On Fridays I like to pause for a few moments with Susanne and friends
to reflect on some of the blessings of the week.

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! May the thanksgiving continue! Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. Thanksgiving, of course. Though we’re to be thankful all the time, I love this emphasis as a nation on being thankful. And, with all the family’s help, the work was divided. Though it was a busy day, it wasn’t stressful.

2. Thanksgiving food. Though Thanksgiving isn’t mainly about food, the Thanksgiving meal is a highlight of the day. We go pretty traditional around here—turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole. Plus desserts—apple pie, pumpkin pie, and this year, banana cream pie. I don’t vary much from the menu since this is the only time we have all this at one time, and we look forward to it! Plus all that cooking lasts for a few days. With some gluten-intolerant family members, in the past we’ve had two dressings and two gravies, one gluten-free and one not. This year I tried dressing from a gluten-free cornbread mix. GF breads don’t always taste as good as the non-GF kinds, but cornbread has always tasted fine. And the one time before I tried to make turkey gravy with GF flour, it didn’t turn out well at all. But this time, both dishes turned out great and were enjoyed by all. It helped simplify things not to make two versions of each.

3. A fun tablecloth. I found this neat Thanksgiving tablecloth at WalMart, full of activities to do. Timothy enjoyed it while waiting for dinner, and several of us used it while talking afterward.

4. Good customer service representatives. I called a number given specifically for answering questions about a particular piece of medical equipment. The person who answered was very nice, but it was obvious she wasn’t knowledgeable. I knew part of what she told me was wrong. The next day, someone from the business called me back, and, to my relief, was much more on top of things. Then, my poor dear husband is still dealing with an issue with one firm that has taken hours of his time. The person he’s been on the phone with this morning has been the most helpful yet. And when the call died, she called him back—it was so nice that he didn’t have to start all over with someone else. On one other call he made for another issue, the person was so helpful, he asked for her supervisor just to let them know she did a phenomenal job.

Good customer service people are worth their weight in gold, and we probably don’t tell them that enough.

5. Sleeping in. The last two days were busy preparing for Thanksgiving, and we’re decorating for Christmas tomorrow. So I am taking today to lay low and rest up. It was so nice to sleep in. It’s sad that 7 a.m. is sleeping in these days! But I’ll take it.

Hope you’ve had a great week!