1st Annual Shafferland Birthday Trip: An Afternoon Outside

It turned out that before we left for our weekender, the forecast became a bit sketchy, and we had no idea how much {if any} nice weather we would actually have. So we were pleasantly surprised when Friday afternoon turned out to be absolutely lovely and we were able to enjoy the gorgeous grounds outside the Creation Museum.

 

Since Ryan gave me a camera for my birthday, we became a two camera family and nothing gave me more joy than watching him walk around, camera in hand, doing his own photo shoot. {Seriously. LOVE.}

 

To enter the grounds, we walked across a floating bridge...which wasn't scary, but we decided if it would happen to collapse, we would be in some of the nastiest, murkiest water we'd seen in a while. Thankfully it did not collapse.

 Trying out the new camera. Not too shabby on the color capturing, huh?

 The Creation Museum has a petting zoo. This guy {or girl?  I didn't get that close} looks ever so inviting, right? Yes, PLEASE come pat my head. Just SEE what I do to you!!!

 My pictures are a bit out of order, thanks to the double camera thing - but we decided no trip was complete without a photo opp with the welcoming dinosaur. The platform in the background is the brand new zipline they're building. We didn't test it out. :)

 I will mention again that I'm most thankful these guys are now extinct.

 

Back to the petting zoo...they also offered camel rides, which we did not take, but I caught this one mid-chew. Kind of a poster child for white strips, no?

Ryan with the great big pierogi!!!! {I'll explain.} We wanted to construct a pergola in our backyard for our outdoor living space, so we started researching them. One day, while talking about them, Ryan called it a pierogi. I said, "Isn't that something you eat?" But it stuck and now we call all pergolas pierogis. If y'all need a Shafferland dictionary to keep up with the vast amount of things we rename, you just let me know. Anyway. So there was a giant pierogi at the Creation Museum, and we took advantage of the photo opp.

Becuase you can't pass by the dinosaur without tickling him.

Posing on the deck.

 Remember the murky waters we didn't want to fall into? See what we mean?

 He seemed to like taking pictures of me {clutching my new camera for dear life.}

 Swinging bridge!!!!

 Sympathizing with the plant over a big hair day. We won't talk about the hair. I may or may not have run out of gel AND hairspray on this trip due to the poorest packing I've ever done IN MY LIFE - and was nearly threatening to shave my head by the end of the trip.

 So that was that! An afternoon outside. Ryan even got a bit of a sunburn! Thanks, God, for a gorgeous day!

Worth it Wednesday #4

I wanted to move away from focusing solely on the whole "looks" part of feeling worth it - partly because I think there's a whole lot more to both being worthy and struggling with worth than just looks.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak at a church for their morning service. The church was about an hour and a half from home, so I had to think about gas mileage as part of the adventure. I sought some advice from Lynne {who speaks often} about how to handle things like costs and honorariums when arranging speaking engagements.

She said this to me: Bottom line: you have to figure out how much you're worth for something like this, set a price, and don't be afraid to stick with it.

Yeah.

That's the face I made too. How much I'm worth? I have no idea! How can I say {to a church, of all things} that I "charge" this much money to come and share? Especially when I consider the mere invitation an honor and a trust?

For me, the money isn't the issue. For me, the issue is the hard swallow over realizing I really do have to sit down and determine "what I'm worth" for speaking engagements. Lynne explained to me that when I speak, I'm spending time in prayer, study, and research to even write my talk, and then there's the writing and the reading/learning/rehearsing of the thing...the time out of my day/night/regular life/marriage to travel to the event and present the material. She said I shouldn't feel bad charging for my time, my heart, and my words, because it's what I have to offer.

So why do I?

Why do I feel like it's easier to say to churches and organizations...Oh, you can just pay me whatever you think is fair...instead of confidently standing up and saying, Thanks so much for the invitation! Here's my charge for an evening of speaking...

HUGE gulp.

So...I decided the best starting place in figuring out how much I should charge is to back up and do a little research.  Here are a few of my findings.

* Found this blog post by Rosetta, who is an established speaker, and one thing she talked about was her personal mission statement. {She talked about times she speaks for free or for a greatly reduced cost - and she's willing to do it because the event fits in with her mission statement.} I'm not gonna lie. I am not a fan of mission statements. I think they are wildly overdone and somewhat a waste of time, but in this case, I have to wonder...if I were to sit down and make a statement, it might teach me something about what I feel I'm worth and what I have to offer.

* Found this blog post by Chris, who talks a lot about creating a bio kit so people get to know you and what you have to offer. And you know what? If you know what you have to offer someone else, you might just learn a little bit about your worth.

* I loved this one by Dan - because in my bigger-picture project I've got going on here of actually figuring out what I want/need to charge when I'm invited to speak, it helps me know important things to factor in that might make mores sense on a situation-to-situation basis.

* And I loved this one by Sheila, from a Christian speaker's perspective...because it addresses how to make these kinds of decisions through the lens of prayer and the Spirit's guidance.

So...all that said...here's the assignment I am giving myself for the coming week.

Sit down and work on a mission statement for why I speak {and write} - and create a bio that forces me to look at who I am and what I have to offer. And then...using those things, create "the charge" - and be confident with the number I land on.

You might not be a speaker. You might not need this assignment to actually hand out - but you do have something to offer. Have you ever thought about what you're worth for what you offer? Make your own list - for what you'd say in a job interview - or any other setting that applies to you.

Seriously.

Try it with me?

1st Annual Shafferland Birthday Trip: Creation Museum

Our birthdays are three weeks apart, and before we got married, I told Ryan that I am not one of those people that is fine celebrating a birthday "whenever." Birthdays are personal holidays and should be observed ON the actual day. So ON his birthday, we had a party for 2 and ON my birthday {I'm told} we'll have a party for 2. But I thought it would be fun to do something bigger and better between the birthdays...so we decided to start a tradition of taking a weekender every year.

This year....

Ryan had always wanted to visit the Creation Museum {which is actually in Petersburg, Kentucky, but it's really close to Cincinnati} so we decided that would be our first destination!

Before we set out on the road, Ryan said he wanted to give me my birthday present early!

 And it was a new camera! Like a real, grownup camera! I was in awe...

He wanted me to have it to play with in the car and to enjoy while we were gone, so he gave it to me early! We headed out on the open road:

We had a great time driving down to the Museum...road tripping with this guy is much fun. We arrived there about 11:00 in the morning and dove in with our tour!

When we first got inside, they took us aside and had us stand in front of a green screen for a photo opp. Do notice the color of my shirt.

We call that a WOOPSIE!!!!

We had some fun with the pics:

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Museum, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not really one for "museum-y" kinds of things. But this one was fun! One thing I loved most was that pictures were not prohibited throughout most of the museum. Here are some of my faves:

They asked a lot of questions throughout - on screens and signs - things designe to make you think. {Ryan and I both wish they also would have provided a lot more answers. Sometimes we really didn't know the answers!!}

 I really appreciated the way they laid out what the Bible says vs what the world often teaches. Helps you better know truth when you can see it laid out next to what you always hear!

 I loved their use of lifelike figures throughout the museum. Though they stuck pretty closely to just focusing on Creation, they did acknowledge other chapters of the Bible...and here are some of the Old Testament people. Not Ryan. He's just posing with them. :)

 Hanging out with Paul.

 They told the story of the six days of creation through a video presentation and then we got to move through the story of Adam and Eve. Here they are in the Garden.

 Eating the forbidden fruit...

 Which we thought looked a lot like the JuJu Berries at the frozen yogurt store in town.

 Methuselah. {He actually moved and talked.}

 Loved their rendering of the ark. It included people and animals trying to scramble to safety in the rising waters.

We spent all morning and a good chunk of the early afternoon just walking through the exhibits. I'll wrap it up there today!

BLT on the Road!

Thanks for all your encouraging comments last week. I am a girl who is not used to long hours and a whole week of them got the best of me. My heart was weary but Ryan and I had the opportunity to take a weekend away together and it was the best medicine. It was so great to get SLEEP and SHOP and have STARBUCKS and much, much more. Can't wait to tell you all about it.

Meanwhile....

Last Wednesday evening, Lynne and I had the privilege of traveling to Sturgis, Michigan to do a live BLT show at Sturgis Wesleyan Church. We'd been contacted by our new friend Sally, who asked us if we'd be willing to do a live version of our weekly BLT show during their annual daughter banquet. We thought it sounded like so much fun, so we said yes!! We had a gorgeous day for traveling on Wednesday, so here we are...about to take a road triplet!

I didn't know she was being goofy or I'd have joined her. :)

We made our way, with Cal's help, through the back, dirt roads of Indiana and across the line to the church!

The people at the church were so warm and welcoming, and we spent the afternoon setting up our Power Point and music and going over our program...before we ended up in hair and makeup:

Two peas in a little pod, aren't we?

Dinner was so good - they served all salads! Potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, broccoli salad, fruit salad...what a great idea! And there may or may not have been an ice cream sundae buffet at the end. :) Those people know our love language!

We started our evening just like we'd start a BLT show on the air. Tweets, Pinterest inspirations, stories, all sorts of stuff. And contrary to this photo - I did not sing a little selection.

We played some TV trivia....

And this is when I learned I do NOT have a calling in life to be a game show host:

And I learned I need a tan.

Badly. Oh hurry, summer!!!

After we had some fun, Lynne shared a REALLY good devotional. It was actually the first time I'd ever heard her speak to a group like that and I loved her words. Been marinating over them ever since. Her way in speaking is so inviting. It is an honor to work with her!!
And then...we had to leave. Someone had recommended the local coffee shop, so I sneaked in the front door about 8 minutes before closing time and got a VERY good coffee!!

And then I drove alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way home, arriving shortly before midnight just so I could be there for my five month anniversary when I woke up the next morning!!

Sturgis...you were so much fun! Thanks for having us!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, Ryan and I tested our non-existent parenting skills and took my "nephew" Liam out for his birthday treat. We'd had to miss his party a few weeks back, so we made it up to him by taking him out for ice cream. Well, we tried to get him to eat real food first but that was sort of a massive fail. Still, we had a complete blast with one of the funniest kids I've ever met!

* Monday morning I hit the road at 5:30 to be at work by 6:30 to try to get a head start on what promised to be my busiest week yet since we got married. By 8:00 I was ready for lunch! I worked until the normal quitting time, came home, went for a run with Ryan, had dinner and then hit the couch to work again! Not much time to enjoy the day, but I did so love seeing the very first blooms on the stubborn bleeding heart plant!

* Tuesday was another crazy busy day at work...and I'm embarrassed to admit I had a first...making a Power Point presentation! Talk about being 20 years behind the times! How have I never made one of those before?? I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. And then I felt so bad about being an over-committed work wife this week that I came home and made fajitas and snickerdoodle brownies for Ryan. 

* Wednesday evening, Lynne and I went to Sturgis Wesleyan Church in Sturgis, Michigan, to do a BLT show on the road! It was such a fun day, though it made for a late night for this girl! The people at the church were SO warm and welcoming - we loved spending time with them! Can't wait to tell you more about that trip soon!

* Thursday was our five month anniversary! We both had to work, and then after that, we went in search of dinner and landed at Wendy's. Guess who happened to be there? My parents. LOL!! So for our five month anniversary dinner, we had fast food with my parents. Ryan was so sweet and gave me the nicest card! {Which said happy birthday! LOL!! We got a good laugh out of that.}

* Friday morning, we headed out for a quick trip to the Creation Museum! Neither of us had been there before, and we REALLY enjoyed it. I can't wait to tell you more about that one too. We toured most of the museum and the grounds outside too. We were so fortunate to have a gorgeous day - sunshine and, could it be??? WARM TEMPS??? :)

 

* And then there was Saturday....and you all are just NOT going to believe what we did that day. Seriously. Are you sitting down? I sure hope so!!!! Sneak peek?

Yes. I went ziplining. So did Ryan, but that's way more believable than hearing I did it.

The Saturday Six

One

Last Saturday, while I was all dressed up taking pictures of dads and daughters, Ryan was NOT all dressed up, cleaning out our garage. Y'all, you do not understand how bad the garage was. It was an infested mess of  boxes {from when I thought I was going to move in my lifetime} and leftover rummage {from a sale two summers ago} plus all the stuff he brought with him when he moved in. When I left home, the mess was so bad we couldn't even park in there. When I came home, the scene above greeted me. He is a cleaning MACHINE and oh how much it made me love him. *sigh*

Two

For you coffee lovers...I'm happy to admit I'm a mix of frappuccino and macchiato.

Three

Source

Susan from Between Naps on the Porch posted this inside look at Taylor Swifts new house. I'm not gonna lie...I'd like to be her neighbor. And by neighbor, I mean live on the porch of HER house. As a side note, had the EXTREME pleasure of interviewing Susan from BNOTP this week on Mid-Morning. Another porch I'd not-so-secretly like to live on...

Four

Source

We used this article as the springboard for our BLT show on Thursday...commonly mispronounced words. It was through this that I learned I've been mispronouncing biathlon, triathlon and decathlon - by adding an extra syllable to each (bi-ath-a-lon...)  You know...Every time I have chance to use those words in daily conversation....

Five

Since Ryan and I celebrated five months of wedded bliss this week, I posted this previously "unreleased" photo from our wedding day. Yes. I was the bride who needed a McChicken and a sweet tea on her wedding day - in a stunning veil and tank top ensemble.

Six

And this is what happens when Ryan and I go shopping at Garden Ridge. It's never just a shopping experience. It's always a scrapbook page in the making. I love shopping with this man.

Tired Heart

I'm not sure the last time this happened, but the truth of it is...it's been a long week. A week that has drained my heart and today...I have no words.

So in the absence of words, I leave you with the song that has soothed me over and over this week:

SSMT: Verse 9

I'm a day late with this post, but I wanted to keep Wednesday on its theme yesterday.

My poor heart has been a bit of a mess lately. Sunday morning, before Ryan and I left for church, I leaned against the door frame of the den and said, "I don't want to go. I will go because I know I should, and I know once I get there, I'll be glad I went, but I don't want to go. My heart is in a funk lately and I don't know why or how to fix it."

When we got to church, we discovered it was communion Sunday. I stared at the white clothes cloaking loaves of bread and cups of juice and sighed. I wasn't sure my heart was right...ready to take communion.

I sat and prayed silently during church, asking God to let me know what HE wanted me to do, and by the end of the service, I'd felt a gentle nudge to stand up and take communion beside my husband, and I did.

My prayer journal has been dry in these days - with random scribblings of help.

And it is with all this in mind that I have settled on this verse:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, 

for I am gentle and lowly in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls.

~ Matthew 11:29 ~

It goes along with my verse for the year...letting God teach and guide me in my heart. Not being so focused on the advice of others but focusing on the advice of God. And being comforted in knowing that He is not a tyrant. He's gentle and offers me rest and comfort in my moments of fear and confusion. 

I'm so thankful He's patient. And loving. And my Teacher.

Worth it Wednesday #3

I can't get my mind off what I wrote about last week...and God's been using the words my friends {and husband} spoke over me to work in my heart.

Hands down, I think the most interesting thing about what they said was this: when I asked them to describe me, their focus didn't land on things like my hair color or eye color. My scar and widow's peak were lost to them. No one commented on arm flab or big pores. They said things like this:

Her eyes are so expressive and she can speak through them.

Her smile and laugh are contagious.

Her eyes are compassionate and tuned in when she looks at others.

Her eyes are bright and expressive.

She has a wide smile.

One thing that sticks out right away is her huge, beautiful smile.

Her eyes are so big, so kind, so loving, so beautiful.

I had no idea that when people see me, they see my eyes and my smile - and not because my eyes have some out-of-this-world clear color about them or because I have perfect teeth. They don't see the physical elements. They see me. Do you get the difference there?

Here are some other observations I made this week as I marinated on their words:

* The other night, Ryan and I were talking about Song of Solomon...you know...the book of the Bible that is the eternal cause of so much giggling for youth group participants and so much perplexity for adults who overanalyze it? I glanced through its words because the whole book is filled with descriptive language. {And I thanked Ryan kindly to never tell me my hair looks like a flock of goats - even if that's the truth.} The book is actually quite breathtaking if you read it in the context of the day - and one of the best studies I ever read on it was written by Lisa Harper - so check it out.

Anyway. Though throughout the book the woman's lover describes her {granted, oddly, for our world} as beautiful in every way, from head to toe, and though she even seemed to realize her own beauty, there was one point where she said, "Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me." {Song of Solomon 1:6} Boy, wouldn't she have loved to live in our day when people bake in tanning beds to get a bronzed look. But in her day, it was the fair and dainty look that was in, and because she was out working in the sun all day, she didn't fit in. And she didn't love that about herself.

Finding your flaws isn't a new thing. It goes back to the days of Solomon and beyond, I'm sure. But what a love story was hers...and what a love GOD had for her, too.

* All this made me think of the verses in 1 Peter 3...."Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." {vv. 3-4}

I love it that when people were describing what they noticed about me, they focused first on the things that come from within - my expressions in my eyes and my smile - before they mentioned things like what I wear or my makeup or jewelry. WE are the ones who have put all the importance on flat stomachs and straight teeth. GOD puts the emphasis on the inside.

* One more thing - and then I'll leave you to think on these things this week. Ryan and I watched the movie "Parental Guidance" on his birthday. If you've not seen it...Billy Crystal and Bette Midler play a couple who go to visit their high-strung daughter and son-in-law, to take care of their kids while they go on vacation. The daughter, played by Marisa Tomei, is SO ANNOYING. About halfway through the movie, Ryan turned to me after I'd muttered yet another complaint about her, and said "You REALLY don't like her, do you?"

At the end of the movie, we watched all the outtakes, and I noticed that in the scenes that contained her, once she broke characater and laughed and joked as herself, I liked her. Not one thing changed about her looks. Her hair and makeup were still great. Her clothes were still nice. She LOOKED the same. But she became beautiful when she ditched the attitude and became genuine.

And I would do well to work on that myself. I want to be known as this girl:

 Not this girl:

For you, my friends...can I just encourage you to do last week's challenge if you didn't already? And if you did...spend this week thinking about that whole inward/outward thing. I think you'll be surprised what God puts on your heart!