The Shafferland Shuffle

Thank you so much  for all your prayers and kind comments this week regarding Ryan's mom. She remains in good spirits, but is still ill and we welcome (and depend on) your prayers. Thank you for loving us well.

* Last Sunday we spent the whole day at the hospital down in Indianapolis. We had initially planned to venture down after church, but Ryan felt prompted to not go to church and head to the hospital early. God was behind that! We were able to spend many hours alone with Nita, talking with her, praying over, singing with her...it was a sweet, sweet day that we won't forget. Grateful we listened to the prompting in Ryan's heart! (Oh! And before we went, we dropped off a big batch of cinnamon rolls at a friend's house...a belated birthday gift!)

* Monday morning, one of Ryan's co-worker's left a snack basket on his desk! She had put much time and thought into putting together a pretty (and tasty) group of snacks to keep us fueled on our trips back and forth to the hospital. We felt so loved! I also went to the cupcake shop to cash in a gift card. They had allllllllllll the flavors. Impossible to pick. (I picked the one with the cookie on top because I considered it a two-for-the-price-of-one bonus.) I caught Braeya trying to break into (or maybe eat?) my journal. Think it was because I didn't share our cupcakes with her?

* Tuesday I dove in and cleaned up the ENTIRE Mt. Stuff that had taken up residence on our bedroom floor. When I was done, I sent a picture of the CLEAN room to Ryan. He was quite pleased! I also finished decorating the house for winter - AND made a chicken pot pie. :) That night, we went back to Indianapolis to visit his mom. She was very alert and very FUNNY that night. I laughed until I cried!

* I was doing some work on the couch Wednesday and heard this huge squabble. Looked outside, and the earth's entire population of birds had landed IN OUR YARD. It sounded like something out of a horror movie out there! I spent the afternoon doing a little organizing with my colored pencils (sigh of joy) and made some clean eating sugar cookies. They were so delicious.

* I spent part of Thursday at Bible study - it was good to be back with the ladies in the group!! That night, Nita came home from the hospital, so we went to their house to help settle her in. It was a very sweet evening, and she was so happy to be home. I'm sure it will be much easier to rest without all the beeping of monitors and people coming in to poke her all the time.

* Ryan had Friday off work (another God-thing I'll have to tell you about sometime) and we were able to spend the entire day at his mom's. Well, we started the day by going on a breakfast date. (Dates are hard to plan right now, so I was extra grateful for the gift.) I made a little office for myself in the loft and cranked out a lot of work, and he was able to help take down Christmas decorations and do some other rearranging and organizing around the house. We shared a couple of meals with them and I spent some time praying with and reading Scripture to Nita.

* We got our first measurable snowfall yesterday, and measurable it was! We were far too tired to fully appreciate the fun that this snowfall could have been. Ryan was off work, so we were able to sleep in, and I stayed home, trying to get caught up on some chores/work/reading/scrapbooking/life. He ran some errands and went to see his mom for a bit, and then we hunkered down to watch the Colts game. (We won't pause to talk about that.) We also both got naps, although mine wasn't nearly as long as I would have liked. (I've decided that everyone on earth must know the very moment I finally fall asleep because that's when some phone rings.)