Laundry Lessons

 

I could do a day in the life post every day for a year, and you'd never read about the same adventure twice. We had a new-to-us adventure last night when one of our tenants put too much in her washer, causing the water to spill out onto the floor. Ryan cleaned up all the water, double-checked all the hoses to make sure that really was the only issue, and we moved the sopping comforter into our apartment to finish washing it, since we have a larger washer.

(I had to giggle, because that even though we put the comforter in our laundry basket to transport it, it was so wet that it sloshed water out the side all the way to our laundry room, making it look like I had a very lengthy and unfortunate accident throughout the entire building.)

Earlier in the week, I actually had a different laundry discussion with a different tenant, and she asked great questions about things I never would have thought to teach her - only because I've been doing laundry forever, and I forget that our tenants might just be starting to learn in earnest about how to do it. 

Laundry seems to be one of those skills that all parents handle differently. My mom always did all the laundry when I was growing up. She would wash, dry, and iron all of it, and I think my only chore was to carry it to my room and put it away. I had friends, though, whose parents required them to do all their own laundry as soon as they were capable of comprehending how to do it. 

Mom taught me to do laundry the summer before I left for college, though for the first two years, I always brought it home to wash and dry it - because it was cheaper than paying for coin laundry in the dorm. (And I had a guaranteed open washer. Dorm washers were always in use.) 

I wasted little time in having a few catastrophes, though. I remember shrinking a couple of my favorite dresses early on because I didn't read the tags. Line drying got me every time - and to be fair, it still does, sometimes. Fortunately most fabrics now are forgiving.

I also washed and dried and entire load of dress clothes WITH a tube of lipstick during my college years. Some of that lipstick never did come out.

After Ryan and I got married, he had a habit of leaving pens and Chapstick in his pocket, and I had a habit of not checking pockets. We ruined more than a few things in those early months of marriage and ended up buying a decorative sign for our laundry room that said "Check Your Pockets!"

As far as I can recall, I never turned any white underwear pink from a red sweater or anything like that. But maybe I did, and I just blocked it out.

So here are some questions for you today:

* When did you start doing your own laundry?

* What is your worst laundry disaster?

* If you have kids, do you handle the laundry game differently than your parents did with you? Or if you don't have kids, what do you think you would do? 

(If we had kids, I think I would teach them how to do it when they seemed able to handle the responsibility, but I would only have them be in charge of their own. At least that is what makes sense to me right now. So in reality, it would probably be the complete opposite of that.)

Fruity Smoothie

 

Goodness! 

It has been months (years?) since I posted a recipe. I haven't made too many new things, I suppose. Much of what I've made has come from Dashing Dish, so I don't post her recipes, since you can get them from her site!

Last week, though, when I was on the sugar detox, I found my favorite smoothie recipe yet, so I wanted to share it today. I've made many smoothies over the years, and this one is my favorite blend of fruity and creamy - and filling. And it doesn't use yogurt, milk, or protein powder, so if you don't like or can't have any of those things, you won't have to worry about it. You can also switch up the fruit if you don't like the ones I picked. Ryan has even started drinking these, so they have his seal of approval, too. 

I would also like to go on record as saying that even though this has a banana in it, the banana flavor is not overpowering. I actually don't like banana, but I love this smoothie. The other flavors take over enough for me to be able to handle it - and the banana is what makes it creamy!

Ingredients:

* 8 Ounces Water
* 1 Tablespoon Flaxseed
* 1 Heaping Cup Frozen Strawberry/Blueberry/Pineapple Mix
* 1 Banana
* 1/2 Cup Spinach
* 1 Tablespoon Nut Butter

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in smoothie blender and blend until desired consistency.

A few tips:

* I make my own frozen fruit packs. I purchase fresh blueberries and strawberries and canned pineapple chunks. I clean and cut the strawberries and clean the blueberries, and then I portion them out into generous cup size servings and freeze them in bags. I grab one bag per smoothie. If you don't like those particular fruit choices, change it up! 

* Yes, the Flaxseed makes the smoothie a little crunchy whenever you hit a seed. If that bothers you, I would leave out the seeds.

* One day, both Ryan and I wanted a smoothie, but we only had one banana left. We split it and left the remainder of the recipe the same. Neither of us felt like it suffered in flavor or creamy texture. So if you prefer to conserve your bananas, you should be able to use just half and be okay!

* I have used both almond butter and peanut butter and haven't noticed a difference in taste. We've been trying to use more natural nut butter to cut down on sugar.

* I learned one day when both our smoothie cups were dirty, that using the regular blender did dot provide the same consistency of shake, so if you try this in a regular blender and it doesn't get smooth, try getting a smoothie blender (or attachments for your blender) instead.

Currently...

 I wanted to write something so profound for you today, but it's been a busy two days around WillowBridge, and alas, I have nothing profound to offer. It's been a long time since I've participated in a "currently" post, so I think I'll do one of those today! 

Currently I'm...

admiring adorable RV renovations on Instagram. I spend a lot of time checking out ideas other DIYers have done so we can get some ideas for our Abby! There are some beautiful renovations out there. Talented RV owners!

going through the maddening back-and-forth to figure out what I want to do with my hair!! I need to get to the salon, and quickly, but I don't know what I want to ask for. I love my highlights, but I'm not sure I'm up for the time commitment of sitting in color-smell AND a mask for three hours right now. And I can't figure out if I want to grow or cut my bangs. The hair confusion isn't new for me; it's just been a while since I've muddled through it. 

making meals every day! We are back on track with meal prep, and it is definitely requiring creativity, since we have THREE noon meetings this week, but I'm working hard to make meal prep a priority! 

scheduling a hundred things! In any given week, we're scheduling transportation for our tenants, meetings with co-workers, training sessions, staff meetings, meetings with tenants, upcoming community nights and holiday-season parties. It's a juggling act!

wishing for some ice cream! I miss it more than I should, which tells me I ate it more often than I should. I had some on Sunday and it was so, so good. I have another ice cream date planned for next week, and I'm looking forward to that, too!

appreciating the bits of encouragement God sends to my days. I have loved some of the totally-God moments He has sent in the very moments I needed a boost the most. 

ordering a scrapbook, maybe! I see they have free extra pages this week! What I really need them to put on sale are the cards! I haven't seen my normal card deal roll through, and that's going to be coming up here soon!

perfecting our balance of days - and so far we're nowhere near perfect. Learning to have time for us along with a live-in job is a skill, and we haven't gotten there yet. But we are perfecting our awareness of the need!

planning fun things for our tenants for the holidays!

wearing my purple fuzzy bathrobe in the mornings again. It's officially cold enough to bring it back out. I'm sad about the cold weather, but I do love the cozy bathrobe! 

So that's what's happening here...how about you?

Written on the Doorposts

If there's one thing Ryan and I are learning in a new and fresh (and good!) way since moving, it's our utter dependence on God to do this job well. Some of you might have seen the interview we did last week, where we talked about every day and every person being different. There aren't any manuals for our tenants. (Oh sure, there are handbooks and policy books, but there are no manuals to instruct us on how each person operates within him or herself.)

And so we pray. Frequently. And we study the Word, trying to make sure we have our own hearts settled before the Lord the way we should so we can do our job the best we can. 

This week Ryan did something (all on his own!) that I just loved, and I wanted to share it with you. 

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 says Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. 

Ryan and I have been trying to keep Scripture in front of ourselves, our support couple, and our tenants - as much as we can - but this week Ryan felt an extra burden to keep encouraging verses in front of us. 

All on his own, he chose some verses, printed them out, laminated them, and displayed them throughout our home.

I love it that he did this. I love it that he felt the nudge from the Lord and followed through.

I love having these words written on the doorposts. (And mirrors. And message board. And refrigerator.) 

Thanks, Ryan, for leading us so well. 

Demo Day for Abby the RV!

I told you a few days ago that we were finally able to have a multi-year dream come true and we purchased a little RV! If you want to see the whole story - you can read about it here. It goes into why we chose to invest in an RV at this time and how we hope to use it while we're working in this job!

In order to fit this purchase into our budget, we had to get an older one, which was no problem to us at all. In fact, it gives us a chance to put our own little stamp on it, and you know we love to do that. Abby has good bones, but she's a little outdated in her appearance, so she needs a little freshening up inside. And during our weekend last week, we were able to spend a day making everything look so much worse so it can eventually look better!

Demo day was a gorgeous (though slightly chilly) day for us. We cranked up the music and got busy working! 

My first job was to learn to use the power screwdriver to remove all the hardware from the doors and drawers. We were going to spray paint it all, but we actually found some new door pulls at an extremely low price at the ReStore, so we just decided to replace them. 

Meanwhile, Ryan got busy removing the chair so we can work. (Unless we have a plot twist, we plan to put the chair back in. It's comfortable and seems to be in good shape. And it's just plain gray, so it doesn't create any design issues.) 

Next up? Removing the sofa. It has to go. Originally we planned to slipcover it, for cost effectiveness, but dear Miss Abby had a pretty strong aroma of cleaners/fresheners, and we were fairly certain much of that was embedded in the sofa materials. Slipcovering it would update the look but not take care of that issue, so then we were going to have it taken apart and reupholstered. Alas, that costs as much, if not more, than just replacing it entirely. So Ryan found a good deal on a replacement, and we decided to just take out the old and put in the new. This sofa was very thoroughly installed - and all the screws had been stripped when it was put in, so getting it out took some time. As you know, Ryan is a rock star, so he powered through!

We took down all the cornice boards and factory-installed curtains, and those won't be coming back in. Ryan also took down the blinds, which we will bring back, but we wanted to remove them during our work to protect them.

And then he got to the big project: the carpet. While he worked on that, I worked on cleaning all the cabinets so we can prep them for painting:

The carpet (which only covered half the floor space) was original and spanned about four different colors throughout its run. Pretty sure it had been cleaned and bleached so many times that it just kept changing colors. It was old, full of who-knows-what, and had to go. We masked up for part of that adventure, because we weren't sure what was sailing around the air.

The carpet was as well-installed as the sofa, so it took a long time and a LOT of elbow grease to get that out entirely. Again - Ryan's perseverance for the win!

And now it's in the stage where it looks worse before it looks better!

Up next? Pulling about four million staples out of the floor so we can continue. And painting!!! :) 

The Shafferland Shuffle

 

Happy Sunday!! I hear some parts of the country are getting snow already! Are you? We aren't into snow just yet, but the temps did take a nosedive this week. Brrrrr!!! Here are a few of the things we did this week in Shafferland!

* Last Sunday morning the WillowBridge team worked a booth at a church to share the work we do with the people of the church. (We did wear masks - we just took them off for the picture.) Ryan wanted breakfast for lunch, and he made THE most perfectly round and browned pancakes. I told him he needed to open a restaurant because his breakfast skills are so fabulous. Last Sunday was a really nice day, so we went for a walk in the afternoon; our beautiful meadow is so full of fall!

* Monday morning we had to run some errands after our transportation run. It was a foggy morning out there, but so pretty!! Monday was also the start of my five day sugar detox, which meant a hearty cobb salad for lunch (no dressing...it had sugar) and lots of water throughout the day! It also meant Monday night football for Ryan! I will say that football games are helping me keep track of what day it is!

* I spent part of Tuesday morning writing new devos for our tenants. We're doing a series on lessons learned from the Israelites' journey through the Red Sea. That afternoon we recorded our interview for Gateway Woods (the one featured on the Saturday Six yesterday) and then we went on a walk to take advantage of the still-good temps. And look at this perfect avocado I cut into for dinner that night. I so rarely get one of this perfection!

* Wednesday was a busy day of work, and that evening we had our annual photos taken. We missed our dear Barb that has taken our pictures the last three years, but we appreciated one of our new friends taking it for us. The colors were so pretty on the trees, too! We came home and had a meeting with Tim and Justine - and then I settled in with my evening snack - apples, nut butter, and unsweetened coconut!

* Thursday was the first day of our weekend, and we spent part of the day at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore looking for supplies for our renovation work on Abby the RV. Of course the first thing Ryan found was a sled...lol! We did find some supplies and then we came home for another sugar-free meal. (The recipes for the detox were really good! I loved them!)

* Friday was demo day in Miss Abby! I took all the hardware off the cabinets and cleaned them, and Ryan took out the couch and chair and ripped up the carpet. (We actually had to mask up for that - it was pretty old carpet!) It definitely has to get worse before it gets better, and we're there!) We were thankful for all we were able to get done, though! Big step toward making her ours!

* We went back on duty yesterday, and we spent quite a bit of time with one of our tenants - just hanging out and talking. We got to play with the baby, too, who is a sweetheart. And he was HUNGRY for his lunch!! It was my first day off the sugar detox, and though I didn't stray far from the eating plan, I did have one piece of toast, which (weirdly enough) was the one thing I craved all week. That night we went to the grocery store, and when we arrived, we realized the list was at home. He thought I grabbed it and I thought he grabbed it. So we made a game out of it! How many things can we remember from the list? Out of 21 things, we remembered 19. I though that was pretty good. We also "remembered" 6 things not on the list. LOL!!

The Saturday Six

 

One.

This week, Ryan and I were interviewed by Gateway Woods about our work at WillowBridge. This may be the most unflattering camera angle I've ever had. Its true that you can't hide a fluffy season - so we'll call a spade a spade on that, but being sunken down in an equally fluffy couch with a straight on camera doesn't help. So just close your eyes and listen! 

Two.

I may have mentioned these before on the Saturday Six, years ago, because we had one at WBCL when I worked there. But we just got one for the WillowBridge Community Room dishwasher, and it's so handy! It's a magnet you can flip over to indicate whether the dishes inside are clean or dirty! Helpful when you don't want to have to rewash an entire load! (And if you don't like that style, you can search for one that fits you better.)

Three.

Where are my Hallmark Christmas movie friends?? I found this most amazing free downloadable bundle that I have to tell you about! It includes games you can play while watching any Hallmark/Lifetime/similar movie. It also has party hosting tips, movie recommendations based on what you want to see, and a full schedule of the 2020 movie lineup! It even has DEVOS!!!! And did I mention it's free??

Four.

I can't crochet, but IF I COULD...I would be making these adorable baby hats for gifts. SO CUTE!!!! (Also - learning to crochet is on my bucket list. I was reminded of that yesterday when I put on the hat Ryan's aunt Sandy crocheted for me. His mom had one just like and she liked twinning with me.) 

Five.

The perfect fall gift - a s'mores gift basket - gifted inside a lantern!!!!!

Six.

One of my friends posted this week about Facebook Live Bible study that takes place every weekday morning. I checked it out a couple of days and enjoyed what I learned! The studies take about an hour per session, so I'm not able to catch all of them, but I wanted to share it with you in case you want to check it out! The two ladies who host it just started a brand new study on James. They only do a verse a day, so you're not too far behind! Here is the link to their regular website (Barn 45), but the study is on Facebook. 

Accomplishments and Goals

Today marks the end of an accomplishment for me: I've been doing a five day sugar detox this week, and today is the final day of it. 

Let me back up just a bit to give you some history and then I'll circle back to the detox.

Everyone jokes about the quarantine fifteen, and though I choose not to make the scales an active part of my life, it's extremely safe to say quarantine wasn't kind to me in the eating and working out departments. Ryan and I enjoyed cooking (a lot!) while we were home together, and once his hospital closed down to visitors, I couldn't go use the treadmill or other workout equipment anymore.

Then we went through the busy season of saying goodbye to everyone as we prepared to move, which meant many goodbye meals. It was also the busy season of packing, which meant grabbing food on the go, because we didn't have (or take, rather) time to stop and cook properly. And then we spent the weeks in transition, when we were in training, living out of boxes, and everything was a mess.

Then we were "back to normal," except it was a normal I'd never known before. Working in this job is a strange thing when it comes to time. There is the beautiful perk of living and working in the same space that allows us to walk out of our work office and into our kitchen in about eight seconds flat. I thought, coming in, it would be easy to meal prep and cook every day because I could work while I cooked. 

In reality, the days are much more haphazard. We have many meetings that seem to settle around lunchtime. That usually either means that meals are provided (pizza!) or because I'm in the meeting, I don't have the time to prep that I imagined I would. Other days, right about the time I get ready to make lunch, a tenant has a need, and that delays meal prep. Or the phone rings...or someone needs a ride...or something else comes up. Long story short, it's not as easy to prep meals as I thought. And it can be the same at dinnertime, actually. 

So when you add up all these things, they equal the quarantine fifteen, the moving fifteen, and the new job fifteen. 

It finally became a matter of conviction for me. God reminded me that my body is a temple and I need to honor Him with it - and I can't be the best me I can be if I'm not properly feeding and fueling myself. Then He dropped the sugar detox email in my box - apparently I was on a mailing list I didn't even know I was on, and when I clicked on the link to see what it was about, I received an additional email thanking me for signing up.

So I promised God I would do it. Five days of no sugar to jump start my system back into healthier eating habits. 

On one hand, it's been an extremely hard week. I traded in my coffee creamer for unsweetened almond milk. I gave up my lunch and dinner desserts, my late night bowl of cereal, and occasional sugar-filled snacks. And lattes. And chai. And salad dressing. And granola. And not that I consume these regularly, but I also kissed fast food, pizza, and pop goodbye for five days. On the other hand, it was a helpful week, because this detox did allow for natural sugars, so I could have fruit. I may not have survived without fruit. 

Ryan ate the meals with me, though he did have some additional snacks and foods I couldn't eat this week, and I was fine with that. It wasn't his conviction to do this detox, nor does he have the struggle with sugar that I have.

I did a lot of praying this week - asking God to help me put my focus on HIM, where it should be, rather than on the food I craved. He gave me some verses that I've hung onto when I've wanted to just quit everything and have a frappe.

Today I'm celebrating the fact that I completed this detox. (Or I will celebrate tomorrow morning when the five days are completely behind me.) I'm celebrating the times I powered through when I wanted to quit. I'm celebrating Ryan's support of me and his encouragement when I felt awful. And speaking of feeling awful, I'm celebrating that I didn't feel nearly as awful as I thought I would. I had one day when my head hurt and I felt sluggish, and of course I had my fair share of crankiness, but other than that, it was okay!

And today I also purpose to figure out a way to make meal planning and prep happen, even with our crazy schedule. Even when mornings start early and lunchtimes have meetings and nights go until well after midnight. 

Part of our job is to set a good example for our tenants - and some of them haven't learned much about nutrition. I can't show them the way to good nutrition and eating/exercise habits if I'm not practicing them myself. 

So that's where I am on this Friday in the middle of October in a pandemic year. I'm facing my own choice to not make the best choices, and I'm choosing to do a better job!

All the Pumpkin Painting!!

 We have community nights a couple of times each month, and this past weekend, we had a fun outing to a pumpkin patch/corn maze! (Thanks, Shari, for the tip on the location!) We found out there's a produce place in Leo, the next town over, that has all kinds of activities, photo opp stations, pumpkins, and more! So we headed over late Saturday morning and spent about two hours having all kinds of fun! 

We went right when it opened, so it wasn't very busy yet. (I think Ryan and Tim may have had the most fun with all the activities, actually.)

We had fun with the duck derby, too! (I won one of the rounds!)

We didn't have a map for the corn maze but we had fun going through it!

We picked out our pumpkins and got a picture for the road! (Ryan and I got one too.)

Then we came back to WillowBridge and painted our pumpkins! I was SO IMPRESSED with the creativity level! I'll spare you all the actual painting pictures, but take a look at what we made!!

Now our community room looks extra fall-festive!