It’s hard to believe the summer is half over already. I wonder if the rest of it will be as busy as the first of it – probably so for us as we have three birthdays in July and August. But each week has its highlights, and here are some from this week:

1. Sunlight! We’ve had way more rain than usual this summer. I fact, this cartoon going around Facebook seemed apt:

But we’ve had some bright sunshine parts of this week as well, which has helped to dry things out about and was quite refreshing.

2. Cool evenings. One advantage to the rain has been that it has taken the edge off the normal summer heat wave. We’ve actually had to turn the AC down at night, and I’ve enjoyed some decaf coffee with something desserty in the evenings – I usually avoid coffee during the summer because it makes me hot.

3. New corner shelves for the closet in the craft/sewing room, and a son to put them together for me:

I had been trying to figure out how to best utilize that corner, and this was the perfect solution, plus being open on two sides makes it more accessible.

4. Sunflowers are not my favorite flower, but they are kind of neat – fun, happy flowers. When this one sprouted from dropped bird seed, we decided to let it grow. I think I am going to have to move the bird feeder, though!

5. Finally getting eye doctor appointments made and completed…after nearly three years here. 😳 Jesse’s eyes have not changed much, thankfully, so he does not need new glasses. I have a prescription for bifocals if I want them, or I can just keep on with my little readers if I prefer. I hate the constant off-and-on activity with the readers (as in church, for example, when I need them on to see my notes or Bible and off to see the preacher or screen), but I’m not sure that aggravation is worth the expense of bifocals. Still thinking about it.

I could also list books this week, always a fave, but I’ve been in some particularly good ones this week. Plus I have gotten some more organizing done in my craft/sewing room, which always feels good.

We have a busy week ahead with a church activity, a birthday, a ladies’ group activity, and preparations to bring my mother-in-law home – more on that later. Plus my 3,000th post and my 7th blogging anniversary are coming up: seems like I should do something special to commemorate those, but I am not sure what yet. Stay tuned! 🙂

Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s 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.

Another week has flown by, and I don’t have much to show for this one. I think I am recuperating from last week when we had family here and were doing something almost every day. 🙂 Here are some favorite parts of this week:

1. Fresh, clean sheets and pillows plumped up from being washed and dried. One of my favorites of life’s little pleasures.

2. A good doctor visit for Jesse. I am ashamed to say he has not had a physical in the three years we have been here, and several before that were only sports physicals. Thank God he has been remarkably healthy. We finally got that done, and except for his lab work being a bit low in a couple of areas, easily remedied, everything is fine.

3. A belated Father’s Day. Jim didn’t want to open gifts or anything when my family was here over Father’s Day, so we focused on my step-father that day, and honored Jim this last Sunday. It’s fun to have the family all here (Jeremy via FaceTime), to get him some things he was wanting and a couple of things he was not expecting.

4. Grilled ham steaks. I had gotten these for when my family was going to be here but ended up not using them, so Jim grilled them last Saturday, and because we had extra we had enough to use for several days. Yum!

5. Leftovers. I adapt some meals for just the three of us, but others I make as I always have and use the leftovers for lunch or sometimes even for another dinner. Thankfully my family doesn’t mind – depending, of course, on exactly what’s left over (some leftovers are left until they grow fuzzy stuff). We’ve had some that everyone liked this week, besides the ham, and it’s nice to have an easy meal just heating up leftovers, especially on Wednesday nights when our church has prayer meeting and meal time is a bit rushed.

Hope you have a great Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s 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.

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.

Another week has flown by. Whew!  Here are some of its highlights.

1. A game night. This is actually from weekend before last but I had forgotten it by Friday. Jason and Mittu came over for a game of Settlers of Cataan, which we hadn’t done for a while. It ended up being about the closest game of that I ever remember playing.

2. Crescent rolls without seams:

I have a couple of recipes which use crescent roll dough rolled out, and you’re supposed to press the seams together. They rarely stay pressed, so this was nice to see.

3. Annette’s Snickerdoodle Bars, made when my friend from last week came. I think I have mentioned them before: they’re a highlight any week I make them. 🙂

4. A nostalgic breakfast. My friend who came through last week on her way to see her daughter came back through last night, and we went out for breakfast this morning. We were headed out to one place when we saw the sign for Shoney’s breakfast bar. That used to be our go-to place when our kids were babies: they’d have regular coupons, and kids ate free. So we went there for old time’s sake, and they had many of the same features I remembered.

5. An eventful phone call. A man in our church has been on a list for a lung transplant and just got the call last night to head up to PA for surgery. I haven’t heard any word yet as to how everything went, but we’re hoping and praying for the best.

I may be scarce this next week as I have family coming in from out of town.

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,  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.

Another busy week — I thought things were supposed to slow down in the summertime! 🙂 Here are some favorites from the last week:

1. Getting a couple of projects done: curtains and a remade bulletin board for the sewing/craft room. I’ve had both in mind for a while, so it was nice to finally decide what to do and get it done.

2. A rest day. I was not feeling well Sunday – nothing horrible, but just enough to stay home from church. I spent most of the day resting and reading – got a whole book read in a day! It felt so luxurious.

3. More light. I enjoy having more light in the evenings this time of year.

4. A visit from a friend. A good friend since early married days 30+ years ago and her daughter stopped by for an overnight visit on their way to visit another daughter. It’s always so good to catch up with them.

5. A husband who knows what to do. My friend’s car was leaking gas really badly. She had just gotten it back from the shop where they were supposed to have fixed the problem, but evidently the fix didn’t work, and she had another 8-hour drive scheduled today. Everyone was tired last night and decided to sleep on it, but then my husband came up with a plan of action that would take care of the car but still get her where she needed to go. So many times in our lives he has been able to come up with a practical plan of action when I’d still be in a muddle of not knowing what to do. I so appreciate that.

Bonus: It’s National Doughnut Day at Krispy Kreme, and they’re giving away one free doughnut per customer. We don’t have one right near us (which is good, because I’d be there much too often: their “Hot Doughnuts Now” sign is an irresistible magnet), but I may have to go looking for one. 🙂

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,  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.

Here are some highlights of the past week – I think many of them are “repeats,” but it’s good to be thankful for blessings every time they happen, not just the first time: 🙂

1. A three day weekend.

2. A cookout with the family including grilled hamburgers and chocolate pie.

3. A leaky toilet fixed, and a hard-working husband willing to tackle it. He had Jesse work with him this time – figured it was one of those life skills he needed to have. I’m thankful, too, that we have more than one bathroom so it wasn’t much of a problem to have one out of commission for a day.

4. God’s help reaching a goal. I’ve been working on the church’s ladies newsletter and hoped to get it finished yesterday so all I had to do today was proofread it one last time before getting it printed (as opposed to racing against the clock Friday afternoon to get it done), and, thank the Lord, that happened.

5. Good visits with Jim’s mom. Since she is not speaking much any more, and when she does try I often can’t hear or understand her, it makes visiting a little harder. Sometimes she nods or shakes her head, but sometimes you just don’t know how much she is getting. Two days ago she actually laughed at something I said and then teased Jim back a little bit, and yesterday when I asked her if she’d had a good lunch, she asked me, “Did YOU have a good lunch?” Then she was able to speak quietly, but still out loud, for the rest of the visit.

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,  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.

Here are some highlights of the past week:

1. A good report from the eye doctor for my husband three weeks after his surgery for retinal detachment. Everything is still very blurry, which is discouraging, but we’re assured that is normal and it takes time for the nerves involved to heal.

2. Better weather than predicted. We’ve had thunderstorms forecasted for much of the week, but have only had a little rain here and there.

3. Good news from OK. My daughter-in-law’s mother as well as family friends live in the area affected by the tornado, and though some in their church lost homes, everyone is safe physically. Our hearts go out to all of those experiencing loss and grief.

4. My first shower here – baby shower, that is. There are been bridal and baby showers at church since we moved here, but for various reasons I haven’t gone until last night. For some reason I have been “cocooning” at home more since we’ve moved, but it’s good to get out and mingle every now and then. I enjoyed it, particularly getting to know a couple of ladies a bit better.

5. An improvised casserole that turned out well. Wednesday nights we have to eat earlier due to prayer meeting, and usually I just fix something really simple, like grilled cheese sandwiches. But this day, all day long I couldn’t decide what to make. I ended up tossing together some leftovers and some new ingredients, and we liked it! I couldn’t tell you the proportions, but it had chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, rice, bacon, corn, and onion.

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,  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 turned out to be a busier week than I thought it would be at the beginning. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Mother’s Day Eve dinner. We don’t like to eat in restaurants on Mother’s Day because it is so crowded, so Jason and Mittu took us out to eat Saturday night. I think that may be the first time they’ve ever done that, so that was a treat in many ways.

2. Mother’s Day. Traditionally Jim and the kids have worked together to prepare lunch on Mother’s Day after church, and they did so again this year. It’s lovely to come home from church and have nothing to do. 🙂

I enjoyed the thoughtful gifts and cards and time with the family together (though Jeremy was there via FaceTime, it’s still nice he can be a part of it.)

Fun with Jesse. 🙂

3. Getting caught up on the housework. That may seem like an odd one. 🙂 The last couple of weeks had been kind of a whirlwind, and I was heartily ashamed of the dust accumulated on horizontal surfaces. Housework isn’t necessarily my favorite thing to do, though I don’t mind it as much once I get started, and I do love the results. It felt good to get caught up — well, with the major tasks, at least. There’s always something more that can be done around the house.

4. Well-used leftovers. I don’t always plan for leftovers carefully and hate when I end up throwing them out when they’ve gotten old. Casseroles I usually just reheat for lunch, but some other things get neglected. We had had boneless pork chops leftover one night, more than I would probably use for lunches, so I chopped up the leftovers into a stir-fry dinner another night that was really good, if I do say so myself. 🙂 Then we had hamburger buns, potato salad, and baked beans leftover from the Mother’s Day lunch, so I made Sloppy Joes last night to use them up.

5. Scoring a great deal. Jesse is going to a friend’s Junior-Senior banquet and wanted to find a shirt to coordinate with her dress, which was various shades of brown. He has a black suit, so we were thinking a brown shirt and then a tie that had black and brown in it to tie them together. We couldn’t find either of those. He suggested a new suit, and though he could probably use one, I wasn’t ready to lay out the cash for that, especially without talking to Jim first. But we walked over to where the suits were, looked at the clearance rack, found some suit coats, marked $25 and $36, found one he really liked, and when he tried it on, we discovered it was marked down to $15, originally $120. I could have done a happy dance right there in the store. Then we found some dress slacks on sale for $25 and a tie for $8. And he really, really likes it, so maybe he will wear it for more than those occasions when he “has” to wear a suit.

Update: Now that the banquet is over, here is a picture:

So, that’s my week. How was yours?

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.

It’s been rather a heavy week here, as friends on several fronts are facing various battles. In our old church in SC, one friend discovered she had thyroid cancer and is facing surgery, another had a massive heart attack, and one of the star athletes from the school there died unexpectedly. In our own family, my nephew that I mentioned a few weeks ago as having multiple tumors and undergoing massive amounts of chemotherapy discovered a new “knot.” It’s hard to fathom that some new tumor could spring up with all the chemo he has had, so perhaps it’s something else. They can’t see the doctor til next week.

In the midst of all the heaviness, God has placed some bright spots:

1. Faith, hope, and grace. I’m so thankful that when we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have the surety of heaven, even though it is still painful to be separated from loved ones through death. It would be unbearable otherwise. And the grace God gives to endure as we undergo hardships is priceless.

2. Facebook has been great for disseminating news to large communities of people at once and for keeping up with what’s going on. Since we’ve moved, I probably would not have heard of some of these issues for a long time, if at all, without Facebook. It’s a blessing to be able to keep informed and to pray as soon as possible for each one.

3. Camaraderie. Jim’s first day back at work after his eye surgery, he faced this:

4. Less rain than expected. When I looked at my weather app on my phone at the beginning of the week, it showed not just rain but thunderstorms almost every day. Thankfully we haven’t had nearly as much as predicted, and so far it’s been mostly gentle rain rather than storms.

5. A good helper. I feel for Jesse being the only son left at home sometimes, but he has been a great help as Jim is still not supposed to do any lifting or straining. He just spent his first morning of summer break cutting the grass. He changed his first flat tire last Saturday – I had meant to mention that as a fave and forgot, that it went flat in the garage and not while I was driving.

Happy Friday!