The Shafferland Shuffle

A happy fall Sunday to all of you! It's felt pretty crisp around here the last few days, and I haven't hated trying out the comfy sweatshirts again! :) Here's a little look at our adventures this week.

* The week began with us in the middle of an eight-day working stretch, but we did get to enjoy church! A brand new series began at that church that day, and we really appreciated what we learned. Tim and Justine were also on duty with us that day, so our afternoon was a mix of work and a football game that mysteriously appeared on the screen in the Community Room. ;) The evening was so pretty that we went out for a walk around sunset - which comes much earlier these days, I must say.

* We spent a good chunk of Monday in a training session to learn more about drug and alcohol addiction and abuse - trying to understand signs and symptoms to look for and how to help when someone is struggling in this area. That evening we took one of our tenants to a Bible study, and on our way home, we stopped by the store for some groceries. Ryan is loving his new mask - ha! When we got home, he worked hard on some exercises for a class he was going to teach over on the main campus.

* We've hardly had to mow the yard since we got here, because it only rained a couple of times in August, so the grass never grew. We finally got some rain, so Ryan mowed the yard on Tuesday. He also taught the workout class that day and LOVED IT. It fed his soul to be able to share that kind of teaching! And that night we had another class at the church about meals of the Bible. This time it was the Shavuot, and the food was excellent.

* Wednesday was a hard day for me. Nothing earth shattering went wrong, but I think I was just tired as we neared the end of our work stretch - and it was one of those days when life just weighed heavy. I had a great makeup day and cried it all off about five minutes later. Ahhhh. Some days are like that! Ryan and went to a self-care training session that day, so after it was over, we decided to put into practice what we just learned and went on a little coffee date. And then we came back and worked more with our tenants!

* I'm not sure what Braeya was doing Thursday morning, but I guess she thought the couch needed a hug! I did a ton of writing that day; I'm working on developing a different sort of Bible study program for our tenants. Ryan went to do plasma donation again that afternoon - and my goodness. The lines there these days are so long! That night I got in an extra dose of baby snuggles and that ended the day beautifully!

* Friday was the beginning of a long weekend for us! My sister from Kansas was briefly in the state for a wedding, so we drove to Fairmount (near where we used to live in Marion) to meet her and Jeff for breakfast at a coffee shop! We haven't seen them in person for over a year, so it was fun to catch up with them. I took some pictures for them (I think a combo of Christmas card photos and anniversary pictures) and then we shopped at some of the little local shops there in Fairmount. After that, we picked up the desk we ordered for our home office. Fun fact: we ordered this in June, about a month before we moved. It just now arrived!

* We slept in late and made breakfast at almost lunchtime yesterday. It was GLORIOUS!!! Ryan put together our new desk, and it fits perfectly in our little office. (That's amazing, considering we had no idea of any measurements on our apartment when we bought it.) We rounded out the day taking pictures for our friends Adam and Michele and their family - and then we had dinner with them! Ryan was super excited about his fish and chips!