Weekly Review October 2 '26

Even though it's October, it feels less like autumn today than it did last Friday. Temperatures have warmed up this week so that we have highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s. I think it is going to cool down again in a few days, though. 

I did a lot of work on the dollhouse this week--mostly in small steps throughout each day. On Friday (September 25th), after I finished the blog post, I painted the 2nd side of the roof / eaves trim as well as the first side of the shutter panels, the first coat of the dormer interior frames, and the first coat of the door trim. I also assembled the remaining five window frames. 

On Saturday September 26th, I sanded all the roof and eave trims, the door trim, and the dormer interior frame pieces. Then I painted the 2nd coat of the interior dormer frame pieces, the door trim, and one side of the roof and eave trim. I also painted the 2nd side of the shutter panels. Then I sanded and painted the 2nd coat of the flute posts. 

All 14 frames, ready to go:

Roof & eave trim, fluteposts, shutter panels and interior dormer frame pieces:

Door interior trim pieces:

Later that evening, I assembled the dormer interior frame pieces and painted the 2nd coat of the 2nd side of the roof and eave trim.

I listened to scriptures and music while working on the dollhouse.

Besides working on the dollhouse, I also practiced ukulele, cleaned the kitchen floor, and decluttered my desk in the kitchen. A lot of papers had accumulated on my desk--most of them were medical related, including a lot of papers that came with prescriptions as well as discharge instructions for Seth's two surgeries, my ER visit for my eye issue, and info related to Frank's gout and shoulder problems. We've definitely had a lot of medical issues going on this year! 

I also did some work rearranging some of the dinner groups (upcoming RS activity). One family had something come up and couldn't host, and several other people had dropped out because they had conflicts, so some of the groups were too small. 

Sunday September 27th: Frank got word that his Uncle Jimmy had passed away that morning. We talked a bit about the possibility of Frank going to the funeral (which was on Thursday), but ultimately decided he wasn't going to be able to go. (Which in hindsight we now know was a fortunate decision). Of course he would have liked to have been there to honor his uncle and to be with his family, but it's a long drive to Florida (and expensive to fly) and he had a big project that he had to do earlier this week at work that couldn't be postponed. 

On Sunday morning, Frank had a YSA high council meeting via Zoom. He came with me to church, but he went to YSA meetings. After Sacrament meeting, the sweet sister who always sits in front of us with her husband and a couple of single sisters took my hand and said "I hate to see you sitting all alone! You should sit with us." I don't think there's actually room for me on their pew--it's already pretty full--but it was so nice of her to think of me! It was kind of ironic, because during the meeting I was thinking that it was funny that I didn't mind sitting alone (as I often do now)--I feel at home and loved with all the ward members sitting around me. 😊

After church, I typed up a bunch of recipes that Amy sent me (she texted me photos of her recipe cards)...these are recipes that I can eat on my current diet. Then I got dinner ready. We had some friends in our ward over for dinner--the Stewarts. We've been to their house for dinner once and to play games twice. She is the sister who replaced me as Seminary teacher. We had dinner and then we played a game that they brought with them called Down Up. It's from Germany--the directions were in German, but they know enough German to decipher the directions. It was a fun game, although I won so I may have a better impression of it because of that! (I do think everyone else had fun, too, though!) 

After we went to bed that night, I remembered that the dishwasher needed to be started, so I got up to do that. I was putting on my pajama pants and got tangled in them and tripped & fell--I am such a klutz lately!! The noise woke Frank up and I got a pretty decent rug burn on my left knee. It was hard to go to sleep for a while after that, but my knee finally stopped hurting and I went to sleep.

Monday September 28th: As I usually do on Mondays, I woke up early (about 4:00 am) since Frank was up and getting ready for work. I read scriptures first but didn't get sleepy, so I got up and did my usual exercising etc. Then I started the laundry going and went to the store to get groceris. By then, I was starting to feel sleepy, so after I got back from the store I took a nap and slept for 1 1/2 hours. I still got all that done, plus vacuuming, before 10:00 when it was time to start mission work. 

I noticed while I was doing my mission work that I wasn't feeling very well. I had a pretty bad headache and just felt tired. I was still able to finish my hours, though. Frank was sweet and made dinner so that I didn't have to. After Seth got home from work, we did family night. I did some reading before bed--started reading the book chat book, Ordinary Grace. 

Tuesday September 29th: My head felt better (still slight headache) and I had a slightly scratchy throat, but I was well enough to exercise as usual and actually had a busy day. Since Frank was up early for work, I woke up at 3:30. I got all the Tuesday chores done (cleaning bathrooms and planning meals), plus mission work and a lot of work on the dollhouse. Seth was at work from 2:00 to 10:00 and Frank did his temple shift after work, so I was home alone all afternoon and evening. Before exercising and starting on chores, I painted the first coat of the dormer pieces and the shutter cores for the dollhouse.

Then after my morning routine and chores were done, I painted the 2nd side of the shutter cores. 

As usual, I listened to the Follow Him podcast while cleaning. I did a little bit of coloring in my color by number book too. I got all of that done and ate lunch before starting mission work at 1:00 pm. My district devotional was at 1:00, then I did work on the AI Research Assistant project for an hour, then I had the Record Hints project meeting (which is held every other Tuesday). 

After I finished mission work, I worked on the dollhouse some more. I sanded all the shutter cores and panels and the dormer pieces. I took a break for dinner and then painted the 2nd coat on all the shutter and dormer pieces. I also finished the second coat on the fluteposts and touched up all the window frames. 

After that I did an extra hour of Record Hints. Then I glued all the window frames onto the dollhouse (except the dormer windows), putting the plexiglass windows in between the frames. Windows glued and taped, inside and out:

Windows after I removed the tape on Wednesday morning:

Wednesday September 30th: I woke up around 5:30 and did my usual morning routine. Seth woke up feeling really sick. (He had a slight headache the day before--asked me for some Tylenol before he went ot work). He called work to say he couldn't come in, and they said he needed a doctor's note to come back, so he called to get an appointment. They said they could get him in within an hour, so he agreed to do that. He woke up with a bad headache, really sore throat, and congestion. After making the doctor appointment, he started feeling nauseated as well, so I decided I'd better take him to the doctor so he wouldn't have to drive. (I had to postpone my one on one with my team lead to later in the afternoon because I wasn't sure I'd be back in time for our scheduled meeting). After we got to the doctor and were waiting, he said he needed to go to the bathroom and when he came back, he said he had thrown up. I didn't go back with him when they called him back, and he was gone longer than I anticipated. When he came out, he had the doctor's note and we headed out to the car. I asked him what the doctor said, and he said "I tested positive for Covid". I hadn't been expecting that at all. The doctor's note says he can't return to work until October 6th. Since we were out, we decided to stop by his work to drop off the note and since it's right next to Wal-Mart, Seth also wanted me to get him some ginger ale and some chicken broth, so we did that. Seth threw up again in the car, but we were prepared for that, so it wasn't too bad. 

After we got home, I got him some ginger ale and he laid down to rest. I still had a slight headache and I also had a scratchy throat, so I decided to test myself for Covid. My test came out negative, and I haven't gotten worse since then (still have a slight headache and scratchy throat today), so I probably don't have Covid although the test I used was probably well past it's expiration date so I'm not sure how accurate it was. Frank was working from home and he also started having a headache and scratchy throat that day. 

I worked on mission work for the afternoon. In the evening, I worked on the dollhouse and talked to Scott. I realized I painted part of the dormers the wrong color, so I sanded them and repainted them. I also noticed that I needed to do some touchup on some of the dormer pieces. I glued all the shutter panels onto the shutter cores.

Thursday October 1st: Frank worked from home since he was feeling worse, plus he didn't want to infect anyone at work. Since Frank wasn't up as early, I didn't wake up until about 7:00. Seth woke up around 9:00. He still wasn't well, but he felt quite a bit better than he did on Wednesday. I kept busy all day with regular chores and working on the dollhouse. I also had an extra Record Hints meeting and since it was October 1st, I also did all the beginning of the month stuff (which includes uploading all the previous month's photos to my Shutterfly account, changing the front door decoration, changing the pillow covers, changing the S & P shakers, and changing my American Girl doll's outfit). 

For the dollhouse, I touched up the paint on the dormer pieces and shutters. Then later, I glued the shutters and the window boxes onto the dollhouse. 

I took this photo this morning, after I removed all the tape. It's looking better to me all the time; very fun!:

Frank started feeling worse during that day--besides the headache and scratchy throat, he also started to fluctuate between feeling really cold and feeling too hot. Mostly cold. He also started to feel really tired. Since Frank was feeling worse and my symptoms hadn't gone away, we decided that we'd better not attend our group dinner tonight, so we let our host know. It's kind of a bummer after all that work I did planning, that I don't even get to go, but oh well! Apparently, there are a lot of people sick in our ward right now. I found out that two of the groups had to postpone their dinner because most of the people in their group are sick. We also decided we'd better cancel having the Elders over for dinner and to watch the second session of General Conference on Sunday. Fortunately, someone else in the ward invited them over instead, so they have a place to go. 

Friday October 2nd: I didn't wake up until 7:30 today (although I was up for a little while in the night). I stayed up kind of late last night finishing a book I was reading (not the book chat book; another book I started reading after I finished last month's book). Seth is still improving, I still feel about the same, and Frank still feels pretty rotten. (He's currently taking a nap.) Fortunately, he always works from home on Fridays, so he didn't need to go in to work. I've been able to exercise every day, in spite of not feeling 100% well. I didn't go to the temple this morning, though, since I don't want to expose anyone else to our family germs. I have spent most of today updating finances and working on this post. I made some bread, too. I haven't done a lot on the dollhouse today, but I did glue together the dormer pieces this morning.

I feel like I've had a lot of small issues come up with the dormers, so they are taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but I think I will be able to get them done in the next day or two. I'll probably work on them later tonight, but right now it is dinner time, so I will sign off for the week and go make some dinner.

Weekly Review September 25 '26

It is a perfectly beautiful fall day today. We've had a lot of rain and gray days lately, but today the sun is out. The last couple of days, the temperatures have dropped so that we have highs in the 60s or 70s and lows down into the 40s overnight. Today there is a definite "crispness" in the air, but it feels very pleasant (not too cool). 

I'm going to give updates on Seth and Frank first. Seth has been working close to 40 hours / week consistently for the last several weeks, which has been great. He goes to YSA FHE most Mondays, to Institute every Wednesday evening, and to church meetings every Sunday. He's doing a pretty good job of setting alarms and getting himself up and to work on time, instead of relying on me to wake him up. I think he had one day this week that he fell back asleep after his alarm went off so I woke him back up. But most days he gets up on his own. He has also taken on the responsibility of washing his work uniform. He only has one uniform and needs to wash it after every couple of shifts, which is more often than I do the laundry and it doesn't always coincide with the days I do the laundry either. So he has started doing that himself, and he is doing a great job at remembering to take care of that. (This may not sound like a big deal, but he has ADHD and his executive functioning skills aren't fantastic, so it is definitely a small victory that he has been managing to do this on his own. 😀) He is saving half of his paychecks and has a pretty healthy sum saved up. He has no plans to serve a mission and has started to get really annoyed / frustrated if we bring it up. He is happy to attend church and activities and I'm sure he has a testimony and he's super happy that his friends are serving missions--he just doesn't want to go himself and he has even said more than once that he feels like he is supposed to stay here. We're not sure why he feels that way. Hopefully over time we will understand better. He also seems resistent to the idea of going back to school. He doesn't really know what he wants to do, career-wise, and seems perfectly happy to work at Chick-fil-A indefinitely. Hopefully he will figure something out along the way. I keep telling myself that I need to be patient with him and give him some time to figure things out. Overall, he is pleasant and helpful at home (although we don't love that he is a night owl so his schedule doesn't mesh well with ours), and he seems to be happy and enjoys friends at work and at church.

Frank's foot is still bothering him, but thankfully it hasn't gotten worse since last week. He can wear shoes again most of the time although sometimes he needs to use sandals. He got his blood drawn on Wednesday to check his uric acid level and it is 6.2. They'd like it to be below 6, but it was above 8 at one point, so it definitely has come down since then. He is still taking medicine to help with the uric acid level, and will probably get his disability parking pass extended for another month (it expires the end of this month). He had PT for his shoulders on Monday and on Thursday this week. His last appointment was Thursday, so on Monday a different person than he's been working with the last several weeks did an evaluation. His right shoulder and neck are much better, but he still has limited range of motion in his left shoulder. The person evaluating him said he needs surgery on his left shoulder. They will send the results to his surgeon and I'm sure he'll be meeting again with her to see where to go from here. She was pretty resistant to the idea of doing surgery when he first met with her, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks now. She did want him to go to PT first, to see what that would do for him. We're grateful that his right shoulder and neck have improved, at least. 

When I wrote last week, I said that I was leaning towards not accepting the stake communications calling. Well, the surprise is on me--I actually did accept it on Monday. I just wasn't feeling completely at peace about turning it down, and I kept putting off sending an email to say I couldn't do it. On Sunday morning, I was thinking about it again and I realized two things: I didn't feel right about turning it down, but I also didn't feel like I could do both this calling and my ward calling. And suddenly, I just knew that I should accept the stake calling and ask to be released from my ward calling. It felt right, and I felt relief and peace. So I let the counselor in the stake presidency know I was accepting the calling, and I let the RS president and my bishop know that I need to be released. I feel sorry that they need to find someone else to do this calling (and that I have only served for 3 months), but as I said--it feels right. And I feel like without my ward calling, I will be able to do this calling and it won't be too much on my shoulders. 

Now, on to the daily reports!

Saturday, September 19th: This was a pretty busy day. I had a haircut first thing in the morning. Frank needed to do work for two of his clients and Seth needed to be at work at 7:30, so Frank dropped him off at work and then headed south to do the work for his clients. After I got home from my haircut, I started some bread in the bread maker and then cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced the ukulele, read scriptures, and worked on preparing a bit for the next day's RS lesson (the teacher had asked me to share something as part of the lesson). After the floor dried, I ate lunch and then finished making the bread. I started working on planning group dinners (next RS activity)--I needed to put everyone who had signed up into a group and assign them to a host. It took a bit of juggling, believe me! While I was working on that, Frank got chicken & rice ready to go into the oven for dinner and he picked Seth up from work too. When he got back home with Seth, we both worked together to finish making dinner. We had the Elders over for dinner. One of them had just transferred into our ward, so we enjoyed getting to know him. After dinner, I glued the brackets (some of the decorative trim) onto the dollhouse. 

Sunday, September 20th: I read scriptures and got ready for church, then I worked some more on organizing the group dinners. Frank spoke in the Baltimore YSA ward that morning; he didn't get back before I needed to leave for church, but he and Seth came over to the church together later and Frank joined me for the 2nd hour of our meetings. We also had a "linger later"--a chance to visit with other members of the ward--after our meetings, so we stayed a while for that. After we got home, we talked to Jared, had dinner, and did the FHE lesson. I worked on group dinners a bit more.

Monday, September 21st: I woke up at 1:00 am for some reason and couldn't go back to sleep. I read scriptures, played some games, did my usual exercise / breakfast / showering routine, started laundry, bought groceries, and vacuumed. I got all of that done by about 7:45 am. We had a nice sunrise Monday morning:

I started mission work around 8:30 am. I thought I would probably get sleepy and need to take a nap at some point, but surprisingly, I didn't get sleepy. I worked on mission work until about 2:00, taking a one hour break for lunch. Frank came home around the time I finished my mission work. I spent most of the time working on the 5 record hints I was assigned to do as a follow up to Friday's training. It was fun and interesting! I finished two of them but I ran into questions on the other three, so I didn't finish them that day. I also finished up the orientation activities, which included listening to an awesome talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC several years ago. After I finished the mission work, I tried taking a nap. I did fall asleep and I was totally out--but only for about 15 minutes. Then I woke back up and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and finished folding the laundry and worked on the dollhouse. I glued the tower roof on and started looking at the directions for the window frames to prepare to assemble them. 

Frank went to PT and when he got home, we had dinner. Seth came home from work at 6:00 and quickly ate and then left for YSA FHE, so we didn't have time to do our own FHE activity that day. I finished figuring out the group dinners and sent text messages to all the hosts. 

Tuesday, September 22nd: I woke up when Frank left (around 3:00 am). I read scriptures and then started to feel sleepy so I tried going back to sleep. I went in and out a few times and finally fell back asleep completely and didn't wake up until about 7:30. It was great to get that extra sleep, but then I felt like I was behind all day. 😂 And actually, I didn't finish everything I wanted to do that day, but I did get a lot done and finished the rest on Wednesday. I did my usual Tuesday morning routine which means that I exercised and ate breakfast as usual but then cleaned the bathrooms before showering. (I listened to the Follow Him podcast while cleaning, as usual.) I started planning meals for next week but didn't finish before it was time for lunch and my weekly district devotional. After the devotional, I did mission work until 3:45. I spent a lot of that time sending a long email with screen shots and questions to my record hints project trainer about the three record hints that I hadn't completed. I also worked on a sixth record hint, which was not as complicated so I was able to finish it. I stopped at 3:45 so I could get ready for my temple shift and eat some dinner before I needed to leave for the temple. Seth didn't work that day, so I had a car, but my friend MaryKay offered to take me anyway. She said she enjoys the company! I accepted because I also enjoy her company, and that also meant I could ride home with Frank. I had a good shift; I feel like I get a little more comfortable every time I go. After prayer meeting, I got trained on the clothing rental counter for the first hour. It was fun, and not very difficult to learn. Then I worked in initiatories for an hour which literally flew by, and then worked at the veil to end my shift.

Wednesday, September 23rd: I got the regular chores done, finished planning next week's menus, and worked on mission work. For mission work, I met with the records hint trainer to go over my questions and we got all the record hints that I had started completed. I also had my weekly one-on-one meeting with one of my team leads and worked on the AI Research Assistant project for a while. By the time I was done, I had over 12 hours of work for this week, so I don't need to do anymore, but I may do some more tomorrow (because it's fun!). That evening, I started assembling the dollhouse window frames. They are kind of tricky--requiring some taping and gluing, and then a rubber band has to be stretched and secured around the frame to hold it together while the glue dries. It's challenging to get the rubber band onto the frame without the pieces shifting around or even flying apart (because the glue isn't dry yet). I tried a number of different ways to do it before I found a method that seems to work the best. So it took a while to do the first four, and I was ready to take a break after that! The first four, taken on Thursday morning after the glue dried and the tape and rubber bands were removed:

Thursday, September 24th: I woke up at 3:00 am and didn't go back to sleep (seems to be happening a lot), so I got up and did my usual morning routine and purchased groceries before Seth had to leave for work (around 9:30). I've been watching Downton Abbey while running the last several weeks; I watched all six seasons and then watched the three movies as well. I finished the last movie on Thursday morning, so this morning I started watching the newest season of Call the Midwife, which recently became available on Netflix. 

Anyway, back to Thursday--I got all the regular chores done, talked to Tanner while I ate lunch, and worked some more on the dollhouse. I started painting more of the trim and also assembled five more of the window frames. (The dollhouse has eight windows, but there are fourteen window frames because there are frames for both the inside and the outside of six of the windows. The other two windows are dormer windows, and they have window frames on the outside, but a different kind of trim on the inside.) These five frames went together a lot faster than the first four did, thankfully.

First coat of one side of trim. Most of these will go on the rooftop; a few hang under the eaves:

Five more windows, assembled and drying:

After Seth got home from work at 5:30, we did our belated FHE activity for the week before I needed to leave for book chat. We played bank--Frank won, as usual. At book chat, we discussed Sense & Sensibility. Now we are going to read Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. 

Friday, September 25th: I woke up around 7:00, which was lovely for a change! After my usual morning routine and sending some follow up text messages about group dinners and the RS activity we are planning for December, I updated the finances. I got most of that done before lunch time; I finished after lunch and then started working on this post. I've had a few interruptions while working on this (a call from the counselor in the stake presidency to follow up about my new stake calling; talking to Frank about some calls from his family about his Uncle Jimmy, who is in the hospital and not doing well), so now it is almost dinner time. 

I'm planning to work on the dollhouse some more after dinner. It is nice to feel like I am in the last stages of this project (even though there's still plenty to do). I took some photos on Tuesday morning so I could compare them with the photos I took when I first started this project. Back then, I had boxes full of pieces that needed to be put together:

These photos I took on Tuesday morning show all the pieces that I have left: 

Only one box left under the table, and it only has the shingles and some extra supplies. The pieces I have left are mostly small pieces, like trim, shutters, stairs, crown molding, and window frames. (The only pieces that aren't small are the room dividers).

There's an end in sight! 😁

Weekly Review September 18 '26

 Another pretty busy week! Here's what we did:

Friday, September 11th: After writing last week's post, we had dinner and went to a game night with friends. We actually got there pretty late. There were three small groups playing different games, but all of the games were longer, more involved games, so Frank and I ended up with each of us sitting with a group and talking with them while they finished playing instead of playing a game. It was nice to get out and be social, though! There were more men than women there and all the women were playing a game together, so I sat with them. All three of them are Seminary teachers--the two in our ward and another one who is in our stake and teaches a class in another ward. So we had a lot in common and had a lot to talk about. 

Saturday, September 12th: This was a really busy day. Frank got a haircut in the morning and Seth worked from 10:00 to 6:00. I did 6 hours of mission work. Some of that was training videos, but I also did some work on a project called AI Research Assistant. You don't have to be formally trained to work on this project because it is working on record hints for your own family tree. Working on this project taught me how much I still don't know! I had to keep going back and forth between the record hint I was working on and training videos because I couldn't remember how to do anything! Well, it's always good to be humbled. In the end, I was able to connect someone new to my family tree, so that was cool. And in all my digging, I discovered that he was a twin. What are the chances of that? The very first record hint I ever do is for someone who is a twin like me. (Although clearly he was a fraternal twin, since he had a twin sister, not brother.) I also discovered that this family has at least 10 more children, so now I want to go find all of them. This could become addictive very quickly! 

Besides the mission work, I did a lot of other things. I figured out a schedule for what days and times I will do mission work each week, and that has definitely been helpful for me as I have gone through this past week. I worked on the dollhouse a little bit with some help from Frank--some of the trim strips needed to be cut to a shorter length, so we did that.

All the trim strips, cut and ready to be painted:

I also cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele, and sent notes from the RS activity committee meeting to the rest of the committee. Frank and I went out to dinner because neither of us felt like cooking! We went to Outback Steakhouse, since I know they have food I can eat. I tried the salmon and it was really good. I watched part of a documentary about September 11th. I do that most years around this time--watch a few documentaries. I was up pretty late, but I kind of wanted to stay up until Seth got home. He was asked to provide a ride home from work for one of the boys from that family in our ward who need rides. This boy didn't get off work until 11:45. I know Seth is perfectly capable, but I just wanted to make sure he got home safely. He's not usually out that late at night.

Sunday September 13th: I did the usual Sunday morning routine, which includes putting food for dinner in the crock pot, scriptures, and getting ready for church. One new thing I did was that I used liners in the crock pot that I hadn't used before. We got a set of liners when we purchased the crock pot years ago, and we've used the full liner many times, but it also came with a set of two liners that basically divide the crock pot in half so that you can cook two different things at the same time. I made one kind of chicken in one of the liners for Frank & Seth that included things I'm not eating right now, and another kind of chicken in the other liner for me. I almost got rid of that set of liners once because I'd never used them. I'm glad now that I didn't give them away! They are going to come in very handy.

Frank was gone that morning because he had his early morning meetings for the YSA stake. He got back in time to go to the church with me, but he went to YSA branch meetings (branch presidency meeting, branch council meeting, and YSA sacrament meeting) instead of to our meetings. We had a unique sacrament meeting that day. Instead of speakers, anyone who wanted to was invited to come up and share about a favorite hymn and then we'd sing one verse of that hymn. It was a really enjoyable meeting. After church, I had a ministering interview and by the time I finished that, the YSA sacrament meeting was over, so Frank and I came home together. 

Before church, I talked briefly with the head of the stake communications committee about the calling that I learned about last week. The counselor in the stake presidency had sent me a little more information about it, but I kept feeling like I needed to talk to the committee chair to find out exactly what she was expecting before I could make a decision, so I asked him if it was okay to talk to her. He said it was okay. When I talked to her before church, she said she would send me a document that listed the responsibilities for the calling, and after I read it we could talk about it. 

Later that day, I got the document--one and half pages long. It is definitely more than attending one meeting a month and then reporting on that! As a matter of fact, when I talked to her, the committee chair said that the counselor who talked to me was mixed up. They want someone else to attend the community meeting. They want me to serve on the committee as a communications specialist, which entails a whole lot of things. She talked to me for a long time about it and she seems to think that this calling would overlap my RS activities committee calling a lot, so it wouldn't be a big deal. It does overlap a little bit, but not a whole lot, and there are a lot of things on that list she sent me that would add to my current "to do list". I didn't give her an answer when I talked to her. I told her I would have to think about it, but I did tell her that I am wearing a lot of hats already and that I'm not sure the timing is good for me to take on another calling. She encouraged me to talk to the RS president in my ward about it, because she had this same calling before she became the RS president. So I did do that--the RS president had already said she wanted to go on a walk with me sometime soon, so I contacted her and asked if we could do it this week. 

We went on a walk yesterday morning, and she said some things that helped me a bit. She did say that this calling is the type that you can do a lot, or you can choose not to do a lot. She said they'd be happy with anything I could do because right now they don't have anyone doing any of it. But she also agreed that it doesn't really overlap with my current ward calling, and she seemed to think that if I accepted this calling, I would need to be released from my ward calling. I also wanted to talk to her because I had the idea that if someone else in the ward was called to do this calling, they could also serve on the RS activities committee, with the specific responsibility for community service related activities. She said she thought that was a good idea. So anyway, that's where it all stands right now. I haven't made a final decision, but I'm definitely leaning towards not accepting this calling because I think it would just be too much, and I don't want to accept it if I can't give it the time and attention it deserves. 

Anyway...back to Sunday. We talked to Jared and had family night before Seth had to leave for mission prep class. I watched a few September 11th documentaries before I went to sleep. Frank's foot had improved enough that he started wearing shoes again on Sunday. Unfortunately, his foot started hurting a lot more on Wednesday. He said he bumped it on something under his desk. Maybe that's why it's hurting more, but now it has swollen a bit and has turned bright red again too. So it's hard to tell if that is all caused by bumping his foot, or if the gout is flaring back up again. At any rate, he's back to wearing sandals again. It's discouraging to have a big set back when he was starting to do a lot better. 

Monday, September 14th: I woke up when Frank got up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and did my usual exercise / breakfast / shower routine and I also got all the daily chores (buying groceries, vacuuming, and starting laundry) done by 10:00 am. I did mission work from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. (For my mission work, I've decided to schedule four hours on Mondays, three hours on Tuesdays, four hours on Wednesdays, and two hours on Saturdays. That's thirteen hours--I built in an extra hour in case I have a day I can't do all the hours I planned to do.) For mission work this week I kept working on orientation stuff (which is lovely) and I reviewed Record Hints videos so I'd be better prepared for the Records Hint project training that I had scheduled for today.

After I finished mission work for the day, I watched a few September 11 documentaries (yes, there are a lot of them...I only scratched the surface with the ones I watched this week), talked to Scott, and started painting trim strips and brackets for the dollhouse (first coat, one side). 

Frank went to PT after he got home from work. He says that PT has really been helping his right shoulder and his neck, but his left shoulder is not improving much. 

Tuesday, September 15th: Again, I woke up when Frank got up, which was even earlier--about 2:40. He got up extra early because he needed to go do some work for a client before going to work. I started out by doing more painting on the dollhouse trim strips and brackets (painted edges of the trim strips and the second side of the brackets).

After that, I exercised and ate breakfast, cleaned the bathrooms (listened to Follow Him while working), showered, and planned meals for next week. I got all that done by 10:15. 😂 After lunch, I had my weekly devotional for the Cumberland district (I gave the closing prayer because it was my team's turn to do the devotional) and a bi-weekly record hints meeting, which is for all the missionaries who are working on the record hints project. The devotional and the meeting were an hour apart, so I worked on my own orientation / training in between those two meetings. After the record hints meeting, I decided to work an extra hour on mission work because it wasn't my week to do my temple shift, so I had extra time. That also meant that I wouldn't have to do as many hours on Wednesday. 

Seth worked from 2:00 to 10:00 that day and Frank had his temple shift after work, so I was alone for a lot of the day. After I ate dinner, I sanded all the trim strips and brackets and then painted the second coat on one side of each of them. I listened to scriptures while I was doing that.

Then I watched a few more September 11 documentaries while waiting for Seth and Frank to get home. (I haven't watched any more of those since then...I think I'm done for the year!)

Wednesday, September 16th: I slept in; I didn't wake up until about 6:30. 😂I did the usual exercise / breakfast / shower / chores routine. Then I did mission work from 10:00 to 12:40, which included my weekly one on one meeting with one of the team leads. Everyone in the mission is super nice; I just love them! 😊After that, I had lunch and Tanner called so I talked to him while I was eating. Seth worked from 11:30 to 6:00, and he forgot to take his water bottle, so Frank and I took that to him and then took Frank's car to put gas in it. This is when Frank mentioned that his foot was starting to hurt again. (He had bumped it earlier that day.) 

After we got back home, I finished paiting the trim strips and brackets. (I listened to Follow Him while working and then did a little bit of coloring while the episode finished). Since I knew that Thursday and today were going to be busy days, I decided to get a few things done ahead of time. I started working on the budget update and I also purchased groceries in the evening. Before that, though, we had dinner and then Frank and I watched a talk that President Oaks gave at the National Cathedral (Faith, Freedom, and the Common Good). We actually had tickets to see it in person at the cathedral, but because Frank's foot was hurting so much, he didn't feel up to going. It was a little disappointing to miss the chance to attend in person, but we certainly didn't miss fighting traffic! We did enjoy his talk a lot. After I got home from the grocery store, I glued all the trim strips onto the dollhouse.

We got to bed around 9:00, but I felt wide awake and wasn't falling asleep, so I decided to look at some stuff on FamilySearch, and ended up staying up until 11:00 pm because I got so interested in what I was doing.

Thursday, September 17th: Frank and I both woke up around 5:30. Frank didn't get up at 3:30 as he usually does on Thursdays because his foot was hurting in the night so he decided to work from home. I did my usual morning routine and then went on the walk with the RS president that I mentioned earlier. It was a warm and humid morning, so I got pretty warm. After that, I went with my friend Rebekah to Hobby Lobby. (It's in Hagerstown, about 30 minutes away from Frederick). She wanted to get some fabric to make some clothes for her granddaughter and asked me if I wanted to go along. Of course I did! I enjoyed looking at some patterns (didn't buy any, though) and we also checked out the dollhouse section to see what they have. I didn't buy anything for the dollhouse either, but it was good to see what furniture and accessories they have there. They had a decent variety of things, but overall the dollhouse section is pretty small (only half of an aisle, on one side). They have the same model of dollhouse that I am building on display--fully assembled, although it isn't painted at all. 

After I got home from that trip and ate lunch, I got the rest of the chores done while Frank went to a PT appointment. I also did some work for RS activities--got the building scheduled for our November activity, contacted ward leadership in another ward to see if we could use the building for our December activity on a Thursday evening (it's that ward's activity night), and did some planning for the group dinner activity, which will be in October. I also started working on this blog post, since today was pretty full and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to write it today. We had a rainstorm in the evening. 

Seth worked every week day this week except for today. On Thursday, he texted me to say that he would be coming home a little late. It turns out that his friend Emma from work got off at the same time that he did, so they stayed to talk for a while. And today, they got together to go to the mall again--he was gone for about 6 hours. I forgot to mention when I wrote last week that I met Emma. We dropped a car off one day for Seth to bring home, so I had to take the key to the car in to him. I just missed him--I saw the back of his head as he went back to the break room--but the girl working the register asked if she could help me, so I explained that I needed to give a key to Seth Cleveland. She broke into a big smile and said "Oh, you're Seth's mom? Seth is my best friend! He is so great!! I just love working with him!" I said "Oh, are you Emma? (then I noticed that her nametag did say Emma!) He's talked a lot about you!" She offered to give Seth the key, so I gave it to her. When Seth came home, I told him about what Emma said and I asked him if they were just friends or if it was more than that. He said that she is dating someone else, so they are just friends. I think he would like to be more than friends, but for now he is content to just be friends. 

Friday September 18th: Today I went to the temple in the morning. I did an endowment session which was great because I haven't had the chance to do that since May or June. Someone in the session needed ASL, so I got to see the ASL version of the endowment, and it was really sweet! There was a different signer for each person, and their facial expressions really added a lot to the overall experience. I'm really grateful I got to go, and that I got to have that unique experience. 

After I got home and had lunch, I had a 2 hour training session for the Record Hints project. For the training, we basically went through a couple of record hints together. I shared my screen and I did everything, the Elder training me just walked me through it and we talked about things together. I enjoyed it, and I think doing this work is definitely going to be addictive! Now I have an assignment to do five more record hints and when I'm done I will share the lines I did with my trainer so that he can check them. 

After I finished my training, Frank and I made dinner and watched an episode of Once Upon a Time while we ate. After dinner, I finished updating the budget and worked some more on this post. I took a break so that we could do family night activity. We didn't have time to do it on Monday because Seth worked until 6:00 and then had YSA FHE at 7:00. We played the game Stare; Frank won, but Seth and I were right behind him and both of us got to the finish just one round after Frank did. 

Now it is nearly bedtime and I can't think of anything else to report, so I will finish with a photo I took this morning of the sunrise.