Happy Birthday to our Braeya-Girl!

Today we're celebrating our Braeya-girl, because it's her birthday!

But it's also my sister's birthday, and I want to wish her the happiest of days! I have the coolest gift picked out for her, but alas, it's been virus-delayed. Sigh. I was so sad when I learned it couldn't ship in time! Hopefully it will just allow her to have an even longer celebration. Happy birthday, Lori!

So on this day that is apparently the best day to have a birthday, we celebrate the second of three quarantine birthdays in Shafferland.

At least I can get a lot of mileage out of my birthday printable purchase!

Braeya is FOURTEEN years old. I told Ryan that he's 41, she's 14, and I think he acts 14 and she acts 41! :)

We don't blog at length about her on here, because she spends most of her day deep in a hard-core nap, and that doesn't make for the most exciting blog fodder. But I thought I'd show you some snippets from her quite-charmed life over the past year. She really doesn't properly appreciate how great she has it.

We are thrilled to report that our newly-redesigned guest bath has brought to a screeching halt her demands for fresh sink water. She's remembered that drinks work just as well from a bowl beside her food. But for most of this year, she spent a lot of time right here.

 Back-of-the-couch naps...

 Kitty-bed naps...

Under-the-curtain naps...

 It all makes her very hungry. Begging is a bad habit we haven't yet kicked. Maybe when she's 14?

Another bad habit she needs to kick? Being inhospitable to sweet people who just want to love her more than life itself.

 She was ruffled because we asked her to share "her room" with them...

 It's not like she's short on sleep...or love.

 She's perfected "the look." Such a teenager.

 And though she probably wants me to think otherwise, I don't think curling up with the prayer shawl makes her a feline of prayer.

She does like to pretend she's the resident guard cat, though, guarding everything from the mail to our shoes. Whatever she finds...

 She works out...

 ...but it exhausts her so.

She helps me work, or so she thinks.

 And decorate...

 And then she goes back to guarding...

She's not at all left out, though she'd want you to think she is...

Her hobbies lately have included sunbathing on the porch...

 "Helping" with laundry...

 Any amount of time spent with her dad...

Scavenging for leftovers...

 Napping some more...

So as you can see...she's well-loved, well-documented, and well-pampered.

Happy birthday, Braeya Joa!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Morning, Friends! How are you today? Hopefully you are feeling encouraged and hopeful today - especially if you're in an area that might be enjoying a bit more freedom in the days to come. Perhaps documenting the depths of quarantine is coming to an end after all!

And speaking of...here was our quarantine week.

* Last Sunday we went to jammie church again. I confess I'm getting quite used to this and it will be legitimately hard to adjust back into early mornings and dress clothes again! After church, Ryan made one of his famous breakfasts (much heartier for him than for me - by my own choices) and I listened to piano hymns. Our church has talented musicians that I appreciate, but I do miss hymns, so I listen on my own time!

* Ryan was home most of Monday, and unfortunately for him, it was not my finest day. (Read: puddle of tears by 10 a.m.) He was so kind to me and took me to Wendy's drive thru for lunch and then out to the park, where we sat safely in our car and ate. He worked so hard that day to install the TV in our new Anne of Green Gables guest room, which meant climbing through the attic, running wires everywhere. That evening, we started painting the board and batten in the entryway!

* We finished the board and batten painting project on Tuesday and tried (in vain) to find the perfect gray for the wall above it. Thank goodness for the little sample cans so we didn't throw away full gallons of paint! We hosted our final small group meeting on Zoom that night. I loved the study we did this time (on Romans 8) and learned so much from it! (We really were excited about the group. Our faces were just silliness for the picture while we waited for people to join.)

* Ryan got his free health care worker happy meal on Wednesday and was so excited about it! I worked on small group stuff for church - and even wore the t-shirt to prove my loyalty! That evening I made some SINFULLY delicious buckeye cookies. Oh my goodness. SO GOOD. (We shared with friends. We didn't really eat them all ourselves.)

* I did some church work on Thursday that involved color coding Bible verses, which made me so happy! Ryan got a free lunch at the hospital, and my Anne of Green Gables art came that evening. I jumped up and down with joy when that package arrived! We were able to put most of the finishing touches on the guest room, as you already saw.

* Friday morning, I found Braeya curled up near the door, like she was going to sit right there until Ryan came home. I told her it might be a long day! One of my friends came over and we walked (distantly) through the neighborhood. It was the first time I'd had in-person friend time since early March! Apparently the day exhausted both Ryan and I, because we fell over at opposite ends of the couch that night and napped for a long time.

* Yesterday was our 89th monthiversary! Ryan worked, and I did tons of Bible study at home. It was a GORGEOUS day here - all warm and sunny - and we were able to enjoy that to the max! We went for ice cream at a walk-up ice cream place and then walked through one of our favorite neighborhoods, looking at the pretty houses. Ryan grilled our dinner, and we did all the finish work on our entry. I love how it turned out, and I have loved all the projects of the last 89 months.  Well. MOST of the projects.

The Saturday Six

One.

If the idea of a tiny house is just too tiny for you, maybe you would prefer this double wide version? TWO tiny houses to make up one home - with a sunroom in between!

Two.

Here is our one-second-per-day video for April! :)

Three.

Some of you might be familiar with the life story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and the other missionaries who were killed in Ecuador back in the 1950s. (The book and movie End of the Spear tells this story.) You might also know that the natives who killed the missionaries went on to become Christians (because the families of the slain missionaries continued to live and minister among them) and they influenced generations to come - locally and around the world - because of that transformation. I read this week that one of the men who helped kill the missionaries has died of old age. His obituary, written by the son of one of the men he killed, is powerful. You can read it here.

Four.

This post shares 15 words to use in everyday vocabulary to sound like a lady. I use three. Guess I'm not so much of  a lady. (Now if some of Ryan's ambidextrous words had made it in there, I'd be a lady all over the place!)

Five.

Ryan and I tried a new workout online last night...through Revelation Wellness. A couple of my friends have mentioned this group lately, so I decided to check them out. (I'd heard of them before, but it's been several years.) We worked up a genuine sweat in that workout!!! My heart needed the faith boost as much as my body needed the workout!


Six.

Source

This past week, our small group wrapped up its spring study. We started out live and in person and ended up meeting via Zoom over the last few weeks, but we did finish! I wanted to tell you about the book we chose in case you're looking for a study for yourself. (And that's a great way to spend some of your extra time, by the way!)

We went with another Moody Publishers study, since we had such a great experience with Erica Wiggenhorn's three studies (two on the book of Acts and one on the book of Luke). The one we did this time was written by Trillia Newbell, and it's titled If God is For Us. .It's a study on Romans 8. Yes, you read that right. Just that one chapter of Romans!

I do believe it was intended to be a study for women, but it worked just fine for us in our mixed group, and the guys seemed to jump in and embrace it just as much as the women.

Here are some of the things I particularly liked about the book:

* It's not super long, which worked well for our group. Sometimes studies can be long and cumbersome, and while I personally don't mind that, because I enjoy study, it can be hard to get a whole group on board with it. This entire study was just 150 pages long.

* It's a six week study, which also worked out well for our group. We don't meet every week, so sometimes when we get into eight week studies, it makes it hard to get the entire study done (while leaving wiggle room for schedule changes as necessary).

* The first chapter of the book covers the first seven chapters of Romans. To fully understand the 8th chapter, you have to spend a little time in the first part of the book. Because that one chapter was such a marathon through the first few sections of Romans, we actually divided into two and studied it over the course of two meetings.

* After that, the reading from Scripture slowed way down and we were able to really dig in to the verses and talk at length about them. I think some of the best discussion we ever had came out of this book, actually.

* The questions are more about reflection than repetition. Sometimes, in Bible studies, the questions are like a hunt for the right fill-in-the-blank, or you're just restating what the author JUST said. The questions in this book were more about personal reflection and application, which also worked really well for our group setting.

* Even though I've just touted its merit for a group, this book would work equally well for personal study. I learned many valuable lessons in my own preparation study, even before I got to the point where I was meeting with the group.

Romans 8 is a rich chapter, and I would highly encourage you to spend some time learning what it has to offer! And if you need a tool to help guide you, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book!

Our Anne of Green Gables Guest Room Reveal

You guys!!!! I was going to wait to do this post next week, because we have one more little piece to add to this room, but I am so excited about it that I just cannot even wait. I cannot. And since life feels the need for a tiny boost these days, I'm going to feed my excitement and show you our room, even though I'm missing one more little tiny piece. You can just imagine it, okay?

When we moved into this house four years ago, I was excited to have a dedicated guest room that was truly a private space for people who might need a place to stay. But we spent all our time and energy putting our personal touch on the rest of the house, and by the time we got to the guest room, we were kind of tired. Tired of painting. :)

So we sort of threw a few things in there to make it functional and revealed it to the blog world as seen here. We had a few guests along the way, and they all said it was cozy and lovely - and no one complained. But it wasn't what it could be, and I knew that.

A couple of years ago, in the fall of 2018, we got a call from our church, asking us if we could host a missionary in town for a week. We didn't have enough notice to properly overhaul the room, but we did try to spruce it up a little bit so it looked like it had some thought put into it. We unveiled it to the blog world here, and I thought it was a pretty good makeover on a tight budget of time and money.

But it still wasn't what it could be. I still had dreams for that room. Dreams that involved a paint job.

Enter the great quarantine of 2020.

We have time at home for the first time in - well, ever, really, in our whole marriage - and we're both healthy right now. Ryan thrives on projects, and he suggested we give that room the boost I've been wanting to give it the last four years.

So we started with the paint. I wanted gray paint. (Gray paint, by the way, is becoming the bane of our existence. Stay tuned.) So we picked out a lovely shade of gray. It was gray on the paint chip. It was gray in the can. It was even named Smoke Infusion. I mean, how gray is that????

And then one day, whilst I was deep in a Zoom staff meeting, Ryan started applying it to the wall, where it applied a firm shade of sage.

I love sage. I wasn't mad. I was confused, but I wasn't mad. But I was suddenly unsure that any of the accessories I had picked out for this room would work. They weren't anywhere near sage.

A funny thing happened, though. The longer we painted, the bluer it got. Not gray. Not sage. Blue. Robin egg blue that had a tint of green or a tint of blue, depending on the angle and the light.

"Boy, that sure is some ambidextrous paint," Ryan said.

What??? I laughed until I cried and then told him ambidextrous meant you could use both your hands as your dominant hand. But I understood what he meant.

Back when I was planning this whole room, before the ambidextrous paint showed up, I thought it would be the loveliest thing in the world to have a room inspired by Anne of Green Gables. A lovely warm, inviting, cozy little place that would cause anyone who stays in it to forget all the cares of the world.

I felt this could be accomplished best with the use of a proper quilt for bedding. And as I hunted through Amazon for a good Anne of Green Gables-y quilt, I found this. As my sister said, it had my name written all over it.

But as you can see, I wasn't sure it would work with the  ambidextrous sage/gray/blue paint. I had started to look for alternative quilts, none of which thrilled my soul like the Princess Rebekah quilt, but Ryan encouraged me to order this one and we would just see. The paint was just ambidextrous enough that it might work! And if not, we could send it back, he said. So we ordered it. And what do you know? It worked!

I also ordered (with birthday money) three darling little watercolor paintings from an Etsy shop that captured three amazing scenes from the movie. I was so excited for them. They were authentic - coming from an artist who lives ON Prince Edward Island. I mean, how much more Anne could I get??

Overall, I was really excited at the number of things we already had that we were able to repurpose. We didn't buy much for this room, yet we had a pretty dramatic transformation.

Because I can't wait a moment longer, I'll show you the before and after pictures and fill you in on the details.

Before:

After:

Details: The lamp was already in the room. We just moved it to this side to be near the bed. We kept the same bed, which is from IKEA. It sits/stores as a twin bed, but it pulls out to double in size and become a king bed. Perfect for a guest room. We also kept the same art above the bed, which is a poster in a poster frame - both from Hobby Lobby. (It still had enough of an island feel for me to allow it to stay. The bedding, which I already talked about, is new, and we got the king size quilt so it will still work when we have the bed pulled out. It came from Amazon - and came with the shams you see there. The pillows behind the shams actually came with our couch, but there are SO MANY that if we keep them all on the couch, we have nowhere to sit! So I built out the back of the bed a bit with those pillows. The tray and mugs were gifts and were already there. The mirror came from the other side of the room. I got it YEARS ago for $20 on clearance at Hobby Lobby, because it was damaged. Shortly after Ryan and I got married, we spray painted it black, ad it still worked like that! This shelf came from the other side of the room, too. We bought it right after we moved here - from a local consignment shop. It's made of reclaimed barn wood and used to be red. We spray painted it turquoise to accent the colors in the quilt. This shelf is our kid-central shelf. All the baskets have games and toys we've collected for when kids come over, and the bottom shelf has books I've gathered from the Goodwill and garage sales. I did color code them. :)

Before:

After:

Details: I have always felt sad for our guests that we haven't had a TV in the guest room. As a girl who falls asleep with a TV, I know it can matter! We found a little one on sale, so we decided to make that our splurge for the room and get it. Ryan spent a day crawling around in the attic, running wiring down the walls so we don't have to have cords hanging down. Isn't he wonderful? The shelves were moved here from the other side of the room. They're from IKEA, too. They're filled with little treasures we already owned - books and pictures and such. We did spray paint a couple of the frames with the same turquoise paint we used on the wooden shelf, just to pull in a pop of color. The bird pillow was a gift from my sister a few years ago, and it was MADE for this room. It sits on a basket of throw blankets we keep in there in case any of our guests get cold. We took down the curtain rod, spray painted it, and moved it higher up on the wall, and ordered these turquoise sheers from Amazon. We are getting a small bench that will go under the TV - and that's the one piece we're still missing. I think it will complete that side so nicely.

Before:

After:

Details: That window next to the TV used to be over by the bed, and it also used to have a yellow frame. It actually came from our old house in Marion, and I kept it because it had been my grandparents'. Ryan built out the frame so it was thicker, painted it, and we hung it above the black shelf that you can see above the red shelf in the before picture. We added some flowers to make it look a bit like a window box!

Before:

After:

Details: The 3 frames that had been hanging beside the closet were relocated above, and my beautiful new art prints now hold the vertical spot.

I. Just. Love. This. Room. I walk in it multiple times a day to just sit and enjoy.

Here are some closer details! Here are my three art prints. Oh, how I love them. They are (in order) Anne with Matthew, Anne with Marilla, and Anne with Diana. Or, as Ryan said, "Matthew, Mark, and Luke." I really need to have him watch that movie.

 A closer view of the window/window box. I'm sorry you missed Ryan shopping for these flowers via FaceTime so I could choose the ones I wanted. We spent less than $20 on all the new flowers (and floral cubes) in the room. I was happy with that!

 More flowers...and my Anne of Green Gables collection, minus book #1, which I'm currently reading.

 More flowers...

 The bed tray...and a few more flowers...

 I already had most of these flowers. Just filled in a few.

 And the bird and blankets!

Braeya approves.

So that's it! Guest Room 3.0! We love it so. (Even Ryan!)

Can't wait for our first visitors. Maybe yet this year?