Welcome once again to Friday Fave Five where I join with Susanne and other blogging friends at Living to Tell the Story to remember the good things I am grateful for this week.
- Christmas breakfast and concert
The week started Monday morning with a Christmas breakfast...
...and mini-concert for all the teachers at the school where I teach. The food was good and the performance was impressive. It's fun to see students show off their gifts and talents. Some of them are quite musically gifted!
- Grading
I have been doing a lot of grading lately, and while I don't love grading, it does mean that my students are turning in assignments and bringing their grades up before report card time, and so I am good with that. This is a stack of grading I did yesterday before I left school. Most of the students demonstrated that they understood the lessons and their grades were quite good. That makes me feel good.
- Rented!
Our income property is once again rented. A few months back, our tenants moved out before their lease was up. We were renting to an unmarried couple and they broke up and no longer wanted to live together and neither could afford the rent living on their own. The place has been vacant since they moved out, but as of this past Tuesday morning, it has a new resident, so we are glad of that. It really is a very nice place, in a great community, so we hope the new resident (a single woman flight attendant) will be very happy there!
- Another excellent book!
I finished this book earlier in the week. It is a compilation of true stories and experiences written by different women, telling how God helped them with some super hard trials they were going through. I really related to some of the stories, with the family issues we have going on right now. I just want everyone to get along. I don't like family drama at all! Josh suggested that "I just apologize" but honestly, I have apologized so much for so many different things, I don't know what is left for me to say I'm sorry for. I think I may have apologized for things I didn't even do, or mean to do, but nevertheless, I am sorry for anything I did that hurt or offended someone else, but perhaps now it is time for others to do some forgiving, so I am putting this all in God's hands and asking him for healing, forgiveness and love for all.
You can see that there were many things in this book that resonated with me and I marked those places with little colored stickers so I could find them again. I know I am not alone in this trial - it seems that even the best of families can have conflict, and after all I can do, I know that it is only God who can put broken hearts back together.
- A Christmas Gift for myself
I mentioned in a previous post that I have become quite a fan of podcasts lately and some of my favorite podcasts are of the "true crime" variety. Mind you, I don't like the ones that describe violence in detail, but I do like an element of mystery and that is what most of them are, albeit, very sad mysteries. One of my favorite true crime podcasts is "Crime Junkie." I was listening to an episode the other day and the host said that there was more information on the crime on the podcast website. I didn't even know the podcast had a website, but I was interested so went there to check it out. I found out the website even had page where true fans could buy "Crime Junkie" t-shirts and sweatshirts, so I bought this one, because the proceeds benefit organizations that try to solve cold cases so that families can have closure after the murder of their loved ones. I think that is a pretty good cause. I can't even imagine losing a loved one to violence, but if I did, I would want to feel that someone was trying to find the perpetrator and bring them to justice.
- Christmas Cards
Christmas Cards are starting to arrive at our house, and as your know, staying in touch with friends old and new is a very enjoyable part of the holiday for me.
- Thinking of others
I have found that when I get down (as we all do at times) one of the best ways to get back up is to do something kind for someone else. This week I got all these small Christmas remembrance gifts ready to take to the people Charly and I minister to at church. One night, when I was feeling a bit off, I decided to start delivering these. It did get my mind off of my own problems and cheered me up. I will deliver a few more this weekend or next week or next time I am feeling a little blue.
- Light the World
While I haven't done every single service prompt on the correct day, I have been following a long and trying to participate in #Lighttheworld as much as possible. One of the service prompts was to call "your parents and tell them how much you love them, or post on social media about your gratitude and love for your parents." I opted for the post, and expanded it to my entire family. This is what I wrote and posted on Facebook this morning.
My Light the World post about my parents is a day late but hopefully still relevant. This is my birth mom and younger sister, Judy. I want to thank my birth mom for all she has done for me especially caring enough to give me a better life than she could offer me at the time I was born. Thank you. I am happy to have you in my life and in my family. ❤️ My adopted parents have been gone from this world for many years, but wherever they are now, I hope they know that I love and appreciate them. They gave me a good life. I never wanted for anything. I am truly grateful. We had our ups and downs, but I know they did their best and gave me a fighting chance in this world. I love them. I hope they know that. I can’t let this post end without expressing great love and appreciation to my husband Charles, and my amazing children Amber, Tiffany, Alexander and Joshua. I am so proud of all of my children and love them so much. I am also proud of and grateful for my grandchildren -all ten -Miles, Hailey, Clay, Paige, and Hattie as well as Emily, Thomas, Eleanor, Madeline and Ashley. I love and miss them all. I also have truly good men as son-in-laws in Joseph and Derek . I also have a sweet daughter-in-law who I love and also really like - Jessica. My prayer is that my family, especially my children, can see my love and concern for them in spite of my human imperfections and weaknesses. I pray we can forgive, overcome and grow in love together. God gave me exactly what I needed when it came to family. I am truly grateful. #LightTheWorld
I added this picture of my birth mom and younger sister. My family really means a lot to me and I truly meant every word in the post. Even with all the drama and ups and downs of family life, I can't imagine life without the people I love.
Today's #LightTheWorld prompt has to do with sharing an image of Jesus to remind others what Christmas is truly about. This is an image of a beautiful Greg Olsen painting of Christ. I have this one hanging in my living room. I love it, because it reminds us that Jesus is our Savior and he is there to help us through all the perils and dangers, physical, spiritual and otherwise, that we face in this life. How grateful I am for the for faith I have in Jesus Christ!
On that note, I will end this post. It has been an overall good week, with much to be grateful for. I will share this scripture, one of my very favorites, as I close for now.
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