The Saturday Six

One.

I keep forgetting to show you this idea I came up with! It's one way we keep track of a synopsis of life in Shafferland. Each month I purchase a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper and hang it on the fridge. I bought a set of stickers for each month and put the month name on the page. As we go along throughout the month, we write on the paper anything fun/interesting/noteworthy we do as a couple. Vacations...people we eat out with...projects we do around the house, etc. Then at the end of the year, I'll put them in a traditional scrapbook album and start a new round for next year - a photoless scrapped journal of our year!


 Two.
Back at Easter, when we had lunch at Ryan's aunt and uncle's house, they served Boca Java coffee. FABULOUS. They were kind enough to offer us a bag for our own and we may or may not have polished it off. The kind we had was Cottontail Delight, which is seasonal...and now is not the season. MUCH SADNESS. But we'll be keeping an eye out for that come spring!!

Three.

Source

I read this article after one of my Facebook friends linked to it - and I cracked up! {And I'm not a parent!} I was relieved that if I ever had a baby, only two of these on here apply to me, but I was a little worried about all my other "I would never's" that weren't on the list! That's why it's a good idea for me to NOT be a mom.

Four.

Source

I found this website via the fabulous ladies over at Dating Divas. First of all...I love the name. Maskcara. The blogger's name is Cara. And she does makeup. Get it? I love it. But I love the way she explains makeup. I admit I am scared of figuring out how to do makeup well. I just keep going and going reading older posts to learn more!!

Five.

 Source

I love everything about this little nook from Down to Earth Style. It's so cute. But what really kills me? Lights in the fern. It's too much. In the most perfect possible way. 

Six.

 Source

Love this song by my friend Brent Vernon. I had this used at my baptism a couple of years ago. POWERFUL lyrics. 

A Pinteresting August

Living Room Printable

We have had THE weirdest summer around here...cold days and lots of rain have rendered all the warm fuzzy summery sentiments on printables...useless. But I did find and love this one for August - especially because the burlap and yellow look match the living room so well! Love the simple, classy look. Here was my pinspiration. 

Bathroom Storage Cabinet

I pinned this one forever ago...and we didn't do a DIY version, but we did elect to scrap the totally impractical decorative towel holder that DID Hang over the toilet in Ryan's bathroom in favor of a similar looking storage cabinet - for both presence AND functionality. Here was my pinspiration.

Burger Buffet

Here's where I got the idea for our "burger buffet" we served when we had our family over for a cookout! Everyone gets to dress up the burger just the way they like it! Our buffet offered cheese, onion, green pepper, tomato, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. We would have added mayo but we forgot to buy it.  Whoopsie.  Here was my pinspiration.

Back to School Quote

When I did a back to school mantel...and no one in our house was actually going back to school, I had to come up with an appropriate quote for my little white board. This was it! Here was my pinspiration.

Mantel Letters

I loved these letters so much - and fully intended to cover them in paper like the pin showed - but I ended up leaving mine the plain brown they came in. LOVED the final look. Here was my pinspiration.

Back to School Mantel

I was inspired by the cup of pencils, the quote on the chalkboard and the apple in this pin - which I used {in similar ways} on my own, as seen above. I wanted to use the books but ran out of room! :) Here was my pinspiration.

Stove Cleaning

There is a possibility that one evening, we had a little boiling-over situation on our stove. It was the first real mess like that since we got our ceramic top stove. We tried the cleaner that came with it and it didn't really help, so I did what anyone would do...checked Pinterest! Found a great list of things to try and after combining a few...it got cleaned! Here was my pinspiration. 

Life Well Lived

It always grips my heart when someone dies unexpectedly. Death is always hard...but when it happens to someone we perceive to have so much life left to live...it just seems to squeeze the heart harder.

We had one of those tragedies here in our town a couple of weeks ago. A 55 year old man was digging a trench on his property, along with the help of a friend of his - who is just about my age - and something went wrong. the trench collapsed and buried the man up to his chest. His friend jumped in to try to help him and he became trapped, too. He was able to call for help, but by the time help arrived, the man was unresponsive.

His name was Ross and he worked at IWU when I was a student there. I knew who he was and always found him to be a kind and pleasant man...but I didn't know him closely. When I read, his obituary, though, this sentence pierced right through me:

"Ross's journey of pursuing and delighting our Lord with a contagious spirit rubbed off on all of us." {quote by Dr. Jo Anne Lyon}

What an amazing life synopsis. Though he had many accomplishments and achievements...this outweighed them. 

To be known as the one who pursues and delights the Lord with a contagious spirit...

...I ache for that to be my life. 

And to be honest, I think I do fairly well at the pursuit. Ryan and I talk about that frequently...how we want to find Sunday School classes and small groups that pursue the Lord. But I am not sure I delight the Lord.

But oh...how I want to. How I want to be a person that makes Him smile. That makes Him glad He dreamed me up and breathed life into me. 

I can't say it better than Dr. Lyon...so I leave you to ponder what she said and what it means for you.

Ross’s journey of pursuing and delighting our Lord with a contagious spirit rubbed off on all of us. - See more at: http://goshennews.com/obituaries/x1253323950/Ross-E-Hoffman#sthash.7RVKXkoe.dpuf

Ross’s journey of pursuing and delighting our Lord with a contagious spirit rubbed off on all of us. - See more at: http://goshennews.com/obituaries/x1253323950/Ross-E-Hoffman#sthash.7RVKXkoe.dpuf

Melting Pot Date

Good Nellie...I've been so busy catching up on everything else...I FORGOT TO COVER OUR MELTING POT DATE! So, without further ado...our double date to the Melting Pot.

One of my favorite things about getting married has been the chance to make new friends through Ryan and to introduce him to mine. Two of his friends, Mike and Angela, were the very first couple we went to dinner with after we got married. They wanted to meet up for dinner again, so the four of us hopped in the car and drove to Indianapolis to have dinner at The Melting Pot.

Neither Mike nor I had been there before, and it had been several years since Ryan or Angela had been, so we were like four newbies at the place. And. We. Had. A. Blast.

Have you ever been there? It's a fondue restaurant, and we had the greatest waiter in the world. Between the company, the waiter, and the food, I'm not sure I've ever had more fun going out to eat! Want to peek at our evening?

We started with the cheese - which may have been my favorite. I mean you cannot go wrong with cheese. Our waiter brought out all the ingredients for the cheese fondue and mixed it all up together right in front of us - in our little fondue pot in the middle of the table. The cheese round had bread, vegetables and apples that could be dipped in it. I liked everything I dipped in except the apples.

After that...we had salads. Mine had a house dressing that was quite yummy:

Then it was time for the main course. So. Much. Food. Y'all. We picked out the broth we wanted to cook it in, and they brought it out already hot and put it on our burner. They brought a pot of veggies - mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, etc. - and we could dump those in to cook them. Then we chose our meat platter and they brought the meat out raw. We cooked it in the broth and then could add whatever kinds of little sauces and dips we wanted.

While we ate, we just had the greatest time together...talking, laughing, learning more about each other, telling stories, driving the people at the table next to us NUTS, I'm sure!!

{Sorry - it's a low lighting place and we were using phones for photos so as not to be the crazy paparazzi people for those having romantic dates.}

I was so full after this round but we couldn't skip dessert. I didn't finish dessert and still don't think I've ever felt so miserable in all my life. In a delightful sort of way.

With our dessert came some of THE BEST COFFEE I've ever had in my life. Ryan was fond of the mugs and even asked the manager if they sold them. HA!! They do not. But they were awfully cool.

And then we had a chocolate/peanut butter/caramel/marshmallow fluff goodness with a sampler platter of cheesecake and marshmallows and brownies and strawberries and pound cake and bananas and rice krispie treats and these amazing little candied nuts.

I die.

And as for Ryan...well...

We were there over three hours and it felt like nothing. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. Dates like this are a splurge...definitely not how we can live all the time. But it was wonderful in every possible way.

Thankful for new friends!

A Honeymoon Saturday

Want to hear something embarrassing??

I accidentally never blogged the last day of our honeymoon.

I discovered this a couple of weeks ago when I was directing someone to the "Our Love Story" tab on the old blogaroo and discovered we apparently never came home. Apparently we DID though, because we've been doing a lot of work at our jobs and at our home.

So, without further ado...the last day of the honeymoon. And thank you for indulging my OCD in completing this story.

In case you don't remember from the time I started this story back in December or January or whenever it was...we spent that last night out in a B&B down in Georgia called The Overlook Inn.

We awakened to a magnificently FOGGY morning on Saturday. We made our way out to the dining area, and while the B&B folks cooked breakfast, we sat at this massive picture window and peeked at the mountains as they disappeared into ever-thickening fog. 

It's an interesting combo to have fall foliage, Christmas decor, and short sleeves all in the same day!

Ryan took advantage of the binoculars...perhaps to see the fog better?

A sampling of our breakfast...a bit of fruit in these tiny glasses. Breakfast was scrumptious and so much food.

Why on earth I think it's a good idea to post a pre-getting-ready picture is beyond me. But we're in love and I didn't care.

Across the street from the B&B was an overlook {hence the name} and even though you could not see a single thing...we felt it was important to have photos there, because, well, it's what we do.

It was the honeymoon. There has to be a kissing picture. {Who are we kidding? Today would be no different!!}

More photo opps around the grounds, before we had to take off for our last leg of the journey. Shorts in December. Sweet corn.

Photo opp on rock, is what I have titled this one.

We started out in Georgia and ended up in Indiana, all in one day. We were bound to get loopy along the way. Like here...when we found the Payless Homes. Is that like Payless Shoes? Just curious.

And the Classic Cleaners - which also doubles as a garage sale - or perhaps sells the clothing of customers who fail to return for it?

Ryan kept asking me if I saw the sign for the Old Fart Porkway. {Old Fort Parkway.} He wasn't trying to say it wrong...it was just one of those things that got twisted up the first time he said it and then he couldn't get it to come out right no matter how hard he tried. Good laughs over that one.

Passing the time by playing games...which included some car karaoke!!

I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES....

We were desperate. Seriously, seriously desperate.

SUCCESS at last!!!! {Taken after our visit to the Starbucks where I may or may not have used the men's restroom.}

After what felt like forever....

The honeymoon was over. We were exceedingly sad about that part, but so excited to be home and ready to start our everyday life together!

Our Culinary Stories

Shauna Niequist's book, Bread and Wine moved me. It moved me because she has some of the same struggles with her food relationship that I have. She loves people the same way I {hope I} love people. And to combine the love for food and the love for people...is her passion. And it makes me passionate.

I realized that so much about my relationship with Ryan has food in it somewhere. From our first date's picnic in a park and big ole burger at Round Robin to our nightly coffee dates to our occasional breakfasts out to celebrate special occasions.

And I realized that I want a chronicle of our culinary journey. Something that tells the story of our adventures eating out. Not adventures like spilling a glass of iced tea..but adventures like the heart of what happened during a meal to make it memorable.

And I want a chronicle of what we loved to make during this first year of marriage. What meals did we go to time and time again? What did we change up to make it ours? What sort of culinary dance did we create as we worked together in a tiny kitchen, creating memories along with food?

So I am making a scrapbook.

A book that chronicles our culinary stories from the first year of marriage. Is it okay if I share with you a peek into our book?

I thought I'd share the text I wrote for our first ever meal together as a married couple. {I'm including the pictures I included on the scrapbook page.}

And it all began with breakfast. We awakened December 3, 2012 full of joy and wonder from our wedding the day before, and our love-butterflies had been replaced by hungry rumbles, Ahead of us lay a day of honeymoon memory-making, yet more than that...a lifetime of memory-making...that began with a meal. We drove to The Broken Egg, a local restaurant in the Village of Siesta Key. A restaurant whose claim to fame is that basketball hall-of-famer and ESPN announcer Dick Vitale eats there every time he's in town. He even has his own table. We began day one of marriage by finding OUR own table, on the patio, overlooking a cloudless blue sky, and ordering our first breakfast together as husband and wife. We ordered breakfast quesadillas and ate while catching sideways glances at one another, scarcely able to believe that we were indeed married. And so it began. The love of eating outside...the love of breakfast. The love of discovering new places together and sitting back to just enjoy this wondrous thing we call love.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, I took Ryan to visit the church I attended before I started going to the church where we met. I wanted him to see the place that did so much in forming who I am today! It was so great to introduce him to my friends and sit in that room again. We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our day at home together - especially since we hadn't gotten home from our double date the night before until after 1 in the morning!

* Monday evening, we stayed at home...and you'll never guess what we did! Ryan worked on the next landscaping project while I stuck to blogs, Facebook and Pinterest. I know. We are wildly unpredictable. After all the busy days and nights we tend to have, we really cherish nights like this - when we can stay home doing what we love!

* Tuesday night I had a long, long, long overdue date with the salon. I hadn't had my hair dyed since before my birthday, and apparently at 35, that's about 2 months too long. She covered up about 2 inches of pure white while I settled in with this amazing book by Anne Graham Lotz - set to release in a couple of weeks. I read the whole thing in the 2 hours I sat in that chair.  Love her writing.

* Don't you hate those days when you wake up to a possum in your garage??? Yeah, I hate it too. But that was our Wednesday. :) This little guy got in somehow and started making all manner of messes, so Ryan set a live trap and released him into the woodsy nature...I'm promised far, far, far away from our home. The rest of our Wednesday was actually fairly eventful but I do not have the strength to tell you about it yet. One day. I promise.

 * Thursday evening, Ryan worked SO HARD on the landscaping in the back. You know what I love most? I mention a vision I have, and he makes it come true - only about 50 million times better than I knew how to envision it!! I appreciate his hard work so much. Our house has never EVER looked better.

* Friday morning I went to work feeling AWFULLY cute...until I realized I'd forgotten to do my bangs! I got completely ready except for that! Good grief.  After a day like that, the best medicine is...stay home, curled up on the couch, watching old episodes of King of Queens and Seinfeld. Why in the world you find our bloggety blog blog so fascinating is beyond me! :)

* Yesterday was so nap filled. You don't even understand how wonderful that was!! Really enjoyed the chance to rest and start a new book! I'm not sure why this sudden surge of reading - but it's kind of fun! This time I'm trying out Sophie Hudson's book A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet.