It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of October already. I’m pausing for a moment with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share blessings of the week.

1. Annual pumpkin decorating night. Mittu brought shepherd’s pie and salad. I made caramel corn and apple cider. Here are the results of our labors:

I shared more detail about them in my end-of-month post yesterday.

2. Beautiful trees. I’ve been saying our fall color has been late coming and not as spectacular as usual. Sunday we drove around quite a bit–Jesse had flown to the wedding of friends over the weekend and came home Sunday afternoon. So we left church and ate lunch, then drove to the airport, then took Jesse home and came home ourselves. We saw lots of pretty fall foliage. Oddly, there’s still not much in our immediate neighborhood. I’m not much for taking a drive just to take a drive, so I’m glad we had the opportunity to get out for a bit in areas that had more color.

3. A $28 microwave. I mentioned last week that our microwave stopped heating–we’re still waiting for the needed part–and Jim brought in the little one from his office that we had bought when his mom was in assisted living. Then that one died. He went to Wal-Mart to look for another little one to replace it; he likes having one in his office to warm up whatever he’s eating or drinking. Plus we use it sometimes when we need extra help for big family dinners. He stopped one of their workers to ask a question, and she pointed him to a couple of microwaves that had been marked down to $28 because the boxes were dented. She said the microwaves themselves were fine because they were encased in Styrofoam. They just had to mark them down because customers avoided the dented boxes. Just finding someone to help and answer questions is getting to be a minor miracle there. Then to have her point out the mark-down was a bonus. My deal-loving husband was happy. 🙂

4. Soup. Though we have soups year round, they’re especially good when the weather turns cool. Last week we had hamburger vegetable soup (using ground turkey instead of beef) and corn muffins one night, then potato soup with open-faced English muffin sandwiches for lunch one day.

5. Rain. Overcast skies are not my favorite, but we really needed the rain. We had precipitation for parts of four days this week. I’m especially glad it was a pleasant rain rather than thunderstorms.

And that’s the end of another week–and another month! How was yours?

Friday is my weekly reminder to stop and ponder the week’s happenings and to express gratitude for them. I join Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share.

1. Fall color, finally. It’s not as much or as vibrant as usual, evidently because of how dry it has been here. But it’s much appreciated.

2. Men and boys’ camping trip. Our church organized this on the land of one of the men. Jim, Jason, and Timothy seemed to really enjoy it.

3. Lunch with a couple from church. Jason and Mittu and Jim and I had been wanting to get together with these folks for some time, but it seemed like things kept getting in the way for one or more of us. We finally congregated last Sunday at Jason and Mittu’s house. We so enjoyed getting to know them better.

4. Impromptu dinner. Monday night, Jim brought in the leftover vegetables from the camping trip and made a salad. Then he remembered he had some salmon and trout in the freezer and offered to grill it for dinner. All I had to do was heat up some french fries in the air fryer for “fish and chips.”

5. Dinner out. Our microwave stopped heating this week. It would sound like it was running, and the lights and timer worked, but it wouldn’t heat anything. It was less than a year old and still under warranty, so Jim called the company. They were going to send someone out between 1 and 3. Then between 3 and 5. Someone finally got here after 5. He diagnosed the problem and said he’d have to order a part, which would take about a week. Jim brought over the small microwave in his office that we’d used when his mom was staying there. I had planned to wait to make dinner til after the repair guy came, since the microwave is right about the stove and I didn’t want to be in the middle of things when he came. By the time he got here, it was too late to go to Bible study. So we went to Texas Roadhouse. The only negative there is the place is so noisy. But the food was excellent and our waitress was wonderful.

Bonus: So many of my faves have to do with food this week! To balance that, my friend Melanie told me about Justin Augustin on Instagram. He has several short videos of low-impact, easy exercises for older people or those who have been sedentary. I love that he’s calm, low-key, and quiet. I don’t care for hyped-up, yelling videos. He has an app and probably some longer videos on YouTube, but I’ve saved several of these shorter ones.

Hope you’ve had a good week!

It’s another “Where has this week gone?” kind of Friday. I like to stop for a few minutes to think back through the week and remember the good parts with you all and Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Summer flowers’ last hurrah. Our cosmos looked about ready to cut back, but then they put out another spectacular round of blooms. The front planters are still looking good, too.

2. Pretty note pads and a book bought with an Amazon gift card from my birthday back in August.

3. A dermatologist visit for the first time. I really liked the person I saw.

4. A haircut coupon for $7.99 for the place we usually go to.

5. Impromptu dinner with the family. A game we pre-ordered for Jesse’s birthday a few weeks ago just arrived Thursday. I texted him to let him know and ask if he wanted to come for dinner as well as to get the game. He said yes, so I checked with Jason and Mittu to see if they were free as well. They were!

It’s hard to believe we’re halfway through October already. Sadly, we’re still not seeing much fall leaf color, but some trees are already bare. Here’s hoping we see some fall foliage before the season is over.

I was outside late one afternoon this week, and the weather was absolutely delicious–low humidity, and cool but not chilly. Fall feels truly here!

I’m sharing highlights from this week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Connect Four painting. I mentioned last month the Connect Four program our church ladies’ group does, where everyone who signs up is divided into groups of four, and we’re to meet together once a month over the next four months. Each group can do whatever they want when they get together. Last year, we just met for lunch each month, which was great. This year, we met for dinner one night. When we discussed what to do for the next meeting, someone suggested one of those places where everyone paints the same picture. But that was going to be expensive. One of the ladies said she was doing a Van Gogh paint by number painting, and somehow that morphed into getting together to paint by numbers. 🙂 There were some gorgeous kits on Amazon, but they were 16×20 and very detailed. I wanted something small. I found a pink rose set at Michael’s. It was so relaxing and fun to paint together and talk and get to know each other.

2. Cini Minis. Burger King used to make these, and I’ve never quite forgiven them for discontinuing them. I have fond memories of dividing them with the kids. But we saw a commercial this week advertising that they were back. One morning Jim got some, as well as a ham and egg croissanwich, for breakfast.

3. Setting aside things for the thrift store. I have a box where I place things to give away as I come to them. But I also had a few other things in mind to add to it. I didn’t do a massive whole-house purge, but I was glad to finally get these things boxed up to go out soon.

4. Several odd jobs completed like cleaning out my purse, a stack of catalogs, and the catch-all baskets on my desk and kitchen counter.

5. Pre-order discounts. A favorite author has a book coming out soon. I saw on her Instagram account that her publisher was offering a 40% discount and free shipping on the book.

Bonus: These gripper things that help open jars and bottles. I was trying to get a container open this morning with no success and was about to go find my husband for help. Then I remembered I had a couple of these in a kitchen drawer.

I hope your week has been a pleasant one!

This first Friday of October still doesn’t quite feel or look like fall, but we’ll get there eventually. I’ve had what I call half a headache off and on this week–not severe, not incapacitating, but just enough to make me feel draggy. But–there are always blessings if we look for them. I’m sharing mine this week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Lunch with family and a friend. One of Mittu’s friends from her hometown, who was one of her bridesmaids, was visiting last weekend. She came to church with them and then we had lunch at Mittu’s and Jason’s house.

2. Timothy’s first youth activity. Our church lets 6th grade kids and their parents decide whether they stay with the elementary kids or go into the youth group–I guess because 6th grade is elementary school in some places but middle school in others. Timothy wanted to go into the youth group, and they had their first activity at a splatter paint room last weekend. He seemed to enjoy it.

3. A refurbished dresser. I mentioned last week that Jim had started this, and he got it done this week. The process had its problems, but he persevered. 🙂

One reason it took me so long to decide what to do with this dresser is that I wanted it white, but the other furniture in the room is wooden. But then I figured the wooden items on the dresser would tie it in. Plus, we’re usually the only ones who see it, so who cares whether it “goes” or not if we like it? 🙂 Then, I had originally planned to leave the top of it stained like the desk Jim refurbished a few years ago–but I wasn’t sure if it would look right with the white mirror. So I decided to keep it all white with vintage-looking hardware found at Hobby Lobby.

A closer look:

He even lined the drawers with pretty paper.

4. A new dishwasher. Ours died on Tuesday–while fully loaded–about an hour after Jim brought the dresser in. It filled up with water to start the cycle, but then just never did anything else. We pushed buttons, turned it off and on, even turned the breaker off and on, with no results. While I unloaded dishes and started handwashing them, Jim scooped the water out and inspected it. He thought about replacing the motor. But he had said the last time he worked on it that he wasn’t going to mess with it any more. And why put a new motor in when everything else about it is old.

So we went to Lowe’s that afternoon. They had a simple one like I wanted in white, which is getting harder to find these days as most appliances in stores here seem to be stainless steel. They even had it in stock, so we were able to take it home that day. (The Home Depot here doesn’t keep any major appliances in stock any more. They just have floor models to look at, but will only deliver from their warehouse. When we ordered a hot water heater a couple of years ago, it took over a week to arrive. So we look at Lowe’s first now!)

5. Lunch with Melanie at Red Lobster with some gift cards from my family. Great conversation, great food, and we had an excellent waiter.

How was your week?

It’s the first Friday of autumn! Right on cue, the leaves are starting to turn colors. We’re not quite into fall temperatures yet, but I know they’re coming! I’m pausing the busyness with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to focus on the blessings of the week.

1. Successfully getting my email to work. I Last week I stupidly opened and answered a suspicious email. I didn’t click on anything in the email, but I changed my password just to be safe. I had no problems on my computer or iPad, but for some reason, my phone wouldn’t receive or send email. After struggling with it for several days and looking up solutions online, I deleted the account from my phone and re-added it. That did the trick, with no loss of emails or notes.

2. A newly painted dresser. My dresser has been in sad shape for many years–banged up, dented, discolored, and even a little mildewed in places. It had colonial-looking drawer pulls with dust in the crevices that I couldn’t get out. We bought it from a college student for my second son’s things when I was pregnant with him, so it’s been around a while. Jim said we could get a new one, or he’d refinish or paint the old one for me. I looked online at several options and couldn’t find just what I liked, so I asked him to paint it. It’s not finished yet, but I am excited about the transformation already.

3. Drawer sorting and purging. Since I had to take everything out of the drawers anyway, it was a good time to reorganize them and get rid of several things.

4. Odds and ends tasks. This week has been a little quieter than the last, affording some time for smaller non-urgent tasks like cleaning out my purse. I also enjoyed an excursion to Hobby Lobby for a few needed things. I didn’t have Thanksgiving on my mind when I went, but they had their Thanksgiving stuff on sale 40% off, so I got the non-food items needed for that day.

5. Celebrating friends’ 50th anniversary. The children of our pastor emeritus and his wife threw them a big party for their 50th anniversary. It was sweet to celebrate these dear people. We also really enjoyed the conversation around our table. Plus it was fun to see the venue, the Grand Victorian. We were in the nicely decorated barn rather than the main house. The grounds were beautiful with a pond by the driveway as we came in.

This was the ladies’ restroom.

How is your September wrapping up?

Whew! It’s been a busy week. But a good one, overall. I’m sharing blessings from the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. My last college yearbook. I was in college five years instead of four. During my second senior year, my husband and I were full time students first semester, got married over Christmas break, and then were part-time students second semester. Neither of us received a yearbook that year because only full-time students both semesters got one. I looked at someone else’s and saw I was in one of the candid photos–the only time in five years that happened.

I saw a while back on the university’s alumni page that old yearbooks could be ordered from the school. I finally got around to that a couple of weeks ago, and only had to pay $13. It turned out to be a used yearbook, but that’s fine. It was fun to look through it and to find “my” picture. And even though I was still listed under my maiden name there, my class picture and my husband’s were on the same row across the page. As I put the yearbook on the shelf, it just felt complete to have it there.

2. Connect Four. Every fall, the ladies group at church organizes “Connect Four” groups. All who want to participate are divided into groups of four who get together once a month over the next four months for whatever they might like to do. Our group met at McAllister’s last Sunday. I knew one of them from my care group, but had only met another and didn’t know our youngest member at all. There are always a few butterflies going to a meeting like that, but it was a lot of fun.

3. A nice gesture. As our group left McAlister’s, I stopped by the restroom and then went back to the counter for a cookie. The guy behind the counter, who wasn’t the same person who originally waited on us, saw me reach for a cookie and said, “Oh, wait–we have some fresh ones.” He went back and got a just-made cookie for me.

4. Jesse’s birthday. My youngest son turned thirty-two! Jason and family came over as well and we Facetimed Jeremy.

As a bonus blessing–I faced that cake with fear and trembling. 🙂 Some years ago Mittu made this Lemon Blueberry cake, but with gluten-free flour. Jesse loved it and has asked for it for his birthday ever since. The first time I tried it, it left me in tears–a number of things went wrong in the process of making it, and Mittu had to come rescue me and fix it. She made it for the next several years. 🙂 But her oven hasn’t been acting right since they installed a new heating element, and she didn’t want to chance making the cake there.

So with much prayer and trepidation and reading the recipe over several times, I got started (I had bought a yellow GF cake mix just in case this one didn’t turn out right). It took all afternoon, but the layers came out nicely–praise the Lord!

But I am not good at cake decorating. I got started with this one, and when the icing in the middle started leaking out, I sent Mittu an emergency text.

She came and did a beautiful job decorating it.

4. Answered prayer. For some reason, I get frazzled when the schedule is full, even if I am looking forward to the events. I mentioned last week that we had something going on four days in a row this week. God blessed in allowing me to have some productive days last week, which helped immensely. This week, I asked God to help me remain calm and take each day and event as it came. He did.

5. Time with Timothy. Jason and Mittu are helping with a new ministry at church, and Friday was their first event. Child care was offered, but Timothy wanted to spend the time with his grandparents. 🙂 Jim had recently sorted through some old video games and got out one for Xbox sports. He and Timothy played through bowling, track and field, volleyball, and other options. Here they’re boxing. 🙂

I’m thankful for God’s grace through a busy week, and I am looking forward to a quieter coming week, hopefully.

How was your week?

On Friday’s, I intentionally exercise gratefulness for the week by sharing highlights of it with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story. This has been one of those weeks where I sit down at the computer to write this post and think, “Okay, what did happen this week?” It’s gone by in a blur. But let’s see if I can come up with five things.

1. A few very productive days. I have things going on four days in a row next week, so I wanted to get as much done ahead of time as possible so I wouldn’t get stressed then. Thankfully, the first few days of this week went really well.

2. Ladies’ Bible study at church. We’re in Exodus from now until December. I am often amazed at what new observations pop out at me from well-known passages. Studying with others helps bring out even more from the text.

3. Lunch with Jason’s family Sunday after church at that Kern’s Food Hall again. As a bonus, that place has a really good donut vendor. Since I am trying to keep sugar under control, I don’t get donuts very often. I almost never get a whole package of them–that would be too much temptation. To bring one home with my decaf coffee for dessert felt like a wonderful indulgence.

4. White cheddar mac and cheese. We tried this from Arby’s along with our sandwiches one night this week. So good.

5. Comfort. Like most of us, I was shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk this week, and dismayed to learn that people on the other side of the political fence were actually rejoicing over it. I don’t know what happened to the free exchange of ideas in this country and everyone’s right to free speech. Whatever disagreements we have with each other, they should never result in violence, especially murder. These things should spur us on to more prayer. I was helped by the Scripture truths that came to mind in this post as well as others I read yesterday.

Another week has zoomed by, and I’m pausing to remember the week’s blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. New flowers. For some reason, most of the flowers in our hanging baskets died. We looked at one store last week to see if they had either hanging baskets or perennials to plant in them marked down–we didn’t want to pay full price when they’ll only last until the first freeze. The first store (Home Depot) didn’t have much of a selection, and only one kind was marked down. But Lowe’s had some nice hanging baskets marked down to about $6.50. It’s nice to see flowers from my back windows again.

2. Labor Day is primarily an excuse to grill burgers. 🙂 The kids came over for dinner and games.

3. A curved shower rod. I know it’s odd, but I don’t like the shower curtain liner to touch me, even if it has just been cleaned. Somehow, the air currents in the bathroom blow the liner in. Jim recently installed a curved shower rod (a birthday gift from Jason and Mittu–thanks!), and I love it.

4. A long-awaited lunch. Melanie and I usually get together every four to six weeks, but due to health issues for both of us and then my oldest son’s visit, it’s been about three months since we saw each other. We remedied that by going out to Cracker Barrel this week. None of the rumored changes have taken place at our location so far. It was so nice to catch up in person and enjoy good food. And a bonus: their rewards program gave me a free dessert for my birthday! Since it’s a few weeks past my birthday, I wasn’t sure if the offer was still good, but it was.

5. Another round of put-off phone calls has been completed.

Happy Friday!

Here on this last Friday of August, I’m joining with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share five highlights from the week. This is more than “looking on the bright aside”: it’s a deliberate cultivation of gratefulness by looking at God’s hand in our days.

1. More family time. My oldest son was in town from the 13th through this last Sunday. We so enjoyed the time together, though it went by all too fast. Jesse had us over to his place Friday night for ginger pork that was so good. Then Saturday night we had pizza and games at our house. I loved this expression from Timothy as we played Poetry for Neanderthals.

And yes, the inflatable club Jesse is holding is part of the game. 🙂 You divide into teams, then take turns choosing cards and giving clues to get your teammates to guess what’s on your card. You can’t use any of the words on the card and you have to speak in one-syllable words. A person from the other team observes your card while it’s your turn, and if you make a mistake, they get to bop you with the club. 🙂 This game provides for lots of laughter.

2. Family photos. We try to get a picture when we’re all together. We just barely made this before it started raining.

3. Lovely weather. We’ve been in the high 70s this week, with lows overnight in the 50s and 60s. I know we’ll get back into the 90s before autumn arrives, but I’ll enjoy this weather while I can.

4. Time with Timothy when his parents had a meeting to go to. Watching him is different from when he was younger, but still fun.

5. A new air fryer/toaster oven combo wasn’t on my radar when my family asked for birthday gift ideas. But Jason and Mittu had recently gotten one, and it sounded so good, Jim got one for me. We had a small older one, but it was so small and noisy, we rarely used it. This one is big enough to make a whole meal in and runs much more quietly.

How was your week?