Friday five

 

 It's been awhile, so I'm just popping in with a quick Friday five to acknowledge some sweet blessings from the last week or two.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee and read on!

1.  Getting to spend time with our dear young friends Sam and Jennifer last Saturday.  Jennifer cooked an amazing meal of a turkey breast, vegetables, and cornbread, while we brought a cookie tray and a refined-sugar-free chocolate cake (mostly for ourselves, since we are on a sugar fast).  We hadn't been able to get together for a long time, so an exchange of Christmas gifts was in order!

2.  Finding time to do a little bit of crafting.  My hubby had been asking me about making a new checkbook cover, and I finally got to doing so.  Made the pattern one day, cut out the pattern pieces on another day, and finally sewed it together on a third day.  It was really super easy, but I just didn't have a lot of free minutes on any given day.  I'm planning a One New Thing post about this project soon.  Below you see, not a checkbook cover, but some fabric alphabet letters.  I recently made some very similar to these as a Christmas gift for a 7-month-old.  Hopefully I can take a photo of the checkbook cover before I post about that project.

3.  Celebrating my birthday with family a couple of weeks ago.  It was just a joy to spend time with these dear ones around a scrumptious meal of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and roasted broccoli -- and of course, cake and ice cream.  Carrie made an amazing three-layer chocolate cake with both chocolate and peanut butter frostings.  The only thing I was allowed to bring was the ice cream!

4.   Improved health and mobility.  It's an ongoing process, but I'm very thankful to have a lengthy bout of sciatica behind me (no pun intended) and to see improvement in a knee issue.  

5.  Getting to have Christmas Club on Tuesday!  Our little Christmas Club got its start at a local library some years ago -- at least five by my reckoning.  Most often there are only three of us that meet, and that's how it was on Tuesday.  Still it was lovely to get together at Carrie's home for tea and muffins and to talk over our Christmases.  I've written up a full report on my Christmas blog, so head on over there if you'd like to know more.  Below is a photo of Christmas kitchen gifts ready for delivery.

And that's my simple Friday five!