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 had a super-busy weekend, but thankfully the last few days have been a little more restful. Here are some favorites since last Friday:

1. Having a get-together to get to know some folks better. We didn’t sign up for our church’s Dinner For Six this session as Jim was traveling quite a lot in October and it’s hard to fit it in around the holidays. But we did have some couples over last Sunday night after church and had an enjoyable time.

2. Lots of goodies. I thought I had seen the idea for mini pumpkin bundt cakes on Pinterest, but couldn’t find it just now. I did see big cakes done like this there, though. But they also had these in Family Circle magazine this month. Here is how mine turned out for our get-together:

Jim thought one looked a little angry. 🙂

I used my Harvest Loaf cake recipe in mini bundt pans with cinnamon sticks and pretzels as stems.

We had lots of goodies — homemade caramel corn, Choco Peanut Butter Dreams, barbecue meatballs, sandwiches, cheese and crackers from a guest, and Mittu made some great homemade tortilla chips and spinach dip. We’ve been enjoying leftovers all week even after sending a few things to my oldest son and giving some away to our guests.

3. Unexpected help. Some time ago I made a master cleaning list for when company came (not that I don’t do those things when company isn’t coming — I just don’t get them all done at the same time normally). My list was out on the counter when I went to the store: Jim saw it and started working on the things I hadn’t checked off yet. He’s a keeper. 🙂

4. A dinner made by someone else. Mittu offered to make dinner the next day after our get-together, and I gladly accepted. It was nice to have a night off from the kitchen. She made a couple of great cheeseburger pies.

5. Winning a give-away! I won Courting Cate from Leslie Gould during the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt a couple of weeks ago and received it this week. I’ve never read Leslie’s books before and I am looking forward to trying this one out.

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.

It’s been a great week! Here are some of its highlights:

1. An invitation to dinner. Often I am the one who asks if we can go out to eat or bring something in, and I sometimes feel a little guilty when I do, like I’m slacking off on my job. 🙂 But last Friday my husband called on the way home from work and asked if I wanted to get dinner out somewhere. Yes, of course! We went to Red Lobster — love their popcorn shrimp.

2. Safety in the storm. We were concerned for our son in RI when Hurricane Sandy was headed to the northeastern coast, but his area only received a bit of wind and rain. My heart goes out to those who were more severely affected.

3. A false alarm. On Wednesday afternoon I was startled to notice in the mirror what looked like something big on my lower left eye. Putting on my glasses and looking more closely, I saw it was a blood red patch bigger than a pencil eraser but smaller than a dime. I thought it might be a broken blood vessel, looked that up on Google, and it fits the symptoms (subconjunctive hemorrhage, technically). Thankfully it is not a big deal and should go away eventually. Unfortunately it’s spreading, which is normal, too — the tissue in the eye can’t absorb it like the tissue anywhere else in the body could. But though it looks gross, it only feels a little irritated.

4. Making headway on organizing my craft/sewing room. Still have a lot to do to make it more functional, but got a big chunk done this week.

5. A word in due season. Often I listen to music or an audiobook while making dinner, but last night I turned on a preaching program I sometimes listen to on the Christian radio station. The Bible story was familiar to me, but then the preacher drew an application from it that I had never made before, and it really blessed my heart and encouraged my prayers and hopes for some loved ones on my heart.

(Bonus) 6. An overflowing cup. Though all time in the Word and in prayer are beneficial, some days are just…special, and this morning was such a time for 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.

Another week has just flown by. When will they slow down, I wonder? Here are some highlights of the last week or so:

1. Taking notes in church. I used to do this all the time, but after ending up with stacks of spiral notebooks I didn’t know what to do with, I stopped. But I started up the practice again recently, and it really does help me stay awake, stay focused, and get more from the sermon, even if I never look at the notes again.

2. Grilled ham. This marinade (near the end) makes it some of the best stuff.

3. An impromptu get-together. We had enough ham to share, called my son and daughter-in-law to see if they had plans, they didn’t and came over. Mittu brought a salad, fresh asparagus to grill, and a pumpkin bread and muffin mix from Trader Joe’s that, with chocolate chips and a glaze added, tasted very similar to Harvest Loaf Cake.

4. Lights on the patio umbrella. My husband’s idea, and a nice touch.

5. The presidential candidate’s roasts. Presidential candidates since the time of Kennedy and Nixon have stopped at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner and “roasted” or poked fun at themselves, each other, and sometimes the press. It’s usually pretty funny.

Favorites of Romney’s lines:

“I was hoping to see the president would have bought Vice President Joe Biden with him because he’ll laugh at anything.”

“Of course we’re down to the final months of the president’s term. You have to wonder what he’s thinking. ‘So little time, so much to redistribute.’”

“In the spirit of sesame Street, the president’s remarks tonight are brought to you by the letter O and the number $16 trillion.”

“I never suggest the press is biased. They have a job to do and I have a job to do. My job is to lay out a positive vision for the country, and their job is to make sure nobody finds out about it.”

Obama’s best lines:

“I had a lot more energy at our second debate. I was well-rested after the nice long nap I had at the first debate.”

“Tonight’s not about the disagreements Gov. Romney and I might have, it’s about what we have in common – beginning with our unusual names. Actually, Mitt is his middle name. I wish I could use my middle name.”

“Monday night’s debate is about foreign policy. Spoiler alert, we got bin Laden.”

On memories of going to Yankee Stadium, “the House that Ruth Built, although he really did not build that. I hope everybody is aware of that.”

On what he hears often as he goes around the country: “Honestly, we were hoping to see Michelle.”

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.

It’s been kind of a different week, though not an unpleasant one. I haven’t gotten half done what I wanted to, but did accomplish a few things here and there. Here are some of the favorite parts of the week:

1. Organizing a couple of areas. I started by cleaning out a corner of my drawers where I stuff receipts, and ended up sorting and reorganizing two dresser drawers. And I have a box where I keep gift bags and a bag where I keep tissue paper, and both had gotten disheveled as new things got tossed in, so it was nice to get those organized — I can see better what I have and it doesn’t look messy any more.

2. Dinner made by someone else. 🙂 Jason and Mittu came over and made dinner last Saturday — chili, corn chips, cornbread muffins, salad, and pumpkin pie.

3. Choco Peanut Butter Dreams. I tend to crave them during autumn though they are not specifically fallish.

4. Nestling under the covers on cold nights. I tend to get hot at night and have to put feet or hands or shoulders out from under the covers to get comfortable, but I don’t like to sleep without covers of some kind. So these cool nights when I can comfortably tuck everything in are really nice.

5. Hot cereal on cold mornings. I’m the only one in the family who eats it, and I don’t like the instant variety. It was nice to discover I could make one serving of regular cream of wheat in the microwave.

I bought stuff for one of those beautiful fall wreaths with burlap rosettes that I have been seeing all over the Internet. The burlap roses weren’t going so well last night, but I hope to figure them out this weekend. 🙂

Have a great 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 didn’t think I would be able to participate this week! But I got everything done (thank you, Lord!) — except the housework, which tends to fall by the wayside on a busy week. I’ll be catching up on that this afternoon and tomorrow.

Most of my favorite parts of this week are intangible, and some have to be vague:

1. Answered prayer on many fronts.

2. God’s intervention. An extended family member had a life-threatening crisis this week, and the husband of a couple from our church who went at their own expense to work on a building project for one of our missionaries in eastern Europe fell seriously ill while there (he lost 17 lbs. in 4 days). Thankfully both are stable and recovering now, though the first situation is still a little precarious (prayers appreciated!).

3. Having a situation work out despite obstacles and stress.

4. Someone coming through on something when it didn’t look like they were going to and I was trying to come up with plan B.

5. Pumpkin cream cheese. 🙂 I’m not much of a cream cheese person — I use it in a few recipes but I don’t like spreading it on things. But at a ladies’ fellowship last night at church they had pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cream cheese, and it was really good. And they had great apple cider, too.

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’s been a pretty good week! Here are some of my favorites from it:

1. Meals from favorite places. My husband took us out to Cheddar’s one night, and then one day when I was out running errands, I stopped and got take-out from Cracker Barrel.

2. Oven meals. I think I must say this every year about this time, but I don’t use the oven much in the summer, so when the weather turns cooler it’s nice to get back to some meals we haven’t had in months. Plus it is nice to get something in the oven and then rest or do something else for an hour or so.

3. A new futon. The one we had in the sewing room was Jason and Mittu’s, which they needed back when they moved into a 2 BR apartment a few weeks ago.

4. The futon cover. There is a story behind that…We had ordered a dark blue cover, and when Jim picked it up, out in the sunlight it looked blue. But in the room it looked jet black. I really wanted blue, so we took it back. We showed them the difference between the swatch we chose from and the cover we got, but they just said, “Oh, yeah, it varies from time to time.” 😦 But they did offer to let us exchange it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything else we liked. On the way home, we remembered that we still had a cover from our other futon that had a white streak on it (which was why we sent for a new one). That cover was for a queen sized futon and the new one was full-sized, so I washed it and dried it on low….the streak disappeared and it shrunk just enough to fit just right on the new mattress. I was a happy camper.

5. Coolness. The temperatures have been so pleasant this week. I wish it could stay like this through, oh, about December or January.Or spring.  🙂

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 been a pretty good week! Here are some of its high points:

1. Jesse’s birthday Sunday.

2. His lemon bundt cake with lemon glaze. Normally I’m more into chocolate, but this was a nice change.

3. A visit from my kids’ friends. I’m glad my children share their friends with us. 🙂 The young man who was the best man in Jason’s wedding and his new wife were coming to town to visit Jason and Mittu, and they came over to our house for dinner on Jesse’s birthday. It was fun to meet her and catch up with him.

4. A dental cleaning and fluoride. The favorite part of the dental cleaning is that it is over. I don’t know why I get so antsy about anything dental when a cleaning is easy compared to a root canal. I’d been having some sensitivity in one area and found it was due to recession of the gum. I’ll have to go in to have that taken care of later but as a temporary measure they put some kind of fluoride gunk on the area. It was really uncomfortable at first but feels much much better now.

5. Nice weather. We had two days of rain, but it was a fairly gentle rain, not at all stormy. Then it’s been a little cooler and more fallish a few days this week. Some of the leaves are starting to turn already.

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’s been something of a mixed week, but here are some of the high points of it:

1. A new disk drive. My computer has been putting up little warning notices about not having enough disk space, and I’ve been deleting old files and photos I no longer need, but with continually adding photos and new stuff, I needed more space. Jeremy (oldest son who lives out of state) got me an new bigger disk drive for my birthday, but there hadn’t been time to install it til last weekend. Jim was on the phone with Jeremy through the process, and at one point the computer died completely. Jim had to replace a part (I forget its name, but it looked like a metal box with bunches of wires coming out of it), but finally it all came together, everything is working great, and I can breathe easier.

2. The TN Valley State Fair made for a nice family outing. I don’t think I enjoyed it quite as much as last year — maybe it was due to the newness of it last year, and/or the fact that it was cooler and less crowded then. But it was still a fun time, and the thing I most looked forward to was sharing a funnel cake with Jim. There is a local restaurant that sells them, but they are just not the same outside of a fair context.

3. Antibiotics and early detection. Wednesday morning I discovered a 2 1/2″ patch of redness on one foot, the one where I have had cellulitis a few times before. It looked like it might be that again. Last time I wasn’t sure, hemmed and hawed and waited til we finally ended up having to go to the ER near midnight. I didn’t want to repeat that process, so I went in to the doctor’s office to see about it that afternoon. My doctor was away, but the nurse practitioner prescribed antibiotics, told me to keep my foot elevated, and gave me instructions to come back if it got worse. It was worse that night, but then much better the next morning, and the redness is mostly gone now, whereas last time I was out of commission most of the week. So going in early, even if I am not sure, is much better than waiting on this type of thing.

4. Ebay finds. I’m not much of an Ebay shopper. If I looked around there much I’d be too tempted to buy things. But I found some Pfaltzgraff Tea Roses glasses that match mine that were no longer available on the Pfaltzgraff site (they have a newer design that’s fussier that I don’t like), and I also found some napkins to match my dishes.

5. A new printer. Ours has been having assorted problems for some time now. Jim just got a new one last night and hasn’t had a chance to install it yet, but I am excited about it, especially that it has a wireless feature so we can print directly from iPhones or tablets.

More “everyday” blessings come to mind — good books, comfy bed, climate control, time with family, technology, Facetiming with Jeremy, and many more. The everyday “manna” is no less special than the bigger events of the week, and when I stop to really think of it, I have so much to be thankful for, so many more good things than bad things, and even the assurance that God has a purpose in the “bad” things, that I really should be happy and positive and upbeat and thankful all the 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.

Some weeks I have to stop and think to remember five favorite things about the week, but this week I’ll have a hard time keeping it down to five.

1. My new swing/bench for the patio. Jim got it for my birthday a few weeks ago but was just able to assemble it Monday.

It was a key factor in…

2. Sprucing up the patio, our Labor Day weekend project. Another favorite element in that was planting a new hydrangea bush.

I had been sorely wanting one because I loved the one at our old house, but there really wasn’t room for one in the front. But we found the perfect bare spot for it in the back next to the patio.

3. Labor Day is kind of an odd holiday: there aren’t any traditions associated with it other than grilling, there are no colors or symbols or decorations. It’s just a day off to celebrate workers. Yay us! I’ll take it! We went to Jason and Mittu’s new apartment for lunch and got to see what they’d done with it since unpacking moving boxes, and then they came here for dinner.

4. Closet shelves. We have a few storage closets, and I had been wanting shelves put into one of them, actually a double closet. Poor Jim — I have all these projects in mind that I can’t do myself. 🙂 But he was able to get them installed this weekend. It had one already and he added 4 that were 6′ long. It makes such a difference to have boxes and bags on shelves rather than stacked up to eye level. I sorted through, labeled, and organized them this week, and I even have room to spare, so soon some of the things tucked away in other spots will find a home here as well.

5. Checking things off the list, besides some of the above, like getting a haircut (I don’t know why I wait so long to do it that I am about to rip it out. It doesn’t take that long, but I keep putting it off), getting a mammogram and bone density test done (one of those over-50 things doctors like for women to do), and getting some lab work done to see if a an adjusted dosage is helping my thyroid levels (it is). It was nice to get all those things taken care of so I don’t have to keep thinking about them.

And I was able to cram everything into a list of five. 😀 I hope you’ve had a good week, and if you haven’t…I hope the weekend will be better! Happy Friday!