The first week of June has been busy, fast, and also good. I’m sharing favorites of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. A surprise chicken biscuit. Jim brought back biscuits from Chick-Fil-A after his time at the gym Friday morning. Those are always welcome, but that day I had some extra tasks to do in the morning. So it was especially nice to have breakfast already made.

2. Leftovers and family time. Jason and Mittu had several friends over on Friday night. They had a good bit of food left over and asked if we wanted to share it on Saturday. So we enjoyed a meal with them and some fellowship.

3. Lunch with Melanie. We tried something different from our usual meeting places and went to Lulu’s Tea Room. We both had Chicken Pecan Quiche, and we enjoyed catching up with each other even more.

4. A long overdue haircut. I go to a walk-in place and usually have to wait for my stylist to finish with one or two people in front of me. When I walked in on Thursday, she had no customers, so I got right in.

5. A surprise in the flower arrangement. I noticed there was some kind of viny thing hanging from my spring flower arrangement on the front porch. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. Then I noticed it was attached to a little nest on top which kind of smushed the flowers. It has four eggs in it. I had been meaning to change the spring arrangement out for a summer one–I guess I’ll have to wait a bit now. 🙂

Have a good weekend!

It’s the last Friday of May already. I’m pausing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to look back over the blessings of the past week.

1. The National Memorial Day Concert on PBS Sunday night reminded and helped us honor the memories of those who died that we might enjoy freedom.

2. Grilling and family time. Monday, we enjoyed grilled burgers, hot dogs, sausage, sides, and cheesecake. We ended the day playing games.

3. Our care group met Sunday after church for a shared dinner and time of fellowship and prayer.

4. Sunny days. After several torrential downpours, tornado watches, and a bit of hail last week, it’s been nice to see the sun out all this week.

5. Pantry reorganizing. Our kitchen pantry is the size and shape of a small walk-in closet. The shelves on the right hold food. The shelves on the left hold some small appliances, paper goods, serving dishes, and assorted other items. I had an idea to reorganize some of the items on the left. I had hoped to create more space. Though that didn’t happen, the area looks neater and seems a little more efficiently arranged. That’s been on my mind to do for a while, so it was nice to have a chance to do it.

And that ends another week—and month! What’s a blessing from your week?

This month is just speeding by. I’m pausing for a few moments with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to remember and be thankful for the good things of the week.

1. Spaghetti fundraiser. A group of families in our church is going on a mission trip this summer and hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser after church last Sunday. It was nice to have dinner taken care of and have some time to fellowship.

2. End-of-fourth-grade celebration. Jason and Mittu invited us over to celebrate the end of Timothy’s school year with homemade Chicago-style pizza, salad, garlic bread, and a chocolate pudding/cream cheese/whipped topping dessert..

3. Dinner offering. Jason and Mittu had to cancel plans with another family because Timothy got sick. But they already had a bunch of food in the crock pot. So Jason texted, “Don’t make dinner! We’ll bring some over at 6.” I was sorry Timothy wasn’t feeling well but happy to receive food.

4. A light cooking week. With the meals mentioned above, plus getting Subway one night and Chick-Fil-A another, I’ve had an unplanned mini-vacation from the kitchen this week.

5. Jim’s routine colonoscopy went well. No problems reported.

A short but sweet list. How was your week?

Just like that, we’re halfway through May already. It’s time to pause with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to look back over the blessings of the past week.

1. Mother’s Day. My family always makes me feel extra-special that day. Mittu made a Mother’s Day breakfast of quiche, potatoes, and muffins, and Jason brought it over the night before. It was so nice to just heat up Sunday morning breakfast, plus it was enough for Monday’s breakfast as well.

After church, Jim grilled burgers, hot dogs, and sausage. The kids contributed sides, and Jason made Chocolate Pretzel Pie.

I received flowers, thoughtful gifts, and sweet cards. We FaceTimed with Jeremy. It was a great day.

2. Unexpected funny moments. When I opened Jim’s card, the inside had a series of flaps with little messages. He signed what he thought was the last space, but it looked to me like that was another flap. I lifted it up, and the card started loudly belting out a song titled “Some Kind of Wonderful.” It surprised us all, even Jim—he hadn’t known it was a musical card. We all had a good laugh.

3. Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, were visible over much of the US last weekend. We only saw a faint purplish-pink glow one night. But friends around town posted on Facebook photos where they saw a variety of colors and streaks. It was really neat to see something like that—I never thought I would.

4. Plants. Last Saturday, Jim and I shopped for plants for hanging baskets and planters. I was astonished at how expensive some of those things had gotten! But we did find some lower-priced options. It’s so nice to see the hanging baskets outside the windows and to have the planters cleaned up and looking nice.

5. A quiet week. We’ve had absolutely nothing extra this week since Sunday. I enjoy our church Bible study, critique group, family outings and such—but it’s nice and restful sometimes to have a free and quiet week.

And that wraps up another week. How was yours?

I was just thinking of something I needed to add to this week’s Friday’s Fave Five, when I realized Friday was tomorrow (or today, by the time you read this)! So I’d better get started. I join with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story each week to recount recent blessings.

1. A “Girl Talk” session. Our church had one of these for women last year, but I was unable to attend. This time, Mittu and I both went. The topic was “Unmet Needs,” with a session in the morning and afternoon and lunch in-between. One lady spoke most of the time, but a few other ladies had been asked to share their stories, plus there were a couple of group activities as well. One thing that stood out to me, that I would not have thought to include in a talk like this, was that God created us to be needy. He made us with certain needs, so we don’t need to feel ashamed that we have them or feel like we’re “bugging” Him by presenting our needs to Him. He wants us to come to Him and depend on Him.

The lunch was catered by McAlister’s Deli and was so good. They had salads as well as sandwiches. And they had some wonderful cookies that I don’t remember seeing in their restaurant before.

2. Amazon gift cards. I had received these last Christmas, but I waited to add them to my account until I knew what I wanted to do with them. Amazon has a frustrating way of automatically paying for any purchases from gift cards unless we manually uncheck that box and check the one for our credit card or reward points. I’ve had gift cards disappear that way before we realized what was happening. When I added my gifts cards in and made my purchases, it felt like Christmas all over again.

3. A “Super Celebration.” Our church has Awanas for younger kids and something called Eagle Club for the older elementary kids, which Timothy has participated in this year. They had a big end-of-year celebration this week and invited family members. They received rewards and recited verses and songs they learned. Then they had carnival-like games set up in the gym.

4. Safety. We had severe thunderstorm warnings, flood warnings, and tornado watches this week. Thankfully all was well here, and the electricity didn’t even blink.

Also, on the way home from the “Super Celebration,” a semi truck started to pull into our highway lane—while we were still in it. After a lot of horn-honking, he got back into his own lane. It was scary for a minute there.

5. Ceiling fans. It’s been so humid lately, the ceiling fans have helped dry out the air. Plus they help me not turn the AC down so low that my husband gets frozen out. 🙂

That wraps up another week here. How was yours?

These Fridays keep coming around more and more frequently. It’s good to pause occasionally and recount the good parts of the week before they disappear from memory. I join Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to do just that on Fridays.

1. Dresses hemmed. I don’t mind maxi dresses in the winter, but in warm weather, I need the air circulating around my legs. I finally got to hemming up a couple of long dresses and have worn both of them this week.

2. A new mirror. Some time ago, I received an almost-full-length mirror for my craft/sewing room. But company was coming before we could put it up, so I tucked it in the closet . . . where it has been ever since. I asked Jim if he could put it up for me since I was planning on hemming the above-mentioned dresses and needed to check the length in a mirror. He was kind enough to do so. I always feel bad when something I’ve asked him to do turns out to be more complicated than I thought it would be. In this case, I wanted the mirror on the back of the room’s door–which was a hollow inside door with no studs. But he got it up there.

3. Puttering in the craft room. I came in while Jim was working on the mirror to answer a question about how high I wanted it. I stuck around in case he needed me to hand him something or get something for him. Plus, I couldn’t get out of the room without interrupting what he was doing. 🙂 So when he didn’t need me, I worked on decluttering my work table. It was an enjoyable time, and my table looks so much more spacious now.

I’ve had an idea for a long time of doing everything I need to do with the blog and computer on weekdays so I could use Saturday for family or church events, or, if nothing was happening on those fronts, I could get to some of the crafty things I want to do. I have photo albums I need to redo, photos in shoe boxes I need to do something with, craft projects I’d love to work on. I have a watercolor kit I’d love to dabble with. This Saturday afternoon in the craft room was the first opportunity to implement that desire for my craft time.

4. Wrap-up potluck. Our Bible study wrapped up its spring session with a potluck dinner and discussion of what we learned from Isaiah. It was a good way to remind ourselves of some of the key points we studied.

5. Family dinner and games. Mittu, Jason, and Timothy offered to come over and make dinner Sunday evening. Jesse was free to come, too, so we enjoyed time together.

That’s our week..How was yours?

It’s Friday once again—time to share the blessings of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Time with Timothy. My son and daughter-in-law had a meeting that lasted all of Saturday morning, so they brought Timothy here. He and his granddad did some of the experiments from the National Geographic Completely Gross Chemistry Set Tim had gotten for his birthday. 🙂

Then they played games on their tablets, then made mini pizzas on gluten-free tortillas. Jason and Mittu came home just in time for lunch.

2. Lunch with Melanie. We usually get together every few weeks, but it had been two months since we last did. I had some Red Lobster gift cards, so we enjoyed good food and a nice long chat.

3. Bible Study. Our ladies’ Bible study ended its trek through Isaiah with a particularly good discussion. We have one more wrap-up meeting and potluck next week, then we’ll break for the summer.

4. Naps. Sunday afternoon naps are the best. 🙂 I’d actually rather not take them on other days, but sometimes that’s the difference between being functional or not the rest of the day.

5. Good books could be listed every week. I finished one recently that I am sure will be a favorite of the year, Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes (linked to my review).

That’s my week—how was yours?

I’m joining in once again with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share the blessings of the week.

1. Timothy’s birthday! My grandson turned 10 this week! Double digits!

He wanted a banana split pie instead of cake, and Mittu made a gorgeous and tasty one. And he also wanted a Buc-cee’s themed party. He loves that place, which, if you don’t know, is basically a gas station that advertises the cleanest bathrooms ever, but also is something like a mini mall. I guess a lot of other people like it as a party theme, too, because there were party plates and decorations with Buc-cee the beaver all over them. 🙂

2. Play and dinner. The school associated with our church was putting on a play of Winnie the Pooh and invited the church folks to come for a free showing of their last dress rehearsal Tuesday afternoon.

3. Dinner out. After the play, we tried out a new Mexican food restaurant. We hadn’t actually eaten in a restaurant in a long time: we usually get takeout to bring home. It was really noisy, but otherwise enjoyable.

4. A rediscovered turntable. We have our medications in a corner cabinet in the kitchen. There’s a lot more storage on either side of the cabinet door, but it’s hard to get to. So we have Lazy Susan turntables on one shelf for our prescription medications. The shelf below has nonprescription medicines and supplements, and we were getting so many that I was frustrated having to move containers around to find what I needed. Then I remembered I had tucked away in the pantry a turntable I had bought for another cabinet but which was too big to fit there. Thankfully, I hadn’t given it away yet, and it worked perfectly for the stray medications.

5. Tooth removal recovery. Last Friday I had just had a problem tooth removed. I was envisioning chipmunk cheeks, living on broth and applesauce, and constant pain. It did hurt, and I was on soft foods and Tylenol for a few days. But it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. It’s still a little tender, but thankfully, there have been no complications.

And that wraps up another week! I hope yours has been enjoyable, too.

It’s been a rainy, overcast, dreary week. That kind of weather can get me down a bit when it lasts so long. That’s one reason it’s important to deliberately look for the blessings in the week. They’re there, but they can be overshadowed by gloom if we let them. I join up with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to look for five good things from the week just past.

1. Dinner at Jesse‘s, my youngest son. He made chili, Mittu made gluten-free cornbread, and I made gluten-free blondies. We got to see the progress he had made in setting up his new house. And Jim and Jason helped him set up his wall-mounted TV. Then we all played Jackbox games on it.

2. The eclipse. Jim, Jason, and Timothy drove six or so hours to Sidney, OH, to view the eclipse. Jim’s main motivation was that Timothy be able to see it. We had seen the one in 2017, but Timothy was only three then and didn’t remember much. They had safe travels, clear skies, and good weather. Jim brought a couple of his telescopes so they could see the progression on screen.

He got some neat pictures with the telescope as well. Here’s just one:

They went to a hotel that night, with Jim using the last of the hotel reward points he had accumulated from work. They enjoyed the pool, then drove back the next day.

Back at home here in TN, this was all I got of the eclipse, in a short break in the clouds. 🙂 So I was glad the guys got a fuller experience.

3. Jeremy in Montreal. My oldest son in RI took a few days off and drove to Montreal to see the eclipse. He had not ever really taken a vacation beyond coming to see us or going camping with friends, so he thought this would be a good time to travel and explore. He went on a walking tour the first day, which I thought was a great way to start (and it was only $5). Among other things, he went to the “Aura Experience,” a kind of light and music show, at the Notre Dame Basilica and walked up 339 steps to the Mount Royal Park, which overlooks the city. He regaled us with photos and text comments about the places he visited. It was fun to experience it with him in that way.

4. Tax refund. Jim did our taxes this week, and for the first time in years, we’re getting a refund.

5. Tooth extractions are no fun, but getting it over with is helpful. This particular tooth has been a problem for a long time and had about everything done to it that can be done. It had a root canal, crown, and bridge, then got a cavity underneath all that somehow. There was some question about whether it would support another root canal or whether it should be extracted. In the meantime, it got infected again. So we made the decision to remove it. That was done Thursday afternoon, and they said it went as well as it could have. I’m still numb at the moment, a couple of hours after the procedure, but taking it easy for a couple of days.

6. Bonus: the dogwoods around town have been blooming, but our backyard ones are just getting started.

I wrote this on Thursday afternoon. Now, Friday morning, the sun is out! And should be all day!

Have a great weekend!

Every week seems to have up and down weather lately, but we hit extremes of 80s one day and 30s the next this week. I’m glad we can adjust heating and air conditioning inside so easily, but I am really ready for cold weather to be done til next fall. We’ll get there eventually.

Meanwhile, it helps to stop and count one’s blessings. That doesn’t usually happen unless we deliberately look for them, so I make it a point to do so on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Easter. I enjoyed meditating on Christ’s death and resurrection the past few weeks by rereading Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter complied by Nancy Guthrie. We had a good church service, great dinner with the family, and a fun Easter egg hunt.

2. Camping. Jim, Jason, Mittu, and Timothy camped out a few days at a state park about half an hour from here. Jesse and I drove up to join them for lunch and dinner Friday. Mittu had made these neat foil packets with fish and vegetables, and Jim grilled his yummy burgers.

3. Time alone. If you’ve read here for long, you know I love my family. But I do love time alone sometimes as well. Camping is not my favorite thing for a number of reasons, some of them due to physical issues. Going for a few hours one afternoon gave me some of the camping experience while getting to sleep in my own bed at night. 🙂 While everyone was away, I got Mexican food take-out one night, watched a movie, and got a good chunk of writing done.

4. April Fool’s Day is not something we’ve ever done much with as a family. But I was amused to hear that Timothy pulled his first April Fool’s Day prank. Jason opened the egg carton one morning to find that Timothy had replaced the eggs with confetti eggs he had gotten for Easter. Jason said Timothy was pretty proud of himself. 🙂

I also smiled, after some initial confusion, when the Connections word game showed pictures that day instead of words.

5. Getting an appointment over with. I have mild sleep apnea. The only reason I sought treatment for it was that one doctor told me sleep apnea could cause atrial fibrillation (which I have, even after having an ablation), and any number of ablations wouldn’t help unless the sleep apnea was treated. Using the CPAP machine requires a once-a-year in-person visit to the sleep center. That visit really could be phoned in. In fact, one year they had a telehealth visit on the phone because they were moving to a new office the day of my appointment. I asked if we couldn’t do that all the time–it only took about ten minutes whereas the in-person appointment takes about an hour by the time I drive there and back. They said no, insurance requires that it be in-person unless they have extenuating circumstances like they did that year. This year it had to be rescheduled a couple of times. So it was good to be done with it for another year. Also, as appointments go, it wasn’t bad: the people were very pleasant, their new building was much more spacious than the cramped, maze-like building they used to have. Their bathrooms were right outside the waiting area instead of being back in the maze somewhere. My only problem with it was the hour it took. But since I have to do it, I need to have a better attitude about it.

I hope you’ve had a good week as well.