Friday's Fave Five #828

Friday has rolled around once again and it's time for looking back and taking note of the blessings God has gifted us with over the past week.  The practice of being grateful to God for all his good gifts, large and small, can powerfully change our hearts, our minds, our outlook, our perspective and even our lives.  Let's develop a heart of gratitude as we go about our busy days.  Please join in as we share five of our favorite blessings from the last week.

~ another lunch treat ~ Hubby treated us to lunch once again this week, this time from Chopped Leaf.  We tried their new Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese along with our fave salad, the Bangkok.  Both were delicious.  We had enough left for supper so it was a double blessing in that I had a lunch treat and I didn't have to cook supper.  

~ several beautiful walks ~ last weekend's weather was absolutely stunning and it was a real gift to get out into the sunshine and go for walks.  On Sunday it was so nice I even dug out the capris and just had to wear a light hoodie.  The dog was so happy to get several walks in on the weekend as were we.

 

~ first grilled steaks of the year ~  We decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity the glorious weather was giving us and pulled a couple steaks out of the freezer for grilling for Sunday's lunch.  I'm always nervous on the first grill of the year as it's almost like getting back on a bike after not riding for awhile.  But the steaks turned out perfect.  Good thing we took advantage of the lovely weather because the next day the weather turned to cold and gave us a dose of wet rain/snow the next day.  

~ time with a special little friend ~ I had a special afternoon with my little friend who is a former dayhome child.  We always have a lot of fun together and I really enjoy her.  We went and saw Paddington in Peru  and then went to the pet shop.  While she liked the show, she was in her glory in the pet store.  There was an employee there showing everyone the animals and birds and talking about them.  It was actually his day off but was there with his friend and just rolled with the interest the kids were showing.  You could really tell it was his passion.  A lady had brought her pet chinchilla in and let my little friend hold it.  She was beside herself and her smile was ear to ear.  And she actually pushed past her fear and touched the big ol' lizard another employee had out and was showing the kids.  Took her a solid 10 minutes but she did it.  We had so much fun.  Bonus was the pet store didn't cost a dime and was the best part of our outing.  

~ dishwasher ~ Sometimes big blessings are just practical that help alleviate the load of work in one's day.  At my house, there is always lots of dirty dishes.  Between ourselves and the dayhome there is always a full load to run on the daily and that doesn't even include the pots that hubby so helpfully washes by hand.  So thankful for a hard working dishwasher (and hubby) that gets them clean and shiny for me. 

What have been your favorite blessings this week?

Specters in the Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright ~ Book Review 2025

In 1921, Marian Arnold's family built their fortune in the brewing business.  But after her parent's death, and prohibition demolishing the business, Marian goes to live in her mother's summer estate which is the only thing left to her.  But when she is there Marian starts experiencing frightening visions.  When the milkman is found dead in her mother's beloved butterfly house, things take an ominous turn in Marian's life.  Then when her cousin Ivo, shows up, Marian is excited as she has always looked up to Ivo.  But Ivo does not come alone.  He shows up bringing a fiance and friends in tow and Marianne is no longer sure of his intentions.  The group doesn't seem to care that prohibition exists and are only too eager to break out the drinks each night.  When another person turns up dead, chaos ensues and Marian no longer knows who to trust. Fearing she is next, Marian turns to her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran, who lives on the estate with his mother.  But is he enough to protect her from what is happening?

In the present day, Remy Shaw has taken a job as a research assistant with a popular biographer.  She moves into his sprawling home which is the former manor of his latest person of interest to write about, Marian Arnold.  The house is odd, with many strange hallways and rooms and a layout that makes no sense and Remy is given a bedroom off a little room where it is rumored Marian Arnold was killed by the infamous Butterfly Butcher serial killer who was never identified or caught.  As she starts to dig into Marian's  life and the mysterious murders linked to the mansion, out of the blue, Marian's great-great grandson turns up wanting to protect his ancestor's legacy from anything Remy and the author may find.  

I really enjoyed this book.  Though not a huge fan of being scared, this author blends just the right mix of creepiness, mystery and great story telling that also takes on a serious subject.  The era is interesting as I have not read many books that deal with the effects on the lives of people who were affected by prohibition.  The main characters and some of the relationships really drew me in and all the emotions are brought out in the reveals as the story moves along.  The pacing was excellent and kept me wanting to pick up the book and keep going to find out what was going on.  

I rated this a 10/10

Friday's Fave Five #827

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five and the last Faves of February.  Time is just a motoring along, days are busy and it's nice to just pause and remember those things we have been blessed with in our week.  These pauses have been vital over the years in helping me to be more thankful and grateful for the good things God has blessed me with.  It helps me to keep my perspective when harder times come.  I'm so glad you have joined in with me this week to share five of your favorite blessings from the last week.

~ chocxo passionfruit chocolates ~   Every time our local C0stco gets a different flavor of these chocolate cups I have to try it and I have really like everyone of them.  This passionfruit one is no exception.  Organic, way less sugar, tastes wonderful.  Yes, please!

~ another learning opportunity done ~ I was able to get another learning opportunity done last week and this one I actually get reimbursed the cost and I got paid for the time.  Whoo hoo.  Now I've completed 3 towards the minimum of 6 that I'm required for the year.  

~ "false" spring ~ after an absolutely frigid 3 weeks the warmer days that started at the end of last week have continued into this week.  We are having above normal temps everyday and it's been wonderful.  But living where I do, we know it's a "false spring" and we will still probably get a blast of cold and probably snow at some point.  So we have been out enjoying every single day that we can.  Unfortunately here in southern Alberta we also had the wicked wind today, gusting up to 110 km/hr (68.35 mph) so we made our fun indoors.

~ great discussions ~ this week at ladies study we had some great questions that prompted lots of good discussion.  I love when this happens rather just sitting listening to one person talk.  

~ surprise lunch ~ yesterday Hubby came home with a surprise lunch of burritos and mexi fries (tater tots).   Bonus that it filled us up enough that I didn't have to cook supper.

What were your favorite blessings from the last week?

Friday's Fave Five #826

Welcome to Friday and Friday's Fave Five.  Can't hardly believe we are into the second half of February already! But today is the day in our week we intentionally take a pause and look for our blessings from over the past week that  God has graciously given  into our lives.  Thanks so much to all of you for being a part of this wonderful community training ourselves to be intentional in noticing the good in our everyday and being thankful and grateful to God.   If you are new please feel free to join in!  

~ longer days ~ this past week I've really noticed that the days are longer.  This is so welcome after the winter where I wake up and am working for an hour already before the day starts to get lighter and it's dark before I even start supper.  Just knowing this brings more energy it seems.

~ sweet rose from one of the kids ~ one of the dayhome children gifted me a lovely rose on Valentine's day.  A week later it's still gorgeous.  This is a minor miracle at the Living to Tell house as I usually cannot keep cut roses going for more than a few days before they flop or start dropping petals.  This lovely has not dropped one single petal and has opened up beautifully.  

~ valentines dinner in~  we rarely go out for Valentine's anymore.  The crowds and the feeling of being rushed through is not a fave experience so we usually either do take out or I make a favorite dinner.  This year we got takeout from our favorite Indian restaurant.  As usual it was delicious and we had a lovely "date" at home.

~ birthday dinner out ~ Saturday was the day we finally got to celebrate my birthday with my Hubby's sister and brother in law.  We go out for each of our birthdays.  It's our way of staying connected.  My choice was Tony Roma's for ribs.  Neither of us couples had been there for a while and it was a delcious treat.  Food was excellent and the company was wonderful.  We even got a pic with their Valentine background which was still up as lots of people choose to go out the day after Valentines to avoid the big crowds.  

~temperatures rising ~  Our temps have been bitter cold going on 3 weeks now but a shift has dramatically started going from -28*C (-18.4*F) on Wednesday to 2*C  (35.6*F) on Thursday.  And the miracle of this was it was without the chinook wind which is usually what brings this in.  Areas around us experienced the wind with lots of white out conditions on the highways due to the blowing snow but our city for some reason was like it was in a lovely, warm bubble.  I took the kids outside to play for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks and it was glorious.  They came in rosy cheeked and very, very wet but oh, so worth it.  The next week is supposed to be beautiful with Sunday afternoon predicted to be a stunning for us 14*C ( 57*F).

What have been your favorite blessings from the last week?

Friday's Fave Five #825

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Hope your day is going well so far.  We are still sitting in a deep freeze so I'm wrapped in a nice warm shawl as I'm typing this trying to stay cozy.  We haven't been out and about much due to the cold but there are still blessings to be found.  Please join in with us.

~ valentine's with the kiddos ~ kids always make a holiday that much more fun.  As we get older we can get a bit jaded about this stuff but the kids always adore it.  We've been having fun in the dayhome crafting and coloring in an explosion of pink, red, purple and white all week.  They are so excited to take all their creations home and show them off to Mom and Dad.  And it's a good thing we had a holiday of this kind to do all this crafty stuff for as we have not been able to go out and play all week due to the bitter cold.  Later today we'll have fun snacks and a movie in the afternoon.  Holidays and kids go well together.

~ shift in bible study ~ Last week we started a new study of our True Identity in Christ.  It's based on the series of sermons and teachings we are hearing this month on Sundays.  I enjoy when we do this in small group studies as it gets us to really delve even deeper and make it more applicable.  It allows for discussion and questions to be asked and answered which the Sunday sermon does not. 

~ some more decluttering ~ I have severely been lacking motivation to take on any bigger projects around the house but did manage to declutter my spice cupboard in a burst of inspiration.  It all started with digging through it trying to decide what to put on my potatoes.  LOL.  As I shifted and moved the various jars around trying to see what had been pushed towards the back of the shelves, I found a jar of something or other that I looked at thought "How long has this thing been sitting in here?"  When I saw the expiration date I was shocked.  This led me on a quick purge of everything that looked or smelled remotely ancient.  Five minutes and I had purged quite a few things and now have more space in the cupboard to actually see and use what is there. 

~ early to bed ~ I've been trying to get to bed a half hour earlier than is my usual habit on a work night.  I've developed a bad habit of getting to bed too late lately and I've found myself starting the day still tired or being totally worn out by the end of the work day.  But it's a hard habit to break.  I like the peace and quiet after hectic, loud days so it's hard to make myself go to bed.  I'm happy to say that 3 nights this week I've met my goal.  That's huge for me.  The blessing is feeling rested to start the new day.

~ weekend visit with my son ~ we didn't get to see him a whole lot as he came down for a celebration of life service and went skiing the next day but we did manage to have Friday night supper with him and Sunday lunch.  It's always a blessing when any of the kids come home.  

~ surprise visit with a friend ~ I'm totally throwing an extra one in the list today.  I had a lovely visit with a friend who had moved away a couple of years ago.  She also was in town for a celebration of life service and called to see if I had some time in the evening.  It was so nice to catch up with her and hear of all the wonderful ways God is moving in her new life.  It's always uplifting and fun being with her.

What have been the blessings in your life this last week?

 

2024 Reading Chanllenge Wrap Up and 2025 Reading Challenge

Finally getting to this post.  I could have skipped it, but I like to see if I accomplished some of my reading goals for the last year and reset myself some new reading challenges for the year ahead.  So last year was a bit up and down because of things going on in our lives which put reading on a back burner a bit.  I missed my Goodreads goal of 40 by five with a total for the year of 35 books read, which is still good considering.  But my real goal was to get this pile of purchased books read and out of the closet.  How did I do?  

Not too bad!  Twelve read and two DNF'd (did not finish).  Add to that another book that was a gift and it got 15 out of my stack!  I'm happy with that.  I also read five borrowed books and listened to 16 audiobooks though a few of those were also DNF's at about a third through, usually due to language or a style of narrating that did not work for me causing  my mind to wander.   If you want reviews and or ratings for the year they are here.  I don't usually review audiobooks because I tend not to remember them as well.  I remember them more for the emotions evoked rather than the actual story. I rate them but not review them.  And a few at the end of the year just didn't get a review because I was otherwise occupied.  

But onward and upward to 2025.  This year I went through all my stacks of books and picked 20 that I absolutely want to get read this year.  My Goodreads goal is again 40 books so the others in my stacks and library want to read shelf is all up for grabs to make up the remainder.  

Non-fiction is a bit harder for me but I have a few that are calling my name for this year.  I've been chugging along in "When You Love a Prodigal".  Not because it is not good, but because I'm taking notes and trying to take my time but I think I have to change that strategy a bit with my non-fiction as it is taking me forever.  I do complete quite a few non-fictions on audio which I find is a great way for me to get through those.  But my goal is to get through the physical copies of books I own so this is my goal for the non-fictions for me this year:

So there ya have it.  The books I want to get to for sure this year.  We'll see how it goes as there are so many on my library "shelves", too.  As they say, "So many books, so little time".   

Got any good books on your radar for this year?

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan ~ Book Review

In 1838 the steamship Pulaski sank about 30 miles off the shores of North Carolina losing 128 lives with only 58 surviving the disaster.  On board were some of Savannah's aristocratic high class bound for their summer homes farther north.  Years later it became known as the "Titanic of the South".  When the ship is finally located in the present day and artifacts start to be recovered, history professor Everly Winthrop is called upon to curate the museum collection focused on the families who were aboard the ship and the explosion that blew it up.  But Everly is hesitant to take on the task.  She is still getting over the drunk driving death of her best friend that has left her unmotivated in life.  But the draw of solving some of mysteries of that fateful voyage is too alluring.  

A story of disaster, survival and loss and the strength of women in the midst of it.  It explores how tragedy affects people and their behavior during and after and how grief changes people.  The dual timeline was interestingly woven together with the story of the museum's curation of the artifacts.  I found the story interesting as a whole but much preferred the historical side as it drew me in more emotionally.  The present day was good too but I found it didn't draw as much as the historical and slowed down is some parts.  All in all a great dual timeline that taught me a piece of history I has no idea about.

Rating:  8.5/10