Currently on a Rainy Sunday

 

The weather is cool and rainy.  It has been raining steadily since last night, and it is now 6:11 p.m. on Sunday evening.  I'm not complaining because we desperately need the water. The picture is of of our new street earlier this afternoon. 

I'm reading three books currently.   All are nonfiction religious/ scripture-based books. They are Rise Up by Connor Boyack, Modern Idolatry and the End of the World by Avraham Gileadi, and a devotional book I that am reading every night with my husband, Don't Miss This in the Old Testament by Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler.   I am finding that I don't have a lot of time to read right now, so I'm not reading any fiction. 

I'm listening to this audiobook, Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me by Wilfred Reilly.  It was recommended in one of the classes I attended at the FIRM Foundation Conference last.  I'm finding it very interesting, and I am learning a lot.

I've been working on planting flowers and trimming bushes in our new front yard.  If you look closely, you can see some new little plants in the dirt.  We also got two blueberry bushes for our backyard. 

I'm also working on selling and donating everything we don't need.  These are some comic books that Josh had for years, and he asked me to put them on Facebook Marketplace. They sold in a matter of hours.   The person who bought them also bought an old Wii game system that we had for our boys when they were younger.  I also posted and sold a teacher cart that Charly used when he was teaching.   We are donating what we don't sell, and last week, we made multiple trips to the thrift store with things we no longer need.

I'm enjoying walking in our new area.  This picture was taken on a Saturday morning walk I took yesterday. 

I'm loving that my Christmas Cactus keeps blooming.  It is really beautiful!

I'm also loving attending church in our new congregation.  Our new church house has many lovely paintings of Jesus, which add to the overall spiritual atmosphere.   We are also finding the members of the new congregation to be very kind and friendly.

In the kitchen not much has been going on this week.  We got a take-n-bake deli pizza one night, another night we went to a sit-down restaurant, and then another night we stopped into a local Wendy's. 

Our Sunday dinner was some excellent, ready-made deli sandwiches and salads from a local grocery store in our new town. Once we have completely moved and I retire, I do plan to start actually cooking again. 

I'm celebrating my grandson's birthday. Saturday, he turned 14. This is a picture taken on his birthday eleven years ago.  Time goes so quickly.  We will be taking him out to lunch and giving him his birthday gift next Saturday.   He is growing to be a smart, kind, and capable  young man, and we are very proud of him!

I'm looking forward to attending the BYU Women's Conference at the end of this coming week.   I will only be attending the last day of the conference, Friday, May 1.

I'm also looking forward to getting our current house listed and on the market in the coming week.  We're hoping that it sells quickly and for a good price, like other homes in our neighborhood.

I'm grateful that the end of school and the end of my teaching career is coming in only 24 school days!

That's all for this week's post.  Thanks for visiting. Have a good week, and I'll see you all again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Optimism is a happiness magnet.

If you stay positive, good things

and good people

will be drawn to you."

~ Mary Lou Retton

A Good Mid-April Week

There has been a lot going on here, so I haven't been in blogland a lot this past week.  Here's a quick catch-up on what has been going on in my world in the middle of April. 

It's been another six months since my last trip to the dentist, so I went in for my bi-annual visit last week.  Everything went well - no problems and no cavities.  I was in and out in under half-an-hour.  Charly also had his check-up and wasn't as lucky as I was.  He has a small cavity that will be taken care of next week. 

I took my last two personal days on Thursday and Friday last week, and Charly and I attended the FIRM Foundation Conference and Expo.  This event takes place every April and October, and Charly and I have been attending for the past few years.  We always learn a lot and have a good time. This conference is held at a local community college and has many different speakers and classes on topics as diverse as health, science, politics, history, religion, and the scriptures.  

Even though we are still living in our old house, (so I can go to work until the end of the school year), most of the rooms are empty or almost empty.  

We haven't had the pictures of our old house taken yet (that will happen next week), but our realtor brought a potential buyer through this weekend. We have the "For Sale" sign, and it will go in the front yard as soon as the pictures are taken and the house is officially listed. 

We stayed at our new home Saturday night after the conference, and attended church at our new congregation Sunday morning. This is the church where our new congregation meets.  It is about three blocks from our new house.

After church, we spent some time doing some organizing at the new house.  We are trying to put things away as we bring them to the house.  This is my "Christmas Cactus" which is now by a large window in the lower level of the home.  Apparently, this plant loves where it's at because I have never had it blossom like this - and it's not every Christmastime!

We came back to our old house Sunday afternoon, in time for me to actually cook dinner. We had this beefy rice casserole, with roasted carrots, which was very good! 

Here's the very easy and delicious recipe, which I found on Facebook. 

Sunday evening was perfect for a walk, so I went out and, walked around the neighborhood after dinner. We had some rain and cooler temperatures last week, so the grass and trees were green and lovely.

Gratitude:

• Attending the FIRM Foundation Conference with Charly. 
• Traveling safely. 
• Having a good dental check-up. 
• Continuing with the move to the new house. 

Praying For:

• Our children and grandchildren.
• Help in selling our old home. 
• Help in dealing with some difficult students at school.
• Our nation. 
• Our military. 

Looking Forward To:

• Having lunch with an old friend this week. 
• Getting our current home on the market at the end of this week. 
• Getting through the last six weeks of my teaching career. 
• An upcoming Women's Conference that I will be attending the week after next.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a good week!

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

Spring Break Week and Moving Day

This last week, I had the whole week off from school. This was the last spring break of my career because I am retiring at the end of May.  There were no trips and not much relaxation during this spring break, because we are right in the middle of moving to our new home.  Here's how the week went. 

Monday, we donated three big furniture pieces to The Other Side Academy which helps those overcoming addiction and incarceration.  This organization runs a used furniture store which we love, and we have bought several pieces of furniture from them, but this week it was time to give back and donate some unwanted and unneeded furniture items.  The two men who came to pick up our donations were incredibly strong and skilled at moving heavy furniture and they had our items out in their truck in no time at all.

Tuesday, we took time out of the busyness of moving to worship at the temple on morning.  The flowers in front of the temple were gorgeous.   The picture does not do them justice, but they were fragrant and very lovely. 

Worshipping at the temple with my sweetheart always makes me happy!

We made daily trips to our new home, and also to the thrift store with items to donate. 

I also went through a lot of old files and spent quite a while shredding documents and bills we don't need anymore.  I'm embarrassed to say that I found some bills from our dentist in Arizona dating back to 2002!  We paid those long ago!

Thursday was moving day. The moving van arrived at our old house at 8:45 a.m..

The moving crew was skilled, fast, and efficient. They had all of the heavy furniture in our house loaded up in the truck in about an hour. 

Here is the almost empty truck in front of our new home after everything was unloaded.  The entire process from start to finish only took about three hours. 

Thursday night, after doing some unpacking and arranging at our new house, we returned to the old house to do some yard work.  We will be staying in this house, most nights, until the school year is over at the end of May, but it is mostly empty now, and will go on the market for sale within a week or two. 

Charly and I both needed pedicures, so we took care of that Friday morning.  We have both found that getting pedicures every few weeks helps our foot health.  I haven't had an ingrown nail since I started getting regular pedicures. 

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were cooler and cloudy.  We received some much-needed rain.   We stayed both Friday and Saturday nights at our new home.

Of course, we still have lots of unpacking and arranging to do at the new place, but we are making progress.  Two projects I accomplished over the weekend at our new house were setting up our doorbell camera and, also installing a new shower head in the master bathroom.  

Sunday, we attended church in the congregation near our new home. We will go to church there from now on. This picture of Jesus was the first thing we saw when we walked through the door of the church, and I knew I was in the right place.  

This is our new chapel and congregation getting ready for the worship service to begin Sunday morning. 

We went back to the old house after church because I had listed these bookcases for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and the buyer wanted to come and pick them up.  

The bookcases are gone now, and the family room is nearly empty except for a few things that we will be taking to the new house in the next few days. 

After the bookcases were picked up, I went for a walk around the old neighborhood.  It was cloudy and windy, but I managed to finish my walk without getting rained on. 

Dinner was Asian chicken, vegetables, and noodles with French bread.    It came from the grocery store deli and wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be.  Nothing beats home cooking, and I hope to do much more of that again once this move is finished. 

Tonight, after I post this, I plan to finish this book that I have been reading for a while.  I know the author. We went to the same church congregation when we lived in Arizona.  She has written a lot of books and I have read a few, and this one is the best one so far.  Charly and I had toyed with the idea of packing the car and making one more Sunday night run to the new home, but we are both tired, and I go back to school tomorrow, so I need to get ready for that.  This has been a busy and exhausting spring break and I hope to get in bed early and sleep well. 

Gratitude:

• Being on the last spring break of my career. 
• Getting all of our heavy furniture moved to the new home. 
• Traveling safely back and forth between two homes. 
• Attending church at our new congregation. 
• Worshipping at the temple. 
• Getting rain!

Praying For:

• Our children and grandchildren.
• Help in selling our home. 
• Our nation. 
• Our military.

Looking Forward To:

• Taking Thursday and Friday off to attend a history, theology, and apologetics conference. 
• Completing the school year and retiring in 34 school days!

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

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow:

For the morrow shall take thought 

for the things of itself.  

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Matthew 6:34 KJV

Looking Back at Holy Week and Easter Weekend

Holy Week is the most important week of the year for Christians.  It is on this week that we remember the final week of Jesus Christ's earthly life, where he entered Jerusalem in triumph, cleansed the temple of unholy merchants and money changers, broke bread with his disciples and instituted the sacrament or communion that Christians still partake of to remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior.   He prayed for strength in the Garden of Gethsemane and took upon himself the sins of all mankind, while his disciples slept. He was then betrayed by one of his close followers, arrested, subject to a mockery of a trial, beaten, mocked, scored, tortured and finally forced to carry the cross to which he was cruelly nailed.  He died for all of us - took the sins of all mankind upon himself - opening the way for us to return to Him and live forever.  He was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb, then rose again on the third day as He had said He would, and He lives now.  He is my Lord and Savior - He is all of our Lord and Savior.  He lives, and because of his great sacrifice, we can live too - both now and after we leave this life.  

On Monday of last week, we met up with  our daughter Tiffany and her family to attend the Lindon Temple open house.   The temple will be dedicated as a house of worship in May, but before the dedication, anyone and everyone who wants a tour of this beautiful, holy building can come to the open house. 

Here is Charly and I with our daughter, her husband and four of their five children at the temple open house. 

After the temple, we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place for dinner.  Our oldest grandson, Miles, was off work, and joined us.  We had a fun dinner together. 

The trees in our area were covered with blossoms at the beginning of the week, but by the end of the week, the blossoms were gone - replaced by new little green leaves. 

There are flowers out in bloom in the yard of our old house.  I love tulips and used to have many more, but the many squirrels in the old neighborhood have dug up many of my tulip bulbs. 

We also had some rain this week, and a small amount of snow in the valley, with more in the mountains.  We need moisture badly and we are grateful for what we got this week, but we are still in a serious water deficit.  

This past week of school was last week before spring break.  On Friday, the students were dismissed at 12:30 p.m. (as they always are on Friday), and the principal let us teachers go home shortly after that, so it was nice to get home a couple of hours earlier than normal.  I enjoyed an afternoon nap when I got home. 

After my nap, I spent some time downstairs cleaning things out (especially in Josh's old bedroom).  The picture shows the carload of things I took to our local charity thrift store to donate.   We have donated a lot recently and Monday morning, another thrift store is coming to pick up some large furniture pieces that we are donating to them.  

In addition to donating a lot of things, I posted some more items for sale on Facebook Marketplace and I ended up selling these items - Josh's Game Cube, Josh's clarinet (which he played for one year as a 5th grader), two bookshelves, and some hanging flower pots. 

Saturday was another busy day of moving, but we took time out in the late afternoon to meet up with friends for dinner at this restaurant.  We had a  nice visit.

Sunday morning, I got up and put our Sunday dinner of "Swamp Potatoes" in the Crock Pot.  

Our church had it's semiannual General Conference Sunday and that was on TV, so we "watched church" and didn't go in person.   You can see the mess that our family room is in - filled with boxes for our move.

About noon, after a quick lunch, we went back to our new house, but we didn't stay long and were back home in time to watch the afternoon session of our church's  General Conference.  Josh stopped by for a brief chat, as he frequently does when he has the time.  His apartment is about ten minutes from this house. 

It was a beautiful spring day.  The air was clear and the sky was a bright blue without any clouds.  You can see that there is some snow high up on the mountains from last week's snow. 

Our Sunday Easter Dinner was the Swamp Potatoes I had put in the slow cooker in the morning.  Along with the Swamp Potatoes, we had a green salad and some fresh baked cinnamon apple bread.

After dinner I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  It was a very nice evening for a walk. 

When I got home from my walk, the man who purchased our bookshelves had come to pick them up.  He said he had a lot of books and was happy to get some good bookshelves, and we were happy that our shelves were going to a person who loves books. 

Later, Charly and I finished watching this documentary about Bible prophecies and archeology.  It is very interesting.  This is the last in the Bible documentaries called Patterns of Evidence. 

After Patterns of Evidence, we started watching The Story of Moses on Netflix. 

Gratitude:

• Traveling safely back and forth to our new home. 
• Being on spring break for all of this week. 
• Hearing wonderful, inspiring Easter messages at our church's General Conference. 
• Selling unneeded items on Facebook Marketplace. 

Praying For:

• Help in finishing the school year. 
• Help in finishing our move. 
• Help and protection for my children and grandchildren.
• Help in selling our current house.

Looking Forward To:

• Having the whole week off. 
• Moving all of our heavy furniture with the moving company this Thursday.
• Finishing the school year and retiring.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week, and remember Jesus is risen!  

Until next time. 

😊Deb💖

"I stand all amazed

at the love Jesus offers me

Confused at the grace 

that so fully he proffers me. 

I tremble to know that 

for me He was crucified,

that for me a sinner

He suffered, He bled and died. 

Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me."

~ I Stand All Amazed

Text and Music by Charles H. Gabriel