The Saturday Six

One.

 I told you last week about Erica Wiggenhorn's new Bible study that comes out next month. I'm even MORE eager to dive into it now that I have my new Bible to go with it! ANYWAY! The release of the book is close enough now that the book is up for pre-order, and if you order here, you can get a free art print to go with it! Win-win!! This one will be great for small-group study, I can promise you. (Individual study, too! That's how I did the first book she wrote on Acts, and it worked GREAT as a solo study.)

Two.

Loved this article by Jamie Hilty, because it's a beautiful blend of the creativity of reusing items (you know how I love a good repurpose!) and the reuse of places, when one family has packed up its memories and another brings theirs.

Three.

 Did you know you can freeze avocados? I sure didn't know it. This is good to keep in mind since they are usually SO expensive and if I could find a sale...

Four.

Looking for some fun outdoor ideas for this summer? I think some of these work just as well for adults as they do for kids! So if you're planning parties, check them out!

Five.

 This post and its ideas are geared towards families/kids, but I think the daily themes could be EASILY converted to anyone of any age! Take a week this summer and theme it up!! I think it sounds really fun!

Six.

Source

Clearly I did NOT have time to read a book this week, even though I had one waiting in the wings to be read, but I do have a book to offer to you!


One of my friends invited me to her online Usborne book party, and even though I've heard of this company, I've never purchased any of their books (largely because, you know, no children)! But I wanted to help her out, and I had actually run across a recommendation of an Usborne book that's not new, but it's still available for purchase. So I chose that one in an attempt to continue to grow the kiddo library for our visiting kids.

That's how I ended up with the Big Book of Things to Spot. (It's written by Ruth Brocklehurst, Gillian Doherty and Anna Milbourne, Illustrated by Teri Gower, and designed by Susannah Owen.) I'd read about this book, which is actually part of a homeschool curriculum, so I figured it had the blend of both fun value and educational value. (Even though we don't have kids, I am a stickler about the things I add to our stash. I don't want them to be mindless, fluffy toys and activities. I want them to be things that are valuable in learning, while still being fun.)

The book came earlier this week, and I'm not gonna lie: I had fun looking through it myself! It's kind of "Where's Waldo" in style, in that the pages are full color illustrations, but you're supposed to look for certain things on each page. But it's much less crammed than the Waldo books, so it doesn't give you a headache.

The book is divided into four sections, and each section gives you 1001 things to spot in its pages. Section 1 is 1001 Animals to Spot, Section 2 is 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm, Section 3 is 1001 Things to Spot in the Town, and Section 4 is 1001 Things to Spot Long Ago. Each scene is a two page spread, and along the sides of the pages you'll find the instructions of what you're looking for and the number of them you should find.

For example, the first spread is called "On the Farm," so the scene includes a barn, some pasture, a pond, and a field. Somewhere across those two pages, you'll find 3 puppies, 5 ducks, 9 ducklings...etc. Along with the instructions of what to find, there's a sample photo of each thing, so you'll know exactly what to look for. It's great for working on counting, colors, identifying items, etc.

The final section, which talks about things from long ago, features different parts of the world and different years, like Pharaoh's Court in Egypt, 3500 years ago, Going Hunting in India 350 years ago and the Drive-In-Movies in North America, 45 years ago.

Lots of fun pictures, lots of color, lots of learning, and it doesn't make a single noise on its own. (I am not a fan of noise-making books.)

I am glad I picked this one and call it a good addition to our little library for visitors! Oh! And bonus: you can get this in either a paperback or hardback version, so you can choose the affordability and/or durability you need!

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

* Last Sunday, Ryan and I made the grand tour for graduation open houses. Tis the season! Our first stop was for the daughter of one of Ryan's co-workers, and look what made an appearance at her party!?!? One of our chalkboards! They really do pop up where you least expect them. After that, we stopped by the party for the daughter of good friends from our old church. We enjoyed seeing old friends and celebrating!

* Well, you thought our home projects were done, didn't you? Nope. After moving Mommapalooza 3.0 inside unexpectedly on Mother's Day, we decided we needed a space to accommodate a group of that size when we entertain, so we're finishing off our garage to fit the bill. Monday, a crew came to blow some insulation into the walls, and that night we went to purchase the rolls of insulation to put over it. I felt my #shiplap shirt was an appropriate fit for such a trip. Oh! And I made coffee for the two of us at lunch and learned that this mug holds EXACTLY 1 large k-cup!

* Tuesday, I worked on some scrapbooking {trying to meet a sale deadline} and I had a little help on my project! That night, Ryan and I worked together to hang the insulation for the garage. My job was to measure and cut, and Ryan did all the stapling. Want to guess who messed up on her ONE JOB????

* Wednesday morning, I spoke to the senior adult group at a church, and they were very gracious and welcoming. Thoroughly enjoyed that opportunity! I also got to have lunch/hang out with one of my blogonymous friends while I was in the area, and that was fun! It was a gorgeous day, and we had a great time together! That night, Ryan brought home a whole bunch of strawberries gifted to us by one of his patients, so we cleaned and froze a bunch of them!

* Thursday, I alternated between scrapbooking and doing home chores, including changing the sheets on our bed, made a bit more difficult by SOMEONE who thought this was a game! I watched a webinar for an event I'm helping with at church later this year, and that night, Ryan and I attempted a workout while utterly exhausted from a long week. The warning seemed especially meaningful that night!

* This weekend, we had so much fun right in our hometown, and I can't wait to tell you more about it, but we kicked it off Friday night with our first ever trip to watch the Kokomo Jackrabbits play baseball. Ryan won tickets to a game last fall when we ran that 5k race, and this was when it worked out for us to go. It was a blazing hot night, but we had SUCH FUN at that game. Full story coming soon!

* And yesterday, to round out the weekend-o-fun, we took our first trip to Kokomo Beach {which is - for those of you not from here - NOT a beach, but rather a pool/water park}. It was packed, because again, a blazing four million degrees in Indiana, but we had a great time. And we ended the day by taking in Rib Fest, which was Ryan's happy place. MEAT!

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!

Holiday World, Baby!!!

Remember last week when I told you about our vacation to southern Indiana? The whole reason for the trip was to go to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari...and just a quick reminder...I'm petrified of rides. Got it?

We got there early - because Ryan didn't want to miss a moment!! Pretty cool...they have free parking. If you could see the amount of cars in those parking lots, you could understand a little better how truly remarkable that is. Here we are with the official Holiday World water tower. 

 Had to get through security to get inside. Oh sweet goodness. You know how I feel about getting through security. But this time it actually went well!

 When the park opened, we walked around for a while, kind of getting our bearings and making a plan for the day. The roller coaster side of the park opened before the water park side, so the crowds thinned out once that began. Do not even think for one MINUTE I was going to get on one of those coasters.

I mean seriously:

We made our way near the entrance of the water park and rented a locker to stash our stuff for the day. We took this picture right next to our locker...and do you see that little ride in the background? Not the giant roller coaster climbing up and out of sight. The little one next to it...

 It's the "little log ride." The one Ryan wanted me to try...as an entry level ride. I stared at it for a while...watched the little cars float through the water and climb the belt before disappearing down the other side. He convinced me it was harmless and I could do this. So I gathered my courage and made my way back toward the entrance to the ride. THAT'S when I learned this was the name of the ride:

 ARE YOU STINKING KIDDING ME?????

We got in the line, which was mercifully short, and when our turn came for the ride, we climbed in the car. It seats four in a row, and Ryan told me I could sit wherever I wanted. I told him to sit in the very front {as if I remotely wanted to be the first one down this harrowing ride} and I sat directly behind him and wrapped myself around him much like a girl on the back of a motorcycle. I wrapped my arms around him so tightly, he said I nearly broke a rib.

I secured my legs against either side of the car, and screamed my fool head off as the car began to float through the water. The car had metal bars on each side, so I have some lovely bruises to show for my bracing adventures. We climbed that hill, I buried my face in his neck and screamed {read: BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMS} all the way down until we got to the end.

For the record. Two kids were in the car behind us. Not a peep. This should bother me, but it does not.

Back into the water park we went, where Ryan rode this bad boy. He said it was best that I did not. I concur. And if I had KNOWN that the little deck there was an observation deck, you can better know I would have been on it taking pictures. Next time, I will know this.

 Ryan's next ride of choice was the Mammoth. It had a HUGE line, but it also had a line for single riders, and since I was out of the picture for the day, he was able to stand in that line. The singles filled the empty seats in the six-person rafts, so he got through pretty quickly and rode with these brave folks. I DID find an observation deck for this ride. {By the way: thanks, Holiday World, for making those. It makes a great thing for those of us who find more pleasure in photographing our family than riding with them!!}

 He did a water slide. If it had been perfectly horizontal the whole way, I would have ridden it too. Maybe.

 And then...this one. NO HANDS. I couldn't even look.

 About this ride {pictures above and below are from the same ride}...there was a long line, and when he finally got to the top and was ready to come down, they halted all rides, because some guy lost his sunglasses, and two life guards spent about five minutes diving to search for them. They were successful and the line reopened...and Ryan came down. In between the time I took this picture and he got out of the water, a kid tossed his cookies over to the right. Ryan came up to me and said, "I think you could handle this ride if you did one of the smaller slides." My response? "There's puke. We're out." I'm such a chicken.

 In addition to the free parking and the fabulous observation deck, two other things I REALLY appreciated about this place were the free drinks and the free sunscreen. They had these sunscreen stations all over the park with big gallon jugs of sunscreen and huge pumps sticking out from the top. We stopped several times to add more...it was a super sunny day! And it was SO HOT. They had oasis stations all over the park, and any time we wanted we could stop in and fill up a cup with ice and water - or Gatorade - or pop. Unlimited. For as hot and humid as this day was, THAT was a blessing. Cold, unlimited hydration.

 For the record, I did ride the lazy river and the wave pool, and we did take pictures, but they're on the waterproof camera, and we've not gotten them yet.

Mid-afternoon, we took an ice cream break and stopped to watch the diving show. It was about a half hour long and included a diver who set himself on fire before putting OUT the fire in the pool:

 And the five member dive. They told us the lowest diver on this tower is diving from the height of the high dive at the Olympics. I shivered.

 Diving from the top.

 We stayed until late afternoon when our feet were killing us, we were hot and sweaty, and much in need of showers and dinner. This picture was actually taken at the start of the day, not the end, but I thought it would be a good ending photo.

Would I go back? Absolutely. Would I ride more rides? Unlikely. But there's still plenty of fun to be had without the rides. Maybe next time, Ryan can take a brave buddy, and I can photograph them both!