Days of my Life - Window to My World: February 2026

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Looking for the Good at the End of February

Here are some of the best parts about the final week of February for me. To look back at the good, I am once again joining with Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.

😊We have been buying a few new, and new-to-us pieces of furniture for our new home, and this past week we went to one of our favorite used furniture stores and found just what we were looking for. I forgot to take pictures, but we got a love seat and three book cases. All are like-new and a fraction of what we would pay at a new furniture store. A great plus of shopping at this place is that it is run by an organization that helps recovering addicts get their lives back together, so while we are getting a great deal on nice furniture, we are also helping those in need of a fresh start in life. Another positive is that delivery is available, so our new furniture will be delivered on Monday. I'm grateful for some great finds for our new home.

😊 We needed a handyman to do a few things at both our new home and our current home. The first handyman we talked to (a man from our church congregation) wanted to charge way more than we had in our budget. We looked around and finally found a young man just starting his handyman business who did a great job on everything we needed done, and his prices were super reasonable. I am grateful that we found a good handyman at a good price.

😊We had a couple of rainy days this past week, so we got some moisture without snow in the valley. The snow stayed in the high mountains. I'm grateful for a little more precipitation to help our dire water situation in Utah.

😊 Charly and I got back to our daily walks in a serious way this past week. With all the moving we had been doing, we got a little off track and weren't walking every day. This week we got back to it, however. I am grateful for daily walks with are a real anxiety and stress reliever for me. I'm also grateful that we could walk at the rec center on the nights when it was rainy outside.

😊Honestly, I much prefer walking outside to the track at the rec center, so I am grateful that I had a warm clear evening to walk outside, and that it is now light enough to go for a walk after dinner.

😊 I had a nice text conversation with my birth mom this week. She is 86, sharp-as-a-tack, and very much into politics and current events, as am I. She texted to find out my thoughts on the State of the Union Address and we texted back and forth about that and other things in the news, and in our lives. I am grateful that I have my birth mom in my life, that she is healthy and sharp despite her age, and that we have mutual interests.

That's all for now, Thanks for stopping by to look at the positive things this final week of February.

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Sometimes in life we become so focused

on the finish line,

that we fail to find joy in the journey."

~Deiter F. Uchtdorf

Sunday, February 22, 2026

A Look Back at the Last Week

We finally got some snow this week - 3-5 inches where I live, and more snow in the mountains - up to several feet in some places. This is an answer to prayer because we have had a dry, snowless winter until last week, and we need snow for water! Thankfully, more rain and possibly snow is in the forecast for next week.

I had Monday off from school for the President's Day holiday and I took Tuesday off, but still the school week seemed incredibly long and busy. I don't know how many times I went up and down these stairs, but it was a lot. My room is on the right hand side at the top of the stairs and that is my student work straight ahead on the wall. I have 64 days of school left until I retire!

We made more trips to our new house last week. Charly goes every day while I am at school, but I go with him on Saturday and Sunday. We've been bringing food from the storage room at our old house to the new house, and we are trying to get it neat and organized. We have also moved some smaller pieces of furniture like bookshelves and end tables. I have scheduled a moving company for April 8 to take the big, heavy things to the new place.

Tuesday night, we took time out to worship at the temple and that is always good for body, mind and spirit.

Wednesday night, Charly and I attended a retirement planning seminar. The information was good, and so was the dinner we got as part of the seminar.

The dinner we selected at the seminar was steak, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. I had not had a steak dinner in a long time, but this steak was perfectly done and everything, including the chocolate cake I had for dessert, was delicious!

We got a little more snow Thursday and Friday, but by Saturday, blue skies were back and the temperatures had warmed up again.

Saturday morning, we started the day with much needed pedicures for both Charly and I. Charly and I are both pleased with how regular pedicures are helping us keep our feet healthier with less pain and discomfort. It's a little bit of self-care that is well worth it for us.

After the pedicure, we went to the tile store because we have decided to replace the existing laminate countertops in our new home with quartz. We had the contractor give us a bid, then we went to the tile store to pick out the quartz we want on the countertops and back splash. This is not a great picture because of the shadows, but this is the quartz we chose. We should have the new countertops installed sometime in the next couple of weeks, depending on when the contractor can get us on his schedule.

Saturday was a beautiful but chilly day. It was nice to see snow on the mountains again - as it should be in February.

After taking another load of our belongings to our new home, we went to Home Depot to get a new back porch light, some grab bars, and towel bars for the bathroom.

We ran some other errands and ended up eating a late fast-food dinner before returning home to Salt Lake City.

Sunday was another nice day. We attended church as we usually do. After lunch, we went to our new home with another load of belongings - mostly books and kitchen items.

Sunday dinner was crockpot beef and gravy over mashed potatoes with roasted carrots and green salad. It is one of my favorite Sunday dinners. Very good.

After dinner, I took a walk around the neighborhood and listened to an audiobook while I walked. I am enjoying having enough light after dinner to take a walk.

As the new week begins, I am reading this novel, The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen. It was highly recommended by my long-time blogging friend Karen over at Life is Good. I just downloaded the book to my Kindle and started it last night, and so far I am really liking it.

In addition, Charly and I are reading a little of this book about retirement planning, Pay Check and Play Checks by Tom Hegna out loud every night before bed.

I'm listening to this audiobook, Mostly What God Does, written and read by Savannah Guthrie. In light of everything going on with her mom, Nancy, this book is a little tough to listen to. I do hope that Savannah's faith remains strong as she deals with everything going on. My blogging friend Faith over at Gold in the Clouds recommended it to me a while ago.

Weekend Gratitude:

Getting needed snow!
Traveling safely.
Moving more things to our new home.
Enjoying time with my sweetheart Charly!

Praying For:

Continued needed moisture in the form of rain and snow.
My children and grandchildren.
The Nation.

Looking Forward To:

Getting more things moved into our new house.
Having new quartz countertops installed.
Spring Break coming in April.
Taking Friday off to do something with Charly and Josh.

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

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

Seek the Lord and his strength,
seek his face continually.

1 Chronicles 16:11

Sunday, February 15, 2026

A Peek into My Valentines Week and Weekend

I had hopes of doing a post on Friday, but that didn't happen, so here's a peek into the last week and weekend

While we have been having a lot of sunny, warm, springlike weather where I live, about mid-week, clouds rolled in and temperatures dropped a little, but not enough to bring us snow.

We got some rain off and on throughout the day, and the mountains got a couple of inches of new snow. It was better than nothing, and I am grateful for what we got, but we need more and continue to pray for rain and snow.

The rain ended in time for me to have a walk after dinner. I enjoyed the beautiful sunset that I saw as I was finishing my walk and going home.

We had parent-teacher conferences at school on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. We had a lot of parents come and very few spoke English, so I got to use some of my very basic Spanish speaking skills that I picked up in high school and college, way back in the day. The conferences went well, and I am now finished with the LAST parent-teacher conferences of my teaching career! We got Friday off as a comp day after staying late for parent-teacher conferences.

We were given dinner at the school on parent-teacher conference nights. We were able to get free street tacos at a food truck outside the school, just by showing our ID badge. The tacos were authentic and very tasty! I love street tacos!

Our new dining room set was delivered to our new home last week. I think it will work really well. We are pleased that it came with six chairs, in case we want to have company over for dinner.

When I got home from school on Thursday, this was sitting on the counter, a fun early Valentine's present from Charly!

On Friday night, Charly gave me this little Valentine bear and a beautiful card. I have a whole collection of the little bears because he has been giving me one on Valentines Day for years. Charly is so thoughtful and I always feel loved on Valentines and other special days.💝

My Valentines present to Charly was some Crumbl Cookies, which he loves. He got a big cookie in his favorite flavor and six mini-Crumbls.

We always try to do something a little special for our children and grandchildren on Valentines Day and this year, each one got a card and a gift card to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

It was great to be off on Friday. I slept in until 6:45 a.m.. We had to get our Honda inspected and registered so that was the first thing on our Friday "to do" list. Fortunately, the mechanic got us in right away and we were able to mark this chore off of our list.

Later we took some more things to our new house. After unloading the car, we stopped at Wendy's for a fast-food lunch. I always get a kids meal when I eat at a fast-food place and I decided today that Wendy's Kids Meals are superior to McDonalds.

We took the new Broyhill end table that we got for only $23 at a used furniture store we like, to our new home. It is now in our family room between our two new recliners.

After lunch we decided to check in at a couple of favorite thrift stores, and we had a nice time browsing and getting a couple of things.

Charly was excited to find this vintage hula doll, which he plans to put on the dash board of his car, if he can figure out how. I remember when hula dolls on the dash board of cars were common.

After we got home, Charly went into the office to get started on the taxes, and I went grocery shopping.

I stayed up later on Friday night to finish this excellent book, The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson. I'll review it in my Reading Roundup at the end of the month.

Saturday morning, we packed our car, once again, and took some more things to our new home. After we had unloaded our car, we picked up our 14-year-old grandson, and took him to lunch. His choice of restaurants was Popeyes Chicken. We enjoy visiting over chicken sandwiches.

When we took our grandson back to his house, we enjoyed spending some time visiting with our daughter and the rest of the grandchildren. Our almost 18-year-old granddaughter had been out with friends at a cake decorating class and made this fun cake that looks like a hamburger. Charly and I each had a piece and it was really good!

There was also exciting news about our almost 18-year-old granddaughter. She found out that she has been admitted to BYU to attend college. She will graduate from high school in May, then she plans to serve an 18 month mission first, and then she will go to BYU. BYU Provo is a very selective school and not everyone who applies gets in, so we are very proud of our granddaughter, who is an excellent student, and an all-around nice human being.

As I mentioned, we gave our daughter, her husband and all the children Valentines cards with gift cards to Chick-Fil-A and Saturday afternoon, our son-in-law texted us this cute picture of he and our daughter and the two youngest girls at Chick-Fil-A.

Saturday was a beautiful, warm day. After a few hours of rain earlier in the week, the spring-like weather returned. Usually at this time of year, the mountains are white with snow, but you can see there is only snow at the very top of the mountains.

As we went to church Sunday morning, the skies were gray and cloudy, but our worship service was warm and wonderful, with powerful music and messages.

After church, we once again packed up the car and headed south to our new home. Today, we took groceries from our food storage, a small bookcase and a couple of boxes of books.

After we unloaded the car and put everything away, we took a couple of things over to Josh. This is the view from the apartment complex where he lives.

Sunday dinner was a new-to-me recipe, Walking Taco Casserole. It was excellent.

We enjoyed the Walking Taco Casserole a lot. I had Baby Spring Mix salad and blue cheese dressing with mine.

Here's the recipe. It was easy to make, and very delicious.

After dinner, I went out for a walk. There were some blue skies and sunshine behind the clouds. It was quite breezy and cool. This is the flag at a nearby school I walked past.

While I was out walking, I listened to some of this audiobook, Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie. The book is excellent, especially in light of all that is going on with the Guthrie family and the abduction of Savannah's mother. I'm about half-way through the audiobook now.