Currently on a Sunday Evening

The weather is hot and summer like.  This past week has been a bit cooler, but the forecast is that next week we will be back up into the high 90s again.  I am ready for fall, and cooler temperatures that will stick around. 

I'm reading three books but not making a lot of progress on any of them.  The first is Do No Harm, a mystery by first time author Gregg Luke, that I am not really crazy about, so far.  I am also reading a book for school, Black Enough, a collection of short stories by Ibi Zoboi.  I am supposed to come up with more lesson plans that reflect the multiculturalism and diversity of the students.   I don't expect that either of these books will make it into my "top ten" for the year.  The third book I am reading is Saints - No Unhallowed Hand, which is a nonfiction history of the pioneers who settled Utah.  It is long, detailed, well-documented and footnoted, and the most interesting book I am currently reading. 

I've been listening to a couple of very good audiobooks - Independence Day by Steve Lopez which I finished yesterday.  Last night I started another good audiobook, Our Day Star Rising - Exploring the New Testament by Jeffrey R. Holland. 

I'm looking forward to attending the closing day of BYU Education Week on August 25.  Education week is a full week of classes on various topics taught by BYU professors. Obviously, I can't take an entire week off to attend, but I am taking a personal day next Friday and Charly and I are driving to the campus in Provo for a fun and interesting day of learning.  This is the first time I have attended and I am really excited.  

In the kitchen, for Sunday dinner, I made creamy Italian Chicken over white rice, with fresh steamed green beans and Kale Salad.  Everything tasted so good!

Here is the recipe that I found in a cookbook I recently purchased at a thrift store.  I bought the cookbook for this recipe that sounded good to me, and it was delicious!

I'm grateful for having completed our move here to our home.  We aren't all the way settled in yet.  We have a few boxes to unpack and no pictures are on the walls yet, but we are here, and it feels good.   I think I was having a lot of anxiety about the move and I'm even sleeping better now. 

Coming up this week, we are having our new fridge delivered on Wednesday, then this old 1990s workhorse Maytag (which still works great) will be moved out to the garage to keep water and soda cold.  We also have a plumber coming to put a new drain in the downstairs shower before the tile guy gets to work.  School begins on Wednesday as well, so it will be a big day all around.  

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

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"The future depends on what you do today."

~Mahatma Gandhi

 

A Little Update

This has been a CRAZY BUSY week.  Literally, we have been running almost every minute except when we both fall exhausted into bed way too late.   Here is a quick update about what has been going on.

Josh went back to Idaho on the Salt Lake Express bus Tuesday morning.  He started a new job Wednesday morning.  He is now working at a call center that does follow-up customer service for utility companies.  He is making quite a bit more than his last job, and his employer lets him set his own hours and work as much or as little as he wants to, so it seems like a good job for a student.  Fall semester hasn't started for him yet, so he is working a lot of hours right now. 

The contractor finished our upstairs bathroom so we could move into our house.  The upstairs bathroom is still tiny, but it looks 1000% better than it did before, and we are very pleased.  We are adjusting to being a one-bath family right now, until the downstairs bathroom is completed.  We think that is still at least a couple of weeks away.  

Moving day was last Wednesday.  We used a different moving company than last time when we moved from our house to the condo. The three guys who came to move us were great. They were careful and knew how to move some really heavy items, yet they hustled and did not waste time, because, afterall, we were being charged by the hour. Nothing was broken, and all three of the men were personable and helpful.  All-in-all, it was an excellent move.  I gave the local company 5/5 stars and a good review on Google.  

About an hour and a half after the last item was unloaded and the truck pulled away, the skies opened up and we had a major, heavy monsoon rainstorm.  This area got 2.5 inches of rain in an hour!  It was coming down hard, and some areas were flooded, but there was no flooding where we are.  We were so thankful that all of our items were in our house safe and sound by the time the rain came.  

We are now all moved in here, and while some of the rooms are organized,  others are still a work in progress, so I will post interior pictures once we have things arranged like we want them.  

While we have been getting organized and settled into our home, we have also been cleaning our condo, and making sure that it is ready to show to all potential buyers.  Everything has been vacuumed, cleaned and polished, which is a bigger job than it sounds like.  Charly is still working on fixing holes where pictures were hanging and doing some touch-up painting.  

We also had to meet with our realtor to sign paperwork to get the place listed. Finally, that is all complete, and we even had our first showing to a potential buying Sunday morning.

Last week was also our nine-year-old granddaughter's birthday, so Saturday morning we took her birthday present to her and took her out to breakfast.  

This granddaughter is very quiet and shy, but she was all smiles during our time together. 

We had a lovely time with our granddaughter and also a nice visit with our daughter and son-in-law and the other grandkids who were home.

The coming week will be another busy one, because I go back to school tomorrow morning. Teacher meetings begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, so my summer vacation is over.   Charly will be holding down the fort at home as the contractors continue work on the downstairs bathroom.  We also have a plumber coming to fix a small leak at our condo, and a carpet cleaning service is coming to clean the basement carpets there.   Because we have so much going on the next few days, I will end this short post and try to get into bed at a decent time.  I am still working on posts about our end-of-summer trip to Washington D.C. and Virginia, which I hope to have up this coming week. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"The direction you choose to face

determines whether

you're standing at the end 

or the beginning of a road."

~ Richelle Goodrich

Currently this Sunday

It's been another busy and sometimes frustrating week of renovations and moving.  Here is what going on here in my world right now. 

The weather is HOT.  We were over 100 today and more of the same is expected this week.  We are under an "excessive heat warning" here in Utah.  

We drove over to our house this afternoon after lunch, and it was 102.  On the nightly new weather forecast, it was announced that in this area is was 106 today.  That's a record for this day here in Salt Lake City. I don't do well in the heat, so these kind of temperatures are not my favorite. 

I'm reading my various scripture study books and an Amish mystery, Fall from Pride by Karen Harper.  Honestly, I am too exhausted at the end of every day to read much before bed, so unfortunately, I am really not getting much reading done this summer.  

I've been listening to an audiobook, Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans and a couple of podcasts, Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager and Follow Him, which is a scripture study podcast.   I am almost finished with the audiobook and will include it in my July Reading Roundup. 

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and frustrated. We still have so much to do before our move-in date of August 2.  The remodeling of the upstairs bathroom has slowed because our tile contractor had a death in his family last week.  We are hoping that he can catch things up and finish the tile this coming week.  We are having trouble getting the internet connected at the house, which means that our Ring security cameras aren't working yet.  We made four trips to the Xfinity (Comcast) store to try and work out the problem.  Turning on the internet through the Xfinity app is not working the way it is supposed to, so finally, they agreed to send a tech out to our house on Monday to see what is going on.  I know these things will all be resolved eventually, but right now, I just feel overwhelmed with it all. 

I'm loving that our new church congregation is much more diverse than our old one - in race, ethnicity and age.  We have a good mix of young families and older people, as well as single, widowed, divorced and married.  I love it when a church congregation is composed of people from many different backgrounds and circumstances, brought together by faith and love for Jesus. 

(source)

I'm thinking about our end of the summer trip to Washington D.C..  In some ways, I'm looking forward to it, and in some ways, I stressing about it because we have so much going on right now.  We have had the trip planned and paid for since last year, so we are going to go ahead with it, and I think that in many ways it will be good to get away from the renovation stress and construction mess at the house.  I am unabashedly patriotic about the United States of America and it has been my goal to ensure that all of my children see and experience Washington D.C..  Josh is the last one who has not seen Washington D.C. and he is coming with us on this trip.   I am hoping and praying that the trip goes well and that we can still meet all of our renovation and moving deadlines. 

In the kitchen I made a potato/ham/cheese casserole for Sunday dinner and had spring mix salad and steamed broccoli with it. 

I'm grateful for being able to renew my drivers license online.  The state of Utah actually charges more if a person renews in person at one of the DMV offices.  Renewing online was quicker and more convenient that I expected it to be.  

I'm also thankful for good working central air conditioners at both our house and condo.  I don't know what I would do in this heat without air conditioning. 

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Stay cool and safe and have a good week. 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, 

always bring your own sunshine."

~Anthony J. D'Angelo

Sunday Update

It's  been an eventful week here in my world.  Here's a Currently update about what's been going on. 

The weather is hot and sunny.  Right now, it is 97 degrees and sunny where I am.  The forecast is for temperatures in the mid to high 90s all week until next weekend when we will be in triple digits.  The heat of summer has arrived. 

I'm reading Fall from Pride, an Amish mystery by Karen Harper.  I just started it last week after finishing At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.  In my Bible reading, I just started 1 Kings in the Old Testament, and I am about mid-way through the book of Acts in the New Testament. 

I've been listening to the audiobook Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado. Charly and I went on a road trip last week, and this audiobook was interesting to listen to as we drove.  I'll include a review of it in my July Reading Roundup.  

I'm watching The Chosen.  That and a few minutes of the the nightly news is about all I have watched all week. 

I'm loving that we were able to meet up with good friends of our from Arizona last week when they were in Utah for a visit. We met up for lunch and enjoyed catching up for a couple of hours.  They are a lovely couple that were in our church congregation in Arizona. It was sure good to see them.  

I'm thinking about our great trip to Southern Utah last week.  We attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. We attended two excellent Shakespeare performances - Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet.  We went to the Shakespeare Festival in 2021 and I am so glad we could go again.  I think we need to make this an annual trip.  We also went to St. George for a day and that was fun.  We browsed some of our favorite thrift stores down there and looked at a couple of houses because we are still thinking of moving there when I retire.  It was hot - about 104, so we didn't get to do any hiking, although that is one of my favorite things to do in Southern Utah. 

I'm celebrating all of the progress on renovating our house.  The 5th bedroom downstairs (the old basement family room) is now finished, complete with a new closet, paint and flooring.  It looks great!  Progress is also being made on the upstairs bathroom now that the needed materials have all arrived.  The contractor said that tile will be going in this week.  

I'm grateful for many things as this weekend ends.  Here are a few:

• I'm grateful safe travels to and from Southern Utah.
• I'm grateful for our "new" church congregation and the friends and lovely welcoming people there. 
• I'm grateful that things are progressing on all fronts with our home renovations and move.  
• I am also grateful for a yard to work in.  I have been enjoying planting flowers, trimming the bushes and even mowing the lawn.  

That's all for this weekend catch-up Currently post. Have a good week! 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Keep living with peace, joy and hope 

as you focus on God's promises to you."

~Pastor Rick Warren

The Sunday Before the 4th of July

In my last post, I said I was going to take a little blog break, but here I am again, with a quick weekend update in a Currently post.  

The weather is quite warm.  It has been in the 90s today and tomorrow we may hit 100. Summer is here for sure.  

I'm reading At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.  I like the book.  I have less than 100 pages left and will be finishing it up this  week.  

I'm listening to  this audiobook which I checked out from the library, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.  I should be finished with this book this week as well.   I'm not crazy about it, but will review it at the end of the month in my Reading Roundup post (hopefully). 

I'm watching the final episode of The Chosen season 3. 

In the kitchen we had spaghetti with meat sauce and parmesan cheese along with an avocado ranch salad for Sunday dinner. 

I'm loving that I have another box of books, both read and unread, that I have decided to donate to the Friends of the Library.  As much as I love to read, I realize that I hold on to too many books, and I am working on letting go.  I am also making more use of the Kindle app on my phone and the two local libraries available to me. 

I'm thinking about  some plants I planted in our backyard on Saturday.  I didn't really expect to plant much this year while we are still moving in, but I found some nice plants and hanging pots on clearance Saturday morning.  I also transplanted the little plumb tree, and a grape vine I had growing in large planters on the patio of our condo.  I am hoping that all the plants do well, even though I planted them late in the season and it is hot.   

I'm celebrating Independence Day for the United States of America, land of my birth, a fact for which I am eternally grateful.  Today in church we sang America the Beautiful and Battle Hymn of the Republic,  and I joined in heartily with these patriotic ballads that I love .  Despite all this nation's problems, I am unabashedly patriotic and have a deep love and appreciation for this country.   

I'm grateful that one month from today (August 2 - the day before our granddaughter's 9th birthday), the moving truck will be coming to help us finish the move to our house.  That still seems a long way off, but we need time to get the renovations finished, and we are moving and organizing a bit each day.  I am looking forward to having everything complete, getting settled in at the new place, getting our condo on the market, and hopefully selling it for a good price.  In the meantime, the next 30 days will be busy, busy, busy with a couple of summer trips thrown in for good measure. 

That's all for now.  I'm not sure when I will post again, but I will be back at some point.  Have a great week, and to my American blogging friends, have a wonderful July 4th holiday!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"There is nothing wrong with America

that cannot be cured by what is right with America."
~Bill Clinton

Moving Forward With Gratitude

It has been another busy and exhausting week of moving and remodeling and renovating the house we are moving into.  Every day has been full as we loaded up our Honda CRV and made multiple trips to the house with everything from clothing and books to our freezer.  I have decided to put regular blogging on the back burner for a while, but before I go on a "blog break" I want to remember the good things by joining with Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

😊 Progress continues on the renovation/remodel.  This is the new closet that is being built to make the large downstairs family room into a fifth bedroom.  The upstairs bathroom is also progressing, but not as quickly as we had hoped.  Apparently some of the needed tile pieces were in short supply and had to be shipped in from Italy.  We have been told they will arrive early in July. We sure hope so. Despite inevitable delays, we are grateful that things are moving along. 

😊 Our new stove was delivered this week.  It looks great, but we haven't been able to cook anything on it yet for obvious reasons.  We are grateful that the stove came.  Now we wait only for the new fridge, which won't arrive until  August. 

😊 We have moved a lot of things over to the house, including our freezer, our small downstairs refrigerator, and all of our family photo albums. (They are shown on the shelf in the corner. The photos need to be digitized, but that is a goal for another summer). We moved several book and storage shelves by ourselves in our Honda, which holds more than one might think.  I have also spent some time getting the ample basement storage room in the house organized.  While not perfect, it is straightened enough that I can find things in it.  I am grateful that I have had the time to get things ordered and organized as we move in. 

😊 While we have been moving, we have had the opportunity to take a hard look at what is in our home and decide if we really need or want it. We have made multiple trips to donate everything from books and bedding to yard furniture, flower pots and bookshelves.  I am grateful for the opportunity to lighten our load and help others in the process by donating things we don't really need. 

😊 These beautiful pink hydrangeas are blooming in the front yard of our house right now.  While I won't have time to do much more than basic mowing, trimming and weeding this year, next summer I plan to plant more flowers and get the vegetable garden going again.  I am grateful that the house has a nice, manageable yard with lots of yarden areas and beautiful flowers already in bloom. 

Now, with gratitude for all of these blessings and more, I will take a short blog break.  I hope to still come around to visit my blogging friends and comment, and I will post from time to time, but probably not as regularly as I have been.  Thanks for your understanding and thanks for stopping by to share the good.  I'll be back soon!

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"Gratitude makes sense of our past,

brings peace for today,

and creates a vision for tomorrow."

~Melodie Beattie