Friday Fave's

Okay, here we go, quickly as I have a lot on my to-do list today.  Five things that make me happy today...

1. My iPhone.  Yes, completely indulgent, but SO MUCH FUN!  I love having my grocery list on it, pictures of my kids, songs I enjoy... This week Jacob was home for a couple of days, he had a ball listening to music, whatever he wanted, literally with the click of a button.  I'm sure eventually the novelty will wear off, but it hasn't yet!
2. Rat-a-Tat-Cat.  Yes, we finally got around to playing card games.  Jacob, Julianna and I enjoyed many rousing games of Rat-a-Tat-Cat last night.  It was wonderful.  We played for about an hour, the lead changed constantly, and we had a lot of fun together.  I'm hoping we'll be playing more often, and I'm going to do my best to make that happen.
3. Fall.  I love fall.  Honestly, I can take or leave the whole Halloween thing, but I love the color of fall leaves, the crunch of the leaves on the ground, Thanksgiving, the nip in the air...I love fall.
4. Rainy Days.  We've had a bunch this week and, don't hate me, I love a good rainy day.  I know it's because I'm home all day, rarely needing to leave, but a good rainy day feels so cozy to me.  It makes me want to get in the kitchen and make a pot of soup, or a pot-pie, or some other form of comfort food and snuggle up with a good book.
5. New recipes that exceed expectations. This week I made what was supposed to be a riff on Olive Garden Breadsticks.  Honestly, even though I decided to go ahead and make them, my expectations were pretty low.  Bread in an hour and a half?  Good bread?  Hmm, maybe not.  Plus, I'm always dubious about recipes that are supposed to be restaurant clones, in my experience, they rarely are.  This one, was delicious!  We all loved them.  I'll definitely be making them again...and again.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of mine, but they did look remarkable like these.)

Here's a bonus fave.  Last Saturday Mark and I were killing some time in a new, local toystore, waiting until we could drop Julianna off at Jason's and go on our much-anticipated date, when I got a text from Rebekah.  It was obvious immediately that she was homesick, and really wanted to come home.  Even though Mark and I were both really looking forward to our date, Mark asked right away if she wanted to come home.  There was no hesitation on either of our parts.  We knew she needed a dose of family love and we dropped everything and went and got her.  I'm so glad we did.  I'm so glad that's what kind of family we have.  We had a fabulous time having her here with us during her quick trip home and hopefully we gave her just the booster shot of home she needed.  I'm very thankful she's only an hour and a half away.  She's never needed that before, but it's always been a comfort to me to know that we're really not that far if there's anything she needs.  I'm also thankful that so many times when it comes to parenting, especially biggie parenting, Mark and I are on the same page.  We both knew that we wanted to get her, to be there for her, and that the time for our date would come again.

Well, that's it.  A quick snapshot of some of my favorite things I'm thinking about this week.  Hope you're having a week full of blessings too.