The Saturday Six

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You know how much I dearly love organization, but I will be truthful...organizing a kitchen can be one of the hardest things. How do you decide what you actually need and how do you make all the varying shapes and sizes of things fit? This article has many helpful tips - including learning to let go of a few things!

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The Olympics have brought out the curiosity in me, and one of the items I Googled this week was how do the horses get to the Olympics? Well, ask and you shall receive!!! This article explained it well!

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Maybe you saw this floating around Facebook, but I found it particularly interesting, as I never would have imagined there would be THIS much invasion of privacy from nibby tourists toward homeowners from Fixer Upper. I can't imagine stopping at a stranger's house and walking up to the door to ask if I could see the house, no matter HOW darling I found it on TV!!!

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When I worked at WBCL, we usually got to sample a DeBrand's caramel apple now and then. Those apples worked nicely for a work crew because each person could take one slice and it was PLENTY, since they were so huge. But I loved this idea of caramel apple slices for the average, every-day, at home enjoyment. Easy to manage and lots of topping!! 

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Found another new photography blog that I just fell in love with! This blogger shares tips on photography, but she also has a great heart {and lives somewhere in the Midwest!!}. I am looking forward to learning more from her!

Six.

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I'm excited to tell you about the book I read this week. I learned a good handful of names when I worked at the station, and Scotty Smith was one of them. That's when I was introduced to his prayer-writing and began to read the prayers on his blog, so when I saw he had a new book coming out, I knew I wanted to read it.

My biggest frustration with Every Season Prayers was that I only had one week to read it before I needed to write the review. This book, my friends, was not meant to be read in a week. And you can know it's going right back on my every-day-reading stack so I can go back through and read it properly, slowly savoring it and learning from the wisdom on each page.

I want to also say that I'm generally not a big fan of written prayer, Scotty's being the exception to the rule. I never want to get so lazy in my own prayer life that I resort to reading prayers written by others as my own prayers. But Scotty makes it absolutely clear in the introduction to this book that his intention in writing prayers for others to read is not to do their praying for them, but rather to guide them in prayer. There are many who didn't grow up in a home where non-scripted prayers were prayed and they might not know how to really approach the Throne of Grace without some teaching.

 This book is teaching.

Scotty previously wrote a book called Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith, and this book is the sequel to that. After reading that book, many people contacted him asking for a variety of other kinds of prayers...long ones, short ones, and covering a variety of topics. From those requests, this book was born and he indeed delivers what was asked.

The first and largest section of the book includes longer prayers for all kinds of random occasions, from shame to trust to good days. Each prayer begins with a Scripture verse and then moves on into the body of the prayer itself. There are also sections containing prayers for marriage, confession, Advent, Lent, struggles, and more.

I appreciate Scotty's spirit so much, and as I raced through the book, I already started underlining, taking note of his phrasing, and learning new things I'd never even considered in prayer before. I am beyond eager to go back through this book - so slowly - and focus on a prayer a day for as long as it takes to re-read the pages.

A few of the phrases I loved...just so you can get a feel for the rhythm of the book:

* "Thank you that you intend for us to abound in hope and not just have enough hope to get by on." {page 24.}

* "Turn our whines into worship, our daily carping into carpe diem, and our frets into faith." {page 50.}

* "You knew the full extent of their weakness, so you showed them the full extent of your love. Washing their feet was a prelude to washing their hearts. Water sufficed for the first; your lifeblood was required for the second." {page 111.}

* "When I do the mercy math, all the wonderful things you are to us and have done for us far outweigh all the provocations, irritations, and exasperations of life." {page 164.}

* "We all matter, but none of us is the point in God's story. The gospel comes to us that it might run through us." {page 245.}

I am so thankful for this book, for what I've already learned and for what I have yet to learn as I read it slowly, as it was meant to be read and absorbed. If you want to challenge your own prayer life, I highly recommend this book!

* Thanks, Baker Books, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and thanks, Scotty, for so bravely sharing the prayers of your heart!

The {Worn Out} Shafferland Shuffle

This week has utterly exhausted me. I finally reached the point where my body said "Hey Bekah!! REST!!!!!!!!" So I am trying, but here's a peek at what brought me/us to that point!

* Last Sunday, we were still out in Kansas, just one day removed from the big wedding! We went to church with my family, had brunch with them and then helped tear down the reception hall. Everyone congregated at my sister's house for the rest of the day, where we ate wedding leftovers, watched Olympic coverage, and Ryan and I took the dog for a walk.

* By Monday, we were the only wedding guests still in town, so we had fun being tourists with Lori and Jeff! Ryan had never been out to visit prior to this trip, so we did all the stuff...toured the Big Well, went to the soda fountain...well, that's really about it. We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Lori and Jeff, eating wedding leftovers and watching Olympic coverage. And saying goodbye. Goodbyes stink.

* Tuesday was our travel marathon, where we left Kansas and drove home with only about two potty breaks in 13.5 hours. We literally could not feel anything below the waist when we got home. Feet and legs were 100% numb. And Braeya was 100% mad. LOL! We actually stayed up late that night to completely unpack because we were so desperate to move around for a while.

* Wednesday, one of my friends was in town from Colorado and came over to see our new house. It was fun to see her for a while, and then I had to travel over to church to begin my end-of-week volunteering duties. Our church hosted a simulcast of the Global Leadership Summit, and my job was to head up the resource center {aka onsite bookstore} for the event. I had to go do inventory and setup and be all ready for the two day event...and I got a free t-shirt, which Braeya promptly made into her bed. Of course.

* Thursday was day one of the Leadership Summit, and my friend Nancy and I spent from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. running the resource center. We had a great time getting to know each other better and serving those in attendance. Ryan was NOT used to me being gone like that, and when I got home about 7:00 that night, he was on the couch missing me. Ahhhh, absence really DOES make the heart grow fonder!!

* Friday was day two of the Summit, and one of my mom's friends had dropped off DELICIOUS homemade cinnamon rolls for all the volunteers. It seemed rude not to have one... :) We worked hard all day, Nancy and I, and I also got to see my friend Stephanie, who I never get to see now that I've moved. Ryan and his mom came over after he got off work and helped us tear down at the end and they took me out for dinner. Good thing, cause I was too pooped to cook.

* Speaking of too pooped, yesterday I felt so sick all day. It was just too much of a week, so I crashed on the couch the ENTIRE DAY {Ryan worked} until evening, when I met up with some of my friends for game night. Our 20th high school reunion is this year, but none of my game night friends are going, so we made our own mini-reunion together. No way was I missing that, even if I was pooped!

The Saturday Six

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This post, by the delightful blogger at Between Naps on the Porch, talks about home trends some people say need to go the way of all the earth. I confess some of these items are in our home. And by some, of course, I mean many. How about you? Any of these pop up in your home? Or do you dislike any of them?

Two.

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Last fall, I was part of a Bible study at our church, and our curriculum was written by a pastor's wife named Marian Green. I read this week that she has a new book coming out about her healing and restoration from a life of promiscuity. I also read this article she wrote, and I think it might be helpful to someone, so I wanted to share it.

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Anyone else loving the Olympics? I am, although I have missed way more of it than I intended to! If you want to have a little Olympics party at home, just for fun, this post has a lot of great ideas! 

Four. 

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I've been invited to some bridal showers recently and found this gift idea, which is very cute, I think, when paired with a waffle iron. And who doesn't love a waffle iron?? 

Five.

I'm just going to leave this one right here... 

Six.

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You know what's great about 13 hours in a car? Plenty of time to read a book! And that's exactly what I did when we traveled home from Kansas earlier this week. I read Lynette Eason's new novel, Without Warning.

This book is the second in a series called Elite Guardians, and while I had not read the first book, I was able to jump in and learn the characters with no problem. The series centers around a group of women who serve as bodyguards for people in dangerous situations. I've gathered that each book in the series will focus on a different member of the group, and this book featured Katie Singleton.

Driving home from work one evening {and into a week of vacation, no less}, Katie happens upon a crime scene investigation at a local restaurant. She recognizes the owner as the uncle of one of her favorite self defense class students and stops to see if she can help. Before the night is over, the back-to-back combination of a body in the cellar of this restaurant and the burning of another restaurant location owned by the same man {Daniel Matthews} convince Katie that Daniel has a target on his back and she wants to figure out why.

Katie and her team come on board to watch over Daniel and his niece, Riley, and the attacks continue to come, as the title says, without warning. As the group tries to stay one step ahead of the person or people behind the crimes, they also work to figure out who is doing this...and why.

I kept trying to put the book down so I could talk to Ryan in the car, but it turned out that was impossible and I had to keep picking it back up again until I finished it.  The suspense was so real that every time Ryan slammed on the brakes, I jumped and screamed. The twists and turns were well-done and I kept saying "Well, I didn't see that coming!"

This is another example of a book that intertwines good suspense {not cheesy} with a strong faith component, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was also my introduction to Lynette Eason's writing, and I would absolutely read her work again!

* Thanks to Revell for providing a copy of the book to me in exchange for an honest review. *

The Saturday Six

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I don't know how many of you have been following Davey Blackburn's story, but I have been, and this post he added to his blog recently is just so powerful. Love the imagery.

Two.

Anyone else just SO READY for the Olympics to begin? I AM!!! And I confess to watching this replay of the Kerri Strug vault from 1996 many many times over the last couple of weeks. I cry every time. {Like I don't know what's coming...}


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Did you guys see this tweet from Karen Kingsbury? From her college days when she was a contestant on the $25,000 Pyramid? {I LOVED THAT SHOW!!!}

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I love this idea by Rachel Wojo for reminding yourself to pray for the people you say you'll pray for...and for letting them know, too! 

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While my capsule wardrobe still isn't complete, a year after starting it, I'm learning to work with the things I have to mix and match outfits, and I was pretty excited when I saw this week that blogger Anne actually owns one of the VERY DRESSES I own. Not a similar dress, but the ACTUAL dress. {Now granted, it's just a plain black dress, so an exact match doesn't even really matter, but it was just exciting to see my EXACT DRESS on someone else. I clicked back to her original post about the dress and found some new ideas on what to do with it! Whether or not you own this exact dress, these are good ideas.

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This week, I finished reading the "ATF" trilogy written by Jennifer Sands. No, it's not fiction. {I love it that there's a non-fiction trilogy!} Jennifer Sands was the keynote speaker at the Women's Break Away conference in Chilton, Wisconsin, where I served as a breakout session speaker earlier this year. I purchased all three of her books and A Treasured Faith, the one I read this week, is the final book in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jennifer's faith grow throughout the series of books. If you didn't catch my review of the first two, I'll give you a quick recap. Jennifer and her husband, Jim, were happily married for six years when Jim died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The first book in the trilogy talks about Jennifer's fledgling faith in the year after losing Jim, and in the second book, you can see her faith start to blossom, after she made a true commitment to the Lord and began to serve Him.

In this book, Jennifer's maturity is marked and beautiful. Though she was battling breast cancer at the time she wrote the book, it's not the main focus of her writing. This book is filled with the many examples of places she found the treasures of Christ as she lived out her every day. She spoke honesty {and laced with Scripture} the places we all look for treasure, but we're looking in vain, because true treasure is found in Christ alone.

After struggling so heavily {and understandably!} with anger after losing Jim, Jennifer's peace and understanding are so evident in this book, and it's obvious she speaks truth when she says that knowing and loving God is the greatest possible treasure.

Scripture says that where your treasure is, your heart will be also, and Jennifer's life proves that. Where her treasures were once focused on Jim, scuba diving, and her work in the pharmacy, her treasures are now focused on Jesus, ministering for Him wherever she can, and learning all she can about the life He has for her.

It's a good faith booster of a book, but most of all, I just loved seeing the transformation within Jennifer throughout the series. God at work, captured on paper!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we served coffee at church. Most handsome coffee maker out there, don't you think?? The rest of the day was a beautiful, restful Sunday. Braeya napped, we napped, I scrapbooked, and we watched Olympic trials. {ANYONE ELSE loving the trials as much as we are???}

 * Monday was the 4th of July, and Ryan worked all day, but in the evening, we went to Red Robin for a dinner date, and then out to watch fireworks over the lake. Despite a cloudy day and some significant humidity {read: HUGE HAIR}, it was a great night and a lovely date!

* Tuesday night we got to attend our friend's 40th birthday party, which was a lot of fun! Her husband surprised her, and the party was a great success {and can we pause to talk about the ICE CREAM??!!? It was homemade and it's such a good thing I am not proficient in that!}

* Wednesday started out crazy stormy and rainy, and I thought it would stay that way all day, but it cleared up and actually became a really nice day! We continued our garage makeover that night - painting the chalkboard part of the wall. What? Do you not have chalkboards in your garage???

* Thursday, when I was busy making lunch, someone was very interested in what was cooking! She cracks me up sometimes! :) I worked on some craft projects that day, and then that night, Ryan and I installed the pavers I told you about earlier this week. I still can't get over how different that patio looks since we installed them!

* Friday was a busy writing day for me, and in the afternoon, I spent some time learning about rosemary: a new herb at our house. I don't know much about it! BUT - I used it to cook our dinner. Ryan grilled our chicken and Brussels sprouts: delicious!! And then I hunkered down to watch more Olympic trials, and Ryan worked on reorganizing the garage. His happy place!!

* Yesterday, I had a case of the grumpies. :( Never good. But I perked up as the day went along! I went to a baby shower for Ryan's cousin in the afternoon: it was a Pinterest delight! And Ryan worked more on his list of projects around the house. And even though this picture is really bad, I have to share it. We went for a walk in the evening, and we saw a DEER!!! You cannot possibly know how happy this makes me!!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was the end of the Shafferland Staycation...so sad!! We checked out of our room at the Hilton where the marriage retreat was held...and made our way to breakfast. I ordered a piece of toast that seemed to be um...on a diet? We made our way home and rested/unpacked/geared up for a new week AND...guess what?? MORE SNOW!!!!! {Bet you can't guess which picture offers my thoughts on that.}

* We went to work on Monday...and I was so excited to find a gift waiting for me when I arrived!! A mug from Lindsay Sherbondy's shop...love it! I made it through a whopping HALF day before coming home to beat the snow/ice storm predicted to come. I settled in on the couch to work for the afternoon, and Ryan drove home in the {granted, very pretty from the inside} whiteout of an afternoon storm. Thankful we could stay home all evening!

 * Tuesday morning, I left for work at 6:00 a.m. AGAIN. Not gonna lie - kind of tired of prepping for 2 hour commutes. Hurry, spring!! After work, we met with the plumbers, who came to map out their plan for the plumbing overhaul we have to have done. And in totally unrelated news...I made my first ever guacamole that night! It was really good! Ryan and I had to push one of our cars out of the driveway {stupid ruts...}and got a little chilly in the process, but we got it out!!

* Wednesday....ohhhhh Wednesday!!! I actually got to leave at a respectable time and have a drive on clear roads driving...are you ready for this??? THE SPEED LIMIT! It was amazing. My friend Amy invited me to join her for an impromptu lunch outing at McDonald's, so it was an iced tea day!! I got tons of work done at my desk, and then came home to a hard workout in our new routine! Even Braeya got into the action with us. {No doubt so she could get wound up to keep us up at night.}

* Remember how I had to work part of Monday from home because of snow? Well Thursday was our day of heavy fog, crazy rain, and then storms with 75 mile an hour winds. Ohhhh Indiana. Thursday was also the day we had to empty the contents of several rooms into one so the plumbers could come and begin the great redo of 2014. Ryan did the lion's share of that work while I made a Texas sheet cake for his work...and burned my fingers in the process. How does a little burn hurt SO MUCH!?!?

 * Ryan and I spent much of Friday checking in with my mom, who was "supervising" the plumbers as they began the overhaul at our house. The poor plumbers ran into a few obstacles immediately, but we already have a nice hole in the ceiling to show for the work! Ryan and I were emotionally pooped from the week, so we hunkered down at home with pizza and old episodes of Mad About You and then watched our last round of Olympics...sniff of sadness.

* Saturday was a work day for Ryan, so I enjoyed a day of leisure. I scrapbooked, caught up on Downton Abbey {well, almost....} and made a quick outing to Cato with my friend Kari to do some shopping. It's been a while since I shopped with a girlfriend - fun! And also for fun - our thoughts on the week.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, Ryan and took breakfast to Sunday School for our class...and they loved it so much we hardly had leftovers! {boo!!!} After church, we made our way to Indianapolis to make good on Ryan's Christmas present...tickets to the Pentatonix concert! After standing in the almost zero temperatures for an hour and a half, we got into the standing-room-only concert hall and watched a great show! And on the way home...an IHOP date!

* Monday was...the first official day of our staycation!! That's right, baby! The Shaffers took a staycation this week!! We slept in...and began our day of a Back to the Future movie marathon! If you can believe it...I'd never seen any of the movies and they're among Ryan's favorites, so we watched them all...in one day! We did a little bit of work at home, too, and watched the Olympics while we ate some oatmeal chocolate chip bars! And then Monday night, we had a slumber party in the living room right by the fire!

* Tuesday we picked up where we left off with the movies on Monday - and watched one of my favorites that Ryan had never seen: Flightplan! When we finally got up and moving, we spent a few hours cleaning out the attic...purging, reorganizing, and taking some walks down memory lane. Ryan found some clothes from when he was a baby, and I found all sorts of letters and cards I'd saved from years ago. {AND we found the boxes of sheets, Valentine's Day decor and wreaths we have been missing for MONTHS.} And then a rare treat...Braeya sat on my lap for a while! She DOES still love me!

* Wednesday was cold, but GORGEOUS outside, so we took advantage of the pretty day and headed out for our second county tour. Adams County was our destination...and we saw the sights of a covered bridge, a replica clock tower, and our favorite part of the day: COFFEE SHOP LOVE!!! We tried out the Shaka Shack in Monroe and man was that some good coffee!! A leisurely, successful day to visit the sights of Indiana!

* Thursday was...not as much fun as Wednesday. We had a plumber come to visit that morning to investigate some issues we've had with frozen pipes and leaks this winter. The verdict? Total plumbing replacement. YIPPEEE!!!!!!! We tried to be thankful for the fact that we have plumbing...but you know how easy that can be when problems abound. We took some time that afternoon to go visit Ryan's grandma, who is recovering from surgery...wanted to take her a little gift to brighten her day. LOVED the blue sky sunset, despite the gray day...and that night...we hunkered down to watch Indiana boy Nick Goepper compete in the Olympics!

 * Friday was Valentine's Day, and I can't wait to tell you all about that in more detail. We started out with a homemade breakfast and gift exchange at home...followed by the most YUMMY dessert stop at DeBrand Fine Chocolates in Fort Wayne...and the first day of our marriage retreat weekend! That was fun, because we got to meet up with some of our friends we've not seen in a long while!

* Yesterday we wrapped up our marriage retreat with such a fun day! The speaker this year was John Townsend, and we really enjoyed listening to him! We got to have a late lunch/early dinner with our friends, which was great! We had fun at the evening entertainment...and then a little bit of Wii bowling to top off the night. Great way to end the retreat!