What I Learned in October

WHAT!!?!?!?! October is over??? But I haven't started scrapbooking it yet! Guess I better hurry! October is done, which means a happy birthday {yesterday} to my sister, a Happy Halloween to all of you today {don't eat too much candy}, and it's time for another round of wisdom/useless information gathered throughout the past 31 days!

1. We don't like vanilla flavored Greek yogurt.

Anymore, I use Greek yogurt in many ways: to make salad dressing, as a mayo and sour cream replacement, as the main course for breakfast, etc. Because I sometimes need it sweet and sometimes need it savory, I always buy plain yogurt and just sweeten it with honey as needed. Early this month, our grocery store was out of plain yogurt, but they had vanilla, which promised no artificial flavoring, so we bought that instead. Hated it. I ended up using it in the protein shakes I make, because the other flavors in the shake compensated for the aftertaste, but we decided this is not the yogurt for us. Back to honey.

2. Fall in our new home is lovely.

I lived in the same house for 16 years, so I am thoroughly enjoying the change of scenery at the change of this season! This is our first fall in our new home, and I'm quickly learning where all the prettiest trees are in the neighborhood, and I'm soaking in every bit of this transition to beautiful leaves! 

3. Finding your stride in a new church home is an undertaking.

At first I started to say it was "hard," but I'm not sure that's the right word. Ryan and I started looking for a new church home at the start of this month, and we actually really liked the first church we tried. So for that reason, I don't think we can say it's been a hard season, but it's truly an interesting position being the new people in the family. We have to find new friends and ways to serve and how to be comfortable among a group that has already found a comfort zone. So it's an undertaking. One that has been way more positive than negative, but still an adjustment, for sure!

4. I love having Ryan by my side when I speak at retreats.

This month, I got to take him with me to the retreat I spoke at, and it made all the difference in my soul. To have him right there to pray over me and support me was beyond what I could have even imagined. We knew we were better as a team, but I don't think we knew until that moment that we were SO invested as each others' best teammates! 

5. I love planning days, even if I am mocked for them.

I set aside a day this month, packed a bag, and went to a coffee shop to do some planning for the next calendar year. Ryan's co-workers did NOT understand the importance {and sheer joy} of being in the presence of coffee, multi-colored pens, and papers to do my planning, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. To be fair, all the brainstorming 100% wore me out, and I had to go to bed early that night, but it was still FUN!!!! I'm excited to see what God does with 2017.

6. I have not outgrown craft dates with friends.

Before I was married, I frequently got together with friends to do some version of crafting. {Usually scrapbooking.} A variety of factors ended that habit for the most part, but early this month, one of my friends wanted to celebrate her birthday by hosting a bring-your-own-craft-and-a-snack-to-share night. We got together at her grandma's house, in an old workshop area, and had the best time crafting. I felt bad leaving Ryan at home while I hung out with my glue gun and a plate of snickerdoodles, but it was SO MUCH FUN. Hmmmm...we do have that nicely finished garage. Perhaps I should host craft dates of my own!!!  

 7. I enjoy helping people tell their stories.

This month brought a new adventure for me: freelance writing! I was hired by an organization to help edit a book that tells the stories of their years of service. Along the way, in addition to editing, they asked if I could just straight up write some of the stories for them. So I spent several hours at my desk, listening to recorded interviews and crafting stories from what I heard. I'd never done this before, but I learned I really loved it. I have no idea if this kind of work is a one-time thing for me, or if it's a door opening for work God has ahead, but I thoroughly enjoyed helping tell a story! 

That's what I learned this month! I don't think Emily Freeman does her linkup of these anymore {at least she hasn't for the past few months} which is EXCEEDINGLY sad, because it was so much fun to read what people had learned, but it's still a fun post for me each month. Good to know I haven't given up learning!  

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was such a lazy Sunday. After church, we enjoyed a leisurely day of naps, football, and snacks. It was so good that I don't even have any more to report on it! :)

* Monday was as busy as Sunday was lazy. {Of course. Isn't that how it always works!} Many house chores, much writing work, two yards to mow {for Ryan} and a quick trip out for a little pampering for yours truly! On the way home, I was treated to a gorgeous sunset, and that made suffering through a workout a little easier. :)

* Tuesday was kinda cold and rainy, so it seemed like a good day to make a pot of soup! I worked at home all day, and we had our Bible study that night. Our group was full of great discussion, and I enjoyed learning from them! And check out these amazing leaves one of the ladies preserved. So cool!

* Wednesday, Ryan's grandpa had another surgery on his brain, but we didn't get to go this time. We prayed for him from home, and I was so thankful it all went well! Ryan had an extra busy week at work, so he was swamped there, and I was rushing to meet a writing deadline, so we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day. We had plans for the evening, but they fell through, so we we conked out on the couch watching TV. Braeya took over the remote. LOL!!!

* Thursday night, we had the privilege of helping one of our friends move. She helped us when we moved, and it was a gift to us to be able to pay her back! It was a cold night, so we started out with coffee/hot chocolate, and then got busy moving! {Side note: I had injured my hamstring in that workout Monday, so it was fun to watch me hobble with boxes.}

* Friday was another busy day for Ryan at work, and he couldn't make it home for lunch, so I wen to visit him while he ate. It was SO BEAUTIFUL outside that we went for a walk after work, and then we went grocery shopping. GUESS WHAT WE FOUND WHILE WE WERE OUT???? They broke ground for our new Sonic!!! {Insert every happy emoji in the whole galaxy right here.}

* Yesterday we had our annual pictures taken, and while we were at it, we did a county date! Delaware County! The day was way prettier than I ever imagined it wold be, so it was a fun day to be outside, eat lunch outside, have coffee outside...you get the picture.

The Saturday Six

One.

Christmas is coming you know. {We're under two months now - EEK!!!} And in case you're a lover of small-shop support and even more specifically, Etsy support, this 31-Days blogger covered a whole list of Etsy shops, so I wanted to direct you to her list. Quite a range of ideas and prices are covered here. Happy Etsy shopping!!

Two.

Source

A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends texted to ask my opinion on day planners, because she said when she thought of people who were passionate/obsessed with such things, I came to mind first. {Not EVEN embarrassed about that! WOOT WOOT!!!} I am actually making my own 2017 planner, but I found this post by Brittany at Where My Soul Belongs, and she compared a couple of planners that were new to me, so I feel it's my duty as a passionate, obsessive planner lover to pass the news on to you in case you're on the hunt!

Three.

Source

As I've mentioned many times this year, I've been doing Beachbody workouts and eating plans, but our one-income budget does not allow me to keep up with daily Shakeology treats. It is crazy expensive to buy a bag of that every month, so we've had to resort to making our own versions of healthy shakes at home. Dashing Dish is my favorite go-to site for clean eating {I've told you about it multiple times before} but this week I tried out the Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie. Oh. My. Word. It was a thousand times better than I even expected. {I used plain Greek yourt in place of cottage cheese for the thickener, and I did not add the cream cheese because I didn't want to open a whole package for a little tiny smidgen. But it was so creamy and tasty.} NEW FAVORITE!!!

Four.

Source

 Back to Christmas for just a moment...I wanted to tell you that Dayspring is having a big sale that ends in a couple of days. {I'm not a Dayspring affiliate, so this isn't a push for personal gain; I just love their stuff!!!} Some of my family members might recognize the chalkboards from this page as one of the gifts I gave last year. This set of stuff makes a great gift because you can add to them to complete the gift! {Make a cake FOR the cake plate, add coffee to the creamer/sugar set, etc.}

Five.

Source

NEXT WEEK is time change weekend!!! As always, I have some pretty strong opinions on time change, but at least this is the change that affords me more sleep, so my complaining is not quite as harsh this time around. But in light of this event, I found an article that suggests some household tasks that need done with about as much frequency as the time change, so tying them to the time change is a good way to remember to do them! Here you go!  

Six.

Source

This week, I read the conclusion of the Emancipation Warriors trilogy written by my real-life friend, Marissa Shrock. I've reviewed books one and two on the blog before, so you can check those out if you missed them before. The First Principle was the first book, and The Liberation released just earlier this year. The final book in this series is called The Pursuit, and just like the first two books in the series, The Pursuit is suspenseful from start to finish!

Marissa is a middle school teacher, and she writes for a young adult audience. But as I said in my first two reviews, I enjoyed reading them and think they appeal just as fully to an adult audience. These books are set in an undisclosed future year, when the United States is no more, and the world at large looks very different from the world we know.

The main character of the series, Vivica Wilkins, is almost eighteen years old, and finds herself a bit stuck in life. She wants to attend college, but her mother, who is the President of the United Regions of North America, hasn't been able to find a school that can assure her Vivica will be safe from the attack of political enemies. So Vivica feels trapped, living day after day in the presidential compound, unsure of how to move forward when she can't move beyond the gates of the property.

The world had seemed unstable before, but grows more so each day. Biochips implanted in citizens keep the government informed on everything from their whereabouts to their health status. Mysterious illnesses that seem to attack certain regions come from "nowhere," destroy lives at alarming rates. And most people have no idea just how deep the government's power runs, including recent technology that experiments with weather control.

When the President dies under suspicious circumstances, and Vivica's friend, Drake Freeman, invites her to join the Emancipation Warriors in their pursuit of complete freedom, she cannot resist. The wars of disease, deception, and determination in the world are large, but even bigger battles rage inside Vivica. A born-again Christian {in a world that does not tolerate its beliefs}, she feels the weight of sharing her faith and seeing those around her, even the enemies, as people created by God. She feels the weight of fighting for anything that will make the world a safer place for her son, even though she gave him up for adoption. And she feels the weight of submitting to God's plan for her life, even if it looks different from what she "feels" it should be.

As was true of the first two books, The Pursuit offers a difficult look into parts of our future that may not be so far away or far-fetched. In those respects, for a scaredy-cat like me, some of the concepts were difficult to face. But the writing itself is excellent, suspenseful, and carries the Gospel message clearly. My own faith was strengthened by the needed reminders that God is bigger than any government entity and always faithful to care for His children, regardless of how hopeless the circumstance.

You'll find love, intrigue, danger, faith, and so much more in this book, and I am so proud of Marissa for completing her trilogy and bringing a faith-based option of dystopian literature to young adults. I'm excited to see what she ventures into next in the world of writing!

 * Marissa sent me a complimentary digital copy of The Pursuit to read. All opinions are my own! * 

Flashback Friday

Earlier this week, as I surfed the world wide web {probably via Pinterest...I know this shocks you}, I happened upon a post that included a link back to the bloggers posts from the same day on previous years. I hadn't seen anyone do that before, and it intrigued me.

So just for funsies, in this my tenth year of blogging, I thought I'd go back and see what was on my mind on this day, October 28th, in years gone by.

2006: Did not blog that day. Slacker.

2007: Ahhhh the "Bits" posts. You may or may not have known that before I wrote this blog, I wrote a weekly email column called "Bits from Bekah's Life." I sent it out every Sunday night, and when I started blogging, the "Bits" columns were also copied and pasted into blog posts each week. This post explored my newly implemented habits of trying to exercise regularly, make healthier food choices, not drink pop {!?!?!}, floss regularly, and learn to see my physical worth in the eyes of God. Hmmmm....some things are a lifelong struggle, aren't they?

2008: I had begun to introduce recipes to my posts, and on this day, I shared my egg and sausage loaf {breakfast casserole} recipe. This was one of my very first Bekah-staple recipes. Also. Let's not discuss my photography of eight years ago.

2009: I had just started doing Angela Thomas's Bible study, called Do You Think I'm Beautiful?, and I found myself stumped by one of the questions in the workbook. Many thanks to my faithful early-year blog readers who popped in to encourage me. Also: that Bible study was a really thought-provoking one. If you're looking for a good study, I recommend it. I spend much time in reflection over Angela's words!

2010: I had just returned home from my first post-desert vacation and was in the middle of recapping the fun I'd had visiting friends in Illinois and Wisconsin. This post chronicled my trip between the two locations, including the moment my car overheated in a traffic jam. Talk about panic! {There are also a few funny parts to this day's travel story. Ohhhhhh, Bekah.}

2011: I was four months in to my new job at WBCL, and Lynne had just begun to have me join her {on select occasions} on the air. One of our first projects was a monthly "Kitchen Caboodle" show. {Anyone remember that?} We had gotten together at her house to make pumpkin snickerdoodles and a chili recipe, both from Sandi Patty's cookbook. I managed to break a glass, and Lynne managed to dump a pan of cookies in the bottom of the oven. But we had fun anyway! And you can read all about it in my recap post!

2012:WOW! How life had changed in one year. By October 28th of this year, I was engaged and just over a month away from GETTING MARRIED. What!?!?! This particular year, October 28th fell on a Sunday, and I shared the "weekly recap" post, which was the precursor to the Shafferland Shuffle. {Because Shafferland hadn't been created yet, obviously.} It had been a busy week {some things never change}, but I think my personal highlight was celebrating Ryan's 33.5 birthday. {We don't really celebrate half birthdays, but we hadn't been a couple ON his birthday, so I wanted to show up for the half birthday.}

2013: Almost a year married by this time, October 28th found me recapping my first ever 5K. Ryan and I ran a 10K when we were dating, but I hadn't done a 5K before. Ryan and I were invited by my friend Julie to run a 5K at a farm/corn maze, but Ryan had to work, so he couldn't go. Julie and I ran it, and it lives as my worst ever race {in terms of time} but quite a fun race in terms of scenery! {Happy race-aversary, Julie!} Also: we will not discuss my attire. AT ALL.

2014: I guess our fall of two years ago was kind of like our fall this year: with moments of unseasonable warmth. On this day, I paid tribute to the glorious Saturday Ryan and I spent at home together, packing up the remnants of summer and making way for fall and winter. Taking down our beloved pirogi, raking leaves, switching clothes in the cloests, and enjoying each others' company...what a beautiful day!!

2015: Ahhhhh, last year! We had just returned home from the Great Getaway of 2015, a monstrous road trip that resulted in 8 days gone, 7 states visited, and 2 countries accounted for! We had so much fun on that trip, and I was smack in the middle of reliving it with you! This particular day, I took you on a virtual tour of Williamsburg, Virginia. Mark and Lynnette, we miss you!!!

And now we're here! 2016...ten years after my silent start to blogging on October 28th, and I feel this day has represented the full spectrum of life in my/our world. Travels, parties, regular fun, hard questions, and things that would only happen to me.

It makes me smile. :)

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

I love a good collection of recipes, and I have long felt that ours has lacked in the soup department. Perhaps it's because I commuted for so many years, and there wasn't time to assemble a soup and let it simmer properly before it was time to eat. Perhaps I have just never pursued the soup world. I have no idea.

Regardless of the reason for my soup failures to this point, our recent implementation of Tuesdays at the Table meant I needed to find some new recipes for the rotation. And I found a recipe for chicken pot pie soup on Pinterest. How comfort-foodish did that sound? All the goodness of chicken pot pie without the embarrassment of revealing I am incapable of making a decent crust. {Whoopsie. Guess I just did that.}

I've made more tweaks since the first time I made it, and I have to say - it's pretty delicious. It also comes together fairly quickly, which makes it even better. Ryan has given it two thumbs up and declared it a keeper, so I decided to preserve it in the Shafferland recipe box. With soup season officially here, I wanted to pass it on to you in case you'd like something new to try!

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

* 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
* 1 cup diced mushrooms
* 1/3 cup wheat flour
* 3 cups low sodium chicken stock
* 2 cups low-fat milk
* 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
* 1 pound cubed frozen hash brown potatoes
* 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Melt coconut oil in a stock pot and cook onion in it for a couple of minutes until tender. Add garlic powder and mushrooms and cook for a couple more minutes. Add wheat flour and stir well until mushrooms and onions are coated. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and continue cooking until heated all the way through. Simmer on very low heat until ready to serve. Serve with biscuits to serve as a crust.

 A Few Tips:

* If you don't have coconut oil, you can use vegetable oil to saute the onions.


* I use fresh mushrooms because we almost always have some on hand. If you don't keep them on hand, you can easily substitute canned mushrooms. Or, if you don't like them, you can leave them out entirely.

* You can use fresh garlic instead of powder. The original recipe called for 4 cloves.

* I use wheat flour, because it's what we have. You could use whatever kind of flour you have.

* I cook my chicken in big batches and divide it up to use in all kinds of things. {Quesadillas, BBQ chicken, etc.} I just boil it and then put it in my stand mixer to shred it. I also add some seasoned salt to it when it's freshly shredded, just to help with the flavoring of whatever dish I'm making.

* The first time I made this, I bought a bag of potatoes and cubed them. It took forever and we didn't use them all and the excess went bad and made a big mess in our pantry. I started using frozen cubed hash brown potatoes instead, so I could put in only what we need and skip the mess of cubing the potatoes/having the rest go bad.

* The original recipe called for all manner of fresh veggies, but I truly hate all the prep work of dicing them. So I decided to use a bag of frozen mixed veggies instead, and it worked very well.

* Ryan adds more seasoned salt to his bowls of soup. Easily done for those who want a little more salt!

* I've served this with biscuits {from a can - let's not imagine I'm better than I am} and that worked really well. Ryan loves a pot pie crust, so he put the biscuit in the bottom of his bowl and put the soup over it. On the days when I didn't feel like I could spare the carbs, I could skip the biscuits entirely, and on the days I wanted one, I could eat it separately, because I hate wet bread. Win-win!

* The last time I made this soup, I didn't have biscuits on hand, so I used cornbread, and it worked really well, too!

* This reheats beautifully!

Go Tell Aunt Rosie

Don't you love it when you title a blog post and then realize YOU HAVE THE WRONG WORDS???

Welcome to my Wednesday.

Allow me to back up, if I may.

I feel it is an appropriate time to mention, especially after yesterday's post on my occasional housewife failures, that I am actually not the best housekeeper in our marriage. I am a good housekeeper. I keep the clutter picked up, I do the laundry, I empty the dishwasher, and I'm pretty sure the health department wouldn't kick up too much of a fuss if they visited. But if we're in the business of truth-telling here, I must confess that Ryan is a MUCH better housekeeper than I am. He is better at cleaning {probably because he is not so ever-loving FREAKED OUT by unidentified dirt}, and he is motivated to tackle these projects far more often than I am.

It's an area of life I've had to come to grips with since being married. My choices are to feel like a failure because I'm not as good at this as he is, or accept that I'm not as good at this as he is and let it be okay, because if he's not worried about it, I probably shouldn't be either.

Most of the time, I choose the second option.

So keeping that in mind, may we pause for just a moment to talk about our vacuum? When we got married, we owned many things in duplicate. This happens when you have two thirty-somethings who marry and combine their fully functioning households. Our general rule was to compare the things we owned in duplicate and keep the nicer option. And in the event that we hated both options, we put that item on our registry.

This worked very nicely, except in the case of the vacuum. I owned what I felt was a fairly nice vacuum. It was probably less than ten years old, it was sturdy, easy to manage, and I had mastered the delicate art of changing the bag when it got full. It wasn't a masterpiece of a vacuum. It wouldn't star in a commercial for being the coolest kid on the block, but it worked well.

Ryan actually owned two. And I'm pretty sure both were original prototypes of vacuum cleaners. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is one of those times. So I am going to skip all description and just show you.

You guys?

I HATED THEM BOTH. The blue one wasn't so bad if you had a specific project: a closet or a car to clean. But it wasn't practical {or lightweight} to cart around the house, so that left the maroon vacuum. That thing is as loud and unwieldy as you might imagine, and Ryan loved it. The vacuum hill was one he was willing to die on in the combination of households, so my ultra-modern, kinda-cool vacuum went to a new home, and old blue and old maroon moved in...in all their loud, croaky, 1970's leftover glory.

I probably don't need to really explain why I didn't vacuum with intense frequency, do I? For me, using these vacuums required a mental preparation, and I didn't get there nearly as often as I should have.

Sooooooooooooo...a couple of months ago, Ryan decided to pre-spend his Christmas money and get one of those little robotic vacuums that works all by itself.

I did not care at all because, well, OBVIOUSLY this was going to make my housewifery life much easier. And it was his Christmas money. If he wanted to buy a vacuum, more power to him. But I sort of wondered in the back corner of my mind just how pathetic it made us that we had to have a robot vacuum our house. Had I found a new all-time low as a housewife failure?

He named her, because we name all our stuff, and this is how she came to be known as Rosie. {Apparently that was the name of the housekeeper on the Jetsons. I never watched the Jetsons, so I don't have any idea.}

I mentioned Rosie in passing a couple of weeks ago on the blog and had some questions about her, so I thought I'd answer them for you.

Rosie is about the size of a large dinner plate, and she's probably about 2-3 inches tall. She's programmable, so every day at the assigned time {7:30 a.m. for us}, she sets out from her charger and begins looping about the house in random patterns, sucking up cat hair, litter, dust, Bekah-hair, and whatever other odd assortments of dirt have come in during the past 24 hours. She pokes around in every single room, regardless of the surface {she does work on carpet, tile, and hardwood}, and she finds hidden dirt and eats it.

Because she's little, she can get under pieces of furniture that a handheld vacuum would not be able to maneuver. {Bookcases, couch, etc.} If she runs into something, she just rotates and goes another direction. Her one vice is eating cords, and if she gets too choked up on one, she just stops working and dies. {I can't blame her there.} When I find her and untangle her, I just turn her back on, and she continues on her merry way.

Her goal every day is to make it back home to her charger with her belly full of dirt. Most days she does, but now and then, I find her conked out in the bedroom, too tired to make it home. {Can't blame her there either sometimes.}

Because we're weird this way, one of the highlights of our day is examining the dirt pouch and seeing what she found every day. Ryan usually empties it when he comes home for lunch, and Rosie sleeps in her charger all day so she can be ready for the next day.

Call us crazy, call us spoiled, but we really love our Rosie. I admit it is SO NICE to have floors that are not littered with cat hair every single day. It's nice to not carry cat hair on my socks everywhere I go. It's nice to know that people can come over whenever, and our floors at least look clean. And it's nice to have an electronic babysitter for Braeya every morning. {Braeya HATES Rosie, but she stalks her anyway.}

We kept the other two vacuums so we can actually hand-vacuum the house as needed {after a party, for example, or if there's a specific spill}, but I do NOT miss using loud, cranky maroon. Not one bit.

We call Rosie a good investment.

And back to my opening statement...

When I heard that her name was Rosie, it made me think of the scene in Little House on the Prairie when Laura, Mary and Carrie sang the song about going to tell Aunt Rosie that the old gray goose is dead. I sing it every time Ryan talks about Rosie. And when I went to get the clip so YOU could watch it too, I learned it's not Aunt Rosie at all. It's Aunt Rhodie!

Oops.

Well, from now on, in Shafferland, it's Aunt Rosie and the old dead gray goose.

{PS - Our Rosie is an iLife, if you want to read more specifics about it at your leisure.}

Embracing Imperfection

First of all, it's Spill the Beans Day!! :)

We realized, with much horror, that we never properly welcomed fall on the podcast, so we're talking all things fall-important {my disdain for raking leaves, Ryan's childhood on the farm, etc.} and then we chat about my planning day last week - aka the day Ryan's co-workers began to mock me for what I fear will be the entire coming year.

Click here to listen.

And now...to today.

Is anyone else addicted to TimeHop/On This Day apps for social media? On This Day is one of my most favorite things to look at while we eat breakfast every morning. It makes my memory-maker's heart so happy to see what I was up to on this very day over the past few years.

So yesterday, I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and I found my thoughts from three years ago: October 24th, 2013 at 9:08 p.m. I had written:

Thought in my mind at 11:00 this morning: "I need to leave work and be a stay at home wife today, because I know how to do THAT." Thought in my mind at 8:00 this evening after Ryan took over fixing the ENVELOPE PASTA SIDE DISH following my three failed attempts: "I just need to go to bed and let this day win." Here's to a better Friday.

I elected not to unearth the journal and find out what was causing me such consternation at work that day {I have a few thoughts, but if I'm right, I'd rather not relive them.} But I smiled and wanted to tell three-years-ago Bekah that if she could just hang on about another year and a half, she would get to leave work and be a stay at home wife, not just for one day, but for all the days. That dream she was too scared to dream was just about to come true. {You know...in a year and a half.}
 

I've told you, recently even, how much I enjoy this season of life, working from home, investing in our house and in our marriage in ways I could not as a working-outside-the-home wife. I'm not here to rehash that, because probably some of you hate hearing it when it's your secret dream too, but your time hasn't yet come.

I'm here to say that being a stay-at-home wife occasionally still carries the failures that October 24th, 2013 carried. There are days when I still wouldn't be able to make a pasta side dish without an adult helper. {We also no longer eat those...not so much on the clean-eating-approved list.}

There are days when Ryan comes home from work and I look around and wonder if I have anything to show for my hours of work within the walls of our house. Anything tangible that will prove to him {though he never asks for proof} that  my staying home every day is worth it to our family.

There are days when I mess up the laundry and pull something from the dryer that was clearly to be line dried only. There are days when I forget the one chore he asked me to do. There are days when he comes home for lunch and the mountain of dishes threatening to dissolve in a landslide when he left for work are still precariously perched on the counter. There are days when lunch is cold, because I overzealously got it ready too early. There are days when lunch refuses to cook faster, regardless of my coaxing, and he nearly gets full on Cheez-it appetizers while he waits.

There are days when I'm still in bedhead and jammies when he comes home for lunch, eyes wide and frenzied because I'm in the middle of the biggest writing roll and I haven't paused to do ANYTHING but pound words into a keyboard for the last however many hours. There are days the alarm goes off and I groan and say, "I forgot to get more strawberries for breakfast." {How can that be thought #1 at that hour and not on my brain ONCE the day before??}

Being a stay-at-home wife doesn't mean I'm great at it all the time. Sometimes I'm a failure and he has to help me clean up the mess I've made. Sometimes I still need to go back to bed and let the day win.

I say this not as a self-bashing session, but because I think there are too many picturesque blog and Instagram posts {my own included} that show tidy rooms and scrapbook-worthy moments, and out there somewhere is a reader who feels like a failure because she's living my October 24th, 2013, and she just wants to know that out there somewhere is an honest blogger who admits that sometimes the laundry is a fail and sometimes the strawberries are still at the store.

Ryan is gracious. He drives to the store in the wee hours to buy strawberries and doesn't complain about Cheez-it appetizers when lunch is behind. He even calls me cute when my lunchtime attire strongly resembles the jammies I had on when he left home. He doesn't question my productivity level when I can't produce anything to show for my day.

I appreciate that about him. And I appreciate the gift of staying home. But even in being a "professional" stay-at-home wife, I assure you I still have my days. Bring me an adult helper and another coffee, please. And let's start over again tomorrow.

Pheebs!!!!

I am sorry to report that we are still no closer to getting a dog of our own.

This may be one of the main reasons why:

Braeya is exceedingly curious about Phoebe...as long as Phoebe is blind to her. Have you ever tried to get a dog to be blind to a cat? Yeah, it doesn't work out so well.

But despite the resident fur-baby's distaste for dogs, leading us to NOT own one ourselves, we continue to enjoy visits with Miss Phoebe, who is just about the best dog on the planet, I'm totally convinced. She came to hang out with me a week ago today, and it was a joy to have her for a few hours.

My main agenda on Monday was to recover from a weekend of speaking, so I had nothing but time to play with this cutie.

I think she missed me:

So many kisses.

We took a walk...and she managed to wait until we were RELATIVELY close to a trash can before she pooped.

We went to visit Ryan at work:

And despite it being OCTOBER, we were able to go for a walk in SHORTS!!!

{Just like a kid - she veered right into the water trail and walked through it.}

I think she was so tuckered after her walks, that she pretty much just wanted to cuddle the rest of the night.

Okay by me!!!

What a sweet girl. She is definitely a blessing to us!! {Braeya has asked to be excluded from that last statement.}

The Shafferland Shuffle

UPDATE: The site I use for my collages is STILL not working, but I found one that works similarly, so I managed to create some collages for today's blog. We'll see if the other site ever starts to work again or if I just need to learn a new one!

* You should very intimately know our tale of last Sunday after the blog this week! I feel like all you did was read about our weekend! It was my last day to spend at the retreat where I spoke, and then we hurried from there to the centennial celebration of my old church! Definitely not our most restful Sunday in all of history, but definitely a beautiful Sunday that created wonderful memories! {And ten thousand husbandly points to Ryan for being such a great support to me that day and ALL weekend!}

* This week was our city school system's fall break, so I had no carpool duties, and I enjoyed every moment of may "fall break." The scenery got extra beautiful while we were gone, and as a bonus for Monday, it was warm, sunny, and Phoebe-filled! YAY! We got to keep her for a few hours that afternoon and evening, and we had a blast! {We, of course, being everyone but Braeya.}

* Does anyone else get as excited over a new set of pens as I do? Ryan gave me these and made my WEEK!!!! So pretty! I spent the day writing and working in my office, looking at pretty trees and meeting deadlines! And that night, while Ryan went to a class for work, I went to a party with one of my friends {direct sales} and played Bingo with Skittles. Not a bad game, my friend. Not a bad game.

* I took Wednesday as a planning day for 2017, so when Ryan left for work, I packed up my bags and went to the coffee shop to plan, dream, work, and pray. It went beautifully until the really loud woman came in and stayed for a long time, telling all manner of stories to her friend. I know so much more about her life than I ever meant to! After lunch, I went for a long walk and continued my planning at home - in the quietness. :)

* Thursday was a great day to stay home: too bad Ryan had to go to work. It was classic fall, with blowing leaves, much rain, and multiple excuses to have more coffee. We had to run some errands in the evening, but when we got home, we crashed on the couch and just rested. Much-needed!

* Because of Ryan's class on Tuesday night, we had to reschedule Tuesdays at the Table for Friday. We will not discuss what this did to my OCD. We had some friends over who helped us tremendously with the renovations on our house back when we first bought it, and it was fun to let them see the finished product! They brought their kids, and we had a blast making our own pizzas, drawing on the chalkboards in the garage, playing Barbies, and trying to lure Braeya out from under the bed! {That worked as well as you might imagine.}

* Yesterday, we spent most of the day at my parents' house, so Ryan could work on some projects for them. Any time he has an excuse to play with power tools, it's a good day! He crossed a lot off his list, and I got to hang out with Mom. {We made donuts with her new donut pan!!} Poor guy...when we got home, he sat right down and went to sleep!! And I sat and looked at the pretty flowers he bought me.