Words

My mind has been absolutely consumed by this the last few days, so I guess that means it's time to write about it.

I mentioned in the Saturday Six that I'd watched the video clip of Martha Stewart's comments toward bloggers - comments that garnered quite a wave of, well, hateful comments from the blogging community.

I spent a couple of hours one evening just hopping from blog to blog where women vented in open letters to Martha and then dozens of readers chimed in the comment section with vehement approval - of how they'd never support her products again.

I read through the "about me" section for every blogger and most didn't make a profession of faith. I'm not making a judgment call on their faith...simply saying they left no comment about it. But for those who do publicly proclaim they follow the Lord, the tone of the displeasure hurt my heart.

Did they have the right to be ruffled by her comments? Absolutely! Did they have the right to air their disappointment in her apparent position? Of course! It was just in the delivery. Where they could have chosen to speak out of disappointment, they chose instead to speak out of anger.

For those of you who have a blog...or a Facebook account...or a Twitter feed...or any other kind of platform that allows you to speak your mind in such a way that people can hear...do you realize what a privilege that is? Do you realize that even 10-15 years ago, the average person didn't have a way to connect {for free, anyway} with anyone outside the immediate circle of family and friends? Do you realize, when you put words online, that out there somewhere, someone you don't even know...is reading and absorbing?

Do you realize that some of those people don't know the Lord and if you spend any time at all talking about your journey with Him, they're going to sit up and take notice, and every word you say is not only your word, but it's HIS word to them too? That you're representing Him with every keystroke?

I don't write this pretending that I've never messed it up. I know I have. And I'm grateful for the times God rescued me from myself and led me to delete a ranting post before it went live. I'm also grateful for His forgiveness in the moments I did NOT exercise restraint and said hurtful things.

Oh that we would use our filters...read and reread our words to make sure they are soaked in grace.


Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when He judges the world. - 1 Peter 2:12

I know that verse talks about unbelievers, but what if we lived just as honorably among our fellow believers?

Praying for God to keep my own words and this little blog a place that honors Him at all times.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we were able to attend church with our friends, Frog and Jenna, before we came home. They lead a congregation of really sweet people who made us feel very much at home during our visit! After lunch, we headed home and spent the rest of the day driving and enjoying hours of talking and dreaming together!

* Monday, we had the day off and we enjoyed THE most beautiful day of rest. I don't know that we've ever had a day off work where we relaxed so much! {We did go to the gym for the first of our structured workourts.} We slept in, caught up on DVR'd shows, I scrapbooked, Ryan watched football, and I read this entire book in one sitting.

* Tuesday, I returned to work and spent most of the day moving back into my office. It felt so good to be back home, even though it's still not home yet. I still have more work to get everything all organized. This was the first order of business in making it home:

* Wednesday night, Ryan told me he was going to "do some work on the bathroom." {You know. The one we just redid?} The tub had a leak in it - so when I came home...well...you could sort of see through the wall. He is nothing if not thorough. As you might imagine - this led to an extensive date to Lowe's.

* Thursday night I survived more working out at the gym...and then we came home for a delicious dinner of two Dashing Dish recipes. Enchiladas and a cookie!! :) Ryan got to play with his saw for a while - still working on the bathroom. And Braeya decided to use the corner of our new bathtub surround as a teething ring. You can imagine our amusement.

 * Friday evening, we went on a surprise impromptu date! We had dinner at home, but decided to use one of our gift cards to go out for dessert. So...we headed over to the Cracker Barrel and ordered coffee and apple dumplings. Ummmm someone should have mentioned HOW HUGE those dumplings are! We could have shared!! No worries though - apple dumplings for the weekend = goodness!

* Last night, Ryan and I worked the Jeremy Camp concert in Fort Wayne. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a night of worship so much at a concert. We got to be in there for most of his part, and it was wonderful! We really appreciated his genuine spirit. SWEET artist.

The Saturday Six.

One.

You might remember the fan debacle from the cruise...and would you BELIEVE IT...after all we went through to take that fan on the cruise, we forgot our fan when we went to Frog and Jenna's. Good gravy. So Ryan downloaded the fan app we learned about AFTER the cruise. Works. Like. A. Charm. {It's called Sleep Fan if you need one. I prefer for it to run at the freight train roar level.}

Two.

On our way home, I looked up ways to preserve pumpkins, since, you know, we carved them while we were gone. I think this may be the most thorough study on pumpkin preservatives out there. So, you know, if you're about to carve....

Three.

I don't think I've read fiction since Jody Hedlund's second book. It's not that I don't like fiction. It's just that I don't have a lot of time to read and if I do have time to read - it's usually something nonfiction. But through a crazy turn of events, I ended up with a copy of Amie Johnson's novel The Valley Without Her. Amie and I were students at IWU at the same time, but I didn't know her very well back then. Anyway. I read the whole book in one fell swoop. LOVED IT. Looking for some good fiction? Check it out. 

Four.

Source

You know I'm a huge fan of Katie Farrell over at the Dashing Dish. Her recipes are SO GOOD. She also shared this post this week...she and her husband built a house! I adore looking at houses, so if you love that too, check out the beauty of her new home!

Five.

I watched this interview clip of Martha Stewart speaking about social media and specifically about bloggers. She said bloggers aren't experts...and they don't have trained editors like a magazine or test their recipes in test kitchens. And boy did she tick off the blogging community! I haven't ever blogged about any of her products or received anything in exchange for a review, but I do have this to say about the hubbub: Martha described me perfectly. I'm not an expert. I'm just a Bekah who writes a blog. I don't have a professional editor. I just have a husband who pre-reads everything and points me toward missing words and things that might need reworded to sound better. And I don't test my recipes other than to whip up a batch for dinner. I just share things I think you might like to try too. So she didn't offend me. She was dead on about who I am as a blogger. What offended me was some of the backlash from people who on any other day, blog about their relationship with the Lord. It was such a disappointing witness to me.

Six.

Source

And speaking of words...I adored this post by Annie Downs about speaking love into the lives of the authors who molded your life. I might have to write more about this next week. For now - just read and ponder.

Bekah Does the Bench Press

Oh yes. You read it right.

If you were listening to BLT yesterday, I apologize. This will be a rerun. But it's too good a story to not share it.

So you remember how we've been going to the gym, right?

Well, Monday evening, we did a core workout. I didn't even know I had a core. Now I not only know I have one...but I also know it's not speaking to me.

So Tuesday evening, we went into the big boy weight room to work on our arms. And that included...the bench press.

Do I look like a girl who has ever used one of those before? Yeah. I didn't think so.

Ryan told me to lay down on the bench to begin my exercise. Problem. The bench was not as wide as my backside. And due to the core workout the day before, I was unable to just lay down. I needed to sort of ease back on my side and then roll to my back. But since it was a bench and not a bed, I couldn't do that.

I went back as far as I could and then just dropped like a potato onto the bench - carefully avoiding the bar above my head. No time for a concussion.

Then Ryan told me to lift the bar.

Just the bar. There was no actual weight on it yet. I lifted. Or at least I tried. Did you know those bars weigh FORTY FIVE POUNDS???? That is just 30 kinds of ridiculous!! So there I was, balancing on this teeny bench, trying to lift this stupid non-weight-bearing 45 pound bar. Ryan had to do most of the lifting.

He told me to push up on the bar. I did, simultaneously craning my neck to check the hallway for college students who might be watching. He told me not to worry about it. Seriously? If I walked through the hallway and saw me, I'd have started tweeting about the crazy girl in the weight room. I just wanted to know how many of those onlookers I had!

Finally, with assistance, I did my reps, and then I began to get up.

Couldn't do that either.

Ryan had to come pull me off that bench. Something tells me I am not the poster child for the workout program.

Once I was back up on my feet, I made my way to the other side to watch Ryan bench press his warmup 225 pounds.

It's gonna be a long haul, y'all. How long do you think it will be before all my muscles like me again??

And the end of the Road Trip

Here's a wrap-up of our weekend away to visit our friends!

Ryan really wanted to go eat at Giordano's pizza, which they have up in the Chicago area...have you ever heard of it? It is like the pizza of all pizzas. Check this out! This is what it must mean to see a real pizza pie:

 To get a pizza like this means you have to wait about a half hour, so while we waited, we entertained ourselves with photos:

And the fun didn't stop there! After we ate, Adelaide asked if she could see what was in my purse. Among the things in my purse: a tripod. {Don't give me that look. That is not weird!!!}

She wanted to take pictures using said tripod, so she and Ryan got to work on that.

On our way home from dinner, they took us past a house where the couple built an actual pirate ship in their front yard - for their wedding! It was dark when we went by, so my picture is a bit blurry, but here you go:

We spent the night again Saturday night and went to church with Frog and Jenna on Sunday morning!

Adelaide offered us both books during church. This is what she gave to Ryan:

I told Ryan that he's going to be her Brian. {Brian was the guy I had my first crush on - at age four.}

After church, we went back to Frog and Jenna's for lunch - and a little coloring:

 

And then it was time to head home! We, much like the wise men, went home by a different route. Still took us forever, but at least we didn't spend two hours sitting in one spot!

Sorry my head is so big. I was covering the sun. Now THAT is a big head. When it covers the sun.

Thank you, Indiana for repairing your broken "welcome to Indiana" sign.

Oh wait. I remember. You didn't fix it.


We didn't get home until about 10:00 at night - but it was a FANTASTIC weekend!!!

Carving Punkins

After our trip to the orchard....we went back to Frog and Jenna's to carve pumpkins!!! I was super excited about this, because I'd never before {by myself} carved a pumpkin! I've been part of group carving adventures, but never a solo carving.

First, we let the kiddos have their moment painting pumpkins. We waited until they were napping to bring out all the sharp tools and get to work.

They had much fun - and as far as we know, no one ate any paint!

Then...the big kids got to work. Take a look at some of the prep portion of our day:

 Pumpkin slime = so. so. gross.

 At Adelaide's request, Jenna attempted a Dorothy pumpkin. This is her pre-carving freak-out face.

 Frog, the pumpkin carving guru, went for a minion.

 Working on the pattern. Yes. I poked holes through a paper. Don't judge me.

 Ryan, diligently working on his pumpkin.

 I kind of wanted to call it done here...just in case it never got any better. LOL!!

 Playing with knives!!

 The minion taking shape. Frog and Jenna are experts and are into the whole pumpkin shaving thing.

 The friends who carve together...are still friends ten years later!!

So here were the finished products, and we put this picture on Facebook to take a vote. {We didn't say who did which pumpkin.}

Close-ups of each one:

I thought they all turned out REALLY REALLY cute!!!

And here we are claiming our works of art:

It was so much fun!!

Apple Orchard!

One of the best reasons to visit Frog and Jenna in the fall is...the apple orchard! They live near this MASSIVE orchard/pumpkin patch/photo opp treasure trove. It was overcast when we arrived, and about halfway between the van and the big barn, it started POURING. Good thing we brought along the umbrellas!!

While we {along with a few hundred other people} took shelter in the big marketplace barn, I took a few pictures...

LOVED the massive chalkboard. 

 How can a store be bad with this many bins of candy???

 A billion kinds of decorative gourds.

 And my favorite - Honeycrisp apples. THEY ARE SO GOOD!!!!!

 I misread this sign at first. My brain did not see the middle line. Kind of changes the meaning....

 The orchard is famous for its apple cider donuts, and Ryan had never had one. We bought a bag of them and have been enjoying them ever since. SO GOOD!!!!

 These are my friends we went to visit! Jenna and I worked together in Financial Aid over 10 years ago, and we're still friends!!! She and her husband got married almost 10 years ago {I was at that wedding!} and now they have two adorable kiddos!!

Ryan and I got in on the photo opp too!

It was at this juncture that my hair began to grow {rapidly} in the post-rain humidity. It was kind of funny by the time I got home!! Ryan's hair held up well. I've GOT to start using his product.

Next up - we visited the little animal barn.

Apparently I wasn't the only one suffering from growing hair:

 Lincoln and his larger than life cane...checking out the goats!

 A goat after my own heart: guarding the food dish in the ultimate way.

 The rooster kept crowing, and inside the tiny barn, it was pretty loud! Adelaide wasn't too sure about that.

 Trying to get in touch with my inner farmer...since Ryan grew up on a farm....

 I think our search for a new house has ceased....

 Whoopsie!!

 My husband is such a turkey....

 Too, too cute....

 Frog and Jenna...

 This woman's hand placement is 30 kinds of awkward!! Is she in labor? Constipated? Itching?

 And before we left...a little bell ringing!

We had a great morning - and we were glad it stopped raining!!!