Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share 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.

1. A helpful clerk and discounts. I had a pretty nice shopping excursion last Friday. One place I went to was JoAnn’s Fabrics — I decided to sew one present. I know, I must be crazy to do so at this stage. But though lines were long, customers and staff were in fairly good spirits. I couldn’t decide between two fabrics, and found when I had the one cut that it was marked down several dollars — so I got both! 🙂 Then at the checkout, I didn’t have any coupons because our newspaper somehow didn’t contain their sales flyer, but the clerk tried keying the coupons and discounts in anyway — and saved me about $20.

2. Plaques for the sewing/craft room. Found these while at JoAnn’s:

3. Christmas programs at church and school. For me, those provide the times to sit down and really soak in what the season is all about. The children’s Christmas program at church was this past Sunday night, and though mine were all too old for it, I enjoyed seeing all the little ones tell the age-old story. Then the school’s Christmas program was Tuesday night, and Jesse’s choir sang. The funniest moment of the night was when, after the kindergarten class got done with their song, one let out a very loud, relieved sigh. Everyone chuckled, and at the end of the program the pastor said he felt like that sometimes when he got done preaching, and his listeners probably felt like sighing, too. 😀 And in both programs the littlest children had on the cutest costumes like footie pajamas in animals prints and accessories (ears, tale, etc.). They were so adorable!

4. Kids applying Scripture. It’s not unusual for me to bring up Scriptural principles when talking with my children, but I was blessed to hear Jesse bring up a pertinent Bible verse and apply it to a situation we were discussing and then again in a book report.

5. A new wreath. We can’t hang a wreath on our front door because it looks like this:

I know I could get one of those over-the-door hangers for one, but I just didn’t know if it would look right with the oval there, and the previous owners had installed a hook in the brick by the door which we’ve been using instead of door decorations. I had been wanting some kind of white wreath because I thought it would show up better against the brick, and I was delighted to see one designed by Charlotte Lyons in Amy Powers’ Inspired Ideas Christmas magazine (p. 26). I finally made it last night and finished it this morning, and I’m so delighted with it! Because everything is pinned in or tied on, it went fairly quickly.

I hadn’t wanted to sew and stuff the little dove, but I think I might — I think he’d show up a little better. I like the fuller, more collage-like look of hers — but I like this one, too. 🙂

Have a good weekend! We’re planning to finally get our tree tomorrow! It was raining buckets last weekend, and I haven’t looked at the forecast for tomorrow, but it’s bright out today and I hope it continues.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Having all my family at church with me this past Sunday, and also for Sunday breakfast and dinner. I’ve so missed that!

2. Some quiet time with Jeremy before he had to leave. He flew out Monday afternoon. Everyone else had to go back to work and school that morning, and it was nice to just have some unhurried down time together. We didn’t do anything in particular — he talked with me while I cleaned up the kitchen and then he did some laundry so he wouldn’t have to deal with it when he went home. I’m glad he got to stay for that extra little bit of time.

3. A remote computer fix. I came up with a little problem on my computer one night. It wasn’t anything major, and I could still use it, but it was an irritant and took a little more time for my computer use. I e-mailed Jeremy to ask if he had any idea what to do about it. He had a way to log into my computer from where he was and fixed it in just a few seconds. It was a little spooky seeing the cursor moving around under someone else’s control! But I am glad that my personal computer consultant was able to help from afar. (I’ve asked him, “Aren’t you glad for all the practice I gave you to prepare for your current job?” 🙂 )

4. Jesse’s basketball game. At his old school he was a starter, but there are many more students here and much more talent to draw from. He only played a few minutes in the first game, but in his game this week he played most of the second quarter and scored one basket. And his team won! So even though it was an away game on a cold and rainy night, it was still good!

5. Jason and Mittu’s replacement. They’ve been driving back down to SC for several weekends to teach their Sunday School class until a replacement could be found, and finally someone agreed to take the class. Though they’ll really miss their kids, it will be so nice for them not to have to make that trip every weekend.

And a bonus — sunshine and no flooding in our yard or neighborhood. We had so much rain earlier this week that new ponds and lakes sprouted up all over — even across some roads which then had to be closed. The next morning it was all overcast again and I was just praying it wouldn’t rain any more. I was so happy to see the sunshine later that day!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Having my oldest son home for Thanksgiving!

2. Thanksgiving Day, with all the good traditional food and family time, and then a couple of days off.

3. My mother-in-law’s getting her hearing aid in this week. I had mentioned it was lost a few weeks ago. It looked like the new one wasn’t going to come in before Thanksgiving, but it did and the audiologist worked her in one day so she could have it before they closed for the holidays. That was an immense blessing to her and to us.

4. Encouraging words. Someone from our new church discovered my blog via Facebook and shared some kind and encouraging words about it as well as some other writing opportunities, and then I received an e-mail from someone new in another country who somehow found it and was encouraged by something the Lord enabled me to write. I think all bloggers get into a slump sometimes, and many of my regular blog friends are away from their computers for a time, so these encouragements were timely when I was feeling a little low. And I am always blessed and amazed when the Lord uses me in some way.

5. The garage room, or the Spare Oom, as Faun Tumnus of Narnia would say. I mentioned before we were turning part of the garage into a bedroom/office. We knew we couldn’t get it finished by Thanksgiving, but our goal was to get it habitable so that Jason and Mittu could move their things out there and have more room, and then Jeremy could sleep on the futon in the sewing room, where Jason and Mittu had been, when he came, rather than sleeping on the couch. We still need to spackle, paint, carpet, and put closet doors on, but we did get it habitable in time (I say we — Jim and Jason mainly.)

So from this two weeks ago:

It looks like this now:

Good work, guys!

I hope all those who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful day! I am not sure what we’re doing the next day or two as a family, but I will be around when I can.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Finally visiting our library. I pass by the building often and thought it looked so warm and inviting. I’ll gladly take a warm and cozy library over a sleek, modern one most any day. We finally stopped in last weekend.

The front wall of the inside is made of the same brick.

This intriguing little sculpture was out front:

2. A shiny new library card! I didn’t check out anything for me on mine yet — I let Jesse check out a couple of things on mine for a research paper. When you get a new card you can only check our four things at first, so we put a few books on my card so he could save his for a field trip with his class to a different library. I have too many books stacked up to read to be checking out any more right now, anyway, but I enjoyed perusing the shelves.

3. A favorite leftover lunch is a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover meat loaf or stuffing burgers. Kind of like what a restaurant calls a Patty Melt except without the limp, droopy onions (bleah!).

4. A little color still left on the trees. The great majority of leaves are gone, blown off with rain and wind over the past couple of weeks. But there are still bits of color to enjoy here and there, like this tree in the neighborhood:

5. Sweet messages…in more ways than one. 🙂 When Jason heats up a couple of Toaster Strudels for himself and Mittu, he usually writes little messages with the icing. I’m doing good to just get the icing on there when I make them.

Have a great Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. $400+ instead of $2,000+. A few weeks ago my mother-in-law lost her hearing aid — not a favorite thing! My husband and a couple of ladies who work at the assisted living place looked in every nook and cranny they could think of but just could not find it. We had not seen an audiologist here yet, so had to find one, and they couldn’t get her in til last week. The audiologist called the company to find out if the hearing aid was still under warranty, and it had just barely passed the end date, but they authorized covering it anyway. That was a huge blessing! We still had to pay the audiologist fees for the appointment and had to pay for the mold, the part that goes down into her ear canal, but that’s much better than having to pay over $2,000 for the whole thing.

2. Oven meals. I don’t turn the oven on much during hot weather, even with central AC, and especially not for those meals that take 45 minutes to an hour in the oven. But with our first cold snap it’s been fun to pull back out some of those oven recipes. Besides enjoying some dishes we haven’t had for several months, it’s nice to get everything in the oven and then have some time to relax for a bit before dinner.

3. A surprise package. When we moved from SC, I told my “Secret Sister” at church who I was and told her good-bye, then the plan was that the person who had my name would take the name of my Secret Sister. But when they lady coordinating the Secret Sisters tried to arrange that, the lady who had my name said she “didn’t want to give me up.” So she has sent me a couple of packages since we’ve been here. One a few weeks ago contained some nice autumn dish towels, and I’ve loved using them. Then I received another this week containing several goodies:

Though I hate to think of her paying postage, I am incredibly touched that she would want to keep up with me even though I’ve moved away. I can’t wait to find out who she is!

Oh, and the lady whose name I had was not left out in the cold — the lady who coordinates the Secret Sisters did give her name to someone else.

4. A working furnace. We turned on the heat for the first time this week. The furnace here is a gas one, but everything seems to be in good working order. I am always grateful for central heating and air conditioning — it is not something I have always had!

5. Starting on a new room. I may have mentioned that our new home has what is classified as a three car garage in an L shape, but my husband planned to turn the third car space into an office/guest bedroom. That project was planned for some time within the first year here. But with Jason and Mittu here and Jeremy coming for Thanksgiving, my husband decided to try to get that room habitable before then. The boxes from the attic were in that space, so we sorted through those and then my husband and Jesse were able to organize them into the attic (and it is so nice to have an organized attic!) one weekend. Then my husband had to take down pegboards and such from the walls and last weekend started putting up the framing for the wall and door that will be between the garage and the room. At some point we’ll put a door actually into the house from that room, but that is probably one of the bigger undertakings that will have to wait: for now we’ll have to go through the garage from that room to the house.

I wish I had a first “before” picture of the garage with nothing in it, then another one of it lined on all three sides with boxes. But this is an “in the beginning stages” picture:

And here it is now:

Still a good bit to do, but at least by Thanksgiving no one should have to sleep on the couch in the living room.

Have a great Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. A shiny new cell phone! That takes pictures! (My old one didn’t). Mittu’s cell phone was stolen a few weeks ago, along with her wallet and their GPS device (not a favorite thing!). When we realized my phone was eligible for an update, I got a new one and we put her SIM card in my old one. The new one slides open rather than flipping open, as my old one did, so it is a little quicker and easier to get to.

2. Jason’s dinner invention. Monday my afternoon schedule spun out of control unexpectedly. Jason and Mittu happened to be home that afternoon and offered to make dinner, thankfully — otherwise it would have been a night for picking up something on the way home or scrounging something quick and easy when I finally got there. He came up with a slice of ham and provolone around sauteed and seasoned chicken tenderloin. I didn’t get a picture of it (we were too hungry to wait for pictures!) but it was good.

3. Redbox. Jason and Mittu had used and told us about renting movies from them for $1 a night, but I tried it for the first time this weekend. We watched How to Train Your Dragon — pretty cute. And since they have a box in front of W-Mart, it’s pretty convenient.

4. Forks. Somehow I am missing forks from my silverware. I even bought another package of silverware and have used all the forks while the spoons and knives remain in the box since I have plenty of those. I think the forks get accidentally thrown away when people use them with paper plates for lunch or snacks. But we got an Oneida catalog this week, for the first time that I remember, and not only did they have my pattern, but I could buy individual pieces (which I couldn’t in the store), PLUS they were having a sale: buy four of any one flatware piece and get four free. Very timely! So I just ordered a bunch of forks to replace the missing ones. It will be nice to have enough to go around! I hadn’t even thought to check with them — I had gotten my silverware at W-Mart and had forgotten it was even Oneida.

5. A double date. Jesse had an activity last Saturday, so Jim and I went to dinner with Jason and Mittu at Ruby Tuesday’s, using a coupon Jim found online. It was only the second time I had been there. I wasn’t terribly impressed the first time, but this time was really good — ribs, their cheddar mashed potatoes, and grilled green beans.

Bonus: Making flight arrangement for Jeremy to come home for Thanksgiving. I’m so excited!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Lunch out. One lady at our church here organizes an informal lunch for ladies at a restaurant about once a month, and this month’s lunch was Tuesday. Only four of us showed up — she said they usually have six or eight. But I had at least met all of the ladies there, and it was a fun time to get to know them a little better.

2. Not doing dishes! I mentioned a while back that my daughter-in-law, Mittu, got a job here. It started this week, so she and Jason are staying here until he finds a job and they can get an apartment. I usually have dinner started by the time she gets home, but she has insisted on doing the dishes afterward. It’s been lovely to be done in the kitchen after dinner is over.

3. A good report card. Jesse had some of the worst grades of his school career the first few weeks here, I think just due to adjusting to new teachers and a new school. But he brought everything up to As and Bs by report card time.

4. Joann’s. I don’t know if it really is, but I have always considered Joann’s Fabrics and Crafts as the ultimate in fabric and craft stores — and I had never been to one because we never lived near one. But there is one about 20 minutes away from here, and I finally got to visit it yesterday. I wasn’t shopping for anything in particular, just exploring and seeing what they had. It was a lot of fun. It’s too far to just drop by often and I still like my local Hobby Lobby for most things, but it is nice to know it’s within range if I want to go again. I especially enjoyed looking through the quilting fabrics and books — some of my blog friends are into quilting, some expert and some beginner, and I loved looking at the new designs and styles in some of the books there. Maybe some day…

5. Great finds. One bathroom is a little bare of decorations, so I have been keeping my eye out for something suitable in a brown/beige/tan/blue combination. I found the first at Joann’s and the second at Hobby Lobby, both 50% off.

Have a great Friday! 😀

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Dinner For Six. This is a program our new church has for people to get to know each other. Everyone who wants to participate signs up and then someone divides them into groups of six. Within each group of six, each couple (it’s usually married couples, but not always) takes turns hosting the others over the next three months, divides the meal among them (host family does the main course, one couple brings salad and bread, another brings dessert and beverage, then they rotate each month). We had our first dinner last Saturday, and I really enjoyed it.

2. Antibiotics. Jim was about as ill as I have ever seen him the first part of this week. First we thought it was an allergic reaction to something he ate, then we thought it was flu, then we thought maybe a urinary tract infection. He went to the doctor Tuesday and he was diagnosed with a UTI. I don’t think that accounts for all the symptoms he was having, but maybe it does. But within less than a day of being on antibiotics he was starting to feel better, and he was able to go back to work Thursday.

3. Leftovers. We’ve been having more of them with just the three of us home! I usually have leftovers for lunch but haven’t been able to keep up with them all. I was trying to decide what to do for dinner last night and didn’t really feel like expending a great deal of effort, and Jim suggested just heating up leftovers. It was nice to be able to do that — we had enough for a full meal and then some. Though probably not anyone’s first choice for a meal, it is nice for the cook sometimes.

4. 9 a.m. school. Jesse’s school usually starts at 8, but this past week they started at 9 every day except today because the church the school was associated with was having a mission’s conference. I’ve never heard of a school doing that, but it’s a great idea! It’s hard to take younger ones to evening meetings and then get going the next morning. And even though mine is older and we only went to one of the evening meetings since we do not attend that church, it was still nice.

5. Hearing Jesse’s choir sing. The high school choir sang at that church’s mission’s conference Tuesday night and did a great job. I had never heard the song before.

Another favorite is something that didn’t happen. Wednesday night I was taking a pan of enchiladas out of the microwave, and I dropped it. It wasn’t hot — it just slipped. It was a glass pan, and it fell on another glass pan, skidded off the top onto another smaller glass dish and landed on the counter — and nothing broke! I was certain dinner was ruined by bits of glass, but, thankfully, everything was intact. Thank You, Lord!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

I mentioned fall last week, so I won’t include it as one of the five. But whereas it seemed fall was just starting to show last week, it’s in full force this week. I hope such a rapid change doesn’t mean the leaves are going to fall off too soon. But right now they’re gorgeous and I am starting to see a variety of colors. Having the temperatures a little cooler helps, too!

1. A nice Saturday outing. Jim needed some clothes and had a $50 rebate from a Father’s Day deal at Sears. Normally he would just go by himself, but Jason and Mittu were here for a few days and Jesse was away at a youth activity, so we made a double date of it and ventured out to the mall. I’d been there a few times but had just time to get my business done and hadn’t really explored. Jim found some good buys, then we walked around the mall a bit and then had lunch there at the food court (stuffed pizza at S’barros! Hadn’t had that since we left SC). Normally I am not much of a mall person, but that was just an overall good day.

2. Mountain moods. The Smoky Mountains run along the eastern US, which includes eastern TN, and I see a small offshoot of them almost every time I go anywhere here in our new town. One of my little pleasures is seeing what they look like every morning while taking Jesse to school. Well, of course, the mountains look the same, but the sky. clouds, etc., around them give them a different appearance from day to day. I’ve been meaning to take my camera with me to get a series of pictures of them, but kept forgetting til this week. Here are a couple:

I just missed the most glorious sunrise today — the clouds in the above picture were pink and the light from the sun was glowing from the left side. But I’d forgotten my camera again, and as I raced back to the house after dropping Jesse off at school, all the color was gone. Oh well — next time!

3. Easier housecleaning. In our old house, each room was compartmentalized, and we lived in a split-level, so we have to drag the vacuum cleaner up and down stairs and unplug it and replug it in almost every room. In our new house I discovered yesterday that I can vacuum almost the whole house by just changing where the vacuum is plugged in twice. A little thing, but it really made my day! And no stairs!

4. Picking up my cross stitch again after…I don’t know, some months of having laid it aside.

It was kind of prompted by the fact that I found the perfect place for a different stitchery project I haven’t even started, but I decided I wanted to finish this one first.

5. My daughter-in-law Mittu got a job offer — here in TN! About 30 minutes away from us! We don’t know yet what it will all mean, as far as moving, Jason’s needing a job as well and the situation with his headaches, etc., but that was a blessing, especially after having other interviews that seemed to go well, but resulted in not getting the job. We’ll see what happens!

Have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Fall. A few people mentioned this last week, but in our area it just began feeling and looking like fall over the past week. I love the coolness in the air and can’t wait to see more fall colors.

2. Jesse’s jacket. He had grown out of his last year, so we went to the mall this week to look for another one. I hadn’t yet been to the particular store I wanted to try first, so I didn’t know the best place to park, but we ended up going right in the door that led to the men’s department. And then we found a nice leather jacket on sale for about half the price I had in mind! I meant to take a picture of it before he left for school, but I forgot. Then I checked the women’s department and found a couple of sweaters for Jim’s mom — I had been seeing a lot of “fashion sweaters” but had trouble finding just a functional cardigan, but I found two for her there. I love quick successful shopping trips!

3. Pretty little note pads. I keep one on my desk and one on the kitchen counter besides the magnetic one on the refrigerator. I don’t even remember where or when I got these — I found them when I unpacked.

4. Coca Cola cake at Cracker Barrel. My family doesn’t really like that restaurant and I haven’t found any new Cracker Barrel buddies here yet, but I had a hankering for it yesterday, so I got a take-out order. The cake was the best part!

5. Friends who pray. I was very touched by the responses of blog friends to our family news in general, but those who said they pray for us especially touched my heart. Thank you! ♥

I mentioned last week that we’d been having some visitors to our bird feeder. I’ve been trying to get pictures, but, of course, if I open the door, they scatter. So these are the best of the ones taken through the window zoomed in as much as I can zoom!

There is a very little one that looks like a shadow on the left side! Since it can fit into the feeder and usually comes at it from the back side, it’s hard to see. But I do see his silhouette pecking away in there.