Scavenger Hunt Date in the Park

I've been so busy telling you about our house and how it came to be ours...that I've completely neglected the happenings of Shafferland! So howsabout I catch you up?

A couple of weekends ago, we were promised a gorgeous Friday, so I planned a fun little date for that night! At work, I'd come across a pin for a park scavenger hunt, so I printed that out...and we set out for the park we love so much!

While I was still at work, I sent this photo to Ryan:

We started out at the B&K hot dog stand...where we loaded up on dogs, fries, and root beer...so we could start our date with a picnic!

{Side note: there was a father/daughter dance happening in the little community center at the park, so we were surrounded by dads in suits trying to remember to document well on phones...and little girls with curly hair and poofy dresses running and screaming in delight. We were woefully under-dressed for the occasion.}

After we ate...we set out in search of all the things required by the hunt! Of course, we took pictures of them all, and I realize it would be 82 kinds of boring to show you every single picture, so I'll just show you some of the funnier ones.

 We had to find the letter S, so Ryan leaned in to point to it. That's when he discovered the mulch was quite fresh. Whoopsie!!

 We were supposed to find something that smelled good. Sadly, nothing was in bloom, so we just took a photo in honor of what would EVENTUALLY smell good.

 For the item of being "in" something, Ryan climbed up INTO the playground equipment. Of course, doing that meant he had to get down somehow.

 Something with feathers. Trying not to disturb the little duckie.

 This was our something yellow. Ryan was trying to do a discreet questionable look, since it was a hydrant. I thought he was pondering what he was going to do, so I was waiting to take the picture. We took so long that a really nice guy walking by asked if we wanted our picture taken together. We wondered if he thought we were wackadoodle...if we wanted our picture taken WITH a hydrant?!?!

 Something you use to play sports. Not sure disc golf counts as a sport, but it did for us!!

 Something filled with air...we borrowed the balloons for the daddy/daughter dance. :)

It was a perfect night, capped off with a trip to {shockingly} Starbucks!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

HAPPY EASTER!!! So excited for Easter Sunday...hope you have a great day!! Here's a peek into life in Shafferland this last week.

* Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and I admit to getting a little lump in my throat watching the kiddos parade through the sanctuary with their palm branches. After church, Ryan and I smelled grilling...so then of course WE had to grill burgers for lunch. Ahhhh the power of suggestion. :) And that evening we went out for a walk, and then it was time for our beautiful weekend to end. :(

* Monday was {again...what is up with Mondays??} a cold, rainy day, so after work, we did our workout at home and then we rested for the rest of the night. I discovered {YIPPEE!!!} that I am one star away from gold at Starbucks, so that was photo-worthy. We watched Forrest Gump, which marks - are you ready for this??? - the first time I've ever seen that movie. And I ended the day by writing in a brand new journal! A good evening at home together!

 * Tuesday, we woke up to a snow-covered ground. Ummmmm APRIL?!? Despite the snow, it really was a GORGEOUS day, and I had been so looking forward to it, because that night was the Easter Pageant, and I was so eager to have Ryan experience that with me. It was SO STRANGE to attend it rather than be part of it, but it was a great part of our Easter week. {Confession: I did not take pictures during the performance so I could just soak it up, so the picture of that is from the Easter Pageant Facebook Page.}

* Wednesday, Lynne and I had the privilege of being shadowed by a high school freshman named Natalya. She was LOVELY! I really enjoyed spending the day with her and letting her peek into what we do! We took her for lunch at Shigs in Pit, which is a FABULOUS BBQ place in Fort Wayne. That evening, Ryan and I went for a bit of a frigid run and I made strawberry shortcake for us at home! Know what's disappointing? Not realizing you were out of whipped cream before you made the shortcake.

 * Thursday evening was work-at-the-house-for-sale night, so we packed a picnic dinner and headed over to do some painting. We started out with a run, and on our way back, I found a tree in bloom!! I was ridiculously excited and stopped the run to take a picture. We worked on painting trim on the shed and garage - and got quite a bit done! Stinks to have to be a responsible adult, but it was a good night.

* Friday was Good Friday, and since Ryan works in health care, he didn't get any sort of break. :( I only had to work a half day, so at noon, I swung by McDonald's with my friend Amy for a quick lunch, treated myself to a frappe and headed home! I spent the first part of the afternoon securing Ryan's Easter and birthday presents and then hunkered down to scrapbook and actually finished a book!! When Ryan got home, we watched a movie and then went for a walk through the eerily quiet campus - but I was mostly excited to find REAL LEAVES ON TREES!!!! Combine that with the baby lilacs I found earlier in the day, and it really, really, really feels like spring!

 * Yesterday was a long....long...day. We started out shopping for my Easter dress. Yes. I waited until the day before Easter to shop for a dress. I'm an idiot. After MUCH frustration, we found one that works! :) We grabbed lunch at Chipotle and then went to the house we have on the market to do more painting. Ryan was up on the roof for a while, and his mom and I worked to repaint the front porch. It looks so cottage-y now!

The Saturday Six

One.

This song by Phillips, Craig and Dean has been out for a few weeks, but this week I really heard the words for the first time. I remember when my heart beat again for the first time after feeling dead for so long. Thankful for redemption.
Two.

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Excited to see this news on the Planner Perfect blog...Jenny Penton has her Planner Perfect pages available on Etsy now! I interviewed her several months ago on Mid-Morning and really like her philosophy on planning/organizing a day. And her pages are just stinking cute!

Three.

I co-blog over at the Mid-Morning blog, along with Lynne. This week, we gave the blog a facelift, using one of the pictures from our recent photo shoot! I really love the new look - check it out and see some of Lynne's writing while you're there!

Four.

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I loved this post about kitchens through the years. The retro table in the first kitchen reminds me of the one we had at our house when I was growing up. Goodness how kitchens have changed!! Still one of my favorite rooms in the house when I think about redecorating. {Not ours. We just did ours. I love it.}

Five.

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I appreciated this post about photography...last year I took a picture every day to use on the Shafferland Shuffle {and in my scrapbooks} and this year it's a 3-picture collage each day. I sometimes struggle to see things in a fresh way, so this was helpful!

Six.

 

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This just made me laugh. I love her wit about not hitting "big blogger" status...and I think it's funny because while I love this blog just like it is, I sometimes think, Man now that our wedding is over and we're not having kids and all Braeya does is sleep...do I have a niche? Thanks for hanging out with me even though I write mostly about my lunch and the success or failure of that day's commute. 

New Traditions

For many years {and I mean many years}, Marion has had a community Easter Pageant. It started back in the 30's and was a way for people from all denominations across the community to come together to tell the story of the Cross. I was in it for the first time when I was two, and it was a way of life for me until about 10 years ago, when they had to stop doing it because the building where it was held was condemned. All the sets and props had been built for that building, so they couldn't hold it anywhere else.

The YMCA bought the building and restored it - and this year was the first year the Pageant came back with full drama. For a few years, they've showed a video of it at Easter, but this year it was real again.

I was so excited to go - so excited to share with Ryan this play that had meant so much to me for so many years.

I should add that the Pageant is told entirely in song. No spoken words. The cast of actors tells the story with actions while a choir and orchestra tell the story with song.

Before we went, I'd heard a rumor that they'd made some changes this year. Some songs had been replaced by new ones, and others had been added. And I heard some of the drama had been changed.

It. Made. Me. So. Nervous.

I'm a purist and traditionalist about stuff like the Pageant. Don't mess with it. It's my history.

Ahhh....didn't I just blog about that kind of thing this week when I said I had to learn {back in the day} to let this house be mine in the present rather than a recreation of Grandma and Grandpa's in the past?

I'm a slow learner.

Tuesday night came, and I waited in the frigid outside for over an hour to get in...and I found a perch at the top of the bleachers and waited for it to begin.

The first strains of familiar music played and I knowingly tapped my foot and mouthed along with the words I knew so well. I pointed out things to Ryan that flooded back to me while we watched...

...and then the music changed.

I caught my breath, but I waited...and...I liked it. The songs they put in...fit. They told the story. And I cried. I cried because the new way was not only as good as the old way, but it was...gulp...better. It was a fresh perspective on what I knew. And I loved it.

The Marion Easter Pageant Facebook page had some great pictures from dress rehearsal, and I am borrowing them to show you some of my favorite parts and how God made His Sacrifice new to my heart this year:

I loved the way the Christus {the name used for Jesus in this play} interacted with the people. He wasn't stiff and distant...he hugged them and looked them right in the eye and smiled at them. I think Jesus really would have done all those things, and I loved the reminder of it.

They added the forgiving of the woman caught in adultery, and I loved that change. To see her thrown down in front of him...and the way he crouched down and looked her in the eye before writing in the dirt and sending her on her way with the admonition to leave her life of sin...was moving. {Tears.}

He lifted a lifeless body up and raised her back to life...never thought about what it would have been like to watch that miracle take place in real life. So moving.

This particular scene wasn't new or done much differently from what I remember, but the music was so moving. I loved it.

In all the years I was in it, the crucifixion scene was done using a backdrop of crosses. To see an actual PERSON shaking on a cross made this new and deeply touching. And all the while this was taking place, a choir of angels stood to the side and sang a new song called "Oh God, He's Dying..." and when the darkness took over and the thunder blared, they huddled with their faces hidden. Heaven grieving...a powerful thing.

And then to see his body taken down...I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be there and see that take place.

This is the way the Pageant used to end...the women at the tomb and the angel...and the words of Christ the Lord is Risen Today....

This time, the Christus came back...and the angel choir gathered around and sang. I loved the ending focus on a RISEN Lord!

So thankful God kept my heart open to receive a new tradition...and so thankful for the reminder of what He did for me!

Home

I think today will conclude this little mini-series I've been writing about our home. Really appreciate you reading along!

In 2012, one hundred twelve years after some man I don't know had a dream to build a house...seventy-seven years after my grandparents moved in...and twelve years after I moved in, this house got a new name.

It ceased just being Bekahland and became...Shafferland.

When Ryan and I got married, he owned a home and I owned this one, and we chose to live here for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was its almost-halfway-between-two-jobs location.

He moved in to Shafferland, but he also moved in to project-land. So many things needed updated and fixed and...well...helped.

And for the last {almost} year, we've worked so hard on this place. We redid the kitchen, two bathrooms, the carpet in the main living areas, created an outside living space and replaced the plumbing. We added shutters and began landscaping.

It's been a year of hard work and long, frustrating, inconvenient days, but looking around...I'm so happy to see what we've done. Not only does it look better...but it's ours. It's home. I tell Ryan over and over that I wish Grandma and Grandpa could see this place, because I know they would love it. They would love the way we love this house...and they would love the cozy place it's become.

We love coming home. We love resting in this place we've worked hard together to make our own.

People ask us a lot of questions...and I think the only thing that comes close to the most popular question {when are you having kids?} is So.....what's going on with the housing situation? Are you moving to Fort Wayne? What's happening?

Are you ready for the answer? Here it is:

We have no idea.

True story! We have spent hours working through all conceivable {and a handful of inconceivable} scenarios, and we are not sure what's next for us.

But this I can tell you, without a doubt.

If we stay here in this house...forever...what a legacy that will be! To be able to trace the story back to the box-on-bricks beginning like I've done for you...and then recount the memories yet to be made...spectacular! To carry on the legacy of my grandparents would be an honor. We have big dreams for this place that would be such fun to put into place. If we stay...it will be grand. It will be a joy in every way.

If we move out of this house and into another one...then this house will be one of the most treasured memories of my life. It will always be the place where I wrote my book...and where God carried me through my darkest season. It will always be the place where Ryan came to ask me to pray about a future together. It will be the place we came home to after our honeymoon, where we spent our first Christmas, and where we learned to be a team. It will always be the place that we made our home.

But for as much as I love it...as much as we love it...and we so, so do, we also know, it's just a house.

We are the home. Wherever this man I love so much sits beside me and holds me close is home.

Wednesdays in the Word: Verse J

The way God has ordained these verses to fall across my life has been nothing short of awe-inducing. Like I've told you before, I picked out these verses years ago, when I compiled them as a graduation gift for a friend. It's not a coincidence that as I rea d through them now...they are perfectly timed.

Here's this week's word of encouragement:

Monday night, I sat in the living room, stalking Lisa Harper's Twitter page. She was traveling home from Haiti with her newly adopted daughter, Missy. Lisa is single and has been working for two years to bring home a little girl who captured her heart.

Two. Years.

That's a lot of waiting. And a lot of paperwork.

And then suddenly...everything sped up and Lisa flew to Haiti and turned right around to fly home with little Missy. And an entire army of {very famous} friends arrived at the Nashville airport to welcome her home. {I mean really, it's not a bad day when Sheila Walsh AND Mandisa AND Todd and Angie Smith drop by to welcome you home!}

Throughout the end of that journey, Lisa would sum up every tweet and Instagram post with #onlyGod. I'm not a big fan of the hashtag, but I loved seeing those words at the end of each update. I loved being reminded that everything that seemed so impossible about this thing...was in no way impossible in the mind of God.

Lynne and I interviewed Lisa a little over two years ago, when she was in the process of adopting a baby yet to be born. She was so excited for her dream to be a mom to come true, and then the baby was born...and the birth mom changed her mind.

Lisa was crushed, yet she remained hopeful that God had a plan.

And He did. A little girl named Missy who not only needed a home...she needed Lisa's home. They even look alike. It's uncanny.

It truly is only God. And it will be amazing when Missy grows up and looks back and sees how very #onlyGod this journey to become Lisa's actually was.

I stalked the pictures Monday night and cried, not because I want a child...because that's not my deep ache. I cried because Lisa's answer to prayer boosted my own heart to remember that what looks impossible to me right now...is SO not impossible for HIM.

And what an AMAZING journey it will be when He brings about the answer in a way that ONLY He could do.

I want to leave you with 2 things:

1. Whatever your impossibility...it's not impossible to your God.

2. You'll never know when your journey becomes someone else's faith-booster. Live it well. Point to God. 

The Making of Bekahland

When I bought the house...I prayed fervently that this would be a place where God moved. I didn't look at it as an investment, but rather a ministry base. I wanted to make it home - an inviting place where people wanted to visit. I wanted it to have its own unique flavor and flair that people recognized as mine.

Maybe you'll get this...and it sounds a bit silly...but it's true. As excited as I was to have this house and to make it mine and to carry on the legacy...it was bittersweet to do all that on my own. I'd always dreamed of making it home for someone, and it was hard, sometimes, to be enthused about doing this on my own. But many years before, I'd read Debby Jones and Jackie Kendall's book Lady in Waiting and remembered the admonition to not put my life on hold until I had someone to hold, so I set about making a home.

I painted rooms {because I could...without asking permission} and had some successes and failures in paint choice. I planted flowers {we won't talk about the time I failed to mix up the tulip bulbs and planted one row of yellow on one side of the porch and one row of red on the other side of the porch}. I invited our student workers over to watch TV shows at night...I opened the guest room to friends passing through if they wanted to spend the night...and I held a ladies' Bible study here for several years, too.

I had scrapbooking marathons with friends, sleepovers with my friends' kids {no one really slept when they were supposed to} and hosted Christmas dinner.

I wrote and cooked and decorated and prayed and read and tried to live a good, full life in this place entrusted to me.

My skills in home improvement were...ahem...sad. I hired out a few improvements and did what minimal {read: pitiful} landscaping attempts I could muster. It became home. It became all I hoped it would. It became something I believe Grandma and Grandpa would have been pleased to visit.

And then I started dating Isaac. The first time we met in person was not in this house. It was not even in this town. It was miles away, and when I drove home and walked in the front door, late at night, I stared around at the familiar walls...with all the memories...and in an instant...it wasn't home anymore.

I called one of my friends and said to her, "I can't believe it. He's never even been here...and yet this is suddenly not home anymore." He'd already told me of his hope to marry me, and with those words...for the first time, home became a person...not a place.

Weeks went by, and this house became a place I couldn't be...and that had never happened to me before. I drove. I walked. I sat on the back porch. Anything...but inside the walls that felt empty and crushing.

And then the phone call. The one in which he told me it was really, really over. The one in which he told me he was moving on with his life and I needed to do the same.

Ironically the call came at the start of a weekend when this house was a hub of visitors...in town for our 10 year college reunion. I was hosting...and cooking...and welcoming...and realizing I had to find a way to make this a home again. Isaac had walked away and I might never find love again. If I couldn't have love, I had to have home.

And even as I sought to make that happen, I hoped, way down in the deep places of my heart, that the feeling of a person-filled-home really would happen for me someday.

On My Own

Thanks so much for being willing to read along this past week on my house adventures. It's been fun to tell this story! Just a couple more days and you'll be all caught up! :)

I rented Grandma and Grandpa's house from my sister for four years. I had a roommate for the first nine months...and then she moved out. I was on my own for three terrifying months...the first time I had ever TRULY lived on my own in my natural lifetime.

My friend Christi bought me a kitten and named him Kaegan, and while I knew in my head that he was 100% ineffective against anyone coming into the house to harm me, his tiny furry presence was calming to me. I loved that little guy, and in the quiet days and long nights {full of light, because I refused to turn them off when I went to sleep} he kept me company.

A new roommate moved in then...I'd met her in college and she came back to Marion to attend graduate school. She stayed with me for three years, teaching me all manner of things I needed to know. We had a lot of laughter in this house...and our share of conflict, too. She was training to be a counselor, and I was a perfect test case for her.

In those three years, we lived a lot of life in that house. Movie nights...experimental cooking {and subsequent MASSIVE failures}...trying to mesh the decorating styles of a foo-foo girlie girl and a Harley-riding tomboy...celebrating holidays...welcoming friends...and much more. 

When she graduated, she told me she needed to move out on her own and start her own life...and I knew she was right. We were still friends, but neither of us really did well sharing a home with another girl. We wanted things our own way...and our ways were mightily different.

I was eager for a seasonal change in life, but petrified about what would come next. I'd never lived on my own, and for the first time, the thought of actually living on my own wasn't as scary as paying for it. Admittedly not stellar with math, I stared at my budget sheet and wondered if I could swing not only a mortgage payment, but also the full weight of all the utilities and other bills. It didn't make sense in my head...but then not much about math did make sense in my head.

In addition to all these thoughts, my sister told me that she needed a change in her life - one that freed her from the role of owning a rental. She would be happy to sell the house to me if I wanted to buy it...or she would put it on the market and I could buy or rent something else.

So, one evening, while Angela was gone, I strolled around the springtime backyard, inhaling the scent of lilacs and new grass...and I prayed. I was terrified of making the wrong decision...buying a house I couldn't afford OR losing a house our family had worked so hard to get back.

Not many times in my life have I heard the unmistakable Voice of God giving me direction, but that spring night was one time I did. Right out there in the yard, with no fanfare or fireworks, my heart knew. I was to stay. I was to buy the house. I was to buy it - AND not worry about the money, even if I didn't have a roommate.

This news filled me with peace...and yet was heavily bittersweet. I'd never contemplated buying a house without a husband by my side. It wasn't that I thought such a thing was wrong, but in my mind it somehow felt like admitting defeat.  Conceding that a husband might never show up. Plowing ahead into a dream that felt like something I should share with him...but he wasn't there.

I jumped in...without really knowing how to swim. I talked to banks and lenders...appraisers and contractors...my parents and sisters...my co-workers. They showered me with advice, some of which conflicted and some of which was miles over my head. I begged God NOT to let me do anything ridiculously stupid that would penalize me financially for the rest of my days, and with shaking hand...signed paper...after paper...after paper.

The house was mine. Angela was still living there when I signed for it and she celebrated my happy-home-ownership-to-you day with me by breaking open sparkling grape juice and toasting my new adventure.

And then she packed boxes and moved out, leaving Kaegan and me with an entire house for just the two of us. A house that seemed empty - not just of laughter and conversation, but also furniture. We spread out what we did have and named it home.

I quickly learned that while I'd insisted that the house be Grandma and Grandpa's for all the years I rented it, the dry ink bearing my name on the house now brought a new stirring to my heart. It had been theirs...but it was mine now, and I needed people to recognize that. I needed to recognize that.

I'm the much-baby of our family and without a husband or child to declare me a grown-up, I hoped the title of home owner would do the trick. Life didn't look the way I planned, but I needed someone - everyone - to see that I was a capable adult. And in many ways, I needed to see a capable adult emerging in myself.

So I bought a house.

A house with a sure foundation...and one I could build on.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we got up early and baked breakfast for our Sunday School! We always enjoy doing that! The blood donation bus was at our church, so after Sunday School, Ryan paid it a visit and donated some blood. I paid it a visit too - but just to wait for him. {I'm a chicken.} After church was over, we joined our Sunday School class for a pizza party, which was a lot of fun - and then we took a nap for the rest of the afternoon. {Embarrassingly long.} Even though it was chilly, we took a walk, and then hunkered down for the night!

 * Monday was a cold, rainy day...spent running through puddles and wrestling umbrellas. After work, Ryan and I went to the gym, where my goal was to run a 5K, and I almost made it...but at the very end, there was a debacle on the track and my concentration got wrecked, and I quit. I was so frustrated!! So we came home and made quesadillas and rested while the rain poured outside.

* On Tuesday I went to this cute little shop that had vintage games...one of which I actually had when I was a kid! {I'm sure it belonged to someone else before me. I'm not vintage!} Ahhhh memories. We had the best evening that night...we went for a run in the evening sun, we ran into our friends John and Sandee and caught up with them, and then we all hunkered down - including Braeya - to watch the Duggars!

* Wednesday evening, after work, Ryan worked on the house we're trying to sell...touching up some paint. While he worked on that, I had dinner with a photography team that has offered to help me with some mentoring so I can apply to be a photographer with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Dinner was very good {Flat Top Grill!} and I learned much from them in our talk. When I got home, I was so stinking excited to see our daffodils finally bloomed! I declare it spring!

 * Thursday...oh my. The debacle I had at lunch! I went out to McDonald's with one of my work buddies, and the two of us got accosted by a man that was either on something...or...something. He was very angry with us and I don't remember the last time I felt that unsafe! I was so glad to get home to Ryan that night! We went out for a run, by way of our favorite construction trailer - with the woman who has been waving for months, and did a selfie with her. HA!! Gorgeous night for a run - and I especially appreciated the chalk congrats on the pavement! Don't know who it was meant for...but YES THANK YOU!!!!

* Friday night - OH MY GOODNESS! We had so much fun! We declared it date night, and it was so so so beautiful outside that we got hot dogs and root beer at the B&K and headed to the park for a picnic and digital scavenger hunt. We had a BLAST! When that was over, we {of course} went for coffee and then came home to finish getting my stuff ready for my speaking engagement on Saturday. What a great night!

* Yesterday was packed and wonderful. Ryan worked, and I headed to Eastgate Community Church to speak at their mother/daughter banquet. Loved being able to share and meet new people! After that, I took pictures at a one year old's birthday party - MAN she's cute! :) Then I drove to Ryan's house to help with some painting, and while we were there, we had an impromptu running date, dinner date, and ice cream date! A long, full day, but so good!

The Saturday Six

One.

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I actually cried laughing at some of Bitter Blue Betty's tweets. She's a recent Twitter find...and you know, without naming names...I think I know her.

Two.

Last week I told you I was hooked on the new season of 19 Kids and Counting. PRETTY EXCITED to see this news pop up on my Facebook feed this week. Jill's engaged! Ahhhh love a love story. {I texted the above picture to Ryan RIGHT AWAY because I knew he'd be dying to know.}

Three.

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Made. Me. Giggle. The picture AND the article.

Four.

Just when you think the good in the world has faded, stuff like this happens: Earlier this week, Ryan got a call from the plumber who worked so hard on our house a few weeks ago. He was doing another job not far from us, and the homeowner's reserve water in the bathtub had accidentally drained out. He asked Ryan if he could come over and get a couple of gallons from our outside faucet just so she had reserve water for the night, since her water would be completely off overnight. Of course we said yes, and the next night, Ryan got a call from an unknown number. It was the homeowner. She wanted to thank us for sharing our water. Seriously! We never would have expected her to track us down and thank us for a little water, but she did. Bless her! 

Five.

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I'm not even ON Instagram...which is odd to me because of my undying love for pictures, but I have to tell you this. If you are in need of a faith boost in your journey, flip through some of these photos on the lovely Lisa Harper's Instagram. Lisa travels with Women of Faith and I love her writing...and she's in the process of adopting a little girl from Haiti. She's been on this journey for two years and travels to Haiti TOMORROW to get Missy. My heart has been SO MOVED by how God has provided for her, and these pictures tell the story.

Six.

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Things I want for my office include...THIS.  Yep. That's a bicycle wheel. Genius.