Currently and Some Weekend Ramblings

Weather - It has been fairly cold, yet sunny, here over the weekend.  Temperatures were in the 30s most of every day.  The pollution caused haze is returning. We need another storm to come in and clear the air. 

Reading - My weekend reading has included finishing a lovely book, Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley.  You will hear more about that one, and all the books I finished in January in my January Reading Round-up post coming soon.  I just started a library book I checked out Saturday, Everything We Didn't Say, which is crime/mystery/suspense book, which so far, has caught my interest.  As always, my daily reading includes the scriptures.  I finished the book of Psalms and decided to jump right into the book of Genesis to try and keep up better with our church Come Follow Me study. 

Watching -  Friday and Saturday nights, we watched an episode (one each  night) of a mystery/parody show on Netflix, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.  It is mildly humorous, but has a bit of language (a couple of F-bombs per episode). It is entertaining, but not spectacular. We also watched Dateline of Friday. This one was an interesting cold case episode where they get the bad guy in the end and it's not who everyone thought it was.  

On Sunday, We watched church on Zoom again, and will continue to do so until Covid numbers are down around here. (We set another record for hospitalizations last week).  Josh went to church in person.  The speakers were an older missionary couple and Josh was so impressed with them he texted me during church that he thinks Charly and I should go on a mission after we retire.  We shall see.  I would be just fine with doing something like that to help and serve others.  I have a couple of things in mind, but that is at least four and half years down the road. 

After watching church, the Zoom feed was cut off so we couldn't watch the Sunday School class, but we did watch this wonderful, uplifting talk from one of our worldwide church leaders, Jeffrey R. Holland.  It was given this month at Brigham Young University, BYU, the university Josh is hoping to attend. It is such an uplifting talk about having faith in God during the hardest times in life.  Anyone needing a spiritual lift, watch this. 

Work- Friday was a teacher planning and work day.  No students were at school, so it was nice to have the day to grade, plan, collaborate and get things done.  It was also nice to have a little "chat" time with colleagues. Some of the other teachers have become friends over this past school year, and it is always great to have friends at work. 

Saturday night I received email notification that my Donors Choose project was 100% funded thanks to some generous friends and the State of Utah making up the difference.  That means, I will be getting a lot of new books for my classroom library. The books will include some Spanish language novels for my students who don't speak very much English.  I am so grateful that the project was funded and that I will be getting some new books for my students.  

The next couple of weeks at school will be very busy as we come upon progress report time and also parent teacher conferences which are the week after next.  We will have a couple of very long days and then we will have a Friday off, as a comp day, on February 11.

Food -  Saturday night, I made homemade pepperoni pizza.  I forgot to put onions and mushrooms on it (what was I thinking??) which would have made it better.  Also, I wasn't crazy about the refrigerated roll-out pizza dough I used for this one.  The dough was too thin and too doughy.  I won't use this again.  Boboli pizza crust is much better.  I won't forget the mushrooms and onions next time either.  

Sunday dinner was slow cooker beef with mushrooms and gravy over rice, with steamed snap peas and broccoli.  It was very good.

Thoughts - Josh asked me to drive with him down to Provo, a college town about 40 miles south of here.  He wanted to scout out some possible dating venues.  (We went on back roads because Josh isn't a guy who enjoys driving on busy freeways.  I don't blame him.  I do it only when I have to).  I loved the time we had to talk in the car and the good conversations we had.  

Other Stuff - Saturday morning, we went to a "vacation club" sales pitch. We are supposed to get two nights free in St. George for sitting there and listening to an hour sales pitch about why we should pay thousands of dollars to access some website where we could get discount deals on cruises, hotels, and airfare.  We didn't buy in, and are just hoping the free two nights stay isn't a scam, but we shall see.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

We are trying to refinance a couple of our properties before interest rates go up. We stand to cut about ten years off our mortgage and pay less interest, but signing all the documents and providing all the documentation is a pain.  I am glad that Charly takes care of the lion share of stuff like this.  He also takes care of the taxes.  

I worked on more voter postcards this weekend, and got another batch finished and in the mail.  I also did some indexing of Wisconsin death certificates, as a volunteer indexer at Familysearch.org.  Indexing is always so interesting.  Reading those death certificates, I felt like I was reaching back in history and touching the lives of real people.  

Weekend gratitude:

• Sunshine
• Walks 
• Good books
• Good conversations with Josh
• Josh's new job is going well
• The values I was raised with
• My faith
• Time with Charly
• Early morning workouts

Goals for the week:

• Get cleaning finished by Tuesday
• Go see a friend whose husband passed last week
• Get Valentine's cards ready to send to grandchildren
• Get at least 1/2 of another book read

That's all for this weekend. Thanks for stopping by. May the week ahead be a good one for all of us.  

😊Deb💖

"Peace begins with a smile."

~Mother Teresa

Good Things I'm Grateful For at the End of January

It is the end of another week.  I am not sure at all where the month of January went, but it is almost gone.  Again today, I am looking back with gratitude at some of the good, although not out of the ordinary, things in my life this past week.  I am  joining with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Fridays Fave Five and Rebecca Jo at Knit By God's Hand for Thankful Thursday.

Winter sunshine - We had a small snowstorm that cleared out the bad air in the valley, so we had clean air and winter sunshine for our afternoon walks.  The temperatures were still below 40 but the snow didn't stay on the ground long. I am grateful that the smog and hazed lifted, at least for a few days. 

New morning routine - I decided to set my alarm for 5 a.m. every work day, which only about 20 minutes earlier than I had been getting up. That extra 20 minutes has made all the difference for me this past week.  I have been able to read my scriptures and devotionals AND get downstairs to exercise for about 20 minutes before leaving for work. I couldn't believe how much better I felt once I got to school, even with 20 minutes less sleep.  I plan to continue with this earlier start, with a little exercise to begin my day. 

Vegetarian chili - I made vegetarian chili and cornbread muffins for dinner one night last week.  It was a delicious, easy and healthy dinner.  I am grateful for for nights when dinner turns out even better than I expected.

Online classes - I finished two more Hillsdale College classes this week, so now I have completed 11.5 hours out of the 20 hours needed to go up on the salary scale.  I will be starting a new class tomorrow.  My goal is to finish all 20 hours by the end of this year.  I am grateful for these FREE classes that are so interesting and helping me move toward a raise.  I am learning a lot by taking them.  

Fun distraction - I found this game app, Wordus, after another blogger I read posted about it.  I am not great at word games, but of all the online games I have tried, I am enjoying this one the most.  If you like word games at all, download the app and give it a try. 

A good book - Having a good book to read always makes my week better and this one, Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley is an absolute delight.  I hope to finish it before the end of the month and include in my January book review post.   I am always grateful for good books.

KN95  Masks - We are all tired of masking up after doing so for almost two years.  I have been able to wear KN95 masks almost from the very beginning.  As a teacher, I am grateful that I have been able to get these masks from school, or I have been given the funding (by the state of Utah) to buy them myself in bulk. I am also grateful that they are (or soon will be) available to free of charge to all who want them.  I think that consistently wearing the KN95 masks when I am at school or go out in public has made a difference for me and my health. 

Those are just some of the things I am grateful for as January ends.  What are you grateful for in this cold, wintry month?  I hope your week has been good and that you have a pleasant weekend.   See you again soon.

😊Deb💖

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

~ G.K. Chesterton

This Weekend - This and That

Currently, on this January weekend...

Weather -  It was sunny but not too warm this weekend.  Our highs were in the high 30s and 40s.  We got a very small amount of snow Thursday night and the storm cleaned out our horrible air inversion a bit, but the snow is all gone and no more is in the forecast until possibly February.  

I went out for a couple of walks on Saturday and by time I went to the second walk, all of the clouds were gone and the sky was brilliant blue, but it was still cold. 

Reading - After starting to "test read"  two mystery/suspense novels, I decided not to continue with them, and decided instead on this non-mystery oldie from my "to-read" shelf - Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley.  I have heard his Harmony books are similar to Garrison Keillor or Jan Karon's Mitford series, so this sounded good to me right now. I am only about 30 pages into this book, but I am already thoroughly enjoying it and I have plans to get the other books in this Harmony series.  On the nonfiction front, I finished listening to the audiobook of Daring Greatly by Brene Brown on Friday.  

Watching - Friday night, I watched a Dateline episode.  It was about a rape victim who eventually got justice and helped a lot of other rape victims, but it was kind of upsetting to watch.  Some Dateline episodes have an interesting storyline and some are horribly disturbing, sad and depressing.   I think I need to find something else to watch on Friday nights. 

Saturday night, we watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the classic 1953 movie. We turned on the TV to watch something else on Saturday night, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had just started on our local classic movie channel, so we decided to watch it because I had never seen it.  We enjoyed it.  Later, we watched a little of The Seven Year Itch.   I had never seen that movie either. 

After that, we watched Lucy's Really Lost Moments on Amazon Prime.  Watching old movies and retro TV was ever so much more fun and uplifting than watching Dateline. 

Sunday, we watched church on Zoom, and then I watched a lecture for the a Hillsdale College on the Supreme Court classes I am currently working to complete. 

 

Work - I go back to in-person learning Monday after a week at home doing online school.  Honestly, I am not looking forward to going back to the classroom.  Our Utah state legislature cancelled our mask mandate so I will be going back into a classroom with no masks, no social distancing and a lot of Covid positive teenagers and teachers.  In addition, the students have become a lot more rude, entitled and unmotivated in the past couple of years.  Covid hasn't done anyone any good.  Teaching is not the enjoyable, fulfilling profession that it used to be for me.

Cooking - I made some chicken salad, so we enjoyed some chicken salad sandwiches.  I make mine with white chicken meat, mayonnaise, green onions, dill pickles, a bit of chopped up broccoli florets and chopped walnuts.   I had chips and a nice green salad with my chicken salad sandwich.  

I decided to make some homemade pizza Saturday night.  It was good. I plan to make pizza at home more often. 

Sunday was Chicken Cordon Bleu/Stuffed Chicken Breast, which I did not make from scratch but it was still good.  We had broccoli cheese rice, steamed broccoli and green salad with it. 

Thinking  -  I am thinking about going to back to  in-person learning tomorrow.  It will be our first in-person classes of the new semester.  Parent-Teacher conferences are also coming up in a couple of weeks.  The school year is passing quickly.

I am also thinking about some conversations that Charly and I have had about the possibility of moving from Utah once I retire. That is a ways off because I am planning to work for four more years after this school year. Charly wants to move back to California.  I am not so keen on California and would rather go somewhere in Colorado. We shall see.  Who knows if we will actually go anywhere.  The Salt Lake Valley has horrible air pollution, which is very unhealthy.  The mountains on all sides are beautiful, but they also act as a bowl to keep the bad air in.  Of course, there are other reasons to leave here, as well some reasons to stay.  Josh loves living in Utah, and he does not want us to move away. In some ways, things have worked out very well here, but in other ways, not so much.  I guess it's that way with everything in life. I am not even sure where I am going with this except that it is something that has been on my mind.  It is nice to think about making a fresh start in retirement, but I also believe this quote which I came across in the book I am currently reading:

"There is a danger in thinking joy is a matter of location.  If we can't find joy where we are, we probably won't find it anywhere."  

(Gully, Home to Harmony, 27).

Other things about this weekend - 

I worked on writing and mailing some postcards to voters, (through an organization I volunteer with) because, it is an election year. These postcards are to encourage voters to register for mail-in ballots. 

I got a package in the mail Saturday from my younger sister in Colorado with these nice enlargements of my sisters, birth mom and I when we were in Denver in December.  It was so nice of her to print the enlargements and send them.  I treasure these pictures. 

Charly and I went to a couple of thrift stores Saturday afternoon and I found this nice, large mug from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which we visited just last year.  Of course, I had to get it because the Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places.  I had my Pero/chocolate in it Sunday morning. 

Here are the lovely pictures we received this weekend of 4/5 of my beautiful Virginia grandkids.  

Weekend Gratitude - 

• Josh finished his first week at his new job, and is very pleased with his decision to take the job. 
• Josh continues to do well in his college studies.
• Sunshine.
• Zoom church.
• Messages and phone calls to and from friends and family members.
• Pictures of the grandkids.
• Walks.
• Future possibilities. 
• Good books to read. 
• Time spent with this guy:

He was reading the Old Testament of the Bible on his phone in this picture.  I am blessed to have a good husband who also believes in and tries to live in a Godly manner. 

Coming up this week - 

Monday - Back to school in person

Wednesday  - Tile contractor coming to repair a broken tile in the our bathroom and give us a bid on redoing our downstairs bathroom. 

Wednesday - Charly goes to the dentist for a check-up. 

Friday - Teacher planning day at school.  No students will be there.

Goals for the week:

• Cleaning finished by Tuesday
• Finish the  Hillsdale College classes I am currently enrolled in
• Finish voter postcards
• Finish another book by the end of January

That's all for this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have an awesome week, and God bless!

😊Deb💖

"Have the courage to be truly happy."

~Pope Francis

Gratitude During an Online School Week

It's almost the weekend. Time to get our gratitude on and look back at the positive things that happened last week, so let's get going. There was a lot to be grateful for this week, so I am joining once again with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Fridays Fave Five, and Rebecca Jo at Knit By God's Hand for Thankful Thursday.

Beautiful sunrise - I love sunrises and this one, which I saw from my front yard on Monday morning was just lovely.  Some winter days here in the Salt Lake Valley, are very hazy and with winter air inversions, we may not see the mountains for days due to pollution, but I am grateful for those days when I can see the sun rise over those beloved mountains. 

Online School - School in our district went online only this week due to the explosion of Covid cases around here.  I am grateful that our state governor and district superintendent could see the wisdom in having school online this week to slow the spread of the virus. 

Negative Covid test - I got the results of the Covid test I had last Friday and it was Negative, as I expected it would be. I had been exposed a lot through contact with students and other  teachers who tested positive, so I thought that getting a test would be a good idea.  I had only a sore throat and a few aches and those were gone after just a couple of days, but it was good to know that I am Covid free, at least I was when the test was taken.  I am grateful that I finally got the results for a negative test. 

Free at-home Covid tests - I was pleased that the website for ordering rapid at-home Covid tests was up and running a day early. I ordered some tests so (hopefully) I can avoid sitting in a long line at a testing site again.  If you haven't ordered tests yet, you can do so here at covidtests.gov.  I am grateful I won't have to sit in a long line of idling cars anymore to get a Covid test.  

Josh - I have been awakened most mornings this week hearing Josh come up these stairs to go to work at 5:30 a.m..  He works on a loading dock, unloading shipments, making sure the right amount of product arrived, and then gets everything where it needs to be.  He works from 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and then drives over to his college for afternoon classes.  I am grateful to have a son who is responsible and has a good work ethic. 

Time - Because I am usually up early even when I don't have to be at school, this week, I have enjoyed having some extra time to wake-up, relax and do a bit of reading in the morning before logging in to begin school stuff.  I enjoy a morning cup of Pero/Chocolate which warms me up.  I always seem to be cold in the winter.  This morning I had my Pero in this cup my oldest son gave me after he spent a summer in Panama when he was in college.  I am grateful for extra time in the morning and anything that reminds me of my children. 

Hiking socks - I found these great thick socks, which I plan to use when I hike. I found these at, of all places, the dollar store.  I bought several pair and will look forward to wearing them in the coming hiking season.  I am grateful to find some nice, thick hiking socks at a great price. 

Taco Tuesday - This past Tuesday was busier than we expected it to be, so it was nice to pick up tacos and burritos for dinner and not have to worry about what to fix for dinner.   I am grateful for the occasional convenience of take-out food for dinner. 

Five cent book sale - I went to the library Wednesday, to pick up a couple of books I had on hold.  When I got there, I was pleased to see that the library was having a large winter book sale, and books were only five cents each!  

I came up with 20 cents and came home with four good books to read. 

I am grateful for libraries, books, and five cent book sales!

That's all for this post.  I hope you have found much to be grateful in the past week.  Have a good weekend. 

😊Deb💖

"Gratitude exclaims, very properly, 

'How good of God to give me this.'"

~C.S. Lewis

 

Looking Back at the Mid-January Weekend

The weekend's events began on Thursday night when I was started getting a headache and sore throat.  I emailed my principal and told her that I would get a rapid Covid, and then, provided the test was negative, come to school for our professional development day/work day. Things didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped.  When I got to the drive-through testing site about 6:45 a.m., there was already a long line of cars waiting for the testing to start at 7 a.m. I waited in  line for over an hour. The line did not move at all. This picture does not show all the cars that were waiting because the line of cars curved out of sight in front of me and there were even more cars behind me.  There were hundreds of cars, idling, with occupants waiting for the testing to begin.  It did not appear to me that any testing was taking place. No cars moved for over an hour. Just before 8 a.m., I pulled out of line and left to seek a Covid test at another location.  There is a shortage of tests around here, so I am wondering if this location even had any tests.  It honestly did not look to me like they did. 

After a quick internet search, I found this Intermountain Healthcare self-service testing site near my home.  The tests available here were not the rapid tests and would results would take at least three days, but the tests were available without any line at all. 

I picked up the PCR or saliva test, collected the sample in my car and dropped it back in the self-service drop-off bin.  Now I wait.  I don't expect my results until Monday or Tuesday. Meanwhile, our school district decided to go all online for the next week of school.  Monday is a holiday, but Tuesday through Friday next week will be online.  Hopefully by the following Monday, Covid rates around here will be down, at least a little. 

Charly and I did go out for a walk around lunchtime on Friday.  It was cold and gray and I wasn't feeling the best, but I do hate to miss my daily walk.  

I went out for a second walk, by myself, later in the afternoon and the clouds were gone and the skies were blue. 

When I got home, I had a couple of packages waiting for me.  One was this lovely belated Christmas gift from my friend Faith, over at Gold in the Clouds. Thank you, Faith for your kind and thoughtful gift!

The other package that arrived Friday afternoon was the second volume of my 2021 blog book.  We are pleased with how it turned out.  I have decided to have two volumes for each year - January to June and July to December. Printing two volumes will allow me to use all of the pictures in my posts, without having to delete any to fit the parameters of the blog book. 

Saturday morning, Charly and I took our morning walk as soon as we were up and dressed. The skies were blue, but the temperatures were cold and there was frost on the lawn and on the cars.  We stopped in at an estate sale on our walk (masked up) and came away with one book - a little history book that looked interesting.  

For Saturday lunch, I treated Josh to take-out Mexican food as a "congratulations" for getting a new job.  I was hungry and dug right into my cheese enchiladas and forgot to take a picture until I was almost done.   The place we went to was a reincarnation of our favorite Mexican mom and pop place that did not survive Covid. The new management made the food WAY TO SPICY!!  I know that Mexican food is spicy, but this was way too much. We will have to find a new favorite Mexican place.  

I took some time on Saturday afternoon to relax and read. 

I finished this psychology book. The author had been recommended, and he had some good points and ideas, but overall, the book was poorly written and horribly redundant. I didn't like it. 

Saturday night dinner was take-out pizza and salad.  

Sunday morning, we listened to church via Zoom. We also had the sacrament (communion) at home, thanks go my sweet husband.  Josh attended church in person at a young adult congregation. 

After church, I indexed some tax records from Ontario, Canada in 1871. 

Charly and I finally got a change to watch this movie, "Being the Ricardos" on Prime Video. We both liked it.  It was interesting and the acting was good, and the characters in the movie looked a lot like their real life counterparts.  I would recommend the movie for anyone who remembers and loves "I Love Lucy" and the actors that made the show American icon that it remains.

The weather was cold, but sunny and nice when Charly and I got out to take our walk on Sunday afternoon.  

Sunday dinner was meatloaf, long grain and wild rice, sweet potato souffle, broccoli and wheat bread baguette.   After dinner, I did a little workout with a youtube video because I just felt like I needed to move a bit.  My plan for the rest of the evening is listening to a Hillsdale class lecture on the Supreme Court, reading and watching a PBS Mystery episode.  

I also want to read some more in this book which I am anxious to finish so I can go on to something else.  I have a book from the library waiting on the Libby app on my phone that I am excited to start reading.  

Finally, I will sign off with this. We got an email Saturday with this picture of the two youngest Virginia granddaughters, who seem to be very busy doing a little crafting and painting at the kitchen table.  They look like they are using all their creative energy and really having a good time.  They are such sweet little girls and I love them so much. 😊💕

Coming up this week:

Monday - Martin Luther King Day - Holiday from school. We have no plans.  I am hoping to get the results of my PRC Covid test, although I am now symptom free (no sore throat) and believe that if I had Covid, it was a very mild case. 

Tuesday - Josh begins his new job.  School goes online for a week.

Goals for this week:

• Finish current mystery book.
• Get lesson plans up and ready to go by tomorrow.
• Email all students tomorrow.
• Pick up Valentines cards and gifts for the grandchildren.
• Have the cleaning done by Tuesday.
• Finish one more Hillsdale College online class.
• Walk outside or workout inside every day this week.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the week ahead.  

😊Deb💖

 "Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny." 

--Mahatma Gandhi