Favorite Five #2

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

How good it is to remember how blessed my life truly is.  Here is this weeks favorite five.

1.  The sound of unrestrained laughter coming from my son's room as he hangs out with a friend.  It made my heart sing.

2.  Spending an evening with a glass of wine and talking over our latest book from Book Club. I learn a little more about these ladies each time we get together.

3.  Having a wonderful and handy husband.  This week he has helped my mother with some things at her house, put air in my tires and started putting up the Christmas lights outside.

4.  Being sent beautiful pictures of angels to inspire me by one of my much loved cousins.  It truly touched my heart.

5   Spending 45 precious  minutes on the phone with my brother just talking and enjoying each others company.  After listening to his positive professions of faith and hope I came away more cheerful and inspired.  No matter what the future brings, his love for his savior remains not only unchanged but stronger than ever. 

My brother on his daughter's wedding day this summer.

Favorite Five

Since the news of my brother's health situation I have been battling depression.  There are days when I am able to set things aside and go about the day feeling if not happy, at least at peace.  But there are other days when the reality of his situation fills me with such desperate sadness that I can hardly put one foot in front of the other to get through the day.  One of my dearest blogger companions has a site on her blog with someone who does a favorite five things each week.  On that day she lists five favorite things from the past week, things she is grateful for or that have made her or someone else happy.  And while I don't really know enough about blogging to link to her blog I want to begin to take the time to focus on those good things that are happening in my life.  So, here is my first Friday Favorite Five List for the past week

1.  Baking a cake to celebrate the birthday of my wonderful son-in-law.

2.  Sitting in front of a toasty warm fire while the wind blew and rain came down outside.

3.  Seeing my son arrive home safely after driving all day in that same blustery wind and rain.

4.  Being surprised by, of all things, a beautiful pheasant in my own front yard as I left for work the other morning.

5.  Looking at the raindrops on the leaves of this Heavenly Bamboo bush in my front yard and remembering that the hand of God is still upon me.