I hope you’ll forgive me if some of this post overlaps with my end-of-October reflections in yesterday’s post. Some readers come for one or the other. 🙂

I’m linking with Susanne at at Living to Tell the Story to share some of the week’s blessings.

1. Fall color. I think the peak of fall color in the trees usually comes in a little earlier in the month. On the way to church last Sunday, I purposely kept my eyes on the landscape to watch for fall leaves, and saw some. Then Tuesday, we had to go to an area of town where we’d never been. We passed through some woodsy sections that were just gorgeous with a variety of colors. It always does my heart good to drink in some of that beauty before the trees shed their leaves.

2. Early voting. We went to a different place than usual, thinking it would be less busy than our usual place. And it was. We got in and out very quickly.

3. Meals out. Tuesday afternoon involved a long pre-op visit for oral surgery next week. I had one appointment with the oral surgeon, one with patient registration, and one with pre-anesthesia testing. Then we decided to go vote since we were out. By that time it was almost five, and Jim suggested dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I was happy to oblige. Finding low sodium options at restaurants has been a challenge, but they have at least one entree I can eat with confidence.

Then my friend Melanie and I met up for lunch one day. We were going to Red Lobster, and I looked online for some low sodium options there. But when we got to the restaurant, they didn’t have any of those entrees. I chose the one item that sounded the least salty and only ate half of it, and that seemed to work okay. But mostly we enjoyed catching up–it had been a while since we had gotten together.

4. Pain relief. I mentioned yesterday that my dear husband has had what seemed like a sinus infection for over a week. Antibiotics weren’t helping, so he went to see the doctor, thinking to get a stronger antibiotic. She said it wouldn’t help, but suggested a couple of over-the-counter products to try. Those gave him the first relief he’s had in days. He also tested positive for Covid while there. We’re not sure that’s accurate, since his symptoms line up more with a sinus infection. But at least he’s on the mend now.

5. Low sodium convenience food. It hasn’t been too hard to adapt to low sodium cooking at home (making it, anyway–I’m still getting used to eating it). At first I kept running tallies of how much sodium was in every item. It doesn’t take long, though, to learn what items are high sodium and and what’s not. We do like to keep a few convenience foods on hand, but most of those are off the charts in sodium content. I stopped in the store one afternoon and took time to explore. I found a couple of canned soups and frozen entrees that were within the range I was aiming for. I haven’t tried them yet, but I was encouraged that there were choices!

Happy last week of October!