It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This has been….not the best week I’ve had in a long time. I caught my husband’s cold last weekend, started feeling better Tuesday, then felt worse on Wednesday. I hadn’t had one in a while and had forgotten just how much they can take out of you. But sometimes when the week isn’t all sunshine and roses, it’s even more important to stop and look for the blessings in it. Here are a few from last week:

1. Restoring order. I always have mixed emotions about putting the Christmas decorations away. I hate to see them go, especially the lights, but do like getting everything back in order again. I’m thankful my husband and youngest son help with this – otherwise it would take me days rather than taking us together a morning. Then I’ve been able to declutter a bit here and there the piles that accumulate when life is busy and some paperwork from last year.

2. Snow day! We got maybe an inch or two last Friday, which for us Southerners is a really big deal. 🙂 Thankfully the roads weren’t too bad at all this time. Jason and his family came over on Saturday so Timothy could sled down a little hill in the back. There was such a difference from last year – when he was frowning and not quite sure what to make of it, to this year, when he loved it.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of him smiling and laughing on the sled – those are all on video, and I can’t upload personal videos here without paying extra for the privilege. But it was a fun day. 🙂

3. The bath aide came in the snow. That might sound like an odd one, but in the past, if we’ve had any kind of snow or ice on the ground, no one from hospice comes out, though I guess they would in an emergency. I can’t blame them – those of us who aren’t used to driving in the snow get kind of anxious about it, plus our roads aren’t treated as much as they are up North where snow is a regular occurrence. On my mother-in-law’s usual bath day, I was thinking I would probably have to do it, which I wasn’t looking forward to with both a broken toe and a cold. But we’ve had a different aide for the last several weeks, and she did come, just a little later than usual.

4. Brownie mixes when you want something sweet but not terribly involved.

5. A slight schedule change for my mother-in-law’s afternoon routine has made a big difference for the better in how I can arrange my time and tasks.

Bonus: Cough drops and tissues with lotion in them. 🙂 And I’m thankful that my m-i-l hasn’t caught anything from either of us.

I think we’ve turned a corner with our colds, so I’m looking forward to a more productive week ahead. Hope you have a good one, too.

Save

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the first FFF of the New Year! And a great way to start off. Here are a few highlights from the last week:

1. The last weekend of vacation. My oldest son was here through the weekend, and everyone else was off, so we had some great family times together. In addition to some of the activities listed below, we went to an Indian restaurant and my oldest son made Chocolate Pretzel Pie. Normally I am not a big pretzel fan, but this had the right combination of saltiness and crunchiness without tasting too pretzely. He had tried it for a gathering of his friends around Thanksgiving that they cal Piesgiving, where everyone brings some kind of food in a pie, and it was a hit there, so he made it again for us.

Timothy likes to help in the kitchen. 🙂

Normally he makes duck soup, but this time he tried duck shakes. 🙂

We’ve had that child’s Tupperware set since our boys were little, and it’s one of the things we kept for when other children came over. I love that our grandchild can use it now.

2. Playing games is one of my favorite things to do when we are all together. We generally play at least one round of Settlers of Catan, and this was the closest I ever remember it being: three of us were within one point of winning and had in hand what we needed to win on our next turn. We also like to play Telestrations. Then we played some Jackbox games through the TV connected to my son’s Steam account ( a game-playing site, though these games are also available for the Apple TV, Firestick, Xbox, and other venues). They had a family-friendly venue (I think for some of the games you have to set it for that option). We played Drawful, Fibbage, and one other that involved sound effects. People play by logging into the Jackbox TV site on their phones, and people play on their phones, but the game play shows up on the TV. I don’t know if this is making sense – but it was a lot of fun!

3. An outing in Gatlinburg. My husband at one time had gotten tickets for three of the Ripley’s attractions in Gatlinburg, and we used one of them last summer to attend the aquarium. We wanted to try to use the second one this break, so we went to the Ripley’s Mirror Maze. I thought the maze itself would be challenging enough, but the darkness and changing lights made it more so. Normally changing lights is not my thing. But this was a lot of fun to do as a family and not too hard to get through. Timothy wasn’t frightened by it – he just stood stock still when we first went in, trying to figure out what was going on. 🙂 It’s pretty short, so we wouldn’t normally go to Gatlinburg just for that, but I’m still trying not to do too much while my broken toe heals. That and going out to eat was just the right length of an outing for this time. We discovered a new-to-us Mexican food restaurant that was great in every way -good food, quick service, knowledgeable waiter, and a good gluten-free menu for my daughter-in-law (No Way Jose’s Cantina near the aquarium).

4. New calendars. I love getting out new calendars for the year, filling in everyone’s birthdays and anniversaries, and looking at all those clean, fresh pages!

5. Gift cards. I was considering whether I wanted to invest in a certain purchase this morning, and remembered I had a gift card to a place where I could order it online. That made the decision very easy! 🙂

Hope your new year has gotten off to a great start!

Save

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the last FFF of 2016! This year has seemed to pick up speed as it moved along. Here are some fave parts of the last week:

1. Christmas, of course. We had all the immediate family here, thoughtful gifts, wonderful food, and a good time together. Timothy is at a fun age for it.

2. A sticker machine. My son had gotten it for me to use in making cards, but I hadn’t used it yet because whenever I had made a card I was in a rush and didn’t feel I had the time to figure out how it worked. But I got it out for the family Christmas cards I was making, and it took no time at all to learn. It was a big help and greatly reduced the smearing that can happen with glue sticks. I’ll have to compare prices for the cartridges – I am sure glue sticks are probably cheaper. But I am excited to have this option at least for some things. He uses it in his journal to occasionally post a photo or something.

3. Vacation days. My husband is off this week and my oldest son is here. We’ve been mostly hanging out at home since the other boys are working and I’m still not back to pre-injury mobility with my broken toe. But, after getting a few things done earlier in the week, it’s been nice to just hang out together.

4. Control + z. If you hit the control button and the z button simultaneously on your computer, it undoes whatever you just did. That has saved me work and frustration many times. This week, when I was making up the list of books read this year, something I accidentally hit undid the links in a whole section. When I pressed Control and z, they were all restored except the one line I was working on. Whew!

5. A new car! (I hear that in my head as a game show announcer would say it). We’ve been considering one as we were going to have to replace our van before long, but it wasn’t urgent yet. But my husband decided to look and see if there were any good end-of-the-year deals. It turns out that the need not being urgent and being able to walk away is actually a good negotiating place. 🙂 There were various discounts and features to work through, but he eventually got it for pretty close to what he wanted to pay. I’m excited – this one has features my old one did not, so it will be a bit of a learning curve, but a fun one.

Happy end of 2016, and I hope you have a happy and safe New Year’s Eve and Day and 2017!

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s Christmas Eve Eve! 🙂  Ready or not, here Christmas comes! Hope you’re having a good time with the things you need to do. I think we’re just about ready except for a little pie baking on Saturday. Our goal was to get done by the time my oldest son got here rather than by Christmas. In the midst of all the happy activities, I’m thankful for a few minutes to sit down and recount the blessings of the week.

1. My husband would be a favorite every week, of course, but this week I have so appreciated his pitching in to cook, wash dishes, do all the “before someone comes to visit” cleaning while I’ve had to be off my foot because of a broken toe. I hate that he’s having to spend his vacation that way, but I’m grateful he was on vacation to do so. Thankfully the cleaning is caught up so we can relax and enjoy the next few days, and I am starting to be able to hobble around a bit more.

2. Our 37th wedding anniversary was Wednesday. My husband brought me flowers, candy, a sweet card, and took me out to a very nice dinner, plus we had a little more time to talk than we normally do.

3. An anniversary dinner made by my daughter-in-law a few days before our anniversary. Plus cake!

4. Christmas cards and family newsletters. It seems like fewer people do this each year, but I love receiving them.

5. Our oldest son coming home for a much-anticipated visit. 🙂

I hope each of you has a special, meaningful Christmas. The first Christmas wasn’t “perfect” by our standards today, but it was just the way God planned it. No matter how many people are there (or not) and what’s under the tree (or not), we can celebrate the best gift of all: the Son of God who willingly came to Earth to keep God’s law perfectly in our place, to atone for our sins, and to make a way for us to be reconciled to God and experience His presence. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:23). God with us! In the forgiveness of our sins, in our everyday needs and fellowship. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I’m grateful for a regular time in a busy week to count blessings that I might otherwise overlook or forget. Here are a few from the past week:

1. Making Christmas cookies with Timothy. I’m not sure why we didn’t do this last year, but he was full-fledged into it this year. He liked the rolling out better than the cutting, but he seemed to like the star cookie cutter best of the choices. And he enjoyed the icing and sprinkles as well.

Sugar cookies aren’t my #1 favorites (that would be anything with chocolate chips, and with both chocolate and peanut butter, all the better!), but sometimes they hit the spot, both the ones we made from a gluten-free mix (Pillsbury, I think) plus some store-bought ones Jesse had leftover from an event he went to. I didn’t grow up making sugar cookies at Christmas, and did them off and on when my kids were little, but now they seem a definite part of the season.

2. Numbing agents. I wrote yesterday about breaking and dislocating my toe. Any time on TV that you see someone having a dislocated bone reset, there’s a lot of yelling and pain, so I was glad the doctor numbed my foot for the proceeding!

3. Clinics with evening hours. Our doctor’s office has had weekday evening hours, usually with a nurse practitioner, for some time now, but I didn’t know that specialties like an orthopedic clinic had evening, walk-in, no appointment needed hours as well.

4. Warm showers. This is one of those everyday blessings we don’t even think about until we can’t have them for some reason. I was thinking about showers this week when a major character in a book I was reading was homeless and had to clean up in public restrooms as best she could. Then I skipped a shower on the day after my toe injury, and was fine that day, but the next day my skin and scalp felt awful. It felt so good to get under warm water and wash and rinse off.

5. Dinner and a sweet card. Last night Mittu sent over dinner and this card she and Timothy made.

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well and you have a few quiet moments to relax, reflect, and enjoy. Happy Friday!

Save

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

Are you making good progress on your Christmas plans? God hs given me some productive days this week: I knocked a few things off the list, and the schedule’s looking pretty good, but I’ll relax more when everything’s done. Here are some highlights from the last week:

1. Flowers. I don’t often buy flowers for myself, but I spotted these in a nearby bin while I was bagging my broccoli in the produce section of the store, and when I saw they were only $5, I succumbed. I love how the sparkly babies’ breath makes them festive. Roses may be my favorite, but I have a soft spot for carnations, and they are one flower whose scent I love (and doesn’t make me sneezy!)

2. Coffee, even though I don’t like flavored coffee, have been drinking it without sweetener since I had to learn to when I had gestational diabetes with one pregnancy nearly 30 years ago (once I learned to like it that way, I figured I may as well keep with it since I get plenty of sugar other places), and have to have decaf due to heart rhythm problems. It still hits the spot, and now that the weather is colder, I drink more to keep warm.

3. A nice meal prepared by my daughter-in-law, including cookies!

4. Rain and sunshine. As many of you know, we have been under drought conditions for months here in Eastern TN, so I didn’t begrudge the rain at all. In fact, I welcomed it. But after about three days of cloudy skies, I did rejoice to see bright sunshine again. I’m not sure if we are back up to normal conditions or not, but it looks like we’re predicted to have a couple of days of rain in each of the next couple of weeks, so that should certainly help.

5. Church Ladies’ Christmas Party. This is the first time since I’ve been here that this annual event hasn’t been in a home or at the church. We had it in a historic inn that was lovely, if a little cramped (“open concept” was not known in the old days!) Had a very good time, enjoyed the testimony given, and the night out did me a lot of good.

Happy Friday!

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s been a super-busy week here, and I think it must be nearly everywhere. Most of the blogs I read have been fairy quiet since Thanksgiving. December ushers in some extra tasks, but they’re fun ones for the most part. Here are the favorite parts of the last week:

1. Decorating for Christmas. My little grandson’s family has an artificial tree, so they came along with us so he could have the experience of shopping for a live one. Then they brought over apple cider and donuts and made lunch while we decorated. Timothy had a lot of fun opening boxes of ornaments and decorations and helping set them out.

“This looks like a good one!”

Tall uncles help us reach the high places. 🙂

2. Cyber shopping. We got the great bulk of the the Christmas shopping done between Black Friday and Cyber Monday online, and I think I got most of the rest of it done in town today. I think it is fun to get out in stores a little bit, but I really love shopping online. Came across some good deals, too!

3. Another eBay auction win. While looking at the linens I mentioned last week that go along with my Pfaltzgraf Tea Rose dishes, I saw a couple of casserole dishes listed as well. I kept an eye on them til the auction was due to close this week and got them for about $8 each! And now I am staying away from eBay for a while….

4. Rain. This area has been so abnormally dry for months now, and we got a little rain last week, but one day this week we got 6″ in one day. There have been so many fires in the area, the most recent being in the Gatlinburg area, as I am sure many of you have heard. We need more good, soaking rains.

5. A printer at church that folds and staples. I compile a ladies’ booklet once a month for church, and I used to have to go in after it was printed to staple and fold them. We don’t live close to our church, and sometimes it was a nice excursion out alone, but sometimes when life was busy it put a crunch in the schedule. A few months ago the church got a new printer that assembles and staples them all, and I haven’t thought to mention it til now. At first I still felt like I should go over and make sure they all came out all right, but I resisted. With a busy week like this one, it was really nice not to have to.

I hope your first few days of December and your Christmas preparations are going well!

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s officially the Christmas season! At least, I count the day after Thanksgiving as the beginning, though I’ve cheated a little bit by listening to some Christmas music already. And though winter isn’t officially proclaimed for a few weeks yet, winter weather has arrived here with several nights down in the 20s. But as I write this, it’s warm and cozy inside and I’m ready to think over highlights of the past week.

1. Making and giving ornaments to Timothy, discussed with more pictures here. His parents put his own little Christmas tree up and asked me to make some ornaments for it. I think he likes them. 🙂

2. Rain. We’re still way behind the amount of rain we need, but we did get some this week with more forecast for next week.

3. Winning eBay auctions. I don’t do a whole lot with eBay, but somehow I came across a sale of some hand towels and hot pads that match my Pfaltzgraf Tea Rose pattern dishes. Some of the dishes and accessories can be found thee pretty easily, but linens are rare. I was watching the countdown of each bid and even got into a bidding war on one item – but I won them all. It was rather exciting! Thankfully they were all from one seller, so she combined them with a lower shipping price than stated.

4. Shelves. My husband put up shelves in Jason and Mittu’s garage and had a couple left. He asked me if I wanted them in the laundry room. At first I didn’t think so, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded. I was so pleased with them! All that stuff was either on top of the dryer or on a counter. Much neater now!

5. Thanksgiving. I so enjoyed the emphasis on remembering our blessings and thanking God for them, the time with family, and the delicious food we had been looking forward to for weeks!

Last week I mentioned being thankful that the big tree our neighbors were having cut down didn’t fall on the fence, or, worse yet, the house. I didn’t have a picture then, but here it is now. As you can tell, it came awfully close!

Hope you’ve had a great week! Happy Friday!

Save

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! Where did November go?! I know I comment probably too often on how fast time is flying – but, man, it’s crazy!

But no matter how fast the week goes by, I am grateful for this pause on Fridays to remember and recount and appreciate some of its special moments.

1. Going to a craft show. I wrote more about it here. It had been a long time since I had done anything like that, and it was so much fun.

2. Safe tree removal. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that our neighbors had a grass fire that spread quickly. A huge pine tree in their yard was scorched pretty badly, and they told my husband they were going to have it taken down. One day as I pulled into the driveway, I noticed this tree was leaning towards our house. I don’t think that was totally due to the fire – the trunk just grew in a weird way. I wish I had taken a picture of it. That night I was a little afraid to go to sleep in my room, afraid the tree would come crashing down on me during the night. When they finally had someone come out, I was nervous most of the day lest part of the tree fall on the house or the fence. It did fall right next to the fence – my husband said another foot and it would have taken it out — but they got it down with a minimum of damage.

3. Snuggling with Timothy. He’s usually on the go too much to sit beside me or in my lap for very long, but this last Sunday afternoon he did, and it did my Grandma’s heart good. 🙂

4. The Frazor Evangelistic Team is at our church this week. We were only able to go on Sunday, but I was so blessed by the music especially.

5. Mini apple strudels. I hadn’t seen these in quite a while, and the last ones I saw didn’t have the glaze on top, which to me just makes it. So I was glad to spot these again in the store. They look big in this photo, but in reality each one was only big enough for a bite or two.

Happy Friday!

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This has been and up and down week, but so far it seems to be ending nicely. Here are some of the best parts:

1. Roses still in bloom. Most of our flowers are gone now, except for one planter of petunias and begonias out back, but our roses are still looking nice.

2. A calm, quiet, no obligation day after a very busy one. My mother-in-law’s regular bath aide is out with a knee injury, and the substitute aides vary in when they get here. So that put me  little late going to the grocery store. I may have to plan my week to avoid needing to go out on bath days for a while. Anyway, the hospice chaplain came while I was out, and the hospice doctor, who comes about once every three months, came just after lunch, and the nurse came an hour later. And I usually do laundry on her bath days, so between all the people coming and everything else. I decided I may as well give up on trying to get anything else done that day. That was Election Day, and I was so glad I had voted early. My one consolation was that, with all the hospice people coming in one day and errands having been taken care of, the rest of the week should be a lot quieter. We stayed up late watching election results, and it was so nice on Wed. to have a peaceful, quiet day with nothing that “had” to be done (though of course there are always things that could be done). It was refreshing both to my body and my spirit.

3. The election is OVER. Whichever side you’re on, I’m glad it’s over for this year. 

4. An extra hour Saturday night. I hate giving it back in the spring, but I love turning the clocks back in the fall. Except now it gets dark so much earlier.

5. A non-cooking weekend. Jim indulged my request for take-out Chinese food Saturday night, and my daughter-in-law made delicious hamburger pie for Sunday dinner. I hope you don’t mind me listing this kind of thing so often, but it’s always a favorite part of the week when it happens. 🙂

This is Veteran’s Day in the US, and I am so thankful for the men and women who protect, defend, and serve our country, as well as their families and the hardships they endure with their loved ones away.