked to hear updates on Miss Braeya Jo's toilet training adventures so you could go and do likewise, and while I am the last person on this earth who ever imagined blogging about the potty, here I am! {And if you're new and confused, Braeya's a cat. A ten year old cat. And my husband has decided she can learn to use the potty like the people of the house.}

So when I last officially reported in, she was in phase two of this process. Let me catch you up real fast.

PHASE ONE, per the kit we purchased, involved putting the litter box in the bathroom so she would be used to coming to that room to have her potty party. Well, we were already ahead of the game, because that's where ours has been since we learned the closet was a bad idea. So we moved right ahead to...

PHASE TWO! This phase was to take the existing litter box and place it on top of the toilet so she would get used to using the potty in that exact location. So we removed it from the little aesthetically pleasing box where it had been, blocked that box off entirely with a trash can to prevent accidents/rebellion, and put the box on top of the toilet, thus taking us down to a one bathroom house for human purposes.

A couple of notes on this phase for any of you planning to try this:

* We put a folding chair beside the toilet so she could jump up on the chair and into the box. That seemed to be a good move because I'm not sure she would have leapt up into the box from the floor of her own accord. Depending on the layout of your bathroom, the edge of the tub or something else could make this step unnecessary.

*  This is MESSY. When she jumped out of the box when she was done, she sort of cascaded litter everywhere. So there was a lot of cleaning involved every day. {Ryan did it all, just to give credit where credit is definitely due.}

* Keep an eye on that box. Sometimes her leaping enthusiasm shifted the box a bit, and one day I found it sort of precariously leaning toward one side of the toilet seat. NOT eager to have an entire used box of litter dumped on the bathroom floor, I fixed it in a hurry, but that's something to watch for.

Having been successful for a week with phase two, Ryan moved on to...

PHASE THREE!

This phase began to use the actual kit we purchased. It's called the CitiKitty, and it was featured on Shark Tank. It comes with a couple of toilet bowl shaped pans that are an inch and a half deep (I measured) and fit down over the actual toilet bowl.

You can see from this picture that they have sort of a target with a bullseye design, and the intent is that you start with the whole pan and slowly punch out the middle rings until the pan is fully open like a toilet. This part takes a while, and we are not remotely through it yet.

We had to buy flushable litter, and please make a note that the brand we got (from Arm and Hammer) SAYS it's not to be flushed, but the guy at the pet store and Google both assured us that if you are on a city sewer system, it's okay. But if you're on a septic system, DO NOT USE THIS. I think Ryan found another brand on Amazon that was flushing friendly across the board, but just keep that in mind as you make your selection.

The kit said to fill the pan with the litter, sprinkle some catnip on top, and see what happens. (Loose translation.) Well, Braeya can get drunk on catnip pretty quick and rolling in it is her favorite pastime, so when we introduced it, she curled up and got busy enjoying. THE TOILET. Okay, so not the outcome we hoped for.

We sensed pretty quickly that she was just confused by the whole thing, so we made our own Phase Three A, which was to mix the new, flushable litter with her old, familiar litter. (At this point there were NO rings punched out on the pan, so nothing was actually getting flushed.) Literally the minute we did that, she got it and hopped in to do her thing. Maybe if she were young and being trained on this from the start, that wouldn't have been necessary, but it was what we had to do to get her to understand.

A couple of notes: 

* Because the pan is so shallow, again - MESSY. Litter sort of flies everywhere. And sometimes I'd catch HER in the litter, but her little hiney was hanging over onto the edge of the pan (which is the equivalent of the toilet seat, so I knew we had some work ahead of us).

* This definitely has to be cleaned out frequently for two reasons. One: smell. Since it's natural litter, there's nothing to mask the odor, and it's right out there in the room, so there's no structure to cover it, either. Two: Appearance. Because the amount of litter in the pan is minimal, she quickly ran out of places to stand while she went, and no one likes looking at this. That's just the truth. We were in the middle of Ryan's gallcation during this phase, so I did the cleaning, and I cleaned it out twice a day.

PHASE FOUR: We started this phase just this week, and I did take a picture, but I am not even lying: it is such a foul look that I absolutely cannot post it on the world wide web. The shape of the hole is not entirely family friendly. LOL! But in phase four, you cut out the middle hole of the "target." It's very small, so there's not a lot of change from the previous phase. The goal is to get her used to positioning herself so her rear end is over the hole.

A couple of notes:

* You definitely want to make sure you have the flushable litter ONLY at this point, as it will end up in the toilet, even if just from the cat moving around on top of the pan.

* At least in our experience, she's not necessarily hitting the hole as much as she's still using the litter. But it's a start. And we did have another accident where it went on the floor. We think this has only happened twice since the very beginning, so it's already probably a better ratio than kids and puppies!

* You'll want to leave each phase active for approximately one week before moving on. We waited to start this one until after we dog-sat for Phoebe. We figured that would freak her out and there was no need to add to the stress by changing phases in the middle of that. She seems to be fairly well adjusted with each phase after a week, so it's working fo rus.

* At this point, you may be really tired of having a bathroom out of commission. I definitely miss having an active second bathroom! But we're hanging onto the hope that it will be worth it!

So there you go! Updates from the world of toilet training cats! Or at the very least, THIS cat. 

Scrapbooking in Shafferland

Yesterday, Maria asked if I could do a post sometime on how I go about scrapbooking. Well, Maria, you hit a passionate topic nerve, so today is "sometime!" {PS - I meant that in a wonderful way!}

Sometimes people ask me how I got into scrapbooking, because it wasn't something my mom particularly loved to do. Don't get me wrong: she took pictures and we had photo albums of life and vacations, but "scrapbooking" wasn't trendy back in the late 70's and 80's when I was a kid. I got my first taste of it as a senior in high school, when I bought the Senior Memories book from the Herff Jones representative and proceeded to glue every single thing that happened that year into the pages. By graduation day, my book was deliciously fat and the cover sat at an impressive 90 degree angle. And I'm pretty sure that's when my love of scrapbooking was born.

College afforded no time for such frivolities, but it did afford me a few trips to Creative Memories home parties, where I learned the joy of scalloped scissors and double sided tape and archive quality pages. I learned how horrid those magnetic photo albums were and how I needed to run home right then and rip all my photos from the pages before they slid one millimeter closer to yellow ruin.

And then I graduated and became a grown up with little money and lots of time, and somehow, scrapbooking became my thing. From 2000 to 2011, I scrapbooked in the huge, thick 12x12 albums, purchased refill pages in bulk when Hobby Lobby ran sales, and spent many a weekend from morning until late in the night cutting and arranging and journaling and embellishing my pages. Had I kept going at that rate, we would have to have one full bedroom devoted to albums, because they're so huge.

In 2011, I discovered Picaboo, which is a digital scrapbooking site. There are many such sites (Shutterfly, Snapfish, MixBook, Blurb, and more) but Picaboo was where I began and it remains my only love in the digital scrapbooking world. We have a smooth relationship now. It understands me, I understand it, and we crank out albums at alarming rates.

I love digital scrapping for many reasons. It's much cleaner than traditional scrapping. I don't have to drag out supplies and make a mess and clean it up a few hours later. I can scrapbook anywhere, as long as I have my laptop and a wifi password. I can make books for days and order them whenever a good sale hits. The books look neat and professional, and they fit in tidy rows on a bookshelf. I can make photos inside as big or small as I want, I can journal to my heart's content, and cost-wise, I pay no more (maybe less, if the sale is good!) than I did with traditional scrapping, because I don't have to pay for photo prints and embellishments and ink and all those things.

So with all that said, how do I do it?

1. I have four chronological books each year. I (clearly) take a LOT of pictures. So to keep the cost factor manageable, I make one album for every quarter of the year. These albums house the memories of our everyday life. The covers have three pictures of the two of us, one from each month represented in the book.

The inside "cover page" has three more pictures of the two of us (one from each month represented in the book) and a quick recap of the highlights of life in that quarter.

I have one spread for each month of the book that includes all the daily collages you see on the Shafferland Shuffle each week. In that way, every single day of our year is represented in these chronological books.

From there, the rest of the pages are filled with the pictures and stories of our dates, holidays, adventures, county tours, trips - anything that keeps a record of that month.

 

I work on these books almost every Sunday afternoon, because scrapbooking is a restful treat to me. I try not to get more than a month behind in these books because I want to write about our days while they're still fresh in my mind. And honestly, my goal is to try to keep it current each week, but sometimes I get behind.

A page about a particular event contains a title, however many pictures I want to use to document it, and some journaling that tells the story of that event. At the end of each journaling box, I put the date(s) for that event so if I need to go back and see exactly when something happened, it's easy to do so.

2. My albums look "scrapbooky." Picaboo has SO MANY WAYS to do albums. You can make a true photo album, where you just drag and drop your pictures in rows, write a caption, and go on. Or you can do pretty backgrounds like a scrapbook, make shapes with your photos, put mats behind them, and the whole nine yards. That part is up to your preference. I like the scrapbook look, so I mix square and round photos, use photo borders (mats), and put cute backgrounds behind them. That's just my style.

3. I record names!!!! Unless the photos are of just Ryan and me (which I consider to be fairly obvious), I label each photo with the names of the people pictured. Even if they're family! Since Ryan's family  has so many kids, I know there might come a day when I look at a photo and wonder which kid it is. (Siblings can look awfully alike when they're little!) And for friends and co-workers, I know there might come a day when those people might not be part of my regular life and while I think now I would always remember their names, what if eventually I forget?? So I label every picture with FULL NAMES for that purpose.

4. I make specialty albums. Every vacation we take, every major life event (wedding, reception, our move last year, etc.) gets its own album. The events are still included in my regular albums, but at a much more abbreviated level. For example, when we take a vacation, I'll do two or three pages in the annual chronological albums to reflect the vacation, but the full story goes in another book all its own.

In those books, I'm a stickler for details. I still record the events chronologically, but I go into MUCH greater detail so I can always remember the fun we had!

In these albums, I'll include pictures of not only our adventures, but also details I might want to come back to later just to see how life has changed. I always take pictures of our hotel rooms, because who knows what hotel rooms will look like in 20 years? I know they sure look different now from 20 years ago! I also like to get pictures of things like welcome signs from each state, restaurants where we eat, the vehicle we're driving, scenery from the area, etc.

Sometimes I'll include trivia facts I find online. For example, when we went to French Lick for our anniversary this past December, we took tours of the two big hotels in town. We learned a lot of information on those tours, and I couldn't remember it all. But I found detailed stories online of the hotels and some of what we learned on the tours, so I included that in the scrapbook. It becomes a history book of sorts while recording memories.

I also record funny stories of things that happened, because while you think you'll never forget something, you will. Having those things written down in detail really helps. Because this is something I like to include, I try to do the specialty books as soon as I can after an event. If I feel it's going to take a while, I'll record the stories I want to be sure to have in a Word document or something and copy and paste it when the time comes.

5. Great gift ideas! When my niece got married last year, I asked her if she would like me to make her wedding album as a gift. {I had made her high school years album and her graduation day album as gifts for her in years gone by.} She said yes, so after the wedding, she sent me all the pictures she wanted in the book, and I assembled it. I used the same background on every page so it looked clean and professional, and I kept the verbiage in this book to a minimum. A few titles here and there, and I did insist on labeling the members of the family and wedding party pictures (see above reasoning), but otherwise, this album was just full of pictures.

She wanted to give albums as gifts to her parents and her husband's parents for Christmas, and the BEAUTIFUL thing about digital scrapping is you can make duplicates of an album and change details as necessary. So I made two duplicates of her album and then changed the wording from "our wedding" to "our daughter's wedding," etc. and changed the cover photos to match her requests for each set of parents. I love this duplicate feature, because it saves so much time!

For people who don't enjoy scrapbooking, books like these make great gifts. I've made many over the years, traditionally and digitally, and they've always been really well received.


Obviously this is not the ONLY way to scrapbook, but it's how I do it, and I hope it gives you an idea or two. Any questions? Let me know! 

Linking up with the birthday girl!

Detail Work

This week is a pivotal one in Shafferland. A "versary" of sorts, though I will refrain from commemorating it with chalkboards and parties. One year ago this week - Saturday if you like exact calendar dates - Ryan and I stepped foot in this home for the first time.

I was looking back at our moving scrapbook this week, because of course there is a whole scrapbook dedicated to this adventure, and the story still gives me great chills.

According to my record keeping, it was a year ago earlier this week when I had stumbled upon a house that had just come on the market and was so darling in every possible way. I called our agent immediately and scheduled a showing.

And then came January 22nd. A year ago this past Sunday. She called to say the darling-in-every-possible-way house was already off the market. Someone got there before we did and just straight up bought the thing. Per my scrapbook "I cried very bitterly for an entire day," and you know what? I remember that. I cried until I almost made myself sick. I had a raging headache for the whole next day, I could not be consoled - even with treats - and I was ready to call the whole house hunting thing off because I could not handle more disappointment like that.

Ryan and I talked about that day just this week. I told him as much as I love this house, I'm still a little mad that one was grabbed away from us before we could even look at it.

His wise response?

"Hey. It was the best thing. The details happened just as they were supposed to. God knew."

God knew indeed. God knew I needed a smart husband to keep me grounded when my creative writer brain gets away from me.

God knew I needed a day of grieving, too. I took it (clearly!!!) and the next day pulled out my laptop and started looking again. Ryan and I looked together and that's how we found this house. I was surprised he wanted to see it at all, because I thought a couple of things about it were deal-breakers for him, but he said he wanted to look, so I made the appointment and one year ago this Saturday, we pulled up in the driveway for the first time.

And as I wrote in the scrapbook, "I had looked at the interior pictures online, but I wasn't blown away by anything. But the moment I stepped on that porch, I inexplicably felt at home." (Now do you see why it's important to me that the porch is cute and cozy? It's where I first felt at home!

"We spent about a half hour walking through the house and found that it was in impeccable shape. The owners had lived there ever since it was first built. Even though it wasn't our dream floor plan, it was a darling, well-loved, well-constructed, well-maintained home. We could find no fault with it whatsoever."

We had another house lined up to see in a couple of days, but before we got there, that one sold too. Again. God knew.

This house was the only one we ever looked at. We made an offer five days after we walked through it, and we sat back to see how God would move.

The whole scrapbook is a beautifully woven testament to God's detail work. The buying of one house, the selling of another, the confirmation of prices offered and accepted...all of it was not a moment too early or late.

I know Ryan's right. As much as I would have loved to see that darling house I first fell in love with, God knew (for reasons I may never understand) that it was not our home. As bitterly disappointing as it was to never see it at all, I'm sure it was better than seeing it, loving it, and then walking away later. God was clear in the opening and closing of doors. This house? Wide open. All other houses? Firmly closed.

No questions. No room for doubt. Just a clear path up the sidewalk to our new home. (Which, by the way, I do love so so much.)

That season was a sweaty one for me. Trusting and waiting and watching nervously from the back row are not my most favorite things. But I sat and wrote down every single step in great detail as it happened. For me, that book is more than a fat scrapbook of moving fun. It's a chronicle of how God grew our faith, one detail at a time.

He's in the detail work. Even when the details seem harsh or unfair, He's in them, weaving future details we cannot even possibly fathom right now. 

Spring Decorating? Anyone? Anyone?

Sometimes Ryan and I learn a lot about each other while podcasting. I fear this week, Ryan learned more about me than he planned to! {Side note: rendering your husband speechless while recording an audio adventure is not a great idea. Ha!} Hope you enjoy...we sure had fun laughing!

Listen here.

Okay, I don't know what it was like in your neighborhood this weekend, but spring descended upon Indiana with much gusto, which quite frankly, just makes it that much harder to admit we're still in January, and we'll still see more snow before winter waves goodbye.

I mean, it was absolutely STUNNING here. Sunshine, blue skies, perfectly fluffy clouds, warmth, perfect weather for walking a visiting Phoebe - it was just perfection all the way around. I wanted to put away my coats and boots, uncover the grill, and head to Lowe's to buy all the flowers.

And that, my friends, is what sent me straight to Pinterest to begin plotting what I should do with our patio spaces in 2017. (What...is this not a common hobby among people???)

Here's the thing.

Last year, when we moved in, we spent alllllllllllll our time and energy on pretty much every nook and cranny of our house. INSIDE, I mean. You read the posts. We painted and redid flooring and knocked out that one wall and did the stone feature and finished off the garage. The patio spaces? Well, we stuck the furniture we already owned out there and called it a year.

It was fine. It worked.

But I know deep in my soul that our two patio spaces are something special and we did not even begin to do them justice with the attention we gave them last year.

With the inside of the house done, I have the time to pay attention to the outside. What I lack are finances. We really don't have much {read: any} money to invest in big, fun things for our outside spaces. This doesn't scare me, though, because we regularly make a little creativity go a long way. We're not afraid to DIY, but I don't know what to DIY.

Any of you out there particularly visionary in the land of patios and porches?

Here's what I have to work with. Tell me what you think!

Our front porch is a lovely little nook that last year we filled with our square wrought iron table and two wrought iron chairs. As temperatures permitted, we would sit out there to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner and watch the happenings of the neighborhood. I like our patio because the railing offers a decent amount of privacy, but it doesn't block the view. It's handy to have the little table out there, because it's easily accessible to our kitchen, making it a logical place to eat.

Having said that, I'm not sure I want to put the table back out there this year. I kind of dream of a little seating area where I could hang out to read or we could just lounge in the evening with a cup of coffee. I dream of cuteness, complete with rugs and maybe even an outdoor-appropriate lamp.

The space is 12 feet long and 6 1/2 feet wide, and has one open side, one wall, one railing that comes up 3 1/2 feet, and one wall of windows that I do not want to block in any way. I cherish my natural light!

Ideas? Something fun and cozy and pretty all at once? AND practical? AND cost-effective?

Our back porch is equally lovely and somewhat of a blank slate in my mind. It's a long rectangle, 30 feet long and 12 feet wide in all, but it's divided into two parts. There's a cement slab that we covered with rubber tile last summer and that part is also surrounded by a lovely privacy fence. (The previous owners had a large table for eating right in this part.)  The other section is a wooden deck surrounded by a wooden fence that is high enough for child/animal safety but see-through enough to not feel closed in. Part of this section also has a pergola (ahhhh our pirogi!) over it.

Last summer we did pretty much NOTHING with this porch. We put our beloved hammock for two under the pergola, stuck a little round table next to it, and called that end done. We put Ryan's grill on the cement slab end, put our old white wooden door (which I painted in part with chalkboard paint) next to it, and that was the extent of our decorating!

So we have the 18x12 deck and the 12x12 slab, and other than knowing I want to keep the hammock and grill back there somewhere, I don't know what to do! Do I make a dining area? An outdoor kitchen that we build around the grill? A living space? AAAHHH!!!

(Side note that may be important: we do have a fire pit, but it's in the backyard, just behind this patio. It needs to stay back there.)

So tell me, Pinterest-lovers, spring-dreamers, decorators-extraordinaire! What should we do? What should we make? WHEN CAN WE START?????

Back to Life as We Know It

Well, my friends, gallcation is over. {Apparently, being male, Ryan preferred to call his a "gallcation" rather than a "gallternity leave."}

Friday afternoon, Ryan picked up his surgeon's note and HR clearance to return to work today. He's definitely had a rougher go of it than I had where the pain has been concerned. We'd been told that was a possibility. I believe the kind way the surgeon phrased it was, "Those who have tighter stomach muscles have more pain." Yeah. I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down there.

So no more afternoon dates that look like this:

Sad indeed, isn't it?

But my goodness, what an unbelievable privilege it was for me this last week to have the freedom to serve Ryan at home. We had dinner with his family last night to celebrate his sister's birthday, and I think every single person there asked him if I had been a good nurse. He kindly said yes, while I sat beside him and shook my head vehemently NO. Was I a willing nurse? Absolutely. But willing and good are two TOTALLY different things, and let's not misrepresent!!

But even though it's not my natural gift, I did thank God multiple times a day that I was home and able to take care of Ryan and also have time to spend with him. We had many good talks, a lot of rest, a lot of quality time, and I was just thankful.

We reintroduced foods and learned that he can handle everything he could before the gallbladder conked out. {Whew! Gotta get back on an eating schedule. I "helped" him with reintroduction and that was a lotta treats in one week!}

And on Saturday, we got to see our favorite girl!!

PHEEBS!!!!!!

She came over to play, and partway through our time together, we were invited to hang out with our friends Mike and Angie - to play more virtual reality games. We just packed Phoebe up and took her with us, and we had a GREAT time!

Mike made his famous lattes:

 And Phoebe hung out in my lap while we played. It was such fun! {Ryan won...bet you can't tell.}

A good and fitting conclusion to our week. Fun, togetherness, treats, healing, rest, laughter, friends...and now a return to reality for everyone!

And as a fun piece of useless trivia: it was two years ago yesterday that I landed in the ER with the beginning of my gallbladder diagnosis!! Full circle, baby.