Friday Fave Five - January 29

Woo-hoo!!!  It's Friday!  Time to think back over the week and name five things that made me happy.  Wanna play along?  Link up to Susanne's blog and share your Fave Five!

1. Making brownies for my confirmation kids inhonor of one of their birthdays.  I saw his birthday notice on Facebook the night before and looked to see what I had in the cupboards.  Poor kid.  He had to deal with Ghiradelli chocolate brownies.  Ha ha ha.  He actually found me later on, and gave me a hug!  So cute.

2.  Learning to cook meals that can be eaten throughout the week as leftovers - and it's GOOD stuff!  We got to pick between pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes, lasagna, pesto bread, and soups.  I suddenly don't mind leftovers anymore! This week, we did beef stroganoff and chicken and black bean enchiladas are on the agenda!

3.  Going to Feed My Starving Children with 15 other people from church - so fun!  It's a place where you can go to help pack meals for starving kids all over the world.  Right now, most of the food is being sent to Haiti, so it felt even more urgent than usual.  In the hour and half we were there, our group plus 70 other people, managed to bag over 15,000 meals - which will feed 44 kids for a year!  Awesome.

4.  It's been a good movie week (I feel like I rarely get to watch movies anymore...)!  I managed to watch "PS I Love You,"  "Runaway Bride," and "Leap Year."  All good, none of them made me cry, and some made me laugh out loud.  I loved the movies that included Ireland - it made me want to go back so bad (but also SO happy that I've been there!).

5.  The privelege of getting to work at my church on Thursday nights, during Open Sanctuary.  We are open for two hours, with the sanctuary open for praying - people can come in, light candles, pray, read, and find peace in the midst of their hectic lives.  This week, someone who is in the midst of some very difficult health issues came in (as she does every week) - but informed me she would be having another surgery on Monday.  We got to have some time to talk together, cry together, and pray together...  I can't get over the blessing that comes with being able to pray with people...  That they let me in, so I can continue lifting them up.  It's so huge.

Things I am thankful for today:

1.  Doing a little shopping.  Fun.
2.  Deciding not to do any work today!
3.  Working out.
4.  Going out for the evening.  Much needed!
5.  Checking out the swanky lounge at the "W Hotel" in Minneapolis.  (And a local celebrity sighting - John Hanson, from "Twin Cities Live," and Dez from KS95.)
6.  Getting a chance to see a new band at Kieran's Irish Pub - "The Hounds of Finn" - very cool!
7.  Guinness Beer.  Yum.
8.  Meeting fun new people!
9.  Free parking in the city.
10.  A great story about a friend licking GB Leighton's ear.  Oh goodness. (He's a local musician.)  I'm still laughing.