Labor Day Weekend Update

I've been having a few problems with Blogger lately, but hopefully things are now fixed and working well.  Here is how our Labor Day weekend went. We didn't have any big plans for the weekend, but it was an opportunity to enjoy some down time after a busy week, and also get some things done.  

Friday and Saturday, I got a few new plants in the yard. Home Depot and another nursery we like near here had Labor Day sales going so we took advantage of that and got a couple of little trees for the side yard (only $10 a piece) and a small bartlett pear tree for the backyard, which was on sale for 30% off.  

I got some mums for some pots I have, and also a pink Rose of Sharon bush, a red peony plant and a hydrangea plant. I spent a lot of time planting this weekend, but everything looks good and I am excited to see the new plants grow next spring! 

I finished this book, Mail-Order Bride, Friday night.  It wasn't bad.  It's been a long time since I've read anything by Debbie Macomber so this was a nice, light "chick-lit" read. 

Saturday, Charly drove up to Salt Lake City to take Josh out to lunch.  They wanted to try a Japanese place near to where Josh lives now.  I don't really like Japanese food, so I stayed home and listed our charcoal grill that we haven't used since Covid (2020) on Facebook Marketplace.  We don't really have room for things we don't use any more, so I was very pleased when the grill sold in a matter of hours.  Now we have extra room in the backyard where it was going stored.  That space will go to good use when I plan my garden next spring. 

Sunday morning we went to church.  As I was going into the chapel, I notices this picture collage on the wall of the room that the children meet in.  I love the emphasis on learning about Jesus, our Savior. 

Sunday was a cloudy, overcast day.  I went for two walks, one after church and another one in the evening with Charly.  You can see how cloudy the skies were, which also meant the temperatures were lower.  We seem to be moving into fall, weather-wise. 

This is what I made for Sunday dinner.  It's a pretty good casserole that I got from a content creator on Facebook.  Charly really likes it and so do I.  We had corn on the cob with it.  I love corn on the cob at this time of year.  

Here is the recipe for the casserole I made.  Please don't be offended by the name the content creator gave it.  It is easy to make and very delicious.  This was the second time I made it and I changed a couple of things, which are in blue ink.   I have started keeping a "recipe journal" where I write down recipes I make and also note any changes each time I  make them.  

I wanted something tasty for desert and had been wanting to try Dolly Parton's Cuppa Cake recipe from the movie Steele Magnolias.  I wasn't sure about this recipe, but it turned out to be seriously delicious.  We had vanilla ice cream with it, as Dolly Parton's character suggests in the movie. 

Here's the recipe from my recipe journal.  I expect that I will be making this one again. 

Monday was a cloudy and overcast day, and the temperatures, while still warm, were cooler and more fall-like.  This is the view I had as I went on a morning walk to the post office near my house. 

I went to the post office to mail a birthday card to my birth mom who will be 87-years-old at the end of the week.  She's doing well, still lives in her own home and is still sharp as a tack.  She loves to shop at Kohl's.

Later Monday morning, we drove to South Jordan to see Josh.  He needed some shoes for work and there was a good Buy-One-Get-One-Half-Off sale going on at a shoe store we like.  Josh got a new pair of shoes for work, and Charly and I both got some new shoes too.  

These are the shoes I bought.  I used to where Sketchers, but lately I have not had good luck with that brand, so I got a pair of Aasics and another pair of New Balance shoes.   I do a lot of walking, so good, comfortable, supportive walking shoes are important to me.  

After shoe shopping, we dropped Josh off where he lives.  He had plans to go to a water park with some friends from his church congregation in the afternoon.  Charly and I had lunch at a new to us Chinese restaurant near to where Josh lives.  We enjoyed a nice lunch date, although we both agreed that we had both had better Chinese food. 

When we got home, I folded and put away some laundry, then took a little break and did some reading.  Afternoon resting and reading is a perk of retirement that I love!

I worked out in the yard later in the afternoon, then went for an evening walk after dinner.  You can see that we ended up with some blue skies and thin clouds.  This is the view from my backyard deck.  You can see that some trees are changing colors in the mountains.  I love this time of year!

That's all for now.  I hope you all had a good Labor Day Weekend and that the coming week is a good one!  See you again soon!

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

The First Week and Weekend of September

Here is a peek into the first week of September in my world. 

It was nice to have Monday off this week. We didn't do anything special, except get some chores done around the house and yard.  Charly mowed the lawn and I did the trimming and edging. 

We are cleaning out of shed, and we worked on that Monday as well.  In this picture, it looks like we still have a lot in our shed, but we actually have much less than we used to, so we are making progress in paring down belongings that we have kept for too long. 

I took Tuesday off as well, but went back to school on Wednesday. Charly surprised me by fixing dinner Wednesday night, something he doesn't do a lot.  I forgot to take a picture of what he made until after it was almost all gone, but it really was delicious.  It's called Beanie Weenies, and the recipe is here. 

Along with the Beanie Weenie, we had kale salad with fresh cucumbers and grape tomatoes from our garden. Everything was so good and having Charly fix dinner was a nice surprise.

I got out for a walk every evening we were home last week.  Our temperatures are cooling off a bit, so I had some nice evening walks. 

Charly and I also finished watching this very interesting history docudrama on Netflix last week - Titans - The Rise of Wall Street.  

I took Thursday and Friday off as personal days to attend at history and apologetics conference.  The three-day conference was held here at this convention center about thirty miles north of where we live. 

We attended classes on subjects like American history, the history of indigenous peoples, the science of creation and dinosaurs, and current cultural events/politics, and human geography.  There was a wide array of classes and subjects, and we enjoyed the opportunity to learn many things.  It was a fun and interesting event.  This was the third time we have attended this event which is held every six months. We plan to attend again next spring.  

Sunday morning, I was up at 6 a.m., ate breakfast, read scriptures, and exercised.  Later, we went to our mid-morning church meetings.

  

After church, I took a little nap, then went for a walk around the neighborhood.  

I made crock pot chili for dinner.  I love homemade chili, and this batch was very good!

Here is the recipe I use. I've made this chili a lot over the years. I got the recipe from my favorite, well-used Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook.  I added fresh red and orange peppers to today's batch, and it was very good.   I had green salad along with the chili, and some muffins I baked - two kinds - cinnamon and corn muffins.

As the new week gets started, I'm still reading, 52 Churches in 52 Weeks by Dave Boice, The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd, and This Nation Shall Endure by Ezra Taft Benson.  I've also started listening to the audiobook of 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.  

Weekly Gratitude:

• Going to the Firm Foundation Conference with Charly.
• Learning many important and interesting things.
• Being able to take personal days from work to go. 
• Traveling safely to and from the conference each day. 

Praying For:

• Josh's upcoming interview for a promotion at his job. 
• Resolution to an issue that is requiring us to begin eviction of the tenants of our income property condo.
• All of our children and grandchildren.
• Our nation.

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

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Every day, you have two choices:

To focus on what's wrong or 

to embrace what's right. 

Choose gratitude. Choose joy. 

Choose to see the beauty in the little things,

and life will become even more

incredible than you imagined." 

~anon. 

Labor Day Weekend and Tuesday 4 Questions

The highlight of our Saturday was seeing our daughter Tiffany and the grandchildren. We took our daughter to lunch to celebrate her birthday.  We always love seeing our children and grandchildren. 

Sunday was another good day.  We went to church, then during the afternoon, I indexed some records at Familysearch.org, and listened to some of my favorite uplifting podcasts while I input the information from the  immigration records from the year 1900.  

We also watched the first episode of The Chosen Season Four, which we really purchased on DVD.

For dinner we had loaded potato salad and egg/cheese/bacon and crescent roll bake along with some fresh peaches that our daughter gave us. Everything was delicious. 

Monday morning I was off for Labor Day, we didn't sleep in much.  We got up fairly early and Charly mowed the lawn and I trimmed it.  It was nice to have this done before the heat of the day hit.  It was a very warm day up to about 90 degrees.  

After the lawn was mowed, Chalry and I decided to take a walk at the mall before the stores opened. The rec center was closed for the holiday, so the mall seemed like the best alternative to get a little exercise.    We walked about a mile and a half at the mall. 

Back home, I did some laundry, dusting and vacuuming.  I also started going through some of my "to read" books to pick out some I am no longer interested in. Some of these books were in my classroom, and when I got rid of my classroom library, I brought a few home to read, but then decided I wasn't really interested in them. I will be donating these books as well as a few others.  

Late in the afternoon, we went to a shoe store because I needed some new shoes. Charly also found a pair.  The shoes I found for myself were marked 50% so that was nice. 

Monday night dinner was chicken stir fry and avocado ranch salad.  

Later on Monday evening, we watched the excellent movie Escape From Germany.  We saw it earlier in the summer at the theater and decided to buy it on DVD, so we watched it again Monday night.  It is a very powerful and moving true story.  

It was a very nice weekend, and I feel refreshed and ready for the new month!  

Now, for some Tuesday 4 questions and answers. This week's Tuesday's 4 questions are about books, so of course, I had to play along. 

1. What's on your reading list for September?

Just three of the books I hope to finish in September are Happily Ever Habits by Jason Harwood, Words of Jesus by Ganel-Lyn Condie and Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica.  I hope to finish more than these three books, but they are what I am starting the month with. 

2. What does your reading nook look like?

This is the chair in my family room where I like to sit and read.  It is a a very comfortable chair and doesn't aggravate the sciatic nerve pain I often experience.  

3. Can you name some books you've read many times?  Do you recommend them? One book I have read many times is the Holy Bible, and yes, I would definitely recommend it.  

4.   Which of the classics have you read?  Goodreads offers a list of classics they recommend.  You can find it here.

Of the 100 classic books listed on Goodreads, I have read about 31.  Two of my favorite classics are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

What are you reading  as September begins?

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by to visit. Have a lovely week!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"September is a gentle reminder 

that change is beautiful."

~Donna Henes

Yellowstone and Beyond

On the second full day of our trip up north over the Labor Day Weekend, we drove an hour and a half from Rexburg to Yellowstone National Park. We weren't alone, and waited in a long line of cars for over 45 minutes just to get into the park.  Once we got in however, we were very glad we were there, and wasted no time in enjoying this beautiful place.  

It was almost noon by the time we got into the park, so we found a place to set up our picnic lunch. 

Just a few minutes into our lunch, this very large, and very friendly raven decided to join us. 

He jumped right up on the table and decided to share some of Charly's pretzels.

Charly called the bird Poe (after Edgar Allan - author of the famous poem - "The Raven").  He was an unusual, but interesting lunch guest.

After lunch, we went to see the hot spring pools and also enjoyed the scenery as we drove to Old Faithful, our final stop of the day.  Here are some pictures.   

We enjoyed our short stay at Yellowstone National Park.  With it being so close to where Josh is going to college, we are sure we will be able to visit it again soon. 

Some of the other highlights of our Labor Day Trip to Idaho included finding our new favorite New York style pizza place, west of the Mississippi. Believe me when I tell you this was DELICIOUS pizza!

This is the place we got the pizza, a mom and pop place called Righteous Slice.  It is owned (we heard) by a professor at the college Josh attends.  The place is aptly named because the pizza here is heavenly.  

On the way home from Rexburg, Charly wanted to stop at this very large military surplus store.  We browsed for a while.  I'm not exactly sure what we were looking for, but it was kind of a fun place to explore for a few minutes.  We actually ended up buying a few books that had come from an Air Force Base library.  Military surplus books. 

A ways down the road, we stopped in Blackfoot, Idaho to visit the official Idaho Potato Museum.  We were welcomed by this large Marilyn Monroe paper doll, although there was no explanation at all about what her connection to Idaho, potatoes or the museum might be. 

Marilyn and I hit it off immediately and are now BFFs. (Think I should get a potato sack dress like hers?)😉  

After walking through this quirky little museum, with such oddities as a collection of potato peelers, and the World's Largest Pringle, we had a potatoey lunch in the museum cafe. 

It a fun place to visit - once. 

I'm not completely sure it was worth the $6 ($5.50 with our senior discounts) we paid to get in, but at least we can say we've been there. 

That was our visit to Idaho and the two nearby national parks - Grand Teton and Yellowstone.  Of course the best part of our Labor Day trip was seeing our son Josh and finding him happy, healthy and doing well. 

Until Next Time,

😊Deb💖

"There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred."~Theodore Roosevelt