The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we started a new sermon series at church...on faith. Why do I have a feeling this is coming at the most opportune time, given our life station? That afternoon, Ryan and I picked out our flowers for this year...I always love flower shopping! And I got on a bit of a cooking kick and even made homemade strawberry shortcake!!

* Monday was Memorial Day, and Ryan had to go to work, but I got to stay home. I still worked {producers' jobs are never done}...writing interview questions for my show on Tuesday. Braeya took a nap on the dining room table, which made me feel very good about the germ quality of the table! {Good thing we never use it to eat!} And that night, she was so tired from her "busy" day, she took another nap with Ryan!

* Tuesday, I hosted my final full-length show, interviewing Melanie Shankle about her latest book. I prayed that I would just really enjoy that last interview, and I did, so I'm grateful! After work, Ryan and I actually planted the flowers we got earlier. {I completely forgot about them. How bad would it have been if they'd all died!?!!?!?} I loved the outcome...now to keep them alive!

* Wednesday was an encore show at work, so I had a whole day all to myself in my office! I am such a nerd that I printed out a bunch of planner pages and began writing a training schedule for my job. N.E.R.D. The weather was CRAZY that day. Check this out from my drive home. Left picture: out my driver's side of my car. Right picture: Out the passenger side. Seconds apart.

* Thursday I co-hosted BLT with Jim Barron for the last time...he filled in for Lynne while she was on vacation. While I was doing that, Ryan and his co-worker Chanteal were busy winning the little tournament started a few weeks ago. I didn't know he got PRIZES for winning! GOOD JOB, BABY!!! That evening we FINALLY got to lay in the hammock for a while. How sad is it that it's the end of May and that's the first time we got to do that???

* I ended up taking Friday off work because I could, so I spent the day doing errands and chores - and the last of the prep for my speaking engagement on Saturday! One of my chores was laundry - don't you HATE it when one sock escapes getting INSIDE the washer and you don't realize it until you go to switch the laundry to the dryer!?!?? I also surprised Ryan by getting our caricature picture framed! We already had the frame...I just got a new mat to fit it. Love it!

* Yesterday, I drove to Antwerp, Ohio, to speak at a ladies' luncheon at a church. I had a great time with them...they were warm and inviting, and I really appreciated the chance to share with them. A huge storm blew through right when I got up to speak...one more creative way God keeps me dependent! :) Ryan worked, so he couldn't go with me this time. But we got to spend the evening together...little date night out on the town!

The Saturday Six

One.

Anyone else excited that America's Got Talent is back? This is one of our favorite summer shows. Cue the tears!! I'm ready for a good, sappy stories and fabulous laughs! And my first good-tear-inducing-story was this one.


Two.

Source: our very own kitchen!

It occurred to me this past weekend that it's been two years since we redid our kitchen {on a significant budget!!}. I know some of you are new readers since then, and you might not know about our counter top overhaul. I'm excited to report that in two years, the refinishing has held up perfectly, and you know we use that kitchen all the time. I declare the purchase completely worth the money we paid - and I'm still happy with the results! So if you're looking for an inexpensive way to refinish an outdated counter surface that's in good structural shape, we highly recommend Giani Granite!

Three.

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I wanted to skip with glee reading God's hand at work in this love story. If you love a love story {or if you need some hope for your own...READ. All the way to the end. Goosebumps.

Four.

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Who doesn't love peeking into someone's decorating style?? I found this little gem...a summer tour of homes! Check it out!

Five.

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When I interviewed Melanie Shankle this week about her book Nobody's Cuter Than You...we talked about all aspects of friendship, including how to handle the end of them, the rough patches, tough love, and the fun parts. The very next day, I read this post from Kara Tippetts' blog, written by her friend Corrie. What a raw, vulnerable piece on friendship with hard truths we all need to learn. Read this one!!

Six.

I have mentioned here and there that I've been using essential oils lately, and I'm working on a blog post to tell you some of the good things I've seen in my beginning-of-oils journey. I still have much to learn, but I think this is the most fun I've had learning since, oh, forever. Young Living is running a special while supplies last...if you order a Premium Starter Kit, you get an extra bottle of oil {they choose among three kinds and surprise you} for free! This starter kit is what I ordered...because it gave me several kinds of oils to play with as I learn, and I received a diffuser as well, which I love. So if you've been considering hopping into this world, this would be a great time to try it! Email me if you have any questions {and if I don't know the answer, I can find out for you!} and if you decide you want to sign up, you can do that here! {Signing up doesn't mean you have to sell it. It just means you're a member and can get a bit of a discount on purchases...and you get the really cool kit!} 

Strawberry Shortcake

My parents had a huge {read: huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge} garden when I was little. If I'd known to do so, I might have accused my dad of tilling half the yard so he didn't have to mow it. Every year, he ran the red tiller down the plot of dirt, and I'd run along behind in my bare feet, feeling the loose dirt between my toes.

They planted all kinds of vegetables...but they did have a whole section just for strawberries. I'd watch as the tiny green berries popped out and then they blushed into pink and then right on into red. I didn't love picking them, but I did love it when Mom cleaned them, cut them, buried them in sugar, and served them over the little sponge cakes from the grocery store. Strawberry shortcake nights were second only to strawberry pie nights in my book.

As an adult, I continued the tradition of sponge cakes under my berries...but I learned I could get those berries from the store! And then...I learned about the Ivanhoe's strawberry shortcake. If you're not from our area and haven't experienced this delicacy...then I'm just sorry. There's truly nothing I can do to make up for that loss.

But a few years ago, I visited my friend Ronda at her house for dinner, and she offered me strawberry shortcake for dessert. In my bowl, buried beneath the giant strawberries, was a cake that tasted as close to Ivanhoe's as I'd ever tasted. Hesitantly, I asked her if she shared her recipe, and to my delight, she said yes.

I made some this week, and we've been snacking on it little by little every day...and how I love summer. 

Thought I'd share it with you today. The weekend is coming, and it might be the perfect time for some warm cake out of the oven, doused in juicy strawberries and topped {of course} with whipped cream!

Strawberry Shortcake

* 2/3 cup butter, softened
* 1 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 3/4 cups flour
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan or two 9-inch round pans. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk to butter mixture. Bake a 9x13 for 40-50 minutes and smaller layers at 30-35 minutes. Serve warm with strawberries and whipped cream.

A Few Tips

* Since I don't have a garden, I normally buy two 1-pound packages of strawberries at the store, and that gives me about enough strawberries for a 9x13. If you really love a ton of strawberries in your strawberry-to-cake ratio, you're welcome to do many more.


* Rinse the berries, cut the tops off, and cut them into halves or quarters to make them smaller for serving. I like mine a little sweet and juicy, so I sprinkle about 1/4 cup of baking Stevia over the chopped berries and refrigerate them for a while so the sugar breaks them down a bit. If you like the berries very very sweet, you can use regular sugar and add more to create a lot of juice.

* I use whole wheat flour in my baking, so my cake is a little darker than yours will be if you use white flour. I think it still tastes delicious.

* I use fat free or 1% milk and it works just fine.

Bekah's Book Shelf

A couple of days ago, my friend Cherri left me a note on Facebook asking if I'd ever considered putting together a list of book recommendations. Summer reading looms, you know!

The answer? Nope, but yep! I haven't considered such a thing so far...but there's no time like the present to begin! Sadly, I've had PRECIOUS little time to read in the past four years, so I fear my list might be sad. Cherri said that was okay...small and simple was good for a book recommendation list. So today...I offer you some ideas for summer reading! Howsabout we start with five? Will that get you going?

One.

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Love Comes Softly is my vintage pick for this list. I read it in 1990, when I was a sixth grader and graduating officially from young adult fiction into grown up fiction. This was my very first grown-up book, and because of that, I love it dearly. Janette Oke {pronounced Oak} debuted her way into fiction by publishing this book. {Wasn't the first story she ever wrote, but it was the first one she ever published.} And she was the pioneer, folks. All the Christian fiction we enjoy in droves today can be traced back to this woman breaking into a genre people hadn't experienced in such a way before. Appropriate that it was a pioneer story, huh? {Bonus: Janette is a lovely woman; I've written her letters a few times and she's answered each one personally. Much of my love of words and writing is because of Janette. I'm indebted to her as a writer in more ways than I can tell you.}

Even if you've seen the movie on TV {which I also love...shout out to my pre-marriage heartthrob of Dale Midkiff!} - read the book, because it's not the same as the movie. You'll read a tender story of two young pioneers, each wracked by love lost far too soon, each navigating the physical weariness of pioneer life, each wrestling with the push and pull of longing and fear. It's an inspiring read, and I tell you the truth, I wanted to be part of this Davis family in the worst way for most of my teen years. These characters were real to me and I loved them all. {This book is the first in a series, so if you love it, you've got a handful of books to keep right on lovin'!}

Even if you've read this book before, read it again. I plan to.

Two.

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The Inn at Ocean's Edge is my brand new fiction pick for this list. I read it a few weeks ago and wrote my official review of it here. I haven't read fiction in a long time {regularly, anyway} because I haven't had time, and this book made me want to plunge back in with a vengeance! Colleen Coble is a bestselling fiction author and the CEO of the American Christian Fiction Writer's group - and best of all? She's the most down-to-earth, friendly person ever. I met her last year when she came to the station for an interview on Mid-Morning, and I felt like I walked away with a new friend that day. For someone of her notoriety to be so personable is a gift.

If you like suspense but don't like to compromise a faith component in your reading just to get good suspense, you'll love this book. There's excitement, there's romance, and for me {as you'll see in the review} - there's also a chance you can get so caught up in it that you have no idea how much hair is being cut off your head while you sit in the salon chair! I read this book in one day flat, because I could not put it down.

Three.

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One Light Still Shines is my memoir pick for this list. Lynne interviewed the author, Marie Monville, on Mid-Morning a few months ago, and after that interview, I read her book. Marie's first husband, Charlie, was the man who entered an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, back in 2006, and shot several girls, killing some and wounding others. Until the news of the shooting broke, Marie was happily married to her high school sweetheart and together they parented three young children...and she had no idea of the extent of the turmoil in her troubled husband's mind.

You can read my longer review of the book here - but the reason I include it in this list is because I was so intrigued by the family on the other side of the news story we all read in the media. To see this man as his family saw him - as a loving husband and father - to see their confusion and grief and journey back to wholeness - to see God's redemption in bringing new love and new life to Marie - was a powerful and encouraging message for my heart. And I appreciated the reminder, as a consumer of information fed to me by the media, that there's always a bigger story. There's always a family left behind in the tragedies...and their need for prayer as they process the crisis that just occurred is very real.

Four.

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Loving God with All Your Mind by Elizabeth George is a book I read several years ago, but it's one I plan to read again in short order after I transition out of my job. First of all, let me say that Elizabeth George is one of those authors I would LOVE to meet in person someday. I've read several of her books and they have so shaped me as a woman and as a believer. I appreciate her approach to marriage and life and have taken many notes, applied many principles, and even led a couple of Bible studies based on her books.

This particular book centers on the truth that our mind is KEY when learning to love the Lord, and it's a great reminder that what we feed our mind and what we choose to dwell on really affects our thoughts, actions, and beliefs. My mind needs some retraining, and I know it, so that's the reason I'm planning to study this book again quickly. I believe Elizabeth's theology is solid and her approach to teaching is gentle and practical. If you need a good study to do, and your mind needs a reset, I highly recommend this book!

Five.

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Lady in Waiting by Debby Jones and Jackie Kendall is one of my TOP PICKS for my single friends looking for helpful reading. I read this book along with my friend Deanna, back in college, and I reread it multiple times in my twenties. I know I didn't do everything perfectly in my single years, but I credit much of my drive to live a fulfilled life while still praying heartily and dreaming big for a someday marriage to the advice offered in this book.

I have the original book, not the updated and expanded one with study material in it, so I've not read that part, but I'm sure it's fabulous, and I know the content of the original book is encouraging for women eager to prepare for marriage, but also eager to not put life on hold until there is someone to hold. If you are single {or single again...or know someone who is single} - I think this one is an important and helpful read.

Not Forgotten

Twenty-three work days. That's all we've got between me and the last day of serving as producer. That's not many day!! Yesterday I hosted my last full-length interview, with this hilarious Melanie Shankle of the Big Mama blog. I had a great time with her...thankful for those of you who lifted me up in prayer for that last interview!

Besides doing my regular work, I've been cleaning out files and perusing through memories of the last four years. Among them...blog posts I wrote for the Mid-Morning blog. I ran across one that I remembered so vividly. It was from just a little over a year ago, when Ryan and I were in the middle of waiting for his house to sell. Mercifully, we didn't know that we still had about eight months left before that sale would be final, or I'm not sure we would have been able to stand upright.

We were, as always, too busy for our own good. Our entire house had just been uprooted for new plumbing...and the yard took a literal uprooting as well. We'd lived in dust and messes for far too many days, and my poor mom had come over day after day to watch over the place while the plumbers worked.

On this particular evening, Ryan was busy repainting trim that had been damaged in that adventure. I was busy catching up on all kinds of projects I'd slipped behind on during the mess. And as I worked online, I began to see an outpouring of pictures of a stunning rainbow. It was all over Facebook. Every friend of mine, it seemed, who lived in a 20 mile radius had amazing photos of a vivid rainbow with a faint second one hovering above it.

Feeling weary from life and in need of my own personal visual proof of God's promise, I practically threw my laptop across the couch and dashed out the front door to search the sky for the beauty.

And it was gone.

Not a trace.

I came back inside and slumped onto the couch, scrolling through more versions and angles of the rainbow, and thought {with more than a trace of bitterness}....I need a promise tonight just as much as they did. Why do I always feel left out of the promise?

And even as quickly as those thoughts formed in my brain, God gently reminded me, The promise is there, even if you don't see it.

It's there. It's no less real and certainly no less valid just because I didn't get to witness it in that moment. And so it was for our world on that day. I {again, mercifully} didn't have a clue what would happen in our foreseeable future, but I knew in my heart that didn't mean God wasn't working. I knew it didn't mean He had forgotten the good He promised to us.

Ever had that kind of week? When you can't see the promise and you feel like you missed it? Like it somehow applies to everyone but you?

God taught me that week to lean on the proof I saw in the lives of others. The proof that He's there, working, and won't fail on His promises.

And last week, He taught me a new truth through a new rainbow.

Ryan and I were driving to Gatlinburg, and the Lord blessed us with a beautiful day for a drive. Sunny, blue skies...and about halfway there, this:

I saw it, turned to Ryan, and said, Is that a rainbow? It didn't rain!

Rainbows tend to be our reward for getting through the deluge. And likely, somewhere in this vicinity, it did rain that evening. But for the two of us, driving down the road, we got to enjoy the blessing of the promise without a deluge preceding it.

God immediately reminded me of the rainbows I missed...of the times I ran outside to see the promise and felt I'd been left out. And this time, He sent the promise without asking me to go through the rain to see it.

Sometimes His blessings are just like that.

Some Random Fun

A week ago today...we came home from Gatlinburg. We were pretty happy about it.

 We started out right after breakfast, hoping to make it home faster than we'd made it to Tennessee.

But alas, the construction got the best of us.

That was frustrating, but a little later, we passed {on the other side of the road} a horrific accident that we later learned killed 2 people. It was a pileup of six semis and one car. So scary to see such an awful thing up close. :(

On the way home, we stopped for one more meal...at Skyline Chili!!

We arrived home nine hours after leaving - thankful to be back in our own digs!

And I leave you with a few random photos from throughout our trip!!

Donuts I didn't eat but wished I would have. LOOK AT THAT ICING!!!

We got to go through some {really short} tunnels. I love them!! {Unless they're long and then I'm just claustrophobic.}

When the timer goes off unexpectedly.

May there always be glass between a shark and me. {If we must be inhabiting the same space at all.}

What? Is this not the view outside YOUR front door???

Why yes. He is asleep at a table in a courtyard in the middle of Gatlinburg. Let the record also show that while he took this nap, a deaf woman came up and tried to carry on a sign language conversation with me, and I was actually fearful we would awaken him. ??????????

It's POSSIBLE Ryan wanted to go into an "As Seen on TV" store, which should be a blog post in and of itself, but I'll spare you. This, however, concerned me:

Not Noah's Ark, but Noah Arck. And is the blanket made from the mink on Noah Arck??

Things I ponder.

Thanks SO much for taking a virtual trip with us! Hope you had fun! We leave you with this....

Aquariums and Such

Can you handle one more day of vacation? I hope so!! A week ago today was our last full day in Gatlinburg, and I wanted to tell you about our adventures! We started out with breakfast at the Wood Grill Buffet, which was right next door to our hotel. Food was good, but I always feel bad at buffets...I can't eat enough to get my money's worth!

We decided to be tourists on our last day and have some fun back in the heart of Gatlinburg. I really wanted to go to the aquarium there, so that was our main agenda for the day. I cracked up when we found our place in a parking garage, and Ryan made a big deal out of where we put our ticket. {If you missed this story...when we went to Chicago for our anniversary, we misplaced our parking garage ticket and I thought we were going to have to spend the night IN the garage...}

We did a few photo opps in town just for funsies....

That would be Ryan getting a little closer to the bears...

Our first stop for the afternoon was Ripley's Aquarium. We might have been the only people there without kids, but we had a blast! Wanna see a few pictures?

It was such a fun place! They had sharks and had huge turtles and all kinds of fish. We had a great time touring through that.

After the aquarium, we walked through town a little bit, and it began to rain, so we took a lunch break. The Thursday before we left, we talked about pizza on BLT, and multiple listeners mentioned a place in Gatlinburg called the Mellow Mushroom. We love pizza, so we decided to try it out. It was on the second floor of a building and had open windows...so we could watch the rain fall while we ate. A delightful lunch!

It rained pretty hard the whole time we ate, but it let up about the time we were done, so we headed to our next attraction, the Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect in here, and parts of it were fun and parts of it were NOT. It's essentially a museum of strange things - like the guy with the biggest nose {boy did we feel better about ourselves after this!!}

There are many things to read and just look at, and then there are some parts that are interactive, which are fun:

{Sorry that one is blurry - lighting was terrible.}

In full disclosure, because I wish I would have known this before going in, there were a few rooms that were just downright almost like a haunted house. There was also a bridge that had barrel all around it rotating. I had to close my eyes and hold onto Ryan's shirt to get through that without getting dizzy. I didn't care for those parts, and if you go and are easily afraid, it just might be helpful to know those rooms exist in there. Still, overall, it was a great time.

And when we were done there, we went to the Ripley's Guiness World Records museum and walked through that too. Some of the things were the same as the Odditorium, but there were other things as well, and it was just fun to see.  

Ryan tried his hand at crushing cement blocks....

And I, in true Bekah form, took the typing test. I did really well on the first part - so it let me take a second test, but I got distracted during that one and misspelled some words. That killed my score! {Also learned that typing with autocorrect for the past several years has just taken my skills down a notch or two.}

After we left there, we did a little shopping and then headed out for our last Gatlinburg dinner. We tried a seafood restaurant, per Ryan's request...a nice place with outdoor seating called Harpoon Harry's.

And that did it for our trip...just a few highlights for you tomorrow to recap random moments and our trip home. Thanks for visiting Gatlinburg with us!!