What a week! Thanking God that the weather has been wonderful and that I have other blessings to be thankful for. Let's pause on this Friday and link up at Susanne's site to share FIVE of our FAVE blessings God brought to us this past week.
FIVE THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR:
- LAUGHTER: I'm thankful for laughter and things that make me laugh out loud. I had received a Prime package last weekend and I was stumped because I hadn't ordered anything on Amazon. When I opened it, this shirt fell out. I immediately knew who it was from: my childhood and longest ever friend Cheryl B from my childhood hometown. I had been telling her how I had a tooth extraction as it cracked badly from eating nuts most likely. She said something about now I'm a nutcracker. There was no card in the package but I knew.....called her and we laughed and laughed. Which was nice because the recovery for this extraction has been difficult and the space still doesn't feel normal. I'm so thankful for things that make us laugh!
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| Almost set for winter |
- WINTER PREP: This past weekend, while Dave raked up 4 bags of leaves, I folded and put away deck chairs, brought pillows and cushions in, had my oldest daughter help me move the swing closer to the back of the house for the winter, and swept and rolled up the deck rug and put it away. We left out a couple tables and chairs as the temps are still pretty warm and I sit out there in the late morning/lunch time. The rocking chair will get covered at some point before the first snow falls and the folding chair will to into the garage. Some of the chairs are stacked behind the rocking chair as our garage is only so big. Beach chairs get hung on the pegs in the garage along with the life jackets for the kayaks. As you can see by the scraped off paint on the deck floor, I'll be painting it come April! I'm thankful this chore is done.
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| Operation Christmas Child Shoebox ministry |
- GIVING: I'm thankful I was able to give this year to Operation Christmas Child. We have filled shoeboxes for this ministry ever since about 1992. I used to bring them over to the local Methodist church as our former church didn't participate in this but ever since 2005, when we transitioned to Grace Fellowship, we just bring it in November to the tables in the lobby because GF is collection spot and we always, along with most other members, participate. Even my daughters still do a box. It's an honor to buy small, fun gifts for children in underdeveloped countries...or even in our own country as many don't have the means to do so. This year I packed a box for a little girl ages 2-4. No surprise there, right?
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| SoulSteps Hike Peebles Island State Park |
- ELECTION MORNING HIKE: On Election Day, I had scheduled a hike for any member in my SoulSteps Hiking group to join in on. This is a family friendly hike so 2 of the younger women brought their children with them. There were 12 of us altogether and since April, this was our 14th hike. 2 of the women are brand new to the group and they really enjoyed themselves. It was a warm day and we quickly needed to shed our fleece pullovers. I had voted early with my husband so after the hike, I went food shopping. I'm so thankful we all had a good hike, out in the warm autumn sunshine and it really did take our minds off the election.
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| Where I set up my beach chair to read and relax and de-stress |
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| Geyser Creek at Saratoga Spa State Park 6 November 2024 |
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| I walked the path to the Geyser Spring the water here tastes like sulphur but people from other states and countries used to flock to this area as they believed the waters have healing powers. |
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| Geyser Creek Walking path |
- SELF CARE: Wednesday after the class I take at church, I headed up to this state park in my fave NY city (about 20 min north of my home) and had some time to my self. I had bought lunch, brought a book I'm enjoying from the library, and had my devotional. I sat and ate, read my book, walked part of the Geyser Creek path, prayed, and prayed some more, read Scripture, and just enjoyed the warm weather and the sun that kept darting in and out of grey clouds. It was what my soul needed after the results of the election came in. How disappointed I was to see the bulk of America (but yay...not the northeast!!) side with the person whom I nor my husband just honestly don't trust. But God is still in control even though many don't even believe in Him. And all I know is that I need to represent Him well in this world and live out loud the 2 greatest commands. I clung to the Scripture from John 14:27 all that day. I'm thankful for quiet respites.
I hope you all have a restful weekend!
6 comments:
Hi Faith! I'm glad you had a good week, and were able to do some good hikes to get your mind of the election. Packind OCC boxes is always fun. This year, we are going to do a Christmas different service project, I think. I hope you have a good weekend. See you again soon!
I love that t-shirt but hope your mouth is soon fully healed. So important to have some self-care time, especially after this week. I hope you have a good weekend.
Packing the OCC boxes is always a fave, sharing what we have with others.
That t-shirt is a funny one!
Your Step Sisters hikes sound like so much fun. Several women in my BSF group like to walk and hike. Maybe I will try to get everyone together for a group walk. We have so many wonderful paved trails all over our county.
Have a good weekend!
Funny shirt! It's so nice to have friends our own age to help keep us laughing. Being outdoors in nature sounds like the perfect thing to do on election day!
That's funny about the shirt. It's good to have friends to laugh with. It's good to have the winter prep done outdoors. I've got my OCC box and plan to pack it this week. Our turn-in date is next Sunday. Glad you had a good hike.
What a blessing to have the time to take your book and lunch to a lovely outdoor park. I budget and buy for OCC all year and this year God blessed so that I was able to do 7 boxes. So fun. I've got to get some chair covers and then I'll be done winter prep too.
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