Sunday Snapshots: Memorable Moments from the Week

 

Good morning, friends! This week has been full of the unexpected, and I am so thankful for good friends, for Ryan, and for the Lord’s kindness. The week has also been full of some sweet memories. Take a look!

 Last Sunday was our church’s Celebration service. The church was set up in stations, and after a time of music and Scripture reading, we were able to move around to take communion, wash feet, pray with others, or be anointed. It was a beautiful service!

You know I love a good Christmas ornament, and this one was gifted to me this week. It makes me smile so much. (I had actually just seen this one in the store…and now I own it!)

Autumn came to our house this week…in the form of peanuts and candy corn. I know it’s a love/hate thing for most people, but we love it. I’m actually staying out of it, because if I start…I’ll never stop. But I loved setting it all up for Ryan!

I felt like I arrived in life when I arrived at the coffee shop for my weekly meeting and found the owner had reserved our table for us. I felt pretty fancy boldly walking up to the reserved table and taking a seat!

 Some of my dad’s former students made the trip to visit him this week, which I thought was very sweet of them. One of the students in that class…was Ryan’s dad! I don’t know that I have a picture of the three of them, so this was sweet to receive. We were able to have dinner with Ryan’s dad and stepmom before they headed home!

My sister came to visit this week, so while she was here, we celebrated Dad’s birthday. (It was yesterday.) Mom sang to him, he opened his gifts, and Julie brought pie for him to enjoy!

 Last night, Ryan sang in the Swiss Village Singers’ concert, and I went to hear him. They did a really nice job, and I enjoyed singing along (under my breath) to all the hymns!

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

                Yesterday as I worked on my classes, I had to write some deep (deeeeeeeeep) journal entries that reflected on my life. It was absolutely overwhelming, and as I read it to Ryan, I felt…exhausted. Taking a hard, honest look at your life can do that to you. How thankful I am for the grace of God!

                Perhaps I need to read through this lighthearted list for myself!!! Alas, I have no time, as I will be spending all day today in an ethics class. (Be jealous…) So while I learn, howsabout you enjoy some reading?

Someone asked me the other day what my spirit animal is. Well, I don’t really get into spirit animals, but I told them I do feel like I would have made a good bear. I like to eat, sleeping all winter sounds fun, and people generally expect me to be cranky. (Ha!) And speaking of sleeping all winter…wouldn’t it be fun to do that in THIS adorable little cottage? I just love it. I love the dining room, the cute little corner fireplace, and the location right on the water. I could curl up here all winter, drink a lot of coffee, and read all the books in my TBR pile.

You know that I am a big fan of the stories of our lives showing up in the pieces of our homes. I enjoyed reading this home tour, and while the homeowners’ style is very different from ours, I adored reading the ways her family’s history is woven into their home! (Her grandpa was so sweet to earmark pieces for her!) I also love it that they chose a house from a time period that can be kind of challenging to sell. (BONUS: This is also a super cute house – with a guest house, too!)

If you are in an unspeakably hard season of the soul right now (and I know many who are) you might need Karina’s words today. Sharing them with you in hopes that they will bring comfort – or at least the knowledge that you are not alone!

I love reading Christmas gift guides – any time of year!! Allie posted hers here and the post says she’ll be updating it, so check back to see if she adds more! She has lots of themes, so maybe you’ll find something to share with someone in your gift-giving world!

I’ve written before how I had great aspirations (whilst growing up) of becoming Sandi Patty. Spoiler alert: I can’t sing. Dream lost. But her songs were a HUGE part of my first couple of decades of life, so I am not surprised that hearing snippets of a tribute-to-her-music concert made my heart so happy. I hope they eventually release the entire concert, but in the meantime, listen to this medley sung by the very talented Voctave! (BONUS: This duet – from the same concert – of More than Wonderful by Travis Cottrell and Natalie Grant…whoa. Not many people can achieve Larnelle Harris sound, but Travis nailed it!)

I could not love this fall home tour any more than I do! I would have to borrow leaves from someone’s yard since I don’t have trees, though. I love her frugality and the simplicity of her decorations. 

Ears to Hear

 

Shari, thank you so much for the sweet words on yesterday’s really random post! I made an unofficial blog goal this year to be more thoughtful in my writing, and when I wrote yesterday’s post, I couldn’t quite find my thoughts, so it felt like a fail. (Granting myself grace is still a skill I’m honing…) I am feeling a bit less scattered in thought today, so I have something more specific to share.

                It’s been a couple of months since a friend reached out to me for help in learning how to study the Bible. She found it overwhelming and confusing and didn’t know what to do. I asked if she would be willing to do a Bible reading plan with me, and she said yes. I’d heard good things about Tara-Leigh Cobble’s book The Bible Recap, but I hadn’t personally read it. I decided to give it a try, so we each got a copy of that book and then each day, we individually read the assigned daily Bible passage, followed by Tara-Leigh’s recap, and then we message each other about it to share what we learned.

                We’re almost a full month into this adventure, and I’m enjoying it so much. I love watching her discover new things, and you know what? I’m discovering new things, too.

                If you’ve read here very long, you probably know that I’ve done year-long Bible reads before, multiple times. For this one, I decided to listen to the passages instead of reading them. I keep my physical Bible close at hand in case I want to note something, but for the reading, I listen.

                I have never listened to the Bible before.

                A couple of days ago, as I listened to the passage, I heard something I had never noticed before. I even backed up the audio to listen a second time to make sure I heard it right. And then about five minutes later, I heard something else that stuck out to me for the first time.

                When the passage ended, I headed straight to my Bible to dig in a little more.

                I will always, always love a physical Bible. I will always love highlighting, underlining, making notes, and learning visually. But there is something really beautiful about hearing the Word of God, sometimes quite literally in ways I haven’t heard it before!

                If you haven’t tried listening to the Bible, I recommend giving it a try! You just don’t know what your ears might hear…for the first time!

Currently...

 

This week has been so unexpected in a variety of ways. I sat down last night to write the blog and realized I had no plan for today and no brain left to plan. So I decided to fall back on a fun kind of topic and look through the “currently” blog questions! Thank you for your grace while I regroup my thoughts. I’ll do my best to have something of more depth tomorrow!

I’m currently….

…loving this autumn season. It’s been summerish in temperature until the last couple of days, but even with the extra warmth, the fall colors creeping into the trees and the leaves falling into our driveway have been so very cozy and beautiful.

…anticipating a planning day for work that I’m so excited about. I’ve been planning my planning day, so to speak. I can’t wait to sit down and look over all my lists and ideas and see where the Lord leads me!

…looking forward to (isn’t that the same as anticipating?) decorating for Christmas. Is it too soon for that?? I haven’t decided yet when I’m going to put up the trees but I’m sure excited for it!

…wearing summer clothes. I told Ryan this week that I am not upset that it’s been so warm, but I am sad that half my closet is too hot to wear right now! I miss my button-down flannels and sweatshirts!

…cooking fun new-to-me recipes! A few days ago I made a DELICIOUS maple cookie!

                Thanks for reading along. I’ll see you tomorrow! I aspire to have something more meaningful for you then!

Our Thirteenth Engagementversary

 

Yesterday I reminisced with you about our engagementversaries through the years, and today I want to tell you about this year’s fun!

                Ryan had choir practice at church on Saturday morning, so he got up and headed to that, and I headed to the couch with jammies and bedhead to enjoy a morning of scrapbooking. I worked on our Mackinac Island album and had the best time reliving those memories.

                When he arrived home, he came bearing gifts! He brought us each an Americano from the Shaka Shack, our favorite coffee shop! It was the sweetest gift!

                Ryan had several things he wanted to accomplish at home, but we did take a break to explore some of our favorite spots with Lexi…including the covered bridge! It was such a beautiful day, and I was glad we had time to enjoy the outdoors. (We know that’s probably coming to a screeching halt.)

                And then it was time for our date!

                I wanted Ryan to experience the restaurant he had to miss on our staff retreat excursion: Do Good!

                Last time I was there, I ordered a turkey wrap, so I wanted to try something else this time.

                Ryan ordered blackened whitefish with mashed potatoes – and he also ordered a cup of their mushroom parmesan soup. I ordered soup and salad with the same soup.

                OH. MY. GOODNESS.

                This soup!

                Let me tell you a little story about the Shaffers and mushroom soup. On Halloween night, 2018 (yes, I remember the exact date), Ryan and I stopped at a McAlister’s near Indianapolis, as we drove home from visiting his mom after her brain surgery. We were exhausted and so hungry. As we tried to choose our meal in a mostly empty restaurant, the manager asked if we’d be willing to try a soup they were testing for their menu. It was a mushroom soup, we said yes, and we loved that soup.

                And they never put it on the permanent menu.

                We talk about that soup all the time. We lament that we have never found anything that compares.

                Until now.

                We savored every single bite.

                We don’t usually order dessert at dinner, but Ryan loves pie, and I knew they had good pie. He ordered one of his favorites: sugar cream, and I ordered blackberry.

                So good.

                After dinner, we walked around a bit and then headed to a thrift store!

                I loved this day so much, from start to finish. Thanks for making me feel loved and special, Ryan!

Engagementversaries!

 

Last Saturday marked 13 years since Ryan proposed to me! Teena commented on Saturday that she hadn’t seen the proposal video before, and I figure there may be one or two of you reading along who weren’t hanging out here 13 years ago!

                If that’s you, you can read the whole love story in this series of posts, but I thought today I might tell you a quick story you might not know about the backstory to Ryan’s on-air proposal. I don’t think I’ve ever told this story here, but I have also written lots of posts over the last 13 years, so if I have and this is a repeat, I apologize.

                (Also if you are new here and don’t know, back in those days, I worked at WBCL Radio as a producer and on-air personality.)

                Ryan had been trying to think of a creative way to propose and came up with a few ideas, and his favorite was proposing on the air. He had to find a way to talk to Lynne Ford when I wasn’t around, so one day when he knew both Lynne and I were on the air with Mid-Morning, he called the station’s main number and asked to talk to Amy, who was one of my dearest friends at the station. He heard me talk about her all the time and knew she knew all about our relationship. When Amy answered, he told her what he wanted to do (swearing her to secrecy) and asked if she could help him get in touch with Lynne. Amy gave him Lynne’s cell number and Ryan called her when he knew she and I were not together.

                He told Lynne the plan and she loved the idea but felt she needed to clear it with the station director. He was all for it – as long as we could record it and share it on social media. Ryan loved that, because he knew I’d want pictures and video anyway!

                From there it snowballed into a grand-scale production to pull off this huge surprise without me knowing. And I worked with a bunch of good people, because they made it happen!

                It was the sweetest day, and because we loved it so much, we celebrate every year on October 4^th! Today I thought I would reminisce with you about the fun we have had celebrating this through the years!

2012: This was our actual engagement day. Not only did the station help orchestrate and document the event, but they hosted a little party for us after the show…with cake and everything!

2013: One year later…we went out for dinner at a little BBQ restaurant near our home, and then we came home to watch Dumb and Dumber. (Ryan’s choice!) I had picked up cookies from The Cookie Cottage in Fort Wayne. (One of my coworkers had gifted us cookies from there for our wedding rehearsal, so it was a nod to that.)

2014: Our Marion house was on the market, and our agent hosted an open house on our engagementversary, so we were kicked out for the day. We went to the IWU Homecoming parade and toured the campus just for fun, and then we went to an apple orchard for dumplings. (It was a terrible experience; the restaurant was also a winery and because we weren’t drinking, we didn’t get great service.) We capped off the night with apple pie chai from the IWU coffee shop – a drink I still dearly miss.

2015: This engagementversary was on a Sunday, and we were part of the coffee bar hospitality team! We spent the morning making and serving coffee, went to church, and then watched the Colts play. Later in the day, we went to the park where we had our engagement pictures taken, played frisbee, and drank frappes!

2016: I was sick with a cold on this engagementversary, so I probably wasn’t the most fun date. By this time I was a stay-at-home wife, so I spent the day working from home, Ryan spent the day at work, and that evening we hosted company for dinner. (I think it was a Tuesdays-at-the-Table night. Remember those?)

2017: This was one of my FAVORITE celebrations. It was the fifth engagementversary, so we wanted to do something a little extra. It was also the year we did the alphabetically-inspired dates, and this one was the Romantic Rendezvous at a Rooftop Rotating Restaurant. We had dinner at the Eagle’s Nest in Indianapolis. I loved that restaurant, that meal, that view. It was so much fun. And they gave us dessert on the house because we were celebrating!

2018: We were dog-sitting Ryan’s cousin’s dog (Deuce) on this year’s celebration, so he crashed it! We kept it low-key this year. I made lasagna for our lunch, and Ryan treated me to jumbo cupcakes from J. Edwards. (I miss that place more than I should.) I made a special dinner, we took Deuce for a walk, and I baked cookies!

2019: This was a fun year! We went to a local corn maze, found our way through, and then went out to eat (gift card) and ended the night with a walk in the park!

2020: We were at WillowBridge by this time, and we were on duty the day of our engagementversary. It was a Sunday, so we went to church and after we came home, we sneaked away to DeBrand to share a sundae and some coffee. It was the sweetest (pun intended) little getaway before returning to the busyness of work!

2021: We didn’t want to miss another engagementversary because of work, so we purposely scheduled ourselves a weekend day for this year’s celebration. We were dog-sitting Phoebe at the time, so we dropped her off at our friends’ house (thanks, Wayne and Shari!) and then enjoyed an outing to…WBCL to see the very place where it all began! We went out for pizza and then picked up Phoebe to head back to WillowBridge. That night, our friends dropped off their 2 year old to stay with us while they went to the hospital to have a baby! Engagementversary+  dogsitting + babysitting = fun!

2022: By the time this year rolled around, we were living in Bluffton and were puppy parents ourselves! It was a work day for us, but that night we took Lexi for a walk on the river walk and then picked up Blizzards for dinner!

2023: It was a beautiful thing that our engagementversary fell on the same night as our church’s Steele Farms night! We spent the evening enjoying hot dogs with our church family, and a stroll through the corn maze.

2024: Ryan planned this one all on his own! He found a really cool orchard down near Richmond, and on Friday nights they had free live music! We went to hang out, listen to music, and enjoy coffee and apple dumplings. SO FUN!

2025: Come back tomorrow to see what we did this year!