First March Weekend

Time for a weekend catch-up.  Friday, was a stressful day at school.  It started out as a normal online learning day, but  by afternoon, it was filled with tension.  I have never taught at a school that has so much drama going on, and I am not the person who likes drama or "work politics."  Drama causes anxiety.  I was so glad to get home, walk outside with Charly and have a good "comfort food" dinner of chicken tenders, mashed potatoes and country gravy and fresh asparagus.  

Saturday morning started with laundry.  It seems that there is always laundry that needs to be done, even though Charly and Josh both do their own laundry.  I ended up doing three loads of laundry by the end of the day on Saturday.  I am not complaining because I remember the quote that  says something to the effect, I am grateful for laundry because it means I have plenty of clothes to wear. So true. 

Saturday morning, we did some shopping at Dollar Tree and Big Lots.  I also had to go to Walmart for a few things, including a prescription.  After all that running, it was lunch time so I stopped at Artic Circle for my Weekend guilty pleasure treat of a burger and fries.  I always get the kids' meal and put whatever toy comes with the meal in the boxes for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child service project we will participate in this coming November.  

Saturday night we got a pizza from our current favorite pizza place for dinner. 

Pizza with a green salad is one of my favorite meals. 

In our pantry room  downstairs, we have had a small fridge, which Josh sometimes keeps bottles of water in.  Saturday evening, I found water all over the floor in the room.  It seems that our little fridge (we I had for probably ten years and I had used in my classroom in Arizona) had filled with ice, then the ice started to melt and was all over the floor.  We immediately carried the little fridge out of the basement, which was no small feat. It was terribly heavy filled with melting ice.  Thank goodness Josh was home to help. Once the old fridge was outside, I looked online at KSL.com classifieds, (which is like a Craig's List for the local area here in Utah) and I found this little fridge that someone wanted to sell because they are moving.  It was only $40 and in pretty good shape, aside from a few scratches on the side.  

Sunday morning before church, we drove out to a neighboring area to get it.  It it perfect for what we need in that small space, and it works great! 

You can see that it works well sitting on the counter in the pantry room. 

We watched church on Zoom again this week.  I also watched Sunday School on Zoom which indexing military records from 1918 and 1932.  After that, I took a little nap then when I woke up, Charly and I took our walk.  It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon with temperatures in the 60s.  

Our Sunday dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce,  Italian bread, fresh broccoli and green salad. It was a excellent dinner. 

Charly and I watched episode 3 of a true crime drama on Netflix.  (We had watched episodes 1 and 2 Saturday night).  Later, I made some baked oatmeal, which is a quick and easy weekday breakfast.   After that, I exercised on the Health Walker downstairs for a bit, but I was pretty tired by that time and I wanted to finish this post tonight.  Soon after I post this, I will be off to the shower, then I'll read for a bit, then go to bed.   Monday morning starts early for me at 5:20 a.m.!

Thanks for stopping by to get a peek in to our weekend. I will close with this comforting thought for the coming week:

"No matter what you're going to face this next week, you're not going to face it alone.  God is with you.  He is in you and He is for you."

~ Leanna Haasbroek

Thanks for visiting.  Come back soon.

😊~ Deb💙

 

 

Simple Favorites of the Week

Another week has passed.  Time seems to be going so quickly.  My favorite this week are not much different from other weeks since this pandemic began, but it's really the simple joys and positive moments of life that are best, and can keep us going even through troubling and scary times.  I am joining again this week with Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave 5.

Morning walks - with the July summer heat, we have been walking earlier in the morning every day. We get up, eat a quick breakfast and walk.  It's a great start to the day. 

Evening walks - In addition to our morning walks, Charly and I have been walking later in the evening as well.  I love beginning and ending the day walking with my husband (or sometimes with Josh).  

Flowers from my husband and a friend - Charly bought and gave me these flowers on Wednesday when we went to the grocery store.  He is so kind and thoughtful.  I love it when he gives me flowers. Always have. 

Thursday afternoon, my doorbell rang and a neighbor was standing there with this single stunning pink flower which I added to the bouquet Charly gave me.  Beauty for my dining room table. 

Good reading - I have been reading this book this past week. It is an interesting and powerful look at parts of this society I don't know much a lot about and have never experienced.  I hope to finish this book in the next few days and I am planning to write a review. 

I got this book from Amazon this past week and I am really looking forward to reading it soon. I have heard good things about it from my fellow bookworm and good blogger friend, Billie Jo, over at Afternoon Coffee and Evening Tea.  Thanks so much, Billie Jo!

Garden goodness - My grape tomatoes are ripening, a few every day. 

This was some of yesterday's harvest.  These little guys were so delicious!  

I have several different varieties of tomato plants in my garden and they are all loaded with fruit so I am enjoying lots of fresh deliciousness this summer.

My little fig tree - I got this fig tree last spring and after a rough start, it did survive, lived through the winter and is thriving this year.  I love seeing it out on my patio.   It is a reminder that we can get through hard times and go on to flourish!

My little hummingbird friends - I have mentioned the hummingbirds in my yard before, I know, but I continue to enjoy their daily visits to the hummingbird feeders out on the patio. 

This scene - Charly and Josh have been playing an online strategy game together this past week.  It was nice to see them talking and enjoying each other's company and enjoy a father-son relationship.  

Deep cleaning - It is finished for this week, so I can relax and enjoy the weekend. 

A Wet Weekend

We had a rainy weekend - much needed here. Although we got plenty of snow last winter, we have had a very dry spring, so a nice soaking rain is something to be thankful for.  But let me start at the beginning and go forward...

Friday morning, before the rain, I had an early appointment with the dentist for a check-up. 

Because my dentist's office is less than a block from my house, I walked.  On the way there, I passed this beautiful rose bush. It was stunning. The photo does not do it justice, but you can see the gold parts in the red roses. They were so pretty that I just had to stop and take a picture. 

There is a new normal at the dentist which includes empty waiting rooms, temperature taking, mouth rinsing and hand washing prior to going back to the dentist chair.  The good news is that today's exam and cleaning was completely routine, and the dentist found no problems.

When I got back home, this was going on.  We ordered new windows a while back and Friday was installation day! Our home was built in 1969, and back in that era, the style was to have a side window next to the front door.  Our side window was an ugly gold colored glass. 

We had it replaced with these cool glass blocks. We had this done at another home in Southern California when we lived there some years back.  We loved the glass blocks and decided to put them in this house as well. 

This is what the glass blocks look like from the inside...

Here is what it looks like from the outside.  It is such an improvement, and brings so much light into our entryway. 

We also got a new window in the bedroom downstairs where Josh sleeps...

...as well as Charly's and my bedroom upstairs. 

On Saturday, Charly and I got our walk in early before it started to rain.  It was cloudy, windy and rainy all day. 

Sunday morning, we had a visitor for breakfast.  I love watching hummingbirds out at the feeder on my patio.  

We had church at  home, as usual, about 9:45 Sunday morning.  Toward the end of our service, the skies outside grew very dark...

...then opened up with heavy rain, thunder, lightning and lots of wind. The storm is something to be grateful for because we need rain here. 

When the rain cleared for a bit in the mid-afternoon, Charly and I went for our walk. We had to wear jackets. The temperatures had dropped over 40 degrees from what they were on Friday. We noticed that there were a number of branches that had been blown off trees during the storm.  

What was rain in the valley was snow in the mountain, as you can see in this picture.  June is quite late to have new snow in the Mountains. 

I did some indexing of death records from South Africa, Sunday afternoon. 

I also sewed some masks, although not as many as I made on Saturday.  I sewed a total of 30 masks this week. That equates to about 10 hours of sewing over the week.  By the end of this coming week, I hope to have 50 masks made and ready to be sent to the Navajo Nation. 

Sunday dinner was chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, Cheese Cake Factory brown bread and cranberry salad.  It was a delicious Sunday dinner. 

Coming up this week - Charly and I will be celebrating 41 years of marriage tomorrow, Monday, June 8. We plan to have a little afternoon date to some places we would enjoy going.  I am so grateful for the decision I made to live my life with this guy so many years ago.  He is my greatest blessing.  

Wednesday Catch-Up - Looking Back, Looking Ahead and Other Random Things Going On

Happy last-day-of-July Wednesday!  Here are the latest things we are looking back on and ahead to this week.  

Last week, we had our house re-roofed.  

The company we choose to do the work did a good job.  They worked quickly and were done in just one day.  They also cleaned up their mess, which is huge when you are having the roof stripped down to the wood and then re-shingled. 

The house doesn't look a lot different because the new shingles  we selected are similar in color to the old shingles that were removed, but we know now that our roof is new and tight and won't be leaking anytime soon.  

While we are improving and updating our home, we decided to re-do the lighting in the kitchen.  We are having some of the ancient florescent lighting, like this antique above the sink, replaced. 

This box florescent light, which tends to give me a headache, is being replaced with more modern recessed canned lighting. 

As I am writing this post, our excellent electrician and his helper are busily working in the kitchen.  The old box light is down and you can see at least one of the new recessed lights.  I am so excited about this project. The old lights in the kitchen were horrible and, as I said, gave me headaches. 

Just as I was finishing up this post, the electrician finished his work, so this is the new lighting in our kitchen.  I am loving it!  We will have our painter come and fix and repaint the ceiling now that the lighting is complete.  

Another home improvement project I am excited about is the remodeling of our basement.  Our contractor called us last night and said we are on his calendar for October.  That is still a ways out.  We were hoping to get that big project at least started this summer, but contractors around here are completely overwhelmed with work as many homeowners are remodeling and renovating in the crazy, expensive real estate market here in Salt Lake City. 

We are looking forward to the remodel of our very outdated basement, even if we have to wait a few months for the work to begin.

Last week, as Charly and I were taking our morning walk along this busy street not far from our home, a goose wandered our of someone's back yard and into the six-lane street during morning rush hour.  I told Charly, I couldn't bear to see someone hit the goose, but amazingly, you will see that all the drivers stopped and one driver even got out of his car to try and chase the goose out of the street.  I was impressed that people were willing to stop and save an animal that had wandered into traffic.  Here is the resulting stopped traffic as people tried to save the goose.  End of the story - the goose was was herded out of harm's way and back into his yard.  A happy ending - and a demonstration of human care and kindness!

Another interesting animal story in our back yard is this pair of mated quail that lives in and around our hard.  The other day, they were making quite a racket, hoping and flying around our backyard. Here they are on top of the roof of our shed.  The next day, our neighbor found a nest of baby quail in her yard.  My husband thinks the parents were trying to protect their young my causing a noisy distraction.

My garden continues to do well, even with in the end-of-July heat.  Here is a salad we had last week, with kale, cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden.   The garden fresh vegetables were delicious!

I am trying to start a little book club with some of the women from our church congregation (ward).  This is the first book we will be reading.  I haven't started it yet, but have heard this is really a nice read.  I am looking forward to reading this book and starting the book club.  I am hoping that all the women who have expressed an interest will be able to participate.

I recently finished this nice little book.  Based on the true experiences of one of Sudan's "Lost Boys" who manages to survive the tribal wars of the 1980s, make it to America and then return much later to help his impoverished country. Although the book is short and written to young readers (upper elementary to middle school), it is a worthwhile read for anyone because the story is important - worth telling and worth reading. 

Speaking of reading, Charly and I participated in the adult summer reading challenge at our local library this summer.  When my kids were growing up, they did the summer reading programs at whatever library we lived near. They always enjoyed the fun prizes and activities from reading and participating. This is the first time, however, that I did a summer reading challenge.  It was fun, and Charly and I both earned two free books!

The other day, Charly and I  had been out running errands and were pretty hungry, so decided to stop for lunch at this place - Mediterranean Market and Deli on State Street.

The place was clean, the service excellent and the people were really nice. Best of all the food was delicious.  In addition to sandwiches and Mediterranean favorites, they have homemade desserts like Baklava and Cannoli.  

Everything was so yummy!  We will definitely return to this place!

Charly and I have been doing our daily walks, even in the heat of summer.  You can see from my "Map My Walk" app that we walked over 15 and a half miles last week! We love our walks together.  It is a highlight of each day!

Because of the heat, we have been walking at a mall a few miles from our home.  We usually go in the morning before the mall opens.  Makes me feel a bit old, joining the other retired mall-walkers each morning, but it is actually a great place to get our miles in each day, especially when it is hot outside. 

Last Saturday afternoon, I was able to take some time out and spend some peaceful worship time at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I had not been to this temple since it was brand new and we attended the open house several years ago.  Although Charly was pretty tired that day and didn't join me, I loved being at this beautiful House of the Lord.  

We are moving forward on purchasing our investment property condo.  We actually found an second condo, identical to the one we had put an offer on, except the new condo is in better condition and thousands less!  We made an offer on the second condo and it was accepted, so we are moving ahead with that.  I love that we are able to get a better condo for much less, in this same lovely condominium complex not far from our home.  (The unit we are buying is the middle level unit on the left with the barbecue grill on the deck). 

Finally, we are planning a trip to see our oldest son, Alex, who lives in Nevada.  We have been trying to arrange this trip almost all summer and we were finally able to find a time that worked for everyone.  We haven't seen him since he came to see Charly when he was in the hospital last November.  We are really looking forward to getting together with Alex and his wife, Jessica, before they move to California, farther away from us.  We are sure proud of this handsome guy, as we are of our all children.  

Our summer is just about over and we will be going back to school in less than two weeks, but these last few days are completely jam packed and busy with lots of great things, so we are happy and excited as the summer comes to a close.

I will leave with this thought for the week: