High Five for Friday

I've been pretty absent from the blog lately, so I'm trying out High Five for Fridays again.  It helps me to do something weekly so I remember the everyday stuff of life.

#1

A few weeks ago, Brent's parents gave us an incredible gift: their upright piano!  We knew after living with Brent's parents this winter that we wanted a piano for the new house, but we were waiting for the right thing to come along at the right price.  When I came into some money from a medical study I did with Mayo Clinic, I thought it would be a good time to start looking more seriously.  When Ruth saw our search getting serious, she offered her upright piano to our family.  She said she wanted to give it to us now while the kids were young and were learning to play.  I am incredibly humbled by the gift and hope to learn to play someday too.  I love the draw of the piano especially for Brent and Luke.  Brent has played since he was a kid and Luke is currently learning from Gma Ruth.  They regularly sit down to play or practice and song or two and I love the music filling the house.

A naturally lit corner for the piano.  Love!
(Don't mind the frames all over the floor, trying to decide on a gallery wall:))

#2

Fridays are my day off each week, which is such a blessing to our family!  The past two Fridays, Brent has surprised us with extra time with him too.  Last Friday he called in the morning to see if we could meet him for lunch at Mr. Pizza North....umm, yes please!  Then, this Friday, he surprised us by coming home early.  It was a dreary, rainy afternoon with nothing on the calendar and it was extra nice to hang together, cook dinner, and watch the Olympics that evening:)  What do I love most about these Fridays?  That he thought of us and made time with us a priority.  Such a blessing!

#3

This past weekend, Luke attended church with me instead of going to Sunday School.  It was prefect timing.  Our pastor is going through a series on prayer this month and challenging us to make it a part of our daily routine.  Luke took the sermon to heart and we both picked up prayer journals before we left church.  Why is this perfect timing?  Luke is getting ready to head back to school, but this year it's a new school, new kids, new everything.  We recently talked about some of his apprehensions and I told him I've been praying for him and the transition ahead.  The sermon series on prayer is a wonderful challenge for both Luke and I and some special time we can spend together and individually growing.

#4

School is on the horizon and in recently we learned both Luke and Nora's teachers for fall.  Luke will have Mr. Jacobsen for fifth grade and Nora will have Mrs. Ellerbusch for her first year of preschool. Luke is very excited to have a male teacher for the first time, plus we've learned that two boys he's met in Stewartville will be familiar faces in his class.  Nora will be in class with our friend and neighbor, Emma, too:)
Back to school also means supply shopping.  Luke likes to get a jump start on this, so he's had a backpack full of supplies for a month already.  He says he likes to shop before everything is picked over:)  Nora doesn't have a list per se, but she does need a backpack to use each day.  We had a fun trip to Target together to pick it out this week:)

We had an Elsa bag in the cart, but then we found Minnie.
Minnie won:)

This big bag makes her look like a peanut!

 #5

The first half of our summer was busy.  All very good busy and lots of fun stuff, but the calendar was full.  The second half of the summer, after Nora's birthday mid-July, has been much more low key.  It's so nice to have the freedom of schedule to do as we please:)  What do we please?  Lots of time for walks and runs outside, picnics and trips to the park, time with friends and family, double dates, watching the Olympics, and anything else we come up with (like hanging pics around the house...my idea, but Brent gets to help;)).  In short, we're thoroughly enjoying the quieter half of summer!