Snowwwwwwwwwwwww!!

Well you are looking at one grateful girl. SO GLAD my dental appointment was last Thursday and not today. Today I'll just be praying my way to elementary school and back {#hatesnowdriving}.

Right before Ryan came home for lunch yesterday, these big, beautiful, snow-globey flakes began to fall. I had no idea what to expect, because they've promised snows all winter that {mercifully} never came. So I didn't know if it would snow this time at all, and if it did, how much would end up on the ground.

It snowed the entire day, slow and steady. So pretty. So picturesque. Words I can only say because I was done driving for the day. I heard the roads started to get nasty last night, and to me, snow is never as pretty when it becomes treacherous.

But for the day, it was a pretty, pretty snow.

I stopped writing every couple of hours to take a fresh round of pictures, with the snow domed up more than it had been.

And by the time Ryan came home, there was a decent amount to shovel from the driveway, and a stunning yard full of snow.

It was the most snow we'd seen since we moved here, and I loved seeing how our house fit under a pretty blanket of snow.

{And now as long as the snow gets off the roads and stops being treacherous, I will happily continue to enjoy the view.}

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last summer, when we prepared for Mom's surprise 80th birthday party, my favorite part of party prep was pretending I ran my very own bakery. I made dozens and dozens of cookies in preparation, trying to find the perfect recipes and also unearth the perfect array of flavors for the cookie buffet. (That's pronounced boo-fay in Shafferland.)

I had a handful of recipes already in my trusty box that I had to rework because all of them called for shortening, and I'm trying to get away from using that. I already shared with you my new peanut butter and snickerdoodle cookie recipes, and today I bring my new chocolate chip recipe! (For the party I named it "chocolate chippiest," because I threw in even EXTRA chocolate chips for good measure. My mom has never met extra chocolate she didn't like. And it was, after all, her party.)

Last week I made another batch of these for one of Ryan's co-workers, and they were good. Yes, she actually got some, but you know I had to sample a couple to make sure they were edible. It's the responsible thing to do when you're the one baking, right?

So in case you need a good cookie to get you through the week, {hello, hump day. I'm looking at you!} here's a chocolate chip cookie recipe that just needs a big glass of milk to go with it.

Chocolate Chippiest Cookies

• 2½  cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

 
Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Roll dough into small balls and arrange on cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 11-14 minutes. Cool on wire racks and eat!

A Few Tips:

* I use white wheat flour in these cookies, and it works very well. You could also use all-purpose flour, and the cookies won't be quite as dark.

* As always, I use pure vanilla. I love the flavor!!

* Ryan bought me a small cookie scoop for Christmas, and I use that all the time now. It makes perfectly equal-sized cookies and with this recipe, they have this lovely little dome that makes them look like they really DID come from a bakery. Extra points!

* I use parchment paper on my cookie sheets to make for easier cleanup. You could easily skip that step and just make sure you spray your regular cookie sheet to keep the cookies from sticking.

* This makes about 3 dozen cookies, so it's the perfect size of a recipe!

* If you don't like chocolate chips so much (then I just don't understand you, but that's a whole different blog post - HA!) you could cut down the number you add to the dough.

* Seriously. Warm from the oven with a glass of milk. TRUST ME.
 

So...What Do You DO?

Ryan needed some fun to break up all the learning he's been doing at work, so we had some extra fun on the podcast this week - looking back into the craziness of our pasts. We might have figured out why Ryan's bald and we went over one of my ten million teen crushes. Sigh. (Plus many more laughs.)

 Take a listen!

Last Sunday, Ryan and I were chatting with a gentleman we met not long ago at our new church. We're still in the "get to know you" stage, and he asked Ryan what he did for a living. After they chatted the world of physical therapy for a while, he turned to me and I knew the question was about to be redirected my way. And it was. I gave my standard answer of being a stay-at-home wife, writer, and speaker. He nodded and made a comment about the important work of stay-at-home moms.

I just smiled, because I get that misinterpretation frequently. "I'm not a mom," I clarified. "Stay-at-home wife. Our only child is a cat, and there's no corralling her anytime soon." (I left out last week's potty-training debacle.)

I could tell my clarification had rendered him speechless, and I was neither surprised nor offended. People nod in admiration when they think I'm a stay-at-home mom. When they find out I'm a stay-at-home wife, they just nod in confusion.

What do I do all day?  Hallmark and coffee marathons? Well, in December, yes! (KIDDING!) I've learned that when people find out I stay at home, they presume I'm either bored to tears or a manicure-getting, coffee-guzzling socialite. And neither is true. But in their defense, I will say that when I made this transition out of full time work and into full time wife-ing it, I hunted all over the internet for articles and posts on how to make the most of your time as a stay-at-home wife without kids, and I came up pretty empty. Either there aren't many of us out there, or no one else has found the subject worth a blog post!

So in case you're wondering exactly what I do all day if I'm not watching Hallmark and drinking lattes, here's a quick list.

* House and Home Work. When I give my "job title," I intentionally list my role as a wife before writer and speaker, because in my mind, it's the most important. The pieces of my daily job description that serve Ryan are important to me, and they fill part of my every day. Making the bed, doing laundry, cooking meals, cleaning the house, meal planning, making the grocery list, watering plants, emptying the dishwasher, and other such tasks have to be done, and they're done much more regularly and thoroughly now that I have the time to devote to them. Ryan still has a few things he prefers to do (trash duty, mowing the lawn, etc.) but I'm happy to fill in with those too if he's extra busy. When we both worked, these things were done haphazardly and often by our joint effort, late at night or on the weekends, whenever we could cram them in. It's so much nicer to have them done regularly and well.

* Health Pursuits. When I went to visit my buddies at WBCL last week, I got to see Lynne for the first time in over a year. She hadn't seen me since before the clean eating and regular workouts were part of my routine, and she asked what I found that finally worked for me. (She knew losing weight was a constant battle for me in my time at the station.) I told her about the 21 Day Fix and clean eating and all that, but I told Ryan later that in truth, a big part of the change was not being a commuter anymore. I don't spend 2 hours in a car every day. I actually have time to work out 5-6 days a week. (That did not happen when I worked.) I have time to go for walks. I have time to prepare healthy meals. I sleep for more than four hours a night. My health has changed because I've made it part of my job.

* Relationships. Another thing I just did not have time for when I worked full time and commuted? Relationships outside of work or Ryan. We had friendships that suffered permanently, I'm afraid, from our busyness in that season. Staying home means I have time to invest in relationships, through church, coffee dates, Bible studies, email, sending cards and letters, visiting Ryan at work, etc. My ability to prepare for things while Ryan's at work means that he can also enjoy that benefit when he comes home and we can have company or go spend time with others. It's freeing to have friends again!

* Writing. When I worked, I had time to blog every day and that was it. Any other writing I did happened for work alone. I didn't have time to dream up books or write for websites or anything else. Now I have time for that. I've written two full manuscripts since I've been away from a full-time job, I published a third manuscript (which had been mostly written but never tweaked), I'm more intentional about my blog, and I am knocking on doors to write for other places, too. Writing takes time. It takes quiet, uninterrupted time. I never had that before, and now I do. I love it!

* Reading. I never had time to read (other than for work) before I stayed home. Now I read an average of a book a week and I love it. I learn so much through studying the words of others, and it helps me become a better writer.

* Podcasts. It takes an average of three hours to put together an episode of Spill the Beans from start to finish, and probably four hours, minimum, for an episode of The Conversation Cafe. It's important to me to be thorough and as professional as I can be with both of those projects, and I am so grateful for the time to do them!

* Speaking. I learned a lot from Lynne about how to take speaking engagements seriously. I put a lot of time into communicating with the places who hire me, writing and learning my material, and presenting it well. I'll practice every talk an average of five times before I give it, and some even more than that. I work on visual aids and follow-up communication and establishing relationships with the people I meet while I'm out speaking, and all of that takes time. I didn't have the time to do it well when I worked, so I want to give it my all now!

* Me time. I try really hard to do my devotions during the day while Ryan's at work, to spend time in prayer, to relax when my mind is overwhelmed, to run errands and take care of things that would take away from time with Ryan, so that when he comes home from work each night, I can give him the rest of the evening for us to enjoy together. I try to have dinner ready, and then we have time to work out together, watch our TV shows together, go for walks when it's nice, or be part of fun things that we would otherwise have to decline because all our work awaited.

So that's what staying at home looks like for this girl. My days are packed from morning to night, so never fear that I'm bored! Maybe I should just print off copies of this post, and the next time someone asks so........what do you DO all day? I can just let them read all about it! :)

Chocolate Celebration

I've talked before on here about how my mom loves to volunteer. She's so good at it. She has a big heart for all kinds of groups and organizations and for as long as I can remember, she's been the volunteer to help out on everything from church potlucks to the Rescue Mission.

And the embarrassing but true fact is that I did not inherit that love. I'm not cold and hard-hearted, but the volunteering gene skipped me, and ever since I got put in the shame corner over it by a teacher back in high school, I've felt the need to apologize for my lack of volunteer-loving heart.

Somewhere along the way, in recent years, I managed to learn that not all volunteer jobs are the same, and just because I don't love to do the jobs that people hail as "good servanthood jobs" doesn't mean there's not a place for me to serve at all. That has been very freeing!

So a couple of weeks ago, Mom called and said she'd gotten an email from one of the organizations she's volunteered with for a while, and they were in need of some help...in the world of photography. OKAY!!!!!!

As if it wasn't great enough to get to volunteer while holding my camera, the event was the annual Chocolate Celebration, which is a fundraiser for Samaritan Caregivers. (They serve the senior community.) You can read more details on the celebration here, if you want to see the nitty gritty of how it works, but let's just say it was HUGE and there was so. much. chocolate. A happy place to serve if ever I saw one!

The event is held at one of the huge churches in Kokomo, and I arrived 45 minutes early and people were already there and itching to get their hands on some chocolate treats! I vowed not to get any, because I was there to WORK, not INDULGE. Yeah. Came home with four things. LOL!!! To be fair, I did share with Ryan, thankyouverymuch.

But I thought I'd share a few of my pictures with you so you could see what a fun event this was! And who can't use a little chocolate on a Monday? {I would actually share with you, but do you honestly think any of it survived until today? Yeah. Not even.}

I actually bought one of the little chocolate chip shot glasses there on the bottom. It was a cookie cup, lined with chocolate and filled with mousse. DELICIOUS. {Sorry, Ryan. I meant to save you a bite.}

The general way this process works is that vendors bring in treats, and the people who attend can do so for free, but they buy tickets to exchange for the treats. Several vendors also bring in other things that can be purchased with cash if you like. And a good number of them had free samples!

While obviously a big chunk of the vendors were in the food business {bakeries and such}, several didn't have a food-related business. That was okay, as long as they brought chocolate treats to exchange for tickets.

{Please note I restrained myself from putting down my work to visit THIS booth!!}

They also had a judging panel and handed out awards. I also restrained myself from asking how you get one of THESE jobs. I feel that judging a chocolate competition would be the ultimate in service, right? :) 

There were so. many. people. there.

This was down a hallway, and then the atrium of the church was full as well. Made it challenging to get pictures without being right up in people's faces {which I HATE doing} because if you tried to shoot a picture very far away, you had people walking across your path, blocking your view!

But I didn't see a single cranky person all day. How can you be cranky when surrounded by this much chocolate???

 My friend Kari and her friends...shopping away! :)

 This lady was from a local coffee shop, and she smiled SO BIG all day. I understood why, because obviously coffee and chocolate COMBINED will do that to you, but I just really enjoyed circling past her booth because she had so much joy! :)

A little quartet singing....to the sweetheart. :)

My four tickets. Well spent, I might add. :) It was a good day, a fun and different thing to do, and a chance to actually serve in a way that fits my personality! Win, win, win!

The Shafferland Shuffle

We absolutely wore ourselves out this week. By Friday night, we were asleep on the couch while a movie played on TV. Here's to an easier week - we hope!

* Last Sunday, as I already told you, we went to Hemlock Friends Church so I could speak in their morning worship service. Ryan got to ring the bell, and after church, one of the families invited us to join them for lunch, so that was a fun surprise! We were pretty much bums for the rest of the day once we got home. Three hour naps, I believe!

* Monday was gorgeous, and it was so welcome after the collection of gray days we'd had recently. Sunshine on the trees, Braeya napping in the sun...just beautiful. After work, we ran a few errands, which included going through the car wash. That warmed up the car in a hurry!

* Tuesday was supposed to be Tuesdays at the Table night, but our guests were sick, so we just had the night at home instead. I still made some of the food we planned to have, including a quick bread made with rosemary and onion. I do love the flavor of rosemary. Ryan got back to working out this week, which has made him feel much better, and Braeya was high-fiving him for his effots.

* Wednesday brought the start of a new computer system for Ryan's work, which has single-handedly made me a work widow. LOL. I remember starting new systems back in Financial Aid, they are 100% brain drain. I know it! He stayed through a lot of lunches and worked very late many days this week getting used to this thing! But that morning, one of his co-workers brought donuts to encourage everyone! So sweet! Another of his co-workers asked if I could help her by making some desserts for her, since she didn't have time or energy this week and she needed them for things she was going to. So I baked cookies!

* Thursday was our super busy day. Work for Ryan, dentist for me, followed by a visit to the station to see my friends, TWO viewings that night, and then the celebration of our 50th monthiversary with the "B" themed date from our alphabetical dates. This day may have been why we were asleep on the couch Friday night.

* Friday, I went to a Chocolate Celebration fundraiser here in town and served as a volunteer photographer {more on this tomorrow}, so between prepping, attending, and editing, that took up most of my day! Our friend Shawn and his boys and their cute little puppy stopped by to see us that evening, and other than that, it was pizza and snoozeville for the Shaffers.

 * Yesterday was a long work day for Ryan, so I worked at home and did our grocery shopping. What on earth possessed me to brave the store alone the day before the Super Bowl is beyond me and mine. Whew! I tried to cheer Ryan up by taking him a latte at work, and when he came home, we enjoyed a lovely evening at home together. I finished my VERY LAST WORKOUT in the Hammer and Chisel lineup. WOO HOO!!! :)

The Saturday Six

One.

I dearly love Holley Gerth. Such an encourager. {I have a flip calendar by my bed with her writing in it, and I love flipping a new page each morning to read what she has to say!} This post is just beautiful, and if you're struggling with the question of why you're here on this earth, read her thoughts. I particularly love this quote: "Whatever 2017 may bring, there is One who has brought me into this world for Himself. There is no greater calling. There is no more glamorous career. There is no higher glory."

Two.

 This week, I decorated our home for Valentine's Day. I don't have a ton of decorations for this holiday, but I'm always looking for new pieces to add. Maybe you're that way too? I don't have any of these (yet) but Ever Thine Home has some great, timeless, faith-based decorations for Valentine's Day. This is the same company that created the Adorenaments we love so much and had in our home at Christmas. So I can definitely vouch for the company providing quality products, even though I haven't seen these in person!

Three.

Anyone else crazy excited about Beauty and the Beast coming out? I am not AT ALL a big movie buff. I enjoy watching them (at home) but never count down to any or want to see them immediately. It's just not my thing. But this one? Oh yes. Belle is my FAVORITE princess. The trailers are amazing, and I think Ryan fears I'll be singing all the songs at the top of my lungs in the middle of the theater. (It's a legitimate fear.)

Four.

 I know I've posted a similar link to this in years past, but I think it's important to share again! Katie at Dashing Dish has a new lineup of skinny Super Bowl snacks to make. If you're hosting a party this weekend and need some healthy and flavorful options, check these out!

Five.

You know how I love finding new date ideas! Found this one this week..filing it away for later, after we're done with alphabetical dates. But in case you need an idea before then, check it out!! Looks like fun! 


Six.

Source

This week, I read a new-to-me author: Patricia Bradley. Her latest novel, Justice Delayed, interested me because you know I love a good crime/suspense novel!! It had been a little while since I read one, so I thought it was about time to feed that side of my reading love again.


Andi Hollister, a TV crime reporter, is doing her best to work her way up the network ladder, and her family is doing their best to make their final peace with her older sister's murder, which took place eighteen years earlier. The man convicted of killing her - Jimmy -  will be executed in three days, and they can finally relax, knowing justice has been served.

But with just hours until execution, Jimmy receives a handwritten letter from someone who says she knows he didn't kill Stephanie, and she can prove it. But before she does, she winds up dead as well, and everything the Hollister family thought they knew about this case is flooded with doubt and question.

Andi and her cop-brother Brad, and his investigator-friend Will suddenly have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to make sure Jimmy isn't wrongfully executed, and if he's not the killer, to find out who should be sitting behind bars in his place.

I was really excited to read this book and even told Ryan I bet I would knock it out in a day, staying up until all hours of the night to finish it, with heart racing clear to the last page. And while I didn't dislike the book or the story line, it didn't grip me quite as much as I thought it would. I was fairly near the end before that I-must-keep-reading-even-though-I'm-so-tired feeling hit me.

Part of the problem for me were all the characters in the novel. They were plentiful and at times, it was hard to keep them all straight. Andi, Treece (her best friend and fellow reporter), Brad, and Will were easy to keep straight, but there were a whole crew of other names, several beginning with J or L that I kept getting confused. I had to slow down my reading to keep track of them.

And part of my problem was my confusion of details I was certain would become major parts of the story that didn't, and other details that I didn't think should matter, but they did. I had to keep slowing down to reprioritize as I read.

For me, the story was good, but the suspense wasn't as gripping as I'd hoped. I would absolutely read this author again, but I would probably pick a different series next time.

* I received a copy of this book from Revell at no charge, and all opinions are my own! * 

50 Months and a "B" Themed Date!

Yesterday we celebrated 50 months of marriage. Nice, clean numbers like 50 make me want to go back to the beach. And while yesterday was stunning by ANY Indiana winter standard...it wasn't the beach.

The sad part of yesterday was that we had to spend way too much of the day apart. Ryan had work, of course, and I had to go back to the dentist!

You guys!! I got the best report I have ever had since all this dentist-y stuff started! She said I'm almost completely healed up, I had great hygiene (THANK YOU, THIEVES!!) and my x-rays showed no decay. Three cheers for that!

After the dentist visit, I drove over to the station to see my friends and ended up staying TWO HOURS. It was so good to see them! On the way home, I stopped in the old stomping grounds of Marion to go to a viewing. {That was my second viewing in two days. I fear I'm becoming my parents.} Then, when I was almost home, Ryan called and said one of his friends needed to borrow our car for the evening, so I met up with them to drop off the car. Ryan and I went to ANOTHER viewing {yes, this makes THREE in two days} and then we could start our date.

I'm pretty sure when I wore my pretty dress 50 months ago, I didn't envision this milestone with a day apart, a dental bib and two funeral homes!

We tried to take our monthiversary photo and Braeya kept moving around and distracting us, so we had to trash the whole first set of attempts...except this one. This kind of summed up the day well.

But we got a keeper, too:

Now. For the B date!

If you missed it last week, I wrote about my decision to do a series of alphabetical dates throughout the year. Ideally we'll do these every other week, but I thought the monthiversary would be a nice day to sneak in a low-key alphabetical date. This one wasn't nearly as involved as the "A" date.

First up? BBQ DINNER.

I gave Ryan a choice from two BBQ restaurants in town. We'd been to one before, but not the other. He decided on the one we knew and loved, so we went there and had our food in just a jiffy!

We got a platter dinner to split and brought it home so we could eat it while we rested, because it has been a very busy week. {It was DELICIOUS.}

Then the next part of our low key home-date was BORROWED BOARD GAMES. We don't really own any, so I borrowed Sorry! from one of his work friends and we got busy playing.

At the end of round one...it was close!

I'm red. He's blue. He won.

Because of course.

He also won rounds two and three.

He tried to look genuinely sorry as he slid the pawns into home. I told him the game was representative of my love life before I met him. SO CLOSE - and then someone else won the guys. SORRY! lol!!!!!

Even though I lost all the rounds, and the day was crazy chaotic, the date was fun! Proof that they don't have to be crazy convoluted to be fun. BBQ and board games at home = much fun!

Happy monthiversary, Ryan! The last 50 months have been the best! :) I love life with you. Not sorry one little bit!

If You See a Blur...

...of white, it's just our flag. The white flag of surrender.

It's over, folks.

Potty Training 2017 came to a screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeching halt yesterday afternoon. 

Womp, womp, womp.

{And by the way, among the topics I never thought I'd be blogging about on our 50th monthiversary? Potty training...a cat...and its failure. Ryan, I love you, for better or worse, for litter or toilets. Until the cat causes the death of both of us.}

So TWO days ago, I happened by the Braeya bathroom mid-afternoon and saw her up on the toilet, turning circles in the ever-widening pan attached to the toilet. I wasn't sure if she was leaving or arriving, so I paused quietly to watch. That's when I saw it. THE most magnificent sight of the entire operation.

That cat was positioned perfectly over the hole and went right into it. I turned into one of "those moms" and grabbed the phone to take a picture, which I promptly texted to Ryan at work with a caption of "ALERT! ALERT! SHE POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!!"

Oh. My. Word.

Suddenly the sheer elation of moms of toddlers everywhere translated in feline form right into my being and I got it. This is why they get so excited! Apparently {per the story I heard later}, Ryan's boss gathered ALL the co-workers so they could see this phenomenon of Braeya successfully pooping in a toilet.

Back on the home front, I praised her and used all manner of high pitched squeals and head-rubs and offers of sink-drinks, which are her favorite. But she just curled up on the couch for a nap. All in a day's work for her, I guess.

Yesterday, right after lunch, I happened to catch her on the toilet again so I waited much like I had the day before, to see if I could see the amazing success all over again.

And that's when it happened.

As she circled around, her back left leg slipped off the rim and plopped down into the toilet, all the way up to her tail. She shot me a look of horror, hoisted herself out and jumped down.

And right then, I knew we were in big trouble.

MONTHS ago, she fell off the toilet lid in the master bathroom while jumping from the toilet up to the sink, after misjudging her distance, and she STILL will not get back up there. We coax her and urge her, but she refuses. I knew that falling in the toilet meant we'd never get her back on this one either.

Right about then, I got a text from Ryan asking if I could come see him at work, since he hadn't been able to come home at lunch. I went over for a bit and when I came back, just a half hour or so later, I saw it. She'd pooped in the hallway. On the carpet. I cleaned it up and checked to see if she'd also peed, and thankfully she had not. {Remember when we moved in and she did that and we had to replace all the carpet in the whole house? Yeah. Can't afford THAT again.} I cleaned the carpet thoroughly and let Ryan know that we had a big problem.

Braeya was on the couch in ten minutes, where she proceeded to sleep for the next six hours. Ryan got the litter pan back out and hid it in the bathtub just in case...and when she woke up, he took her in the bathroom to try to get her to try her newfound skill again. She immediately jumped down, sniffed around, and disappeared behind the bathroom curtain into her beloved litter box. She KNEW!

So we're done. No more really cool toilet trained cat. We're back to being the normal, run-of-the-mill cat family.

But she's a cute little run-of-the-mill cat, isn't she?

Return Invitation

Last summer, I received an invitation to speak at a little church just outside of Kokomo. They needed someone to speak in their Sunday morning worship service and their pastor's wife had just learned that I had begun to do some speaking, so they invited me. Since Ryan wasn't working, he went with me, which I loved. The congregation is small in number but huge in heart and kindness. We loved being part of their service!

A couple of weeks ago, they called again and invited me back! It's a bit of a relieving feeling to be called back, you know? Well, at least it was until Ryan said maybe they were giving me a chance to prove I really could do it. HA!

I prayed for several days about what to speak on and with the date of the service drawing close and closer, I started to get a little worried when I hadn't heard God prompt me in any particular direction! But one day, as I started to wake up from a nap (one of the times I hear best in prayer!) I had a very clear sense of direction and went to work immediately!

So Sunday morning, Ryan and I packed up the car and headed to the church to share with the people again. We arrived just before their Sunday School hour ended, so when we got inside, we had just a few minutes to wander around and settle in.

Ryan settled into the front pew, but he decided not to stay there. No one needs the nostril view, right?

It only took us five tries to get this photo:

The outtakes are hilarious, but I really need and want Ryan to love me a lot, so I won't post them.

Now if you heard this week's podcast, you heard this story already, but let me just put it in print for posterity. This church has an old fashioned bell in its steeple, and the rope for the bell hangs in (apparently) a very tempting manner in the foyer of the church. While we waited for Sunday School to dismiss, Ryan threatened to ring it and I told him I really wanted a chance to be invited back again to this congregation, so maybe that wasn't the best idea.

But when one of the ladies came out to set up for church, we talked with her and the whole bell thing came up in conversation. She laughed and nodded for him to go ring it. We both stared at her in total disbelief, but she pointed at the rope and said, "Go ahead! It's okay! Ring it!"

Well, he needed no further invitation.

Pretty sure he stopped JUST short of actually swinging from the rope.

A few minutes later, we heard another church bell - from the church about a block away. The woman who had said Ryan could ring the bell listened closely and said, "They're trying to outdo you! They never ring their bell. Ring it again!"

I feared I might never lure him away from this bell!

But I did. Church began and it was a great service. While we were singing, a gentleman got up and left the sanctuary, but he came right back with his harmonica and he played along with the congregation for the rest of the time. I don't know when (or even IF) I've heard such a thing before in person, and I loved it!

When I got up to speak, the people were just so kind, and I appreciated them laughing along with the stories (laughing at appropriate points, that is) and taking in the message God pressed on me!

(Bonus! My mom remembered that this church had thrown her a surprise baby shower before I was born, and I found some of the pictures in my baby book. I took the whole album so they could see that blast from the past!)

A wonderful Sunday...thanks, Hemlock, for asking me to come back!