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,  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 been a delightfully springy week. Here are some of the best parts:

1. Glorious spring weather, not too warm or cool. So refreshing.

2. Blooming trees and greening lawns and hills. It’s so good to see color come back to nature.

3. Row boats. The route to my mother-in-law’s place passes a lake and part of a river, which are often beautiful to look at anyway, but this time of year there are rowboats scattered throughout it. UT and other schools use it for training and meets. It’s kind of funny to see the rowers working hard at it and the coach skimming along in a motor boat with a megaphone. 🙂 It all looks very peaceful, though I am sure it is a lot of hard work. I’ve been wanting to stop and take a picture, but haven’t yet.

4. The Wilds Ministry Team. The Wilds is a Christian camp in NC where all of my kids have spent summers. Besides the camp ministry they publish beautiful music. They have recently formed a ministry team that travels around churches, and we had them at ours last week and very much enjoyed them.

5. Sleep. Last Sunday afternoon I had a 2 hour nap — it’s been a long time since that has happened! I thought it would then keep me awake late, but it didn’t much. Then last night I fell asleep about an hour earlier than usual, and feel refreshed and much more awake than usual. Though I know the restorative power of sleep, I tend to like to stay awake much later than I should.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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,  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 was sorry to miss last week’s “Fave Five”: we had out of town company and there just was not time. But it is good to be back with this week’s highlights:

1. My husband’s brother visited us for the first time ever. The logic has always been that the rest of the family lived on the west side of the country and it was better for us to go there and be able to see everyone than for one family over there to come East and see us, which was understandable, but, still, it’s nice to have someone come here. It was a rough visit emotionally in some ways as he and Jim visited their mom, knowing the last visit in particular was probably going to be the last time he saw her. But we also had a lot of good time visiting around the kitchen table and got to show him around downtown Knoxville.

2. A table next to the river at a favorite restaurant, hard to come by on a busy Saturday night.

3. Easter was kind of low key this year in many ways since it came just after the above visit and Jim and I were tired, but it was still good. Our church always has a special Easter morning service, the meal was delicious, and it was good to spend the rest of the day relaxing with the family.

4. Movie nights with the kids. Jason and Mittu hadn’t been over for a few weeks for various reasons but came over weekend before last for pizza and a movie and then spent much of last weekend with Jim’s brother here. We rented a couple of movies from iTunes: finally saw the new Les Miserables (though we skipped past the “Lovely Ladies” song and everything from the time the innkeeper wakes up until his song is over as I had heard that was where most of the objectionable content was). I had seen the tenth anniversary special years ago and still prefer those voices for the songs, but it was good seeing the story fleshed out and acted. We also saw Wreck-It Ralph this last weekend. I could have done without the “duty” jokes (play on words to mean something else), but otherwise it was pretty cute and I liked it better than I thought I would. It had many video game references and cameos that Jason and Jesse were familiar with, so that was fun.

5. Springy days. It’ still been a little on the cooler side, but it’s finally started to look and feel more like spring. I think I heard it is supposed to warm up this weekend.

I have a newsletter to finish up today but then can look forward to a relaxing weekend. Hope yours is good!

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,  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 saw this on Facebook — it about sums up the weather situation this week:

🙂 We do have some snow in the forecast in the next few days. But here are some highlights of the last chilly week:

1. A visit from a dear friend’s daughter who was passing through and needed a place to stop for the night. It was wonderful to be able to provide that for her and to catch up a bit with what was going on in her life.

2. A long phone call from the above dear friend. We saw that we were both on Facebook at the same time, and she messaged, “Do you have time to talk?” We’ve known each other since early married days and haven’t had a chance to really catch up with each other in a long while.

3. Spring break. No alarm clocks!

4. A new chair and end table. I’ve been wanting a chair for our bedroom ever since we moved here, for various reasons. Finally found a nice swivel rocker at a very good price. And I mentioned getting a new nightstand a few weeks ago: we got one for Jim’s side as well. Though I have never felt everything had to be exactly matchy-matchy in a room, it’s nice if things balance and coordinate. Our room has been a hodgepodge just about the whole time we’ve been married, and it’s nice that it’s finally looking a little more put together.

5. Mini Pie Bites. After learning that March 14 was Pi Day, I really had a craving for chocolate pie. But these days I pretty much save such things for company, because it is too much temptation to have a whole pie or cake in the house. Then I came across these in the store…perfect!

Have you have a great weekend as we all look ahead to when it will really feel like spring!

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
– Proverb from Guinea

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,  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’ve had winter and almost-spring in the same week, with snow one day and bright sunshine today. Here are some highlights:

1. Sunday dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. We don’t usually go out to eat for Sunday dinner after church for a number of reasons (it usually takes longer, is crowded, and I feel bad about people not being able to go to church on Sunday in order to make a meal for me), but last Sunday Jesse had an activity with his class, and as church is close to Jim’s mom’s place, it made sense to eat over there and then go visit her rather coming home and going back over. I’ve only been to Ruby Tuesday’s maybe 3 or 4 times — Jim doesn’t like the one near us. I tried their Smokey Mountain Chicken and it was wonderful (barbecue sauce, cheese, and bacon on a chicken breast) — I’ve been trying to justify going back again for more. 🙂 Plus their white cheddar mashed potatoes and grilled green beans were excellent. Plus we had a $10 off coupon! It was so nice to come back home after eating and visiting her to just rest for a bit without having to bustle around to get dinner ready and then clean up.

2. A “moment” with Jim’s mom. This is one of those mental pictures I hope will always stay with me. When we visited her Sunday afternoon, a church we were familiar with was having a service in the dining area. We decided to take her down just to see what it was like and to see if she seemed to enjoy it, as she hasn’t been able to come to church with us since she was in the hospital. She has had trouble speaking lately, but when they sang, “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder,” she was holding Jim’s hand and smiling and mouthing the words.

3. A productive Saturday. Not that other days aren’t productive or Saturdays usually aren’t, but this last Saturday I got a number of things done I had been wanting to do.

4. An especially good book. I could list books as a favorite almost every week, but The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (linked to my thoughts) will go down as one of the best of the year, maybe one of my all-time favorites. And though sick days aren’t a fave, having one this week allowed for spending extra time to finish it.

5. Snow that didn’t impact function. People laugh at us Southerners for closing down when it snows, but really, cities here can’t invest in snowplows when we only get snow maybe 1-3 times a year most years. They do put stuff on the roads to help, but still advise people staying home during snow. We had maybe an inch or so of snow Wednesday, but it didn’t stick much to the roads at all, so people were able to do what they needed to do. My favorite part of snow is when it is falling, so it was nice to see that while still knowing I could get out if I needed to.

Hope you have a great weekend! Though Jim’s birthday was Wednesday, he actually had to be out of town that day, so we’re looking forward to celebrating this weekend.

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,  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 spring one day, winter the next kind of week. Here are some high points from it:

1. Jim progressing well after surgery. He went from walking around our cul-de-sac and worked up to walking a mile and a half, drove for the first time Wednesday, attended prayer meeting, and went back to work for partial days yesterday and today. He still has a “punched in the stomach” feeling and has trouble getting comfortable in order to sleep at night, but overall he’s doing nicely. Thank you again for praying.

2. A break from cooking. I mentioned last week that my son and daughter-in-law made up a few meals for us while Jim was in the hospital, and Saturday our pastor’s wife made dinner for us. Between that and the leftovers and a few fast-food forays, I didn’t cook from Wednesday through Sunday, except for tossing things in the oven or microwave and making a salad. I enjoyed the time off from the kitchen.

3. Celebrating Mittu’s birthday. It was a little late, as her birthday was the same day as the surgery, but it was fun celebrating on Saturday. She requested mini cheesecakes instead of a cake, and it was fun to experiment with those.

4. Daffodils are sprouting around the neighborhood, a sure and cheery sign that spring is on the way!

5. Visiting Jim’s mom together. Since Jim couldn’t drive for several days, I drove him over to see his mom at the skilled nursing facility. Usually either he goes after work or I go during the day, so it was nice to go together. Plus we ran into our assistant pastor there one day and had a nice visit.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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,  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.

Thanks so much for your prayers for Jim’s surgery. Everything went pretty well. We’ll get the pathology report back in about a week, and the doctor didn’t see any other areas of concern. He was released from the hospital yesterday (Thursday) and had a pretty rough time with nausea and pain for a while, but both are under control with prescription medicines now.

Even with surgery during the week, there were highlights of God’s grace:

1. Kind and capable nurses.

2. Hospital food. I don’t know how it was for the patient as Jim didn’t get to experience much of it, but I had a great lunch of the most tender pot roast I’ve had in a long time plus a chocolate peanut butter pie from the cafeteria. When his mom was in, we had a great turkey and dressing lunch there. I may stop in even when no one is a patient. 🙂

3. Surprises. Our pastor unexpectedly met us when we first went to the hospital and stayed with us until they were almost ready to take Jim to surgery. That meant a lot. Someone probably would have stayed with me during surgery, but I had told the pastor weeks before that I’d rather zone out with a book than have to try to make conversation. But I was glad Jason and Mittu came and stayed, and Jesse came after classes. Then I didn’t know until the next day that after Jason and Mittu left they went to our house and made up a couple of meals to go into the oven and a plate full of sandwiches and brought some soup. And last weekend they had gone away for the weekend for Mittu’s birthday (which was Wednesday, the same day as Jim’s surgery. Happy belated birthday, Mittu! We’ll be celebrating later) and brought us back an order of rolls from Fatz Cafe, one of favorite places that unfortunately we don’t have here. We enjoyed them with a couple of meals.

4. People from church who have been and will be visiting Jim’s mom while he is recuperating.

5. Computer cases and fixes. Something went wrong with my desktop computer last weekend–a corrupted file, Jim thinks. He and my oldest son spent a lot of time getting it back in good working order. And I had been looking for a case for my laptop for some time and finally settled on this one, and was able to apply my gift card from Katrina’s Fall Into Reading Challenge to it. It took me ages to decide on one but I like that this is both classy and feminine and has a bit of storage room for other things as well.

Bonus: Humor helps in many ways!

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,  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 another full week, but I guess that’s better than an empty week. 🙂 Here are the highlights:

1. Mom adjusting. As far as we can tell, Jim’s mom is adjusting well to her new situation in a skilled nursing facility. She smiles and is happy to see us. She is still not eating much — that started about a week before she went into the hospital, so we don’t know if she’s still not quite feeling up to par or what. She is also speaking very little, so that makes it harder to communicate what she is thinking and feeling. Thank you for your prayers for her. One of the kids’ Sunday School Classes sent her a Valentine’s card they all signed: that was sweet, and she smiled at the kids’ signatures.

2. An Irish concert. I mentioned last week the  Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team was at our church for a week. They usually end the week with an Irish concert. I was so glad I was able to be there for that one — very enjoyable, and we had several visitors.

3. Sunday night off. After the week of meetings, our Pastor said we would not have services Sunday night, knowing that everyone would be tired after being out several nights during the week, and nursery workers, ushers, etc. would have had extra duty all week. Though we weren’t able to be at every service because of the situation with Jim’s mom, because of all that had been going on with her, it was so nice to just crash after Sunday dinner, even though we usually enjoy Sunday evening services.

4. Valentine’s Day. Jason and Mittu were able to come, we had a special meal, heart-shaped cupcakes, cards, candy, Jim brought Bojangles heart-shaped BoBerry Biscuits, and J&M brought the stuff for chocolate fondue. A fun night! Though now we have enough sugar in the house to put us all in a diabetic coma, LOL! We’ll just have to parcel it out.

5. These flowers my Valentine brought me:

I’m also very glad my oldest was safe and didn’t lose power after getting about 2 feet of snow in RI last weekend!

Happy Friday! Hope you have a great weekend!

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,  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 quite the week — snow Sunday morning that was gone by the time we got out of church, my mother-in-law hospitalized for an infection and released just yesterday to a skilled nursing facility, special meetings at church this week that we’ve had to miss a couple of nights of so far. But there are always blessings scattered throughout, and here are a few:

1. Meetings with the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team. I’ve enjoyed their music for years and referred to them here often, but I had never seen them “in person” until last spring when they were at our church for one service, and this time they are here for a whole week. I had also never heard Steve preach until last spring, though I have heard good things about him. So it has been nice to hear him more, too. I appreciate his spirit and balance.

2. Ladies’ Steak Night. The last few times our church has had a week of special meetings, they’ve had a Ladies’ Steak Night on Mondays and a Men’s Steak Night on Tuesdays. They grill steaks (free for guests but asking for donations from church members), and the idea is to invite friends, neighbors, coworkers, especially those who might not care to come to a regular church service. It was a time of good food, music, and fellowship (I sat next to one of the Pettit team members who had been an English major, and we discussed books. Lovely!), and best of all, a few people came to know the Lord both nights.

3. Friends sharing books. Both an online friend and a friend at church shared books with me after discussing them and my comment that they sounded interesting. Very kind and thoughtful.

4. A good doctor and nurse. I mentioned my m-i-l being in the hospital. When the nurses thought she would be released, the doctor kept her a couple of days longer because her white blood cell count was still high. He told my husband that there are national averages for how long to keep patients for different ailments, but that wasn’t as important to him as making sure she was all right. I appreciate a doctor who thinks that way. He was also very thorough in explaining things to us. He is not her regular doctor – he was just over her case while in the hospital –  but I am glad he was. And though all the nurses were kind, there was one that was especially helpful. As we mentioned something about his mom needing to go from assisted living to skilled nursing, she offered to get us in touch with just the person we needed to talk to. We hadn’t even known who to ask for or whether there was someone at the hospital who helped with such things, so that was a blessing.

5. Being in the right place at the right time.  I love how God orchestrates these things. One day I had gotten up to see Jim’s mom later than I had planned, but the lady from the skilled nursing facility was there at that moment needing some papers to be signed to get the ball rolling, and the doctor came in and confirmed that she wouldn’t be released that day, though everyone else had thought she would. In the hospital, especially when it comes to release time, there is a lot of waiting around wondering what’s going to happen when, so it was especially nice to get official word at that moment so we would know how to arrange our day.

It will be a busy few days helping Jim’s mom get used to a new place and sorting and moving things from the old one. The new one is much smaller, so we’re having to strategize about what to keep and what to store and what to get rid of. We’re supposed to discuss her care plan today. We’re hoping and praying she adjusts well — it’s hard to make such drastic changes at that age.

Thank you for your kind comments concerning our family news yesterday. They are much appreciated!

Hope you have a great weekend!

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,  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 wild and windy week outside: rain, high winds, flooding, and a bit of snow. I’m thankful it’s been warm and cozy inside. Here are a few faves from the week:

1. Not losing power, always a concern during storms of any kind around here.

2. Safety. Jesse had a couple of harrowing experiences in his car, hydroplaning for the first time.

3. A new nightstand. I have been wanting to get rid of the old one for ages. It was old and had problems even before we scavenged it from friends who were getting rid of it. It was intended for a living room end table and stuck out too far for a bedroom night stand, but it served that purpose well for a number of years. I had been saving up points from my Amazon credit card to buy something big with rather than piddling it away on smaller orders. It takes me ages to come to a decision about style and color, but I finally bought a new one. I had enough points to get two, but I wanted to wait and see how we liked this one first. Jim said I could buy a second one for his side — we will have matching nightstands for the first time in 33 years of marriage!

Old:

New:

4. A new Mexican food restaurant. I have to have a Mexican food place nearby! That or learn to make chicken chimichangas for myself. My husband was dissatisfied with the place we’ve been going, so we tried a new place and liked it.

5. God bringing things together. I was working on the ladies’ newsletter for church this week and had it all done except for one section someone else was writing. She e-mailed Wed. night to ask if she could wait and send it in next month, which was fine, but now I needed to figure out what to put in that blank space. Then something I read Thursday morning fit the bill perfectly, both in what it said and the length of it to fit in the needed space. Thank you, Lord!

Hope you have a good weekend! The rain has finally stopped here, though we still have lots of ponds throughout town formed by all the rainwater. We’re supposed to get snow this weekend, but they say it won’t be enough to cause any problems. Hope not!