The Saturday Six

One.

If you're feeling a little bit forgotten - even by God - read this post by my new friend, Jessica. God is in the details. ALL the details. Even your details, and her reminder here is gentle and encouraging!

Two.

A very honest article on beauty. Such a hard topic to address honestly, because none of us want to admit that it bothers us as much as it probably does. I just appreciated her words, including these: "There is no perfection in true beauty—there is only redemption. It’s black and white, the paradox of loving my imperfections. It’s when I throw my shame aside and slip on my broken boots."

Three.

Ryan's Valentine's gift to me was this beautiful handmade sign from the Etsy Shop Wildwood Home Studio. The shop owner lives here in Indiana, and she uses reclaimed wood to make the signs. Ryan ordered this sign custom-made to go with my Surrender Cross from RAD JOY, and it is just so perfect. Ryan said the shop owner was great to work with and he highly recommended her! I adore the quality of the sign and the fact that it has a history!   

Four.

I guess in some ways, this post goes along with the theme of the first link up here in the list, but I guess sometimes when a similar theme keeps popping up, it's for a reason. If you're struggling because you feel like God is only all about the BIG stuff and life seems very small, take an encouraging read here.

Five.

 Hey Rachel in North Dakota? I saw your mind blown comment from the Shuffle about the clean eating queso and mozzarella sticks, so I wanted to share with you (and anyone else whose mind was also blown) the links to those recipes. They both came from the Dashing Dish website, and if you've hung out here very long, you know I LOVE ME SOME DASHING DISH RECIPES! Now, some of her recipes are exclusive for members, and the queso is in that group, but I totally assure you the monthly membership is worth the price. We eat so many recipes from this site and I adore Katie and her ministry. So here's the recipe to the queso (quick tip: we did not find that this reheats well as a leftover. Next time I make it, I'll just make half a recipe because that's all we could eat in one meal). I have not tried this recipe, but she has a clean eating white queso recipe here...and it's not a membership recipe, so anyone can see it. The skinny crispy mozzarella sticks are not a member recipe either, so you can view it without a membership!

Six.

Source

I had seen some teasers online about a new book called Fear Fighting by Kelly Balarie, and since fear is something I struggle with way more than I should, I decided this would be a good one for me to read and review.


Here's the thing about fear. It is a big, bad, suffocating monster that cannot be cured through reading a book. I will tell you that and Kelly will tell you that. In fact, in the afterword of the book, she says, "I don't know your timeline, but I do know that God wants to handle these two words (ahem: set free) one-on-one, hand-in-hand, and in conscious partnership with you. He reserves the right to decide when 'set free' is achieved." And it's true. You can't read this book and find the magic formula for ditching fear once and for all. But you can read the book to find two really important things: a friend who genuinely understands how you feel in your fear, and some suggestions for how to attack the moments of fear that can stem from so many different sources.

Fear Fighting is the kind of book I imagine myself going back to on multiple occasions, to find the specific chapter to accompany my present fear, and reacquainting myself with the ideas in that chapter. Whether your fear comes from the need to be in control, a desire to please everyone in your path, worry, comparing yourself to everyone around you, the unknown, rejection (real or imagined), or the resurgence of your own past, Kelly has Scripture-based suggestions to help you combat what Satan intends to use to thwart you.

She shares honest, vulnerable stories from the span of her own life - times when fear has bested her and times when she's overcome through the power of the Spirit. She offers Scripture to speak against the fear, and at the conclusion of every chapter, she offers some specific take-away thoughts and challenges.

Fear may be a life-long battle for you. That's very possible. But its dominance can lessen over time if you're willing to let God step in and teach you how to lean on Him instead of into the fear.

People who don't struggle with fear (ohhhh how fortunate!!) don't always understand how debilitating and discouraging it can be, so to have a friend who does get it and is willing to offer the hope that has worked for her in a spirit of compassion is such a gift!

* Baker Books provided me with a copy of this book at no charge. Opinions are my own. *

The Saturday Six

One.

I dearly love Holley Gerth. Such an encourager. {I have a flip calendar by my bed with her writing in it, and I love flipping a new page each morning to read what she has to say!} This post is just beautiful, and if you're struggling with the question of why you're here on this earth, read her thoughts. I particularly love this quote: "Whatever 2017 may bring, there is One who has brought me into this world for Himself. There is no greater calling. There is no more glamorous career. There is no higher glory."

Two.

 This week, I decorated our home for Valentine's Day. I don't have a ton of decorations for this holiday, but I'm always looking for new pieces to add. Maybe you're that way too? I don't have any of these (yet) but Ever Thine Home has some great, timeless, faith-based decorations for Valentine's Day. This is the same company that created the Adorenaments we love so much and had in our home at Christmas. So I can definitely vouch for the company providing quality products, even though I haven't seen these in person!

Three.

Anyone else crazy excited about Beauty and the Beast coming out? I am not AT ALL a big movie buff. I enjoy watching them (at home) but never count down to any or want to see them immediately. It's just not my thing. But this one? Oh yes. Belle is my FAVORITE princess. The trailers are amazing, and I think Ryan fears I'll be singing all the songs at the top of my lungs in the middle of the theater. (It's a legitimate fear.)

Four.

 I know I've posted a similar link to this in years past, but I think it's important to share again! Katie at Dashing Dish has a new lineup of skinny Super Bowl snacks to make. If you're hosting a party this weekend and need some healthy and flavorful options, check these out!

Five.

You know how I love finding new date ideas! Found this one this week..filing it away for later, after we're done with alphabetical dates. But in case you need an idea before then, check it out!! Looks like fun! 


Six.

Source

This week, I read a new-to-me author: Patricia Bradley. Her latest novel, Justice Delayed, interested me because you know I love a good crime/suspense novel!! It had been a little while since I read one, so I thought it was about time to feed that side of my reading love again.


Andi Hollister, a TV crime reporter, is doing her best to work her way up the network ladder, and her family is doing their best to make their final peace with her older sister's murder, which took place eighteen years earlier. The man convicted of killing her - Jimmy -  will be executed in three days, and they can finally relax, knowing justice has been served.

But with just hours until execution, Jimmy receives a handwritten letter from someone who says she knows he didn't kill Stephanie, and she can prove it. But before she does, she winds up dead as well, and everything the Hollister family thought they knew about this case is flooded with doubt and question.

Andi and her cop-brother Brad, and his investigator-friend Will suddenly have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to make sure Jimmy isn't wrongfully executed, and if he's not the killer, to find out who should be sitting behind bars in his place.

I was really excited to read this book and even told Ryan I bet I would knock it out in a day, staying up until all hours of the night to finish it, with heart racing clear to the last page. And while I didn't dislike the book or the story line, it didn't grip me quite as much as I thought it would. I was fairly near the end before that I-must-keep-reading-even-though-I'm-so-tired feeling hit me.

Part of the problem for me were all the characters in the novel. They were plentiful and at times, it was hard to keep them all straight. Andi, Treece (her best friend and fellow reporter), Brad, and Will were easy to keep straight, but there were a whole crew of other names, several beginning with J or L that I kept getting confused. I had to slow down my reading to keep track of them.

And part of my problem was my confusion of details I was certain would become major parts of the story that didn't, and other details that I didn't think should matter, but they did. I had to keep slowing down to reprioritize as I read.

For me, the story was good, but the suspense wasn't as gripping as I'd hoped. I would absolutely read this author again, but I would probably pick a different series next time.

* I received a copy of this book from Revell at no charge, and all opinions are my own! * 

The Saturday Six

** Quick housekeeping item: KAREN BLINN!! You are the winner of Designed to Pray, the book I featured on the Saturday 6 last week. I'll email you and make arrangements to get your copy to you! Hope you enjoy it! **

One.

I don't think I need to explain to you why I think this photo organization method is so amazing, do I? I happened upon this whole post via Pinterest, and while this girl-after-my-own-heart has a ton of amazing organization ideas, the photo one made my heart sing the most.

Two.

Whether or not you liked the change of presidential power yesterday, I'm pretty sure you can appreciate this article about the nuts and bolts of how they move one President out and a new one in to the White House in one afternoon flat. Given that we took something like a month to move from one house to another, this whole process absolutely fascinated me. I think if we ever move again (which is unlikely), I'd like this staff to be in charge.  

Three.

Maybe Ryan and I are the last people on earth to learn about the RTIC Tumblers, but just in case you're with us, let me fill you in! Ryan's brother and his family gave both of us an RTIC tumbler for Christmas, and we used them this week while home on Ryan's gallternity leave. Mind-blowing and beverage-changing! They're marketed to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold for a ridiculous amount of time and they actually do. Ryan had coffee in his and hours later, he said it was still piping hot. I had iced tea in mine and still had most of the ice in it the next day. We are sold! Love them!! Worth the investment if you're looking for new drinkware!

Four.

I've talked often on here about Katie Farrell and the Dashing Dish website. Love Katie's ministry and her recipes! She recently announced that she's expecting her first child, and on  her blog this week, she posted a wonderful article about things she learned in the waiting. Whether you're waiting on a baby or something else entirely, I think you'll find some helpful words in here! 

Five.

Valentine's Day is less than a month away now, you know. Found this post with a multitude of decor ideas, but my favorite is the one for decorating an old window frame for Valentine's Day. Since we have three old windows decorating our home, I love this idea for sprucing them up! 



Six.

Source

As you know, our January has leaned more toward the heavy side, not because of all the food we ate during December, but because of all the health debacles. I decided life was heavy enough. No need for the book of the week to add to it! So I shopped on my shelves and found one I'd never had time to read, but knew I'd laugh all the way through: The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle.

Melanie has published three books, and if I'm not mistaken, I think her fourth one is coming soon, but I had only read two of the three she'd published so far. I started with her first book, Sparkly Green Earrings, which is a hilarious memoir on motherhood, and then shortly before I left WBCL, I read her third book Nobody's Cuter than You, an equally hilarious memoir on friendship. (I also interviewed her about that book back when I was still in radio.)

But the middle book, The Antelope in the Living Room, her memoir on marriage, sat on my shelf, raising its invisible book-hand, begging to be read, but I just hadn't gotten to it! And my goodness, was it ever the perfect book for a heavy month!

If you've read either of Melanie's other two books, I'm happy to report that her conversational, blogger, story-telling tone carries through this one exactly like it did the other two. I am pretty sure I even read it in a southern accent, because she has one, and it's delightful, and I wanted to feel like she was reading the book to me.

This book is a collection of stories from her marriage to Perry, who is her opposite in many ways, and yet her best friend and support. I laughed so hard and made Ryan mute the TV no less than 37 times so I could read him "just one more thing" from the pages, because sometimes Perry and Melanie were so Ryan and Bekah.

I confess perhaps I should not have read the chapter on Perry's surgeries prior to Ryan's gallbladder extraction, because Melanie freaks out about the same sorts of medical mishaps I do, and it reminded me I worry for a reason. But even though it didn't calm my fears, it let me know I wasn't alone in them, and for that, I was grateful.

I appreciate how most of the chapters end with a tie in to a spiritual lesson, but I just dearly love the stories themselves. They are totally worth the read. It's good to laugh. It's good to know you're not alone in your own personal irrational thoughts. It's good to read real life stories. And did I mention it's good to laugh?

This book isn't a new one. It was published in 2014, so I'm clearly behind the times on this one. But it was a lighthearted read sorely needed in this month of heavy thinking. If you're having a heavy January, I recommend this one. (And Melanie? I cried forever too over Princess Diana's death. I can't believe neither of our husbands took it as personally as we did.)

A Shafferland Day in the Life, January 2017

Julia from My Life in Transition does "Day in the Life" posts every quarter, where she records what life is like for one day from start to finish. I love the posts, but always felt our life was probably too boring for such a post. (Although I sorely wish now I would have done one when I worked at the station!)

But record-loving me knows that in ten years, I'll wish I'd done a "boring" post on our 2017 life, so today is my first day to post such an event! None of our days ever look the same (EVER!) but here was what last Saturday looked like in Shafferland. (Sorry in advance for the length.)

Saturday, January 14, 2017
Bekah is 38 years old
Ryan is 37 years old
Braeya (the cat) is 10 years old
Married 4 years (49 months)


6:00 a.m. || The alarm goes off for the first time and is appropriately labeled for how I feel about all alarms. I decide to ignore it. For the next 52 minutes, actually.

6:52 a.m. || Ryan is up and getting ready, and alarm #2 crawls on the bed and begins her version of beeping. There is no snooze button on this one.

6:55 a.m. || I'm up, because alarm #2 wants a drink from the sink. Yes. She has a water bowl that is always full, but she insists her drinks come from the sink. And she can put away some serious H20.

7:01 a.m. || He normally already has it going, but he must have ignored his alarm too, because I find Ryan brewing coffee. My day can't officially begin until that is ready and consumed.

7:02 a.m. || I'm in my purple bathrobe and relegated to the couch to read blogs, check all the social media, and see the latest conflicting set of opinions on the ice storm we may or may not get today or tomorrow or never.

7:22 a.m. || Ryan delivers my cup of coffee to me and proceeds to check the weather which has, in fact, changed significantly in the twenty minute span since I checked it. Eyeroll, Indiana.

7:30 a.m. || Ryan and I cuddle up on the couch for our devotion and prayer time together before he goes to work for a while. We have just started reading LuAnn Fulton's book Image Seeker.

7:45 a.m. || We are two days away from Ryan's gallbladder surgery, and yesterday we learned that in the next little town over, 172 students were absent from the elementary school and 29 more were sent home with stomach crud. So our life from now until post-op consists of vitamins, oils, diffusing, and anything that will keep the crud at bay. I begin the oil regimen for the day.

8:10 a.m. || I am curled up on the couch eating my go-to breakfast these days: plain Greek yogurt sweetened with honey, homemade granola, and blackberries on top. Since it's Saturday, I'm allowing myself all the extra time in the world to read blogs and Facebook links, and currently I'm wandering through a post about a cookie for every state in the USA. No wonder I want breakfast.

8:36 a.m. || I pause the fun to do some work. I recorded a podcast this week with the author of a prayer book, and I need to promote the podcast on social media and email links of my work to her publicist - keeping up my end of the promises for having her as a guest. And of course, I'm OCD, so I have a checklist for all the promotion chores to make sure I don't miss any.

8:58 a.m. || I'm sitting at 300 steps for the day, which is not stellar for being up for two hours. But it's not out of the ordinary for a writer on a Saturday. So I get up and begin the first of many laps around the house. In the summer, I get my steps in outside, but winter knocks out that possibility, so throughout the day, it's lap time!

9:23 a.m. || I now have a more respectable 2000 steps under my bathrobe belt, and would have had them done sooner, had Braeya not needed another long drink and a potty break. {If you missed that post, we are in the throes of toilet training - like actually TOILET training - our cat, so potty breaks actually require monitoring and documentation of their own.} Before moving on to the next activity, I've decided to pause and begin a kitty training post, since so many have asked for updates on this adventure so they can go and do likewise.

10:06 a.m. || I'm getting dangerously sleepy on the couch, so it's time to get up, get showered, and get ready for the day. Since I have no intentions of leaving the house today {although so far = no ice} I decide to just do the skincare regimen and not mess with makeup, but I WILL go to the trouble of drying and straightening my hair so I don't have to do that all over again tomorrow and can instead sleep longer! {My hair is so thick that it takes FOREVER to dry and straighten, so I always make sure I can get two days out of it.} Athletic workout shirt and yoga capris since I'm in for the day. How I do love a Saturday!

11:02 a.m. || Finally conquered the hair, so I'm officially ready for the day. Realized that Rosie {our iLife vacuum} never ran this morning because we keep forgetting to reset her auto-start feature, so I start her and resume the step-gathering for the day. Walking in the house is beyond boring, so I pass the time by texting Ryan to see what time he's coming home for lunch, texting my sister in Kansas to see if their predicted ice storm actually showed up, and surfing Facebook, where I find the most ADORABLE picture of Ryan and his siblings then and now. Man, he was the cutest kid in the universe! Those dimples!!

11:37 a.m. || 5000 steps conquered, which puts me right where I want to be by lunch time. Ryan just texted that he's heading home {carefully, as freezing rain has arrived, according to the Scanner Facebook page}. I've got green beans cooking on the stove, I'm working on my next round of water {since I'm behind - whoopsie!!} and I'll warm up our leftover meat from yesterday so we can throw down a quick lunch before he has to go back to work to treat more patients.

11:47 a.m. || Lunchtime! Leftovers for the win with warmed up coffee from the bottom of this morning's pot to cap it off. While we eat, we talk about his morning, how long he'll have to work in the afternoon, and how horrible of a commute all his co-workers who live far away are about to have when it's time to go home.

12:18 p.m. || The mail arrived while we were eating, so before he goes back to work, he runs out to get it so I don't have to. It's my favorite kind of mail day: I got a package! A new book, which I'll read next week and hopefully be able to arrange an interview with the author soon!

12:23 p.m. || Ryan slides back to work, and I make a date with the couch for some more reading before I get up to do some chores. Coffee and Pinterest sound like a good start to the afternoon.

12:48 p.m. || Phone rings and it's my friend from college/editor of my last book, Amy, who had asked if she could interview me for a project she needs for her degree. Of course! It's perfect timing since Ryan's at work. She settles in with her questions and I realize I could knock out some steps while I answer, so I pace around the house and have the nicest talk with her.

1:54 p.m. || Interview concludes and so does my step goal! SWEET!

2:00 p.m. || Pull out my Bible and brand new journal {one of life's true pleasures - if you're a writer} to have my devotions and pray for a while.

2:27 p.m. || Expecting Ryan home from work anytime now, so I hustle into the kitchen to empty the dishwasher, which ran after breakfast this morning, clean up the general mess I hadn't bothered with after lunch, make a pitcher of iced tea, and refill the diffuser. While I am up, I make my 2:30 snack, which Ryan always teases me about. If the clock turns 2:31 and I've not had my snack, my body starts hollering. It ALWAYS knows 2:30.

2:43 p.m. || Finally sitting down with the 2:30 snack. Today's snack of choice is the Dashing Dish Chocolate Chunk protein shake. My favorite. And the cup makes me smile too. Favor from my niece's wedding last summer. Always drink my shakes from this cup!

3:06 p.m. || Ryan's still not home, proving that "anytime now" is a very broad range. I decide to do the next project on the list, which is to take down all the old Christmas cards hanging inside the kitchen cabinets and replace them with the photo cards we received for Christmas 2016. I like to keep them hanging up all year, out of sight, but where I see them daily, so I can pray for our friends!

3:26 p.m. || Ryan texts that he's headed home and we have our standard code conversation for "Do you want a Coke?" followed by "yes please," without actually having to admit I want a Coke. His timing is perfect. The photo hanging project is done just as he writes.

3:48 p.m. || Ryan is home from work, changed into comfy clothes, and we've hit the couch with the remote, which is when I realize I have never turned on the TV all day! He's not feeling great, but we power through because the gallbladder eviction date is IN SIGHT. Sounds like rest is in order.

4:09 p.m. || He's already asleep on the couch, and that nap I kind of wanted this morning is beckoning again, so I curl up beside him. Clearly there will be no photos of us sleeping unless Braeya has miraculously figured out photography. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her lately. Probably taking an all-afternoon nap of her own.

4:57 p.m. || Found her! Wake up when Braeya walks across my hip while I am sleeping and curls up on Ryan's lap, which is her favorite place to be. Discover I've missed about 8 texts from various people in the last half hour, so I stay up to respond. Figure I should probably get up and start working on dinner, but it's just so cozy all curled up under a blanket with Ryan. Decide to catch up on Facebook and emails before moving.

5:20 p.m. || Crawl off the couch and head to the kitchen to start on dinner. We're still on the all-chicken diet, since it's about all Ryan can eat without feeling sick. I assemble salads {spinach, celery, almonds, cranberries and cheese} and defrost chicken breasts to grill on the stove for the top. Ryan's watching football, and gets up long enough to brew the evening pot of coffee before heading back to the game.

5:48 p.m. || Sit down in the living room to eat our salads and watch football. {In 2016 we made a goal to try to eat more meals at the table and we do, almost all the time. But if we want to watch TV while eating, we'll make an exception and move to the living room.} Someone shows up hoping for scraps.

6:03 p.m. || Ryan is feeling better and decides Marie Callender's Razzleberry pie sounds good. Surprisingly this is one thing he can eat without getting sick, and he can have so few pleasures in the food world right now, that who am I to say no? He bundles up and heads to the store for a pie to get him through the weekend. I wait at home to preheat the oven.

6:30 p.m. || The pie is in the oven, the coffee has brewed, and we decide if we don't work out RIGHT NOW, it's never going to happen. We're working our way through the BeachBody Hammer and Chisel workouts, and tonight is Chisel Balance. I'm terrible at balance, but I want pie, so I'll do my workout! We change into workout clothes, fill up our water bottles, and get busy balancing.

7:13 p.m. || Workout done, and we crash. Ryan goes back to football and I check in with my workout accountability group and begin to edit pictures from a family gathering a week ago. I've been so caught up in all the gallbladder stuff that I forgot I had pictures sitting in the camera!

8:00 p.m. || Ryan brings coffee and pie to me on the couch, and we eat while he flips back and forth between football and Dateline and I write Sunday's blog post. Braeya begs for dessert just like she begs for dinner. No shame for that one.

8:51 p.m. || I pour second cups of coffee for each of us and pull out my new coloring book I got for Christmas. All my to-do list items are officially crossed off for the day, so I am happy to have time to sit down and decompress while I color.

9:21 p.m. || Remember that I never shared Christmas pictures with Ryan's family. Stop to upload copies for each of them so they can use as they wish. Sometimes I feel like Amelia Bedelia. I get so easily sidetracked and have to stop RIGHT THEN to do whatever I think of!

10:02 p.m. || I have my standard end-of-night snack: a small mug of healthy cereal. The night is winding down, and Ryan and I are curled up on the couch with our laptops. Pinterest for me, Amazon reviews for him. We are the coolest. We stop now and then to tell stories from our day and exchange useless trivia. These common, low-key nights are my favorite.

10:16 p.m. || I check the weather to see if there will be any impact on our drive to church tomorrow and then peek ahead to Monday to see what the weather looks like around the time of Ryan's surgery. If they're right, looks like we should be okay all the way around. It's Indiana, though, so this forecast could change 100 times between now and Monday.

10:30 p.m. || I load all our dinner/snack dishes into the dishwasher, reapply oils, refill the diffuser to run while we sleep, and check to make sure Ryan turned on the heated mattress pad. He has, of course. He's good with the details.

10:48 p.m. || My calves are tight and sore, which is not unusual, so Ryan is kind enough to give me a leg massage. He claims I could sit for a 24 hour massage and he's probably right. He's yawning, so my guess is this won't be a 24 hour massage, but I'm loving it anyway!

11:15 p.m. {ish} || We both fall asleep watching football, which is a sign it's about time to call it a night.

11:36 p.m. || We drag ourselves to bed and turn on Friends, which is typically what we fall asleep watching. We talk for a few minutes and Braeya crawls up beside Ryan. Not sure how long we stay awake before we finally conk out!

All in all, it was a very good and productive Saturday. Maybe we're not as boring as I thought! :) And that's a day in the life of Shafferland, January 2017!