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, 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.
I was sorry to miss last week’s “Fave Five”: we had out of town company and there just was not time. But it is good to be back with this week’s highlights:
1. My husband’s brother visited us for the first time ever. The logic has always been that the rest of the family lived on the west side of the country and it was better for us to go there and be able to see everyone than for one family over there to come East and see us, which was understandable, but, still, it’s nice to have someone come here. It was a rough visit emotionally in some ways as he and Jim visited their mom, knowing the last visit in particular was probably going to be the last time he saw her. But we also had a lot of good time visiting around the kitchen table and got to show him around downtown Knoxville.
2. A table next to the river at a favorite restaurant, hard to come by on a busy Saturday night.
3. Easter was kind of low key this year in many ways since it came just after the above visit and Jim and I were tired, but it was still good. Our church always has a special Easter morning service, the meal was delicious, and it was good to spend the rest of the day relaxing with the family.
4. Movie nights with the kids. Jason and Mittu hadn’t been over for a few weeks for various reasons but came over weekend before last for pizza and a movie and then spent much of last weekend with Jim’s brother here. We rented a couple of movies from iTunes: finally saw the new Les Miserables (though we skipped past the “Lovely Ladies” song and everything from the time the innkeeper wakes up until his song is over as I had heard that was where most of the objectionable content was). I had seen the tenth anniversary special years ago and still prefer those voices for the songs, but it was good seeing the story fleshed out and acted. We also saw Wreck-It Ralph this last weekend. I could have done without the “duty” jokes (play on words to mean something else), but otherwise it was pretty cute and I liked it better than I thought I would. It had many video game references and cameos that Jason and Jesse were familiar with, so that was fun.
5. Springy days. It’ still been a little on the cooler side, but it’s finally started to look and feel more like spring. I think I heard it is supposed to warm up this weekend.
I have a newsletter to finish up today but then can look forward to a relaxing weekend. Hope yours is good!
Stray Thoughts 
Easter for us this year was more then quiet ! we were both sick !
and spring apparently is still far away, we don’t even have weeds growing !
It is still a bit cool here too. In fact it’s downright chilly today. It is nice to have company sometimes. i like to show off my home. I had an easy Easter this year. We didn’t even go out.
It must have been a very emotional visit for sure.
Our Easter was a bit more low key this year too and I sorta liked it. So much less pressure and busyness.
My youngest (18) loves Wreck It Ralph. I personally have enjoyed other cartoons better. We rented Les Mis last weekend. I watched it one evening with hubby and the next with my oldest Daughter. I liked it much better the second time around when the music started to make more sense than just a bunch of singing one’s lines. And I could piece together the lyrics much better. I had a hard time understanding the young blond haired boy’s lyrics as his heavy english accent got in the way.
We turned the subtitles on very early — they helped a lot. 🙂
It’s so good that your BIL got to visit with you and see his mother. A lower key day seems the perfect backdrop for such a time.
Oh, how I miss real pizza. Glad your kids could come over for some family time with a movie and some laughs together.
You’d asked about Sammy and the cat food hokey-pokey. Unfortunately, she’s still on her special food. We’ve got another three weeks or so, then all the cats switch to yet another food (some kind of maintenance thing). I hope it sticks!
Have a great week, Barbara. God bless you and your family.
A table next to the river sounds wonderful. I love to eat at places with a view.
Just now catching up on your blog. #1 made me teary eyed. Blessings to you and your this coming week.
Yay for family time–a visit from Jim’s brother and movie nights with the kids! And the coming spring … even with allergies, I can’t help enjoying the sun.
Aw, so glad Jim’s brother could come and visit his mother, especially.
We saw Wreck-It Ralph as a family and I wish we wouldn’t have. It wasn’t TERRIBLE (could have done without the same jokes) but we didn’t find it thrilling either. Just face-paced and…I don’t know. Can’t pinpoint the reason exactly. Mostly I think I was hoping to like it a whole lot more than I did.
Glad you had a low-key but enjoyable Easter!