End of July, First of August Catch-Up

Here are some of the things that have been going on in my world this hot summer week. 

Our backyard project is continuing.  We are having a new deck and patio cover built.  This is what the project looks like at the end of this week. Work will continue on Monday, but because there is a delay getting the materials for the roof, it probably won't be finished until the end of next week.  We are so impressed with the quality of workmanship the contractors we hired are doing. This is going to be a great addition to our backyard. 

Charly had his annual eye exam last week, and I am so grateful that his eye health is good.  It's my turn to go to the eye doctor next week.  I don't love going to the eye doctor, but I know that it's important to get my vision checked once a year. 

We had a couple of days of cooler temperatures last week, and even got some rain, which was great.  Today the heat is back, but it was nice to have at least a couple of days with cooler, cloudier weather. 

We went to Market Night on Wednesday of last week.  

Our favorite thing to buy at Market Night is Sourdough bread, and this last week we got Cheddar Cheese Sourdough bread.  Delicious!

Charly and I tried a new sandwich place near our home on Friday, and it was reasonably priced with good excellent sandwiches. 

This is the BLT on wheat that I had for lunch.  It was huge.  I ate half for lunch one day and saved the other half for the next day's lunch. 

Saturday was a low-key day for us.  It was a very hot day with temperatures over 100.  We went for a walk in the morning, then we were home almost the entire day until we went to the grocery store in the evening.  

Charly hung my book clock on Saturday. It wasn't easy to hang because it is a very heavy clock. I bought it at a thrift store for $14 when we were in St. George earlier this summer.  It didn't work, so we had to take it to a clock repair shop.  We were able to have it repaired for a reasonable price, and now it is hanging in our basement family room.  I really like this cute clock which, the clockmaker told us dated back to the 1960s or 1970s. 

I went out for an evening walk on Saturday after we got home from the grocery store.  I have been noticing that it's getting dark a little earlier each night, now that we are moving toward fall. 

Sunday morning, the flowers in my front yard garden looked so pretty.  I took this picture as we were on our way to church. 

We went to church.  I passed this beautiful painting on my way into the chapel. After the main worship service, we attended Sunday School. 

Sunday, we got the news that our dear friend Ron, (second from the left in this old picture), had died.  He is a long-time friend of Charly's and we have known he and his wife since before we were both married.  Our children were similar ages.  His wife (on the far left) passed from cancer about two years ago, and then his son (on the far right) passed from colon cancer just a few weeks after his mother.  It was all very sad.   We had seen Ron just a few weeks ago when he was in a hospital in Salt Lake City.  He was then released from the hospital and went home to Wyoming where he died this morning. 

Sunday dinner was Cowboy Breakfast Casserole, with green salad, coleslaw and fruit.  I thought the casserole was very good, but Charly said it wasn't one of his favorites.  Josh joined us for dinner as he does most Sundays. 

I did quite a bit of reading last week and finished this book, Leap of Faith by Kate Hewitt. It is about a typical suburban family who decided to leave the stresses of modern life behind and move to a homestead in West Virginia.  I really quite liked this book.   My reading has drastically fallen off this year due to a number of things, but I was pleased that I finished four books during the month of July.

Also last week, we finished watching the series on Netflix about Teddy Roosevelt and started watching this documentary on FDR.   I love history documentaries and these are both excellent!

Gratitude for this week:

😊Making progress on our deck and patio cover project. 

😊Having a productive week. 

😊Being retired.

Praying for:

🙏 My children and grandchildren.

🙏 Health for Charly and I.

🙏 Help with making some important decisions we are facing.

🙏 The family of our friend who passed on Sunday. 

Looking forward to:

🠞 The completion of the deck and patio cover project.

🠞 Seeing our grandchildren next weekend.

🠞 Not going back to school next week!

That's all for this week.  Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the week ahead. 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

" Be not afraid 

nor dismayed...

for the battle is not yours, but God's."

2 Chronicles 20:15

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The Best of the Last Week

These are some of the things that made me happy this past week. 

We sold the last piece of furniture we had in our old house this week.  I put this old filing cabinet on Facebook Marketplace for $10 and was pleased when a young couple came and carried it out of our basement and gave us a $10 bill.   It is so good to get that last item gone from our old house.

I have a large Hibiscus plant in my front yard, and it is out in bloom, covered with these large, beautiful flowers.  I love Hibiscus.  I didn't realize that I had a Hibiscus bush in the yard when we bought this place, but having it is kind of like a little bonus. 

We bought and Charly assembled this hose cady which is so helpful to me as I water the Hibiscus and other bushes in my front garden. 

We had our annual church congregation barbeque and swimming party at a local park.  It was well attended.  

Charly and I didn't swim, but it was fun to enjoy a summer picnic dinner while visiting with some of our fellow church members. 

We went to our town's market night again, and got some more fresh-baked sour dough bread, which we have really been enjoying. Since it was dinner time when we went, we got some very delicious Philly cheesesteak sandwiches for dinner. They were made just like the cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, complete with Cheese Whiz, and boy were they good! 

I went to worship at the temple with my oldest granddaughter.  It was a nice experience for just the two of us to attend and worship at the temple on a Tuesday afternoon. 

I've been continuing to work on hanging pictures up in our home. This past week, I hung some family pictures in our bedroom and downstairs in a hallway.   We have a lot of family pictures and there isn't room to display all of them, but it doesn't feel like home without pictures of those I love on the walls. 

We went to a thrift store we like this past week, and I found all of these Nancy Drew books I needed for my collection.

This is Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys collections now.  I need just a few books to complete both collections. 

Charly and I also found another fun antique mall near our home that we enjoyed exploring. 

We got some things for the Coke shelves in our home. 

Even though it's been quite hot this week, I've been able to take both morning and evening walks most days this week.  This is a nearby walking park where I like to walk in the morning. 

I love attending church, and I am always grateful when I can worship there.  We had good messages and lessons in church on Sunday.

I've been using this air fryer that I got for $5 from a neighbor's yard sale a few weeks ago.  I love the way it cooks food. We had French fries last night and hashbrowns with our dinner tonight and they were delicious!  I'll be using this a lot more! 

This past week, I finished this book, Sandwich by Catherine Newman.  I didn't like it much.  It had a lot of bad language and adult themes and content, and I didn't really care for the story either.

I also finished this book, Don't Miss This in the Old Testament, which Charly and I have been reading together.  I loved this devotional book and gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. 

I started three new books this week, Leap of Faith by Kate Hewitt, Don't Miss This in the New Testament and Secrets of a Happy Life by David O. McKay. 

What I'm most grateful for this week:

💗Being retired. 
💗Having a good visit with Josh when he came to dinner tonight. 
💗Making some friends in our new church congregation. 

Praying for:
🙏My husband, children and grandchildren.

🙏A friend recently diagnosed with cancer. 

🙏The sale of our old house. 

🙏Help in finding good volunteer opportunities in retirement.

Coming up this week:

😊Charly has an eye doctor appointment.

😊Contractors are coming to start on our backyard project of a new deck and patio cover. 

That's all for right now.  Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!

Until next time. 

😊Deb💖

 

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!  

 i

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

250th American Anniversary Weekend

Our 4th of July was really a good one.  Here are some of the highlights.

Saturday morning, I was up very early, at 5 p.m., to pick up my granddaughters and take them to the Freedom Festival July 4th Parade in Provo, Utah.   Getting up early paid off and we were able to get good seats to watch the parade.

Here we are together in our front row seats getting ready to the see all the fun parade action. 

Here are some scenes from the parade that, I have heard, is rated as the #1 July 4th parade west of the Mississippi.  It usually draws quite a crowd - about 300,000 spectators, according to the city of Provo website. It was a fun parade and I enjoyed being there with  my granddaughters. 

After the parade, I took my granddaughters home, then went home to rest.  After rehydrating and taking a short nap, Josh and I went to another fun July 4th event in our community - the Colonial Heritage Festival.  

Josh's bishop (pastor) was one of the directors of this event, so Josh had been wanting to attend since he heard about it. 

The entire event centers around reenactment of colonial culture.  There were lots of "soldiers" and military reenactments. 

There were all kind of interesting colonial period exhibits.  

There were also some lectures and talks about the history of that era. 

Later, we went to our daughter's home for a special 4th of July family dinner. This is my son-in-law and daughter. They are a lovely couple and are raising a wonderful family.  

There was lots of American themed food, including this fun fruit salad that my granddaughter made to look like a flag. 

We enjoyed eating and visiting over a very  delicious July 4th dinner. 

After dinner, we played badminton and cornhole in the backyard.

Jumping on the trampoline looked like lots of fun.  I wanted to try it, but I also didn't want to break something. 

It was so much fun to have a fun evening with these people that we love so much. 

No fireworks for us on July 4th because personal fireworks were banned by our governor due to recent wildfires in our state.  Our community's fireworks and patriotic drone show took place last month, and while there was a big fireworks show in Provo, it could not be seen from our house.  Josh really wanted to see the WWII movie Lucky Strike, so he and Charly went to a late showing of that. They both liked the movie and said they would like to see it again. 

Sunday was a low-key day.  Because our 4th of July was so busy and Charly got home so late after going to a movie with Josh, we did not go to our Sunday morning worship service.  I really miss church when I don't go, and I look forward to being there to worship next week! We had to go to our old house again Sunday to take the garbage cans back to the backyard after garbage day. Back home, we had a restful day, mostly inside because it was 99 degrees outside. Our Sunday dinner had a summer Independence Day theme - hot dogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, and chips.  Josh came over for dinner and we enjoyed eating and visiting with him. 

After dinner, Charly and I settled down to watch another American history series about Ulysses Grant on Netflix.  It is a very good series.  

When we finished the series on Ulysses Grant, we started another one about George Washington.  I love history and found the series very interesting. 

Later, when it was a little cooler, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. 

Weekend Gratitude:

• Living in the United States of America. 
• Having a wonderful weekend celebrating this nation's birth. 
• Spending time with our children and grandchildren.

Praying For:

• Our nation. 
• My children and grandchildren.
• The sale of our home. 

Looking Forward To:

• Lunch with my cousin this week. 
• Seeing our daughter and her family again next weekend. 
• Getting our house sold. 

That's all for now.  I hope you have had a good weekend and that the week ahead is a good one for you.

Until next time

😊Deb💖