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

Time keeps ticking by, no matter what we’re doing. Here we are at another Friday and halfway thorough April already! I enjoy these weekly pause to note the best parts of the preceding week.

1. Easter. Though our Easter was different from usual, it was still good. We enjoyed a good church service via Zoom, and a great meal and dessert. The night before, we had a three-way FaceTime call with all the kids, and later my son sent us videos of my grandson unpacking his Easter basket from us and then hunting for Easter eggs. So all in all, a good day.

2. Food swap. We had made ham and cheesy potatoes, and my daughter-in-law had made lasagna. Later in the day my son dropped by for a food swap—we shared some of our Easter leftovers with each other.

3. My favorite candy. I usually make, not Easter baskets, but little metal spring buckets for the kids with Easter candy in them. Timothy’s basket is bigger, with little toys and such. I don’t always make one for my husband, but we usually have enough extra candy for both of us to have some. I did make one for him this year, though. And I was surprised that he had bought me a bag of my favorite milk chocolate Lindt Lindor truffles. He doesn’t usually get them for Easter, so that was a treat. And I also love the small Reese’s eggs.

Yes, by the time I took the picture on Thursday, most of the truffles were gone. I’ve been rationing them out two a day. 🙂

4. Timothy’s birthday. Original plans had been to have a camp-out for my grandson’s birthday. Not only did social distancing throw a wrench in, but the weather was chilly. My son and daughter-in-law rearranged their living room to set up Timothy’s little play tent and their inflatable air mattress for a few days. Then on his birthday they set up a tent in the yard just to play in for a bit. We had another three-way FaceTime call to watch Timothy open presents and sing happy birthday to him. The next afternoon, my son dropped some birthday cake slices off for us.

My daughter-in-law did an amazing job on that adorable cake!

5. Shakespeare’s sonnets. Sir Patrick Stewart has been reading one a day with his wonderful accent on his Instagram account. I’m not familiar with most of them, and I haven’t caught all of them, but I’ve enjoyed the ones I have taken the time to listen to.

I hope you’re still doing well this week! I feel we especially need to pray for our leaders now as decisions are made about reopening businesses and easing social distancing.

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 not sure how long we’ve been practicing social distancing and isolation now, but we continue to plug away. Counting the good things is a way to express thanksgiving to God as well as help our mental health.

1. Spring and Easter decorations. I usually have them up before now. I wasn’t sure I was even going to bother this year. But then I reminded myself I never decorate just for show or for when people come over: I do it because I like celebrating the different seasons and holidays. So I pushed out of my malaise and set most everything out last Saturday. They do brighten up the place, break up the monotony, and cheer my heart.

2. Meat. My son and daughter-in-law subscribe to a meat delivery service. They had a bit more than they could use a few weeks ago, so they asked if we could do a food swap: they’d bring over some meat for us and then raid our freezer for some gluten-free items I keep on hand for them (my d-i-l and grandson are gluten-intolerant). They brought some cuts of beef we don’t often buy. Then my husband saw a note on a local Facebook group that a nearby wholesale meat processing plant was selling some of their wares to the general public for a few hours. Their ground beef was much cheaper than the grocery store’s and they had meatloaf frozen and already seasoned and ready to cook. So not only was the gift and sale appreciated, but the variety of new things to try was exciting.

3. My husband’s grilling. A while back, my husband used the sous vide cooker my oldest son made to make his teriyaki chicken, finishing them off on the grill. Last Saturday he did the same with hamburgers. Good stuff.

4. Stump removal. Longtime friends may remember our saga of 50 diseased trees a few years ago. The people who cut them down didn’t get them cut as close to the ground as we would have liked. We checked on businesses that do stump removal, and that would have been expensive, especially for that many. We checked on different processes to remove them ourselves, but they were all either complicated or time-consuming. So we covered them up with a layer of dirt and mulch. But with erosion, they’re popping back up again. My husband was poking around them recently and discovered they are rotted and dried out enough that he could dig some of them out with a crowbar as a lever over a piece of wood. For the rest, he built a contraption that helped him get them out. He worked on them mostly bit by bit in the evenings and finished them when he took Thursday off. As soon as we’re able, we’ll fill the holes with dirt. It will be so nice to spend time on the patio or look out the window without seeing stumps. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to start planting there. I appreciate all his hard work.

Before: most of these were sticking several inches up from the ground.

After: He’s going to gather them up and burn them today.

5. Another distanced visit. My son texted one afternoon to ask if they could come over and just hang out with us outside for a bit. So they sat in the grass about twelve feet away while we sat on the patio and Timothy ran around. It was good to see each other in person again. I miss our hugs and head bonks and dinners and outings together—but hopefully we can resume those soon.

Bonus: Good Friday and Easter. Yesterday I shared some of my favorite songs about Christ’s death on the cross for us. Our Easter this year will be different, maybe more subdued than usual. But I’m wondering if that will cause us to think about the first Easter and what it means a little more. We have cause for immense joy no matter the outward circumstances.

That’s our week! How was yours? Happy Easter!

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 hope you’re doing well and have what you need. I’m disappointed that this whole virus scenario will last longer than originally expected. But I know they are working hard on it. I wish people would self-isolate more. Some don’t seem to be taking this seriously. But instead of going down that rabbit trail, let’s turn to some of the high points of the week:

1. Zoom church. We had a trial run earlier in the week, then met Sunday morning via Zoom. Everything went well. It was good to see everyone’s faces and hear from many during the discussion time. We still look forward to meeting in person, but this is a good substitute under the circumstances.

2. Phone call from a longtime friend. We’ve known each other nearly 40 years, but haven’t lived near each other in the last 26. We’ve visited back and forth and more recently touched base or messaged via Facebook. I messaged her to ask about a mutual friend. She responded by calling me, and thankfully it was a perfect time. I think we talked over an hour, and it was so good to catch up and hear her voice.

3. A birthday parade. One of my sisters is much more of a social butterfly than I am. She was disappointed that she wasn’t going to be able to get together with friends for a milestone birthday due to the virus precautions. But several of her friends arranged a birthday “parade.” While she waited at the end of her driveway, they drove by slowly, waved, called out happy birthday greetings. Some had their cars decorated with her name and/or age. That was one of the neatest and most thoughtful things I’ve even seen. We’re in another state, but we got to see pictures and videos on FaceBook.

4. A surprise visit. During the first couple of weeks of isolation, we had continued getting together with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson occasionally. We figured we were all at home, my husband and son were the only ones going to the store, and we were careful about washing and sanitizing, so the risk was small. But as the confirmed cases in our area continued to rise, my son and d-i-l felt it would be best if we stopped getting together for the next few weeks. Of special concern was that if Timothy were to get the virus, they would not be able to be with him. So we agreed, of course. In fact, I had felt slightly uneasy when we were together, hoping we weren’t spreading anything. But I was grieving because the next few weeks include Easter and Timothy’s birthday, besides regular get-togethers. And we’d already had to cancel my oldest son’s trip here this month. I kept reminding myself that it’s only for a few weeks, that we have ways to keep in touch, that I am so fortunate to have them nearby instead of thousands of miles away as my own parents were from us. Still, it’s hard, even though it’s the best thing to do. Then yesterday afternoon I received a voice text from Timothy saying he was outside. I thought he meant he was playing at his house, so I voice-texted, “Have fun!” Then I heard the doorbell ring. They had brought over a note from Timothy and a chicken pot pie and cupcake from their favorite bakery. They were just going to leave them on the table on the porch, but we ended up talking at a distance in the front yard for a few minutes. It did my heart good.

I should have taken a picture before the flower died. 🙂

5. A pleasant get-together. Before we decided to stay apart, we visited Jason and Mittu at their house last Saturday. Jim took the riding lawn mower over, and Granddad coming to mow and do yard work is a highlight for Timothy. He gets out his own mower and yard tools to help. 🙂 Jesse and I came later for lunch. Not only was it a fun time, but the weather was so beautiful, we sat outside for a bit. I am not an outdoorsy person, but even I loved being out a couple of lovely spring days. It’s turned cold again, but should warm back up in soon.

What signs have you seen of God’s goodness in the midst of hard times and strain?

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 hope you all are still doing well through our current circumstances. FFF is always a good practice to look for the good things God sprinkles through our days: otherwise we might miss them or easily forget them. Here are a few from my week:

1. My husband going to the store. He’s always willing to go, but I’ve done most of the shopping since he works long hours. I don’t want him to have to take on this task on top of working 8-12 hours a day. But he’s been working from home, and one day he offered to go to the store just to get out of the house and see how things were out there. Then later he said it might be best if just one of us goes out for now, so he has been doing the shopping ever since.

2. Store hours for at-risk people. Many grocery stores are trying to dedicate early morning hours for shoppers in at-risk categories. They can’t really restrict others from coming then, but they appeal to others to set aside this time if possible.

3. Enough supplies so far. Maybe not the brand or size we’d normally get, but we haven’t hurt for anything.

4. Successful new recipe. A few weeks ago I found some cubed steak for $1.93 a pound and got a couple of packages for the freezer. Trying to decide what to do with them, I thought of beef and broccoli, a favorite I sometimes order from Asian restaurants. I tried this recipe for the instant pot, using only half the sugar called for. It was so good, and Jim and Jesse liked it, too.

5. Camouflage scraps. My husband wanted me to make him a face mask, and he specifically wanted it out of camouflage fabric. I wasn’t sure if I had any, but he found a good sized piece in my stash. I was thankful for his sake that I had kept it on hand. I used Laura’s instructions and links. He was pleased. 🙂 He said he’d probably continue to use it after the virus scare for yard work in allergy season.

As a bonus, I was thinking this week of how many things we had done in the couple of weeks before the virus impact started: going on our Biltmore visit, having lunch with a friend, my son getting his cat, even buying Easter basket things. Most of those would not be possible now.

I hope in the midst of changed schedules and new concerns, you’ve seen God’s hand at work as well. What’s one good thing from 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.

Things are uncertain now with the corona virus. But I am hoping that all the measures being taken will reduce the spread. I’ve heard it will die out as the weather gets warmer.

Meanwhile, I’m taking a few moments to appreciate the good gifts of the week:

1. My husband’s birthday. Always a joy to celebrate his special day!

2. A new cat—not for us: Jason is allergic to them. My oldest son, Jeremy, has wanted a cat for a while, but his former landlord didn’t allow them. Now that Jeremy is settled into his new condo, he felt the time for a pet adoption was good. I’m enjoying hearing about and seeing pictures of the new family member, Tabitha:

3. Lunch with a friend. We hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas due to illnesses and scheduling conflicts. It was so good to catch up.

4. A trip to Joann’s is like a field trip for me. It’s not that far away, but it’s far enough that I can’t just drop in on a whim like I can Hobby Lobby. After my lunch out, since I was halfway to Joann’s, I decided to head there. I like shopping for home things in the spring because that’s when they have the pinks and blues I love. I found some cute dish towels on sale:

On top of that, I had an old Joann’s gift card that I thought only had a couple of dollars on it had $19!

5. Chocolate pie. I had a craving for chocolate pie, so on my way home from my lunch and Joann’s excursion, I stopped by O’Charley’s and got a slice of their French Silk Pie to take home. Getting home, relaxing with my feet up, and enjoying pie and coffee was a lovely way the end the afternoon.

What’s something good from 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.

Here we are into our first week of March already and 1/6 of the way through 2020. On Fridays I like to pause and think through what I have to be thankful for, lest those blessings slip past me.

1. A Biltmore ornament. I’ve started collecting ornaments as souvenirs when we visit places. I had planned to look for one when we visited the Biltmore House and the Downton Abbey exhibit the week before, but we ended up not having time between visiting the house and the exhibit. My son and daughter-in-law stayed an extra day, and I texted them to ask if they could look for one. But it was too late. Unbeknownst to me, after they got home they looked online and ordered one for me and brought it this week. Not only was I glad to get the souvenir after all, I was touched that they would go to that effort to get it for me.

2. Two dinners. My daughter-in-law came over and made dinner not once, but twice this week! The first time, we watched Frozen 2 together as a family. I didn’t think it was as good as the first one, but it was a fun evening.

3. Light fixed. We have some under-cabinet lights that were attached by a Velcro-like fixture. But lately they’ve been falling off, so we had to put them aside. Last week my husband attached more permanently the one I depended on most.

4. A new iPad mini cover. My old one was a thicker cover that was starting to split along the spine. I found a new one in rose gold that’s the standard iPad cover.

5. Safety. You’ve probably heard about the tornado that hit TN. That was 3 hours to the west of us. I was so sorry to hear about the devastation there. Here, we just got  severe thunderstorms through the night until our phones went off with a tornado warning around 4:30 a.m.

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.

I may be jumping the gun a bit with the spring FFF graphic, but I’d rather see flowers than snow right now. Here are a few of my favorite things from the last week:

1. Visiting the Biltmore House and the Downton Abbey exhibit. I wrote more about it here. This was my daughter-in-law’s request for her birthday in lieu of presents.

2. Daffodils blooming, the first sign of spring around here! I’ve seen some robins in the yard as well.

3. New spring dish towels. I like dish towels that are pastel colors and fluffy rather than flat. It’s hard to find both features. I found these at Kroger. They are not as fluffy as I usually like, but they are really absorbent. The flat kind get soaked after just a couple of uses.

4. Ready-made sandwiches. I don’t have diabetes, but my blood sugar will drop in the mornings if I don’t have something substantial for breakfast. It’s not usually a problem in the afternoon. But one day this week while at a grocery store, I felt like my blood sugar was plummeting. I usually keep some cheese sandwich crackers on hand to tide me over if that happens, but I had eaten them while on our Biltmore trip. Thankfully the store had some sandwiches packaged and ready at their deli counter. I got one and ate half of it in the car and was fine. (Yes, my doctor has known about this for years and keeps an eye on it.)

5. Safety. All of us were on the road in some capacity this week, some several times. The weather and road conditions are iffy this time of year, but Thankfully we were all safe and had no trouble.

What’s a favorite thing from 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.

And another week is nearly down for the count. Time passes so quickly, I enjoy slowing it down for just a bit by pausing to remember some of the best parts of the previous week.

1. A successful new recipe. This was actually from the previous week, but I forgot to mention it. I wanted to make something different for a church potluck, searched online, and tried Crockpot Honey Teriyaki Meatballs. I used frozen gluten-free meatballs, as we have a number of gluten-intolerant folks. I only used half the sugar called for and used canola oil instead of sesame oil (the latter was expensive, and I didn’t want to buy a whole bottle for one teaspoon). It tasted great and was easy to put together. There were only half a dozen meatballs left, so I consider it a success. I’m looking forward to making it again some time.

2. Valentine’s Day. One of my favorite holidays.

3. My husband making a return. I just hate taking things back to stores. My husband had errands to run in the vicinity of a store I needed to make a return to, and I asked him if he’d mind taking care of it for me. He gladly did so. As much as I LOVE the cards, flowers, candy, balloons, gifts, and expressions of love on Valentine’s Day, these kinds of things show love to me even more. In addition, Friday I walked into the laundry room to discover an odor like something burning. To me it smelled like rubber or a belt with too much friction. Thankfully my husband was working from home that day and came over to investigate. He spent Saturday morning taking the dryer apart, checking out all its parts, vacuuming out the lint.

4. Sleeping in Saturday. I woke up about 2:30 a.m. Saturday with a raging headache. Once I finally got back to sleep, I didn’t wake up til after 7. That’s rare for me: I’m usually up between 5 and 6 even without an alarm clock. I stayed in my pjs til mid-morning and basically took it easy. It took all day for the headache to abate. The only downside was missing our every-other-month ladies’ Bible study. Thankfully I had gotten a lot done earlier in the week, so I could rest up without feeling I needed to take care of other things.

5. Christian music and programming. Thursday I woke up around 4:10 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had a good time of prayer, but later in the morning was in a funk—unusual for me. I couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. Everyone else was out, so I couldn’t blame another person. I usually listen to an audiobook while getting ready in the morning, but decided to finish the last of the Revive Our Hearts podcast series with Valerie Elliot Shephard, Elisabeth Elliot’s daughter. I turned on the Christian radio station while peeling potatoes for the crockpot. I came across this post in my Feedly account talking about the use of music in our quiet time. I clicked on several of my favorites and a couple that were new to me. All of that worked together to tenderize my heart and change my perspective. Later in the afternoon I got a bit of a nap in and felt much better, so lack of sleep was probably a major factor. But I was still thankful for the variety of means available to minister to my spirit.

Bonus: My daughter-in-law’s birthday! Actually, as I am writing on Thursday afternoon, we haven’t celebrated yet. So this is an anticipatory fave. Their family is coming over tonight for dinner and cake, if the “wintry mix” we received today doesn’t cause problems. Then we have some special plans over the weekend that I look forward to telling you about next week.

Update: the snow and slush did melt and we were able to get together. Always a joy to celebrate Mittu’s special day. Timothy, as you can see, is at the age of mugging for the camera. 🙂

And that’s 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.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I hope you have a wonderful day sharing love with others. This has been a busy week, but here are some of the bright spots in it:

1. Phone battery restored. My phone’s battery seemed to be slowly dying. I needed to charge it up increasingly often until it got to the point of having to keep it plugged in any time I wasn’t using it. I asked my son if he had any advice short of getting a new phone. He said making sure my operating system and apps were all updated might help a little. So I did that. Then one night when I noticed the phone was nearly dead, I let it run all the way out before I recharged it. The battery has been doing great since then, going all day without a recharge.

2. Laptop doing well. I get along better with my desktop than my laptop, but I do need my laptop sometimes. But it had been having a number of problems. Two of my sons worked on it around Christmas, putting all the files on a CD and then taking the computer back to factory reset. This is the first week I have used it extensively since then, and it did great.

3. Rain stopped. I mentioned last week we had rain and flooding. We had even more rain this week. It finally stopped yesterday, and we’re supposed to have clear skies the next few days. We’re even supposed to see the sun later today! I am also thankful the temperatures were moderate during all the rain (mostly 40s during the day). If they had been below freezing, we would have been in even more of a mess with all the precipitation.

4. Podcasts with Valerie Elliot Shephard. If you’ve read here long, you know I love the ministry of Elisabeth Elliot and considered her a mentor from afar. This week Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been interviewing Valerie, Elisabeth’s daughter, on the Revive Our Hearts radio program every day this week. The Christian radio station I listen to doesn’t carry that program, but the ministry made the interviews available via podcast. I enjoyed listening to them while making Valentine cards. I don’t listen to podcasts much—I usually listen to music or audiobooks. But now that I know ROH has them, I might tune in more.

5. Valentine’s Day! One of my favorite holidays! I’ll be making heart-shaped cupcakes and mini meatloaves later today, and I’m looking forward to celebrating with the family tonight.

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?