The Shafferland Shuffle

Just swimming over to my computer to wish all of you a happy Sunday! Raining much where you are?? We are just fine at our house, but I sure have seen a lot of reports about flooding around here! Stay safe, friends! 

* Last Sunday was our 69th monthiversary, and we got to spend the whole day together, which was glorious. Ryan put together his new grill and we made a big dinner that we shared with some of our friends. It was such a wonderful day! (And we got to see Phoebe, so that was pretty wonderful, too!)

* Monday was Labor Day, but Ryan worked, so that made it a work day for me too. After putting in a full day at work, he powered through and mowed the yard. There was a beautiful sunset, and we went out to get lattes to try to make it feel like a real holiday. (It worked...and thank you, Starbucks, for still being open when we got there!)

* Tuesday morning, one of our friends surprised me with a latte delivered right to my front door. I think that is how every single Tuesday should begin. It was so good! It was a pretty normal day, and we ended with our respective workouts that apparently exhausted us to no end. (It's hard to work out in a million degree heat and humidity!)

* New recipe in Shafferland on Wednesday: supreme pizza quesadillas. So delicious! Four thumbs up from here! It was a full work day made prettier by these flowers that our guests on Sunday brought to us. And that night I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. I haven't run that far in a while! (And yes, I know it's not far.)

* Thursday I started a new Bible study, and I'm really excited about it. I'm just participating, not leading, but I am looking forward to learning a lot! Ryan and I had to go to a viewing that evening, and on the way home, we stopped at Lowe's for supplies for our upcoming speaking. We may have been the most well-dressed cement shoppers. :) Ryan worked on the projects when we got home - until the mosquitoes got so bad he couldn't stand being outside anymore!

* I have so many stories for you about Friday, but they'll keep until Spill the Beans. :) But that morning I took our car in for some repairs and had some interesting times with the loaner car! I also enjoyed meeting up with my writing friend, Sarah, for coffee and book-enjoying. And Friday night was such a nasty, rainy night that we were able to enjoy the whole thing at home watching old episodes of Matlock on Mo! 

* Yesterday didn't turn out like we originally planned, but we had a great day! We were supposed to go to the Purdue football game with our friend Pat, but the weather forecast caused us to pull the responsible adult card and not go. (We have speaking days coming up soon and sitting out in the cold rain all day didn't seem wise.) SOOOOOOOOOO...we were able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her! We went out to eat with Mom and Dad (and helped her eat her free birthday dessert). Last night we got to watch our brand new little nephew while his parents went to a class reunion. We had fun! He's a good little baby. Only cries when he's hungry...much like his Aunt Bekah.

The Saturday Six

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom today!! I won't say her age or anything, but you may remember her surprise 80th party a couple of years ago... ;)


One.

I stumbled upon this cute blog this week...if you love home tours, DIY projects and more, you'll want to spend some time hopping around this one!

Two.

This was such an eye-opening, informative, and prayer-altering way for me to approach praise. I had never heard this explanation before!

Three.

I don't think I need to remind you of my deep desire to one day visit (move to?) Prince Edward Island. One of my high school friends, who knows me well, sent me this link this week. A virtual field trip to suffice in the meantime! (Or convince me to speed up the trip? To be determined.)

Four.

Need a little bling in your fall décor? Confetti pumpkins, anyone?

Five.

I need to spend a few more hours (yes, hours!) scrolling through this post. CUTE fall wardrobe ideas made from a handful of pieces. (Think our Goodwill has any versions of any of these beyond-my-budget pieces?)

Six.

My book review this week is not my own work at all. It's a review that I imagine says what I would say if I read the book, but I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. This blogger has invested time into reading and her words seemed very Scripturally sound to me.

Girl, Wash Your Face is a book that is very popular right now, and I've seen screenshots, memes, and quotes floating around all my social media from people who love, love, love this book. I had a little worry in my soul as I began to catch glimpses of the writing, because I couldn't quite figure out if it was thoroughly based in the Lord as much as it was thoroughly based in good writing, well-told stories, and things people want to hear.

This review confirms what I felt in my heart might be true, and I wanted to share the post with you in case you've been on the same fence, wondering. Ryan and I are reading through Ezekiel right now and are deep in the part where God's people, including the spiritual leaders, are so disillusioned, they can't even see His truth anymore. I fear we are treading in those same dangerous waters, so I try hard to be aware of things that might entertain me as a reader, but not push me toward God's truth.

Perhaps you've read the book and disagree, but I've decided this is one I'm content not to read, even though it's wildly popular.

You Know It's Fall When...

Kari Anne inspired this post with the one she wrote yesterday...You Know It's Fall in the South When...

According to her assessment, I must live in the south, because I agreed with all the things she said. It is SO HOT here, still. (Although I hear we get a temperature break this weekend. As well as a residual monsoon from the hurricanes and tropical storms and all other such happenings.)

I'm actually not in any super big hurry to rush fall here, but I feel that everyone else around me is. I wouldn't mind some reprieve from the blasting heat and humidity, and please, please, PLEASE give me a break from the mosquitoes. I got three bites yesterday morning in my own living room while drinking my morning coffee. No. You have crossed a line, little biting bugs. (But I digress.) I'd welcome breaks from that, but we don't need to get all crazy with the super cool and cold just yet.

But my version of Kari Anne's post would be called You Know It's Fall in Shafferland When...

* I start planning my Sunday evening menu around football games. 

Back in our eat-as-you-will days, we always had chips, salsa, and queso for dinner on Sunday nights. It was grand. It gave me the night off from cooking, it was fun, easy, and ready in two minutes flat. And it was very football-y. Well once I started to resemble the shape of a football, we determined that might not be the dinner of health-conscious champions. So I scour the Dashing Dish site every week and conjure up game-like foods that won't undo the hard work I've done all week. Sure, it takes longer to prepare, but it's worth it.

* Speaking of football, I get a lot more scrapbooking done.

Since I'm not the football fan Ryan is, I use the game times to catch up my scrapbooks. If it's a full week (Sunday/Monday/Thursday) I sometimes even get...wait for it...caught up.

* Soup season returns.

I do love soup, but I tend to only make it in the fall and winter months. It just seems weird to eat it when it's warm outside. So fall = soup.

* Corn mazes!

We already have this on the bucket list for this fall. Had a blast at the one we did last fall. It only seems right when you live in corn country, right?

* We schedule family pictures.

We got engaged in the fall, so our engagement pictures were also taken that season. (Also because, you know, we got married two months later. Waiting too long meant missing it entirely.) That began our annual tradition of family pictures taken in the fall!

* We plan our new TV show lineup. 

We always pick out a new show or two to try. (Ryan is still mourning his pick from a couple of years ago being canceled this year.) Anyone have a new pick for this fall???

* I CAN START PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

Oh yes. I've already started my gifts for this fall, and the letter and card design won't be far behind. It takes me so long to get ready that I have to start early!

* I can bring out the scarves and boots.

I have such a broken thermostat that I can't fully embrace a ton of sweaters and layering and all that jazz, but I do like being able to wear scarves again, and I do like bringing back the boots. Those two things are fun for me.

* Women's retreats (and speaking in general) come back!

When you speak at women's retreats, spring and fall tend to be your busy seasons! I really love the fall retreats. At least around here, they usually include some awfully pretty scenery, and the chance to meet a whole bunch of new women who become your friends is a blessing!

So that's what fall looks like in Shafferland, and it's beginning to shape up, even if it's still a thousand muggy, buggy degrees.

How about fall in your world?

She Sheds

I'm sure there's some sort of tongue twister akin to "She sells seashells by the seashore" that accompanies a post about She Sheds, but I haven't learned it yet. :)

You've heard of She Sheds, right? Basic, ordinary, backyard sheds that have been transformed into escapes for busy moms (primarily)? Or maybe it's faster to call them man caves for women?

They fascinate me.

Granted, our entire home is a calm place for me. I don't have to escape a messy husband or messy kids. I don't need to get out to a place where I can find calm or decorate something to suit my tastes, because we have all that calm and beauty in our main living spaces. And since my hobby is also my work, I am able to enjoy a whole office dedicated to an inspiration-inducing atmosphere.

But they still fascinate me.

The themes are as varied as the women who create them, as you can see in this article.

But if I were to have a She Shed, it's where I would write. Of course I can write just as well exactly where I do...at my huge desk that gets so messy when the creative juices flow:

I can write in this space where all my books live and inspire me.

But if I were to dream, I'd say let's build this in the backyard. I mean, how cute is that space!? (And is it bad that I knew her light fixture was from IKEA even before I saw that she mentioned that?)

Or what about this one? She even has a Pinterest board to inspire!

A place for a desk...a comfy chair to read in...shelves and shelves and shelves for books...and all the pictures and quotes I could imagine that would spur on creativity. And a coffee pot. Because of course. And coffee mugs. Because see the aforementioned coffee pot. That's what I'd put in my She Shed.

So here's my question for you: if you had a She-Shed (or a man cave, for you guys), what would your theme be?

Remembering What Really Matters

As promised, we have a brand spankin' new Spill the Beans for you, a fashionable one day late, thanks to the holiday weekend. :) We think you'll like the stories though. Worth the wait, right?

Listen here!

Ryan and I have been reading through Ezekiel lately on our chronological pilgrimage through the Bible. I don't know if you've spent a lot of time reading Ezekiel, but it's kind of a hard book. Not hard to comprehend, but hard in content. It was a rough season for God's people - and that's actually a mild and generous description. I don't know that things had ever actually been worse for them than they were in that moment. 

More than a few things have convicted me as I read, but one thing smacked me in the head. There's a chapter where the Lord comes down harshly (and rightfully so) on the leaders of that day, because they were leading the people astray.

They were leading. 

People were following.

And everyone was going the wrong direction. 

How heartbreaking! And yet, I see some of that very same thing happening around me. I had a conversation with one of my friends this week about writers who gain these huge followings, yet their words don't always speak truth. 

They're leading. 

People are following. 

But are they all going in the right direction?

These writers are a marketing dream. They've done everything right in building their platforms, resonating with readers, and making it easy for books to fly off the shelves. 

But are they speaking truth into lives?

This is what convicts me. I'm not a marketing dream. I probably haven't done much of anything right in the eyes of consultants and algorithms. 

But my deep desire is to never have God say of me, "she led my people astray." 

Ryan and I are speaking at a leadership conference this month, and one of our biggest hopes as we address these leaders is to impress on them the magnificent importance of focusing on the Lord. Not on numbers. Not on innovation. Just Jesus. 

You may not be a writer or church leader, but you're probably leading someone somewhere. (Maybe you don't even know these people are following you!) Lead well. Lead with God's perspective in mind, not algorithms and numbers. 

Why I Love My Writing Workshop

***PSA!!!***

Spill the Beans is on a one-day delay this week. Ryan and I normally record it on Sunday evenings, but it was our monthiversary and we invited company for dinner, so we didn't get it recorded! And then he worked all day yesterday, so I didn't have time to get it all polished and presentable last night after we recorded it. It will be here for you TOMORROW!

Meanwhile, this past weekend, I taught the fourth of my five workshop classes over at the Marion Public Library. Every single month, I love this workshop a little more, and even though I know I've told you about it every single month, I wanted to blog about it today so I could tell you that I'd love to do it again sometime!

I only have one more Saturday to spend with the good people at the library, but I would so very much love to do this class again in a church, another library, or even someone's home with a group of friends. It's been fun for me to teach, but more than that, it's exciting to see the people IN the workshop get excited about preserving their own stories. This past workshop brought out the biggest glimmers of joy I've seen yet, because people had in their hands some of their own beginnings, committed to paper, and it made them so happy to see results, even small beginnings of results, coming to life.

The first time we came together, back in June, I taught the attendees how to begin brainstorming. Let's face it: writing about part or all of your life can be a pretty daunting undertaking, especially if you've lived a plethora of years! So many memories flood in, and it can be difficult to know what to do with it all. So the first session focuses on brainstorming and organizing your ideas so they feel a bit more manageable.

Then in July, the group brought their brainstorming list and I taught them how to go back through their memories and relive them using their five senses. We talked about how to make the stories more interesting and inviting by allowing readers to use their senses to experience the moments like we did.

In August, they learned how to launch in and begin to tell the stories of the memories they had been preparing for the last two sessions:

And then this month, we talked about how to edit, embellish, and reduce those stories so they're polished, beautiful, and pleasing to read:

Next month we'll wrap up by learning how to present our little writing babies to an audience and share our thoughts with others. (Simultaneously terrifying and rewarding.)

As I said, I have loved teaching this, and I would love to do it again! This series of workshops is not for those who want to become famous, published authors. (I'd be a terrible choice to teach that, since I'm not famous! Ha!) This series is for the average person who wants to capture part or all of his or her story and share it with future generations.

It's been encouraging to watch this group blossom along the way, so I think the steps are manageable and working for them. If you have a group of friends who wants to learn this sort of thing, let me know! I'd love to serve you if we can work it out! (This would also work great as a weekend retreat or one-day class. It might even work better in a smaller time frame, since I know people's schedules are so crazy and it's hard for people to commit across a long period of time.

I'm grateful the library brought me in, and I've learned so much just from being able to share with this little group. Looking forward to the grand finale in October!

69th Monthiversary

Well, for those of you who get today off, happy Labor Day! Hope you have a great day enjoying whatever you are doing! :) And if you're at the lake, enjoy for me, please!

Ryan and I both work today, so we had our fun day yesterday...which coincided with our 69th monthiversary. It was my favorite kind of monthiversary: we had the entire day together.

I got up earl and put our lunch in the slow cooker so we could eat lunch the very minutes we got home. (This is becoming my new goal in life if we don't have leftovers at the ready to warm up.) Then we went to church, where we got one of the worst selfies ever. Between the lighting and the angle, it was just awful. But I try to keep it real, so here you go:

While at church, we got a fun surprise from one of our friends! Last week he had told us about this amazing ice cream shop down near Indianapolis, and this week he showed up with a pint of his favorite flavor from there...just for us to try! Thanks, Al! That was a GREAT gift!

(By the way: seriously amazing butter pecan. HUGE pieces of pecans. Not little chips.)

When we came home, we took our official monthiversary photo:

(Still not the best lighting, but I was too hungry to care.) Lunch was done right on schedule and very delicious, by the way. We rested for a bit - Ryan took a nap and I scrapbooked, and then we started on dinner. Yes, it's always about food!

We actually invited Phoebe's people over for dinner, and Ryan wanted to inaugurate the new grill he got Saturday. Of course that meant he had to put it together first.

Meanwhile, inside, I was busy whipping up some new-to-us recipes:

I made some homemade bread using oat flour, and I'm not gonna lie: it turned out tasting WAY better than I expected.

And a clean eating apple crumb pie, too!

My handsome husband took some pictures of me cooking. He's good to my scrapbook-loving heart.

And then he went out to grill. He said the new grill worked like a charm, and I'll say that the steaks were amazing! (He thought they were too done, so that means they were perfect.)

(He also grilled cauliflower poppers and they were good too!)

Phoebe's people came, and they said they loved dinner. Pheobe loved Braeya's dinner. (Cracked us up. They brought her food and she snubbed it and cleaned out Braeya's entire bowl.)

What a sweet girl. :)

So it was such a fun day. It's been a while since we cooked a meal together, and we just loved doing it. And it was fun to be able to be together for the day. Happy 69 months, Ryan! Next up? The big 7-0!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Happy September, happy Sunday, and happy 69th monthiversary to my handsome husband! :) It's quite a little day and weekend, isn't it?

* We celebrated last Sunday too...a birthday party for our nephew! Ryan's brother and his wife always throw great parties for their kids, and this one was no exception. Superhero themed, fantastic cake, fun games...it was fun! I was on picture duty and the kiddos gave me lots of great fodder. Not hard to do at all!

* I tried some new recipes on Monday, which were delicious, and one of them called for caramelized onions. I'd never done that before, and they turned out deeeeeeeeeeeelish! Ryan went to the gym that day, so I worked out at home and would like the record to show that I made it all the way through the 30 minute video without stopping. (In this circuit of workouts, I have to write down when I have to pause each time. And for the first time, I didn't pause!) When not cooking or sweating through a workout, I was busy in the office, prepping for a big writing day.

* Tuesday was the day I finally got the inspiration for all my devos that are due, and I was so happy to have them written. Thank you, God! When I was done writing, I met up with my friend Joyce, who is co-presenting with me at our church's conference next month. We worked on brainstorming our session! Then I went to the eye doctor and got a happy report from him! Ryan also had a coffee meeting that night - with one of his friends. It's so weird to both of us to go out separately for coffee, so the fact we both did it on the same day was REALLY weird.

* Ryan's mom and sister came over for lunch on Wednesday. We don't often have lunchtime company on a weekday, but they were both in town, so we invited them over, and it was such fun! Braeya ran for her life when they arrived (because they are so scary, you know) and literally the moment I shut the door behind them, she sauntered out from under the bed, crawled up behind me on the couch and resumed being queen of the castle. Oh, that girl. I made another new recipe that night - lots of peppers and onions. I felt so fancy and home-ec-y.

* Thursday was my dental checkup. First time I've gone six whole months between appointments since my oral surgery a few years ago. I feared bad news or a lecture, but I got all the thumbs up! I felt that deserved a coffee on the way home, so I stopped at one of the little shops we'd visited on a county tour earlier this year and got a delicious latte. I also got to see my friend Sheryl on the way home. We had lunch together! Hadn't seen her in almost two years and that was too long. It was so nice out Wednesday night that we ate our dinner on the porch and watched TV on Ryan's laptop. :) Livin' the dream, right?

* Friday...ohhhhh Friday. Ryan and I had our wellness checkups first thing in the morning, and boy did we garner some podcast fodder for you there! Tune in on Tuesday! On the way home, we stopped for our Starbucks rewards. (That was how Ryan bribed me to go in the first place. I'm such a toddler.) When I dragged our trash can back to its corner, I found this really pretty rose on the bush. I found it before the beetles did, so I thought I better take a picture!! :) And we rounded out our Friday by helping out a friend! Well. Ryan helped. I supervised. He did some caulking above a garage door. (No idea why no one thought to ask me for that project! HA!)

* Ryan had to work yesterday, so I worked too! :) I taught my fourth class at the Marion Public library, and when I got back home, I took some senior pictures for a friend. (I have never done that before and made SURE she knew I'm not a professional at all.) Ryan and I did a bunch of errands and chores last night, and look what we got! A new grill! Ryan's died at the very beginning of the summer, so he wasn't able to grill at all this season. We've had our eye on one and it finally hit a big enough sale that we could get it! And on the way home, we stopped at a coffee shop for fresh brew, and they had a little beehive in there! How fun was that!!

So that was our week! We're excited for today and the chance to celebrate these months of marriage and life together!

The Saturday Six

One.

How adorable is this little RV? All their custom work on it is stunning! It always blows my mind what people can think to do with such a tiny space!

Two.

I love this story! Great job, Chick-fil-A!

Three.

It was pretty fun to see this video show up on my Facebook feed this week. I don't crochet (wish I did!) but when you see someone you know in real life making cool videos with Hobby Lobby, it's pretty fun! And if you do crochet, check out Rebecca's webpage. She does amazing work!

Four. 

One of my articles found a spot on the Annesley site this week! If you aren't totally Bekah'd out and want to read it, you can find it here!

Five.

PSL came out this week, and even though I'm not a pumpkin spice lover, I am looking forward to some pretty fall décor. I am starting to be more and more in love with neutral décor across the board, and fall is no exception. Some GREAT ideas here!

Six.

No time to read a book this week, which probably means I wouldn't have time for DIY either, but here are some cute and frugal ideas. I seriously had no idea cotton balls were so versatile as a decorating item!