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 week started out with a bang, but thankfully calmed down later in the week. Here are the highlights:

1. God’s protection. I wrote on Sunday about how a fire started in a neighbor’s yard (due to not completely putting out a leaf fire) and spread quickly because it has been so dry here. In this picture that my son took, our fence is on the left, and the fire went neatly around it, though it did warp it a bit and melt the edging Jim had placed for a planting area. All that black area is from the fire.

Some of you remember our tree saga earlier in the year, when a row of 52 trees had to be cut down because they had caught a disease and were dying. They were right where the fence is now, so if they had been there, I am sure they would have caught fire and spread as well. We were thankful they were gone and no one was hurt and the damage wasn’t any worse.

2. Pizza and movie night with the family. We hadn’t done that in a while. We re-watched Finding Nemo.

3. Christmas cards. I wasn’t thinking about Christmas cards while shopping at W-Mart until I passed the Christmas aisles. I had a bit of time so I decided to look, and ended up buying all my Christmas cards. I’ve found that that is really the cheapest place to buy them, and do they have a section of inspirational ones. I’m particular about how mine are worded, so I like to shop for them before the selection is picked over. Now if I really wanted to get ahead of schedule, I’d start addressing them – but that’s not likely just yet. 🙂

4. A cheerful checker. At the same store, the sales clerk where I checked out was exceptionally cheerful and friendly, and it totally brightened my day. I’m not naturally like that, so I admire people who are, but it did convict me that a smile and bit of conversation and interest in others is better than being always caught up in my own thoughts.

5. Online shopping successes. I’m going to combine two in one here. 🙂 I had seen something on Pinterest that I was interested in getting Timothy for Christmas, but when I clicked through to the Etsy shop the item was from, it said they were all sold. I messaged the owner to see if there was any possibility she might be making more, and she told me she had one left and would be willing to sell it to me! Then I saw something else while out shopping and came home to compare prices and similar items online, and found it at Target. It was a little more there, but they had a 20% off code for kid’s toys and free shipping, which made it lower than anyone else had it. (No affiliate ads  or links here – just sharing what I found.)

Bonus: Early voting. I had thought you could only vote early if there was some reason you couldn’t vote on election day. I was happy to be found wrong, and avoided the long lines by voting this week. Although I’m not always thrilled with the choice of candidates, I’m thankful for the privilege of voting and don’t take it lightly.

That’s our week – hope you had a good one, too, or at least can find some good in it. Happy Friday!

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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 so hard to believe this is the last FFF of October! What a fast-moving month. Here are some of my favorite parts of the last week:

1. Gorgeous fall weather. I’m not fond of the sauna-like humid heat of the summer or the cold and ice of the winter, so I am soaking up this wonderful in-between weather while we have it. Cool mornings, warm afternoons, a crispness in the air, crunchy leaves on the path….lovely! Plus we had a bit of rain a couple of days after having a lack of it for several weeks.

2. A Saturday excursion. Home Depot is one of my little grandson’s favorite places to visit, and he has certain spots he likes to stop at in the store. His parents invited us to come along this past Saturday, both just for the experience with Timothy but also to confer on a paint color for their living room. Then we went to eat lunch at Salsarita’s (Jim and I had never been there) because Timothy likes their tortilla chips. It was a fun morning.

3. Animal crackers. I had been looking for some for ages but could only find the huge containers like for a nursery or daycare. Finally a while back I found the kind in the traditional little red box like I and my kids had grown up with, then more recently I found some in a little plastic cup with a lid. Timothy likes them, and it’s just fun to see him enjoying them.

4. Dinner. Mittu texted me one day that Timothy hadn’t been eating well for a couple of days (teething), and apparently there is something magical about our house because he usually eats pretty well here, so she asked if they could come over and she’d fix dinner here. The chicken fried rice was really good!

5. A surprise vacuum cleaner. I don’t know how it came up in a conversation one night – I think we might have been talking about cordless or wireless things – but I mentioned that I wished someone would make a cordless vacuum, or at least one with a retractable cord you could control with a button, because it’s frustrating to me to have to let out or gather up a long cord in the course of working my way around a room. Jim answered that they had been invented.I don’t know where I have been that I haven’t seen them. Then without telling me, he saw one online for a decent price and bought it. It’s very convenient to use. I don’t think I’ll get rid of my regular one, because I do use the attachments often, especially the one that gets into that edge right next to the wall that the vacuum doesn’t quiet reach on its own. But I don’t use the attachments every time, so this will be great for a quick whisk around the room.

Bonus: I’ve been working on a crafty project for Timothy’s Christmas. His parents are planning to get him his own little Christmas tree so that he can take the decorations on and off and move them around and hopefully leave the big one alone, and Mittu asked me if I’d make him some little ornaments for it. It’s been a long time since I have done anything crafty besides an occasional card, and I’m really enjoying it. No sneak peaks yet, but I’m looking forward to showing them to you when I am done. OK, I changed my mind. 🙂 Here is a sneak peek:

They’re not put together yet – I’ve just been working on the tops so far. The top two are from a free pattern here; the others I’ve just been winging from ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest.

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.

We’re just zooming right through this month, aren’t we? Here are some favorite parts of the last week:

1. Generosity of my son and daughter-in-law who made dinner twice this week and brought me flowers and my husband chocolate-covered peanuts plus a card from Timothy.

2. A Little Casar’s pizza place with a drive-through. For various reason’s we don’t like them for dinner but think they are perfect for after church on Sunday nights, and there is one on our route now with a drive-through window. 🙂

3. A whole weekend without cooking. Between the first two entries here and then my husband getting McAlister’s Deli for lunch Sunday, I had the weekend almost completely “off” in the kitchen.

4. Fall color. If it’s not at its peak, it’s pretty close to it. Sometimes it goes by pretty quickly but this year it seems to be taking its time, and I love it. I love seeing how our neighbor’s tree in particular looks every morning and wish I had taken a photo of it day by day for comparison.

5. Two favorite foods. I’ve mentioned both of these before, but it’s ok to be thankful for them again. 🙂 One of my favorite things to do with leftover meatloaf is to make a grilled cheese sandwich with the slices for lunch. Kind of like a patty melt you can find in some restaurants but without the droopy onions.

Then I also made Choco-Peanut Butter Dreams (recipe here).

They’re not specifically fallish but I tend to want them in the fall. So Mittu would have a gluten-free option, I also made Quick Peanut Butter Cookies (recipe on the same link as the other) except instead of drop cookies, I put dough in mini cupcake pans and then after taking them out of the oven, I placed a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup in the dough and then let them cool. After this and making cookies a week or two ago, I decided I need to lay off the cookie baking for a while – it’s too easy to grab a couple off and on through the day. But they were good while they lasted!

Hope you’re having a wonderful Friday!

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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’t believe we’re almost halfway through October already! We’ve had lovely fall weather this week: 40s or 50s at night, 70s during the day. I don’t think we got above 80 degrees all week. Here are some highlights of the last week or so:

1. Pumpkin decorating night. I wrote more about it here, but we enjoyed having the family together to paint or carve pumpkins and eat goodies.

2. Ready-made slow cooker meals. I found at W-Mart some prepared, just dump in the crockpot meals in the freezer section. Great for when you know you have a busy day ahead.

3. Getting some mending done. Items needing mending tend to sit there for…much longer than I care to admit. I didn’t get as far as I wanted to, but getting started propels the momentum to get finished.

4. Fall decorations. I hadn’t been feeling very autumnal, but decided that preparation for our pumpkin decorating night should probably include some fall decorating. I’m glad I have them out now. I love my everyday “stuff,” but it’s nice to change things around for the season.

5. A rainbow. While bringing dishes to the counter after dinner one night, I noticed part of a rainbow through the kitchen window. My husband and I went outside to look and saw the rest of it arcing to the right. And it hadn’t even been raining!

Bonus: There was an Amber Alert in our area this week, but the child was recovered and the suspect arrested pretty quickly.

Happy Friday!

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

Here we are, a week into October already! Here are some highlights of the last week.

1. The ending of the UT/UGA football game. We’ve never been major football fans, but living in the midst of UT Vols fandom, we’ve watched a few games the last couple of years. Last Saturday we turned on the game in the third quarter, and UGA had led the whole game. But, man, the last minute was as exciting and dramatic as they come!

2. Offertories. A couple of years ago for various reasons our church went to singing a congregational hymn during the taking of the offering rather than having instrumentalists play an offertory. I always felt the offertories were one of the most worshipful times of the service that especially ministered to me, and I’ve missed them. Just this last Sunday offertories were played at both the morning and evenings services! Such a blessing. I hope they are back to stay.

3. Cookie sharing. This is not something new this week, but we keep a few “Lunchables” on hand for my youngest son and husband to snack on. I don’t know how it got started, but Jesse always shares one of the cookies in it with me, and sometimes Jim does as well. ♥

4. Lunch with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy. I got a text this week that Timothy wanted to have me over for lunch the next day. ♥ I was happy to oblige.

5. Getting errands done on a tight schedule. I had a few things I needed to get done before a dental appointment this week and wasn’t sure if I’d have time, but figured I’d head out and get as far as I could. It would not have been the end of the world if they hadn’t been taken care of then, but it just would have been nice to get them all wiped out in that time period when I was in the area needed for them all, so it was a small but gratifying mercy that everything worked out.

Favorite photos of the week:

Timothy mowing with Granddad:

I saw this at a local grocery store and it cracked me up. I was trying to come up with a catchy caption, but all I could muster was something about children mourning everywhere.

Happy Friday!

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

Another week, another month coming to an end! Here are some of the last week’s blessings:

1. A (long overdue) nice raise and promotion for my oldest son. So happy for him! Besides the helpfulness of having a bit more money to work with, it’s an encouragement to know that your boss is pleased with your work.

2. Cool mornings and evenings. I’ve been a bit envious of those of you talking about nice fall weather. 🙂 Now it has finally arrived here. The mornings in particular have been deliciously cool.

3. A delayed appointment. I had a lot to do this week and was chafing over a dental appointment scheduled right in the middle of it. Then their office called a couple of days before and asked if they could reschedule for next week. Sure, no problem! 🙂

4. Curling up with a book and a blanket on a rainy Sunday afternoon and drifting off to sleep.

5. A tape player to phone connector. I listen to music and audiobooks in the car on my phone through a device that connects it to the cassette tape player in my car and plays the phone through the speakers. After a very long and useful life the connector failed, and I was afraid they might not make them any more. I was glad to find that they did!

Bonus: The Christmas in Mitford album. Normally I would scoff at listening to Christmas music so early…but Timothy was here one afternoon and I was looking through our music library on the Apple TV for him to take a nap to, and for some reason this was the only instrumental album to come up.Gorgeous!

Happy Friday!

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

After a busy weekend, it’s been kind of a quiet week. Here are some highlights:

1. Jesse’s birthday. It’s a joy to celebrate my youngest son plus all the other good components of a birthday – having the family all together (one via FaceTime) and lots of talking, visiting, fun, and cake!

2. A surprise birthday party. Jason and Mittu wanted to give Jesse a surprise party with his friends, so planned it at their house for the day after the family celebration. They invited him over under the guise of playing games with them and another couple, and Jim and I were supposedly going out on a hot date since all the kids had plans (thankfully Great-Grandma’s caregiver was available to stay with her that evening), so we left early to go over to J&M’s. He didn’t suspect a thing til he drove up and saw cars – there was no way to hide them in the neighborhood. It was a fun evening.

3. Bath aide. I mentioned last week our favorite bath aide for my m-i-l had been out with an injured hand. She’s still wearing a brace but was released to resume work this week.

4. Pudding Chip Cookies. I don’t do much baking for just the three of us – because we I can’t seem to keep my hands off of it, and we can’t send many home with J&M since she is gluten intolerant. But my husband mentioned recently that I ought to make some chocolate chip cookies, and it had been a long time since I had, so I finally found an evening to do so. Scrumptious!

5. The first day of fall. It’s still not feeling and only barely starting to look like fall, but it is official now, and I am looking forward to the rest of the season, trusting it will feel like it soon! I may get out my decorations this weekend.

Happy Friday!

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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 fairly nice week. Still hot and humid in the day time but fairly pleasant in the evenings and mornings. I’m still longing for fall coolness, though! I feel like my body has been trying to come down with something, but I’ve gotten some extra rest to try to head it off. Here are some of the best parts of the last week:

1. Grandparent’s Day. I know that’s a holiday that hasn’t caught on in a big way yet. But I am thankful our son and daughter-in-law remember it. 🙂 We came home Sunday afternoon from church to dinner already made, flowers for me, and jerky for Jim, and I wondered what the occasion was. Then they showed us a Grandparent’s Day card Timothy had “signed” for himself. Awww! And earlier in the week Mittu had tried a new recipe and wanted to bring it over to share – Mexican Chicken Casserole. It was very good!

2. AC fixed. We noticed around bedtime last Friday that the AC had been running constantly that evening, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, it was still running. But it wasn’t putting out much air, and the air’s coolness was decreasing. We do have a service contract with the company who sold and installed it, and called them Sat. morning. Thankfully they did work on Saturdays. We hoped it just needed freon, but something with the compressor wasn’t working – a switch, if I remember correctly. Thankfully the guy had the part on his truck. So by the time it was just starting to get uncomfortable, it was fixed. I’m thankful it was done so quickly (my m-i-l has a window AC unit in her room, so she was fine.)

3. Lists made and checked off. I don’t make lists every day or every week, but if I am really busy, or the stuff I list is very important, or if I’m afraid of forgetting something, then I do. This week it wasn’t anything urgent: I just felt a bit scattered and kept forgetting to take care of some little things. So I finally put them down, and it was nice to see them crossed off one by one. One of life’s little pleasures. 🙂

4. Timothy “fixing”. He’s at that age where he learns or says something new every week, if not every day. One day he was tinkering around his little mini lawn chair saying, “I fix it!”

5. Seeing our favorite bath aide. You don’t think of being a bath aide for elderly people as a particularly thrilling job, but one lady from hospice is just superb at it, always cheerful, efficient, caring. She’s our regular person for my m-i-l twice a week. But a few weeks ago another patient grabbed her hand and wrenched it in such a way that it has been swollen and in pain ever since. She’s going to see an orthopedic surgeon next week. So we’ve been missing her. And then she suddenly showed up on our doorstep Thursday! The hospice agency sends the doctor out once ever few months to check on my m-i-l (a nurse comes once a week, and we can call any time we have a need). The doctor always has someone with her, and this time it was our bath aide! She helped take and record vitals for the doctor. It was just so good to see her and hear from her directly how she’s doing.

Hope you’ve had a good week as well!

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

Let’s jump right in:

1. A long weekend. Having everyone off for Labor Day makes it feel like we had an extra Saturday in the week. But it means all the other days of the week I’m having to ask myself, “What day is this?” 🙂 I don’t even remember now what we did except for grilling burgers for dinner.

2. A thorough car wash. My dear husband gave my car the deluxe treatment, washing it, vacuuming the carpet, cleaning the mats, even dusting the dashboard.

3. A breakfast biscuit. When I was driving my kids to school, I used to treat myself to breakfast out about once a week. Those days have been over for years, and though I’m up at 6, I’m not usually out and about until a few hours later. But I had to fast for lab work before my physical and got breakfast afterward at a drive-through to bring home . Delicious!

4. Seeing Timothy play with a friend. My son and daughter-in-law had friends in town with a son just 7 months younger than Timothy. I was over for a bit and it was so fun to see the boys playing together like they were old friends, too.

5. Cracker Barrel. I still had a gift card for them from I don’t know when – I think two Christmases ago. I love them but my husband’s not crazy about them, and I’m not usually near one at lunch time. But I was on Wednesday! So I got their meat loaf plate and a slice of Coca Cola cake and brought it home to eat. Plus I got a couple of items in their shop – and still have a bit left on my gift card!

Bonus: We got Mexican Food take-out one night and watched Toy Story – our old video tape of it on our old VHS player. One of the best movies ever, and it was fun to introduce it to Timothy.

Happy Friday!

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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 another busy week. One reason I love FFF is that it helps me recount blessings that I might otherwise gloss over. I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to work in an FFF post, and thought about just skipping it because I didn’t have anything off the top of my head to share. But after just a few minutes of thinking about it, I came up with more than five. I love this opportunity to stop, think, and be grateful for God’s gifts, large and small.

1. Paying only 80 cents a gallon for gas. Our local grocery store has reward points for their gas station based on grocery purchases. This summer they’ve been offering double reward points if you shop on weekends and coupons good for 100 reward points. So at my last gas stop, I only paid 89 cents per gallon. It’s been a long time since that has happened!

2. Safe travels. My husband and youngest son both had trips this week, and for my son, it was his first time to drive a road trip by himself (which made his mom a little antsy). But all went well.

3. Brunch or a late breakfast at my son and daughter-in-law’s house. Most of our get-togethers are here just due to my husband’s mom being here, but we have someone with her in the mornings, so it was fun to go to their place and especially to have Timothy show us around.

4. Help at home. When Jim is gone, his mother’s care falls to me. One of the nights he was away, Jason and Mittu came over and made dinner and cleaned up the kitchen afterward. That’s a blessing any time, but especially when Jim’s away and I’m feeling overloaded.

5. Shopping with Jesse. We had to take Jesse’s car in to be serviced before his trip, and I followed him when he dropped his car off, then he rode back with me. But that meant he had to accompany me on my errands, which he hadn’t done probably since early high school when I’d have errands after I picked him up from school. It was fun taking him in to the baby department at Target – that’s something he generally wouldn’t be interested in, but having a little nephew now, he was showing me clothes he thought were cute and finding toys he wanted to get him at Christmas. It was fun. 🙂 Plus I found this adorable shirt for Timothy.

Happy Friday!