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 actually had a day in the 60s that felt so wonderful – and then the next day had sleet and ice, but only for 1/2 an hour, so not too bad. I’m still more than ready for spring to arrive! Just a couple more weeks now! Meanwhile, here are some favorite parts of the last week:

1. Girl Scout Cookies, and more importantly, my husband bringing me some unasked when some girls were selling them in front of a store. He ordered some more later through someone at work. My favorites are Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos.

2. An impromptu movie night watching The Hundred-Foot Journey recommended by Susanne. I liked all the same things she mentioned.

3. Gluten-free snacks. My daughter-in-law has been trying to eat gluten-free to see if that helps with some stomach issues she has been having. If you’ve ever tried eating without gluten, the hardest food items are breads, cakes, and that kind of thing. All that we have tried so far have been very dense and heavy. I found a few things on Amazon to try and got some for her birthday (but they arrived late due to weather). Of the ones we opened and tried that night, My Dad’s Cookies were really good and Glutino GF Chocolate Chip Cookies were tasty as well. The first ones were light and both were soft rather than crunchy.

4. The Aaron Coffey team has been at our church this week. Unfortunately I have only been able to go to one service, but I really enjoyed it.

5. Easy meals. We had enough leftovers from one meal for a complete second meal as well as lunch, enough pork chops leftover from another meal to make a stir-fry the next night, and some frozen chicken fajita meat my husband had found on sale and put in the freezer to heat up for chicken tacos one night. It helps to have a few easy meals in the rotation.

Bonus: Today is my dear husband’s birthday! We’ll actually be celebrating tomorrow when everyone’s schedules coordinate, but I am very thankful for him and his years with us. 🙂

Hope you have a good weekend. I am hoping we’ve seen the last of snow and ice til next year!

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 cold one here, with ice and snow and subzero temperatures – and another round of snow and ice is expected for tonight. I am very thankful we’ve all been safe and haven’t lost power. I was thinking this morning as I looked on my weather app that it’s funny to think of 27 degrees as “warming up.” We’re supposed to get into the 40s tomorrow – that will feel downright balmy after this week.

Here are some favorites moments of this week:

1. Fresh eggs. Some years ago was the first time I ever had eggs fresh from a farm, and man, what a difference. We’ve talked off and on about trying to find a source for them here but never really pursued it. Then I saw a friend from church on Facebook talking about where she got hers, contacted her and she was willing to pick some up for me when she gets hers.

2. Valentine’s Day is a favorite every year. We had our usual heart-shaped meat loaves and cupcakes and played some games afterward.

3. A wonderful sermon on grace, a subject we probably can’t hear too much about, from a visiting speaker at church. In one sense, if we’ve walked with the Lord for a long time we might feel like we know all about it, but we need fresh reminders, and this particular message really spoke to my heart and brought up one aspect I hadn’t really considered before.

4. Figuring out how to access photos on my WordPress app. I used to have to send pictures on my phone by email to my computer, download them there, then upload them into my blog. It was very simple to learn how to add them directly into a post with the WordPress app on my phone – I just hadn’t taken the time to look at it until this week. Should have long ago!

5. Baby’s first snow pictures. Love, love, love these!

Timothy is not really standing on his own yet except for a few seconds at a time. Jason said this heavy snowsuit and layers of clothes underneath making it hard to bend his legs helped a lot. 🙂

BONUS: It is my sweet daughter-in-law’s birthday today! Happy birthday, Mittu!

We’re hoping to celebrate tomorrow, after we see what the weather does overnight.

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 try to keep a running list during the week for things to possibly include for the Friday’s Fave Five, and it’s a good thing, because sometimes on Friday when I sit down at the computer, I can’t even remember what happened yesterday, much less since last week. That’s one of many reasons why I love the FFF: it reminds me of my blessings and reminds me to be thankful for them. Here are a few from this week:

1. A baby shower for a lady at church. I love brunch showers and all the breakfasty things, the time to fellowship with other ladies, and watching all the cute little baby things being unwrapped. (Something that amused me for this shower: usually when I wrap a baby gift, I’ll write “Baby…” and the last name on the card: Baby Smith, Baby Jones, etc. This family’s last name was Bottoms, and it didn’t strike me until I started to address the card that it would be to Baby Bottoms. 🙂 Got a good chuckle out of that.)

2. A hairdresser who makes house calls. One thing we had to iron out when Great-Grandma came to live with us was haircuts. It would be difficult, though not impossible, to get her to a salon, but then we’d have no way to get her in one of their chairs, and her Broda chair is too high in the back for someone to reach around to cut her hair while she’s in it. Her former caregiver used to do it: it was above her job description, but she offered to give it a try, and it worked out well. When she left last December, we weren’t sure what we were going to do. I tried it once but wasn’t pleased with it (I have no hair-cutting skills!) Our current caregiver said that she knew a lady who came out to the home of her last patient, so we arranged for her to come out this week. Everything worked out well and she charged us less than what we were expecting. She cut her hair while she was in bed, and she was leaning forward enough for her to be able to reach. She had one of those hairdresser capes that caught most of the hair, but it was done right before her shower, so we were able to change her and the sheets afterward.

3. Kyle eating. A man from our church had a lung transplant over a year ago (it may have been a double lung transplant – I can’t remember for sure.) They’re still dealing with issues related to that and working on his healing. He has had trouble with his esophagus for some time – not sure whether it is connected to the lung issue or a separate issue, but it caused him to aspirate some food into his lungs: not good when you have lung issues in the first place. So he has not been able to eat or drink by mouth for months now. I just cannot imagine – what I can imagine isn’t pleasant! But just this week he passed a swallowing test and was able to eat real food again. That just made my day, maybe my whole week, when I heard.

4. Ground beef on sale. That might sound silly to include, but the price of lean ground beef has been so high for months that I just haven’t bought any. We use ground turkey for most things anyway, but I have a few recipes where ground beef works best. I was going to splurge and buy some for the little heart-shaped meat loaves I often make for Valentine’s Day, and lo and behold, they were marked down. Still too high in my opinion, but I figured I wasn’t going to see that price again any time soon, so I bought 4 packs in order to be able to make some of those other recipes later on as well. I was delighted.

5. Button decorations. I finished off the last of my Christmas gift card to Hobby Lobby with these cute button decorations for my sewing/craft room. They’re each 7 1/2″ across. Honestly, I thought they were way overpriced, but I got one with my 40% off coupon one week, and when I went to do the same another week, they were on sale 1/2 price, so that made them fairly reasonable. Now I have to decide where to hang them.

Sorry for so many lengthy explanations. 🙂 Hope you’re having a good week, and Happy Valentine’s Eve! 🙂

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 flown by already! Once again we did not get snow that was forecast (yay!). But I had a 2 hour long dentist appointment to do the first part of getting a bridge put in (boo! I was so wrung out when it was over!). Most weeks are like that – a mixture of highs and lows. Here are some favorite parts of this week:

1. Timothy being excited to see us. He has smiled for months, but for the last couple of weeks, when he sees us, he smiles and gurgles and bounces and kicks and waves his arms. So sweet and fun!

2. Eating in and out. Friday night Jim brought Red Lobster home, and Saturday Jason and Mittu invited us out to a breakfast/brunch restaurant they found called The Egg & I. It was a fun excursion and good food.

3. The end of road construction. They’ve been working on adding a stretch of road and an overpass and repaving part of the old road for what seems like ages, and it was finally completed this week. So nice to have all lanes open and the orange and white barrels taken up! I think I was one of the first people to drive on the new part: it was still closed when I passed by running errands, but open on my way back, so I gave it a test drive. 🙂

4. Time alone. When my kids were in high school, I had seven hours a week day to myself, and thought that pattern would continue on as they got older and left home. That hasn’t been the case, especially with Great-grandma and her helper here and Jesse working evenings. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to complain and I love my family, but like any introvert, I operate best with some alone time to “hear myself think,” as my mom used to say. I’ve learned not to go around and lament about it or insist on it, but just to trust that God will provide it when He knows I need it, and this week He did. It was delicious. 🙂

5. Reaching out. At the risk of sounding antisocial with my last two here…I had noticed that I could spend a whole morning at church without really saying much to anyone but a surface, “Hi, how are you, fine, thanks.” And church is for more fellowship than that. So I’ve been trying to remember to pray on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings that God would help me not to be so closed in but to be open and friendly and to interact more with people, and He has. I share that partly as an encourage to others who feel the same way: we may not be comfortable as “greeters” shaking hands with everyone who comes in the door, but God can lead us to interact with others in quieter, one on one ways.

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.

Can you believe we’re almost through January and almost 1/12 of the way through 2015 already?

I am running late today – had some things to take care of this morning. Here are some of the favorite parts of this week:

1. Not getting predicted bad weather. We did get a little snow one day, but not enough to affect the roads much at all. On the other hand, my oldest son in RI got about 2 feet of snow! But they’re much more equipped to deal with it, and he was able to go back to work the day after. I’m thankful for his safety and the fact that he didn’t lose power – and the fact that we didn’t get that much. 🙂

2. This chocolate pie:

I had been craving chocolate pie for a week or so. Jason and Mittu were coming over for dinner one night and asked if there was anything they could pick up for us on the way over. 🙂 So I took them up on their offer and asked them to get one of these. This is probably my favorite chocolate pie. I don’t get it often, lest I end up twice the size I am, but I love it for an occasional treat.

3. A balanced week or two. The past couple of weeks have had a good balance between getting things done but having some time to relax as well. Sometimes when I have something I have to do in a given week, I can feel more pressured than I should by it and have to constantly try to keep the proper perspective (there are always things that need to be done or that I could be doing, but deadlines or events or appointments can be stressful). God helping me, I was able to get the required things done this week with a minimum of stress.

4. Baked chicken chimichangas. I think I’ve mentioned them a time or three before. 🙂 Our Mexican food restaurant closed, and we haven’t scouted out any new ones yet. I was looking at the online menus of a couple of them nearby, and then of course I was craving it. Thankfully I had all the ingredients on hand – even the white queso sauce I love to top it with!

5. Hearts and Valentine’s ideas. I love hearts, and Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays, so I am enjoying some of the Valentine’s ideas that are popping up on blogs and Pinterest. I just spent an enjoyable time looking through one blog’s Pinterest boards for Valentine’s Day. I’ll never be able to do all those ideas in a lifetime – but I love to look at them and be inspired. And I did get an idea or two I might use this year.

Happy Friday – what’s left of it! 🙂

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

Thankfully this week has been a very normal one, compared to last week. Everyone is pretty much well from the various things we had going on, and feeling immensely better. Here are some highlights of the week:

1. Jason’s promotion. I mentioned at the end of last week’s post some good news that wasn’t public just yet. My middle son, Jason, was promoted to manager at his place of business and given a raise in salary that was just about what he felt he needed. He really enjoys his job but wasn’t making quite enough to support a family, so I am glad that all worked out and pleased that his gifts and skills are being recognized as well.

2. A refurbished computer. I had been having a number of problems with my desktop, and and mentioned for Christmas hoping for a way to get it running back up to par. My oldest son commented once that it was the oldest computer in the house. I had thought maybe over Christmas there would be some time while he was here to look at it, but we didn’t get to. Then my husband received some boxes in the mail and put them in Jesse’s room, and when I asked Jesse what they were, he said they were parts for my computer. Oh! I hadn’t known they were doing anything like that! Jesse had asked for some new components for his computer for Christmas, so they used some of his old ones plus a couple of new ones to update mine. Jim and Jesse put it together and then they and Jeremy set up programs and moved files over, all of them spending a good deal of time on it. I have quite a bit more memory in it now, which is helpful as well. It’s running much more quickly and smoothly. I am so glad they all know how to do that kind of thing. Thanks, guys! 🙂

3. New calendars. I meant to mention this last week, but forgot. One of my favorite things is getting out the new calendars the first week of the year and filling in the family birthdays and anniversaries. It’s so nice to look through all those fresh, clean pages and to flip through last year’s calendar at all the happenings of the year as well.

4. Restoring order. I love the holidays and having everyone here, and I miss that, but on the other hand it does feel good to get back to a routine. I’ve enjoyed going through and sorting, organizing and putting things to rights in the house. There is always more of that kind of thing to be done, but it feels good to make progress.

5. An unexpected lunch. It’s unusual for Jim and I to be alone for Sunday dinner, but this last Sunday we were, and Jim suggested getting something for lunch on the way home from church. It was so nice not only not to have to cook, but to have no clean-up as well, and I got a nice long nap in during the afternoon.

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 didn’t think I was going to do a FFF today – it has been a busy week, and I wasn’t feeling well this afternoon. But everything has come to a stopping place, and I have half an hour before time to start dinner – so here I am. 🙂

1. Time with family. My oldest son was here until last Sunday, and my middle son and d-i-l and little grandson were here often (and of course my youngest son lives here), plus my husband has been off for two weeks. We had lots of great times together as a family.

2. Ibuprofen. I had to have a tooth pulled Wednesday – no fun at all. The doctor said the damage was worse than thought (one root was almost completely gone. He was amazed I hadn’t had any pain, but that tooth had had a root canal some years before. The only way I knew something was wrong was when is showed up on an x-ray at a routine dental cleaning). He said the surgery went “as good as it could go,” so I am thankful for that. It’s been sore ever since then, but ibuprofen is keeping it manageable.

3. Soup has been my mainstay this week. Pudding and cream of wheat helped, too, but soup was the best, especially potato soup.

4. A meal brought over. One day my son and daughter-in-law brought soup and sandwiches over and we watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. Cute movie!

5. Ecclesiastes is not usually one of my favorite books to read in the Bible. It’s written kind of from a different angle than the other books. But for my birthday last year I got a John MacArthur study Bible, and his introductory remarks sounded very reminiscent of some things C. S. Lewis said, particularly his famous quote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Since I had just finished his The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses a month or so ago, much of that was really fresh to me. I hadn’t read Ecclesiastes in that light before – there is much, Solomon said, to enjoy in this life, but ultimately nothing satisfies long-term because it isn’t meant to. Reading in that light has caused me to “get” what it is saying that much more, and I am really enjoying this reading, or rereading.

Happy Friday – what’s left of it!