10 on the 10th - A Few Favorites Edition (September)

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. This month is another list of ten, and I had to put on my thinking cap for this one!

Well, let's start with the obvious ones that come to mind:

1. September - September seems to have the bluest skies and such great weather. It's still warm and sunny, but the mornings and evenings are starting to get brisk, and sometimes there's fog, which I like. For so many years I thought of it as "back to school" month, and I liked that, so that's another reason I like September. We're getting to the end of baseball season and gearing up for playoffs, and the pre-season games are beginning in hockey.

2. October - October has a lot to celebrate for our family. My two oldest sons have birthdays, and so does my sister-in-law; and they happen one after the other, three days in a row. And right around the same time is Thanksgiving . . . the Canadian version. Our son and his wife celebrate their anniversary in late October. Also my parents have an anniversary in October, and it's often been the month that they come to visit. Will they be here this year? It's possible. I love the changing leaves, and October is peak color.

3. November - November doesn't have great weather going for it, but it does have my granddaughter's birthday, my husband's birthday, and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and not just because I love Thanksgiving dinners and desserts, although I sure do! And of course, we're well into the holiday season by the end of the month, which takes us to . . .

4. December - Obviously the month of Advent and Christmas and all the fun holiday things. Holiday music and concerts and decorating!And again, desserts. It's usually busy and there's a risk of bad weather, but there's also the excitement and anticipation of getting together with family to celebrate. Oh yeah, and very importantly, it's my birthday month!

Now we have to get a little bit creative for the rest of the list:

5. Barber(shop) - I love singing barbershop style! I love being a part of the Scioto Valley Chorus, getting together with these fantastic ladies to sing together, to perform and compete. I can't say enough good things about it!

6. Slumber - There's something so satisfying and sometimes even luxurious about being able to sleep late occasionally, or enjoying an afternoon nap. I value the gift of good sleep now that it doesn't come as easily.

7. Ember - The very best part of a bonfire, campfire, or a fireplace or woodstove might be the glowing embers radiating warmth. Don't get me wrong, I love the crackling bonfires, but at the end of the evening, when the flames are low, those embers seem to accompany quiet conversation and a sense of peace. Plus the embers are best for roasting marshmallows to toasty perfection.

8. Remember - What a blessing it is to have good memories! To be able to call things to mind from the past, whether things learned or experienced, detailed or just impressions that remind me of good times, loved ones, fun experiences, and helpful information. It's actually amazing to consider how much information we have committed to memory even without trying, like song lyrics. And even patients with Alzheimer's and dementia, who struggle to communicate or make sense of their world as far as we can tell . . . hearing a song or hymn they knew when they were young can reach them and light their faces again. Music and memory are closely related, I guess.

9. Being a member - It feels very good to find your people, and a place where you belong. Where you're a member of the group, whether it's a community, a family, a church, or a club. As the old advertising slogan said, "membership has its privileges". I think humans have a need to belong.

10. Service Member(s) - I'm ever so grateful for the men and women that serve in the armed forces and law enforcement. Their service and sacrifice is invaluable and we should all honor and respect them and their uniform. We get the chance to do that on Veteran's Day in November, but we should be thanking them much more often than just on that day.

Bonus 'ber' - I just couldn't resist . . . 11. Fiber - I mean, I've reached an age where I truly appreciate the value of getting enough fiber in my diet and through supplements! haha.

What -ber things did I miss? Leave a comment and let me know!

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

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 ©2006-2025 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.

Currently . . . September 7, 2025

At the beginning of each month I've been participating in the "Currently" link-up hosted at Overflowing With Thankfulness. Our hostess Jennifer posts a set of action verb prompts for the month and writers respond. So, without further ado, here are this month's prompts and what's happening currently . . .

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Loving - Things I'm loving right now include:

The weather! Yeah, we had a little rain but mostly it's been sunny and blue skies, and very pleasant temperatures. It's comfortable weather for being outside, not too hot or oppressively humid.

Also perfect weather for baseball, and I loved going to see the Blue Jays play the Reds in Cincinnati on Labor Day. That particular day the Blue Jays didn't win, but they're in first place and have been playing pretty well recently and we enjoy seeing that.

Beginning - to make payments on my husband's medical bills after last month's surgery. Not fun, but it could definitely be worse. 

Ending - the summer, I guess. It doesn't feel that much different to us, honestly, since we're fairly disconnected from school schedules, but our neighborhood pool just closed for the season and the Wednesay night program at church is back to every week, so that means summer is over. 

Picking - Powerball numbers, but not the big winners! haha. We also picked the Blue Jackets games we'd like to see with our share of the season tickets. There's only a couple of the games in the quarter season package that we're really set on - the Canadiens and the Flames - and we're flexible with most of the others. We're pretty lucky to be able to share season tickets with friends so we're not going to be picky about the games!

Posting - Well, I'm doing my best to post here regularly, but it's a challenge sometimes. I can usually manage to keep up with posting but then it takes me awhile to visit other blogs in link-ups. I participate weekly in the Wednesday Hodgepodge and sometimes in Five Minute Friday On a monthly basis, I post in the Share Four Somethings link-up, and of course in this one, the Currently link-up. I host a few link-ups too, and if you'd like to join in any of those, I'd love to have you. Every Sunday I host Scripture and a Snapshot. Every other Thursday I host a photo link-up, Everyday Images. And every other Wednesday I co-host a link-up called Wednesday Quotes.

The Scripture and a Snapshot link-up is just that - share a post with just a line or two of Scripture and a photo, or share a devotional thought based on Scripture.

You can use all or some of the Everyday Images prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. 

For Wednesday Quotes, there's a theme every two weeks, and participants share a post that contains at least one quote. The current theme is Chocolate: WQ - More Chocolate! 

I also have a book blog, Just A Second, where I post about what I'm reading. My original blog is Homeschool Coffee Break. It was dedicated to homeschool topics so now that I'm a "retired home educator" I don't post much there, just enough so it doesn't fade away entirely.

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Here's a short Coffee Break Reading List . . . 

I'm currently reading . . . 

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber

Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

   

More reading news and recent reviews are at Just A Second.

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Quotable (I've enjoyed hunting up little quotes to sprinkle into my posts, and I host a regular Wednesday Quotes link party based on interesting quotes, but I've still got such a collection that I have to keep sharing them!):

Before you sleep, read something that is exquisite, and worth remembering. ~Desiderius Erasmus

By all these lovely tokens September days are here,

With summer's best of weather

And autumn's best of cheer.

~Helen Hunt Jackson

Consider this your invitation to stop by the current link-up and join us: WQ - More Chocolate! The link-up is open for two weeks, and the next one will open on September 17th, with the theme "Making and Keeping Promises"

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Some fun things I've found during coffee breaks:

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What's currently happening in your life? Leave a comment and let me know! 

This post will be linked at this month's edition of "Currently" hosted by My Joyful Life. 

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

 ©2006-2025 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.

Prepared For the Hodgepodge

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1.  Next Sunday is Grandparent's Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent.

 

I don't have any photos of my grandparents scanned, or at least I don't have time to hunt them down so I will have to come up with memories. My Grandma and Grandpa were the absolute best. From the earliest I can remember, my Grandpa wore hearing aids and his eyesight was not good, but it didn't slow him down. He did beautiful woodwork, and I still have quite a few miniatures he made. I'm not sure if he built the house they lived in, and I remember being told that he had purposely built the kitchen cabinets so that the counter was a little lower than standard because my Grandma was quite short. Grandpa was active too, loving to work in his garden and go for walks. My Grandma was such a kind and sweet lady, generously accepting all of the family members and their friends. She could cook and bake and some of my favorite foods came from her kitchen. There's nothing in the world like the zwieback or plumi moos she made! Grandma taught me a lot of baking and sewing. My grandparents loved music and laughter, and were such good sports with all the teasing and joking. Grandpa and his brothers all sang, and Grandma loved it but she said she couldn't sing so she whistled instead. Most importantly, I know they both loved Jesus and that they faithfully prayed for all of us, and I know I'll see them again in heaven. And Grandpa will be able to hear and see perfectly, and Grandma will be singing.

 

2. What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you?

The very first one that came to mind is from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery:

Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world. ~Lucy Maud Montgomery

 

 3. What's your number one food pet peeve?

 So, full disclosure: I am a picky eater and have quite a few pet peeves. The thing that bugs me most is hidden surprise ingredients that I don't like popping up in a food that I would otherwise enjoy. Not always even an ingredient I don't like, but something that doesn't belong in the dish, in my fussy opinion. For example, I like chicken salad and egg salad, but little bits of celery or onion mixed in just ruin it for me. Also, I've learned my lesson and very rarely have hash brown casserole at restaurants or potlucks, because if there's onion in it, I'm done. Onions have their place but hash brown casserole isn't it. 

4. What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young?

 My eyes are still the same color. haha. Probably not what we're getting at with this question. I still read in bed, sometimes sort of under the covers, like I did when I was a kid and trying not to get in trouble. Now my reason is different, but the habit is still the same.

5.  September is National Preparedness Month . . . does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that's kept there.

 

 We don't really have a plan. We used to be fairly well prepared, at least for lengthy power outages or to be snowed in, but that was in our former house where we had an alternative heat source and lots of storage space. I've realized that it seems harder to do that kind of preparedness when you live in a rented home that doesn't have storage space. As far as a preparedness kit intended more for an emergency evacuation, we do not have that.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I tried to have this prepared ahead of time but didn't quite finish in time to publish in the morning, so here I am doing catch-up late in the evening and paying my visits to the other Hodgepodgers will have to wait until tomorrow. I know I'm lousy at time management, but I'm not sure I'll ever get caught up and be able to stay on top of things. I just want to take a nap when I get home from work, and I'd rather spend my evening relaxing than cooking and cleaning. Seriously. How do you organize your time, and what works for you? Especially those of you that work(ed) full time. 

Well, before I go, here's my weekly plug for the Wednesday Quotes link-up, and the current theme of Chocolate!  You can find my thoughts and quotes here: WQ - More Chocolate! Please stop by and share!

 

Were you well-prepared for the hodgepodge this week? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

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

 ©2006-2025 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.

Share Four Somethings - August 2025

Each month we're each invited to share things in these categories: Some Things I Loved, Some Things I Learned, Some Things That Went Well, and Some Thing I Let Go Of. I usually like to include a little bit of a bonus: Some Things I  Read and a little of What's Coming Up Soon. 

Some Things I Loved:

Seems like a lot of things to love during the past month, which is good news! We started out the month with a few days at a vacation house in Deep Creek with the whole family. We loved being together and having a few days to relax and to explore that area a bit, and we had so much fun!

Hubby and I took an extra day before we came home, and visited both Fallingwater and Polymath Park. Loved these beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes!

This is the second year we went to the Greek Festival in downtown Columbus. The food is outstanding!

Some Things I Learned:

I learned that the Ohio Glass Museum in Lancaster is really interesting, and because it's one of the museums in the North American Reciprocal Museum group, we got in free with our Westcott House membership. We learned some cool stuff there too. I hadn't ever put it together that the company Anchor Hocking that makes kitchen glassware might be an Ohio company - but it is. 

I've also been busy learning music and doing my best to be helpful with preparing for SVC fall show coming up in about a month. Only a month away!!

Some Things That Went Well:

Very, very happy that hubby's surgery went well. He had a melanoma removed from his ear - not at the tip, but kind of on the back if that makes sense. Anyway, the surgery did go smoothly, although it was delayed by a couple hours, and we've received all the follow-up reports that the margins were clean, the lymph nodes removed showed no spread, and the surgical sites and stitches are all healing up well. So we are grateful for those answers to prayer!

Some Things I Let Go Of:

I can't think of anything in particular! Which is too bad, because it means I haven't decluttered much, and I know there are some things in the apartment I need to give or throw away, and I'm behind in my plans for cleaning and organizing.

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Some Things I Read:

Finished and reviewed these since my last SFS:

Village Books by Craig McLay

No Safe Harbor by Elizabeth Ludwig

  

Here are the books I'm currently reading:

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber

Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter - A retelling of the classic fairy tale

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

 

 

 

All of my reading news is at Just A Second if you're interested.

What's Coming Up Soon?

That SVC fall show I mentioned is coming up very soon. A month doesn't seem like enough time for all that needs done, but I'm sure it will come together great! The last time I talked to my mum she said they were thinking of possibly coming out to visit in the fall, and I encouraged her to come at the beginning of October if possible, so they could attend the show. They were still thinking about it so that's very much up in the air, but I have my fingers crossed!

Share something in the comments, or share four somethings with the rest of us in the link party!

This post will be linked at My Joyful Life in the Share Four Somethings link party.

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

 ©2006-2025 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.