Fridays are a great day to look back over the week and find the blessings, whether big or small. Nothing earth shattering happened this past week. But it's good to give thanks to the Lord and to look for blessings in each moment. Susanne, from Living to Tell the Story helps us do that by having us link up and share FIVE of our FAVE blessings. Here are mine...nothing big but just little things that made me smile!
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| Claire at the Russian Monastery/Russian History Foundation Jordanville, NY (central New York State) 5 January |
- ROAD TRIP: Claire and I had a road trip out to my hometown area last Saturday. We wanted to view the exhibit (here in the USA for the very first time) from Moscow, Russia of the Romanov (Tsar Nicholas II) family's last days. The exhibit was being held at the Russian History Foundation on the grounds of the Russian Monastery. I found out about it from our weekend paper and since Claire is only here until January 20th and the exhibit is only here in the USA until March 8 we figured we'd better go before she heads back to the university. What fun we had....the day started out with a freezing rain drizzle but quickly warmed up so we got there just as the sun came out and the skies turned blue. It was a cold wind but it was a beautiful trip. The exhibit only took an hour and then we had permission to enter the church because we were wearing head scarves and skirts. I'm so thankful we had this time together. She enjoyed reading all the exhibits in Russian and I was thankful for the English translation! Here are a few highlights of the visit:
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| the 5 Romanov children and their signatures on a post card sent while they were in house arrest, a few months before they were executed. It was one of the only times all 5 signatures ever appeared on a card at once. |
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| Me on the front steps of the Russian Orthodox Church |
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| the interior of the church behind the gold gates is the temple curtain and only the head pastor walks through that way similar to the Old Testament Jewish Priest We couldn't stay long as they were preparing the church for the Russian Christmas service that evening and the next day (Russian Epiphany) |
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| side view of the Russian Church |
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| image courtesy of Amaz*n |
- FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT: Saturday evening, after Claire and I returned home, we all sat together after dinner and watched a movie the girls love but which I had never seen. I had bought it for Claire as a Christmas gift as she loves the Beatles! Of course, the music isn't quite as good as the Beatles but they actors did a pretty good job. It was quite powerful actually...especially the parts showing the devastation of America's reaction to the Vietnam War. I was just a child during that time but if I had been a teenager, I would def have rallied against that war! The movie was actually very well done. We had popcorn and herbal tea together and it was just a lovely way to spend a rainy evening.
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| image courtesy of The B*dy Shop |
- SATSUMA! My oldest daughter gave me this shower gel for Christmas to match the perfume I bought last spring. And funny, but my husband put little samples of it in my stocking! ( a bar soap and small hand lotion). This is my absolute fave scent (besides Happy by Clinique)...it smells like a freshly cut orange. And it really does hydrate the dry winter skin!
- RECORDS RELEASED: My regular doctor, after having her for many years, retired in June. I needed to choose a new provider and found one that has Saturday hours and will do physicals up until 6 pm every day (and up until 4 pm on Saturdays!). My records were released from the practice where I've been a patient since 1990 and sent in record time to the new place. I'm thankful for this because at first the records department told me it could take up to 6 weeks!! It only took 2 weeks!
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| image courtesy of St*rbucks |
- CINNAMON SHORTBREAD LATTE! Yesterday, St*rbucks had a 50% off sale on all of the grande sized lattes and macchiotos. I was supposed to meet a friend from church there anyways, so when I arrived and she wasn't there, I went ahead and ordered a grande Cinnamon Shortbread with Coconut Milk. It's sooo good. and it was only $2.95 which is much more reasonable than their usual price for a latte. My friend never did show up (she texted that she had forgotten!) but while I was in there, another VERY good friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in about 3 years, walked in and totally surprised me. Oh how wonderful it was to see her and get caught up a little bit on our lives. We made plans to do dinner soon. There's nothing like old friends.......even when you don't see each other for a long time, you just pick right up where ya left off it seems like! How I treasure this woman's friendship.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
9 comments:
The exhibit sounds so interesting, and how nice that you could enjoy it with Claire. Small blessings are sometimes the sweetest, like watching a movie at home, or that latte which sounds scrumptious. I'll have to check it out.
Nothing better than time spent with family and friends - and lattes!
The Russian exhibit would definitely be an interesting thing to view!
What a nice excursion for you and Claire! I love movie nights with the family. I had not heard of that one. Wow, good work on the doctor's office for getting the records transferred so quickly. How fun to run into an old friend unexpectedly like that!
What a week of sweet blessings you've had Faith. There is a Russian Orthodox church in the small town in Maine where our son's family live. As far as I know, they don't have the church open for others to walk through, but I got online and found pictures of the inside. They also have a bookstore next door, but it wasn't open when I was there.
Glad you had some special moments with your daughters. I hadn't seen pictures of Claire for a while but she is just as beautiful as ever.
I'm going to have to look up the shower gel that you mentioned.
Have a wonderful weekend!
How nice to spend such quality time with Claire. The exhibition sounds very interesting and that's a beautiful church. I'm glad your trip to the coffee shop turned out so well too.
I tried the cinnamon shortbread latte the other day. Soooo Good.
Hi Faith - That Russian exhibit looked so amazing. I will have to check out that movie. Sounds interesting. Yes, I love the opportunity to look back on positive things each week with Friday Fave Fives too! Have a good weekend!
What an interesting exhibit! I wonder if it will be coming to LA. I'll check.
And I'm glad you had that time together with Claire.
I love bumping in to friends unexpectedly. It's a wonderful gift, isn't it?
How wonderful that you were able to have a great visit with a good friend you haven't seen in awhile. Some things are just meant to be. The coffee sounds delicious. I haven't had a chance yet to get in there and try it. The exhibit looks very interesting and best of all you got to spend a great day with your girl before she returns to university.
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