Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
This will be one of those weeks where it is hard to narrow it down to five. Here goes:
1. Baby-back ribs. This has become my entree of choice at a few restaurants, and that and an excellent salad made for a scrumptious meal out last Friday night at a local place. The only bad thing about the meal was that the noise level inside the restaurant was insanely loud to me.
2. Voyage of the Dawn-Treader. We finally saw this DVD and loved it. It’s been too long since I’ve read the book to remember whether it followed it as closely as I like for films to do, but the film itself was a feast.
3. Mother-daughter luncheon at our church last Saturday. Nicely done. It was a little strange not to have a hand in this one! I did think about calling to see if they needed help, but as it turned out it was best I didn’t this time.
4. Visit from a dear friend. My friend Valorie, one of my oldest (in terms of how long we’ve known each other, not age. 🙂 ) and dearest friends, came up with her dad for just a quick visit. He was visiting her in SC and had friends about an hour from us here in TN, so they came up Sunday in time for dinner and then stayed overnight before going on to see her dad’s friends Monday, and even took me out for breakfast before they got on the road. We met way back in early married days and had kids around the same time (with her having all girls and me having all boys, you’d think there would have been one romance in there somewhere…). Val hosted my baby shower, and then when we had our first kids we lived down the street from one another and shared many walks with babies in strollers and lunches and visits to the park and breakfasts where the buffet was $2.99 and kids ate free. 🙂 It was so good to see each other and catch up a bit.
5. Unsolicited help. This past was weekend unexpectedly busy — it hadn’t clicked in my mind that with Jesse’s Junior-Senior banquet and everything involved there Friday night and then the Mother-Daughter Luncheon Saturday, time for cleaning was going to be tight. Val and I have seen each other’s houses at their worst over the years, but, still, you want to get the basics done before anyone comes over! But you can only clean so much early on without having to do it all over again before company comes. I had to head to the store after the luncheon and naively thought I’d finish my cleaning after that. While I was out my husband saw my list and got most of the tasks done on it for me. I’m not opposed to men helping around the house, but when he works 60+ hours a week and has his own lists of things he needs to do on the weekend, I figure cleaning the house on my own is the least I can do, so I don’t generally ask for help unless I’m in a bind. It was such a blessing that he pitched in and took care of those things for me.
So after a super-busy weekend, the rest of this week has been a lighter, thankfully. We have a few things coming up this next week, and then school’s out and our schedule immediately slows down! Though I miss my alone time in the summers, I do like not having to set the alarm clock and having a generally more relaxed schedule.
Hot off the press bonus: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago a serendipitous encounter that might lead to a job for Jason….I just found out that he did get the job!!! He had gone to one place to submit a resume only to find that the business he was looking for was no longer in that office. But as he talked with the man who was there, this man said he had been considering hiring someone: he had been handling his business alone and wanted to expand at some point. They talked, he had Jason do a couple of assignments to check out what he could do, he looked into what he would have to do as an employer to hire someone — and Jason just got the call this morning that the job was his. Praise the Lord!
Have a great weekend!
Stray Thoughts 
You know it’s a great week when you have trouble narrowing it down to five. Glad you had that kind. Now you’ve got my mouth watering for ribs. We enjoyed Voyage of the Dawn Treader too. It was a little different from the book but that didn’t bother me. Both are good. Glad you got to visit with your good friend and had unexpected help. Always a blessing.
How VERY fun to get to spend time with an old friend like that! That is so special and so very enjoyable. I love it when things like that happen.
And HURRAY for Jason! VERY exciting news! So happy to hear it!
Great news about Jason’s job…
What a wonderful gift your husband gave you…working from your to-do list.
The banquet looks like it was well-done. After being in charge for so many years, I bet it was nice to just be an attendee..I’m so happy for you that you’ve found a church home in your new city in such a timely manner.
A house on my street was put on the market in the last couple of days. I’ve been going in and out one street over because with all the debris from the storm, it is almost impossible to get down mine. We saw the sign today. I would have loved to have had my daughter living on my street. It would have been at least 10 houses away but still within walking distance and the Princess could have ridden the same bus as she does now. But I told her God would lead her to the house that was right for her and it looks like he has done so. She’ll be further away than she lives now but still close.
I hope your weekend is special.
Mama Bear
Oh, that’s such good news for Jason! Those God-made appointments are wonderful to witness. And so glad that your busy weekend became a quieter week.
Hurray for the new job for Jason! What a sweet husband you have to help you with the cleaning. Glad you enjoyed your time with your friend.
What a wonderful list of blessings! I’m so glad Jason got the job!
hello Barbara! Congratulations to you son for his new job. What good news. I’m glad you got help that you needed. Baby back ribs sound so good right about now. It’s great to have visits with good friends. I’m glad it worked for you to see your dear friend…
Have a great weekend.
Barbara, congratulations to your son! All the best in his new job!
I never clean before visitors arrive, I only pay attention that the bathroom is more than clean, because there people have time to see if it’s dirty or not. I clean when they are gone !
What a great week — how nice to have a dear friend come for a stay.
It’s refreshing to hear someone just say they liked DT. I think you’ve hit on the key — don’t brush up on the plot beforehand, and don’t expect book and movie to be an exact match.
Congratulations to Jason on his new job!
Love, love, love baby back ribs. Yum. Now I’m craving them. I think they design restaurants to be noisey nowadays to give it the feel of a “happening” place, a fun party kind of place.
Sounds like your week was really busy. Hope you have a relaxing weekend.
What a great week — hubby help, a job for Jason, and Mother-Daughter Banquet. (Haven’t done one of those since I was a little girl!) Oh, a visit from an old friend. You’ve had a busy week.
Hope the one coming up is full of blessings, too.
lovely week with many blessings.
having a mom friend when my kiddos were young was key to my sanity. how fun that you got to spend time with valorie. i’m sure you always have much to talk about.
kuddos to your hubby for helping out. sure shows his love for you, doesn’t it?
I read Jason’s blog post. That job has God’s fingerprints all over it!
Great news on Jason’s job!!! YAY!!!