SPRING BREAK FAVES

It's Friday and time to share FIVE of the blessings from the past week.  There's a few of us who participate in this writing exercise, and we link up at the hostess' site, Susanne, at Living to Tell the Story.  It's good practice to find things to be grateful for and this past week was no exception.  I'm very thankful I was on spring break for a week but the weather here in eastern NY was downright cold!! I had many blessings this past week but here are my top 5 faves: (all photos are courtesy of Larry Gray, Dance Company Photographer)

Claire is the girl on the right

UNH DANCE COMPANY SHOW!  How in the world do I just pick one photo?  I actually was sent 13 good ones and with permission I posted them all on Facebook.  Here are 6 of my faves. Our youngest, a dance minor at University of New Hampshire, and one of 6 freshmen in the company, performed beautifully.  She even had a little solo...about 20 seconds...but still!!  We were super proud of her.  The weather was mild up there....almost 60 degrees.  It made for a nice trip.  We saw the Friday evening performance a week ago.  My heart is thankful to the Lord for the grace and talent that Claire exhibits.  It was a great show!  The title was Dance Through Time and it depicted how ballet has emerged over the last century.  Claire was in the classical ballet section.  (The first hour of the show was actually tap, jazz and aerial!  Those students danced "the wizard of oz" which was all the main points of the story done in tap, jazz and aerial. The aerialists were amazing. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take photos and I haven't seen any online yet).

This decor was on both sides of the platform with huge baskets of lilies on the far right

Hallelujah!!

• EASTER!  We were back home late Saturday afternoon from New Hampshire so we attended our own church, with our oldest daughter, on Sunday morning.  Our church was so nicely decorated.  The worship was amazing, the sermon was convicting and we are definitely blessed to be a part of Grace Fellowship.  I love Easter and all that it means.  I really can't imagine doing life without my Redeemer.  After church, we met my sister Joy and her son Luke up at this restaurant where I tried the following dish:  (it was rice linguine (I feel better when I eat gluten-free pasta) and vegan with all veggies, olive oil and a bit of basil.  I did end up adding some fresh parmesan so wasn't totally vegan!).  It was delicious.  I'm thankful for good food and fellowship.

Vegan Primavera with Rice Linguine

• MOVIE NIGHT:  Dave and I were full of  good food, good wine, and just wanted to relax on Sunday evening.  We checked Netflix to find a movie neither one of us had seen and based on the recommendation of our oldest gal, we watched this one:  (it was awesome!!).  About half way through the movie, we started getting hungry so we shared a big bowl of popcorn.  It was actually a fun way to wind down a busy weekend.

• GET TOGETHERS:  Since I've been on break, as has my good friend Cindy, we met up one morning to do a power walk in the local park.  We were originally signed up to do a guided hike in a state park north of here but the ranger called me early that morning and said it was raining so they were cancelling the hike.  We enjoyed a quick walk before the rain came into our area.  And then one evening this week, I met my dear friend (she was also my counselor years ago for some emotional/spiritual healing I needed)  Cheryl whom I hadn't seen since about 2006, for dinner and we ended up chatting for a little over 2 hours!  It was great.  I love having time to get together with good friends and when they are sisters-in-Christ, it's even more special.  I'm thankful for my good friends.

• RELAXED SCHEDULE:  I've been loving the relaxed, non-work schedule this past week.  I've tackled some spring cleaning:  all the floors are mopped, polished or vacuumed; 2 bags of out-dated clothing went to the Salvation Army along with a crate of books and some old household items;  the spring/summer quilt is on the bed; the master bedroom windows have been washed and the spring/summer curtains put up (it got too cold to do the rest of the windows...I'll wait until some warm Saturday or Sunday).  I did some baking, discovered some new recipes, finished 2 books, went for walks, played my piano, and watched Netflix.  It's been a pretty good week and I'm thankful to have a teacher schedule.  

That wraps up my week.

I'm hoping to hike on a newly acquired trail tomorrow into a pretty lake in the state park just north of us.  Let's hope it warms up!!

Enjoy the weekend!!