Remembering Memorial Day

Remember Memorial Day? {Does it seem to anyone else that this day was about 4 million years ago now?}

I am actually glad I am behind on telling you about our day because I wanted to update from the post you were so kind to read last week, where I chatted about my struggle with discontentment over that non-lake-saturated weekend. Paula, I saw your comment to me yesterday about the long weekends you spent NOT doing fun things while your husband battled health issues, and it was another great reminder to me that there are so many reasons why we don't all get the picture-perfect holidays we hope to have. Whether its work or health or life chaos, it's not always Pinteresty in this life, is it?

Good reminders to be thankful for what's in front of us and good reminders that we are absolutely not alone in the struggle, even if we have varying details before us. Thanks for being a great community of listeners and boat-sharers with me on this one. I appreciate all of you who pitched in with similar stories and words of encouragement!

Ryan did work all day on Memorial Day, but we reserved Monday evening after he got home for our very first fire pit extravaganza in our new home. Of course it was the first truly hot day we'd had in a while, so we were unsure of the wisdom of adding a fire to the mix, but we did it anyway.

{Oh...do you not start fires with your shredding? Keepin' it classy with the Shaffers!}

We have each had some real doozies of fire-starting-disasters in the past, so we were pleasantly surprised when this one took right off and burned beautifully for the evening. Perhaps the key was to use the shredding!

While hot dogs are nowhere in the same COUNTRY as anything on clean eating list, I wanted hot dogs, because it seemed holiday-appropriate. So we found some turkey dogs, which we hoped were at least on the higher end of the worst-food-for you spectrum. Maybe my tastes have just changed over these last six months...I don't know...but I have to say they tasted just the same as regular ones to me. Delicious!

{Recycling last year's 4th of July shirt. Save money, right?}

With our turkey dogs {and wheat buns, thankyouverymuch}, we had some baked sweet potato fries that were DELICIOUS. One of our new favorite side dishes.

And for dessert, we had campfire cones. If you spend much time on Pinterest, you've probably seen them. Waffle cones filled with s'more ingredients {or whatever ingredients you want.} We had marshmallows, strawberries, chocolate chips, and some peanut butter M&M's in ours. I did a trial run on these in the oven before Memorial Day and they were perfectly melty, gooey, and Pinteresty. The posts on Pinterest said, "Oh just throw them in the campfire coals to cook." Well no one mentioned they would come out CHARRED! So I think we're going back to the oven method.

After dinner, we did hang out in the hammock for a bit!

And because I'm dorky like this, I wanted sparklers for after dark. Ryan is really more of a HUGE fireworks fan, and not really into measly little sparklers, but he was a good sport and humored me.

So all in all, it was a lovely evening, and I'm glad we had a bit of time together!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Jessica Chance, you're the winner of the I Don't Wait Anymore giveaway! I've sent an email to you to get your address so we can get that delivered to you! Thanks so much for entereing! 

* Last Sunday was our first day without Miss Phoebe, and I scarcely knew what to do with myself! Ryan brought me coffee so I could ease into the day while I got ready for church. Kind husband, he is. We had a good, restful afternoon, and I even enjoyed some time in the hammock, imagining I was on a boat, since I was reading all these posts from my friends who were at the lake for a weekend! Ryan and I were outside later that day and found a frog/toad/WHATEVER hoppy thing lurking outside our garage door. SHIVER!!!!!!!

* Monday was Memorial Day, which meant Ryan worked like a normal day. I chose to do my normal work too, since I felt guilty taking a holiday if he didn't get one. But I did insist that we have SOMETHING of a holiday meal that night, so we did our first hot dog roast in our fire pit! We rested in the hammock together, went for a long walk, and ended the night with some sparkler fun. It was a good night!

* Tuesday was so pretty, and Ryan and I wanted to eat lunch on the porch - but look what joined us! Another hoppy thing. What in the world!?!?!? That evening we went to the viewing of one of his former patients, and while we were in the little town for that, I found these silos that I thought we should buy and turn into our OWN Magnolia silos! LOL!! We had just enough time, when we got home, for Ryan to put up this sconce that he found for the crowning touch on our "clock tower."

* Couldn't believe that Wednesday brought in the month of JUNE already! I worked hard all day {all week, actually} on writing projects, and Braeya joined me, because eating erasers is a helpful writing tool, right? That evening, we enjoyed a particularly stunning sunset. There have been many of those this week too, but we really enjoyed this one!

* Thursday was our monthiversary, and while it was possibly one of my worst hair days and not one of our best life-days overall, we still managed to enjoy our evening date...dinner out at Ryan's favorite of Buffalo Wild Wings, a little bit of coffee, and some shopping. Those things tend to make up for a bad day!! Thankful for 42 months of life together. Even on hard days, at least I have a great teammate in my corner!

* So it turns out Kokomo has a strawberry festival, and it was this past Friday! I went during the day, along with one of Ryan's co-workers, to get strawberry shortcakes for all of his department, before the festival sold out. {They did that last year.} Then Friday night, Ryan and I went back to enjoy the festival for ourselves. We got some delicious BBQ for dinner, and we even had a little shaved ice treat at the tent of some friends of mine!

* Ryan worked all day yesterday and as soon as we got home, we had to head out for "Fake Father's Day." His family always has a HUGE Father's Day bash, but this year, some of the group had a conflict on the day, so they moved Father's Day up by two weeks! It rained all day, but not long after the shindig started, the rain cleared up and the sun even made an appearance! And guess who else made an appearance!?!? PHOEBE!!! We got to take her with us for the evening. Such fun!

Fellowship

Kids have told us we have a boring house.

I have no idea why they say this. Surely it's not because we turn into Frank and Marie Barone, covering Mo in blankets before meals. Surely it's not the lack of ANY toys or gaming systems. Surely it's not the chorus of "No no, don't touch" sung by both parents as kids wander through the rooms looking for anything interesting.

Surely not.

Ahhhhh who are we kidding? We are boring non-parents, begging our friends to bring along an activity bag for their poor kids who are subjected to nothing but a hostile cat and her discarded toys for an evening of fun.

Despite that, we love having friends over and wish we had time in our schedule to do it more often. And this week, we were reminded of why we love company so much.

Last week I set up a photo booth in our pirogi, and Ryan's mom came over to take our pictures. It's an annual practice...fall pictures around the time of our engagement. I so loved the way the photo booth turned out, I wanted to invite the whole city to come over for pictures in the pirogi.

{Or at least those whose last names begin with S. Just kidding. We had an alternative wreath plan.}

On a whim, I called some friends...some new friends we just made at church. A family of six, which meant an entourage of four very potentially bored children. But I thought they might want a photo shoot...even though their last name didn't begin with S.

Much to my delight, they were eager for a photo shoot, and I braved asking if they might want to stay for dinner. Nothing fancy. Totally kid-friendly. Grilled hot dogs and s'mores at the fire pit for dessert.

They. Said. Yes.

And so we got ready! We set up the photo booth for a non-S family....

We watered the flowers to perk them up...and rearranged all the pumpkins...

Ryan started the grill...

...and we had a photo party. I climbed around on ladders and zoomed in and out...Ryan held tree branches out of my way and arranged kids in front of parents so I could snap memories.

They were great to photograph: no blinkers, big smiles, and non-protesting kids.

And that was just the beginning. Because after the photo fun, it was dinner time. Hot dogs and chips and fruit...

And a fire for s'mores...

And we had fun. So. Much. Fun.

We chased paper plates and napkins around the yard. We sat on straw bales and told stories. We caught marshmallows on fire and sipped coffee in the waning sunlight.

Kids piled on the hammock to talk and swing. They tried to see Braeya, but she was up to her hissing tricks, so that wasn't as much fun as any of us hoped.

But the night was lovely. New friendships formed, fellowship underway, and the promise of much more to come.

Ahhh fall. How I love the friendships you forge.

My First "Vacation Days"

When I started making plans for my post-station life, it became very important to me to live on some sort of schedule. Not that every day would look the same, but that each day would have its own set of tasks and I would not fall prey to watching endless movies and taking naps.

But I also determined that part of the joy of this season and its accompanying flexibility is the opportunity to take "vacation time" and "sick days" as needed. I don't want to get so caught up in working and marking things off my checklist that I don't take time to rest and rejuvenate when needed.

So I think it's a pretty fair start that last week involved two work days and three vacation days! I already told you about Sisters' Day Out last Wednesday, but I wanted to show you some of the fun from the rest of the week as well It's a rare treat that Lori comes to visit, so when she does, I like to spend as much time with her as I can!

Braeya was excited for a new friend in the house...

{I believe that is her "please stop taking pictures during my back rub" face.}

Lori and I visited Cato and actually lost all track of time while shopping. We were late to lunch with Mom and Dad. WHOOPSIE!

We went to visit my nephew's grave...

Mom wanted to take us to this cute little restaurant in Kokomo {called Gabetta's}, and it worked out that Ryan had a long lunch that day and he got to join us too!

And then it was an afternoon of shopping for the girls...where I managed to avoid spending a dime, and instead texted my love to Ryan.

Also...why are these back????

Friday night, we tried to have a hot dog roast in my parents' backyard. Dad certainly succeeded with ample kindling for the fire:

Ryan found it to be a little on the warm side for the actual roasting.

 

After all that, we were forced to eat inside because it started to rain AGAIN while Ryan cooked the hot dogs.

And we had lunch together on Sunday as well...but I didn't take any pictures of that. Too busy stuffing my face with food!!

I did get a going-away picture with Lori, though.

Such a fun visit - and I remain highly grateful for the flexibility to spend time with her! I am keeping careful track of the many blessings I'm already seeing out of this season of life, and time with her was one of them!

Finding Rest

We've been a l'il busy.

Just in case you've missed it.

You know...what with the kitchen overhaul...and a few other projects we have up our sleeves around the house...and work...and...and...and...

Ryan is the most motivated individual I've ever met in my life. He will get up early, work hard all day, and stay up late to get a project done - day after day if he needs to. It's inspiring. But I'm a writer. My hardest work is typically done while curled up on a couch, sipping coffee.

We're a good balance. He encourages me to persevere, and I encourage him to rest. And that, my friends, is team work.

So it completely warmed my heart when, this past week, he suggested an impromptu rest night. We'd worked hard most of the week, had a not-so-good run that evening, and while I cooked dinner, he suggested we spend the rest of the evening in the pirogi, just soaking up the goodness of life.

People...if you're not doing this sort of thing {in whatever version of detail best suits your personality} two or three times a month, you. are. missing. out.

 He built us a fire in our fire pit...on the most perfectly suited weather evening for such a thing. No wind. Not too hot. Not too cool. Just right. And while the flames licked the wood, we sat at our patio table and ate Skillet Pepperoni Chicken.

And once dinner was over, we poured the coffee and brought out the s'mores supplies. Ryan had gone to the gas station to get some chocolate for us, and found these Reese cups and Nestle crunch bars on sale, so that's what we used. We like to live on the edge.

Ryan was the official marshmallow roaster for the evening....

And we enjoyed them! I think the Reese cup one was my favorite. The Nestle Crunch bar was great, but we had a king size bar, so it was thicker and the chocolate didn't melt very well.

After dinner, we sat out there and worked on our computers. I wrote my blog and Ryan proofed it for me. I love it that he always pre-reads for me and gives me his opinion. :)

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it that Ryan sees my need for evenings of rest and makes sure we take time out just to enjoy our home, our time together...and rest.

Seriously. If you've not had a night like this one - even on the fly - lately, make the time. So worth it.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Well I sort of already recapped last Sunday for you - but as you might remember, it was our six month anniversary and we celebrated with a four hour nap and dessert and coffee at Bob Evans. {Yes, we're the 30 somethings who LOVE Bob Evans coffee and pie!!}

* Monday evening, we ran to Hobby Lobby for the finishing touches for our kitchen - which included this cute quirky monogram for our kitchen. I was going to get the goldish, fancy typeface looking S, but this one caught our eye and we decided to go for it instead! I also had a great time catching up with my friends Bev and Carol, who came over to pilfer through all the stamps I'm selling. We had fun!!

* Tuesday evening, Ryan gave me one of the best gifts he could give....a night of just heart to heart talking. We've spent a lot of time together over the past couple of weeks, while working on the kitchen, and that has been good, fun, and productive, but we were always so busy working that we hadn't really connected in our hearts. So we ate dinner outside, rested in our hammock and took a long walk where we dreamed about our future. Perfection.

* Wednesday night, Faith came over for a little bit and we sat out in the pirogi catching up and eating dinner {and reminiscing about the vacation we were on together 3 years ago at this time} and then Ryan and I did another quick landscaping project. he liked the little paver pillars he made for our backyard so much that he made a couple more for in front of the garage. I already had flowers in pots out there, so this just added to it!

 

* Thursday evening, after we got all our chores done, Ryan decided to build a fire in the fire pit and we had our first s'more fun of the summer! We ate dinner at our patio table and then had coffee and s'mores and stayed out by the fire working on our computers until it was time for bed. A perfect night.

 * Friday evening, our moms met us at the apartment Ryan owns {old tenant just moved out} and we cleaned it. Then his mom joined us for dinner {Chinese!!} and when we came home, my parents stopped by to see our new kitchen renovation. They were pleasantly surprised at how it turned out! And please enjoy this picture. I tried to be responsible and pulled off the road to take it rather than photographing while driving, as I normally do, and a car JUST about took me out when it refused to move over at all while going by me while I was stopped. The sunset that just about wiped me off the planet:

 * Yesterday Ryan wanted to work on the yard...and he adores doing that. Me...not so much. So I camped out in a lawn chair and caught up on the scrapbooking while he did his yard work. {And I was the designated Lowe's-runner every time he needed something!} And I took a break to attend Savannah's birthday party...a tea party! We ended the day with a date...a perfect night.