Friday five -- January 25

Delightful graphic by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

Friday again!  I really like doing a Friday five post because it's so good to remind ourselves of the  many blessings God gives us.  Personally, I delight in how He is always working in the little things of everyday life!  Here goes with five blessings from this week.

1.  Trying a recipe for dairy-free ice cream to serve to a lactose-intolerant friend.  It actually worked out very well.  Find the recipe here: Coconut Ice Cream.  It actually is a vanilla ice cream, made with coconut milk instead of cream and/or regular milk.  It can be made with sugar (it's only a small amount) or options for healthier sweeteners are given.  I used maple syrup as a sweetener.  The recipe has several flavor variations.  I didn't have an ice cream maker handy, so the way I went about it was a bit more labor-intensive.  Next time I will get out the ice cream maker and use it.

Photo from Chocolate Covered Katie

2.  Even though our church services were canceled on Sunday due to the horrendous weather, we were able to watch the livestreamed service from Grace Baptist Church in Elko, Nevada.  Beautiful hymns, a challenging message from the book of Luke, and the added, unexpected blessing of getting to see and hear our NV daughter playing piano for the service.  The miracle of technology!

This church is in Maine, though.  Photo by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

3.  Creative thinking for a project.  I like to make vacuum cleaner bag sachets to impart a clean, fresh, natural scent while vacuuming.  I thought I had everything on hand that I needed to make the sachet mixture and I set about to mix it up on Tuesday.  I was wrong, though -- I needed dried rosemary and knew I had nowhere near enough.  Then I remembered a package of fresh rosemary I'd gotten at a great discount back in the fall.  I'd put it in the freezer when it looked like I wouldn't be using it right away. 

The cookbook that came with our first microwave was very complete, and I remembered it had directions for drying herbs.  It worked like a charm!  Later that day I was able to crumble the rosemary and add it to the mixture.  It's now in a sealed canister for a week.  I'll transfer it to coffee filters for the sachets next Tuesday.

4.  Getting a nice, long walk on Wednesday.  My friend used her fitness tracker and found that the loop we walked was over 4 miles!  It was a cloudy day, but not cold and there was no wind.  Plenty of ice underfoot, so we walked very carefully.

5.  Getting to spend some good quality time in my Christmas notebook.  I always like to make a complete list of what we actually gave to whom.  (That way I don't forget and give someone the same book or game twice!)  And I like to begin a tentative list for the coming year's Christmas and also one for birthdays.  All that got done.  In addition, I like to use the post-Christmas debriefing form from Organized Christmas.  I don't always get to that, but I find it so helpful when I do.  Yesterday afternoon I actually found time for thinking and journaling about this!

That's it for this week's Friday five.  Happy Friday, everyone!