The Saturday Six

One.

A killer headache this week, which was partially induced by a high ponytail, pushed me to start looking for alternative hairstyles that let me do something with my hair without utilizing the pony. (I have so. much. hair. that is so. thick. it ends up giving me a horrific headache if I try to put it up higher than the base of my neck. I never think about watching YouTube tutorials, but I decided to try it this week and learned how to do the waterfall braid! Here's the video I watched if you want to learn it too!

Two.

It's possible I might be posting this one as much for myself as for any of you! (Hey, I can do that, right?) Anyway. I found this article this week about how Amazon Prime Day is coming. Last year was the first year we had Prime, and I missed the whole thing until it was almost over. So I need a crash course on how to prepare, and this offers just such a course! (If you're proficient in snagging deals, feel free to share your secrets, too!)

Three.

I haven't tried these, so I can't vouch for any of them but it's quite a lovely list of ideas of healthy dishes for the 4th of July. So if you're trying to be good and need some ideas of how to still make festive food, there might be something in this list for you!

Four.

We didn't realize when we purchased our patio furniture last year that our seat cushions double as bird potties. (Our furniture sits well back under our porch overhang, and we didn't know our porch is a prime bird hangout. Eyeroll.) Here are some ways to really clean the cushions, not just to free them from bird festivities, but just to clean them in general!

Five.

Painted picnic baskets! What a great idea! (And tis the season of garage sales, you know, so you might be able to find some real deals!

Six.

And to end your Saturday with a smile, this is the sign I should really get for Ryan. Forget the moon.

What I Learned in June

We are officially into summer now and simultaneously halfway through the year! It's been an educational little month for me, so I thought I'd share with you some of the things I've learned!

1. I am weird, weird, weird when it comes to losing weight.

If you've been reading here long you know that two and a half years ago, I went on a mission to lose weight and ended up losing right around 30 pounds. I had gained almost half of it back and wanted to fix that before it got out of control. So the day after my 40th birthday, I started a new eating plan. One of the components of the plan is that I write down everything I eat (and when I eat it) every day so I can begin to see patterns of things that help and hinder. Well, in six weeks I've lost eight pounds, but I've also learned that my only pattern is I have no pattern. Sigh. The days that should register a loss often plateau or register a gain and the days when I step on the scales praying I've not gained end up showing a loss. I'm weird.

2. Cleaning and reorganizing my office makes me happier than it probably should.

In the past few months, my home office got about as out of control as the pounds on my body. Stacks and clutter everywhere! So when school ended, I made cleaning the office my first summer project. It took several days to sort, weed out, clean up, reorganize, but ohhhhhhh what a thing of beauty it is now! I'm so happy in there! (Still have to tackle the closet, but the OFFICE is back on track.)

3. My inner teaching nerd loves to tutor.

I've been working with a friend's daughter on some reading skills, and I'm full force into nerdville with that project. Curriculum, games, school supplies - be still, my beating heart! But also - seeing her face light up when she gets something right? The. Best.

4. Dogs can donate blood.

I had no idea. One of my Facebook friends posted about it after her parents' dog nearly died and one of the vet's employee's dogs donated blood to save her life.

5. I've gotten used to hearing my voice but not seeing myself on a screen.

We were asked to do the announcements at church a couple of weeks ago, which meant we went to church in the middle of the week and recorded them on video. When they played on the big screen on Sunday morning, I was entirely freaked out at the sight of myself. After years of radio and podcasting, I've gotten used to hearing my voice, but I've not gotten used to seeing myself, and it's just WEIRD!

6. I like the atmosphere of a fundraiser walk.

Ryan and I walked in the 2018 Indianapolis Kidney Walk this year, and I really enjoyed it. I know a lot of fundraisers take place in the form of a race, but I really enjoyed being able to talk together with the other team members while we walked. I also enjoyed being able to stop whenever we wanted to take pictures. It's a whole different atmosphere, I know, but I enjoyed it!


7. You can lose weight by showering. (I probably can't. But it's possible.)

Ryan weighed himself the other night, went to shower, and then weighed himself again and he'd lost weight. WHAT? All my little programs always preach getting weighed before showering so you don't have all that water on you. But he said back in his wrestling days, they'd work out, sweat hard, and then shower to wash away all the salt and sweat and sometimes they'd lose weight in the process. Who knew?

One Word at a Time

I've been thinking about words even more than usual lately. I mean I'm a writer and a speaker (and female) so words are always on my mind. (So is food, but I digress.)

I've spent part of this week gearing up for my next class at the public library, where I'll hopefully be able to offer some ideas to people who are trying to capture their own life stories. I've spent part of this week brainstorming talks I'm giving in the months to come. I've spent part of this week rereading things I wrote weeks ago, mostly to see if they make any sense. (Whew! They do!)

And of course, there's the post I shared with you yesterday about how it's safe to assume that the people around you can use a word of encouragement.

So yes, words have been on my mind.

Last night, after Ryan and I got home from choir practice and sank into our respective seats to catch up on emails, blogs, and all the other things we hadn't had time to check, I clicked on this post by my author friend, Marissa. She's releasing a new book soon, which I had the privilege to read a few months ago and will tell you more about later, but she posted on her blog for the first time in several months. I read merrily along, and when I hit this sentence, it just smacked me hard:

All authors write one word at a time, and those words matter to God.

That sentence in context talks about how some authors are more successful than others and how it's easy to get caught up in comparison games if you're one of the "others." It's true, and I've certainly felt that sting before, but I know that gut feeling isn't unique to authors. You could tweak that sentence to fit whatever you do or whatever passion drives your heart and perhaps sometimes leaves you feeling a bit left behind.

But that sentence reminded me of a little story I want to tell you today. (I don't think I've told you this story before, but if I have, enjoy it again!)

I've told you before about another author friend of mine: Jody Hedlund. She published her first book less than ten years ago and has published several more since. I really enjoy her writing style and am thrilled for the success she has found in the traditional publishing world. It's fun to see her name on books in bookstores when I browse the shelves.

But Jody and I have a history beyond author and reader. As I've mentioned before, she and her husband were youth pastors at our little church when I was a teenager. They were newlyweds and college students, and that's how I met them. I didn't even know back then that Jody liked to write!

Our youth group was so very small at that point in our church's history, and most of the members were related. Siblings and cousins made up the majority, so they tended to attend in bulk. They were either all there or no one came.

One Sunday, they were all there, and we also had a visitor in our Sunday School class. I don't even remember this kid's name, but his dad attended our church. His parents were divorced and he lived with his mom, so we didn't see him very often. But he was there that day. This season of my life was incredibly awkward for me in every way. Looks, personality, all of it. And the same was true for this kid. He probably wasn't on the most popular list at his school, and I'm sure it was uncomfortable for him to sit in this little youth group that was basically a family reunion plus a couple of stragglers.

I've apparently blocked out all the details of who said what, but somewhere in the conversation that morning, this kid piped up an opinion about me that was so unkind. I do remember it was one of those moments when everyone just froze and stared, like did he really say that just now? Poor Jeff and Jody: they were stuck with trying not to ostracize the visitor while still protecting one of their own. Whatever they did must have smoothed it over, and even though it hurt me, I understood that he was probably just speaking out of his own insecurities.

That week, though, I received a card in the mail. I still have it. It was from Jody, and in it, she expressed how wrong and rude the visitor had been and she went on to encourage me from her own heart and from the truths of Scripture.

As my friend Marissa said in her post, all authors write one word at a time, and those words matter to God. Jody hadn't yet written a single published word, but one word at a time, she wrote a blessing over an awkward teenager, and I believe those words mattered as much, if not more, to God than all the words of her published writing success combined.

We all do our thing one step at a time. For me, it's writing and speaking. For you, it could be something entirely different. But all of it matters to God - even the little parts that hardly anyone sees. You never know when something you do or say will be the thing someone holds close for always.

Live your life one word (or fill in the blank with your own thing) at a time. And know that it all matters to God.

Safe Assumptions

I know, I know. We're taught to never assume. Too many bad things can come from that, right? And in just about every case, I'd say you're right.

But.

I think there's at least one part of life where you can make assumptions and be safe: the part where you assume someone around you could use a little encouragement.

We had a meeting this week with one of the pastors at our church, and during the meeting, she mentioned how much she loved the thank you note I sent her after my birthday. She said it had encouraged her so much, and she would keep it forever, because it reminded her of things she needed to hear.

She wasn't the only one who said something like that to me after the thank you notes went out. It seems I have a handful of friends who needed to be lifted up and reminded that they're valuable to me.

And I understand that!

It happened to us on Sunday when the announcements we'd recorded played during the service. (There is nothing that will make this girl's sometimes-insecure heart beat faster than seeing a larger than life version of herself on a screen. What were people thinking? What had I been thinking??) And after church, some people stepped out of their way to tell us we'd done a good job.

Relief. Acceptance. 

I thought of it last night after we got home from choir practice, and I thought of the people I should have stopped to encourage. The people I should have built up. They're singing solos and playing instruments and probably wouldn't hate hearing they are doing well. Why didn't I pause to take those two seconds? (You can better believe I will be pausing at the next practice!)

So yes, I believe we can safely assume everyone around us could benefit from a little encouragement. A reminder that they're seen and known and loved. A reminder that they have value and meaning.

Who can you encourage today?

And Then We Went On a Date!

Well, Spill the Beans never did happen last week. By the time my cold was better, Ryan's schedule was too packed to record. :( Womp womp. But we tried to make it up to you this week with fun stories! Enjoy!

Listen here!

So yesterday I told you about our day (morning, really) at the kidney walk, but we had decided we wanted to make a day of it in Indy since we were already there!

Before we started the Ryan-and-Bekah date, we went out to eat with the team of people we'd walked with. It was kind of early, so we picked a pancake house so people could choose whether they wanted to eat breakfast or lunch!

Look at what Ryan got!

Yes, that is a bread bowl. Yes, he ate it all. LOL!!

I was thankful they at least had a healthy menu! (Not every restaurant does.) That's a flattened chicken breast there, not a partially eaten pancake.

It was nice to sit around and talk with old and new friends!

After that????

IKEA, baby!!!!!!

Ryan found a loveseat he really liked. We need to replace ours, which is extremely worn, and we loved this one. Unfortunately, this would also require us to redecorate the entire living room. That part wasn't so much in the budget right now.

I'm not going to lie - it really was ridiculously comfortable.

Apparently so began a theme for the day, because when we reached the café, we stopped for coffee and settled in their little lounge area to drink it.

And about three minutes later?

(He was still holding his coffee.)

So we "rested" there for a while and then finished our shopping. (No big ticket items this time.)

Our next plan was to have dinner at a new-to-us restaurant. I'd gotten some gift cards for my birthday, and we wanted to go! But we had a little time to kill before it was really dinner time...so we went grocery shopping. I know! We are THE coolest.

Then we went to dinner. Abuelos. Ever heard of it?

Upscale Mexican restaurant. (Not so upscale that we couldn't wear shorts, but upscale enough that we changed out of our "Urine Luck" shirts. LOL!)

We had THE nicest waitress and my goodness, the food was delicious! (My salad was HUGE! I made three meals out of it.)

We were excited to get home even earlier than we anticipated we would, which was nice since we'd started the day at 5:00 or something crazy like that.

Fun day, fun date!

2018 Kidney Walk!

You may or may not remember that a few weeks ago, I told you the Shaffers were preparing to try a new adventure: a fundraiser walk! We've never done anything like this before and are generally terrible at asking people for money, so it made us appropriately nervous. A huge thank you to our friends and family who helped us reach our personal fundraising goals going into this past Saturday's walk! Not only that, but together, our entire team raised just under $2,200.00! So exciting!

We decided to do this walk in support of our friend Pat, who is a two-time kidney transplant recipient. (You can read more about that in the link above.) But the fundraiser was this past Saturday, and I wondered if I could appropriately overload you with photos! (I was the designated photographer for our team. Rough job.)

First of all, a look at our team shirt. Isn't it the best?

We had to get up super early to meet Pat and his mom to head to Indianapolis, so we decided that would be a good day to cash in our Starbucks reward drinks. We don't look so great before coffee. We apologize.

When we got close to Indy, we met up with more of our team members and Pat and another of our friends (also from our high school) joined our car.

There were parking vouchers for the first 150 (I think) cars that arrived. The car in front of us (also part of our team) got the last voucher, and don't you know, they gave it right back and said to give it to us. What a blessing!

We arrived at the walk just in time to get our wristbands, free t-shirts, and do a few photo opps!

Pat and his sister's father-in-law (Hi Larry!!!) who made Pat's most recent transplant possible!

All alums of the same high school!

Gearing up to start the walk!

 Game night crew!

 And we're off!

(Ryan paused for a picture with Billy the Kidney.)

The Shaffers have officially begun the walk!

Feats that are not easy: taking an in-motion photo of eight people.

The class of 96ers:

(Well, not the two in the back.)

Oh, Indy, you are awfully pretty:

Photo opp with the city:

Team photo:

There were big jokes about who was going to cross the finish line first. (It wasn't a race, but some of the competitive ones in the crowd wanted to make it a race!)

Hee hee hee.

A little post-walk celebration. It was such a fun day, and we were SO thankful the rain held, after falling for almost a solid week. It was overcast, but a most pleasant day to be out walking!

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you for the donations that helped us help those battling kidney disease! Proper thank-you notes are coming your way! (Hey Katie, can you message me your email or address? I saw your name on the list and wanted to thank you properly!)

We are so glad we did this!