Here we are at Friday again and time to share FIVE of our favorite blessings from the past week. Head on over to Susanne's site to learn how to join in and share FIVE of your FAVES. It's important to have a grateful heart and give God all the thanks. I came across this quote this past week and love it so am sharing it here:
- FAMILY PARTY! What fun we had on Saturday afternoon! My youngest sister and her husband (Jill and Mike) have 2 daughters whom we are close with: Emma (17) and Mady (12). Last Saturday was their combined birthday celebration (Emma missed hers in March due to the beginning of quarantine and gathering restrictions). My other 2 sisters went as well (my sister Joy and her son Luke; my sister Hope and her husband DonnIy) and Mike's 2 siblings and their children. Our youngest daughter came with Dave and I as she had the day off....our oldest had other plans. We all had so much fun sitting around on a beautiful day, having cold drinks, eating grilled food and the most amazing lemon cupcakes (there were also peanut butter chocolate ones...I sampled one of each). Mike who is a true vegan like our Claire, had picked up a little bag of gourmet vegan chocolate chip cookies for her as the cupcakes his mom made weren't vegan. It was the first time we had all gathered together since Christmas and I am very thankful for the day that we had. Here are some photos from the afternoon:
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| Mady opening gifts My husband is in the background |
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| from left to right: my sister Jill, her oldest girl Emma and our daughter Claire in the pool is Mike's brother and one of his little girls; Mike is to the left of Jill |
- DECK DINING! This past week has been just about perfect late Spring weather. A couple of days actually felt like Summer! Dave and I enjoyed creating homemade veggie pizza together late Sunday afternoon and while it was baking, we made some cocktails for the 4 of us. Everyone wanted icy cold rum and cokes. I've also enjoyed eating breakfast outdoors just about every morning before work. The photo is from last Saturday morning after my morning walk. I allowed myself a full hour to just read my Bible, eat, and then read the fiction book I'm enjoying. Dave prefers eating breakfast inside so I had the entire deck to my self and the birds at the feeder. I'm thankful for great weather and a deck to sit on!
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| Saturday morning breakfast 6 June |
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| Sunday evening dinner |
- READING TIME: I've had quite a few late afternoons and early evenings to just relax and read. I'm an avid reader and always have been ever since I was a little girl. I just love books. I'm thankful for good books, cooking magazines, hiking guides and my Bible, all of which I've enjoyed this week.
- TEAM WORK: This past week, not only did we have to begin planning and preparing lessons for our Summer Program Learning Kits but at each site (we have 3), we had to start thoroughly cleaning, de-cluttering, and fixing broken items. I was in charge of the kitchen and the other assistant on my team was in charge of the children's and adult bathrooms. We both worked on the classroom although we still have much to do in it and I haven't made a dent in my own classroom where I have a literacy group. But I was able to get rid of a LOT of junk and old kitchen items for Goodwill and the garbage bins and I even created a corner for our break times and a coffee/tea station. I added some homey touches like some silk flowers for the windwo sill and a couple of candles. The speech therapist has ordered a new tablecloth for our break corner and we decided to leave the work table bare with just the laminator on it and then we will move that to the computer desk when we have parties/celebrations and want a food buffet. It felt great to come together as a team and get these tasks done. The other teachers and assistants in the other 2 rooms have been working on different areas of the site as well. We will be all set for summer school if the governor ever makes a decision! (we still don't know if we will be allowed to open for summer school in person, although public school districts have been given the go ahead by the NYS Governor....special education preschools are still waiting to hear) I'm thankful we are getting organized and cleaned up! I'm also thankful we are almost done with the Remote Learning Kits.
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| the "break" corner and coffee station as well as a work area for Assistant Teachers |
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| This part of the kitchen is across from our break corner. I added some homey touches and thoroughly cleaned out cupboards. The papers you see hanging are in rainbow order and are "shout outs"to everyone on staff from therapists, assistant teachers, head teachers, and office manager. Our social worker made sure everyone had one stating how we helped during Covid 19/what we bring to our Troy site. It's a wonderful mood booster! |
- Dessert and Drinks Night: Last night the small group Bible study I've been leading since January (and online once Covid hit) wrapped up our semester by having a dessert and drinks evening in my backyard. We each brought a dessert ( I did a huge fruit bowl and provided all the drinks and supplies). Diane brought these amazing fudge frosted vanilla and raspberry frosted vanilla cookies from a local bakery, Darlene brought a dish called "Candy-Land Dessert". Anita made mango pie which I couldn't sample as it contained cream cheese and I'm allergic to that but Dave had a piece and said it was delicious. Someone else brought cheesy popcorn. It was a wonderful way to end the evening. My friend Diane brought me a " thank you for leading" gift and her note touched my heart. I'm now on break from leading a small group until mid-September. I'm thankful for good friends, great Bible studies and the nice weather to hold our social event.
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| The dessert table |
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| special gifts |
That wraps up the fave things from the past week. What made you say "thank You" this week? Please share!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend........
8 comments:
Sounds like a great week! We haven't had any gatherings other than with my son's family yet. Our church is aiming to meet in person starting Father's Day. But they'll still be connected to Zoom for the service for those who don't feel comfortable coming yet. We haven't decided whether to go yet--we were feeling pretty secure when our city's COVID cases were stable. But they've doubled recently. We both have health issues that make us higher risks, so we're being more cautious.
Hi Faith. What a great week. I love the photos of your family gathering. So good that you could all get together. I also love how neat or organized you have made the break room of your workplace. So nice. Time to read - also great, and a nice deck to spend outdoor time! Glad things are going well. See you again soon. Have a good weekend.
It's so nice to be able to gather with family and friends again. The weather has been perfect for those occasions here as well. I'm in between books right now, but have so enjoyed all the reading time from the last couple months. I'm glad you had such a great week!
Oh how wonderful to be all together again! You must have had so much fun! I love the dragonfly t-shirt. I have a thing for dragonflies. We are having prep week at my school next week. We have assigned times so that we won’t all be there at the same time. I hope this is over soon.
We started phase 2 of relaunch yesterday and it is nice to be able to gather with family and friends again though we are still being told to limit our gatherings to what they call a "cohort" or "bubble". All these new slangs and terms that have come out of this pandemic! Your space at work looks good. Our schools will be back in some form or fashion in September too, though it might be looking like a part time re-entry. All depends on how the next couple of months goes. What a sweet gift from your friend. The mango pie sounds amazing. Mango is one of my favorite fruits and I love cream cheese so I would be all over that. Though we usually break for summer our ladies want to keep going over summer. I told them they would have to take turns leading then 'cause I need a break! LOL.
What a great week and how lovely to get together with family again. We can still only meet up in groups of 6 and that has to be outdoors and at a 2 metre distance from anyone outside your household. Your get together with your study group sounded fun - I love dessert! I hope you find out what you're doing about working with the kids soon - especially after putting all that hard work in. Uncertainty is not good for our mental health. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Just the description of those cookies made me want one!
Yes, we are so happy to be back in church services again. We'll see how next month goes.
Hurray on getting all that work done in the classrooms/school! That's A LOT of work.
What a big blessing to be able to get together with your family! Dining on the deck sounds perfect. Have a blessed week!
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