Mid May Faves

 How can it be mid May already? The weather has changed. The grass is vibrant green. The flowers are blooming. Spring makes me happy. And posting my Friday Fave Fives every week makes me happy too.  Being grateful leads to being even more grateful.  Here are my faves for this week.

1. Saturday. I went with two friends, a mom and daughter, about an hour north of their house to place called Milk and Honey Acres which was having an open house.  Our main purpose was to talk to one of the owners who is a weaver and spinner.   We had a good conversation and learned a few important bits of information.  The extras? Beautiful views of farms from the car windows. Time with friends. Sitting in the back seat with an adorable one year old girl who my friend was watching that day.

2.  Sunday. Mother's Day.  All my four children either called or texted me.  I am proud to be the mom of those four.  (photo is an old one-- taken in 2011, but one of my favorite ever pictures of them)

3.  Monday. Nurse Daughter was off for a couple of nights (yes, she works nights on the cardiac critical care floor of our local hospital) so we had a mom-daughter date with coffee, lunch, knitting and of course a trip to the local garden nursery. Time with my family is always a favorite.

4.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.  Time in the garden.  I am trying to spend at least an hour each day (when it's not raining!) in the garden.  I'm weeding, planting, digging.  My garden is my happy place.

5.  Friday.  Today I spent the morning in my garden.  Then in the afternoon, I helped my daughters in theirs.  That is a win-win.  Time in the garden and time with my girls.

And I didn't even mention the wonderful time we spent with T on Wednesday morning at one of our favorite coffee shops.  And dinner with Nurse Daughter and her BF and then a walk around the area.  

How was your week?

Home Makes Me Happy

 And Friday Fave Fives Make Me Happy, Too.  I'm back after another busy week.  I've been home since Saturday evening, readjusting my schedule to 'home'.  Now I need to take a few minutes to write down my five blessings from this crazy week.

1. The health conference we attended last weekend was great.  So full of good and helpful information.  

2.  We've gone from blustery rain and thunderstorms to sunny spring weather.  I am thankful for the gentler days because we have been able to do some garden work in the afternoons.  Areas are being weeded, some seeds have been sown, one of three rhododendrons has been planted (the other two should be in the ground by this evening), the raised bed has additional soil added.  I love being in the garden.  A bonus here is that the two teenage grandsons came to help.

3.  One early afternoon the weather was perfect.  Younger Daughter, the Nurse, and I took a long walk/hike with the two dogs. The dogs hadn't seen me for almost three weeks and stayed as close as they could during the whole hike.  (my daughter's photo)

4.  Our wonderful next door neighbor is a musician.  He sings as a community member of the local university gospel choir.  Their concert was last weekend.  Wow!  It was beautiful!

5.  My last fave involves another neighbor on our street.  Sunday morning, just as we were turning off our dead end street/cul de sac, The Professor's phone rang.  He answered it.  "You have a ball of yarn hanging out the door of your car!"  We pulled over and checked.  Yep.  My cream yarn from the afghan I'm knitting right now was trailing us all the way from our driveway.  Oops.  We jumped out and gathered it all up while we laughed.  Of course, that neighbor was laughing with us.  And another neighbor family on their way to a soccer game saw us and giggled.  So now evidently we're 'famous' on our street for having yarn balls following us through the neighborhood.  Anyway, it made a funny story.  (But I was able to untangle and rewind the yarn, and didn't lose much at all of it.)

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!  Watch for all the blessings every day.

May Day!

 I am writing this on Thursday evening, May 1st, even though Friday Fave Fives is usually written and  posted on...Friday.  I will post this as soon as I wake up in the morning.  Anyway, here are my Five Faves, my Blessings, from this past week.

1.  We had a wonderful visit with Chaplain Dan and Jeffie and PAL.  It was not easy to say goodbye and know that we wont' be with them again for several months.  We treasure every moment with them.  Driving out of Phoenix, we stopped to have breakfast with another couple who we were close friends with during our years of living in Oregon.  Our daughters were close friends, too.  They now are retired and living in Arizona. It was great catching up with them.  And then we were on our way.

2.  As we were driving through Oklahoma, we stopped and met up with a friend we knew in our church in California.  She moved back to Oklahoma when her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer.   Now she is remarried after he passed away and we were able to meet her new husband.  We had a delightful time renewing our friendship over lunch in a classic Route 66 cafe.  I loved how she described us as life-time friends.  (We talked so much that we totally forgot to take any photos!)

3.  We arrived home safely.  That is a huge fave because driving all those thousands of miles from Ohio to Arizona and back again is not for the faint of heart.

4.  The next day, we picked up the grandboys from school and enjoyed their reactions of 'well, yeah, maybe we missed you a little bit' and 'yeah, we are glad you're home again'.  They came over to our house and Tall Boy mowed the lawn (long over due since we were gone more than two weeks), and his mom showed up with special ice cream treats for us all.  I love living near our girls and grandkids.

5.  And after less than forty-eight hours at home, we drove about an hour and a half to attend a health conference we had bought tickets for over a year ago.  I am thankful for this opportunity to attend sessions with some very wise and experienced doctors and clinicians.

A busy weekend again... I'll do my best to read and comment   And after this weekend, life should calm down for a bit.  I promise :) 

PS:  Will I ever get my photos onto my computer??

On the Road Faves

 Hello!  I'm writing this very late on Friday night.  I just wanted to check in and let everyone know we are  okay.  Our trip is going well.  In fact, we have just spent five wonderful days in Arizona visiting PAL and her parents.  Oh the memories we have made.

I really don't have time to write down all the blessings of this time with Chaplain Dan, J's and PAL (and many other family and friends here). Let me just say that  many many more than five faves should be mentioned.  But here are five fast faves.

1.  Safety in all the hundreds of miles we have traveled.

2.  Watching PAL's theater rehearsal.

3.  Listening to PAL sing during practice time in Arizona Girl Choir.

4.  Lunch with long time college friends.  Coffee with J's parents.

5.  Singing many hymns and other songs with the family.

No photos.  Sorry.  I'll be back on regular schedule next week.

Friday Fave Fives, Easter Week

 Happy Easter Week!  And Happy Friday.  These faves for Friday Fave Fives will be really short because we are traveling.  I'll do my best to be around and comment on blogs, but it's not going to be easy.

1.  Road trip!  We've had this trip planned for quite awhile.  Dates got moved around, but now we are on our way!

2.  We were able to spend two nights in Arkansas with some very dear friends.  Our time with them was spent laughing and talking and singing nonstop.  It was wonderful!

3.  Also, we were able to connect with former co-workers from our mission days in Indonesia.  All the memories and stories and conversations.  I am so thankful we were able to spend that time with them.

4.  Safely on our travels.

5.  Today is Good Friday, the day Christians observe and commemorate the dead of Jesus.  As a Christian, I always love and honor this day and  Resurrection Sunday. My faith is founded on the fact that Jesus' sacrifice of his own life is my only way to salvation and life with God.  For that I am most thankful.

PS:  I am sure you have noticed that there are no photos of the road trip.  Yeah, I forgot my camera!

April Showers, Birds and Hikes

It's been a busy time here at Willow's Cottage and this is the first post I've written all week.  Time to catch up and think about the good parts of the week.  Friday Fave Fives really helps me do that.  Susanne at Living to Tell the Story leads us in choosing five things from our week that have helped us to be thankful and notice gratitude.  Here are mine:

1.  Encouraging words from friends concerning a difficult situation.  I meet weekly via zoom with friends.  We call ourselves the Art Girls (you can guess why).  Because I was stressed about something, they encouraged me and really helped me focus on the right way to handle things.

2.  The birds are back in force at my bird feeder.  I love watching them snack on the seeds I provide for them.  Birds make life happier and make me smile.

3.  More hikes.  It really is spring!  On Tuesday evening, the Trail Life troop hiked in a local preserve again.  Although it had been raining quite a bit this past week and the creek was up, we ventured through the mud and water, up and down the banks of the stream and had a great time.  (I'm the honorary grandma who hikes with them)  The best part?  Tall Boy was very solicitous for my safety as we crossed creek beds on rocks and climbed up slick and muddy edges, even holding my arm and escorting me along in front of his buddies.  Then we also had a fun hike at the local arboretum again.  Almost three miles.

4.  I guess I should be thankful for all the rain we are having.  April showers bring May flowers.  I need to just focus on being thankful that we aren't in drought.

5.  The spinning wheel is out and I've been working on some merino and silk fiber.  No photos yet.  But hopefully, in the next day or two I will have finished a skein of it.

Now I am off to watch my older daughter (she who is a rocket scientist) dance in the local production of Swan Lake.  Happy Happy Friday to you all.

Rainy and Sunny April, Fave Fives, Take One

Happy Friday to you!  I am writing my Friday Fave Fives while staring out the windows at a very grey sky loaded with clouds filled with rain and more rain. But the daffodils and grape hyacinths are blooming and the grass is green in the back garden.  There is always beauty and gratitude in the midst of grey and rain.  That's why I write out my five choices of gratitude every week.  It helps me stay focused on the sunshine of life.  I hope it helps you, too.  Susanne, as always, is faithful to lead a group of bloggers in posting our FRIDAY FAVE FIVES.

1.  Our grandson arrived home safely after his spring break trip to Seattle to visit his other grandparents.  He had the best time!

2.  A good visit with my Primary Care Doctor.  I appreciate how she listens to me and takes the time to explain and even write down information for me.

3.  I am so thankful for some sunny days this past week.  Because we have had lots and lots of rain, the sun and warmth have been especially appreciated.  In between the rainstorms, we were able to take a long walk/hike with the grand-dogs (and the daughters) at our local arboretum.  And I was also able to begin working in the garden beds, clearing debris and pulling some weeds.

4.  One morning, Nurse Daughter and I enjoyed a visit to our locally owned garden nursery.  We wandered around and checked out all the plants and seeds, picked a few to bring home, and even found a couple of cute garden ornaments on sale.  There's not much that's more fun than wandering among plants with your daughter.

5.  It's definitely spring! Our beekeeper guy met with us and a neighbor to discuss bee hives and all the details about keeping your own hive.  Then one afternoon, he came out to our house and checked our hive.  Best news is that it is thriving and we will be able to add another hive box to provide our daughters with their own hives.  More hives!  More honey!

I do hope you are encouraged and are thankful for the many ways you are blessed this first week of April.