Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Barbara Harper

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 blissfully not-as-busy-as-it has-been-lately week. Here are some of the best parts of it.

1. A new HVAC unit. You may remember we’d been having trouble with our AC lately, and a new unit was put in Monday. Though we hated to spend the money on it, it’s nice to have a unit that works well (and should for a long time!) and is more efficient. And a part of that was a digital thermostat — our old one was hard to get right where you wanted it some times.

2. Rain. My favorite kind of rain — gentle, no thunder or lightning. It’s rained a little almost every day this week, and though some weeks that would depress me, it has been sorely needed and it has dropped the temperatures a bit.

3. External hard drives and the fact that I had just backed my photos up last week. When I logged onto Picasa yesterday, it said, “No Photos Found.” :-0 I found their instructions for what to do about that (uninstall and reinstall Picasa), and everything worked out all right, but it was such a relief to know all the photos were safe.

4. Good meals. Cooking is not really my favorite thing, and when it’s busy I tend to reach for frozen or boxed things that require a minimum of effort. But it’s been nice this week to do some “real” cooking.

5. A good visit with Jim’s mom. I’ve mentioned before that it can be discouraging to go visit her at her assisted living place because we can tend to have the same conversations (sometimes over and over in the same visit), or she’s sleepy: one time I just got there (after a 20-minute drive), and she said she wanted to lay her head down and go to sleep, so of course I told her to go ahead. So it’s really nice sometimes to feel like we’ve made a connection and communicated and even laughed together.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Barbara Harper

It has been quite an eventful week! Here are some of my favorite parts of it:

1. Freon. Our AC wasn’t working correctly, and the AC guy was able to come out before the weekend to fill it up. We were about half empty, so he suspected a leak, but we decided to just wait and see. Well — by Wed. night the AC was acting up again, and he can’t come until Friday morning. So we’ve been trying to operate without AC. It’s not too bad if we stay still under a ceiling fan, but trying to get anything else done is hard. I think I might have a good reason to ask my dear hubby to take me out to dinner tonight 🙂 (I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon.)(Update: he did. :-)) I’m hoping it is just a leak in the AC but it is possible it might need to be replaced.

2. Ladies’ Birthday Party. Our church did this last year as well, having one celebration for all the ladies of the church. We signed up by month of birth and then had to get together with others at our table to make table settings, centerpieces, etc. The months that did not have as many people joined together (Jan. and Dec. were together, April and May, etc.). They had games, door prizes, and of course birthday cake.

Here are some of the tables (please forgive the picture quality — I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone).:

August had a nautical theme:

February’s table was sweet:

I loved the use of the little shoes for place card holders.

October/November went classy:

So did December/January:

The winners were April/May:

So cute! It was a fun time.

I probably should have made this section into a separate post…

3. Rain. We hadn’t had any for about two weeks.

4. Grandma’s 84th birthday. One time she thought she was 100, another time she thought she was turning 53. 🙂 Oh well — she enjoyed herself and her family got to show her some love in a special way.

5. Independence Day, for several reasons. I’m so thankful to live in a free country, even though it has its flaws. It was nice to have a day off — hubby grilled chicken, burgers, and turkey kielbasa and even went to the store for the food, and Mittu made potato salad, cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries. All I did was open a can of baked beans and rinse off some carrots. 🙂 And then there were fireworks. Last year we went and saw some professional ones, but when we came back we saw that our neighbors had shot off multitudes. So this year we decided to pull up lawn chairs out front and watch theirs. It was really neat for a good while there — until one of the fireworks fell over and started coming at us and caught the grass on fire in several places.

Thankfully that is by our shed rather than the house. Thankfully the neighbors with the fireworks had a fire extinguisher — I guess that would a bonus fave! We had hoped that the bit of rain we’d had earlier in the week would have relieved some of the dryness, but I guess it was not enough.

Hope you’ve had a great week and will have a good weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Barbara Harper

This week hasn’t been quite as busy as the last few, thank the Lord. Here are some of the best parts of it:

1. Unexpected guests. I have to admit, to my shame, when the possibility first came up, my first thoughts were about how much work it would take to get ready for them and the uncomfortableness of having strangers in my home all weekend. But I Peter 1:9 kept running through my mind: “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” We looked at our schedules and obligations for the weekend, and there was really no reason we couldn’t host these guys. As I mentioned last week, I had done a bunch of cleaning already, so there wasn’t that much to prepare for, and with teen guys, they don’t really care so much. 🙂 There was a youth group from another church coming through on their way to camp, their youth pastor had interned here a few years ago (before our time), and he wanted his teens to get together with our teens. So they went tubing and had Nerf gun wars. 🙂 One of the guys we had hit it off with Jesse immediately, and the other is a fairly new Christian with a unique situation: I think Jim and I were able to encourage him a bit, and we’ve been burdened to pray for him since. All in all it was a very good experience and I’m so glad God prompted us to have them.

2. Magnetic curtain rods helped us cover some windows on two metal doors. I’d thought about getting them off and on for months. They don’t have them in any store I looked at in town, but I found them online.

3. Air conditioning and ceiling fans. I know I have said that before, and I will probably say it again. Temperatures here were in the 100s this week (104 yesterday). The AC has been extremely helpful but had trouble keeping up yesterday, so the fans helped, too.

4. Work for Jesse. He hasn’t found a regular summer job yet. but a man in our church with his own business had some work for him this week.

5. New clothes. I have a hard time finding things I like that fit well that don’t cost a mint, but a couple of my everyday dresses were so worn they had torn. Thankfully I found a few things online.

Hope you’ve had a great week, too.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Another busy week…I was wishing we could have a week, or even two in a row, with nothing at all scheduled. Looks like it might be a few weeks before that’s a possibility! But they haven’t been bad weeks for all that. Here are some of the highlights of the last week:

1. Father’s Day. It’s nice to have a time set aside to honor Dads, even though of course we honor them in our hearts all year. The family pitched in to make dinner: Jason and Mittu grilled hamburgers instead of Dad doing so, and Jesse shucked corn and set the table. I try to give one or two fun “nerdy” gifts as well as practical ones, and found some good ones this year (a little tank controlled by an iPhone and a caliper pen) that he liked. We got to FaceTime with Jeremy during the present opening. Grandma was in rare form (though somehow she thought it was her hundredth birthday — she turns 84 next month). All in all it was a good day.

2. The passing of the longest day of the year. The Summer Equinox was Wednesday, I believe. Even though I like having more daylight much better than all the darkness during winter, it has been staying light so late that it’s hard to wind down and get ready to go to sleep at an appropriate time.

3. An inspiration to clean earlier in the week….when I didn’t know I’d be having unexpected company over the weekend. It helped a lot to have a great portion of the cleaning already done.

4. Completing my Spring Reading Thing Goals. I haven’t checked to see how often that has happened, but I think I’ve missed it more often than not.

5. A new CD: By Faith by the Galkin Evangelistic Team. I’ve been wearing it out, especially the song “The Perfect Wisdom.”

Bonus: My Mother’s Day roses are flourishing!

Happy Friday! Have a good weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Barbara Harper

OK, so what happened to the slower, lazy, laid-back days of summer? 🙂 They seem to be too fast and too busy, but here are some of the highlights of the last week:

1. A replaced gift card. Almost two years ago when we moved one week and then went back to SC to help Jeremy move, I had a birthday in there, and my main gift was a sizable gift card. Somewhere in all the shuffling, it got lost. I knew I had put it back in the birthday card and assumed I’d find it as I continued unpacking, but didn’t. After some months I told my husband about it. We still had the receipt, so he was going to see if they would replace it. But here that store isn’t near us, so we just kept forgetting about it. We had to go somewhere the week before last that was near that place and finally took care of it, and after taking the information and checking their records, they sent us a replacement. They didn’t even take any off the balance — Jim said it was illegal to do so now. So that’s a relief, and now I can plan a shopping excursion. 🙂

2. Touring a local community college. They seemed really on top of things, everyone was very helpful, and we were impressed.They have ties with several universities, so after getting a two-year associates degree he can go on to a university and have his credits transfer. And he gets plunged into his major courses right away, so he can find out early on whether the major he is interested in in one that he likes and can handle.

3. Good talks. If Jesse goes to the above college, which seems likely at this point, he’ll be the first of my children not to go to a Christian college. That makes me both sad and apprehensive, but we had a good talk about ways to handle that. A couple of kids from his high school are going there, he’ll be living at home and going to the same church, so hopefully he will stay grounded. Of course, ultimately, whether in a Christian or secular place, one’s own relationship with the Lord needs to be maintained and one needs to walk closely with Him.

4. Mexican food! We went to a Mexican food place for lunch after the tour Monday and then had enchiladas last night.

5. Finishing books. Books are always a favorite. but I was bogged down in a long one for a while, so it was nice to complete that and get on to some others.

I keep thinking the next week will be slower and less busy, but it hasn’t happened so far. Maybe this will be the week that comes true! 🙂

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Can you believe we’re almost a third of the way through June already?!

Here are a few favorites from the last week:

1. We closed on our old house Wednesday! You can’t really count on closing til it’s over and done and everyone has signed everything — once with a previous house we went to the closing only to have the buyers bring up some issues and show they weren’t ready financially (after we had driven three hours to be there!) But thankfully everything went through. I was a lot more emotional than I thought I’d be going through the house for the last time. But the family buying it is a young couple with 2 children who have been living in a 2 BR apartment, so they are really looking forward to having more space. I hope they have as many happy memories there as we did!

2. Watching Wives and Daughters via Netflix after finishing the book.

3. Single-sized servings of cake. I was hankering for something chocolate but did not want the temptation of a whole cake in my house. The grocery store has single-serving slices of cake in the bakery, and I enjoyed one slice of Double Chocolate. Now if they only had single servings of chocolate pie. I’ve seen other kinds of pie in single servings in the freezer section, but not chocolate.

4. A new gas oven and range. That’s not something I had been yearning for, but the heating element and igniter went out, and it would have cost about as much to fix it as it was to get a new one. We went appliance shopping over the weekend, and it was delivered and installed Tuesday. It’s always fun to have a brand new shiny appliance. 🙂 I especially like the display panel: the one on the previous oven was very hard to read, and this one is much bigger and easier to see.

5. Roasted squash and zucchini. Tried this last night and it was really good except that I cooked it just a smidgen too long.

I hope you’ve had a great week as well! Have a good weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Barbara Harper

The weeks just keep a-flyin’. I don’t know when the laid-back part of summer will get here! But here are some favorite parts of the last week:

1. A graduation — no, not Jesse’s, but the class he had been a part of from K-5 through 10th grade in SC. Since he has many good friends in that class, we went down to see their graduation and stay for the reception afterward. I thought I would feel very emotional — sometimes when we’d see on Facebook that this class had done certain things (senior trip, Junior-Senior banquet,etc.), I’d feel pangs about Jesse not being a part of it. It’s not that I don’t feel our move wasn’t God’s will, but there was still sadness that he’d had to pull up stakes. But this time, it was all right: I felt assured that this wasn’t home any more, though there are folks we’ll always love and I hope always be friends with there, and he’s had many good experiences and developed many friendships here as well.

2. Catching up with old friends both at the graduation above and a dear friend’s daughter’s graduation party the next day.

3. A contract on our old house. We combined the visiting portion of the trip with a few tasks on the old house that needed to be done before the final inspection. We hope to close on it soon!

4. A new iPhone case. A belated Mother’s Day present just arrived in the mail this week. Isn’t it cute?

5. Memorial Day with the family. I’m not sure how Memorial Day came to be associated with grilling, but I loved my husband’s grilled burgers, hot dogs, and sausages! Plus time with the family and a three-day weekend — and the ability to celebrate these things and our freedoms because of those who fought for them. It was especially nice having Monday off after our busy weekend trip.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Barbara Harper

This week has flown by. Here are some of the favorites from it:

1. Youngest son Jesse’s graduation. More on graduation weekend and its activities and photos here.

2. Oldest son Jeremy being able to come down for graduation plus a few days.

3. Family time with Jeremy, Jesse, and middle son Jason and daughter-in-law Mittu (and husband Jim, of course. 🙂 ) Skype and Facetime are great and help, but it’s just not the same as actually being all together.

4. Playing games while all the family was here.

5. Having the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team at our church Sunday morning.

Bonus: Graduations cards and gifts. Even those are not for me, it still touches my heart. When my children are blessed, I am blessed.

I think after this week life will slow down into something like normal….at least for a while. 🙂

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Barbara Harper

It’s been yet another busy week, and a busy couple of weekends ahead, but after that things should get back to “normal.” Here are some highlights from this past week.

1. Mother’s Day. My family always makes makes this a great day. Jim grilled, Jason and Mittu prepared the rest of the meal and cleaned up the kitchen afterward, all were very generous in their gifts and sweet with their cards. We got to “facetime” via iPhone with Jeremy (Jim hooks it up to the TV so we can all see and talk to him), and after a couple of failed attempts at having Grandma talk with her oldest son in CA, we finally got to Facetime over the iPhone and TV with them. She wasn’t talking much at first — she gets confused by it all — but they did have a few connected bits of conversation.

2. Roses. Some of you know I’ve missed the roses from our old house. Jim, Jason and Mittu bought these for the new house!

3. Helps for Grandma. It’s hard sometimes to know what to get Jim’s mom. She doesn’t need or have room for more “stuff,” she doesn’t read much any more. Lately she’s been getting mixed up as to which great-grandkids go with which of her kids and what all their names are, etc., so Jim got an idea to make a wall display to go near her bed with everyone’s photos and their names in large print, and I got the idea to make a little booklet of all the families.

Of course we know that won’t “solve” the memory problems, but it gives her some ways to remind herself of them as often as she wants to.

4. Jesse’s Junior-Senior Banquet. This is The Big Event of the Year at his school, at least for the juniors and seniors, and from all he described he had a great time. I had a special mom-son moment helping him pick out the corsage (and his date and her mom both liked it!) Here he is all dressed up and ready to go:

By the way, the package I mentioned last week arriving when I had prayed for it to — that was the vest he’s wearing to match his date’s dress.

Aren’t they cute? 🙂

5. Time to veg in the midst of all the busyness. There were a couple of days when I was just super-tired, and I’d been wanting to watch the movies made from a couple of books I had listened to via audiobook, Ivanhoe and North and South, so I took some time to relax and do that. I shared my thoughts about them here.

6. Ebenezers. Do Not Depart was calling for some modern day Ebenezer stories, commemorating times of God’s help in our lives, and it was a blessing to think through and share some of those here.

Have a great weekend! We’re looking forward to Jeremy coming home this weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Barbara Harper

It’s been another busy week! Next week will be as well, and then things should slow down a bit. Here are some of the highlights from this week:

1. No more early classes. Jesse had one MWF class this year that met at 7:30, and that’s done now.

2. A special dinner. We had been wanting to have our youth and music pastor and his family over almost ever since we moved here, and finally did last Friday. We had a great time.

3. A celebration. Our assistant pastors planned a covert celebration for our senior pastor’s 50th birthday and 10th year with the church (we later found out this year is also his 25th in the ministry.) It took place this last Sunday with lots of special things going on throughout the day. Somehow even with everyone else in the church knowing about it, including his wife, we managed to keep it from him and surprise him. Several men attired like Secret Service people with their dark suits, sunglasses, and ear pieces greeted him in the parking lot and escorted him to the auditorium, where someone played “Hail to the Chief” and we all clapped while he was escorted, open-mouthed, to the stage. There were some fun things — pictures of his childhood and his “80s hair” — and some poignant things as well, ending with an after-church fellowship that evening. A great day overall.

4. Finding a box I had been missing. There was one particular box I hadn’t been able to find since we moved, and it had some of the kids’ school portraits through the years as well as a cross stitch kit someone had given me. I’d been wanting to work on the cross stitch, but I especially wanted those pictures since I want to work on a scrapbook for Jesse’s graduation. I was pleased to find the box this week (in my sewing room — that’s the one room that’s still not quite set up yet. Maybe this summer!)

5. A timely arrival. We ordered something online Tuesday (more on what it is next week…), and the confirmation e-mail said it would get here Monday. That was bad, because we needed it Friday, and I had even paid a little extra for expedited shipping. We decided if it wasn’t here Friday morning we’d have to run around town looking for an alternative that afternoon. I prayed it might get here Thursday just so we’d know it was taken care of — and I was astonished when it did! “Oh me of little faith.” It was very nice to have that taken care of and not to have to think about what to do about it if it didn’t get here in time.

Have a great weekend!

(By the way, WordPress has changed its default settings so that the option to get notifications of further comments on this post by e-mail is automatically clicked, and you have to “unclick” it if you don’t want e-mails. I apologize: I can’t reset it from my end. I have complained about it to the powers that be. Also, some WP users may have to “log in” to comment. 😦 I hope WP gets back to its former user-friendliness soon.)