Tuesday Tales: Charleston Bound

 

                I told you Sunday that we just returned from this year’s birthday trip, and it was such a GIFT. We hadn’t been away for a lengthy birthday trip since 2021, and I think it may have started to show. This year’s destination was Charleston, South Carolina, and the main reason we chose it was because South Carolina remained a glaring hole on our travel map. We’d been through it before – and even spent the night with some friends in North Augusta, South Carolina, but alas, it was before the map, and we didn’t actually do anything in the state other than stay at our friends’ house, so it didn’t count as destination travel. We’d heard such good things about the beauty of Charleston…and so it became our destination! Come along with me today as we look at the start of our trip!

                I had to giggle out loud when I got up the morning we left and did my Scripture writing for the day. I read the passage in Mark where Jesus sent the disciples out to minister, and he told them not to pack a bag or take anything excessive. The whole time, I knew this was in the next room. Gulp.

                The Shaffers: Charleston bound!

                The entire day of travel was fraught with slow-downs, constructions, accidents, re-routes, and rain. It was one of the most frustrating driving days we’ve had for a long time. We tried so hard not to stop for any reason. I think we only had three stops the entire day – and they were for bathrooms/food/fuel – in and out so fast. And yet we lost three hours off our time from start to finish. Here are some scenes from the road:

                The mountains appeared at last, complete with a tunnel!

                In a TOTALLY unexpected event, I drove three full hours of the trip, including all the mountains, torrential downpours, back roads, and darkness. We didn’t want to pull over to switch drivers because we were afraid of losing another half hour off the trip!

                The first night we stayed in a little tiny town – home to some friends of ours. They sweetly offered for us to stay in their guest house, which was small and absolutely perfect for us.

                The next morning we made our way (still in the rain) to their house to have breakfast and spend the morning with them. They have a sweet puppy who helped us fill the Lexi void. They also had a screened in front porch, and we were able to sit out there while a gentle rain fell, and it was the sweetest way to spend a morning. Forced slowdowns like this are much more welcomed than forced slowdowns in traffic.

                So our friends used to live in the same town where Ryan and I grew up, and we went to high school with their daughters. A few years ago, their youngest daughter passed away very unexpectedly after giving birth. Ryan and I had never met any of her girls until this trip. We really loved meeting them. (One of the girls was gone to practice that morning so she missed the group picture.)

                We finally packed up and hit the road again, and about four hours later, we finally made it to our home for the week! To try to save some money (cities are NOT cheap for lodging) we stayed in North Charleston in a Residence Inn. We looked at Airbnbs but couldn’t justify the cost. This hotel gave us breakfast every day, but we had a bigger room with a couch and kitchen, which made it really helpful for a longer term stay.

                We were so happy to be there, and I’ll be back Thursday to tell you about our adventures exploring downtown Charleston!

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

Today is the first day of a new month! Ryan and I are home from vacation and tightening up our menu plans. That will obviously not be reflected in today’s Menu Monday post, because much of this week’s post still looks our vacation.

Monday: Leftover Chicken and Macaroni Salad

What We Loved: We spent an entire day exploring on vacation and were very hot and hungry when we came back to our hotel. We didn’t want to start over getting ready so we could go out to eat, so we had more of the chicken and macaroni salad we bought at the grocery store the day before. It was the grandest start to our evening on the couch!

Tuesday: Strawberry Fields Salad/Cheeseburger at Culvers

What We Loved: We spent another entire day exploring and were SO hot and hungry at the end of the day. Ryan really wanted Culver’s, so we found one (a super nice one!) and he chose a cheeseburger meal, and I chose their Strawberry Fields Salad. I love that salad so much. The year they don’t bring it back will be a sad year.

Wednesday: Chicken Salad and Pizza from MOD Pizza

What We Loved: We really wanted to stay in for the evening, so Ryan ordered pizza for himself and salad for me from MOD Pizza. He went to pick it up and we ate in the hotel. The salad was really good – and really big! It made two meals for me. I think he got about 2.5 meals out of the pizza!

Thursday: Leftover Chicken Salad and Pizza from MOD Pizza

What We Loved: This day was our last full day of vacation, so we needed to start packing and didn’t want to add more things to our food collection. Leftovers for the win!

Friday: Fajita Wrap from Buc’ees

What We Loved: We ate dinner in the parking lot of Buc’ees – and I chose the chicken fajita wrap. It came with two smaller wraps, so I had one on Friday night and the other one Saturday for lunch. Tons of flavor!

Saturday: Pesto Pasta with Asparagus and Peas

What We Changed: Annnnnd back to cooking! We did a grocery haul so I could get back to cooking. This recipe is actually a vegetarian recipe, which is rare for us, but it was good and filling. I did make a few adjustments. For the pesto, I had mixed greens rather than arugula, and I used dried basil rather than fresh. And I didn’t have pistachios, so I used chopped pecans, both in the pesto and on the top of the salad. I used chickpea pasta, per usual, and everything else was pretty accurate!

Sunday: Shimp Tacos with Latin Yellow Rice

What We Changed: This was pretty tasty! For the shrimp tacos, I used 4 large tortillas instead of 8 small ones. I skipped the jalapeno peppers in the slaw. And I skipped the sriracha in the sauce. This was also the first time I had air fried shrimp, and it was fast and tasty! In the rice, I skipped the Sazon seasoning and just used garlic and seasoned salt. It was really good!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments from the Week

 

Friends, Ryan and I are home from our annual birthday getaway, which is one of the longest birthday trips we’ve been able to take since we worked at WillowBridge. We so desperately needed rest and time away from our routine. I will be sharing the tales of our adventures in posts to come, but here is a first look at our fun.

                Last Sunday we spent the day exploring downtown Charleston, South Carolina. It was so, so hot and humid, and because it was a holiday weekend, the place was absolutely packed to the gills. We weren’t able to utterly savor every step because most of the time we were just trying not to be trampled, but we still had a lot of fun! We saw most of the places on our itinerary list, including the famous Pineapple Fountain!

                We spent the entire day Monday at the stunning Magnolia Plantation. We could not get over the amazing live oak trees with all the Spanish moss, the swamplands, and beautiful flowers. It was ridiculously hot and humid, but we had the best time. What a treat to be able to explore together!

                Tuesday provided one of the coolest adventures I think we’ve ever done. I will tell you much more about it later, but we were able to take a boat ride through a stunning swamp. (I realize that sounds weird. Keep reading.) It was the same area used for filming the rowboat scene in The Notebook. You can actually redo the Noah/Allie boat ride! (Sans the swans, which don’t actually live there because the waters are infested by alligators. I tried not to think about that part.)

                Ryan had been lamenting that our trip did not include a waiver signing adventure, so he managed to find one, last minute. And that is how we found ourselves on a boat ride through a creek (think the size of a river…) to a lighthouse off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was so much fun!!

                Thursday was our last day of true, non-travel-including vacation, and we spent part of the day touring a proper tea plantation on the outskirts of Charleston! It was a lot of fun to learn something new. (Yes, coffee people can be intrigued by tea, too.) We enjoyed some samples, too!

                We planned on a two-day trip home but decided to power through and drive allllllllllll the way back on Friday. It was such a long day, but we had some great talks along the way – and I read Ryan 75 pages of a book he needed to catch up on for work! Had to get my preaching voice back in shape, so hopefully that did it!

                Yesterday was a good day at home. We did mounds of laundry, headed out for a huge grocery haul, and caught up on all the reentry kinds of things. AND we were reunited with our sweet Lexi Grae. Goodness we missed her! I had been super sad that we cut our vacation short a whole day, but I confess when we had an entire day to get reacclimate, I was no longer super sad.

Saturday Suggestions: Inspirations for Your Weekend

 

                Good morning and happy Saturday to you! How in the world are we to the end of May already!? This month absolutely flew, and I’m sure the rest of summer will follow suit. No need to rush that, though. While I calmly look forward to summer at the lake, I also calmly offer you some little gems I’ve found along the way. Enjoy!

I had never heard of these before, but one of my (real life) friends posted about it on Instagram. She got one for her daughter, and I think it is both fun and genius. It’s a memory game – the traditional matching memory game – but it’s on top of a snack tray. So when you get a match, you get a snack. Is it too weird to do this for myself? Ha!

This video is a Homeworthy home tour, but I especially loved the stories the homeowner told as she toured her less-than-one-thousand-square-feet home. I love watching Homeworthy tours, but sometimes they just feel like ads for fancy furnishings and famous artists, and I can’t connect with those as well. But this homeowner had so many stories about the house, what she kept inside…I loved it! (And it’s only a half hour tour.)

I always love reading posts about beach cottages, because I love gaining ideas for our own home. This one could not look more different from ours on the outside, but inside it embodies what I hope our own home does: blue, white, and cozy. I can’t even pick a favorite part, because I truly loved it all!

I have such a growing passion to see people find (and satisfy) a hunger for the Word of God. I stumbled upon this YouTube podcast series by Jen Wilkin that discusses that very thing and have enjoyed listening to and learning from her thoughts. (I haven’t listened to all of them, yet, but I’m working on it.) This is huge for me as I work with the Sunday School and small group programs at our church, and I love getting to learn more! If you want to l earn more about Bible study – check out this series!

I have come to really value clothes that can easily dress up or down. Especially working in the job I have now, I feel the need to look somewhat put together (at least most of the time) but also want to be comfortable. Audrey’s ideas on tops that are both casual and dressy was helpful for me! (I think I’d wear almost all the tops she features in this post. I think the only one that wouldn’t work for me is the bright pink one. I love it, but that shade doesn’t work so well with my skin tone.)

Memorial Day may be over, but Independence Day is coming, and this one is a big number year for the USA! If you want some patriotic touches to your decorating, Heidi has some suggestions for how to accomplish that in a subtle, natural way. If you don’t want to completely transform the look of your house to full Americana, check out what she suggests!

Fun Friday: May Randoms

 

At the end of 2025, Callie wrote this post as a structured roundup to the year. I loved it so much that I earmarked it to revisit at the end of THIS year, but I actually decided to use it as a springboard for a monthly recap. I have written posts with this theme each month so far this year, and I’m back again for May!

Best Personal Adventure: My best personal adventure this month was actually work-related! I completed writing a Sunday School series for the college and career class at church. God put the idea on my heart last year about this time, and I’ve been working on the planning portion throughout the last year. I wrote the actual framework of the series this month and was thrilled as could be with how it all came together! The teachers for that class will present it this summer.

Best Adventure Together: This one was a tie. I loved working with Ryan to bring the exterior of our home to colorful life for the summer! We went to the greenhouses together to choose all our flowers, and then we worked together to plant them (and the garden) and get the boat ready to go back in the water. It was so much fun to spend those days together, and we both love how the house turned out!

I also loved working with Ryan to overhaul our home office (again). It took a long time and created QUITE a mess, but the end result was so pretty. We love it! (If you missed the big reveal post for this room, you can catch it here.)

Best Milestone: Our milestone this month was my birthday, and I loved everything about that day. Ryan made it so much fun for me. I’m thankful for another year of life and the chance to learn and grow in all the ways I have this year! (Recap here, if you missed it.)

Best Faith Grower: This was a hard one for me to answer this month, because I feel like I’m still in the growing. My birthday always feels like a secondary new year celebration (because it IS a new year for me!) and this year I was very purposeful in praying that the Lord would help me just remain open before Him for whatever He needs from me. I love my itineraries, so these open-ended yeses are kind of terrifying and exciting all at once. Just being in that place with the Lord is stretching and growing me, even though He hasn’t actually asked me to do anything new or different! (And He may not!)

Best Lesson Learned: When Ryan took me out for my birthday (to the uber fancy restaurant) the atmosphere there was so much slower than what we’re used to. It was so good for us to be forced to slow down, talk more, and enjoy the evening. In a season of life when I’m working to slow down more overall, this was a needed lesson.

Best Purchase: Ryan bought the spinning bookcase I had on my wish list, and I love it, love it, love it as much in person as I did online! I am so excited it’s part of our home now! (Note: This shelf comes in 1, 2, 3, or 4 shelf versions. I have 3, but if you want one in a different height, you have options!)

Best Habit Created: One of our chapters in the Nehemiah Bible study talked about living in the joy of the Lord. As we talked it over in our group, we discussed ways we can demonstrate the joy of the Lord. I talked about a friend of mine who posts to Facebook almost daily about the ways she’s choosing to praise the Lord for His presence in her life. I said I wish I had the guts to do something similar – to focus on joy. One of the ladies challenged me to actually do it, and I did. I’ve been posting each day since – about what’s bringing me joy that day. It’s been a great exercise for me and has pushed me to look for joy in each day.

Best New Recipe: It feels kind of like cheating, since this feels more like an assembly than a true recipe, but this Chicken Club Lettuce Wrap was the new thing I tried this month that Ryan seemed to like the best. Maybe after a long winter of warm soups and comfort foods, having a fresh-feeling dish was best?

Best Tradition: Before being married, I didn’t really plant flowers much, and I certainly didn’t have a garden. Our first year of marriage, we got a few flowers for the patio, and we’ve done a few more each year since. I feel like I’ve found my footing with it since moving to the lake. Lake houses seem to beg for good flowers. We also started an annual tradition of going to an Amish greenhouse for said plants, because that’s what you do here. So those two things were our best May tradition!

Best Little Luxury:  Having said that about our best tradition…the flowers are also the best luxury for my list this month. I remember years when we simply couldn’t spring for something as frivolous as flowers, and it isn’t lost to me that we are able to dress up the house a little bit with colorful blossoms.

Best Date: Oh hands down, my birthday dinner was our best date! I so appreciated Ryan spoiling me rotten with a super fancy dinner!

Best Answer to Prayer: It may seem like a silly thing, but I was so stressed over our plants that we bought! In our county, you have to shop early or they are gone. So we went on our monthiversary, but the plants had to live in the little seedling trays for over a week and a half. It was so cold, it wasn’t safe to plant them in the ground. By the time we did plant them, despite pulling them in and out of the garage daily, some looked really sad. I literally prayed over those plants – the flowers and the garden plants. And I believe God really did care about each little plant. They all pulled through! It was a great reminder to me that God cares about even tiny things like garden plants.