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 is another week I was away from the computer more than anticipated. It seems my life is in a state of never knowing what a day will bring forth just now. 🙂 Here are some favorite aspects of the past week:

1. Jesse’s birthday. My youngest turned 21 this week! So hard to believe!

2. A refund. I had ordered something for Jesse’s birthday via eBay, and the item arrived damaged. When I contacted the seller, at first he only wanted to give me a partial refund, but after a second e-mail with some photos he gave me a full refund and did not require me to send the item back (I wouldn’t have minded, but it was bulky and I didn’t want to pay for return postage).

3. Sleep. I mentioned that last week, I know. 🙂 A couple of nights this week I conked out about 10 p.m. – earlier than usual, but it helped with the sleep deficit. And a couple of 10-15 power naps a couple of afternoons helped get me through the day. I don’t mind naps but I don’t want to take a chunk out of my day to sleep – I’d rather sleep at night!

4. Chicken Chimichangas. I had been craving Mexican food, and the restaurant we used to frequent went out of business. I finally made these on Thursday. I use this recipe – it’s supposed to be a little healthier because it is baked rather than fried, but since I top it with queso sauce, that probably cancels out the healthy advantages. 🙂

5. Jan Karon’s newest book, Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good. I’m almost halfway through and loving it. She is always such a cozy read.

That’s about it for my week – hope yours was a good one!

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

Wow. I hadn’t planned to leave my blog unattended for a whole week! I haven’t been around to many of your sites as well. It just turned out to be a busy week – a couple of medical appointments, some shopping for my youngest son’s birthday next week that was more involved than usual, some early morning wakefulness translating into grogginess during the day and naps in the afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with everyone today. Here are some favorite parts of the week:

1. A funeral is never a favorite thing, but our pastor’s memorial service  last week (after his passing due to pancreatic cancer just a few short months after being diagnosed) and the testimonies and music and the fellowship afterward were deeply meaningful and comforting.

2. Grandparents Day. Did you know there was such a day, and that it was last Sunday? I had seen it on the calendar for years and sent cards for it to my mom when she was alive, but I hadn’t heard of anyone really celebrating it. Thankfully my son and daughter-in-law did! They came over after church and fixed both lunch and dinner, and of course I got to spend time with the sweet one who made me a grandparent. 🙂

3. Good progress. A few days ago marked the day that Timothy had been out of the NICU as many days as he had been in. Somehow the days have gone faster since he has been out! My son has been taking a picture of him with a little stuffed sheep every week, and posted this picture on that day:

4. Sleep. I mentioned wakefulness – several times this week I’ve awakened at 4, and then prayed, thought, or listened to music trying to go back to sleep til 6:30 or so, sometimes not drifting off again until almost time to get up. That does often negatively affect some of the day. This morning was different – I did wake up at some point (apparently it’s part of being middle-aged…) but was able to go right back to sleep.

5. Showers. I was unable to take a shower a couple of days this week due to wearing a heart monitor – nothing major, but I’ve been having some palpitations, and my doctor thinks it’s just another part of being a certain age (sigh!), but wanted to check on it, especially as I also have a history of SVTs. Of course while I had it on I had fewer and they were very mild, whereas the days before and after I had more of them and longer-lasting ones. Haven’t heard anything yet about the readings. Anyway, I couldn’t take a shower while I had it on, and though I was able to touch up here and there, it just wasn’t the same! I take it so for granted, I forget there are places that don’t have such things.

That about wraps up my week. Hope yours was good!

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 actually started out as a frustrating week, with a medical appointment where they couldn’t do what was scheduled (which they could have forewarned me about with a simple phone call! Argh!), so I felt like that whole morning was wasted. Then the rest of the week I’ve just been kind of tired and not as productive as I wanted to be. But – hopefully next week will be better! Here are some good parts of the week:

1. Baby smiles, giggles, and vocalizing. I meant to mention a couple of weeks ago that I received my first full-fledged, on-purpose smile from Timothy. ♥ He’s also started laughing a bit, and Jason sent a video of him “talking,” making sounds in response to what Jason was saying to him. So cute!

2. These little dealies:

Silicon plugs for the iPhone. Some of you may remember I had to get a new phone recently (thankfully it was a week or two before its warranty ran out)  because it was so full of dust it wouldn’t recharge, even after trying to clean it out. I must have especially linty pockets – sometimes my phone is just covered in white dust when I take it from my pocket. These were only a couple of dollars but took a long while to arrive. But they work well and hopefully will prevent future dust problems with my phone.

3. Find my Friends app on the iPhone. It allows you to see where your friends are – with their approval, of course. We just use it with immediate family, but it’s useful in seeing when Jim is heading home from work without having to text him to ask or when the kids have left home when we’re planning to have them over or meet somewhere. My husband doesn’t have the kind of job where he can clock out on the dot the same time every evening, so it helps with dinner preparations to have some idea when to expect him.

4. Chick-Fil-A day for our pastor. The Chick-Fil-A in the town where our church is held a day in our pastor’s name where portions of proceeds from collected receipts for the day went toward our pastor, who is battling pancreatic cancer. He’s such a regular customer there, our assistant pastor said they joke that it is his second office, and all of his daughters have worked there. I thought it was so neat of them to do that. We didn’t go because the distance was a little much for lunch, and we gave through another venue, but I enjoyed seeing tweets and Facebook statuses and photos of our church folks there through the day. Can’t wait to hear what the results were!

5. Coca-cola cake from Cracker Barrel. I passed by there while out the other day and indulged in a piece to take home. So good.

Bonus: An excellent book that impacts and stays with me for days. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity was that book for me, just finished this week.

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. Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re so near the end of July! Here are some of the favorite parts of the past week or so:

1. Jason’s birthday. As new parents, they’re not getting out much, so it was a joy not only to celebrate his birthday but just to get together.

2. Getting to hold this little guy again:

3. Taking up my stitching again. I think I put it aside at Christmastime. I don’t know why it took me so long to take it back up.

4. Vacation Bible School. We don’t have children young enough to be in it and can’t participate except through small contribution and prayers, but the coordinator has been sending e-mail updates after each night’s events. It has been wonderful to hear of the gospel going out, the children being responsive, a few of them coming to know the Lord, and a number of behind-the-scenes ministries.

5. Getting started on a new project, one I have been contemplating for a long time. It takes me nearly forever to decide what I want to do on things like this, and I have a tendency to make it more complicated, but I finally have an idea in mind and have started on it. I hope to be, if not finished, at least far enough along to show a picture next week.

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. Here are some of the favorite parts of the past week or so:

1. Online registries. We’ve had a lot of bridal showers, weddings, and baby showers at church the last few months. I love registries so that I can get the person something they want rather than providing their first yard sale fodder. I especially like that most store registries can be accessed online now. It helps a lot to be able to look them over and pick out a couple of ideas beforehand instead of roaming all over the store first.

2. Hummingbirds. We just put a feeder put a few weeks ago and hadn’t had any visitors. But just recently we saw that the level of nectar had gone down, and more recently we’ve seen a little visitor. They are so amazing to watch.

3. A new cell phone. My phone had been having trouble making or keeping a charge, so my husband took it in, and evidently it had a lot of dust in it – more than they could clean out by their usual methods. 😦 But it was under warranty, so they gave me a new one, and now I am trying to take special care to keep dust out of it. I usually keep it in my pocket, which seems to produce a lot of very fine lint. Just saw online recently some silicone plugs for the various ports in a phone, so may look into those. Anyone tried them?

4. A husband who deals with issues like phone troubles. 🙂 Dealing with the “genius bar” is not one of his favorite things, but I appreciate his going there for me.

5. A volunteer. We had made plans to go to Jason and Mittu’s tomorrow for his birthday (which is actually today), but got word that Great-Grandma’s weekend caregiver would not be available this weekend. Her weekday caregiver volunteered to come on Saturday since she knew we had plans. Much appreciated!

Hope you have a great weekend!