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.

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.

Whew! What a busy week! After thinking last week that the schedule of Christmas-related tasks was going pretty well, I hit a couple of snags this week that threw me behind and made for one stressful day in particular. I’m making adjustments to plans as I go along, and I think everything will be fine. Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. A quiz and a pen. Our Sunday School teacher gives a Christmas quiz every December, a series of questions about the Christmas story in the Bible, designed as a way to get us to spend time in those passages. For prizes for the top three “students” who get the most points, he makes little gifts using his woodworking skills: an ornament, key chain, yo-yo, pen, etc. I think our first year here I came in third and got the yo-yo, but really wanted the pen. 🙂 I haven’t placed in the top three since then, but this year I came in first and got the pen. 🙂 It helped a lot that the couple who usually gets first place (often coming in at #1 and 2) was absent on quiz day this year. 🙂

2. Carolers. On Wednesday night this week our church members divided up into groups and each group went to visit one of the at-home members who, due to age or illness, can’t make it to services. We enjoyed their visit to my mother-in-law. They also brought her a nice gift basket.

3. Christmas card garland. I mentioned on my Christmas meme that I had wanted to hang the Christmas cards we received on a garland this year, and got that done this week. I love being able to look at and enjoy the Christmas cards throughout the weeks until Christmas.

By the way, feel free to join in on the Christmas meme if you have time!

4. The first harvest loaf cake of the season!

5. Christmas devotions. I’ve been reading The Women of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs per my friend Kim‘s suggestion, and it has been just what I wanted this year. I’ll have more to say about it next week.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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 beginning to look and feel and sound a lot more like Christmas! Here are a few highlights since last week:

1. Ladies’ Christmas party. The Christmas party for our ladies from church was last Friday, and I especially enjoyed the fellowship and the testimonies. A favorite moment: the songleader asked us for favorite Christmas carols to sing, and someone volunteered “As the Deer.” The songleader gently explained that we wanted Christmas songs, and someone said, “As the Reindeer, then.” 🙂

2. The children’s Christmas program at church was Sunday night. They always do the Nativity story and sing various songs, and it’s always cute, especially the littlest ones dressed up in pajama-type costumes to represent the animals in the stable. This year it seemed like there were a record number of parents there from our church’s van ministry whose children come to the children’s ministry, and I pray that the gospel message found its way to their hearts.

3. Online shopping. Love it! Much nicer than traveling place to place to place to shop, though I do like to get out and about for Christmas shopping a little bit. And then all the packages coming in the mail as a result is fun, too. 🙂

4. Progress. When I realized that, with the lateness of Thanksgiving this year, we had just a few short weeks until Christmas, I almost started to panic, but this week I got most of my shopping done (thanks to online shopping! 🙂 ) and am almost finished with my Christmas cards and letters, so I am feeling pretty good about the Christmas schedule now.

5. Cake pops. Just discovered these yesterday. I had been wanting something chocolate and cakey, but I don’t dare buy or bake a whole cake for just the three of us, and when I saw this, I thought, “That’s it! Just what I want!”

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 apologize if several posts with no content popped up in your feed readers from me yesterday. Every time I hit “Publish” or “Save Draft,” everything would disappear except the title. I tried several times and put in a note with the WordPress forums, with no help from that quarter yet, but I am hoping it was a temporary fluke and that everything will work like it it supposed to today.

Here are some favorite parts of the last week or so:

1. Praise service. This was actually the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention it. In all of the other churches we have been in, the Wednesday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving has always been a time for testimonies about how God has worked in our lives the previous year, and it has always been the highlight of the church year for me. Up to this point our current church provided that time at the end of a fall festival earlier in the month, but not everyone can attend that, and and fewer people can participate since it is at the end of a number of other activities. This month they decided to have it the Sunday night before Thanksgiving, and it was a joy to hear different people share how God met them in the circumstances of the past year.

2. Family time. My oldest son was home for Thanksgiving and stayed until Monday, and everyone else (except Mom 🙂 ) was off until Monday as well, so we enjoyed a nice long weekend of feasting, playing games, decorating for Christmas, and enjoying each other.

3. Dinner at Cheddar’s. Not only is it one of my favorite places to eat, but it was nice to have a break from cooking and dishwashing.

4. Making gingerbread houses. This is a new tradition our daughter-in-law introduced to us. This year we had a Charlie Brown theme.

5. The end of a bad day. Yesterday was an extremely frustrating day for a number of reasons. The post I was trying to publish yesterday took much longer to write than I had planned, and then the silly thing wouldn’t publish, and I spent a great deal of time trying to get it to. Then I had a couple of mishaps in the kitchen, including burning the caramel for caramel corn (burnt caramel is not a good scent for the home…:)). But that day is over, and hopefully this one will be better.

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.

There is much to be thankful for this week!

1. Jeremy’s safe arrival. My oldest son was flying in Tuesday night when snow was in the forecast, and here in the South much shuts down due to snow because we don’t have the equipment to deal with it. Both of his flights were delayed but he did make it in, and we’ve been enjoying visiting.

2. A cozy baking day. It was snowing all day Wednesday, but not much was sticking. I baked a couple of kinds of cookies and an apple pie while visiting with Jim and Jeremy, who were at the kitchen table (or sometimes just listening to them talk.)

3. A freezer! We have never had one except the one built in with the refrigerator, though we have often talked about getting a free-standing one. My husband saw one on sale this week and cleared out a space in the garage for it and then went and got it. It’s nice to be able to store “extras” or buy bigger things like frozen pizzas that wouldn’t fit in our side-by-side.

4. A cute footstool. I have been wanting a little low footstool to use with my rocking chair in the bedroom. I wanted one that was small enough to put out of the way when not in use (otherwise I’d trip on it during the night). I looking around online for one to put on my Christmas wish list (we exchange those in our family) and found this one on Etsy. There was only one so I went ahead and bought it so I wouldn’t risk someone else buying it before Christmas (sorry, family!) It’s adorable.

5. Thanksgiving, of course – the opportunity to take more time than usual to think about what we’re thankful for, having all the family together, the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen all morning and the favorite Thanksgiving foods, time with family all the rest of the day, heated-up plates of leftovers or sandwiches in the evening…a wonderful day!

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 hard to believe it’s almost time for Thanksgiving and that November is almost over! This month has just flown. Here are some favorite parts of the last week or so:

1. My husband’s cataract surgery went well. Things are still healing, but already his vision has improved from what it was. It may never be perfect because of the wrinkle on his retina, unless that should work itself out, but it is better, and should improve more as the eye heals.

2. Kind comments and prayers for us concerning Jim’s surgery.

3. Help for ministry. I share this kind of thing as an encouragement to others and a praise to God. Most of you know I compile a newsletter for our ladies at church. I usually have that out the first Sunday of the month which, this month, comes up right after Thanksgiving. I needed to get it ready to print off by the beginning of next week because the church offices will be closed the latter half of the week (and I’ll have my own Thanksgiving things to do). So that was Job 1 this week – which was also the week of Jim’s surgery. I wanted to put a big dent in it Tuesday, and all morning one thing after another came up, so that I couldn’t even really get started. I was a bit discouraged, but the afternoon was blessedly quiet, and things just fell together with it. I’m all done now except for one part I am waiting on from someone else, and here I thought I’d be scrambling to get it done this week. Thank you, Lord!

4. Just-right weather. Our weather has been all over the place this fall. This week the thunderstorms and hail that had been forecast did not come to pass, and though the early mornings and evenings have been cold, the afternoons have been just like I like them. I am not a hiker, but if I were this would have been a perfect week for it.

5. C. S. Lewis. Most of the focus this week has been on the 50th anniversary of the death of JFK, and that was indeed an event that shook our nation. But someone else died that day, someone I had never heard of at the time but someone who was to have a much more profound influence on me and on others. C. S. Lewis passed away quietly 50 years ago today, and this is a nice tribute.

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.

We’ve had quite the cold snap this week! I’ve been thankful for central heat and throw blankets and decaf coffee and soup and as well as:

1. Baked Chicken Chimichangas. I almost always order Chicken Chimichangas at Mexican food restaurants, but the one closest to us has kind of gone downhill, so we don’t go there any more. I was craving chimichangas, and the frozen ones just aren’t the same. I started looking up recipes for homemade ones and found one for baked ones – easier and healthier than fried. I added queso sauce across the top – probably not so healthy, but they always come that way in restaurants, and I love it. 🙂 They turned out pretty well, I thought.

2. The new Forte CD. Forte is a trio of tenors that was on Americas’ Got Talent this summer. They didn’t win, but their careers are taking off big time. I am loving the CD!

3. The Amazon cloud app. I didn’t know that Amazon would automatically put some music purchases in their “cloud” that you can then listen to on your computer or iPhone. So when I got the app for my phone, I discovered that several other former purchases were already in the “cloud” – and I didn’t have to figure out out to get them there. Cool! I’ve been enjoying the Forte CD already and I haven’t even got it yet! (I know I could just download it, but sometimes I like getting the actual CD and reading the stuff inside the case.

4. Getting pictures up in my hallway. That has only been on my to-do list for over 3 years now. 😳 My excuse is that I wanted to reframe some and maybe print out some others and took a long time to figure out what I wanted up there. I had one side of the wall done but on the other side wanted to do a grouping for each of the three boys. Feels nice to have gotten that done.

5. Take-out from Red Lobster that my dear hubby brought home from work Thursday night. Mmmm!!! Jesse has an evening class on Thursdays so sometimes that’s kind of an at-home date night for my husband and me.

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 can’t believe a whole week of November has gone by already! Here are some fave parts of it:

1. Date night! Last Saturday night my husband and I went with my son and daughter-in-law to see pianist Emile Pandolfi. I have been listening to his music for ages and for some years I’ve been wanting to see him in concert. We had seen this coming up a long time ago, but with Jim’s mom here now, I figured we wouldn’t be able to go and decided not to mention it as the time got closer. Then my husband called me saying he just remembered that was coming up and did I still want to go? Sure! We asked his mom’s caregiver if she could come in the evening instead of the morning, and she said yes. Emile entertained with funny stories in-between his lovely piano pieces. All in all a great night!

This isn’t from our concert – we weren’t supposed to take photos or videos – but it gives you a sample of what his concerts are like:

2. Dinner at a 50s-style diner called Hot Rods before the concert.

3. Cheddar potato soup at home this week. It was from a Bear Creek mix rather than homemade, and I added some hash brown potatoes to give it a little more bulk,  but it was very good.

4. A better-than-expected dentist’s appointment. I thought I’d be having three things done, a filling, a bond, and a gingivectomy. They put the last one off for a few weeks, which was a relief in some ways, though in one sense I would have liked to have gotten it over with. I asked a little more about the outcome of it (I thought maybe I’d be in pain and eating soup for three days afterward, but they said with the lasers there is not much post-operative pain at all) which helped me to dread it a bit less. Then before they started working on the filling and bond (fortunately in the same section of my mouth), they put some gauze with a topical anesthetic against my gum for a bit before the shot to numb it, and I didn’t feel the shot at all. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.

5. A fire averted and new appliances. I was thankfully standing right next to the toaster oven while waiting for it to cook my breakfast when I noticed a sudden bright light in it, which turned out to be the heating element about to flame out. We’ve had that for ages. I was able to get a new one pretty inexpensively, and in white, even, to match my other appliances (not always easy to find these days – everything is black or industrial grey). Plus I found a new little mini blender (like the Magic Bullet but much less expensive) that is working well for my m-i-l’s pureed foods. We had been using a little hand blender which works well for most things, but this helps with others.

All in all a good week. I hope yours was 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, 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 has warmed up here this week – had to turn the AC back on after having started the heater for a few days. Here are a few faves from this last week of October:

1. A newly refinished dining room table, courtesy of my dear husband. We’ve had it for…oh, maybe 20-25 years, I can’t remember for sure. Long enough that our family of five wore the finish through in places. We had been talking about the need to refinish it for some time and my husband finally got the chance to last weekend.

2. Pumpkin carving. That’s not something we ever did in my family growing up, and didn’t do with my own kids, but my son and daughter-in-law have wanted to try it a couple of times. Last time I just watched and took pictures – this time I gave it a go. I wanted a happy face, but this one ended up looking a little anxious. 🙂 But it was a fun activity with the family.

3. Dinner. When my son and daughter-in-law came over to do the pumpkins, they brought dinner: a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, salad, rolls, sweet potato fries, and a pumpkin pie. Delicious! And it was so nice not to have to think about what to make for dinner during the day or stop what I was doing to make it.

4. Jesse’s registration. My youngest just got all registered for his last semester of community college (already?!) He has to do an internship and there was some talk of putting that off til summer, but he got it scheduled and got all the rest of what he needed to finish his requirements. That is a relief!

5. Days at home. Some weeks it seems like I am out running errands every other day, but for the last two weeks somehow I’ve only had to be out one weekday each, with just a few things to do on the weekend. I love being home much more than running around. 🙂 Plus I can get so much more done at home when I am not having to dash out here and there, though of course some times it’s necessary.

Hope you have a great weekend! I am looking forward to mine! Will tell you why next time.