I saw this ad and was interested in getting these shoes, so I did, and the ad didn't lie: you really don't have to touch them at all to get them on and off! They're comfortable and cute but I probably won't wear them until the weather warms up in several months. 

I loved President Nelson's talk from Conference. I love all of his talks. 

 Shame on Mexico's government for doing this.

For a long time, I've believed that the governments of these Latin American countries with high (illegal) immigration rates need to step up and improve things so that their people won't want to leave as much as they do. But so often they don't, and the U.S. is left with the bill, so to speak. This was getting better under Trump, which could in turn have led to stronger Latin American governments and better lives for their people. 

 

 We didn't have a stunning classic New England fall this year, I think due in part to all of the rain we had this summer and fall. The foliage was pretty as always but it was more muted than usual. There was a day in late October when I noticed the leaves finally "popping" a bit more while I was on one of my walks in the woods, and those pictures comprise pretty much all of my fall nature pictures this year.

This one is my favorite

 Sometimes I take too many selfies and I'm kind of embarrassed about it. But not embarrassed enough to not do monthly blog posts about them. 😆 I am, however, resolved to take fewer selfies going forward. I'm not a teenager--and thank goodness selfies and cell phones and social media weren't around when I was!

We watched General Conference for the first time in our new place. I miss having the BYU Channel, but it worked out well to stream it on the TV from the Church's YouTube channel.

 I work at my town library as a substitute a few times a month, and I love it! I love being in the same building that I went to when I was younger (although it's been remodeled since then into something bigger and nicer than what it was), and I love being surrounded by books, and I enjoy helping and interacting with people from my community.

As a reader and book lover, one of the perks of working in a library is coming across a lot of different books that I want to read. If only I had the time to read them all! Sigh, maybe someday. Sometimes I take pictures of books I want to read and put them in a folder on my phone so that I always have a TBR list and reminder there.

I read this one for my book club in October. It was WWII fiction and was based on a true story of a Russian female sniper. It was so good!

I got this book through inter-library loan and it had one of these rating review slips in it. I thought this was a great idea! My review is the one at the bottom.

 Last month I spent a relaxing getaway weekend at Kripalu, a wonderful yoga retreat center in the beautiful Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. It was my second time going there, and it won't be my last (knock on wood!). I hope to go at least once a year for the rest of my life. 

We didn't do a program this time and it was nice to design our own schedule and pick whatever we wanted to do ("we" being me, my mom, Jennifer, and Hayley--for part of the time), which mostly consisted of yoga classes, a few workshops, eating excellent and healthy food in the dining hall, and naps. 😄

 I spent a couple of days at the Cape last month doing exciting things like getting the furnace inspected and the gutters replaced, and then actually exciting things like exploring a new(ish)-to-me walking trail in the woods. I enjoyed a peaceful but invigorating walk there on a mild fall day and found some cool things during it, like this staircase built into a hillside...

 

 On Columbus Day, Sam and I honored our heritage and homeland (as controversial as that concept has become these days) and went for a walk on a trail that I like in the town next door. This trail is on land that my ancestors used to farm and perhaps own, and the town is one that they helped settle. I have many ancestors buried in this town going back to the American Revolution. I'm thankful to live in what I feel is my homeland of Massachusetts, where my roots run deep. Like the Native Americans before me, who I fully acknowledge and respect, I feel very connected to this land that I love.

 Cu-hoot (😉) books that I saw while working at the library:

Wise words from a Wharton guy. This is so true and so freeing.

I enjoyed this article about The Lord of the Rings. I love those movies. I haven't read the books yet; so far, I've only read The Hobbit.  

 Who knew that September would be the last month before war broke out between Israel and Palestine again? The events that have been taking place there over the last month have been horrifying, as has the surprising and disheartening anti-Semitic response of way too many people on American college campuses and in our cities. But I digress and will write about it more in the future. For now, I'll stick to the news I documented in September.

This is one of my favorite summer shirts!

Sunday selfie series 😆

The fridge died. The good thing about renting is that I didn't have to buy a new one--my landlord did! And she got a good one too. 😁

Out with the old...

 In September I got together not once but twice with my high school friends. I'm so thankful for them and for our enduring friendship that is over thirty years old now (and even longer for them since I didn't move here until 8th grade).

We met for dinner and we all unintentionally showed up wearing blue! 💙

 Now that the divorce is finally done and I've downsized and moved and John is away at college, I've decided that I'm going to start trying to spend more time at the Cape house each month. I want to use it (since I didn't lose it 😜), and it's good for me to go to a peaceful place that I love where I have happy memories from the time when the boys were young. I go when Sam is with his dad for a couple of days. I bring my editing work with me and get other things done at the house. And it's free! And freeing, too. So far, it's been working out well, and I continue to look forward to my increasingly common "Cape escapes."

One of my favorite walks on the Cape leads out to the seashore of Cape Cod Bay.

 Sam turned the big 1-4 last month! 😃 All he really wanted for his birthday was a ping-pong table, so I worked hard in August and September to get the basement unpacked, cleared out, and organized so that a p-p table would fit down there. It was a worthwhile project that benefited us both - he got his table and I got the basement unpacked and organized! A win-win situation. 

Thank goodness for my mom, who helped put the table together!

Ta-da!

We can play while surrounded by food storage and emergency preps. How exciting! 😆

 My books were one of the final things I went through and organized after my move. I was going from my huge dream bookcase and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on one whole wall of my office to three IKEA bookshelves in my upstairs hallway and an old cheap one in the basement. What a difference a move makes! I had to really pick and choose which books I wanted to have on the shelves, and which ones would have to stay in storage containers. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I'm thankful that I still have so many books that I love as well as others that I'm looking forward to reading for the first time.

 I wanted to do something fun and different on Labor Day, and decided on a historical trolley ride in Lexington (the Liberty Ride Trolley Tour, to be exact). Sometimes you have to be a tourist in your own backyard in order to enjoy the things your area has to offer!