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.

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!

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.

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! 😀

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Have a great Friday.

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.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Locks! We didn’t realize until our first day in our new house that none of the bedroom or bathroom doors had locks on them! We pretty much have always had a policy of respecting the closed door, but we really emphasized it the past few weeks! Last weekend was one of the first we didn’t have something else to take care of (which could be a fave in itself), and Jim was able to change the doorknobs out for ones with locks.

2. Jesse’s visit to his old school. He has been wanting to go and visit his old school during a school day, but of course we wouldn’t let him skip a day here to do that. But his school had no classes last Thursday and Friday due to a teacher’s conference, and Jim had to go to SC for his work on Friday, passing right through our old town, so he took Jesse and dropped him off at Jason and Mittu’s, then they took him up to school for a few hours. Only one or two people knew he was coming, so he enjoyed surprising everyone. Originally Jim was going to pick him back up on his way back through around 3 or 4, but Jason was working and didn’t get off until 5:30 and wanted to visit with Jim, so they ended up staying for the school’s soccer and volleyball games, too. I’m glad he got to do that — he enjoyed it a lot.

3. Visitors to the bird feeder. Jim hung it up outside a while ago, but I just got around to getting feed for it this week. It took a couple of days, but a cardinal came by as well as some small greyish-brown birds. I need to get a basic bird book! But one of my favorite things about the bird feeder is that I can see it from the kitchen, office, and family room. And I haven’t seen any squirrels here yet, so maybe the birds will actually get to use it instead of its being raided by squirrels, which is what happened at our old house.

4. Banana bread. No matter how many bananas I buy, it seems no one eats the last one or two, and then they get too ripe to enjoy. I always say I am going to save them for banana bread, but rarely do. Well, this week I finally did. I had enough for two batches and made six mini loaves instead of two big ones and put the extras in the freezer. In one batch I added mini chocolate chips. It tasted good, but I think I added too many — they mostly sank to the bottom and the loaf was overly moist.

5. Finally getting my boxes of books unpacked. That was the hardest group to unpack as we have fewer bookcases here — two at the old house were built in. I ended up repacking a few boxes to store that I didn’t have room for but wasn’t ready to get rid of yet. But I did get three boxes filled to give away or sell. It’s so nice to get those out of the living room and have that whole area looking neater and more finished. And I am scouting around to see if there is another place we can put another set of book shelves to take the stored ones out. 🙂

Hope you have a great Friday!

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five so 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 gives. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Jesse’s birthday. My used-to-be-little boy turned 17 yesterday! We’re not having most of the celebration until Saturday, because that is originally when Jason and Mittu were going to be able to come up, but they came yesterday. So we went ahead with Jesse’s birthday dinner yesterday. In our family the birthday honoree chooses what’s for dinner, whether it is something I make or a meal out. This year Jesse chose Five Guys Hamburgers. They didn’t have one in the town where we used to live, so he’s excited that they have one here.

2. Jason and Mittu coming! Missing Jeremy, though. 😦

3. This little bistro set!

We wanted to get a bench or a couple of chairs for the small front porch area, and we stopped by a local place with a sign out front about patio furniture being 40-60% off. Everything else seemed expensive, even marked down, but I was amazed that this was such a reasonable price. And it is sooo cute! It’s just me.

4. A new love seat!

This house has a small area just inside the door that we’re using as kind of a sitting room — it’s not big enough for a full-fledged living room. So we wanted to find a loveseat and a couple of chairs for it. Our old living room set was worn and torn, but we wanted something that would fit in with the decorations we had accumulated for that room. This was hard to find, let me tell you! There is not much in the upholstered market these days in pink that doesn’t look too red or too peachy. We found this at a Mom-and-Pop-type outlet place for about $300 less than a big furniture store had it for. We’re getting two chairs as well, but it will take about two weeks to get those in, and they don’t have the floral pattern — they’re just solid beige.

5. This stool:

That little bar area looks into the kitchen. We wanted a stool with a back and arms and the ability to swivel, and I love the design of this one. We originally got two, but it made the area too crowded. Jim sometimes sits there to chat while I am cooking or cleaning up the kitchen.

It’s looking kind of like acquisitions week, but we’ve been searching for these various things almost since we got here — we just happened to get it all in this week. Thankfully, Jim’s relocation package included money for “incidentals” which pretty much covered these odds and ends furniture pieces we needed, so that was a blessing, and the Lord led us to some great deals. We’re still waiting on the futon for the sewing/craft/guest room to get in as well as the two chairs I mentioned. But it will be nice to do something else with our weekends besides look for furniture now!

Hope you have a great Friday!

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five so 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 gives. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are five favorite things from this past week:

1. Hershey’s miniature candy bars. Great for when you want just a bit of chocolate sweetness after a meal.

2. A new CD, Promises, by Soundforth. “Good Shepherd” is new to me and has especially ministered to my heart this week.

3, Getting a few things up on the walls. I’ve  been saving decorating for last after we get everything unpacked and get the couple of new furniture items we need. It takes me a while to decide where to put things, plus the previous owners covered all the wall holes and painted over them, and I have been reluctant to put that first nail in. But I unpacked a couple of things that had been in our bedroom in the old house, but would look great in the master bathroom here. Funny how a couple of pretty things to look at can boost one’s spirits!

Plus I love how these two just show up so well (or “pop,” as they say on decorating shows) in here. In our previous house they were on pink walls in our bedroom (too pink for even me) with a whole lot of other things, and they just kind of got lost.

4. Our new desk:

I haven’t figured out yet where to put everything in it.

5. Just a bit coolness in the air — not enough to pull out the sweaters, but it sure feels better than the oppressive heat and humidity. I’m not quite ready to rush the fall season in just yet, but I am ready for cooler weather!

Have a great Friday!

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five so 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 gives. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are five favorite things from this past week:

1. Pellet ice — by the bag! I’ve mentioned before that I like what I call munchy crunchy ice like Zaxby’s and Sonic’s has. We stopped by Sonic’s over the weekend so Jesse could get a slushy, and saw a sign that they now sell their ice by the bag. So we got one! It’s been nice to have it at home.

2. An unexpected visit. The little girl Mittu baby-sits was not going to be coming the latter half of this week and Jason was off Wed., so they came up for a quick visit. Nice to be close enough to do that!

3. A fan. Jason and Mittu had bought me a fan for the sewing room at the old house because that room didn’t have a ceiling fan and got the brunt of the afternoon sun, but I hadn’t really needed it yet, so it was still in the box. But I got it out this week to use in my bedroom because I wake up hot during the night, and our room doesn’t have a ceiling fan yet. It’s a big help. PLUS — it has a remote control. How cool is that?! Literally!

4. Being able to buy in bulk. Our old house was very short of storage space — a lot of my kitchen things had to be put in the living room closet. But now I can buy a package of 8 rolls of paper towels or several packages of toilet paper or use a coupon good on multiple cans of something because I have the space to put it. I am hoping that will lessen the trips to the grocery store in time.

5. People who go the extra mile. People have been very friendly at our new church — more than just hand-shaking and saying “It’s nice to have you.” But this last Wednesday night one lady went even further by telling me more about a new ladies’ Bible study that was mentioned in the bulletin and offered to send me the information via e-mail, plus searched for a church directory for me, etc. That was a special blessing this week because last Sunday I was feeling especially teary at church. I was in the restroom at some point, and heard people coming in and out chatting animatedly, and just all of a sudden was hit by a sense of not belonging, of not having any personal friends yet here (they weren’t ignoring me — I was in a stall). As I said, people have been very friendly, and I know it takes time to build friendships, and I know that will come in time, and I am not the type of person who spends a lot of time out with friends and have been enjoying some solitude at home in which to get things done. But it was just one of those weird out of the blue emotional wallops. And though I wasn’t consciously thinking about this at the time, later I realized that that was our first Sunday without seeing Jeremy, Jason, or Mittu — every weekend since we moved, between birthdays and helping them move we’ve been there or they’ve been here, and this was our first weekend without them, so that undercurrent may have been making me a little more emotional than usual. But this lady’s interest and helpfulness at the very next service there was just a reminder, that, yes, those friendships and that sense of belonging will come in time.

6. Jeremy’s first week on his new job seems to be going well — he has enjoyed it and thinks he will be able to handle it well. Plus the friend he knew before he moved there has had him over a few times.

I think that’s about it for this week! Oh, except I didn’t mention any food for Thom. 🙂 One of the favorite dinners of the week was Chicken Enchilada Bake when Jason and Mittu were here, and I love the mini apple strudels one grocery store here has. The big ones are just too much, but a couple of the small ones are just right.

Each of those is about big enough for two bites.

Happy Friday!