Happy Homemaker Monday - Wrapping Up June

Can it be the end of June already?  So much has happened in our family in the past couple of months that it seems like life is galloping along at even a faster-than-usual pace. I am joining once again this Monday afternoon with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, to look back at the last month, to plan ahead to the first week of a July, and capture just a bit of life at my home today.

As I look out my window...
I see a hot, hot summer afternoon in Arizona.  The sun is shining bright, the sky is blue and cloudless, our pool water is clear and shimmering and the thermometer on our back patio shows a temperature of over 110.

Right now I am...
taking a few minutes to work on this post before going to pick up my son from work.

Thinking and pondering...
about everything that has happened during the past month a half.  Josh graduated from high school; we went on two trips - one to Utah and one to Hawaii; Josh got his first job - working as a construction assistant to a home remodeling contractor; Josh went on a five-day mini-mission; Charly got a new teaching position; and, we are trying our hand with a new business/investment plan to generate income not related to our jobs.  So much has happened, I feel at times like my head is spinning.  There are a lot of important things coming up in July as well.

My weekend was...

busy and productive, but not very relaxing.  Charly continued with his painting project.  He is finishing up the hallway and moving into the laundry room.  Saturday, there were errands and shopping and a visit to Goodwill for half-price day.   Josh and I joined our town's fitness center for the coming month.  (My hope is that Josh can use the fitness center to help him get in shape for the physical rigors of his upcoming mission. This morning we went and walked the indoor track at the fitness center before Josh went to work.  I am hoping this will become a daily event for Josh and I, but I also plan to continue my evening walks with Charly.)

On my reading stack...

my scriptures and daily devotional/inspiration books from Joyce Meyer and Stephen R. Covey as well as another Og Mandino classic -The Greatest Salesman in the World, which I will be finishing later today. I'm not sure what I will read next, but I have an entire "to read" bookshelf with lots of interesting titles so I will choose something from that.  I'm thinking that a good fiction page-turner would fit the bill.

On TV at our house...

nothing at all for me this weekend.  Charly watched some shows on the Sci-Fi channel that I wasn't interested in.  During the day, he listens to CNBC for business news throughout the day.  

On the menu this week...

Monday - Chicken sandwiches with homemade potato chips (pictured above - these are so good. They were requested by Josh tonight).

Tuesday - Slow cooker sesame honey chicken (Recipe from Danielle's delightful blog Blissful and Domestic).

Wednesday - slow cooker beef stew

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Brats or burgers

Plans for the week...

Monday - blog post, finish book, take health insurance paperwork to employee benefits office, put in for summer project hours at school all complete!

Tuesday - set up new checking and savings accounts for Joshua, haircut for Charly

Wednesday - take Josh for his road test so he can turn his learner's permit into a real driver's license

Thursday - general house cleaning

Friday - church July 4th breakfast and fireworks (hopefully) in the evening

I am creating...

still working on that granny square crochet afghan.  I need one more skein of yarn to finish it off. I thought I purchased two, but can't find the second one so I am search all the usual places (Walmart, Michael's) for another skein, so far without luck.  

Simple pleasure...

a short nap right after lunch - a strictly summertime pleasure

Looking around the house...

Our painting project is causing some disarray, but it will look great when it is finished. Hubby is an excellent painter, but he isn't fast.  He is painting the door frames and baseboard a different color than the wall, and he is a perfectionist.  I also need to tidy up the kitchen counters and island.  The island tends to be our family "landing spot" for all kinds of "stuff."

From the camera...

 Getting reading for a new granddaughter - so much fun to shop for pink things!

Our swimming pool this evening.

Prayer list...

my husband, children and grandchildren, missionaries and believers in Christ everywhere. We all need to take a stand for what is right and hold true to our faith!

Scriptures for this week...

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

I John 1:5

"And hereby we do know that we know him, is we keep his commandments."

I John 2:3

Thankful Thursday - Mini-Missions are Marvelous!

I wanted to take some time this Thursday morning to give thanks for the blessing of this past week.

Josh completed his five day "mini-mission" last night.  He and several other young men and women from our area - six young men and six young women, spent five days living and working with the full-time Mormon missionaries in our area. Josh was actually assigned to work in the San Tan Valley with these two missionaries (we call them elders - although they are probably anywhere from 18 to 25 years old) Elder Christensen and Elder Hancock (both from Utah).  He had a marvelous time, something I am really thankful for. During a special meeting last night, each young mini-missionary was given the opportunity to speak to the assembled congregation (mostly parents and other missionaries) about their experiences serving with the full-time missionaries.  Josh doesn't like to speak in front of crowds (he says he has a bit of stage fright) but he spoke extemporaneously for over five minutes and did fine.  I am surely thankful, this Thursday (and every day) that Josh is making so many good choices in his life.

This mini- mission experience was a great one for Josh.  It helped him to see what serving as a full-time missionary will be like and to prepare to be successful on his own full-time mission, which is coming up soon!

I found this cute picture in my in-box the other day.  I don't get to see these grandchildren in person often, since the live on the other side of the country, so I am very grateful when my daughter sends pictures.

Other blessing I am grateful for this week:

• A hard-working husband who has been spending early mornings (before the heat hits) trimming and tidying our yard.  After a couple of hours working in the yard, he has been coming inside to spend several hours painting.  I am so thankful for this man.  He is my greatest blessing in life.

• The hiring process for Charly's new teaching job is going forward. He has an appointment with the school district HR office this afternoon to complete required paperwork.  I am thankful that Charly has this new opportunity and am praying that the job turns out to be a good one that will bless Charly, his students and our family.

• I spent a good chunk of yesterday morning working with some other teachers from my school on a summer project that will bring in enough extra money to pay for the trip Josh and I will be making to see my birth family.  Since we strive to live debt-free,  it is always a blessing the opportunity to make extra money comes in about the time we need to pay for an extra expense.

I hope you are also finding much to be thankful for this Thursday!

"A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."

      -- Thomas S. Monson

Happy Homemaker Monday and the Best of Last Week

Joining again today with Sandra of Dairy of a Stay at Home Mom for...

As I look outside my window...
I see a bright, sunny and hot Arizona summer day.  The thermometer on my back patio reads about 110.  The water in our backyard pool is clear and blue and looks oh so inviting just now.

Right now I am...
writing this post, reading my book while the pictures load.

Thinking and Pondering...
about a new side-business Charly and I are exploring and hoping that it works out the way we think it will.  I am also thinking about taking a quick afternoon nap when I am finished with this post.

On my reading stack...

• The scriptures - The Book of Mormon and The Old Testament
• A Better Way to Live by Og Mandino - an old "positive mental attitude" book published in 1990
• Power Thoughts by Joyce Meyer - a daily devotional book
• Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - a book of daily thoughts and reflections based on Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

On our TV...
"Halt and Catch Fire" (AMC's new series about the early days of the computer technology reveloution circa 1980s).  We got about two thirds of the way through when a friend called and needed help with something so we turned it off and went to the friend's house.  We saw the first episode, then missed two episodes while on vacation which we haven't caught up on.  I don't know for sure that we will continue watching, but the show probably is interesting enough to get us to tune in next Sunday night.  Other than that, hubby has the business news on CNBC almost all day as he monitors business trends and investments.

Listening to...
the hum of the air conditioner and the business news that Charly is watching in another room.

This weeks menu...
chicken salad sandwiches tonight and possibly an Amish casserole tomorrow.  Josh is gone until Wednesday evening so I will be fixing dinners that Charly and I like.

On my to-do list...

the usual laundry, cleaning and organizing, yard work.  Continue with Josh's travel immunizations.  Get Josh's bank account/finances set up and ready for two-years in a foreign country.  Spend a morning at the temple, index some historical records at familysearch.org and finish another book.

Happening this week...

Monday - nothing scheduled

Tuesday - temple time

Wednesday - summer teacher meeting, visiting teaching, evening missionary meeting. 

Thursday - weekly household cleaning

Friday - grocery shopping

What I am creating...

still working on my crocheted afghan.  I am moving toward completion, slowing but surely.

Looking around the house...

most everything is clean and in order.  I do have some laundry hanging up to dry and will need to put that away in just bit.

My simple pleasures...

sleeping in (this morning I didn't get up until 5:30 a.m.)

reading

indexing records at familysearch.org

afternoon naps 

evening walks

Recap from last week...

• Josh's 18th birthday.  To celebrate he wanted only to collect on all the "free birthday meals" that some restaurants around here offer.  Here he is enjoying a burger from Joe's Farm Grill, a great burger and fry place with an organic/healthy twist that was recently featured on the Food Network.  Josh also got birthday cards, phone calls and money.  He's a low key guy and didn't want a party, but he had a pretty good day.

• Josh's new job.  In addition to turning 18 last week, Josh also started his first job.  He is working as an assistant to a local remodeling contractor.  He was quite pleased to get his first paycheck on Friday and announced that he is going to save it all, after paying tithing of course.

• Immunizations.  Josh needed some booster shots to keep his immunizations current and we were able to get those taken care of last week.  Because he will be leaving the country for his mission, he also needs some additional immunizations - some of which will be given orally instead of injecting. Also, some immunizations come in several doses with a waiting time between each does so this is a process that will be going on for a while. 

• Dinner with friends.  We had a couple of  friends over to eat with us Saturday night.  Good food and good conversation with good people always makes for a good week.

• A new business opportunity.   Teaching has become a very uncertain and unstable career field here in Arizona (especially since the recession), so for a while, we have been thinking of doing something entrepreneurial as a side-business/back-up plan.  We have explored several things and found an opportunity we think may work for us.  Last week we spent Friday afternoon at a training session for the business and this morning we listened to some on-line webinars. We are hoping this works out the way we think it will and bring in some additional income, but don't worry, our investment is minimal and we haven't quit our day jobs.  

• Mini-mission.  Josh (and several other young men his age from our area) are spending five days living and working with some full-time missionaries in our area in preparation for his own full-time missionary service. We got an email from him this morning and he said he is really having a great time. 

• Travel plans.  After dragging my feet and changing my mind several times about taking Josh to meet my birth mom and sister, I decided (after some thought and prayer) to make the plans and go. Finding air fare and a rental car for an affordable price, at a time that won't require Josh to miss much work, confirmed that this is probably a trip we need to make.  It will be a short visit, but often when it comes to visiting family, less is more.  ;-)

From the camera... 

a few shots of working in the yard early this morning with Charly.

Charly cut some of the huge fronds from these date palm trees growing by the pool.  He also trimmed other bushes and trees in the yard.

We filled the garbage bin with green waste.  I have no idea why Arizona doesn't do green waste recycling.   All of the green waste just goes into the land fill with everything else. When we lived in California, our city (and many others) recycled green waste into fertilizer.

Our city does pick up waste too large for our dumpster so here is our pile of palm fronds, in front of the house, waiting for pick-up which won't come until next week at the earliest.

Desert plants can be dangerous and painful to work with!  I cut both legs and one of my arms carrying palm fronds from the backyard to the front.

Prayer list...

• all of my children and grandchildren.
• a friend who was recently in a terrible dune-buggy accident and severely injured her right arm and hand.
• teenagers - that they can live true to their faith and principles in a society that increasingly teaches that there is no right and wrong and "anything goes."

Scripture for the week...

"...Be not afraid, only believe."

--Mark 5:36

The Best of Paradise

I have been on Blog Break the past week and a half or so because I have been in Hawaii with my husband and son, celebrating Josh's high school graduation and 18th birthday (which was yesterday), as well as Charly and my 35th wedding anniversary (June 8th).  It was a lovely trip.  Here are a few pictures of the best memories of our week in paradise.

This is the condo where we stayed for our week in paradise -- The Wyndham Royal Garden in Waikiki - about two blocks from the beach.

 We got two rooms, so Josh enjoyed having his own space (and so did Charly and I).

 Of course, we enjoyed some quality beach time, at Waikiki...

...and Kahana Bay.

Hawaii has so many beautiful beaches.

Charly and I spent our honeymoon in Hawaii but had never been back since then, so it was fun and nostalgic to return to the place that we spent our first days as a married couple.  Waikiki is much different now, than it was all those years ago, but then, I guess Charly and I have changed a bit too.

We spent a fun day at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, on the North Shore of Oahu.

 We enjoyed the native Polynesian music and dance...

 ... as well as all of the demonstrations of Polynesian crafts and culture.  

 We saw a man from Fiji demonstrate how he climbs a tree to get Coconuts.

 There was also a reenactment of a native Tahitian wedding ceremony.

One of my favorites was the Tongan village which was filled with native music, dance and humor.  It was a lot of fun.

 

After an enjoyable day of learning about Polynesian culture and customs, we attended a delicious, all-you-can eat Luau.

There was entertainment and audience participation.  In this picture, everyone with a June birthday was invited on stage to learn a dance.  That's Josh at the left end, slightly out of sync with the rest of the June babies.

He eventually got the hang of it.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is right next door to the Brigham Young University Hawaii Campus.  In fact, most of the performers and other who work at the Polynesian Cultural Center are students at BYU. Their employment at the Polynesian Cultural Center allows them to earn money to go to college.  We arranged for Josh to go on a tour of the campus because he is trying to decide where he will eventually go to college after his mission.

We also went to see the beautiful Hawaii Temple.

One of the missionaries at the visitor's center there, took our family picture. 

The gardens and ground were so peaceful - beautifully landscaped with lush island flowers and plants.

We actually came to the temple grounds twice while on Oahu.  Here we are standing by the Christus staute in the visitors center on  the second day we visited.

At the top of my "must do" list for Hawaii was hiking Diamond Head - so we did just that. Diamond Head is not only a famous landmark of Waikiki, it is a volcano crater and it was a pre-WWII and WWII era U.S. defensive position for the island of Oahu.  

 It was an interesting hike - about a mile and half to the top - not too strenuous.

The hike included not only trail but this incredibly long flight of stairs that was built when Diamond Head was a military defensive position for Oahu.

 There was also this very dark tunnel.

At the top of Diamond Head is this "pill box" where soldiers and guns stood look out during the years before World War II until after the Korean War.

Here's another shot of one of the old gunnery positions.

We made it to the end of the trail, where the views were spectacular, literally from every single angle.

I have absolutely no sense of direction in Hawaii, but I believe this is looking east down into Diamond Head Beach Park.  That is the Diamond Head light house in the lower left.

Looking back (west?) at Waikiki.

Looking at the coast east of Waikiki.

Looking down into the Diamond Head crater and the eastern shore beyond. 

 We all learned a lot about the history and geography of the island and had a very enjoyable family hike.

We also went to Pearl Harbor.  Charly and I visited Pearl Harbor when we were on our honeymoon, but there was more to see there now, like the submarine Bowfin, shown over Charly's left shoulder...

and the battleship Missouri where Japan signed the surrender for World War II, (shown here at the left of the white Pearl Harbor Memorial and orange and white striped Ford Island air control tower).

We went on board the Missouri, and toured this important historic sight. Here are Charly and Josh just before we went on board, next to a statue of the iconic 1945 V-Day picture that was in Life Magazine. 

Interestingly, the actual soldier in that famous picture, a man named Glenn McDuffie, passed away just this last March at the age of 86.  

Here are the guns of the Missouri.  After the Korean War, the Missouri was moth-balled for a time, then was reactivated in the late 1980s.  During Desert Storm, the brief war with Iraq during the early 1990s, the Missouri was sent to the Middle East and these guns pummeled Iraq into a quick with drawl of Kuwait.  

Here is the plaque commemorating the U.S.S. Missouri as a historic sight because the Japanese surrender was signed on its deck.  This plaque denotes the actual place on the deck where the surrender was signed.

Here is another view of the Pearl Harbor Memorial from the upper deck just outside the bridge of the Missouri.  You might be wondering why we don't have any pictures taken while one the actual memorial. The answer was because we never got to actually go out to the memorial.   Tickets to go aboard the memorial are free and are given out early each morning beginning at 7 a.m..  Tourists begin lining up for the tickets at about 5:30 a.m.. Since we road the Honolulu city bus to Pearl Harbor, we didn't arrive until about 8:30 a.m. and our tickets time slots were for mid-afternoon.  About noon, a brisk ocean breeze kicked in and the Navy decided that running the small boat full of tourists over to the memorial was not safe in the wind and so cancelled it for the remainder of the day.  We actually went to Pearl Harbor two different days while we there, got tickets and then had the tours cancelled due to windy conditions.  It was somewhat disappointing, but we will certainly try again next time we are there.

Even with the small glitch at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, we had a lovely, memorable week in paradise and certainly don't plan to wait another 35 years to go back again.