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 another busy week! Here are some of the highlights:

1. Sundays. The last two Sundays at church have just been especially good: a visiting drama team one day, Skyping with a missionary one evening, other missionaries here another day, a rousing and heartfelt and heart-stirring rendition of “No More Night” from one of our members.

2. Mondays. I know a lot of people don’t like Mondays, but for me it’s a time after a busy weekend to enjoy the quiet and stillness and regroup and figure out what I need to do for the week ahead.

3. A call from an old family friend. One of my mother-in-law’s oldest and dearest friends called this week to see how she was doing (my m-i-l doesn’t hear much at all on the phone, so she can’t call her directly any more). It was good to hear from her and catch up a bit and then to tell my m-i-l about her call.

4. Finding an old keepsake. I was looking through a box in the garage where we keep packing materials, and discovered some things I hadn’t unpacked from our last move down in the bottom. One item was a small cedar chest — maybe 8 ” long by 4″ high and wide. I’ve had it ever since I could remember, and it used to hold childhood treasures. I don’t know where it came from: perhaps it was a bonus when my mom got hers. I had been sad that I lost track of it, so I was joyful to find it again. There’s no time to take and upload a photo of it now — it’s fairly plain and the value is sentimental more than decorative.

5. Dinner with friends. Our last “dinner for six” with our current group turned into a dinner for nine, and it was quite lively and fun and ended up with a rousing game of Balderdash. I was even winning until the last couple of turns. 🙂

I have a busy day ahead, but I’ll look forward to catching up with the FFF crowd and Google Reader later tonight or this weekend. Have a good one!

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.

Whew! It’s been a busy week! Here are some of the highlights:

1. Getting graduation announcements done. What I thought would take an afternoon took about three days, including running short by about ten, shopping a number of places for the kind you can run through the computer and not finding any I liked, making my own on the computer, having things that look perfectly aligned on screen come out off-center….so yes, I am very glad to have them all completed, addressed, stamped, and ready to mail now!

2. Scanners. Our printer is a scanner as well, and while I used it this week I was remembering the days of having to go to the library to copy things. It’s so nice to have one right here, both to copy things and to scan them into the computer. We’ve had it for a while, but my appreciation for it was renewed this week.

3. A pretty pen.

4. Sentimental notes. For Jesse’s upcoming Junior-Senior banquet, parents are supposed to write notes to their Seniors which are given to them at the banquet. I’m not sure how this custom began and would probably wait to write such a note for graduation and give it privately. But, at any rate, not wanting to buck tradition and leave him noteless at a time when everyone else is getting a note, I made a card and Jim and I wrote notes in it, sentimentally looking at how fast the last eighteen years have gone and hopes for the future, appreciation of him as our son, etc. I especially enjoyed reading Jim’s. Sniff, sniff…

5. Not losing power. I know I’ve said that before when we’ve had severe weather, but we seemed to lose power a lot our first year here, so now every storm has that additional tension with it of the possibility of the electricity going out. In addition, yesterday’s thunder, lightening, driving rain, and hail occurred just between Jim’s and Jesse’s leaving, so neither of them had to drive in it. The rain had cleared to a drizzle by the time Jesse left for school.

I’m off for another busy day. Graduation isn’t for a few weeks yet, but activities leading to it are kicking in, plus a newspaper column and newsletter are due soon, company is coming next week, dessert needs to be made for a church dinner this weekend, we’re having dinner at someone’s home tonight for which I need to make a couple of things, I have been needing a haircut for weeks…and I need to do laundry some time soon!

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, 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 actually been kind of a frustrating week for me: it seemed like every day unexpected interruptions came up and I didn’t accomplish much of wanted I wanted to this week. But it’s in those kinds of weeks that it’s most helpful to look for the good things. Here are a few from my week:

1. Getting the Internet back. It was only off for a few hours yesterday (right when I was in the middle of trying to write a post! So that one will have to wait for another day). But it amazed me how dependent on it I was! Even to the point of getting frustrated that I couldn’t look up the phone number for our provider online. 🙂 I don’t know what the trouble was, but I’m glad it is over.

2. Getting a drawer organized.

Before:

After:

I had been wanting to do that for ages and finally remembered to get the little trays to do so. It didn’t take too long: it was accomplished while I was cooking something.

3. Getting rid of some things. I don’t let go of things easily: I figure it will cost more to replace it if I change my mind, so if I have room, I’d rather keep it, even in a box somewhere. But sometimes even I have to go through and donate some excess, and it felt good to send a couple of bags and several boxes to the thrift store this week.

4. Christian music. I know I have mentioned that before in different capacities, but I especially appreciated it this week when I was very irritated over something, I don’t even remember what, and put a CD in while I started dinner. Before long my heart and thoughts and feelings were changed and the irritation had melted away.

5. Getting up later. The church that Jesse’s school is under had special meetings this week and pushed the school start time a half an hour later to help families who had been out to the meetings in the evenings. I could get used to a later wake-up time.

Bonus: I don’t know if I can honestly say this is a favorite or not — it’s exciting but also a little wistful: Jesse brought his cap and gown for graduation home this week.

And that reminds me of another favorite: going through his pictures from a babyhood through the present for a project for both the Junior-Senior Banquet and graduation. Such fun. Reminds me, though, that I wanted to have a scrapbook ready for graduation and need to get cracking on that…

So — though I wasn’t sure I was going to find five good things this week, I ended up with more than five, and I was reminded I did get some things accomplished even though it didn’t feel like it. It probably felt that way because I didn’t get the biggest thing done: Jesse’s graduation announcements. Maybe tomorrow!

Have a good 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, 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 great week. Here are some of the high points:

1. Shish kebobs. Jim got some shish kebob equipment for Christmas, and since he was off Friday and the weather was nice he tried it out.

He had three different cuts of beef, mainly to experiment to find which was best (and cheapest was not best…), chicken prepared two different ways (I liked the teriyaki best), and a variety of vegetables. I really liked the squash and zucchini. We found that the store salad bar is a good place to pick up bits of cut up vegetables especially if you don’t know if you’ll like it well enough for whole ones. He didn’t mix up the meat and veggies on skewers so as to make it easier for people to pick what they wanted.

2. Easter. It was just a wonderful day. The special morning service was uplifting and inspirational, the food was scrumptious, we had our annual egg hunt with coins rather than candy in the plastic eggs, some time with Jeremy on the phone, and a game with the family in the evening. A mix of faith, family, and fun, enough tradition to be enjoyable but not enough to get bogged down.

(Maybe it’s the sunglasses, but Jesse looks a little sneaky here…)

3. Leftovers for lunch. My favorite thing to do for lunch is just warm up leftovers, and between Easter and the shish kebobs I’ve had a good assortment to choose from all week.

4. Lovely weather. It’s been a little cooler this week but bright and pleasant.

5. The Majesty and Glory of the Resurrection CD.

It’s kind of become a tradition that I listen to it on Easter Sunday morning while preparing breakfast. I’ve enjoyed listening to it throughout this week. It’s the only CD I know of specifically focusing on the Resurrection of Christ, though there may be others I’m unaware of.

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, 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 been kind of a different week for me! But every week has its good spots, and here are five from mine:

1. A Ladies’ Party at church to welcome new ladies. I even won a door prize — a gift card to Target!

2. Closet changeover from winter to spring/summer clothes. I love the lighter look, plus some of my favorite clothes are in there.

3. A short lull between busy weeks.

4. Not running out of gas. I was running errands Tuesday and knew my gas was low starting out, but was late getting started and didn’t want to take time to fill up first. I figured I’d have enough to get where I was going and could fill up when I got done before heading home. And I would have…except for hitting a detour and then trying to figure out another way to get where I needed to be. In the fluster of all that I forgot about the gas until I got to my destination, then I noticed my “distance to empty” sign said 7 miles. When I got done with my errand I tried to look up a gas station on my GPS, and when I followed its directions, I ended up at a place that was not a gas station and my DTE was 2 miles — and it has a wider margin of error than that amount! I was in an unfamiliar area except for one street that I had passed that I knew had stores and restaurants, so I figured it had to have a gas station somewhere. It took a while to find one but I finally did, and was so relieved. That’s much closer than I like to call it.

5. Getting my newest cross stitch project back from being framed.

I’m wishing now I had opted for more contrast in color between the mat and frame, but overall I like it.

I hope you’ve been able to find bright spots in your week 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.

I ended up not making it for last week’s FFF just due to having a lot to get done, and I really missed it! Here are some faves from the last couple of weeks:

1. A lost book found and a fine reimbursed. I got a notice several months ago that a book I’d had out from the library had not been turned in. I thought I had turned it in, but I had returned several at once and couldn’t remember seeing it for sure. I searched the house several times over and finally gave up and paid for it. Lo and behold, I got a check from the library reimbursing me for the total. I don’t know what happened, but I am so glad it all worked out.

2. This:

I don’t know why I have never gotten one of these before! Great for dusting the tops of ceiling fan blades and getting spider webs near the ceiling and anything else up high.

3. Getting things hung up. It takes me a long time to figure out where and how to hang some things, and then all of a sudden an idea just clicks. A special thanks to hubby as well for helping me on some of these.

This is a corner of the office area where the wall space had been totally empty:

This picture was from a calendar page.

When I decided on a brown and blue color scheme for the family room, I thought this would go in the room perfectly, but it wasn’t a standard frame size, and it took me eons to decide how to frame it.

Then the little shelf was in a box in the closet without a home, and the two things on it were “lost” on other shelves but stood out here. I love it when things come together.

4. Snickerdoodle blondies. I saw these yesterday on Annette‘s blog, and just had to make them. They were soooo good. I halved the recipe because there are only three of us at home, and I didn’t wanted to be tempted by a whole 9 x 13 pan of them. Then Jason and Mittu unexpectedly dropped in and helped us eat some of them. I am definitely making these again and looking forward to the next church fellowship where I can bring them.

5. Words of encouragement. God sent some through a few e-mails this week just when I needed them most.

Bonus: Dinner for Six at our home which ended up being a dinner for ten. Much fun!

It has been a busy last few weeks! There’s nothing major on tap for next week that I know of, but I hope I don’t lose the momentum — although I don’t like the pressure of deadlines, schedules, and appointments, I do tend to get more done than when the week is just open-ended.

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.

Last week I almost didn’t post a Fave Five because at first I couldn’t think of five highlights of the week. It wasn’t a bad week, but it was a fairly ordinary one. But I did come up with five after thinking about it. This week…my cup overfloweth and I have way more than five! That’s how life goes.

1. Ironing is not one of my favorite things, and thankfully I don’t have much that needs to be ironed any more. I tend to let it sit for a while, but I finally knocked it out in an afternoon this week while catching up on NCIs and The Amazing Race.

2. One of the things I ironed: a new-to-me shower curtain. This was left in our house when we bought it, and I loved the design, but the color was peach: not only is that one of my all-time least favorite colors, but it didn’t go with the pink I do have.

I used Rit color remover on it, but it still seemed to have a peachy cast to it. I had planned to dye it pink, but I felt that might be a little too overwhelming, even for me. So I put it away for several months, got it out this week, and decided in some lights it looked pinkish rather than peachy, ironed it, and hung it up.

I like that a bit of color was left in the thread.

Sometimes it still does look a little too peachy to me and I may still try to dye it. But for now it really does lighten up the bathroom, and I love the design.

3. Jesse has been away this week on his senior trip, and though that’s not a favorite in itself, he seems to be having a great time. I’ve enjoyed not revolving life around the school schedule this week, especially not having to set an alarm. You’d think I would have gotten more done this week….but it didn’t work out that way!

4. Jim’s birthday was Tuesday, but because Jesse was away we planned to celebrate some time next week. But I didn’t want to let the day go completely unacknowledged, so we went out to Outback using a Christmas gift card, and then Jason and Mittu surprised Jim by bringing a cake over that evening, and we each got him a card and a little gift. It was a fun night.

5. Jim also had an out of town trip this week, which, again, is not on my list of favorites, but Jason and Mittu offered to come over and spend the night when he was away. It was nice not to be completely alone.

So — I managed to work in just about everything. 🙂

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.

Here are a few favorites from this past week:

1. Celebrating my daughter-in-law’s birthday.

2. Seeing the first daffodils in bloom. This winter hasn’t been bad, but those first signs of spring are still uplifting.

3. Working on my recipe book I mentioned a few weeks ago while watching episodes I’ve missed on the computer. There are a few shows that I am interested in but my family isn’t, but it seems a waste of time to just sit and watch them by myself in the daytime, which is my prime work time. But while putting clipped recipes in a notebook at my desk, where I can spread everything out, it’s been enjoyable to catch a few of those shows online while working on it. And a subpoint here: I love those network sites that put their shows online the day after they run rather than waiting a week or even 30 days!

4. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge. It’s been so fun to just immerse myself in books by and about her this month. Even while I am looking forward to moving on to other things, I am going to miss stopping the series…but I need to save some for next year. This may be a good way to explore other authors in the future as well.

5. This is a life favorite rather than just a favorite from this week, but recently I’ve had a renewed appreciation for being able to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker. I’m so grateful.

Overall it has been a pleasant week here. I hope it has been for you as well — and if not, may next week be better.