Thursday, June 25, 2009

Friday Fave Five, First Week of Summer

Friday Fave Five, MidSummer Plus Four Days

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five!
1. Definitely, my big fave for this week was the time we spent in the Beach Cities of Los Angeles where we were house-and-kitty sitting. (Yes, I know I mentioned this last week, but the time covered both weeks, and I enjoyed it so very much.)

We provide this blessing to our friends two or three times a year and they in turn bless us with an excuse to 'get away'and relax.

(Please 'scuse the blatant product placement)

We watched all the episodes of Firefly, read books, took long beach walks, ate out at least once a day. Loved it! (If you want some visual evidence, you can scroll down to the previous posts.)

2. Our housesitting coincided with a visit with a former coworker who is now married and has a son. We spent a couple of hours just catching up and enjoying this new little boy.
Posted with permission from his mama

3. Father's Day spent with Son#2. Hmmmm, no photos of lunch at Rocky Cola's, or Friday night dinner at The Veggie Grill.

4. As fun as it is to be 'out of town', it is always good to come home. I've been decluttering and organizing here at Willow's Cottage. A friend came on Wednesday morning to provide encouragement for the organizing part. I'll be doing that for her next Monday. I am also being the second pair of hands at another person's Decluttering Decathalon. I really do enjoy cleaning out and organizing. Weird, I know.

5. Slow mornings. I truly appreciate my summer break from school. I can sit and sip my latte (made by The Professor), read the local paper, check my email and blog, and NOT race out the door to school.

What have you enjoyed this week?

Join Susanne at Living To Tell The Story and others who want to share their Fave Fives.

27 comments:

Reflection Through The Seasons said...

What an perfect arrangement Willow.... house & kitty sitting whilst your friends are away enjoying their break. Walks on the beach, relaxing, reading, eating out, what bliss!

As for me well, we’ve had glorious weather, I’ve resisted the temptation to stay indoors watching tennis at Wimbledon instead I’ve been working in the garden at home and at our allotment..... it’s been hot!

This weekend we have a family reunion at my cousin’s farm in Staffordshire, so today I want to make a few dishes to take along.


Enjoy your weekend. Marion

Anonymous said...

Your break sounds so wonderful. My fav bit of the week was taking some time out yesterday to walk with my daughter and just catch up. We had both worked hard on making the house presentable for estate agents, that we needed a break, so we sat on a bench by the lake and just chatted. Lovely.

aspiritofsimplicity said...

Sounds like a lovely week. Boy is that baby ever cute.

Melli said...

When my kids were young and school let out, oh I thought I had gone to Heaven for sure! You are sO right - there was just nothing better than being able to just lounge around and ENJOY that cup of coffee! Of course, now everyday is like that for me... I think I'm starting to take it for granted... I better do something about that! That is too sweet a pleasure to lose!

Sounds like you had a great week!

Susanne said...

Oooo, I'll take an arrangement like that. What a blessing!

That little boy is so adorable. Look at those little cheeks.

A hammock sounds even better than an adirondack chair! Enjoy your book.

Jerralea said...

Sounds like a fabulous week! You know, I'm so glad to learn that you love organizing. That is one of my favorite things to do, too!

ellen b. said...

Yippee for slow mornings! Baby is so sweet! Enjoy the continued de-cluttering...

Donna said...

That looks like a fun tennis ball.

Brenda said...

I love it when friends come to help motivate me to organize and declutter, I do so much better with a fresh set of eyes to evaluate.

Sounds like a fun trip to your friends house. good week. :)

Yolanda said...

I enjoyed reading this. Have a wonderful weekend Willow.

Barbara H. said...

Sounds like a win-win situation with your friend!

What a sweet baby!

I need to do some serious decluttering, too. And I love my slower summer mornings as well.

Happy Friday!

Laurie said...

Hello friend, enjoyed the photo of that beautiful baby, and I also enjoyed remembering my own lunches at Rocky Cola's :) We've been doing the cleaning/clutter-controlling thing here also -- Goodwill, Salvation Army, and the Rescue Mission love us right now :)
Hope to see you Sunday -- are you involved in the summer reading group that meets next week?

Pamela said...

Lovely list, Willow, and your friend has the most adorable little boy!

Megs said...

Ha ha ha - I'm with you on the cleaning and organizing! I just feel SO MUCH better when it's done! I did quite a bit last weekend with the hubby out of town - and lo and behold, all week he kept things picked up and clean! Praise the Lord! Ha ha ha. Maybe I should have put that in my Fave Fives, too!

Caroline said...

It does sound like you had a wonderful week, especially the walking on the beach part. It takes me a while each summer just to enjoy relaxing. I usually have this nagging guilt that I should be being productive, even when we're away...I eventually get over that though, and, of course, then school starts in again!

I love decluttering too although my husband would say that I seem to be way better at throwing out his "junk" than mine:)

Marg said...

You deserve to sit and sip on your latte's My teacher friends are coming for Ribs tonight to celebrate.
Decluttering....Get out those big garbage bags and away you go.
That little boy is a darling...
Have a wonderful summer relaxing and walking the beaches.

Flower said...

Explain the Kitty...what breed...make or model? It's not a common cat. :) I'd like to see it's face!
It is nice that you can have some slow mornings and can enjoy the latte. Keep it up!
Send me your motivator!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

I love slow mornings too. My favorite time of the day. I didn't realize you were house sitting ~ what a cool arrangement as you say win win.

Enjoy the weekend.

Islandsparrow said...

I could use a friend to come over and encourage me in de-cluttering. I keep attempting to de-clutter my books - but to no avail. The only ones I can get rid of are old textbooks.

Slow mornings are the thing I love most since retiring from teaching :)

Now if only I could teach my beloved to make a latte.

Melli said...

Hi again Willow! The Judges study we are doing is this one. Most of the studies we have done have been from Life Light and we've been happy with all of them EXCEPT the one on Ruth & Esther. That one had some off the wall questions that had no relevance to anything! It was just weird! But it was also by an author that we had never seen before. The Judges study is VERY good!

Hazel said...

decluttering and organizing - I love that! It's not weird to me at all :-) I get a very good feeling everytime I declutter and organize my surrounding. Your slow mornings must be a lot of fun. Have a great weekend.

Laurie said...

Firefly was one of the best series evah!

Joanne said...

Hi Willow! I so appreciate all your comments. :)

As for the box estimates, I haven't separated out the fiber from the other boxes...so I don't know if those numbers will jive. I do believe that we beat your 53 boxes of shipped books, but it was close!

I'm still trying to get rid of things, too. That part is rough!

Ally Jay said...

Sounds wonderful

Tracy said...

Kitties, babies, coffee...lots of great ingredients for a good break--keep enjoying, Willow! Happy Days ((HUGS))

Jane said...

Looks like you had a lovely break, such a cute little boy too. I've only three and half weeks to go to my easy mornings start and I can't wait. we had a busy start to the weekend but yesterday was a lovely lazy day. Jane x

Deb said...

This sounds so relaxing - walking on the beach, reading, dining out...enjoying life at a leisurely pace. Ah, the good old summertime!