End of March/Beginning of April Faves

I'm taking a break in some spring cleaning this afternoon to share FIVE of my FAVE blessings from the past week.  It was quite a week!  I'm not sure if Susanne from Living to Tell the Story will have link up (she is away for a bit) but I'm sharing today anyways because I enjoy doing this weekly writing post and I also want to be intentional about finding things to be grateful for.  In fact, it is a Biblical command to have an attitude of gratitude!

Ballet Company (pointe). 
Claire is the last girl in line, on the right.
image courtesy of the Dance Company

after the performances
28 March 2019

The Ballet Company members who performed on pointe
Claire is 2nd from the left, front row.

• DANCE PERFORMANCE!  Claire is part of the Ballet Company at University of New Hampshire.  This is her 2nd year at the school and in the company.  She dances on pointe and does some modern ballet.  The other company that performed that evening was the Tap,Jazz,Aerialist company. I'm going to try to upload the portion of the video that they had on social media.  We were not allowed to take photos or record the performances. Claire danced in the classical pointe piece and in The Artist which was a collaboration of painting and modern ballet.  It was dark.  It was "inside the mind of the artist" and dealt with murder/suicide. (that piece was not recorded to my knowledge). Yes, there was a warning; and suicide prevention hotline numbers were listed in the program.  Just a couple of families with young children were in attendance so they got up to leave.  All of the dancing/performing was exquisite.  I wish I could show you Claire's dances but we just aren't allowed to.  We are so thankful we took the 2 days off of work to go see this show.  We are also thankful she gets to be a part of this amazing dance company.

sky over Lily Park
31 March

covered bridge over Fox Creek at Lily Park

Fox Creek at Lily Park
Schoharie, NY

Bench near Labyrinth at Lily Park

Lily Park Labyrinth 

• SPRING FLING:  Last Friday evening, after we arrived home from NH, Dave had to go chaperone the youth group retreat at a church camp about 2 hours north of here.  I had the entire weekend free so had arranged for my "Fit and Fun Group" (a hiking/social group I lead) to have a "Spring Fling".  Well, only 2 of us ended up being able to go.  My friend Gerri and I had a blast browsing, shopping, wine tasting, and eating lunch at this spot.  Then we headed home but took a side trip to a little park I had heard of but never visited.  The park is kept up by town volunteers and churches in that area.  It's about 45 minutes south of where I live.  It was a little muddy but the labyrinth was wonderful to walk through and reflect.  I'm so thankful we had this girls day away.  

Sesame Noodles with Peanut Butter Tahini Sauce

• NEW RECIPE!  I found a very easy Vegan Cookbook at the town library on the "new non-fiction" bookshelf.  I found over a dozen dinner dishes I want to try so decided I would make one new one every week until Claire gets home for the summer.  The one pictured above was my first time ever making homemade peanut butter-tahini sauce.  What an excellent dish!  I was fine with just that as my main dish plus a side salad of  mixed spring greens, cherry tomatoes, and onion.  The dish has the pasta, the sauce, and julienned carrots and cucumbers. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and it's done!  So easy.  Dave and Courtney had a piece of salmon with theirs.  I simply sauteed some bourbon infused salmon for 8 minutes and they had the meat they wanted.  Win win!  I'm thankful for this cookbook!

• WARMER TEMPS!  For two days this week, we were able to take the students out to the playground for the first time since early November.  How awesome it was!  They could run, play in the sandbox, play ball on the slowly-turning-green-grass.  We had so much fun with them.  Sadly, we have several preschoolers who have been ill with fevers and bad head colds. Sometimes we can't go out because some children with special needs also have severe allergies in the spring.  But so far, we've been able to enjoy these warmer days and sunshine. I'm so thankful for that.

• SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY!  It's a wrap!  We completed the study and discussion on Wednesday evening.  I've enjoyed leading this group and by January there were only 4 of us left (we started out with 9)....it was a deeper study than some of the ladies were prepared for......those of us who stuck it out, loved it!  The book review will be going up sometime this weekend if you are interested in learning more...I'll try to post it by Sunday afternoon.  We do have one more group meeting but we voted to have a dinner together so we will be going out in a couple of weeks after work to share what we got out of this study.  I'm planning on leading a different study in the fall, and already 3 of the ladies have told me they want to join.  I'm thankful for the friendships formed in this group and for the opportunity to be their leader.  We learned so much about how NOT to waste our one life we are given.  

That wraps up my faves this week.

I hope whatever you have planned for the weekend is relaxing and makes you smile.

Have a blessed weekend!