Friday Fave Fives

 

Hosted by Susanne.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this week has flown by.  Each day 

has just  tumbled into the next and I actually got so mixed up yesterday I was even confused enough to call my best friend ‘s husband to inquire about how her surgery went.  How embarrassed was I when he assured me that the surgery was tomorrow!  Or today actually!  Well in my lame defense, the surgery had been changed from Thursday toFriday, but I actually was thinking yesterday was Friday!  Oh, Swell, now I not only have enough brain fog from my booster shot to not only say the  wrong word  in conversation ,but also get my days mixed up! 

• Alas, I am here to share my blessings, and there are  many!  For one,  because  of my previous  error,  I now have an extra day to decide  what food to fix to take to  Gerri  and Dave!  She actually  wanted me to wait til tomorrow and my choices  are  baked spaghetti, or  Chinese  chicken stir fry.  I  think she really  prefers  the Chinese so  I do have all the ingredients..   and it is one of my  best dishes to  make.. so  stir fry it will be! I just  truly so thankful We have such wonderful friends in Gerri and Dave  and am  blessed to be able to  do this small thing to make their day easier and tasty, too!!
•   I am sort of surprised in the change I made in my blog  this  last week.. I  made a decision  to make some changes in the blog, and as I  started in to recreate it,  I suddenly found that I had  removed  most everything to make way for the new. I am afraid I was  galvanized by  a couple of other blogs whose  work is so inspiring  but  they are using  a format other than blogger and I am afraid that what I might wish to do here is  impossible.  I am such  a old dog  it is  very difficult to teach  me new tricks .. I actually have a word press blog  that I never  use because it is  not user friendly  for me!  But I  wish to be much more intentional about what I do and how I  add new material.. so   I pray all will bear with me in the interim.. What is the blessing?  The inspiration that I have gleaned this week is growing me in my  inner soul,  and I  want to  be able to share   how the Lord is working within me.  I do not wish to be  bogged down making blogger   work  so I may be  trying to get  word press  up and going again...   so I may not be  into the things  I heretofore have been doing.    I don't know,  it is a season of flux for me..   but in the end I know I will  spring anew and I hope to  be able to  be a blessing here in blogland.
• Plans are  well into the making for  our  Christmas   visit  with the kids, but since we do not travel from here to Boston in 1 day we have to choose a stop along the way about half way which puts us in Pa.  My goodness we have tried B&B’s and hotels  all up and down the 81 corridor!  This year we will be making reservations  hopefully today  to  stay  in Hershey  as our  layover.   We love this  gorgeous  B&B..The Inn at Westwynd Farm!
  
  Fabulous breakfasts in a 
  
  
  
                                                            Magnificent setting! 
• I am pretty excited, even as we were planning our Christmas trip, our discussion deviated to  how we and our kids accommodate over night guests. The kids have an issue at this time with a home remodel that necessarily prohibits the use of their regular guest quarters so we are deep in helping to plan  our sleeping arrangement… .  This discussion spilled over into our accommodations here for the girls. They usually sleep in Amanda’s old room, but we only have a twin bed so someone then sleeps on an air mattress. So Amanda suggested a wonderful idea which would give us a much better use for Amanda’s room since it is so seldom used. It would be to change the room to a den with our second tv and buy a sofa bed.  I am over the moon about this, because it is something I have wanted to do for some time, but today Lynn was very agreeable about it!  Yaya!  
• I am thrilled that things are moving right along here with our library room. I am feeling that by the time the shutter men arrive next week to take their measures, things will be pretty much all finished! Now that would be a huge blessing!

Wednesday Hodge Podge

 

Hosted by Joyce.

1. Tell us a little bit about the best birthday you've ever had. It would have to be this past one in July. It was during our Scotland trip and we made a very special day of it. We got tickets on the Scotrail from Fort William to Mallaig, a seacoast town in the north of Scotland very near the Isle of Skye. 

Our main purpose for this trip was to ride over and see the Glenfinnin  Viaduct! 

 It was the most scenic train ride one could ever imagine!

In Mallaig we had a fabulous tradition dinner!

It was a fabulous day which ended with us driving from Fort William to Skye where our lodging at the castle was situated nearby, on the way we passed my favorite Scottish icon! 

Eilean Donen

Duncraig Castle

2.  In what way(s) have you changed in the last five years? 

I think I have mellowed out a bit. Those thirty years of teaching school were special, but after retirement I realized just how much they had changed me. I was uptight and it had actually affected my nerves.  But in these last five years I have become much more calm and trusting the Lord in all things.  Oh, there has been spiritual testing , especially in my health, but in every circumstance He has proven to me to be my faithful strong tower , seeing me through each struggle and bringing me through each one. Those tests have proven me to be so trusting of God and His love  for me that now I can face victoriously any  thing the world throws at me! 

3. What's your favorite thing about the street on which you live? I was thinking just the other day that in some ways I wish we were a close neighborhood where we knew our neighbors well , but at the same time I love the privacy we enjoy. I can name our side neighbors, the ones directly behind us, but generally, this isn’t a friendly neighborhood.  One neighbor is sweet and between us we send Christmas baked goodies back and forth. We have seen the neighborhood go from  lots of kids, to teenagers to a bunch of oldies but goodies in our nigh unto 40  years here! It is now showing more and more school kids walking to the school right across the road from our home. I am glad we live well back from the street with many oak trees that give us ample privacy from all sides. 

4. The Hodgepodge lands on National Beer Day...are you a beer drinker? What's a recipe you make that lists beer as one of the ingredients? If not beer, how about yeast?I suppose it is confession time. There is beer , and there is beer. I hate American beer. But when we lived in Germany, to drink the water brought on terrible sickness, so everyone drank beer, it was a much milder beer and we just got used to drinking it. We felt it was better than sugary drinks.  When we were in Ireland I drank a Guinness and thought it was most enjoyable. But not generally!

5. As I grow older I would like to be a woman (or man, if there are any men in the HP today) who __lives a life that demonstrates the love of Christ and others need for Christ in  their life. Truly, I do not understand how anyone without Christ can live with any peace of mind  or spirit  in the wicked world in which we live.  

6. Insert your own random thought here. One never knows what on earth they will find when they rip out some section of their home to redo and make it better. Our window seat was built over the radiator which never put out enough heat in this room to really be comfortable in the dead of winter. Besides the two double hung windows seemed to make the room ever cooler. So after nigh unto 40 years of putting up with it we finally had the impetus to do something about it. So Lynn ripped out the wooden seat which covered the whole radiator. That radiator was hideous, so grimy and it actually reminded me if a swamp creature of the black lagoon!

Actually , Lynn vacuumed  and scrubbed it clean so it is ready to be painted now , and even though we had originally thought we would finish the job by recreating a bench topper that has  a lift hinge built in so it could be lifted in winter, but now we are planning to go ahead and paint the radiator teal and then finish off the inside ends of the book cases and call it a day. The plantation shutter folks will be here early next week, and by waiting for a spell on the seat, we can better come up with a structural plan.  I think Lynn hopes I’ll love  it more without a seat! Uh, don’t count on it!

Tuesday 4

Hosted by Anne.

 Hello and welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.   We are so glad you have you join in.

The "Ber" months have begun: September, October, November and December.   Let's talk about  September okay?

1. When you were in school or university, did you look forward to returning? Why or why not?As a school student, I will admit that the best part of beginning school was new clothes, shoes, and school supplies.  As a more timid gal,  I was always a bit intimidated until I got  settled!  As a college student, I enjoyed going back to college. I loved the feeling of being on my own and getting back into the college groove! 

2. September has  Labor Day, which, for many is the signal of summer's end and fall's grand entrance.  Do you celebrate Labor Day in any way or is it just a day off for you?Just a day off!  

3. September's birthstone is the Sapphire which is 2nd only to a diamond in hardness. (Ruby is a red sapphire by the way) It comes in many colors.  Do you know your birthstone and do you like it? My birthstone is ruby and I love it. Ever since our granddaughters came along Lynn has bought me  a beautiful sapphire and   a blue topaz ring that I enjoy wearing and when the girls graduate from   High school I will give them to them! 

4. September's birth flower is the Astor. What is yours ?Mine is water lily!

Happy Homemaker Monday

 

Our hostess is found here~

The weather: 

Monday thunderstorms 78/69

Tuesday  rain 84/67

Wednesday rain 79/66

Thursday rain. 78/64

Friday sunny80/64

Saturday rain 80/66

 Everything is so dry, I am enjoying the prospect of all the rain. I hope we get it!

                       

                             Things that make me happy

 

 ::

Cooler fall days rain or not! 

That first cup of coffee and a dish of fruited yogurt that hubs fixes for me each morning while I watch

 Fox and Friends

Having lovely instrumental music playing in the house during the day.

One of my favorite things::

The concept of gallery walls. They are so popular on YouTube in cottage decorating blogs, and whether they are family photos interspersed with family related art, or simply a configuration of beautiful pieces you might collect at the thrift shop, I think they add a fine quality to a home’s decor! A couple 

I have shared lately.

Books I'm reading:

I haven’t had a lot of time to read lately so I’ve been keeping up with my read through the Bible.  We are reading in I Chronicles lately.  I aim to read more of the 

book I picked up at Church, Gentle and Lowly,  The Heart of Christ for sinners and sufferers

by Dane Ortlund.  What an awesome book. 

Paul David Tripp  says it best,  "I have read no book that more carefully or tenderly displays the heart of Christ!"

Shows and Movies

We finished season 5 of Outlander.  I think we will just wait until Season 6 airs on Netflix so taking a break on that one. I fill in with home decorating, cooking, and Hallmark tv when I watch anything.  Many of my favorite YouTubers have either stopped or are taking breaks. 

A Photo::

You can enlarge each of these photos by manipulating the photo to see them better. This is the small  gallery wall of the wildlife we saw in Scotland. Of course, we saw sheep, everywhere!   We saw Highland “Coos”grazing in high meadows of the north of Scotland. And we saw one gorgeous, stately stag  while driving through Glencoe. I can understand why they are referred to as the Monarch of the Glen!

What I am listening to::

The Dan Gibson Station on Pandora…such gorgeous, dreamy music!

Menu Plan:

Monday:  chicken stir fry

Tuesday: ?

Wednesday: spaghetti and salad

Thursday:hamburgers  and fries

Friday:  baked cod and asparagus

On my To Do List

Marketing 

Laundry

Organize the bookcase cabinets for storage of my art supplies

Allergy shot and Bible Study

Take spaghetti to my dear friend who has a hip replacement 

Put clothes away in the bedroom

Pack up Granddaughter’s birthday presents and post

Looking forward to this week:

Seeing my dear friend finally get her hip replacement . She has had to wait for months and is really looking forward to getting it behind her. I pray it all goes smoothly and completely eradicates her pain!

                                           On my mind:

I was perusing some old blog friend’s from quite a while back and wondering what had happened to one  that I used to follow so much, when I discovered she had hanged her title to A Delightsome Life.  Upon reading her current blog I am  so inspired. Every post is so beautifully created and uplifting. It really makes me think about how much improvement I need in my own posting! Whew!

                                                    A Quote::

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"
— Anne Frank

Devotionals, Scripture Reading

A Morning Prayer for God's Presence 

Lord, may nothing separate me from You today. Teach me how to choose only Your way today so each step will lead me closer to You. Help me walk by the Word and not my feelings. Help me to keep my heart pure and undivided. Protect me from my own careless thoughts, words, and actions. And keep me from being distracted by MY wants, MY desires, MY thoughts on how things should be. Help me to embrace what comes my way as an opportunity... rather than a personal inconvenience. And finally, help me to rest in the truth of Psalm 86:13, 'Great is your love toward me.' You already see the ways I will fall short and mess up. But right now, I consciously tuck Your whisper of absolute love for me into the deepest part of my heart. I recognize Your love for me is not based on my performance. You love me warts and all. That's amazing. But what's most amazing is that the Savior of the world would desire a few minutes with me this morning. Lord, help me to forever remember what a gift it is to sit with You like this. Amen.
- Lysa Terkeurst

Friday Favorite Fives

 

Hosted by Susanne!

We have been so busy with the inside of our home since we returned from Scotland, that we don ‘t take account that times are changing outside.  Yesterday we did notice that the humidity had broken and the air felt so fine when we stepped out to get the mail.  I had almost missed turning the page on my calendar. And for that I am pretty grateful.  If you could see my calendar for the past several months every day  was marked with appointments to therapy, of doctors appointments to check on my gall bladder situation, preps for ERCP’s,  It 

seemed we had somewhere to go every day of the week. Then weekends were full of catch up things like lawn care and work around the house. When I look at September there is nothing during the week but  Wednesday when  I go for my allergy shot then on to Bible Study which rejuvenates and inspires. It really struck me yesterday when the plantation shutter folks returned my call to set up a day to stop in to measure and the month was completely open!  It truly is a blessing to feel footloose and fancy for a change!

So  it is grand to just take the day spent it on decorating for fall like I did yesterday.. granted, it isn’t as wonderful as I’ve done in the past, but perhaps at this stage of life less is more and I am perfectly fine with that!  Less means not so much to take down after Thanksgiving. So I am blessed to feel my age, act  my age  and be satisfied in the  this stage of life.  

One of the things that really blesses me is that after all the therapy I did all spring I have learned how to deal with pain and discomfort, and how to do my exercises in bed before getting out of bed which makes a huge difference, and I learned by all the walking and activity I did in Scotland and how I am much more able to do so much now than before the trip by staying active, I am now able to  prepare meals for my friends who are enduring hospital procedures, knee and hip surgeries.  I am not bragging, I am genuinely happy to be the one who can serve them with love and caring!  Thank you, Lord!

 We went out this morning to look for hardware for the cabinets beneath our book cases. I knew that I wanted a Champagne Brass that I had seen on line and was hopeful to find something locally. I just think 

this  brass would look so gorgeous  on my teal doors. Much better than the garish regular brass.. Anyway, the top hardware in town had them and I am over the moon! 

I think about our daughter’s family so much, even though we mainly see then online except for a couple times we visit each other each year.  Since we were together in Scotland, they want us to come to them  for Christmas… well, as each of us, in laws,  take turns visiting the kids for Christmas, it is our turn! I am so thankful Lynn ( Hubs)  told me he doesn’t mind driving up there, I suppose I need  to get over the angst and dread of going again following the close calls we had returning  home from there after our trip.   This will have to be a matter of prayer for me, and I know God did protect us  as He always has,  so I am getting used to the idea of us traveling to Boston again this year! After all, it is so precious to be with our girls in their element.  It is a blessing that they are so looking forward to us coming for Christmas this year, and truth be told I love Christmas there!

Thursday Favorite Things! Autumn Changes with a Twist

 Hosted by Amber, of   The Yellow Brick Road..  Amber  joined a team of  bloggers who all share in the  meme, Thursday Favorite Things.  and it is a super fun meme because  anything that you might be into   goes.  Well,  it is September!!!!  YAYAYA!  and  of course, for me, that means fall is  on the way, if not already here. I can actually feel a bit of autumn in the air so  then the sunflower and pumpkins came out!

This is  my first real  season where I am decorating   my blue  rooms.  I love them,   but  it is  different from my  more    rustic  stucco   walls.  So  I  have yet to  get into  the  blue attitude,    but I am sure it will come  with the passage of time!So for the  table topper  I used this   table runner I made  to celebrated  apple in the sunroom when   we used the sunroom for  a secondary dining room. That  dining set  has been donated and it is more of a sitting room now so the runner I think is just right  now because of its light blue   background.

I love my seasonal  tree which is so much fun to decorate through the year. And the light is perfect to  have on on the evening as we pass through here  on our way  to bed each night!

This  vignette  is a bit odd I will admit,  but I  just had to use my new  table runner I purchased at the  Glamis Castle   gift shop.  I loved the colors  light blue with a  hint of  autumn colors in the flowers.  I folded it to fit on the hutch top. That arrangement is  a bit odd, as well.  

I was definitely in the mood to purchase fresh flowers when I did my marketing this week,  but everything looked    a bit  stale,  except for these  crazy decorative cabbage stalks.  I  loved the purple and pink  of the  centers even though you can't really see them now. They looked  strange in any  vase I used to  I thought what else can I add to these stalks.  I had some dried hydrangea in another  vase   so I  pulled a few blooms and "Whallah, "  I liked that..  but still not dramatic enough!  ha! So I added some teal  feathers.  AHAHAH  I  laugh every time I see it,  but I think,  well it is crazy enough to  be thought,  at least, interesting!    It  has to go  soon anyway because  the bloom is    turning a bit golden,  but hey,  golden is  autumnal, as well!  Maybe it will  actually redeem itself!!!

Now I have really gotten into

 the idea of gallery walls,  my problem is  many of our rooms    have  very limited   wall space. But  I really wanted a wall to commemorate our trip to Scotland and I already had a painting of sheep with we had seen.  But we, also, saw other  wildlife that needed to be     incorporated.  So at the Loch Lomond Games we bought  a lovely  print of some Highland cows,  and  then I ordered online  a  great  print which    completed the  actual wildlife we saw with our eyes!

You can see our space was limited  but  since it was only 3 paintings  I am thrilled with the finished  product.  We found the stag on Fine Art America.  We   were  thrilled with the quality!We have two more gallery walls in our home.. We  are still working on this one in our  new den.

It doesn't look quite right  .. the two large ones in center of our daughter and her family are supposed to anchor the rest  but the family one I can see now,, (Couldnt last night) needs to  be reset!  BAH!.The apple  art,  also,    but these photos tell a story about our family!I haven't fiddled with it today,  but some of them may just need to be  wriggled a bit!  hehehehe! We have a few more to add, as well!

           

  We are super excited about our  freshly painted bookcases..  unfortunately this  project is about 3/4 done,   but this last fourth  will take a bit of time  so I  couldn't wait to share  what we have so far!!!

Lastly,  this is our now completed gallery wall in the kitchen.  Our last addition is the  Aunties Biscuits and Cake   sign we purchased at the 'going out of business' sale of our favorite  restaurant earlier this summer.   We are thrilled to have this  momento to  commemorate  the best place in our fair city!  

Tuesday 4~ Summer

Summertime and the Living is Easy? 

Hosted by Anne! 

Well, we hope it's easy anyway.

Welcome back to Toni's Tuesday 4!   Always good to 

have you here. Let's concentrate on the little bit of summer 

that is left shall we?  Weneed to enjoy every season to the 

fullest I  believe.. what say you? Not much more of 

summer left so we better enjoy it while it lasts.

1. What do you like to do in the summer?  As I am older

 now  I  do not especially care for  the hot weather so 

 being outside is no fun for me.  But I do love visiting

 friends and family, especially while the children are out

 of school. 

2. What is your favorite summertime food and beverage?

I love   half sweet / unsweet ice tea  or  regular Dr. Pepper 

 which is my  guilty pleasure. Amanda who studied 

biology and biochemistry told me that no human should

 never ever use  anything  artificially sweetened so 

 I  dont drink  any diet drinks.   but I will drink an occasional

 reg.  Dr. Pepper.  I love veg   and fruit salads,    Mexican  foods,

  and ice cream  during the summer. Another guilty pleasure is

  Denali Moose tracks chocolate ice cream.  Oh , my!  Of course 

I have to eat little  else to make up for it!

3. How do you beat the heat?  Stay in the house. I remember

  when I was growing up and we had no a/c I would go to

 bed with a wet washcloth on my face.  Here where we live

  it is  very humid  in summer and that really knocks the wind

 right out of me. Sometimes we drive down to the lake and  

such sitting by the water  in a shady  place   is  so cooling 

 as the  breezes  waft in from off the lake!

4. What do you really like about the summer season?  It 

was so much easierto answer this question  while I was

 teaching because summer meant summer break. a respite 

from the noise and hub bub of school.  Now  being retired,  

I have no say  unless I have a wonderful time planned 

with our  grands,  I  could just  pass up summer and 

move on to autumn which is my favorite season.I love

 decorating for fall!