Friday Fave Five - November 12th

It's Friday!  Time to look back on the week and remember what was GREAT about it!  Wanna join in the fun?  Link up at Susanne's blog "Living To Tell the Story."  Here are my five:

1)  Giggle and laughter with my pastor and friend, Penny, and her two grand-daughters.  My hubby was doing some work at her house last Saturday and asked me to go with to help (with heavy manual labor)...  But Penny's grand-daughters were having so much fun with me, that I only had to help outside for a little bit and got to spend the rest of the morning giggling over Shel Silverstein poems and baking cookies!  So much fun!

2)  Giving our congregation the challenge to "Live a Better Story."  Each person received $5 with the challenge to 1) pray for 3 days asking God to show them how to make a difference with this money.  2) They had to give it away - no giving it back to the church!  They could multiply it, invest it, or just give it away - but they had to make a difference in somebody's life with it.  3)  They have to come back and tell us the story of what they did with it.  I'm so excited to hear the stories!!!

3)  Beginning to feel like we live in a real neighborhood!  On Halloween, we threw a cook-out to try to get to know some of our neighbors (after living here for 5 years!) and this week it started to pay-off!  While we were out struggling and laughing over putting up Christmas lights (on our quickly growing maple tree!), we had every one of the neighbors we met at our cook-out stop by and laugh with us!  One even offered to let us use his tall ladder!  (When we returned it, we brought him some homemade salsa for his fajita dinner that night!)  So nice to experience what it's like to have real neighbors!

4)  Hubby had Thursday off for Veterans Day, so we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and went for a hike at Afton State Park.  I even managed to do pretty well amidst my asthma and bad knees!  The hubby and the dog take good care of me (Bailey, the poodle stops at every bench along the way and looks at me as if to ask, "Mom, do you need a break?").  Too funny. 

(A gorgeous day!)

(My reward for making it up the huge hills...)

(Miss Snoopy looking for goodies in the tall grass - Caught ya!)

(Our picnic snack - crackers, cream cheese, and homemade jalapeno jelly.  Yum!)

(Mmm.....)

(And yes, even Bailey got a little snack.)

5)  A quiet night at home tonight.  Homemade clam chowder for dinner.  A fire in the fireplace.  And a movie to cuddle up to watch.  A perfect end to the week!

Today I'm thankful for Quiet Days.  A day to stay home, be quiet, and rest.  So needed.  So appreciated.

Things I am thankful for today:

1.  A warm bed.
2.  Kashi cereal. 
3.  Peppermint/Vanilla tea.
4.  Time to read - for fun!
5.  A perfect pot of clam chowder.
6.  Beer from Portland!  (Does this look familiar, Jill?)

7.  The hubby taking care of my tires.
8.  New contacts!
9.  Getting closer to having all our nooks and crannies cleaned out and organized - RELIEF!
10.  A quiet night at home.  Perfect.