Weekly Review October 27 '23

I'll start this week's post with a few photos from last week's temple trip:

I can't remember a lot about last Saturday now...I'm sure I was working on Tuesday's Seminary lesson for a lot of the day. I also watched some of the BYU football game...we're glad the team played better and managed to pull off a win. We're not sure they are going to be able to keep it up, since they really should have won by a lot more than they did, but I guess we'll see.

On Sunday Frank's foot started hurting more again, so he started wearing the boot on it again and also started taking his anti-inflammatory again. That was a concern since he was supposed to be returning to working at his office this past week. Thankfully, taking the medicine and wearing the boot seemed to help and he has been able to drive to the office and back every day this week (except Wednesday...he always gets to work from home on Wednesdays). His boss has allowed him to leave work in the early afternoon and work from home for a few hours every day, which has helped him to avoid driving in heavy traffic which has been really helpful.

Seth attended the worldwide youth day of testimony on Sunday evening. We took him to the church for that and while the youth had their testimony meeting, Frank helped me practice connecting to the wireless television again. I wanted to get more familiar with it and to practice navigating through different screens and such. It helped a bit, but I had a few issues during my lessons this week...mostly because I needed to connect to both my phone and my laptop and different times, so I had to switch back and forth which required connecting and disconnecting and connecting again. It just takes too much time, and I also have to remember exactly how to do it each time (since it's still new to me) which is hard to do in the middle of a lesson when I'm trying to remember a lot of other things. I've decided that if I need to use both my phone and my laptop for the same lesson that I will use the HDMI cable from now on...it's just easier.

This week I taught a lesson about bishops on Monday. On Tuesday, I combined 2 lessons...one about being an example and another about enduring to the end. (We didn't have school or Seminary on Friday, so there was an extra lesson we weren't going to do.) Both lessons went all right; not fantastic. I never feel like they go as well as I think they will when I am preparing them. It's challenging not to feel like it's my fault when a lesson doesn't go very well because I know I can always improve and find ways to do better. However, one thing I don't have control of is the agency of the class members. If they don't want to wake up / participate / give it their best effort / answer questions, there's not a lot I can do about it. I'm still trying to find the balance between recognizing their choices and recognizing what I can do better. In many ways, it feels like being a missionary again...caring a lot about something but encountering a lot of people who don't care about it the way I do. The youth are more receptive than most of the people I met on my mission, of course, but there are certainly some of them who are at Seminary only because their parents want them to be there. And even the ones who are coming willingly just aren't usually at their best at 6:00 in the morning! I remember as a missionary feeling miserably certain that if people weren't receptive it was because I wasn't working hard enough or being obedient enough or a skilled enough missionary. I always discounted the agency of the people I was teaching (or trying to teach). I'm trying not to do that with Seminary; it's challenging. I feel like I go through a whole range of emotions every week. 

On Monday I helped with a luncheon for a place called Mission of Mercy. They are an organization affiliated with the Catholic church that provides a free medical and dental clinic once a month for people in need without insurance. Our church has partnered with them and allow them to use our stake center for their clinic.The wards in our stake also take turns providing lunch for the doctors and dentists, who are all volunteering their time. I made some soup for the luncheon and helped with set up, serving, and clean up.

Jared came over in the late afternoon to help Seth build a computer. Jared had purchased new parts for his gaming computer so he gave Seth all the old parts and they built a gaming computer for Seth. 

I did some sewing on Tuesday afternoon / evening and finished one of the quilt blocks for the Christmas pillows I'm making. I'm going to add a border to the outside of the block; I haven't done that yet. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Seth woke up on Wednesday not feeling well. He went to Seminary, but didn't participate much. Yesterday he skipped Seminary so he could get some more rest. He's had a headache and a lot of congestion. He says he feels better today although he still sounds congested to me. He probably would have stayed home from school yesterday but it was the last day of the term and he needed to talk to his chemistry teacher about getting some assignments graded. I came home after Seminary yesterday and gave him a ride to school since he wasn't feeling well. We both realized after I got back from Seminary that we didn't need to rush because instead of taking him to school, I could take him straight to the CTC since he goes there in the mornings this year. (Last year his CTC class was in the afternoon.) He only has to get to school on time so that he can catch the bus to the CTC. Yesterday I just took him to the CTC instead of to the school so he was able to rest an extra 30 minutes or so. I was going to the temple and was able to drop him off and then head to the temple, so it worked out well.

I guess I skipped the rest of Wednesday. I spent most of the day working on Seminary lessons. I still have a lot of preparation to do, although I basically know what I'm going to do for both lessons. Even though Seth wasn't feeling very well, he still decided to go to the YM activity. They were combined with the YW and did a muder mystery dinner. He said it was pretty fun. 

I went to the temple yestererday since today there wasn't any school. We are having really warm days lately...definitely not normal for late October, but I'm not complaining! I had one of those bad nights where I woke up really early (I think it was around 1:45 am) and didn't go back to sleep but somehow still managed to stay awake for the drive there and back, as well as while I was at the temple. I took a short nap in the late afternoon.

The trees have really become beautiful in the last week! 

Last night our family met with our bishop for tithing declaration. I was really tired, in spite of my short nap, and went to bed shortly after we got home. This morning I slept in until 6:00, which was really nice! Seth is enjoying his day off school. Jared is here doing laundry and playing games with Seth. We are all going out to dinner tonight to celebrate Jared's birthday. (Jessie's parents will be joining us too.) 

I've been listening to an audio book this week while I've been doing housework and other chores. I finished the book yesterday. It's called Praying with the Enemy and it's about a pilot during the Korean war who crash landed and was a POW for a while. It was a pretty good story and at the end I was surprised to find out that it was based on a true story. I enjoyed the book; especially because I have never read a historical fiction book set during the Korean war and didn't know much about it. (Probably still don't know much, but I know a little more now!) I kept thinking about my Dad, since he was in the air force during the Korean war (although he didn't get sent to Korea so he wasn't in combat.) 

That wraps it up for this week.

Weekly Review October 20 '23

 I'll start this week's post with an update on Frank. He stayed home from church on Sunday because he still wasn't feeling great and he needed to get some rest. He was able to start eating solid food again, though, and his rash had faded quite a bit. He has been able to work from home all week and that has been good because it has allowed him to get more rest and keep off his foot. His foot has continued to improve and is getting close to being back to normal. He can put a shoe on it again, for one thing. He still has to walk a bit carefully on it though. His rash has continued to fade and is barely visible now although it's not completely gone. I'm grateful that he is doing so much better. 

Last Saturday Seth went to a regional youth activity in West Virginia. I think he had fun but they didn't get back until after 10:00, so that was a very late night for me. 

On Sunday we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and Jared and Jessie came too. 

My Seminary lessons went fairly well this week. One was on ministering and the other was on the 2nd coming. I have my lesson for this coming Monday ready but still need to prepare Tuesday's lesson. I can't figure out why it takes me all week to get two lessons prepared, but it always seems to happen this way. I guess I should just accept the fact that this is how it's going to be. 

I had quite a few extra things to do this week...I took Seth to the dentist on Monday after school and to the doctor on Tuesday after school. The dentist visit was his bi-annual cleaning and the doctor visit was a medicine check. I also got a flu shot while we were at the doctor's office. My arm was a little sore for a few days, but I didn't have any other issues. On Wednesday after school I helped Seth make some cookies because he was supposed to take a homemade sweet or savory snack. They had a competition to see who could make the best thing. (He said the boys all liked something else better than his cookies but the girls liked his cookies best.) Frank and I both went to the church with him (but in separate cars) so that Frank could show me how to use the new televisions they just got at the church. The screens are larger and they have wireless connections. He showed both me and my team teacher how to connect to the televisions. After that, I went home so I could go to bed and Frank stayed at the church to bring Seth home when his activity ended.

On Thursday I had book chat. I just got a copy of the book, The Spanish Daughter, last Friday but it was less than 300 pages and an easy read so I was able to finish it before Thursday. It was kind of a mystery, so I definitely wanted to finish it before we discussed it. We all enjoyed the book and it was entertaining, but none of us thought it was fantastic. Now we are reading Lessons in Chemistry, which I have already read but will enjoy discussing. I actually can't remember it all that well anymore (I will need to read a summary of it somewhere before our discussion to remind me of details) but I do remember that I really liked it.

Today was a teacher work day so Seth didn't have school and no Seminary either, of course. I slept in until 5:30! Yes, that really is sleeping in for me and it was great! A group of kids from our ward, including Seth, got appointments to go to the temple to do baptisms. I volunteered to help drive but actually didn't have to drive in the end. I had made an appointment to do initiatories at the same time, so I still went with the group there and back. I finished initiatories before the group doing baptisms finished so I was able to meet the group in the baptistry and spend some time with them too. They were finishing up the confirmations but one of the temple workers told me that Seth did a great job helping with the baptisms. I rode down to the temple with my friend Michelle (she's the YW president that I was recently serving with) and I rode home with my friend Tammy--my Seminary team teacher--so it was a really pleasant drive both ways and it was great to be in the temple, as always.

They took some photos with the group but I don't have a copy of any yet, so I will have to include them in next week's post. (I wasn't there for the photos because I had to hurry inside for my initiatories appointment.)

Seth and I hadn't had lunch yet (we ate a few snacks before we left) and it was close to 3:00 by the time we got back so we stopped at Chick-fil-A on our way home from the church to get milkshakes and chicken tenders. Something kind of funny happened...when we were in the drive through waiting for our food, one of the workers brought some bags of food to our car and said "Amy?" If he had said any other name, I would have immediately said "no", but it took me a couple of seconds to process in my brain that there was no way he could be mixing me up with my twin sister who lives in Texas! 😆 Then I did say "no" and then he looked down the line of cars and said "Oh, there are two white Tucsons!" So someone out there with my twin sister's name drives a car like mine, apparently!

When we got home from the temple, Jared & Jessie had just arrived to do laundry and they stayed for dinner. Jared had to work a couple of hours tonight (he's covering part of a shift for someone) so they didn't stay as long as usual but we still had time to play a game of Scattergories before they had to leave. 

We've mostly had pleasant weather this week with chilly mornings but pleasant days. We've had some sunny days and some rain on a few days. The leaves have been slow turning colors this year but on our trip to the temple and back I noticed that a lot of trees are starting to look really pretty. I took this photo from our front door today...lots of beautiful leaves on that lawn across the street!

Last Friday when I had to go to the store to get medicine and soup for Frank, I also got a little pumpkin and some mums so our front step looks ready for fall too:

This is pretty short, but I think that's all the news from our neck of the woods.

Weekly Review October 13 '23

 I tried to start this blog post last night but I ended up taking Frank to the doctor instead (more on that later) and by the time we got home and I had dinner, I was too tired to think and decided to go to bed. (It wasn't that late...it was 8:30, but when you get up at 3:30 am, 8:30 pm feels late.)

Going back to Saturday the 7th, that morning I went to a Stake Women's Conference in the morning. It was really lovely. We had a yummy brunch, beautiful music, a great speaker, and then we did a service project. The speaker is a older woman in our stake (nearly 80) who has been instrumental in working with the Church and a couple of other charities to open a clinic in another country (can't remember the country name now, it's one of those middle east countries that end in "stan") for mothers and babies. There will be a NICU and they will be giving midwives training to help reduce mother and infant mortality. In her speech, she told all about her life as a nurse and all the other opportunities that came to her over the years that helped her prepare for being able to open this clinic. She also talked about the challenge of not marrying and having children, which is something she really wanted. It was really interesting and inspiring. For the service project, we made flannel baby blankets for preemies that this sister will be taking to the clinic. Some people cut them out, others ironed the edges, and others sewed the edges. Since I had volunteered to bring my sewing machine, I was one of the people who sewed down the edges. It was really sweet and I felt kind of emotional thinking about the babies who would be wrapped in these blankets. 

Since I was sewing blanket edges, I had to wait several minutes to start working while the first blankets were cut out and ironed, so I took a few pictures. At the end, I took a couple more pictures of some of the completed blankets getting folded and boxed:

After the conference, I met with the sister missionaries in my ward to discuss the Seminary lesson that they were going to help me with. It's too complicated to fully explain, but there were some really cool things that came together for my two lessons this week...things like having to move Monday's lesson to Tuesday--which gave me the chance to do some things on Monday that helped set up Tuesday's lesson-- and coming across a lesson we hadn't been able to teach the previous week that was perfect for incorporating into Monday's lesson. I really felt like I got some divine direction in planning those two lessons! I spent most of my time on Saturday, after I got home, finishing preparations for those two lessons. I was also trying to help Frank as much as possible since his foot was hurting a lot.

On Sunday Frank went to church to take the sacrament but couldn't stay longer because there was no way to keep his foot up and it was really hurting. Since driving wasn't possible either, I took him home and then went back for the rest of the meetings. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening. We enjoyed visiting with them, playing a game (Frank didn't play...he had to lie down with his foot up), and Jared also made cookies for us. While we were making the cookies, a funny thing happened. I told Jared he could move the unbaked cookies closer together on the tray, and he agreed and said "if they spread out and touch each other a little bit, it won't be the end of the world, they're just cookies." I said "That sounds like a good slogan for a cookie company 'It's not the end of the world, they're just cookies.' Too bad we aren't opening up our own cookie business." Jared said "Yes, we could call it 'Acopolypse Cookies', and that would be our slogan." Then we started thinking up funny names for cookies like "Rapture Worthy Cookies" and of course "Death By Chocolate Cookies". It's really too bad that I hate to bake because I really felt like we had some good ideas there!  

On Monday morning my lesson went all right, but not as well as I had hoped...it really depends on the agency of the kids! Do they feel like participating that morning or not? It wasn't one of their best days. I felt really disappointed and upset about that all day on Monday, although I knew part of the reason was because I also barely slept Sunday night...I had another one of those nights where I woke up at midnight and never went back to sleep. It's hard to keep things in perspective when you're exhausted! Seth also slept poorly on Sunday night, so he didn't go to Seminary that morning. That afternoon he went with me to the church to help me set up the tables and chairs for the next morning (I wanted them set up differently than normal because it would work better for the lesson) and that evening I went over Monday's lesson with him...basically taught it to him. It went really well doing that one-on-one. Doing that helped me figure out a few things for the next day and it also meant that he made up for his absence that morning.

Things went a lot better on Tuesday. The sister missionaries came to help and they ended up bringing another set of missionaries with them. I asked the missionaries to take a few minutes to talk to the kids about what they do to prepare lessons, and they said some really great things. It also helped to have 4 extra adults to help when we divided up into groups. The kids rose to the occasion and really did a great job preparing and teaching their 5 minute lessons. It was really great to see what they are capable of doing! I was super grateful to have such a good day after having a discouraging one. 

I guess I will finish up talking about Seminary for this week before I go on to other things that happened. 😅 We had a guest teacher--the stake YM president--on Wednesday. A lot of the kids (including Seth) were taking the PSAT at school that morning so my team teacher also provided some egg bites, muffins, and fruit that morning to support those kids and encourage them not to skip Seminary that morning. (We usually have breakfast only on Fridays.) The stake YM president did a good job with his lesson and had us move around to a couple of locations. One of them was outside, which didn't go over too well because not only was it pretty cold (we sent out a message telling everyone to bring coats but apparently the kids don't pay much attention to our messages!) but also because there was a lot of traffic noise. I'm kind of glad he did that...now we know that going outside for part of our lessons is not a good idea! He also had us go into the mother's room for part of the lesson (we were talking about the importance of women) which was hilarious because there were 21 of us there that day and the mother's room is really small. I was actually surprised that we all fit in there and it wasn't as crowded as I anticipated (but it was still crowded). Of course, I didn't anticipate that Seth and a couple of other kids would crawl under the counter...that created a bit more room. 

(A few kids didn't show up in the photos because they were sitting on the floor and at least one more was behind the boy in the gray hoodie, on the other side of the wall). 

That afternoon I called the CES guy for our area. My team teacher and I had sent him some emails that he never answered, so we decided one of us should try to call him. To be honest, we've been pretty frustrated with him because he hasn't been responsive to our emails and hasn't provided much training for us at all. He did answer his phone, though, and actually remembered what ward I was from, which surprised me. It turns out that our emails were going to his junk folder for some reason, which explains why he hasn't been responding. I was able to ask him a bunch of questions and he had some very good answers and lots of helpful suggestions. He also agreed to come teach our class one morning in November. It's good to know that he actually does want to help us! That conversation cheered me up a lot. 

My team teacher taught on Thursday and Friday. On Friday we did a scripture chase to review the doctrinal mastery scriptures that we have learned so far. I ended up being on a team to help even out the numbers on each team. I haven't really memorized the doctrinal mastery scripture references very well--I guess I will need to work on those some more! I held my own with the kids, though, since they don't know them all that well either. Overall, it was pretty fun.

I guess that's enough about Seminary. I have this Monday's lesson prepared and have partially prepared Tuesday's lesson too. I will finish preparing Tuesday's lesson after I complete this post. I sometimes feel like I am never going to catch up!

Frank got permission to work from home this week since he was supposed to keep his foot up as much as possible and he can't drive with the boot on. It's really a good thing he could work from home since he's been in a lot of pain and being in pain is really draining. He got a lot of work done but he had to take a nap every afternoon because he was so tired. Driving to work and back would have totally wiped him out, I'm sure. As the week went on, his foot improved a bit. It wasn't all that noticeable, but today when I think back to how he felt a week ago, I can tell that his foot has improved quite a bit. Last week, it was too painful to touch and he could barely walk. Now he can touch it and walking is a lot less painful. 

His foot has improved, but on Thursday he started to not feel very well. He had a headache and an upset stomach, so he barely ate anything for dinner. On Friday he couldn't keep anything down and he also had a fever, which is really unusual for him...I don't think he's had a fever for a couple of decades. He took a nap late Friday afternoon and when he woke up and I was talking to him, I noticed that he had a rash on his arm. Investigating further, I realized that the rash was on both arms, his trunk...front and back, his legs, and was spreading to his face. He said he'd noticed the rash beginning earlier but hadn't thought much about it. I thought we'd better call the doctor. Of course, it was after their regular hours by that time. He was able to do a virtual visit in which the doctor determined that the rash was probably an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he's been taking for his foot. She also wanted him to come by the office, though, to be tested for Covid-19 and for the flu, since he had a fever and upset stomach, so I drove him over to the office to get the tests done. We haven't recieved the results yet. He's doing a little better today...his temperature is back to normal and he's been able to keep down some liquids, including chicken broth...but he still doesn't feel great. This morning he had a follow up visit with the foot doctor so I took him to that. She was happy with the improvement in his foot but wants him to keep it up for another week. She also prescribed a steroid for the rash (she agreed with the other doctor that the rash is probably an allergic reaction to the antibiotic) which will also help with the remaining inflammation in his foot. The rash looks worse today, by the way...much darker and more thickly spread over his skin. It itches a little bit too. This is how it looked yesterday:

Now, almost his entire leg is bright red. We will both be really happy when he is feeling better again. It seems like it's just been one thing after another with him for the last month or more.

Seth had a YM activity Wednesday evening (dodgeball and ice cream) which I took him to since driving is really hard for Frank right now. Rather than drive back and forth, I took my Seminary lesson materials with me and found a quiet room so I could work on Monday's lesson while I waited for him to finish. I did get quite a bit done, but having to stay to the end of the activity meant I got to bed later than I usually do. Today Seth is going to a regional youth activity in Martinsburg, WV. I don't have to take him all the way there...just have to take him to the church for carpooling. This week I downloaded an app that will help us keep track of how many hours he's driving. I took him the church parking lot a couple of times this week to give him a chance to practice driving. He doesn't feel ready to drive on the road yet, but once he feels ready I will have him start driving to Seminary every morning. It's a good time to do that since there's not a lot of traffic on the road. 

Between Seminary and all the other things I normally need to do, plus taking care of Frank and trying to take up the slack on some of the things that Frank usually does and extra trips to the store to get soup and soda and things that he needs, I have had a very busy week and I admit that today I am feeling overwhelmed and pretty crabby. I'll probably feel better once I get my other Seminary lesson prepared. I feel stressed when I know I need to prepare it and haven't gotten to it yet. I did find a little bit of time earlier this week to work on the pillows I'm making. I finished cutting out the rest of the pieces but I haven't been able to get back to it since Tuesday. I still need to mark the pieces before I can start sewing. I was hoping to do that today, but it's probably not going to happen. I laid out the pieces after I cut them to get an idea of how the pillows will look when they're done:

They will both have a dark green Christmas print (different from the one in the blocks) as a border. I'm not going to cut those pieces out until I have completed the blocks, to make sure I cut them the correct size. 

Yesterday I got to go to the temple...I already had an appointment, and Frank insisted that I go even though he wasn't feeling well. I am helping a friend get some work done for her family, so that was another reason to go. I'm glad I got to go...it's always so peaceful and I really needed that. Ironically, even though I had slept well the previous night, I felt really sleepy. On the way home, I called Tanner and got to talk to him...that also helped me stay awake!

You can see that yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Today it is a lot cooler and it's been raining all day. We need rain, though, so that's okay. 

This morning we purchased plane tickets for Scott and Tanner to come out here for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing them! We will all be going together to NC for Thanksgiving but they will be spending some time here with us in Maryland too. 

I've probably forgotten something, but that's the update for this week.

Weekly Review October 6 '23

 It doesn't feel much like October here. It's actually been warmer this week than last week, with temperatures in the 70s and 80s most days. We are starting to see a little bit of fall colors, but not a lot yet. 

I am feeling really sleepy, so hopefully this post will make sense. I'm not sure why I feel sleepy since I actually have slept well this entire week! It's been great to sleep well at nights, but I have been sleepy in the afternoons a lot of days. 

Going back to last Friday, Frank and I went to the temple for our stake temple night. It was really nice to be in the temple with a lot of people we know. Our session was entirely full. We were on the front row, though, so we got through quickly at the end. I didn't get sleepy at all which was pretty miraculous.

Afterwards, Frank remembered that he had left his earphones at his office and since we were only a few miles away from his office, we went over there to pick them up. This means I also got to see his new office, since they just moved a few weeks ago. It seems pretty nice, although he's in a cubicle now instead of an office...he doesn't like that much. Sign above the door to his department:

Saturday was super busy. I had an appointment at 8:00 am to get my hair cut. I didn't sleep very well the night before...I actually woke up at some point with a really bad leg cramp. It was discouraging to me that I didn't sleep well over the weekend since that's usually when I catch up on sleep, but as I said...I did sleep well during the week so it all ended up okay. The rest of Saturday (after I got back from my hair cut appointment) was mostly taken up with General Conference. I somehow miraculously stayed awake for all three sessions. Since I was in charge of planning a Jeopardy General Conference review game for Seminary, I was taking notes with that in mind which means my notes were different than they usually are and I feel like I didn't get as much out of it as I usually do. I will be reading the talks again though, so I will get better notes and get more out of the talks then, I'm sure. We had lots of yummy unhealthy snacks like apples & caramel dip, chips & salsa con queso, and cookies & pumpkin pie dip. We invited the Sister missionaries over to watch the 2nd session with us and to have dinner. We put food in the crock pot that morning so we wouldn't have to cook during Conference. 

Sunday was similar to Saturday except that the morning was more relaxing since I didn't have any appointments. The Sisters didn't have anywhere to go for dinner (they did have a lunch appointment) so we invited them to come over for the 2nd session and dinner again on Sunday. I missed having President Nelson at the sessions but was glad he had recoreded a message for the end. Conference is always uplifting and I'm looking forward to reading all the talks again.

Monday and Tuesday mornings I taught Seminary and it went pretty well overall although I ran out of time both days. I'm obviously still in the learning curve for how much time things will take. I was also in charge of Wednesday's lesson which was the General Conference review. That ended up not being a lot of work because I found a game already created by someone else online. They posted it Sunday night...not sure how they manged to create it that fast, but I'm not complaining! The game went pretty well although one group of kids kind of gave up and didn't participate much. Everyone else was pretty engaged and seemed to have a fun time, though, even if they weren't winning. My team teacher taught today and yesterday so that was more relaxing for me. I've been working on my lessons for next week but haven't made a ton of progress. On one of the days, the kids are supposed to prepare short 5 minute lessons to teach to each other. I decided to ask the Sister missionaries to help with that, because it will be hard for just 2 of us to help 22 kids prepare lessons. I will be meeting with them tomorrow to plan that lesson. It's actually supposed to be taught on Monday but since that is P-day for the Sisters, we're moving that lesson to Tuesday and I will have to rearrange a few things for Monday's lesson. Hopefully it will all work out. 

On Wednesday I took a break from Seminary lesson prep and pulled out a project that I've been wanting to do. I'm making some Christmas themed pillow covers to put over the pillows on our couch. I purchased the fabric about a year ago but got too busy to make them and then I forgot about them for a while. I'm going to make quilted pillow covers so on Wednesday I spent most of my time making the templates for the quilt block pieces. I made all the templates and then cut out some of the pieces but that took a long time and my back started hurting so I had to stop. I'm glad I made a start on that project, though. I will keep working on it in small increments until I'm done. Frank took Seth to YM on Wednesday evening and stayed to meet with the stake IT clerk to do some things for our building. The YM played virtual fruit ninja for their activity; Seth really enjoyed that. I got to talk to Amy while they were gone which was great because we haven't had a chance to talk for a long time.  

We realized this week that almost all of Seth's long sleeve shirts are too small for him (mostly the arms are too short, but they are getting small in other ways too). I purchased several shirts for him at the store on Wednesday but since he wasn't with me, I wasn't sure what size to get. He tried them on when he got home from school and even though they did fit, I was worried they would be a little small if they shrink when washing so we decided to go up one size. On Thursday evening Frank met with the stake IT clerk again so I took Seth back to the store with me to return the shirts and get bigger ones. Of course, they didn't have all of them in the size we needed but he picked out some different ones and it all worked out.

Today after Seminary I went to the temple to do initiatories. The traffic wasn't bad for once so I got there early and got started early and was done in only about 30 minutes. As I was leaving, I ran into my team Seminary teacher coming in...that was kind of funny. 

When Frank got home last night, he mentioned that his right heel was hurting. This morning when he woke up it was much worse and I could see that it is red, so we decided he'd better get it checked. He went to our primary care doctor who decided to send him to a podiatrist. The podiatrist thinks the cellulitis is acting up again. She gave him a injection for the pain, called in a new antibiotic and anti-inflammatory medicine for him, gave him a boot that he has to wear when he walks, and told him he needs to keep his foot elevated for a week. It's pretty discouraging that this problem has come back...we thought that was completely behind us! We're grateful that his work is flexible though and that he can do work from home so that he can take care of himself but also get some work done. Please keep him in your prayers.

Jared & Jessie had a busy week and Jessie has been working a lot of evenings so we haven't seen them this week (last week Jared did laundry on Friday evening while Frank was at the temple) but they are planning to come for dinner on Sunday.

That is everything that is going on with us, I think.

Weekly Review September 29 '23

Here we go with categories again. I don't think there's a lot to report this week, but we'll see.

Frank: He was in the middle of moving offices at work when I wrote last week. Things are still a bit chaotic in the new space...some people still don't have internet access, etc...so it wasn't a super productive week for his department. He didn't have to work any extra hours over the weekend which was fortunate because he actually was sick all day on Saturday. He was a lot better on Sunday and seems to be fine now. Frank had a dentist appointment Wednesday morning...just his biannual checkup...and his teeth look great.

Weather: We had a lot of rain over the weekend and we've continued to have some rain throughout the week. Most mornings when we got up, we could tell it had rained sometime in the night. We definitely need the moisture, so that's good. Seth is going to have to mow the lawn again soon...I'm sure he's not going to be happy about that. Temperatures are still pretty moderate, with cool or chilly mornings but mostly pleasant temperatures during the days. 

Seminary: This is still dominating my life but not quite as much as before. I teach two lessons next week plus I'll be putting together a General Conference Jeopardy game for one of the other days. I got the two lessons mostly prepared by Wednesday and it's getting a little easier to prepare lessons...I'm not taking quite as much time. It definitely feels like less of a mental weight to prepare lessons two at a time instead of trying to figure out five! I'm still not sleeping very well and had one night this week when I only slept from 8:00 to 11:00. If I get 5 or 6 hours of sleep, that is a good night. It's discouraging and exhausting but I hope at some point I will start sleeping better. In the meantime, I can really relate to the Bible story of Jacob wrestling with an angel all night! I feel like that's what I've been doing nearly every night for the last 4 weeks. I've had the chance to talk to a couple of my friends this week who have taught Seminary in the past and they all say it is really hard at first and it gets better, so that is encouraging to hear. Since I got my lessons for next week prepared by Wednesday of this week, yesterday was a much more relaxing day for me. It's the first day since Seminary started that has felt "normal" to me. All my days used to be like that. I am enjoying the kids and we have some good times. I have also had a lot of inspiring moments. I'm learning a lot and I'm grateful.

Seth: He found out on Saturday that he had to give a talk on Sunday. (It was a mix up related to the change in bishopric.) He wasn't thrilled about that, but let's be honest...he wouldn't have prepared his talk before Saturday even if he had known about it earlier! He did a pretty good job on his talk; it was just pretty short. Seth had Monday off of school which he enjoyed. (And I did too since that meant I didn't have to get up super early!) He's still trying to get caught up with some of the school work he missed when he was sick last week. Yesterday he didn't get up for Seminary so he had to walk to school (I don't get home from Seminary in time to take him to school.) On Wednesday he went to YM...they had a combined activity with the YW and they learned some Polynesian dancing. 

Clothes: In spite of the fact that I purchased quite a few new clothing items while I was in Utah, I ended up doing more clothes shopping last Saturday. That's because most of the things I bought in Utah are for summer / milder weather. I realized these last few weeks when it has been chilly in the mornings that I don't have a lot of Sunday clothes for colder weather. I mean, I have plenty if I only need to wear them once a week, but now I wear Sunday clothes 6 days a week! I was able to get a couple of long sleeve shirts / blouses and some sweaters, including a few cardigan sweaters which I can wear over the top of other things that I already have. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me going through the winter months. 

Book Club: I had book club last night. We discussed Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Now we are going to read The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes. I put it on hold at the library but I'm third in the queue so I'm not sure how soon I will get it. I enjoyed book club but I was the first one to leave, since it was already past my bed time. 

Temple: Our stake is having a stake temple night tonight. Frank works a few miles from the temple, so he is going to go straight to the temple from work. I got a ride with a friend in my ward so I will meet Frank at the temple and we will be able to ride home together. I'm looking forward to going to the temple but hope I will be able to stay awake!

That's actually all I can think of for this week. I told you there wasn't much! I'm really looking forward to General Conference this weekend.

Weekly Review September 22 '23

 I'm going to do categories again this week. That just seems to be working better for me lately.

Frederick Fair: The county fair started last Friday and goes through tomorrow. Frank got admission tickets, a parking pass, and ride tickets for free from one of his clients, so we decided to take a break from our work and went to the fair for about 4 hours on Saturday afternoon. We had enough admission tickets that Jared & Jessie could get in too and we tried to coordinate with them to go together, but that didn't work out. We did actually end up being there at the same time for about an hour, but didn't see each other. Anyway, I enjoyed visiting the arts & crafts building (to see all the quilts, crocheted items, etc. as well as photography) while Frank & Seth looked at vegetables and small animals like chickens and rabbits. Then they joined me at the arts & crafts building for a while. After that, we went to see the larger animals like goats, pigs, sheep, and cows. Frank and I took a ride on the ferris wheel, and we all had a few fair treats. It was fun to get out of the house for a while and it was a beautiful day. 

I got a kick out of this cross stitch piece:

Some of the quilts:

Ferris wheel:

Seth is standing under the overhang of that building (in black shorts and black tshirt):

The fair from above:

Weather: Seth actually had to mow the lawn on Saturday because we had enough rain that it started to grow again. This week has still been mostly dry although we've had some rain. Most days have been sunny with cool temperatures in the mornings and pleasant during the days. I'm starting to pull long pants and sweaters out to wear some days, but it's not cold, just cool. We have a tropical storm coming in tomorrow and it looks like we'll have lots of rain and cooler temperatures all next week. 

Seth / School Schedule: Seth was sick this week and missed two days of school. That's pretty unusual for him. When we woke him up Tuesday morning he was all stuffed up and he said he'd been awake a lot in the night so he wanted to skip Seminary to get a little more sleep and then get up for school. I went to Seminary without him but sometime during Seminary he texted me (I was teaching, so didn't see it until the end of the class) that he had thrown up and he had a splitting headache, so he had decided not to go to school. He felt feverish to me when I got home, but according to the thermometer he didn't have a fever. (I'm not sure the thermometer was working properly though...I think it needs a new battery.) Seth didn't throw up again, but his head definitely hurt quite a bit that day and he was quite congested. He also woke up with a stiff / sore neck on Sunday and that was still bothering him too. He was well enough to go back to Seminary and school on Thursday and he seems to be mostly back to normal now. It wasn't a great week for him to be sick because today is midterm and he missed two tests which there hasn't been time to make up yet. (Not to mention missed assignments which also need to be turned in.) Today they had a very short day...got out 3 1/2 hours early. He will be able to take the missed tests next week and I'm sure his teachers will work with him on getting missed assignments in since he was absent two days so in the end it should all work out okay, I hope. Since Wednesday was one of the days that Seth stayed home sick from school, he didn't go to the YM activity that evening. We never got an email about it, so I have no idea what they did. Last night I needed to make some copies for my lesson this morning, so I convinced Seth to come with me to the church to do that and then he got to practice driving in the church parking lot for about 20 minutes. He is doing better...getting more comfortable with it.

Seminary: This was my week to teach and it was definitely a challenging week still although it wasn't any worse than last week. I feel like Seminary is an emotional roller coaster ride for sure...I seem to be down in the dumps, then pull out of it and hit a big high, and then go shooting back down again. I always seem to hit the lows mid week, and then start to feel a lot better at the end of the week. Lack of sleep probably has a lot to do with that! I still had a rough time sleeping a lot of nights this week, although I am starting to fall asleep earlier at least. I'm usually asleep by 9:00 at the latest, and most nights I was asleep between 8:00 and 8:30. Most mornings I still woke up hours before I needed to (I had another night where I woke up at midnight and didn't go back to sleep) but yesterday I woke up only 30 minutes early and today I slept until 10 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off. That means I got around 7 hours of sleep both of those nights, which is pretty good! Lesson preparation still took a lot longer than it should but I had some experiences this week that helped me adjust my thinking a bit. I spent a ton of time on Wednesday preparing Thursday's lesson and was feeling really discouraged that in spite of that I didn't feel like it was very well prepared. I thought it was going to be boring. I wanted to look at it some more and try to make it better, but then I had the distinct impression that I needed to leave it alone. I kept having that feeling over and over. So I did leave it alone, and then the lesson went really well. That helped me feel a lot calmer about today's lesson. I only had a few hours yesterday to prepare today's lesson but I kept feeling like that would be okay, and miraculously it all came together rather quickly. In some ways, it almost seems better for me if I have a time limit...lesson prep seems to fill up whatever time I have to give it! I feel like I am constantly learning new things and figuring things out, which is somewhat encouraging...I really am hopeful that in time things will be a lot better. It has definitely been a lot harder and a lot bigger adjustment than I anticipated! But in spite of that, I have seen a ton of tender mercies and know I am getting a lot of inspiration and help. 

Overall, my lessons went well this week...some were better than others. I'd say Monday and Thursday were the best days. One thing we have figured out is that most of the kids in this class will not volunteer answers to questions, but if you call on them they will usually give a pretty good answer. So I tried calling on people instead of just asking questions to the group as a whole, and that seemed to really help. I don't really like doing that because I worry I am going to put someone on the spot or embarrass them, but so far they have responded well. I tried a variety of different things this week to keep them engaged like object lessons, music, using white boards to answer questions, and breaking into small groups. I feel like after these three weeks I am starting to really see their different personalities and they really are great kids and make me laugh. On Monday I used cinnamon rolls for an object lesson. I was teaching a lesson about going to divinely appointed sources (scriptures, prophets, prayer, etc.) to get answers to their questions. To help them recognize the importance of getting information from trustworthy sources, I showed them the cinnamon rolls and asked who wanted one. Of course everyone did! Then I asked "what if I told you that I was walking in downtown Frederick and found these cinnamon rolls in a box on the sidewalk with a sign that said "Free", so I decided to bring them to give to you?" There was a pause and then one of the boys said "I'll take my chances!!" That made me (and everyone else) laugh. Of course, after making my point that even things that sound good or look good might not actually be safe (they need to know the source), I told them that I actually made the cinnamon rolls myself, they were perfectly safe, and that they could each have one at the end of class. Overall, the kids are quite good natured most of the time and I am enjoying them.

Visual from one of my lessons this week, to help the youth memorize the reference and key scripture phrase for one of their doctrinal mastery scriptures:

After the last two weeks, both my team teacher and I have decided that teaching a week at a time is harder than we anticipated, so we are going to try splitting things up now...I will teach Mondays and Tuesdays and she will teach Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, we will try to have a guest teacher. (This is something our stake encourages us to do and we haven't had a guest teacher yet because we wanted to get into a routine first.) There's no school on Monday so we only have four days next week. Originally we were going to teach two days each but because of the way the schedule was going to fall and with General Conference next weekend and some of the things we're planning to do for that (hard to explain), my team teacher actually offered to teach next week. Right now she is planning to do that, although I told her once she gets into planning if she decides it's too much, I can teach at least one day. We'll see how that goes. Even though I will teach the same number of lessons however we decide to split things up, for some reason teaching 2 or 3 lessons each week seems a lot less overwhelming than teaching 5 lessons one week and 0 lessons the next week. I'm interested to see if it actually is less overwhelming in practice! I honestly have no idea how anyone taught a Seminary class all alone. I can't imagine having to teach every day, every week, for a whole school year. Only doing half of the days has nearly killed me. 

Well, you can see that Seminary is still taking most of my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical energies. I hope you aren't all getting tired of hearing about it. Maybe I will be able to talk about something else eventually!

Frank: He's having a busy week because at work their entire division is moving to another building. The building he's been in is going to be demolished to make way for a new road (or something like that). They started packing things up yesterday and the move is supposed to be happening today. He may have to put in some extra hours this weekend so that things are ready to go in the new space on Monday. Unfortunately, he doesn't like the new space all that much. He will be in a cubicle in the new space...in the old building he had an office with a door. His foot seems to be mostly better now; we're grateful for that. He has continued to be really patient and supportive and helpful while I've been navigating the adjustment to Seminary, which I really appreciate! He has been enjoying a rest from having a church calling but he has to meet with someone on Sunday morning so it looks like he'll be getting a new calling soon.

Other stuff: I was able to go to the temple yesterday. I am planning to go on Fridays this school year, but since Seth got out 3 1/2 hours early today there wasn't time for me to go today. The session I was in yesterday was almost completely full...maybe only 1 or 2 empty seats and I was sitting in the next to the back row on the men's side because there were a lot more women than men. It was really cool to see the temple so busy! I always, always love going there!!

 I got to talk to both Scott and Tanner again this week. It is always good to hear from them! Scott really needs prayers that he will find a job. (He has a small part time job, but he really needs a full time job...and one that is somewhat flexible because he is also planning to go back to school.) 

Jared and Jessie are coming over for dinner tonight. Last Friday when they were here, Jared started getting a lot of messages from people at his work. Sadly, there was a suicide at the shooting range where he works that afternoon. Jared was supposed to work on Saturday but the store and range were closed. He went back to work on Monday. I'm really grateful that he wasn't working the afternoon this happened but sorry for those who were. It must have been really tramautic. Jared worked extra hours this week to fill in for people who weren't feeling up to going in. 

On Sunday, our bishop told my team teacher and I that the stake president had contacted him to say that they are going to mount a television on the wall in the RS room and he wanted our input on where it should go (since we teach in that room every morning, and often use the television). We are pretty happy about that! It will be so nice to have the television there instead of dragging the television cart from the library to the RS room every morning. Not sure how long it will take to actually get the new television mounted...I'm not holding my breath...but it's nice to know that it's in the works. 

I've probably forgotten something, but that is all I can remember to report this week.

Weekly Review September 15 '23

I think categories is going to be the way to go this week again. 

Update on Frank's foot: He went back to the doctor on Monday and found out that he was supposed to have been taking the anti-inflamatory medicine twice a day...the pharmacy messed up and put "take as needed" on the bottle. The doctor prescribed a different anti-inflamatory medicine which seems to be helping. It still isn't totally healed but it looks better than it did. He was able to work from home Monday through Wednesday to give him a chance to rest his foot and keep it elevated. He was able to go to work yesterday and today (although he is working from home this afternoon because he had to go do some things at their data center and it is about halfway in between our house and his office, so he just decided to come home rather than go back to his office.) 

 Sleep: It was still a really bad week for sleeping. I can't remember details anymore...it's all a blur...except that I woke up around 2:30 one morning and another morning I woke up at midnight. (Never went back to sleep either of those mornings). I even tried Melatonin a couple of nights and it did help me fall asleep faster, but I didn't stay asleep long. I tried not to take naps during the day, hoping that I would sleep better at night, but I took a two hour nap on Wednesday because I just couldn't cope anymore without a little more sleep. I did finally sleep well last night, though. I went to bed at 8:00 and woke up at 3:00. I know that's still super early but that adds up to 7 hours of sleep which felt pretty fantastic after all those bad nights. 

Seminary: This still consumed most of my week but yesterday and today have been better. I didn't teach this week--my team teacher did--but I teach every day next week so I was trying to prepare all my lessons for next week. I'm still not done, but I have quite a bit prepared. I wanted to get one lesson prepared each day but things didn't go the way I planned. The same as last week...the lessons are quite challenging and time consuming to prepare and I just kept running out of time. Plus I was tired of course and just not very efficient. We also had a parent get really upset with us for sending out a photo of the September calendar...she's blind, so couldn't see the photo, which we knew but instead I sent her a text message letting her know what day her daughter was assigned to do the devotional. I just didn't think to send her the rest of the information on the calendar (other devotionals, who was bringing breakfast on Fridays) because it didn't really pertain to her but she wanted all the information and felt like we had thoughtlessly excluded her. I saw her angry messages (which she sent to the entire parent group, not just to the teachers) when I woke up way too early on Tuesday morning so that wasn't a great way to start the day and I was in tears and distracted and unable to concentrate for most of that day, which didn't help with my need to be preparing lessons. (We did get things smoothed over, though.)

All in all, it was a really rough week and I felt totally overwhelmed for a lot of it. However, things started to get better yesterday. It didn't start great--still not enough sleep--but when I was lying awake trying to go back to sleep I started praying (not the first time I did that this week, believe me!) I had a calm feeling come over me. I have also been praying for help all week, but I started asking specifically what I could do to manage my time and balance things out better. I asked "please show me how to make this work". Then all day on Thursday I kept having ideas come into my head. Things like "read the lesson and then think about it while you do housework" and "set a timer for an hour, work on your lesson until it goes off, go do something else you need to do and then come back to your lesson and set another timer" and "break down the tasks instead of trying to do everything at once" and "work on it in little increments, like when you are waiting at appointments". Then another thought came to me: "set your alarm for 30 minutes earlier in the morning." That seems crazy, but I thought about it and realized that in the back of my mind I've been anxious that getting up at the time I planned was not going to be enough time to exercise, shower, and get to Seminary on time. I have always been on time so far, but I've been getting up at least 30 minutes (if not hours) before my planned wake up time and I usually haven't been ready to go way in advance. (The mornings I woke up really early, I got up and worked on lessons for a while before getting ready). If I set my alarm 30 minutes earlier, my subconscious mind won't be worrying that I'm not going to get up in time and I might sleep better. So I tried it...I set my alarm for 30 minutes earlier before I went to bed last night and it worked! I slept solidly until shortly before the alarm was supposed to go off. I'm getting up earlier, but if I go to sleep around 8:00 and actually sleep, I will get a good night's sleep every night. I'm feeling profoundly grateful for those many little answers to my desperate prayers!

The actual classes this week went really well, overall. Every day is a little different and the kids are more attentive and responsive some days than others. We're figuring out what works and what doesn't work. I feel like we are getting them to open up more, though. I was really pleased that some of the kids who hadn't commented on anything yet started volunteering comments this week...and really good comments, too! My team teacher Tammy is a really good teacher and I am learning a lot from watching her. We also end up talking after Seminary nearly every morning for about 30 minutes, discussing how things went and ideas we have and how much we're struggling with lesson preparations (she's encountered the same difficulties as I have) and so forth. I am super grateful to have such a wonderful team teacher! I also have a couple of really sweet friends who have sent me really kind words as well as positive comments their kids have said about Seminary which has been really comforting. 

Weather: We've had some rain here and there and the temperatures have cooled off a lot. As a matter of fact, the last couple of days the mornings have been a little cool. The days are very pleasant and that has been nice!

Other stuff: I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Monday. She went out of town for a couple of weeks shortly after we returned from Utah so we hadn't had a chance to talk for quite a while and had to get all caught up on everything going on in our lives. It was nice!

Seth had an orthodontist appointment on Thursday after school. They just wanted to check his retainers. They look good, and he doesn't have to go back for 6 months. 

There was a RS activity Thursday evening and I wanted to go...it sounded fun...but I wanted to sleep more! And since I actually did go to sleep early and slept well, I don't regret that decision.

This morning we had signed up to take breakfast in to Seminary. We took 3 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk, and most of it got eaten so I guess everyone liked it.

Today after Seminary I went to the temple to do initiatories. I was able to take one of the sisters I minister to plus her husband with me. They are in their early eighties and aren't comfortable driving to the temple anymore so they were happy to get a ride down there and I was happy to have some company for the drive. It was really sweet, too, because this sister was able to do initiatories for her sister who passed away a few years ago. 

On Sunday we got a new bishopric, as I mentioned in last week's post. Frank got an email from a member of the stake presidency on Saturday asking to meet with him Sunday morning so we wondered a bit about that but he just wanted to officially extend a release to Frank. Anyway, our new bishopric will be great, and Frank is happy to get a rest. The whole meeting was testimonies from the outgoing and incoming bishoprics. Frank did a great job!

Speaking of Frank, he's been really awesome and patient this week offering me sympathy and support and doing lots of things to help me, including making dinner one night. 

Seth went to YM on Wednesday evening but since neither Frank and I had to be there, I'm not sure exactly what they did...Seth says they did a 'boys vs girls Jeopardy kind of thing". Frank and I went grocery shopping while he was gone. 

Last Saturday was a busy but good day. We watched the BYU football game and we all went through our clothes and weeded out things that we aren't wearing or that don't fit. Actually, Frank and Seth just did their sock drawers, but it's a start.

I talked to both Scott and Tanner this week; it was good to get caught up with them. Tonight Jared & Jessie came over for dinner. We weren't a very lively group because all of us are tired, but it was nice to see them. 

That's all the news from us for this week.