The Saturday Six

One.

If you feel like your new year didn't start off with a flourish of purpose and organization and newness, and that somehow that might make you behind everyone else, read these words. You're right where you're supposed to be, you're not broken, and God has a purpose for this time, too!

Two.

Ever find yourself in a bind where you need to give a birthday gift quickly, but you don't have a single "Happy Birthday" gift bag in your house? If you are in a hurry and need to add a cute look to a plain bag, here's a free happy birthday cutout you can easily clip or glue to a plain bag!

Three.

Ryan finds the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail intriguing. I found this post that gave an overview of each state on the trail and some of the highlights of that section of the trail. My hands went cold at the mention of bears and rattlesnakes...and I had no idea any part of this trail went outside any kind of forest-y areas. Walking through backyards????

Four.

The doors in our house are new enough that they have character. But if you're in an older home laced with plain and boring doors, check out this relatively inexpensive (and impressive, in my opinion) way to spruce them up!

Five.

I don't live in Texas, I don't have this much money, and I have no earthly clue what I would do with a horse property, but this is one sweet barndominium. (It is one of the ten most popular homes in the nation this week.)

Six.

source

I did it! I read my first book of 2020, and I'm really excited to be able to cross that goal off my January list. Going back to work full time has created quite an interesting conundrum in getting all my other daily dreams accomplished. So far my goals have been to not miss a quiet time with the Lord, a workout, a blog post, and of course, quality time with Ryan. Only because of Ryan - and how he helps with housework - am I able to do any of these other things.

So my first book of 2020 was fiction, and it's called The Gray Chamber by Grace Hitchcock. This is part of a series called "True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime." It's a different kind of series in that the characters aren't the same from book to book. Each book stands alone in that respect. I read the first book, The White City, last year, and I loved it. So when I saw Grace had the next book releasing this month, I knew I had to read it!

This book is set in New York in 1887. Edyth Foster is almost twenty-five years old and set to inherit her late parents' fortune on that monumental birthday. She's in the legal care of her uncle until that time, and he isn't embarrassed about allowing Edyth to share her wealth with him - to keep him in the manner to which he'd like to be accustomed.

While most young women in her position would be eagerly awaiting a husband and traveling in nothing but the best social circles, Edyth is content to tour around the city on her bicycle and improve her fencing skills. She's had a crush on her fencing instructor for years, but her lack of attention to fashion (or anything other than winning at fencing, really) has prevented him from noticing her in the same way.

Just before Edyth's birthday, her uncle finds a loophole in the will that says if she is committed to an asylum, she will forfeit the inheritance and it will all go to him. Blackwell's Island, a women's asylum in New York, was built to prevent any escape. Edyth knows if she ends up there - she may never get out.

As with the first of Grace's books, I learned a tremendous amount about history through fiction. Blackwell's Island was a real place, and the treatment of women with and without mental health issues was astonishing. It was incredibly sobering to read what so many of them went through - and sickening to realize that women didn't always truly have the illnesses they were diagnosed with having.

The story itself was well-written and captivating. The history behind it was bonus learning. I don't know how many books Grace intends to write in this series, but I hope there are many more. I enjoy her stories and her history lessons!

* I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review. *

Flowers, Magazines, and Thoughtfulness

You already know, if you've been reading here long, that Ryan and I find a lot of joy in being intentional about our relationship. I started to say we work really hard at being intentional, but when I stared at those words, I realized I shouldn't insinuate we strive for it in a chore-like way. We do it because we want to. 

But lest you think that all such endeavors are crafted from hours of careful planning, Pinterest-hunting and from-scratch cooking, let me assure you that the little things on the fly matter every bit as much as the big things that take time. 

It doesn't have to take hours of time and loads of money to show love. 

Today I want to show you just a little handful of things Ryan has done for me - even in the first ten days of this year, to show his love.

***

Late last spring, I spoke at a women's retreat and the committee left a little tray of goodies in the room where we stayed for the weekend. Among the gifts was a simple white farmhouse-style pitcher, filled with fresh flowers. I loved it so much that when I brought it home, I told Ryan I wanted to keep it filled with fresh flowers all the time, because they bring joy to my day. So every couple of weeks, when we grocery shop, we'll pick up a fresh bunch of flowers at Aldi.

When I started working, Ryan told me he wanted me to have joy in the office and at home, so we'd be getting two bundles of flowers now. One for work and one for home. So this past Monday, when I went for my first full, uninterrupted week, I carried my work bundle of flowers with me, and I've admired them from my perch all week long. I've gotten many compliments on them from people who stopped in the office, and I can't help smiling my biggest smile when I tell them they're a love-gift from Ryan. 

***

Last weekend, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a gift card for someone. It was dark and cold, the store was packed, and I'd been traipsing around in heels for seven hours and could no longer feel my feet. Ryan said he'd just run in and get the card and come back, and I could rest in the car. (No arguments there!)

When he came back out of the store, he was carrying a sack. I was unaware that the store had gone to jumbo-sized gift cards, so I was a little perplexed about that sack! When he slid into the front seat, he pulled out the latest copy of People. 

"I thought you might like to read some of this, so I got it for you."

I think the last time I read People, I was still working at the station, and reading stacks of magazines was part of my job description. I have savored every page of that magazine, but more than that, I've savored the knowledge that he thought of me in line at the store and knew I'd love the stories in that issue. 

*** 

A little bunch of wildflowers...a random magazine....the gifts don't have to be lavish for me to feel loved. In fact, they don't have to cost anything at all! He brings my first cup of coffee to me every morning. He helps around the house in a thousand ways, including washing dishes almost every day because he knows it's one of my least favorite chores. He drops me off and picks me up at the front door of church every week so the Indiana wind doesn't promptly undo what I've spent an hour assembling at home. 

It's all in the little things. Tiny acts of love that matter in big ways. And in demonstrating them, he reminds me to show the same kind of love outward to those around me. A note here. A text there. a surprise cup of coffee or plate of cookies. 

It matters. 

A Wintry Home Tour

I'm not complaining at all, but it feels kind of weird to write a post titled "Wintry Home Tour" when today's high is projected to be 52 degrees. I know some people are not too happy that our precipitation this weekend is coming in the form of rain rather than snow, but I am absolutely delighted. I'll still take sun any old day of the week, but I still hate driving in snow, so I'll take 50 degrees and raining.

Weather aside, I wanted to show you our winter décor! When we took down our Christmas decorations before the new year arrived, I pulled out my traditional January snowman decorations, but I decided to mix it up just a little bit this year. I kept out a few of our smaller plain trees (sans ornaments) and tried to keep the winter feeling alive in a new way. And I have to say...I love it! All those Pinteresty people were right when they said that these evergreen trees make great winter décor.

Christmas is the only season I go crazy with redecorating the house. My decorations for other seasons are just sparse accessories around the house. I try to pick the areas that are lived in the most so they can be seen! I say this because I feel like we're constantly pushed to decorate every corner of our homes for every season. That can get overwhelming! Less really can be more.

I did add a little bit of wintry joy to our bedroom this year:

Those two trees were part of our Christmas tree farm, and they don't have lights on them. I paired them with regular pictures and signs we keep in our bedroom and sprinkled a few pinecones in the mix for good measure.

This is a little corner of our living room:

The tree was a new one we bought this year - and I'd had it in my office during December. I took off all the ornaments and just left it plain (with lights). The base has a sign on it about a Christmas tree farm, so I wrapped it in burlap to hide that. I stuck a snowman from my stash in front of it and made a little new year corner with sparkly stuff everywhere. (I've had all those pieces for several years.)

I left a few things out on the sun porch, too:

 The tree above was another new find for this year, and I left the lights strung through it, too. I added some pinecones and faux birch branches I had on hand and called the corner done!

 From the fireplace area, I removed all the red/Christmassy stuff and just left the basics.

 It seemed appropriate to leave the snowballs out, too!

 We found this porch sign at Hobby Lobby (on sale) and we had to get it. I had the snowflakes already but strung them on ribbon and hung them from the hooks that held our wreaths in December!

Here's another little corner of the living room. Ryan found this ice tree at Hobby Lobby on clearance and liked it, so we got it. It was a great find! I love it, too!

I added a couple little pieces to the guest bathroom, too! This print below and the canvas above are both pieces of Lindsay Letters art that I already owned.

It's simple, and it doesn't take over the entire house, but it does bring a little glow and winter cheer to our house in these (beautifully balmy) days of January!

How about you? Did you leave up any Christmas décor that could double as winter décor?

Kick the Blues, Welcome the Cozy

Anyone else suffering from the post-twinkle-lights blues? January can be tough for those who struggle with cold temps and dark days. Here in Shafferland, we do what we can to bring a dose of cozy to the long stretches of winter, in hopes that it will chase away the winter blues. Today I have a few suggestions that might help bring extra cozy into your home.

1. Light a fire...of some sort. 

We don't have a real fireplace in our house, but we do have an electric fireplace that we can run with or without heat. For Christmas, our gift to each other was a heater that looks like an old fashioned cast iron stove. (We got it for our sun porch, so we can enjoy it on cold days.) Nothing is quite as cozy as a real fireplace, of course, but in the pinch of the winter blues, soft light and gentle heat really can help create a little extra cozy. And if you don't have any kind of fireplace, you can always track down a fireplace video (like this one on YouTube) that plays for several hours, offering the glow and crackle of a cozy fire. If you're a candle-lover, get a Wood Wick candle in the scent of your choice. The wicks really are made of wood and crackle like a fireplace when you burn them. (Not gonna lie: I was pretty excited to find one in my dresser drawer a few days ago!)

2. Don the comfy...literally.

One of my Christmas gifts from Ryan (and also the gift we gave to all the girls in my family) was a Comfy. Have you heard of them? They are ginormous sweatshirts that are Sherpa-lined and soft on the outside. They have hoods and pockets and are absolutely like wearing a blanket. I have worn mine many nights since Christmas, and it is the warmest, coziest thing in the world. (And when I stand up to refill my coffee, it goes with me!) If you don't have a comfy, then make sure you have some sort of deliciously warm blanket. (Several years ago, Ryan's mom got me an electric throw blanket that I also love, and it's pretty popular with our small group crowd, too. It's available to the first taker every time we meet.) There is something about being warm and cozy on your person that chases away the blues! 

3. Try a new coffee or hot chocolate concoction.

Warm drinks in my belly = the best way to warm up and feel cheery when it's cold and dreary outside. You might remember that last year, our Christmas gift to each other was a latte machine for our house, and we have had fun crafting recipes for coffee drinks with it. Even if you don't have that, adding flavored syrups can jazz up your regular coffee or hot chocolate. If you need some inspiration, check out Monin's recipe section. That's where we've gotten several of ours! And I'm also of the persuasion that a little whipped cream and syrup drizzle on top makes for an extra cozy drink. 

4. Scarves for the double-win.

Of course we can't always stay home, which is unfortunate, because cozy on the couch is the best, in my opinion. But working, adulting, and all the responsibilities get in the way of that, right? I am finding that adding a scarf to my outfit (when I leave home) is the best way to combat that blah feeling. It keeps me extra warm as I face the blustery outdoors, and it also makes me feel extra cute. Because of my broken internal thermostat, I can only wear scarves in the coldest part of winter, so I enjoy the extra accessory. Warm = win and pretty = win! (PS - if you're so over the one way you know how to tie a scarf, here's a link to some ideas on other presentations!) 

5. Read your way warm. 

I have missed reading over the last few months and have decided that this month I'm going to try to trade in some of my social media time-wasting for much healthier book-reading. Read your way into an adventure, and you might just find your heart and self warming right up. Don't like the blah outside your window? Can't afford a real-time vacation to a warmer place? Go on a book vacation and warm up in the land of fictional destination. (Wear your Comfy while you read!)

6. Soup for days!

Since I've gone back to work here in the heart of winter, I'm learning a new dependence on my slow-cooker to feed us dinner at a reasonable hour. I'm so grateful I've accepted this adventure in the winter, because soups are easy ways to employ the slow cooker, and not much feels cozier on a cold winter night than hot soup with a few crackers on the side. (Here are a couple of our favorites: cheeseburger soup and Ryan's homemade chili.) 

7. Get a massage.

Of all the things on this list, this one is the one I employ the least and dream about the most. I love massages and always feel so much better after I get one. I think a perfect winter evening would mean getting a massage right after work and then crashing on the couch for the rest of the night (with the aforementioned fire, comfy, coffee, and book). Bye-bye, tension!!!

8. Employ your creativity.

Whenever I'm down in the dumps, I find that sitting and thinking about feeling blah is of no help whatsoever. I try to do something productive - and fun - to help combat the blues. I might make a batch of cookies, do some pages in my scrapbook, or plan a vacation to help turn the gears in my mind and warm up my heart. I always feel better at the end of the creativity fest, because I've actually accomplished something productive!

9. Shop the house and shuffle the decor.

Sometimes sitting in the same-old-same-old contributes to the winter blues. I try to spend January and February shuffling around things within the house. I might swap some pieces of furniture with pieces in other rooms or move around some pictures or other décor, just to give me something new to look at. If you're trying not to spend here in the post-holiday world, this one requires no spending. Just shop the house! (If you do have a little to spend, try getting a new plant or updating pictures in your frames.) 

10. Host a warm winter's party. 

Cheer up your heart by inviting over some friends! It doesn't have to be fancy or formal at all. Last weekend, we were invited to a birthday party for one of the guys in our small group. His wife made homemade pizzas and everyone else pitched in a side dish. We sat around the dining room table, swapping stories, eating pizza, and at the end of the night, we gathered in the living room and listened to one of the guests play beautiful piano music. It wasn't fancy, but it was warm and full of love and joy. It doesn't have to be Pinterest perfect at all. Just gather in some friends and enjoy the company!

A Day in the Life: January 2020

I did a day in the life post last January and utterly exhausted myself reading through it not long ago. When I did that one, we were in the throes of caring for Ryan's mom at home while she was on hospice, so if you glance at it, you'll notice the one thing missing from it is...sleep. How we made it through that time with any semblance of sound mind can truly and only be attributed to the grace of God.

This year I decided to document a Sunday, because I don't think I've ever done that before!

Date: Sunday, January 5, 2020

Ryan: 40 years old. Bekah: 41 years old. Braeya: 13 years old.

Weather: High of 42 - Sunny and Windy. 

Midnight - 6:00 a.m.

* SLEEP!!!! There are no photos of this stretch of time, because I actually sleep for all of it, which is already a better start than last year. Ryan and I went to bed about 11:30 Saturday night, but we were both utterly exhausted from our day and were out, out, out before midnight. I do remember waking up during the night once, aware that I've had a bad dream, but I can't remember it now and I'm not going to try. The alarm goes off at 6, and I try so hard to get up, but it turns out I can only respond by hitting snooze.

6:00 a.m. - Noon.

* After a couple of snoozes (truly not too many) I get up and make my way to the couch for my quiet time with the Lord. Though I've always been an evening quiet time girl, my new work schedule and a nudge on my heart from the Lord has pushed me to read first thing in the morning instead, and so far, I'm enjoying it. Today I'm beginning Psalm 3, which is one I nearly know by heart, thanks to a powerful song our church choir sings - pulled almost directly from this Psalm. And of course... it's time for coffee. Ryan brings me a cup and then refills it when it gets low. While I study, he gets ready and then sits down to do some Bible and book reading of his own. Braeya sits with him. (Of course.)

* I get ready for the day, which is a quick adventure, because I can squeak out second-day hair. I put on a new cardigan I found at Sam's Club the night before - super lightweight and in one of my favorite clothes-colors. I know I'll probably overheat in church, so the goal is always to dress in removable layers. While I get ready, I listen to my dad's radio program and when it ends, I finish up with a little Collingsworth family on YouTube. I have just enough time after getting ready that I can eat a Clif bar for breakfast and work on guzzling the first 20 ounces of water for today. We fill up our travel mugs with coffee for the remainder of the morning, pack our church bag with Bibles and notebooks, and pick out our coats and hats so we can head to church! Braeya high-fives Ryan on our way out the door. Guess she's excited to have the place to herself.

* The first church service of 2020 is powerful and beautiful. We have a guest speaker, since our new pastor won't arrive for a couple more weeks. He offers a thought-provoking message with a good amount of humor mixed in. We spend some time visiting with small group friends between services, and then we go to Sunday School. The guy who normally does the announcements and prayer requests is sick, so Ryan and I fill in for him. (I promptly rename a guy in our class by writing "Bill" on the board instead of "Phil." #facepalm.) Our class always has great discussion, and we enjoy being part of it! Before we leave church, I check some sign-up sheets so I can be prepared to know my work load tomorrow.

Noon - 6:00 p.m.

* Normally I have a rule that whatever clothes I put on in the morning are the clothes for the day, but Sunday is the great exception. Ryan and I hurry home and change into comfy clothes immediately. I warm up leftover Chicken Caesar Casserole from Saturday night, and we eat lunch on the couch while we watch Andy Griffith. (I try to always have leftovers for Sunday lunch so I don't have to cook.) We grab a fresh cup of coffee after lunch and hunker down for our afternoon of rest - something we both look forward to all week long.

* Our Sunday afternoon football days are coming to a close, so when the games come on, Ryan flips the channel away from Mayberry. I do a little blogging and Pinteresting, and before long, we're both tired and falling over on the couch for a nap. Neither of us sleeps very long today before returning to the aforementioned blogging/Pinteresting/football. I get up to make some yogurt for a snack, because I'm hungry already. (And it's time for another cup of coffee.) I haven't figured out my new scrapbooking schedule now that I've gone back to work, so I open up my scrapbook program to try to knock out a few pages. So relaxing. I catch up in two chronically-running projects, so I'm happy about that.

* Ryan had worked for several hours on Saturday to put together a piece of furniture we got for Christmas - for our kitchen - and he wanted to cut a protective topper piece for it, so while I scrapbook, he cuts that and stacks bricks on top of it so it will flatten. (In the photo below, he is using the leftover tubing from the packaging as a megaphone to talk to Braeya. She remains asleep and unimpressed.) And then he washes up a few dishes in the sink. (Yes. I'm that fortunate!)

* Football is still going - and I'm not at all interested in this game, so I decide to do my Sunday stretching. This is part of my new year's goal. I take Sundays off from working out and worrying about a step count, but I do plan to take some time to stretch, since I'm always tight everywhere. (Not like toned-tight. Tension-tight.) After stretching, I finish my second 20 ounces of water for the day. I really should be on my third by now, but I don't really count water consumption as strictly on Sundays, either. It's a day of rest all the way around.

6:00 p.m. - Midnight.

* We're hungry, so I warm up the last of the Southwest Chicken and Sweet Potato Chowder for dinner. Ryan adds his own side of ham slices, crackers, and cheese - a little appetizer board he's enjoyed eating lately.

* I print out a new set of planner pages for the upcoming week and hunker down with my colored Flair pens to organize what I know of the week so far. While I do that, Ryan unloads the buffet in the kitchen so we can  scoot it out and bring in the new piece. I help him situate the new one and transfer the contents from the old one. We love the way it looks!

* Since I've gone back to work, I have to be way more intentional about my cooking, so I set up for a quick cooking session before I wind down for the night. I put together a batch of Low Calorie Flourless Fudge Brownies so we have dessert for the first part of the week, and I start cooking chicken for my Hot Chicken Salad recipe. I realized earlier in the day that it's frighteningly similar to the casserole I made the night before, but I already had the menu plan laid out, so we'll just love chicken a lot this week! While the chicken finishes up, I get everything else all chopped and ready for assembly.

* While the chicken salad bakes, I sit down to read a couple of chapters in the novel I'm reading this month: The Gray Chamber by Grace Hitchcock. And then I switch over to the magazine Ryan bought for me over the weekend. Sitting to read makes me happy!

* I consider doing my nails, but it's after nine and I don't feel like dragging everything out, so I decide to postpone it for another day. Instead, I pick up the computer to journal about the day, copy my sermon notes over, and double check the blog to make sure tomorrow's post is ready to go. While I do that, Ryan sits down with the book I gave him for Christmas and does a little reading of his own! (He's reading Dr. David Jeremiah's book Angels: Who They Are and How They Help.)

* I finish up my third 20 ounce tumbler of water. There should be a fourth, but I'm not starting one this close to bedtime. Like I said - it's Sunday. No need to stress about water consumption. I'm thankful for this day of rest and feel good about the amount of creativity and life-fillers I was able to enjoy throughout the day. And of course, any day we get to spend together is always my favorite.

Goodbyes and Anticipation

I still remember the Sunday in August 2018 when Ryan and I went to church for what we thought was going to be a normal Sunday morning. Our first clue that something was wrong came during prayer at the beginning when I realized the entire church board was filing onto the platform. That couldn't mean good news. We found out that morning that our pastor, who was planning to retire in a few months, was done early - effective immediately, actually.

Shortly after the announcement, the utterly silent congregation watched as a gentleman came to the platform. Ryan and I didn't know him, but we learned later that he had been the senior pastor for a length of time before the pastor we knew. He had since retired, but the church had placed an emergency call to him to see if he would be willing to come out of retirement for a time to help us while we tried to find a new minister.

That's how Pastor Garey - and his wife, Brenda - left their home in nice, warm, Tennessee, drove miles from their children and grandchildren, and landed back in central Indiana to work full time again in a big church that suddenly found itself in a place it never expected. Pastor Garey called this time with us his "second tour of duty."

I remember that Sunday. He told us that the person on the platform might look different, but he was there to preach the Word of God. He promised us he would pray with us, baptize us, marry us, dedicate our babies, and preach our funerals. Whatever our needs - he would care for us. And we would get through this, he promised.

We were all stunned that day, and I don't know that most of us grasped what he had to say. And even though I didn't know this man at all, I found a strange sense of comfort in knowing we had a leader. A consistent leader. Not a different guest speaker every week, but a person committed to knowing us and loving us for the foreseeable future.

None of us - Pastor Garey most of all - knew that the "foreseeable future" would last eighteen months.

A month after his second tour of duty started, Ryan and I were the keynote speakers at a leadership conference at our church. Pastor Garey sat at one of the front tables, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye throughout our talks. I wondered if he wondered who these whippersnapper kids were and who on earth thought it would be a good idea to give them microphones and let them talk! Both of us let out a long exhale when he found us after the conference and thanked us for our work.

Pastor Garey kept every promise over the last eighteen months. He indeed brought the Word of God every Sunday. He invited people to pray at the altar, and we did. He baptized believers. He dedicated babies. He preached funerals. And even though he didn't have to, he got to know us. He invested in us. He treated it like a real, long-term job, even though it was always temporary. He took seriously the task of helping us find our next pastor. And we did get through this long season.

Brenda joined the choir, prayed with people, and sent sweet notes in the mail. When Ryan and I took the membership class last month, Brenda was there beside Pastor Garey, taking notes and helping him make the morning go smoothly. She always had a hug and a smile for us.

About a month ago, the board announced a new pastor has been found. Our church is so excited to welcome him. It's been so long since we had something concrete and lasting to look forward to, and you can feel hope rising in the hearts of the people.

So Pastor Garey and Brenda have returned to warmer temps, retirement, and the grandparent life. They packed up their little apartment into every nook and cranny of their vehicle and pointed their car toward their permanent home. But before they left, we had a chance to say a final goodbye (for now) to them. The church held a farewell reception on Saturday, and we scooted out of Ryan's family Christmas a little early to get there to say our goodbye. We couldn't miss that moment. For eighteen months, they've sacrificed to invest in us - and they did it so well. We will miss them, but we are profoundly grateful for what they have meant to our story. It has been a privilege to serve alongside them in ministry.

Goodbyes are never easy - full of bittersweet feelings - but I know in this case that we are richer for having met and served with Pastor Garey and Brenda. And I fully anticipate we'll be richer yet for the hello we are about to speak to our new pastor and his wife. I'm looking forward to working with him in the office and getting to know both of them. From everything I know so far (through social media and texting), they are incredibly sweet and energetic people God will use to bring fresh life and vision into our church!

Our year begins with a goodbye and a hello - and both are beautiful in their own way.