Weekly Favorites

Time once again to join with Suzanne of Living to Tell the Story, and other blogging friends, to reflect on some of the blessings of this past week.

1. Progress on remodeling

We are making a lot of progress on the remodeling of our new place. This picture shows the oak flooring that was delivered last week. The flooring contractor will beginwork on putting down out new oak floors next week. We are super excited about that!

In addition to new flooring, we have redone most of all three bathrooms, and have repainted the entire place. We have redone all the lighting, with many new fixtures, ceiling fans and LED lights all around. We have also ordered new window blinds for all the windows, and we are getting a new front window and a new security/storm door. Everything is looking great!

2. Progress on moving

While waiting for the new floors to go in upstairs, we have been moving some things into the finished basement. Charly has some of his bookshelves moved and has even started to put his books in them.

We have also been setting up our food storage room downstairs. We brought our shelves over and are filling them with canned foods we keep on hand.

We bought a small freezer because we actually have a place for one in our new home. We have never had freezer before and are looking forward to having the extra space for meat and other frozen foods.

We will be having a moving company come to move the big furniture. We have scheduled the truck to come on Friday, February 1. We are sure looking forward to that!

3. Breakfast with friends

Last Saturday, I decided to go with a group of women from church who meet up for breakfast one Saturday morning a month. Although we will be attending a different congregation when we move, I have made some friends in our current congregation, and plan to stay in touch and keep attending these monthly breakfasts. We go to a different restaurant each month, and this month we ended up here at this place, which was very good.

I enjoyed the food and good company, and am grateful that I have made some friends I enjoy. I am also grateful that our new place is close enough to this area that I can keep enjoying the company of these very nice women.

4. DNA Results

On Black Friday, Ancestry.com had a sale on their DNA kits. I have been interested in having my DNA analyzed, and finally decided to ask for a kit as an early Christmas present. My results came back last week, and there were no big surprises. My ancestry is pretty much exactly what I had always been told it was. I bought a DNA kit for my oldest sister as a Christmas gift and she sent her sample away but hasn't received it back yet. It will be interesting to see if our DNA is similar. We have the same mother, but different fathers. I always wondered if these DNA tests are really legit, but after my DNA connected me to my oldest daughter, who had also had her DNA analyzed (who knew?) and a cousin on my mother's side, I think that they do show true results and connections, at least this one from Ancestry.com.

5. January Reading

I finished my first book of the year last week - Heartland by Sarah Smarsh. It was very good. I enjoy a good memoir, and this one was interesting and had some important things to say about our society. You can read my Goodreads review here. I started reading Dear American Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. This is the book that the women's book club in our new church congregation is reading so I decided to get it and read along, although I may not be finished by the time the book club meets. So far, the book is interesting and very timely with all of the controversy about immigration, wall-building, etc.

Thought for the week...