Friday's Fave Five #860

Happy Friday!  Welcome once again to Friday's Fave Five.  We're here to learn to look for our blessings no matter what life has brought our way.  Sometimes our weeks are great and it's easy to spot good things but sometimes life is just plain hard and we have to look a little harder.  But as we intentionally practice to look for the blessings they become easier to spot in spite of what life would throw at us.  Please join in if you haven't already!

~ Thanksgiving weekend ~ a favorite holiday of mine.  Us Canadians celebrated it last weekend.  And at the Living to Tell house that means a full on Turkey dinner.  We had seven of us this year.  I'm thankful that my son was able to make it down for a few days.  My daughter from Saskatchewan had to work and my youngest is in Europe, poor thing.  LOL.  But my sister's family joined us so we filled the spots around the table.  And though I had my Mom on my mind a lot (it's the first Thanksgiving without her) I am very thankful for family to gather around my table for a great meal and laughter.  

~ safe travels ~ I was thankful my son had a safe and uneventful trip home.  Though it got downright chilly here, dropping below freezing at night, we only had a smattering of rain whereas in his city and north of it they had a huge first snow fall that really messed up the highway.  

~ technology ~ even though technology can give me a major headache when I'm trying to learn something new, I am thankful it is also a way to communicate with loved ones far away.  With my daughter in Europe, she has been sending me a daily photo or video or two of her travels to Barcelona and Budapest thru either Snapchat or WhatsApp.  Unlike years ago when we had to pay big time to be able to text from another country now we can do it for free as long as you are somewhere with WiFi.  I love getting little daily tidbits from her trip.

~ time with a good book and coffee ~ even though it was a busy weekend, Monday was pure relaxation with lots of time spent finishing a book I was really enjoying.  There's nothing I like more than a hot cup of coffee and sitting in the rocking chair totally involved in a good story.  Thankful for that extra day off to be able to do this.

~ massage ~ I'm thankful for my massage therapist.  She has really been going the extra mile to try to get my arm back to a better place than when I started to see her again in September.  Though it's been a bit tough on the pocketbook,  I've had to go weekly for the last month and a half with a couple more session of intense and frequent work, I have noticed a couple of definite improvements from when I started.  And with my MRI still being 10 months away, I've been thankful for this relief even though we don't know exactly what is causing the issues.  But she asks a million questions and she's been digging to get answers on her own time and I'm so grateful.  Though the sessions have not been fun or relaxing, some have been downright uncomfortable and my arm is really tired afterwards, the fact that there is improvement is encouraging.  

What were your favorite blessings from the past week?

More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova ~ Book Review

Maddy is a young adult trying to navigate the world of post secondary school at NYU.  As if that isn't stressful enough, her boyfriend just broke up with her.  And coming from a picture perfect Connecticut family where she always felt out of place, there are  standards to uphold.  It is just all so overwhelming.  As she goes emotionally from highs to lows this most recent low has been devastatingly low and Maddy is put on anti-depressants.  Now Maddy is feeling super great.  So great in fact, that she starts to experience a crazy, terrifying mania doing things that her family is shocked to learn about, especially her mother who is all about appearances.  That is when Maddie is diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.  And to make matters worse, this is when Maddie discovers a love for stand up comedy.  Now her sole focus in life is to make it in that world.  But that comes with it's own challenges.  

Author Lisa Genova holds a degree in biopsychology and a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard so her stories come from knowledge and experience.  In her stories she delves into many of the diseases that most of us don't understand and brings a compassionate view to the face of those suffering from them.  I like how her stories are from the point of view of the person suffering from the disease and not just from the perspective of others around them.  In this novel, bi-polar disease is explored.  I learned a lot, as usual, from the story without it being dry like a text book.  And while I have loved most of this author's stories for the story's sake, this one was not one of them.  There is lots of swearing and F bombs and promiscuousness, none of which I like in my reading.  The whole stand up comedy world was not to my liking, I just don't find it funny.   Yes, I'm the person who fast forwards stand up comedy in .......'. Got Talent shows, but I pressed on for the sake of learning about bi-polar disease.  Though I felt for her, I found it hard to find connection with the main character and her obsession with Taylor Swift grew tiresome after a point.  I'm passing the book to a friend who loves stand up comedy and will be interested to see what she thinks of the story.  

Unfortunately because of all that I didn't like I gave it a  7/10

Friday's Fave Five #859

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all my Canadian friends.  And while we celebrate this special weekend here in Canada I'm thankful I have all you wonderful people who join me on the regular to make being thankful an intentional way to live our lives everyday not just on a holiday once a year.  If you've never joined in, now is the time!  Guidelines are linked in the sidebar and then just jump on in.

~ lunch with a friend ~ after several attempts to get together we were finally able to pull off getting together on Saturday.  It was a couple hours of catching up, encouragement, tears and laughter.  And the food was delicious too!

~ playground days ~ the weather has been gorgeous this week which has been a life saver.  There is a teacher's strike going on here so that means no school.  Which means I have 2 kids who normally would come 3 days a week now coming 5 days a week.  But it also means with no school I have 2 playgrounds available!  We been going to one or the other everyday!  So thankful we can get out and burn off energy in the fresh air everyday!

~ river bottom walk ~ I love taking walks down in the river bottom park.  Sunday was cool and crisp but the fall leaves made it a lovely walk.  Even saw a couple of young deer munching away on some vegetation.  So nice having access to all sorts of trails in lovely areas.

~ speaking of deer ~ twice this week there have been deer in our neighborhood.  This guy was playing pick a side of the street with us when we went for a walk.  We kept crossing the street away from him so it would freak out Tux.  Then yesterday morning the kids spotted a family of dear in the schoolyard across the street.  When they finally came out the gate, funny enough they crossed the street right in the crosswalk.  Would have been fun to get a picture of that.  I never get tired of seeing deer in the neighborhood.

~ hanging in there ~ though I've started to clear out some of the planters as mentioned last week, I haven't touch my front porch flowers because they are still gorgeous and I just don't have the heart to pull them when they still look so lovely.  I'll enjoy every minute I can get out of them.

Very simple blessings for me this last week.  But things that lifted me up nonetheless.  How about you?  What were the blessings you saw in your life this last week?

Friday's Fave Five #858

Happy October!  And welcome to Friday's Fave Five!  It's definitely feeling fallish here with weather cooling off and the leaves turning and being blown by the winds.  

~ fall clean up started ~ usually I put off with emptying planters and flower beds because I want to enjoy the flowers as long as possible but then I usually get caught with the weather changing drastically quickly and then I'm stuck trying to pull flowers out of very cold and hard dirt or have to wait for the first snow dump to melt and it's a mess.  This year I told myself that wouldn't happen so I've been slowing pulling out the flowers a little at a time starting with the saddest.  Hopefully I will get to them all before we have a freak snow storm.  My front porch planters are all still so pretty it breaks my heart but it's gotta get done and I know in the long run I'll be glad.

~ friend tradition ~ every year we can my friend and I go and tour the show homes together.  Saturday was our day.  As per tradition, we grab a coffee shop coffee and head out.  This year we started with the biggest and most expensive but ended on what both of us felt was the best one.  It had a library at the top of the stairs.  How can that not be my favorite?!We both enjoy it and it's fun to spend time together.

~ autumn clean up at church ~ at our church every fall on a Wednesday night, all the bible studies get together along with anyone else who wants to come and we scour the church from top to bottom.  When I got there it looked like a busy bee hive with everyone busy with buckets and brooms.  This year there were so many people it took just over an hour!  And the time goes fast as you get to visit while you work.  I was home before a regular night of bible study would have even been over.  Hmmm maybe we should all do each other's houses, one a week!  LOL.

~ bible study leader ~  I'm really thankful for a wonderful bible study leader.  She has a heart for the Lord and the ladies in her study.  She is empathetic yet challenges you.  She lets people talk and knows when to move on.  She has a wonderful sense of humor.  And she is sensitive and quick to pray.  Very thankful for my group as a whole.

~ fall hand soaps ~  I love the scents of fall, even in the hand soaps.  So I loaded up on some new ones and some old faves.  With the dayhome kids I go through tons of hand soap and they are so funny when they get so excited to see a new bottle on the counter.  I have to admit I like starting a new one too.

What have been your favorite blessings from this last week?

  

And as per my question last week,  if you want to share in the comments how do you think you can intentionally be a blessing to someone else this week?

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon ~ Book Review

Nancy Wake is an Australian expat living in 1936 Paris.  She works for Hearst newspapers as a journalist, a job she bluffed her way into, but is finding frustrated as the newspaper doesn't give credit to their female journalists.  Nancy is not looking for love when she meets a wealthy industrialist named Henri Fiocca but his pursuit of her finally wins her heart and they are married.  Then Germany invades France and Nancy finds herself drawn to help the Resistance where she can.  Always independent, Nancy finds courage and resolve even she didn't know she had as her involvement deepens in the fight against Nazi occupation.  Her solid foundation however, is at home with her beloved Henri.  But will this war shatter what they have built together?

This book is based on the real story of Nancy Wake, one of WWII's most decorated and courageous women.  Nancy was known by several names, "Noncee" to her beloved husband, Mandame Andree - the fighter, Lucienne Carlier - the smuggler, Helene - the spy, The White Mouse - the target that the Germans were searching for.  Nancy's fight for the Resistance began while working for Hearst newspapers when she witnessed horrific brutality by the Germans towards Jews in Vienna.  She could not stand by as they took over France.  Eventually she became trained by the SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Britain where she was assigned back into France to equip and train the men there to fight the German occupation.  But according to the author's notes, the novel she wrote was mainly about marriage. At the heart, she wrote a novel about a woman and her husband and the sacrifices made by both of them.  I, for the most part, found this book about this incredibly courageous woman worth the read.  Admittedly, it was hard to read the more brutal parts of her story and there are many.  But that cannot be brushed from history.   I did find the story confusing at times in the way it jumped back and forth between time lines.  Because there was not a lot of years between the timelines, it started to get mixed up sometimes for me.  There is swearing in the book.  Nancy in real life swore.  A lot.  She used it as a way of gaining dominance and respect with the fighters in the Resistance.  As she did with drinking.  There is a lot of drinking in the story.  Negotiations for supplies and ammunition were always done over a bottle and the men tried to use it as a tactic to take advantage of her but she always turned the technique against them. It is all a part of the true story of Nancy Wake Fiocca.  There is also s*xual descriptions in the book that I felt didn't need to be in there and I did some skimming through those.  And there is also some horrific &  detailed violence that was very hard to read.   But the story of this courageous woman and others like her should not be lost and it was worth the read to learn about her and remember all she accomplished to save the lives of thousands.

I rated this book 8/10

Friday's Fave Five #857

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  The last one for the month of September?  Whaaat?  How did that happen?  The days are getting shorter.  I'm now getting up in the dark, which for this night owl is tough.  But there are so many things to be thankful for this week, maybe just not the getting up in the dark stuff.  I joke.  Every day I wake up, whether it is light out or dark,  is a gift I am thankful to God for!  Please join us as we pause to remember and be thankful for all the blessings God has gifted us with this week while we share five of them.

~ Leaves have started falling ~  I love fall.  The colors, the scents, the cozy sweaters.  I love the leaves falling, and the raking of them.  I love when we go for walks there are piles of leaves to crunch through.  Silly but it is a major de-stressor for me to do that.  I love watching the kids jumping in the leaves and throwing them up in the air yelling "Happy Fall Day!" and giggling as it falls all over their heads.  It's a blessing to live in a place where we get to experience all the seasons in dramatic fashion and I'm very thankful for that.  

~ bible study challenge ~ at the ladies study group I attend, the leader challenged us to write down three things we are thankful for and 3 ways in the coming week we would intentionally be a blessing to someone else.  Well thanks to years of intentionally looking for our blessings every Friday here at FFF it took me no time whatsoever to jot down three blessings.  So thankful for this group for taking this journey with me.  The second part was a little harder.  I'd never paused to intentionally think of how I could be a blessing.  Hmmm, maybe we should add that to our Fridays's Fave Five.  Name one way you intentionally intend to be a blessing to someone this week.  What do you guys think?

~ free bookshelf & computer chair ~ my sister's place of work was bought out by another company and they will be merging their office with the new company.  The staff were offered certain items to take and my sis asked if I could have a chair and a bookshelf.  They said yes so now I have a very comfy computer chair in my home office and a smaller bookshelf.  My unread books have found a new home.  So thankful that I was blessed with two items I really wanted for free.  

~ meeting new people ~ last week at study our challenge was to find and talk to someone at church we had never met before.  That wasn't too hard for me.  Meeting new people is not intimidating to me but I know it's really hard for some.  It was nice to hear some good reports this week even from those who balked a bit at the challenge but did it anyways and found it wasn't quite as hard once they took the steps.  

~ laughter ~ this week laughter has been on my mind.  I read a statement that said that children laugh on average 300 times a day and adults only a few.  That really gave me pause.  As we grow older and the weight of responsibilities is heavy we lose the ability to find humor in our everyday.  Wow.  Though I tend to be more on the serious side, I do love to laugh.  There were some wonderful moments of shared laughter throughout the week with the dayhome kids, my hubby, at study group.  It was refreshing.  I think I need to make a point of looking for laughter in my life.  Laughter is a blessing.

What blessings are you thankful for this week?

I Have Questions

Okay all my techy or Blogger knowledgeable friends.  I have a question.  If I change my email in the settings of my blogger account will it mess things up?  Or will it just be business as usual?