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

Though I am writing this on the official first day of summer (Thursday), it has felt like summer here for weeks already. I hope your longest day of the year was a good one! Here are some of the best parts of the last week:

1. Visiting a Bounce House place. There’s a place nearby where one can rent those inflatable bounce house contraptions for kids to play in at carnivals and such. They also have a room on the facility for “open play,” where parents can pay a fee for kids to come in and try several different kinds – a castle, a basketball court, a super slide, etc. My son and daughter-in-law took my grandson, Timothy (age 4) there last Saturday, and he wanted Grandma and Granddad to come, too. ♥ It was fun to see him conquer some of the ones he was a bit scared of at first.

2. Father’s Day. We enjoyed time with the family honoring all the dads, especially my husband.

3. Humor. I had gotten my husband a Father’s Day balloon while at the grocery store on Saturday morning, but it started deflating before I even got home. I took it back to the store to exchange it for one that had not been previously inflated, like this one had been. But the girl said she had no more there, they were in the back, and she didn’t look particularly eager to go back and get one. Being hot, tired, and frustrated at that point, I just got a refund. Father’s Day afternoon at lunch, I noticed my husband had amended the Mother’s Day balloon he had gotten me more than a month ago (and which, for some reason, was still good, though it had been purchased at the same place):

4. Thoughtfulness. Saturday was “one of those days,” with the balloon situation, dropping the newly-purchased eggs on the garage floor (breaking only half of them, thankfully), spilling my lunch down my front, finding out I needed socks at the Bounce House just to walk around and observe, going back home to get some, coming back to find out they sold socks there, and ending the day with a big ugly bug on the bathroom ceiling. I mentioned part of the day’s frustrations on Facebook, and a friend said I sounded like I needed chocolate. She brought me a chocolate bar to church the next day. Besides the chocolate itself, always a soother of ruffled nerves, the thoughtfulness meant a lot to me.

5. A meal and cool breezes. My daughter-in-law, Mittu, had made a lot of food for a lunch play date and had a lot left over since one family couldn’t come. She texted to ask if they could bring the leftovers over for dinner on Wednesday. Sure! Then Timothy wanted to play outside on his little car, but I had been so hot and uncomfortable my last few times outside that I stayed in at first. When I did venture out a bit later, the temperatures were really nice, and the occasional breeze was even cool. A real blessing in the South at this time of year.

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.

Somehow we’re halfway through June already. Whatever happened to the lazy days of summer? At any rate, I  welcome the opportunity to reflect on and recount the blessings of the past week lest I forget them completely.

1. Lunch with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. They invited us for lunch on Saturday. Really enjoyed tostadas and churros, and it was fun to see what was new and play with Timothy in his room.

2. A church potluck lunch after the Sunday morning service. Good food and fellowship.

3. An impromptu family get-together.  We had some leftovers from the potluck, so we invited my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson over to help us work on them. Then my oldest son Facetimed, so we all got to talk a bit.

4. A free haircut. The place I go gives out these cards that you have initialed each time you get a haircut, and the 10th one is free. I forget to get it initialed most of the time, but thankfully my stylist reminds me. This week my 10th cut came up, so I got it free!

5. Return of our favorite bath aide. Last week our regular bath aide for my mother-in-law was assigned to another area due to one aide being on vacation and another out sick. We had two different substitutes, so the timing was different, and neither of them brought the supplies that our usual aide does. I wasn’t sure if things would be back to normal or not this week, and I was so glad to see the regular lady. I don’t know why they don’t send the substitutes where they send her instead of rearranging so many, but I am sure it’s a complicated business to cover all the bases.

I could add so many more – air conditioning on hot days, root beer floats, good books, music, to name a few. There are good things about every day if we stop to consider them.

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.

Although the official first day of summer isn’t for a couple of weeks yet, to me June 1 begins summer. And my first week of summer by my reckoning has gone quite nicely. Here are some favorite parts of it:

1. Extended book reading time. Most of my reading is done in shorter bits of time here and there. Sunday, in between church, naps, meals, and Face-timing with my oldest son, I finished 2/3 of a book. It felt so luxurious. But my eyes were really blurry afterward, so it’s probably good I can’t do that too often.

2. Pain relief. I occasionally have shooting pains from my knuckles through my fingers in my left hand. It only lasts for seconds, so I haven’t thought much about it. I’ve assumed maybe it was the beginning of arthritis. One day last week, that kind of pain started up in my pinkie knuckle and persisted all night, bringing tears to my eyes as every few seconds pain would whoosh down that pathway. The next day my doctor wasn’t available, but I saw the nurse practitioner. She said that kind of pain was more indicative of nerve inflammation – arthritis is more of an ache in the joints. She gave me an anti-inflammatory prescription, but the pain started subsiding on its own. I don’t know what I did to set that nerve off, but I hope it doesn’t happen again.

3. Frozen meals. I discovered some new frozen meal entrees in the grocery freezer section that only took 15 minutes in the skillet to warm up. They’re probably too expensive to have too often, but they’re cheaper than eating out. It’s nice to have a couple of quick meal options on hand for really busy or tiring days. This one was pretty good:

4. A new file box. I’ve had this file box for scrapbooking paper that I use for cards for years. It’s faded, which is not a big deal, but it started falling apart.

You can find letter-sized file boxes everywhere, but it was hard to track down one that could accommodate the 12×12 scrapbooking size. I finally found one on Joann’s web site. I thought it was too expensive, but a 40% off coupon helped, and I had gift cards there for Mother’s Day. I enjoyed transferring my paper over to its new home. Unfortunately the new files don’t have tabs, but I’m going to see if stick-on labels will adhere to them.

Being able to remove the files from the box helps, too. (Forgive the messiness of my work desk.)

5. A nice summer family evening. My son and daughter-in-law brought dinner over one night along with their inflatable swimming pool for Timothy. He played in the water a while, then rode his little vehicle, then we threw “Pop-its” on the road – these little noisemaker things that sound like little firecrackers.

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.

Happy first day of June! Here are some of the best parts of last week:

1. Memorial Day with the family. We had the traditional burgers and sides, then enjoyed a movie with the family along with gluten-free shortcakes and a variety of fruits for dessert. Even though it rained, Jim faithfully grilled his wonderful burgers. Pulling the patio umbrella over helped a bit.

2. The PBS Memorial Day concert comes on the Sunday evening before Memorial Day. I’ve watched parts of it before, but this year I watched the whole thing. Some of the stories of our service men and women were quite moving and helped me remember the reason for this holiday.

3. Patch work. My husband was able to get to several patching jobs of cracks in walls and ceilings around the house. Looks much, much better!

4. Delayed rain. We have had an abundance of rain this week due to the subtropical storm Alberto’s passing by. One morning I had to get to the store, even though thunder sounded nearby. I figured I’d just change once I got home if I got drenched. But thankfully, the rain held off until later in the day. And my husband got a lawn-mowing in on the day he wanted to before the rain came down too hard.

5. Lunch at Cracker Barrel. We rarely get to eat out, due to my mother-in-law’s situation, and almost never at Cracker Barrel. It’s one of my favorite places to eat, but my husband doesn’t care for it. But he indulged me last weekend. And I got a slice of Double Chocolate Coca-Cola cake to bring home and savor.

Bonus: I love when two different sources in my devotional reading reinforce each other. Some of my devotional books correspond to the date, but others are books I just “happened” to be in at the time or a Bible passage I navigated to at my own speed. When they intersect unexpectedly, it seems like that’s God’s particular message to me for the day.

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.

This time next week, it will be June! But for now, let’s enjoy what’s left of May. Here are some favorite parts of the last week:

1. Patio additions. Jim had bought this bench to provide a place to sit at the edge of the front yard when we watch Timothy in his riding toys on the cul-de-sac. But we pulled it back to the patio for our first grilled meal, and we decided we like it there. Then, I used my Amazon points to get a water table for Timothy, and he has enjoyed using it several times already.

2. Watching a movie with Jim. Last weekend we found ourselves alone for the evening with nothing on TV to watch. Someone had mentioned the movie “Wonder” to me, and the previews looked good, so we watched it together. So good. Even though it’s primarily about a boy with a disfigured face, the theme can be summed up in one of the precepts that his teacher conveys to the class: “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a tough battle.”

3. A satisfactory ending to a dispute. An item I had bought online had a problem, and after several emails the dispute was finally settled to my satisfaction. I usually ask my husband to handle these kinds of things, but I was pleased that I saw it through and that it worked out well.

4. Mending done. I tend to put off mending as it’s often a headache. But one item needing attention was my husband’s most often worn sports coat. So I worked on it and a pair of pants with the cuff coming undone. They both came together about as easily as they possibly could have, much to my relief.

5. Checking off the to-do list. I had a number of minor tasks around the house that I had been putting off. When I finally got to them one day this week, it only took around an hour to take care of them all.

Here in the US we have a 3-day weekend with Memorial Day on Monday. It’s usually a time of get-togethers and cookouts, the kick-off to summer. But we don’t want to forget those who helped to make such days possible.

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’re halfway through May already. It has been a good month so far. Here are some of the highlights of the last week:

1. New flowers. Usually my husband gets new hanging baskets and sometimes new plants for some of the other planters in conjunction with Mother’s Day.  This year he proposed that we choose them together, so Saturday morning we went plant-shopping and then spent the rest of the morning putting them in their respective places.

2. Mother’s Day. My family always does a wonderful job making me feel special on Mother’s Day. Jim grilled teriyaki chicken, I think everyone pitched in making the cheesy potatoes, salad, and rolls, and Mittu made chocolate pretzel pie.

My hair is a little wonky – we had been outside and I didn’t know it had gotten windblown.

3. Ladies group. This was actually from almost two weeks ago, but I forgot to mention it. The ladies from our church met to discuss the first five psalms, not in a formal Bible study, but just sharing what we learned. It has been a long time since I have been able to participate regularly in any kind of church ladies’ Bible study or discussion due to scheduling conflicts. This is only my second time to attend here, but I enjoyed it very much.

4. Jim washed my car. This was also from a couple of weeks ago. My car has some pieces on the outside which my husband doesn’t think would fare well in a commercial car wash. So he washed it himself, and it looks so much better.

5. Abiding Radio. I had this on my computer at one time, but I never listen to music while on the computer, so I forgot about it. Then recently someone mentioned their app – since the advent of smart phones, it hadn’t occurred to me to see if they had an app. I’ve enjoyed listening to it a few times.

Bonus: My roses are still doing nicely, in spite of me.

I thought these looked especially pretty after I watered plants one morning.

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.

Another week is almost down for the count. Here are some of the best parts of it:

1. Roses blooming. My rose bushes have been leafing and budding for weeks and they finally exploded.

2. Sitting on the patio. My dear husband has been hard at work getting the patio cleaned up and ready for usage. We enjoyed sitting out there last Sunday night as Timothy drove his little car around. The weather has been gorgeous most of the week.

3. A quiet week. For me, anyway. Jim had to travel a couple of days, but I didn’t have anything extra on the schedule this week, and I was able to put some quality time into some projects.

4. Books. I could list them as favorites every week. 🙂 But for some reason I seemed to make more headway with a couple than I have been able to for a while (maybe because of #3).

5. Meatloaf is one of my favorite meals, but we don’t have it very often because we only eat red meat occasionally, and lean ground beef doesn’t go on sale very often. But I snagged some a while back. We enjoyed it one night this week. Then, one of my favorite lunches is to take leftover meatloaf and put it in a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum!

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.

It’s the first Friday in May, and it has been a wonderfully springy week! Here are some of the best parts of the past week:

1. Lunch with a friend. Melanie came over for a potluck soup and sandwiches lunch and then we delved into some card-making supplies. Fun! Somehow we hadn’t seen each other in a while.

2. Catching up with an long-time friend, one I’ve known since early married days. I got a Facebook message asking if I had time to talk, and I did, so she called. We had been messaging on Facebook about the desire to actually phone each other some time, but it hadn’t worked out until this day. I so enjoyed catching up with each other.

3. A dinner get-together. We had my son and daughter-in-law and grandson over along with the pastor of the church we’ve been visiting and his family, with all of us contributing parts to the meal. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting together and ended with a rousing game of Telestrations.

4. Nostalgic discoveries. I caught sight of a box of children’s books I had forgotten about in a closet, so I pulled it out to see if any of the books would be suitable for Timothy’s age now. Some of them were favorites I remember reading to my kids, and it was fun to find them again. Some notebooks of my kids’ drawings, mostly Jason’s were also in the box, and I enjoyed looking through them and then showing them to Jason the next time he came over.

5. A repainted swing. The seat that my husband had built for our patio swing looked weather-beaten, so he sanded it and painted it this time with outdoor paint rather than staining it. It looks much better, and hopefully it will hold up better. I need to make a replacement for the cover it used to have, and that should help even more, as well as providing shade.

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.

I know I often say I can’t believe we’re near the end of another month – yet I feel that way almost every time! April has been an up and down, back and forth month, but I think spring is pretty firmly settled in now. I’m soaking it up before the heat of summer hits in another month or so. Meanwhile, here are some of the favorite parts of the last week:

1. A painted door. Most of the framework outside our home is painted an almost rosy beige, but the back door, door frame, and screen door were orange for some reason. I really, really, really don’t like orange in home decorating (though I do like it on autumn leaves and pumpkins and such.) My dear husband has more than enough home projects on his plate when the weather turns warm and dry, but he was able to get to this door last Saturday. I was planning to take a picture, but at the moment I am writing (Thursday afternoon) it’s a rainy day. It’s nice to enjoy looking at a door instead of chafing every time I see it.

2. Sarku is a fast food Asian restaurant at the mall. I wish they had restaurants outside the mall, because I love their chicken teriyaki. We don’t get to them very often any more because we don’t live near a mall like we used to, when we ate there frequently. Last Sunday we were in the vicinity around lunchtime, and my husband suggested we get lunch from there to take home. I enjoyed having their teriyaki again.

3. Things not turning out as badly as expected. 🙂 Both my husband and I had forgotten that his mother’s regular caregiver was going to be off one day this week until she reminded us the day before. When the agency knows ahead of time that we’re going to need a substitute, they usually send someone out to train with our regular caregiver for an hour or two before the substitute has to fly solo. But this time, for whatever reason, they didn’t work that out, so we had someone completely new come. Usually when any caregiver is here for the first time, my husband spends some of the time showing them how we like things done with his mom. Theoretically anyone from the agency should be competent and experienced, but that’s not always the case, and even if they are, each patient has their own particular quirks. This time, however, my husband was going to be out of town except for the first half-hour this new person was here. I had had other plans for the day, and I was dreading dealing with a new person, both the time involved in showing them the ropes plus the potential or dealing with problems or issues that usually fall to my husband. But everything turned out relatively well and all that angst was wasted (when will I ever learn?).

4. Ideas. I’ve mentioned working on a book. One day this week out of the blue, a watershed idea came to mind that I think will bring everything into focus with it. I need to think and pray over it some more to make sure, but I’m excited that this might be the emphasis to build the rest of the book around. And, as I believe God guides us in these things, this also encouraged me that this is something He really does want me to do.

5. God’s speaking to our hearts. One morning this week I was struggling with a particular area. My devotions that morning involved just reading the next chapters in my normal routine, but the passage I was in spoke to that specific issue. Then later in the day I turned on the Christian radio station for just a few minutes while I prepared something, and the speaker at that moment spoke to the same issue. I felt so loved and encouraged.

Bonus: My daughter-in-law came over and made dinner the night my husband was out of town and my son and grandson did the dishes. 🙂

If you haven’t seen it yet, I have a poll about your blog reading preferences here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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.

I have much to be thankful for this week! These are at the top of the list:

1. Timothy’s birthday!

2. Flying kites! Jim had gotten a kite for his birthday a few weeks ago, and then my son and daughter-in-law got one for Timothy.  We went to a park last weekend to fly them, and the day could not have been more perfect for it.

Our caregiver wasn’t available at the time we could all go, so we took my husband’s mother with us. She seemed a little agitated at first, but after a bit she settled down. She didn’t seem to see the kites when I tried to point them out to her, but later on it looked as if she was following them with her eyes (between dozes :)). I think she was glad to get back home, but I hope the change of venue did her good.

3. The Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. We all went there last Saturday morning. I was quite impressed! Oak Ridge played a big part in the Manhatten Project during WWII, so much of the museum concerns that. But the rest of it is just a museum geared to kids. I think Timothy’s favorite parts were the life-sized dollhouse, the rain forest room, the water room, and the space room.

In the old-time classroom, Jim took on the role of teacher.

Jim met some new friends there. 🙂

Mittu packed us a picnic lunch which we were able to eat inside. There were tables and a playground outside as well. All in all a fun outing!

4. Family time. My oldest son had come in towards the end of last week and was able to stay through Monday. Besides all the outings and activities mentioned, we had fun just talking, playing games, eating pizza, barbecue, and Mexican food at different times. I especially enjoyed having the whole family together at church Sunday morning.

5. Safety. I had a scary encounter Thursday morning. I was in my car waiting at a red light when I heard some noise, but it didn’t register what it was. I had my windows rolled up and an audiobook on, and I thought it was a nearby car with people talking loudly or a radio on. Then a huge guy got out of the passenger’s side of the car to my left, but I thought perhaps they were just changing drivers. Then I realized the noise was that guy yelling, and he went to the car on his left and started punching the passenger side door, eventually breaking the mirror. The driver pulled forward, but his light was red (although, if it the situation had gone on any longer, I would not have blamed him for disregarding the light). But the attacker stopped punching and stalked back to his own car. Besides that whole situation being disturbing, the bigger fear was that the situation would escalate- that he’d attack the driver personally, that someone would pull out a gun,  that he’d see me watching and then start punching my door. Thankfully none of that happened. It was all over in a few seconds, the traffic lights changed, and we all drove off. It’s scary how some people have little to no control when they’re angry. I was glad nothing worse happened, but I was rattled for a while afterward.

I hope you had a good week as well!