Happiness Challenge Day 4

 

I am joining in the August Happiness Challenge with bloggers, like The Gal Herself, who are finding and posting one thing that makes them happy every day during this month. 

Today, August 4, it made me happy to visit an antique store owned by a friend of a friend. The shop was in a historic home built in 1884. It was a fun place to browse.  The owners also had a green house full of house plants next door, so I bought an African Violet, which I hope I can keep alive.   It makes me happy to explore fun places like this in my community. 

If you want to join in, each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

Good Things and Gratitude

Here are a few of the bright spots in my world the past week.  Once again, I'm joining with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Fives.

😊 I received this fun retirement card from my long-time blogging buddy, Mari over at My Little Corner of the World.  It made me smile!  I am so grateful for Mari and the many sweet friends who I have come to know through blogging.  

😊 I received  another cute picture of three of my grandchildren having fun fishing at the lake.  The two older boys took their little sister fishing and she had the first catch of the day!   It looked like so much fun, I asked my grandsons if they could teach me how to fish, so we are all going to the lake together Friday night and grandma is going to learn to fish!  I haven't been fishing since I was a very little girl and I went with my parents.  I'm always grateful for time with my grandchildren!

😊  For years, I have wanted to get some yard flags, and with our nation's 250th anniversary coming up, this seemed like the right time to put some in my yard.  I got two patriotic flags and put them out in front yard.  I also ordered some flags for fall, because fall will be here before we know it!  I'm grateful that I have a nice little yard for plants and other yard decor. 

😊 Speaking of my front yard, this lovely orange sunflower just came out in bloom there, and I love it.  Charly planted the sunflower seeds several weeks ago. I've never planted sunflowers in my yard before, but this one is beautiful, and I hope to plant more in subsequent years.  I'm grateful for flowers in my yard because I love all kinds of flowers! 

😊 I have been working on hanging pictures in our home again this week.  I'm the kind of person who has to think about the perfect spot for each picture and wall hanging.  One day this week, I felt inspired with where I wanted to put several pictures, so I got busy hanging them.  I'm very pleased and grateful with how everything inside our home is coming together.  I am thankful for our new home and how much we are enjoying making it our own!

😊 We worshipped at the temple one afternoon this week.  I always grateful when we had time to worship Jesus (in addition to our Sunday worship) and and feel His peace there in the temple. 

😊 Thursday was Josh's birthday and we took him out for birthday brunch at The Brunch House.  I'm grateful for Josh and that he lives close enough that we can celebrate his birthday by taking him out to eat.  (The trip to Idaho earlier this month was his birthday present). 

😊 It was pedicure time for Charly and I this week. We wanted to find a new nail place close to our new home.  We have found that some nail salons are not the greatest, but we were so pleased with the one we went to this week. It is owned by a couple from Hawaii. This is their college age son who did my toe nails. They were the nicest people and did a great job on our feet.  Charly and I have been having pedicures for a while now and have found they are relaxing and help us avoid foot problems like ingrown nails.  I am grateful that we found a great new nail salon to help us with our foot health!

😊 I've been taking evening walks in our neighborhood almost every evening, and I am grateful that our new home is in a very walkable area, where I feel safe.  There are also lots of nice families and friendly neighbors!

There is always more to be grateful for, but I will stop there for now.  Thanks for  stopping by.  Have a good weekend!  See you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Cultivate the habit of being grateful 

for every good thing that comes to you, 

and to give thanks continuously." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 

Things I Am Thankful for This Week

Here are some of the simple things that I am thankful for as this week closes.  I am joining with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.  Let's get started. 

😊 If you read my last post, you know that Charly, Josh and I took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park.  We had lovely early summer weather for our day at the park.  It was a perfect day, as you can see in the top picture.  This week, storms moved in to Wyoming and Montana and there was snow at Yellowstone, as you can see in the bottom picture.  Some roads were even closed due to the snow in June!  I'm grateful that we had such great weather for our day at Yellowstone, and that we didn't have to deal with winter weather in June. 

😊The other evening, my son-in-law texted us these pictures of my grandsons who were fishing.  These boys LOVE to fish and they had gone to a nearby lake with their dad.  I am always grateful to see my grandchildren, even in pictures, and it's a joy to see them happy and having a good time. 

😊Thursday, we donated some remaining items from our old house to The Other Side Thrift Store, which is an organization that helps men and women recovering from addiction and incarceration.  This is a great organization. We have bought furniture at their thrift store and we have used them to move to our new home.  We have also donated items to them in the past.  I am so  grateful for this organization that helps others because they helped us by taking some items from our old house that we no longer need.  They sent a truck to our house and took our old washer and dryer, bed, and microwave cart.  Now the old house is completely empty. 

😊Now that the old house is completely empty, I am grateful that we have another showing of the house scheduled for tomorrow.  This is a screenshot of the texts we received about the showing.  I am also grateful to all those who are praying that we can sell the house quickly and for the price we need.  

😊 A few weeks ago we bought two small bare-root trees for the backyard at our new home.  I haven't had great luck with bare-root plants in the past, so I didn't have a lot of hope for the little trees, but they were only $10 each, so we thought we would give them a try.  One of the trees, an apple tree, seems to be doing quite well.  It came out with new leaves right away.  The second tree, a peach tree seems to be nothing more than a dry stick in the ground.  I thought it was obviously dead, and so I decided to dig it up.  I am grateful that as I was digging around the tree, I found that it is not dead at all, and there were little leaves coming out at the bottom, by the roots, as shown in the picture.  Now, I am praying that all the trees we planted will grow and thrive in our backyard. 

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by to share the good.  Have an awesome weekend!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions."

~Zig Zigler

Thankful Thursday

Between moving, finishing up the school year, and getting ready to retire, my life is very busy right now.  Still, it's good for the soul to stop, and look at all the things, big and small, that there are to be thankful for.  

😊 Our granddaughter is graduating from high school next week. We received her announcement, which is lovely, and is now hanging on our fridge.  We are so proud of her.  I am grateful that we have been invited to be part of her graduation and attend the graduation ceremony and her graduation party.  

😊 Our daughter invited us to come with her to a plant sale held by a family in her neighborhood, that grows seedlings in greenhouses they have on their property.  This is an annual event, and we got some seedlings for our garden there last year as well.  I'm grateful the we could attend the sale and get a good start on the little garden we will have in the backyard of our new home.   My daughter also bought me some flower seedings at the sale as my Mother's Day gift, which was so very thoughtful of her.

😊 We have a much smaller backyard in our new home, which is fine with us.  We wanted something small and manageable, but with enough space for some plants and a small garden.  I had been looking for a raised garden box, but had not found what I wanted, and the idea of assembling a raised box was daunting to me.  I am grateful that I found the raised box shown in the picture at my local Tractor Supply, which is rapidly becoming my favorite store!  This was the display model, so I didn't have to assemble it, and it was also on sale! Win-win-win!  I'm growing some tomato plants from the plant sale in it. 

😊 We are continuing to move and get settled in our new home.  I have hung some pictures and am pleased with the way our formal living room is taking shape.  I am grateful for our new home, and I can't wait to live there full-time once I retire on May 29!

😊 We are still staying at our old home during the week so I don't have a long commute to school, and we continue to empty the old place out as much as we can while still living there. This past week, I sold this IKEA pantry unit on Facebook Marketplace.  I'm grateful that we were able to sell something else, and I'm grateful that it went to a very nice, kind young married couple who were happy to get it!

😊 I'm also grateful that I was able to get my car in for the routine service and maintenance it needed.  I had a day off for another appointment, and dropped my car off for an oil change.  It was finished in about an hour.  It's always nice that car service can be done with a minimum of hassle and disruption. 

😊 I feel terribly old, but I have officially applied for my Social Security benefits as well as my state teacher's pension.  I am grateful for these benefits that will help us have a good retirement.  I'm also grateful for a very kind and patient young man who walked me through applying for Social Security.

😊 I'm grateful for our new church congregation.  Charly and I have been asked to speak in our worship service this Sunday, to introduce ourselves and share a message.  It's always a bit daunting to me to speak in church, but I'm happy that we are being welcomed to the new congregation. 

Thanks for stopping by to share the good.  I hope you also have much to be grateful for!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"It's the little blessings 

that fill our days with love."

~anon.

Almost the End of March

Here are some of the things I want to remember about the past week:

Our weather was way to warm for March.  We were up in the 80s most of the week. Trees were blossoming everywhere, like the one shown above.  

Our 18-year-old granddaughter, Hailey got her mission call! Our daughter hosted a gathering at her home Tuesday night to celebrate this happy news.  About 40-50 friends and family members came, and Charly and I were there.  In our church, 18-year-olds can choose to serve an 18-month to two year mission - preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving others in the place where they are called.  We believe that the place they serve is inspired by God.  It is always a surprise, not a personal choice of where they would like to go. Our granddaughter found out last week that she will be serving in Oslo, Norway. She will be learning the language and will serve there 18 months. - teaching others the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole family is grateful, pleased and excited about her call. She will graduate from high school in May and then leave on her mission in August.  Other members of our family who have served missions include my husband Charly who served in Colorado (that's how we met) and my son Joshua who served two years in Mexico about ten years ago.  Our son-in-law (Hailey's dad) also served a mission in Brazil before he married our daughter. 

We were excited to see all of our daughter's children.  The youngest, Hattie, just lost her two front teeth and she was showing off her new toothless smile! 

Last Wednesday, my completed retirement application went in the mail!  I have received confirmation from the school district where I teach that May 29 is my last day of employment and then I will be officially retired.  I am now down to less than 40 school days left in my teaching career.  I couldn't be more excited!

I put a number of different things on Facebook Marketplace during the past week, and we ended up selling seven things - including both Josh and my old iPhones.  Josh wanted to get a new iPhone and I decided to get a new phone too - before I retire.  Because we did not trade in our phones, we decided to sell them on Facebook Marketplace and both phones sold quickly and for our full asking prices.  I also sold an IKEA bookshelf we no longer need, two gaming chairs left over from when our boys were little and played video games, a plant that has grown way to big for the space I have for it, and two microwave ovens.  Wow, we were busy responding to Facebook Marketplace messages and meeting up with buyers from Friday night to Saturday night, but it sure felt good to get so many things out of the house before we move! 

Saturday we met up with Josh for lunch at this all-you-can eat place we like.  It is always  nice to sit and visit and catch up over good food. 

Later, Charly and I went to our favorite used bookstore in the area and turned in four boxes of books for credit.    The bookstore was having a buy-on-get-one sale so we did come home with four books - two for Charly and two for me, but we exchanged four boxes of books for four books, so that seems like a win as we pare down our book collections!

Sunday we attended Psalm Sunday services.  You can see from the picture that the service was well attended. There were more congregants sitting behind the area where I was and they are not shown in the picture.  I was asked to give the invocation of the service and I did.  This was probably our last Sunday in this congregation as we will start staying over on Saturday night in our new home and attending church in our new community.  

After church and lunch, we went back to our new house.  I worked on getting books unpacked and put on bookshelves. You can see that I still have several boxes of books to unpack.  Yes, both Charly and I have a lot of books.

I made up the day bed in my sewing/craft/book room at our new home. This cute little day bed is also a trundle bed so two grandchildren could stay in this room together.   You can see my Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book collections there in the bookcase at the side of the day bed. 

I also put sheets on our bed up in the master bedroom. Hopefully we will remember to bring our pillows down when we stay here, but I didn't have them today. 

Josh came over while we were at the new house.  He had some clothes that he didn't want any more, so those will be donated to the thrift store next week.   We are making lots of donation trips to the thrift store as we all get rid of things we don't need or that no longer serve us.  I think this is a healthy process - especially since we are moving. 

Our Sunday dinner was deep dish pizza (take-n-bake, not homemade) and green salad.  At this point in the moving process, my meal prep is all about quick and easy. 

Sunday evening, I took a walk. The weather was mild - perfect for an evening walk around our current neighborhood. 

I haven't been feeling great this weekend.  I have a scratchy, sore throat, stuffed up sinuses, and watery eyes.  I can't tell if it is cold or allergies to the of the blossoms that came out early and are now blowing off the trees and are in the air and on the ground everywhere. Basically, I'm just not feeling great, so I've been pushing vitamin C and elderberry immune gummies, and taking Dimetapp when nothing else seems to work.  I am taking Monday off sick, and hope to sleep in and get some rest, although we will be going to the new house.  Sleeping in a bit and not getting up with the 5 a.m. alarm is always a good thing.

Gratitude:

• Seeing our grandchildren this past week.
• Traveling safely lots of miles to and from our new house.
• Selling a lot of things on Facebook Marketplace.
• Sending away my official retirement application.

Praying For:

• My children and grandchildren.
• Our nation.
• Our military. 

Looking Forward To:

• Taking a sick day (PTO) on Monday. 
• Seeing our grandchildren again this week. 
• Having a week off for spring break. 
• Moving the rest of our stuff into our new home. 

That's all for this post. Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week!

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; 

and lean not until thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, 

and he shall direct they paths.

Be not wise in thine own eyes, 

fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

It shall be health to thy navel, 

and marrow to they bones."

~Proverbs 3:5-8

 

End of the Week Gratitude

Although it has been another busy week, I have been determined to take time to look at for the things that have made me feel happy and grateful. Here are some of the things I came up with.  I am joining with Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

😊 Although our week started out windy and cold, but the middle of the week, our temperatures were up into the 80s! We've had a crazy winter with almost no snow, and now summer-like temperatures in March!  I went out for a walk one afternoon and saw this bush covered with little red flowers.  The flowers were lovely and made me smile. With our very warm temperatures, we are now seeing flowers everywhere!  I love flowers and I am always grateful when they come back in the spring.

😊 I'm grateful that it's now light and warm enough to enjoy evening walks almost every day after dinner.   I have found that I sleep better and can deal with daily stress much better when I take an evening walk. 

😊 That's our freezer in the back of my Honda.  It's not a huge freezer and it fits in the car, but it was too heavy for Charly and I to get up from our basement to move it to our new home.  We had three strong young men from church agree to come and help us move it out of the basement in exchange for lunch at Arby's.  It was a win-win, and both Charly and I are very grateful for their help!

😊 We have had this book shelf unit literally since we got married in 1979.  Charly's mom had it in her basement family room, and gave it to us for our first apartment. We've used it ever since, but it doesn't really fit or go with our new place, so we decided to part with it.  I put it on Facebook Marketplace, and within twenty minutes, a woman reached out and said she wanted it. She came to pick it up the next day.  I'm so grateful that we were able to "rehome" these bookshelves, to a young woman who told me she wanted them to start her own home library. 

😊 Our fourth quarter of the school year, and my last quarter, started this past week. So far, so good.  I've assigned my students a book project and some of them are actually doing it!  I am grateful that this is the final quarter of school in my career!

😊  We had a consultation with our realtor about selling our current home, shown in the picture above.  We are on-track to get this place listed by mid-April, and our realtor already has a potential buyer interested.  I am thankful for a good realtor, with whom we have a long-standing relationship.  This will be the fourth real estate deal he has helped us with.  I joke that he is my real estate therapist, because he can help calm the anxiety I experience with buying and selling properties.  

😊 As we were leaving to come back  up to Salt Lake City after delivering our freezer to our new home, I saw this sunset.  It was another stunner, and while the picture might not do it justice, I am always grateful when I see God's handiwork in gorgeous sunrises and sunsets like this one. 

That's all for this post.  Have a good and memorable weekend. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"At the end of the day

I am thankful that my blessings

are bigger than my problems."

~anon.

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