Scenes from Labor Day Weekend

 Here are some highlights of our weekend. 

Friday, I went to school as usual.  Junior highs in our district get out early on Fridays for staff meetings and planning.  Because I'm still a sub right now, I don't have to attend staff meetings, so I was able to leave school a little early.  

Friday night, Charly and I went to worship and pray at the temple.  

Meanwhile, Josh went to young adult conference sponsored by our church - called Together in Christ. He took some time off work to attend the classes and worship at the conference. It was a three-day conference (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) which was held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City.  I am glad that he was able to get some time off to attend most of this conference.

Saturday morning, Charly and I walked at the mall before the stores opened.  We then went to get a few things at the store, get gas, and wash the car - typical Saturday chores. 

We were home most of the day on Saturday.  I did some housework and laundry and put out some flags in commemoration of Labor Day, a Federal Holiday, and the official end of summer.  

Sunday was a beautiful late-summer day, with lots of blue skies and sunshine.  Of course, we attended church in the morning, as we always do. 

Sunday afternoon, I spent some time looking over my vegetable garden.  I have a cantaloupe, a large honeydew melon, a few grapes (most of them have been eaten by some critter - maybe a squirrel?), and red and orange peppers ripening in the garden.  

I love these little pink flowers on the Nettle Bush at the side of my house. 

I like to watch the insects in my garden, like this bee on a zinnia flower and the smaller insect flying above it.  I expect that as we get closer to fall, there will be fewer and fewer insects in the garden.

Sunday afternoon, I took a little nap and listened to some favorite Christian podcasts.  I am a big podcast listener, and I love learning from good Christian content creators.  I respect people who are willing to defend faith from online critics and detractors.

I also did some reading Sunday.  My Sunday reading included these books, 52 Churches in 52 Weeks by Dave Boice, This Nation Shall Endure by Ezra Taft Benson, and The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd. 

Late Sunday afternoon after Josh got home from attending church at his young adult congregation, he asked if I would drive him to downtown Salt Lake City so he could attend the final worship devotional for the Young Adult Conference Together in Christ.  Since we literally live 10-15 minutes from downtown, I was happy to do it, so he would not have to worry about finding parking.   

Sunday evening dinner was oven-baked Gouda cheese burgers, made with Beyond Beef patties and garnished with tomatoes and onions from our garden, potato salad, kale salad, and kettle cooked chips.  

Weekend Gratitude:

• Enjoying a long four-day weekend away from school. 
• Having some downtime to rest and rejuvenate. 
• Worshipping at the temple and at church. 
• Walking with Charly. 
• Josh attending the Together in Christ conference. 

Praying for:

• Josh is having an interview for a possible job promotion and raise, so I am praying for him to do well in the interview and get the job if it is God's will. 
• We still need to get our Southern Utah house rented and sell our income property condo in Salt Lake City, so I am praying that God will bring us good renters in Southern Utah and a buyer for our condo.  These are things that need to happen so we can prepare for our retirement. 
• All of my children and grandchildren, with whatever problems and challenges they are facing. 
• Our nation.

Coming up this week:

Monday - Labor Day - no school

Monday - Daughter Tiffany's birthday! 😊💗🎂

Tuesday - Extra day off

Wednesday - Back to School for one day 

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - History/Apologetics conference for Charly and I.  I am taking two personal days off to attend.  

That's all for now.  Enjoy the "unofficial end of summer" and have a good Labor Day!

Until next time.

😊Deb💖

"Summer's lease has all too short a date."

~William Shakespeare

Currently on the Final Friday in August

 Here's a little of what is currently going on in my world as the month of August, and summer itself, winds down. 

The weather has been cooler this week, and we finally got some rain. This is the view out of my car window when I got to school on Wednesday morning.  We had even more rain, including a couple of periods of downpour during the middle of the night on Wednesday/Thursday.  The forecast is for a warm-up and beautiful late summer weather over the Labor Day Weekend.  

I've been reading this book,  American Housewife by Anita Abriel, which I finished on Thursday.  I gave it 3/5 stars on Goodreads.  It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it had an interesting plot that moved along, even if it seemed a bit far-fetched at times.   I'm now reading a book my daughter recently read and really liked, The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd.  I just started it, but so far it is very good.  It's a historical fiction based on real people and real events. 

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts.  Most tend to be Christian/religious, but this week, I've been listening to some podcasts giving news and analysis about the horrible shooting at the Catholic Church and school in Minnesota.  It was such a horrendous, hateful crime that seems to be part of a very disturbing trend.  

I'm working on achieving my 10,000 step daily goal at least 5-6 days every week. The past month, I did pretty good!

I've been enjoying nightly walks around my neighborhood now that it's not so horribly hot as it was a few weeks ago.  I enjoy walking outside and nightly walks also help me achieve my 10,000 step goal.

I'm celebrating daily small wins and baby steps forward as I work with a challenging and sometimes tough junior high crowd at the school where I continue to long-term substitute teach.  The picture is the hallway outside of my classroom, lined with lockers that haven't been used in many years. 

In the kitchen,  I admit that I haven't been doing a lot of cooking this week.  I actually stopped at the KFC I drive by on my way home twice this week and picked up dinner.  I won't do it all the time, but it was a quick and easy change of pace. 

I'm looking forward to a lovely, long Labor Day Weekend.  After four days off, I'll go back to school for one day (next Wednesday), then I'm taking two personal days off to attend the Firm Foundation Conference with Charly. It's a history/religion/theology/apologetics conference that we really enjoy attending twice a year. 

I'm grateful that Josh is attending a huge Christian young adult conference this weekend.  He took two days off work to go, and seems to be looking forward to it.  I'm grateful that while so many young adults are leaving the churches and faiths they were raised in, Josh has remained strong and true to his belief in and relationship with Christ.  At this time in his life, he is (as the old hymn says) "true to the faith that his parents have cherished."

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Have a good Labor Day Weekend!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

Education Week, Family Time and Another good Weekend

 Here are some highlights of a very good weekend. 

On Friday, we went to the last day of Education Week at BYU in Provo, Utah. Charly and I had looked forward to attending this event since last year, and it did not disappoint. We left our house about 7 a.m. and got to the BYU campus shortly after 8 a.m. We attended classes in retirement finance, marriage, relationship skills, the history of the Christian Reformation and the U.S. Constitution. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Creamery on Ninth (a favorite campus eatery) between classes.  Our daughter Tiffany invited us to come to her home for dinner, so we enjoyed seeing and eating with our daughter and her family before returning to the BYU campus for evening classes.  After a full day of learning and enjoying family time, we got home about 9:30 p.m..

Saturday, we were tired from attending the final day of Education Week, so we slept in just a bit later than usual. When we got up, we walked at the mall, then we went back to Utah County to go to an open house at this property.  From the pictures on Zillow, it seemed promising, but after going through it, we knew this was not the house for us.  

Since we were just a few miles away, we decided to go back to the BYU Campus and have lunch at The Creamery on 9th - again.  

Their cheeseburgers and onion rings are the best.  (Their fries are pretty good too!)  We enjoy being at the BYU campus, 

Saturday night, I went to the Taylorsville Temple.  It was nice to experience the peace of worship there, but when I got back home, I had a terrible headache that got worse as the night went on.  I did some chores, then took the car to get gas and ran it through the car wash.  After the car wash, we vacuumed and cleaned the inside of the car.  Charly was with me and helped.  I do like a nice, clean car - inside and out. 

Sunday morning, I was up by a little after 6:30 a.m..  I went through my usual morning routine.  I ate breakfast, and while I ate, I wrote a gratitude list in my journal.  I then read scriptures.  This Sunday, I finished the book of Joshua, so on Monday, I will start the book of Judges in the Old Testament.  After eating, I did my morning workout in the family room while listening to a podcast. 

Sunday morning was cloudy.  The temperatures were cooler than they had been for some time, but it was quite humid due to the rain and thunderstorms in our forecast over the next couple of days.  I sure hope that we got the predicted rain because we have had a very dry summer, and really need the moisture. 

Sunday afternoon, I relaxed and took a nap.   I got dinner  (One Pan Baked Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans) ready and in the oven. 

Here's what our Sunday meal looked like when it was ready.  It was all delicious - a real winner of a chicken dinner!

After dinner, I went for a walk around our neighborhood while listening to a Christian podcast.  

While I was out walking around our neighborhood, Josh called me and asked if I wanted to go with him and walk at our favorite walking trail, so as soon as I got home from one walk, Josh and I left to do another.  We had a nice walk and some good mother-son conversation. 

It was a nice weekend in every way! As soon as I post this, I will read until bedtime.  I am hoping to finish at least two more books before the end of August. 

Weekend Gratitude:

• Having a great experience at Education Week. 
• Going to our daughter's home for dinner and time with her and her family. 
• Enjoying time with Charly. 
• Traveling safely to all the places we went this weekend.
• Worshipping at the temple and our Sunday church service.
• Walking with Josh.
• Reading.
• Napping. 

That's all for this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

Best of the Week

Here are some of the best things about this week in my world. To look at the positive and give thanks, I am joining once again with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

                                 

😊Monday morning, I got an email that I was being transferred to another school for several weeks.  It is another Leave it to Beaver era junior high school in a working-class, low-income area. About 65-70% of the students are considered "economically disadvantaged." Apparently, another newly hired teacher walked out three days into the school year. I know the principal of the school, who was an assistant principal at the high school where I taught, and he is a good guy, so I was rather pleased with the assignment, although it has had it's challenges.  Ironically, this is the same school and subject that my husband was teaching when he retired in 2020, so I am literally teaching in my husband's old classroom. Some of the students in my classes have some behavior issues, but most are quite nice.  I am grateful for this assignment at a school I am somewhat familiar with.  

😊 I haven't been up to the rec center to walk for a while.  During summer break from school,  I prefer to walk at the mall before the stores open.  I also like to walk outside better than at the rec center, but a couple of days this week the temps soared into triple digits and it was just too warm to walk outside, even in the evening.   On the days when the temperatures of either too hot (or too cold in the winter) to walk outside, I am grateful to have a place like the rec center to go and exercise. 

😊 The top rack of our two-year-old dishwasher broke and we couldn't pull it out more than about three inches, which made it difficult to load and unload.  We had called a repair tech, but the day before the tech was to come out, Charly was unloading the dishwasher and figured out what the problem was.  He quickly fixed it, saving us at least $150, which was the minimum charge the repair tech was going to charge. I am grateful that Charly was able to fix the dishwasher and save us quite a bit of money.  

😊 We have been growing corn in our garden this year, and I have been so pleased to see that we had quite a few ears of corn.   One night this week, when I went out to look over my garden, I noticed that something was eating the corn.  I suspect mice or maybe a rat, but whatever it is, three or four ears of corn were consumed.  I decided to harvest all the rest of the corn, and this is what I brought in.  We had the corn for dinner a couple of nights this past week and it was nice to eat sweet, tender corn from our own garden.  I am grateful I was able to harvest so many ears before whatever critter that was eating it got to it. 

😊 My renewed passport arrived in the mail this week.  Despite hearing horror stories about how long it took to get a passport renewed, it actually took less than two weeks from the day I mailed in the renewal application until I received my new passport.  I am grateful that this process was much quicker and easier than I thought it would be.  

😊 Charly and I watched a Netflix series about the movie industry called Titans The Rise of Hollywood last week, and this week,  This week, we watched another interesting and well-done series by the same producer called Titans The Rise of Wall Street.  Charly and I both enjoy history and I am always grateful when we can find a well-done and interesting history series to watch and learn from. 

😊 Friday, I am taking a personal day and Charly and I are attending the final day of BYU Education Week at the BYU Campus in Provo, Utah.  Education goes from Monday through Friday, but because of my limited personal time off, we have only been attending the final day every year.  Education Week offers classes on many subjects from marriage, relationships, families, and mental health, to religion, theology, apologetics. When I am retired, we will be able to attend the entire week, which I am really looking forward to. Thursday night, we sat down and went through the program guide and selected the classes we want to attend. I am grateful that Charly and I get to attend and learn at Education Week.  Two weeks from now, on September 4 & 5, we are attending yet another religion and theology conference.  I am grateful for all of these opportunities to learn about things that are important to us. 

That's all for now.  I hope you have had a wonderful week.  Now, have a good weekend! 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

There are so many

beautiful reasons to be 

thankful. 

~anon.

Looking Back at a Mid-August Week and Weekend

Here's what happened in my world during the past week and weekend.  

The past seven days have been busy and at least a little stressful.  On Wednesday, I started my new position by filling in at a teacherless classroom at a junior high school about 14 miles from where I live.  The teacher that was hired for the classroom quit after two days of training, so I was called in and I was in the classroom Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Due to the nature of the class and students in it, the assignment was quite challenging, but things did calm down a bit each day. The school itself was built in 1950 and had never been remodeled much, so being there was like stepping back in time.  It reminded me the school Beaver attended in my childhood favorite TV show, Leave it to Beaver. Friday, I got an email that I was being reassigned to another teacher less classroom beginning next Tuesday.  Of course, this is all taking some adjustment, and has been a little stressful. 

Our very hot summer temperatures cooled just a bit last week and I was able to take walks outside every night.  Walking always helps me with stress.  I enjoyed all of the late summer flowers our in bloom in my neighborhood. 

I surpassed my daily step goals of 10,000 steps every weekday last week.  My average daily step achievement was over 11,000 steps, and I walked 32.24 miles overall last week. 

I haven't watched many movies or shows this past summer, but Charly and I started watching a very interesting docudrama on Netflix this past week.  It's called Titans - The Rise of Hollywood and it about the beginning of the movie industry.  It's quite fascinating.   We watched an episode every night. 

Saturday morning, we walked at the mall before the stores opened.  Charly and I enjoy walking at the mall and chatting with each other as we walk.  It is much less crowded and more relaxing than walking at the rec center.  

On the way home, we stopped to get gas in the car, and the convenience store where we stopped had these packages of flavored almonds on sale for only $1 each!  They are usually almost $3 a package.  I have a goal of eating more nuts, especially almonds, because they are so nutritionally healthy.  We bought quite a few packages of these almonds and they will be part of my lunch every day. 

Saturday morning, when we got home, I started sorting through the books on my "to read" shelf.  I packed up the books I want to keep and eventually read.  This is part of what I am doing to get ready to move to another house when I retire in a few months. 

As I sorted through my books, I decided to take those I didn't really want to read to our favorite used book store to turn in for exchange credit. The picture is of the second floor of our favorite used book store, which is located in Provo, which is in Utah County.  I turned in 14 books for exchange, and I brought home five books, so it was a net positive to paring down my "to read" books.

We stopped by one of our favorite thrift stores in Utah County to donate the books that the used bookstore didn't want.  While we were there, the clouds got really dark, the wind picked up, and we had a little bit of rain.  If you look closely at the mountains in the picture, you can see a faint rainbow across the mountains.  The picture of it isn't great but it was one of the most unique rainbows I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, the rain passed quickly.  We need much more rain than the few sprinkles we got. 

We decided to go the The Creamery  - a fun place on the BYU Campus in Provo. This place is known in the local area for delicious food that is super economical (affordable by college students).  The ice cream is all handmade, and it is the best I've had.  We had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening in Utah County. 

Sunday morning, I was up early, and after eating breakfast, reading scriptures, and exercising, I got our Sunday dinner in the slow cooker. 

Sunday morning was warm and sunny.  It was already getting hot when we went to church.  

Our church worship schedule changed this week. We now have Sunday School before our main worship service.  This is our Sunday School class, which was taught by our bishop. 

Sunday afternoon, I took a little nap, then finished reading this book, The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe.  It was an excellent historical fiction book about the Titanic.  I gave the book 5/5 stars on Goodreads. 

I also started listening to the audiobook Speaking for Myself by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. By Sunday afternoon, I was about half-way through the book which I hope to finish this coming week.  It's a memoir about Sarah Huckabee Sanders' time as press secretary during the first Donald Trump administration.  I'm finding the book quite interesting. 

Sunday dinner was slow cooker beef stroganoff, kale salad and green beans.  It was a good dinner. Here are the super easy directions for the beef stroganoff sauce:

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans french onion soup

1.5-2 lbs stew meat

sliced mushrooms 

Cook low 6-8hrs or high 4hrs.

During the last 60 minutes, add 8oz sour cream

Serve over 12-16 oz cooked pasta

After dinner, I went for a little walk around the neighborhood.  It was quite a warm evening.   When I got home, we finished watching the final episode of Titans - The Rise of Hollywood.  

That's all for this week.  Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. 

He cares for those who trust in him

~Nahum 1:7 NIV