Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

I’ll have to admit…I think this is going to be one the hardest weeks to come up with five favorite things. Usually once I think about it I come up with more than five and I trust that will be the case this week.

This week contained one of those no-good-horrible-very bad days in which nearly everything I tried to do was interrupted or went wrong, plus not one but two incidents of our “sun room” being partially flooded due to heavy rains and the drain from our patio, which is below the rest of the ground level, not being able to keep up.

Anyway…..

Time to turn toward the positive by finding five favorite things!

1. That the no-good-horrible-very bad day is OVER!!

2. For the invention of sump pumps and wet vacs,without which we might still be dipping water out, and Roto-rooter, who came and cleaned out the drain (though they said it had roots in it and was collapsing and inadequate…), and that nothing was damaged by the water.

3. Glorious sunshine yesterday and today!! And very little rain! We’d been having daily thunderstorms every afternoon or evening for about a week or more.

4. My oldest son, Jeremy, in anticipation of being out on his own at some point, has been learning how to cook and made two home-made from scratch pizzas for lunch Wednesday (that was one GOOD thing on that day! 🙂 ). He even made the dough for the crust from scratch. They were wonderful!! I don’t know if he took a picture of them, but this is one he made once before a few weeks ago.

5. This is an old picture, but I just made these Quick Peanut Butter Kiss cookies last night.

A little chocolate — especially when combined with peanut butter — is always a bright spot in the day.

Bonus: There were a couple of really funny things on the Web this week. One Jeremy showed me of a bird looking into a web cam — the web cam in a city was set to shoot one frame every minutes and happened to catch this bird right in the middle of the frame. Amazing shot! Then ivman, who always has funny and interesting things to share, had some great funny signs. I especially liked the one with the mosquito and the stop signs.

My Poetry Friday post is below.

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites.

1. Our church’s annual ladies’ luncheon went very well. The Lord blessed in myriad ways. I enjoyed it…but it is a relief that it is over! 🙂

2. I’ve enjoyed listening to parts of a dramatic recording of the life of C. S. Lewis on a local radio station. I’ve been catching it mostly while in the car and forgetting about it when I am at home. Yesterday I heard the production information at the end and found it was a production of MoodyAudio.com, but I don’t see it listed under their Stories of Great Christians, though they have several others that look great. I’d love to find a recording of it to hear the whole thing.

3. My blog friend Lizzie at A Dusty Frame sent me a surprise package the other day! I had commented on a book she had reviewed, A Vote of Confidence by Robin Lee Hatcher, and she had my address from an order for a flower pin I had placed from her shop, so she sent it to me along with a lovely, almost too pretty to get messy dishcloth she knitted herself. I was so surprised and pleased! Thank you, Lizzie!

4. This Garfield comic strip. As Christian parents of boys, having tried to teach them that less physical contact before marriage is best, and having one getting married this summer, this struck us all funny.

5. My roses just started blooming this week!

I don’t know how they survive — I don’t do much with them besides occasionally cutting them back. But they sure brighten up the walk from the car to the house!

You can find more favorites from the week or link up to add your own at Susanne‘s.

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites.

My favorite moments from this week:

1. Getting a good start on getting the house painted. We’ve been wanting to get at that for a long time. I wrote more about it and showed pictures here, but this picture shows the old on the left and the new on the right.

2. Cheerful helpful people. Our church’s ladies’ luncheon is tomorrow, and a number of ladies volunteered to help set up beforehand and then clean up afterward. Then earlier this week, I was at the school office where one of those ladies was volunteering that day while talking with another lady about helping her with something else going on this week. She also regularly helps me put labels with our church contact information on tracts. She’s a little bit older, and all her kids are grown and on their own, and I just appreciate that she uses her time to help others and does it with such a cheerful spirit. Plus another older lady has, on her own initiative, starting visiting with my mother-in-law at her assisted living facility, which my mother-in-law really enjoys, and agreed to sit with her at the ladies’ luncheon tomorrow so that while I am up and down taking care of things, she won’t be alone. That is such a blessing.

3. I know I have mentioned spring before and the dogwoods in bloom before, but it is still such a joy to see things greening up after winter and to see the dogwoods and azaleas in bloom throughout the neighborhood. Plus, my kitchen window, unfortunately, faces right into a neighbor’s family room behind us, and when the trees put out their new leaves that view is blocked and I feel like we both have a little more privacy. 🙂

4. Funny comment of the week: Jeremy works from home, and one day in particular he was having trouble getting going mentally with his work. He had been just generally puttering around on the computer. When he was telling me all this, he said, “I don’t get paid to play games on the computer and watch You Tube videos at work like other people do.” Cracked me up.

5. The devotional book I am using this year, Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer, has been used of the Lord to speak to me often this year. The April 22nd reading had an application I had never thought of before concerning Jacob’s wrestling with a man the night before meeting his brother, Esau, who, the last Jacob knew, was after his life:

when the sense of loneliness steals over the spirit, and the starry hosts expand overhead, it is then that we may come into personal contact with One, whose delights from of old were with the sons of men. He is the Word of God, but He is also the Saviour, the Lover and Friend of man.

In our first meeting, He will wrestle with us to break down our stubbornness; He will touch the sinew of our strength till we can hold out no more; He will withdraw from us till we insist that we cannot let Him go; He will awaken a mysterious longing and urgency within us, which He alone can satisfy. And as the memorable interview ends, He will have taught us that we prevail best when we are at our weakest, and will have whispered in our ear, in response to our entreaty, His own sublime Name, Shiloh, the Giver of Eternal Peace!

I love how, after a busy week in which I didn’t think I would have five favorite things, after thinking about it, I can come up with more than five, and instead of thinking, “Wow, what a busy week,” I am left thinking, “Wow, it’s been a great week.” Thanks, Susanne, for spurring us on to do that!

You can see other favorites of this week at Susanne‘s.

Updated to add: Our ladies’ luncheon is tomorrow. Those of you who pray, I’d appreciate your prayers if you’re willing! Everything is going well (except for a laminating machine that wouldn’t laminate the bookmarks we made for favors. Unfortunately I had not done them last week, which would have given me more of a cushion to deal with it, because I thought it would only take an hour or so. It took an hour and 40 minutes — and still wasn’t done. What we did try to do, I had to peel the laminating plastic off of. I took them to an office supply store today, and they can do them this afternoon for around $20 — not bad, considering.) But even when everything is going well, there is still a little underlying pressure or nervousness til it is all over. I’ll post pictures either this weekend or early next week.