Category Archives: Friday’s Fave Five

Friday’s Fave Five

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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.

There are a number of things I could mention this week, but I’ll go with these:

1. The first week of summer vacation! I have loved not setting alarm clocks!

2. Feeling better. Jesse had an awful cold last weekend and then I caught it and was pretty miserable Monday and some of Tuesday. Thankfully I am feeling much better now.

3. Chicken Chimichangas from one of my favorite Mexican food restaurants. Tuesday night Jim was away and I gave myself permission to get dinner out, but I didn’t feel like going out, so we got take-out and had enough to for lunch the next day, too.

4. This funny video on The History of the Book from The Wall Street Journal at Robin Lee Hatcher‘s site. I couldn’t get the video to embed here, so I’ll just refer you there.

5. This video of Andrea Bocelli’s mother’s decision not to take the advice of a physician and have an abortion when he thought her child might have a disability. I had never heard this story before. Andrea is such a gift to the world: what  testament that a disability is no reason to abort a child. And how sad to think of all the people with their various individual gifts who are not able to share them with the world due to abortion.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by

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.

My faves for this week:

1. Today is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

2. My hydrangea bush is almost in full bloom. It was looking pretty sad last year, and I thought it might have some kind of disease, but it is doing well so far this year.

3. I rediscovered a set of six of these little Tupperware parfait dishes tucked in the back corner of a cabinet this week and promptly put them to use.

4. Getting a dinging noise in my dashboard fixed. Every time I stopped with my foot on the brake for any length of time, a light on my dashboard shaped like an oil can would flash, accompanied by persistent dinging, yet when my husband checked the oil it was always fine. So annoying! We finally got the sensor fixed this week.

5. Having over my son, daughter-in-law, and a visiting friend of theirs who worked with them at camp and was in their wedding. There were several things I enjoyed about it: she’s a sweet girl, and I’m glad my kids share their friends with the family :); having company spurred a house-cleaning session, and it’s always so nice to enjoy the fruit of that for a few days; she is gluten intolerant, and I was a little concerned about what to serve, then decided on fried rice with shrimp, chicken, and sugar snap peas along with a salad and the Jello parfaits above for dessert — she could eat everything I served and seemed to enjoy it (we did, too!); and I was reminded that I’ll never be perfect in this life, and that’s ok.

Since I am limited to five I won’t be able to mention that I also enjoyed several finales of TV series this week, though I don’t know why they have to cram them all into one week (was so glad to see Mike win Biggest Loser even though I’d been rooting for Daris. They all looked so great!) and we have some new paved roads in our neighborhood, and one of life’s little pleasures for me is driving on new, smooth roads. :D:D:D

Have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by

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.

I really missed the Fave Five last week! I had planned to get a post together and then get back to visiting everyone when I could, but I just ran out of time — I was only on the computer long enough to eat a quick breakfast and lunch for a while there. I had planned to share a little bit about Mother’s Day, then, so I’ll share some of that this week. Even though it’s “old news” by now, I haven’t shared it on the blog yet.

So here are my five favorite things from the last two weeks:

1. Our church’s annual ladies’ luncheon. This is what I was working on so much last week. The Lord blessed, it went well, some of the tummy issues were kept in check, though not removed completely. I do have to admit I am glad it is over for another year! But I did enjoy it. I could make a whole Fave Five list from it, but I won’t since I just wrote all about it here.

2. My Mother’s Day feast. Traditionally my husband grills something for Mother’s Day dinner and gets all the family involved in making the side dishes and dessert. I love that so much more than standing in line for a table at a noisy, busy restaurant.They do a great job.

3. Mother’s Day gifts. Here are a few:

I had been wanting a bird feeder for some time. There was one here on top of a wooden pillar when we moved in, but the wood rotted at the bottom and it had to be taken down. Jason and Mittu got me this, and I am glad that I can hang it anywhere. I can see it from both the kitchen sink and the dining room table. The birds haven’t discovered it yet. but the squirrels have.

Jesse got me a gift card to Michael’s, and Jeremy got me this necklace from EDBDBeadz, the Etsy shop of Beth, the daughter of my friend Susan.

I wore it last Sunday, and I hadn’t realized until then that it sparkles when the light hits it! It is very nice.

Jim got me a few books, some hanging plants for the patio, and a gift card to Hobby Lobby.

I am blessed.

4. A restful week. Much needed after the busyness of last week. I’ve puttered around getting things in order and doing a little cleaning, but it hasn’t been pressured.

5. My desk chair. One of my criteria when getting it was that it had to be able to recline and the back had to be high enough to support my head when I leaned back. I’ve taken many a power nap in it lately.

I also wanted to let you know that I have begun hosting a meme on Mondays where we can share interesting quotes we’ve read from books, blogs, etc. It’s called The Week In Words: you can read more about it here, and I hope you’ll join us.

Happy Friday to you!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by

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.

1. Good results from the doctor. I mentioned last week taking a family member in for a procedure. We got the results back this week, and praise the Lord, it is not the big scary thing we most feared. There are still symptoms that we and the doctors need wisdom in dealing with, but we’re relieved and thankful that it is not as bad as it could have been.

2. A better week than last week, mentally at least. It hasn’t been as productive as I had originally planned, and I was under the weather a couple of days, but the “funk” I was in last week seems to have lifted. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

3. Google. Though it seems, I don’t know, maybe a little silly to list it, it has been a major help to me in getting ready for the upcoming ladies’ luncheon. I can’t wait to show and tell you more about it, but I want to wait til afterward so as to keep everything as much of a surprise as possible to those attending. But I was thrilled this week when I had a general idea for favors for the younger girls (thank you, Lord!), and searching online yielded just the perfect resources needed to implement it.

4. Just the right temperatures and rain. I have to admit I am not a big fan of rainy days, though I know we need them for food and plants to grow, etc. But I appreciate them more this time of year when they wash the pollen out of the air and off everything outside.

5. My husband’s helpfulness. I’ve mentioned this last week that I can chafe sometimes when interrupted or asked to help with something when I had other things planned, though once I actually get started my attitude changes. But my husband has always very willingly and cheerfully pitched in anywhere needed. Since he works way more than 40 hours a week plus keeps up with yard work and general repairs around the house, I try not to ask for his help unless company is coming and I am in a time crunch. But when I do ask him to do something, he never acts irritated or put out. I can’t remember what I made a mess of in the kitchen last week, but he just pitched in taking care of the problem. And whenever the kids need assistance, as well, he makes his time and expertise  available to talk or fix something or help with a decision, etc. Of course, sometimes he is in the middle of something and has to ask us to wait, but his general attitude is one of willing and cheerful helpfulness and availability to his loved ones, which is both an example and a rebuke to me.

And hey, I didn’t even mention food this week! 🙂 Though I did make Congo Bars last night…

Congo bars

1/2 cup margarine
2 3/4 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups flour
1 to 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt margarine and combine with brown sugar.Add eggs and beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Spread mixture into a greased 11 x 15″ pan. Sprinkle choclate chips on top. Bake for 20-25minutes. Makes 2 dozen, depending on how you cut them. Chopped nuts can be added if desired.

I don’t know why they’re called that, and in trying to find a recipe to link to, I found all kinds of variations! But this one is pretty simple plus makes more than the usual 9 x 13 pan. Great for when you need to take cookies somewhere but want to leave some home for the family as well. Though I am not taking these anywhere….

Have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

As I thought about this post yesterday and this morning, my initial feeling was, “I ain’t got nothin’ this week.” It hasn’t been a bad week per se, but nothing really stood out to me as a favorite. And then the last day or so I’ve just been in a funk, as we used to say — irritable over several little petty annoyances and possibly hormones. But as I thought about it this morning while driving around on a couple of errands, a few things came to mind. So this will be a little different “Fave Five” post than usual for me.

1. I am glad that God still loves us and is patient with us even when we’re petty, selfish, irritable, or hormonal.

2. I accompanied a family member to an outpatient medical procedure as moral support and the designated driver afterward, and, though happy to do so, I thought at the time how much I hate hospitals and medical buildings. There is just the association with something at the very least unpleasant, possibly painful, and for some, devastating, at those places. But I’ve also been reading about pioneer missionaries in a primitive area on the Amazon River — 18 hours from a doctor, carrying a patient over jungle trails and hills, bouncing along the Amazon in a small boat, sometimes having to do limited medical procedures on their front porch. That makes me shudder. For all it flaws, I think we probably do have the best medical care available in the world here and now.

3. Our family is “on hold” in a couple of ways, waiting and praying for results of the above procedure and waiting and praying concerning a possible major change for us. And, of course, we’d much rather know than wait. But you can’t rush the process, not if you want the best results. I was reminded of the children of Israel in the book of Exodus traversing through the wilderness until the pillar of cloud that was leading them stopped, and then waiting for an unknown amount of time until it moved again. They didn’t know how long they were going to be there or where they were going next. But they could trust the One leading them and patiently and faithfully attend to the duties at hand until it was time for the next step.

4. Several incidents that led to my frustration and irritability had to do with thwarted plans and desires: nothing major, just small things over the course of a few days. It would take too long to list them and there’s no need to rehash them. But it was a painful reminder to me of just how selfish I am that I can get so irritated when things don’t work out my way. I have to remind myself often that I am not just here to do my own thing: I am here to do what God wants me to do and to be available to minister to my family. Even though I have always felt that a woman’s family is her first ministry, I often have to adjust my thinking to that perspective in practical everyday life. And once I do that, whatever changes I have to make are fine. It’s just that mental hurdle.

5. I think I have probably mentioned Christian music a time or two, but I was blessed by it again this morning while driving around running errands. Not only was the music calming and soothing, but the words helped me to set my affection on things above (Colossians 3:1-2).

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

1. My Swiffer Wet-Jet. No, this is not a paid product placement. It doesn’t totally eliminate the need for an occasional deeper cleaning, but it is great for a quick mop-up.

2. This bug zapper.

It smaller than a tennis racket but larger than a fly swatter, which is nice because that makes it easier to actually connect with the bug. You press a button on the side while swinging at a bug, and when it connects it zaps it. Jesse even saw smoke ascending from a wasp he zapped. 🙂 That may sound cruel, but it is probably better than drowning it in bug spray or whapping it with a fly swatter and having it flail around til someone can grab it with a tissue and flush it.

3. I know I mentioned Texas Sheet Cake last summer when Jeremy made one for my birthday last summer, but I had a hankering for it again, so I made one. So good. Officially my favorite cake. I need to find or figure out a way to make a smaller version, though. It makes a cake the size of a cookie sheet, and though it’s flat, it’s very rich. It was all too easy to cut off a little square every time I went into the kitchen. To cut it down to just enough for everyone to have one serving would be perfect.

4. Ladies who extend themselves to my mother-in-law. She is friendly when people speak to her but has never been one to initiate friendships. She’s uncomfortable around a lot of people and has always been content to have just a few special friends. So it has been nice since we moved her here that a few ladies at church make a special point to come over and hug her and talk with her, and a couple of them go to see her about once a week. That’s a blessing to us as well as to her.

5. Fun family conversations, especially when we’re all together. This was a while back, but Jeremy was showing us some of these photos resulting from a man who gets up in the wee hours of the morning to take pictures of sleeping bugs covered in heavy dew. Though the shots are amazing, Jason remarked how odd it would seem to be on a date with a girl and try to explain doing this for a living.

I wish I could remember the exact words, because the conversation was so funny, but it developed into a scenario of the guy then throwing water on the girl so he could take her picture and the date not ending well.

I love my family! ♥

And just one more: I know I have mentioned this before as well, but I am amazed and grateful that the Lord meets our needs for the day so aptly in His Word. I was reading something a while back about how the writer preferred church services that were spontaneous and wanted the preacher to say whatever came to him at the moment rather than studying and planning ahead, as if the only way the Holy Spirit works is by spontaneity, giving someone what they need in the moment. He may do that sometimes, but He also works through preparation, planning, and study as we seek Him through the whole process. And this is a perfect example, when a passage I am reading in the course of progressing through the Bible, written thousands of years ago, or a devotional book written decades or even hundreds of years ago, has exactly what I need today when no one but the Lord could have known what my particular needs for the day would have been. Marvelous!

Happy Friday, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

My favorites from the past week or so:

1. Gorgeous weather this week at just the right temperatures.

2. Things are coming together for the ladies’ luncheon next month. We’d had the date, theme, and speaker for a few weeks: this week we got the caterer and menu lined up and got a good dent put into making favors at the ladies’ meeting Monday night. I need to get invitations and tickets made and printed off this weekend, then finish favors and centerpieces in the next week or two.

3. Chicken teriyaki and fried rice from the Japanese place at the mall. Jim volunteered to get that for dinner Monday night as I had a lot of preparation for the ladies’ meeting that night. Not only was that a big help to me, but I really like the stuff, too. 🙂

4. My Cricut Expressions cutting machine. My dear husband had given it to me almost a year ago, and I’ve played around with it, but hadn’t really gotten into it yet. I used it for a couple of pieces for the favors we made this week, and was able to get acquainted with it and figure some things out. Cutting 80 figures out with a machine was so much nicer and less time consuming than doing so by hand! And I so enjoyed “creating” and want to get back to doing more.

5. Some people might think that putting a Scripture passage on the same list as chicken teriyaki and nice weather is making light of Scripture. I don’t see it that way. Scripture is, of course, on a higher plane than these other things, but why wouldn’t something I read in the Bible be among my favorite things from the week? Anyway, in the last couple of days I have been in Exodus 32-34, where the children of Israel made the golden calf at the very time Moses was on the mountaintop receiving God’s commandments for them — after they had already promised to do what God said, and after all they had seen Him do. God in His anger at them wanted to wipe them out and start a new nation with Moses, but Moses interceded for them. Then God spared them, but said He would not go with them. Moses again pleaded with Him, and in one of my favorite passages in the Bible, God promises, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Moses replies, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence,” in other words, “We don’t want to go anywhere without you.”  Such a poignant scene, and such a wonderful promise, that we can trust Him not only to lead us but to be with us.

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

My favorites from the past week or so:

1. Easter! We were out of town and attended a wonderful church service, and then we traveled home, missing our usual Easter festivities. But my son and daughter-in-law surprised us with an Easter dinner and goodies when we got home. I wrote more about it earlier here.

2. Rain. I mentioned yesterday I was hoping it would rain and wash some (actually a lot!) of the pollen away, and it did! Plus the rain cooled things off considerably.

3. Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits! Had one just this morning.

4. Friends who pray. I had a personal prayer request which I could not make public, but contacted just a few friends about it. Their responses and their faithfulness to pray were such a blessing to me.

5. An impromptu family night. We wanted something a little different for dinner last night, so we went out to a little local Italian place, and called Jason and Mittu to see if they had eaten yet and wanted to come. They came, and they had been planning to return the DVD they had rented of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs after dinner, but they brought it by the house and watched it with us first. Fun times!

Bonus:

I don’t usually go into TV shows much here, but this past week’s episode of Lost was one of my favorites, both because we got a little crack in the door understanding of what might be going on, but especially because the episode centered on Desmond, one of my favorites. And we got to see Daniel again! (Lost fans will understand. 🙂  ) Though I think it is right for the show to be coming to a definite end — dragging it out would kill it — I am really going to miss it when it is done!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

My favorites from the past week or so:

1. Spring break! No alarm clocks!

2. Winning a comment contest at A Dusty Frame. The prize: $10 credit from her Etsy shop. Thank you, Lizzie!

3. I made this Chicken Pot Pie that I saw last year at Barb‘s.

I had been wanting to make it for a while, and finally reminded myself that I wanted to do so before the weather got much warmer. I avoid turning the oven on during the summer if I can help it! (I also got the idea from her of decorating the crust with little cut-outs!)

When I tell my husband we’re eating something I saw on someone’s blog, he says, “Blog food?” with the same intonation as if he were saying, “Dog food?” 🙂 But so far he has liked any “blog food” I have served. And everyone liked this.

4. Then one of my favorite things to do with the leftover pie crust is so sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar and a little butter and bake it just for a few minutes til done. Wonderful!

I also had this week another of my favorite little things to do with leftovers is to make a sandwich out of leftover meatloaf. Some time last year I started making a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover meatloaf in it — even better!

5. This little box:

Holds a little pump:

Which I hope solves a big problem.

I had mentioned before that our little patio area floods when we get a lot of rain, which then floods our sunroom. It’s become quite an ordeal to set the portable pump outside and get towels and the wet vac inside. The drain wasn’t keeping up, and we had roto-rooter guys who cleared a hole through it but said it was caving in and broken through with roots, plus it was not enough of an incline for gravity to really help the water drain. They wanted to dig up a corner of the patio and out a pump in for $1200.  My husband put this little pump in outside the patio (Isn’t he smart?) So far in testing it and in a small storm we had the other day it did great. It’s set to automatically come on when the water reaches a certain level. This will be a BIG relief!

I hope you all have a great weekend and a wonderful Easter.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

Here are a few of my favorite things from this past week:

1. “”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). What a blessed promise; what a wonderful God to make such a promise.

2. These heart-shaped pancake molds

with which I made these heart-shaped peanut butter pancakes:

3. Family moments like these: Jeremy showing Grandma a funny video. Though she would be intimidated to try to use a computer, she’s fascinated  when someone shows her something on them.

4. A good report from my first ever bone density test (to ascertain whether one is headed for osteoporosis), one of those over-50 things doctors want to do. Apparently my bones are in great shape!

5. I saw this short video on a friend’s Facebook page about someone who goes back to work after 20+ years and finds the equipment has changed…

Cracked me up!

This epitomizes anticipation and bliss — I especially love the expression about 57-58 seconds in.

Hope you have a good Friday! I have a busy day ahead, but I’ll try to catch up with everyone later on.

And just in case anyone should ask:

Peanut Butter Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, combine the milk, peanut butter, egg, and oil. Whisk until smooth. Combine the flour mixture with the milk mixture and gently stir until just combined.

Melt margarine or spray non-stick spray on the heated griddle. For each pancake, pour 1/3 cup batter onto griddle. Cook until golden brown, turn when the edges are slightly dry.

Yields 8 pancakes.

I add a little more milk to make them thinner and lighter and get more like 12 or so pancakes.