The Freezing but Beautiful Beach

Since there were no tulips to be seen in the fields of the tulip festival, Ryan and I bailed out and headed for the beach. By this point in the day, the weather was LOVELY...as in the sun was out and the skies were blue.

But. It. Was. Still. So. Cold.

Ryan wanted to fly the kite I gave him for Easter, so we made our way toward the beach and tried our hand at kite flying.

 I even got to try my hand at it!!

I handed back the reins pretty quickly. :)

And then we did a group shot. Ryan + Bekah + kite =

There was a lonnnnnnnnnnnng pier out there, and Ryan wanted to fly the kite over the lake, so we walked out to the end. {Tons of other people out...proof that everyone was tired of being cooped up, even if it was cold!}

While he flew his kite {which everyone walking by loved - and several took pictures} - I took pics of the lighthouse on the other pier.

Just  hanging out on the pier!!

Planned to go over to the lighthouse, UNTIL we found out that the two piers did not actually connect, and it was a half hour drive around the little bay/lake thingie to GET to the other pier. I was sad, but figured the pictures I had would suffice.

A couple more fun beach shots before we headed out...

There was one other beach I wanted to visit before we left, and it wasn't far away {though a wee bit farther since we...ahem...missed some turns}.

Tunnel Park.

After we FOUND the park {our GPS tried to move Lake Michigan to the other side of the road. Pesky technology...} we walked through this tunnel and....

It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but that sand is a lonnnnnnnnnnng hill down to the beach. I decided to walk in my bare feet even though it was cold:

It was just gorgeous....we climbed up onto the side of the hill and just watched the water for a while:

 We would have loved to stay for a long time, but we were getting hungry, and in our world {okay, MY world} that translates to grumpy, so we left and headed out for dinner!

Oh, dearest Michigan beaches: how I long to visit you in WARMTH.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was our girl's 8th birthday. Annnnnnd we weren't there when she woke up. Whoopsie! We said goodbye to Holland and traveled home...via a stop at Sonic for lunch...and when we did arrive home, a birthday girl was AWFULLY happy to see Ryan! We rested all evening, had a little party for our favorite 8 year old, and mourned the end of our vacation-let.

* Monday at lunchtime, I stood at the microwave, warming up my food...and discovered a HOLE IN THE REAR END OF MY JEANS! Wonder how long I'd paraded around work like that!?!?! So embarrassing. Hello, undies! I was glad to go home at the end of THAT day! Ryan and I moved our ferns back outside...after officially successfully keeping them alive all winter. And our lilacs FINALLY bloomed. I had given up.

* Tuesday night, we continued to encourage the permanent arrival of warm weather by putting up the pirogi {that's our word for gazebo, if you're new here} and setting up the hammock and patio furniture. We headed to Lowe's to buy flowers {we're hosting Mother's Day this year, so we have some sprucing up to do}...and in totally unrelated news, we did laundry. How do TWO PEOPLE possibly go through this many towels?

 * Wednesday was so fun! I actually got to wear a skirt and sandals to work. Because, you know, IT GOT WARM!! We ate outside for the first time and I took the quickest little spin in the hammock just for funsies. Ryan worked hard on our yard - getting it ready for Mother's Day. He cut down a cracked limb on our lilac tree, brought it to me and said, "I got you some flowers." HA!!! While he worked on that stuff, I met up with a friend at Starbucks. They messed up my drink and gave me the mess-up for free, so Ryan got a free drink!!

* Thursday night we had to play divide and conquer. Ryan went to our Greentown house and did yard work there {owning two homes = pure exhaustion} and I stayed home and planted all the flowers at our house. It was supposed to rain the rest of the week, so I wanted to get them in! We ate dinner outside, because it was literally THE perfect weather night. We went for a walk - which was so relaxing - and then I came home and looked at our first-quarter-of-2014 scrapbook, which arrived in the mail that day!

* Friday was a stormy, rainy day in the state of Indiana. It poured so hard during Mid-Morning that I could hear it through my headphones! But it was a good day because Lori at work brought these amazing little cupcakes that I loved so much! After work, we went to our niece's 4th birthday party {a princess party}...check out the CAKE!!! We had a great time with Ryan's family!

* You should sit down to hear about our yesterday...you'll be tired. Ryan actually got to be home for a day, and we worked our TAILS off getting ready for our company on Sunday. We cleaned the whole house top to bottom: windows, dusting, sweeping, bathrooms, kitchen...all of it. We switched our closets from winter to summer, we did laundry, shopped for all the food, Ryan mowed the yard again, I prepped most of the food for Sunday, dyed my hair, did all 20 nails, and we STILL managed to hit Frappy Hour at Starbucks AND eat three meals in our pirogi. WHEW!

The Saturday Six

One.

Source

Loved this post by Lysa TerKeurst about hanging onto photos even if they're not perfect. Obviously you know pictures are a HUGE passion of mine...and I agree with what she says. It's great to get a perfect picture...great subject, great composition, great lighting...but if you can't achieve perfection, don't think it's worthless!!

Two.

Source

I am as excited about this guy's OCD make-a-line-with-a-ruler method as I am about the method OF color-coded Bible study.

Three.

Source

Loved this blog post - a peek inside a photographer's camera bag. I think at this point, I better not let her look in mine. :)

Four.

Source

Not even going to lie. I want to try this salsa recipe. Right now.

Five.

Source

Sometimes we should know better than to peek behind the scenes of shows we love. I am not crazy enough to think it's totally real...but I so wanted to believe House Hunters was realer {new word!} than this. 

Six.

Source

And then...because we'd not tortured ourselves enough, we had to read the one about our OTHER favorite: Love It or List It. 

Tulip Time Festival

Originally, Ryan and I planned to run a 5K on Saturday morning, but we failed to register before the online registration closed...and by that time the weather report for the weekend was NOT really conducive to running, so we elected to save our money and not do the race. {Good choice since we had to pay so much for the hotel!}

So...we rested instead, which we actually needed...and then we bundled up and headed out to Windmill Island Garden, to check out the tulips! We were kind of sad that it was so cold and gloomy that day, but we were DETERMINED to make the very best of the day, no matter what.

Check out this windmill!!

We stood in line for a while to take the official tour. We got to climb up five floors of the windmill and learn about how they use it to mill flour. Even today! Still an active mill! All the tour guides dressed the part...

After the tour, we got to walk out on the deck. I am {as you might recall} crazy afraid of heights, so this was an exercise in bravery for me.

While we were up there, we looked over the field of tulips.

They...um...didn't get the memo about showing up. Whoopsie!!

After our windmill tour, we walked around both this area and downtown Holland in general...trying to find tulips. We found a few...mostly in little flower beds downtown. Well...first, Ryan tried on some wooden shoes. He found them to be a bit uncomfortable.

THEN the tulips.

Ryan voted to eat a traditional Dutch lunch there at the windmill. This included pea soup. I have never had pea soup...and I'm very picky about peas. I hate canned peas. And I so feared that's what the soup would have. And it did. All in all, it was better than I thought it would be, but still...my thoughts:

We walked through downtown - and I LOVED that district! It was darling! Plus...we found this little chocolate shop. Oh. My. World.

 Why yes. We DID eat a chocolate covered Twinkie. Don't worry. We shared it.

 This was right outside the chocolate shop. Perfect for this day!

And since there weren't many tulips to see, we elected NOT to go visit the other locations...and instead, we headed to the beach!

Headed to Holland

I already told you about our hotel debacle...but would you like to peek into some of our other moments on Friday?

On the way to Holland we detoured to St. Joseph, Michigan, based on the recommendations of Ryan's co-workers...to eat at Silver Beach Pizza. It's in a train depot, mere FEET from the tracks. During much warmer weather than our visit, the walls to the patio open {they're garage doors} and you can see the beach in the distance.

Food was so good.

And Ryan had fun in the booth outside....

Since we were right there, we decided to head over to the beach for a little bit.

It. Was. So. Cold.

I mean freezing.

There were two lighthouses on the pier...I loved seeing them!

It just so happened that this was also our 17 month anniversary, so we celebrated a bit at the beach:

After we left the beach, we headed on up to Holland, and you already read about our fun time at the hotel. :)

Since it was our birthday getaway, one of my friends sent this box with us and gave us strict instructions to NOT open it until we arrived.

 We loved it. It was a chocolate espresso cake with fabulous icing. LOVED.

So we ended Friday with our official 17 month anniversary coffee photo...and some birthday cake.

We ended the day with a visit to the gorgeous pool area. We didn't bring suits because the original hotel didn't have an indoor pool...so we just looked over the pool and did our devotions.

Wednesdays in the Word: M Verse

I love a verse that is both comforting and challenging at the same time. Truth be told, I like the comforting part a little bit more easily than the challenging part...but just the same, I love the verse.

Such is this verse:

Let's talk about the challenge first, shall we?

I'm not a theologian, so we won't sit here and argue through the doctrinal points of sanctification and what it means, because that could take all day long. But I can tell you that it means to be set apart and kept holy...to the core. To be sanctified completelyand be kept blameless: spirit, soul and body...is pretty all-encompassing.

What does it look like? It's all spelled out in the verses leading up to this one: respecting others...living in peace...admonishing the idle...encouraging the fainthearted...helping the weak...being patient...seeking to do good rather than evil...rejoicing always...praying always...giving thanks always...testing everything....holding onto good...avoiding bad.

And what that looks like in my head is: a lot of hard work.

That's the challenge.

Here's the comfort:

God takes the lead.

I love how that verse begins: May the God of peace Himself. He's the top of the line. He is THE one who can make all that hard work possible. Sure, we have to do our part. We have to commit to carry out the character traits and disciplines. But we do it not in our own strength...but in HIS strength.

And want a sneak peek? The next verse says, "He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it."

Living a holy life is hard work. It goes against the grain of the world we live in and {at least for me} against the grain of what I feel like doing most of the time. But how I rest in the fact that GOD in me makes it possible. He comes with peace and faithfully strengthens me to do what He asks.

I have much work to do in this department. But on the days when it feels overwhelming, I'm comforted in the challenge, by knowing God Himself leads my way.