What's Up at WillowBridge?

 

It's the second Wednesday of the month again, which means...it's time for the monthly "What's Up at WillowBridge" post! Since our update last month, here is a peek at what's gone on around here. It's been a BUSY month! (And fun fact - yesterday marked three months since we moved to Grabill.) 

* First of all, Tim and Ryan decided to fix the air conditioning in the WillowBridge car. I walked out into the yard and discovered the car was in many more pieces than it had been! But let the record show, they put it all back together - AND the air works! I'm sure grateful these two guys are so handy! They save us a lot of money with their sweat equity.

* We had the privilege of seeing another of our tenants baptized! This is the second one since we arrived this summer. We were actually off duty the day of her baptism, but we still went because we wanted to support her!

* Our tenants planned a community night for the staff - a staff appreciation night! The tenants worked hard to fix all the food, and they even created awards for the staff! We appreciated their thoughtfulness and all the time they put into planning this evening and making it happen!

* Ryan and I got some pumpkins and mums and decorated the outside of the building for fall. Looks so cute! We also shared some of our indoor fall decorations with the community room, just to bring a little warmth to the space. (Can't wait to decorate for Christmas!)

* I took photos for one of our tenants - and had the best time with it! It's always fun to put on my photography hat for a few minutes. We're actually working on adding "family pictures" to the community room, so this will give us a chance to have fresh pictures of our tenants for that, too!

* All the WillowBridge team worked together on doing inventory in empty apartments so when our new tenants arrive, we will be all set to receive them. Ryan and Tim also worked on touching up paint and doing other repair/maintenance in those apartments.

* One of our tenants was able to be part of a video shoot for WillowBridge - and they did all the filming in our apartment! It was a pretty fun day to have mics and cameras everywhere! And I was so proud of our tenant. She did a GREAT job articulating her thoughts about life at WillowBridge.

* We had a community day outing this past weekend, where we went to a pumpkin patch, had fun with the activities, and then picked out pumpkins to bring home and decorate. Their creativity was off the charts!

* This past weekend, the WillowBridge team had the chance to represent the building at a booth at a church. It was our first such event, and we had fun! We were especially thankful that a couple of people signed up to be volunteers for us. Huge blessing!

* We also started doing our devos differently this month. I began writing them for our team and tenants - and it's been a joy to hear their thoughts as they share what they're learning along the way. And as you read yesterday, it's been a good thing for us as a staff, too!

* We've been working on some different ideas to try to help with goal setting and accountability for our tenants, too. Trial and error! (And trial and success!)

How can you pray?

* Continue to pray for us as we seek to bring new tenants into the building! Our biggest prayers are that they will find this to be a place of hope and growth as they prepare for independence AND that even though the community within the building will change with each addition, that those changes are beneficial for the whole group! 

* Continue to pray for us as we learn how to reach each of the tenants where they are. What works or matters to one may not with another. (Same with parenting, I hear.) We really pray to keep our hearts open for the Lord to lead us toward what works best with each of them. 

* Pray for our tenants as we head toward the holiday season. We all know (no matter who or where we are in life) that holidays and family gatherings can bring about interesting dynamics and stress levels. This is our first round of holidays with our tenants, and we hope so much for them that the season proves to bring joy to them, not wounds. 

Thanks so much for all the kindness you've shown us and checking in on us randomly to see how we're doing!! We appreciate you! 

Early Start on Thankful

I know that thanksgiving is more the theme of November than it is October, but I'd like to get an early start on it - want to join me?

I had an entirely different post planned for today, but alas, yesterday went nothing as planned. After working all day, I sat down at 8 p.m. and realized every single thing on my to-do list for work remained just as it had been when I got up in the morning. Some days are like that. The best laid plans don't even come close to happening. For the list-driven among us (ahem...Bekah), that is a challenge!

Initially I'd planned to power through into the night to finish it all and do my own personal tasks also, but I just didn't have it in me. Instead, I took a long shower and settled in to journal, read the Bible, and pace out the last 2000 steps of the day. (The workout got lost in the shuffle, too.)

When days go astray, I try to spend extra time thinking about the abundance of things I have to be thankful for, because that's a better use of my time than wallowing in out-of-control days.

And one of the things I'm thankful for right now is the team we work with and the way we've been unexpectedly been coming even closer together in the last few weeks.

When we came to interview for this job, we met the Community Advocate Support Couple, who had already been working here since the start of WillowBridge. We had no idea how they felt about having a new couple come in to take the lead. It's an awkward transition, right? Leading when you're brand new to a field? Leading those who have more experience, knowledge, and understanding? Leading without overstepping? 

We met them that day, but we didn't really have a chance to talk to them too much. We were in a whirlwind of tours and interviews and more. After we were hired, they both friended me on Facebook, and we tried to learn more about each other that way, but it wasn't until we arrived here that we truly got to know them.

In addition to being a little nervous about how they might feel about us coming in to lead, we wondered if we would all just gel together as a team. Just because people work together doesn't mean they make great personality fits, and we knew that. (We've experienced it before, in fact!) 

What a blessing it has been for us that Tim and Justine not only made our transition run so smoothly, but they have quickly become dear friends to us. Early on they assured us that they looked forward to our leadership and didn't resent it. And yet they were so patient with us as we tried to learn this new field, with all its lingo and acronyms. They generously supplied answers to our (probably endless) questions and carried more than their fair share of the load for a while as we tried to get our bearings. 

And work aside, they pitched right in as friends, too. Tim helped us touch up paint in our apartment before we moved in. He also helped us unload our truck the day we arrived. Justine left encouraging notes on the desk when we were heading off duty into our weekends. They were so sweet to let us be part of their baby girl's life, even though we were new to them and her.

We've loved hosting them for dinner and meetings in our apartment. We almost always call or text each other even on our days off - just to shoot the breeze. 

But most recently, we've started doing devotions together as a staff (over email) and that has been my favorite. I wrote some devos for our tenants, and on a whim, I started sharing them with Ryan, Tim, and Justine. And now every night, after the busyness of the day has calmed a bit, we send around a message thread, sharing what we learned from our study that day. We've shared hard things and thankful things and a-ha moments and things for which we need accountability. I've come to look forward to those emails SO MUCH!

A couple of nights ago, the theme of the devo was thankfulness, and I sat in actual tears at our kitchen table, reading their kind words. We made it onto their thankful list - and they had made it onto ours, too!

Many years ago, one of my IWU co-workers told me she was very picky about the people she hired for her office, because she spent more time with them each day than she did her family. She said it mattered to her that they were good workers, but more than that, she wanted them to be good friends, because she did life with them. 

That was true for her, and I'm learning it's even MORE important when you live and work all in the same space. To have co-workers who are great at their job but also great at doing life with you is an extra special blessing. They're the newest parts of our framily tree, and we sure are thankful God matched us all up.

What are you thankful for today? 

(Finally) Meet Our Home Office!

I know...I know. You thought you were done touring Shafferland 3.0. Well...almost. :) I hadn't shown you our home office because it wasn't complete yet. But now it is!

Prior to moving into the apartment, we planned to use the room that is now our guest room as our home office. And, obviously, we planned to use our actual home office as our guest room. (It was closer to the bathroom, so that's why we planned it that way.) Alas, the intended guest room is really small, and we weren't sure there would be enough room to close the door with the bed pulled all the way out. That obviously wouldn't work, so we pulled a switcharoo and made the bigger room the guest room so it can easily accommodate the bed. 

Since we have a work office in the building too (which we share with Tim and Justine), we figured we probably wouldn't spend quite as much time in the home office as we used to in our previous homes. That has proved true so far! So even though the room is tiny, it's perfect for our needs. 

I also have to tell you this story about it - because I love how God is in the details. You may remember that in Kokomo, we used our dining room table as our office desk, because we didn't have a dining room to house it. Now we do have a dining room, so we needed a desk. We decided to actually get a sofa table (they're tall, narrow tables that many people put behind a sofa in an open concept living/dining/kitchen area) to use as our desk. We could both sit at it, but it wouldn't take up much space. 

We ordered the table in June, over a month before we even saw the apartment in person. Because of shipping delays, it didn't come in until September and by that time, we knew it was going to have to fit in the smaller room.

Guess what? It's a perfect fit. God knew!

So...wanna see the room?

Our bookshelves fit!! I was so happy! :) I set them up just like they had been in our old house. This is the fiction shelf. And you can see a glimpse of the desk/table, too. And the glow of Grabill outside the window! LOL!

And the nonfiction shelf is on the other side. This is the rainbow-organized nonfiction shelf. As I packed the books, I wrote down every title in order to make my unpacking easier! 

We are actually pretty thankful for these shelves, because this bright yellow is actually brighter than the sun without a bookcase buffer in front of it! (We could have repainted the room, but we decided not to mess with it.) 

And this is the other wall. We got this little cube organizer to hold all the office supplies that didn't fit into the closet (That's the closet door just out of view to the right there.) The stool was an office chair in our Kokomo house, and we stash it here in case we need to grab an extra chair for somewhere else in the apartment or WillowBridge office. And it looks like we need to get busy filling up our message board there! :) 

And here is the desk! There are three stools, but one is on the other side. I really do love writing here. I've been writing devos for our tenants, and this is where I do it! 

It's a tiny room, but it serves every purpose we need! We love it!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Good morning, happy Sunday, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad! He's celebrating today, and we're celebrating too...from afar! Hope you have a great day, Dad! Have an extra piece of ice cream cake for me!

While he's celebrating, I'll tell you about our week!

* We were doing some celebrating of our own last Sunday - to mark our eighth engagementversary! We went to DeBrand to split an ice cream sundae, and then we enjoyed working together for the rest of the day. (Even though we were on duty, it was a gift of sorts to get to work TOGETHER!)

* Monday morning was a gorgeous foggy fall day - and we spent the day working together with Tim and Justine. We worked on a brochure for WillowBridge, which Ryan drew out to scale. Craft projects!! (I found it much cuter than he did.) The fog had long burned off by evening, so we went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful colors! 

* Tuesday was a busy day at work! Gateway Woods had been working on a video that needed some more scenes shot, so they asked to use our apartment as a set. And that is how life felt like a Hallmark movie for a few hours! Once they were done using our apartment we all moved to another location and Ryan and I were extras in a scene. It was a fun day - and something different - but when we got home at the end of the day, I was ready for a nap!

* Wednesday was the first day of our weekend this week, and it was a gorgeous day! We pulled Fletcher the kayak out of storage and took him for a spin in the river. The trees have started to turn, and we really enjoyed our time! (We might have enjoyed it a tiny bit more if the wind hadn't kicked up so hard and worked against us all the way home!) I don't know if we'll have enough warm days off to go back out again before winter (because Indiana is such a weather gamble) but if not, this was a great finale to the season!

* We rounded out our weekend on Thursday. We ran some errands in the morning and they didn't take as long as we thought they would, so we decided to go for a bike ride that afternoon! We tried out a couple of the trails in Fort Wayne and ended up riding about 10 miles. It was a PERFECT and GORGEOUS fall day! Loved it. 

* We went back to work on Friday, which started with being extras in another video shoot. ;) On our way home from that, we scoped out some spots for fall pictures and stopped by a pumpkin patch to get the lay of the land before our community outing there on Saturday. It was a fun day - and another beautiful one to boot! Oh! And Ryan met some new friends on our walk that night. 

* And then there was yesterday! Community Day at WillowBridge! We took our tenants to the pumpkin patch and had a BLAST with the jump pad, corn maze, corn hole, and more. We picked out pumpkins and brought them back to the building to paint them together. We have some crazy talented artists in the building! It was a FUN day! 

The Saturday Six

 

One.

I adored this blogger's fall porch. All the mums and all the lanterns...and those window boxes! (There's a house down the road from us just a little bit that has been receiving an exterior makeover all summer long. I love the end of the transformation so much, especially the giant window boxes with huge plants inside. Reminds me a little of this!)

Two.

My friend Julie sent me this link to check skin care, makeup, hair care (etc.) products to see how healthy and clean they really are. As I still try to land on what I want to use in all those departments, this was both a fun and informative tool to use! 

Three.

We are actually doing a pumpkin painting community day with our tenants today, so I'm in a crafting frame of mind. I think that's why these little scrap wood pumpkins caught my attention! Even if you don't make them exactly like she did, this would be a cute and easy way to use up scrap wood you might have in your stash! 

Four.

I'm not sure if you're a Thieves cleaner kind of person, but if you are - and if you can't get enough fall/pumpkin spice in your life, here's a little cleaner recipe just for you! 

Five.

I know, I know. It's not time to think about Christmas yet!! (Except I'm already watching the movies!!) But I saw this post for some Christmas party game ideas. Not all of them may appeal or apply to you, and you may have heard of some of them before, but you might just find a fun new idea in here! (And you could easily adapt some of them to Thanksgiving or fall or whatever you need!) 

Six.

This isn't new information to you, but I am learning as I work in this job that sometimes we need to be reminded of basic truths, straight from Scripture. So take a look...and take heart!

Beautiful Day for Biking!

 Well, my friends, the time has come when Blogger absolutely will not let me revert to the old format, so hopefully this post looks okay when I actually post it! (UPDATE!!! It did post - but it shows the wrong day. This really is the post for Friday, October 9th.) They've had an upgrade waiting in the wings forever, and I've been automatically switched over a few times, but it's always let me switch back. That ship has now permanently sailed, it seems. For a girl who loathes technology changes, this is not my favorite thing. (Deep breath in and out.)

But...let's move on to much happier topics, shall we?

Yesterday was the second day of our weekend, and though we had some errands to run in the morning, we ended up getting back home sooner than we anticipated, and we decided to go for an impromptu bike ride! 

The day was absolutely perfect for a ride. PERFECT. Sunny, not really windy, beautiful fall color, and the most perfect possible temperature. 

We still haven't learned all the trailheads in Fort Wayne yet, so we went to the one we knew and began. 

It was my first time on Miss Daisy, my new bike, and I still have random bike fears from when I broke my leg on one a hundred years ago. It always takes me a while to find my "bike legs" - if that's even a thing - so we started slow. Or I did, anyway. Ryan was out of the gate with no problem!

(Can you even see him in there? I was trying to ride/wobble and photograph, so it may not be representative of my best work.)

The scenery was beautiful out there! 

We saw people along the way, but the trail wasn't crowded at all, and we had great conversations while we rode along:

At the end of one trail, we discovered we had reached the front door of The Cookie Cottage! Fun fact: when we got married, one of my WBCL co-workers gifted us some iced sugar cookies from The Cookie Cottage - and they had our name and wedding date on them.

These cookies are so good!!!

We decided to stop and get some - and I was so glad I knew us well enough to know we might get a wild hair along the trail and had packed masks. And I can only imagine what I looked like standing in line for cookies wearing a bike helmet and mask. LOL!!

And then we rode back to our car - enjoying every single gorgeous tree along the way!

At the very end, our trail went uphill more than anything else. We'd done over 10 miles by that point and my legs were a little sore. (I suppose that's allowed since I haven't been on a bike in over a year.) I was pushing it to keep up with Ryan, and he literally dangled the cookie bag in front of me. He wins the prize for knowing your audience!

He also won a prize for saying "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." Well done on the Anne of Green Gables quote, Ryan!

It was a fun day! Of course I hope the perfect fall reappears on another day off for us, but if it doesn't, we sure enjoyed this day!