The Shafferland Shuffle

BE SAFE, my friends! I know there's a lot of bad weather filtering about this morning. Please, oh please, be safe out there!!

* Last Sunday was a sick day at the Shaffer household. Ryan was just certain if he could have one whole day at home to rest, he could kick the cold and get well again. While it didn't totally cure him, it did go a long way in helping. It snowed, so it was pretty to watch that from the comfort of the INSIDE. Even though we were sad to miss church, it was glorious to have a whole day at home! A true Sabbath!

* Monday's mail truck brought me a PRESENT! I may be 38, but I'm not too old to freak out in joy over a present in the mail! :) I worked from home, in the presence of our pretty Griswold tree, and knocked out a ton of chores. And when Ryan came home, Braeya curled right up in his lap and slept the night away. It's her happiest moment.

* Tuesday morning, AFTER I got home from my carpool run, it started snowing, and it was so pretty. Like a snow globe. I loved it! And Tuesday night, we hosted Tuesdays at the Table! We invited over a couple we'd never hung out with before, and we laughed so hard. It was the best time! Perfect night for soup and pie and laughter! :)

 * Ryan was excited on Wednesday, because there was a giant crane doing work at his work. I'm pretty sure he secretly wanted to go drive it! :) In other secret wishes, Braeya secretly wished she could have a piece of Ryan's pie. She was funny - she just sat next to him, very quietly, looking the other direction, like "if I am just good enough, he will notice me and share." Didn't happen. So she paid him back later by drinking his water. And this is why we have to have sippy cups.

* Thursday. Oh, you guys. THURSDAY. That cold of Ryan's came right back to me, and I was utterly flattened. I never left the couch. I tried to read and watch TV, but the truth was, I slept the entire afternoon away. Ryan said he had never seen me as sick as I was that day, and that's probably about the truth. He prayed for me, which I really appreciated, and I also appreciated being able to be home and have pretty lights to look at between naps. But other than that, I would just prefer to forget Thursday.

* By Friday, Ryan and I were ready to declare WAR on the germs in our house. We washed and disinfected EVERYTHING. And while I did feel much better than I did on Thursday, I was still not great, so that night, we curled up and watched Christmas Vacation and drank the delicious lattes that our friends Mike and Angie brought to us as a gift to cheer us up!

* So if you're not from around central Indiana, you might have missed out on the ice that blanketed us overnight Friday into Saturday. Woke up to an actual skating rink outside. It was insane! We slept in, took it easy, and then Ryan went out to salt the driveway, and one of our friends in the neighborhood had a sled out and was sledding down the ice in the driveway. Of course Ryan wanted to try, and I have {are you ready for this?} never gone sledding before. So we both went. We were just out for a few minutes, but it was fun in the most terrifying way! We did manage to get out a bit later for errands, and then we hunkered down before the next round hit!

The Saturday Six

One.

Click here to listen.

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Bekah Jane Pogue's new book, Choosing Real, and why I loved it. I was really excited to get to talk to Bekah on the last Conversation Cafe podcast for 2016. Bekah is funny, down-to-earth, loving, and I think you'll enjoy her thoughts and advice during her visit to the Conversation Cafe! It's just over a half hour long - take a listen!

Two.

Source

Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to get to know a new friend named Hether Wright. I even got to peek at this article before it was posted to this site, and I love it, so I wanted to share it with you. I'm encouraged by her sensitivity to the Spirit and her bravery to surrender her dream!

Three.

Source

I love reading Carmella Rayone's blog, and I especially love her series on contentment. Carmella and her family {including 3 teen sons} live in a tiny house, and did so before tiny house living was trendy. She writes this contentment series about learning to do what you can with what you have, because space for possessions is limited where she is. I love this little idea for transporting pies and plates of goodies!

Four.

Ryan and I are taking our Christmas photo booth on the road soon and are making an appearance at a Christmas party my parents are hosting to take photo booth pictures for them. I'm going to remake {updated year, you know} this frame we had at last year's family photo booth, because it was so much fun! If you're doing a photo booth at your family Christmas, this is a great {and cheap!!!} prop to make. And if you need a good idea for an activity for a Christmas party, may I suggest a photo booth! Even the most unsuspecting tend to love them!  

Five.

Source

THIS. Back when I worked at the station, I "met" Dr. Michelle Watson, who is one of the most delightful women to ever walk the earth. She has a HUGE passion for helping dads of all ages improve the relationship with their daughters of all ages. Her blog post this week regarding a special date for dads/daughters is SO spot on. {Read clear to the end...if a perfume date is not your speed, she gives alternatives.}  

Six.

Source

Being down with the never-ending-cold-of-2016 gave me plenty of time to read a novel this week! I was glad I had a novel, because when you feel miserable, you just want to escape into a healthier world for a while!


For the Record, by Regina Jennings, was my read this week, and it took me back to the 19th century in the land of the Ozarks: a time and place I don't usually read about! I discovered after I finished the book that it was the third in a series, but I didn't feel lost at all, concerning the characters, and in fact, some people who had read the entire series said that this book didn't really seem to fit in with the first two. Apparently it's set much later than they were. So if you haven't read the others, you shouldn't be behind too much.

I chose this book because the leading lady, Betsy Huckabee, is a budding writer. I love books about writers! In her mid-twenties, Betsy's officially a spinster, not because opportunities for marriage didn't present themselves at the "proper time," but because she just wasn't interested. She'd spent the past several years helping her widowed uncle raise his children, but his recent remarriage has left her in a bit of an awkward pickle. She still lives with them and helps out around the house, but she's no longer the lady of the house. Her uncle runs the town newspaper, and Betsy's dream is to become a respected journalist.

And by journalist, she's thinking much more big-city life than little Pine Gap news, which usually boils down to who has relatives coming to visit. But things do get a bit more exciting when Deputy Joel Puckett arrives in town. Sent by the government to figure out why so much mischief is going along unresolved, Joel's about as welcome in the tiny town as an outbreak of the Plague. Betsy, however, finds him intriguing. Not because she's attracted to him, but because she discovers he makes a delightful fictional hero. {If, of course, she embellishes the truth of his daily happenings just a bit.} If only she can get the big city papers to pick up her stories for the ladies' pages...

Since I had never read a book by Regina Jennings before, I had no idea what to expect, and I found I really enjoyed her descriptions. They were well-done, and I could easily envision the world in front of me, though it was largely foreign to me.

The story however, went way too slow for my tastes. Cowboys and outlaws...I would have thought the pace would have been much faster. I also thought some of the things about Betsy's character were a bit odd for the time period. I understood that she was an independent and feisty girl, but I thought she spent a lot of time out gallavanting around with no down-time in between adventures. When did she sleep? Parts of that seemed unrealistic to me.

While I didn't hate the story, it didn't captivate me like I hoped. I wanted to fall in love with these people and return to this little town over and over to spend more time with them. As it stands, my visit to Pine Gap satisfied me with just one trip.

* Bethany House provided me a copy of this book at no cost. All opinions are my own. *

SURPRISE DATE!!!!

I have to be fair and give full credit for this date to my mom, who read about the idea somewhere and suggested it to me.

Ryan and I are really good about date nights, but like most of you, I'm sure, date nights can start to get in a bit of a rut. Same activities and outings over and over. So this was something fun and different that we hadn't done before!

There is a little place out in the country, about 15 minutes from Kokomo, called A Summer Place. It is basically a miniature 1950's town that has been built by a family who loves the nostalgia of the 50's. They love to share it with others, and their website says people will come there for weddings, class reunions, photo shoots, and all sorts of things.

They've collected all sorts of vintage memorabilia that creates beautiful ambience on the property, and it really does feel like you've stepped back in time to a Mayberry-like town! 

In December, Mom discovered, they do dinner/movie nights with Christmas movies!! So weeks ago, I purchased two tickets and told Ryan to reserve the date on his calendar for a surprise date. He did not know until the day of the date what we were doing. {I love/hate surprises. They are so much fun, but I hate keeping them!}

Our date started with dinner in the 50's style diner. They served cheeseburgers and fries, and banana splits for dessert.

It was actually kind of funny, because I made the reservation using all my mom's information, so Ryan wouldn't find out about the date, and when we arrived, they couldn't find our reservation. I finally realized it was because it was under Mom's name, and not ours. Well, SORT of under her name. Freeman is really close. LOL!!!

The diner was so cool - and the food was good!

After dinner, we walked across the "street" to the theater, where they showed Ryan's favorite Christmas movie: Elf! :)

{Our ticket covered dinner, the movie, and popcorn!}

You guys, it was so much fun! And while we were in the movie, it started snowing, so we were able to get some fun pictures with the snow after! {Snow is only fun when you're not driving on it.}

We took pictures of the little "town" too!

Ohhhh for gas to be THAT price again!

It was a fun and completely affordable night! Loved being out on the "tiny town" with this handsome guy!!

And for you local friends, you should check out this place. It's very cool.

Hometown Date: Christmas at the Seiberling!

One thing I've really enjoyed about our move to Kokomo has been the chance to go on fun hometown dates to places I'd never been before. We did several during the summer, but we had a chance to do a couple more last week, and I wanted to show you one today!

There is a mansion here in town called the Seiberling, which you can read about here if you're a big history buff. It was built back in the 1800's as a private residence, and has been owned by a handful of {equally wealthy} people over the years {And, I learned, for a short while, it served as the campus of IU Kokomo. Can you imagine? A whole college in one house?} It's now a museum that houses historical things about Kokomo.

I confess that being the non-history-loving girl, I would be unlikely to visit a museum, but at Christmas they deck the halls, the windows, the stairways, and everything else, so it suddenly held massive appeal for me.

You do have to pay to go on the Christmas tour, but they had a few nights when businesses covered the cost and it was free to the public, so we went on one of those nights. THANK YOU, First Farmer's Bank and Trust, for giving us a date night! :)

{I had wanted to go, but since Ryan was feeling so lousy, I didn't think we'd be able to. At the last minute, he said he was up for it, and some of my friends happened to be going that same night, so it turned into this big group outing!}

LOOK AT THIS HOUSE!!!

Yes. It has three floors. Isn't it so pretty!?!?!!?

I call this piece "Shaffer Selfie in the Foyer."

We don't rock mirror selfies.

Anyway. Here are some of the sights of the house. {There was also live music on two of the floors, and a voting contest to vote for your favorite room.}

This is what happens when the Shaffers visit a fancy establishment but cannot manage to take the Shaffer out of the visit:

And yes. That is a chamber pot. {The ladies working that room got a big giggle out of this moment.}

Back to the loveliness:

Look at that VILLAGE and the TRAIN! And if you look just ahead of the train, you'll see a police car that has pulled over a Krispy Kreme truck. LOL!!

Group selfie on the third floor!

Porch picture:

And at the house next door {which is also part of the museum complex}, they had snacks and SANTA!!!!!

It turned out to be a really fun night, and I was so thankful Ryan powered through the miseries of his cold to give me a beautiful memory! :)

 Linking up with Tamar!