My favorite Color is October

 

A year ago I made a major life change and posted How my soul praises the Lord

I can not imagine what the past year would have been like if I had not chosen to follow my heart into the Anglican Church. The following month my step mother passed away. She had been ill for many years and my father had become very frail from nursing her. My sisters live out of state and I felt the need to check on my dad daily through the next 10 months. 

On Father's day weekend he had a fall and a subsequent brain surgery three weeks later from head injuries. We were not able to go to the hospital with him and it was very hard for a few days. He had a miraculous recover from blood clots on his brain. Life is too short to wait for much at 87 years old. September 19th he married the lovely Rita.

It has been so wonderful to see them enjoying  each other's company. 

This week he took her up to meet his big brother and family in Oregon.

I took Molly to the mountains to stay with Mary and have been watching their fur baby, Duke.

Pier One Imports closed its doors for good on September 23rd. All Pier 1 stores are gone forever. My side job is gone and school has begun to settle into a routine. Monday to Friday I work from 7:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school with children present, on campus. 

I don't want to call it a new normal, but we are dealing with the daily changes...daily.

I needed a new side hustle, if only for my own amusement. I love to have pretty nails and earrings. But with having to wear a mask or shield at school the earrings have had to be occasional. My ears get sore from the mask, so I go from shield to mask all day.

I had gotten acrylic nails for my niece's wedding in August and got a fill three weeks later. The cost of a fill had gone up to $30 and I always give a tip. I was flabbergasted. Color Street sets are only $11 or $13 a set and that can be two manicures. A friend was having a party on Facebook two weeks ago, so I ordered some. Then I saw what the start up fee was to be a "stylist" and signed up. I will be having my first party online this week.

I'm using the Color Street strips to cover the acrylics while they grow out. This is how great they still look after a week. Next weekend I can file down more of the acrylic bump and apply a new set of strips.

Duke is smelling fresh after a bath today

Last weekend I got to take my Grandson to the zoo with his sweet Mama. He was fascinated by a skunk 

This weekend was just for resting and recharging for the next week. We have only had two weeks of in person classes with students. I got to start my ESL (English as a second language) group and Monday I will start my 1st and 2nd grade reading groups. In order to socially distance students we have three recesses sessions and three different lunch periods for grades 1st to 5th. Last week a kindergarten aid was out and we had to fill in for her as well. The Zogg fire was very close to us in Redding and the air quality on Wednesday and Thursday was so bad students could not play outside. That still meant that I was racing all over campus to give teachers breaks and get students in and out of the cafe.

Thankfully the wind died down and the firefighters have been able to begin containment of the fire in our foothills to the west. My son is one of those firefighters. I was glad to see that he and his lady got a day off to go fishing as he works 16 days straight.

October usually means rains, cooler temperatures and the end of the fire season. Our area has been hit hard with the fire in recent years. I pray that the next couple of months of 2020 will be kinder to us.