Friday's Fave Five, 1/29/2021

 

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1. On my birthday, my daughter gave me a beautiful flower arrangement.  I liked it so much that I had it re-done in silk by a parent of several of my students who does this as a side business.  She just sent me these pictures, and I'm very happy with it.

2. Son and daughter-in-law gave me this picture frame at Christmas, filled with several of my ECN articles. Mike hung it this week.  My DIL always gives thought fun gifts, and this is just another example.

3. Went to the farm with Mike last Saturday.  I was very tired, but got the chance to rest some while I was there.  This blanket is what I gave Mike at Christmas.  I saw the fleece at a fabric store, and it said "Gone to the Cabin" as well as "The Great Outdoors."  One of my students who loves to make blankets knotted it for me to make a little Christmas $$.  I took a nap under it while we were down there, and it is toasty warm.

4. I also had the energy to get to Target this week to return a Christmas present from my dear daughter, something that just wasn't going to work right.  I needed a new hairdryer, so with her permission used the $$ to get a new one.  And since it was a gift, I splurged on a nicer one.  :-)

5. Today is my dad's 91st birthday.  Happy birthday to Dad, on the slim chance that you are reading this!

Friday's Fave Five, 1-22-2021

 

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1. I went back to work on Tuesday for the entire week, and for the most part did fine.  Yesterday I hit a wall by the afternoon, and went home an hour early - and promptly napped for close to an hour and a half.  But today was a great day and I felt essentially. . . .normal.  Even did dissection of worms with the seventh grade, and that takes a great deal of energy.  I'm posting this picture because it's hard to identify anyone individually on it, which we have to be careful of these days.

2. These are birthday slippers from my sister, and they have felt so good this chilly January week!

3. The blanket in the picture above is one that's been in the closet for awhile.  I unwrapped it this week and it is very soft and comfortable.  I'm thankful to be warm on cold days.

4. I had a gift card from a student, and we had an additional $20 deduction from a DineRewards program, so we had a nice dinner at Outback tonight that cost us $2.26. :-)  Friday nights eating out are great.

5. Thankful once again that my COVID case, though not fun and lasting several weeks with the fatigue, was not serious enough to have to go to the hospital or to develop pneumonia at all.  We know several who have had critical consequences, and I could have just as easily been a casualty instead of just a minor statistic.  Very thankful.

Year In Books 2020

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Friday's Fave Five, 1-15-2021

 

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

I haven't done this in quite awhile.  Seems like all of a sudden Fridays are over and I haven't done a FFF.  But this week - in the after-throes of Covid, I have time to do this.

1. I am so thankful to have gotten through this without any pneumonia or having to go to the hospital.  Many prayers went up from many people that that would be the case.  I have a history of bronchitis and pneumonia (3x), so in many ways was a prime candidate for complications from Covid.  After two weeks of being confined to my bedroom (for the most part), I don't think I'm contagious anymore - but the main difficulty now is fatigue.  And it is a wrenching fatigue.  When it hits, there is nothing to be done but get to a chair or bed and take a nap.  Now.  But I have four more days with nothing I have to do but recuperate.

2. Very grateful for a dear friend who is available to substitute for me in a situation like this.  She taught for me when I had major surgery three years ago.  She is flexible and she is willing, and she does a good job.  And my dear friend who is also a colleague was right at her side, helping with the classes she did not know as much about.  That is a huge blessing to know that my classes are well cared for during these two weeks.

3. Mike has taken super care of me (from six feet away of course), and has not gotten sick.

4. My mom has brought us some food and we have also used restaurant carry-out several times.  So we've eaten well.

5. And this book came this week.  So glad to have had the opportunity to read it.  Elisabeth Elliot is a hero of mine, and it's always a pleasure to read anything new and well researched.  I wasn't completely sold on it, and reviewed it on Goodreads as well as copying it to this blog.  But reading it was a bright spot in a very, very quiet week.

I hope anyone reading this is spared this awful virus.  It is weird and it is unpredictable and it is rough.  I am once again very grateful to have come through relatively unscathed.

Becoming Elisabeth Elliot

The perfect read for the upswing of Covid recovery. Elisabeth Elliot has been a hero of mine for over 40 years, and this is a well-researched "authorized" biography of her. Many new details emerge from her life; many blanks filled in. The issue of making Christian icons into "perfect saints" was, I felt, handled well - she was neither placed on a spiritual pedestal, nor, at the same time, torn down from a realistic one. Her early years - her anguish at the loss of Jim - what to do after his passing - all these were full of insight into EE's thinking and decisions. Anything read by EE or about her causes any thinking Christian to consider the same issues in his or her own life.

I gave it a 4 for things that bothered me: 

--I felt like there were a few things that were included that would have mortified EE - such as us being told that she "peed herself" upon a meeting with the head lady of her boarding school. Not sure that was necessary. 

--I felt like the language used to describe the Waodani couples was a little bit too earthy for a biography of this distinguished lady. 

--And just because Elisabeth Elliot, in a depth of frustration, wrote "To hell with zeal!" - it was gratuitous to use that as a chapter title, to draw people in with "Elisabeth Elliot said WHAT?" 

--I saw a few places where the punctation did not appear to be properly edited. 

--I also felt like the author inserted herself in a few places where she could have stepped aside. 

But overall, this is a thoughtful, detailed work, and I am eagerly awaiting Volume II (and wish that the fact that this book was Volume I had been stated as part of the title).