The first weekend of November was an overall good one.

I went back to work on Friday, feeling much better after my Covid booster.  It was a good day at school.  It was a lovely fall day and Charly and I took a walk right after I got home.  We had leftovers for dinner, then I settled down to watch an episode of Dateline and I stayed up too late reading this suspense/mystery book, which is getting quite interesting. 

Saturday morning,  I slept in until after 8 a.m., which is very unusual for me.  I chalked it up to residual fatigue from the Covid booster.  Charly and I went out for our walk as soon as I was dressed. We saw this little squirrel who ran right in front of us with a nut in his mouth. He went over to a tree where he was digging a hole, in which he deposited the nut.  He, like everyone seems to be getting ready for winter.  

When Charly and I were out for our Saturday walk, Josh went to get his Covid booster. He works for UPS now, and is considered a "front line employee" so he was eligible for the booster.   Now, all three of us have our Covid boosters so we are good to go for trips we have planned this winter!

After our walk, I worked outside "winterizing" my geranium plants, which were especially lovely this year.  I have read online, that Geraniums can be taken out of the pots they are in, and stored in boxes or paper sacks for the winter.  I decided that I would give it a try. 

I had never heard of doing this, but several gardening websites had the same directions for wintering geraniums and then repotting the plants in the spring.  I hope it works.  Thanks to my blog friend, Karen, at  Over the Backyard Fence for suggesting that this could be done. I learn so many interesting things from blogs.   

Charly and I ran some errands and picked up lunch, then came home. Charly finished up the painting of the bathroom ceiling. I am glad that job is done.  

For dinner on Saturday, I made cheeseburger pie and we had a green salad with it.  This was a new recipe I got from my blog friend turned Youtuber over at Kathy's Happy Home.  It was very good!

After dinner, I got our 2021 Jones Family Christmas Card ordered.  I love designing and ordering our Christmas cards, which, for the past several years, have always had some of our favorite family photos from the year.  I always like to get an early start on Christmas cards, which are a family Christmas tradition that I love. Next, I will be writing the family Christmas letter.  If you want to be on our list, let me know! We love sending and receiving Christmas cards. 

I set all the clocks that needed to be set back and even put fresh batteries in a couple of favorite clocks that had stopped working.  


Sunday morning, I started a fresh, clean brand-new journal. This is my old journal, which I finished up on Saturday.  The smiley face stickers are little positive rewards I give myself at the end of each day for accomplishing something specific.  The "I Voted" stickers show that I believe voting is important and I vote in every election that I can.

This is my new journal.  I love the cover. What a great reminder! I have been keeping a journal since 1979, and yes, I have them all.  I haven't always written daily entries, but for the past few years I have.  I use comp books from the dollar store as journals - practical but nothing fancy. Someday, my children will have lots of journals to laugh at or throw away.  😉

We all went to church Sunday, as usual. Charly and I said the invocation and benediction on the main worship service.  We went for a walk after church.  It was a cool and breezy day.  

Sunday dinner was a little different this week.  Usually, I make a big meal for all of us, but Josh had requested steak for Sunday dinner, and I am just not a steak person.  Charly bought two steaks - one for Josh and one for him, but today, Charly decided he wanted leftover salmon for dinner, so I cooked one steak for Josh, and made rice and broccoli for all of us.  

My Sunday dinner was leftover cheeseburger pie, long-grain and wild rice and broccoli. 

Right after dinner, we went to our annual family meeting with our bishop (pastor).  He is a very nice man and it was a pleasure to meet with him.  

I guess you could say I had the surprise of my life on Sunday.  The image shown above is a picture of an original marriage license from 1939.  Nothing out of the ordinary about that, except that this marriage license is for my dad (adopted)  and a woman who was NOT my mom.  Yes, I was utterly gobsmacked when I found out, quite my accident, that my adopted dad had a FIRST wife.  I did some research and looked at as many records as I could find online, some in his own handwriting.  They all confirmed that my dad was married to another woman ten years before he married my mother!  No big deal - lots of people get divorced and remarry, but I had no idea!  I called a cousin (my adopted mom's niece) and asked her if she had ever heard of my dad having a first wife, and she said she had never heard of it either.  I am now wondering if my mother knew about it. My dad has been gone since 1987 and my mom died in 1998, but boy, tonight, I would sure like to sit them both down and ask them some questions. I think the reason this revelation bothers me is that I was raised not to lie or be deceiving, and yet now I find that my father who taught me these things was not living a truthful life - at least in what he was telling me, or leading me to believe. Parents need to live the life they are teaching their children to live. Actions speak louder than words. I am continuing to research this, and so is my cousin who is quite knowledgeable in family history and genealogical research. So far, we have confirmed that the marriage was real, but we have not found any divorce records.  We also haven't found any evidence that there were any children in the marriage. Life can be surprisingly shocking and crazy weird sometimes.  

On that note, I will share these sweet pictures (again from my son-in-law) of my oldest daughter's children at the Virginia Aquarium this weekend. 

I wish I could see their little smiles, but understand that they still need to take precautions and wear masks when they go to places like the aquarium.  I am just grateful that my son-in-law is sending the pictures, and that my grandchildren all look well and happy.

Coming up this week:

Monday - Staff meeting after school
Thursday - Book club meeting

Goals for this week:
  • Finish the fiction book I am currently reading
  • Take walks early before it gets dark
  • Complete usual cleaning chores
  • Go shopping for Samaritan's Purse Christmas boxes
  • Move things around in storage room so Christmas decorations can be accessed. 
With that, I will say goodbye for now. Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week!

😊Deb💚 

"A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."
~Thomas S. Monson