Friday’s Fave Five

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

Funny how this week seems to have gone fast in some ways, slow in others. Here are my favorite parts.

1. Sunday lunch out with the family. Somehow we were all out of church and in the same vicinity at the same time, so we texted and met for lunch.

2. Lunch with my friend Melanie. We hadn’t been able to get together for a while. so it was nice to catch up. Plus we ate at Cracker Barrel, one of my favorite places. Plus I took home a slice of their Chocolate Coca-Cola cake, which is always scrumptious. Plus Melanie gifted me with a pretty teacup, as she is downsizing her collection.

3. A not so bad week. That might sound odd. 🙂 Jim was gone from Monday through Thursday this week, longer than he usually travels. He tries to keep it to a day or two, but it couldn’t be helped. I sometimes get a little down or depressed in regard to having all of his mom’s care on my shoulders for even a night, so I was afraid I was going to be a basket case before the week was over. But I prayed about it at the beginning of the week, tried to just take it a day at a time, and here we are nearly at the end. As I write this on Thursday, he is on his way after being delayed due to storms. (Update: he got home a few hours later than planned, but safely.) Jason and Mittu brought dinner over one night and then cleaned up the kitchen while I fed Jim’s mom, and that was a big help.

4. Cutting back sweet treats. I have been telling myself that I needed to cut back on sweets to at least once a day, but I keep not doing it. Then this week I was reading a book about someone changing their lifestyle and routine to a healthier version, and she mentioned she only had sweets a couple of times a week. I thought, “I should probably do that.” And, only by God’s grace, I have! I’m astounded, especially after struggling so long with the idea of cutting back at all. And though I occasionally crave my Hershey’s miniatures or other treats, once I ignore the craving and go on to do other things, I am not bothered by it any more. I still drink my glass of decaf sweet tea with lunch, but everything else I drink is sugarless. It’s only been a few days, but I’ve lost five pounds already! Though there are other measures I need to take in addition, this was a big one. To God be the Glory!

5. Two anniversaries. My son and daughter-in-law celebrated their anniversary this week! And it was eight years ago today we moved to TN. That was a year of many big changes, but God was good and faithful through them all.

Happy Friday!

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Friday’s Fave Five

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

The first of August always seem like the beginning of summer’s end, even though technically summer lasts well into September. We still probably have the hottest part of year to go through. But schools start here next week! Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. Replacement parts. With pureeing my mother-in-law’s meals for the last five years, we have worn out a lot of hand blenders and their parts. These were the last couple of cups we had, cracking in places. Thankfully we’ve found sources online for those and a few other items. It’s nice to use bright, shiny clear ones and not worry about whether they’ll hold up.

2. Lunch with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. They invited us over last Saturday – always a treat.

3. Voting. Oh, the process of voting, and even sometimes the process of choosing candidates, is not all that fun, but I am thankful for the privilege. And I was especially thankful my husband was able to go with me this time, as we discovered upon arriving at the polling place that voting was not where it usually was. It was quite a hike to get to the right place, but the whole process was not as disconcerting with him with me.

4. Medical care at home. My mother-in-law is under hospice care, and part of that service is sending a nurse out once a week and a doctor out every couple of months. Even though she doesn’t have any major issues just now, it’s nice that someone is accessible to ask questions of, to check on her, and to prescribe anything she needs.

5. Timothyisms. My son and daughter-in-law send me texts of the cute or funny things my grandson says. One day he was playing doctor with his mom, and left and then came back with his play saw. He assured her, “It’s ok Mommy! I put a bandaid on it when I’m done.” Then yesterday my daughter-in-law sent me this conversation:

“Timothy, we’re going to go vote today.”

T: “We are getting a boat?!”

“No, we are going to vote.”

T: “We are going fishing in a boat?”

“No, voting is when we pick who helps America.”

T: “Fishing helps America too.”

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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 the last Friday of July! A good time to stop and reflect on the last week. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Under-cabinet lights. I had received these as a gift for Mother’s Day, but we just got them installed last weekend. As easy as they were, I probably could have installed them myself! But I didn’t know that beforehand. Thanks to my husband for putting them up for me. It’s nice to have light on the counters that were previously in the shadows.

2. Reduced price on a desired purchase. When we moved into this house, I purchased some pink toile towels from Target for the master bathroom. The bath towels are still in good shape, but the washcloths are long gone, and the hand towels are getting raggedy. It’s hard to find bath items in a regular old light pink. Decorating pinks either look like bubble gum or have gone from reddish to peachy, and now they have something called blush, which looks like a pinkish beige to me. I haven’t been able to find hand towels with the shade of pink I want in any design. On a recent Internet search, I found some toile ones that looked just like my originals! But they were about twice the price I wanted to pay. They were a “Buy It Now” purchase rather than an auction. I watched them for a few days to see if the seller would drop the price. She didn’t, so I sent her a note to ask if she’d accept a lower price. If she’d take one price I proposed, I’d take two of the towels: if she’d take an even lower price I offered, I’d take all three. She accepted the lowest price! I’m not usually a bargainer, but since I couldn’t find anything like these anywhere else, I ventured forth – and I am glad I did.

3. An uneventful cardiologist’s visit. I had a follow-up visit from last year’s ablation surgery for atrial fibrillation. Everything was routine, and I don’t have to go back for a year unless problems come up. If everything is still okay at that time, I’ll be released from his care back to my primary care doctor. I still have some flutters and palpitations, but they last for just seconds instead of hours, and he said I’d probably always have them.

4. A morning outing. The day of the doctor visit, I was chafing at having to get up early and drive so far for the appointment. But afterward I stopped by Joann’s and used some gift cards, then got take-out lunch at Cracker Barrel, along with my favorite Coca-Cola Cake. So it turned out to be a pleasant morning.

5. Bluetooth headphones or earpieces. This was another gift from a while back that we just got set up. It will be nice to listen to an audiobook or music that way without the long dangly cords from my previous headphones.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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

And just like that, another week is in the books. They seem to fly faster all the time. It’s nice to pause for a moment and reflect on some of the highlights so we don’t forget them and we remember to thank God for them.

1. A library book sale. I stopped into our local library to pick up a particular book and saw, in a side room off the lobby, a sign for a used book sale. You could fill up a grocery bag with books for $5. So I did!

2. Jason’s birthday. We celebrated my middle son’s birthday this week. Fun!

3. Online grocery shopping. I think I have mentioned this before, but I’ve only done it two or three times. I may make it a regular habit, though. It saves time, stress, and money (money because I don’t impulse-shop that way).

4. Productive days. I tend to think a day is productive when I get done what I wanted to do that day. But the truth is that most days are productive in one way or another even if what I spent time on wasn’t on my to-do list that day. It’s not like I’m watching hours of TV and eating bonbons on “non-productive” days. Still, it’s a good feeling when I can make a good dent in a project I’ve been wanting to get to, and I had one of those this week.

5. Timothy and the leaf-blower. Timothy (my grandson, age 4) uses a couple of items around the house as pretend leaf-blowers, and makes the motor sound while he uses them. Last week Granddad let Timothy use the real leaf-blower. Then Granddad told Timothy he was coming to his house Saturday to do some yard work, and he’d bring the leaf-blower. Timothy got up early in the morning to wait for Granddad. Granddad let Timothy blow the debris off the porch and sidewalk, and paid him $2! Quite a day! 🙂

Happy Friday!

 

Friday’s Fave Five

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

Last Friday I had an overflow: this Friday requires a little more thought and searching. But that’s why FFF is such a good exercise.

1. Ladies Life Group, our church ladies’ group meeting, occurs every other month. We had our July meeting over the weekend. I had missed out on ladies’ Bible studies for years because they were held at times I couldn’t come, and I have so enjoyed participating with these dear ladies.

2. Relief. I’ve spent most of this week with a low-grade headache. It wasn’t constant or debilitating, but it left me feeling definitely below par. It’s been gradually lessening and as of this writing, I feel almost normal again.

3. Timothy’s imagination. My four-year-old grandson wanted to dress in his Cat Boy costume (a character from the PJ Masks TV show) when his family came over, and he had it all worked out in his mind how it would go: Granddad would say, “Cat Boy! Where’s Timothy?” It played out pretty much like he imagined it! Such fun, and a delight to me.

4. Fresh-cut grass makes me sneezy, but I love the way it looks.

5. New growth. We planted two crepe myrtles…was it two years ago? One flourished and is probably eight feet tall. The other, right in front of the house, put out leaves and grew a little, but just wasn’t faring well. Actually, nothing we have planted in that spot has thrived. But just today (Thursday), I noticed flowers on it! And it has grown a lot since spring. So maybe there’s hope for it after all.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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

Some Fridays, it takes time and thought to come up with five good points from the previous week. Other times it is hard to contain the blessings into just five points. This week I have the latter good problem.

1. Jim’s mom turned 90.

I went to a party supply store specifically to look for plates and candles with “90” on them, but all they had was a package of black napkins! So we improvised. I don’t know if she quite understood the hoopla, but I hope she enjoyed it. A bonus: I had ordered a couple of hospital-type nightgowns from a place not known for its speedy delivery, and I was afraid they wouldn’t get here in time for her birthday. But they did!

2. Time off and a lunch date. Jim took time off work on Monday and Tuesday and got a number of things done around the house, mostly in the garage. The garage looks really nice now! We went out for a lunch date Tuesday. We tried a new restaurant and ended up not liking it (too-loud music and soggy, lukewarm food), but enjoyed the outing and time together.

3. Independence Day! Though our country has its flaws, I still think it’s the best in the world, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else (no offense to friends from others countries – I hope you feel the same way about yours). We had quite the feast, and even got to see a few fireworks in the distance from our front yard.

4. Not losing AC. After a loud clap of thunder during a storm, our air conditioning was still blowing air, but not cold air. My husband checked fuses and other issues, but couldn’t find a fixable problem, so we were resigned to calling an AC serviceman out the next day. Thankfully ceiling fans in a few rooms kept the temperatures manageable. By the next morning, the AC seemed to be back to normal on its own without a service call and has been working fine ever since.

5. Sunday lunch. For various reasons, my son and daughter-in-law ended up not being able to make it to their church last Sunday morning. They came over to our house and made lunch. It’s such a nice feeling to come home and have a meal already in process. We enjoyed a good visit.

Bonus: Jim and I watched “The Book Thief.” Wonderful movie, without the profanity of the book (unless it was in some of the German words I couldn’t understand)

And that wraps up our full week. Happy Friday!

 

Friday’s Fave Five

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’m late today! Had a project to finish up. Here are some of the highlights of the last week or so:

1. Finally using a gift card. Someone gave us a gift card to a restaurant so long ago that I can’t even remember when. The restaurant was not nearby, and of course arranging care for Jim’s mom outside the usual time gets expensive, so we just never went. But we pass by this restaurant on the way to the church we’ve been visiting, and I commented a while back that we ought to stop there one Sunday after church. It finally worked out to do that this last weekend. The food was really good, and I enjoyed the time out – and of course someone else doing the cooking and cleaning up.

2. Air conditioning. I’ve seen this floating around Facebook.

3. Finishing books. I love reading, but I like completing a book as well. I had been plugging away at some and finished three within two days of each other this week.

4. Scrapbooking paper. This is an odd one, I know. I have not done much scrapbooking, though I need to. But I use the paper to make cards, and there are just so many beautiful options. I wish I could find fabric in some of the paper designs.

5. A community Facebook page. Someone just told me this week about a Facebook page for our little area. It’s nice for things like finding out where the power is out, where traffic snarls are, lost or found pets, etc.

Bonus: not losing power during the several thunderstorms we had this week. The lights flickered a bit, but thankfully never went out.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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

Though I am writing this on the official first day of summer (Thursday), it has felt like summer here for weeks already. I hope your longest day of the year was a good one! Here are some of the best parts of the last week:

1. Visiting a Bounce House place. There’s a place nearby where one can rent those inflatable bounce house contraptions for kids to play in at carnivals and such. They also have a room on the facility for “open play,” where parents can pay a fee for kids to come in and try several different kinds – a castle, a basketball court, a super slide, etc. My son and daughter-in-law took my grandson, Timothy (age 4) there last Saturday, and he wanted Grandma and Granddad to come, too. ♥ It was fun to see him conquer some of the ones he was a bit scared of at first.

2. Father’s Day. We enjoyed time with the family honoring all the dads, especially my husband.

3. Humor. I had gotten my husband a Father’s Day balloon while at the grocery store on Saturday morning, but it started deflating before I even got home. I took it back to the store to exchange it for one that had not been previously inflated, like this one had been. But the girl said she had no more there, they were in the back, and she didn’t look particularly eager to go back and get one. Being hot, tired, and frustrated at that point, I just got a refund. Father’s Day afternoon at lunch, I noticed my husband had amended the Mother’s Day balloon he had gotten me more than a month ago (and which, for some reason, was still good, though it had been purchased at the same place):

4. Thoughtfulness. Saturday was “one of those days,” with the balloon situation, dropping the newly-purchased eggs on the garage floor (breaking only half of them, thankfully), spilling my lunch down my front, finding out I needed socks at the Bounce House just to walk around and observe, going back home to get some, coming back to find out they sold socks there, and ending the day with a big ugly bug on the bathroom ceiling. I mentioned part of the day’s frustrations on Facebook, and a friend said I sounded like I needed chocolate. She brought me a chocolate bar to church the next day. Besides the chocolate itself, always a soother of ruffled nerves, the thoughtfulness meant a lot to me.

5. A meal and cool breezes. My daughter-in-law, Mittu, had made a lot of food for a lunch play date and had a lot left over since one family couldn’t come. She texted to ask if they could bring the leftovers over for dinner on Wednesday. Sure! Then Timothy wanted to play outside on his little car, but I had been so hot and uncomfortable my last few times outside that I stayed in at first. When I did venture out a bit later, the temperatures were really nice, and the occasional breeze was even cool. A real blessing in the South at this time of year.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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

Somehow we’re halfway through June already. Whatever happened to the lazy days of summer? At any rate, I  welcome the opportunity to reflect on and recount the blessings of the past week lest I forget them completely.

1. Lunch with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. They invited us for lunch on Saturday. Really enjoyed tostadas and churros, and it was fun to see what was new and play with Timothy in his room.

2. A church potluck lunch after the Sunday morning service. Good food and fellowship.

3. An impromptu family get-together.  We had some leftovers from the potluck, so we invited my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson over to help us work on them. Then my oldest son Facetimed, so we all got to talk a bit.

4. A free haircut. The place I go gives out these cards that you have initialed each time you get a haircut, and the 10th one is free. I forget to get it initialed most of the time, but thankfully my stylist reminds me. This week my 10th cut came up, so I got it free!

5. Return of our favorite bath aide. Last week our regular bath aide for my mother-in-law was assigned to another area due to one aide being on vacation and another out sick. We had two different substitutes, so the timing was different, and neither of them brought the supplies that our usual aide does. I wasn’t sure if things would be back to normal or not this week, and I was so glad to see the regular lady. I don’t know why they don’t send the substitutes where they send her instead of rearranging so many, but I am sure it’s a complicated business to cover all the bases.

I could add so many more – air conditioning on hot days, root beer floats, good books, music, to name a few. There are good things about every day if we stop to consider them.

Happy Friday!

 

Friday’s Fave Five

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

Although the official first day of summer isn’t for a couple of weeks yet, to me June 1 begins summer. And my first week of summer by my reckoning has gone quite nicely. Here are some favorite parts of it:

1. Extended book reading time. Most of my reading is done in shorter bits of time here and there. Sunday, in between church, naps, meals, and Face-timing with my oldest son, I finished 2/3 of a book. It felt so luxurious. But my eyes were really blurry afterward, so it’s probably good I can’t do that too often.

2. Pain relief. I occasionally have shooting pains from my knuckles through my fingers in my left hand. It only lasts for seconds, so I haven’t thought much about it. I’ve assumed maybe it was the beginning of arthritis. One day last week, that kind of pain started up in my pinkie knuckle and persisted all night, bringing tears to my eyes as every few seconds pain would whoosh down that pathway. The next day my doctor wasn’t available, but I saw the nurse practitioner. She said that kind of pain was more indicative of nerve inflammation – arthritis is more of an ache in the joints. She gave me an anti-inflammatory prescription, but the pain started subsiding on its own. I don’t know what I did to set that nerve off, but I hope it doesn’t happen again.

3. Frozen meals. I discovered some new frozen meal entrees in the grocery freezer section that only took 15 minutes in the skillet to warm up. They’re probably too expensive to have too often, but they’re cheaper than eating out. It’s nice to have a couple of quick meal options on hand for really busy or tiring days. This one was pretty good:

4. A new file box. I’ve had this file box for scrapbooking paper that I use for cards for years. It’s faded, which is not a big deal, but it started falling apart.

You can find letter-sized file boxes everywhere, but it was hard to track down one that could accommodate the 12×12 scrapbooking size. I finally found one on Joann’s web site. I thought it was too expensive, but a 40% off coupon helped, and I had gift cards there for Mother’s Day. I enjoyed transferring my paper over to its new home. Unfortunately the new files don’t have tabs, but I’m going to see if stick-on labels will adhere to them.

Being able to remove the files from the box helps, too. (Forgive the messiness of my work desk.)

5. A nice summer family evening. My son and daughter-in-law brought dinner over one night along with their inflatable swimming pool for Timothy. He played in the water a while, then rode his little vehicle, then we threw “Pop-its” on the road – these little noisemaker things that sound like little firecrackers.

Happy Friday!