Catching Up on the Week and Mother's Day Weekend

Here are some highlights from the past week.  It has been another busy week, and I haven't been in blogland every day, so I am using the weekend to catch up.  Here's how things went this past week. 

The school year is winding down, for which I am extremely grateful!  Last week, I had my end-or-year job appraisal after a classroom observation by an administrator.  Not to brag, but I had another excellent appraisal, for which I am very grateful.  Soon, I will be starting my final summer vacation!  Even if I end up staying until the end of next school year (which is still in question), when school gets out for summer in 2026, for me, it will be out forever! Wow, I am so looking forward to that! 

I decided to start seriously cleaning out my classroom, since I won't be teaching longer than one more year (maybe less).  Next year, my assignment is for all 9th grade, so I don't need much of my 11th grade curriculum anymore.  I spent my prep hour on Friday going through files and filling a couple of boxes with papers to be recycled. 

It was Teacher Appreciation Week last week, and all the teachers were given coupons for 1/2 off on take-n-bake pizza so that was dinner a couple of nights.  

Another teacher gave me this sweet bouquet of flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week because I helped her out with a project she needed to finish last week. 

I was able to find time to exercise almost every day last week, with walks around the neighborhood or at the community rec. center. 

Friday was the only night I didn't go for a walk, and that was because I spent some time working out in the garden.  A friend gave me some snap pea seeds so I planted those.  You can see that my dwarf lilac bush, a Mother's Day gift from a few years back, is out in flower now.  It smells delightful!

Saturday was another warm, sunny spring day.  In the morning,  Charly and I took a walk at the mall. 

The forecast high for Saturday was 88 degrees, so I changed the furnace filter, Saturday morning so we would be all set to turn on the air conditioning. I also got all the ceiling fans turned on, so the house will stay cool. 

Saturday afternoon, we had to do some errand running.  We went to Sam's Club, Walmart, and Home Depot. 

In addition to groceries, we got some more flower seeds for our garden. 

We got these flowers, which I planted in our front garden. 

I planted most of the petunias and all of the pansies in the whiskey barrel that I got for Mother's Day a few years ago.

On Sunday morning, Mother's Day, Charly gave me a beautiful and very meaningful Mother's Day card.

 

Josh got up early to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and put dinner in the crock pot so I didn't have to worry about dinner in the evening.  Josh gets home from his job about 2 a.m., so getting up at 7 a.m. to get dinner in the slow cooker, was a gift unto itself.  Josh also gave me a gift card to my favorite Christian bookstore - something the book lover mom in me is really excited about!

This is Mississippi Pot Roast, the recipe Josh found and wanted to fix for dinner.  

We went to church, as usual, and had a lovely Mother's Day program with great messages and music provided by the children in our congregation. When we got home, my daughter Tiffany called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day, and I had a nice chat with her and the grandchildren.  

Sunday was a warm day, but we had a high wind and thunderstorm warning.  You can see the wind blowing the big tree in this picture of part of my backyard. 

I took a little Sunday afternoon nap, then went outside to walk around my yard and look at all the plants.  I was so pleased to see several clusters of baby grapes on my grapevine!

I always admire these bright and beautiful poppies growing in my neighbor's front yard.  

This was our Sunday dinner - Mississippi Pot Roast, prepared by Josh, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and green salad.  Everything, especially the pot roast was delicious.  Mississippi Pot Roast is my new favorite Sunday dinner!

After dinner, it was still pretty windy, but Josh and I decided to go to our favorite walking path and get some exercise.  We had a nice walk, and lots of good mother-son conversation.  It was a great way to end a perfect Mother's Day. 

As the new week begins, here's what I am reading:  Not a Good Enough Mother by Nicole Trope (mystery/suspense novel), A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea by Melissa Fleming (a memoir about a woman who is a refugee from the war in Syria), Enlightened in the Last Days by Dustin Hofheins (Christian book about the end times of last days leading up to the Second Coming of Christ) and Julian of Norwich - the writings of a 14th century mystic nun annotated by  Mary C. Earle.  My daughter recommended this book to me. All of the books are interesting, but I'm not sure I will be finished with any of them by the end of the week. 

Weekend gratitude:

• Having a productive weekend.
• Getting some new plants for our yard.
• Worshipping at church and having a nice Mother's Day program. 
• Having Mother's Day chats with my mom, daughter and grandchildren.
• Enjoying a restful and relaxing Sabbath. 
• Loving the delicious dinner Josh made for us on Sunday.
• Walking with Josh at the end of Sunday.

Praying for:

• Josh to find a second job so he can build up his bank account. 
• All of our grandchildren.
• Continuing situation at work that I have been told may not be resolved until next school year. I cannot retire until it is resolved. 
• Health and stamina to deal with the stress of the situation.
• Our nation.

Thanks for stopping by.   May the coming week be a good one for all! 

Until next time,

💗🎕Deb🎕 💗

"Such a mysterious business, motherhood.

How brave a woman must be to embark on it."

~M.L. Stedman

A Happy Mother's Day Weekend

I always begin my weekend posts with Friday. This Friday was the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week and the PTSA at our school had box lunches for each teacher.  The sandwich was made with delicious whole wheat homemade bread. The huge peanut butter cookie was excellent too.  It was a nice gesture on the part of the PTSA and I felt appreciated.  

After school, Charly and I had to run a couple of errands.  At one place we went, we parked under this beautiful tree with delicate pink blossoms. The plant identifier on my phone said this is a plum tree.

We also went to Crumbl Cookie to get a birthday box of cookies for our oldest grandson who turned 18 Sunday. We took the cookies to him and his family when we went to see him Saturday morning. 

Saturday morning, we drove the car we gave our grandson to his house and gave him the title and keys.  He was beyond excited.  The car is in pretty good shape. We bought it brand new (it had four miles on it when we drove it off the lot) and we have taken care of it.  It has over 124,000 miles, but we hope that it is good for a few thousand more.  Our grandson is going to a technical college to learn to be a mechanic, so hopefully he can do whatever work needs to be done to keep it going. We took our grandson out for his birthday breakfast and we had delicious and huge breakfast burritos at a local Mexican place he likes.  I forgot to take a picture.  I only ate half of my burrito and brought the rest home and had it for dinner Saturday night.  

When we got back to my daughter's house, my youngest granddaughters were "cleaning their room."  I think there was more playing than cleaning going on. They are darling girls and it is always good to see them, along everyone in the family. 

My daughter and her family gave me a lovely tote bag for when we travel for Mother's Day, and nice card with handwritten notes from everyone in the family.  😊💖

On the way home from our daughter's, we stopped at an Army/Navy Surplus store where Charly was looking for a certain kind of coat for winter.  He has been looking for this kind of coat for a long time, and was so pleased when he found it at this store.  As we were paying for it, I noticed this hiking book on the counter and I just had to have it, so this was my Mother's Day gift to myself.  It has a lot of details and pictures about trails which are close around here some of which I have hiked and others I would love to hike! 

Closer to home, we stopped at one of our favorite used book stores, which is only a few blocks from our where we live.  They were having a special $1 sale this weekend and they had a lot of books - each for only a dollar!  I got a couple of things for one of my granddaughters, a history and a leather bound large-print Bible which was brand new.  I couldn't pass that up!

Later, I went out to do some work in the yard.  Most of my tulips are pretty much finished blooming for the year, but I noticed this lovely variegated purple and white tulip that had just opened.  It was lovely!

I got quite a bit done in the yard, including planting these tomato plants that I had bought before we had snow and the weather turned cold last week. 

As I was finishing up the yard work, I noticed that the sky was turning dark.  No rain was in the forecast, and it had been bright and sunny all day, but as soon as I heard thunder I put the yard work tools away. and went in.  We did get some more rain, which is actually a very good thing to have on newly planted plants.  

Sunday morning, my sweet husband gave me a lovely Mother's Day card and these wonderful gifts, which are so meaningful and special to me.  I also got a nice Happy Mother's Day phone car from Josh!  We went to church and heard Mother's Day messages and a special musical number from the children in our congregation.  

I did some indexing, took a little nap, then wrote some birthday cards and notes of encouragement for some people I know who are going through tough times.  I'll get these in the mail this week. 

Our Sunday dinner was egg/cheese/vegetable in a tortilla bake. Sounds weird, right, but it is simple and oh so good! If you are interested in making this delicious and easy recipe, the Youtube instructions are here.   We  had green salad and French bread with it. 

I also made zero-sugar soda pop brownies for dessert.  Simply pour a can of Dr. Pepper - either regular or zero-sugar - into a chocolate cake or brownie mix (again either regular or zero-sugar), and bake as directed. This is Charly's new favorite dessert. 

After dinner, I went out for a walk in the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful day with warm temperatures and cloudless blue skies. 

My next door neighbor has these beautiful orange poppies in her garden.  They are so beautiful and perfect that they look artificial.  I love all of the flowers that are out in bloom now. 

Right before I settled down to read for the evening, I got a fun Marco Polo from my daughter and Utah grandchildren.  It made my Mother's Day complete. 

Weekend Gratitude:

• Seeing our daughter and Utah grandchildren on Saturday.
• Taking our old Kia to give to our grandson.
• Planting some flowers and tomato plants in our yard.
• Receiving Mother's Day love - a Marco Polo, calls, texts, cards and gifts.
• Enjoying sunshine and beautiful weather on Sunday.

That's all for now.  Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful week!

Until Next Time,

Happy Mother's Day!

😊Deb💖

"There is no way to be a perfect mother

and a million ways to be a good one."

~Jill Churchill

 

Mid-May Gratitude

 

It's time again to join with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story to look at the good things that I am grateful for as this week ends, so let's get going with the positive and gratitude. 

😊 I went to Denver to spend Mother's Day weekend with my birth mother and sisters.  We had a nice Mother's Day brunch, shopped, played games, looked at old family pictures, told stories and just talked. Our niece (brother's daughter) also came to spend one evening with us.  I am grateful that I was able to make the trip to honor my birth mother on Mother's Day and spend time with some lovely women in my family. 

😊 My two sisters - Judy (younger) and Kathy (older) are generous, wise, kind and fun women and I am grateful I have them as sisters and that I was able to enjoy some time with them.  

😊 I don't enjoy the entire process of flying, but I am grateful that both the flights to Denver and home went well, with no long delays and minimal turbulence.  I am always thankful to get home from a trip safely. 

😊 I am grateful for Mother's Day texts, phone calls, cards and gifts.  It is always nice to be remembered with kindness.

😊 Charly planned a special dinner one night this week for no reason at all.  He did all the shopping, preparation and cleanup for a delicious meal of street tacos.  I am grateful all the ways Charly helps on a daily basis.  

😊 We have had some decent rain storms this week, like this one Wednesday evening. I am thankful for rain storms, which we need as spring turns to summer. The snow in the mountains is melting and the creeks and rivers are running high, but so far, there has been no widespread flood damage, which is another thing to be grateful for. 

😊 After a very rainy evening on Wednesday, it was great to get back outside for a walk on Thursday.  I am always grateful that I have a beautiful and safe place to take daily walks. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a nice weekend!

😊Deb💖

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” 

– Epictetus

Mother's Day in St. George

We went to Southern Utah over Mother's Day weekend. We left on Saturday and got back yesterday.  Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Kolob Canyons - Zion National Park

Josh had never been with Charly and I on one of our weekend getaways to St. George.  We wanted to do some hiking in Southern Utah, so we scheduled the time share condo in St. George, Josh and I took a day off,  and away we went for a Mother's Day weekend get away. We left about midmorning on Saturday. When we left home, it was very cloudy, but when we reached the Kolob Canyons portion of Zion National Park, the sky were blue and the sun was shining.  It was also quite windy. You can see from the pictures how my hair was blowing with the wind. Windy or not, we love Kolob Canyons and were so glad that we go to stop here.  Unfortunately, Josh wasn't feeling well (stomach bug), so we didn't do much hiking there, but we went on the scenic drive and got some great pictures.   Here are some of sights from Kolob Canyons.  It is such a beautiful place. 

Snow Canyon State Park

We also went to Snow Canyon State Park near St. George. Josh was feeling well enough to do a little hiking with us.  The first trail we did was the Lava Flow Trail, which goes through a field of lava tubes from a long ago volcano.   You can see the sandy trail, lots of lava rocks and some beautiful wild flowers we encountered. 

The second short hike we went on at Snow Canyon State Park was Jenny's Canyon. Charly and I have done this hike before and we love it and wanted to share it with Josh.  The hike is a fairly short, sandy trail along red cliffs that ends in a slot canyon that is like a cave without a roof.  Here are some of the pictures. 

Worldmark Estancia

While we were in St. George, we stayed in a condo at the World Mark Estancia resort.  We always enjoy staying in these large and convenient condos whenever they are available in the places we travel.   The only problem with staying in these condos, is that they spoil us for staying in ordinary motels or hotels.  This condo had two bedrooms and two full bathrooms, along with a full kitchen and a nice large outdoor balcony, complete with a gas grill.  We enjoyed spending Mother's Day weekend there. 

Despite Josh not feeling well, we managed to have a nice time in St. George and make some good memories.  Being in St. George and able to get out and do some hiking was my favorite of all the nice remembrances I got for Mother's Day. I am grateful for safe travels to and from St. George, and the time and means to travel and enjoy having adventures in lots of fun places.  😊

🙏💙Deb💛🙏

"We travel not to escape life, 

but for life not to escape us.
~Anon.