The Good and the Not-So-Good

It's Fave Five Friday time again and I thought I'd give you a recap of some good things from my week, some ok things, and some not-so-good things this week.  Sounds like anyone's typical week, no?  Here goes:

1.  Today is the day that Schatze goes home.  She was playing hide-and-go-seek under the blanket of  Fresca the Wonder Dog this morning and I tried to get a good shot of her.  As usual, she was moving quickly so it's a little blurry.  I think Fresca will be glad to get her own bed back.  Schatze has kind of taken it over most days and evenings, even though she has a perfectly good bed right next to Fresca's bed and it is much more her size.

2.  I've really been enjoying this Caramel Apple scented hand soap.  This is a scent from Bath and Body Works and it is their Caramel Apple scent.  It's the perfect smell for this time of the year.  For some reason, I just love the foaming hand soaps although I wish they came in a version that was not anti-bacterial.  I try to avoid using those types of soaps since I think they are part of the reason we (people in general) are building up such a resistance to antibiotics.  It seems to be in everything these days.

3.  Finding a good hairspray for fine hair is always a blessing.  It's been rainy this past week and my baby-fine hair always goes limp when it rains.  Luckily my hairdresser recommended the "Hard Head" hairspray by Bed Head and it does keep the curl/style in my hair.  It also doesn't make your hair feel like a helmet.  It just gives it nice body and staying power.  I also like the "Sheer Blonde" Hold and Finishes spray by John Frieda for sunny days.  It really makes my newly blonde hair shine and brings out the highlights.

4.  I finished another pair of fingerless mittens.  These are knit from the pattern "Short n' Sweet Fingerless Mitts by Anne Sahakian.  I used some hand-dyed yarn I had been saving from an indie dyer that I've had for ages here at the house.  I really like how they came out and I still have enough yarn left over that I might be able to make a short cowl to go along with them.

5.  The "not-so-good" this week?  I found some mouse droppings in the house.  Ugh!  I guess it is that time of year when the critters start coming indoors.  Our dog has been sniffing around the base of our stove and I just figured that perhaps some food had fallen under it.  But that is where I found the droppings this morning.  Darn.  Now I'm thinking she might be smelling mice.  I haven't seen a mouse in several years here although we have them in the garage attic.  Guess it is time to lay out the traps since we no longer have cats.  Strangely enough, I am less freaked out by mice than I am by the sight of a box-elder bug.  Go figure!

If you'd like to write about your own Friday's Fave Five, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story.  She hosts us each Friday and it's a great way to reflect back over your past week or to focus on the week to come.

Geography in General

Have you ever noticed that most of us have a pretty vague sense of geography?  I wonder if that stems from a lack of emphasis in the classrooms of America?  Do we in the U.S. have an egocentric view of ourselves and think that our 50 states are the only things that really matter enough to concentrate on in any great detail?  Or....perhaps the world has shrunk so much through the magic of the Internet that we simply figure that we can look up the details on Google or some other search engine if we REALLY need to know a fact about a place.  I'd like to think it is the latter.

I've been thinking about this because of recent events in Indonesia.  This week there was an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra which triggered a tsunami.  Around the same time, the Mount Merapi volcano located near the town of Yogyakarta erupted and has continued to erupt which has left thousands of Indonesians in temporary shelters.

As many of you know, I have family living in that area of the world right now.  Naturally, I've had lots of friends asking me if they are ok.  I'm assuming that they are -- mainly because the tsunami hit Sumatra, not Java.  Mount Merapi is further to the east from my relatives and I don't think they are in any immediate danger from it.  But most of my friends wouldn't know this unless they did some research.  I consider my friends my "early warning system."  They are often my first indication that something has happened in that part of the world when they ask me about something like this.  They hear "Indonesia" in the news and immediately think of my son and family.  They don't know that Indonesia consists of over 17,000 islands.  Most Westerners wouldn't know this.  I wouldn't know it except for the fact that I have family there.  So I'm always grateful that they are concerned enough to ask about them and it gives me the chance to go online and figure out what is going on, since I hardly ever watch the news.

It kind of reminds me of the time we lived in the Charleston, SC area.  My aunt in Minnesota used to call me up all hours of the day and night when a hurricane was approaching the East Coast and say, "Are you ok?"  She seemed to be convinced that "East Coast" meant "Charleston." Bless her heart!

Or have you ever had people who, when they find out you are from a certain state, say something to you like, "Oh, you're from Minnesota?  I have friends from that state.  I think they live in Rochester.  Maybe you know them.  Their names are Fred and Helen Schultz."  Yup, odds are you probably have never crossed paths with the Schultz family but hey, for some reason folks always have to ask.

Perhaps it just goes to show that people are hungry for a sense of community and will try to find those ties and bonds wherever they can.  And it also shows that folks care.....maybe not what the capitol is of North Dakota but definitely how your children are doing when they are far from home.

Somebody Needs a Makeover

Sigh!  I guess you can call me shallow.  Yes, as much as I'd like to think that it's what is on the inside of a person that really counts, there are times when I just can't make it beyond the outward appearance of someone.  I'm currently in the midst of one of those times.

You see, we have a high-level political race going on right now in our state and one of the two candidates has these eyebrows that I just can't deal with.  I know, I know...it sounds really stupid but I'm telling you, I just can't seem to get beyond the guy's eyebrows.  The first time I saw one of his political ads on the TV, I actually sat up in my recliner and leaned forward and said to the Commander, "You have got to be kidding me!  Did he draw those eyebrows on with shoe polish?"   They are thick and dark and shaped exactly like the McDonald's golden arches. 

Wouldn't you think that his handlers would have realized how they look on television and done something to them?  Surely they could be tweezed or lightened or somehow reshaped so that he doesn't look like someone's toddler got a little too bold with Mommy's eyebrow pencil.

I was at a social gathering the other day and the conversation turned to politics.  Someone asked me who I was going to vote for.

"Well, I can tell you who I'm NOT going to vote for," I replied.  "The guy with the eyebrows."

I swear there wasn't anyone in the room who didn't know who I was talking about and I saw quite a few other heads nodding in agreement.

"I'm sorry," I went on, "but I just can't get past the eyebrows.  There's no way I want someone representing our state who looks perpetually surprised.  It's just unnerving."

Yup, call me shallow but I'm not voting for the eyebrows on Election Day.

No, I DON'T Teach PreSchool!

We were awakened this morning by Schatze, the whiner outside our bedroom door bright and early.  I had set my alarm for 8 a.m., thinking maybe we could sleep in just one morning but knowing that I needed to have my computer up and running by 9 a.m. for a Skype call from our son.  Thanks to Schatze, I was up and downstairs by 7:30.  It was actually a good thing because at 8 a.m., we got a Skype call from our daughter-in-law.  Whee!  It was a two-for-one special morning.  We got to Skype with Laura and Mika and their friend, who was up visiting for the weekend AND we got to Skype an hour later with our son, who had traveled to a different town to meet friends who were visiting in the area.

After breakfast, I headed out to do a little shopping for my trip.  Actually, first I did some shopping for our pastors and their families.  Does your church celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month?  At our church, the month of October is Pastor Appreciation Month.  Our members are given the opportunity to give little gifts to the staff and there is a little list with things that they like and places that they like to eat, etc.  It's fun to go through the lists and decide how we'd like to bless them this year.  But back to my story.....

I decided that I'd pick up some coloring books and crayons to take over to Asia with me for the children in the Kampung (I think that is the word for "slum neighborhood") where my son and his family live.  After I brought them up to the register, the clerk wanted to know if I taught at a preschool.  Nope!  But after I saw the pile of things, I got to thinking that maybe I'll just box it all up and mail it off to him so that it will get there before I do.  That way I don't have to lug it all in my luggage.  I have a feeling I'm going to have my hands full just with clothes and other Christmas presents.

Well, the timer just went off and I can smell that chicken curry dish so I'd better close for now.  Hubby is getting anxious to eat.  Of course, he made me wait 1 1/2 hours later than usual while LSU played Auburn so I think he can cool his heels just a few minutes longer, n'est pas?

Fave Five Friday - Finally!

It's Friday - finally!  It's been a busy week which means that the week has flown by.  It seems that the closer it gets to my trip overseas, the faster the days are going.  With Thanksgiving just weeks away, I'm getting a little panicked about getting all my Christmas presents made or purchased before I head off on my trip.  My goal of leaving with a rudimentary knowledge of the Indonesian language has flown out the window.  I think I'll be able to manage the standard greetings and that's probably all I can hope for at this point.  I also like to make Christmas gifts for each of the nurses on my mom's wing at the nursing home.  That's 27 people to make gifts for.  Needless to say, I've been finding myself waking up early in the morning with my mind racing as I try to figure out how I'll accomplish all of this within the time allotted.  But let's put that aside and go to our Fave Friday list for this week, shall we? 

 1.  I've been dogsitting this week and it has been very apparent to me that, like children, God gives us the dogs that he knows we can handle.  Don't get me wrong.  Our Fresca is about as neurotic as they come.  She's anti-social, over-protective, suspicious, and can get loud in a heartbeat.  Hey, that sounds like me...a perfect match for my temperament.  I can spend hours working away on the computer or sitting in a chair reading.  I'm independent - extremely so, as long as I know there is someone in the general vicinity that I can count on IF I need them.  Fresca is perfectly happy as long as she is in the same room as me.  She just plops herself down on the floor by my side and snoozes away.  She doesn't need to be walked because she exercises herself running from window to window in our rooms when cars, mailmen, or dog walkers go by the house.  She's efficient.  She comes to get me when she has to go outside and then she does her business in less than 3 minutes and is ready to come back in.  Then there's Schatze, the dog we are babysitting.  Schatze is a "clinger."  I don't think I've ever met such a needy dog.  She's used to being on her owners' laps a lot.  And she whines - oh, my....does she whine.  She takes FOREVER to go to the bathroom.  She came here with two big containers filled with treats that I'm to give her.  Goodness, she's half the size of my dog who only gets two small treats a day and this little dog apparently gobbles them down like there is no tomorrow.  No wonder she's a picky eater!  It's a good thing that she's cute because that is her saving grace.  One more week to go with the little darlin'.

2.  We're one week closer to Election Day.  I don't know about you, but I'm getting mighty tired of the election ads and the campaign telephone calls.  I'd just like for it to be over and done with.  Maybe the answer is to limit the amount of time that candidates have to campaign.  It seems like they start several years before the actual election.  Ugh!  It's like seeing Christmas decorations up in July.  When the actual event happens, it feels anti-climactic.

3.  I had a lucky break on my Christmas knitting.  I've been enjoying knitting fingerless mitts, as I mentioned in an earlier post this week.  Anyway I fired off an email to my daughter several days ago to ask her what color of fingerless mitts she would want "IF" she should happen to get some for Christmas.  I just heard back from her and the answer was "light gray."  Well, what do you know?  It just so happens that I had found an unused skein of a nice gray left over from a sweater I had knitted this year and I'd started a set of gloves for myself.  However, I wasn't liking how they were turning out.  When I heard from Laura, I ripped out my knitting and am now redoing a pair from a different design for my daughter.

4.  Our son posted some more pictures of our granddaughter and she's becoming quite the reader.  Jason and Laura haven't had very good internet access where they currently are living so the emails and pictures have been few and far between.  However, this week we received some new pictures and even a short video.  Mika continues to grow by leaps and bounds.  She's now crawling easily and continues to be quite captivated by books.

5.  Speaking of books, I'm making great progress on my "ABC" book for Mika.  I'm using the Creative Memories Storybook Creator software and designing a special ABC book just for Mika that I plan to have printed and bound before I leave.  Each entry will feature someone or something that particularly pertains to her family on both sides.  I thought that this would be a great way for her to learn her "ABC's" while also getting to know her extended family while she is living so far away from us all.

If you'd like to write about your own Friday's Fave Five, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story.  She hosts us each Friday and it's a great way to reflect back over your past week or to focus on the week to come.

Quick, Fingerless, and Fashionable

It has been getting quite nippy here these past few weeks and as any good knitter will tell you, when the weather starts turning colder, a knitter's pace increases.

I recently got bitten by the "fingerless glove" knitting bug and so I started out with a very simple pattern and found some rustic alpaca that I had in my stash to knit with.  They took only a few days to knit up and boy, are they warm.

Once I finished those, I started looking through the patterns up on Ravelry and discovered that there are lots of fingerless glove patterns available.  I also found this fingerless glove pattern at the local Knitters' Day Out gathering in our area and whipped them up in no time.  They match a cowl that I just completed.

Since fingerless gloves don't take a lot of yarn to knit up (typically 150 - 220 yards of yarn), I rummaged through my stash and found this lovely Sanguine Gryphon yarn that I thought would make a lovely pair to go with my black winter coat.  This pattern is called "Fronds."

Once I had finished those, I still had half a skein left so I decided to work up another pair of fingerless gloves.  This time I chose the "Jasmine" pattern.  Again, it took two days to finish up and that was just knitting a bit here and there.

The latest pattern that I worked from is called "Mitt Envy" and I used two strands of Araucania Trauco yarn held together to knit them up.  Since the Trauco yarn is a laceweight yarn, this gave me a fingering weight yarn to knit with.  The resulting fabric is quite warm and tightly knit.

Why fingerless gloves?  Well, they are the perfect project to use up yarn in your stash.  They don't take long to knit up.  They are great to wear on cold days when it really isn't cold enough for mittens or full-fledged gloves but you still would like something to take the chill off your hands.  I love to wear my fingerless mitts when I'm driving in the morning.  Otherwise I find I'm warming my hands in my armpits when I'm stopped at the stoplights.  Hey, it was also so chilly in our church sanctuary this past Sunday that I slipped a pair on while I sat in the pew.  I warmed up in no time.

Fingerless gloves aren't that hard to knit, especially if you are using the Magic Loop method and they make nice gifts without having to invest in the purchase of a lot of yarn.  They are also practical.  For example, I can sit here and type with fingerless mitts on.....something I can't do if I were wearing gloves or mittens.  My sister-in-law and my daughter work in labs where it can get pretty cold.  These would be perfect for them. They could still work on the computers or take notes without having to take off their mitts.

With all the neat patterns available, I think I'm going to be doing plenty more of these.  However, for now, I'm working on an octopus toy for my granddaughter.  I'm on the first of 8 legs and each will be wearing a little sock.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished toy for you when it's done.

Battle in the Sanctuary

It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  How can a person have a "battle" in a "sanctuary" which by its very definition should be a place of refuge or shelter?  Yet there I sat this past Sunday in our sanctuary and it took every ounce of self-control that I had not to stand up and bolt down the aisle and out the door.

I guess my first mistake was not paying better attention to the sermon topic listed in the bulletin.  My second mistake was sitting in my usual spot, right in the front.  I had adopted that habit several years ago in an attempt to stay awake during the sermons.  For some reason, I had gone through a period of about a year where I'd fall asleep almost as soon as our preacher started preaching.  It was embarrassing and frustrating.  For awhile I had snuck up into the balcony which was technically closed during the early service because, with just a few other "rebels" up there, I could take my coffee mug with me and chug caffeine if I felt myself starting to nod off.  When even that failed to work, I decided that perhaps the best approach would be to sit myself right up front, under the direct gaze of the pastor.  Surely the thought of nodding off right in front of the man would be enough to keep my eyes open.  Most of the time, it worked.  I had gotten used to sitting in that pew so that's why I was way up front Sunday.

We had a guest speaker and I knew I was in trouble the minute he introduced himself and his topic.  He was a missionary and would be speaking on world missions.  It's not an easy topic for me because I have a child who is far from home in this calling.  It's a touchy topic with me because even though I know it is a good thing that he is doing, there are many days when I wish it was someone else that was doing it.  I miss him and his family and I hate the fact that they are so far away.  And that's the honest truth.

Our guest speaker hadn't gotten any farther than his introduction before I was already scrambling to build a wall around myself and strapping on my armor.  He had armed my defenses when he said that his first missions assignment had lasted twenty-five years on the other side of the globe.  He'd taken his family there and raised his children there.  Twenty-five years!  I was trying to cope with the thought of having my family away for three years and hoping mightily that at the end of that time, they'd at least come back to our continent.  I didn't want to hear someone talking about keeping themselves and their children away for twenty-five years.

I sat there glaring at him for the rest of his talk.  I'd heard it all before.  I knew all the key missions verses.......the "harvest", the "workers", the whole shebang.  I just wasn't feeling particularly charitable yesterday.  I was feeling lonely.

When the service ended, I hightailed it out of there and went off to my Sunday School class.  One of my good friends came into the classroom and I confided to her how hard it had been for me to sit through the morning's sermon and why.

"When your son was born, didn't you dedicate him to the Lord?" she asked.

"Of course," I replied.

"Well then, you know that you need to let him go and do God's work," she continued.

"Look, I know all that, but it doesn't make it any easier.  I just find myself sometimes looking around the church at families sitting together and wishing that God had taken someone else's child to go to the mission field.  Why did it have to be mine?" I answered.

"You just have to accept the fact that he's doing a good thing and let him go," she went on.

"That's easy for you to say," I lashed out.  "Your son is just an hour down the road and you can see your grandchild any time you want."

I felt ashamed as soon as I said that but part of me wanted to hurt her, to make her feel part of my pain.  Stupid and childish, I know.  But that's life sometimes, as a missionary's parent.  People forget that we weren't born saints or that we didn't receive the "call."  A lot of us have struggled to accept our child's vocation and all it entails, even though we know that it is a worthy and good thing.  Like Abraham, I keep hoping that a sacrificial lamb will show up and take my son's place so I can hustle him back down the mountain and on home.

For now, the battle continues and many days, I'm my own worst enemy.  But where I am weak, there He is strong.  That's the promise, right?

Another E-Reader Convert

The Commander and I traveled down into Maryland this weekend to meet up with our daughter and son-in-law to celebrate her birthday together.  I have to admit that I almost started to hyperventilate as we took the exit ramp to get to the restaurant that we were going to meet them at.  You see, this is the same exit ramp that we used to take on our way down to Bethesda for my chemotherapy.  The same two fast food places are still there at the bottom of the ramp where we'd stop on our way down for a quick breakfast.  I can still remember the feeling of dread that would wash over me, realizing that I was halfway to the hospital, knowing what waited for me.  Isn't that nuts?  That was 20 years ago and something like this can still trigger those feelings as if it was yesterday.  Luckily I pulled it together and we went on to have an enjoyable dinner with our family.

We enjoyed a nice buffet and then it was time for Laura to open her present.  Since she had hinted that she might want a Kindle (first time she's ever shown an interest in an e-reader), of course I couldn't resist presenting her with one.

Unfortunately, there was a short shipping delay up on Amazon if I had decided to go with the graphite colored Kindle so I went ahead and ordered her a plain vanilla white Kindle.  I just wasn't sure that the other color would get here in time. 

I also gave her a list of all the books that are currently on my Kindle account.  Since the Kindle is currently registered to my account, she can access any of my titles.  We're a 4-Kindle family and all of us can thus draw from the pool of titles that we purchase since they are all registered in my account.  It's been particularly nice for our son and daughter-in-law over in Asia since they can email me what titles they'd like downloaded to their device and within a matter of a few minutes, they have books to read.  Of course, if Laura wants, she can always take her Kindle off my account and register it to her alone.  It's up to her. 

I had brought my own Kindle along to show her the nifty cover that I have for it (the one that Amazon designed with its own pull-out light) and to show her some of the features of the Kindle.  She told me that she also has a co-worker who has a Kindle (another multi-Kindle owner) and he has been raving about the Kindle to her for months now so she'll have another person to help her out if she needs a few pointers.

Just imagine -- that little device can hold 3500 books.  I still find that almost unbelievable.  I know she'll really enjoy it at home and on trips.  In fact, by the time we arrived home, there was already an email waiting for me from her with a list of titles that she wanted me to order and have downloaded to her device along with a gift certificate to cover the cost.  Yes, I think she's definitely getting into the Kindle spirit of things.

Another Birthday for Our Baby

Happy birthday to our firstborn!  Yes, our daughter is celebrating her birthday today.  I won't tell you how old she is but I AM having lots of fun teasing her.  My goodness, it really does seem like just a few years ago that the Commander was driving me to Bethesda's Naval Hospital as we timed my contractions.  And I was so prepared.  I had brought a book that was almost 4 inches thick with me, thinking that I'd get it read while I waited for her to be born.  Ha!

Our little monkey had us wrapped around her little finger almost from Day One ---that is, when she wasn't scaring the bejeezus out of us with her projectile vomiting and marathon crying jags.  We weren't too sure if we should duck, cry ourselves, or wave a white flag in those early weeks.  Finally, her pediatrician discovered that she was allergic to milk.  Ah!  Soy formula to the rescue.

My mom was the first relative to visit us after she was born and she was a regular presence in her life as she grew.  Both of our children adore their grandmother.  She has had more fun teaching them the joy of reading, songs from her school days and childhood, and helping them discover the wonderful world of imagination.

On her first birthday, I discovered that she was going to have a sibling.  Of course, she was totally unaware of this as she sat on the floor and dumped her cake over and then proceeded to sit on the slice.  We've always been a family who have embraced our food.

Her little brother was born 20 months after her birth and it has been so much fun to watch the two of them grow up together.   "Little brother" usually got roped into whatever adventure his sister was dreaming up, and she had quite the imagination. 

Our girl had a strong personality from the moment she made her entrance in the delivery room and she kept us hopping over the years.  We never had to guess what she was thinking or feeling.  Not surprisingly, this character trait has turned out to be a real strength in her professional career.  She is not only brainy but able to supervise and motivate but don't try to take advantage of her.  She doesn't pull any punches at work if she feels you aren't doing your job.

The Commander and I were eating at a Burger King just the other day and I said to him, "Do you remember when we had that birthday party for Laura at a Burger King?"  I can remember it like it was yesterday - wearing those silly crowns.

Happy Birthday, Laura!  We've been so blessed to have you as our daughter.  As your grandmother would say, "Look up, Laugh, Love, and Lift!"  We love you, Monkey!

Visiting an Outdoorsman's Shrine

We were down in the Bethlehem, PA area over the weekend and on our way back, we had to drive right past the big Cabela's store.  Apparently, this is quite the place to go if you are any type of sportsman or hunter or gun enthusiast.  We fall into none of those categories but we DO have a son-in-law who falls into all of those categories.  So we looked at each other and said, "You know, we really should at least stop and say that we walked through the place."

There were actually lots of things to look at there including this huge man-made mountain in the middle of the store.  It had different animals posed on all sides of it.  Here are the mountain goats.

I think these are musk-oxen being threatened by Arctic foxes but don't quote me on that.  It was impressive, at any rate.

I think these are grizzlies eating a freshly-killed moose.  Just the kind of thing you want to have little Johnny or Jill gazing at, right?  I'm not too sure it would have given me a warm, fuzzy feeling as a kid.

We made sure to snap pictures of each of us posing in front of the store and then we emailed them to our son-in-law and daughter.  Yesterday, our daughter called and said, "What were you and Dad doing at Cabelas?"

"Actually," I replied, "I found quite a few things that I liked there.  I even bought two shirts.  I couldn't talk him into getting a camouflage pacifier for Mika though."

Speaking of Mika, look at the concentration on that little cutie's face as she "reads" her book.  I think we're going to have another book lover in the family.  We had a chance to Skype with them when we returned from Bethlehem and had fun watching Mika crawl around on the bed and read books.

When Mika gets fussy, she loves to be dangled upside down in front of the camera.  Look at the chompers on that little one.  She already has 6 teeth and now has two more coming in.  Not only is she a "hair prodigy" but I think she is also a "tooth prodigy."

Five Fun Faves From My Week

It's time for Friday's Fave Five again - a time when we reflect on the things that were highlights from our past week.  Here's what made my week's highlights.

1.  I finished another pair of fingerless mitts.  These are from the pattern "Fronds" designed by Monica Jines.  I knit them up from Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga yarn.  I love that scarlet color and the yarn was yummy to knit up.  I'm loving these fingerless mittens.  They are such fast projects and I'm already wearing fingerless mitts on cool mornings when I have to head out early.  I can still grip my steering wheel with no problem but my hands stay warm.

2.  We're attending a film premiere tonight.  Doesn't that just sound so posh?  Yes, we're heading off to the big city to attend a film premiere and the after party.  But this one actually has substance.  The proceeds from this premiere will benefit Servants to Asia's Urban Poor, the organization that our son and daughter-in-law work for.  There will also be a small store set up with goods made by the women being helped by this project.  The film itself documents women in Kolkata who are learning to support themselves and their families through a fair trade program in textiles.    If you'd like to read more about it, you can go to this site and click on "Threads of Hope."

3.  I enjoyed a lovely fall walk this week from my house to the local Barnes and Noble, thanks to my car having to go to the service department unexpectedly.    I've always thought I could walk that far but just never did it because it was so easy to drive over there.  This time, I HAD to walk because I had a hair appointment in that shopping center that I needed to keep.  The weather was beautiful and there was a fresh breeze so I really had a nice walk and got some good exercise, too.

4.  I'm grateful for blessings from unexpected sources.  As I was walking, I found myself remembering back to a day some years ago when I was working at the reference desk at a small country library.  A farmer had walked in, still wearing his work overalls, and come up to the desk.  He asked me if I had a copy of the poem "October's Bright Blue Weather."  He explained that he'd been out plowing in his field and as he was enjoying the lovely fall weather, he'd been reminded of that poem that he'd learned so many years ago in school.  I was able to track it down for him.  I've thought of it many times since whenever I look up on a clear Fall day.  The poem was written by Helen Hunt Jackson and here's the first stanza:

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
        And flowers of June together,
    Ye cannot rival for one hour
        October's bright blue weather; 

5.  Our family is about to become an all-Kindle family.  I can blog about it here because I know that my daughter never reads my blog.  Yes, her birthday is early next week and when I asked her what she was hoping for, the Kindle was actually one of the first things she mentioned.  I was thrilled that she was finally ready to make the leap to e-books.  We still love hardcover books but these are so wonderful in that they are saving countless trees and they are also really helping publishers AND authors, believe it or not.  I find myself buying many more books for my Kindle than I used to buy in hardcover (and I used to buy a LOT of hardcover books).  And beginning authors are finding the e-publishing format to be much easier to get their books out in front of the reading public than trying to find a mainstream publisher to purchase their books and then print them.

If you'd like to write about your own Friday's Fave Five, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story.   She hosts us each Friday and it's a great way to reflect back over your past week or to focus on the week to come.

I'm a Little Teapot

I had quickly drifted off to sleep last evening and was happily dreaming away when a high-pitched whistling sound slowly penetrated my consciousness.  Sheesh!  What could that be?  It sounded like one of those whistling tea kettles.

I roused myself enough to wake up and realize that it was my CPAP mask leaking air.  Groan!  I jiggled the mask, trying to stop the whistling.  Great!  All that accomplished was making the darn thing whistle in different pitches.

The Commander grunted in his sleep and rolled over.  I hate disturbing his slumber since he has to work during the day and I can always sneak a nap if I have to.  I grasped the hose which was attached to the CPAP machine and pushed it tighter onto the mask.  Didn't make any difference.

I sat up in bed and tried tightening the head strap until I felt like my eyes were bugging out.  The noise stopped.  I snuggled back down under the covers and burrowed my head into the pillow.  Bliss!  My eyelids drooped as I slowly relaxed and felt myself heading off into slumber again.  EEEEEEEEEEEE!  Oh, bugger!  The whistling was back.

That did it.  I turned off the CPAP machine and threw off the mask.  It was quiet and dark for a change.  I didn't even have the glow of the machine to ruin my sleep.  However, I DID have nasal congestion now and couldn't get my darn nose to decongest.  At least with the CPAP mask on, it tends to keep my nasal passages somewhat open.

I tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to breathe and finally gave up.  I sat up, turned on the light on my nightstand and rummaged through the masks in the drawer.  Ah, here was one that would probably work even if it meant I'd wake up in the morning with a line pressed into each cheek.  At least I'd get some sleep.  I switched the masks and hooked myself up again to the CPAP machine.  This time I just had to adjust the straps of the replacement mask and I was good to go.  Go to sleep, that is.  No more tea kettle sounds.  Thank goodness!

Sweets for a Sweetie

 Yesterday we joined our daughter and son-in-law at Mom's nursing home to have a small open house for her and to enjoy a meal with her.  This picture cracks me up.  We look like we are all alarmed about something that she is doing.  My pointer finger seems to have a mind of its own.  Actually, it was full of BBQ sauce between trying to eat my own BBQ ribs and feed Mom her BBQ ribs.

Here we are with our "party faces" on.  Laura must have said that she was going to do a "retake."

Mom's favorite food is BBQ ribs, something she really doesn't get at the home since she is on a "soft" diet there.  But yesterday she was able to eat the meat off the bone to her heart's content, even if a lot of it did end up in her lap or on her face.

Then it was time to open her presents.  Laura helped her read the cards.  The gifts had a certain theme to them......"sweets."  Mom has a BIG sweet tooth and the majority of her gifts were candy.

 

She didn't mind the abundance of candy at all and sampled a bit of all of it.

And sampled more of her "haul."  

I got her some more books for us to read together since I figured that she had enough candy to last well into the Christmas season.

One of Mom's long-time friends, Beverly, came over to join us for cake and punch and she just happened to have some more candy for Mom.  One time when Beverly had visited Mom, she asked Beverly, "Do you have any candy for me?"  It's been a running joke ever since.

More sampling ensured.

Then it was time for some cake.  What the rest of the cake says is "You're still a spring chicken."  Mom got a kick out of that. 

I'm afraid that all that sugar put Mom into a sugar stupor so as the rest of us visited, Mom dozed in and out of the conversations around her.  But she perked back up as we got ready to leave.  It was a double blessing because she had been quite alert for the celebration and also didn't have much trouble remember names and people, which was nice.  Happy 97th birthday, Mom!