Fall in Arizona!!

So happy to be home but time to get something done!

We got unpacked, got the long neglected yard cleaned up, 

and got the house cleaned, too!

 I painted some of Mom's yard 'treasures' for my garden ...

A birdcage (with a 'free' bird!!), a bird feeder, 

'Welcome to my Garden' paver, 

and Grandma and Grandpa squirrel!

It's actually enjoyable doing yard work in my own yard :)

On October 8th, Beka and Root came home

for a week's vacation... so special to have them!

 We all went to Seussical at Xavier!
Deb, Rach and the 6 big grandkids!

Jonah runs the lights for the theater... 

such a fun outing!

We hung out at the Macs ...  Root and Ginger are old buddies!
Beka visited Deb too, but no pictures...

 Before they left, we went out with Beka and Root!

Bye girls - drive safe to San Diego! ... till next time!

On October 23rd we had a freak hailstorm!

Amazing to see in our desert!

So, our goal is to clean out our house of everything 

we don't need for this next season of life!

Life has been pretty busy for the past 10+ years,

and going through neatly stored away things hasn't

been a priority!  But to move ahead ... free of these 

weighty 'burdens' (our kids won't have to do it later)

... means digging in!! 

The 4 sides of the 'school' room with everything out

that has to go away!!!  The girls came over and took

boxes of things.  I sorted through crafts, sewing stuff, books!

100 + patterns 

(some that mom had used and most of things 

I've made over the past 50 years!!)  

Boxed up and ready to donate to the 

Homeschool Resourse Center!

We've made many trips to Sunshine Acres and Goodwill, too!

It feels sooooo great to get rid of all this stuff!

It's served us well - but we have no need of it anymore.

This made me think of the work we do in our personal lives. 

 Sometime there are piles of undealt with stuff 

buried neatly away in our lives.

Until we pull it all out to look at it, all seems tidy.

What a hard and difficult mess to drag it all out, sort it and

get rid of the bad, unneeded stuff!!  ...

But until we do, we stay weighted down with the junk!

FEELING FREE!  

Free-er ... there's more to go!

So special to join these girls on an outing!

Emily got her ears pierced!  Growing up!

I was out of town for the last 2 piano recitals

and was SOOO happy to be here for this one!

All together for Thanksgiving! 

Deborah and Jonah hosted and lovely meal!  

The beautiful adult table!!

A very fun kid's table...

and a 4 year old table 😊

The ladies relaxing the way we do!

A brought home this secretary from mom's.

It was my dad's mother's! I've always loved

it and now it has a new purpose ... our bar!! 

It's perfect - but I have more ideas for it.

We live in a beautiful area!  We can't find an area of the

country we'd rather live!  We've considered 

moving ... thinking we need to downside and simplify.

After looking at many options and seeing what's

out there, we've decided to stay right where we

are!  So we'll keep making this place what we

need it to be as we age!  Change sounded good,

but leaving behind all our hard work and this

beautiful setting sounded terrible.

So we've decided to take advantage of the

many hiking trails in the Superstition Mountains.

We explored the Peralta Canyon one Sunday...

and why would be want to leave this?

Right in our backyard!!!

Sue gave Tim and I tickets to 'Dear Evan Hansen' at Gammage!

A fun night out and a wonderful show!

Earlier this month she was out of town so gave us

tickets to 'On Your Feet', too - another great show!

Doing things like this are so refreshing to me.

So... I had a brilliant idea!  

Beka was performing in a benefit in LA ....

just 6 hours away!  I'd never been able to

go to one, so since it was 'close', why not?

Rachel and Deborah wanted to go, too!

Rachel's kids got sick so she wasn't able to go, but

Deb and I left at 6 am for the drive over.

Made it to Beka's place in time for a nap

while Beka was busy with rehearsal all day!

Deb and I then took an Uber to dinner,

a first for Deb!  We then walked to the theater for

a wonderful Christmas show!

Beka opened the show with this!  So much fun!

We joined Beka at the after-party ...

so fun to meet all the cast and be out on the 

town in Hollywood.

We drove back home the next day.  

A little weary but so glad we made the trip!

Adventures being had!  Memories being made!

Home for 12 days then Tim and I head back to LA 

for Christmas!  James will be there with Beka.  

Looking forward to being with them both!

More Fall pics here!