Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

We’ve had quite the cold snap this week! I’ve been thankful for central heat and throw blankets and decaf coffee and soup and as well as:

1. Baked Chicken Chimichangas. I almost always order Chicken Chimichangas at Mexican food restaurants, but the one closest to us has kind of gone downhill, so we don’t go there any more. I was craving chimichangas, and the frozen ones just aren’t the same. I started looking up recipes for homemade ones and found one for baked ones – easier and healthier than fried. I added queso sauce across the top – probably not so healthy, but they always come that way in restaurants, and I love it. 🙂 They turned out pretty well, I thought.

2. The new Forte CD. Forte is a trio of tenors that was on Americas’ Got Talent this summer. They didn’t win, but their careers are taking off big time. I am loving the CD!

3. The Amazon cloud app. I didn’t know that Amazon would automatically put some music purchases in their “cloud” that you can then listen to on your computer or iPhone. So when I got the app for my phone, I discovered that several other former purchases were already in the “cloud” – and I didn’t have to figure out out to get them there. Cool! I’ve been enjoying the Forte CD already and I haven’t even got it yet! (I know I could just download it, but sometimes I like getting the actual CD and reading the stuff inside the case.

4. Getting pictures up in my hallway. That has only been on my to-do list for over 3 years now. 😳 My excuse is that I wanted to reframe some and maybe print out some others and took a long time to figure out what I wanted up there. I had one side of the wall done but on the other side wanted to do a grouping for each of the three boys. Feels nice to have gotten that done.

5. Take-out from Red Lobster that my dear hubby brought home from work Thursday night. Mmmm!!! Jesse has an evening class on Thursdays so sometimes that’s kind of an at-home date night for my husband and me.

Happy Friday!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

I can’t believe a whole week of November has gone by already! Here are some fave parts of it:

1. Date night! Last Saturday night my husband and I went with my son and daughter-in-law to see pianist Emile Pandolfi. I have been listening to his music for ages and for some years I’ve been wanting to see him in concert. We had seen this coming up a long time ago, but with Jim’s mom here now, I figured we wouldn’t be able to go and decided not to mention it as the time got closer. Then my husband called me saying he just remembered that was coming up and did I still want to go? Sure! We asked his mom’s caregiver if she could come in the evening instead of the morning, and she said yes. Emile entertained with funny stories in-between his lovely piano pieces. All in all a great night!

This isn’t from our concert – we weren’t supposed to take photos or videos – but it gives you a sample of what his concerts are like:

2. Dinner at a 50s-style diner called Hot Rods before the concert.

3. Cheddar potato soup at home this week. It was from a Bear Creek mix rather than homemade, and I added some hash brown potatoes to give it a little more bulk,  but it was very good.

4. A better-than-expected dentist’s appointment. I thought I’d be having three things done, a filling, a bond, and a gingivectomy. They put the last one off for a few weeks, which was a relief in some ways, though in one sense I would have liked to have gotten it over with. I asked a little more about the outcome of it (I thought maybe I’d be in pain and eating soup for three days afterward, but they said with the lasers there is not much post-operative pain at all) which helped me to dread it a bit less. Then before they started working on the filling and bond (fortunately in the same section of my mouth), they put some gauze with a topical anesthetic against my gum for a bit before the shot to numb it, and I didn’t feel the shot at all. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.

5. A fire averted and new appliances. I was thankfully standing right next to the toaster oven while waiting for it to cook my breakfast when I noticed a sudden bright light in it, which turned out to be the heating element about to flame out. We’ve had that for ages. I was able to get a new one pretty inexpensively, and in white, even, to match my other appliances (not always easy to find these days – everything is black or industrial grey). Plus I found a new little mini blender (like the Magic Bullet but much less expensive) that is working well for my m-i-l’s pureed foods. We had been using a little hand blender which works well for most things, but this helps with others.

All in all a good week. I hope yours was as well!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It has warmed up here this week – had to turn the AC back on after having started the heater for a few days. Here are a few faves from this last week of October:

1. A newly refinished dining room table, courtesy of my dear husband. We’ve had it for…oh, maybe 20-25 years, I can’t remember for sure. Long enough that our family of five wore the finish through in places. We had been talking about the need to refinish it for some time and my husband finally got the chance to last weekend.

2. Pumpkin carving. That’s not something we ever did in my family growing up, and didn’t do with my own kids, but my son and daughter-in-law have wanted to try it a couple of times. Last time I just watched and took pictures – this time I gave it a go. I wanted a happy face, but this one ended up looking a little anxious. 🙂 But it was a fun activity with the family.

3. Dinner. When my son and daughter-in-law came over to do the pumpkins, they brought dinner: a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, salad, rolls, sweet potato fries, and a pumpkin pie. Delicious! And it was so nice not to have to think about what to make for dinner during the day or stop what I was doing to make it.

4. Jesse’s registration. My youngest just got all registered for his last semester of community college (already?!) He has to do an internship and there was some talk of putting that off til summer, but he got it scheduled and got all the rest of what he needed to finish his requirements. That is a relief!

5. Days at home. Some weeks it seems like I am out running errands every other day, but for the last two weeks somehow I’ve only had to be out one weekday each, with just a few things to do on the weekend. I love being home much more than running around. 🙂 Plus I can get so much more done at home when I am not having to dash out here and there, though of course some times it’s necessary.

Hope you have a great weekend! I am looking forward to mine! Will tell you why next time.

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It feels like we have jumped from fall into winter already! It has been in the 30s with frost on the ground a few mornings this week, and some of my blog friends are having snow. Hopefully we will have a few more fallish days before winter sets in for the long haul.

Here are some favorites of the last week or so:

1. Trying new recipes. I’ve been taking all the recipes I’ve clipped out of magazines over the years and putting them into scrapbook-like notebooks  so I can use them more easily (but not enhancing or decorating them like scrapbooks – I’d never get done). Some I use regularly, some I haven’t tried yet, and the process has reminded me of how many good-sounding recipes I actually have. I enjoyed giving a couple a try this week, even though I wasn’t thrilled with how either of them turned out. Tater Crust Tuna Pie would probably taste better with a regular pie crust, and the Pork Roast (the first time I’ve cooked one) wasn’t very flavorful or as tender as I expected (husband suggested doubling the spices, son suggested cooking it longer, both good ideas).

2. Stir-fry leftovers. The leftovers of the pork loin made for a great stir-fry the next night.

3. Replanting my flower pots. This was actually a couple of Saturdays ago, but I forgot to mention it. I cleaned out all the dead and overgrown stuff and planted pansies for the first time – I’ve heard they are supposed to last well into the fall, and so far the frost hasn’t gotten them. They’re not my favorite flowers, but I’ve been smiling at their cute perkiness.

4. Fall decorations. I finally got the rest of them up and am enjoying them.

5. Dinner brought in. My son and daughter-in-law came over to do laundry last night and brought dinner from a favrorite Asian place as well.

Hope you are having a great week!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

This feels like the first real week of fall to me, even though it has been officially fall for a few weeks now. Maybe because the leaves are finally starting to noticeably turn, maybe because I finally got my fall decorations up. Here are some of the high points of the past week:

1. A better knee. I had done something to it last week to cause it to hurt — I don’t know what —  and was loathe to go to the doctor and get sent off for x-rays and such, so I decided just to rest it as much as possible. It’s gradually been getting better to the point that it feels normal more often than it doesn’t, so hopefully it will be completely mended soon. Meanwhile I guess it is the appropriate time of year to walk like a zombie. 🙂

2. Oven meals. I think I list this every fall. There are some things that take an hour or so in the oven that I don’t dare make during the summer because it would make the house too hot and the AC wouldn’t catch up til the next day, so it is fun to get back to those when the weather cools a bit.

3. McAlister’s Deli. My husband indulged my request for a night off from the kitchen and brought a wrap and some soup from McAlister’s for me. I wish they sold their potato soups by the quart! That’s probably my favorite type of soup but I don’t make it from scratch very often.

4. A rainy day, not usually a favorite, but we hadn’t had one in a while, and I was able to take a cozy nap, which made it perfect.

5. A safe road trip as my son and daughter-in-law drove to OK to visit her mom.

Bonus: Books. I could list them every week. 🙂 I have to confess that sometimes I gravitate to games on my iPhone at times I would normally read, and I’ve tried to reverse that this week and get back into a book that I was lagging in. I did get over the hump and get back into it.

Hope you’re having a great week! Feel free to join in with us at Susanne‘s while we count our blessings.

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It’s been a busy day, and I am just now getting a chance to sit down at the computer long enough to write a post! Here are my five favorites from this week:

1. An excellent caregiver. The aide who cares for my mother-in-law Monday through Friday during the day goes above and beyond the call of duty. We’re blessed.

2. A new fall TV season. Call me shallow if you want. 🙂 It’s good to see the old favorites come back, cliffhangers resolved, etc. I don’t know if we will watch any of the new series – I have a couple on the Tivo but one only has so much time for TV.

3. Getting some small tasks done –  replacing a torn shower curtain, cleaning off the laundry room shelf, even some mending.

4. Lovely weather.

5. Hershey’s kisses. I’ve been trying to cut back on sweets by not buying the kinds I like. Having a couple of Hershey’s kisses with coffee has been nice to satisfy that chocolate craving at a minimum of calories.

Happy first fall Friday! You can check out others’ faves or link up your own here today.

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

I’ve been trying to hold out until the official first day of autumn to put anything fallish up, but it’s close enough now, I think. 🙂 It’s hard to believe September is 2/3 over when it seems like it just got here. Here are some favorites from the last official week of summer.

1. A hummingbird’s visit. I don’t have a hummingbird feeder, but maybe I should get one – a little hummingbird was fluttering outside my kitchen window the other day.

2. Jesse’s birthday was Monday. Always fun to celebrate a family member and to have everyone here.

3. Lemon cake. Lemon isn’t one of my favorite flavors – I gravitate to chocolate – but Jesse has requested a lemon cake for his last few birthdays, and now I look forward to it that one time each year. I think it’s the glaze that makes it.

4. Take-out dinners. We can’t just go out to eat anymore, with Jim’s Mom here, but I had a hankering for Red Lobster’s popcorn shrimp recently, and Jim indulged me by bringing some home after work one night. Then he had a hankering for Asian food, and Jason and Mittu brought some over from a place near where they live.

5. An easy-going husband who is content with soup and sandwich on a night when I discover right at time to make dinner that I don’t have the chicken I was planning on using. I had thought there was a package near the back of the freezer – but there wasn’t!

Bonus:

I just got some photos from the phone and camera onto the computer this morning. This is one of my favorites, taken on my birthday.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. Feeling better after feeling pretty awful over the weekend and the first few days of this week. It’s amazing how “just a cold” can wipe you out. It’s good to have some energy again.

2. Light meals. As in light energy required. I’m glad my family is ok with them some nights. 🙂

3. Low-key projects. I have a few tasks that are aren’t urgent, therefore they tend to stay on the to-do list. But they were just right for this week when my energy wasn’t up to par, and it felt good to be productive. I got a desk cleaned out, some computer files tidied up, and some recipes that had been pulled from magazines organized. Those last two still need some work, but it helped to put a dent in them, at least.

4. Triple A. Both my mother-in-law’s caregiver and my oldest son needed their services this week. It’s nice such things are available.

5. Tiny Texas Sheet Cakes. I’m pretty sure I have mentioned them before. I LOVE this cake, but it normally makes a cookie-sheet sized cake, and it would be too much temptation (and too many calories!) for me. I was delighted to find this smaller-sized recipe a few years ago that only makes four servings. With three of us in the house, that automatically keeps me from devouring the whole thing. I’ve been craving it for a while now and splurged on it last night.

Happy Friday!

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Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

I’m running late once again! Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. A visit from a friend of my son and daughter-in-law’s. He stayed with them last weekend and they all came here for dinner after church Sunday. I have this tendency to second-guess myself, and I was thinking maybe going to “the parents'” seemed obligatory and he would rather have spent the time with them at their place, but when he saw us at church he gave me a spontaneous hug and seemed glad to see us, so I was reassured. 🙂

2. A three-day weekend. Labor Day is one of those low-key holidays – not much expectation besides a cook-out (another fave! Grilled burgers!). We even brought Grandma out to the patio for dinner and she seemed to enjoy it though she tuckered out pretty quickly.

3. A relatively quiet week after a few busy ones…although this seemed busy in it’s own way as well and I didn’t get nearly as much done as planned. But at least there weren’t a bunch of deadlines or appointments, etc.

4. Take-out dinner. My dear husband indulged me in a requested night off from the kitchen and brought home take-out Chinese food. He actually didn’t get my text til after he got home, so he had to go back out again to pick it up, poor guy. 🙂

5. Disability aids. I often amazed when we encounter some snag in Grandma’s care and think of what would help, search the Internet, and lo and behold, someone has made it and someone else sells it. 🙂 The latest need was a safety belt for a shower chair. We had been using a gait belt, but it was just short enough to be difficult to attach and didn’t seem very secure. We used the one designed for the shower chair this morning, and it worked perfectly.

Hope you have a great weekend!