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, 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.

It’s been another busy week! Next week will be as well, and then things should slow down a bit. Here are some of the highlights from this week:

1. No more early classes. Jesse had one MWF class this year that met at 7:30, and that’s done now.

2. A special dinner. We had been wanting to have our youth and music pastor and his family over almost ever since we moved here, and finally did last Friday. We had a great time.

3. A celebration. Our assistant pastors planned a covert celebration for our senior pastor’s 50th birthday and 10th year with the church (we later found out this year is also his 25th in the ministry.) It took place this last Sunday with lots of special things going on throughout the day. Somehow even with everyone else in the church knowing about it, including his wife, we managed to keep it from him and surprise him. Several men attired like Secret Service people with their dark suits, sunglasses, and ear pieces greeted him in the parking lot and escorted him to the auditorium, where someone played “Hail to the Chief” and we all clapped while he was escorted, open-mouthed, to the stage. There were some fun things — pictures of his childhood and his “80s hair” — and some poignant things as well, ending with an after-church fellowship that evening. A great day overall.

4. Finding a box I had been missing. There was one particular box I hadn’t been able to find since we moved, and it had some of the kids’ school portraits through the years as well as a cross stitch kit someone had given me. I’d been wanting to work on the cross stitch, but I especially wanted those pictures since I want to work on a scrapbook for Jesse’s graduation. I was pleased to find the box this week (in my sewing room — that’s the one room that’s still not quite set up yet. Maybe this summer!)

5. A timely arrival. We ordered something online Tuesday (more on what it is next week…), and the confirmation e-mail said it would get here Monday. That was bad, because we needed it Friday, and I had even paid a little extra for expedited shipping. We decided if it wasn’t here Friday morning we’d have to run around town looking for an alternative that afternoon. I prayed it might get here Thursday just so we’d know it was taken care of — and I was astonished when it did! “Oh me of little faith.” It was very nice to have that taken care of and not to have to think about what to do about it if it didn’t get here in time.

Have a great weekend!

(By the way, WordPress has changed its default settings so that the option to get notifications of further comments on this post by e-mail is automatically clicked, and you have to “unclick” it if you don’t want e-mails. I apologize: I can’t reset it from my end. I have complained about it to the powers that be. Also, some WP users may have to “log in” to comment. 😦 I hope WP gets back to its former user-friendliness soon.)