Friday's Fave Five #440

Hi Everyone!  Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Finding the good things in life, the blessings and those things that make us smile and lift us up in our weeks.   When we are thankful and develop a habit of looking for good things, then when the harder times come we have a good foundation of being grateful to help get us through.  Please join us in this weekly journey.

1.  Generous gift from a dear friend.   Saturday my friend and I took a quick trip to a local shoe store because they had a clearance sale going.  The pair I originally wanted to go see, they didn't have in my size anymore.  But there was a couple others that I liked even more.  Long story short my friend gifted me with a gorgeous pair of shoes.  (I did have a picture of them but accidently dumped it out of my phone...and of course the box is in the bedroom where my hubby has already gone to sleep.  I'll try to post one later).  The shoes are absolutely wonderful but the real blessing in this story is the heart of the giver and the friendship we share.

2.  Books.  I really have to mention this here because books are a great blessing in my life and especially so in times of stress.  Books to me are a short trip away to another place, something to help me escape stress, to disappear into another's story for a small space of time.  And because right now is a bit of a stress time for me,  I've been into the stories as much as I can squeeze in.  That we in this country have such access to buy and borrow books on anything we can imagine is a blessing that sometimes I don't think we really understand unless we can go somewhere and experience those communities in other countries where that is not available to them.  

3.  Downtown festivals.  Ever since Elementary school I have loved learning about other cultures and countries in the world.  Their customs, dress, food, history is all so fascinating to me.  Last weekend, when downtown we happened upon the Latino festival in the park downtown.  The music drew us over and we sat and watched the dancing and singing for a bit.  It was great fun and another nice little escape in the midst of running errands.

4.  Air conditioning.   We are in yet another heat wave warning.   It has been crazy hot here, with little to no moisture.  I am so thankful for the ac and do not take it for granted at all.

5.  End in sight?  Our neighbors have had to do some major work to their home in the form of installing weeping tile and doing things to their foundation to waterproof it.  But that meant that all that dirt around their whole house had to be dug up.  So for a month we have had heavy equipment such as diggers and back hoes sitting around out front and in their back yard, not to mention the 5 foot or so high piles of dirt we've been staring at and the open excavation.  I just thank God we didn't get downpours like some years or it would have been a mess of mud that would have ran onto our property, I'm sure or a lot of windy days that would have been blowing dirt and dust.  I guess in that sense I'm thankful for this heat and dryness.  But this week the dirt has all been pushed back and filled in.  So for now, no major heavy equipment, dirt hills, or deep holes fenced with bright red/orange open excavation fencing.   Glad that job is moving along.

What have been your favorite blessings this week?