This has been a cold, blustery week. Thanksgiving is coming up quickly. I’m pausing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to reflect on some of the blessings of the week. If you’d like to join in or visit others who do this exercise, Susanne has a place to share a link to your post.

1. Operation Christmas Child. I love this concept of sending useful and fun supplies to children in another country. We turned our OCC boxes in this week. I heard of some families filling a box with their children to help turn their focus on others.

2. A production of A Christmas Carol. The Christian school associated with our church is doing Dickens’ Christmas story this year. They invited the church and home school community to their dress rehearsal before the regular performances start. There were a few chuckles over missed cues or prop malfunctions, but overall, everyone did a great job. I appreciate the school giving these young people an opportunity to hone their talents.

3. A quick dinner with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy. The play rehearsal was on a Wednesday afternoon, and went overtime–and we have children’s ministries and adult Bible studies Wednesday evenings. So we dashed out for a quick dinner at McAlister’s Deli in-between.

4. An artificial Christmas tree. After 40+ years of choosing a live tree every Christmas, we finally caved in and bought an artificial one. The prices of live trees were so exorbitant last year, we figured an artificial one will pay for itself in a couple of years. I’ll miss the excursion to choose just the right tree and the fragrance it brings. But we’re already looking forward to not having to string lights and water it. We haven’t put it up yet but hope to do so soon.

5. A gift card solution. I receive a lot of gift cards from my family. They fit in a pocket in my purse, but when I need one, I have to pull out the whole stack of loose ones and shuffle through them at the cash register. Then it dawned on me to look for a small credit card-type wallet to keep them in, and I found one here–on sale and pink!

To those of you in the US, I wish you a joyous Thanksgiving with those you love.

I am astonished that we’re halfway through November already. I wish there was a way to slow time down. The best alternative is to pause for a few moments and savor the blessings along the way. Some of us do so by joining in with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story on Fridays. Feel free to join in!

1. Puttering is what I call doing a series of odd jobs around the house, the kind that are useful but not urgent. For me, puttering this week included cleaning out the catch-all basket on the counter, assembling items to take to the thrift store, removing things from an old frayed purse into a new one while cleaning out and sorting through them, etc.

2. Veteran’s Day. I am so thankful for those willing to serve our country in the most sacrificial ways.

3. Dinner with Jesse. We don’t see Jesse, my youngest, as often as we see Jason, Mittu, and Timothy. He lives a bit farther away. When we found out he had Veteran’s Day off, we invited him over for dinner. J&M couldn’t make it. While we missed them, and we enjoy time all together, it’s also nice to visit one-on-one. Jesse likes salmon, and we had some in the freezer from a half-price sale, so Jim grilled those while I made Red Lobster-style baked potatoes and mixed vegetables. I make Choco-Peanut Butter Dreams about once a year in the fall and decided to do that as well. I sent several home with Jesse and brought some to J&M Wednesday and still had several to munch on through the week. (The recipe is included with My Favorite Cookie Recipes.)

4. Easy fixes for weird technological glitches. One day my Word grammar checker suddenly started making suggestions in French, including marking words as misspelled and giving me French alternatives. Of all the weird things! I poked around, trying to find the place to reset the language for it, then finally Googled it. Then my phone stopped receiving e-mail from either account. A quick search and reentering of my password had it working again. I am learning to search first before texting my children for help. 🙂

Then, right before leaving for an appointment Thursday, my computer started making weird tapping noises. Jim rebooted it, and that took care of whatever the problem was—or at least stopped the noise.

5. A good eye doctor appointment. Everything is about the same as last year, except I’ve had an odd shape in my vision for a few weeks. He didn’t see any problems when he dilated my eyes, so that was a relief.

Bonus: My youngest sister has been unemployed for ages after being laid off. After much prayer and searching, she got a job this week!

We’re one week into November, and I’m pausing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to cultivate gratefulness and share God’s blessings.

1. Pretty flowers. Jason and Mittu brought these over last week. I love the dark pink ruffled edges and the way they opened up so prettily.

2. A fundraiser dinner. Our church supports a missionary from REAP India, and last Saturday night we attended a fundraiser dinner for the organization. We enjoyed learning more about the ministry. We hadn’t known that there was a long history with that organization and its founders and the former pastor of our church (now with the Lord–we had never met him). A lot of folks from church were there, too.

3. Libby is an app that allows you to borrow e-books from your local library. I had tried to use it a few times before, but could never get it to find my library, even though my library’s website says it’s connected. I tried it again this week and saw that somehow they had me in Fayetteville rather than Knoxville. I deleted and reinstalled the app and was able to get connected this time.

4. Biannual closet change-over. I like my spring and summer clothes better than my fall and winter ones. But it’s nice to have the warm and cozy clothes where I can get to them easily. And since my off-season clothes are in the guest room closet, I don’t have to dig them out of storage–just make a few trips back and forth down the hall between bedrooms.

5. Oven meals. There are some meals that I don’t make during the summer, because keeping the oven on for an hour makes it hard for the air conditioner to keep up. It’s been fun to resurrect some of the dishes we haven’t had since last winter. Plus, it’s nice to get dinner ready and then still have an hour to do other things.

Updated to add: How could I have forgotten the biggest event of the week? I am thankful for the election and the fact that, for the most part, it was peaceful and decisive, two things I was praying about in particular. I’m thankful we have an opportunity to choose our leaders.

And that wraps up another week! How was yours?

The first Friday of a new month! I try to pause the swift passage of time on Friday’s to reflect on the blessings of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. A new calendar page. I’m not sure why, but turning the calendar to a new page each month is one of life’s little pleasures.

2. Kid’s Club costumes. The kids could dress up as a Bible character or animal this last Wednesday night. Timothy went as—Timothy! I thought the scroll was a great touch.

3. Annual family dress-up party. We started this during the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, Jesse wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t come.

Mittu is dressed like Timothy. 🙂 Timothy is the Buc-ee’s Beaver. Jason and I are the skeleton crew. 🙂 It’s funny, mine came with a “sewing kit” to stitch up the neck opening and reuse as a tablecloth after using as a costume—if I ever have need of a skeleton tablecloth. 😀

I thought Jim’s costume was the best this year. I asked if he was a mad scientist. He said no, he was a scientist involved in a lab explosion. 🙂

4. Pumpkin decorating. We usually do this earlier in the month but just didn’t get to it until last night.

I especially liked Mittu’s:

5. Homemade caramel corn and apple cider are our usual snack foods while pumpkin decorating. Even though it takes a while to make the caramel corn, the end result is worth it. Jim says it’s “better than Cracker Jacks.”

Did you have a good last week of October?

I’m joining Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share some blessings from the week.

1. A Medieval Faire. I’ve wanted to go to one of these for years. This one was about an hour away from us, but so much fun. It had a Robin Hood theme, Human Battle Chess with characters from Robin Hood lore, a (very fake, but fun to watch) jousting tournament, various performers, and vendors. Many of those who came dressed up as well.

2. Medical phone calls done. I don’t know why I hate these so much. 🙂 They don’t take long to accomplish. But it felt good to take care of them in one sitting. I’m still waiting for a reply to one . . . but at least the ball is in their court.

3. French toast for one. I rarely make this, as it’s a little more involved and a little much for a regular breakfast. But I was in the mood for something different and came up with this. It was just for one because Jim usually eats breakfast before I do.

4. Connect Four group. Our group of four ladies from church had our third get-together, this time at Zaxby’s. I enjoyed the conversation immensely.

5. Early voting. There was a pretty long line, but not as long as it will be on election day, and it moved quickly.

Bonus: Beautiful fall color. It’s been rumored that the fall leaves would be not quite as vibrant this year because the weather has been so dry (minus the hurricane). But as we were out and about yesterday, I drank in the beauty of many trees.

That’s our week–how was yours?

Another Friday marks another opportunity to pause for a moment and cultivate gratitude for the blessings of the week. We share those blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Dinner guests. A couple from our church loves India and has been there several times. Mittu invited them over for Indian food but asked if we could meet at our house. The wife of the couple has back and hip problems, and our house is on one level while Jason and Mittu’s front door opens to steps going up to their living room. It worked out well that Mittu did the cooking and I did the cleaning. 🙂 We had a wonderful time of fellowship.

2. An Amazon gift card. I received it for my birthday but was saving it until I knew what I wanted to do with it. It was nice to extend a birthday gift for several months.

3. A denim jacket. It may sound silly, but I have been wanting one for a while. The ones I had seen were a little more than I wanted to pay. I found one at a pretty reasonable price on Amazon, and that’s one of the things I used my gift card for.

4. Central Heat. We had a cold spell this week—nights in the 30s, days in the 60s. It’s so nice to just push a button to switch from AC to heat.

5. Fall color is starting to show on the leaves in earnest now.

Bonus: A funny seen around the web:

How was your week?

October is chugging right along. I’m pausing a few moments with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to remember the good parts of the week.

1. Getting “extra” things done. You know how, when someone is coming over, all of a sudden you have a number of projects and “extra” housekeeping tasks you want to get done? A friend was due to stay with us overnight on her trip from OH to SC, but had to change plans due to Hurricane Helene. She did go later, but had to vary her route so much that she wasn’t passing close to us any more. I decided to go ahead with some of those extra activities anyway, which was helpful since we’re having some folks over for dinner this week.

2. Answered prayer. My son’s friend’s cancer surgery went well, and a friend’s family in FL was safe during Hurricane Milton.

3. Dinner and games. Timothy texted and asked if he and his mom and dad could bring dinner over one night. Of course! We often play Jackbox games through the Apple TV, but this time played Telestrations at the table since Tim is old enough to handle it now. That one always provides laughs and creativity.

4. Rearranging and sorting books. I have a small bookcase in our bedroom (in addition to two large ones in the family room and one in the guest bedroom). The small one has my massive pile of “to-be-read” books. I also put books there that I have finished but either haven’t found a place for yet or haven’t decided what to do with. It felt good to get those organized and dusted, find places for a few, and set aside a stack to give away.

5. Recorded Zoom training sessions. A couple of sites I follow had Zoom meetings about writing with special guests and a Q&A session afterward. I couldn’t attend either at the time, but, thankfully, the sponsors made the recordings available to watch later. I’ve worked my way through those a little at a time throughout the week.

How was your week?

This first Friday of the month, I echo what Anne of Green Gables said: I am so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers! I’m joining with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share some blessings of the week.

1. Safety. I mentioned last week that we were predicted to lose power for a few days during Hurricane Helene. Some people in the area did, but most were fine. Our lights dimmed a couple of times, but, thankfully, didn’t go out. My two sisters in SC were without power for several days but have it back now.

As I mentioned Wednesday, though the storm is over, the ramifications are not. It’s not often that hurricane-level winds and rain make it this far from the coast, but parts of TN, SC, WV, and particularly NC and FL were hit badly and will take years to recover.

2. Helpers. Though some of the photos and footage I’ve seen are horrifying, I’ve also been heartened to see groups and individuals jumping in to help.

3. Fall coolness and color. We’re still pretty warm in the afternoons, but the evenings have been so nice. And, though this sounds trite in light of what some people have lost, I was really hoping the trees wouldn’t be stripped bare of leaves during the storm. Soaking up the beauty of fall color helps me get through the bleakness of winter. I’m happy to say we have plenty of leaves left that are turning lovely fall shades.

4. Fall decorations. I finally got these put up last weekend. I didn’t take any pictures since the decorations are the same as in years past.

5. Dinner. Last Sunday night, Jason and Mittu came over and made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup from Jim’s tomato bounty. He only planted one package of seeds, and the tomatoes have been small, but they’ve been prolific.

That’s our week. How was yours?

After several dry weeks, we finally got a good, soaking rain. But now, with the hurricane coming in, we’ve had even more. High wind and flood warnings have been sounded, even as far inland as we are.

As we wait to see what happens with the weather, I’m pausing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to reflect on the blessings of the week. One encouragement for God’s care in the future is remembrances of His care in the past.

1. Watching Timothy while his parents went on a date. He had a project in school to make a replica of a cell, so he and his granddad looked through the microscope at some slides of cells that Jim had on hand and then got water from a nearby pond to look at single-celled organisms through the microscope. (Timothy called Jim’s office the “science lab.” 🙂 ) Then his parents brought home Salsarita’s for dinner.

2. A new car battery. Sunday, we hopped in my car to go to church, and the car made a clicking sound. The screen over the steering wheel said “System check.” It’s never done that before. Jim tried it a few more times, then we gave up and climbed into his car. He thought my car’s problem was probably the battery. He had another one installed the next day, and now it’s working fine. I am thankful it happened at home and not while we were out somewhere and not while I was out alone. I am grateful, too, that we had a second car to use and that Jim took care of the battery for me.

3. Refrigerator issues fixed. Our refrigerator was not cooling well, so Jim investigated and found some water had collected in the panel between the freezer and refrigerator and frozen. He took everything out of the lower shelves and put it in a cooler, then turned the refrigerator off and used a hair dryer to melt the ice. I couldn’t be of much help, with there not being room for more than one person. But I washed out some of the refrigerator drawers and shelves while Jim was working on the rest of it. Thankfully, it’s all working like it’s supposed to again.

4. Another Connect Four lunch. I mentioned last month that our church had a Connect Four program, where ladies who sign up are divided into groups of four who then meet once a month over the next four months. This was our group’s second get-together. We met at the bakery of a lady who goes to our church. We enjoyed both the food and the fellowship.

5. Finally, a haircut and a coupon. I’d been putting my haircut off for several weeks and finally took care of it this week. I tried a new place since the prices of our old place had gone up. I had a coupon for almost half-off.

Bonus: Food poisoning is no fun! I got chicken strips and chicken noodle soup at Chick-Fil-A last night. We’ve never had a problem there, but thirty-forty minutes afterward, my body started reacting violently. Let’s just say I spent the next several hours in the bathroom. Jim had one of their sandwiches and wasn’t affected. I was thinking last night I should be thankful our bodies are created to expel harmful things. But I’m especially thankful that everything seems to be all right this morning, and this was a short-lived experience rather than a longer-lasting stomach bug. I hope this hasn’t ruined my taste for their soup–it’s one of my favorite fast-food items. But I don’t think I can eat it again for a while.

Jim read one prediction that our area might be without power three days or more with the hurricane coming in. I sure hope that doesn’t happen. I’m sure all in the path of Hurricane Helene would appreciate your prayers, especially those in Florida who will take the brunt of it.

Fall is in the air. Leaves are starting to turn and drop. We had a warm spell this week, but enough coolness the week before to make us anticipate more. I’m joining Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to reflect on the blessings of the past week.

1. Jesse’s birthday. We got together to celebrate my youngest son with stroganoff, his usual requested birthday dinner.

2. Jesse’s cake was made by Mittu, a lemon blueberry cake. I struggled with this one before, so Mittu has made it ever since. 🙂

3. Jackbox games across the miles. We often play Jackbox games when we’re all together, especially Blather Round. Since we log in online and play on our phones or ipads, we were able to play with Jeremy in RI while FaceTiming him.

4. A productive day. Some events from last week put me behind schedule. I usually start my Sunday blog post earlier in the week, attempting to leave Saturday for proofreading and graphics. But I didn’t get started on it until Friday night! Then, I wanted to get Jesse’s card made and presents wrapped on Saturday so I wouldn’t feel rushed and pressured on his birthday Monday. I prayed that I might get everything done Saturday, and I did.

That turned out to be a good thing, as I had forgotten that Jesse had a dentist appointment Monday near us and planned to come here afterward for the rest of the day instead of going home and then back here for his birthday celebration in the evening. So I was especially glad all the birthday stuff was done except for dinner.

5. Sleep. I usually wake up a couple of times during the night, but somehow, this morning, I feel rested and refreshed.

How was your week?