Thursday, July 28, 2016

Five Faves and a Bonus

All of a sudden, I realized, "It's time for Friday Fave Fives"!  What happened to the week?  Because it has been a bit unusually warm here, I haven't been paying as much attention to what day it is.  Mostly I've been staying inside enjoying the AC.  However, the week has had many blessings besides the air conditioning.

1.  Lunch with The Professor's sister.  We live in the same town, and sometimes it's just fun to hang out together.  The three of us ate our favorite burrito place after church services on Sunday.  I'm truly blessed to have a fun and witty sister-in-law.

2.  During the summer our church does 'Wednesday Night Dinners'.  We assemble and enjoy a meal together.  Everyone is welcome and there always lots of visitors.  This week, it was Taco Wednesday-the food was fantastic.  And then the evening was topped off by a concert by a local Blue Grass Band Brush Arbor.  It was great!

3.  I was sitting near a mom and her little daughter.  The four year old was mesmerized by my knitting needles.  So I offered to knit her a hat.  She was so cute.  "Any color hat is fine," she said as she smiled shyly.  Finally, she decided that light blue would be fine.  So now I have some light blue yarn and I'll be casting on for a sweet girl's new hat.

4.  I've been trying stay motivated and busy even in the heat.  So I have declared the rest of the summer as 'Focus on One Area' Time as I declutter and clean around the house.  Right now I'm focusing my attention on PAPERS.  I discovered a couple of file folders that could be passed on to the people who will be taking over my classes.  Also, I cleaned up a bunch of random papers on my desk.

5.  The sweetest part of going through the papers was rereading a bunch of cards and notes from my students.  I know I don't 'need' to keep them, but reading them gives me great joy, so I keep them.  If you had been  a little bird in the window, you would have heard me saying, "Awwww."  And "Ohhhh, sweet."  And "Sniff, sniff."  I think I'll keep them forever.

A little bonus--my milkweed plants have been thriving, which is a good thing since this week the monarch caterpillars are back in force--I counted nineteen of them on my four plants.  Fortunately there are adequate leaves for those ravenous things to consume and they have been doing just that.  The milkweed doesn't LOOK like it's thriving, but I know that as soon as the caterpillars depart and make their cocoons, the plants will put out more new leaves.  I spotted one butterfly hatched out already.  I love hosting the monarchs in my garden!

9 comments:

Faith said...

Oh I LOVE monarch butterflies. Sometimes when I am hiking (actually when I'm walking from the car to the trailhead) I see them enjoying the milkweed.....and sometimes (rare) if I'm hiking on a trail that includes a meadowland, I will see them. SOOO pretty. One year I had them flitting around the yard but haven't seen any yet.

It's fun to purge...I wrote about that too!

The Wed night dinners at church sound heavenly! (no pun intended!!)

Enjoy the weekend.....it's hot and humid one here too.

Ann said...

Knitting that hat for that little girl is so sweet. And you may be making quite an impression on her - maybe some day she'll take up those knitting needles herself. :-)

Barbara H. said...

It's nice to have in-laws that you enjoy and are close enough to get together with.

The Wed. night dinners sound so fun. One church we attended in another state used to have potluck dinners the first Wed. night of every month. It was a small church so something like that could be done without it being a major production. I miss that - that was probably the best way to get to know people. And their best dishes! :-) Another church in a different state used to have after-prayer-meeting fellowships on Wed. nights during the summer, with a different theme each week.

How sweet to offer to knit a cap for the little girl. I agree with Ann, maybe it will inspire her to try knitting herself some time, or some form of yarn arts. I can remember my grandmother crocheting any time she was sitting down, and though I didn't take up that, I did enjoy cross stitch and needlework.

Good idea to focus on one area at a time. I keep sentimental papers and cards, too - so sweet to read back over them.

ellen b said...

Loved reading your five. That's great that you are helping out the Monarch population. That sounded like a fun exchange between you and the little one. All of a sudden I'm craving tacos...or burritos...

Karen said...

It seems to be the time for purging and cleaning, as I've seen other bloggers write about doing it and I've been at it myself. It's nice to have everything in order for the fall season and then the holidays that follow.

Enjoyed your fave about the monarch butterflies and it took me on a little google search to find out more about them.

I love that you offered to knit the cap for the little girl. So thoughtful of you, and after watching you knit, it will mean so much to her.

Have a good weekend!

Gattina said...

I am so lazy lately even though it's not hot at all ! How cute this little girl wanting a hat !

Wendy said...

Sounds like you have a good community at your church. Focusing on one area is a good idea but paperwork can be daunting. I think it's ok to keep things that make us feel happy. The trick is to find a way of storing them and a storage home. Lucky you with AC we could have done with that recently but the last couple of days it's been a bit cooler.

Jill Foley said...

lucky you to have monarch caterpillars!

I need to focus on one area at a time here, too....

nikkipolani said...

How lovely to share meals with dear ones! Sounds like you've found some blessings even while dealing with a chore. Yay.