September Has Arrived!

It's September!  The ninth month of the year!  So much has been happening which on one hand is fun and on the other hand is a bit tiring.  No matter what is happening, I choose to be thankful for my life.  That's why I post my Friday Fave Fives every week. (follow the link to join!)

We decided to spend the last few days of August at a fairly local state park campground.  It was wonderful.  It was relaxing.  These are a few of the happy memories we made.

1.  We love driving through the countryside to arrive at our campsite.  And one day we drove around a bit and took the off roads.  Of course, I just had to grab a photo of a barn!

2.  In Zanesville (yes, that Western author Zane Grey was from this town), there is a Classic Denny's Diner.  One morning, we left the campsite and drove there to meet our friends T and S for breakfast.  It's right on Hwy 40--the National Road.  We've been wanting to visit this Denny's ever since we saw it a couple of years ago.  It was a great breakfast time!

3.  Camping after school starts and during the week, almost all of the campers are retired.  That means quiet.  Usually, it also means empty spaces around us.  We enjoyed chatting with several of our 'neighbors'.  We even bumped into someone we know!

4.  Camping means campfires.  Morning and evening.

5.  Camping gives us more opportunities to be out in nature.  We rode our bikes almost ten miles one morning.  And we hiked a couple of the trails at the state park.  The trails were steep and a bit rugged.  But it was fun.

Which way should we go?

On the evening of the super moon, we were able to capture a few photos since there was not much light around us.  There were lots of trees, though.

And I found more hearts.

Can you see the heart shaped light spot on the upper left of the fire pit?  I noticed it when I downloaded the photo.

In the shadow of the tree on the trail

OK, now it's September!

Early August Faves

 I am a bit late logging on and joining with Friday Fave Fives.  We've been out of town and just returned this afternoon.  So I am catching up as quickly as I can.

1.  I love hot water.  I am thankful when I have it.  But.  Right now at home, we don't have any because our hot water heater broke.  Fortunately, our son noticed it immediately since he is visiting with us for several days.  Why is not having hot water a fave?  It's not.  But in thinking about what I consider a blessing, hot water is one of those things.

2.  We had company for two nights just after our water heater broke.  A 'girl' who grew up in Indonesia with our children now lives in Thailand with her husband and three daughters.  They are here in the US for a few months and were traveling through our area, so they stopped to visit.  We had the BEST time with them and thoroughly enjoyed chatting and reminiscing with her.  Another nice thing about it was that not having hot water didn't phase them at all.  She grew up like my kids did, and her girls are growing up in a similar way.

3.  The same day our friends left, The Professor and I took off on a short camping trip at a nearby state park.  We took our little motor home and enjoyed three nights of 'glamping'.  Fires in the fire pit.  Relaxing in camp chairs reading books.  A couple of short walks.  We loved our camping trip even though it rained a bit each day.

4.  A long time friend (our children were in high school together) moved a couple of years ago to the area where we camped!  So she drove over and spent four hours with us, and we enjoyed our time with her especially since she will be moving to the east coast to be near her daughter and grandchildren soon.

5.  And now we are home.  I am thankful for my home.

Bonus:  My youngest and oldest children have birthdays this week!

A Very Important Date

I'm late, I'm late! Cuz of a very important date!  That date was Wednesday, our wedding anniversary.  We've been married nigh unto fifty years.  Yes, we were children when we married :)

Anyway, here are my Friday Fave Fives from this past week.  THIS IS THE LINK to join Susanne and the rest of us to celebrate all the little things which make us thankful every day.

1.  Obviously, I am thankful for my marriage and my husband.  He is faithful, loving, helpful, wise.  And he actually enters knitting shops with me!  See?  We really were very young.

2.  Knitting.  Yes, I am thankful I can still use my hands and head to create things from yarn. I've been trying to use up a bit of my stash.  Fun blankets work well for using up yarn.

3.  A Sunday afternoon drive, just for fun.  We explored a bit more of the counties south and east of us.  It's all small towns and country farms.

4.  A fun little event (like 3 seconds of time) made me so very happy.  As I was driving on a local street, my younger daughter drove past me.  The grandkids recognized us and waved.  That I can serendipitously catch sight of my family as I drive through town just made me so very happy that it made my heart hurt.

5.  OK, why am I late posting my FFFs?  For our anniversary, we took our little motorhome out on a camping trip for two days, and we just pulled back into the driveway about an hour ago.  There is a state park less than a thirty minute drive from us, so we booked two nights there in the middle of the week.  We call this  our 'shakedown trip' because we haven't actually camped with the motorhome since we bought it!  Blame the cross country move, covid and winter.  Now that we have stayed two nights in our tiny home away from home, we can better assess what we need and things we want to change.  We took our car, too, and our bikes.  One morning we biked for seven miles on the 'rails to trails' path; one evening we explored a bit of the hiking trails around the campgrounds.  Mostly we sat and enjoyed the sun, clouds, shade trees, wildlife and night time firepit.

Now we're home and so very thankful for all the wonderful things that we enjoyed this week!

Repeat

I think this week's Friday Fave Fives is going to be a near repeat of last week. That's because my week has been almost the same as earlier this month.  Well, there was one big difference...

1.  We went camping!  Our church resurrected a neglected tradition last weekend and had a camp out.  The organizer of the event booked a group campsite in the mountains above Santa Barbara at Lake Cachuma.  It was so much fun!  We had people from age two all the way up to late seventies (he was in a motorhome).  The Professor and I popped up our tent and pulled out our camp chairs and watched the fun.  I played several board games which was fun.  We had planned on hiking around the lake, but it was SO HOT, so we just hung around camp.  It was so much fun! (Yes, I know that's a repeated sentence.)  I'm thankful for all the church people who contributed to a great weekend.

2.  One of the sweetest things? (besides hugs from some little ones who we've known since birth and have watched in the two year old class)  Our friends with the air conditioned motor home let us sit in the cool air on Saturday afternoon and even let me grab a quick shower!  I'm thankful for generous friends.

3.  OK, here is where my week is a repeat:  I had my second cataract surgery on Tuesday.  All went well again.  I'm thankful for a very skillful and kind surgeon.

4.  I love how the staff follows up with daily phone calls to make sure I'm healing well and not having any negative reactions or situations.

5.  The Professor wins more points for taking good care of me.  Evidently I was more affected by the anesthesia this time and slept most of the day.  Meals, coffee, tea and snacks were magically provided.  Helping hands were available when I needed anything.

Update on the use of agile toes for picking things up off the floor:  this morning,I dropped my earring as I was removing them from the jewelry box.  Toes to the rescue!  Yes, I picked up my earring with my toes, stood in a one leg yoga pose and grabbed that little earring.  At least I'm getting lots of practice.