End of May Faves

 It's Friday and the end of a short work week.  I'm taking some time to pause and reflect back on the blessings in the week.  When we look for the blessings in our lives, it tends to take our focus off of our worries or anxiety and bring  contentment.  Let's share FIVE of our FAVES from the past week and then link up at Susanne's site to see what others are giving thanks for.

Morning on the Deck!
23 May 2020

• MORNING OUTSIDE:  Saturday's weather was absolutely perfect. Temps in the mid-70s and blue skies with full sun.  I enjoyed my coffee on the deck after breakfast while reading my devotional study and my book for about an hour while waiting for Dave to go to Lowe's with me to get some flowers.  He had to get a couple tools to work on a project so I headed to the garden center.  I bought some impatiens and a hanging basket for the pear tree.  I re-potted the impatiens and then re-arranged some of the backyard furniture.  The swing didn't stay there long as we decided it was nicer closer to the pear tree facing the fire pit.  (right side of pic but not shown in the pic) I'm so thankful the deck and small tables have fresh flowers now and that the yard is all mowed for the week.  I'm thankful I could work outside all morning and into the afternoon.

First fire of the 2020 Season, early evening
23 May

Late evening

• FIRST FIRE:  Claire (our youngest who is working again this summer as a  Barista at St*rbucks) worked on Saturday and wanted to know if we were having a fire that evening.  I said of course!  Dave got it started after I went and bought the wood.  He sat outside a bit with me and we made our first s'mores of the season (we use dark chocolate and it's soooo good).  Claire joined us once it got dark and we sat out there for quite a long time. I love sitting around the firepit and reminiscing about our camping days when the girls were younger.  I'm so thankful for family time.

• RETURNED CALL:  Friday afternoon, while I was just about to leave work, around 1 pm, Claire called me from her  job to say something looked wrong with her top molar and gum line.  I asked her to explain and she said she thought it looked like the gum had receded.  I gave her the emergency number for our dentist (because in our part of NYS, the dentist isn't opened yet due to this quarantine....they aren't supposed to open until June 1st).  He called Claire back pretty much right away and she explained the situation but he didn't feel it was an emergency.  When she got home from work and out of her shower, she started to cry because she was scared as the area now looked puffy with a white ring around it. The tooth itself didn't hurt but the gum area was very painful. I was thinking it was infected so called the dentist my self.  (she has given me permission to talk to medical staff as per the Hipaa law and being 21). He told me to take my iphone and text him a photo of the area.  When I did, he called right back and said it isn't infected and the tooth looks fine.  It is a BURN!  He talked to Claire about what she might have eaten the previous few days and she confessed she had very hot fries during her lunch break at work (the St*rbucks she works at is in a major grocery store with a deli in our town) and she said she did bite down on that area.  He prescribed a steroid cream and called in the Rx for us.  An hour later, about 4 pm,  we had the cream in hand and all was well.  I'm so thankful this happened before the holiday weekend officially began and that it was a simple fix. 

Griffen Falls
24 May
Southern ADKS

• ROAD TRIP:  Sunday was another perfect spring day.  In fact, it felt like early summer!  It was just so beautiful. I decided I wasn't going to stay home like Dave wanted. He wanted to just relax.  He was ok with me traveling north (an hour drive) to the village where my parents had  a camp when I was growing up.  My cousin Ken lives right up the road from where our camp used to be (in fact, his older sister has the property now as she and her husband bought it from my parents). Anyways, I picked up Ken (we wore our masks in the car) and took him to Griffen Falls which is on the ADK 50 Falls Challenge list.  I now have 30 more waterfalls to chase before I can get the badge.  This waterfalls was easy to get to......you drive down a dirt road and park on a side road and then walk back to the bridge to view the falls.  They're located on the East Branch of the Sacandaga River. After that we stopped at my fave lake and then headed south again towards his village where we stopped and got soft serve ice cream.  I'm thankful for a relaxing day in the mountains.

Dragon Drink

• REFRESHING DRINK:  On Wednesday late afternoon, Claire walked in from work with a refreshing drink for me....my very fave non-coffee St*rbucks iced drink.  It's not a frozen drink like many people think.....it's made from fresh coconut milk, fresh mango juice and  dragon-fruit and has diced pieces of dragon-fruit in it.  She made it with less sugar (no lemonade) for me which is a win. (note:  there is a green coffee extract in the drink) but if you get it without lemonade you cut back on the sugar content.  It sure is handy having a barista in the house and I'm thankful for refreshing drinks!

That sums up my week of blessings.  Of course there were many more:  it's been a bit hot and humid so putting the central air on for the first time on Tuesday night was wonderful.  Yesterday was less humid so we only needed it from mid-afternoon to after dinner; Claire revealed a tattoo she's had since last autumn... and it's absolutely beautiful...I'm trying to talk her into letting me take a picture (that's a WHOLE other blog post....hahaha....) and Dave and I took a couple of really nice neighborhood walks....AND I was able to get my hair colored and trimmed because my hair dresser volunteered to come to my backyard!!

Now it's the weekend and things are opening back up towards Phase 2 here in the Capital Region of NY!  We are  very excited.

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend doing some things you love.