Friday's Fave Five, 12/29/17

LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog - Susanne's Space

1. A quiet Christmas - both children were with their spouses in their respective homes, so Mike and I had an enjoyable meal with my folks and my sister.  

2. In the morning, we went to one of our favorite bird haunts, which have been very quiet for the past few weeks.  However, I got several good pictures on that trip:

Eastern phoebe - a common bird even at our house, but not easy to get a picture of.

Immature red-shouldered hawk.  Immatures are difficult to identify, but this is what someone on a bird forum told me.  I'll take his word for it.  :-) 

Cropped photo of a male belted kingfisher. 

 I dub the above picture, the pic of the day.  Someone wrote on a bird forum that a kingfisher sounds like "a playing card clipped to bicycle spokes."  Great descriptive phrase.

3. Daughter gave us a duck-stamp jigsaw puzzle for Christmas.  It's all metallic browns and golds, which is not easy on our OLD eyes.  But we've had fun putting it together this week.  Mike says we will frame it.  :-)

4. Recent work:

One scarf on the left is mine; one I gave to my sister; the hat is in the "not sure yet" pile.  The scarf in the right hand picture went to my daughter in law.









5. Two whole weeks of rest.  I've needed it.  The recuperation from this surgery takes longer than re-entry into society.  I have really enjoyed this break.

Friday's Fave Five, 12-15-17

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

BIRTHDAY EDITION  :-)

This will be a little different FFF due to the events of the past week.  :-)

1. Today, by the grace of God, I celebrate having lived on this earth for six decades.  I am very thankful for all that He has done in my life.

2. Last Saturday, our children and their spouses (and my folks) pulled off a big surprise.  Mike's birthday was a week ago Thursday, and he had a milestone birthday also.  So our children planned a surprise party at a local restaurant.  ML and her husband drove four hours to be here for this special event.  Several good friends and family members were there, and we were very surprised.  It was a great evening!!  It was especially nice because of our recuperations from surgeries, from which he's faced limited activity and I've faced a lot of ongoing fatigue.  So the party was a great diversion.

The six of us.

2. Of course, this is also the last week of school before Christmas break, so last night was our beautiful school program.  I'm not supposed to post pictures of students on private blogs or FB pages, but suffice it to say that that program was a true worship service.  Our music teacher does a beautiful job of planning a program that gives glory to the true reason for Christmas, and makes it enjoyable also.  It was a great night.

3. Before the program, my dear friend of many years, Nancy, took me out for my birthday. 

4. Then today, after I got home from a half-day of school, our son drives up and brings me this, from both children and their spouses.  Beautiful!!

5. And a half hour after that, the doorbell rang, with another flower arrangement from my dear friend Gretchen!  I have felt greatly celebrated this week.

Just to keep my feet on the ground, precious husband reminded me, "Just think - you're halfway to 120."  :-)

Friday's Fave Five 12-1-17

 LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog

1. A good week overall.  I am still tired by the end of the day, and have pain when I push, pull, or lift anything that is too heavy, but this week was not exhausting like some of the previous ones have been.

2. Helpful parents.  It's still very wearing to do much shopping, and I needed printer ink this week - the nearby Wal-Mart was out.  Dad stopped and got what I needed while Mom was at an appointment.  I appreciate their help!

3. These birds.  Terrible picture but fun experience.  The bird on the left is a blue morph snow goose (a lifer for Mike and me), the two in the middle, along with another that is not seen in this picture, are greater white-fronted geese; and the white one is a Ross's goose.  All three rare for this area, feeding together in a field in the area where we like to go.  Rare bird alert websites are very helpful in finding such things.

4. It was nice to be with this lady on Sunday night.  She and her family were often good to my son when he was in China.  Any time he had to go to Beijing, they hosted him and basically played substitute family to him.  They also hosted me for three nights at the end of my trip there.  She and her husband were at our church Sunday night, and we took them out afterward.  Very thankful for the work that they are doing in China - and also thankful for their kindness to Andrew.  A mother doesn't forget when people are kind to her kids!!

 5. These are this week's yarn efforts.  The scarf on the right is actually from last week; however, I added the hat to go with it.  Working with yarn has become so relaxing to me.

And a bonus!  A good friend, whose daughter will be joining two of my classes in January, stopped by so that we can make sure her daughter is at the right place in her studies.  She happens to be a very, very good baker, and she brought two of these (I guess I have to give one to Mike!!!).  We will have a treat this evening.  They smelled wonderful all day!!