Tuesday 4 - The Cozy Pastime of Reading

 

 

Welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we give you 4 questions to think about each week.

People make reading lists for the various seasons and many mention how cozy it can be to cuddle up in a favorite spot to read.

1. Do you have a list of books you'd like to read? 

I have books I want to read listed in my head - nothing written down.   Of course the list changes from time to time as I lose interest in some books and gain interest in others.  

2. Where do you get ideas for books you want to read?  What kind of books catch your interest?

I get ideas for what I read in many different places.  I get ideas from friends, my daughter, social media, Kindle Unlimited, articles, advertising and other bloggers.   I read a lot of mysteries and books about religion and Christianity, but I also read anything that catches my interest.  In past years, I have read about 75% nonfiction, but I think that this year, I am reading about half and half between fiction and nonfiction.  

3. What have you read lately?

During the month of September, I read the following books:

• Mail Order Bride by Debbie McComber
• The Heavens are Open by Wendy W. Nelson
• The Secret Lives of Utah Wives by Chandler Kass
• Wonderful Counselor by Drew Young

I'm currently reading The Third Floor by Lizzie Anne Love.  I wrote about that book in my last blog post.  I don't expect I will be finished with it before the end of the month. 

My favorite book for September was The Secret Lives of Utah Wives, which was not steamy or inappropriate, but a well-crafted mystery with lots of twists and turns.  I enjoyed it and will soon be reading another book by the same author, The Secret Lives of Arizona Wives.  

4. How do you find time to read and where do you make yourself cozy and comfy to read?

I do most of my reading in the recliner in my family room at night before bed, or in the afternoon when I sit down for a few minutes to rest and relax after lunch. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

The First Week of Fall

I had good intentions of posting on Friday, but that didn't happen, so here's a quick end-or-the-weekend update on what has been going on in my world over the past seven days. 

We had more much needed heavy, soaking rain at the beginning of the week.  All of the little white specks you see if you look closely in this picture is rain and hail.  I am grateful for the much needed rain that also cooled our temperatures. 

Not every day was rainy this past week, and we had several days of cooler, beautiful fall weather.   I am grateful for fall.  I love this time of year!

We heard once again from our cute granddaughter who is learning Norwegian so she can serve as a Christian Latter-day Saint missionary for 18 months in Norway.  Here she is pointing to where she will be serving on a large world map. 

Here's a picture of our sweet Hailey in the middle with two other young missionaries who will be going to Norway and serving with her. We are so grateful for her, her kind and happy spirit and her willingness to serve as a missionary and bring others to Jesus.

I'm grateful for the new shelves in our garage. I know I have shown a picture of them before, but they really are helping us get organized in our new home and I love them.  We spend quite a bit of time this week organizing and reorganizing, and I'm very pleased with the progress we are making.  Charly has worked especially hard on this project and I am grateful for him and all he does. 

 

As part of our organizing, I found a box with files and documents dating back to the 1990s and early  2000s.  Yes, it's kind of embarrassing that we still had paperwork dating back that far. I have been doing a lot of shredding, and I'm glad that we getting rid of so much stuff that we don't need any more.  

We drove up to Josh's place early in the week and took him to lunch. Since we all enjoy Chinese food, we had to check out a Chinese food place near where he lives. 

A couple of days later, we were also able to take our oldest grandson Miles out to dinner this week. He couldn't join the rest of the family when when we had dinner together on Sunday, so we took him out to his dinner place of choice - Denny's.  We all enjoyed some breakfast-for-dinner comfort food, and spent some time visiting and catching up.  It was a nice dinner with our grandson.  I'm grateful that we get to see our Utah grandchildren as much as we do. 

We have been wanting to get a small storage cabinet or shed for our small backyard, and I found this one Facebook Marketplace last week. 

It is perfect for what we wanted and it was located only two miles from our house.  We brought it home in the back of our Honda.  We had to leave the back hatch up as we drove very slowly home.

It is perfect for storing garden and yard tools, which leave us more room to get organized in the garage. 

We also worked out in our yard and planted some new flowers and shrubs.  This is a Dragon Breath plant which we planted by our front porch.  It is beautiful. The picture does not do it justice.  I will need to repot this plant and bring it in during the cold winter months.  I hope it survives. 

Another addition to the backyard that I found on Facebook Marketplace is this 

Saturday evening, Charly and I went to worship at the temple in Orem, the city where we live. 

After the temple, we enjoyed to-go pizza from our new favorite pizza place.  So good!

Our weather (most of the week) was beautiful, and Charly and I enjoyed walking together every day. 

Sunday was a restful day.  I love the Sabbath!  We did not go to church as we usually do because Charly woke up not feeling well, and I stayed home with him.  I really miss church when I don't go. 

Sunday we had a leftover dinner, which was still very yummy! 

Sunday was a beautiful, warm fall day. This was the view from my back deck on Sunday night.  I thought it was beautiful. 

As the new week begins, I am reading this book, The Third Floor by Lizzie Anne Love.   It is an excellent Christian YA book by a friend of mine - a former English teacher who was in our church congregation in Arizona.  She has written lots of books - this is just her latest.  She sent me an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of the book so I could read and post a review. So far it is very good.  My friend is a pretty good author, and I'm grateful to be one of the first readers of her new book.  If you have Kindle Unlimited, she has a larger collection of uplifting Christian Romance books under the name Betsy Love.    Lizzie Anne Love is her YA pen name.  

Gratitude for this week;

• Having beautiful fall weather.
• Organizing our garage and backyard. 
• Spending time with our children and grandchildren. 
• Finding things we need for our home for good prices on Facebook Marketplace. 

Praying for:

• Our children and grandchildren.
• Our nation. 
• Passage of anti-abortion laws in Idaho and Nevada. I AM PRO-LIFE!!

Looking forward to:

• Some fun fall trips and getaways we have planned. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week. See you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

“The fundamental human right, 

the presupposition of every other right, 

is the right to life itself… 

Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right — 

it is the very opposite. 

It is a deep wound in society.”

~Pope Benedict XVI

Tuesday 4 on the First Day of Fall

Welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.   I haven't participated in Tuesday 4 for a while, but it is a rainy Tuesday here where I am (in Utah) and joining in with Tuesday 4 seems like the perfect thing to do today. 

Hello Friend!

1. How has your September been so far?

My September has been awesome!  Here are some of the good things that happened in my family this month:

• We closed on the sale of our old house! 

• Our granddaughter began training for her missionary service in Norway, and we got to spend some time with her and her family before she left.

• We finished home improvement projects on our new place - our new deck and patio cover and garage shelves.  

• We celebrated family birthdays - my daughter on September 1, and my birth mom on September 13.  

• We had a lovely family dinner with our daughter and her family last Sunday. 

• We did some fun things like going to a movie and a deep dive scripture lecture and we had lunch with our son and dinner with our grandson. 

2. What events are coming up next on your calendar or have there been any special days so far for you?

Charly and I both have birthdays in October (the 6th and 9th), as does our youngest granddaughter who will turn 8 on October 27.  We also have some fun travel and getaways planned for October and early November.  (Now that I'm retired, we can go where we want when we want.  No school schedules to worry about).  We also found out on Sunday that our youngest granddaughter will be getting baptized in November so that is another happy event we are looking forward to!

3.  How's the weather been in your neck of the woods? 

We have had cool and rainy weather. We had a major rain storm last week, complete with flooding and a tornado. Today, the rain is more gentle, and much appreciated after months of very dry weather.   It is certainly feeling like fall here where I am. Here is a picture I just took of the what it looks like this morning on my street.   Yep, it's raining and it's garbage day. 

4. How can we be praying for you or sending our good thoughts your way?

Our son has a third interview and physical fitness test today for a security position with his current employer that would be a good promotion for him.  Prayers that he can do well and get the job are much appreciated.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good Tuesday, and join in with Tuesday 4 by linking up HERE.  

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

The Final Weekend of Summer

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac (and Google), September 22 is the first official day of fall this year.   That made this past weekend the final official weekend of summer 2026.  Here are some of the highlights.  

Friday morning we had some very heavy rain and even some hail!  This is the view of the condo complex behind our home at about 8 a.m. Friday morning. We had heavy rain and thunder storms off and on throughout the morning. 

A very sad result of Friday's storm is that this lightening strike killed a 19-year-old hiker.  We know it was this strike that killed the young hiker on Mt. Timpanogos (which I can see from my front window) because the time stamp on the photo was the exact same as the moment the hiker was struck and killed.  Tragic. 

The rain finally let up about mid-morning and we ventured out to get some shopping done.  

We were able to go to Walmart for a few things and then go over to Winco for our regular groceries.  As soon as we got our groceries in the car, it started to rain again, but not as heavy as earlier in the day. 

In the late afternoon, I decided to venture out for a walk, even though it was still cloudy and quite windy. 

I finished most of my walk, then in the last two blocks, I heard thunder and the rain started again. Fortunately, the heavy rain waited until I was back in my house.  

It rained off and on, sometimes quite heavily, for the rest of the day and well into the night.  It was the most rain we have had for some time. There was flooding some places and even a tornado in Davis County which is north of where I live.  Tornados in Utah are pretty rare. 

We did not g et any rain on Saturday, and there were some blue skies but also a lot of clouds.  We went out for a morning walk and it was cool enough for a jacket. 

I spent some of Saturday morning taking everything out of our fridge, and cleaning and reorganizing it. I threw away some forgotten and out of date food items, and cleaned every shelve and drawer. I love a clean and organized fridge. 

We also worked in the garage, further organizing and putting things away. We made enough progress that we can once again get one of our cars in the garage, so that was nice.  Our goal is to get rid of even more things so we can get both cars in the garage. 

Saturday evening, Charly and I went to the temple to worship and pray.  It was a lovely, peaceful evening. 

After the temple, we had some delicious pizza from our new favorite pizza place that is literally only a couple of blocks from our home. 

Sunday morning we went to church.  This beautiful painting of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples is just outside of our chapel and I saw it as I went in to the worship service.  I love the paintings of Jesus in our chapels. 

After church, I ate lunch and spent most of the afternoon getting ready for my daughter and her family to come to Sunday dinner. I made sloppy joes and we had baked beans, cut-up fruit and salad with it.  This is a cake I baked for desert. This was a new-to-me cake recipe called Are You Kidding Me Cake?  I got the recipe from a blog/vlog friend, Kathy at Kathy's Happy Home 2 on YouTube. 

Here is the recipe as I wrote it in my recipe journal.  The cake was excellent - my family gave it 5/5 stars!  We had it with vanilla ice cream. 

Here is the recipe I used for the sloppy joes I made. They were so good - another recipe I got from Kathy's Happy Home!

We had a delightful eating and visiting together. Only three of the grandchildren came because the oldest granddaughter is serving as a missionary and the oldest grandson had a project due for one of his college classes and he had to finish that.  I'm so grateful that we were able to enjoy an evening together.  We made plans to get together again soon.

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good week and Happy Fall! 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

Best of the Week - Friday Favorites

Here are some of my favorite parts of the past week.  I'm joining with Susanne over Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five to share good things and gratitude. 

😊We got a nice newsy email from our granddaughter, who is now at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) learning Norwegian.  She will be leaving for Norway on September 30.  This is a picture of her and some of the new friends she has made.  I am so grateful that she is have a good experience and is so happy to be serving a missionary and helping others come to Jesus.  

😊 The shelves we had built in our garage were finished this last week, earlier than expected.  We are very pleased with the new shelves and are grateful that the contractor who built them did a great job and was finished ahead of schedule. 

😊 With the shelves finished, Charly and I have been reorganizing the garage and putting things we need to keep on the shelves.  I'm grateful to have all of this extra storage room so we can keep our garage neat and organized. 

😊 With the new wood shelves complete, we didn't need these smaller shelves we had been using for storage.  I listed them on Facebook Marketplace, and they were sold literally in less than an hour.  I'm grateful we were able to sell these unneeded shelves so quickly. 

😊 We've had cooler weather and rain this past week.  I'm grateful that the hot summer weather is apparently behind us for this year. 

😊 Thursday night, Charly and I attended a lecture by the author of a series of books on Apocryphal texts and how they relate to scripture.  It was a fascinating topic and an excellent presentation. Charly and I love things like this. The lecture was well attended as you can see.  We learned a lot and we both got one of the author's books as part of the price of the ticket.  I am always grateful when I have the opportunity to learn new things, especially things that reinforce my faith!

That's all for this week's favorites.  Enjoy the weekend and I'll see you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"If you want to find happiness,

find gratitude."

~ Steve Maraboli