Almost Summer Faves

 

Friday. A 3-day weekend is upon us due to Juneteenth holiday on Monday.  And then? Four teaching days left!! And then?  Vacation.  And then?  I'll be home......no more teaching.....retirement is so close now!! To say I'm excited is an understatement. 

In the midst of all the end of the school year excitement, I'm pausing to share five of my fave blessings from this past week.  I do this with other like-minded bloggers and we all link up at Susanne's site to thank God together.  What made your fave list this week?  What blessings did God bring your way? 

• SMALL GROUP SOCIAL: Saturday morning Dave and I met the 4 other members of our Amazing Grace small group at this place in the town just to the north of us. One of our members, a widower, brought his developmentally delayed daughter so it was fun to see her and get to know her a little bit.  So there were 7 of us all together.  There would have been 8 of us, but my friend Darlene's husband had another commitment. After breakfast, Peter and his daughter had to attend another event, so the rest of us piled in Dave's car and we went hiking at this place.  It's just a 2.5 miles loop around the lake but the air was fresh and  the skies were blue with wonderful sunshine. I'm so very thankful we were able to have this social event as the last meeting of our group.  We are praying about if we will do another study in September.  Here are my fave pics from the hike: 

Dave and I at Lake Bonita
10 June

from left to right:  Dave, my self, Anita and her husband Prem
Trailhead of Lake Bonita loop hike

Lake Bonita from the south side

Lake Bonita from half-way around the lake (the north side)

• BEEKMAN STREET ART FEST:  Saratoga Springs, the city to the north of us by about 20 minutes and our "go to place" for arts, entertainment and good restaurants, plus the Farmers Market, holds an art fest in the Historic Art District every June. Local artists have booths and tents set up and usually there is a band or chamber music group playing in a large tent. The entire thing  takes place on Beekman Street and the street is closed to traffic (as well as some of the side streets).  My oldest daughter Courtney picked me up after church on Sunday and we spent about 3 hours there.  Most of the art is far beyond my budget although I did run into a local photographer who takes brilliant photos of farm animals. I bought one of her goat pictures for my sister Hope for Christmas.  (she raises goats).  Courtney bought a couple of smaller items as well and we both got very refreshing homemade lemonade and limeade drinks.  I'm thankful we spent the afternoon together. I was so busy talking with her and browsing all the art and pottery that I didn't take many photos!

all of the stuffed animals in this booth 
are made from upcycled cashmere sweaters

pottery mugs in some of my fave colors
(I have two walls of mugs in my dining room plus some in the kitchen
and some in the dining room hutch....and some packed away...
i couldn't justify getting yet another) 

my hybrid bike

• READING AND BIKING TIME:  I've been thankful that I did a bulk of the housework on Saturday afternoon and that this past work week I've had many opportunities to just sit on my deck or in my Adirondack chair and read in the evenings after my walking work-outs and dinner. I love books and I've just started reading the Miss Marple mystery series by Agatha Christie. My oldest daughter gave me a list of all of them, in order.  I'm sure it will take me quite some time to get through them all because I won't read them back to back....there's so many good books and I'm thankful for them. I'm also thankful for my state where we do not ban books from public libraries and most schools do not! In my opinion, if a parent doesn't want a child to read a certain book, simply forbid it!  But parents do not have the right to ban books from other children/teens. Ok, First Amendment argument over.  Seriously, I'm thankful for books and authors of all kinds!! I'm also thankful I had the chance on Tuesday evening to get my bike cleaned up, tires pumped with air, and had a good ride through the neighborhood and main road before it got dark.  It felt so good to be back on my bike. 

Front flower garden day lilies

Cream Peonies from my front bush
look so pretty on the kitchen counter

• MORE FLOWERS!  This past week more of our front yard flowers opened up.  All 3 peony bushes are vibrant and full.  And now the day lilies are opening up!  I'm thankful for beautiful blooms. 

surprise gifts from my teaching colleagues

a gorgeous wooden sign handmade
by a co-worker's cousin!  SO perfect for me!

one of the gifts in the large box of treats
given to me by the executive director of the agency!

one of many gifts in the gift box
from all the colleagues at the ECEC Troy Site 

• RETIREMENT LUNCHEON:  Yesterday was my retirement luncheon.  I told my educational team, when asked, that I didn't want them to make a big "to do" like we have for other teaching colleagues. I like simple.  I said "just  get pizza, salad and a big platter of cookies for everyone".  I also made it clear to my classroom team that I didn't want gifts!!  We don't earn much of a salary.  Everyone who teaches/does therapy for a private PreK special ed agency makes far less than public schools or any other job that requires masters degrees! So I didn't want the ladies spending a lot of money.  Well, the food was amazing and yes they surprised me with many gifts.  Even the Executive Director came over from the Albany Admin site to deliver me a box of  goodies.  My Troy team went above and beyond:  2 small bottles of champagne for Dave and I and our upcoming trip; 2 pairs of hiking socks; wine in a can for hiking; 2 different bottles of wine; a fun stemless wine cup; a Nature book, a nature themed bookmark, Starbucks gift card, a blank journal with a Van Gogh design, a wooden sign, a candle, a bag of dark chocolates, cards with wonderful handwritten notes from  everyone in the site, a National Parks water bottle with stickers to apply once I visit the park (SO fun and although I'm sure I'll never  get to all 63 National Parks, I plan on visiting a few, God willing!), a gift card to Barnes and Noble, one to LLBean, a tin coffee mug.  It's truly amazing. I'm so thankful for 5 years with one of the best educational teams I have ever had the privilege to teach with.  (although I was a Master Teacher at a different private PreK agency for 9 years after getting my MS from 1987-1995 which ended up being the BEST special ed job ever, ECEC which I'm saying good-bye to next week, is a very close second. ).  

That wraps up my faves list for the past week.

I hope you enjoy a very relaxing weekend, doing the things that make you rested and happy...the last weekend of Spring!

HAPPY WEEKEND!!