Scrapbooking in Shafferland

Yesterday, Maria asked if I could do a post sometime on how I go about scrapbooking. Well, Maria, you hit a passionate topic nerve, so today is "sometime!" {PS - I meant that in a wonderful way!}

Sometimes people ask me how I got into scrapbooking, because it wasn't something my mom particularly loved to do. Don't get me wrong: she took pictures and we had photo albums of life and vacations, but "scrapbooking" wasn't trendy back in the late 70's and 80's when I was a kid. I got my first taste of it as a senior in high school, when I bought the Senior Memories book from the Herff Jones representative and proceeded to glue every single thing that happened that year into the pages. By graduation day, my book was deliciously fat and the cover sat at an impressive 90 degree angle. And I'm pretty sure that's when my love of scrapbooking was born.

College afforded no time for such frivolities, but it did afford me a few trips to Creative Memories home parties, where I learned the joy of scalloped scissors and double sided tape and archive quality pages. I learned how horrid those magnetic photo albums were and how I needed to run home right then and rip all my photos from the pages before they slid one millimeter closer to yellow ruin.

And then I graduated and became a grown up with little money and lots of time, and somehow, scrapbooking became my thing. From 2000 to 2011, I scrapbooked in the huge, thick 12x12 albums, purchased refill pages in bulk when Hobby Lobby ran sales, and spent many a weekend from morning until late in the night cutting and arranging and journaling and embellishing my pages. Had I kept going at that rate, we would have to have one full bedroom devoted to albums, because they're so huge.

In 2011, I discovered Picaboo, which is a digital scrapbooking site. There are many such sites (Shutterfly, Snapfish, MixBook, Blurb, and more) but Picaboo was where I began and it remains my only love in the digital scrapbooking world. We have a smooth relationship now. It understands me, I understand it, and we crank out albums at alarming rates.

I love digital scrapping for many reasons. It's much cleaner than traditional scrapping. I don't have to drag out supplies and make a mess and clean it up a few hours later. I can scrapbook anywhere, as long as I have my laptop and a wifi password. I can make books for days and order them whenever a good sale hits. The books look neat and professional, and they fit in tidy rows on a bookshelf. I can make photos inside as big or small as I want, I can journal to my heart's content, and cost-wise, I pay no more (maybe less, if the sale is good!) than I did with traditional scrapping, because I don't have to pay for photo prints and embellishments and ink and all those things.

So with all that said, how do I do it?

1. I have four chronological books each year. I (clearly) take a LOT of pictures. So to keep the cost factor manageable, I make one album for every quarter of the year. These albums house the memories of our everyday life. The covers have three pictures of the two of us, one from each month represented in the book.

The inside "cover page" has three more pictures of the two of us (one from each month represented in the book) and a quick recap of the highlights of life in that quarter.

I have one spread for each month of the book that includes all the daily collages you see on the Shafferland Shuffle each week. In that way, every single day of our year is represented in these chronological books.

From there, the rest of the pages are filled with the pictures and stories of our dates, holidays, adventures, county tours, trips - anything that keeps a record of that month.

 

I work on these books almost every Sunday afternoon, because scrapbooking is a restful treat to me. I try not to get more than a month behind in these books because I want to write about our days while they're still fresh in my mind. And honestly, my goal is to try to keep it current each week, but sometimes I get behind.

A page about a particular event contains a title, however many pictures I want to use to document it, and some journaling that tells the story of that event. At the end of each journaling box, I put the date(s) for that event so if I need to go back and see exactly when something happened, it's easy to do so.

2. My albums look "scrapbooky." Picaboo has SO MANY WAYS to do albums. You can make a true photo album, where you just drag and drop your pictures in rows, write a caption, and go on. Or you can do pretty backgrounds like a scrapbook, make shapes with your photos, put mats behind them, and the whole nine yards. That part is up to your preference. I like the scrapbook look, so I mix square and round photos, use photo borders (mats), and put cute backgrounds behind them. That's just my style.

3. I record names!!!! Unless the photos are of just Ryan and me (which I consider to be fairly obvious), I label each photo with the names of the people pictured. Even if they're family! Since Ryan's family  has so many kids, I know there might come a day when I look at a photo and wonder which kid it is. (Siblings can look awfully alike when they're little!) And for friends and co-workers, I know there might come a day when those people might not be part of my regular life and while I think now I would always remember their names, what if eventually I forget?? So I label every picture with FULL NAMES for that purpose.

4. I make specialty albums. Every vacation we take, every major life event (wedding, reception, our move last year, etc.) gets its own album. The events are still included in my regular albums, but at a much more abbreviated level. For example, when we take a vacation, I'll do two or three pages in the annual chronological albums to reflect the vacation, but the full story goes in another book all its own.

In those books, I'm a stickler for details. I still record the events chronologically, but I go into MUCH greater detail so I can always remember the fun we had!

In these albums, I'll include pictures of not only our adventures, but also details I might want to come back to later just to see how life has changed. I always take pictures of our hotel rooms, because who knows what hotel rooms will look like in 20 years? I know they sure look different now from 20 years ago! I also like to get pictures of things like welcome signs from each state, restaurants where we eat, the vehicle we're driving, scenery from the area, etc.

Sometimes I'll include trivia facts I find online. For example, when we went to French Lick for our anniversary this past December, we took tours of the two big hotels in town. We learned a lot of information on those tours, and I couldn't remember it all. But I found detailed stories online of the hotels and some of what we learned on the tours, so I included that in the scrapbook. It becomes a history book of sorts while recording memories.

I also record funny stories of things that happened, because while you think you'll never forget something, you will. Having those things written down in detail really helps. Because this is something I like to include, I try to do the specialty books as soon as I can after an event. If I feel it's going to take a while, I'll record the stories I want to be sure to have in a Word document or something and copy and paste it when the time comes.

5. Great gift ideas! When my niece got married last year, I asked her if she would like me to make her wedding album as a gift. {I had made her high school years album and her graduation day album as gifts for her in years gone by.} She said yes, so after the wedding, she sent me all the pictures she wanted in the book, and I assembled it. I used the same background on every page so it looked clean and professional, and I kept the verbiage in this book to a minimum. A few titles here and there, and I did insist on labeling the members of the family and wedding party pictures (see above reasoning), but otherwise, this album was just full of pictures.

She wanted to give albums as gifts to her parents and her husband's parents for Christmas, and the BEAUTIFUL thing about digital scrapping is you can make duplicates of an album and change details as necessary. So I made two duplicates of her album and then changed the wording from "our wedding" to "our daughter's wedding," etc. and changed the cover photos to match her requests for each set of parents. I love this duplicate feature, because it saves so much time!

For people who don't enjoy scrapbooking, books like these make great gifts. I've made many over the years, traditionally and digitally, and they've always been really well received.


Obviously this is not the ONLY way to scrapbook, but it's how I do it, and I hope it gives you an idea or two. Any questions? Let me know! 

Linking up with the birthday girl!

Detail Work

This week is a pivotal one in Shafferland. A "versary" of sorts, though I will refrain from commemorating it with chalkboards and parties. One year ago this week - Saturday if you like exact calendar dates - Ryan and I stepped foot in this home for the first time.

I was looking back at our moving scrapbook this week, because of course there is a whole scrapbook dedicated to this adventure, and the story still gives me great chills.

According to my record keeping, it was a year ago earlier this week when I had stumbled upon a house that had just come on the market and was so darling in every possible way. I called our agent immediately and scheduled a showing.

And then came January 22nd. A year ago this past Sunday. She called to say the darling-in-every-possible-way house was already off the market. Someone got there before we did and just straight up bought the thing. Per my scrapbook "I cried very bitterly for an entire day," and you know what? I remember that. I cried until I almost made myself sick. I had a raging headache for the whole next day, I could not be consoled - even with treats - and I was ready to call the whole house hunting thing off because I could not handle more disappointment like that.

Ryan and I talked about that day just this week. I told him as much as I love this house, I'm still a little mad that one was grabbed away from us before we could even look at it.

His wise response?

"Hey. It was the best thing. The details happened just as they were supposed to. God knew."

God knew indeed. God knew I needed a smart husband to keep me grounded when my creative writer brain gets away from me.

God knew I needed a day of grieving, too. I took it (clearly!!!) and the next day pulled out my laptop and started looking again. Ryan and I looked together and that's how we found this house. I was surprised he wanted to see it at all, because I thought a couple of things about it were deal-breakers for him, but he said he wanted to look, so I made the appointment and one year ago this Saturday, we pulled up in the driveway for the first time.

And as I wrote in the scrapbook, "I had looked at the interior pictures online, but I wasn't blown away by anything. But the moment I stepped on that porch, I inexplicably felt at home." (Now do you see why it's important to me that the porch is cute and cozy? It's where I first felt at home!

"We spent about a half hour walking through the house and found that it was in impeccable shape. The owners had lived there ever since it was first built. Even though it wasn't our dream floor plan, it was a darling, well-loved, well-constructed, well-maintained home. We could find no fault with it whatsoever."

We had another house lined up to see in a couple of days, but before we got there, that one sold too. Again. God knew.

This house was the only one we ever looked at. We made an offer five days after we walked through it, and we sat back to see how God would move.

The whole scrapbook is a beautifully woven testament to God's detail work. The buying of one house, the selling of another, the confirmation of prices offered and accepted...all of it was not a moment too early or late.

I know Ryan's right. As much as I would have loved to see that darling house I first fell in love with, God knew (for reasons I may never understand) that it was not our home. As bitterly disappointing as it was to never see it at all, I'm sure it was better than seeing it, loving it, and then walking away later. God was clear in the opening and closing of doors. This house? Wide open. All other houses? Firmly closed.

No questions. No room for doubt. Just a clear path up the sidewalk to our new home. (Which, by the way, I do love so so much.)

That season was a sweaty one for me. Trusting and waiting and watching nervously from the back row are not my most favorite things. But I sat and wrote down every single step in great detail as it happened. For me, that book is more than a fat scrapbook of moving fun. It's a chronicle of how God grew our faith, one detail at a time.

He's in the detail work. Even when the details seem harsh or unfair, He's in them, weaving future details we cannot even possibly fathom right now. 

Spring Decorating? Anyone? Anyone?

Sometimes Ryan and I learn a lot about each other while podcasting. I fear this week, Ryan learned more about me than he planned to! {Side note: rendering your husband speechless while recording an audio adventure is not a great idea. Ha!} Hope you enjoy...we sure had fun laughing!

Listen here.

Okay, I don't know what it was like in your neighborhood this weekend, but spring descended upon Indiana with much gusto, which quite frankly, just makes it that much harder to admit we're still in January, and we'll still see more snow before winter waves goodbye.

I mean, it was absolutely STUNNING here. Sunshine, blue skies, perfectly fluffy clouds, warmth, perfect weather for walking a visiting Phoebe - it was just perfection all the way around. I wanted to put away my coats and boots, uncover the grill, and head to Lowe's to buy all the flowers.

And that, my friends, is what sent me straight to Pinterest to begin plotting what I should do with our patio spaces in 2017. (What...is this not a common hobby among people???)

Here's the thing.

Last year, when we moved in, we spent alllllllllllll our time and energy on pretty much every nook and cranny of our house. INSIDE, I mean. You read the posts. We painted and redid flooring and knocked out that one wall and did the stone feature and finished off the garage. The patio spaces? Well, we stuck the furniture we already owned out there and called it a year.

It was fine. It worked.

But I know deep in my soul that our two patio spaces are something special and we did not even begin to do them justice with the attention we gave them last year.

With the inside of the house done, I have the time to pay attention to the outside. What I lack are finances. We really don't have much {read: any} money to invest in big, fun things for our outside spaces. This doesn't scare me, though, because we regularly make a little creativity go a long way. We're not afraid to DIY, but I don't know what to DIY.

Any of you out there particularly visionary in the land of patios and porches?

Here's what I have to work with. Tell me what you think!

Our front porch is a lovely little nook that last year we filled with our square wrought iron table and two wrought iron chairs. As temperatures permitted, we would sit out there to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner and watch the happenings of the neighborhood. I like our patio because the railing offers a decent amount of privacy, but it doesn't block the view. It's handy to have the little table out there, because it's easily accessible to our kitchen, making it a logical place to eat.

Having said that, I'm not sure I want to put the table back out there this year. I kind of dream of a little seating area where I could hang out to read or we could just lounge in the evening with a cup of coffee. I dream of cuteness, complete with rugs and maybe even an outdoor-appropriate lamp.

The space is 12 feet long and 6 1/2 feet wide, and has one open side, one wall, one railing that comes up 3 1/2 feet, and one wall of windows that I do not want to block in any way. I cherish my natural light!

Ideas? Something fun and cozy and pretty all at once? AND practical? AND cost-effective?

Our back porch is equally lovely and somewhat of a blank slate in my mind. It's a long rectangle, 30 feet long and 12 feet wide in all, but it's divided into two parts. There's a cement slab that we covered with rubber tile last summer and that part is also surrounded by a lovely privacy fence. (The previous owners had a large table for eating right in this part.)  The other section is a wooden deck surrounded by a wooden fence that is high enough for child/animal safety but see-through enough to not feel closed in. Part of this section also has a pergola (ahhhh our pirogi!) over it.

Last summer we did pretty much NOTHING with this porch. We put our beloved hammock for two under the pergola, stuck a little round table next to it, and called that end done. We put Ryan's grill on the cement slab end, put our old white wooden door (which I painted in part with chalkboard paint) next to it, and that was the extent of our decorating!

So we have the 18x12 deck and the 12x12 slab, and other than knowing I want to keep the hammock and grill back there somewhere, I don't know what to do! Do I make a dining area? An outdoor kitchen that we build around the grill? A living space? AAAHHH!!!

(Side note that may be important: we do have a fire pit, but it's in the backyard, just behind this patio. It needs to stay back there.)

So tell me, Pinterest-lovers, spring-dreamers, decorators-extraordinaire! What should we do? What should we make? WHEN CAN WE START?????

Back to Life as We Know It

Well, my friends, gallcation is over. {Apparently, being male, Ryan preferred to call his a "gallcation" rather than a "gallternity leave."}

Friday afternoon, Ryan picked up his surgeon's note and HR clearance to return to work today. He's definitely had a rougher go of it than I had where the pain has been concerned. We'd been told that was a possibility. I believe the kind way the surgeon phrased it was, "Those who have tighter stomach muscles have more pain." Yeah. I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down there.

So no more afternoon dates that look like this:

Sad indeed, isn't it?

But my goodness, what an unbelievable privilege it was for me this last week to have the freedom to serve Ryan at home. We had dinner with his family last night to celebrate his sister's birthday, and I think every single person there asked him if I had been a good nurse. He kindly said yes, while I sat beside him and shook my head vehemently NO. Was I a willing nurse? Absolutely. But willing and good are two TOTALLY different things, and let's not misrepresent!!

But even though it's not my natural gift, I did thank God multiple times a day that I was home and able to take care of Ryan and also have time to spend with him. We had many good talks, a lot of rest, a lot of quality time, and I was just thankful.

We reintroduced foods and learned that he can handle everything he could before the gallbladder conked out. {Whew! Gotta get back on an eating schedule. I "helped" him with reintroduction and that was a lotta treats in one week!}

And on Saturday, we got to see our favorite girl!!

PHEEBS!!!!!!

She came over to play, and partway through our time together, we were invited to hang out with our friends Mike and Angie - to play more virtual reality games. We just packed Phoebe up and took her with us, and we had a GREAT time!

Mike made his famous lattes:

 And Phoebe hung out in my lap while we played. It was such fun! {Ryan won...bet you can't tell.}

A good and fitting conclusion to our week. Fun, togetherness, treats, healing, rest, laughter, friends...and now a return to reality for everyone!

And as a fun piece of useless trivia: it was two years ago yesterday that I landed in the ER with the beginning of my gallbladder diagnosis!! Full circle, baby.

The Shafferland Shuffle

I feel like I should begin today by thanking you profusely for all the many prayers, texts, messages, and gifts you've showered on us this week! We've eaten well and this girl is grateful for the break in cooking as so many brought meals this week! Thank you!

And now...a  slower look at our week.

* Last Sunday was the last day before Ryan's surgery, and we were grateful to have the day at home with no obligations! Ryan caught this super cute picture of Braeya peeking out between the curtains. I baked zucchini bread to keep us going throughout the week, and we ended the day with Ryan's last meal before surgery: Subway on flatbread!

* Monday was Ryan's surgery, and though you've already read about that, I have to say again how grateful I am for the way God worked out the timing and carried my nervous heart through the day! Ryan was brave and cool throughout the whole thing, and I was thankful for my parents, and Ryan's dad and step-mom, who sat with me and kept me distracted throughout surgery and recovery. And I appreciated our friend Shawn, who drove a fairly good distance to check on us that night!

* By Tuesday morning, Ryan was doing much better in the nausea/alertness departments. He was up and drinking coffee that very morning! We took it easy on food that day, sticking close to chicken soup and other things we knew would be safe, and that night, Ryan's boss and his wife delivered dinner to our doorstep, which was a lovely blessing! The day itself was dreary and blah, so it was nice to be home together all day!

* Wednesday was another dreary day, so we enjoyed most of it at home, looking at the pretty flowers my family sent Ryan. Our friend Troy brought over our lunch (and we had enough for several leftover meals!), which was delicious, and that afternoon, Ryan thought he was ready for a little outing. So of course: Starbucks!! On the way home, he wanted to stop by his work and see his friends, so we did that, and it really seemed to do his heart good! Made me happy!

* By Thursday, Ryan was feeling well enough to spend a few hours in the office and get some things done he'd been wanting to try! He also got brave enough to try eggs for breakfast. Eggs had been on the NO list prior to surgery, so that was a big step! He rested a lot that day, which was good for him, and that evening, our friends Mike and Angie stopped by with homemade lattes for them. Their labeling is prizeworthy!!

* Friday morning we watched the Inauguration, and then went to the surgeon and HR offices to get Ryan's clearance to go back to work. I'm happy he's progressing so well but sad to think about our time together coming to an end! We did a little shopping while we were out, and that night, he wanted to try fast food and see how that settled with his tummy. We went to Wendy's, he got his favorite meal, and other than being really FULL from how much he ate, he felt great! YAY!!!!

 * Yesterday was our last "down" day before returning to normal. And guess what?! We got to spend most of the day with Phoebe!! She missed us, I think! And we got a surprise invitation to go hang out with Mike and Angie last night so we could play virtual reality games again. We packed up Phoebe and took her with us - and I think she had fun!

Linking up with Tamar

The Saturday Six

** Quick housekeeping item: KAREN BLINN!! You are the winner of Designed to Pray, the book I featured on the Saturday 6 last week. I'll email you and make arrangements to get your copy to you! Hope you enjoy it! **

One.

I don't think I need to explain to you why I think this photo organization method is so amazing, do I? I happened upon this whole post via Pinterest, and while this girl-after-my-own-heart has a ton of amazing organization ideas, the photo one made my heart sing the most.

Two.

Whether or not you liked the change of presidential power yesterday, I'm pretty sure you can appreciate this article about the nuts and bolts of how they move one President out and a new one in to the White House in one afternoon flat. Given that we took something like a month to move from one house to another, this whole process absolutely fascinated me. I think if we ever move again (which is unlikely), I'd like this staff to be in charge.  

Three.

Maybe Ryan and I are the last people on earth to learn about the RTIC Tumblers, but just in case you're with us, let me fill you in! Ryan's brother and his family gave both of us an RTIC tumbler for Christmas, and we used them this week while home on Ryan's gallternity leave. Mind-blowing and beverage-changing! They're marketed to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold for a ridiculous amount of time and they actually do. Ryan had coffee in his and hours later, he said it was still piping hot. I had iced tea in mine and still had most of the ice in it the next day. We are sold! Love them!! Worth the investment if you're looking for new drinkware!

Four.

I've talked often on here about Katie Farrell and the Dashing Dish website. Love Katie's ministry and her recipes! She recently announced that she's expecting her first child, and on  her blog this week, she posted a wonderful article about things she learned in the waiting. Whether you're waiting on a baby or something else entirely, I think you'll find some helpful words in here! 

Five.

Valentine's Day is less than a month away now, you know. Found this post with a multitude of decor ideas, but my favorite is the one for decorating an old window frame for Valentine's Day. Since we have three old windows decorating our home, I love this idea for sprucing them up! 



Six.

Source

As you know, our January has leaned more toward the heavy side, not because of all the food we ate during December, but because of all the health debacles. I decided life was heavy enough. No need for the book of the week to add to it! So I shopped on my shelves and found one I'd never had time to read, but knew I'd laugh all the way through: The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle.

Melanie has published three books, and if I'm not mistaken, I think her fourth one is coming soon, but I had only read two of the three she'd published so far. I started with her first book, Sparkly Green Earrings, which is a hilarious memoir on motherhood, and then shortly before I left WBCL, I read her third book Nobody's Cuter than You, an equally hilarious memoir on friendship. (I also interviewed her about that book back when I was still in radio.)

But the middle book, The Antelope in the Living Room, her memoir on marriage, sat on my shelf, raising its invisible book-hand, begging to be read, but I just hadn't gotten to it! And my goodness, was it ever the perfect book for a heavy month!

If you've read either of Melanie's other two books, I'm happy to report that her conversational, blogger, story-telling tone carries through this one exactly like it did the other two. I am pretty sure I even read it in a southern accent, because she has one, and it's delightful, and I wanted to feel like she was reading the book to me.

This book is a collection of stories from her marriage to Perry, who is her opposite in many ways, and yet her best friend and support. I laughed so hard and made Ryan mute the TV no less than 37 times so I could read him "just one more thing" from the pages, because sometimes Perry and Melanie were so Ryan and Bekah.

I confess perhaps I should not have read the chapter on Perry's surgeries prior to Ryan's gallbladder extraction, because Melanie freaks out about the same sorts of medical mishaps I do, and it reminded me I worry for a reason. But even though it didn't calm my fears, it let me know I wasn't alone in them, and for that, I was grateful.

I appreciate how most of the chapters end with a tie in to a spiritual lesson, but I just dearly love the stories themselves. They are totally worth the read. It's good to laugh. It's good to know you're not alone in your own personal irrational thoughts. It's good to read real life stories. And did I mention it's good to laugh?

This book isn't a new one. It was published in 2014, so I'm clearly behind the times on this one. But it was a lighthearted read sorely needed in this month of heavy thinking. If you're having a heavy January, I recommend this one. (And Melanie? I cried forever too over Princess Diana's death. I can't believe neither of our husbands took it as personally as we did.)

A Shafferland Day in the Life, January 2017

Julia from My Life in Transition does "Day in the Life" posts every quarter, where she records what life is like for one day from start to finish. I love the posts, but always felt our life was probably too boring for such a post. (Although I sorely wish now I would have done one when I worked at the station!)

But record-loving me knows that in ten years, I'll wish I'd done a "boring" post on our 2017 life, so today is my first day to post such an event! None of our days ever look the same (EVER!) but here was what last Saturday looked like in Shafferland. (Sorry in advance for the length.)

Saturday, January 14, 2017
Bekah is 38 years old
Ryan is 37 years old
Braeya (the cat) is 10 years old
Married 4 years (49 months)


6:00 a.m. || The alarm goes off for the first time and is appropriately labeled for how I feel about all alarms. I decide to ignore it. For the next 52 minutes, actually.

6:52 a.m. || Ryan is up and getting ready, and alarm #2 crawls on the bed and begins her version of beeping. There is no snooze button on this one.

6:55 a.m. || I'm up, because alarm #2 wants a drink from the sink. Yes. She has a water bowl that is always full, but she insists her drinks come from the sink. And she can put away some serious H20.

7:01 a.m. || He normally already has it going, but he must have ignored his alarm too, because I find Ryan brewing coffee. My day can't officially begin until that is ready and consumed.

7:02 a.m. || I'm in my purple bathrobe and relegated to the couch to read blogs, check all the social media, and see the latest conflicting set of opinions on the ice storm we may or may not get today or tomorrow or never.

7:22 a.m. || Ryan delivers my cup of coffee to me and proceeds to check the weather which has, in fact, changed significantly in the twenty minute span since I checked it. Eyeroll, Indiana.

7:30 a.m. || Ryan and I cuddle up on the couch for our devotion and prayer time together before he goes to work for a while. We have just started reading LuAnn Fulton's book Image Seeker.

7:45 a.m. || We are two days away from Ryan's gallbladder surgery, and yesterday we learned that in the next little town over, 172 students were absent from the elementary school and 29 more were sent home with stomach crud. So our life from now until post-op consists of vitamins, oils, diffusing, and anything that will keep the crud at bay. I begin the oil regimen for the day.

8:10 a.m. || I am curled up on the couch eating my go-to breakfast these days: plain Greek yogurt sweetened with honey, homemade granola, and blackberries on top. Since it's Saturday, I'm allowing myself all the extra time in the world to read blogs and Facebook links, and currently I'm wandering through a post about a cookie for every state in the USA. No wonder I want breakfast.

8:36 a.m. || I pause the fun to do some work. I recorded a podcast this week with the author of a prayer book, and I need to promote the podcast on social media and email links of my work to her publicist - keeping up my end of the promises for having her as a guest. And of course, I'm OCD, so I have a checklist for all the promotion chores to make sure I don't miss any.

8:58 a.m. || I'm sitting at 300 steps for the day, which is not stellar for being up for two hours. But it's not out of the ordinary for a writer on a Saturday. So I get up and begin the first of many laps around the house. In the summer, I get my steps in outside, but winter knocks out that possibility, so throughout the day, it's lap time!

9:23 a.m. || I now have a more respectable 2000 steps under my bathrobe belt, and would have had them done sooner, had Braeya not needed another long drink and a potty break. {If you missed that post, we are in the throes of toilet training - like actually TOILET training - our cat, so potty breaks actually require monitoring and documentation of their own.} Before moving on to the next activity, I've decided to pause and begin a kitty training post, since so many have asked for updates on this adventure so they can go and do likewise.

10:06 a.m. || I'm getting dangerously sleepy on the couch, so it's time to get up, get showered, and get ready for the day. Since I have no intentions of leaving the house today {although so far = no ice} I decide to just do the skincare regimen and not mess with makeup, but I WILL go to the trouble of drying and straightening my hair so I don't have to do that all over again tomorrow and can instead sleep longer! {My hair is so thick that it takes FOREVER to dry and straighten, so I always make sure I can get two days out of it.} Athletic workout shirt and yoga capris since I'm in for the day. How I do love a Saturday!

11:02 a.m. || Finally conquered the hair, so I'm officially ready for the day. Realized that Rosie {our iLife vacuum} never ran this morning because we keep forgetting to reset her auto-start feature, so I start her and resume the step-gathering for the day. Walking in the house is beyond boring, so I pass the time by texting Ryan to see what time he's coming home for lunch, texting my sister in Kansas to see if their predicted ice storm actually showed up, and surfing Facebook, where I find the most ADORABLE picture of Ryan and his siblings then and now. Man, he was the cutest kid in the universe! Those dimples!!

11:37 a.m. || 5000 steps conquered, which puts me right where I want to be by lunch time. Ryan just texted that he's heading home {carefully, as freezing rain has arrived, according to the Scanner Facebook page}. I've got green beans cooking on the stove, I'm working on my next round of water {since I'm behind - whoopsie!!} and I'll warm up our leftover meat from yesterday so we can throw down a quick lunch before he has to go back to work to treat more patients.

11:47 a.m. || Lunchtime! Leftovers for the win with warmed up coffee from the bottom of this morning's pot to cap it off. While we eat, we talk about his morning, how long he'll have to work in the afternoon, and how horrible of a commute all his co-workers who live far away are about to have when it's time to go home.

12:18 p.m. || The mail arrived while we were eating, so before he goes back to work, he runs out to get it so I don't have to. It's my favorite kind of mail day: I got a package! A new book, which I'll read next week and hopefully be able to arrange an interview with the author soon!

12:23 p.m. || Ryan slides back to work, and I make a date with the couch for some more reading before I get up to do some chores. Coffee and Pinterest sound like a good start to the afternoon.

12:48 p.m. || Phone rings and it's my friend from college/editor of my last book, Amy, who had asked if she could interview me for a project she needs for her degree. Of course! It's perfect timing since Ryan's at work. She settles in with her questions and I realize I could knock out some steps while I answer, so I pace around the house and have the nicest talk with her.

1:54 p.m. || Interview concludes and so does my step goal! SWEET!

2:00 p.m. || Pull out my Bible and brand new journal {one of life's true pleasures - if you're a writer} to have my devotions and pray for a while.

2:27 p.m. || Expecting Ryan home from work anytime now, so I hustle into the kitchen to empty the dishwasher, which ran after breakfast this morning, clean up the general mess I hadn't bothered with after lunch, make a pitcher of iced tea, and refill the diffuser. While I am up, I make my 2:30 snack, which Ryan always teases me about. If the clock turns 2:31 and I've not had my snack, my body starts hollering. It ALWAYS knows 2:30.

2:43 p.m. || Finally sitting down with the 2:30 snack. Today's snack of choice is the Dashing Dish Chocolate Chunk protein shake. My favorite. And the cup makes me smile too. Favor from my niece's wedding last summer. Always drink my shakes from this cup!

3:06 p.m. || Ryan's still not home, proving that "anytime now" is a very broad range. I decide to do the next project on the list, which is to take down all the old Christmas cards hanging inside the kitchen cabinets and replace them with the photo cards we received for Christmas 2016. I like to keep them hanging up all year, out of sight, but where I see them daily, so I can pray for our friends!

3:26 p.m. || Ryan texts that he's headed home and we have our standard code conversation for "Do you want a Coke?" followed by "yes please," without actually having to admit I want a Coke. His timing is perfect. The photo hanging project is done just as he writes.

3:48 p.m. || Ryan is home from work, changed into comfy clothes, and we've hit the couch with the remote, which is when I realize I have never turned on the TV all day! He's not feeling great, but we power through because the gallbladder eviction date is IN SIGHT. Sounds like rest is in order.

4:09 p.m. || He's already asleep on the couch, and that nap I kind of wanted this morning is beckoning again, so I curl up beside him. Clearly there will be no photos of us sleeping unless Braeya has miraculously figured out photography. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her lately. Probably taking an all-afternoon nap of her own.

4:57 p.m. || Found her! Wake up when Braeya walks across my hip while I am sleeping and curls up on Ryan's lap, which is her favorite place to be. Discover I've missed about 8 texts from various people in the last half hour, so I stay up to respond. Figure I should probably get up and start working on dinner, but it's just so cozy all curled up under a blanket with Ryan. Decide to catch up on Facebook and emails before moving.

5:20 p.m. || Crawl off the couch and head to the kitchen to start on dinner. We're still on the all-chicken diet, since it's about all Ryan can eat without feeling sick. I assemble salads {spinach, celery, almonds, cranberries and cheese} and defrost chicken breasts to grill on the stove for the top. Ryan's watching football, and gets up long enough to brew the evening pot of coffee before heading back to the game.

5:48 p.m. || Sit down in the living room to eat our salads and watch football. {In 2016 we made a goal to try to eat more meals at the table and we do, almost all the time. But if we want to watch TV while eating, we'll make an exception and move to the living room.} Someone shows up hoping for scraps.

6:03 p.m. || Ryan is feeling better and decides Marie Callender's Razzleberry pie sounds good. Surprisingly this is one thing he can eat without getting sick, and he can have so few pleasures in the food world right now, that who am I to say no? He bundles up and heads to the store for a pie to get him through the weekend. I wait at home to preheat the oven.

6:30 p.m. || The pie is in the oven, the coffee has brewed, and we decide if we don't work out RIGHT NOW, it's never going to happen. We're working our way through the BeachBody Hammer and Chisel workouts, and tonight is Chisel Balance. I'm terrible at balance, but I want pie, so I'll do my workout! We change into workout clothes, fill up our water bottles, and get busy balancing.

7:13 p.m. || Workout done, and we crash. Ryan goes back to football and I check in with my workout accountability group and begin to edit pictures from a family gathering a week ago. I've been so caught up in all the gallbladder stuff that I forgot I had pictures sitting in the camera!

8:00 p.m. || Ryan brings coffee and pie to me on the couch, and we eat while he flips back and forth between football and Dateline and I write Sunday's blog post. Braeya begs for dessert just like she begs for dinner. No shame for that one.

8:51 p.m. || I pour second cups of coffee for each of us and pull out my new coloring book I got for Christmas. All my to-do list items are officially crossed off for the day, so I am happy to have time to sit down and decompress while I color.

9:21 p.m. || Remember that I never shared Christmas pictures with Ryan's family. Stop to upload copies for each of them so they can use as they wish. Sometimes I feel like Amelia Bedelia. I get so easily sidetracked and have to stop RIGHT THEN to do whatever I think of!

10:02 p.m. || I have my standard end-of-night snack: a small mug of healthy cereal. The night is winding down, and Ryan and I are curled up on the couch with our laptops. Pinterest for me, Amazon reviews for him. We are the coolest. We stop now and then to tell stories from our day and exchange useless trivia. These common, low-key nights are my favorite.

10:16 p.m. || I check the weather to see if there will be any impact on our drive to church tomorrow and then peek ahead to Monday to see what the weather looks like around the time of Ryan's surgery. If they're right, looks like we should be okay all the way around. It's Indiana, though, so this forecast could change 100 times between now and Monday.

10:30 p.m. || I load all our dinner/snack dishes into the dishwasher, reapply oils, refill the diffuser to run while we sleep, and check to make sure Ryan turned on the heated mattress pad. He has, of course. He's good with the details.

10:48 p.m. || My calves are tight and sore, which is not unusual, so Ryan is kind enough to give me a leg massage. He claims I could sit for a 24 hour massage and he's probably right. He's yawning, so my guess is this won't be a 24 hour massage, but I'm loving it anyway!

11:15 p.m. {ish} || We both fall asleep watching football, which is a sign it's about time to call it a night.

11:36 p.m. || We drag ourselves to bed and turn on Friends, which is typically what we fall asleep watching. We talk for a few minutes and Braeya crawls up beside Ryan. Not sure how long we stay awake before we finally conk out!

All in all, it was a very good and productive Saturday. Maybe we're not as boring as I thought! :) And that's a day in the life of Shafferland, January 2017!