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

I hope those of you in the USA had a happy 4th, and belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends! It’s been a good week here. Some of the best parts:

1. Independence Day. Our country has serious problems, but there’s still no place else I would rather live. I’m so thankful for the freedoms we have here and those who sacrificed to make them possible. We celebrated with family, feasting, and fun.

2. Mini cheesecakes. Cheesecake is not my favorite dessert, but every now and then it hits just the right spot. Some years ago someone in the family got me some mini cheesecake pans. I got ingredients for them for a potluck at church a few weeks ago, but overlooked an allergen in one of the ingredients that would affect several families, so I ended up not making them. I wanted to use the ingredients soon, so, even though cheesecake isn’t a traditional 4th of July dish, they were a nice treat. I put mini chocolate chips on some, mini peanut butter cups in others, mixed coca in with the batter for a few. Then we had strawberries, blueberries, and a peanut and chocolate shell for the plain ones. And the fruit did make them look more patriotic! The nice thing about little cheesecakes is that you can try more than one kind.

3. Bathroom makeover. Several months ago I mentioned we had replaced the carpet in our bathroom with new flooring. In the meantime, we’ve tried several sample colors on the walls and did an extensive search for bath mats. This week my husband got the walls and cabinets painted. I love it!

What it originally looked like:

Before

What it looks like now:

I love these knobs! I had wanted something just a little different, and I was glad to find them. The walls are a very light grey. The floral towel racks were here when we bought the house, and I love them! The shower curtain was here, as well, in another bathroom, but it was a peach color – about my least favorite color in the whole spectrum. So I used Rit color remover on it, and it came out this pale pinkish shade, with just a touch of color left in the topstitching.

I so appreciate my husband’s time and hard work! I didn’t get a picture of the light fixture above the sink, but that’s one last thing left to do. It’s a brass finish, and I wanted to replace it, but he’s going to try to spray paint it white and see if that works.

And, you know something else that’s interesting . . . months ago I bought this plaque with a Hobby Lobby gift card just because I loved the floral lettering. We didn’t have grey in any of our decorating: all the walls were beige. But I figured grey is a neutral, and I have pink in several rooms, so I could put this anywhere. We didn’t choose the bathroom colors with this plaque in mind – I had forgotten about it. Now it’s perfect for our new bathroom!

4. Time off. My husband’s company gave employees Thursday and Friday off this week, so he decided to take the rest of the week as vacation days. He’s been mostly working on the bathroom and doing yard work — he’s happiest when he’s getting stuff done. But we do have a family outing planned for Saturday.

5. Chick-Fil-A biscuits. I love breakfast biscuits! But since my days of driving kids to school and picking up breakfast on the way back are long gone, I don’t get them much any more. Jim had a hankering for Chick-Fil-A this morning and went out to get them Yum!

Happy Friday!

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

It’s been another quiet week here in my neck of the woods. The last Friday of June already! Here are some of the best parts of the week:

1. Baptisms at church. Two adults were baptized at church last Sunday. Always a joy to hear people’s testimonies and see them take that step.

2. Finger food fellowship after the baptismal service. When we left, we were not quite full, but not really hungry enough for lunch. So we just scrounged around the refrigerator and heated up some leftovers — easy lunch, easy clean-up.

3. Pizza and movie night.Jason, Mittu, and Timothy came over and we watched Ralph Wrecked the Internet. I enjoyed that much more than I thought I would!

4. Chick-Fil-A brought in. I had gotten over my last cold but then got another one – very similar to the first one, staring out with a very sore throat. Timothy wanted to come over and play with some of the riding toys we have here. I let Jason and Mittu know I had another cold starting up, though I felt fine at that point, so they could decide if they wanted to risk coming over. They offered to bring Chick-Fil-A for dinner.

5. Updates on Steve Saint and Mincaye. Some of you know that I’ve loved and followed the story of the five missionaries who were killed in Ecuador in 1956, beginning with Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor, then several other books of hers and some of the others in that story, up through Steve Saint’s book End of the Spear, and the documentary, Beyond the Gates of Splendor. I found a link to Randy Alcorn’s blog post about Mincaye, who was one of the men who killed the missionaries but later became a Christian and adopted Steve Saint’s family as his own. Mincaye is in his 90s now and in need of a wheelchair, and Joni Eareckson Tada’s organization sent him one. Randy’s post linked some some past posts with Steve and Mincaye, so I went on a rabbit trail reading some of those and watching the videos. I really enjoyed this one about Jim Elliot’s brother Bert, who was a missionary to Ecuador for over 50 years. Burt commented that “Jim and I both served Christ, but differently. Jim was a great meteor, streaking through the sky.” Randy said yes, he was, but Burt was the faithful start that rose every night for years. Then I also enjoyed the post and videos here, about Mincaye and his wife visiting Steve after his accident, and the Waodani telling Steve about “other foreigners” they saw the day the five missionaries were killed.

Happy Friday!

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

It seems like it’s been a quiet week online: my Feedly account of others’ blog posts has been very light, as have comments here. Maybe everyone’s off doing summery things. 🙂 We’ve been mostly indoors due to a rain, but here are some of the five best parts of the week:

1. Father’s Day. Had a good day remembering my father and step-father and celebrating my husband and son with spaghetti and Mittu’s pineapple upside-down cake.

2. Finally getting a haircut. I tend not to get around to it until I can hardly stand it any more. When my hair gets to a certain length, it just goes limp. Nice to get that taken care of.

3. Finally getting flowers in my planters. I usually have these done way back in May. They look much better than they did.

4. Takeout on a sick day. I don’t get migraines often, but battled one this week. I feel for those who are prone to them. Thankfully there was nothing pressing that day, so I could lay low. I asked my husband if he could bring home McAlister’s Deli that night, and he did.

5. This adorable video which has been making the rounds is just SO cute. Denny’s even asked the father and son duo to do a sweet commercial.

Happy first day of summer!

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

This has been another relatively quiet week. I usually try to keep a running list of what I might mention in the weekly Friday’s Fave Five: this week I had nothing. Not that it was a bad week at all: most of the week was just pretty uneventful after Sunday. But, as always, once I think about it I can find a few things to be thankful for.

1. Church potluck. A good time of food and fellowship. And everything I made turned out ok with no major or minor disasters. 🙂

2. Hot dogs are not something we eat often. But every now and then they hit the spot, especially in the summertime. My son and daughter-in-law had found some gluten-free hot dog buns they wanted to try out, so they offered to bring the fixings over to our house one night. Not having to cook or clean up was an added bonus!

3. Books are always a favorite. But summer seems to provide more time for them. My husband and I don’t watch all that much TV, but most of what we watch isn’t on in the summer. That allows for some pleasant evening reading. I often say that I will probably never finish my to-be-read list before I die, but that just means I’ll always have something to look forward to!

4. Sleep. For some reason, I had several nights of disrupted sleep, waking up every couple of hours. But the last few nights have been blissfully normal. That makes such a difference in my day.

5. Meal delivery. Often if my husband is out of town for more than a day, Jesse and I will get something out to eat. That stemmed from when the kids were little. By the time Jim got home from a business trip, I was ready to eat out. But he had been eating out all week, so he longed for a home-cooked meal. So we started getting one dinner out while he was away, both as a break for me and so I could get that craving out of my system. 🙂 This time we wanted something more restauranty than fast food, and discovered a local place delivered. It was very good!

Happy Friday!

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

This has been a fairly quiet week, with Jesse and I sick the first part of it. But I think we’re mostly better now. And here we are a full week into June already. It’s time to stop and consider the best parts of the week.

1. Sick days aren’t fun in themselves, but it’s nice to have an excuse to just lay around and read or putter on the computer. That may have contributed to the three book reviews I wrote this week. 🙂

2. My hydrangeas are going to town.

3. Scrabble tile magnets. I rediscovered these a few weeks ago when I cleaned out my pantry, but forgot to mention them. They were a gift from a while back that had gotten lost. I plan to change out the message from time to time.

4. Face Time. I know I have mentioned this before. But we enjoyed an extended FaceTime “visit” with my out-of-state oldest son. Then since we were sick last weekend, we’ve gone almost two weeks with seeing Jason, Mittu, and Timothy – a strain for this Grandma! But a FaceTime call helped span the gap.

5. Beautiful music. I looked up a couple of favorite classical pieces for reference in next Monday’s post (which isn’t actually about classical music itself – it’s about Bible study. :)) But I couldn’t just find the links and go – I had to listen to a couple all the way through. It’s been a long time since I listened to anything classical, and I was reminded how much I love some of it. I’m so glad for God’s gift of beautiful music in a variety of genres.

Happy Friday!

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

It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of May already! I love these weekly opportunities to stop for a few moments and reflect on the good happenings in the week. It makes enjoyment of them last a little bit longer instead of fading away so quickly.

1. A fun celebratory dinner. I mentioned earlier that Jesse, my youngest, didn’t want any hoopla when he got his degree online – he felt he’d had all that when he got his associate’s degree a few years ago. But we did celebrate with a nice dinner out at a Japanese hibachi restaurant, where the chefs cook food in an entertaining manner right at your table. It’s become something of an unofficial tradition that we celebrate graduations at such a restaurant. Timothy had never been to one and was old enough now to enjoy it as well. The food was delicious and our chef was great. The only negative was that Mittu’s gluten-free plate had absolutely no seasonings or sauces at all. She ended up taking it home for a stir-fry the next day.

2. A long weekend. It was nice to have an extra day off, and we’re thankful for the service and sacrifice of those who made such days possible.

3. Timothy’s first fishing trip. My husband took our grandson fishing for the first time on Memorial Day. I didn’t go – I had shopping and cooking to do for the cookout later in the day. But I enjoyed the stories, pictures, and videos later. Timothy caught on quickly and caught the only fish that day!

4. Jesse’s first job interview — not the first one ever, but the first professional one since getting his degree. Unfortunately they didn’t have immediate openings, but said they might in a few weeks. And a plus for this mom: it’s close by!

5. A new card file. I used to buy extra cards and keep them in an accordion file for when they were needed. Since I make many cards now as events come up, I didn’t need quite so much storage space. Plus, the last accordion file I got was bulky and hard to deal with. I was glad to find this compact and sturdy box, which works much better. The only thing that would make it even better is a handle. I passed the accordion file off to my husband, who uses that type for his paid bill storage system.

We’re probably laying low this weekend as Jesse and I both have colds – his much worse than mine. Hopefully time and rest will head them off.

Happy Friday!

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

It’s been a relativity quiet week – my favorite kind. Here are some of the best parts:

1. Dinner out. For our anniversary a few months ago, our son and daughter-in-law gave us a gift card that could be used at several different restaurants. We just used it last weekend at Olive Garden. The food was great, as was the waiter. We liked that the restaurant was divided into several smaller eating areas, as opposed to one big (and much noisier) open area. All in all a pleasant experience. We tend to bring take-out home more often than we eat out, but it’s nice every now and then to go out for a meal.

2. Ladies’ group from church. We meet every six weeks or so. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make this one, because, for some unknown reason, I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to go ahead and get ready, but still wasn’t sure whether I’d be awake and clear-headed enough to go. I did end up going, and was so glad I did. We had a great time in the book of Acts. And I did catch up on sleep with a good nap in the afternoon.

3. Meals bought in. My daughter-in-law cooked dinner a couple of times in the last week, always appreciated!

4. A new nightgown. I calculated that it’s been almost nine years since I’ve bought one, because  I haven’t found a place that sells the kind I like since we moved to TN. The store I used to buy them from in SC is out of business. I like knit nightgowns, so they stretch and move with me, but I don’t like the feel of nightgowns in most stores. Last weekend I was in a store where I don’t usually shop, looking for bath mats, when I passed the nightgown racks and spied a cute one. I stopped and checked out the fabric, and it was the kind I like! And it was a decent price as well.

5. A degree in hand. Jesse had finished his classes online, and according to his records, had done everything he needed to complete his degree. But he hadn’t received any notification from the school saying that he was graduating. He and my husband both made some phone calls, and finally got confirmation that yes, he was indeed finished and his diploma should arrive in a few weeks. But it got here this week! Even though he knew he was done, it felt good to actually have that confirmation in hand.

Bonus: I was finally able to spend some much-needed concentrated time on a project. I’m hoping that getting over this hump will make the rest come much easier.

Happy Friday!

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

Well, I did not intend to take a mini-blogging break. Various factors contributed to not posting. But I hope to get a little ahead for next week. Meanwhile, here are five highlights from the last week:

1. Mother’s Day. My dear family always goes above and beyond in their efforts to make the day special for me with sweet cards and thoughtful gifts. One of the best aspects of the day is everyone working together to provide this feast:

Our first grilled meal of the season – hopefully the first of many. 🙂

2. Precious memories. Mother’s Day also affords time for remembering my mother and mother-in-law, who have both passed on. This Mother’s Day, a woman I considered my greatest mentor and spiritual mom passed into the presence of her Savior. Though sad that she’s beyond reach any more, I’m so thankful she is with Him and I can look forward to seeing her again. Naturally this week has triggered a lot of memories.

3. Better lighting. I hadn’t realized the light fixture above my bathroom sink was giving off yellowish light until I inadvertently bought a different kind of bulb that shone white. But then I couldn’t find any more of the bulbs. When my husband was heading out to Home Depot, I asked him to check there, and he found them. They make such a difference!

4. Blog maintenance. I cleaned up my sidebar a bit. It may not be noticeable to anyone else, but it made me feel better. 🙂 My biggest delight in that process was finding the WordPress Widget called “Social Icons” with which to link up my Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts. I had them written out with text before, and this looks much nicer.

5. Coloring. I’ve resisted the adult coloring book craze because all the books I have seen have been too detailed for my tastes – it would take me days to finish one page. That, to me, would create more tension than relation. I loved the simple open spaces of children’s coloring books. Just before Mother’s Day, I discovered Karla Dornacher had written a couple of adult coloring books based on Scripture texts that looked like a nice balance between too simple and too busy. One of my sons bought a couple for me, and I’ve enjoyed using them while watching TV with my husband a couple of nights this week. And I can easily finish a page in one sitting. 🙂

How has your week been going?

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

Wow, it has been a busy but fun first week of May. Here are some of my favorite parts:

1. An impromptu family reunion. I have four sisters, two in TX and two in SC. One from TX was flying to SC on business and planned to rent a car to visit the two sisters in SC. Since I am just a few hours away, we talked about me driving to SC or meeting them halfway around Asheville, NC. Since none of them had met my grandson, Timothy, yet, and I figured his family could probably make it to Asheville easier than they could make it to SC, I proposed that we meet there. Then I just found out Friday that my other sister, stepfather, and nephew from TX were flying in to spend the weekend in SC and would meet us in Asheville, too! I wished then that I had planned to go all the way to SC for the weekend. But I didn’t know if the rest of the family here in TN could have done that, especially changing plans the afternoon before. So we stayed with our original plan and met in NC for lunch at a restaurant, then went to a mall that had a play place for Timothy to run around a bit and for the rest of us to visit a little longer. All of us were there except my oldest son and my brother and his wife, who all live further north, and a niece. We had such a great time visiting. Every time I am with my family of origin, I’m reminded how much I enjoy them and tell myself we need to do this more often.

2. Good weather on the drive home. Heavy rain and even hail was forecast for last Sat. afternoon, but thankfully it stopped before our drive home. Those winding mountain roads are enough of a challenge without slippery precipitation and visibility problems.

3. Cookies at the mall. When we lived in SC, the mall was just five minutes away, and I used to get these cookies frequently. It’s probably good that the mall here is further away. I had completely forgotten about this place. But they had one near where we were at the Asheville mall, and one sister got a box-full to share. And she let me take the leftovers home! Love their peanut butter especially!

4. An afternoon at the movies. My husband has had trouble watching movies in theaters ever since his retina detached a few years ago. Normally we all prefer to watch them at home, anyway – we can pause them for bathroom breaks and spend less. 🙂 But there was one Jesse and I wanted to see now, so we went this last week while Jim was away for the day. This theater has been revamped since the last time I was there: you can now order food in the theater and watch the movie in recliners! The whole experience was fun. Then we walked around the mall a bit, something I haven’t done in ages, and brought home take-out from a favorite Asian place in the mall. All in all it was an enjoyable break in the routine.

5. Roses blooming. My rose bushes just exploded with blooms recently. I didn’t get a photo while they were in their prime, but this gives you an idea. Thankfully, with pruning the flowers off after they’re spent, these will keep putting out new ones well into September.

Happy Friday!

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 at the first Friday in May! I don’t know where April went, but let’s stop and savor this week before it slips by as well.

1. Church potluck. Great food and fellowship!

2. Rediscovered Christmas candy. My husband was rummaging through some shelves on his side of the closet and found something he had tucked away for me for Christmas and had forgotten. I’m happy to receive it any time! I was also glad it was not one big candy, as it appeared to be, but rather a container for the regular-sized pieces.

3. Reorganization. I had done some cleaning out of our pantry a few weeks ago, but had a bit left to do. I also sorely wanted to find a better way to store a few kitchen items. Thankfully some tossing and rearranging yielded a much more workable solution.

4. Mowing with Granddad. Since we have a riding lawnmower and Jason has a big yard, Jim cuts his grass. Lawn mowing day is Timothy’s favorite! So we got him a tractor like Granddad’s for his birthday, and then tried to recreate a picture from when Jason was little.

Timothy wasn’t quite in the mood to take pictures. 🙂 I didn’t notice til my son and daughter-in-law pointed it out to me that Timothy even dressed like Granddad. 🙂

5. Good medical results. I had my mammogram and bone density scan this week. The former was fine. I haven’t gotten the results of the latter yet. Then Jim had his first eye exam since his diabetes diagnosis, and everything was fine there: he didn’t even need to change his prescription.

I mentioned last week that his colonoscopy went well. We got a notice later that the polyps they sent for testing had precancerous cells, which, as I understand it, may be a problem in the future but may not. All they recommended was that his next colonoscopy should be in five years rather than ten, and that our kids should probably have a colonoscopy before their fifties. I hate that note of uncertainty, but there’s nothing to be done except wait and see what develops. And eat lots of fiber. 🙂 At any rate, it’s nice to have all that kind of thing done with for a while.

Happy Friday!