The last favorites of October

Checking in on a rainy Thursday evening to say hello to my blogging friends, and recall some of my favorite things of the last half of October.

I love beautiful autumn skies.  I took this sunrise picture a couple of days ago about 6:30 a.m. in the parking lot of my school.  The autumn clouds means gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.

I was able to enjoy a few days of autumn in Colorado.  I made a quick three day trip to the Denver area to see my birth mother and sister.  I grew up in Denver but had forgotten about the lovely cool fall days filled with the color of changing leaves.  I enjoyed just walking around the neighborhood where I was staying and looking at the leaves. This is a big old Ash tree that is in my birth mother's backyard.

This little bunny lives in my mother's front yard.  It was fun to watch the bunnies and squirrels. Not a lot of these little  critters in our Arizona backyard. 

Here is a picture of me, my birth mother and sister, enjoying some time time visiting.

Birth mom and sister had a little belated birthday dinner and celebration for me, and bought me some new walking shoes - always appreciated.

When I got back to Arizona, I found out that one of my favorite "blog friends," who lives on the east coast, was coming to Arizona for a visit.  A few messages on Face Book later, we had set up a time to get together.  Maria and I have been reading each other's blogs for several years, and it was great to finally meet her in person.  She is the second blog friend I have met in person.  About a year ago, I met another blogger friend, Roe, who lives not far from me here in Arizona.  I hope to continue making and meeting many more blogging friends!

We had a "Super Saturday" for the women in our ward (church congregation) last week. Super Saturday is a day when the women get together and spend morning making crafts and enjoying each other's company.  I made these "temple bracelets" for me and my daughters and had a good time visiting with other ladies from church.

I am reading a very interesting book right now - Forgiven by Terri Roberts. Mrs. Roberts is the mother of the man who killed five Amish girls in a school house in 2006.  She tells the story of how she and her family were totally embraced by the Amish community in wake of the terrible tragedy.  It is a riveting read, and I'm almost finished so will be reviewing it soon.  The other books are on my "to read" stack and I am excited to start them.  

The scriptures I am memorizing and pondering ("ponderizing") this week are found in The New Testament, Colossians 3:15,17.

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

"And whatsoever ye do in the word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

I love these verses because they remind me that the best way to be happy is to be thankful!  My thought for the week goes right along with the scriptures I am memorizing...

Joining again this week with Susanne at  Living to Tell the Story for 

Book Review - The Photograph by Beverly Lewis

Beverly Lewis was the first "Amish" author that I read years ago. It is because of her that books about the Amish "plain" way of life have become my go to "comfort reads" when life gets crazy and busy and stressful.  I love how Ms. Lewis can weave an interesting story that includes the authenticity of Amish life and teaches an important moral lesson while never sounding "preachy."  The Photograph, one of Ms. Lewis' more recent books, is an example of this style that keeps readers coming back to her books again and again.

The Photograph is the story of three "plain" sisters - Frona, Eva and Lily - orphans in wake of the untimely deaths of both parents.  Now, their older brother plans to move the sisters out of the family home and move his family in. While this is going on, youngest sister, Lily, undergoes a trial of her faith and decides to leave her family and Amish ways to pursue the ways of the modern world and an "Englisher" boyfriend.   

As the story progresses and Frona and Eva patiently wait and pray for divine intervention to help them find Lily, a young man from another Amish community finds a picture of a striking young Amish girl in a book left behind on a train.  The author takes what some might consider a coincidence and shows that to the praying believer of God's grace, there are no coincidences.

As a reader, I enjoyed the pacing of this book. I have read Amish books by less skillful authors that became a chore to read as the story drug along in the middle of the book.  This book was interesting and highly readable from beginning to end.  I looked forward to taking time to read it each day. The characters were likable, and although they seemed imperfect and human, I felt like many of their actions were worthy of emulation.  Also, as is always the case with Beverly Lewis books, there were no "objectionable surprises" in this book.  It was a good, uplifting book with a plot and characters based on Christian values.  

I give this book four stars out of five.  ****

I am reviewing this book for Bethany House, the publisher.  They provided me with a copy of the book, but my opinion is purely my own.

Days of my life - Monday catch-up

I always like Monday because it is the beginning of a new week, full of possibilities.  This Monday is also the beginning of Fall Break which means that the first nine weeks of school is over, and we get a week off to rest up before beginning anew with the next nine weeks, which will take up all the way up to Christmas break.  Time is passing quickly.

Here are some things that have been going on around here this past week:

Charly's birthday was last week.  Here he is with his favorite gift - that economics textbook I gave him.

My birthday was three days later.  It was fun to be remembered with gifts, cards, phone calls and posts on Face Book.  I even got some of my favorite kind of candy from some students in one of my classes!

School was released early on my birthday so I had the afternoon free to visit the Mesa Temple to spend time in worship, prayer and contemplation.

On the way home, I stopped and got a free birthday meal at a local restaurant.

Another restaurant offers free desert on for Birthday Boys and Girls and I got this really delicious ice cream sandwich which was two giant chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in the middle, rolled in pecans - probably the best desert I have ever eaten!

The next day, Saturday, I was able to spend a little of my birthday money, on some "smokin' deals." I got these two pair of comfy shoes, both for only $21 with a 30% off coupon.

I found a couple of ties for Elder Jones' Christmas package and a new blouse at Ross.

I didn't just shop on Saturday though.  An elderly woman in our church congregation (ward) passed last week and I made these cupcakes for the family dinner after the funeral.

Later, Charly and I went out on a date. We went to dinner and did a little shopping together.  While we were in a store, one of the clerks said how beautiful the sky outside was, so I grabbed my camera (which I usually have handy in my purse) and went outside to take some pictures. This isn't a great shot due to telephone poles, wires and a billboard, but you can get some idea of just how amazingly vivid this sunset was.

Today, I had a belated birthday celebration - lunch with two good friends - Lynn and Karen.  These ladies are the best and we all enjoy getting together to celebrate each other's birthdays.  They bought my lunch and gave me some sweet and thoughtful gifts as well. 

As you can see from this text, the last package I mailed to Joshua has arrived in Mexico and cleared Customs.  Hurray!  Now the real delay is waiting for the package to be delivered to its final destination.  This can take several weeks, but at least the box is in Mexico, and hopefully on its way to him. 

I am "ponderizing' this scripture this week - Romans 15:13.  Good stuff.

This week marks a big anniversary in our family as we celebrate Josh having been out on his mission a year.  We sent him this picture in today's email.

I will close with this quote in honor of all of the young missionaries, like Josh, who go forth with faith to do their best to help and serve others:

 God is good and will help us do the very things we thought we could never do!

Days of my life - favorites of the last week

It's been another week of trying to get well, so I am doing my Friday Fave Five update on Monday night.  

I went back to the doctor last Friday morning and got a stronger antibiotic to kill the sinus infection that seems to linger on and on...the good news is that my lungs are now clear and the pneumonia is gone.  I've now been on the stronger meds since Friday and am finally starting to feel like they are working.

Since I had to go out to the doctor anyway, I decided to get the latest box for Josh in Mexico all packaged up and mailed.  Mailing anything to Mexico is quite an undertaking.  A detailed customs form has to be filled out listing all of the contents and the cost and weight of each item.  It is also quite expensive to mail anything to Mexico. This box, weighing just over 8 lbs. cost over $60 to mail, but I happy to be able to afford the cost of postage and I was grateful the extra time to stand in line at the post office to get the box mailed. 

Some of the other things I have enjoyed this week include fresh berries for breakfast...

...and a new Amish "comfort read" book, which I will be reviewing before too long.

I have continued my daily walks, even though I have been sick, and was very grateful for cloudy and cooler walking weather, especially over the weekend and tonight.

A few minutes after this picture was taken, the clouds opened up and I got quite wet before I got home.

I have been able to walk at least two miles once or twice a day. I am so grateful to be able to walk outside and enjoy the fresh air and lovely surroundings of my neighborhood.

I am grate for a wonderful General Conference of our church this past weekend.  You can read more about Mormon General Conference here.   Suffice it to say that the talks and sermons presented both Saturday and Sunday were a veritable spiritual feast and I loved it!

While I listened to Conference on Saturday, I worked on this blanket which I plan to send Josh in his Christmas box.  It will need to be mailed to Mexico next month!

Here is the completed blanket.  It will help keep Josh warm on cold Mexican nights.

I also made this poster for Josh.  I'll be emailing him a picture of it next week as he celebrates his "Hump Day" or one year anniversary on his mission.  My how time flies! We are so proud of him for serving God for a year.  One more year to go to complete his two-year mission!

One of my favorite talks from General Conference was this one about "Ponderizing" the scriptures. "Ponderizing," as the graphic above explains, is 80% pondering the scriptures and 20% memorization. The challenge was given to "ponderize" a new verse of scripture each week.

I am taking the challenge, and here is my scripture to "ponderize" this week:

My scripture for this week is Romans 8:37-39.  To me this scripture says that we can overcome all things with the love of God and nothing can keep us from that love, which is Christ Jesus. I have been reading, memorizing and thinking about this scripture all day today and plan to do so all week.

Still feeling under the weather last night, I decided to take another sick day today, and spent most of today grading essays at my computer and kitchen table, I also took a little time out to write to a missionary and "ponderize" my scripture for the week.  Another day at home and a short nap this afternoon has made feel much better and ready to go back to school tomorrow.

Since I was home today, I took a few minutes to get Charly's birthday gifts all ready for him because his birthday is tomorrow!

All he wanted for his birthday were books and DVDs.  The book Capital, is an economics textbook that he asked for.  Go figure, my man likes to read economics textbooks.  I've got myself a pretty smart husband, I think. 

Finally, in my last post, I wrote about this lovely collage blanket that I ordered for my mother-in-law for Christmas.  here is a picture of the real thing.  I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. Several people asked for the link to the company that made it so here it is - collage.com.   They actually have a pretty good deal this week, and a blanket this size is less expensive than I got mine for, so check it out.

At last, I will close with a thought from a very touching General Conference talk about Mothers. If you are a mother, you will want to listen to this one. Warning - have some tissue handy.

Joining very late (but hey, better late than never) with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for...