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 down into the 50s at night and downright nippy a few mornings, and the day time has been quite pleasant and sunny. Here are some fave moments of the last week:

1 A family outing. We hadn’t had one since August, and I was feeling a little cooped up with Jim having been away a little more than usual lately, so I suggested we go visit the Mast General Store downtown and then eat lunch at a little sandwich and gelato shop nearby on Saturday. I had never been to either before and I enjoyed reading some of the history of Mast on the way. It was a fun morning.

2. A new dish towel from the store we visited. I didn’t get it just for the birds, though I like them, but mainly because it is hard to find “fluffy” dish towels any more.

3. A zucchini cookie at the aforementioned shop. I’d had zucchini bread and zucchini cake before, but not a cookie. This was excellent.

4. A football game is not something I had thought I would ever have on any kind of favorite list, but we’ve watched a couple of UT Vols games lately. The first one was their game against Oklahoma, which is where Mittu is from, so she was rooting for the Sooners. 🙂 UT started out well ahead in that game and then lost. We ended up watching last Saturday’s game as well, which they won. I googled a couple of basic things during the game, like “What is a first down” and a “first and ten.” Such was my ignorance. 🙂 But it did help to know those things! Who knows, I may become a fan yet.

5. A few hours with no interruption has gotten to be almost a rarity these days, but I had one such glorious afternoon this week and was able to get several posts ahead on my 31 Days With Elisabeth Elliot series for Write31 Days.

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 has been…not a bad week but not the best. I’ve had a couple of days that I described to my husband as being busy all day but having nothing to show for it – though I guess clean clothes are something after all. 🙂 But still, there are always blessings to count, and if we sometimes have to think or look for them a little harder, the exercise is all the more beneficial. Here are some highlights since last week:

1. Jesse’s birthday. It was actually last week but we celebrated Saturday when everyone’s time off coordinated. Always fun to get the family together and celebrate someone’s special day.

2. Timothy is very interested in bags of tissue and packages now. 🙂

3. Lemon cake with lemon glaze. Normally I don’t feel it is really dessert if it is not chocolate. 🙂 But Jesse has asked for lemon cake the last few birthdays, and I have come to look forward to it. Every now and then something lemon with just the right degree of tartness hits the spot. It’s just a cake mix (Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme) and the glaze is made of 2 cups powdered sugar mixed with 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice.

4. My husband’s sous vide chicken, which I know I have mentioned before, but it is always good. 🙂 He made some for Sunday dinner with the equipment Jeremy had put together for him, and we had enough left over for Sunday evening snacking and then stir fry Monday night.

5. A few fall decorations. I need to send Jesse up into the attic tomorrow for the rest, but I got a couple of things set out. Funny how I wasn’t really ready for fall until I did that. 🙂 They do help set an atmosphere.

Bonus: cool mornings. It’s still warm in the afternoons but the mornings are not only lusciously cool, but also a portent of more coolness to come.

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 has not been a bad week, but the blessings haven’t been so overflowing and obvious as they have been the last two. But sometimes those kinds of weeks are when its best to go back and look for them lest we overlook them. So here are a few from this week:

1. Breakfast biscuits. I am up early, but not usually out and about til later morning. But I had to be one morning and rewarded myself with a breakfast biscuit on the way back home. Hadn’t had one in a while, and it was good!

2. Medical week is over! I have been thinking of this week that way because I had to go in early for fasting lab work one day (thus my early morning outing), had a visit with the heart doctor another day, and then my yearly physical another day. I chafed at having all that on the calendar in one week, but on the other hand, it was good to get it all done with.

3. Good visit with the heart doctor. Some of you have prayed for the situation with the heart rhythm problem and the attempted ablation from last month (thank you!). The visit this week was pretty anticlimactic. I was able to ask some questions and we talked about adjusting some medications a little. Other than that I don’t see him again for six months unless I am having problems. He advises not undergoing another procedure unless symptoms ratchet up significantly. We’ll hope that doesn’t happen. 🙂

4. A captivating new book, a true story based in my area. Will tell you more later!

5. FaceTime. I know I have mentioned it before, but I love being able to see my oldest son (who lives in another state) when we talk on the phone, and we even Face Time with little Timothy (and his parents 🙂 ) in-between visits sometimes even though we are in the same town. I love being able to do that.

Hope you’ve had a great week as well! 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 is a week overflowing with them, but here are five:

1. Jeremy (oldest son) coming to visit and the whole family being together. My husband took the week off and Jesse (youngest son) and Jason (middle son) were able to take a day off as well. And Jason brought Mittu (daughter-in-law) and Timothy (very special grandson 🙂 ) to spend a day at our house while he worked.

2. Jeremy’s birthday. Nice to have a special day to let people know you’re glad they were born to our family – and an excuse to have lasagna and Boston Creme Pie as well. 🙂

3. Fun despite being rained out of a couple of activities. We went to the Farmer’s Market Saturday and got thoroughly soaked but had a fun time. Then we were supposed to go to an outdoor jazz concert downtown one evening, and it got rained out as well, but we enjoyed dinner at a favorite local pizza place.

4. A fairly relaxed week. I was fretting about getting something done one afternoon and thought, “You know what? Everyone else is taking some time off this week, so I will, too.” Besides dealing with essentials like meals, dishes, and laundry, I decided not to worry about getting anything else done this week and just enjoyed relaxing and fellowship. And I even got “off” for a few meals when we ate out and dishes when Mittu did them a number of times.

5. Games. I love playing games with the family, and we pretty much only do that when everyone is here. Looking forward to more of that this weekend! Mittu and I ended up battling it out for first place in a Settlers of Catan, beating out the boys one night! She won. 🙂

Bonus: My birthday is today! Looking forward to celebrating with the family – everyone is off today! This is the first time since Jeremy moved that he has been able to be here for my birthday!

Happy Friday!