The Saturday Six

One.

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 I stumbled across this blog post last week, written by another family experiencing a move and life transition right now. I loved the post, because it reminded me of how I feel about our move away from our home, but what I REALLY LOVED was the idea of leaving our names on a board in the attic. So of course, when we go to the old house next time, I plan to do this in the attic there!. One more mark of our family on that home before it passes on to a new legacy with a new family!

Two.

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A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a link to the wedding photos from one of my friends. This week she blogged a bit about their unconventional and completely Christ-centered relationship. These two inspire me, because I think they do something right that a lot of us don't get: they say right out loud they have no idea what they're doing except following hard after God. Two people following Christ together. That's what it should be.  

Three.

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I grew up eating cereal for breakfast, and for many of those years, my choice was Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Whenever I needed a break from that, I usually chose Cocoa Puffs. For about a year in college, I lived on Captain Crunch Berries. Seeing a theme here? I tended not to pick the healthiest ones! Ryan and I don't eat a ton of cereal, but we do like it for a snack {he eats more of it now than I do} and we struggle to find a cereal that's affordable AND good for you. While this one doesn't usually fit in the affordable category {unless we find a good sale}, it does rank as my current favorite cereal: Post Great Grains Crunchy Pecans. It tastes much like the granola I make!

Four.

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I love finding a good testimony: a good reminder of how absolutely involved in every detail God actually is for each of us. And so....read this.  

Five.

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I finished two books this week. The first one has been part of each day for several weeks now as my devotional reading. I told you a while back that I read Mark Batterson's book, The Circle Maker, but at the same time, I also started his 40 day prayer challenge companion book called Draw the Circle. I sheepishly confess that it took me longer than 40 days to get through it because with moving and a vacation, I didn't read every single day. But my delays were purely self-inflicted and were no reflection on his quality of writing at all! :)
 
Mark published this book in 2012 after he wrote The Circle Maker, and while you will find some content transferred from the main book to the companion guide, you'll also find a lot of brand new content, some of which was inspired by letters and emails he received in response to the main book. He shared stories people told him after they had begun to pray circles in their own lives, and he added new stories from his journey along the way.

This book is, in format, very much created for daily reading with short chapters and a Bible verse to begin each day's reading. I found within it the same style of underline-worthy phrases and challenges that I have always found in Mark's writing, and it was a good daily guide in learning to pray genuinely and with passion and risk.

I also appreciate that Mark doesn't claim to be a prayer expert or to always pray well. He shares of his own shortcomings and desire/hunger to learn more on the subject, but he also shares incredible stories of moments when God did big things because of prayer.

So if you like a daily reading guide better than a standard book, this would be a great choice for you. Because it's 40 days in length, it would be great for Lent or for any season when you want to mark out a prescribed number of days to pray over something!

Six.

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I've shared before on the Saturday Six about Ian and Larissa Murphy and their Christ-centered love story. I was excited to find out in 2014 that they released a book about their story, but because my free time was so limited then, I wasn't able to read it when it came out. But I purchased it recently, eager to read more of their story. And the book did not disappoint.

If you're looking for a sappy love story, this isn't it. If you're looking for a place where grit and grace collide and bubble over in the truest form of love, read this book. Ian and Larissa Murphy were young, in love, and dreaming about becoming engaged, planning a wedding, and living happily ever after. Their dreams and hopes and life looked much like anyone else's. And then came September 30, 2006, when Ian's car crashed with an SUV, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury and both of them with a future 100% unlike anything they envisioned.

Their book, titled Eight Twenty Eight, is a nod Romans 8:28 {as well as Ian's dad's birthday on 8/28 and their anniversary on 8/28} and is filled with the truth of how two imperfect people push forward in the most unimaginable circumstance and choose love. Larissa shares honestly about her fears, her anger, and her confusion as to why God would allow her beloved Ian to be trapped inside a coma, trapped inside his own brain, and unable to walk beside her to make her dreams come true.

She also shares honestly about how she began to see that despite his disability, he was still very much her Ian. He was still funny and tender and caring. He still had a deep, unwavering faith in the Lord, and he still loved her and wanted to marry her.

And they did marry. They married, and their life is full of nothing any girl would ever dream of for her future. She's a full time care-giver and wrestles with fears and worries about the reality of their forever. They live in a suite with Ian's family and every day, a village helps her care for her husband. But they married, and their life is full of everything any girl would ever dream of for her future. She's loved unconditionally, championed daily by her biggest encourager, and her faith is strengthened as she watches Ian love her as Christ loves the church.

 I love a good love story. I love my own love story and I love the stories of those around me. But this one - this one challenged me to the truth of love. The choice, day in and day out to rise above the temptations, rise above the challenges, rise above the unfairness that pervades, and just love. Larissa says, "The simple beauty of this marriage is the truth he speaks and the God he loves. We live as two empty vessels, vessels that we know not how to fill on our own, but are completed and perfected through what we receive down, what trickles down, from perfect love in him."

THAT is the love story we should desire.

It's Not Perfect in Shafferland

Okay so here's the thing.

You know how it can be on all things social media. The complaining, the eternal verbal vomit, the dumping ground of emotions - all the things that make your roll your eyes and click NEXT!!!!!! I try so hard to make sure my Facebook page, my Instagram, my Twitter feed, and my blog stay free of that kind of drama. I don't want any of them to be places where people fear they may be reading another bitter diatribe. I want my world wide web spaces to be a mix of encouraging and funny and challenging, but never mean.

But I fear that in my quest to do that, some of you may have the {entirely false} understanding that things are rosy all the time in Shafferland. That we never get irritated, that we're super-people who do it all, all the time, with a smile.

Uh, no.

We get grumpy and cranky, just like everyone else. We have days that are not our finest and moments we are not proud of, and we go through our own set of injustices, irritants, and frustrations just like everyone else.

Enter today's story. I'm sharing it not to be ugly, but just because it got so flat out ridiculous, it must be told. {For our own Shafferland chronicle preservation, if nothing else.} So grab some coffee and sit right back.

Back in early March, Ryan ordered a package from ebay, which is not unusual for him...he's purchased from there many times. It so happened {much to my current chagrin} that while it was in transit to us, I went to the Post Office and updated our address so we could start getting mail at our new house. I was so excited that day; I'd never changed my address before, and I even documented the trip!

It took longer than we thought it should to start getting mail at our new house - and one of the things we were waiting for most urgently was this ebay package. Finally, when I thought enough time had passed, I went to the Post Office in Kokomo to ask for help. They told me it can take up to two weeks to start seeing mail again {no one mentioned that} and I needed to wait. That was fine, so we waited, and actually a couple of days later, mail started showing up.

We got all kinds of mail, including packages, but not the ebay package.

So Ryan got on ebay to check the status of the order and found out the package had been delivered to Marion and then returned to the sender instead of being forwarded to us, and we could not even contact the seller because in the meantime, the seller canceled her ebay account.

So Ryan opened a claim with ebay to at least get our money back, since we couldn't communicate with the seller or even leave a review stating what had happened, and days went by before we finally got a response from ebay.

They ruled in favor of the seller, stating we had an insufficient address and the package was therefore undeliverable. Our fault. End of story.

{I'm actually not sure how having TWO addresses is insufficient. Shouldn't that be classified as SUPERsufficient?}

I called ebay to try to get to the bottom of it, but of course they couldn't talk to me because I'm not Ryan. So I interrupted his project for him to give them permission, and I explained to the nice man on the phone that we did not have an insufficient address...we had taken every step to leave a forwarding address, and other packages got to us just fine, so why didn't that one? He said it was an issue with the Post Office, so I should take it up with them.

And you can know I did.

I called and they needed a tracking number, which of course was no longer on the ebay website because all the information regarding the purchase had been deleted along with Mrs. Seller's account. Ryan managed to find an old email with the shipping tracking number {YAY for email hoarding!!} and I called the Post Office back.

I got a very nice lady who took a long time researching it and even included a supervisor in the discussion, and eventually she told me that the seller had mailed the package in such a way that it required a return to sender rather than a forward in the event of a move. We would have to contact her to get it back, the Post Office said.

Yeah. Got that. Except SHE CLOSED HER ACCOUNT, REMEMBER???

So I called ebay back and unfortunately that time, I did not get a kind gentleman who oozed understanding. I got Mr. Impatient who wanted to interrupt my every sentence, and even went so far as to say rather sarcastically, "So you're telling me this woman knew you were going to move and did something just to get her package back?"

How in the WORLD did you get THAT out of my story? Of course she didn't know.

Mr. Impatient continued his rudeness and insults until finally he said he couldn't talk to me anymore because I wasn't the account holder {little late for that??} so I shoved the phone in Ryan's hand, gave him the "talk to the hand" and went in another room to count to ten about a hundred times.

At the end of that call {Mr. Impatient continued his loveliness with Ryan}, we were told we would have to get a letter from the USPS stating the package was marked returned to sender if we had any hope of getting our money back.

So the next day {because it was about 9 p.m. by that time} I called the USPS as soon as they opened and told my whole story AGAIN, and the lady said, "Oh we don't write letters here."

WHAT?? You're the Post Office! You know. CARRIER OF LETTERS.

She did give me another number to call, which I did, and I found out the entire menu of options only goes to voicemail, so I started calling back every hour and punching the next number on the menu, leaving the same message in every voicemail down the line.  

MERCIFULLY, because I think the Lord knew I was at the end of my pitiful mental rope, my kind-as-I-could-make it quip on Facebook about the debacle caught the attention of one of Ryan's co-workers. She asked him what was going on, and another co-worker overheard, and she had a connection at the local post office.

We have lift-off, people!!!!!

Her connection at the Marion post office was able to find a scan of our package when it arrived, and while it's dark and grainy, you can see where the package is marked return service requested. He faxed the scan to the Kokomo post office and I went to pick it up from the NICEST gentlemen I had encountered in this entire debacle. He was so sweet and I found out later he actually listens to WBCL and remembered me! Small world, and fun story!

So...we don't have a resolution yet, and I am thoroughly exhausted. Part of this exhaustion could be because in addition to the aforementioned adventure, I also spend every other day on the phone with our cable company, because every other morning when we wake up, the service is out, and we have to call and go through the menus and all the tests and wait 24 hours for a technician to come out and fix it so we can have cable for one more day before we start over. In six days, I met three separate technicians.

Ryan may be the one in our family who wanted to be a fire-fighter, but I'm pretty sure I'm the one who ended up with the job...this week, anyway!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we were still in Wisconsin, and we had the chance to attend church with Tom and Olivia {and hear the keynote speaker from the conference}. That afternoon, Olivia took us to a cute little coffee shop in their town, and that night, Ryan and I enjoyed some time alone together while they all went to their small group meeting. {Since it was our birthday trip, we figured, we needed some alone date time!}

 * Monday was our last day with Tom and Olivia, and while I haven't had a chance to tell you all about it yet, we got to visit a cheese factory {Ryan's big Wisconsin wish} AND go see the dairy farm where Tom works. Late that afternoon, we packed up our car to come home, since Ryan was still sick and needed to just get home to rest. The trip home was blissfully uneventful and MUCH less snowy than the trip UP!

* Tuesday, we had the entire day at home, and we had really been looking forward to that day of down time and productivity. Unfortunately we both had different goals out of the day and we failed to communicate them to each other and then everything that could go wrong DID {in the world of technology}, leaving us with no TV, no internet, and no smiles by the end of the day. {The one bright spot was we DID get to take a walk together!} Definitely not our best day and no way to end a vacation. 

 * Wednesday we returned to normal, and the cat and I curled up by the warmth of the sun coming through the window to work on computer stuff and do our devos and all that. I worked to do laundry and put things away, and I ended up with this one dish that I could not figure out my designated spot for. I'd had one, and then I used the dish, and then I couldn't remember where it was supposed to go. WHOOPSIE!!! And I spent my entire night on the phone with ebay and the US Postal Service, trying valiantly to win some justice for a purchase we made. My thoughts on THAT...

 * Thursday night, after Ryan got off work, we went back to our Marion house to get our lawn mower and some bookshelves, and spring was so beautiful there! :) On our way home, we went by Lowe's to pick up our new counter top for the wall we took down our first week in the new house. That thing is HEAVY. He's going to have to find muscular friends for that installation. I'm out.

* Friday was stunning, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood just because it was too pretty to stay inside! That night Ryan and I worked to clean out the shed, and then we put the cover on our new pirogi! Yep, our new house came with a pirogi, and while it is different from the last one we had, it is lovely and we are excited!

* Yesterday was a long day with hard work from sunrise to long after sunset, but it was so rewarding! We {along with my parents and our friends John and Sandee} moved all the stuff from our old garage to our new house. It was SO RELIEVING to get that all done!! There was a new{ish} donut shop in Marion that we ran out of time to try, so we made that our treat before the day began. OH. MY. WORD. It's good we're moving farther away. So grateful for the help of our friends and for a husband who perserveres in getting everything done well!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we attended our nephew's baby dedication. He slept through the entire thing {which is probably every pastor's dream}, and we enjoyed the chance to see Ryan's family and have lunch together with them after the dedication. And then we came home for a long nap, IN BED. {It's a serious nap when you go to the trouble to unmake the bed, right?} I'm not sure I've ever been so grateful for a day of rest in all my life.

* I spent Monday catching up on computer work; it turns out that working on a house/move for two weeks puts you SEVERELY behind on your computer work. So I go that caught up, which made me feel so much better. When Ryan got home from work, we went back to the Marion house to clean it from top to bottom. Our friend Ronda came to help, and we were so grateful for her, because without her help, we would have been there until almost midnight, I'm sure. Kind of sad to see the place so empty, but at the same time, continually excited for the chapter ahead of us.

* Tuesday night, we had our first dinner guests at our new house! The place isn't even remotely ready for such things as entertaining, but when you have friends who are moving away, you overlook things like boxes and undecorated walls and serve things like hot dogs and chips - and you focus on the goodness of the company instead of the perfection {or lack thereof} of the house. We had the greatest night playing with the kids and laughing and telling stories! The first of many such times, we hope, for this house!

* The first week we were here at the house, the weather was so warm and sunny...windows open every day...and then winter seems to have returned ever since. Wednesday was a cold, windy, rainy day, and of course it was errand running day for me. But I got everything knocked out in no time and that night, Ryan and I got the attic all organized. {Yes, we are such nerds that things like attic organization make us much happier than they should.}

* Thursday I worked on all kinds of computer organization projects, and Braeya was so bored by it that she curled up next to me to sleep the entire time. Ryan came home from work sick {another sinus debacle...this is three too many for the man who never gets sick} and rested most of the evening. I was on my own for the workout...and man was it a rough one!!

* Friday morning, we took a little road trip since I spoke at a conference this weekend. And oh yes, that is SNOW we drove through on APRIL THE EIGHTH!! WHAT?!?!?!?!? We weren't overly thrilled about that part. But the trip was good and I even got to meet Lindsay Sherbondy of Lindsay Letters. I'd interviewed her back when I worked at the station and wanted to visit her little shop!

* Yesterday was the conference, and it was such a joy to be part of this event! I spoke in two sessions and was thankful for the group God put together to attend. I was so excited to have Ryan with me throughout the day {although I did question some of his methods during the setup session!!} I can't wait to tell you more about all this! :)

I Guess She Feels At Home Now

Earlier this week I told you of all the trauma-drama-rama of moving Braeya to our new home. I am happy to report she has fully settled in and this is now HER home and {as usual} we are merely permitted to dwell here. {Lucky us!}

Thought I'd show you some of her settling in. She is a character.

No need to make the bed. This is good. 

 Why yes! I will help you put away the laundry.

 Okay, since you went to all the trouble to make the bed, I'll sit here.

 Under the covers, quality control, on the job. 

 And right here: her latest obsession. She cannot get enough.

 So I guess all my fears of her never getting off the couch again as long as we live are unfounded. It's home. She's staying. And if we're good, she might permit us to stay, too.

Random Shots of Moving

Many of you have asked for actual pictures of the house, and the only reason I haven't posted an official tour yet is because we are so not even close to unpacked and assembled, so I want to have the place a little more put together before I "invite you in." But rest assured...it will come.

Meanwhile, I've tried my best to document the process of moving pretty well {hard in some ways because I didn't have the move I envisioned, which included an actual, designated photographer}. So some of the pictures are tripod-ed and some are maybe not the best composition or quality, but they all do represent the beautiful madness of our last couple of weeks!

One of the first days we were here, while I waited for my friend Sandee to come help me paint, I sat by the door and soaked up sunshine while eating my yogurt and fruit and drinking my water. It was a lovely moment, because it gave me hope for many more beautiful, quiet breakfasts in this space.

I may have to do an entire scrapbook page titled "How Many Places Can Ryan Use the Head Lamp?" He has gotten a LOT of mileage out of that little Christmas gift! Here he was trimming out the wall up by a vaulted ceiling.

One of our first nights of work...Ryan served me coffee over what will be our bar height counter top. {It's not here yet.} Having my own coffee-shop feel in my house? Yeah that was a good day.

The necessary parts of moving that take forever and leave you nothing to show for your hours of work. LOL! Shampooing the carpets.

 When you have to paint a wall you hadn't planned to paint because you discover someone painted around the air freshener.

The joy of assembling a new home is sometimes interrupted by continuing to DISassemble the old one. Taking down the bookshelves so we could relocate them to the new house.

Thought I'd try out the old head lamp. It works better on people who don't have hair.

Instructions for assembling the new kitchen table and chairs. Too many steps!!!

Okay so we're going to need taller stools than that.

Milestones are worth all the work. First night sleeping in our new house - even if we did have to sleep on the floor because the bed wasn't there yet!

We are grateful for each day and all the work we've accomplished in a really short amount of time. We may be equal parts elated and exhausted, but it's a good little season.

SURPRISE! Howsabout We Move NOW????

Life has been nothing but a surprise this past week. We offer you our thoughts on the matter....

Click here to listen.

The same day we received an excellent inspection report on our new house {back in February} I started packing.

People teased me. People made flat-out-fun of me. Who starts packing in February when the anticipated move date is April 23rd?

People like me who have learned that nothing ever goes according to plan, and have the gut feeling that, in fact, this would go much FASTER.

I packed and packed. Every day. Organizing, purging, throwing away, setting aside for rummage, chronicling the journey in a scrapbook, sorting, wrapping, documenting in a binder, packing. The piles in our dining room reached almost to the ceiling {and we had tall ceilings} thanks to Ryan's superb Tetris-esque stacking skills.

I'm not kidding.

When we initially made the offer on the house, we asked if we could close on March 24th, which was the last possible day the previous owners could wait to close {we wanted to buy time for our own house to sell}, and they had asked for 30 days to leave the property. So we arranged a mental move date for the weekend of April 23rd.

In the counter-offering process, they threw in a concession to move out in 15 days instead of 30. And in our eagerness to move, we decided to leap forward and close as early as we could, which ended up being March 14th instead of March 24th. And on closing day, the sellers told us they'd be out within a week.

That's how we came to have our keys to the house on March 21, THREE DAYS before we ever thought we would even CLOSE.

This is why I started packing early.

And because our friends rock and helped us out so much in demo and painting and cleaning and {as you're about to read} MOVING, we were actually nearly fully moved to our new place by March 31.

WHAT!?!?

Here's how it started. {Part of this story is told in the podcast, too, but I wanted you to see pictures!}

Our friend Shawn had an unexpected vacation day last Tuesday. The weather was nice {for apparently the LAST time for a while} on that day, and he essentially donated his vacation day to help us move. Ryan was at work, and I was at the new house, cleaning with the {heavy} assistance of my friend Sandee. Shawn borrowed an enclosed trailer, drove to our old  house {probably an hour and a half drive for him}, loaded up every one of those Tetris-stacked boxes BY HIMSELF, drove back to our new house, I helped him unload, and then he and Sandee and I drove back to the old house, half-filled the trailer again, and unloaded a second time.

This was SO not in the plan. And yet it was SO amazing. We never dreamed we would get such a blessing!! {Of course when the three of us went back for load #2, Sandee and I just started dumping the remaining kitchen items in boxes that we didn't even bother to seal. I held the Kitchen Aid mixer in my lap on the way back to the new house. It wasn't organized. But it got done.

Because of Shawn's EXTREME generosity, we were able to go back two nights later to move the rest of the furniture and other things that we hadn't had time to grab on Tuesday. We had planned to load it all up into pickup trucks and flatbed trailers {again...friends who offered to help!} but the weather made that a questionable move, so my parents helped us out with a box truck - a blessing and a half! Ryan's brother came over to help carry the heavy stuff and my Mom stepped in to document a bit along the way. {Moving in fast forward meant FAR fewer pictures of the event than this scrapbooker is comfortable with. In fact, can someone pass me a brown paper bag? I need to breathe.}

It was dark and late when we got back to our new house, but Ryan and I unloaded everything off the truck except the heavy furniture.

And the next morning, his co-worker, Nick, came to help with the rest.

And that's how it happened that we moved almost a month early, and with a healthy mix of organization and extreme CHAOS!!!!!