A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Monday, August 10, 2026

10 on the 10th - Would You Rather Summer Edition

On the 10th of each month, Marsha In the Middle asks ten questions for us to answer in as much or little detail as we wish. She's come up with ten fun "would you rather" questions for us to discuss this month. These are tough choices because I don't think there are any options I would dislike, so I may wind up explaining my logic in every case!

1. Would you rather vacation in Alaska or Bali?

This one is easy. I've wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise for my entire adult life and haven't done it yet, so that is what I'd rather do. Bali looks amazing also, but I'll choose the one that I've been trying to check off my bucket list for decades.

2. Would you rather learn to play a musical instrument or learn to paint?

I already know how to play piano, but I would love to learn (relearn and learn well) guitar. I think that's a skill I'd be able to make really practical use of.

3. Would you rather wear flip flops or sneakers?

I would honestly rather wear flip flops but my arches appreciate when I wear shoes that are slightly more supportive. Thankfully I like sneakers too so at this point that is what I'd rather wear.

4. Would you rather ride the highest roller coaster or bump along on the Lazy River ride?

I love roller coasters. I also love the Lazy River. :thinking: As of the time of writing, the Lazy River ride sounds much more appealing, perhaps because I so enjoy being lazy and I don't really feel like being strapped into a thrill ride.

5. Would you rather go on a road trip or take a flight to a faraway destination?

I love road trips, but I have a long list of faraway places I'd love to see, so I would rather fly to one of those.

6. Would you rather have a summer birthday or a winter birthday?

I have a winter birthday and I have no problems with it, but I might like to experience a summer birthday too. I think there are more options for fun birthday parties with summer birthdays. With a winter birthday, especially right around Christmas like mine, it feels like there's a lot to compete with when planning a party.

7. Would you rather go to a flea market or a craft fair?

Oh definitely a craft fair! I'd find a lot to be interested in at a craft fair. I'm not a big fan of flea markets.

8. Would you rather go tubing down a river or zip lining through the trees?

Almost twenty years ago now, while on a mission trip in Honduras, I did go on a ziplining adventure. It was a multi-stage zipline through the trees and crossing the river and waterfalls at least three times. It was exhilerating! I loved it!! I felt a little old and heavy doing it at the time and I'm twenty years older and an undisclosed number of pounds heavier now. So all that to say, I think I'd be better off tubing down the river at this point.

9. Would you rather go on a safari or a whale watching tour?

A safari would be really exciting, but I would prefer a whale watching tour. Especially if it could be on a tall sail ship. We did it on our Maine and Atlantic Canada vacation a number of years ago and I loved being on the small sailing ship, which surprised me a little because I am afraid of deep water, especially the ocean. But I would do that again in a heartbeat.

10. Would you rather be able to control the weather or talk to animals?

I would much rather talk with animals. It would be good to communicate with my cat and make sure she's doing okay and just have small talk with her. (She's not eating much right now and we think maybe she's got a bad tooth or something tender in her mouth - sure wish we could just ask her what's going on and what we could do to help!) Also having the the ability to control the weather is waaaaaaaaay too much responsibility and too many factors to consider.

What would you rather choose? Leave a comment and let me know!

This post will be linked at Marsha In the Middle for the August Edition of 10 on the 10th.

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email.

©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Sunday Stills - Yellows that Bring a Smile

When you think of something you photograph that is yellow, what comes to mind? For me, the first thing I thought of was sunflowers, so let's get those photos out of the way:

It will soon be sunflower farm season again and hopefully I'll get back there for more photos when the time comes.

So, yes, I was pretty confident that for August's Monthly Color Challenge, I'd find some yellow flowers. The most recent of my photos that caught my eye, though, was the series of birds featuring yellow hues that I admired at Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls. I'm not certain I remember the correct names of all of these, but I'll give it my best shot.

I thought these were lovebirds because they were so clearly a pair. But they are actually called Sun Conure Parakeets. I loved how they dipped their heads into the dish at the same time.

Not sure what this one is. I guessed Lorikeet, but Google Lens is telling me a type of finch. Based on its bill, I'm not sure that's correct, but it sure is yellow!

This fellow enjoying the bath is either a type of oriole or weaverbird. Either way, definitely yellow!

Back to the plant world, I wanted to include a couple of photos that feature larch trees because they have such a brilliant yellow color that really pops among the dark green of most of the trees around them.

I'm ending today's color challenge post with a series of photos of a favorite yellow character - a Minion! Several years ago I received a gift basket from a "secret sister" that included a squishy stress ball Minion. Somehow our family started a tradition of hide-and-seek with this Minion. We hide him somewhere unexpected in the house and whoever finds him gets to hide him next. For awhile I remembered to take photos of his hiding spots. The tradition carried on for a little bit after we moved but sadly, I've now lost track of where the Minion is. I was thinking if we find him on our next visit to Maryland, maybe I should bring him to Ohio and start a fresh round of Minion Hide and Seek here.

This post is shared at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives for the #SundayStills Photo Challenge and will do double duty for #TheFlowerHour Photo Challenge this week.

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email.

Scripture and a Snapshot - Purifying

See what love the Father has lavished on us letting us be called God's children! For that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it has not known him. Dear friends, we are God's children now; and it has not yet been made clear what we will become. We do know that when he appears, we will be like him; because we will see him as he really is.

And everyone who has this hope in him continues purifying himself, since God is pure.

~I John 3:1-3~

Thank you for joining Scripture & A Snapshot. Leave a link to your own post sharing a Scripture and a Snapshot. Take time to visit some of the other links and bless each other with comments.

I also link up at the Sweet Tea & Friends Monthly Link-up Party hosted by Grace-Filled Moments

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Friday, August 7, 2026

Progress and Goals 2026 (June and July)

It's past time for another catch-up session for me to check in how I'm doing with my goals for this year. I've been hit and miss about actually posting something, but I do keep a brief sentence per day log ongoing. But no set schedule for actually sharing. I had two main areas to focus on this year as far as my goals: 1) Improve my overall health and fitness; and 2) Move to a home that suits us better than our apartment.

At the end of May, when I last posted a goals update, we had closed on a house and were preparing to move in, and with the goal of actually moving completed, I've now adjusted that goal to something more like: Get settled in and organized in the house. We have done a lot of that work, but since we were on vacation or had company (my parents) for a large part of June, we just did "good enough" on most things that weren't necessary and paid a little more attention to organization in July. We are still shopping for new living room furniture, but there's no rush since what we have is perfectly fine. We have purchased a couple of smaller furniture items I wanted - a hall bench, a vanity, and a new compact kitchen table. I'm ordering a bed for the guest room so I plan to have that room properly furnished by the end of the month, depending on delivery dates. I'm still working on organizing the kitchen, and we still haven't hung anything on the walls! And the room that serves as our "office" still needs to be organized as well. I wanted to get the guest room done first and then the fold-out sofa can be brought into the office. Which I guess means that I should put in some time on sorting the stuff that's in here so I'll have room for that sofa! I have given serious thought to getting a piano and having this be a music room also, but then there surely wouldn't be room for both the piano and the sofa, so I think that plan will remain on hold. I do have my keyboard after all.

moving day at the beginning of June

Just get everything into the new house and
we'll figure it out!

kitchen chaos to start with

master bedroom in pretty good shape

new vanity/old piano bench

new kitchen table

My other goal about improving health and fitness . . . well, I felt like I was making some decent progress in improving my food choices and I'd taken off a few pounds as well. And then along came June with vacation and moving, which gave me a handy excuse to eat what I wanted or what was convenient; and my weight ticked back up a little bit. July was a bit up and down with good diet, because there were a few too many days where the meal plan was upended by needing to run unexpected errands or because of my husband's health concerns as he dealt with a kidney stone. I concentrated on getting back to logging my meals in an app I use with my dietitician and being more intentional about nutrition, and I'm happy to report that the numbers on the scale are ticking down again.

Here are some highlights of the past couple months (I'll try to keep it brief!):

The first week of June was when we took physical possession of the house and moved in. We took loads of things that could fit in the cars each evening, and had a moving truck to do all the furniture and basically finished getting it all here on the Saturday. We slept in the house for the first time that night!

The second week of June we got the house functional as best we could, but spent most evenings finishing up the cleaning and getting the last few things out of the apartment.

Saturday, June 13th - got my hair done in the morning while hubby mowed the lawn for the first time in a few years! We had a quick but late lunch and headed out on our vacation, arriving at hubby's sister's place in Ontario in the late evening.

Sunday June 14th - had breakfast with friends and spent the afternoon visiting with them. We picked up my Mum and Dad from the airport at dinnertime and met their friends for dinner. Mum and Dad stayed with those friends for a couple days while we spent a couple days with hubby's sister. Also our son Landon and his family arrived there on Sunday evening.

Tuesday, June 16th - next leg of the vacation! We picked up Mum and Dad, headed for Lewiston, and met up with the whole family at the Airbnb.

Wednesday, June 17th - drove to Niagara Falls US side and then walked across to the Canadian side! We visited Bird Kingdom and did some touristy looking around before walking back and heading back to Lewiston for dinner.

Friday, June 19th - the whole family went to Niagara Falls and went on the Maid of the Mist cruise to the falls!

Sunday, June 21st - we packed up in the morning and all headed home our separate ways. Mum and Dad came home with us and stayed for another week.

Fourth week of June hubby and I were back at work, but enjoyed relaxed evening with Mum and Dad, playing games and visiting. We did a little furniture shopping, including Mum and I making the first IKEA run on the Saturday.

Monday, June 29th - Hubby and I both took an extra day off work so we could drive out to Chicago and get Mum and Dad to the airport there. Long story. On the way home we made our first visit to Buc-ees! We are planning to take a day trip there sometime, when Harrison and family can join us.

July 1st - Happy Canada Day! Of course it was just a regular work day for us. But in the evening we went with a group from our church to pack meals at Lifeline Christian Mission

Thursday, July 2nd - after work I went to a chorus choreo and watch party for the evening. A group of us had dinner together, worked on our choreo, and watched the webcast of a barbershop competition that one of our quartets was in.

Friday, July 3rd - This was our day off work so we relaxed at home for most of it. We went to the Reynoldsburg fireworks in the evening.

July 4th - Happy Independence Day! We met Harrison and family in Dublin for that Independence Day celebration, including a Wallflowers concert and more fireworks.

Friday, July 10th - Hubby wasn't feeling quite right when he left for work in the morning, and he wound up leaving work early and going to urgent care and then ER for treatment of a kidney stone. That escalated quickly! He stayed the night at the hospital. On Saturday afternoon they attempted to remove the kidney stone without success, but he was able to come home.

Sunday, July 12th - as it turned out, we already had this week off from worship team, so we took the opportunity to visit another church. Hubby wasn't feeling too bad, but we took it easy.

The next week was an up and down one for hubby, with him coming home from work early a few days when he was in pain. Overall he felt a little better each day, and by the weekend he was in pretty good shape. Harrison and family went with us to serve dinner at Lower Lights on Saturday night and we went out for coffee afterwards, to the Eastern Africa Coffee Shop we'd been wanting to try. It was really good!

Another week of ups and downs followed. We had the car in the shop one day which made for interesting logistics of getting to work. Hubby's follow-up surgery to remove the kidney stone was on the Thursday, so we slept in a little bit and I drove him to the hospital and got him checked in. I went to work in the middle of the day and then picked him up after his surgery. On Friday I went to work a little later as well, just to make sure hubby was doing okay before I left. By Friday evening he was pretty much good as new.

Saturday, July 25th - hubby went to work for a little bit in the morning, and I spent the day at a chorus workshop.

Sunday, July 26th - after church we went out to lunch with friends, then went home to get changed. Harrison and family came over and we put the table and chairs we were giving them in their car, then we all went to the Jazz and Rib Fest in downtown Columbus. We walked around and enjoyed the music, ate barbecue, and then went back to our place for a little bit.

The last week of July was a pretty standard work week, except that we went to the Clippers game on Tuesday night (SVC sang the anthem) and to the Irish Festival in Dublin on Friday night.

How are doing with your goals for the year? Leave a comment and let me know!

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email.