Friend Time

It was so much fun to get to see our friends in Georgia over the weekend! Though Lynnette and I grew up near each other, the last many years have landed us far apart geographically and unable to see each other on a regular basis.

The number one question we got OVER AND OVER this weekend was "So are you two sisters?" I think every person at the baby shower asked - and a handful of people we ran into while out on the town, too. I'm sure I have no idea why....

It's all in the hair.

And ohhhhh that sweet baby girl. I just couldn't get enough of her cuteness. I wore my thankful shirt on purpose for the day I met her, because I can't even tell you how many prayers went into her little life and arrival. Thankful indeed. This was the very sort of moment that Lynnette and I used to dream about when we were little. To hold her daughter ranks right up there with one of those moments that will be treasured in my mind for all time.

Friday evening, Mark and Lynnette took us to First Friday in Marietta, Georgia. Selfie...party of five!

(My sister wanted to know why Mark wasn't wearing a coat and Ryan was dressed for a ski trip. HA! Well, Mark got his coat, eventually, and Mark also has hair.)

We had fun finding some shopping treasures.

And we had pizza!

And formula!

And coffee!

Saturday morning, we went out for coffee again, because one can never go out for coffee too many times. I'll tell you more about that coffee outing in another post, though, because it was part of our monthiversary fun!

We took family photos for Mark and Lynnette, and I haven't had the chance to edit them yet, BUT! Ryan took some fun behind-the-scenes shots.

I also did photos at the baby shower - and those are on the editing list too.

But while Lynnette and I went to that, the guys attempted an escape room.

After they "escaped" and the baby shower was over, I sneaked in one more baby snuggle and we got on our way back home.

I am so grateful for this time we had, brief though it may have been!

Road Trip to Georgia!!

Let the road trip stories commence...starting with this week's podcast! There are some real gems in here!

Listen here!

So I told you on Sunday that we had a fast trip to Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend, and I wanted to tell you more about our road trip. Today I'll tell you about the actual road tripping part and tomorrow I'll tell you about the friend fun part!

We started out really early Friday morning; we were on the road by 6:00! Our goal was to try to miss most of the rush hour madness in all of the major cities we had to travel through. Indianapolis was probably our biggest gamble, since we showed up there around 7:00, but we squeaked through ahead of the worst of it.

We probably shouldn't be models for first thing in the morning. :)

It was a chilly day, but there was a pretty sunrise, and we traveled in sunshine all day long!

As we approached the Ohio River to cross into Kentucky, we saw the skyline for Louisville. It was almost a year ago that we spent the weekend there for our sixth anniversary!

Well hello there, Kentucky! Good to see you!

As we got into Kentucky, we saw some awfully pretty hills. We seem to have missed peak leaf season by about a week or so, but the hills still had color, and I appreciated them for sure!

Wouldn't you just know it...when we arrived at the Kentucky/Tennessee line, there was some major road construction, and they had taken down the Welcome to Tennessee sign. I joked with Ryan that I was going to write to the Tennessee DOT and tell them they interfered with my memory making. (I'm totally kidding.) I made a memory. Right there with the map.

Tennessee had some beautiful sights to enjoy, too!

And a hello there, Nashville! (I'll be seeing that skyline again pretty soon.)

Ryan and I had fun playing games and staying busy as we drove. Lots of great conversation, lots of learning Christmas music for our church program, and lots of Family Feud!

At last...we made it to Georgia!

We checked into our hotel, which had a most interesting elevator setup:

Do you see it?

We spent Friday evening and most of the day Saturday with Mark and Lynnette and their sweet new girl, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Here, though, are some other highlights from the road trip portion of our vacation:

We left Georgia about 5:00 Saturday evening, and we enjoyed a stunning sunset as we headed back toward Tennessee:

Happily, at this location, we also had a Welcome to Tennessee sign!

We had our hearts set on Chick-fil-A for dinner, but alas, we decided to wait until we were through Chattanooga before we stopped, and evidently this section of Tennessee is completely void of such franchises until you get up toward Nashville. I was hangry way before then. So McDonald's is kind of like Chick-fil-A, right?

Nashville by night:

And once again at the Tennessee/Kentucky line, we found zero Welcome to Kentucky signs. So pretend this is one.

Our original plan had been to drive straight through until we arrived home, but that would have meant driving until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, so we decided to stay out one more night, sleep in a bit on time-change day, and arrive home in the afternoon, giving us a little time to rest before Ryan had to return to work on Monday.

Still waking up...

This will make sense if you've heard the podcast:

A fantastic sign at a bar beside our hotel. (No, Mom, we did not go to the bar. I just read the sign as we drove out, and I asked Ryan to back up so I could take a picture.)

Inviting, right?

YAY!!!!!!!

Thanks for traveling with us!! :) Hope you enjoyed your trip!

Top Ten Investments of 2019

This is one of my favorite annual posts! For the last three years, I've done a post each November, highlighting some of our favorite purchases throughout the year. Whether you're looking for gift ideas or something to get to treat yourself, here are some of the things (big and small ticket) we've acquired in the last year and the reasons we love them so much!

As we enter sale season, here are some of my recommendations!

1. Essential Oil Bag

Source

Look at me making this list and immediately cheating by listing something I didn't actually purchase! Last Christmas, I received an essential oil bag for a gift. Confession: I didn't even know what it was when I received it. Lynnette gave it to me and had to explain it! But oh my goodness, I'm not sure anything got more of a workout this year than that little bag. Crafted by African women, the bag is sold by a company called Timbali Crafts. (They make several other items too, if you particularly like supporting good causes.) The little bag holds 10 essential oil bottles snugly and safely. I've transported both 5 and 15 ml bottles, and don't tell, but I've even crammed a couple of my roller bottle blends in between them. The bag is about the size of makeup bag, so it fits easily in a purse or travel bag. It also has a handle on the end, if you need to grab it or thread a strap through it. It was a blessing this year as we made so many trips to the hospital and to Ryan's mom's house when we cared for her, and on our travels near and far. So convenient to throw a handful of my most-needed oils inside and have them handy wherever I went. This would make a fantastic gift all by itself, or if you want to spend a bit more, you could purchase some oils and add them to it before presenting it!

2. Latte/Espresso Maker

This was our gift to each other for Christmas 2018, so is it also cheating to put it on the 2019 investment list? :) No, we haven't given up visiting coffee shops. But we bought this partly so we could pretend we were fulfilling our dream of owning our own coffee shop and partly so we could have lattes in all those inconvenient moments when we want lattes the most and all the coffee shops are closed. (Because let's face it: much like craving Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, you always need them most when it's Sunday.) We have loved having our own little maker in our home, and we've both developed decent skills at making our own concoctions. We enjoy having control over the ingredients that go into our drinks - and the amounts of each one. We can customize everything to our best liking, and we are so glad we made this purchase! (It's also fun to be able to play barista for our friends when they come over.) The version we got is the Mr. Coffee One-Touch CoffeeHouse Espresso Maker and Cappuccino Machine.

3. Weighted Blanket

I did a whole post on this earlier this year, but this remains one of our favorite purchases of the year. I got it for Ryan's birthday back in April, and since getting it, we have both noticed a marked improvement in the quality of our nightly sleep. Ryan, who never had any problems falling asleep in the first place, said he feels like he sleeps more soundly. I fall asleep MUCH faster and I am not nearly as bothered by storms during the night. They used to make me panic, and while they still wake me up if they're very loud, I'm able to roll over and go back to sleep. We also learned that when possible, we really should take it with us when we travel, because now it's hard to sleep without it! We got a double sided blanket with a warm side and a cool side, and you can see the size and weight variations of it here.

4. Water Shoes

When we got married, Ryan had some shoes suitable for beach walking/water parks, etc. I did not, so before our honeymoon, I bought a cheap pair from Wal-Mart that had solid rubber bottoms and hot pink mesh/netting on the top. HATED THEM. They made my feet raw, and the tan lines were ridiculous. Still, I never got around to replacing them and just powered through. This past spring, before our cruise, we happened upon some men's and women's water shoes in Sam's Club, and on a whim, we each bought a pair. This may have been our best impulse buy of the year. We used them on our cruise for both beach walking and hiking (and the waterfalls - you remember the waterfalls!) as well as for state park hiking once we got home. They're robust enough that they don't hurt for hiking, but they allow sand and water to pass through easily! They cost about $20 each, which I thought was a good price for a pair of shoes, and a better price for shoes that are so versatile! (These are similar ones I found on the Eddie Bauer website. Ours are Eddie Bauer brand, but we did NOT pay $66 for them!)

5. Hangers

I'm not even sure where I first learned about these hangers, but I'm going to guess Pinterest. When in doubt, guess Pinterest, right? Wherever I heard of them, the person recommending them talked about how sleek they looked in the closet and how they didn't take up as much room as the bulky plastic hangers. So I put them on my Christmas list last year. My mom purchased several sets for me, and both Ryan and I loved them so much, we have determined to replace all our hangers with these (slowly, over time). They really aren't too terribly expensive, and they really do make the closet look fancy!

6. Metal Message Boards

Back in late summer/early fall, I purchased two metal message boards from IKEA. They happened to be half price the day I went to the store, so I was able to get two for the price of one. (YAY!) The boards are long, narrow rectangles, and I hung mine vertically in my office. I have also seen them hung horizontally and they look great that way too. I knew I would love them, but I didn't know how much I would love them. It's so handy to have all my to-do lists for church visible and handy every day, and I don't have to make pin-holes in the papers! These boards could work in a family command center, a homeschool room, kids' rooms, offices, or even in a living room with pictures hanging on them. Completely versatitle and completely affordable. I would recommend them for your own purchase or for a gift! (Side sad note: I actually can't find the exact boards on the IKEA site anymore, which may mean that they were half price because they were being discontinued. But here is a similar one on Amazon...and it appears to double as a dry erase board, which is a bonus from the ones I have!)

7. Squeegie

This one is Ryan's contribution! He is the resident window washer of our home (don't throw things at me! I do know how fortunate I am!) and he decided this year to get a squeegee to use in window washing. He was SO EXCITED when it arrived and even sent me a photo mid-window-washing to tell me it was working better than he even anticipated. He said he doesn't know why he didn't think of it sooner and apparently it has revolutionized his entire window washing life. I realize it may be a questionable Christmas gift to give, but if you have a cleaning enthusiast in your life, it might make a great gift!

8. iPhone Tripod

Source

Ryan and I are rough on tripods. I don't even know how many we have owned throughout our marriage, but they all eventually break. (We set them up and take them down so much that something on one of the legs usually malfunctions, and let's face it: you need all three legs to keep your camera from doing a lens-plant!) Before our cruise, we decided to buy a replacement travel tripod. We'd gotten one on our honeymoon and loved it. they're very small and easily portable. (They fit in my purse, even.) The one we got on our honeymoon eventually died and we'd never replaced it, but I thought it would make more sense in packing to get a tiny one. Ryan ordered one and it came with an iPhone attachment and remote. We actually only use it for the phone now, and it's so nice to have the remote to take the pictures, so we don't have to constantly use the timer. We have used it way more than we anticipated, and it has been a keeper!

9. Grill Mat

This is another of Ryan's contributions. He's always been our resident grill master, but this year he's been particularly fond of grilling wings. He found this grill mat and loves using it for the wings. He said without it, they tended to stick to the grill, and this keeps them from doing that. It makes it easier to grill them and easier to clean up the grill after he's done. If you love grilling, give it a try!

10. Charles Swindoll Commentaries

As you may know, this year I've been reading slowly through the four Gospels, studying them in-depth. I've also been using commentaries as a guide, and one of my favorites was Charles Swindoll's Living Insights commentary. (I studied the one on the book of Mark, but he has commentaries for nearly all the New Testament books.) I would eventually like to own all these in the series, and I found them to be extremely user-friendly. They're easy to read, so if you're not a Bible scholar, you'll still understand them. But they're definitely not fluffy, so you'll learn as you study!

Hope you find a fun idea or two here! And if you want to see some previous year recommendations, here you go!

2018
2017
2016

The Shafferland Shuffle

Good morning, and happy hour-of-extra-sleep Sunday! We are absolutely going to take that extra hour today and not feel the least bit guilty about it. We've done a lot of shuffling this week. Shuffling through multiple seasons, shuffling through multiple states...take a look!

* Last Sunday afternoon, Ryan exercised his best multi-tasking skills so he could attend our nephew's birthday party and watch the Colts game at the same time. (I think quite a few of the adults at the party were hesitant to drift too far from the game!) We had a beautifully calm sunset that night, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of it, because every few moments, the colors changed again! I guess no one else in the house was as excited about that as I was, because they all slept while I played shutterbug!

* I had fun on Monday, making some Dashing Dish recipes, and we gobbled them right up! (Ryan even asked for extra on some! I haven't been too consistent with my workouts over the past couple of weeks because of our schedules, but I did get to run on the treadmill that night, and then Ryan and I teamed up to do some end-of-season yardwork. I mowed the grass and he pruned all the bushes for the winter.

* More delicious cooking on Tuesday - pumpkin cookies and pizza kabobs for the win!! We hosted small group that night, and they cleaned up most of the cookies! Guess that's a keeper recipe. AND I sported my new Hallmark movie watching shirt for the first time. Oh yes. It's fabulous.

* I happened upon a pretty sweet Goodwill find on Wednesday - an adorable little lantern that I'm going to add to one of my Christmas displays. I was so excited to find it! (They had just put it on the shelf and I grabbed it right up!) I worked hard on some scrapbooking that day - trying to get caught up. I ended up behind in my book during October, and this was a busy month! But I had extra time because I got lunch at Ryan's work! One of our friends brought lunch in to treat everyone - and it was DELICIOUS! Look at these adorable mini-pies!

* I was busy working on Thursday morning when Ryan FaceTimed me. He never does that, and I think he may have wished he hadn't done so then, once he saw my not-done hair. Between my hair and half his head missing in a glare, we were quite the pair! That afternoon, the guy that filmed our promo video for small groups came back to reshoot a portion of it. He wanted some different lighting - and Braeya was most intrigued by the new lights he brought with him! So we dressed back up in our original clothes and redid that. And you know what else happened on Thursday? IT SNOWED. We were awfully relieved to not be on trick-or-treating duty.

* We got up early, early, early Friday morning, so we could take the world's fastest trip to...Atlanta! Yes! Atlanta, Georgia! My best friend (dating all the way back to fifth grade) and her husband have a brand new baby, and we made a fast trek to Georgia and back to meet her and attend her baby shower. Ryan had Friday off work, so we got up super early and drove all the way through to Georgia without a single traffic hitch. (WHAT?!) We arrived late afternoon/early evening and got to meet that sweet baby girl and spend some good friend time out on the town!

* And yesterday was another full day! We went out for coffee with Mark and Lynnette and then did a family photo shoot for them near downtown Atlanta. I went to the baby shower and Mark, Ryan, and Lynnette's dad did an escape room adventure. As soon as the shower was over, Ryan and I got back on the road for home! Way too short a time with our friends, but I am so grateful for a husband willing to make sure I got there for that important day! (And now we can say we've celebrated a monthiversary in Atlanta! Happy 83 months, Ryan!)

The Saturday Six

One.

I can't remember if I talked about this on the blog or not, but a few weeks ago, I had loaned one of our vacation scrapbooks to a friend at church so she could see how I do digital scrapbooking. (She was thinking of giving it a try for herself.) When she returned it, she asked if we had someone traveling with us to do photography. (SIDE NOTE! What a fun job would that be!?!?!!?) I giggled and told her no...we just do our own photography via selfies and timers. So when I ran across this post that a traveling couple wrote about how they do their own photography on trips, I had to check it out. They have a little more gear than we have, but I learned a lot from their tricks and tips! Even if doing your own documentation isn't your thing, you should check out their innovative ideas! Duct tape on the ceiling was my favorite, I think, and the underwater shot was the most impressive.

Two.

STOP. IT. Just stop it right now. And Ryan? You might want to stop reading right now (again). I know I did that to you last week, too. A church building came up for sale in our county this week...a building small enough that it could be converted into a home. (Don't worry. We're not going to do it.) But church conversions fascinate me, so then I went on this little trail of hunting for vacation rentals that are made from converted churches.  GUESS WHERE I FOUND ONE??? Prince Edward Island, people. So now, not only do I need to go there (lifelong dream) but how cool would it be to stay HERE?

Three.

Of course my mind is shifting now into gift mode, so I loved these DIY ideas from one of the blogs I read. I could do significantly more of these if I just learned to crochet. Seriously, why haven't I learned to do that yet?

Four.

We are officially into the month of Thanksgiving, and I found this cute (and really easy) candy bar wrapper printable. If you're hosting, this would make a great favor for your guests - or even something to incorporate into a place card if you have assigned seating. If you're attending a meal somewhere, this would be a great addition to a hostess gift!

Five.

Here's a fun (and different) fall project for kids. (It works best if the kids are old enough to understand they're only allowed to color on the floor when the paper is DOWN. :)

Six.

I'm so excited to tell you about this book today. I knew in my soul the moment I picked it up for the first time that I would not have to hesitate in recommending it to you, but I wanted to go all the way through it first anyway, so I could tell you for sure what I loved most.

It should be absolutely no secret to any of you who have read here for any length of time that I love the writing of Bible study teacher Erica Wiggenhorn. I first learned about her when she released her first study with Moody: An Unexplainable Life. It was a study over the first half of the book of Acts, and you can read my thoughts on it at the end of this post. Ryan and I led a couple's Bible study about three years ago and took them through An Unexplainable Life. Erica went on to write The Unexplainable Church, which was a study on the second half of Acts. I loved that study too and even served on the book launch team for it.

This year, she published Unexplainable Jesus, which is a study on the book of Luke. Ryan and I are taking our small group (also made up of couples) through this book right now, actually! Even though the group isn't done with it, I am, since I followed along with my personal study in the book of Luke, which I wrapped up last week.

So now I can really, truly, and fully recommend the book! :)

This book is an 8 week study, and while she does have an accompanying teaching video series to use if you'd like, the book is not dependent in any way on the video series. You can study this one on your own or with a group. (I did it on my own first and then with a group and learned a bunch both ways!)

I would also like to point out that although she tends to be marketed as an author for women, this book works really well for men, too. In fact, several of the guys in our group (of all ages) have mentioned how much they're learning from the book.

Each of the 8 weeks has 5 days of study, and in that format, Erica walks through the book of Luke, exploring the following themes: Unexplainable Beginnings, Unexplainable Birth, Unexplainable Introductions, Unexplainable Teaching, An Unexplainable Kingdom, Unexplainable Invitations, Unexplainable Confrontations, and An Unexplainable Rescue. 

Even if you're familiar with Scripture, and specifically with the life of Jesus, I fully imagine you'll find things pointed out in this study that you never saw or considered before. I know I have. (Here and here are a couple of examples of blog posts I wrote after thinking through things in the study.)

She writes with a good mix of pushing her readers to immerse themselves in Scripture and retain the facts they read, but also encouraging them to apply the things they read in their own lives. (Our most recent group study was filled with great conversation starters from the book, and we ended up learning so much about each other and our faith by just exploring those questions for a while.)

I love Erica's heart for the Lord and her writing. I love that she's the real deal in real life. (We got to meet her this past summer when she was on a mini-book tour in our part of the country.) I am so grateful Moody has seen fit to give her a voice in print!

So...About the Hallmark Christmas Movies...

A few days ago, I did a just-for-fun post about some of the most popular Christmas movies. A movie checklist of sorts. It was fun to read through it and see how many I've seen - and how many I haven't.

That led to some questions (in the comments) about a similar list for Hallmark Christmas movies. (They weren't included in the list I perused that day.) Great question!!

I found an article released last year that listed the most popular Hallmark Christmas movies as determined by how many people watched their premieres. In my opinion, this may not make it a totally accurate list, because it doesn't show how many are willing to re-watch the same movie when it airs in subsequent years. But it's still fun to take a gander!

Funny little side story for you here...

A couple of nights ago, one of my friends had come to eat dinner with us, and she stayed to hang out while Ryan went to Bible study. I had a Hallmark movie playing on TV, but I left the volume down so we could have uninterrupted conversation. Eventually we realized we were completely lost about the details of the storyline, so I turned up the volume. After a couple of a minutes, she said to me, "I feel like there may have just been a misunderstanding?"

I said, "Well it's 6:45, so cue the misunderstanding. They have 15 minutes left to figure it out!"

A bit later, we talked about how life is NOT like a Hallmark movie, and I said, "Well, I don't know. I've had many instances where life was like a Hallmark movie...at 6:45!" :)

Anyway! Back to the list. You can peruse it yourself to see which ones you love the most, but here are my top favorites from the article:

* Window Wonderland (2013). I know these movies have a reputation for all being basically alike, and of course in some ways, this is like the others, but this one is void of bakeries and lodges. It's set in the city, and the two main characters are competing against one another to decorate a window display in a department store. I liked the change of scenery (though I do love a good lodge-based movie), so I enjoy catching this one on repeat when I can. The actress is not one of the main actresses in their lineup - but she did star as Lexie Grey on Grey's Anatomy back when I still watched the show. I admit the first time I saw this movie, it was really hard to NOT think of her in medical terms! (The drastic haircut in this movie did help me make the separation. I like her hair better longer.)

(INTERRUPTING MY LIST TO SAY...How have I not ever seen Switched for Christmas (2107). The article says it starts Candace Cameron Bure and is like a grown up Parent Trap. Seriously - how have I missed this one??)

* Every Christmas Has a Story (2016). I fear I have watched this one for the last time, which makes me sad, because it really is one of my favorites. Sigh. It stars Lori Loughlin, and since they seem to have pulled everything she's ever been in from the airwaves, I'm sure this one will be next. I love this one because...hello! Did you see the part about the story? She plays a television reporter who has lost her Christmas spirit, so she is sent on assignment to the dreamy little town of Hollyvale to try to find it once again. Her ex-boyfriend "just happens" to work with her and is also sent along, and I'm sure you can't IMAGINE how that ends.

* Christmas Cookies (2016). You just saw the title. Do I even need to explain to you why I love this movie? The town is named Cookie Jar and the main employer is Aunt Sally's Bakery. In short, if this were a real place, Ryan and I would be packing up the house TODAY and moving there for the rest of our lives. This movie is a good example of a time when I fell in love with the movie for the storyline more than the actors.

* A Royal Christmas (2014). Lacey Chabert is one of my favorite Hallmark actresses, so of course I love this one. This isn't the only Christmas movie with a handsome prince over a fictitious country, and that particular line actually often tends to be my least favorite, but I really do like this one.

These didn't make the list, but...

* Ice Sculpture Christmas may be one of my top two favorites ever. Rachel Boston stars in this one, and she's also one of my favorite actresses. She plays an aspiring chef who gets a job as a sous chef at a country club. She ends up in an ice sculpting competition...and well, I'd hate to spoil the ending for you!

* A Bramble House Christmas is also in my top two or three! I kind of wanted to own the little Bed and Breakfast in the movie. (Shocker!!) It's about a young mom who inherits a substantial sum of money from a gentleman she helped take care of prior to his death. When the man's kids find out he left his fortune to his nurse, they're not exactly overjoyed, but the man's son and the nurse do end up spending the holidays together at the Bramble house, unaware (at first, of course) of how their stories were intertwined. I will watch this one EVERY time it's on.

So those are some of my top favorites so far. You have any???

HAPPY MOVIE WATCHING!!!!!