It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I’m running a little late today, so I’ll jump right in . . .

1. Relief, at least temporarily. I’ve had an earache for the past three days. Wednesday night we got ear wax drops that my husband patiently administered, and then he flushed the ear with distilled water. It felt better that night and the next morning. But then it started hurting again. No wonder babies cry with earaches. I’m late this morning because I wanted to call the doctor’s office to see if I could get in today and see if this is an infection. I got ready to go first thing in case they had an opening right away. But they didn’t have one til this afternoon. (Update: diagnosis: ear canal infection. I hope my prescription ear drops start working soon.)

2. Baptism and church lunch. It’s always neat to see someone take that step of obedience, showing outwardly what’s happened in their hearts as they surrendered to Christ and were raised to newness of life.

3. Library system. Our local library is very nice but a little small. But I can look up books through the city library system online, place a hold, and have the book sent to my library to be picked up. So convenient.

4. Peonies. I’ve always thought they were so pretty, but I’ve never had one. One night this week Jason and Timothy brought over some cut ones they had found in a store. I didn’t know they started out as tight rolls. It’s been fun to watch them slowly unfold this week.

5. Good news for friends at church, including a young baby and an older woman home from hospitalizations.

How’s your week going?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the first full week of July, and summer has settled in. Here are some of the best parts of the last week.

1. A long weekend. Everyone had Monday off, but Jim took Thursday and Friday off as well. He worked on some things he had wanted to, but spent the better part of Saturday fishing, something he hadn’t done in a long time.

2. Donuts. There’s a new independent donut shop nearby we stopped at, but they were closed. We heard they usually sell out before noon. Jim went back Saturday morning and got some donuts and fritters. Those things were huge, but so good. They were too big to eat a whole donut in one sitting, so we cut pieces off the next few days.

3. Independence Day. Though our country has serious problems, I still believe it’s the best place in the world to live. I’m thankful for the freedoms we enjoy. We celebrated the 4th all together after church on Sunday. One nice thing about celebrating with adult children is divvying up the meal. Jim grilled burgers and sausage, I made French fries, Jesse made a cheesy hash brown casserole and shucked corn on the cob for me. Mittu made a wonderful cheesecake. Jason and Mittu found the festive paper products to make clean-up easier.

Favorite picture of the day:

4. Fireworks are illegal in our county—but the law doesn’t seem to be enforced unless something gets out of hand. From our yard, we saw several large displays of fireworks from at least six different places. Jason caught this photo of one, but we saw many fuller and higher than this one. It was fun to see fireworks without leaving the yard.

We didn’t have fireworks, but Jason and Mittu brought over glowsticks, pop-its (these little things that make a popping sound when you throw them on the ground), and these other devices that have strings you pull on, and they release confetti.

5. Family meal at a restaurant. Jason and Mittu invited us over Monday afternoon, and talk turned to going somewhere for dinner. We ended up going to one of my favorite restaurants on a river. And I didn’t even ask—Jim suggested it. 🙂 We called to see if Jesse wanted to meet us there. It was the first time we had eaten all together in a restaurant since before the pandemic.

All in all, a good week. I hope yours was as well!

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

The first FFF of July! Here are some highlights of the week:

1. Retirement home ministry. Our church does this once a month—the place we visit rotates groups who hold services on Sunday afternoons. The people seem very attentive, and we all hang around and visit with them for a good while afterward. The lady we spent time with the first week looks for us now each week and even gave me a hug.

2. Impromptu lunch get-together. There wasn’t enough time to go home after church and come back for the retirement home service, so we stopped for lunch at McAlister’s Deli. There we ran into our pastor and his family, who were doing the same thing. We sat at adjacent tables and enjoyed the fellowship while we ate.

3. More time off from cooking. I mentioned last week that I hadn’t done any real cooking while Jim was out of town. Then my son and daughter-in-law invited us over both Friday and Saturday night. Then we went out for the lunch mentioned above on Sunday. That’s the first time in my adult life I’ve had a whole week off from cooking! Even though I could get used to that pretty easily, I did miss the things I make and missed having leftovers to reheat for lunch. So I was more or less ready to get back at it Monday.

4. A remade desk. I wish I had thought to take a “before” picture. An old one which shows a bit of the desk is here:

More than anything else, I wanted to change out the old Colonial-style knobs and handles. But I wanted to lighten it up, too. I decided to keep the top stained–I figured that way we wouldn’t have to worry about paint chipping there. But Jim painted the rest of it white for me.

I was originally thinking about glass knobs, but when I saw these vintage-looking ones, I loved them.

5. An uneventful cardiologist visit. I almost could have just phoned it in except for his needing to listen to my heart and run a EKG. Even though I’d just had an episode of afib last week, we pretty much just discussed increasing medicine if it happened again.

How was your week?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s been quite the week. Jim was out of town from Monday through Thursday. The power was out twelve hours Monday night. I was in atrial fibrillation most of Tuesday, but thankfully that resolved overnight without my having to go to the ER. The rest of the week was better! Here are some of the best parts:

1. Father’s Day. We enjoyed the opportunity to honor Jim with cards, gifts, a spaghetti dinner, and chocolate cake. We had a lot of fun with this gift that Mittu got for Jason.

2. Power. There’s nothing like losing power for a while to truly appreciate it when it comes back on. Thankfully I had just heated up some soup for dinner when the power went off during a storm. Also, the temperature never got uncomfortably hot–mainly because the outage occurred from about 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. I could have called Jason and Mittu and gone to their house, and I would have if I had been uncomfortable. But it’s still light late enough that I could sit by a window and read for several hours. I finished off two books that night! And I understood why people used to go to bed and get up with the sun—there’s not much you can do in the evenings once it gets dark.

3. Lunch with a friend. The last time we saw each other, we talked about this new weird virus going around and wondered if it would turn out to be a big problem. It did! It was so good to catch up in person. This was my first time to eat inside a restaurant since the pandemic started. We ate at Cracker Barrel, and they had a delicious new entree that we both tried: Maple Bacon Grilled Chicken.

4. Not cooking. With Jim gone, I’ve just heated up leftovers or canned stuff. Jason and Mittu brought me dinner the night I was in afib. I got takeout I was craving from Red Lobster one night.

5. A bit of closet reorganization. I’m not doing a full scale closet clean-out or re-do. But every now and then I get an idea for a better way some things would work. So I’ve chipped away at that a little every morning this week and also pulled a few things out to donate or trash while I was at it.

As I write this Thursday afternoon, I’m looking forward to Jim coming home tonight (he did arrive safely!) How was your week?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s been a fairly quiet week. Sometimes those are the hardest in which to find something to share for FFF—not because they’re bad. In fact, I generally prefer quiet weeks! But because they’re fairly routine and ordinary, nothing stands out. But there are blessings in ordinariness.

1. Feeling good. We finally turned a corner with these colds last weekend. I’ve had worse cold symptoms, but this one seemed to last longer and the sore throat was harder to relieve than usual. We’re glad to be done with all of that, hopefully for a long time.

2. Self-serve nights. Ever since my kids were old enough to make a sandwich or run the microwave, Sunday nights have been “fend for yourself” meal nights. I make a big breakfast and lunch that day, then I am happy to be “off” the rest of the day. We often just heat up leftovers. Jason and Mittu will come over sometimes on Sunday nights and raid the freezer–I keep some gluten-free heat-and-eat meals for her and Timothy. We had such an evening last Sunday.

3. A cute new cartoon. Timothy wanted to show us a new cartoon he’s been enjoying called “Bluey.” It’s on Disney +, but there are a few episodes on YouTube. It’s about a little dog family in Australia. I thought the few episodes we saw were good. But what I enjoyed the most was that the daddy dog’s voice and personality were very much like our pastor’s. The accents are a little different–our pastor is from South Africa rather than Australia. But the whole time we watched, I kept “hearing” our pastor and chuckling over the similarities.

4. A trade. Just about the time we were going to shop for a bed for our new guest room, Jason and Mittu asked if we would like theirs, as they want to buy a larger size. We also asked them if they wanted the mini-fridge. It used to be in my mother-in-law’s room, then we kept it in Jesse’s room. But he didn’t want to take it with him when he moved. We figured they could use it downstairs for drinks and snacks or to store cold food when they were eating on the patio.

5. A storage closet. We figure most guests aren’t going to need much closet space, so our guest room closet is a place for some extra storage. I have shoeboxes of photos from pre-digital days that I need to do something with, off-season clothing, and a few other things–and still have some room. It’s been fun to get that set up and ease space in other areas.

Hope you have a great weekend celebrating your dads, husbands, or father figures!

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

We’ve been a little low this week with head colds. Jim finally started feeling better mid-week, so I am hoping my turn comes soon. But there are always things to be thankful for:

1. Timothy’s end-of-first-grade party. His mom texted us that he wanted everyone to come over “for a dance party, kabobs, a Star Wars cartoon with popcorn and sugar cookies.” 😀 We didn’t have the dance party, but Mittu and Jason made kabobs that were really good. We ended up watching the first episode of The Mandalorian instead of a Star Wars cartoon. And we did have sugar cookies! We also played a couple of rounds of Earwax (Timothy’s favorite) and Facetimed with Jeremy. A fun evening!

2. Meals from my daughter-in-law. She made a couple of dishes I could just heat up for dinner this week–very helpful since I didn’t feel like cooking.

3. Meal delivery. Jim was out of town one night this week, and I had a craving for a nearby Mexican food place. But the closer it got to dinner time, the less I wanted to go out. Then I remembered this place had a meal delivery service–problem solved!

4. Cough drops and Tylenol have been my mainstay this week. I can’t take decongestants due to heart rhythm issues, so I have to make the best of it with these and rest. I also had a big pot of chicken soup made early in the week, with enough left over for several lunches.

5. Young people’s get-together. Our church is small–about 40 people. There are three young adults, with two more guys in college (one just starting this year). Someone had the idea of getting the young single adults of a few small churches together for a game night once a month or so, with the churches rotating hosting. They had the first one a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to mention it. Jesse really enjoys games and people, so he had a good time and is looking forward to the next one. He has a lot of online friends, but I’ve been hoping for some in-person friends for him, too, especially as he lives alone now.

How was your week?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the first week of June! Here are some of the best parts of the week:

1. A productive Saturday. We had talked about going all together to a park on a lake with a roped-off area for swimming. But rain was in the forecast, so we moved those plans to Monday. Instead, Jim and I spent Saturday afternoon moving all the wall decorations and shelves from the old sewing room to the new one. Then he began to tape off the old room to ready it for painting, and I planted some new flowers in the front planters. We ended the day with Dominoes pizza.

2. A long weekend. Jason, Mittu, and Timothy came over Sunday night to camp out in the back yard. Jason and Mittu tried out the RV, and Timothy and Granddad were out in the tent–at least until about 2 a.m. 🙂 Jim made a big “camp breakfast” on the grill. Then Jesse met us at the park mentioned above for a cookout. Unfortunately, the park was so crowded, we couldn’t find a parking space. But Jason had noticed a sign for a picnic pavilion, so we backtracked there. We weren’t near the water, but we had the area mostly to ourselves until the last half hour or so.

3. A radio interview. I mentioned last week that I had an opportunity for a radio interview to discuss one of my blog posts. It went very well. God gave great grace, and the hosts were very gracious and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, my segment was not in the excerpt link on their web site. But thankfully a good friend thought to record it for me, and I was able to send it in an audio file to Jim and the kids, who were working during the time I was on live. That was so thoughtful of her!

4. Cracker Barrel take-out. I forgot to mention this one from the week before last. Jim had to go out of town one day and didn’t expect to be home until late. So I splurged and got Cracker Barrel take-out. That’s one of my favorite restaurants, but no one else in the family likes it much. Takeout meals often contain enough for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day. But this had the biggest portions I had seen for takeout, and I got an additional lunch out of them. And the best was their double chocolate Coca-Cola cake.

5. Grocery store pick-up. Unfortunately, Jim has been sick since the weekend with a really bad cold. He went for a COVID test just to be sure, but it was negative. Then I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat and sinus pressure. 😦 I spent much of Thursday sleeping, so I hope I’m heading off the worst of it. We needed some things at the store, but I really didn’t feel like going, and I didn’t think he would, either. The main store we use doesn’t have online ordering, but one near us does. I remembered it just in time to get an order in for that evening’s pick-up.

This weekend, we’re planning to celebrate Timothy’s completing first grade. Hopefully we’ll both be over whatever we have by then. What are your plans for the weekend?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s been another good week. Here are some of the best parts:

1. Family dinner and games. With my youngest moved out now, sometimes it takes a little coordination to get everyone together. He asked to come over for dinner and a haircut (his dad has cut his hair all his life). We asked Jason and Mittu if they were available to come, too. We had spaghetti and flourless applesauce cake and played Jackbox games. Fun!

2. Monthly Ladies Bible study. We met in person, but seated at a distance from each other. Thankfully the place where we meet has a conference room that works nicely for this.

3. Retirement home ministry. Our church has just started a retirement home ministry one Sunday afternoon a month. Last month was the first one, and we chatted with a sweet lady from Germany named Esla. We hoped to see her again this time. But when we got there, only a few people were gathered. One of them said the folks at the home hadn’t announced that we’d be there. But as we got started, a few more people trickled in—and Esla was one of them. So we got to talk for a good while afterward. And as we left, she called to us from her balcony to say goodbye.

4. Hot dogs and s’mores at my son and daughter-in-law’s house. Jason and Mittu invited us over Sunday evening. They are blessed with both a deck upstairs and a patio downstairs under the deck. So we had hot dogs on the deck and roasted marshmallows for s’mores on the patio.

5. The Picture This app. My oldest son had told me about this once when he was here and I wondered what a certain flower in an arrangement was. Then, at Jason and Mittu’s, we used it to identify some of the trees and plants in their new back yard. It was helpful not just for identifying, but we found that one plant that seemed not to be doing anything was a plant that didn’t tolerate the heat we get here in TN. That helped them in the decision about whether to keep it.

Bonus: An unexpected opportunity. I mentioned this in my end-of-month post yesterday, but I know some of you are only here for the FFF post. So I wanted to mention here, as well, that I was asked to do a radio interview about my Faithful in Obscurity blog post. It’s set for Wednesday morning at 8:10 a.m. EDT. On Tuesday I’ll post a link to the radio program’s site. It has a “Listen Live” button if you’re interested. It also has some recordings of previous programs, but I don’t know if my segment will be recorded since it’s just a small portion of their program. I am excited but also nervous as I have not done anything like this before. I’d appreciate your prayers!

I hope you have a great weekend. Here in the US we have a long weekend to celebrate Memorial Day. I am so thankful for those who gave their lives for our freedom.

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I’ve had a great week! Here are some of the best parts:

1. Lunch with a friend at a restaurant. I haven’t eaten inside a restaurant since the pandemic started, though we’ve gotten lots of takeout. But last Friday a friend and I arranged to go to lunch at a restaurant on a lake that has a patio. A rowboat regatta was scheduled on the lake for the next day, and we watched people setting up for it and teams practicing. The setting, the food, the fellowship were all just wonderful.

2. Dinner and cicada sightings. My grandson sent me a voice text asking if I wanted to come over and hang out with him. Well, of course! 🙂 My son and daughter-in-law got take-out Mexican food for us all. Then we went outside while they planted some newly acquired flowers. Jason kept hearing something that sounded like Rice Krispies popping. Then he noticed scores—maybe hundreds—of Brood X cicadas (the ones that hatch every 17 years) molting in their yard. They’d crawl around, find a place to molt, and then squirm out of their old bodies (looking a bit like shrimp at that point). It was interesting and cool and creepy all at the same time.

3. Our first excursion in the RV. Jim wanted to take the RV for a test drive, so we packed stuff for hot dogs and drove about an hour away to scout out an RV park for possible future camping.

We had a lovely view of the lake, which included a roped-off area for swimming.

4. Combination church lunch, baby shower, and graduation celebration. We had bring-your-own lunch at the pavilion next to where our church meets and used the occasion for a couple of celebrations as well. Someone brought cupcakes for the honorees.

5. Mammogram over with. I was scheduled for a mammogram somewhere during the beginning of the pandemic, but put it off as unessential until we saw how things were going to go. It was rescheduled for this week, along with a bone density scan at the same facility. I’ve already heard back that everything looked fine with both scans. That’s always a relief, and it’s nice to have those things done with for now.

Although I enjoyed the outings (well, except for the last one . . . ), I luxuriated in having the rest of the week at home with nothing on the calendar.

That wraps up my week. How was yours?

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s been a great week. Here are some of the best parts

1. Time with Timothy. Jason took Mittu out for a date lunch last Saturday, and Timothy stayed with us for the afternoon.

2. Mother’s Day. My family always goes the extra mile to make me feel special on Mother’s Day. Jim grilled his wonderful teriyaki chicken, Jesse made cheesy potatoes, Mittu made a salad, and Jason outdid himself with his first-ever Chocolate Pretzel Pie.

The pretty plates and napkins, flowers from Jason and Mittu, thoughtful gifts and sweet cards, games, and a FaceTime call with Jeremy in the evening made the day wonderful.

3. Energy. Monday and Tuesday, I kept falling asleep almost any time I sat down. On Monday I had just a mild case of chills and nausea, so maybe I had a little bug of some kind. Thankfully, symptoms didn’t get worse and I felt more energetic and awake later in the week.

4. A guest post. I mentioned this on Saturday’s Laudable Linkage, but wanted to share it with folks who might not have seen that post. I was able to submit a guest post to the Almost an Author site called Sculpting a Masterpiece. It’s exciting to submit something and have it accepted.

5. Take-out from a favorite Asian restaurant. You know I love take-out. Jim surprised me Thursday night by offering to pick up dinner from a place we hadn’t bought from in some time. It’s a little farther away than most restaurants we frequent, so we don’t get it often.

As a bonus, I’m thankful Jim found gas this week. All the stations had long lines, but he found a little place that people seemed to have forgotten about. Yesterday most stations had signs up that they were out of gas. I had an almost full tank, so we should be fine for a while. Most of the places we go are local. The long lines reminded me of the gas shortage in the 70s. So weird–you truly never know what a day will bring forth. But, thankfully, God does, and we can trust Him for our needs.

How was your week?