Speak Up Conference 2017

Helloooooooooooo! I'm home from the conference! :)

If you missed last week, I'll catch you up by telling you I was gone from Thursday to Saturday at the Speak Up Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have only begun to process all I learned in those three days, and I'm sure over the next few days, I'll be sharing a handful of nuggets that were meaningful to me, but today I'll give you the grand overview!

First of all, I would like the record to show that I do believe this is the smallest amount of luggage I have ever packed for anything in my life, including church.

I would also like the record to show, this is the least amount of sobbing I have ever done upon leaving Ryan (granted, this was only the 4th time in our 5 years together we've ever been apart). The only reason I dried it up was because I traveled with a friend and wanted to attempt to put my best foot forward. I was wailing on the inside, believe me. Leaving Ryan is the hardest thing I ever do. We were just not made to be apart.

This is my friend, Sarah, who was my traveling buddy/roommate for the weekend. Sarah has a book coming out in a few months, so you'll be seeing more about her! She and I actually were at IWU around the same time, but we met up again back in 2009 (we think) at a writing conference in Indianapolis. The blessing of social media has kept us connected, and she's the one who actually invited me to attend this conference!

The conference was held on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, and I thought it was a beautiful campus with a lovely conference center. (If I could have packed up the meadow with the weeping willows that sat just beyond most of the conference rooms, I most certainly would have. Stunning view.)

Ready to learn!

I mentioned last week that we had to really pray and plan over the finances for this adventure, but my goodness. I will say with all certainty that Carol Kent and her crew absolutely offer each attendee the maximum amount of opportunities to learn all they can. In three days, I attended six workshop sessions, two keynote sessions, two devotional sessions, a concert, five one-on-one appointments, two Q&A sessions, a mock publishing board meeting, and a small group writing critique (plus a handful of other tiny things). I appreciated all I learned and all the notes I was able to take!

 I met some new friends, had quite the treasure trove of roommates (excuse the obvious Instagram screen shot. My computer would not allow me to edit this), and became very aware of just how many God-loving women have passions like mine!

(Left-Right: Sarah Forgrave, Me, Brenda Yoder, and Amelia Rhodes)

Even though I learned much and immersed myself in all that was offered, I still tremendously missed Ryan, and called/texted him every chance I got. We even had coffee together in the mornings via the blessing of FaceTime.

(My reaction to his grocery shopping find. He went without me, and milk was on sale. Guess we're set for a while! LOL!!!!)

On Friday, I had a horrific headache that would not be calmed by coffee, food, or medicine. It was awful. And I never get headaches, so it was just frustrating and maddening. I powered through and tried to look better than I felt:

When it still hung on fiercely after lunch, I went back to my room and just cried until it went away. See? I knew tears solved everything!!!

But headache and Ryan-deprivation aside, I loved this conference, loved what I learned, and loved the people I met.

I told Ryan I felt like all the information this weekend fell into three categories: things I learned, things that affirmed me, and things that intrigued me.

Of course I just flat out learned some stuff. I expected that and wasn't disappointed. But I was surprised at how much information came my way in the form of things I already do. Often they were things I had figured out on my own. Rather than being disappointed that I wasn't learning more, I chose to interpret those moments as affirmation that I was on the right track and God Himself put me there. And then there were my favorite moments: when I heard about ideas and concepts that intrigue me. I don't know what they mean for my/our future, but I believe they are seeds of some sort, planted by the Lord. He'll water them in His time, and I'm excited to see what they yield.

So that was my weekend at Speak Up! If you're ever thinking of a conference in this part of the country, I highly recommend this one. Worth the money and the time!

(Scroll down to read more from others who attended the conference!!)

Linking up with Tamar!

SPEAK UP BLOG HOP!!!!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

I'm hommmmmmmmmmmmmme!!!!

Oh my goodness. I had a wonderful time at the Speak Up Conference, but I missed my man and home like crazy. Thankful to be back!! Much to tell you!!

* Last Sunday afternoon, Ryan's sister and her new husband invited the family over for a cookout, which was so nice of them! Ryan was particularly drawn to the corn on the cob. HA!!! We stopped by his co-worker's house for him to help with something real quick, and I got to meet her new puppy, who is so cute! And then I finished constructing my binder for the conference. Organization overload. My happy place!

* Ryan calls this picture the workout version of our ziplining picture. That was one tough workout on Monday, but I survived it! And that night, our plans to go to the fair were canceled in favor of tornado warnings! (Please read all sadness into that.) Hours of stalking the radars and hoping we would be okay. (The Starbucks isn't fully rebuilt yet. Let's not knock it down again!)

* When we woke up Tuesday morning, there was a lot of flooding in our area, but thankfully our property was spared. Know what we weren't spared? More rain. It did clear up, eventually, and we went on a run, where I promptly narrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrowly escaped a face plant onto the sidewalk. It was a semi-gracious save and I sure hope someone got to see it! Would have been a shame to waste that on zero viewers. It was so insanely humid that I could not drink enough water when I got home. WHEW.

* Wednesday was our fake fair night. You remember that. When we meant to go to the fair, but it was storming, so we went to Sonic and Dairy Queen instead? It was our last night at home together before I left for the conference, and I started to get really sad about being apart!

* Thursday was parting-is-such-sweet-sorrow day. Minus the "sweet," of course. I was so sad to say goodbye to Ryan, but I was thankful for the opportunity to attend the Speak Up Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I rode up with a friend (who actually invited me in the first place) and we had a great time talking and learning throughout the first evening of the conference!

* Friday I woke up with the worst headache I've had in 11 years. It was awful. Coffee didn't help. Food didn't help. Medicine didn't help. Finally, after lunch, I just went back to my room and had a massive meltdown. THAT helped. Who knew? But despite feeling terrible, I had a great time at the conference, and Ryan had a good day at work. (Fun fact: we missed each other so much, we FaceTimed our morning coffee.)

* Yesterday was the end of the conference, and even though I was sad to leave the amazing atmosphere of learning, I was so ready to see Ryan! He had to work at the fair (volunteering for his work) so he sent me fair pictures, but he also brought me an elephant ear!! He does love me. I got home safely and oh my goodness. So happy for big hugs and return to routine!!!!

If you need me for the next three days, I'll be processing everything I learned!!!

The Saturday Six

One.

I've not seen this book in person, but I'm quite intrigued by it. I stumbled upon a book review (I'm not familiar with the blogger) for a new cookbook centered around yogurt. I love this idea! I do love cooking with yogurt and subbing it in as a better choice for other things. I think I might have to put this one on my wish list!

Two.

To say this tribute was emotional was an understatement. If you don't watch America's Got Talent, you should check out this clip. The contestant auditioned and before the show even aired, he was killed in a car accident. They aired his audition to honor him, and I cried all the way through it. (I know this shocks you.)

Three.

This is a short article, but I think it holds a lot of truth. Susie Davis explains why discipling/mentoring (whatever you want to call it) someone isn't as scary as the big multi-syllable words might make it appear to be!

Four.

I'm not the greatest housekeeper, and I'll admit that. Clutter? I'm on it. A place for everything and everything in its place. CLEANING? Ugh. But KariAnne has some great ideas for little things to clean when you only have five minutes to use. I confess some of these don't ohttps://thistlewoodfarms.com/10-things-clean-five-minutes/ccur to me!

Five.

When I come back from my writing retreat, I'm looking forward to a few days of just rest. It's been a busy summer, not so much in places to go, but in mental export. I am looking forward to savoring, just likes this says.

Six.

Source

Ryan and I just finished up Beth Moore's David: 90 Days with a Heart Like His, and I found it very fascinating. Not a new book at all, this one released back in 2006, and just like Jesus: 90 Days with the One and Only that we read a couple of years ago, the format of this book was pretty perfect for our morning quiet time together.

Each devo (and as you might have guessed from the title, there are 90 of them) is either one or three pages long, and it offers a passage of Scripture to read, a couple of reflection/discussion questions and a prayer at the end. There's room under each question and the prayer for some journaling, but we skipped that part. (I would do that if studying on my own, though.)

It's been a long long time since I studied anything about the life of David, so this was a great refresher for me. Another thing I really appreciated about it was the way she chronologically arranged the events of David's life for study. Since his story is spread throughout the books of the Samuels/Kings/Chronicles, and since some accounts repeat themselves, the timing can get a bit tricky to keep straight.

David was indeed a man after God's own heart, but he was also a flawed man, and Beth didn't hide either side of David as she wrote the study. Celebrating David's accomplishments and success gave us reason to strive to be like him, but learning from his sin and stumbles reminded us of how we shouldn't behave.

If you're looking to study a person of the Bible, David is a great (and fascinating) choice. The study is well done, and we both highly recommend it!

Fake Fair Night

This week has been our county fair week, and we do so love going to the fair! I'd been looking forward to it so much (cue the mushrooms and elephant ears - separately of course).

My calendar was marked for us to go Monday and Tuesday evenings so I could be home Wednesday night before leaving for the conference on Thursday.

Well then Monday night brought tornadoes to our part of the state, and we elected to stay home. It was a good thing we did because they ended up shutting down the entire fairgrounds.

We checked the forecast again on Tuesday and it said there was a good chance of rain that night, but none on Wednesday. So we stayed home Tuesday evening, which became perfectly bright and sunny. And then on Wednesday? Deluge.

It was still raining when Ryan got off work, and more than just rain, it was storming. I don't mind being rained on a little, but I have a healthy respect for actual storms. Being out in an open field wasn't appealing. So we made the decision to stay home, which made me cry and feel horrible. First year I've missed the fair - ever, I think!

(And while it didn't become a nice evening, the rain did clear out. But by that time, we decided we'd already committed to not going.)

So here was our plan B sort of night.

Okay, first of all, can we talk about this picture? Doesn't it look like Ryan is missing his front teeth? We laughed SO HARD over it that I sent it to my family and said, "If you're looking for Christmas gift ideas for Ryan, add the two front teeth to the list," and my mom really thought he'd knocked out his teeth! No. Just sadness over the loss of our beloved fair. 

Obviously the only comfort that can replace the loss of fair food is: Sonic.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of Ryan's food!

I'm KIDDING! This was both of ours!

After Sonic, we had to swing by the store for me to pick up a couple of last minute supplies for the conference. I didn't hate the comfort of the school supplies section. This PENCIL!!!!!

And Ryan found a stapler he could appreciate:

In amusing news, we ran into my friend Amber, who actually usually goes to the fair with us. So it really did start to feel like a good substitute!

Ryan thought a Blizzard would help bring further comfort. Who am I to argue?

And then we pulled out Mo, curled up and watched Hidden Figures, which we'd been meaning to see for a while.

Even though it was really sad to miss the fair, I think it also may have been good to have a night at home alone together before the conference. I appreciated that time with Ryan!!

Hey, fair? I'm coming for you next year! I PROMISE!!!!!!

Adventures in Learning

If you heard the podcast this week, this information won't be a surprise to you, but if you missed that, then I should tell you I'm going on a little adventure!

Earlier this year, I received an email from an author friend of mine asking if I'd like to attend a writing/speaking conference this summer. (Fun fact: I actually met her at a writer's conference many years ago! Through the joy of social media, we've gotten to know each other in the years that have followed, and she has her first book coming out this year!)

My initial reaction to her invitation was no, because you know how I feel about being away from Ryan! But I took a gander at the schedule and found myself intrigued by some of the workshop topics.

The price was steep for our little one-income household, but I had enough advance notice that I hoped I could earn enough to (more than) cover my costs. So I talked with Ryan about it, and he agreed I should give it a try. We prayed in faith for God to open financial doors to cover the costs, and He did! I was awarded a small scholarship towards the conference fees, and I have earned enough this year to more than cover what has been needed.

I've worked hard to prepare for this conference. I've prayed, of course, that I will be able to soak up as much information as is humanly possible. I've prayed for safety over our car (okay, Sarah's car) as we travel together. I've prayed for health, since if church on Sunday was any indication, the season of summer colds has arrived in full fury.

And of course then there was the creation of the nerdy note-taking and organizing binder, with all color coding and cover sheet making.

(Yeah, I'm that girl.)

So I'll be in learning mode here for the next day or two. If you'd like to join me in prayer for the whole conference and for my own little heart, I'd love it! Hopefully I'll learn all kinds of incredibly helpful information that I can implement not just here on the blogaroo, but in my whole ministry!

Back to school (temporarily) for Bekah!

Repackaged Dreams

I may have told bits and pieces of this story before, but I'll tell it again, just to catch everyone up. :)

When I was little, I so wanted to be a teacher. I was the product of my parents, for sure. My Dad taught public high school and mom worked as an assistant in first grade, so it was no surprise that I'd spend my evenings and summers lining up my dolls and stuffed animals to teach them. I passionately taught all I'd learned in my own classes, and then I'd read stories to them and help them do craft projects. Mom would even bring home old worksheets destined for the trash for me to use in my teaching.

My first actual term paper of my high school career was supposed to be about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Teacher headed the list, followed by nurse (uhhhhhh no) and secretary. Let it never be said I lacked career diversity goals! I made a passionate case for why I wanted to be a teacher and received an A on that paper.

The only reason I didn't pursue teaching when I got to college was I'd begun to see the huge changes in the public education system and I didn't think I could be the teacher I'd be required to be over the teacher I wanted to be. So I said goodbye to that dream and pursued writing instead.

But it has become clear to me over the past several years that God didn't deny that teaching dream. He just repackaged it.

It started way back after college when I spent a few years as a rubber stamp demonstrator, teaching groups of people to stamp and scrapbook. Then it moved into writing and leading Bible studies at church. It even showed up in my Financial Aid job when I worked to educate parents and students about paying for school and surviving loan payback. It carried into writing, showed up in radio, continued into speaking, and I think it even makes appearances on this blog.

Over the course of the past month, I've had the chance to teach an online workshop, and I've loved it. Lesson plans, instructional videos, pages of curriculum, assignments and feedback - the whole bit. The teacher is still inside me; she just doesn't stand in front of the classroom like she always envisioned.

I have no idea how God will continue to use this passion in me and how else He might package it, but I'm grateful for what I've been able to do so far! I'm grateful that I've learned teaching has many faces.

And I share this with you, because I don't know what dream of your heart might not be turning out the way you always thought it would. Maybe what you thought was a farewell to a dream is really just a temporary release of it into God's hands so He can repackage it and allow you to enjoy it in ways you never envisioned.

You know what?

I think those dreams can be even better.

Take your repackaged dreams and embrace them fully, my friend!

The Date Inspired by the Letter M

Podcast Tuesday!! Stories from our week and a clarification on the true goodness of our workout instructor!

Listen here!

We are halfway through our alphabetical dates and halfway through the year! Right on track, which makes me very happy. It has been quite fun to try new things and be purposeful, and we absolutely recommend trying this! (For those of you who might not have a date, I thought to myself the other day that a lot of these can be easily modified for friend outings!)

Our date inspired by the letter M was supposed to happen Friday night, but alas, it poured so hard Friday afternoon that streets started flooding throughout town, and we were so exhausted that we just didn't feel up to fighting closed roads and rain and everything else. So our date started out by being modified. LOL!

Saturday night, after we spent the day with Phoebe, we went on our date!

We tried out a Mexican restaurant that we'd not been to before. (It's not new; we just hadn't been there.) It's called Mi Familia, which worked out pretty well!

It was clean, the food was good, and the service was very prompt, so that was a triple win for us. I loved how colorful the booths were! (The photo below is actually the top of the table.)

Chips and salsa, refilled promptly, and quite delicious.

Ryan got a sampler platter, and I ordered a chimichanga. I haven't had one of those in probably over a decade. A delicious treat!

The original plan had been to go home, have homemade mochas and watch a movie, but when we dropped Phoebe off to her people before our date, they asked us to come in and have coffee. We told them we would come back after dinner, so we met up with them for a couple of hours of just absolutely delightful conversation!

We rounded out our modified date with a trip to Meijer for groceries. Ha!

I'm not sure what happened here. I'm looking at the wrong end and Ryan is apparently terrified. But then again. Shopping for groceries can do that to a person.

Bring on the second half of the alphabet! It will be fun!

A Day With Miss Phoebe

I don't know if you saw this yesterday on the Shuffle or not, but this past Saturday was the first Saturday in the whole year of 2017 that the two of us were home together with no plans for the day. (And I mean "no plans" loosely, as we did have Phoebe all day and we did go on a date that night.) But still. First Saturday Ryan didn't have to work or we didn't have other obligations (fun or not-fun) on the calendar.

But we did get to have Miss Pheebs all day, which made us quite happy. (If you're new to the blog, Phoebe is our friend's little miniature Goldendoodle. We get to keep her whenever they're gone, whether for a few hours or an extended period of time, and we love her. Ryan loves her because getting partial custody of her keep us from needing a dog of our own. I love her because I love her.)

Early morning photo, before my hair was done. Oh! And if you're one of the new people, "Goldendoodle" is in name only. She's not the least bit golden in color. Also - like my bruise on my knee? Workout injury.

Kisses for Ryan. Because she's not dumb, you know.

She hung out in the hallway while I did my hair, and apparently I took too long, because when I reached the almost-end of the hair straightening, I heard this huge sigh from her. Yeah, I know. That's how I feel about it, too!!

We went for a long walk...

We cuddled...

We scrapbooked...

We emailed...

And then she took naps with Ryan...

I mean, for real. How can you not love this face?!?!?

A Saturday well-spent. :) My heart was full.