Someone told me last week that my Friday’s Fave Five and monthly recap posts made my life sound so perfect. Let me assure you, we and our circumstances are far from perfect. 🙂 But one thing I like about FFF is that it gets my mind off the problems, inconveniences, aches, and everything bothersome and makes me look for the positives.

The hardest weeks for me to come up with an FFF post are not the ones with something major going on. Rather, the everyday, not especially bad but not especially good, blah weeks are the hardest for me to find things to be thankful for. But when I look for them, I find them. Some people write gratitude journals; I participate in Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. 🙂

1. Surprise breakfast sandwiches. Jim was out early one morning and came back with some breakfast sandwiches from McDonald’s and Burger King. I used to get something out for breakfast once a week or so when I was taking kids to school, but I’m not usually out that early these days. So it’s a nice treat.

2. Primary elections and pool working. We had primary elections this week. I am always grateful we have an opportunity to vote in this country, and I was sad to learn that only about 17% of those eligible in our county voted this week. On Sunday, a man at church told us that there was a shortage of poll workers. Jim contacted the proper authorities and was able to work one of the polling places. He’s much more interested in politics than I am, so I was glad he had an opportunity to participate in the process. He said it was also a nice way to get involved in the community and touch base with neighbors.

3. Lunch with my friend, Melanie, with Red Lobster gift cards form my family. We hadn’t met for lunch for a couple of months, and had to reschedule this one a couple of times. So it was good to finally get together. The food was wonderful and our waiter was great. But we mainly enjoyed the conversation together.

4. Annual flower purchases and planting. Jim and I went out this week to get hanging flower baskets and plants for the front and back planters. They’ve gotten incredibly expensive, but we were able to find some good deals. Some of the wildflowers from last year have come back along the fence line, so we’re waiting to see if we need to do anything there. We’ve talked about placing bushes and/or perennials there, but haven’t quite decided what to do.

I’ll hold off on pictures of the planters until they fill out a little bit, But I always love these hanging baskets. I can see them from my desk and the dining room table.

5. Mother’s Day is this Sunday. I’m thankful for my mom year round, but especially this weekend. She passed away over twenty years ago, and I wish I had more pictures of us together. But I’m so grateful for her love for me, her influence in my life, and the many good memories I have of her.

Happy Mother’s Day to moms and mothering figures! May you have a joyous time remembering your mom and celebrating her.