Riverbend Ramblings

Happy Friday! If you share your blessings from the week, be sure to link up over at Living To Tell The Story. I thought it would be fun to share a food-filled fave five this week (try saying that five times fast).

1. Morning coffee in my favorite mug. I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but I enjoy starting my day with a cup. I think I drink it more for the French vanilla creamer than I do for the caffeine.

2. We go through a ton of fruit every week, and it puts quite a dent in my grocery budget. I don't like to limit the kids eating healthy food, but sometimes if I don't, we run out before the week is over. Wednesday night after church my mom asked me to come out to her car. She bought us a huge bag of apples and about four pounds of grapes at the local farmer's market. This fresh produce was a wonderful, unexpected blessing. The kids have had an unlimited supply of fruit to snack on when they get the munchies.

3. A couple of families in our church raise chickens, so we usually stay stocked with fresh eggs. Case and Shay are my main egg eaters. It's a blessing to have fresh eggs. They definitely taste better than store-bought eggs.

4. Packing school lunches used to be such an ordeal. Last year I finally got smart and assigned each child a night to pack lunches for everyone for the following day. This year I purchased some BPA-free bento-style boxes, and the kids have been so excited to pack them when it's their turn. The best part about using these containers is that the kids have gotten really creative with real foods instead of relying on pre-packaged stuff. Who would have thought that packing food in compartments instead of plastic bags would make such a difference?

5. Yesterday I was able to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with one of my good friends. I ordered my usual Pasta Da Vinci, and it was delicious. I enjoyed the fellowship even more than the food.

Well, there's a look at my week with food. I hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day long weekend. We will be going to a family reunion, and I'm really looking forward to seeing my aunts and cousins I haven't seen in almost ten years. Do you have any special plans?

Labels: Friday's Favorites

Last Friday after school Hope begged to bring the class pet home for the weekend. I was hesitant to agree, but her teacher insisted that there was no way on earth we could possibly kill a betta fish. So, "Gilly" the betta fish spent the weekend at our house.

How hard could it possibly be to take care Gilly? All we had to do was leave him in his bowl on the kitchen counter and feed him three pellets of betta fish food each day. Sounds easy enough, right?

All was well until we got home from church Sunday night. I glanced at Gilly as I passed through the kitchen and noticed that he was perfectly still and floating on top of the water. I don't know much about fish, but I do know that when they are floating on top of the water, it is a very bad thing.

I frantically texted Hope's teacher and informed her that Gilly would not be returning to school. I was worried that maybe Hope's teacher had a sentimental attachment to Gilly, but she wasn't upset, just amazed that we had somehow managed to kill a pet fish in just forty-eight hours. Hope was worried that the kids in her sixth grade class would call her "fish-killer", but her teacher promised to help keep Gilly's demise a secret.

Steven drove to the pet store as soon as it opened this morning and purchased a replacement fish that was as close to Gilly's dark blue with green coloring as he could find. Then he drove to another pet store just to make sure that he had one that looked as much like Gilly as possible. (Isn't he awesome?) He felt pretty good about the fish he had purchased, so he headed to the school to drop off the *new* Gilly. Hope's classmates just thought that Gilly came to school late and didn't notice anything was different.

So, everything turned out fine in the end, though I don't think Hope will be bringing the class pet home again any time soon.

Labels: Family Life, Pets, The Kiddos

Another week has flown right by, and I'm linking up with Susanne to share a few blessings.

2. After helping out in the school office for the last few weeks, it was so nice to spend more time at home during the day once again. It felt good to get some cleaning done.

3. Our church family experienced some sadness this week. A young man in our church, just thirty-one years old and in seemingly good health, passed away suddenly from a heart attack. The memorial service was a precious time for his family and friends to remember him and his desire to live for Christ. What a blessing for his family, in the midst of tragedy, to have the assurance that their son and brother is in heaven because he trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ for his soul's salvation.

4. It's been hot and humid here this week, so I'm thankful that we've had rain just about every afternoon to bring the teensiest bit of relief. I'm ready for fall and temps to drop down into the 80's.

5. I had the house to myself one evening and treated myself to takeout from my favorite Chinese restaurant. Definitely not the healthiest meal, but sometimes you just need some comfort food.

 

Labels: Favorite Things

L-R: Shay 10th, Case 8th, Hope 6th, Bryn 4th

The kids started a brand new school year on Monday. Don't they look thrilled? They actually really were ready to go back to school. Three days in, and they are still all smiles. We'll see how long that lasts.

 

For those of you who have been reading here for a while, do you remember this picture?

2007

 

Labels: Special Days, The Kiddos

We've had a jam-packed week around here, so I'm posting my favorites a day late.You can link up and share the bright spots of your week at Susanne's.

1. Hope had her first salon pedicure. She sat in the massage chair and read a book while the tech did her toes. Hope doesn't like the color pink, so she chose a color that turned out really cute with some zebra stripes.

2. I found a great way to avoid stress. For the first time ever, I did probably 90% of our back-to-school shopping online. I spent about two hours researching the best deals and then ordered everything from two different online stores. I figure that it would have taken me a full day to drive from store to store, wander the aisles, and search for everything on the supply lists. Two days later, the big brown truck brought four kids worth of school supplies to my front door. That's as easy as it gets.

3. I have actually been working in the school office every day for the last three weeks helping the office staff prepare for the upcoming school year. This week the hours were especially long, since school starts on Monday. My hubby was so good to help me out by running errands, getting the kids where they needed to be, and never complaining when I was too tired at night to fix a big meal. I am so thankful that God blessed me with a caring, loving husband who doesn't mind helping out around the house.

4. Bryn spent some time with one of her best friends. Their time together always seems to involve sweet treats, and this particular night it included a trip to DQ. I'm glad that she has Christian friends to grow up with.

5. Shay and I went to a concert with some friends to see three of my favorite Christian musicians perform. One of these friends, who so graciously provided us the tickets, was a member of the backup performance choir. The "Big Three" concert featured Sandi Patty, Larnelle Harris, and Dino. I grew up listening to these amazingly talented artists back in the 80's and early 90's, so it was a real blast to watch them perform with Shay sitting next to me listening to those songs I remover so well. We had VIP seats on the 5th row and had a photo-op backstage during the intermission. Shay was able to purchase an out of print book of Dino's best-known compositions. It was a fabulous night!

That's a glimpse at my week. I hope you had a good week, too.

Labels: Friday's Favorites

For the great blessings He has sent my way.

For feet to walk and eyes to see,

And the gift of God that set me free.

I'll rejoice in the Lord for ears to hear,

And in his precious Word that calms all fear.

He gives joy and peace to the troubled soul,

And through His promises we are made whole.

I'll rejoice in the Lord for supplying my needs,

I'm far more important than the birds He feeds,

I'll praise Him daily for His encompassing love,

For showers of blessing that come from above.

~Hugh Lee Stevenson

I took a break from blogging last week and got caught up on some things around the house that had been neglected. Most of my mini projects were simple things that just need tackling every once in a while, like the pantry. It's the room that seems to get treated as a dumping ground since it's the first room we enter from the garage. I gutted it and got it all organized last summer, but it was time to tidy it up again. Now we can find what we need. I keep food items along one wall. Paper goods, cleaning supplies, household items, and small appliances are on the shelves on the opposite wall. Apparently I deleted the picture I took of that side of the room, so just imagine that those shelves look nice now, too.

I'll add some more projects to my to-do list once the kids are back in school. Hopefully we will be sticking to just the fun stuff the next two weeks as they enjoy what's left of their summer vacation.

Labels: Daily Life, Keeping the Home