Suzanne Schaffer

Auctions are fun. Screen shot can be a girl's best defense. Losing weight and keeping it off is a lifestyle. Forgiveness does not mean you have to continue in any type of relationship with someone, whether business, professional, or personal. Your life is what you make it. Don't like something? Change it. Most people aren't willing to make changes. When filling out a comment card, the recipients are really only interested in positive comments. Apple cider vinegar is a menopausal girl's BFF. When someone says, "Drop in anytime, take what you need." They don't mean it. Sometimes the most gracious behavior is just keeping your mouth shut. Things left in a pile to be thrown away are not always trash-bin worthy. Flying, though freakishly scary, can be done with lots of prayer support and without the use of medication or other things. Just because you notice errors on a website does not mean you should point them out to the owner. Silen

Saw these at a yard sale and thought to myself how boring this sounds. The Serious Christian. I'd rather be a real Christian. A Christian with a sense of humor. A Christian who isn't offended over every. little. thing. A Christian who enjoys life. The song title in its entirety: "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver I Will Love You Just the Same". Good to know. This sign in a hotel room from a trip last summer. Though  tempted, I did not indulge in the hand towels at $15 each. And I really needed some new (read: used by many random people for who-knows-what) hand towels.

A reminder courtesy of TJ Maxx. As if their store and wares aren't enough to love about them, they keep these stocked in the bathroom at all times. You have worth. You are not a punching bag. Get out. Get help.

When life gives you lemons what do you do? I love me some lemon. Lemon is a great flavor to cook with. Chicken, lemon, onion, a splash of sherry, some capers, all cooked together make a wonderful dinner.  Lemonade is one of my favorite things and I spent most of this year drinking it every day. I'd take a lemon, slice it in two, juice it and then add some water and some lemon flavored stevia and just sip the day away. Yum. Once the weather cooled I was doing the same thing but with hot water. I love lemonade. It became a habit. The only problem though is that when I was a little girl I went to the dreaded allergist and had the pins-in-your-back allergy testing done. Turns out I was allergic to almost everything. That's how it felt. Citric acid fruits were at the top of the list. No problem, never liked orange juice anyway.  As I got older I quit the every other week allergy shots in each arm and just started to live. Some things still trigger a reaction in me. I

This sign is actually a couple years old. I'm in an online group who was having a contest for the best-worst yard sale sign and when I saw this I knew I had it in the bag. I whipped the car into a parking lot so fast that I scared myself. Pulled up next to the post and took the picture. I am sure you realize that I won the grand prize (a Starbucks mug) for my find. Yerd Sail? Really? I did not almost wreck the car order to take this picture. This was taken after the fact and I lamented on FB that I'd missed the event. Still in mourning over that. Do you remember the ads in the back of magazines when we were little? I always secretly longed for the fascinating ant farm. Almost as much as I wanted those crazy sea monkeys.  Lighten up and laugh a little today. 

Sign at Wegman's when the door stopped working. Pushing is such a huge inconvenience in America in 2015 This spider web screen door. Why?  While shopping not long ago I observed a woman abandon her armful of goods in search for a shopping cart. The Trader Joe's employee was on top of things as he hurried to clean up her pile. She made it back in time with a cart. Lesson here: never shop without a cart. You may think you're going into the store for one thing, but you've been to Target haven't you? 

  On a recent trip to Barnes & Noble I found a few things I don't want for Christmas, such as this Twinkie cookbook. Because, ew. Twinkies shouldn't be eaten by themselves, let alone used as an ingredient in something else. Unless you like the cardboard with sugar taste.    I know some of you are cat lovers, but I am of the dogs-are-superior camp so this calendar is something I do not want.   Though the dummies part of this book applies to me, the calculus part does not. Calculus? Seriously? I know my daughter got like 105% in her calculus class in high school while I barely inched through Algebra I with a straight D-average. Letters are for words, not math.   Road Atlas? They still sell these? I don't need one. I have Siri and my own instincts.  This Star Trek thing. I am not a Trekkie. At. All. I'm barely a Star Wars fan. Okay, I tolerate Star Wars. Give me Back to the Future, that's more my style. And finally, this. I do not want this nor a

Life has a strange way of handing us the unexpected. Sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a devastating way. My college friend, Nicole, learned this lesson on Thanksgiving eve, 2011. Her healthy twenty-one year old son took a tumble down thirteen stairs at home and ended up crushing his skull and in a moment, changed his life and the lives of his family. Taylor suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and instantly began a new normal.  After a year of documenting his injury and sharing her life with her friends on Facebook, Nicole was contacted by a publisher who asked if she would be interested in writing a book to share her story with the world. This book is raw and emotional and is the ache of this mother's heart as she struggles through her new life and misses her old one. The fact that this was handed to her overnight will break your heart. I've been following her story since it happened and have kept her in my prayers. When it was announced that she was appeari

Several years ago my husband surprised me with a gift of an electric blanket. This is not something I was expecting as we normally don't give each other gifts. Side note: gifts are not my thing. Giving or receiving. I know some people (my daughter) love gifts but I'm just, meh. This gift, however, totally what I needed in my life. I love my electric blanket. It has separate settings for both side of the bed and I don't even plug his in because I know he won't use it. I crank my side up to ten before I climb in. Do you know how wonderful it is to climb into a warm bed on a cold night? It's like being in a cocoon of warm. It. Is. The. Best. Now that I have this amazing life-changing apparatus I don't ever want to be without one. What is one thing you don't ever want to be without?