Weekly Review October 19 '18

I didn't take any photos this week so maybe this post won't be very long. I was really busy, though. I've actually been feeling swamped and a bit overwhelmed the last few weeks and I'm not sure exactly why. I feel like the days are rushing by and I'm not getting all the things done that need to be done, and yet I don't feel like there are a lot of extra things to do besides all the usual things I have to do. So why am I so busy? I mean, there have been a few extra things going on but not so many that I feel like I should be swamped. Maybe it is the mental / emotional weight of feeling like I should be finding a job, and not making much progress in that area. At any rate, I've had more than one day this week that I was going, going, going all day long just trying to get everything on my list done.

On Saturday I did a lot of planning for both the baby shower that I am helping with and for Cub Scouts. I also spent a lot of time working on my 50 birthdays post (the personal history post I've been working on for weeks) and I finally finished it. Those three things took up the whole day.

On Sunday I did some indexing, as I usually try to do. I had choir practice and then we all had normal church meetings, of course. Frank wasn't feeling very well at all. He hadn't slept well so he was very tired but besides that his heart was pounding hard and fast and he felt dizzy. He missed both the stake missionary correlation meeting and ward council, but he did make it to all the regular church meetings. I got nabbed by our new bishop and I am getting a new calling--ward music chairman. I will not be released as a den leader immediately, but probably soon. After they release me as a den leader they will probably also give me a calling as a Primary worker--to be a second person in one of the classes. Kind of ironic that I found out I was getting released as a den leader the day after I just finished planning out what I was going to do with the boys for the rest of the year! I will miss Cub Scouts but it's been 3 years so I was kind of overdue for a change. I have mixed feelings about the new calling. I love music and I'm kind of excited that I get to pick what hymns we sing in Sacrament Meeting! (I mean, I will seek inspiration on that, of course, not just randomly pick them.) I have a strong testimony of the importance of music and how it can add to the spirit of the meetings. I am nervous about figuring out the Christmas Sacrament Meeting program, though, which will mostly be music. I've never done anything like that before and am not sure how I will come up with music for special musical numbers. I will also, of course, be needing to regularly find people willing to provide musical numbers during Sacrament Meeting, so that will probably be a challenge. Overall, I am looking forward to doing this. As far as Primary goes, I've been kind of wishing I could work in Primary again so that will be fun, even though I will miss being able to go to Sunday School and Relief Society. On Sunday they also finally called an 11 year old scout leader, and it is our former bishop (the one who just got released). He is going to be great, and we are thrilled! He's getting a baptism by fire, too, because there is a camp out tonight. They haven't called an assistant yet, but hopefully that will be happening soon.

We had our family night lesson on Sunday evening and planned to do the activity and treat on Monday evening but we ended up doing that on Tuesday evening instead because Frank was gone from 2:30 pm to 1:30 am doing work for a client. Meanwhile, I had a busy day--I met with the other host of the baby shower in the morning to discuss final plans. Then I called the mom of the other 11 year old scout in our ward to discuss plans for the 11 year old scout camp out. We planned meals and everything last time they were supposed to be going on a camp out, but we needed to make sure we both remembered everything that we had planned. I also cleaned the kitchen floor because I didn't get that done on Saturday and of course I had all the other regular Monday jobs to do. I also started looking at the application for substitute teaching and started filling it out.

I woke up late on Tuesday so I didn't end up exercising that day. I had a long list that day too--more camp out and baby shower preparations, in addition to all the usual Tuesday jobs. I needed to go to the library and I also visited our storage unit to get things out that I needed for both the baby shower and the camp out. I worked on the substitute teacher application a little bit too. I was supposed to take Snickers to the vet that morning for a check up (he has to have a check up every 6 months now) but they called early that morning and said he was up to date on his immunizations and since they had just seen him in September (when he was refusing to go up stairs) they didn't need to see him again. I still think he was probably supposed to have blood work done to check his liver, but since taking him to the vet would have taken both time and money that I didn't have, I wasn't about to argue with them about that! It was actually a great blessing because I never would have gotten everything done that I needed to do that day if I had had to take Snickers to the vet too.

Wednesday was the same--very busy! Frank helped me out a lot by going to the store with me that morning. He got all the things on our regular grocery list while I got all the things on the list for the baby shower. We got done at the same time, so it would have taken me twice as long if I had done all of it by myself. I had the my religion class, where we played General Conference Jeopardy and my team won. :) That evening I had den meeting, of course, and Seth had an 11 year old scout meeting at the same time. For den meeting I did one requirement that the boys needed to finish an adventure that they had started at day camp. Then we started on a new adventure called Super Science. We did some static electricity experiments. Meanwhile, in Seth's meeting, they practiced setting up a tent and made sure they are all ready for their camp out.

Yesterday was exhausting. Besides all the usual Thursday jobs, I was also trying to gather up and pack all the things Seth needed for his camp out (it's amazing how much stuff they need for one night!). I also finished preparing the games for the baby shower, did some more shopping for the baby shower, and made some of the food for the baby shower. Frank ended up needing to do work for clients for a good part of the day and in the evening he did monthly maintenance for all of them, so he was really busy too.

Today Frank had more work to do for clients and he also made some hummus for me to take to the baby shower. I made guacamole for the shower too. The rest of the food preparations need to be made shortly before the shower, so I'll be doing that later. I also sewed some patches on Seth's scout shirt--I did most of them weeks ago but I still needed to sew on the numbers for his troop. I also got the budget caught up, so it's been a busy day. Seth is home from school now and in a little while we will need to get a few more things ready for his camp out and make dinner before he and I both need to go (he to the camp out and me to the baby shower).

So that was our crazy week! Before I finish up this week's post, I want to mention that I have been noticing some tender mercies in our lives this week. For one thing, as you probably have gathered, Frank had a lot of work to do this week. That's always a blessing, since his business is our only source of income right now. He has definitely been busier with the business since he got laid off, and I am sure that is not a coincidence. Then yesterday I needed to get a few prizes for the baby shower games. The baby shower is something that I wanted to do, but it has also been kind of stressful because events like that always end up costing quite a bit, even if you try to be frugal. My ministering companion, who is co-hosting the shower with me, is also dealing with unemployment--her husband was also laid off in late spring / early summer. So both of us have really been trying to keep things simple, and we've both felt pretty stressed about it. Anyway, I needed to get a few simple prizes but I was feeling kind of stressed about it too. While I was waiting in line, I started talking to the lady behind me and out of the blue, she asked me if I had any coupons. I said that I didn't, and she said "I have extra and I'm not going to use this one"--and gave me a coupon for 25% off my total purchase. It wasn't a big deal, but it was another reminder to me that the Lord is aware of us and our circumstances, which meant even more to me than the couple of dollars that I saved. So yes, things aren't always easy for us, but we are not without hope. We know the Lord is looking out for us.