Friday Fave Fives, November, Week Three

Happy Friday.  That means Friday Fave Fives.  Being grateful is a discipline.  I think that is a great way to look at gratitude.  We discipline ourselves and practice seeing the good and being thankful for even the hard things.  That's gratitude.  (credit to Becoming Minimalist blog for reminding me of that this week)  This weekly exercise helps me to discipline my mind and heart to be thankful.  Thankful for even the rainy days we had this week.  Here are five things that stood out to me in my week.

1.  On Saturday, we realized that there was nothing! nothing! on our calendar.  So we jumped in our car and drove to a State Park about an hour's drive away.  The weather was perfect for a hike in the woods.  After stopping to pick up coffee and a snack at the cutest little coffee shop, we hiked a couple of miles tromping through the fallen leaves and sometimes walking the trail paralleling a lake.  It was a great way to spend our free day.

2.  Veteran's Day.  Or Remembrance Day.  Our friends T and S met us at Denny's for breakfast.  Because our guys are both veterans, their breakfast meal was free.  We had the best time celebrating our veterans.  While we were sitting in the booth drinking our coffee, a young girl and her mother walked up to us and asked if they were veterans, thanked them for their service and gave them each a paper that the girl had colored with crayons saying "Thank you!"  It was so sweet and made their day so much brighter.

3.  Happy Anniversary to our son and daughter-in-law!  Eighteen years!  (old photo, but one of my favorites)  Yes, they were married on Veteran's Day :)

4.  Another hike.  This time with Younger Daughter (the nurse) and the dogs.  We were walking one of the local paved paths and noticed a side trail off to the left.  Of course we had to take the detour.  It was so much fun to explore somewhere new!  And beautiful.

5.  We have a good friend from our Los Angeles days who lives and ministers in Southeast Asia.  Her mother and brothers live not that far from us.  She is in the US visiting her mom right now and we arranged to have lunch with her and her mom.  What a privilege for us to spend that precious time with her.  Of course, we were so busy talking that we didn't remember to take any pictures.

Bonus:  I took photos of the two items I have knitted for the baby shower later this month.  Because the new little girl will be born near Christmas time, I am hoping to finish a red newborn size sweater for her, too.  It's so much fun knitting for babies!