Friday five

 

Well, it has been awhile since I posted a Friday five.  I probably shouldn't even be taking the time (it's time I am borrowing from other tasks) but well, I want to.  So ... here goes with five blessings from the week.

1.  Having a working oven once again!  

 

Or maybe I should say, having a handy hubby who can pretty much fix anything.  Our oven died last week.  We were planning to take supper to our camp and share with our daughter and family who were having their place spray-foamed (insulation) and couldn't cook in the house.  I brought a crockpot of chili and some tortilla chips, but planned for cornbread as well.  I turned the oven on to pre-heat and mixed up the cornbread, but the oven never came up to temperature.  My handy husband diagnosed the problem and ordered the part, which finally came today.  Voila, a working oven!  (But it's too hot outside to use it.)

2.  Trying several new recipes lately that really turned out well.  

Since we were speaking of cooking, that jogged my mind to mention recipes.  I hope to blog about them next week, but the salad above was one.

3.  A fun way to stay hydrated in the hot, humid weather.

The water bottle (and matching hand-painted coaster) was a gift from my friend Amanda Reed following the conclusion of a Bible study in May.  It's really been inspiring me to keep it filled with water and ice.  The red color in the water is from a Watermelon Mint cold infuse water sachet from Twinings.  These come in lots of flavors.  I've only tried the Watermelon Mint but I really enjoy it.

4.  Continuing to see answers to prayer in my use of time.  The rhythms and the one-minute rule that I mentioned in one of my Summer Planning posts are really helping me to become much more effective in my use of time -- something I've prayed about for many years!

5.  Time spent at our little camp.  The photo below was taken in the early evening, when it was still light outside but we needed some lights on inside.

 We are settling into a summer routine of sorts where we plan to spend three nights a week over there.  Even though there is still a lot of work to be done (and it is slowly getting done), we feel such a sense of peace when we walk into this little place.  We often bring a simple supper from home to eat as well.  We don't stay long into the next day (too much to do at home and elsewhere) but we get up at 5 a.m. so we can savor a couple of hours in this tranquil spot while we enjoy our Bible reading and prayer time.  So, so thankful to God for providing this little place for us!

Hope you all have enjoyed a blessed week as well!