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. 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.

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. 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!

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. $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!

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!