Last Week of Summer Faves

 

It's Friday and I'm here to share FIVE of my favorite blessings from the last week.  I join in with other thankful bloggers over at Susanne's site. 

FIVE FAVES 

• SERMON:   Our senior pastor preached on our 518 Initiative: Here's the blurb from our social media page: 

"What is the 518 Initiative?

It’s a way to be equipped to reach the lost people within your sphere of influence! We are praying for a lasting kingdom impact over the next twelve months by means of prayer evangelism, invitational evangelism, service evangelism, and direct verbal evangelism. "

We had the option of filling out a card with our name, email and phone number and on the back of it, the initials of the person we will be praying for and inviting, etc.  It was a powerful sermon and even more powerful to hear some of the statistics he was sharing along with watching most of the congregation tack their cards onto large posters that were in the shape of our Capital Region of NYS's area code: 518!  I'm so thankful for my pastor, for his hug he spontaneously gave me as I returned to my seat (because yes, he's also participating in the Initiative...he's not just preaching about it) and for my church in general.  I never want to take good leadership for granted.                               

 

• CUTE PILLOW COVERS:  If I buy one more seasonal pillow, my husband will be super annoyed.  I have decorative pillows for the family room, living room and guest room. Most are seasonal or holiday themed. I had nothing for Autumn except 5 pumpkin ones so I ordered these cute pillow covers to go over my summer pillows.  They came 4 in a package for only $8.00!!  A different leaf pattern for each one. I have 3 in the family room and 1 in the living room.  I'll add my pumpkin pillows once October gets here. It's a simple thing but I'm thankful for an inexpensive solution to my penchant for cute pillows. 

Sunday Evening
14 Sept about 7 pm 

• BONFIRE: There's just something about a late summer bonfire in the backyard after a busy day.  Sunday had been a busy one. I was at church at 11, interviewed a potential member for the hiking group right afterwards, and then had a recording to do for our choir rehearsal at 1 pm.  That recording went until just a few minutes after 3 pm. I was bone tired. I went home, fixed sandwiches for our dinner because Dave was also super tired after being at church since 7 AM (he was on Production Crew for both services).  Let's just say our Sunday was NOT our Sabbath. We were much too busy. BUT...in the  evening, I gathered the brush Dave had chopped, added a log and some kindling and sat by the fire to finally relax and pray.  I also read some Scripture, and then just read some fiction.  I did a lot of praying for various things.  I also had a nice  phone call with my youngest daughter. I'm thankful for perfect September weather and the scent of the woodsmoke after a very busy Sunday.  

Swedish Apple Pie 

from a local farm 

• APPLES!!  A local farm was selling some of their gala apples at our local grocery store, so I picked up a bag and made Swedish Apple pie for  dessert Wednesday evening. We don't usually have desserts except on Friday or Saturday evenings...sometimes on Sundays.....so this was a nice surprise for my husband.  In fact, before I could take a pic, it was cut into.  The recipe is so easy, too.  And a local farm stand was selling another farm's Apple Butter, so I've been enjoying that on English muffins and waffles in the last week.  It's not something I eat every day but it's SO good.  I even found a muffin recipe for apple butter which I may try soon.  I'm thankful for a good apple harvest despite our drought. 

Schroon Lake
in the eastern Adirondack Mountains
Thursday 18 Sept

sun, sand, and swimming! 

• MOUNTAIN DAY!  My heart was thankful that I have learned to be flexible and not so rigid about housework.  Now that I'm retired I mean.  It's been an absolutely gorgeous two months (August and September) and although we haven't had rain except  briefly one day, I am loving all the extra sunshine and lake time.  Yesterday I knew it was going to be 80 here in town and 76 at one of my fave mountain lakes, so after time in the Word, a 1.3 mile power walk, and breakfast, I gathered my beach bag, made a small lunch, grabbed my water bottle and got up to the lake. It only took me 1 hour and 15 minutes so I was there by 11.  And my sister Joy was there! (It only  takes her about 45 min to get there from her home).  We had the entire beach to ourselves until about 1 pm when a couple of young moms came with their preschoolers and then another woman who was around our age.  The water was COLD (nights in the mountains have been in the low 40s) but once I got wet, I loved it. And the air was so warm in the full sun that I warmed up very quickly.  I'm so thankful I live near the Adirondack mountains and have a plethora of lakes to choose from. 

That wraps up my faves but I just have to share one other thing that made me smile and say "Thank You, God!" 

I planted morning glory seeds by my trellis thinking they'd do well this year.  I had them from 1996-2020.  In the summer of 2020, we noticed my morning glories were no longer opening. In fact, the stems weren't climbing the trellis. We couldn't figure out why so we all  joked (the girls were still living here then...one was in college) and we said "maybe they got covid". Well this past April I decided to plant new seeds and by July when I didn't see any results, I figured the seeds were duds. But lo and behold, this morning on my way off the deck to go power walking, there was this one bloom!  It totally made me laugh out loud and of course I had to take a pic.  Maybe next summer they'll really take off. 

I hope you all have a marvelous weekend!  Tonight my church is having a 1 hour worship service.  All 3 campuses will join together.  The 3 music directors will be on stage as well as our music teams including the choir that Dave and I are in, along with our oldest daughter and her boyfriend.  We're a small choir but we have enough people to have 4 part harmony so I'm thrilled for this opportunity to share the music we've been rehearsing and see the sanctuary filled with people who want to worship and pray.  What better way to kick off the last weekend of Summer!