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. This has been 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 Friday! And I am looking forward to “falling back” this weekend and gaining back that lost hour from last spring. Here are a few favorites from the last week.

1. Mexican food. One of my favorite things in life. Our favorite place here had kind of dipped in quality and service the last few times we’d been there, and I was afraid it was headed downhill, but this last visit was back up to par. Plus, the next day my dear husband let me have his leftover chicken chimichanga!

2. Carving pumpkins for the first time ever. Well, I didn’t — I just watched and took pictures. 🙂 But it was a fun evening.

3. Going back to bed. I really hate to, because I feel it cuts into the most productive part of my day, but it’s nice to be able to do so occasionally when needed.

4. Newspaper column. I mentioned a few weeks ago having an opportunity to be a “community guest columnist” for our newspaper for about a year. My first column was published last Sunday!

5. A good meeting and a great advocate. Some of the staff at my mother-in-law’s assisted living facility were again saying she needed to be moved into a nursing home this week. Jim met with the director and shared his concern that the care-givers weren’t working with her as the physical therapist had shown them to, and she was very receptive. The physical therapist came in as well and testified that she was improving under his care and she was not at all to the point of needing to move yet. He has been just exceptional in working with her and advocating for her. I’m so glad God brought him to her. Jim arranged to go back over after work to show the main person saying she had to lift her how we help her stand, but then she had another obligation and wasn’t able to come. Frustrating! But we have another reprieve for a while, though we do see the handwriting on the wall and are looking into other options for when that time finally does come.

Prayer request: One of my son’s classmates is in the hospital with encephalitis (same student I mentioned here with some serious issues), and it’s pretty serious from what we understand. I’m hoping he will hear more about how she is doing at school today.

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. This has been 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 rainy and cool this Friday here in eastern TN. Here are some of my favorite parts of the past week:

1. Free Outback steak! Some weeks ago there was a promotion for a free Outback steak, and I noticed my coupon was about to expire, so we went last Friday, our first time there since we moved. I don’t usually order steak there, but their new Wood-Fire Grilled Steak had a wonderful flavor (no, this isn’t a paid ad 🙂 ). Plus this Outback wasn’t quite so noisy as the one we went to in SC.

2. Fall decorations. I’m much later than I intended, but I finally got them up this week. I love having seasonal touches through the house. Here are a few of them:

3. Visiting with a neighbor. A piece of our mail got delivered to my neighbor, and she brought it over to our house. It was nice to chat a bit, and I finally was able to ask someone about trick-or-treaters here. Last year Halloween was on a Sunday, and when we got back from the evening service at church, we didn’t have anyone come by. I like to pass out candy and tracts for children, but I didn’t want to have a lot of candy leftover because I really don’t need it in the house. So now I feel better prepared.

4. Time limits. I can spend all kinds of time on the computer and then get frustrated because I’m not getting things done around the house, but just setting a simple time limit has helped.

5. A little more organization. We’ve only been in this house a little over a year, so the closets, cabinets, and drawers don’t need major overhauls, but I’ve been thinking these items would work better there, some drawer dividers would help here, etc. Nothing dramatic enough for pictures, but it’s been nice to implement some of those ideas this week.

Bonus:

I hope I am not speaking too soon, but we taped and watch the premier of the new show “Once Upon a Time,” and it was wonderful! I so hope it stays that way and doesn’t get messed up with objectionable elements, but this first episode was just delicious.

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. This has been 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 flown by! Here are some of my favorite parts of it:

1. Organization. Not whole room make-overs, but just a drawer and a few shelves. I had bought some dividers for the drawer a while back but hadn’t put them in yet, and while doing that had an idea for what to do with the shelves. Just little things but very pleasing.

2. Sunday School potluck. For various reasons we hadn’t yet made it to any of our Sunday School’s activities — they usually have some kind of get-together outside of class about once a quarter. They had a potluck dinner last Sunday. I love potlucks — getting a chance to sample everyone’s best dishes. It was nice to have dinner done right after church, too — it usually takes a while for us by the time we get home, take care of Grandma, change clothes, and get started.

3. Texas Sheet Cake. My favorite cake, I think, and one of my contributions to the party. It makes a whole 15 x 10 pan full, so I can’t make it for just the three of us — I’d eat way too much of it. So it was nice to be able to make it for a group and still have some left to take home.

4. Pink products!

Didn’t notice til taking the picture that those were children’s hangers. Sigh. Will probably have to take them back as my clothes are considerably larger than a child’s.

5. Finding old love notes, this one from one of my sons. 🙂

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. This has been 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 Friday! Again! What a blessing that it comes every week! 😀 Here are a few favorite particulars from the last week:

1. A night out with hubby. Last Friday I took Jesse up to the church for an overnight youth activity and then met Jim where he works for an annual antique festival in the area. The little town where he works has a short street that is mostly antique shops, and during this weekend they all host sales, have street vendors that sell food, and live music. I’m not so much into antiques — I don’t know enough about them to know what’s valuable — but I like a vintage-y look to things. And a lot of the wares weren’t truly antique, but there was some nice stuff at good prices. Then when we went back to his workplace to pick up his car, he took me on a tour of his area, which I had never seen before. It was nice to see where he spends his days. Then we ate at a restaurant near there which we frequented a lot on our house-hunting trips. It was altogether a very pleasant evening!

1a. Finding pink rosy fabrics. It’s hard to find fabric with truly pink roses these days: most of them are either too red or peachy. But one of the stores we went to had some older fabrics with just the right shade of pink roses. I have a project in mind…if it all works out, I’ll let you know!

2. Soup nights. Last night was cool and rainy, the perfect weather for a pot of vegetable beef soup (only I use ground turkey) and cornbread muffins.

3. Applesauce spice cake. A nice flavor — it tasted a little like zucchini bread to me — and only 90 calories. I added a little glaze, so that upped the calories a bit. And it only makes a 9 x 9 pan (or 8 or 9″ round, if preferred), so there wasn’t a whole 9 x 13 panful of it to tempt me. Unfortunately neither Jim nor Jesse liked it — Jesse wouldn’t even try it, and Jim, because of the name, thought it would taste like apples and was disappointed it didn’t. I should have just called it a spice cake.

4. Seeing a son display God’s wisdom. My youngest son had a classmate confide some serious issues to him, and I was blessed and a little amazed to hear how he handled it and what he told her. He did end up needing to share it with the principal for safety reasons, but the other person didn’t take offense. I can’t disclose the situation, but this girl needs a lot of prayer.

5. My nephew’s hand healing well. I mentioned last week my nephew having an accident resulting in the amputation of his middle finger. He posted a photo, and I thought it looked amazing for only a week after surgery. I hope this won’t make anyone squeamish:

He was joking about giving high fours instead of high fives, so he seems in pretty good spirits about it. The doctor said he should be able to use it normally — but I imagine some tasks might take a little getting used to. Thanks for praying!

When I first started thinking about the Fave Fives for this week, I only had a couple in mind. But then several others came to mind — that is the best part of this meme. There are all sorts of blessings we’d miss due to not taking the time to think about them. It’s a good thing to revisit the week and thank the Lord for the good things He has scattered through the days.

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. This has been 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 funny how the same set of hours seems to fly by faster at times. I don’t know what happened to this last week, but it is gone already! Here are a few favorites from it:

1. Eating fries out of the bag on the way home from a fast-food place. One of life’s simple pleasures. 🙂 I’m trying to cut down on fast-food fries, but I grabbed a quick lunch of a junior burger and small fries on the way home from errands this week, and I love to nibble on the fries while they’re at their prime on the way home. So good.

2. A Kindle app discovered on my TouchPad and…

3. Free Kindle books! I hadn’t known that you could download Kindle books with anything other than a Kindle. I was surprised at how effortless it was to download them. Then someone on Facebook posted a link to a list of free Kindle classic books (I would share the link, but they’re up to $1.79 now — but still a good deal, so here are some inexpensive Kindle classics if you’re interested). I tried reading one on the Touchpad while using the treadmill this week, and it all worked together just fine.

4. Clearance sale. I had to stop in the Christian book store this week and found they had marked a lot of books on clearance for $5 to 5.99. Like I need to add more books to my pile…but I did. 🙂

5. Being able to share prayer requests electronically. My 20-year-old nephew had a freak accident yesterday — a ring he was wearing caught on something as he was getting out of a truck and severely tore his middle finger, resulting in its amputation down past the knuckle. From the time he was in the ER and then throughout the afternoon, my sister was able to share updates and prayer requests, which we then passed on to our friends on Facebook and also to an e-mail prayer chain our ladies at church have. Knowing that you can have prayer support in just seconds is a tremendous blessing. The last I heard, he was to go home last night with pain medications. If you feel led, I’d appreciate your prayers for him and also for my sister as she is in another state — it is so hard to have your children go through these things, but especially when you can’t be there.

Except for my nephew’s accident, it has been a good week. I hope yours was the same. I am thankful for God’s grace every week, whether they seem “good” or “bad” at 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. This has been 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 the past week:

1. Canvas tennis shoes. I tried on the tennis shoes I’ve had for 30+ years, and they didn’t fit. Imagine that! 🙂 I guess it has been a while since I used them. As I looked for new ones, they all seemed to have a very thick and long tongue that irritated my foot and ankle. Finally I found some like the ones I had, plain canvas without being encased in all the extra plastic. They did have some spiffy laces, though.

2. Half-batches. I was craving the kind of Rice Krispie treats I make, with peanut butter mixed in and melted chocolate chips on top, but with just three of us here, we didn’t really need a whole 9 x 13 pan full. I halved the recipe, and it was just about right.

3. Leftovers. With just the three of us, some times I can make smaller meals, but sometimes I make what I always make and then have the leftovers on hand for lunch. That’s really my favorite thing to do for lunch — just microwave something leftover from dinner, though one of my favoritist lunches from this week was quesadillas made from leftover taco meat.

4. Resolution of the difficult situation involving my mother-in-law’s care which I mentioned last week, at least for now, though we will have to face it again in the future. But we’ve got some time to think and pray about the best decision rather than having to make a rushed decision with only two days’ notice, as we faced last week.

5. A writing opportunity. Several months ago, our newspaper asked for submissions for “community guest columnists” whose work would appear on Sunday’s editorial page. My husband pointed it out to me and encouraged me to apply. So I did and sent in a couple of requested samples of my writing. I did tell them I wasn’t very politically minded and I was used to writing from a Christian viewpoint, and that I knew I shouldn’t use that space as a “bully pulpit,” but anything I wrote would be shaped by my Christian worldview. I figured because of those things that I wouldn’t be chosen. I had mixed emotions while waiting to hear back: sometimes I hoped I’d get it, and sometimes I hoped I wouldn’t. Then I just got an e-mail this week inviting me to be one of the columnists! I know over 70 applied: I’m not sure how many they chose and how often I’ll need to submit something. They’re going to send the guidelines and schedules soon. So, I’m excited! And a little scared! What few magazine articles I’ve had published have been for a Christian audience, and though this blog is open to the public, I think most of my readers are Christians. This will be my first experience writing publicly for a secular audience. There’s no remuneration, and it’s only for a year, but it will be good experience. I’d appreciate prayers for wisdom and the right words!

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. This has been 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 the past week:

1. Headache relief. I don’t get headaches often, but I had one hanging around most of six days this past week. It wasn’t incapacitating, but even with taking a couple of ibuprofen at a time, I still just felt draggy and a little down most of the week. Thankfully it seems to be mostly gone now.

2. Jesse’s birthday. I not only enjoyed celebrating his 18th year, but with Jason and Mittu coming over and Skyping Jeremy, birthdays are like a mini family reunion.

3. The official arrival of fall today. The temperatures have been a little cooler, and I am looking forward to more of that.

4. The new fall season on TV. Hope that doesn’t sound shallow. 🙂 But it’s nice to have a few more options than summer reruns. There are a few older shows I’m glad are resuming and a couple of new ones I’ve been anticipating.

5. Reminders that God is in control and cares. With our church going through Job and with recently reading Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job and The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God, the realization that nothing takes God by surprise and He has a purpose for everything He allows has helped as a difficult situation has arisen just yesterday. It is still unfolding, and it’s still easy to get very frustrated when people don’t realize the consequences of their actions. But He still promises wisdom and grace sufficient to meet every need.

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. This has been 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 good week! Here are a few faves:

1. White cheddar popcorn. When we were in a hotel a couple of weeks ago, Jim’s “premium” status afforded him a little snack bag, and one item in it was a bag of Smartfood white cheddar popcorn (made by Frito-Lay). Oh. My. Word. Sooo good. Fortunately (or unfortunately, calorie-wise) I found a store that sells it here. Jim has also tried making it from scratch with the air popper, spritzing spray butter, and sprinkling with white cheddar flavoring, and it’s pretty close.

2. Pumpkin Spice cookies. I saw a mix of this at Hobby Lobby and got one for my “secret sister” at church and one for us as well. Wow, these were good as well. They were expensive — more so when I realized I had misread the price! And they don’t discount it in their 40% off autumn stuff. I need to find a good recipe.

3. Computer help. My computer evidently acquired a set of viruses from somewhere. Thankfully I have a son who has expertise in that area and is willing to help his mom and whose company allows him to use their remote software free for immediate family. It took the whole day to deal with it, but thankfully it looks like it’s all taken care of. When he is logged in remotely, there is a little window showing it in the bottom corner of the computer, and it was a comfort to see it there, even though most of the time was just letting the anti-virus software run.

4. Online ordering. Since the mall and many shops are 20 minutes away (and I am used to five from our previous location), it’s so nice to order online for birthdays and such rather than traipsing from store to store. And a couple of places had free shipping!

5. The Tennessee Valley Fair. We went last night, and it was perfect — weather a little coolish and not too crowded. Here are a few pics and a really cute video of a duck slide:

Just noticed the 2010 — guess they saved it from last year.

Jason and Mittu.

Notice the sign….

Chicken on a stick. It was pretty good!

Funnel cakes! Can only handle those about once a year.

Jim and Jesse on the Ferris Wheel.

This was the cutest thing — a little slide for ducks. It seemed a little mean to place the food just out of their reach like that — but they didn’t seem to mind:

And here’s Jim feeding emus. Funny to hear the kids calling to him to be careful — used to be us calling to them!

Bonus: Today is Jesse’s 18th birthday! I’ll have another post about that later on today. (Update: A day later, but here it is.)

Hope you have a great Friday! I’ll catch up with you later — I have to bake a cake and wrap presents while a certain someone is at school. 🙂

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. This has been 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 missed last week due to a quick out of town trip. Here are a few of my faves from the past couple of weeks:

1. More presents. I had mentioned my dear hubby snagged a good deal on an HP TouchPad for my birthday: he went on to buy me this case for it…trimmed in pink!

I used it when we went away last weekend to keep the TouchPad from getting banged up in the suitcase.

He also got me a dock thingy (dontcha love my technological expertise? 🙂 ) in which the TouchPad rests nearly upright while still charging the battery. I’ve got it on the kitchen counter and I’m loving the “Shuffle” mode to play the CDs I loaded onto it. That feature is way-old news for those of you with iPods and such, but this is the first time I’ve used it. It’s like listening to a radio without commercials! And it’s bringing up songs I hadn’t listened to in a while. Love it!

2. Coolness. The temperatures have been really pleasant this week, such a relief from the heat but not too chilly yet. Some leaves are even starting to change — I don’t know if we’re in for an early fall. Traditionally we’ll usually have some more hot days before fall fully arrives. But this has been a lovely week temperature-wise.

3. Wraps. I had one for lunch last week and one at a restaurant a while back while traveling. They make for a refreshing, not too heavy meal. At home I usually have one with instant ramen noodle cup-of-soups — maybe not the healthiest thing on the planet, but every now and then it really hits the spot.

4. Nice people at counters. The lady at the hotel counter where we stayed last weekend was just the perfect blend of niceness — friendly but not overly so, pleasant but not syrupy sweet. It really is refreshing to have someone like that help you rather than someone who acts like they’d rather be somewhere else or could care less if you’re there.

5. A day off. We don’t “celebrate” Labor Day per se, but we do like the day off. No major plans, just puttered around the house, took a really nice nap to the sound of gently falling rain, and got barbecue from a local restaurant. A nice day after a super-busy weekend.

There — I worked in all of the faves I had jotted down without going over five. 🙂

But here is a little bonus I saw in a Victorian Trading Company catalog: I don’t wear boots and these are too expensive, but they are so cute:

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. This has been 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 the past week:

1. My birthday was Sunday, but as Sunday is a busy day for us, we spread the “festivities” out over the weekend. My family did a wonderful job making me feel special. 🙂

2. An unexpected gift. In our family, by request we usually try to give some ideas of what we might like for gifts so that we can get something the recipient truly likes and wants rather than fodder for the next yard sale or donation box. But sometimes people like to veer off the list, and that’s fine, too. After HP announced that they weren’t going to make their Touchpads any more, the prices dropped, and my husband got one for me. You may remember a few weeks ago I was pondering what kind of iProduct to get, and this wasn’t even on my radar, but it works nicely! My regular computer is a desktop, so it is nice to be able to take this in the family room when we’re watching TV or when everyone else is using their laptops. I put all the music from the computer on it yesterday (all by myself! Almost…I did have to make one phone call to Jeremy…), so now I can take it from room to room to listen to whatever I want.

3. Four Layer Dessert. Instead of making one 9 x 13 pan of it, I made one 8 x 8 pan with chocolate and another with banana pudding and bananas and strawberries for a dinner we went to Monday night. It was nice to have both options, and now I’ve found a way to make a smaller version. I used to only make this for company or potlucks because the whole pan was too much for just us (and I love this stuff so much, I was afraid I’d eat the whole thing….:oops:)

4. A weekend free of cooking. We went out to dinner for my birthday Saturday night, and then Jim grilled hamburgers Sunday (so good!) And I only had to make dessert Monday, so I had a nice little break.

5. A cake stand from Jason and Mittu…

…that can also be used in several other ways as well.

(BTW, to my family, I liked ALL my gifts, but just wanted to highlight a couple here. 🙂 ) I also got some books (always a fave!), some exercise equipment I had wanted (resistance bands and a stability ball, which I used to think was silly but have really enjoyed using), a gift card to Joanne’s, and a Scrabble Flash game. They do spoil me, don’t they?

Bonus: This stuff:

I keep their Carolina Sweet flavor of barbecue sauce on hand, but I didn’t know they made this! Jim discovered it at the store and used it on the burgers Sunday. Mmm, mmm, good!

Have a great weekend!