Currently on a Hot July Sunday

 

The weather has been hot, as expected in mid-July.   The next week is expected to be very warm and we may get some rain from monsoon storms.  There have been some strong monsoon storms in Southern Utah, and there have been tragic deaths from flash flooding.  Sunday, the I-15, the freeway that goes from one end of Utah to the other, was closed due to flooding and a mudslide.  Despite that, we haven't had a lot of rain here in Northern Utah. 

I've been reading this novel, Sandwich by Catherine Newman.  I will be finished with it in a couple of days. 

I've been watching a documentary on Theodore Roosevelt on Netflix which is very interesting.  I really like documentaries about historical people and events, and this is a good one. 

I've been enjoying going to our city's Farmer's Market every Wednesday evening this month. There is a vender there who makes excellent, fresh sour dough bread and it is delicious!  

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I'm loving that Charly and I have been going to the temple to worship almost every week.   Last week, we went in the morning and it was a great way to start the day. 

I've been working on the "plant ledge" above our kitchen cabinets.  After getting the Coca-Cola bench I wrote about in my last post, we decided to use some fun Coke items as part of our decor.  We got some things through Facebook Marketplace and a few things at an antique and at a yard sale we went to on Saturday. 

Here's a closer view of the fun things we put up there on the ledge.  

We also got this vintage Coke Clock which is now hanging above the French doors by our dining room table. 

In my garden I put out these new garden flags in the front garden, replacing the 4th of July flags that had been there.   I also put a new welcome sign on the front door.

I have some little tomatoes (which are delicious) and lots of flowers, which I love.   The yard at our new home is small, but it is manageable and I am grateful that I have a place to grow flowers and vegetables. 

In the kitchen I made baked chicken, potatoes and green beans for Sunday dinner. I also baked blue berry and banana nut muffins. Josh and our grandson Miles came to eat dinner with us Sunday and it was nice to have them here. 

I'm grateful that this has been a good Sabbath with worship in the morning, a nice nap in the afternoon, dinner with Josh and Miles, a good documentary to watch, and a Sunday evening walk. 

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) going fishing with our grandsons this week.  This is my grandson Clay with a fish he caught last week.   I'm looking forward to spending some time with and learning from this young expert fisherman!

That's all for now!  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week, and I will see you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Everything good, everything magical

happens between the months of 

June and August."

~Jenny Han

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

Currently - A Monday Update

I haven't been in blog land a lot lately. We've been very busy with moving and getting things set up at our new house. School is also busy and stressful, so my days are full to overflowing.  That's way I haven't posted for a while, but I decided it was time for a little Monday update, so here's what is currently going on in my world. 

The weather has been cool and cloudy the past couple of days.  Sunday was right down cold with a brisk breeze blowing most of the day.  The forecast is for the weather to warm back up, though and by Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we should be up in the 80s.  Crazy weather - an almost snowless winter and 80 degree temperatures in March!  This is very uncommon in Utah. 

I'm reading The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen.  I should be finished with this book by now.  It's a good book, but I am so tired by the time I get a few minutes to relax and read at the end of the day, that I am almost falling asleep before I can get through many pages.   My reading has really fallen off since we have been undertaking the move to our new home. 

We've been working on moving as much as we can to our new house. Sunday, we unpacked books and put them on shelves.

I'm enjoying outdoor walks whenever I can fit them in. 

I'm loving that we took several loads of things to donate to our favorite thrift store last weekend.   Moving is always a good time to see just how much stuff we have accumulated and pass along what we don't need to others. 

In the kitchen very little has been going on lately. This was our Sunday dinner - fast food from Arby's after unpacking boxes at our new home.  I'm not saying that this is at all the way I want to eat on an ongoing basis, but it is what it is for now.  I am looking forward to making use of my beautiful new kitchen once we are moved in once and for all. 

I'm feeling more than ready to "call it a career" and retire in just 48 more school days.  Today, I started the process of applying for my Utah State Teachers Pension.   

I'm grateful that when we spoke to a financial planner last week, he complimented us on how prepared we are financially for retirement.  It's taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but I feel like we are where we need to be and I am thankful for that. 

I apologize that I haven't been around to visit and comment on many blogs lately, and that will likely continue for a while. I expect that my own posting will be somewhat sporadic until I retire and our move is complete, but I will pop in to say hello when I can. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"A great attitude becomes a great day

which becomes a great month

which becomes a great year

which becomes a GREAT LIFE.

It all starts with your attitude."

~anon.

The First Friday in October

Here's what's going on in my world on the first Friday in October. 

The weather is cooler and fall-like.  We have had some rain, and as you can see, our highs are only in the 60s and 70s. Tomorrow (Saturday) is supposed to be another rainy day. 

I've been reading two nonfiction books - The Slow Stain by Connor Boyack which is about religious history and end-time kind of stuff and, The Underclass by Ken Auletta which documents the lives and struggles of the very poor.  Both books are interesting.  I haven't been able to find a fiction book that is catching my interest this week. 

I'm listening to thunder outside.  It's nice to hear thunder because it means rain! I'm so glad and grateful that we are finally getting some rain and more is expected this weekend.  

I'm watching one of my favorite Christian Latter-day Saint podcast on Youtube. 

I've been working on dressing up the front of the house with some fall/Halloween decor.  I may do some fall decorating inside as well, but haven't decided yet. 

I've been enjoying this lovely Honey Dew Melon that we harvested from our garden a few days ago.  

I'm loving that these flowers that are still blooming adding color and beauty to my hard. 

I'm looking forward to watching our church's semiannual General Conference this weekend. 

In the kitchen, Charly made a wonderful crock pot delicious chilli this past week.  It was so good and didn't last long. 

I've been feeling dark and cloudy like the sky outside on Friday. There have just been too many difficult and heavy things happening in our nation, the world, and even in my family.  I'm praying and trusting God. 

I'm grateful for Friday night worship at the temple that helps me feel the peace of God. 

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

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

  

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💖