Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 almost didn’t do a FFF today. It hasn’t been a bad week, but most the things I could think of to share are things I’ve already shared before, so I didn’t think it would be all that interesting to readers. But of course we’re to be thankful for all things, not just the first time we experience them. 🙂 So here goes:

1. Icy Hot patches and spray. I’ve had some back issues this week, and the patches help immensely. The spray doesn’t work quite as well, but it does help those areas I can’t reach or coordinate getting a patch to.

2. Dinner prepared by my daughter-in-law. I not only enjoy being “off” from kitchen duty sometimes, but I also enjoy not having to think about what to make. I’ve been in a rut this week, tired of the “same old stuff” yet not inspired enough to look up something new. 🙂

3. Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats with melted chocolate chips on top. It hit me today that I hadn’t had these in a while, and they sounded so good – thankfully I thought of them before a trip to the store, so I was able to get the ingredients! On a side note, this is the only thing I use Rice Krispies for – we’re not into cereal much. I wish they’d make a small box just big enough for a pan of these treats.

I only made a half recipe so as to have not too much temptation on hand. 🙂

4. A desk chair I can nap in. When I chose this office chair, I specifically chose one that reclined and had a back tall enough to support my head so I could lean back and take a quick power nap sometimes. My sleep patterns have been wacky this week and those naps have been very needed.

5. Our first megawatt of power. My husband had solar panels installed on our house several weeks ago, and our power company adjusts our power bill according to how much we’ve used and how much we’ve generated. This month our power bill was $26 and change! Nice! Of course, the savings for now are going to pay for the system, but once that breaks even, it will be very nice indeed.

We haven’t reached summertime temperatures yet, but it has been warm enough to get hot and sweaty. Thursday was overcast and delightfully cool, especially when a breeze picked up. I know in a couple of weeks we’ll be out of cool days until fall, so I am treasuring them up.

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

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 has definitely had its challenges. But it’s had its bright spots, too. Here are a few of the latter:

1. Surprise Mother’s Day breakfast. My son and daughter-in-law surprised me Mother’s Day morning by showing up early to make breakfast for us. They made biscuits and gravy and some really cute fruit cups and Jim made scrambled eggs.

2. Mother’s Day as a whole. My family always makes it a special day for me. Besides the aforementioned breakfast, Jim grilled burgers for lunch, we Face-timed with my oldest son, and they got me flowers and a few very nice gifts.

3. Baby Cuddles. Now that Timothy has gotten mobile, he’s usually more interested in playing or exploring than sitting and cuddling. But while everyone else was making breakfast, I think he wasn’t quite awake yet, and he was content to lean against me and play with the buttons on my housecoat for a while.

4. Ruby Tuesday’s Smoky Mountain Chicken. Jim had to be out of town one night, which meant I had great-grandma’s full care, and Jason and Mittu offered to pick up dinner to help out.

5. A tooth problem averted. For a few days the gum under the bridge I just had put in a few weeks ago was swollen and painful. The bridge experience wiped our our dental benefits for the rest of the year, so I was really hoping this wasn’t going to develop into a major problem (well, the pain and discomfort of another potential procedure were concerns, too!) Thankfully it went away – I guess something had just irritated it for a bit.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 pretty nice week. Cool mornings, a little hot in the afternoons, but not like it will be later in the summer. Here are some of the best parts of the week:

1. Visiting the zoo with Timothy, and his parents and also my youngest son and his girlfriend. Timothy wasn’t terribly interested in the animals yet – most of them were too far away for him to really notice them. But the few he did see, he just kind of took it all in, observing and trying to process. Jason has a cute video of his watching a monkey’s antics. I think he’ll get more out of it when he’s a little older, but it was still a fun outing.

2. Not cooking for three days. For various reasons, we had different things going on at dinner time three days in a row. It was almost like a mini-vacation!

3. A couple of hours with a book. I mentioned in finding time to read that most of my reading is done in 10-20 minutes snatches rather than at long intervals. But Sunday I got in about two hours with my latest Dee Henderson novel. Bliss!

4. Sleep. I could probably name that every week. 🙂 I wasn’t feeling well Sat. night and didn’t get a lot of sleep. Sunday morning was one of those times I felt like I just couldn’t function, so I stayed home from church and slept about 2 1/2 hours and then napped a couple of times during the day. I finally started feeling back to normal later in the afternoon.

5. Roses budding! I didn’t think they would for a few weeks yet.

Hope you have a great weekend remembering and honoring your mom!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 pretty nice week. Here are a few favorites from it:

1. A new sewing machine!

2. A “puttering” Saturday. Some Saturdays are catch-up days with laundry, errands, or housework, some are event Saturdays with an outing or get-together planned. But puttering Saturdays are when there’s nothing urgent going on, I got all my usual errands and such done earlier in the week, I don’t have to go anywhere, and I can putter around the house taking care of tasks I don’t usually get to or working on a project. Very enjoyable!

3. The teens’ bake sale. The teens at our church held a bake sale to raise money for a mission/camping trip this summer. Always nice to get some goodies I didn’t have to cook! I enjoyed getting a number of small things to sample.

4. Pinterest wins. I have to confess that I pin a lot of things that I don’t go back and look at again, but some of my boards I do peruse sporadically for inspiration. I’ve felt in a rut with cooking lately, so I’ve been looking over and trying some of my Pinterest recipes. Chicken Spaghetti was good, though I don’t like to use Velveeta too much. I might try it with a different cheese some time. Crock Pot Smothered Pork Chops were really good, though it would probably be easier with boneless pork chops. Everything was falling off the bone, and due to bony pieces plus the “goo” from the meat, I ended up removing the meat and running the liquid through a strainer before making the gravy. My favorite was Easy Loaded Potato Bites. We enjoyed them as a side dish with meat loaf, but they’d be good as appetizers or party food.

5. Storms missing us. Last weekend there was a lot of bad weather forecast, and some parts of the city got hail and thunderstorms, but we only got a little rain.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 nice week in many respects. Here are the highlights:

1. A Ladies’ Tea at our church. The best part is that my daughter-in-law was able to go with me. I think this is only the second or third tea I have ever been to, the first one at this church. I loved the cute little sandwiches and desserts as well – not only attractive, but it was nice to be able to have a small sample of a number of things.

2. Getting a haircut. I always tend to put off it too long, so I am usually quite relieved when I finally get it done. My hair is not very cooperative in the first place, but less so the longer it gets. I went just a bit shorter than usual this time and like it much better.

3. Sunday dinner. For various reasons, my daughter-in-law and grandson were at our house Sunday morning, and when we got home she had made dinner. Always nice but especially on a Sunday – it provides a little more time to relax in the afternoon.

4. Spending gift cards. I’d had to return a Christmas gift to the local Christian bookstore and got a gift certificate for store credit since I didn’t have a receipt. I don’t shop there often (love them, but they’re very expensive, even with coupons), so I kept forgetting to go look around and spend my certificate. Then they sent me a postcard that our local branch of the store was going out of business, so I went in to see if I could find anything to use my certificate before it was too late. With several going-out-of-business markdowns, I was able to get a few books and a pretty pink scarf (why there were scarves at a bookstore, I don’t know…). I also have some gift cards to JoAnn’s from last year and was able to get things for a couple of projects. I enjoyed the outings and “free” shopping.

5. Finishing a few “heavy” books, one in length and two in subject matter. They were all beneficial, but it’s nice to move on to something lighter and shorter for a bit.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 had been a great week in many ways! Here are the best parts:

1. My little grandson’s first birthday, a celebration of how glad we are God gave him to us and how far He has brought him since his premature birth.

2. Having my oldest son home. He doesn’t usually visit this time of year but felt that waiting til his usual visit in August was just too long, that Timothy would change and grow too much to wait that long to see him, so he came for his birthday. It’s always a joy to have the whole family together.

3. Drawer organization. I hadn’t planned to do this this week, but when trying to get something out of this drawer, I decided to look for a little plastic bin for the pens and pencils so they’d stop sliding all over the drawer.

Before

But at W-Mart I found this little drawer organizer and decided to try it instead. Voila!

After

It only took a few minutes but I love it – easier to find things and much more pleasant to look at.

4. This photo that my husband took when taking Timothy to visit in GG’s room (we shortened Great-Grandma to GG and have taken to calling her that). She always lights up whenever he comes over, and I love his expression there. Thankfully he didn’t figure out the buttons on the bed controls yet. 🙂

5. And, if you’ll forgive one more photo, this one as well, snuggling with my favorite little guy:

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 very good and productive week! Here are the highlights:

1. Easter. Wonderful morning at church, great food, and a fun time with the family.

2. Finished projects. I wrote here about completing some window valances that have been on my to-do list for way too long and got a couple of pillows done as well. Love how they change the room!

3. Swiss-Ham-Ring-Around, one of my favorite ways to use ham leftovers.

4. Dogwoods blooming! One of my favorite parts of spring! There’s another tree with airy lavender blooms along the roadsides here – I’ve asked what they are before but have forgotten. But it makes for pleasant scenery while driving!

5. Anticipation! My oldest son comes in this weekend for a few days, and we’ve been preparing for our little grandson’s first birthday next week. Can you believe it has been a year already?!

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 busy week, and I haven’t been able to work any more on my “project” I’ve been talking about lately, but I should have it done next week. Meanwhile, here are some highlights of this week:

1. Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken. I was looking through my Pinterest recipes for something simple yet flavorful that I could toss in the oven, and this fit the bill nicely. I sprinkled bacon bits on it rather than wrapping a bacon slice around it, and sprinkled brown sugar instead of rolling it in it. This one’s a keeper. I didn’t think to take any pictures of my own.

2. Froyoz frozen yogurt. I don’t usually run errands in the evening, but one night I had a prescription I needed to pick up and had run out of time earlier in the day when I was out. I took the opportunity to stop by Froyoz to get Chocolate Milk and Creamy Peanut Butter flavored frozen yogurt topped with chocolate covered peanuts and a small bit of brownie. Good stuff.

3. Blooming trees. Several flowering trees are in bloom this week. Our neighbor’s trees turned white overnight – I don’t know what they are, but I’ve always called them popcorn trees because that’s what the round, white blossoms look like to me from a distance. After the colorlessness of winter, I love to see color springing up all over this time of year.

4. The Hobbit:The Battle of the Five Armies. Enjoyed watching this with the family. I know the films have been maligned and added elements that weren’t in the book, but I still enjoyed it, especially Bilbo and Bard.

5. Thinking about the death and resurrection of Christ. I knew one blogger who felt that putting spiritual things on a favorite’s list trivialized them, but I disagree. Though in one sense we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, and the death of Christ is applicable every day, I especially appreciate the focus this time of year, the reminder of all He went through so that He could offer us salvation, His great love for us, and the joy resulting from His resurrection.

I hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 another good week – busy, but different. Here are some of the best parts of it:

1. An outdoor lunch. Great-grandma’s caregiver couldn’t come Tuesday due to having a sick child, so Jim worked from home partly to help take care of her and partly to work on something that he could do better at home without all the interruptions at work. It was a beautiful day, so we took GG (as we shorten her name in texts) in her wheelchair out on the back patio and the three of us had lunch together. It was just the perfect temperature to do that, and Jim and I don’t eat lunch together during the week very often, and I had brought Chick-Fil-A back after a trip to the store, so it was a treat all around.

2. Putting away winter clothes. Even though it’s supposed to get into the 20s again this weekend. 🙂 We still have some sweaters and jackets handy in the front closet if we need them.

3. Greening and pinking of some of the bushes and trees in the yard. More signs of spring!

4. Progress on the project I mentioned last week. I had hoped to be done with it in time to show you today, but these things almost always take longer than expected.

5. Timothy crawling! He’s been working on it for some time, though we almost wondered if he was going to skip crawling and go straight to walking, as he seems to be trying to figure out ways to pull up on the furniture and can stand a few seconds at a time without help. But somehow Tuesday night it all clicked, and he took off! And now I need to buy outlet covers and put some items out of reach. 😀

Happy Friday!

P. S. I am having a giveaway for the excellent book She Is Mine: A War Orphan’s Incredible Journey of Survival by Stephanie Fast. Leave a comment on my review of the book to enter – the drawing is Monday.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Barbara Harper

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 another good week. Here are some of the best parts of it:

1. Pi Day. For years I have heard of other people celebrating “Pi Day” – March 14, the same numbers as pi (3.14 – even more remarkable in 2015 because the next numbers in the sequence are 15) by having pie on that day, and I thought it looked like a fun thing to do (and any excuse to eat pie is a good one! 🙂 ). But I had never done it, usually because I didn’t think about it in time. But this year I did! We had hamburger pie for dinner and then dessert via a store-bought chocolate pie and a pumpkin pie from Christmas that had been in the freezer. It was fun.

2. Cracker Barrel take-out. Love that place, but my husband doesn’t really care for it. Yet he agreed to bring some home for me one night. Nice man. 🙂

3. Mittu’s dinner. We came home from church Sunday afternoon to a dinner already made by my daughter-in-law. So nice to just come in and sit down and eat!

4. Ceiling fans. During the first part of the week it was pretty warm out (60s and 70s, even got up to 80 one day), but I didn’t want to turn on the AC yet (although I finally did when it got up to 75 in the house one evening). But for the most part ceiling fans helped cool things off a bit as needed.

5. Starting a project that has been on my mind for more years than I want to admit. Trying to decide exactly what I wanted to do held me up for a long while, and then finding the time and motivation (at the same time) to do the preparatory work was a problem. But I got that much done this week and hope the actual execution will go pretty quickly. I had hoped to be finished with it by now, but maybe I will be by next week. Meanwhile, here is a sneak peek:

Bonus: It’s officially the first day of SPRING!

It turned rainy and cooler the latter half of the week, but I’m still glad it’s not snow and ice any more, and I am looking forward to a sunny weekend. Happy Friday!

Note to Paula – I tried several times to comment on your FFF post but just kept getting a window saying “Error establishing a database connection.”