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 has zoomed by. Here are some favorite parts of it:

1. An afternoon to myself is rare these days, especially on a Saturday. But everyone else was otherwise occupied, and I got to spend some focused, uninterrupted time on some blog posts that needed more thought than I had been able to give them.

2. Successful recipe experiments.  This one is just called Baked Chicken, but it needs to be called Pesto Chicken or something else a little more descriptive. It was my first time ever to use pesto. Everyone really liked it, and I am sure I’ll be using it again. Honey Mustard Sausage and Vegetables was a hit as well (we used turkey rather than beef sausage). Chicken In a Skillet was pretty good, too.

3. Take-out – two nights in a row! I requested it Friday night, and we got Papa Murphy’s. When my husband suggested getting something out again on Saturday, well, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. 🙂 We got Red Lobster’s then.

4. Not losing power in a pretty bad storm yesterday. It blinked off for a moment, and we were without Internet for a few hours, but many had it much worse. My son and daughter-in-law have been without power since yesterday afternoon and spent the night here.

5. A “Laundry” sign. I had seen this several months ago and thought it work well with the other decor I had in there, but kept resisting. Who needs a sign that says “Laundry,” of all things, hidden away in a laundry room? But it was on sale 1/2 price this week, making it only about $7, and I still have credit left on a couple of Hobby Lobby gift cards, so I went for it. And I like it. 🙂 This is the first time I’ve had a cheery, decorated space in a laundry area, and it does brighten up the task.

Happy Friday!

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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 start too many of these commenting on the passage of time, but, wow, it sure does seem to be going ever more quickly. I can’t believe we’re a week into July already! But here we are, and here are some of the best parts of the last week:

1. Great-Grandma’s 88th birthday. She can only eat pureed food, so we got her a caramel frappe from McDonald’s (one of her favorite things) and put her birthday candle in it. 🙂 We got cupcakes for the rest of us. Her favorite color is yellow, thus the yellow flowers.

2. Independence Day. Though our country is not perfect and has its problems, I still would rather not llive anywhere else and I am thankful for it.

3. Neighborhood cookout. A couple of neighbors have organized this for the last few years for July 4. One neighbor grills hamburgers, hot dogs, and ribs, and everyone contributes a bit of money for the meat. Then everyone else brings side dishes, desserts, soft drinks, etc. Sadly, I am not as neighborly as I probably should be, so I am glad for this opportunity to get out in my community and talk with people. I especially enjoyed meeting some new neighbors.

Funny moment here: I’m not a huge fan of Sprite, but I drink it sometimes if there are no caffeine-free alternatives. Little Timothy and his parents had come for the cookout, and he had gotten hot running around. He came over to me and kept trying to get to the ice in my cup, but he had been petting a dog, so I didn’t want his fingers in it. 🙂 I asked if I could pour some for him in a cup. He took a drink, blinked, made a funny face, but said, “MMMMmmm!” And he kept doing that, like it was a bit strong, but he liked it. His mom said, “Why are you reacting like that? I said, “Has he not had Sprite before?” She said, “Oh, I thought you had water!” 😀

4. Ceiling fans. We don’t use them all that much, but for a couple of days it was so hot and humid that just the AC wasn’t cutting it. It felt lovely to come in and sit down under the fans.

5. Clean carpets. My husband cleaned my youngest son’s carpet because he had a pretty bad stain on it, and while he was at it, cleaned the carpet in the living room and office as well. The stain came out nicely, and it’s a nice feeling to know the carpets have been done.

Bonus. Rain. It’s been pretty dry lately, so a day or so of rain was a big relief.

Happy Friday!

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

Wow, it’s the first of July already! Here are highlights from the last week in June:

1. A neighbor’s bounty. This time of year our neighbor starts bringing over some of the excess from their garden. One batch contained these humongous zucchini. My little tape measure isn’t showing up well, but they were close to 12″ long.

2. Two successful new zucchini recipes.  One night I tried these Zucchini Boats, and wow – we all loved them. I only made a half recipe at first to test them out, but next time I am making a full batch! I used the Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles because that’s what I had on hand, and also because the turkey sausage is so much less greasy. Plus they are already cooked, saving a step.

I was trying to explain to my husband and son that normally for zucchini boats, you cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the middle, so it ends up looking something like a canoe. But these were so big, I cut them into quarters instead of halves so the servings wouldn’t be so big and take longer to cook. My husband summarized, “So they’re zucchini rafts and not zucchini boats?” 🙂  I also made zucchini muffins but didn’t get a photo. And both recipes just used one zucchini! Bonus: after typing in “zucchini” so much while searching for recipes, I now know how to spell it. 🙂  I used to get mixed up as to how many c’s and n’s it had.

3. A finished fence! I am so proud of my hard-working husband both for finding it on Craig’s list and then spending so much time putting it up. Unfortunately with the loss of the diseased tress we had to cut down, the weeds along the tree line are shooting up rapidly since they’re getting so much more sunshine and rain. That’s the next phase: getting rid of the weeds and deciding what we want to plant in their stead.

4. Successful surgery. My step-father had hip replacement surgery yesterday, and at the time of this writing I’ve heard the surgery went well and he’s in recovery. My sisters there with him in TX are keeping me updated. Praying for a quick and smooth recovery.

5. One of my favorite meals that my daughter-in-law makes is a chicken cordon bleu variation with chicken tenderloins, ham, bacon, and cheese, and she made that for us on Sunday along with au gratin potatoes and salad. Yum!

Happy Friday, and Happy Independence Day weekend to those in the USA!

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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 love balanced weeks of getting things done yet having time for rest and fun as well, and this has been one of those weeks. Here are my favorite bits:

1. Father’s Day. I felt bad that I didn’t have a post here or on Facebook honoring my husband, dad, step-dad, and son, but I’m just not at the computer much on weekends any more, especially if the kids come over. But I enjoyed the opportunity to honor my husband, especially, on “his” day. And, my daughter-in-law made this awesome cake for the occasion!

It was funny that after the dads in the room opened their presents, little Timothy said, “Cake?” ‘Cause cake always follows presents! 🙂

2. Decluttering done, at least for now. My husband and son took several boxes and bags full of things to donate to the local thrift store. Nice to have that done for now, and I’m enjoying the cleaned-out and more organized spaces.

3. Decluttering spreading. My youngest son got inspired to sort through his room as well. He threw away a couple of garbage bags full of stuff (papers, mostly), added to our donation pile, organized his shelves and closet, and even dusted! It had been…a while!

4. Take-out Mexican food. Yum!

5. Healing. My husband has been battling an infection for weeks now, with I don’t know how many different antibiotics. It’s not completely gone, but it finally seems to be well on its way out.

Happy Friday!

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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 busy getting-things-done-at-home week and therefore not much of a blogging week. 🙂 But it’s felt good to get some things accomplished. Here are some of the best parts of the last week:

1. A fun Saturday. We went with our kids and grandchild to a park, mainly to watch Timothy play in the fountain, or splash pad. Then we ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, came home and caught a nap, and then Jason and Mittu came over and made chicken nachos for dinner.

2. A blow dryer with a “cool” setting. What’s funny is that it has been sitting in a closet for three years. It was among my mother-in-law’s things from the nursing home, but we don’t remember buying it for her (that was the case with a lot of things – some of her things missing, but a few things we’d never seen before were with her belongings. Sigh.) She has one in her room, so we just put this one in a box. Just recently mine started acting up, so I dug this one out – and really liked it! It has a lot more power than my old one. And this time of year when I get sweaty so easily, especially on days I go to the gym, it’s nice when I am finishing blowing my hair dry to turn on the cool setting for a minute or so. To think I could have been using it all this time!

3. Using gift cards. Last Friday night I felt totally uninspired to cook, or even to think about what to cook. I had a couple of gift cards for Cracker Barrel that I received at Christmas, and my husband indulged me in using them for dinner that night – we called an order in and then he picked it up. Then I went to look for a couple of things at our nearby Hobby Lobby that I had seen at another one. I didn’t find one, and decided against the other – but I did find a couple of other things! They all happened to be 40% off. And I still have gift card credit!

4. Finally getting my hair cut. I have been meaning to for a few weeks and just haven’t made it til this one. It’s nothing new or exciting, but it’s just so much more cooperative at shoulder length, and I was about 2″ past that.

5. Progress in sorting out some things to donate to our local rescue mission thrift store. I had started a couple of weeks ago and gotten sidetracked, but determined to finish this week, as this stuff was piling up in my sewing room. It’s been fun to find some things I thought I had lost or had forgotten about, plus to tidy up and reorganize the spaces that have been cleaned out. I still have a bit to do, but I’m enjoying a sense of accomplishment.

Happy Friday!

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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 rough week for my husband, who hasn’t been feeling well. But hopefully things have turned a corner. Here are some bright spots from the week:

1. Sunday dinner. Through a series of mishaps (involving a baby, a blow-out diaper, and a car seat that had to be taken out and cleaned up), my son and daughter-in-law weren’t able to go to church on Sunday morning (or at least would not have gotten there til it was more than half over). So they came to our house and started making lunch. That especially worked out well because dealing with an ant invasion in the kitchen that morning put me running behind and I wasn’t able to get the dinner that I was planning on into the crockpot. I had a Plan B in mind, but it was much nicer to come home and find a meal nearly ready.

2. Hubby helping with the ant invasion clean-up.

3. Air conditioning. I’ve come back from errand-running just dripping with sweat a couple of times – and it’s only June!

4. “More Manners of Downton Abbey.” The historical advisor for “Downton Abbey” discussed manners and mores of the time. It aired just before the series finale, and I had it in my Tivo recorded shows, but hadn’t seen it until this week. It was a pleasant hour’s viewing. I enjoy watching those times, but I am glad I don’t live in them!

5. This photo of my son and grandson playing in the fountains.

Happy Friday!

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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 the highlights:

1. A long weekend. My husband was off Monday and took Friday off as well.

2. Lunch at my son and daughter-in-law‘s on Saturday. With my m-i-l here, we don’t get out much together, and it was nice to do so.

3. Memorial Day was just a perfect day all the way around. The night before I watched a moving Memorial Day concert on the PBS station. Monday morning was a slow, peaceful start, then my husband grilled burgers, hot dogs, and sausage for lunch. He made a water slide that Timothy just loved and went up and down multiple times. We had a nap in the afternoon, leftovers for dinner, and a game of Settlers of Catan that evening.

4. Good eating! Jason grilled for the first time on Saturday, chicken marinated in a sweet onion and bacon marinade (I think they got it at Trader Joe’s). It was wonderful. Then we got take-out barbecue for dinner that evening, grilled ham on Sunday, and then had all the goodies on Memorial Day – and leftovers for several days afterward! Also had some good desserts: key lime pie (store bought and frozen. It’s not my favorite, but I enjoyed this one) and an angel food cake, cheery pie filling, cream cheese and Cool Whip dessert Mittu made.

5. A whole day at home is hard to come by any more. I go out to the gym as many mornings as I can, and the days that I don’t are usually days I have other appointments or errands. Thursday I didn’t go to the gym because I had a few errands to run, but decided instead to focus on something I was doing at home. Wow, I got so much done plus felt so much more rested! I still have to tuck the errands in somewhere, and I do value (and need) the gym, but I am thinking I might try to work more of these totally-at-home days in more often.

Happy Friday!

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