The Saturday Six

One.

Last week, my friend Kari came to see our {still messy} new house. She was part of our takes-a-village team of people who helped make this move possible. We appreciated her finding boxes for us from the kitchen of her workplace so our packing could move along at the necessary breakneck speed! Wanted to get her a little token of thanks {truly not enough to say thanks} and thought it turned out pretty cute! {That's a banana split cake, by the way. I did not make it. It turns out there's a killer bakery in town. Someone help me now.}


Two.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a couple of posts {here and here} on the Dignity Project, which is a ministry that provides reusable pads to women who otherwise have no way of living a normal life during their periods. This week, the missionary that receives and distributes theses posted this update, and I wanted to share it with you, because some of what she said, just blew my mind:

"With every "yes" that I say to Jesus, He takes me further and further into the outer edges of society. I first brought The Dignity Project to boarding school children, then orphans, then impoverished village women, then prisoners and now the mentally ill. It's been a progressive movement to the outside.
Today I spent my day in the largest psychiatric hospital in Uganda. Over 650 people find refuge there. Men and women who are survivors of genocide, war, human trafficking, abuse, trauma and neglect fill the wards. "These people are shunned from society. They feel utterly forgotten," my friend shared.
Soon after I arrived I found the staff making sanitary pads for the patients out of cotton and gauze. I was so happy to see first hand what the women normally use. It really is quite a creative use of medical supplies! As you can imagine, the patients and staff were absolutely thrilled to receive new reusable sanitary pads that don't leak and last years with proper care.
After one woman received the first pair of underpants she has had in SEVEN years she started dancing. I was so moved by her joy I started dancing with her! It was a taste of Heaven dancing in her celebration! I am telling you, it was as if she won the lottery. The ladies could not believe the care and detail that was put into these Dignity Kits made by you all! I am so proud of you!
Next week I have the honor of going back to the hospital to train a group of 12 women how to make our Dignity Kits. Several of the women are soon to be resettled back into their communities and want to make them for a sustainable income.
There have been times when I have been ashamed to tell people what my job is here. I usually say something like, "I am a reusable sanitary pad missionary of sorts". Today I have never been more proud of my title."

Three.

 Source

One of the things Ryan and I are hoping to do in our new life/town/home is entertain more. And this blog post about a weekly supper club just made my heart sing! 

Four.

Source

I'm a huge advocate of Katie Farrell and her Dashing Dish website. Ryan and I eat many of her recipes, and I really appreciate her approach to clean eating and body image. {Be sure to check out her story if you're not familiar with her, so you can understand why she's so passionate about this!} Anyway, she just released a free guide to clean eating, which explains a bit about what it is and offers ideas for both homemade and store-purchased foods that fit this category. If the whole concept just sounds trendy and confusing to you, check out her free download!

Five.

Source

This week, I not only had the chance to read a book to share with you, but I watched a movie to tell you about, too! 


Ryan and I don't often GO to the movies, because we're too cheap to pay ticket prices, but we do love to watch movies at home, whether we rent them or watch them when they air on TV. A couple of weeks ago, FishFlix {a company specializing in Christian DVDs} asked if I'd like to review a movie for them. They sent me one titled Virtuous, and Ryan and I watched it together this week while working on our house projects. 

The movie tells the story of Simone Burner, a young woman who is assaulted one night after walking home from work. She shoots her attacker in self-defense, and finds herself arrested, facing trial, and opposed by a corrupt prosecutor determined to use her unsavory past against her. 

The movie is a little over two hours long and has a large cast of characters whose stories are wildly different, but intertwined together. {In that respect it reminded me of movies like New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day with so many connected story lines.} It took me a good portion of the movie to figure out how they were all connected, and a flashback toward the beginning further confused me, because I wasn't sure how many more flashbacks to expect or how that one fit with the present day activity. At times, it felt like there were so many story lines that the action was all over the place and hard to follow. Ryan commented on that several times while we watched.

I appreciated that Virtuous was not as predictable as some movies in this genre can be, but the acting wasn't as top notch as you would find in mainstream movies. Again, that wasn't a big distraction to me, because I somewhat expected it, but it did bug Ryan. While it wasn't as much of a focal point as I expected from the synopsis on the cover, the movie focused on the {important!} message that all women have worth, regardless of their past, their age, or their occupation. Even though the plot centered around a murder and featured women turning their lives around from all sorts of past behavior, they did not show any of the violence or other behavior on-screen, and the language was clean, keeping the movie family-friendly.

While this movie may not have been my favorite, because of the confusing story line and the quality of acting, I did see some previews at the beginning for other movies that caught my interest, and I was glad to be introduced to a company I'd not previously been familiar with that is a resource for entertainment with a gospel message behind it. {And for those of you with kids, they do have many kids' movies to choose from!} 

My thanks to Fish Flix for providing Virtuous for me in exchange for a review!


Six.

Source

I've told you before that I like to switch up the kinds of books I read to get a well-rounded reading experience. This week was no different. I read One Dress. One Year. by Bethany Winz with Susanna Foth Aughtmon. 


Bethany was sixteen years old when she decided to do something tangible and entirely out of her comfort zone in order to help raise awareness about modern day slavery. She'd learned in junior high that slavery wasn't something that happened only way back in the olden days, but it was {sadly} alive and well at this very moment. Sickened by the idea of humans treating other humans in such a degrading way, she wanted to do something.


So she made a black dress and wore it every single day for one year. Talk about the ultimate capsule wardrobe! During that year, Bethany blogged about her adventure, shared {sad but true} facts about modern day slavery, and challenged readers to give money to reputable organizations working to end trafficking. 

The book is a quick read {just 146 pages} and part of each chapter shares excerpts from her original blog posts, including some of the slavery facts she shared and how she wore the dress that day. {Using accessories, she actually wore it differently every day.} The rest of the book shares her thoughts, her ups and downs, her fears and triumphs during that year of explaining her experiment and raising awareness.

Though not marketed as a young adult book, I would say that the writing style {which holds true to the teen voice that Bethany was when she completed this experiment} would make a teen audience the logical draw to read this book. Having said that, I recognized my teen self in Bethany and was able to relate to her as I read, even though I'm not that age {kind of by a long shot} anymore. And I did learn things about modern day slavery that I did not know.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was that her experiment was not the wild success she hoped for when she set out. {Hang on! Stick with me.} Her goal at the start of her year was to raise $100,000 for her cause, and when all was said and done, she raised less than $10,000 in a year. She wrote regularly about her frustration that all her efforts {through social media, blogging, making connections, speaking to groups, etc.} didn't make the wild impact she hoped it would. She wanted people to care and jump on board and they didn't with the intensity that she desired.

And yet...her work still mattered. I think that truth spoke the most loudly to me as I read. We are conditioned to believe we have to do something crazy huge to matter, but being obedient to the call of the Lord is what matters. Bethany did that. She kept her commitment to wear the same dress every day for a year and came out on the other side a different girl in her own heart. And while she didn't raise what she wanted to raise, she DID make an impact for organizations working against trafficking, and she did raise awareness. I'm glad she was able to share her story in book form especially because her campaign didn't achieve what she hoped it would. It seems that the only people who get book deals are those who have some massive story, and it was refreshing to hear from an ordinary person who tried something new and different.

Check out Bethany's website if you'd like to see more of the actual dress and the ways she wore it, and if you have a teen in your life who feels passionate toward social causes, this story might provide the needed encouragement to take a stand and trust God with the outcome, big or small.

* Baker Books provided a copy of this book to me in exchange for a review. * 

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!!!!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was, as you might remember, the start of EVIL Daylight Savings. We were so exhausted we went straight to bed after church and were complete bums the rest of the day. We worked on our podcast that night, and Ryan had to rig up this whole extension system for his mic, since we no longer have any tables to sit at!

 * Monday was kind of a big deal. You know, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!! I know I already told you all about it, but that was the day we officially signed for our new house, and we cannot WAIT to get inside!

* Tuesday began rough for this girl. I blame Daylight Savings. I was so grumpy!!!! But I rallied to work on packing that day, because you know, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! :) And I finished up in time to make chicken quesadillas for dinner! They were delish.

* Wednesday we had some really strong winds and rain, and when I went out to meet a friend for coffee, I found all the tree buds stuck firmly to my car. Signs of spring!! Coffee was good {and I was still grumpy so I needed extra} and I came home to resume packing while Braeya worked on her tan. HA!

* Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, and Ryan was quite festive at work. :) I did a special load of laundry so his green shirt would be clean and he wouldn't be pinched! :) My sister and I did a long distance Duggar watching party...which is the next best thing to watching TV together in person. And that night, Ryan and I went on a Starbucks date; ours just had an overhaul and they now have a fancy new mural!!!

 * Friday {shockingly} I worked on packing, and I also made a batch of clean eating cookies that I will not lie...are so good. We had friends come over for dinner - quite possibly our last hurrah at this house! Of course we no longer have a dining room table, and dinner was takeout Thai, but we sat on the floor and ate from the ottoman and had a great time together anyway. THAT'S what matters.

 * Yesterday was Ryan's first Saturday at home since December 21st, and it was GLORIOUS. I have missed him SO MUCH on the weekends and was so glad to have him all to myself for a whole day!! He helped me clean and pack, and we made a whole bunch of headway! We squeezed in a little shopping that afternoon and even caught up on some of our TV shows. YAY!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday {as you may remember, if you heard the podcast}, it sounded like a doctor's office in church. Ryan took pity on me and didn't want me to lose a second week of sermon-hearing to all the coughing and germs, so we sneaked out during prayer and set in the foyer to listen from there. In this he shows me love. We had a lovely day of rest that afternoon, and then that night, he took apart our dining room table to make room for packing. {And he used it for gymnastics practice. HA!}

* Monday was the end of the third round of the 21 Day Fix, and when I ate lunch with a former co-worker, I let myself have the small treat of a bit of ice cream. It tasted like heaven. Just a tiny cup. Not a large Blizzard. But it was enough. On the way home from lunch, I stopped at the coffee shop on the IWU campus {where I used to get fresh brew every morning} and had a cup for old times' sake. It ended up being such a pretty day that Ryan and I went for a run that evening. Stunning sunset to run with!

* I spent the majority of Tuesday working on packing, which meant also fighting Braeya for the tape, which she prefers to eat. LOL. I found my old grave yard of cell phones: always fun to see how far we've come in that field, and that night, Ryan and I did a bit more packing, which included our backup coffee pot. Does everyone not wrap their coffee pot in bubble wrap and hug it before boxing it up??

* It may have been warm enough outside on Monday to go for a run, but by Wednesday, we were holding our breath against an ice storm. Fortunately it never got very bad here in our part of the state, though other areas not far from us were experiencing deep snow and power outages. The ice was pretty {since I didn't have to drive in it!} and I hunkered down at home while Ryan worked. He got home a little early {after celebrating with one of his co-workers at her baby shower} and we spent six hours organizing the attic. WHEW! He found all kinds of treasures in there, including his "bubbies" from when he was little!

 * Thursday was kind of a tough day. Nothing bad happened - my heart was just overwhelmed. I was thankful for extra time to sit with my journal and Bible and devo book and let myself just be. Ryan worked on office work that night, so I sat with him, reading a book and I think maybe Braeya was praying for me?? {Ha!!!}

* Friday I took a break from packing to work on writing stuff, and SOMEONE had to sit directly in my lap, making THAT process easy. {Or not.} That night I had my first Papa John's pizza in over TWO MONTHS!!! It was so delicious. I ate responsibly and joyfully! And we cuddled up to watch a movie and take naps. Yay for Friday nights!!!

* Ryan worked a long, long day yesterday, but it was too pretty out to stay home working, so I went for a 5K run/walk. It was cold and crazy windy, but so so pretty. We had plans to meet up with some friends of his for dinner last night, but bless his heart, he was so tired when he got home, that he ended up sleeping all the way there. {Yes, I took the picture safely at a stoplight.} Dinner was so good - including something I'd never tried before: a kale and brussels sprout salad. I have to say: it was good!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday actually was Valentine's Day, and even though we had officially celebrated the day before, I refused to let the ACTUAL day go by unnoticed. So we did more pictures and enjoyed a leisurely day at home. I tried to make a festive dinner by doing the heart-shaped bacon idea I found on Pinterest {fail!!!} and heart shaped toast.

* Monday was a packing party here at our house, and I got so caught up in it that I had to hurry at the last minute to cook our dinner. I ended up having a total Lucille Ball moment and had messes EVERYWHERE. Counter, stove, cabinets {inside and out} and all over me. Good grief!!! Must keep better track of the clock next time! By the way, Braeya watched TV while I packed. She's spoiled.

* Tuesday, the packing continued, and while she has NO interest in the cat carrier yet, Braeya has much interest in reading the papers I use and climbing on the boxes. That child. Pretty exciting that evening...for our workout, I tried a pair of shorts I haven't really fit in since before our wedding!

* Wednesday I got to have lunch with some friends from my IWU days, and it was a GORGEOUS day to be out and about! I ran some errands while I was out and then came home to prepare for our final small group meeting. This adventure has been a blessing; I'm so glad we did it! We capped off our night with a pretty brutal workout and conked out!

* Thursday was {surprisingly} more packing, and I found all my old journals. What a fun thing to pack!! Braeya wasn't a huge help that day; she mostly just tried to help me eat my snack! {You can guess who won that battle. Meanwhile, Ryan spent the afternoon at the minute clinic, because he started coming down with something and there was just NO TIME. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection and came home and slept the entire evening! Bless his heart!

* Friday was STUNNING!!! It was warm and sunny, and Braeya stayed occupied for HOURS looking out the front door while I packed! Ryan and I went out to run errands that night and went to Starbucks for the first time in THREE WEEKS. I'd had such withdrawal!!!!

* Ryan was gone yesterday, but when he got home, he took me on a date! It was in the high 60's/low 70's here yesterday and we LOVED being out on the town without our coats! We went to dinner at Red Robin {where I learned I could love turkey burgers on lettuce wraps and bottomless broccoli} and had coffee at a bakery when we were done. It was a fun little night!

Gettin' This Party Started

I haven't forgotten Valentine's Day. I know a few of you said you wanted to hear more about our cooking class date {and we talked about it some on the podcast!} but I will bring you the full report with pictures on Monday!

Meanwhile, I wanted to show you one more thing about our current moving season! After we had the home inspection and knew that all was well regarding the structure of the home itself, I felt safe to go ahead and begin packing. Though we don't know when we will be moving, in all likelihood, it will be several weeks yet. I know it's not really necessary to begin packing, but I wanted to do a thorough job OF packing, and I wanted plenty of time to keep up with all my normal activities as well. Writing blogs every day, working out, keeping up with clean eating, prepping the podcast, being a wife...all those things take time, and I want to continue to excel at them in this meantime.

We had a stash of boxes already from the many times we've planned to move and haven't, so we had a head start on that. Ryan brought them in from the garage for me, and we got a bag of newspaper from my parents' house!

 We used a gift card we got for Valentine's Day to purchase our starter kit of packing supplies. Yes, I'm doing a whole color coding system, and I am so excited about it!!

Can we go back to the one who is NOT as excited about all this?

This face pretty much sums up her thoughts on NOT being consulted before this major decision. And I fear we will pay a dear price at her hand {paws?} throughout the entire adventure. But majority rules, and 2/3 of us are ready to go!!

We have been trying to work with her on this idea and let her sort of nose around at her own pace and get used to boxes and the ripping sound of packing tape and all that. It's a slow beginning.

The first couple of boxes I packed were cause for great celebration. Starting to feel real!!

And from there it went, packing a little bit each day, working to pack away the things we use the least first:

One thing we can say for finding old TV boxes - they were bulky but the boxes are good for packing! :)

We have also started researching the best plan for the actual moving DAY for Braeya Jo Jo. This girl is traumatized to the max by car rides. Her saturation point on moving vehicles is less than one mile. We are moving farther than one mile. And while it would be easy {and maybe even likely!} to just put her in Ryan's car for the ride, since she likes him better anyway, I truly don't want her to be scarred for life by a move. So we're exploring kitty meds and all that. But in the meantime, we thought we would reintroduce her to the carrier. So we casually left it by all the moving boxes.

At first, she wouldn't even look at it. Literally turned her stubborn little nose in the other direction. But eventually she got closer.

Meanwhile, I keep packing. Bookshelves are almost completely packed now.

And while she may want little to do with the carrier, she is enjoying the jungle gym of boxes!

So that's where we are in the land of packing and organizing! It is fun {I've never truly moved in my life...moving out of a bedroom and into a house after college does not count} and I am excited to fully embrace this adventure!