Friday's Fave Five #310

Welcome everyone to Friday's Fave Five.  This last week has pretty much been a write off for me as I have been sick for almost 2 weeks and it's just wiped me out.  But I have to stop in and do FFF because even though physically I was feeling the pits there were many good blessings to find in the week too!  Please join in!

1.  Ladies Study Christmas Party.  Monday night was our study groups Christmas party.  I had volunteered my home more than 3 weeks ago and as it came to the night I wondered if I was out of my mind to still have it here.  But a few cold meds and advil later, I was able to get the house cleaned up from the dayhome kids there that day and it turned out to be a huge blessing.  Even though I crashed right after it was such a fun evening that I wouldn't have traded hosting it.  We are now done for the year, and even though I will miss it I really need some time to get some Christmas related stuff done!

2.  This made me smile




These are high school kids and I thought they did such a good job.  It must have taken much practice and really good listening skills to come right in on their cues.  And the concept of monks who had taken a vow of silence "singing" the Hallelujah chorus was fun.


3.  Starbucks hand delivered to my door by a wonderful dayhome parent who thought it would be nice to treat me.  She brought me one I haven't tried before...chestnut praline latte.  Yummy.

4.  Helping hands.  Saturday was the day we had planned to put up the tree.  In all honesty, because I was sick the task seemed daunting to me.  I woke up Saturday morning to hubby having the tree up and halfway finished with the lights.  And my youngest decorated it in the evening while we attended a dinner we had committed to.  What a blessing it was!

5.  Christmas music.  Love filling the house with Christmas songs and music.  Like my daughter posted on facebook:  "I don't think a lot of people realize how powerful the lyrics to O Holy Night are... "And in His Name all oppression shall cease".  I think she is right.  I think it's that way with a lot of the Christmas songs we sing.  We go on autopilot with the lyrics and don't really pause to think about what we are actually saying.  They are powerful!

Well those are the ones that came to mind for me.  It's going to be a bit busy for me this weekend.  A lot of Christmas shopping that hasn't gotten done because I've been to exhausted after work and maybe even some baking.  Hopefully my energy level will get up there a bit and I can go, go, go.  Have a wonderful weekend.

What have been your favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #309

Is it Friday already?  Oy.  I am so mixed up this week in what day it is.  I'm totally blaming the cold meds.  Totally.  But welcome to Friday's Fave Five!  I know those in the U.S. just celebrated Thanksgiving but I believe we should daily notice our blessings and not just once a year, right?  So that is what this is about. Taking a moment once a week to look back over that week and notice the big and little blessings that may be missed.  Please join us!

1.  This post by Carrie at Reading to Know.  It's a book review but I love the direction she took it.  She speaks of bravery and what she observes is happening in the Christian community today.  She really gives us something to think about.

2.  This quote that came up in my facebook feed last week.  Exactly what I need to hear at the moment

"Keep this in mind tonight… the devil loves to make us focus on the little that’s wrong so we miss the big picture of all that’s right.” - Lysa TerKeurst

And isn't that what the FFF is all about?....Helping us to purposefully put our focus on the things that are right and good!

3.  Life of a King.  Hubby and I came across this movie on the weekend and because we both like Cuba Gooding Jr.  decided this was the movie we would watch.  Though the critics were not thrilled with it we found we really liked it.  Based on a true story, which I always like, it wasn't a blockbuster by any means but a really great story of how one person can take a small gifting such as teaching chess and change the lives of many!



4.  Blogmas Series happening over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  Sandra came up with a lovely idea of a different Christmas theme to write about for each day until Christmas. I've really been enjoying reading them and hope to join in as soon as I stop being sick and wiped out and unmotivated to do anything but lie on the couch with hot tea and a blanket.  It's not too late to join up for anyone.  This link will take you to the first one where, if you scroll on down, she has buttons and topics for each day.

5.  Today I'm just super thankful for my job.  Even though there are many things I've complained about or been frustrated with over the years, it really has so many, many good things that go with it that outweigh those negative things.

What are your favorite blessings from the past week?

Friday's Fave Five #308

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Happy Thanksgiving to all my American bloggy friends.  I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  And how appropriate is FFF for this weekend?  Are you all ready to look for and share what you are thankful from this past week?

1.  5 Stores - no purchase.  Why on earth would this be a blessing you ask?  Especially as the Christmas season kicks off?  Well those stores were Christmas/decorating type stores and if you knew my history in one of those, well, let's just say the "no purchase" is not a part of my past record in those kinds of stores.   But this year, I have been to several Ladies nights at these stores and not felt at all compelled to buy a thing.  Yes, everything was real pretty.  But for whatever reason, this year, I did not feel compelled to bring any of it home.  That, my friends, is a miracle.  I can't explain it other than to say I feel content this year with what I have.  And I hope it continues!

2.  Birthday dinner.  We finally celebrated Hubby's birthday last Sunday.  He's a pretty lay low kind of guy.  Doesn't like parties, especially surprise ones.  So just our little family celebrated him at a favorite restaurant with a wonderful meal.  I was a special afternoon for him and that made it a blessing.

3.  Surprise gift of a Starbuck's.  One of my dayhome parents came bearing a gift of a venti flavored coffee for me the other day.  What a lovely surprise.  It makes me feel very appreciated.

4.  Special time spent with a friend.  In all the busyness that is starting it was really nice to spend a couple of evenings with a friend.  Being able to relax and just be myself and have fun is a real blessing.

5.  A relatively peaceful day as a new roof was being installed.  I was a bit worried that a day of constant hammering was really going to affect the kids in the dayhome but they handled it like troopers and played really nicely all day.  The two babes even slept their usual amount and didn't get woken up from the loud noises.  The peaceful silence when the roofers were all done was absolute bliss to me.  I'm very thankful that all went smooth.

What are the blessings that were your favorites from your week?

Friday's Fave Five #307

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  A place to stop and pause life so that we can actually stop and notice the blessings in that life.  Finding five from the last week and recording them and sharing them helps me to keep perspective and promotes gratefulness in my life.  Please join me in this.  Guidelines are here if you've never participated before.

Updated with correct link in #3

1.  This post on time management and focus for Christian women.  I found this post very timely for me.  This time of year is super busy for me with a double whammy of obligations at church and sometimes I take on way too much.  This post helped me to see that as a Christian my time management must start with time with God to find out what should be on my plate and what shouldn't. I'm a  person who has a hard time saying no and if I'm putting things on there that God is not calling me too no wonder I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed.  Maybe some of you too can relate?

2.  Operation Christmas Child boxes from church delivered to the collection center.   Yipee!  All done and one step closer to getting to the kids.  And a blessing within the blessing was my son driving them to the collection center and unloading them all for me.  It's something that I like to do but I was pressed for time and he had a couple of days off this week.  So I stepped aside, note #1 above, took it off my plate and gratefully gave the task over to him.

3.  A special gift from my hubby.  It was such a simple gift but boy did it tell me he loved me.  There was a new worship song that I was really liking.  I emailed the youtube link to him because I knew he'd like it too and to ask him to add it to my list.  When I collect up enough songs he purchases them on itunes and makes me a CD filled with my favorite songs.  When I got in the car the next morning and turned it on, out of my speakers come the sound of that song!  He had taken the time to get that for me the very next day and had it right on mark in the car so that when I got in I'd be hearing it.  What a great guy!  If you're super curious and just have to know it's this song.

4.  Trying a new recipe and having it work!!  It was delicious!!  I didn't go through all the steps with the potatoes.   I just halved baby potatoes and threw them in the roasting pan for the last half hour of cover off roasting.  (That meant I didn't use the second half of the oil).  Yum, yum.

5.  Laughter.  There is nothing like sharing in some good belly laughter with others that makes the soul feel wonderful!

Bonus:  Happy Birthday today to my wonderful hubby!

What were your favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #306

Welcome everyone to Friday's Fave Five.  It's been a frosty chilly week here in Southern Alberta but there is still good things to find.  What about you?  Will you join us in looking for blessings throughout your week?  If you need guidelines they are linked in the sidebar.

1.  An extra day off.  Remembrance Day here in Alberta is a holiday for most people (except retail).  I usually take it off but this year I said I would stay open because I had taken a couple days off for a conference last month.  But no one took advantage of the offer and I ended up with the day off anyway.  It was really nice to sleep in a bit and sit and have a coffee or three while reading my book without being in a rush.  

2.  Hard working Hubby.  He's been filling holes and ridges, sanding, and painting.  Our room with the couch and tv in the basement (what do they call those nowadays?  they used to call them rumpus rooms once upon a time) has needed a reno for some time.  The walls were definitely showing use and abuse.  Being paneling that had been painted over, it needed work.  He skim coated dry wall, filled all the ridges, sanded it smooth and painted.  Now they look like regular walls and I'm loving the fresh colors.    Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore on three walls and a light fresh blue on one wall.  I'm not usually a fan of grey on the walls but mixed with the light blue it looks fresh, clean and new.  I took my color inspiration from this minus all the white.  Just our ceiling is white.

3.  Encouraging words.  Nothing like a few words of sincere encouragement that gives the soul a boost!  I'm very thankful for those who share words like that.

4.  Big fluffy duvets.  I finally broke down and put the big quilt on the bed and now I'm wondering what on earth took me so long.  Maybe I was hoping for more warmth in our fall but let's just call a spade a spade.  It is darn cold this week.  I mean, yesterday morning was -24*C (-11*F).  What was I waiting for?  

5.  More clutter out the door.  Another box to Thrift Village.  I love the feeling I get when I made some hard decisions about stuff.  Amazing how freeing it is when it is actually gone out the door.  I wonder what on the earth the struggle was to let it go?

What are your favorite blessings this week?  

Friday's Fave Five #305

Hi everyone?  It's nice to see another Friday roll around.  Time to look back over our blessings from the week and choose 5 favorites.  

1.  Quote:

  "Often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us"      -Helen Keller

This quote really spoke to me.  And when I saw it I immediately copied it down to a couple of places including here.  But what really added to this quote for me was about 1/2 an hour after copying it down I was given notice by a long time family in my dayhome.  It totally blindsided me.  Did not see it coming at all.  I was incredibly sad, they were like family.  And I was a little hurt that they blindsided me with it.  My wonderful husband stepped in a whisked me off to Calgary for the day Saturday to cheer me up and I made a deal with him that I would forget about and not talk about it for at least that day.  It. was. so. hard.  I tend to really rehash things.  But about halfway to Calgary this quote flashed before my eyes, and I realized I was staring at that closed door.  And I also started to laugh because I felt the Lord had totally been speaking when I saw that quote.  He knew what was coming and I feel He was trying to prepare my heart.  But in my humanness as soon as a door unexpectedly shut the quote flew right out that slamming door and I forgot about it until he gently reminded me the next day.   So I am not going to stand staring at that closed door.  I say I am very grateful for having served this family for the past 7 years and I'm going to spend this last month with the child enjoying him as much as I can.  And then I'm purposefully going to look for the open door I know is coming.

2.  A good true story.  I always enjoy reading a good biography or autobiography.  I love to read how people go through the things life brings them, good and bad.  They don't have to be famous for me to enjoy it.  And so I was really pleased this last week to be able read and enjoy this wonderful book reviewed here.  It was well written, interesting and left me feeling uplifted.  

3.  Yummy spices.  One of the things we did in Calgary was go to the Farmer's market and at that Farmer's market is a little spice booth called The Silk Road Spice Merchant.  Last time I was there I had picked up a jar of basil to try and when I got home and compared it to the regular grocery bottle I had been buying.  I couldn't believe the difference buying a quality spice makes.  Hubby gave me some money and let me go have fun.  Oh how to choose!  They have so many to choose from.   I ended up with about 5 bottles of fragrant, yummy spices including Garam Masala, roasted garlic powder, oregano, dried jalapenos, and Chai Masala.  I've had fun this week cooking with them and have used them all except the Chai Masala.  Will be doing that this Saturday.

4.  Browsing Pinterest for Christmas.  Love looking at all the recipes and decorating ideas for Christmas.  I'm so not a crafty person but it's still fun to look.

5.  Haircut.  It seems my hair goes from good to can't stand it overnight.  The haircut this week was very welcome to get it back to shape once again.

What were you favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #304

Hello everyone!  Well I'm sorry you all had to experience my little "oops" of last week.  I must have been super excited about the conference with my head scattered in twenty directions to have not posted properly.  But I will move past and start afresh this week.

1.  The conference.  What a great  time of refreshing and encouragement it was for me.  There really wasn't anything said that was totally new to me but the fresh perspective and examples and stories were really inspirational.  The guest speaker, Donna Crouch from Hillsong in Australia, was really good.  The worship was wonderful and it was fun to attend a conference with about 600 other women.  The thing I love about a Christian women's conference is that it doesn't take a bunch of songs to get into God's presence, it doesn't take the speaker 1/2 before he starts to interact and draw in the crowd.  Everyone is there because they are seeking the Lord and ready to receive to it gets going right off the bat and just builds throughout the 3 days.  I took many notes and will transfer them to my notebook to mull over.

2.  Attending the conference with my daughter.  It was a special thing for me.  Our first mother/daughter extended trip together.  Our first woman's conference together.  I can't believe she is now just about 20 and is officially falling into the woman category for conferences.  LOL.  Last year, being the bible college student she worked through the whole conference and I hardly saw her at all.  It was wonderful to spend the time with her.

3.  Wor Wonton Soup and the Hubby who ran to get the takeout.  After coming home, I ended up waking in the middle of the night with a massive headache that lasted through to Monday.  I didn't eat all Sunday but late in the afternoon I really started to crave a nice big bowl of Wor Wonton Soup and my gracious hubby ran out to get me some.  It was so good and just what the doctor ordered.  Or something like that.  In other words, it hit the spot.

4.  Operation Christmas Child boxes taken.  I took about a dozen boxes to my gym for ladies to take and fill if they wanted and they have all gone.  That just brings a smile to my face knowing 12 more kids living in poverty or war  will be blessed in the coming year with a small gift to bring a smile to their faces.

5.  A little extra time to read.  Not sure how it happened but I was able to get in a little extra reading time this week which is always a favorite bonus for me.

What were your favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #303

Welcome to this edition of Friday's Fave Five.  This Friday came quickly.  It's been a hectic and wonderful week.  We Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend so it's been a short work week.  Join us as we take a moment and reflect back to think of our favorite blessings from the week.

1.  Family.  Holidays bring my little family together and I love that.  My older daughter comes home and even my medic son was home for this holiday.  It was wonderful.  Everyone gathered around good food and good conversation.  It made my small house alive!

2.  Food.  Thanksgiving also brings with it good food.   I love the Thanksgiving meal.  Sunday I made the meal.  We like the traditional turkey here, with all the trimmings.  Yum, yum.  Then Monday my sis hosts a meal for my dad and there we had a delicious ham meal because my dad is allergic to turkey.  .  I was a good girl and only had one dessert at each.

3. Safe Travels.  I'm always thankful when my oldest makes it here and then back to her city safely.  It's a long drive on a very busy highway so when I get that txt saying she made it, I am very thankful.

4.  Coffee and a good book.  I'm reading the latest from one of my favorite authors and I'm really enjoying it.  Monday being the holiday gave me a little extra time to put my feet up, grab that extra cup of coffee and just enjoy getting into the story without a million interruptions.

5.  My hubby's sacrifice of his time and money to take me to a show he didn't necessarily want to see.  I really wanted to go to When the Game Stands Tall.  I'm a sucker for a good "based on a true story" sports film.  I really enjoyed it.  It did however have lots of game play and I couldn't help feeling for my hubby as he is not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination and I knew he was lost during the "football talk".  It made me love him all the more for taking me knowing he was probably quite bored through those parts of the film.  True love.  :)

What are your favorites this week?

Friday's Fave Five #302

Hi everyone and welcome to another week of Friday's Fave Five.  Are you ready to look back over this last week and find some blessings in your life.  What uplifted you this week?  Gave you a smile?  Made you feel good?  Or made you feel special?  Did something or someone say just the right thing?  Do something for you?  Make life a bit easier?  Give you pause to stop and be grateful?  Then it fits right in with FFF!  Please join in as we share 5 of our favorite blessings from the last week!

1.  Dinner with our Pastor and his lovely wife.  This is always a pleasure for us.  They are such great people and it's a real blessing to not only have them as our pastors but to call them our friends.  They are such encouragers and such down to earth kind of people and they are a lot of fun.  There is always lots of laughter and yet there is always deep spiritual discussion too.  It's always a blessing when we get to share time with them.

2.  A revelation of my baby girl all grown up.  My youngest who is almost 20 joined us for dinner with our pastors and that night I saw a real maturity and grown-upness (I know it's not a word, but work with me here).  She didn't just sit there but joined in on the conversation and held her own.  She was bright and funny and honest.  It was a joy having her along.  I know in my head she's considered an adult but it just really hit me that evening that yes, she has grown up right before my eyes.  And she just made us all laugh out loud when she commented:  "I must be getting older 'cause I'm enjoying your conversation".    We were quick to point out that it's because we ourselves were so young.  LOL.

3.  A blessing of time.  At this time of year, I am in charge of two different areas in my church:  Operation Christmas Child and Ladies Christmas party door prize and silent auction donations co-ordinator.  The second job has grown huge and it takes up large chunks of time.  I was getting a little behind in getting letters out to various businesses and was really starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with it all (the same as I do every year at this time).  Then on Wednesday only 1 child showed up for dayhome.  It happened to be one of the babies.  And he has a short nap in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon so I was able to get all my letters done and then we even took the stroller and walked to the mailbox to mail them all when he was awake.  What a blessing it is to have that part done.  Now I can relax for a couple weeks until the next busy step in the process.

4.  Self-adhesive envelopes.  When one is doing 40 - 50 letters it is a huge thing not to have to lick all those babies closed, let me tell you!  Or to have wet paper towels to try and get them damp without sopping down the rest of the envelope.  What a blessing whoever came up with that invention is in my life at this time of year.  I will have to make sure to thank the church secretary profusely for getting those envelopes.

5.  The owner/manager/trainer at my gym who took my workout and totally modified it when I came down with major heel pain this week.  In typical modern day fashion, I totally went on line with my symptoms and I think I've plantar fasciitis.  I'm going to have to make an appointment with the doctor to see if I'm right, but whatever the case, I was absolutely bummed because I have been on a great role with my fitness goals.  I do not want to be laid up with an injury and then have to fight my way back like a couple of years ago.  I was very grateful she took the time to change the workouts the gym is doing with Jillian Michaels and modified them or totally changed them up to take the pressure off my feet and heels and still let me come and do something to work out.  It's a blessing to have someone with some knowledge and the willingness to take the time without extra appointments or expense.

What were your favorites from the last week?

Friday's Fave Five #301

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Time to take a breath, slow down and look back over the week and take notice of our blessings, sharing 5 of your favorites.  Let's get right to it!

1.  Kick off to Operation Christmas Child in church.  Every year I'm so nervous making the announcement. I so want to open people's eyes to what these boxes do in the lives of children, their families and sometimes whole villages.  It went wonderful and now we can look forward to praying and then going shopping for special kids.  If you've never packed a shoebox before, it's a wonderful blessing.  Need info on it?  You can go here for Canadian residents or here if you live in the U.S.

2.  Uplifting words from my wonderful hubby.  Sometimes he just finds the most perfect words to uplift my world. I don't even think he realizes it.  But this week he found just the right ones and I'm so thankful.

3.  Reconnecting with friends we haven't seen in about 24 years.  Unfortunately, it was because of a funeral of someone we both knew.  But getting together with friends out of our past was lovely!

4.  Fall Scents.  I absolutely love the scents of fall.  Outside in the cool crisp mornings,  from the crunchy leaves when I rake, in the spicy scents of candles and lotions.  

5.  Sleep, blessed sleep.  It's been a crazy busy week with settling in the new babe in dayhome and kids ending up getting sick and having to be sent home.  I'm not gonna lie.  I love that age but boy, oh boy, I am tired!  I'm so thankful for sleep at night!

Some weeks it's the little things!  What were your favorites this week?

Friday's Fave Five #300

Three Hundred?  Can you believe it's been 300 weeks of gratefulness and looking for the good things in one's life.  Three hundred weeks of being thankful to God for the wonderful things that come our way no matter how small?  If you've been with me since the beginning that is 1500 individual items that we have taken note of in our lives that was good.  Big things and wee little things.  What a time it's been!  Made lots of friends along the way.  And I'm so grateful for each and every one of you that joined me in the journey.  It wouldn't have been the same without you!  My focus has changed and I've been more aware of God's blessings especially during hard times.  So join me once again as we continue on developing this habit of noticing the good things in our lives and being grateful for them.

1.  New babes working out well.  I have a couple of new babes in dayhome and that can sometimes be really stressful.  They are precious and wonderful but let's face it, they are thrown into a situation they can in no way understand.  All of a sudden Mom who's been home their whole little lives is suddenly not.  And they are being passed off to someone they don't know in a house they don't know for lengths of time they don'e get.  It's a lot for them.  My little guy who started at the beginning of September has adjusted wonderfully.  After a little fussing immediately at drop off he's transitioned into waving bye to his mom and getting on with playing and cuddling.  He's an absolute joy and a very smiley little boy.  My little girl who's come a handful of times starts full time on the first of October has been the definition of mellow.  Hasn't fussed once when her mom has gone out the door.  So hopefully that will continue too.  So thankful for the smooth transitions as I was a bit stressed over the summer about it.

2.  Beautiful weather.  We've had summer temperatures this week and it's made for good playtime outside which is always a blessing.  When we can get out and run off some energy and play in sunshine it makes for a much better day for everyone.  We've had lots of that this week.

3.  Hard working hubby.   He took it upon himself to learn how to lay a sidewalk and he's doing a wonderful job.  The concrete at the back of the house needed replacing because it had sunk and shifted and broken.  He looked it up and studied how to do it and then grabbed the bull by the horns.  So thankful for his initiative to learn how to do it yourself.

4.  Fall colors.  I've taken out bits of pieces of fall decorating and it's reminded me how much I love the colors of fall.  The plums, burgundies, oranges and gold and browns.  Living in those colors just makes me feel good.

5.  BBQ!  With the nice weather the bbq is still being used and on the weekend I thought I'd try chicken breasts still with the bone attached with PC Apple Butter BBQ Sauce.   Oh my goodness, it was so delicious!  The meat was moist and tender, and the apple-cinnamony bbq sauce was so delicious!  With oven roasted baby potatoes and corn on the cob it was an absolutely perfect Sunday lunch.

What were your favorites this week?

Friday's Fave Five #299

It's Friday's Fave Five time!  And I am here.  Whew.  It was a little bit insane last week and my brain was totally fried.  But this week I'm refreshed and ready again to join right in.  Please join in with us recognizing and taking note of our blessings from over the week.

1.  My first is my most obvious from last weekend.  I passed the First Aid course!  I was so relieved to have gotten that out of the way for my job.  But really it is such a good thing for anyone to have whether they need it for their job or not.  I can now hook any of ya up to a defibrillator and zap ya if you should need it.  Really, I can.  But in all seriousness anything can happen at any time and rather than go into a deer in headlights panic, I at least feel confident enough that I have a bit of knowledge that I won't be totally lost.  And it's really amazing how stuff starts to come back to ya when you start to relearn it.  I took a first aid course many years ago in college, and there was quite a bit of it that I retained and was able to recall as we were going over it.

2.  The weather.  After the weather having a little tantrum last week and throwing crazy snow around southern Alberta we are back up to summertime temps this week.  Today was 10* celcius above our average temps for this day.  Yesterday was 29*C (84*F).   Yeah I know this is because I packed all my tank tops away and took out the fall sweaters, but regardless I am enjoying it.

3.  Supper cooked for me by my youngest.  At 19 1/2 she is starting to offer to cook supper once in awhile when she has a day off.  And last night she hit it out of the park.  Hummus crusted chicken breasts, brown rice and salad.  It was sooooo good.  It was so nice to walk in after a long day of work and a good workout at the gym to the delicious smell coming out of the kitchen.  She didn't let me help at all.

4.  Operation Christmas Child season kicking into gear.  And to help me get into the mode I am reading this book that my hubby bought me.  What a blessing it is to read of this great ministry to children all over the world.  I've supported them since I first heard of them in the '90's and have just gotten more excited about it over the years.  This book is their story, their history and roots, and wonderful stories of how the shoeboxes have touched children and their families the world over.  Be warned though, this book is best read with a big ol' box of tissues close by as it will grab your heart and squeeze it continuously.

5.  A sweet hubby who took me out to celebrate my first aid accomplishment.  A nice dinner with a pretty special guy was my reward when the course was done and I had passed.  

What were your favorite blessings from the week?  

Oh my goodness, it's Friday!  I'm so sorry everyone.  I totally forgot!  I've had such a crazy week...busy at work and then after a 10 hour day of that I've been in first aid class last night for four hours right after work.  I came home and zonked, not even thinking about the fact the morning would bring Friday.  Go ahead and link and I'll get back as soon as I can with my own FFF.

Friday's Fave Five #298

Welcome to Fave Fives everyone!  I had a wonderful break with family and have so much to be thankful for!! Please join me as we look for our five favorite blessings from the week whether they be big or small.  For details and guidelines just scroll to the link in the sidebar.

1.  A new fireplace.  After humming and hawwing for a few years we finally bit the bullet and bought a new air conditioner.  We knew our original was old; it came with the house when we bought it 21 years ago. In fact, when the salesman who was a friend came to check out the logistics of moving the location, he took one look at it and said, "Wow, that's an old one."  It was tediously slowing down on us, giving out less and less cold air even though we recharged it.   And sure enough when they disconnected the old one there was a date of 1985 on the back. We now had wonderful cool air for those hot days of summer we were expecting.  Again hot being relative because I'm sure Anne and Willow would scoff at us Southern Albertan's wilting in what they consider a cool down.

Now what does this all have to do with a fireplace you ask?  Well the air conditioning company was having a special on where you received a wall electric fireplace for free with the purchase of the air conditioner.  And our friend was incredibly generous in upgrading us to a really nice larger framed unit (rather than the smaller square shaped lcd looking one).  I really love the "fire" in it and it's also a heater for those really cold nights. For now I haven't figured out how to decorate around it but that will come eventually.  I may even lower it a bit but that will take some renovation as I'll have to remove the chair rail but that's down the road.

What a cozy feeling for the already cooler nights that we are experiencing!  And did you catch the fact that it was free?  I love free!

2.  Time with the family all together. Last week we had the family all together, the first time since Christmas.  Oh how I enjoyed it.  We had decided in the spring to have a more low key holiday a bit closer to home.  I wanted my oldest to be able to spend extra time with her grandparents, she wanted to go to our beloved Waterton National Park.  So we skipped the 10 or so hour drive to Kelowna, B.C. and stayed closer.  We were all together and that was the main thing.

top of Bear's Hump Waterton National Park

3.  A family trip to Glacier National Park.   Waterton National Park and Glacier National Park are the 2 sides to an International Peace Park, Waterton being the Canadian side and Glacier being the US side.  I hadn't been there since I was a kid and had bits and pieces of memories.  What a stunning drive we had!  I took over 250 pictures.  I just couldn't help myself.  It was breathtaking.  I can hardly wait to go back!  Because of time constraints I've had this week I just haven't been able to upload and make a nice collage but I'll leave you with one and put up more during the week.

4.  My most thrilling part of being in Glacier National Park...hiking the trail at the Logan's Pass visitor centre. It was cold and it was windy but boy oh boy was it worth it.  A trail that ran the side of the mountain, sometimes so narrow that for someone to pass you had to push your back against the cliff.  In fact, when on the side wall, they had a hose type hand hold for you to hang on to.  Cliff wall on one side, cliff edge on the other, but the view.  Oh the view!  God is an amazing creator and artist.  Pictures cannot do it justice!  And the thrill of doing a hike like that was exhilarating!!

5.  the hotel we stayed in.  I booked from the Starbucks in Kalispell and we hit on a wonderful hotel.  Nice and clean, they provided lots of extras.  Firepit in the evenings, an incredible breakfast with made to order omelets amongst a whole host of other things hot and cold, and the best part they had bicycles to rent with the first 2 hours being free!  We love biking as a family so that was really a treasure find for us and we took advantage of that.  

What were your favorite blessings this week?