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 are some of mine:

1. The Olympic Skater’s Gala, when some of the figure skater’s perform something of an encore. I had actually forgotten about it and thought the skating was all done, so I was pleasantly surprised that there was one more event. It’s especially fun because there is no judging and therefore less pressure.

2. A cute little spring dish towel, bought with a gift card on my shopping excursion last week.

3. Getting these done:

I’ve been taking the multitude of loose recipes I had stacked up from many years of tearing them out of magazines and putting them in scrapbook-like notebooks, working on it in the evenings. I didn’t get at all fancy with it, because then it would have taken me twice as long. I still need to work on some of the inside labeling, but they are already easier to use. Plus since they are in page-protectors, they won’t get splattered.

4. Exercise DVDs – which is ironic for me to say, because I approach exercise with gritted teeth and grim determination, though I always feel better afterward and am glad I did it. But I’ve accumulated a few of them over the years, so I can vary the workouts and not get bored, plus they allow me to be able to exercise in my own home. My favorites are “The Biggest Loser Power Walk” and Leslie Sansone’s “Five Mega Miles,” because each is divided up into 15 minute segments which are supposed to cover a mile each, yet they also include some exercises for arms with weights or a stretch band, so I usually do a couple of segments a day. Having some variety is important for me.

5. Throw blankets. I know I have mentioned them before, but they’re just so cozy for cool evenings. I even use one on my bed at night over my bedspread, and it’s just enough. I don’t know what they’re made out of, but they have just the right degree of coziness – not too hot or cool.

Hope you’ve had a great week as well!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week,  wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

The last three weeks have had something abnormal about them. Maybe this is becoming the new normal! :0 I hope not! But there are good things in any week, and here are five from this one:

1. The Olympics. I’ve been mainly watching the figure skating, but have also seen a bit of several other competitions.

2. Valentine’s Day! One of my favorite holidays!

3. Take-out from Ruby Tuesday’s. Love their Smoky Mountain Chicken. My husband graciously got me dinner from there when I was craving it even though he doesn’t really like anything he has tried from there.

4. Take-out from Wok Chow, an Asian place, as its name implies. Jason and Mittu were coming over one night and offered to bring some food from there when they came over. I’m pretty much always open to having someone bring me dinner. 🙂

5. Snow. I haven’t been a big fan of snow in my old middle age. I can’t get out in it due to a balance problem, and I tend to mainly see it as bringing potential for traffic problems and power outages. But we got 6″ on Wednesday, and it was hard not to get excited about it. We didn’t have any problems with it (except Jim’s mom’s aide didn’t make it in) and much of it was melted away by Thursday. Jim and Jesse even got out and played in it for just a little while.

But personally…I’m about done with winter and ready for spring, groundhog or no groundhog. 🙂

Hope you’ve had some blessings this week, too.

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It’s been another not-quite-normal week, but a good one overall. Here are the highlights:

1. A changed perspective. It has been overcast much of the week, raining some, and down in the 30s, which would normally cloud my own outlook a bit. But after the ice and snow and 1 degree temperatures a few weeks ago, the weather this week hasn’t bothered me at all.

2. Special services on Sunday. We had the Aaron Coffey team at church for Sunday School and both services. I had heard of him, and our church supports him, but I had never heard him preach or his team sing. Evidently this is the first year they’ve had a team traveling with them. Both the music and the preaching really ministered to me.

3. Watching sports, not a usual thing for our family, but there is something about the Olympics that draws me in. I’ve already enjoyed watching a bit of ice skating last night and look forward to the opening ceremonies tonight. We don’t usually watch football, either, and had no interest in either team in the Super Bowl, but Jason and Mittu were here and we turned it on and got some pizza and chicken wings. It was kind of fun to be in on what so much of the country was watching and to know what people were talking about when they mentioned it on Facebook, even if the game itself was kind of a wash.

4. Not an ER visit, but the fact that it was relatively minor, that my dear family all jumped in in different ways to help, and that the follow-up doctor’s visit concluded that if this is the first time it has happened in several years, we probably don’t need to change anything we’re doing unless it starts happening more frequently.

5. Progress on two fronts. I started exercising again, and as much as I don’t look forward to it, I have to admit I do feel better, more energetic, and more awake when I do it. And Jesse is supposed to do an internship this semester, but so far all the leads he has checked out haven’t worked out. There is a possibility that just came up this week that looks really good and looks like it might work out.

Happy Friday!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

I almost didn’t do a FFF today – I wasn’t sure if I would have time, at least not until later in the day. It was a strange and off-kilter week with a dentist appointment that I thought was for a cleaning turning out to be for a gingivectomy I had forgotten about, Jim’s mom’s caregiver’s accident, a distressing day for his mom with getting confused and disoriented – nothing “favorite” about it really stood out at first. But sometimes it’s that kind of week when it is most helpful to actively look for bright spots. So here are some faves from this week:

1. Safety on the roads. I mentioned yesterday that my mother-in-law’s caregiver left early when it snowed on Tuesday, and ended up in a ditch that had some boulders in it. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt, and her husband picked her up, with AAA advising her to leave the car there since it was off the road, and they’d get to it when they could. Then, after they left, another car went into the ditch behind her and crashed into her car from behind. 😦  I’m just thankful she wasn’t still in it waiting for her husband when that happened. Then Jesse and Jim made it home safely – I was especially concerned about Jesse since he hasn’t had much experience driving in the snow.

I know some folks from up North get amused at us Southerners about dealing with snow, but they just can’t invest in all the snow plows and such here when they would only need them once or twice a year. In fact, I saw this on Facebook:

Be patient. We only have one snow plow.

🙂 Seriously, though, snow is slippery, and we truly don’t have the resources the North has to take care of the roads, and most people here aren’t used to driving in it, so all of that combined creates driving hazards.

2. Warmth. It’s been another bitterly cold week, and I’m so glad for central heating and the power not going out and pipes not freezing.

3. Pizza. My favorite pizza is from a local place that my husband doesn’t care for, so one night this week when he had a dinner he had to attend, I splurged and got pizza.

4. Helpers. I also mentioned yesterday that Grandma’s caregiver being away for a day and a half made me appreciate her all the more, since it was the first time I had had to care for Grandma alone for that amount of time. I was praying the time would go smoothly, especially as she’d had a distressing evening before, and God graciously answered. Then our weekend helper got a full time job and therefore quit her weekend one, and the service we use has been searching for someone to replace her. They sent someone to fill in last weekend, but we were hoping we wouldn’t have several weekends of fill-ins –  Jim didn’t want to spend every weekend showing someone new the ropes. But a new person just applied and was hired this week, and she has been out a couple of times to train with the regular caregiver, so hopefully she’ll work out and be a regular.

5. The end of January. Someone that seems like a giant leap toward spring.

Bonus: The ladies’ newsletter for church coming together, especially during a week when so much else was going on. It’s interesting when I get started and I’m not sure what to put in the different sections, and then somehow God lays different things on my heart, and it all falls together. God answers prayer even about newsletters and caregivers and smooth days after rough ones.

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Brrr! It was 1 degree F on Monday and didn’t get above the mid-teens all day, and this was after rain and snow, so it was pretty icy out. I haven’t been that cold in a very long time. 45 degrees today (Thursday) felt almost balmy! Here are some favorite parts of the week.

1. Not losing power. Sometimes a favorite is something that didn’t happen that you were afraid might! According to the local news, about 500 or so homes did. I felt so bad for them and prayed it would be restored quickly.

2. No broken pipes here: our church did have one, but because they were taking precautions it was minor.

3. Not running out of supplies. Somehow I was not as prepared for the weather this time as I usually am, and I’ve found that makes a great deal of difference in how I feel about the weather! We were running low on a couple of things before I felt comfortable enough to venture out, but didn’t run out completely, thankfully.

4. Warmer weather, relatively, later in the week. Supposed to be in the 60s by the weekend!

5. Sous-vide chicken. I mentioned last week that my son made a sous vide cooking apparatus for my husband for Christmas, and this is his third and so far best experiment with it. He made three kinds of chicken: teriyaki, barbecue, and a marinade he had found at the store (it is nice with this system that one can make different flavors without their mixing together with each other). The chicken breasts were so thick that he never could have grilled them without burning the outside before getting the inside done. They were so moist and good.

BTW, when I mentioned sous vide last time, someone commented on the cost of the cooker. Jim said new they’re about $500, but Jeremy had found a link with instructions to make a sous-vide cooker for about $40 and put one together for his dad. When they were first discussing it, I thought, “OK, so, what’s the big deal?” But now I am a definite fan!

Bonuses: Safety on super-icy roads was a blessing, as was my mother-in-law’s aide being able to come in spite of the weather, and throw blankets, coffee, and good books have helped make the cold days a good bit cozier.

Happy Friday!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

The first FFF of the new year! As much as I loved all the activity of Christmas week, Monday I got hit with a wave of extreme tiredness, and I’ve been glad this week has been quieter. Monday I got the worst haircut of my life (no, I didn’t take any pictures of it), Tuesday I went to a different place to try to get it fixed, and Wednesday I finagled with it a bit and finally got it to an acceptable style. We took down the Christmas decorations Wednesday, always a combination of relief and wistfulness. Except for the hair fiasco, it’s been a pleasant week. Here are some highlights:

1. Sharing the news that I’m becoming a grandmother this summer. I actually knew about it a few weeks ago, but didn’t want to say anything until Jason and Mittu were ready for the news to go public.

2. Sous-vide cooking. My son discovered this, a way of cooking food in plastic bags in water in a slow cooker at a regulated even temperature. He built his own mechanism, and my husband thought it looked like a good idea and asked for one for Christmas. So far he has tried steaks and ribs in it.

3. Jim’s glasses. Those who have been reading here the last year know that my husband had surgery for retinal detachment back in April, and his vision got steadily worse ever since until he had cataract surgery in the same eye a few weeks ago. He finally was able to get prescription glasses, and while his eyesight is still not the same as it was before the detached retina, it’s much improved and much of the constant eyestrain is gone.

4. New calendars. I love putting fresh new calendars up in January with its pages blank except for birthdays.

5. The winter solstice, which actually was last week, just because I know that after it the days start getting longer. Even though it doesn’t look like we’re getting any more daylight yet, just knowing that it’s happening is a boon.

Hope you’ve had a great week as well, and I wish you a wonderful 2014!

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Some weeks you really have to search for five good things about the week, and the FFF is so helpful for that, because there are always things to be thankful for. And some weeks there are so many good things that you’re about to burst, and FFF is helpful for that as well. This week has been the latter! I’ll try to squeeze as much into just five “faves” as I can:

1. Our anniversary. We celebrated 34 years of marriage on Saturday. Jim took me out to dinner on Friday for our anniversary and then Jason and Mittu came over to make dinner for us on Saturday.

2. Family times. Our oldest son, Jeremy, flew in Friday night and has been here all week, and we’ve seen Jason and Mittu every day, I think. We’ve had fun times talking, watching movies, playing games, and having a few outings.

3. Christmas. The remembrance of the greatest gift of all, God’s gift of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Savior. The love. The giving and receiving. The food! 🙂

4. Nights off in the kitchen. Usually during holidays or when the family is all together, there is a lot more time in the kitchen both cooking and cleaning up. But this week Jason and Mittu made dinner once, Jeremy is planning to make dinner this weekend, and we’ve eaten out a few times in conjunction with some of our outings. Then Jason cleaned up the dishes for me a couple of times. We might make this a tradition of everyone making one meal when we’re all together! It helped me not to feel as tired and not to feel like I was missing out on the visiting because I was in the kitchen.

5. Quiet times. I can get pretty cranky and stressed without some quiet moments here and there, and though this week and has been fuller and busier than usual, there have been pockets of quiet time and rest just when I needed them.

It has been a lovely week, and Jeremy is here for a few more days, so we’ll have some more family times together this weekend. I’m so thankful that everyone had some extended time off this week.

I hope you’ve had a great week, too.