The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we grilled out for our lunch...and had more fresh sweet corn. {Ryan is a gem to take the shucking job. I HATE shucking.} We rested all afternoon, which was HEAVENLY, and went for a walk and talk that night. I cracked up at the sunny skies all around with a GIANT black cloud literally hanging right over us...as we were talking about all the frustrations of the present. How appropriate! We finished off the evening with pizza and TV - and felt rested enough to start another week!

* Monday evening, Ryan and I went to the gym to work out, and I was feeling SO GOOD about this workout! Unfortunately there were some teens in the gym who were not respectful and after tripping over one of them who was misbehaving on the track, I had to move my exercise into the super hot outside. Sigh. Ryan and I went to the grocery store and learned about white peppers. {Ever heard of those?} AND he bought me flowers!

* Tuesday evening, while Ryan was doing some projects for people at his work {he's a handyman, and I have been learning to share...} I went over to Lynne's house for dinner, which included pizza {yum!!!} watermelon {sigh of joy} and chocolate Yasso bars {I die}. Given that Ryan doesn't like watermelon, that was SUCH A TREAT! Then Lynne and two other friends and I went to a movie screening together! I'd never done that before!! Cried my fool eyes out at the end of that movie. {And I got a Coke. SWEET!!!} Tuesday was also the day we found out someone made an offer on one of our houses! {Enter much prayer, people!!}

 * Wednesday evening, Ryan and I met with the realtor to sign papers for the offer on the house. We are praying for favorable outcomes {aka smooth sale of the house} but know there is a long road of waiting ahead, so...EEEEK!!! After that, just for fun, Ryan drove through an old, closed down restaurant we used to love visiting when we were kids. Pretty sure everyone who went by thought we were nuts parked under the awning of a closed restaurant! We came home and rested...and sent selfies to some of our family members who are vacationing together. It's how we can feel present. HA!!

* Thursday morning, I drove to work in THE most gorgeous sunrise. Stunning. That night, Ryan went to the Greentown house for its routine maintenance night - and he sent me this photo. WHAT!!?!?!?!? Ladders on a roof???? Oh no. Meanwhile, I was home safely, watching a Beth Moore video with my friend Ronda and with Beth's most loyal feline. And may I just say...I'm looking forward to days when we don't have to play divide and conquer on home maintenance!??!?!?

* Friday morning I showed up at work with a crowbar and hammer...something that was apparently disconcerting to my co-workers. LOL!! Someone needed to borrow them, but I did get a good kick out of the funny looks I got while people passed by my desk! And I don't know the last time I've been SO HAPPY to see a Friday. It was just one of those weeks, I guess!! Glad to get to go home...and then Ryan and I had a treat of getting to have dinner with my friends, Tim and Rachel. Rachel and I used to work together in Financial Aid, {and she made my wedding jewelry} - and they just invited us over for dinner! Surprisingly, we didn't have plans, so we went and had a great time!

* Ryan worked on Saturday morning, so I stayed home and did chores {and finished my Beth Moore Children of the Day homework} and then Ryan and I headed up to the lake to celebrate his brother's birthday! He loves ribs, so they made some in the smoker...they were so good. Ryan took me on a boat ride, too! Love me some lake time!

The Saturday Six

One.

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I loved The Babysitter's Club books when I was growing up...and I found this little gem on Facebook this week. Ann M. Martin, who wrote the books, said that the toddler Claudia is holding on the cover of this book is Kirsten Dunst in her first ever modeling job. {Obviously Kirsten is much younger than I am. How am I now in the stage of life where I'm that much older than famous people?}

Two.

I read in the paper earlier this week about the death of actress Skye McCole Bartusiak. I read that she was the little girl in The Patriot, but I only saw that movie once, many years ago, so I didn't remember her. THEN the next day I saw that she was also the actress the played Missie Davis opposite Katherine Heigl and Dale Midkiff in Love Comes Softly. That's one of my favorite movies! So very sad to read of her death...only 21 years old!

Three.

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LOVED this blog post I stumbled upon this week by fiction writer Joanne Bischof. If you're in a season of waiting {for anything} - do give it a read. It's so comforting!

Four.

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I ADORE, ADORE, ADORE this idea that Katie Farrell blogged about. Katie is the blogger at Dashing Dish, which I love for recipes, but this was a blog post about a night she and some friends hosted for girls to help them realized how very much they're cherished by God. If I could drop everything and do this right now for some of my friends, I WOULD. This is great!

Five.

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My very first year of college, I had the privilege of having a class with Crystal Blake...and we became friends who lasted beyond that class. We kept in touch by email for years, and when I taught a women's Bible study at church, Crystal {who by that time, was a missionary in the Czech Republic} became our first international member. Crystal was diagnosed with cancer when she was 35 and she has been fighting bravely ever since {with a time of remission and then a new diagnosis}. Found this video of a bit of her testimony this week. What you see here - is the real deal. She DOES believe this. She IS this in love with Jesus. And she's beautiful.

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I don't have an underwater camera, but MAN I love these shots!!

Weeds Keep on Talking

A slight breeze blew through the yard just about then, rustling the bottom of my skirt and lifting my hair back from my neck.  The birds still sang and the freshly white rock garden shone a little brighter in the sun. 

And across the yard blew the fuzzy puffs of a seeding dandelion.  One clump of the puffy seeds blew directly in front of me and I reached out to grab it.  I held the wad of weeds-in-the making in my clenched fist and rolled my eyes.  Let that sucker go and I’d have even more weeds to clean up in a far shorter amount of time than I wanted to think about!  But apparently God was not done teaching lessons yet, and His next object of choice was a dandelion wad.

Let go.

I opened my hand and prepared to toss the white fuzzies onto the porch next to me, but the breeze kicked up again and they simply flew out of my hand and surprisingly far from me before they fell to the ground.

Okay. What was that all about?

Now that you learned all the lessons through the weeds, I want to show you how to rid yourself of the fear that consumes you so that your life does not become more infested by the weeds of fear.  Just let go.  That’s all I’m asking you to do.  When you get scared, just let go.  Just open your hand – literally if you have to – and let go.

Surely it could not be that easy.  There was no way.  Just take an all consuming, gripping fear, and release it?  Just open my hand and – poof! – away it flies like a dandelion puff?  Right.  Like that works.

But I sensed that “just releasing it” was very much what God wanted me to do, so I nodded, walked back through the chain link gate and returned to work.  Later that day, I felt a familiar anxiety coming on.  I might be single forever.  There was no possible open option in my life.  What was I to do? 

Then I remembered.  Just open your hand – literally if you have to – and let go.  And so I did.  Sitting at my desk in my office, I opened my hand and said, Take it, God.  Take this fear.  Calm my heart.  Remind me that there is at least one more single man somewhere out there in the world. 

Immediately a calm fell over me.  I admit that I threw a surprised glance Heavenward.  What do you know?  It works!!

Weeds Have So Much to Say

Thought I'd spend a couple days visiting my journey to the prayer chapel from a few years back...and when I last wrote about it, I had gone to the chapel for my second visit {of seven} and found it was closed for the day. I relocated to my yard for that particular day...

Squirming in the chair drew my focus out of the yard and onto the scene in front of my eyes.  The summer before, I’d tried my hand at a very low-budget landscaping job.  The area immediately surrounding my porch refuses to grow grass, because the rainfall from the awning above it creates a trench and kills all purposeful vegetation.  Rest assured that the weeds survive – heartily – but all grass dies.  So in an attempt to brighten the back porch, I carefully cut and laid strips of that black sheeting that is supposed to prevent weed growth.  And then shovelful by heavy shovelful, I deposited gravel over the top of it.  I randomly interspersed potted plants and tiki torches and pronounced it good. 

But as I squirmed in the green plastic chair that Tuesday, I concluded that either the black sheeting does not, in fact, kill all weeds, or the installer of the black sheeting did a very poor installation job.  Because a shocking amount of the forbidden foliage had sprouted – peeking out here and there – without my permission. 

I could not have been in a more uncomfortable situation.  Not only was my mind receiving a lesson on the merits of a fear-free life, but my eyes were now consumed with the glaring green weeds.  I think God knew that unless He freed me to pull some weeds as He chatted, He was not going to have my best attention.  I would only catch every fifth word as I tried to drown out the “PULL ME!!!  PULL ME!!!” shouted by the offensive little weeds.

So I slid down onto the ground (skirt, heels, and all!) and began to pull out the weeds.  One of the first ones I grabbed was a big one, and I yanked hard and pulled it out by the root.  When I did, the rocks all around it went flying – what a mess!  Even as I threw the big, nasty weed into the grass to be chewed up and spit out by the mower later, I sensed a lesson coming on.  See?  God said.  Sometimes when you weed something from your life, your nice, neat piles – which you are so fond of – become disrupted. 

I began to think about my life right at that moment.  I thought of the ex-boyfriend from years ago that still held such an enormous space in my heart and of the hard work I was going through right then to weed that relationship from my life.  Yes, I would say that to pull that out by the roots was disrupting many areas of my life.  I thought of my job and the unrest that settled over my heart regarding it – and how even the thought of moving to a new job had the potential to alter everything.  Even the thought of releasing the grip that fear itself had on me…that would interrupt some very tidy piles in my life.  Because even though the fear wasn’t healthy, it had its place in the cycle of my daily routine. 

I moved down the porch a few feet and tugged hard at another big weed.  It refused to budge.  How had I not gotten rid of this one before?  Like when it was a baby?  It finally came out, root and all, and along with it came a clump of dirt and several rocks.  I looked down to find a gaping hole left where once had been a nicely arranged pile of white rocks.  It would have been so much easier to take care of this one when it was little instead of waiting until it was deeply rooted.  Look at the wound left behind now.

How very much like my life that was.  If only I’d taken care of fear’s stronghold over my life when it was such a tiny problem.  To weed it out now was going to leave a noticeable wound in my heart.  Perhaps it’s a good time to look ahead…think about weeding out other problems before they became so huge that they too, left a gaping hole next to this one.

The bigger my pile of pulled weeds grew, the more I saw.  Ones that hadn’t seemed visible at all in light of the bigger weeds hiding it now glared as they became the one bit of green in a sea of white rocks.  And so it will be with you.  As you purify your life, you will notice more and more areas that need work.  But don’t stop the purification process with the big problems.  Continue working until you can’t see any more issues.

This had the potential to take much longer than seven weeks.

As I kept pulling weeds, I glared at the black sheeting. “Weren’t you supposed to prevent weed pulling festivals?”  I grumbled under my breath.  And then God again:  Even when you think you have good protection in place over your heart, things can sneak up on you.  Always be aware that Satan can bring up evil through a crack you don’t even see.

Lunch was nearly over when I felt satisfied that all weeds were present and accounted for in the discard pile in the yard.  I stood up, wiped the dirt off my hands and imagined that the lessons had concluded for the day.

Had I learned nothing?

Wednesdays in the Word: Verse X

So many of the verses I chose for this list of Scripture memory have been about learning...and facing hard times...and growth...so I'm excited for this week's verse and the celebration it encourages!!

I haven't really gone this direction when writing about the weekly verses, but today I want to tell you about a person in my life who lives this verse WELL.

Deanna and I met back in the late 90's {which makes us sound so old now...but we are NOT, thankyouverymuch} when we were both student workers in the Financial Aid Office at IWU. I was wildly insecure, floundering a bit and trying to find my way in all areas of life, it seemed. Deanna was bright, bubbly, full of love, encouragement, and {the thing that stood out to me the most} a spirit of praise.

It didn't seem to matter how tough her week might be...how unfair life seemed to be unfolding...or how overwhelmed she felt. Deanna flashed a bright smile and said "Praise the Lord anyway!"

And she meant it. On the very worst day...she praised. For real.

I was privileged to watch her get married to her college sweetheart, and they have three sons now. I keep up with Deanna through Facebook, and my heart is so happy to see that her bubbly personality and desire to praise the Lord...remain firmly intact.

Deanna is a Mary Kay consultant, and just a few weeks ago, she earned her Cadillac.

And in the way she always does, she celebrated by praising the Lord...giving Him full credit for the blessings she enjoys.

Every single time I see Deanna's name scroll through my Facebook feed, and every single time I see that beautiful smile, my instant thought is now there is a girl who praises the Lord without reservation or condition.

I confess my initial reaction isn't always to "praise the Lord anyway." But oh how I want to be more like Deanna in this way. How I want to learn her beautiful spirit of praise.

Thank you, Deanna, for your example to me. Thank you for showing me how to live a life of out-loud praise. And thanks for letting me share you with my friends so they can learn from you too!

When My Sister Channels Her Inner Bekah

If you're new {like since-Ryan-new} to the blog, you have missed all my embarrassing encounters with David Phelps.

{Wait. You DO know who he is, right? He's only about the most amazing singer to ever walk the planet.}

I've met him a few times. The first time was before my blogging days, and it was such an overwhelming experience that I literally lost my appetite for an entire day before the concert where I met him. {And this was in the fat era. I NEVER lost my appetite.} I had my photo taken with him AND his bus. And to my credit, I did not get ON the bus.

I met him a second time {appropriately} in front of a defibrillator. And I developed a stutter prior to that conversation that left me mostly ridiculous and red.

I met him a third time after I started working at WBCL and I worked his concert. It was my first time to emcee and thank THE LORD I managed to say actual, coherent, English words in that moment.

My adoration for David has calmed itself to appropriate levels since I've gotten married...I try to save the tongue-tied, heart-palpitating moments for Ryan. :)

But let me just tell you, my sister has some undying adoration too...for someone else in the southern gospel circuit: Michael English.

He is her David Phelps.

And she'd never seen him in concert.

She tried. OH she tried. She went with me to a full Gaither concert in Indianapolis when I was smack in the middle of my desert and not one bit of fun to be around...and he was sick and not at the concert. We were both sad!!!


So when I found out he was going to be IN MY TOWN this past weekend...in solo concert...I had to invite her. I had to.

And she said yes!

The concert promoter saved us some seats in the very front, and after we found our place and she'd done a bit of shopping at the product table, we settled in to wait for the big moment!

 

Ryan went with us too - even though this isn't his MOST favorite kind of music.

Poor Michael..he's sick AGAIN!!! {Last time he was sick as in recovering from surgery. This time he just sounded like he had a horrible cold. Bless his heart!}

But the boy can SING! Even sick - he sounded amazing, and Julie was just over there glowing like crazy in a Bekah-listening-to-David sort of way.

And at the end? She got to meet him.

I gave her some space, so I have no idea if she stuttered. :)

So it was a fun night - and it was fun to see her so happy. And if you want to hear BOTH Michael and David just bring a song HOME - check out this one.

Red Carpet Movie Premiere

Ryan and I have been blessed to have the chance to do a lot of really fun things...but I have to say this past weekend is high on the list of fun experiences. {And Ryan earned roughly 4 billion points for being part of this for me.}

A couple of weeks ago, during Mid-Morning, I had the chance to meet two fiction writers you might know if you read Christian fiction: Colleen Coble and Denise Hunter. They came to the station to do an interview about an upcoming movie...and that was about all I knew prior to the actual interview.

As they shared, I learned that they were part of a sisterhood of authors...and one of their writing sisters, Diann Hunt, had died last fall after a courageous battle with ovarian cancer. Before she died, Diann learned that her novel, For Better or For Worse had been picked up by the Hallmark Channel to be made into a movie! She didn't live to see the movie in its finished state, but her friends celebrated her life and talent by throwing a Hollywood style movie premiere...in Fort Wayne!

When I found out that was happening, I SO wanted to go, and it so happened that we were going to be in Fort Wayne already that day, because we had to work an event for the station, so Ryan agreed to make a day of it. {Again. 4 billion points!}

So...we got two tickets {which were free to everyone who went...you just had to have one to get in!} and off we went!

After we worked Children's Fest, we scurried across town to the station to get all dressed up for the movie! I was so excited to have a chance to wear one of my dresses I've not had a reason to wear since the cruise!

We had two gift cards to Granite City {where we'd never eaten before} so we decided to make a free night of it and eat our dinner there! We were, far and away, THE most overdressed in the whole place.

 Fish tacos for Ryan and a chicken wrap for me. Have to say...the food was very tasty and we would absolutely go here again. {So many things I wanted to try, but I chose based on what would be the least likely to leave giant green stuff in my smile!}

On our way to the movie, we used another gift card to make our way through Starbucks....

The premiere was held at a church in Fort Wayne, and when we arrived, they had the red carpet all rolled out and waiting! We stood in the crowd and waited for Diann's friends and family to arrive via limo. When they did, everyone applauded for them as they made their way inside.

There were photographers and reporters there...and everyone was all dressed up and excited to celebrate. It was a wonderful atmosphere!

Once the guests of honor arrived, everyone else walked the red carpet to get inside...

Inside, they had a life size copy of the book cover...

There was even a "wedding reception" for all the guests - complete with cake and punch!

{The photo above is actually Denise Hunter's...I found it on Facebook and had to borrow it because I found us in it!}

The movie premiered on Hallmark at 9 p.m., so as the time drew close, we all made our way into the sanctuary to watch on the big screen{s}.

We THOROGHLY enjoyed the movie. It was a cute story, it was funny...and it was exciting to be able to share in the joy of people who knew and loved Diann.

During commercial breaks, they gave away door prizes, and Ryan and I each won a book. I guess he couldn't wait to get started!

So that was our fun night at the movie premiere!! A completely free date - and a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we had such a beautiful time at church {you already heard about that} - and then on our way home, Ryan stopped at the blood bank bus to donate. I stopped with him for moral support! That evening we went over to his Mom and step-dad's house to celebrate Allen's birthday. It was SUCH FUN...good talking with all the siblings and all their kids are just hysterical. We had a great night!

* Monday was an anxiety-filled day for me, so when I got home, I just wanted to be with Ryan for a while. We rested and then made dinner - which included our first sampling of home grown {though not at our home!} sweet corn. By the end of the night, the rain let up enough to go for some exercise...though part of it was still IN rain. It was gentle though - and pretty in puddles!!!

* Tuesday I went to work for the first half of the day and ended my time at work with a lunch meeting - love me some Friendly Fox food! I had to work from home that afternoon, and then that evening, while I had the Beth Moore study with the girls, Ryan said his final goodbyes to Old Blue and hello to our new {to us} wheels, the Red Bandit. A very full day!!

 * Wednesday morning was foggy, and halfway to work, I just drove straight out of it into the most glorious sunrise. The picture doesn't do it justice. While at work, I participated in the filming of our Christmas video...like the turtleneck? {I remember now why I don't wear them. Far too constricting and hot!} That night, I played undercover watchdog while Ryan met for some Craigslist sale attempts. I felt very Sandra Bullock-esque.

* Thursday was a bit of a rough day, so I spent my lunch hour doing a good cleansing cry in my car. That, along with the stellar summer sky fixed so much! :) After work, Ryan and I had some great talks together - and he took me for my first ride in the Red Bandit! We rented a movie and curled up for some much-needed rest: Braeya included! She's such a daddy's girl. {Traitor.}

 * Friday morning, while he was making the bed, Ryan actually got Braeya to pose WITH a toy for a picture. Amazing. Friday night, my sister Julie drove up from Indianapolis and the three of us went to see Michael English in concert. I'd never seen him solo before, and though he wasn't feeling well, it was a great concert! And it was fun to hang out with Julie, because we never get to do that!

* Yesterday was another full day! Ryan and I worked Children's Fest in Fort Wayne. The station has a tent there where kids can come through and record something {like a song or reading part of a DJ script} and take it home with them. They love it! When we were done with that, we scurried over TO the station to change clothes and head to...a movie premiere! I cannot WAIT to tell you more about this! We went to the red carpet movie premiere of the Hallmark movie For Better or for Worse. SUCH FUN!!!!

The Saturday Six

One.

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There's a brand new movie premiering on Hallmark tonight - and I'm really excited about it! It's called For Better or for Worse, and it's based on a novel by DiAnn Hunt. The author passed away this past fall, after a battle with cancer, but her writer friends were on Mid-Morning last week to share about the movie. I'm SO EXCITED about it!!! If you're home - WATCH!!!! If not - DVR!!!!!

Two.

Lynne shared with me a bag of this popcorn...which you can see is all kinds of good for you. I expected it to be boring and tasteless, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it had tons of flavor - and even {gasp} a hint of salt! It was a good snack!

Three.

This article BLEW my mind. Let the record show that while I am guilty of taking all manner of pictures of my food and my experience eating it, I do NOT create this kind of delay in the process. Ummmmm girl's gotta eat. And the faster, the better!!!

Four.

I gave in. I am now on the Instagram boat. It is TRULY pathetic why I did this...I was obsessively blog-following Julia's pregnancy and she SAID on her blog she would announce the birth via Instagram before it hit the blog. That's it. That is the reason I signed up. But for coming to the party several years late, I'm thoroughly enjoying the world of photos captioned by stories not limited to 140 characters. Thankyouverymuch. {It seemed appropriate for my first Instagram photo to be the one above. For many reasons.}

Five.

This is Ryan's first contribution to the Saturday Six, and I wanted to be sure to give him full credit. Some of you may have seen this swirling around Facebook or Twitter, but if you've NOT seen it, WATCH. It's a video full of grammar truth. A hearty amen, Weird Al.

Six.

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One of my friends left me this link on my Facebook page...given that I'm not really a WORLD traveler, I'll likely never see most of these, but man it was fun to read. I love coffee shops!!!