92 County Tour: Wabash

Ryan had this past Saturday off work, and we thought we would use the day to cross another county off our tour list! He had a long week, so my hope was to find a nearby county without much in it that we could do quickly and still have plenty of time for rest. I actually had a whole different county planned, and then Friday afternoon, my friend Amber asked if I'd be interested in going with her on Saturday to see some art pieces she had in a show in Wabash. Well, in a fun twist, we hadn't actually done Wabash County yet, so we just started over on our tour plans, switched counties, took Amber with us, and made a whole day of fun!

This county was named after the Wabash River, and when we lived in Marion, it was the county directly north of us. We drove through it every time we went to the lake! :) Even so, we hadn't stopped to do a lot of exploring. (We tend not to let anything stand in our way when headed to the lake.)

We started out at this little place called Paradise Springs Historical Park, which we actually almost didn't find! It's at the end of a one way street that goes the other way, and we almost never saw it! Thank goodness Ryan perseveres! This park has the river walk and some green space in it, but it also has ten old log cabins that were really interesting to see and read about. The short version is that back in the 1800's, Congress initiated a treaty with local Native American tribes, and this site hosted soldiers and Native Americans. They ended up signing a treaty to relinquish the rights to their land. Most of the cabins were VERY small and some didn't even have windows. An open pony door would have provided the only natural light! We took lots of pictures and enjoyed reading the signs posted on the cabins.

 The original tiny house! (These little structures housed governors and generals. I don't think that would fly today!)

 Ryan works the railroad:

After that, we drove past the courthouse. I've always thought Wabash County has a beautiful courthouse.

From there, we went to the Honeywell Center, which is this HUGE performing arts center in downtown Wabash. In my single days, I went to a bunch of concerts there, but this time we went to see Amber's art in the art show! She might be embarrassed if I show you the pictures of her WITH her art, so I'll just show a sampling of her talent.

We looked at all the entries, and that was a fun stop! :) On the way out the door, Ryan decided to reenact the "I fell in the fountain" song we talked about on the podcast a few weeks ago. He cracks me up!

Someone (guess who???) was pretty hungry by then, so we went to Modoc's Market for coffee and lunch. I have several Wabash-area friends who have raved about this coffee shop, so I had high expectations when we went! You can read the full story of Modoc the elephant here, but the quick version is that back in the 1940's, the Great American Circus came to Wabash for a fundraiser performance. Three elephants were tethered outside the venue when some barking dogs startled them. Modoc the elephant broke loose, got away, and ran through downtown Wabash, crashing into a drugstore to try to get some peanuts roasting inside. The drugstore was located where the coffee shop is now! (It's a pretty interesting story if you want to read the rest of it.)

The coffee shop is super cute and all décor is inspired by Modoc the elephant. We ate lunch there - Ryan had chili and a hot dog, I had chili, and Amber had a wrap), and we had fun with some photo opps too!

OH! And I would like to live in the apartments above the coffee shop, please. I mean, can you even IMAGINE how great that would be?

We shopped around downtown in all the cute little local places, and that was fun too! ESPECIALLY WHEN WE FOUND A BOOKSTORE. Oh. My. Soul. Amber and Ryan are not big book lovers, so they just basically tolerated this stop, but I could seriously go back and spend a week poking around looking for treasures. I was so in love.

(Amber took this picture of the reinforced shelves. It cracked her up.)

We didn't go inside Saturday, but I did get a picture of the Charley Creek Inn, which is a very cool old hotel still in operation today. (A few years ago, Ryan and I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, and it was good!)

When we left Wabash, we headed up to the little itty bitty burg of Roann to see its covered bridge and mill! (There is also a covered bridge in North Manchester, which I did not realize was in Wabash County, but I felt bad having us drive all the way there to see one bridge. We also go through that town on our way to the lake, so I just postponed visiting that bridge until our next lake weekend!)

Anyway! Roann has a beautiful covered bridge that is actually functional! You can drive right through it! It's a long one, too! We paused for a few photos.

Then we drove to the Stockdale Mill. It's open for tours and history-learning from May to October, but obviously we showed up too early for that. (One of my friends has taken that tour, though, and she said it is fantastic and well worth the time.) We did show up on the perfect day for pictures, though!!

So that was our tour of Wabash County! It was a little chilly, but it was a stunning day, and we had so much fun. We were glad Amber went with us, too! Fun to have a friend along!

23 counties down, 69 to go! :)

The Shafferland Shuffle

I have been a busy little photo editing bee, and can you believe I almost forgot to write today's post?? Whoopsie!!!

Hope you remembered the time change. If you did not, my guess is you're late to somewhere right now, so STOP READING AND DO YOUR HAIR!

* Last Sunday we went to the gender reveal party for Ryan's sister's baby! You already read all about it, but this was our first time ever to go to a gender reveal party, and we had fun! We found out it's a boy, and he will arrive sometime in July! We are excited for Bre and Andrew. :)

* Monday was a hunker-down-at-the-desk-and-drink-lots-of-coffee-while-writing kind of day. Busy! I did, however, cram in a bunch of chores on the side and even switched out our old laundry sorter for these two super cute new hampers we found at Aldi's last week. AND in a rare big-girl moment, I cooked fish for the first time in my life and found out it wasn't so bad after all! Maturity for the win!

* Tuesday morning was super foggy at the start of the day, and super sunny later in the day. Ohhhhh, Indiana. :) I got some pretty exciting news that day...found out I'd become a great aunt! (It actually happened Monday, but I found out on Tuesday. Saw my first glimpse of little Miss Caroline, and she's sweet. I hate being so far away! AHHHH!!!!! So that was the exciting news. In not exciting news, Ryan spent the whole evening working on taxes. I felt bad for him!

* I recorded my first Conversation Café of the year on Wednesday. Great talk with my friend Brenda Yoder about her new book, Fledge. Ryan and I had a meeting at church that night, so we stopped at the dollar store on the way home and Ryan tried on some of the spring apparel. LOL!! Oh! And we are also currently snacking on these little Cuties or Halos or whatever they are. They're tasty! I know that!

* Thursday was a long day of podcast editing for me, and a long day of working for Ryan. I had kind of a hard day (you already read about that, too) and he felt so bad for me that he went out and got a Blizzard for me that night for a little surprise! He loves me!!

* By Friday, my brain was pretty much shot, but I still had a lot of work to do. I tried to power through! That included a workout, writing questions for small group study, and watching old episodes of Matlock with Ryan, while drinking coffee. :) Okay so that last part didn't take too much powering. It was just fun!

* Speaking of fun, YESTERDAY was fun! Ryan had the day off work, so we planned a county tour! We had actually fully planned a different county and at the last minute decided to switch it up! I'll tell you more about it next week, but we crossed Wabash County off our list, visiting bookstores, art shows, a covered bridge, and of course a coffee shop, plus a few more things! And we had a friend along for the ride this time too, which was also really fun!

The Saturday Six

One.

Listen here

Last week I told you about my friend Brenda Yoder's newly released book, Fledge: Launching Your Kids without Losing Your Mind. This week I interviewed her about the book for my first (yes first!) Conversation Café of 2018. Brenda has incredible wisdom about parenting and about keeping yourself healthy as a mom. I'd love for you to listen to what she has to say, and I hope you find Fledge helpful for you or those in your life who are somewhere in this season! You can listen to the podcast here!

Two.

I saw on Callie's blog earlier this week that she was looking for some Christ-centered things for her kids' Easter baskets. I figured she might not be alone in that hunt, so if you're looking for some ways to pull the focus back on the Lord for your kids this Easter, check out this post!

Three.

Well, it's that unfortunate time of year again. You know, the one when we all lose an hour of sleep and I get super cranky for a few months. Tomorrow is the time change. Do as you will: change your clocks or live on your own time. ;) You have no idea how tempted I am to create my own Bekah-time until the fall...

Four.

Bird nests and eggs in lanterns? I love this idea! I have some lanterns and think this would be a great touch to spring décor. (Anyone else ready for spring decorations? And just spring in general?)

Five.

Like the look of a vintage refrigerator with the convenience of modern working parts? This post shows just such a thing! (And it's a really cute blog to poke around if you'd like!)

Six.

Source

I am still finishing up the book I intended to review for you this week, but I realized I have never told you about the Bible I've been using for almost a year now, and I thought I would take a moment to tell you!

Last year, right around this time, I wanted to find a new Bible to study, and I really loved the idea of a journaling Bible. I'm not a cutesy-artsy journaler, but I am a voracious note-taker, and sometimes the tiny margins of my Bible get awfully crammed with my notes. I loved the idea of having space in a margin dedicated for that. I researched a bunch of journaling Bibles and actually had one all picked out when I ended up finding a newer-to-the-market Bible that intrigued me.

I will tell you I normally steer very clear of Bibles that seem devotional in nature, because I want my Bibles to have real study notes rather than devos. But this one had a unique twist I'd not seen before, and what really caught my eye was that Ravi Zacharias was affiliated with the creation of the supplemental material. (So was Louie Giglio, Max Lucado, and John Piper.) I have tremendous respect for Ravi, so if he's involved in a project, I'm willing to look at it!

It's called The Jesus Bible and its focus is to show how all the events of the Bible point to Jesus. As I've told you, Ryan and I are reading through the Bible chronologically this year, and right now we're back in the books of the law. It's fascinating to read how the laws and establishments of the Israelite nation pointed toward Jesus and what He did in his life, ministry, and sacrifice. I am learning so much!

There aren't notes on every single page, which I like, on one hand, because that means I have more room in the margin to take notes. (Supplemental notes are in the margins, not at the bottom of the page.) There are also occasional full-page essays that explain something in deeper detail.

Aside from notes, articles, and essays that pertain to the theme of how the Bible points to Jesus, there aren't any additional study helps. That's okay with me, because I have a host of other study Bibles that offer that information to me. (Plus I'm a frequent visitor to the online Matthew Henry commentary, so that's helpful, too.)

The pages of this Bible are a bit thicker than that of a normal Bible, so my ink doesn't bleed through the pages, and I like that.

I've never had a Bible quite like this one before, and I'm glad I got it. (Thanks, Mom and Dad! - Last year's birthday gift.) For this season of my life, it's teaching me so much about Jesus and it's connecting parts of Scripture I hadn't connected before. I really love that!

Sitting Quietly

When I was single, I spent a lot of time in prayer. (Mostly for a husband, as I'm sure you could guess.)

And I certainly don't want to give the impression that I've given up praying now that I'm married. Far from it!! But prayer definitely looks different in this married life of mine. For one thing, Ryan and I often pray together. I love that. I had always longed for that in a marriage, and I'm so thankful it's something he's willing to do. We pray together every day, and that is always a very sweet time.

I also live in the age of the Fitbit, which means I'm usually rushing to make sure I get in all my appointed steps for the day. If I have to finish them in the house, that gets boring in a big fat hurry, so I've taken to praying/praising during that time. As I walk, I pray out loud, and I find the time goes so quickly!

But what looks different is that I don't just sit before the Lord as often as I did as a single girl. I used to curl up into the corner of the fat chair and just pray and sit. It was such a sweet and comforting thing. I always imagined the chair around me was like a hug from the Lord.

This week, while not a bad week by any stretch, has definitely been a heavy week. I feel like so many of my friends are shouldering heavy struggles, and I'm burdened for them. I have also been doing the most intense part of my work for some speaking just around the corner, and while I'm thrilled with the way it's turned out, it has depleted me. (That's not unusual after a big writing fest.) And my niece just had a baby, and it's killing me to be so far away and not get to enjoy baby snuggles.

So even though my to-do list was a mile long yesterday afternoon, I decided to take some time and pray the old-fashioned way. I curled up into a corner of the couch and sat before the Lord. I didn't even really say much. I just needed to be, and I think I'd sort of forgotten how much I did need that in my life. Less talking and walking. More sitting and being.

I need to make sure I carve out time for more of that in my days. The talking and petitioning are good things, and I don't plan to give them up. I'll still need my Fitbit steps and will be walking and talking often. But I need to make time for more sitting.

I'm sure I'm not the only one flying through my days, so I share this with you in case you need a little reminder to sit quietly before the Lord. It's so worth it.

Have a great weekend, my friends! (One with some sitting quietly!!)

Some Thursday Fun

You know...sometimes you just need to have a little fun, and I love these pointless-in-the-grand-scheme-of-life-but-fun-to-read-anyway quizzes. I found this one on Sarah Shaneyfelt's blog earlier this month and thought it looked fun. I'd never answered these kinds of questions before. So here you go!

This round of questions focuses on beauty products and beauty routines. This could be interesting - HA! After all, I'm SUCH a beauty queen, right?

1. Eyelash Curler: Yes or No? I really feel strongly that if I tried to use an eyelash curler, I would look like I crawled off the stunt set of I Love Lucy. I can really see nothing good coming from such an experiment (FOR ME) so I pretty much avoid the thing entirely. Having said that, I will add that since I started using Lemongrass Spa mascara, my eyelashes are much longer and fuller than they ever were. So I feel like I'm in the best eyelash season of my life. (Is that even a thing?)

2. Favorite Nail Shade? I really can't answer this because I love them all. I will say that I use gel/Shellac polish exclusively, and it has revolutionized my nail polish life. I first started using it eight years ago now when I got my nails done at a salon all the time. And then after Ryan and I got married, he bought me all the supplies to do it myself at home, and I love it so much. I can get two (or more) weeks out of nail polish now and that makes my life much happier. I have a very small collection of colors, so I rotate them and make wish lists of new colors.

3. Favorite Lipstick Shade: Confession: I really need to do better with lipstick. I used to wear it religiously and now I don't and people are always asking me if I'm sick. (I look pretty dead without it. I don't have a lot of natural color in my lips.) I don't wear it much now for two reasons. One: I'm home most of the time and I don't want to use up products when no one sees me. Two: Ryan doesn't kiss me as much if I have on lip color. Something about not wanting to wear it. HA! Maybe this can be one of my turning 40 resolutions: do better with lipstick! When I do wear it, I like to wear something that is fairly neutral or leans toward a brownish color. Nothing super bright in the reds or pinks.

4. Blow Dry or Air Dry Your Hair? Oh my soul, I must blow dry. If I don't, I look like Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries. My hair does not air dry beautifully on its own. I can't get those sweet natural beach waves some people do. It just looks like I didn't try. In further news, I must also continue to either crunch it with product or flat iron/curl it because I still look like Mia if I blow dry and go. I have a lot of hair.

5. Artificial Nails: Yes or No? I used to get them all the time. (Before the Shellac.) It was my one treat to myself and I adored them and how they looked and felt. It was one of my most favorite things. I gave them up when my nail lady moved, because I didn't trust anyone else, and I do confess my natural nails were a mess after that. I never liked my nails again until the Shellac showed up, and now they're strong and healthy again. So I don't use them now and probably won't ever again.

6. Foundation: Yes or No? Oh yes. I wear concealer and foundation every day, even if I'm not going anywhere. I will save on the rest of the makeup if I'm just at home, but I feel better about my mirror glimpses if I have on a basic foundation. Just kind of evens everything out.

7. Hair Up or Hair Down? Confession again: I am really not very good at most hairstyles. I can do very basic things and that's about it. So I wear my hair down almost all the time - unless I'm working out and then I put it in a pony. Upon occasion I'll try to do something fun/different with it, but I'm mostly a failure with that.

8. Bar Soap or Body Wash? Both. I use Lemongrass Spa skin products (and makeup) and I use a bar soap to wash my face every night. I used to use a gel soap (same thing, different form) for my face, but I found out the bar soap lasts a lot longer, so I switched. I use body wash in the shower.

9. Bath or Shower? Shower. I used to love relaxing in baths, but my first house (the Marion house) did not have a tub that lent itself to relaxing. (Glass doors, kind of shallow.) I got out of the habit and now I'm a shower girl exclusively.

10. Favorite Body Lotion: Confession again: I don't use lotion like I should either, and sometimes my skin pays dearly for that! Lemongrass Spa has a body icing that actually works as hair gel (I know, right?) and is a good, thick lotion, too. So if I am a good girl and use my lotion, I use that. I like it because it's free of all the toxic stuff they tell you to RUN from in lotions these days.

11. Do you wear perfume? If so, favorite scent? I use my Stress Away oil as my perfume. I love the way it smells and it doubles as a calming agent, so it's a win all the way around.

12. Do you shave your legs every day? Usually every other out of sheer laziness. I will sometimes kick it up a notch in the summer when it's shorts season. :)

13. Favorite Lip Balm? Lemongrass Spa again. They have one that kind of tastes like bubble gum, and I really like it. It's a bit shiny and helps my lips not be so dry!

14. How old were you when you first started wearing makeup? Well, I had pizza face as a teenager, so I wore concealer and foundation in high school, but I wasn't allowed to wear more than that. When I went to college, my roommates taught me to wear the rest of the face. :) I have a good friend that sells Mary Kay and she's taught me a lot over the years about makeup application too!

There you go! Information you'll never need, but hopefully I entertained you for a few minutes!