End of May Friday Favorites

Welcome to my Friday Faves for the end of May.  Wow, another month in the books.  Time seems to be going so quickly.  It is good to take some time out to think about the good things that happened during the last week.  I am joining, again today with Susanne and other grateful bloggers over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave 5. 

Official end of the school year -  The official final day of the school year for teachers was Tuesday. We ended the year with a virtual staff meeting. This has been a crazy school year, but I have sure learned a lot about technology and other things.  I am grateful the school year is over.  I am looking forward to a summer when we will do, well, pretty much what we have been doing since mid-March - staying home or in the local area and trying to stay safe and well. 

Gift from a friend - I sent some of the masks I have been making to my good friend, Karen, over at Life is Good, and she sent me the nicest thank you note, and these beautiful knitted slippers, which I can hardly wait to wear when the weather gets a little cooler.  Thank you so much, Karen!  I really appreciate and treasure these colorful slippers!

Mask batch completed - I complete 50 masks for the Navajo Nation this week.  I am now making masks for a free clinic for the homeless in our city.  My friend is taking these masks to a drop off point where they will be shipped to whatever part of the Navajo Nation is most in need.  I have loved making masks and will continue as long as there is a need. 

An encouraging friend - This is my friend who is also sewing masks.  We met each other when I moved up here from Arizona and were in the same church congregation (ward). We were assigned to make home ministering visits together (it was called visiting teaching back then) and we got to know each other.  We were both active in the same breakfast club and book club. Charly and I now attend another church congregation, but this sweet lady and I have stayed friends.  She is so sweet, kind and encouraging.  She is about the only friend I have talked to much during this time of lockdown.  We text each other almost daily, and have socially distanced front-porch visits when we share mask making supplies with each other.  She is a blessing in my life.

A helpful husband - Charly has always helped me with house work.  We normally do our weekly deep cleaning on Thursday and Friday. This is my sweetheart yesterday morning vacuuming our back patio, after he had vacuumed and mopped the upstairs portion of our home.  This is just one of many ways I am truly blessed in the husband department.  

Patio garden - I am a flower and plant person, and these flowers and plants in my back patio container garden bring me a lot of happiness.  Looking out at them from my dining room, lowers my stress level and helps me feel peaceful.  I am grateful for this little piece of paradise right outside my home. 

Walk at the Cemetery - Last night after dinner we decided to go pick up the flower planter I had left at my grandmother's grave. If the plants are not removed from the graves after a few days they are thrown away by the cemetery, so we decided to go pick up the Memorial Day planter.  Charly suggested that we do our evening walk at the cemetery, and when Josh heard that, he decided to come along. We all find cemeteries fascinating places, just from a historical point of view. I knew that I had a lot of family members and ancestors buried at the pioneer-era cemetery, and I did find the graves of my great grandparents, Stephen J. and Sarah O. Hart and many of their children.  I also found the grave from my very sweet and kind Primary (Bible School) teacher from when I was about 10 years old. She was an English lady, whose husband was in our bishopric (clergy).  They were such nice people.  She taught me to knit, but unfortunately, it didn't stick. Still, she was very kind and patient with me when I was a kid.  It was nice to see her grave and it brought back good memories.

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a nice, socially distanced  Memorial Day weekend!  Ours was good.  We had some clouds, wind, rain, a bit of snow in the mountains, and finally a return of the sun, but with cooler temperatures. Here's some of what the last four days looked like around here. 

Friday, we had day #2 of our "drive-through graduation," so I was at the school a good part of the day, congratulating students (from six feet away).   The students seemed to be pleased with the drive-through"graduation.  I thought it was nice because it allowed for individual interaction with each student (social distance observed) as well as more participation from families.  Parents walked with most of the graduates along the path and right up to receive the  diploma. 

While I was at school, Charly went over to our rental property again to oversee day #3 of the yard clean-up. This time, the crew was able to finish the whole yard, weed the flower beds, finish trimming the bushes and haul away the rest of the garbage and debri left behind.   The place looks great.  I think the new tenants will take much better care of the house and yard than the last tenants, so that will be good.  

Saturday, we decided to deliver Memorial Day flowers to the cemeteries in the morning to avoid the crowds that flock to the cemeteries on Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend.  We look flowers and flags to my (adopted) parents' grave...

...Charly's dad's grave...

...my paternal grandmother's grave...

...my maternal grandparents...

...and Charly's uncle (his dad's brother).   

All but one of the graves we visited are in the same cemetery, which is only about ten minutes from our home.  Last summer, Charly and I bought grave sites for ourselves here in this same place.  

As cemeteries go, this is a very nice one with beautiful mountain views. 

Sunday, we had church at home again.  I think we will continue to do this for a while yet. Our congregation still hasn't started in-person services again, and even when they do, Charly and I may continue to meet at home a while longer.  I did my scripture reading and Come Follow Me study, then indexed some 1945 Oregon death records. 

After lunch, Josh asked me to take a drive with him to this place, called Thanksgiving Point. He is thinking of meeting up with a young lady here and he wanted to make sure he knew the way there.  This would be a good place for a meet-up because there are some outside areas and venues that would be perfect for a socially distanced date.  It was a pleasant drive - about an hour and a half round trip. Now, if the date actually takes place, Josh will know how to find it.  

Of course there was face mask sewing every day of the weekend.  

By tomorrow evening, I will have 50 all ready to go to the Navajo Nation. My friend, who is also making masks, is taking them to the drop-off point on Wednesday.  Besides the masks for the Navajo Nation, I continue to make masks for friends, family, work associates and members of our church congregation. If you need some, send me an email with your address. No charge. I have made almost 170 masks and will keep sewing as long as there is a need. 

There were also daily walks every day this weekend.  Today was on the cooler side for this time of year, but it was a sunny, beautiful day - just right for walking outside.  Charly and I have decided to increase our daily walks from two miles to 3-4 miles.  Today we walked two miles in the morning, then another mile in the evening. 

Meals this weekend included pizza takeout on Friday night.  This is a Taco Grande pizza from Papa Murphy's pizza, which is one of our new family favorites.  Papa Murphy's was having a "2-fer" special, so we got a pepperoni pizza as well and enjoyed that on Saturday evening. 

On Sunday, I made red beans and rice and cheese biscuits.    

This morning, I put a roast into the slow cooker for dinner.

Pot roast with potatoes and vegetables in one of my personal favorite meals.  There will be plenty of leftovers for tomorrow too. 

My goals for the coming week include:

• Finish the two books I am currently reading including Where the Crawdads Sing.
• Finish 50 masks for the Navajo Nation.
• Finish and mail masks to friends who have requested them.
• Index enough records to surpass 100. My normal goal for the month is 50, so I am trying to double that.

Favorites of the Week

Time once again to take time out during a busy week to think of the good things that happened over the last seven days.  I am joining, once again with Susanne and other grateful bloggers over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

Flowers - Charly bought me this flowers. They are bright and cheerful and I love having them in a vase on the dining room table. 

More flowers - I got these flowers which I used to make Memorial containers which will be delivered to the graves of family members who are buried in this area.  

These are the Memorial planters I made last night. We will visit the graves of our parents and grandparents this coming long weekend. 

Backyard patio -  I got some more plants for the backyard patio container garden. I now have flowers, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes and blackberries, in addition to my dwarf plum and fig trees growing back there.  After Memorial Day weekend, when we pick up the Memorial planters, they will also become a part of my patio garden.  

In-person Church - The decision has been made to resume in-person church services soon, with social distances and other precautions. That is good, but I will admit to having some anxiety to going back into a crowded situation, so we will play it by ear as this pandemic plays out.

While a return to in-person church is good, I have enjoyed peaceful Sunday mornings with church at home the past few weeks.  

Note from our son -  I need to preface this Fave by saying that I try not get political in my blog. Also, I may or may not agree with my oldest son's political leanings, but it was nice to get this little note in the mail from him last week, along with a sticker for his favorite presidential candidate.  I am very proud of my oldest son, and while we have had a bit of a rocky relationship at times, he is a good man. We are working on our relationship and I do love him and hearing from him.  

Charly immediately took the sticker, and put it on his car. ;-)

Walks with Charly - This has been my most recurring favorite thing I am sure, but these daily walks keep me going.  This week we had some cloudy, rainy and windy days...

...but no matter, we keep walking.  We plan to add at least 1-2 more miles to our daily walks this summer.  

The end of the school year - Today was the first day of our drive-through graduation.  Because of the pandemic, a traditional graduation was not possible, so each student could bring one vehicle and the student walked with parents around the school and the family drove along side in the car or whatever vehicle they wanted to bring.  You can see that one young man had a school bus filled with friends and family members.  We were all supposed to wear masks and socially distance, and you can see from my picture that I did, but others not so much.  The second day of drive-through graduation is Friday. We had too many graduates to do this kind of graduation all in one day.  

Today was also the final day of school for Charly and it was his final day of teaching.  He has decided to retire, so today he turned in his keys and badge and is going to take some serious time off - at least until this Coronavirus is completely under control.  I am just happy that this school year is over.  It has been exhausting and I am looking forward to a break for both Charly and I. 

Donated Fabrics - I continue to make face masks, for anyone who needs one, but mostly for the Navajo Nation that has been hit so hard by the Coronavirus.  A lady from our church congregation asked if she and her husband could have masks, which I made and took to her.  She asked if I could use some extra fabric and I said yes, of course, so she donated this lovely fabric for more masks for the Navajo Nation.

Here are the masks I made last week - 32 masks which is about 12 - 15 hours of work.  This week was extra busy due to the end of school, so I didn't get to sew as much as I wanted to, but my goal is to have 50 masks finished and ready to be donated to the Navajo Nation by next week.  I have a good friend, who is also sewing masks, and she is taking all the masks we have both made to a drop-off location.

Good Books -  Since I love to read, good books are always on my list of Faves.  This week, I started this book.

My very nice, long-time blog friend, Billie Jo over at Afternoon Coffee and Evening Tea, sent me this book after she finished reading it.  A few weeks ago, I noticed that she posted that she was reading another book by this author.  The name of that book was The Broken Girls.  I really enjoyed that book, and when Billie Jo posted that she was reading this new book by Simone St. James, I commented that I really wanted to read it as well, and sweet Billie Jo replied that she would send it to me when she was finished. The book came this week, and it is next on my "to read" stack.  Thank you so much, Billie Jo. Blog friends are just the best!!

Those are some of my favorite things about the past week.   Have a great Memorial Day weekend.  Take care of yourselves and those you love.  :-) 

Late Friday Favorites

This week has been a super busy and stressful one, but with all that, there is, especially this week, much to be grateful for.  I am joining once again (a little later than usual) with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave 5. Here are my favorite highlights of this week.

Vision - This week my favorite thing is my vision. It is something we usually take for granted until something goes wrong with it.  That is what happened to me this last week.  I have had some vision issues basically since I was born, but with glasses I have better than 20/20 vision, but last week, I had something happen to the sight in one of my eyes that seemed pretty ominous.  I called the eye doctor and he immediately worked me in.  After a thorough examination, he told me that my eye is fine. What happened is common and a normal part of aging and will actually improve over the next 3-6 months.  I feared that surgery would be necessary, but no it is not.  I am grateful for my sight and a good eye doctor who took my concerns seriously and saw me right away.  

Health - Until this morning, I didn't actually personally know anyone who had battled COVID-19.  I was messaging a woman I went to high school with.  We are friends on Facebook, but she doesn't post much, and I am not usually in contact with her, except that we started playing the online game "Words with Friends" with each other.  She messaged me and we chatted and then she asked me if I had had COVID-19.  I told her no, and she told me she had.  She said it was the sickest she had ever been in her life.  This woman who lives in a town about 20 miles north of me, had not been traveling and doesn't know where she caught the virus. She was hospitalized, and, while she did not have to go on a ventilator, she was on oxygen for over a month.  I know this virus has become quite political, which I don't understand because to me it is still a scary thing.  I am grateful that no one in my family has had to battle this virus (yet) and I pray we won't have to.  New cases here in Utah are up 2.4% over a week ago, so there are more cases and yes, more deaths every day.  Our state is opening up even more.  I hope and pray it is not too soon.  To me, this is not politics. This is science and medicine and should be taken seriously.

Hike - Josh and I went on another hike Monday evening.  It was such a nice evening, and it was a super nice hike that I had never been on.  On the way back from the trial, we passed the Fort Douglas military cemetery and Josh asked to stop and look at the graves and pay his respects to the soldiers and sailors buried there.  It was enjoyable evening with my son. 

School - The end of the school year is almost upon us, and was one reason that this week was so busy.  I have been getting final grades ready, and responding to lots of student emails.  Next week will will have drive-through graduation both Thursday and Friday, so my Friday Fave post may be late again.  I got the above email from a students this morning.  I appreciate the opportunity I have had to work with some really nice teenagers this year.  I also appreciate emails of appreciation like this one.  By the way, this student did get an A in the class.  He is a nice young man.

Donations - A friend told me about a Facebook group called "Sewing for the Navajo Nation."  The group is made up people who are sewing masks to donate to the Navajo Nation that has been hit so hard by COVID-19.  I was contacted by some other people in the group who offered donations of fabric and elastic for the masks I am making.  I got the fabric shown above...

...and this elastic, which I am using to make the masks which will be donated to the Navajo. 

Here are some of the masks I made this last week with some of the new fabric.  I am making masks not only for the Navajo Nation, but also members of my church congregation and others who need masks.  It has also been fun to text back and forth with another mask-making friend, about our progress and also to share fabric with her (via a socially distanced porch drop off).  

New Fabric Shears- I inherited my Mother's fabric shears, which were old when I was young (and I may or may not have ruined them by cutting things other than fabric when I was younger).  With all this mask-making, I decided it was time for some new, quality scissors to cut fabric with, so this morning, I donned my mask, went to a nearby fabric store and came home with these scissors which I am excited to use as soon as I finish this post!

Flowers - The iris are in bloom in my neighborhood.  I have loved these flowers since I was a child and I am glad there are so many out in bloom around here as spring turns into summer. 

Mother's Day Weekend

It was a good, productive weekend.  We spent a lot of Friday going back and forth between our current home and our rental house, making sure the yard clean up was done correctly before new tenants move in.  This is the front yard after the yard crew we hired trimmed the bushes and weeded the flower gardens. Much improved.  Of course, if I still lived there, there would be flowers in the gardens, but now we will leave that up to our new tenants.

Friday night I finished reading this book...

...and Saturday I started this book.

Saturday was shopping day.  We went to Walmart this week.  Fewer people were wearing masks at the grocery store this week. yet in this state, our cases of COVID-19 continue to increase. Deaths from the disease are up as well, but people just seem to want to have the whole thing over.  Personally, I understand that, but I also want people to take this pandemic seriously and take precautions to stay healthy and keep others healthy.  

Saturday, I got a very nice surprise in the mail from my blogger friend, Faith over at Gold in the Clouds.  It was a sweet thank you note for some cloth face masks I made and sent to Faith's family.  Faith also enclosed a lovely picture she had colored and a very touching poem.  Thank you Faith. This was so nice of you! 

Charly gave this beautiful deep orange Dahlia plant as an early Mother's Day gift on Saturday.  This picture probably doesn't do it justice because the color is stunning.  It is a beautiful addition to my patio container garden. 

Mother's Day was very nice with cards, loving notes and text messages, gifts.  It is always nice to be remembered with love and kindness, and I truly appreciate everything.

Charly fixed dinner on Mother's Day - Jambalaya!

Jambalaya, corn on the cob, French bread and fruit salad rounded out the meal. Delicious.  

I made more masks over the weekend.  

I also gave/mailed more masks away to friends and colleagues. My current count is 109 masks made and 92 given away so far.  They will all be given away eventually, except for a few I will keep here for Charly, Josh and I.  I ran out of elastic the ear pieces, but have ordered more and hope it will come this week.  I will keep making these masks as long as there is a need and I have materials.