92 County Tour: Grant

Ryan and I had such a busy March that we didn't really have time to go far away for one our Indiana county tours. So...we decided to tour from home! Good old Grant County! I admit to being a bit nervous...wasn't sure I would find anything new and different to do among the roads I drive every day. Boy was I ever WRONG! Our tour date took the WHOLE DAY!

Grant County is the biggest county we've toured so far - perhaps part of the reason it took so long! Random {probably useless} fact...Grant County borders 9 other counties. We have lots of neighbors! Grant County is named for Captains Samuel and Moses Grant...of Kentucky. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but hey...whatever!

Saturday was a gorgeous day and actually kind of warm! We were blessed!

The problem with living in the county is...finding a new coffee shop! We'd been to most of them. So we tried out the Midwest Coffee Company - which is housed in a character-laden old house. They're not open in the evenings or past noon on Saturday, so that's why we'd never been there. But it was a darling little atmosphere for a Saturday morning!

We ordered a breakfast casserole {they make them in muffin cups - EEEK! So cute!} and fresh brew and settled in at a little bistro table to enjoy our breakfast.

The house was so cute...they'd cleared out all the rooms and filled them with tables and chairs...so there were little nooks everywhere to hide and eat! I did think it was really cool that they have one room with a huge table for conferences and meetings!


AND! A chalkboard wall. Of course we had to leave our mark....

After we finished our breakfast, we headed out for our date. I think it ended up being a VERY cool date. So it turns out Grant County has a trail of Garfield statues. Seriously! Garfield's creator, Jim Davis, is from Fairmount, which is a little tiny town in Grant County. So to honor him, they made this trail of Garfield statues throughout the county. It really is a brilliant visitor-bureau move...because it gets people all through your county and gives them something fun to do in the process! Other counties: TAKE NOTE!


We started out looking for the "Fit for Life" Garfield, which was supposed to be at the beginning of the Riverwalk, in front of the YMCA. When we arrived at the location, we saw this:

He's so fit, he's invisible!! {I have done more digging since and wonder if maybe he's just not on the trail at all anymore.} I did read online that a few years back, someone hugged this statue too tightly and his head broke off, and they had to repair it. Whoopsie! So location #1 was a bust...and we moved on to the next one!

The next one was also in Marion - right in front of Marion General Hospital. It's the Marion Medical Professional Garfield. {All but one of the statues are made of hollow fiberglass, by the way.}

 

After that, we headed out to Arbor Trace Golf Course, which is just outside of Marion. The man who runs it used to go to church with me when I was little, and his daughter and I were friends. Haven't seen him in probably 25 years, so I reintroduced myself and caught up with him. At the golf course, we met "Duffer Garfield" - who was actually carved out of wood!

We even got to look through the photo album that showed the making of this Garfield - from the time he was just a tree trunk until now. It was really cool.




While we were there, we found out there was a NEW Garfield in town that wasn't on our map. He's called "Paws for Thought" and is apparently the new trailhead of the Garfield Trail. We went in search of him and found him inside a fenced park area that was locked. :( We couldn't get in to have our picture taken WITH him, so I took one from a distance.

We left Marion to visit the Garfields in the surrounding towns! We started out in the tiny town of Swayzee {the only Swayzee in the world!} where we had our picture taken with the Speedking Garfield. He represents the former Swayzee High School and his jersey number {9} represents the number of overtime periods played in the school's record setting game back in the 60's.

After that, we went to the little town of Sweetser, where we found "College Bound" Garfield on the Sweetser Switch Trail. I did notice this is the only Garfield without clothing. Kind of curious about what sort of college he's going to! HA! I read online that this one has been vandalized before too - so that might be why it's all locked up on the train!

{We love the Sweetser Switch Trail. It's an old railroad track that's been turned into a walking/running/biking trail. That's where we did a photo shoot while we were dating that ended up yielding the picture that we used for our cake topper at our wedding!}



After we left Sweetser, we drove quite a ways across the county to another tiny town: Van Buren. There's a big popcorn factory there, so this Garfield is eating popcorn and wearing the athletic uniform of the old Van Buren high school.

{For being a small town, the main road where this was located was kind of well-traveled, so I was a bit anxious to take our picture and GET OUT!!}

Next stop: tiny town of Matthews! Matthews has a covered bridge and an accompanying festival each year, so its statue is a fisherman, in honor of the river! This visit was the most uncomfortable. The statue was up by the town hall, and there were all kinds of signs around about the parking lot being for authorized vehicles only, and the statue being surrounded by cameras, so I pretty much figured we were going to get chased out taking our picture! So this was taken in the biggest hurry:

{We visited the covered bridge, too, but I'll come back to that.}

We stopped to visit the Garfield in Upland, which is ever so appropriately located in the yard of Ivanhoe's. And it is just WRONG to visit Ivanhoe's without visiting Ivanhoe's...so we went in for dinner and ice cream. mocha almond sundae = Heaven in a dish!!

Three more to go!

After our dinner treat, we drove through Gas City, where we saw the glass-blowing Garfield. Unfortunately this statue is on Main Street - which is a major highway. I was WAY too chicken to get out of the car for our photo shoot, so I took this picture from the passenger seat:

We traveled on to Gas City's "twin city" of Jonesboro...where we saw the fire-fighting Garfield. Jonesboro had the first organized fire department in the county...hence this statue.

We ended our visit to the trail of Garfields by visiting the very first one ever...the one in Fairmount, which is the "cool cat" - in honor of James Dean, who was also from Fairmount! {Grant County's other claim to fame.}

Good job, Grant County!! That was a fun way to see the whole county!

We did also stop by the Cumberland covered bridge in Matthews...this visit to a bridge was much easier than the one we had last month, where we had to hike through snow to get to the bridge.

This bridge is 181 feet long and you can actually drive through this one! The last one we visited was for foot traffic only.

I thought it was SO COOL that this bridge has its own guest register! Ryan found it in a little weather-proof box and saw that the last people to sign it {earlier the same day} actually GOT ENGAGED at the bridge. That very day!

We signed it too - and then we drove through...and away!

And one other thing we did during the day - which has nothing to do with tourism, but everything to do with us - was to visit my grandparents' grave. I had never shown Ryan where they were buried. Both of them died while I was in high school...and I know they would have adored Ryan if they could have met him. Miss those two so much. They were a big part of making me who I am today, and I miss them!

So that was our tour of our own county. What a fun day we had...and what a great thing to be able to spend time together after so much busyness!

If You Could Meet Her

Saturday I linked to Shauna Niequist's post about the church where she grew up...and how to her it wasn't the mega-church everyone else knew it to be. It was her sister...her friend...a trusted place that was as real to her as a sister.

Her post sent me through a meadow of my own memories at my own church...not a mega-church by any standard, but a massive stone building that formed who I am and how I worship.

I left when I was 19 entering my sophomore year of college. I left without telling a soul I was going because I knew they'd beg me to stay and they would win. I didn't want to go. Not at all. But the church was declining and I knew God beckoned me to go where I would find people my own age and opportunities to serve. So I swallowed tears on my final walk out the door and sobbed when the car door shut behind me.

How I wish I could take you there...inside the walls of a church that somehow stays open each week...and how I wish other kids still scampered through its halls.

* I would show you the prayer room where I paced and prayed fervently the night before I shared the main devotions in the midweek service for the first time. I was a high school speech class failure.

* I'd let you peek inside the nursery where I escaped week after week during my "I don't really like church all that much" phase. I changed hundreds of diapers and played peek-a-boo and wiped away I-miss-Mommy tears before Mommy realized they were being cried. I spilled my latest love life dramas to the patient women who shared the space with me each week.

* Oh. And I'd show you the exact spot in the nursery where I sat as a 9-year-old with 4 kids under my watchful eye...when one of them had a seizure. I can still see his fever-soaked little body falling to the ground, unable to stand up...and I hear my voice shouting in panic for his older sister to open the door so I could rush him to his mom, who was helping prepare food for a fellowship.

* The tiny Sunday School classroom where I set up a tent to make a fun teaching space for the kids' midweek service when I took over teaching them because no one else would.

* The huge assembly room where I began every Sunday morning as a kid - and learned songs that taught me every book of the Bible. I learned memory verses and dropped pennies in the church-shaped bank on every single birthday.

* The Sunday School room where I sat in front of a red Bible and learned how to look up verses for myself, instead of having an adult turn to the right page for me.

* The youth room where a group of girls huddled around a Bible and read the blush-inducing Song of Solomon...out loud.

* The office where I worked as a secretary for one summer - before I got fully immersed into the real world. Where I made my first business phone call and shook in fear knowing the pastor listened in from his own adjoining office.

* The library where I'm sure you could still find awkward cursive scrolls on cards...that spell out my name...or at least as much of it as I could squeeze on a tiny line.

* The kitchen where I stirred up dozens of pitchers of Kool-Aid for the kids on the nights I taught them. The kitchen with its fascinating square mattress that fit inside the pass-thru when the fellowship hall was divided off for classroom space and women chattered inside the kitchen, preparing church lunches.

* The men's restroom I sneaked into one time when Mom and I were at the church on a week day and I knew no one would catch me. I just wanted to know what the men's room looked like.

* The third pew from the front, organ side, where I sat with my parents every single week from the moment I can remember on up. Where the pattern on the red fabric on the pew left indentations on my chubby little legs, bare beneath my ruffly dresses. Where the red hymn books were stored...the songs I hated singing until I was an adult and could fully appreciate them.

* The coveted back pew where I eventually got to sit as a teenager, as long as I sat with a responsible adult. {She and I talked far more than any teen and I ever would have, thankyouverymuch.}

* The choir loft with its set of swinging doors that always seemed magical from the pew...the loft where yes, I did sit for a few years when I fancied I could sing.

* The little cove behind the choir loft that always seemed like a secret passage way to me as a kid.

* The grand piano where I played panic-inducing solos during all those years of lessons.

* The storage room that held the handbells. I played the tiniest ones - little high notes that squeaked out every fifth measure or so.

I loved that church so very much. I fell in love with my junior high crush there...and believed with all my heart I would walk down the red carpeted aisle to get married one day. That was one of the hardest parts of leaving - knowing I was walking away from my lifelong wedding dream.

So thankful for that place and how it formed me and held my childhood so carefully within its stone walls. I wish it could thrive again - and maybe God has plans for just that. In the meantime, I'm grateful for who she was for me.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* We got out of bed last Sunday morning, despite the time change, and still made it to church early enough to enjoy a little coffee date in the cafe before church. Sunday afternoon, I went to a bridal shower for my friend Katy - and a beautiful bonus was getting to see Christina!! We were college roommates, and I don't think I've seen her in about five years! After the shower, Ryan and I took a ridiculously long nap...and all too soon {literally} our weekend was over. :(

* Monday we went back to driving to work in the dark...sadness! But when the sun finally DID come up - MAN was it ever a gorgeous day!! And so warm. Ryan and I actually went on a lonnnnnng walk that night - our first one of the spring. Loved it so much. We have some of our best talks on our walks. And when we came home...we worked on our house. OUR house!! Putting it back in order. Happiness abounds. We needed a night like that after the chaos of the past few weeks.

* Tuesday wasn't quite as sunny, but it was warm and wonderful in every way...hard to believe that I had to pack up a stack of work to bring home because of the threat of another snow storm!! And in the pre-storm evening, I worked up a storm at home...cleaning, cooking, doing my nails {experimented with polishing the entire nail with the French tip color}. Ryan came home from working at the other house...and took a well-deserved evening of rest. And Braeya? Well. She played neighborhood watch.

* Wednesday morning was pretty clear when we got up, but we made the decision for me to work from home because of weather threats. Turned out to be the absolute right call! When the bad weather arrived, it came in a HURRY. Ryan crept to work and I worked from home - even co-hosted Mid-Morning by phone!Working from home is AMAZING, because no commute means housework actually gets done!! Laundry...dishes...cooking...decorating...those two hours were put to really good use. 

* Thursday I was back in the studio...surrounded by the most GORGEOUS snow-covered trees....and I did my first ever true solo hosting of Mid-Morning. Lynne was gone, so Jim Barron of the morning show co-hosted with me. I was SO NERVOUS but it all worked out okay - even though we had major phone issues for the first 45 minutes of the show! Thursday night, Ryan and I met with the realtor to get his house on the market!! She's sweet - and hopefully she'll find the perfect buyer for us.

* Friday the weather warmed up again {hello WEIRD INDIANA WEEK} and the snow started to melt - just in time for the weekend! SWEET! We were so POOPED from our week that we just stayed home Friday night, took a nice long nap, and then had popcorn while we watched Up. Y'all, we are Carl and Ellie. We are.

* Yesterday was the first day since our vacation that we got to just go out and have fun and do whatever we wanted! OH how we'd missed that! We decided to do one of our county tours - and we did our very own county! I'll tell you more about it this week, but let's just say it included coffee, ice cream, and Garfield. A gorgeous, semi-warm, totally wonderful day together.

The Saturday Six

One.

I told you a while back that Ryan bought me a light for Christmas...so I can do my own gel nails at home. A couple of weeks ago, we went to the beauty supply store to buy a new color of gel polish and the store didn't carry CND, which was the only brand I'd ever used. I ended up getting a bottle of Gelish polish instead - a deep, beautiful red - and it has held up BEAUTIFULLY!! I'm sold on the brand!

Two.

Source

On our Spots and Spotlights show this week, Lynne interviewed Mark Hirsch, who published a book called That Tree. Every day for one year, he took a picture of the same tree...with his iPhone. Amazing to see all the angles and perspectives he found. Really cool project. Kind of makes me want to try. :) With another object, of course.

Three.

Source

LOVE this post by Shauna Niequist. Makes me want to take Ryan to my old church...the one where I grew up...and introduce him to her...and tell him every memory in every corner. {And fair warning; I might take you there too...blog post already swirling in my head.}

Four.

 Source

You might have seen this one circulating Facebook - the top 10 most affordable cities {in the whole country!!} to live. Number one? Kokomo. That's where Ryan works!   I read through it {you know - in case I ever need to affordably move} and have to say that Mansfield and Lima are pretty great too - I've been to both those cities!

Five.

Source

OH. THE. CUTENESS. Natasha's blog this week talked about the "CANstruction" project for the food bank. Look at all the different structures made from cans and boxes of food!

Six.

Source

 
Had the privilege of interviewing Mandy from Biblical Homemaking this week. I kind of imagine in my mind that because we talked on the air for 10 minutes that we're somehow great friends in the making. But anyway - we talked about thrifting. NO ONE I know is as amazing at it as Mandy...check out her tips for thrifting well! 

Adventures in Hosting

You all are so sweet to put up with all my stories. {As if you have a choice.} {I guess you could choose not to read.} So here's one I'm writing partly to share a story with you and partly to chronicle a HUGE day in my life!

I remember the day I was a guest on Mid-Morning...way back in 2010. I was s.o.  n.e.r.v.o.u.s.

The same was true of the day I engineered on my own for the first time. I remember pacing around in the studio, wishing one of the guys would come in to shoot the breeze...and simultaneously distract me from my anxiety

Those levels of FREAKING OUT can compare to my yesterday...when I did my very first solo hosting. Lynne was not in the building. I repeat. Lynne was not in the building.

For the last two weeks, I've gradually taken over hosting our Thursday BLT show...first by taking the lead on the conversation from my familiar seat and then last week by actually sitting in the host's chair for the day. Both times, Lynne was right there, and had anything gone wrong, she would have 
bailed me out.

Not yesterday. Yesterday the burden of responsibility was all mine.

Jim Barron {of our morning team} served as my co-host and engineer. Jim's been in radio forever and little things like filling in with the newbie don't even cause him to blink. Me? Well, I was the one printing out color copies of the show's layout and explaining to him that everything in green was his responsibility. I was the one setting up the board and double/triple checking it to make sure everything was in place. I was the one praying this would NOT be the day I had some sort of vocabulary malfunction, causing me to say words that should never be uttered on the airwaves.

In short, before the show, here's how the two of us looked:

The show got underway and we picked and plodded our way through the format so familiar to me and so very NOT like the morning show Jim is used to doing. He was so much fun though and put up with fiction and Pinterest chatter...and then we got down to our topic for the day.

I declared the phone lines open about 25 minutes into the show and glanced down to watch them ring.

Nothing.

I casually reminded listeners about 10:30 that they could call anytime now. Annnnnnnnnnnytime at all.

Nothing.

By 10:40 I was convinced I was either the absolute worst show host in the history of show hosts or something had gone wrong with the phones.

My producer/engineer brain sped into high gear and even while I talked with Jim, my wheels turned, trying to figure out what was wrong with those phones and how I could get them fixed without leaving my chair.

No solution came to mind.

About 15 minutes before the end of our show, the midday host showed up in the studio next door to prep for his show. And that's when he found it. The one teeny tiny little button that had been accidentally activated and kept the phones from ringing. Whoopsie! He set the button free and the lines flooded.

WHEW.

I wasn't the worst show host in the history of show hosts. And with the exception of addressing one caller by the wrong name as I said goodbye, I didn't mess up any of the phone calls!

At 11:00, we closed the show and I breathed a MASSIVE sigh of relief in my chair. I hosted!! And I even hosted through the phone drama!!!

When I was struggling to pass high school speech class, I had no idea this was my future. God is pretty mysteriously wonderful.

{More Than} 50 First Dates

Know what I love about that movie? 50 First Dates? I loved how love stayed fresh...because it really was brand new every single day. And I'm just dumb enough to believe that love really can be that way in real life - minus the memory loss, of course.

So this past weekend, I went to a bridal shower for my friend Katy. I babysat Katy once. But we won't go into that because it makes me feel ever so old. I wanted my gift to inspire her and her fiance to keep dating. Always, always, always keep dating. Ryan and I find that so important. So I gave her, among other things, this little jar full of date ideas - many of them FREE to do.

So I thought I'd share this list with you today. The ones in italics can be done for free if you choose. Some of these are tried and true in Shafferland. Others are on our someday list. Happy dating!!! {Tuck them away for later if you're still praying for your Mr. or Mrs. Missing!}

* Build a blanket fort and watch a movie in it.
* Camp in the living room for a slumber party.

* Go ice skating.
* Have a Disney movie marathon.
* Go sledding.
* Paint the snow with spray bottles filled with water dyed with food coloring.
* Play snow football: paint the snow to look like the field.
* Make chocolate covered strawberries. {And eat them.} {Obviously.}
* Drive through town and build a buffet made of dollar menu items.
* Have an indoor beach party in the middle of winter.
* Watch movies on mute and make up your own dialogue.
* Play "Would You Rather?"

 * Fly a kite.
* Walk through the park.

* Be a tourist in your own hometown - check out the stuff you've never seen.
* Take pictures in a photo booth.
* Have a "power outage" date at home - no electricity allowed!*
* Make a wish list while window shopping.
* Have a funny movie night.
* Write letters to yourselves in 20 years...hide them to read in due time.
* Go on a photo scavenger hunt.

* Watch clouds change shape - just like Carl and Ellie in "Up".
* Cook family recipes for each other.
* Have a chocolate tasting night.
* Go to the driving range.
* Go to the zoo.

* Go hiking at a state park.

* Have a fire pit date.

* Plant a perennial for future years' enjoyment.
* Make homemade donuts.
* Have a water gun fight.
* Go stargazing together.

 * Go to a drive-in movie.

* Have breakfast in bed.

 * Have a picnic for two in a boat at the lake. 
* Watch fireworks.

 * Go up in a hot air balloon.
 * Play Twister.
* Make a goofy video.
* Watch a sunrise...and then take a nap in the warm sun.
* Go to a Farmer's Market
* Watch funny YouTube videos after a bad day.
* Go on a garage sale scavenger hunt.
* Watch a hit movie from the year of your birth.
* Watch a whole season of a TV show at one time.
* Create your own pizza and name it after yourselves.
* Go to an apple orchard.

* Go to a pumpkin patch.

* Go through a corn maze.

* Have hot chocolate at sunset.
* Have a fondue night at home.
* Rake leaves and jump in.
* Play board games.
* Have a movie marathon all weekend long.
* Put together a puzzle.
* Build a snowman.

 * Have an indoor picnic.
* Build a gingerbread house.
* Have s'mores inside over candles.
* Drive around looking at Christmas lights.

  * Go tubing.
* Go to a Christmas tree farm.

Keep dating!!! Make as many first dates as you can!

Wednesdays in the Word: E Verse

So thankful for this verse...and how it fits into the rhythm of learning right here.

I'm never short on words when it comes to the Lord...I barge right into the Throne Room and boldly ask...and at times have been known to chatter His Heavenly ear right off - just because I love to pray. But I confess to coming up short on praise most of the time.

Gulp.

I became really aware of it the year I took Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts challenge; I carefully counted the blessings as I searched for them each day and found my heart gravitating toward praise.

And then I stopped counting...purposefully so, anyway...and my voice of praise quieted down. And I've noticed that just as searching for blessings led to praise...praying excessively about my problems leads me to sort of wallow in those things.

So I'm writing to you as a convicted girl today...one who wants to march into His courts with praise on her lips instead of a list of needs/wants/demands. One who wants to be thankful for all the goodness...because truly, even in the frustrations, there is so much good to be found.

* For the eighteen deer I counted on my way home from work yesterday...gorgeous, majestic deer that took my breath away {and kindly left my car in one piece}.

* For the very first walk of the spring...a long, leisurely, coffee-sipping, hand-in-hand walk with Ryan, in which we talked of dreams and hopes and joy.

* For antibiotics that cleared up my infection in a day, leaving me pain-free and able to function normally again.

* For a clinic staff that took care of this scared-to-death-of-doctors girl who sat on the edge of an examination table, swinging her legs and trying to push away worry.

* For a mother-in-law who sacrificed an entire Saturday to help us clean Ryan's house so we can get it on the market.

* For new friends in our Sunday School class at church who have made a place for us, not only around the learning table, but in their hearts.

* For a home that bears the mark of two people coming together in creativity to make it just that...a home.

For all this and SO much more, I choose to enter His gates to thank and praise Him. Join me in being thankful today? )

Housekeeping...Oh So Literally

So I think I've confused a few people...and I do so hate confusion...so I'm going to try to clear all that up today!

It's about the house. Is it a rental? Is it for sale? Is it the one we're living in? Are we moving? What IS going on with those crazy Shaffers and their housing?

When Ryan and I got married, we each owned a house. In fact, we'd each lived in our houses for almost exactly the same amount of time and had invested a lot of time, blood, sweat, tears, and personality in them.

My house is more centrally located to our two jobs, so we decided to make mine our official residence. So after we got married, Ryan moved all his stuff over my way, and we merged our two households.

We put his house on the market (ourselves...not through a realtor) and prayed for a speedy sale so we didn't have to continue to be a two-household...household. A family came along right away and fell in love with the place. They loved everything about it and wanted it to be their home. They weren't in a position to purchase right away but wanted to buy it.

Because they loved the house so much and wanted to move toward buying, we allowed them to move in and rent for a few months while they saved up to buy. And then we went home and prayed hard for God to work out all the financial details for the sale to move quickly so we could move on with our lives.

In a very abbreviated version of the story...a year later...the sale didn't work out. They were disappointed...we were disappointed...and here we sit, one year later, with the house still on our hands. We've been working very hard {as you might have noticed in the Sunday posts} to clean up the house, repair the things that were broken, and be ready to put it on the market right away and again...to begin praying that it will sell quickly.

It's been quite a faith-journey for us. As is always the case when you pray fervently for something and it doesn't take place, we've done our fair share of question-asking, crying {okay that part was more me than Ryan}, struggling through anger, and more.

To be truthful with you, I have no idea what God is trying to teach us on this journey...I just sure hope I don't miss the lesson in the end. I reminded Ryan that when I began working at the station, I put my house on the market and it sat there for a year and a half...and I prayed...begged...for God to sell it. I asked you to pray - and many of you prayed along with me for the sale of that house. And in the end, if it had sold in my timing, I doubt Ryan and I ever would have started dating. So I believe God's no led to His yes in our relationship.

So perhaps this delay in sale, while wildly frustrating for us, is part of something else...something bigger...something purposeful...that God is doing that we can't even see.

But if you're a praying soul, we'd welcome your prayers as we meet with the realtor this week and place the house on the market...that God would hold us steady beside Him as we wait for it to sell...that we wouldn't miss lessons He has to teach...that the right buyer, who will love and cherish that house as Ryan did for so many years, will come along and make it his or her home...and that {this is our selfish side talking} it would sell quickly so we could move on as a ONE HOME family.

Meanwhile: a few pictures from our journey of keeping this house....

From  dating to fixing to cleaning...we've had a journey with this little house. Anxious to see where God leads us in this part of our life!

Covenants

I mentioned yesterday that I had a cool God-lesson this past week, and I wanted to tell you about it.

Before I tell you...I should explain to you one of my {many} quirks.

I'm one of those people who sort of lives a "concrete" life. Nothing's tentative. Everything's absolute. At least in my head. Oh how rarely that plays out in reality. Here's an example. If Ryan says to me, "I was thinking about pizza for dinner," what I hear is "I've ordered a two topping pizza and we're picking it up in 20 minutes." I've asked him, especially where food is concerned, to not even voice something unless he's sure...because once I hear it...it's happening.

So when Lynne and I were planning the layout for our new office, we pulled out a measuring tape and our ever-so-creative visionary minds and went to work. And I knew...I knew...in my head and heart exactly how that office was going to look. I could see myself sitting behind my U-shaped desk, looking out the door...occasionally glancing over to see out the huge, gorgeous window...and tossing side-remarks to Lynne, who would be just over to my right. I envisioned the wall of bookshelves at our backs...all the titles lovingly alphabetized.

And then the room finally became finished enough that we were able to start moving in...and the changes began.

Lynne's desk couldn't fit the originally planned direction because of the placement of the hutch on the side...which would stick into the window space too far. So we rotated the direction of the desks, making my computer face a wall instead of the doorway. I shook off the change, knowing the desk had three sides, and I could just swivel another way and gaze out the window.

Well...until we realized the change in desk placement meant the bookshelves couldn't line the wall like we'd planned, so we turned them into a room divider - three on Lynne's side and three on mine. And that divider fully blocked my view of the window.

I cried. It's a silly thing to cry about. We had a lovely, new office in a quiet part of the building and I was so grateful for it...but I mourned the loss of everything I'd planned about my new quarters. After a couple of days, I lifted my chin and sat at my laptop, searching through my albums of pictures for the perfect picture to have printed on canvas...something I could hang right above my computer to make me feel like I was outside.

And I settled on one Ryan took it during our cruise last summer - one that was so striking to me.

It arrived in its massive grandeur, and I placed it beside my desk, waiting for one of the guys to come in and hang it up for me.

I'd also purchased a heavy memo board to be placed on a side wall - something I need for hanging my papers and such. And as I waited for them to be hung, I learned that the side wall...is a cement wall. Can't hang anything on it. And the memo board is so heavy, I don't trust Command strips to hold it.

So that meant...once again changing the office plan. The pretty picture would have to sit up on top of my hutch - where I can't even see it from my desk - and I'd have to hang the memo board above my desk.

I glanced over my framed wedding picture next to my Keurig and said softly, "Well, I guess that's going to be my pretty scenery."

I realize in the grand scheme of life, this is so petty, but it was so hard to go from what I thought my every day view was going to be...to what it became in reality. I lugged a chair over to my desk and climbed up to lean the canvas against the wall and asked God to help me transition better in my heart than I felt at that moment.

Friday morning during Mid-Morning, my heart struggled. Not with the office, but just with life. The whole office setup seemed to be a picture of my life at large. One change after another that we've not expected...new hurdles, new disappointments, and the constant wondering of what's coming next.

I prayed as the show aired...and halfway through, I glanced over, through the window of the studio, into our office, and I saw it:

That picture, in its new spot, is now visible from my engineering chair. And I drank in the scene...the dark, stormy sky...the rainbow....the bright clouds...and God whispered to my heart, "It's your life. Your sky is dark, but My promise remains, and the brightness is right behind it."

My eyes filled with tears right there in that chair. Had the picture been where I wanted it...I never would have seen it from my seat in the studio. But in the moment I needed it most...it was visible. The plan B location is not a lesser one. It's the right one.

Clinging to the reminder of the picture as we face the obstacles of life as a whole right now. He is faithful.