I can’t believe it’s the last Friday of October already. This month has flown, but that’s all the more reason to pause and recount the blessings of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Healing. I mentioned my husband’s surgery last week–a double surgery when they found an undiagnosed hernia and repaired it along with the original issue. Healing always seems to be an up and down path rather than steadily increasing improvement. He’s still dealing with pain and fatigue and a few other issues, but he’s getting around really well.

2. A good report from the doctor. X-rays and a post-op exam at the doctor’s office this week showed everything was healing well. Plus the pathology report came back clear. Previous biopsies had been clear as well, but they only test a smattering of samples. It was good that the final post-surgical report came back all-clear as well.

3. Valet parking. When we went to the hospital for Jim’s doctor’s visit, we took advantage of the valet parking instead of me dropping him off at the door and then hiking back after finding a parking space. It was well worth the $3 fee.

4. Helpful gadgets. Before Jim’s surgery, he got his mom’s old walker out of storage and cleaned it up just in case he needed it. It was very helpful his first week home. Then we had kept her recliner that raises the seat up so one can get out of it easier. I don’t know what we would have done without that–probably he would have been in a lot more pain from trying to get up from a regular couch or chair.

5. Oven repair. I’d been having a time with my gas oven taking several attempts before it would come on. Then last week it came on but wouldn’t get up to the right temperature. Someone came out Thursday to replace the igniter, and we celebrated with frozen pizza cooked in a very hot oven.

That’s our week. I hope yours was good as well!

It’s been an eventful week here. But God sprinkles good things along the way. Here are a few, sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. My husband’s surgery. Jim had surgery Wednesday, and when they opened him up, they found a large undiagnosed hernia with part of his small intestines poking through. (He was aware of the bulge and had asked three different doctors about it in past years. They told him it was “fatty deposits” and nothing to worry about.)

In one of the biggest blessings of all, a surgeon who could deal with that was on the premises and willing to jump in and repair it. If she had not been, Jim’s surgeon would have scrapped the original surgery until this could be taken care of. Then we’d have another, possible two surgeries to take care of the original problem plus this. So even though he was under a couple of hours longer and has an extra incision, we’re more thankful than we can say that it all got taken care of at once.

We came home yesterday. He came through everything fine and is getting around well. Trying to stay on top of the pain is a challenge, so your prayers for that and for an absence of infection and complications would be greatly appreciated.

2. Finding my way. I’m familiar with two hospitals in the area, one just down the street. One or both of us had been patients in them in the past. But my only experience with the hospital the surgery was scheduled in was getting lost when I was there for an appointment years ago. On one level, I knew there would be signs and people to ask if I couldn’t figure out where to go. And I knew that someone would tell me where I needed to wait. But I still had this irrational jittery feeling.

But the surgery center of this hospital was pretty compact. There was always someone to help me find which way to go, and it didn’t take long to learn my way around.

3. Helpful people. Almost everyone we interacted with was very nice. One nurse directed me to the cafeteria, which was quite a long walk from the holding area, where Jim was waiting before surgery (we had a three-hour delay due to one of the robotic arms beings broken). On my way back, she happened to be coming from the cafeteria as well and offered to take me through a shortcut “the back way.” Then the receptionist at the surgery center was there longer than usual. When Jim was in recovery, she told me someone would call to tell me his room number. But when I came back to the waiting area after eating dinner, she was still there and called to get the room number and see if I could go on up.

Jason went the extra mile(s) literally. We’d had to park way away from the surgery center entrance. We had left Jim’s overnight bag in the car so I didn’t have to lug it around all day. The original procedure was supposed to be out-patient, so we thought we probably wouldn’t need the overnight bag anyway. I had a hard time walking from the car to the surgery center anyway, and walking back by myself and in the dark seemed impossible. I called Jason both to ask for some things at home and to see if if would take me to the car. Then, because the parking lot had emptied out a little bit, I was able to bring the car closer to the entrance. Bonus blessing: we got all that done a little before 9, when they locked the doors. After 9, we would have had to come in through the emergency room entrance and then find our way back to the surgery center.

When we got home, we found my dear daughter-in-law had made five meals for us. That was so much appreciated.

4. Praying friends and loved ones. I had asked several people to pray beforehand and then kept them updated through the day. Their notes and prayers really encouraged me.

5. New fall arrangement. Before all of this, when I set out my fall decorations, I was missing a little cream colored pitcher where I usually place some fake fall leaves. I found another fallish vase, but it was larger, and the proportion wasn’t right.

So last week I had gotten some fall stems at Hobby Lobby and put them in this week:

Jim thought the little white pumpkins looked like marshmallows. 🙂 It’s a little bigger than what I like to keep in that space, but I like it.

Bonus: Fall color is finally coming through in the leaves. It’s still not quite as vibrant in our neighborhood, but we saw a feast of color on our way to and from the hospital.

And that is our week. May our eyes always be open to seeing God’s hand in our lives.

It’s a deliciously cool morning. I love this cool autumn phase before the cold of winter sets in. We still haven’t seen a lot of fall color in our area, but I trust we will before the leaves disappear. Meanwhile, life goes on, and every week has good things if we look for them. Here are some of mine that I’m sharing with you and Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

1. My husband. Though I always appreciate him, he outdid himself this week. When he runs Saturday morning errands, he’ll often stop by the store for the handful of items on my running list on the refrigerator. This last Saturday, I had quite a lot listed and had planned to go to the store myself in the afternoon. He’ll do the full grocery shopping sometimes, but I hate to ask him when he’s had a full week of work plus other tasks. But he took care of my whole list. Then he got my autumn decorations down from the attic for me. He ran the cleaning cycle on our oven and wiped up the layer of ash that leaves on the oven walls. And one morning when he was out early, he brought me a Chick-Fil-A biscuit.

2. Evenings with the family. Jason and Mittu texted one day that they had gotten some tilapia and offered to come to our house to make and share it and some salad. I had some frozen loaded potato skins to offer as a side. Then Jim suggested we make s’mores on the patio with a little tabletop “oven” he had. It was a fun night. Another night, we watched Timothy while Jason and Mittu went out, and Mittu put together homemade pizza before she left.

3. Out-of-the-ordinary food. Besides the ones already mentioned, I made chicken and dumplings one night. I don’t often because it’s a little involved, plus makes a lot for just the two of us. (I don’t make it for the whole family because Mittu and Timothy are gluten-intolerant. I’ve wondered if the dumplings would hold up with GF flour.) One cool night, chicken and dumplings seemed like just the thing. I made a half-recipe, and it was still a lot, but we’ve almost finished it off.

Then one morning, I wanted something different for breakfast besides my usual weekday oatmeal and indulged in some French toast.

And I used the Crumbl gift card received on my birthday and indulged in their Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie. So good!

4. A new great grand nephew, the first of a new generation. I had to look online to see what my husband’s niece’s son’s child would be called in relation to us. 🙂

5. A Hobby Lobby excursion to me is like a kid’s outing at a park. 🙂 I needed some fall stems, scrapbooking paper, and a few other items, and had a gift card to get them with.

6. Bonus: Off-season clothes readily available. I used to keep them in boxes and felt I needed to wash them out before putting them in the closet. Now they’re down the hall in the guest room closet, and it’s easy to garb them when needed.

What are some good things from your week?

We’re a week into October already. Leaves have started changing and falling, but we haven’t seen full autumn color yet. We should in the next week or two! Meanwhile, I am rejoicing in cool mornings and evenings. Here are a few other reasons for rejoicing this week, and sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Being treated to dinner out with new friends. A couple at church invited us out to eat, and we enjoyed getting to know them better.

2. Care group meeting. The church we’ve been attending divides up into smaller care groups, each under an elder. We knew they had them but didn’t really know how they operated or where or with whom. But someone invited us to theirs, which meets every other week, usually in the elder’s home. It’s mainly a way to get to know each other in a smaller group setting, share prayer requests, etc. And have snacks. 🙂

3. A free (sort of) car wash. Jim took my car in to be serviced, get the oil changed, etc., and was offered a free car wash. I’m sure the price was incorporated into service fee, as it seemed rather high. But that’s all the more reason to take advantage of it.

4. A good movie. Last night we watched A Million Miles Away, about Jose Hernandez, who as a child worked with his migrant parents in various fields and grew up to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut.

5. Days at home. Though I enjoyed the social encounters over the weekend, I was very glad to spend most of the rest of the week at home with no out-of-the-ordinary outings. I’m not one who can go-go-go a lot.

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

Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re at the end of September already. It’s time once again to look intentionally for the good things we’ve been blessed with. Susanne hosts this weekly exercise in gratitude at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Boys’ camping trip. My husband, son Jason, and grandson Timothy went camping for a couple of days last week. Everything went well, and the weather was perfect. Timothy loved everything, from fishing, to sleeping in a tent, skipping rocks, swimming–even getting up early to see the sunrise, when he’s not usually a morning person. Jim took the RV and slept there, offering for the other guys to come in and sleep if they wanted to or if it got too chilly at night.

2. Visiting the camp site. Mittu and I drove up one afternoon to where they were camping. Jim made his wonderful grilled chicken teriyaki, and Mittu brought some cupcakes. An afternoon was about all I wanted of camping. 🙂 But it was fun to see Timothy having such a good time.

3. Connections. Lisa mentioned an online game called Connections. It has four rows of four words each, sixteen all together. You’re supposed to find four words that have something in common. I like that it’s simple and good brain exercise.

4. A dinner invitation. A couple at church invited us to meet them for dinner this weekend. I think that’s the first time we’ve gone out together with someone not family since before Covid. I’m looking forward to it!

5. Impromptu dinner. Mittu texted to ask if they could come over and make dinner last night since we all had plans over the weekend. We enjoyed sloppy joes, fries, zucchini, and chocolate chip cookies and looked over the camping pictures and videos.

How was your week?

Another week sped by, and it’s time to remember and share the good things of the week. I’m thankful Susanne hosts a place to do this at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Fall! Autumn doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow, but we’ve had some lovely temperatures in the 50s at night and 70s to low 80s in the daytime. Some of the trees seem to have gotten the memo, with rusty leaves dropping already. I hope we have a very long autumn. I love the space between the heat of summer and the cold barrenness of winter.

2. Jesse’s birthday. My youngest son turned 30, which makes me feel old! We had a good time celebrating.

I’m thankful Mittu made this cute and tasty Lemon Blueberry Cake that Jesse requested. It had reduced me to tears the last time I tried it, and almost did her as well! We’ve decided we need to find a different recipe. If you have one, let us know!

I need to be more mindful of the background of my photos. This looks a little busy. That’s my writing desk in the little alcove off the dining area.

3. Pumpkin Spice Donuts. I’m not into pumpkin-spice-everything, but I do enjoy getting a package of these donuts once a year.

4. A submission accepted. I learned this week that a short piece of writing I submitted to an online site was accepted. It won’t be published til next August, though, so I’ll tell you more about it then.

5. Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins. Reese’s has taken to shaping their chocolate-peanut butter concoctions into seasonal shapes. The pumpkin ones are so good! I limited myself by only getting two and having them different days.

6. Bonus: a new day. I had a couple of days with extra time to myself and was looking forward to getting a lot done, especially writing. I was disappointed that didn’t happen. But there’s nothing to do but start over the next day. (After I wrote that yesterday afternoon, I had a productive few hours. Yay!)

That’s my week. How was yours?

Can we be halfway through September already? We’ve had a little break in the temperatures, but it still feels very much like summer here. Yet some of the leaves have started falling already. And we have some overnight forecasts for next week in the fifties!

It’s good to pause from the busyness of life and appreciate the good things. We not only thank God for His blessings, but we prolong them by remembering them. Susanne hosts an opportunity to do that and share at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Grandparent’s Day. Last Sunday, Jason, Mittu, and Timothy had us over for a nice meal, cards, gifts, and games. We felt honored.

2. Gift cards. I had gotten a gift card for Amazon back at Christmas. I hadn’t entered it into my account yet because I wanted to wait til I was ready to buy something special. Otherwise, Amazon uses the gift card as the primary means of payment unless you remember to adjust your preferences at checkout. I was looking up a few odds and ends personal things this week and remembered the gift card—perfect!

3. Ribs. Jim had bought some babyback ribs on sale several weeks ago. There wasn’t quite enough for the whole family, but it seemed a lot for just two people. I saw them again in the freezer this week and decided to go ahead and make them in the crockpot. While looking up how long to cook them, I came across this recipe, which said to put them in the oven after taking them out of the crockpot. I used two different kinds of barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s and Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet) along with garlic powder, minced onion, seasoning salt, and Worcestershire sauce. They turned out nicely and even seemed better each day.

4. A word of encouragement.. I wrote a few weeks ago about the need to accept constructive criticism. But we also need encouragement sometimes to let us know we’re on the right path and to cheer our hearts.

5. A word in due season. I was feeling bad over a wrong attitude one night and the next morning. I had confessed it to the Lord and been forgiven (I John 1:9), but still felt lingering regret. Yesterday morning, I opened my Daily Light on the Daily Path to these and related verses:

I, even I, am he that comforteth you (Isa. 51:12)

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14).

Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth (Psalm 86:15).

The Spirit … helpeth our infirmities (Romans 8:26).

What a balm for my heart! I felt so seen and loved. I’m thankful for God’s grace.

It’s been a busy week! I’m glad to sit down and recount some of the week’s blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Labor Day is kind of an odd holiday in that it doesn’t have any traditions associated with it—except maybe grilling hamburgers, which we did. Labor Day seems like the summer’s last hurrah, though it will still feel like summer for a few weeks yet, past the official start of fall. But it was nice to have the day off and to have all the kids over (minus Mittu, who, sadly, wasn’t feeling well but still sent over a wonderful chocolate pie).

2. Puttering. On Saturday afternoon, I got finished with what I was working on about an hour before dinner time. There was nothing else that had to be done, so I enjoyed time just puttering around doing assorted little things. It was fun and relaxing.

3. Expandable bookcases. I had asked for and received for my birthday this expandable bookcase. Due to a mix-up my husband actually ended up getting two, but that turned out to be a good thing. They seemed a little flimsy when I first tried to set them up, but once they had books in them, they were fine. I used them to house my cookbooks a little better.

4. Bathroom scrubbing by my dear husband. He has some kind of attachment to his drill that he sometimes uses to scrub the bathtub much more thoroughly than I can with my little brush and cleanser. Then he swept and mopped as well.

5. Catching up with friends. Though funerals are not favorite occurrences, we enjoyed so much catching up with old friends at the graveside of a dear older man from a church we used to attend. Then Melanie and I had our almost-monthly lunch meet-up, this time courtesy of gift cards to Cracker Barrel.

That’s my week. How was yours?

It’s the first Friday of September! Autumn is one day closer. 🙂 That’s one blessing. I’m sharing a few more with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. The Knoxville Asian Festival. I’ve wanted to go to this for ages, but we never made it til this year. Jason, Mittu, and Timothy went last year, and Timothy really enjoyed the Matsuriza Drum group from Disney World. So we especially wanted to see them this year. I would have loved to see so many more of the performing groups, but performances ran all day from about 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and we couldn’t stay for all.

I thought it was funny that with their beautiful outfits and fans, these dancers wore white socks and sneakers.

There were booths and stands all over World’s Fair Park, some selling Asian food and wares, some selling nothing that had to do with the Orient. 🙂 It was so hot and humid that day, we just couldn’t look around much and stay for longer than we did. But we enjoyed what we did experience.

2. A voice text from Timothy asking if they could come over and hang out one evening. It’s lovely knowing your grandchild wants to spend time with you.

3. Clearing out a few things. I have a giveaway box where I stash things to donate to the thrift store, then deliver them when the box is full. That time was coming, so I also went through some old boxes in my closet. To walk into my closet, you wouldn’t notice anything different. But I know the back corner was cleaned up and sorted through, and that feels good.

4. Finding $20 unexpectedly. One of the giveaway items was a purse that was cute, but too small for me. I had already cleaned it out, I thought. But I looked through all the pockets and crevices again, and found a wad of receipts and coupons. . . and a $20 bill!

That was fun in itself. But just that morning I was looking over the list of things we were going to get our youngest son for his birthday in a few weeks. (I can say this because I don’t think he reads my blog. 🙂 ) I wanted to get him one more item than we had discussed, which was $20. Finding $20 seemed like the go-ahead to get the item.

5. Timothy at Kid’s Club. Our church has a kid’s club something like Awanas, but with a curriculum written by one of the men in the church. Timothy went this week, the first time he’s gone to something like that, and had a great time.

That’s our week. How was yours?

We went from a full and busy weekend to a quiet week, and there were good things about both. I’m happy to count blessings Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Family time. My oldest son was here about ten days altogether, through last weekend. We had a nice blend of relaxing and chatting at home and family outings.

I told of some of our doings in last week’s FFF. In addition, on Saturday we went to the Lost Sea Adventure, “the United States’ largest and the world’s second largest non-subglacial underground lake” (according to Wikipedia) in Craighead Caverns, about an hour from us.

My husband has loved cave exploration ever since a research project he participated in while in college. I can’t say I am fond of caves myself. 🙂 I was unsure about this since I have balance, knee, and ankle issues and the website mentioned some steep places. But I didn’t want to miss out on the family excursion. So I decided to at least try.

The website had mentioned hand rails, but there weren’t many, and they weren’t all at a good height. I had to hang onto my poor husband for much of the trail. Then when we got to the area just before the lake, the guide told us the way down would be equivalent to a seven-story slope, which would of course be a seven-story incline coming back. There were benches at this spot for anyone who didn’t think they could make it. I was pretty worn out by this point, so I stayed on the bench. Mittu stayed with me because she wasn’t interested in the boat ride.

I felt bad about missing the main attraction. It would have been nice if the website had mentioned that seven-story slope.

But Jason took lots of pictures and videos.

And we ended the day at a Mexican restaurant.

2. My birthday. We celebrated a day early since Jeremy was leaving on my actual birthday. We went out to one of my favorite restaurants. Mittu made my favorite Texas Sheet Cake, and Jason picked out these cute decorations and birthday plates.

3. Not much cooking. I had not anticipated this, but with eating at Jason and Mittu’s house once and Jesse’s another night, and the various excursions and outings, I think I only cooked three nights of the ten. That made me feel like I was on vacation, too. 🙂 Then Jim got take-out for the next three nights after Jeremy left. One night was my birthday, which we’d already celebrated the day before. One night he had an errand around dinner-time and offered to bring something back to eat. And the other night was just because.

4. A quiet week followed all the family activity, which helped us older folks to recover. 🙂

5. Family photos. When we’re all together, we try to get pictures of us as a group.

We’ll have to do something other than a line selfie next time so the ones at the end can be seen. 🙂

The boys decided to dress alike. 🙂

Need a model for the Brawny paper towels package? 🙂

All in all, it’s been a great week.

Hope yours was as well!