July Reading

As July ends, I have finished 31 books so far this year.  This is a record for me, because I am not an especially fast reader. My husband and I also started listening to audiobooks while we walk or drive, after discovering the great audiobook app (Hoopla) that our local city library has.  With reading and listening, I am completing, on average, a book a week, and I am loving it.  Here is what I read this past month. 

For my Bible reading in July, I read more of the so-called "minor" prophets. I finished the book of Amos, and then read Haggai and Zechariah.  I have just started the book of Malachi. 

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore was a well researched and written book. The story is horrific, tragic, sad and anger producing - a little known part of U.S. history that everyone should know about it. We listened to the 15 hour and 54 minute audiobook which was well read by Angela Brazil.

This book, The Secrets We Keep,  is billed as a "gripping emotional page-turner," and it absolutely is.  The story of two mothers and their children who meet when they end up with summer rental houses that are next door to each other.  As the lives of the women and their children, total strangers at the beginning of the book, become intertwined, it becomes apparent that not all is as it appears and each family has deep secrets that will change all of their lives forever. This book  can best be summed up with this passage: "Mothering, marriage, life itself - none of it is easy or simple. It's hard, so hard and yet it's also so worth it; to keep struggling on, fighting against the brokenness. Letting ourselves be healed."

This book, Alienated America,  is well researched and has a lot of information from statistics and studies about why American Civil Society seems to be collapsing in some parts of our nations.  This collapse, according to the author, Timothy P. Carney, a Conservative writer and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, let to the rise of Donald Trump, who promised to "Make America Great Again."  Carney rightly points out that no politician can fix what truly ails our nation - the collapse of our institutions of community and civil society - beginning with our churches.  Carney cites study after study showing why our religious institutions - churches, mosques and synagogues - are vital to not only to thriving as individual human beings, but also thriving as communities, and as a society and nation. He also addresses the seeming collapse of the institution of the American family with low marriage and high divorce rates, as well as falling birth rate.  Carney shows that the collapse of the family and religion in America, along with so many other problems of our society, are all intertwined.  This book is quite fascinating, and the author makes his case.  The book is not a quick or easy read and it takes some time and effort to digest the information presented.  Overall, this is a book that anyone interested in why our country is so divided, why some places in our country seem to thrive while others have collapsed, and why some Americans are without hope and are putting so much trust in one political personality who promises he can "make America great again" when in reality, it is only we ourselves that can do that.

The main character of The Woman in the Window, Dr. Anna Fox was a well-respected NYC child psychologist. Now she lives alone in an expensive but unmaintained brownstone, which she rarely leaves.  She is severely depressed, and on multiple antipsychotic meds which doesn't take correctly.  She also drinks too much and spends her days and nights in a haze, watching old black and white thrillers, playing chess online, counseling others in a chat room for agoraphobics and watching her neighbors - especially the Russell family - a mother, father and teenage son who live across the park from her.  The plot of this psychological thrilled revolves around Anna Fox, witnessing the murder of a woman she believes to be her neighbor - but did she really witness a murder?  Who was the woman in the window?  Are the Russells really who she believes them to be and what happened to Dr. Fox's family - her husband and daughter?  Author A.J. Finn's first novel, The Woman in the Window, is an excellent psychological mystery/thriller with vivid descriptions, and well-developed characters.  The book may be a bit slow at the start, but the plot twists and turns carry it through to a terrifying climax.  For those who prefer not to read books with objectionable language and sex, be aware that this book has both, although the there is only one sex scene and it adds nothing to the plot, is over quickly and is not explicit. I listened to this book  in audiobook form.

Going into August, I am reading a nonfiction - Wildly Optimistic by Al Carraway.  It has a good Christian message, but isn't very well written. Still, I will persevere and finish it. I checked a brand new mystery/thriller fiction book out of the library to read yesterday, but I started it last night, and so far, I am pretty unimpressed.  I am not sure if I will continue with that one.  

That, in a nutshell, is what I've been reading during the month of July and plan to start August with. Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon. 

 

Friday Favorites - Best of the Past Two Weeks

I missed out on last Friday's Favorites due to the fact that we were out of town for the week on a little vacation.  We had a lovely time, but it's always good to be back home. Since I was gone last week, this week's favorites will be for the last two weeks. Here are just some of the things that were the best parts of the past two weeks.  Linking again with Susanne and other grateful bloggers over at Living to Tell the Story for Fridays Fave Five. 

A great vacation - We had a super good trip to Sedona. Charly enjoyed doing the things we love most, and of course the best part was just being with my best friend in a fun and beautiful place. 

Hiking - If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know how I love to hike.  Whether close to home of far away, getting out on a trail with my favorite hiking hat, shoes and backpack and exploring a "wild" place is one of my favorite forms of stress relief.  

When Josh and I encountered this TRAIL CLOSED sign as we went out to continue our hike along the Jordan River Trail this past Sunday evening, it was disappointing.  We looked at the diagram again and again, and then physically tried to follow what we thought was the detour trail, but we didn't have much luck.  The trail was completely blocked off, the map was very confusing and the construction won't be finished until next spring.  Frustrating, but you can bet that Josh and I will be back next spring to finish the 8-9 miles remaining to get to the southernmost post of this trail which is Utah Lake.  I am grateful Josh has been so excited to hike the Jordan River Trail with me this summer. We have got some good exercise and made some good memories.  We have hiked close to 18 miles along this trail (not counting the return trips to our starting point - which would total about 36 miles this summer).

Fun shops - Aside from hiking, Charly and I enjoy exploring thrift, consignment and antique stores and other interesting shops just about everywhere we go.  These are some of the places we checked out on our trip to Arizona.  We didn't find "treasures" in every store, but we did find fun things at some of them. 

Here are some of the things we found at these stores for our outdoor space- wind chimes (I love the sound of wind chimes in a soft breeze - so calming and comforting), a beautiful, glass butterfly sun catcher (now adorning my patio fence), and two metal plant stands (which Charly plants to paint  - they will be holding pots of flowers on our patio next spring, if not before).  

Rest stop - traveling distances in the American West can be great - miles and miles and miles of pretty much nothing.  That can be a big problem for people like me who need a bathroom stop every once in a while.  We had a 4+ hour drive from Flagstaff to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and my bladder can't make it that long, so I am always so grateful when this shabby little gas station, with a shabby (but clean) little restroom comes into view.  It is truly a life (and bladder) saver for me! We always buy a few very overpriced snacks here because we really want this place to stay in business.

Audiobooks - Charly and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook, The Woman in the Window, when we were traveling. We finished it up when we got home. We are now listening to another audiobook - Cadillac Desert - while we walk and are in the car.  I think that listening to audiobooks may become a new habit for us, and I am grateful that our local library has a good audiobook app and an excellent selection of books. 

Mystery books - I received these books in the mail last week - the prize for winning the book giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs, Buttercup Counts Her Blessings.  I am always looking for fun books to read and I am looking forward to diving into these throwback 1980s mystery books. 

Voting - This is privilege and responsibility I don't take lightly, so even though this "only" the mayor's race, I researched the candidates and am voting for the person I think would be best for the job.  My ballot was mailed off yesterday.  

Progress on another class - I am almost finished with another online class.  This one has been a class about the history of America and I have found it to be very interesting.  I do enjoy history. According to my calculations, after I finish and turn in the paper work for this current class and one more shorter one - I will have 6 of the 20 credit hours I need to increase my salary.  I still have a long way to go, but considering I only started working on this goal in May, I am doing pretty well.  :-) 

The garden - the garden is looking great.  I have an abundance of beautiful, delicious, ripe tomatoes. When we came back from Sedona, I had so many ripe tomatoes, that I was able to share some with an elderly woman in our church congregation who was very pleased with them.  The grapes are starting to turn purple as are the plums - so they will be ready soon!  Purple seems to be a popular color in my garden this week. The purple flower in the corner right picture made me very happy this week because it is a blossom on Clematis vine that I planted in the spring right before the weather got brutally hot.  The plant almost died, but now that the temps have cooled somewhat and we even got some rain last week, it is doing much better and has new growth and this beautiful flower.  

Lunch with a friend - I met up with a former teaching colleague and friend for lunch Thursday. We met up at Zupas - one of my personal favorite lunch spots.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch and engaged in a lot of teacher talk and catching up.  It was enjoyable. I am glad we have kept in touch.

Jeans hemmed - I spent part of one afternoon down in my sewing room hemming some jeans for both Charly and I.  I am not a seamstress, but I am always grateful for the sewing skills I have.  It means I can get name-brand jeans for $3 at a thrift store and make them fit - at least with regard to length. 

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend. 

😊Deb💖

"The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life."

 ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Summer Vacation in Sedona

Our family has had a long standing tradition of family vacations to fun places every summer.  Our family vacation this summer was supposed to a trip to Washington D.C. to see the historic sites, and museums.  When we were finalizing our plans, we found that many things in D.C. were/are still closed due to Covid. We could only get into three museums. Some of the things we really wanted to see were still closed or had restricted entrances.  Also, Josh was going to come with us, but couldn't get the entire week off work.  We decided to reschedule our trip to next spring (during my spring break from school) which will hopefully also coincide with Cherry Blossom Time in D.C. .  

For our summer vacation this year, we were able to schedule at week at our Wyndham timeshare in Sedona, Arizona.  Josh wasn't going to be able to come with us any way, so this was another getaway for just Charly and I. Charly and I bought the equivalent of two weeks in our timeshare about fifteen years ago.  I know that timeshares are controversial and many people think they are a waste of money, but it has worked well for us.   One reason it has worked for us, it that we bought our timeshare on the secondary market for a fraction of the price that the company sells vacation weeks for.  Our ownership is in Flagstaff, Arizona - but we have stayed many different places. This was only the second time, however, that we had stayed in Sedona. We like having a bigger place to stay rather than a small motel or hotel room.  We also like having a kitchen so we can fix our own meals and avoid the cost of eating in restaurants for every meal.  

We made the nine hour drive from Salt Lake City to Sedona on Monday, July 19.  The drive was long, but went well and we arrived in Sedona about dinner time.  We spent that evening eating and relaxing in the condo.  The next morning, we went for a hike.  Hiking is one of our favorite things to do on vacation.  We started with a trail called The Coffee Pot Trail.  The right hand side of the rock formation in the picture resembles an old school coffee pot.  

This was a fairly easy trail with awesome views.  

The desert can be hot and harsh, but also beautiful.  

One of the trails that branched off of the Coffee Pot Trail was the Sugarloaf Summit trail, which went to the top of Sugarloaf Summit. Charly decided he wanted to hike that trail so we did. This was the view of Sedona from the top. 

This is the view of Coffee Pot from the top of Sugarloaf Summit.  You can see that I was already at the top and Charly was making his way up. 

This is Thunder Mountain as seen from Sugarloaf Summit.  Coffee Pot would be just to the right of it. 

We look a bit hot and tired in this picture a fellow hiker took of Charly and I at the top of Sugarloaf Summit, but we really did enjoy this great hike.  

After the hike, we went back to the condo to eat lunch, then we headed up to Flagstaff through Oak Creek Canyon - about 20 miles of narrow, winding mountain road that has some of the best some of best views in the state of Arizona.  We stopped at one viewpoint to take some pictures, and found a Native American marketplace.  After looking at the views, we looked at the Native American jewelry and crafts and we bought a Christmas ornament crafted like pottery for our Christmas tree, and a copper bracelet for me.  We continued on to Flagstaff where we went to Bookmans - Charly's all time favorite used bookstore (I like it too).  We got our dinner at Charly's favorite fast-food place the Dog Haus.  

The next morning, we hiked along Oak Creek. It was a gorgeous morning, the scenery was beautiful and there were fresh blackberries planted along the trail, which we sampled.   This was our favorite hike in Sedona.  After a morning of hiking and lunch in our condo, we were off to see a little more of the city of Sedona and even do a little shopping. 

The next day, we hiked the Little Horse trail - another beautiful hike.

The sky was smokey from wildfires in California and Oregon,

but the scenery was still beautiful.  

The rock formations in and around Sedona are all interesting and unique. 

We felt fortunate that there weren't too many other hikers. 

We enjoyed all the hikes we did in Sedona.  

After our hike on the Little Horse Trail, we went to the nearby Chapel of the Holy Cross - an amazing Catholic Church that was built right into the red rocks of Sedona.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a really cool place.  I am glad we got to see it.  

We left Sedona the next day, Friday, July 23.  After another quick stop at a favorite store in Flagstaff, we headed home, breaking the long nine-hour drive up into two days.  We stopped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We were there less than an hour, when the storm clouds you see in some of the pictures, opened up into a downpour. We got in our car and continued on our way to Kanab, Utah, where we spent the night.   We browsed a few thrift, consignment and antique stores in Kanab before leaving the next morning. Charly visited his favorite "Levi store" (as he calls it) and yes, he did get a much needed new pair of jeans.  

We were home by about 5 p.m. on Saturday, and then the unpacking began. Charly got Chinese take-out so I wouldn't have to cook dinner when we got home and the Mongolian Beef really hit the spot. 

All-in-all, we had a great summer getaway in Sedona.  I feel grateful we were able to go.  I still have almost two weeks left of summer vacation so stay tuned for more adventures... 

😊Deb💙

"When all else fails, take a vacation."

~Betty Williams

 

The Weekend

Friday morning after our walk, Charly and I went grocery shopping. At the store, I found this beautiful potted plant marked down, in fact I found two of these plants marked down.  I got one for my back garden, and took the second one to a woman in our church congregation whose son recently passed.  When I took her the plant, she asked me in and we had had a nice visit.  Charly and I knew her son from the church congregation we attended when we lived in our old house. 

Friday afternoon, I finished organizing our downstairs pantry room  

Charly's project on Friday was painting this star and little metal table that the old owner of this place left behind.  I had pretty much forgotten that we still had these items, but Charly did not.  He got some Rustoleum paint and went to town. I love the color he used (my suggestion).  The star is now hanging on the fence.

The table is now in the courtyard holding a pot filled with petunias.  I think it makes a great addition to my garden, and it looks so nice with the new bright blue paint. 

Friday night, I stayed up too late finishing this book, which is, as it is billed, "a gripping emotional page-turned."  I liked the book.  I will look for more by this author. 

Saturday we were home most of the day, but made quick trips to Dollar Tree and Walmart.  We did some cleaning chores and laundry. Josh was home working on homework most of the day.   He wanted to go back to the Jordan River Trail in the evening, but it was just too hot for his old mom to hike.  He was disappointed although understanding.  I didn't feel that great for a couple of days after last Saturday's hot hike, so I decided to listen to my body when it comes to hiking on high heat days.  Saturday evening, I did some reading. Because I finished the fiction book I was reading, I am now concentrating on this nonfiction, Alienated America, which is well-researched and interesting, but not  quick read. 

I had an early visitor for breakfast on Sunday morning. He is eating and fluttering on the left side of the hummingbird feeder. He could be mistaken for a leaf, except he is more of a gray color. 

I am trying something new in an effort to cut down on caffeine.  I am NOT a coffee drinker (never have been), but I have developed the habit of starting my day with a diluted powdered energy drink called Zipfizz.  It helps me wake up, but also causes other problems.  Last night, I read that Postum might be a good, non-caffeinated morning drink, so I got some and tried it this morning.  It is a bit of an acquired taste, but with some half and half and a spoon-full of hot chocolate mix, it wasn't too bad.  It is expensive though. This small jar was over $10 at Walmart.   I am not sure how long one jar will last, but I will use it up and decide if it is helping me enough to buy more. 

We went to church, as usual, and after we got home I ate a light lunch, and indexed more Liberian census records.  I then started dinner, which was hamburgers cooked outside on the grill. 

We had baked beans with the burgers, along with some fresh cherry tomatoes just harvested from our garden.  It is one of my favorite summertime dinners.  

Tonight, we are planning to watch Unforgotten on PBS and we will probably do some reading.  It will be a quiet evening at home for Charly and I.  Josh is working on a final project for school because Monday begins the last week of this current summer semester.  He was invited over to the home of a family in our church congregation for dessert, so he will probably do that if he get finished with his school project in time.  

It's been a good weekend for us.  Hope yours was good too. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the week ahead and I will see you again soon. 

😊Deb💜

 

Friday's Favorites - Best of the Week

Another Friday - time again to remember my favorite parts of the past week.  I am joining, as usual, with Susanne and friends over Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

Organized shelves - I took some time earlier this week to organize the shelves in our downstairs pantry room.   This is a work in progress and I still have a few shelves to go. 

When we come home from the grocery store, I am usually in a hurry and sometimes don't put everything away as neatly as I should, so it was good to go through everything, and see exactly what I have and DON'T need to rebuy.   During the school year, and even in the summertime, I'm all about quick and easy meals, especially in the evening.  Charly does most of the grocery shopping when the school year is on, and he loves to bring home "manager's special" markdowns of things we use anyway, which means that we always have plenty on hand.  It is nice that everything is now more organized, so I can see exactly what I have and use it.

First harvest - I am having more and more tomatoes ripen in my little garden every day. These were just the first to be harvested.  I am growing several different varieties of tomatoes - large and small.  To me, there is just nothing as delicious as tomatoes fresh of the vine from my own garden.  We also had some raspberries that were ready to be harvested and eaten. Delicious!

Another class - I got my motivation together enough to being another online class.  My goal is to complete at least one lesson in the class each day.  The name of this course is American Heritage:  From Colonial Settlement to Current Day.   One of my undergraduate degrees is in history, so I am finding it very interesting.  It is a free online  class offered through Hillsdale College  which the school district where I teach is counting toward an educational lane change on the salary scale (translation - a pay raise).  I am grateful to have found these FREE interesting classes offered through Hillsdale College. 

Time at the temple - we had not been able to go to the temple since February, 2020 due to Covid, but the temple has now reopened and Wednesday afternoon, we were able to return for an afternoon of peace and perspective. 

New ceiling fan - the electrician came Thursday afternoon and installed the new ceiling fan in our office. That room has a west facing window - so we get lots of light, but it is also quite warm in the afternoon, so I think having a ceiling fan in that room will really help.  

New plant - I wanted a new plant for the entryway of our home, and Charly picked out this one.  It's a beautiful little plant, and should do well right by our glass block window.  It is a Bromeliad, which is a plant I have never had before.  I haven't transplanted it into the new pot yet.  I just want to let it get accustomed to the new location.   The plant that we did have in this spot outgrew the entryway and is now in the office.  

Book club reboot - After not meeting for well over a year due to Covid,  we had a book club "reboot" meeting Thursday night.  We discussed the book The Radium Girls by Kate Moore.  The meeting was well attended, and some women who hadn't participated before came.   We had a good discussion about the book, and then chatted about life in general.  It was a nice evening.  We will be meeting again in September.  

That's all until next time.  Thanks for stopping by. Have a good weekend, and remember there is always so much to be grateful for!

😊Deb💖

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life."

~ Melody Beattie