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.

Here are some of my favorites from this week:

1. Making a dent in cleaning out our shed and finding some treasures while doing so.

2. Finding some baby birds in the hanging plants on the patio. I can see the parents flying in and out from my kitchen window.

I don’t know what kind of birds they are, but even the full grown parents aren’t very big.

3. This sausage, pasta, and veggies dish:

I adapted it from this recipe: I use turkey sausage (from Hillshire Farms — really good flavor, and no, this isn’t a paid ad. 🙂 ); I do not use tomatoes or green pepper; I do use yellow summer squash as well as zucchini; and I use elbow macaroni instead of penne pasta — I love most pasta but have never liked penne for some reason. This is a hearty, filling meal, but it is not heavy — it has a light summery feel.

4. My very own breakfast bowl, which I was making long before they became popular at fast food places. 🙂

I adapted it to a single serving from this recipe for Country-Style Eggs.

5. I don’t think I have ever before mentioned food as three of my five faves — but, hey, why not. 🙂 Every now and then I enjoy those Nestle’s Toll House “break-apart and bake” cookie dough packages. I know recipe purists who frown on those, but sometimes I just get a hankering for nearly homemade cookies when I really don’t have time to make them, and those fit the bill today.

Hope you have a great weekend and a happy Fourth of July! Today is Grandma’s 82nd birthday, so we’re having her over for pizza and birthday cake this evening.

Flashback Friday: Patriotic Memories

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The question for this week is about celebrating the Fourth of July as we grew up:

When you were growing up, did your family do anything special to celebrate Independence Day or other patriotic occasions? Did you hang a flag? What about neighborhood or town parades, picnics, neighborhood parties, etc.? Did you attend fireworks displays? Were personal fireworks permitted where you lived and, if so, did your family do them?

We didn’t hang a flag at all, and I can’t remember parades for the Fourth during my childhood. We may have gone a time or two, but it wasn’t a regular thing if we did at all. We probably had cookouts. The only thing I remember for sure is that my dad splurged on fireworks, and he didn’t splurge on much, so it was kind of a big deal. We were allowed to have personal fireworks (which really makes me chafe under the prohibition of them in our city limits now). We never liked the firecrackers that just made noise, but we always got sparklers for the kids, of course, and bottle rockets and the like, and my dad always got one or two really big “pretty” ones to cap the night off with. Fun memories!

Updated to add: We loved getting fireworks when our kids were little: we especially loved ones that were in little tanks that looked like they were shooting each other, or once we got some in the shape of a boat that floated and shot off in a little fountain we had at the time. But at our current location fireworks are not allowed in the city limits, so, as I said, we’ve chafed under that. But my son and daughter-in-law live in the county, outside the city limits! So we enjoyed having fireworks there on New Year’s Ever and plan to again for the Fourth.

I only remember going to one Fourth of July parade, when we moved to GA several years ago and were new to a small town. It was a fun, typical small town parade.

We occasionally go to some of the big fireworks displays held locally. It was kind of a fun thing in that small town we were in in GA and not too big and crowded, but here, I really, really dislike the crowds, traffic, and porta-potties, so I am not that crazy about going. But sometimes we still do as a family thing. Sometimes we’ll stay home and we’ll flip back and fourth through some of the various specials on TV that night.

I’ve always loved this quote by John Adams:

From a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776, sharing his thoughts about celebrating the Independence Day, with the original spelling:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Our country has its problems, but I still firmly believe it is the best country on earth (no offense to readers from other countries — I imagine you feel that way about yours), and that’s worth celebrating.

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.

Here are some of my favorites from this week:

1. Another safe solo road trip to meet Jim in TN for another house-hunting expedition. We’ve made an offer on one — we’ll see how it goes!

2. A good realtor there who seems to really know her stuff.

3. Finding a good Christian radio station there. We have two good ones here, and when we moved away from this area before to GA, I really missed them. They both play online these days, though, so I listened to them a bit in the hotel, but flipping through stations in the car on the way back I found an affiliate of one of them there.

4. A beautiful drive. Road trips aren’t my favorite thing, even if I am not the one driving. But on many road trips on the highway, all you see is guard rails and trees. The drive between here and eastern TN is gorgeous through hills and mountains.

5. Finding my old Bible. When I drove up to TN a couple of weeks ago, somehow I grabbed my old Bible instead of my new one. After we attended church on a Wed. night that trip, I couldn’t find it, so I thought perhaps I had left it at the church. When we checked back this trip, they looked in their lost and found, but it wasn’t there. I was dismayed, because, though I have other Bibles, this was an old friend, one my husband gave me shortly after we married and which had accumulated a lot of notes over the years (I shared some flyleaf favorites from it a couple of years ago.) But when I was packing up to leave the hotel, I opened the zippered outer pocket on the suitcase to put something there — and there it was! I don’t remember putting it there. My husband says he may have. Somehow I didn’t think to check there after the last trip because I didn’t think I used that pocket. But I was just glad to see it again!

Hope you have a great Friday!

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.

So here are five favorite things from this last week:

1. House-hunting online. I mentioned earlier this week that we are moving to TN. Most realtors have their listings online these days, and though it is not enough information to make a decision without going to actually look at houses, it’s enough to weed some out. Though at first the list of possibilities from the realtor looks a little tedious to sort through, it has actually been a lot of fun. Helpful hint to anyone selling a house: take LOTS of pictures, and of all the rooms. It’s frustrating when there are only 6 pictures, all of them outside.

2. Finishing two books this week, reviewed here and here.They were both good and neither very long, but somehow it seemed to take a long time to actually complete them, so it is nice to be done with them.

3. Magazines. I have a weakness for magazines, particularly decorating or “homey” magazines, to the point where I’ve actually had to discipline myself not to pick any more up. I enjoyed sorting through some Martha Stewart Living, Family Fun, and Taste of Home magazines as well as some decorating and “do it yourself” project magazines before passing them on to others. I love the good tips and projects in them, and even just the creativity they inspire.

4. Having a voice in issues and politics. I was reminded of this when my husband wrote a letter to the editor this week about an issue in our town. We have the privilege in this country of letting our voice and opinions be heard by our representatives and the press, and we probably don’t use it enough. There are still countries in the world where people are punished for expressing a different opinion than the approved one.

5. Safety on the roads. I was just reading a tragic story of a friend of a friend who was killed when she stopped her car on the shoulder of a road to get out and latch the back hatch, where some things had fallen out, when she got hit by a car and died instantly, with her two daughters seeing the whole thing. Life is just so fragile — just a vapor, Scripture says, or like flowers or grass that only last a short while. My husband travels so much, and I’ve had more travel with the family and alone in preparing for this move, I am so grateful for the safety we’ve had.

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.

So here are five favorite things from this last week:

1. A successful first-ever solo road trip. (Thank you, Lord!!) That’s one reason this is late — I just got back this afternoon. I’ll tell you more about it next week. 😀

2. Rest stops. They’re clean, they have multiple bathroom stalls, and they’re quiet — no music playing over speakers. I got so tired of small, crowded, messy, noisy restrooms in restaurants and gas stations.

3. Mug’s Root Beer. I mentioned before liking root beer at restaurants because it’s decaf, and I can’t have caffeine, and I am not crazy about Sprite or 7-Up and the like. If we’re eating out I usually drink water, but if I am running errands and want something cold to drink, I usually go through a drive-through for root beer. Sadly, I found out a few weeks ago that Barq’s root beer, which most restaurants seem to sell, does have caffeine. A&W root beer is too vanilla-y. Bojangles is about the only place in town that sells it as a fountain drink (Taco Bell used to, but they stopped. 😦 ) I couldn’t find a Bojangles on the trip at first, but I found a drink machine with bottles of Mug Root Beer at a rest stop, and then I got…

4. Zaxby’s munchy crunchy small ice to pour it over. Yumsome! Plus that Zaxby’s only charged me 11 cents for a cup of ice — here they charge 25.

5. My own computer! Well, it’s actually the central family desktop computer, but everyone else has laptops, so I almost have this one to myself. My husband has a small notebook-type computer that is portable and nice for trips, but it is very small. This screen and keyboard seem so BIG after using that one!

That’s it for this Friday. Hope you have a great weekend!

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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).