Cub Scout Cake Bake Off: On Friday evening the Cub Scouts had a father / son cake bake off and a game night. This normally would not impact me at all, since I am no longer a Cub Scout leader and I also don't have a son in Cub Scouts anymore. But since they knew they would have a lot of extra cake, they decided to invite all the Primary teachers to come share the cake. And since I used to work with the boys and I knew that Seth would enjoy a game night, Seth and I went. (Frank tries to avoid places where people are eating cake!) We got there late because our dinner took a lot longer to cook than it was supposed to, but there was still plenty of cake left and we both got to join in and play a game, so it was fun. I played a game I had never played before called "Dead Ringer". It was fun and very simple (easy to learn). I'm glad we made the effort to go.
Valentine's Day breakfast: Frank and I went to Cracker Barrel on Saturday morning as a late Valentine's Day celebration. It was nice, and besides a great breakfast I also acquired a new set of salt & pepper shakers. They always have lots of cute S&P sets in their store, but I'm pretty good at resisting purchasing them. But how was I supposed to resist these?:
While we are on the subject of Valentine's Day, here is a better photo of my roses, looking red instead of pink:
Stake Conference: We had stake conference this weekend, which is always nice. Frank didn't have to attend the leadership meeting on Saturday so we were able to go to the adult session together, which was also nice. We had to go to the stake center for the adult session, but the general session was broadcast to our ward building so we went there on Sunday. (Thanks to Frank, who pulled all the cable in the building years ago when he was the stake IT clerk!) This stake conference was particularly exciting and emotional because we got a new stake presidency. I don't know any of the new presidency particularly well, but the new stake president and one of his counselors were (are still) serving as bishops of their wards, so there will be lots of changes up the road for some of the other wards. The other counselor was (is) serving as the stake YM president, so there's another change coming up too. I'm sure they will be great! And I feel very grateful to the outgoing presidency...they were wonderful!
Jobs: Frank's new job seems to be going well. He had lots of meetings this week and he is learning everything that he is supposed to be doing. They also encourage him to go to the local restaurants for lunch (he doesn't have to pay for it) and to introduce himself and get to know the managers and people working there. On Monday he decided to go to the restaurant closest to our house and he called and invited Seth and I to come over for lunch too. (Seth didn't have school because of President's Day. Our food isn't free, but we do get a discount.) Frank has also been doing work for clients in the evenings and sometimes in the early morning, so he is keeping pretty busy.
Meanwhile, one of his clients needs someone to update their website (add photos, etc) and they asked if I would be interested in doing it. It would only be a few hours a week and I can do it from home, so I decided to give it a try. I also started another job today--helping a lady who just had hip replacement surgery. She is the caregiver for her 93 year old mother, so she needs some help for herself and some for her mother. It's 3 hours each morning, but it will only be for 2 weeks. Another sister in our ward is going to do some of the days (mostly the days that I am supposed to work at the Arc). I really don't feel like I was very helpful today--I did make breakfast for them and took out some trash and let their dogs outside once. The rest of the time I was just talking with them. But she said that is mostly all they need--just a little bit of help, and someone to keep them company.
I didn't end up working at the Arc this week so that job continues to be very sporadic and unpredictable. My RS president also called me this week to tell me that a sister in our ward who does bookkeeping from home 2 days a week wants to retire at the end of this summer and is interested in training someone who could then apply to take her place (no guarantees, I guess). She wanted to know if I am interested. So I will have to think about that! I probably won't need to work long term but if I have learned anything the last several months it is that it would be a good idea for me to get some more recent experience in the accounting field, just in case. So this job sounds pretty ideal for that. I just want to make sure that my family doesn't suffer because they are my top priority. The last several months has reminded me of that, too!
Taxes: We filed our tax returns on Monday but received emails on Tuesday saying our returns were rejected because of an error. We were supposed to include an explanation to go with one of the forms and we didn't. Don't ask me why our tax software didn't alert us to this fact when it "checked for errors" and found none. At any rate, once I looked at the form and all the calculations that go with it, I could not figure out why we have to file it in the first place. So I'm still trying to figure it out. It's too complicated to explain in detail, but basically the explanation we omitted is an explanation for why we underpaid our taxes last year. The trouble is...we didn't. We actually overpaid. Go figure.
Snow days: We had another snow day this week, on Wednesday. They actually decided to cancel school the evening before because it was supposed to start snowing early in the morning and it was predicted that we would get 5 - 8 inches of snow. It did snow pretty hard, and we got about 6 inches of snow and the roads were a mess so it was nice that we didn't have to go anywhere. I actually forgot about my religion class, but I'm pretty sure it was cancelled. Seth didn't have YM that evening either. I usually go grocery shopping on Wednesdays, but Frank was smart and suggested I go Tuesday evening instead (he came with me to help me) so I didn't even have to do that. We're up to 6 snow days this year now and school is not going to get out until June 19th. Thursday morning we had a 2 hour delay so the school week was pretty chopped up. I doubt it was very productive!
Quilting: I've been working on the quilt whenever I get the chance. I enjoy it, and it's not hard, but it is going to take forever to finish it!! Here's how it looks now:
I'm working on the third square out of 25. At this rate, I might finish it by June. Wish me luck!
Other things: Besides everything else, we fed the missionaries on Saturday and on Tuesday evening (after grocery shopping) I had book chat. We have a tradition that every February we have fondue--both chocolate and cheese. One of the ladies in the group makes really delicious cheese and chocolate fondue. The rest of us bring things to dip--cookies, cake, fruits, vegetables, pretzels, keilbasa, etc. It's always really yummy!! Oh, and we had a good discussion about Before We Were Yours as well. Now we are going to read a book called Confessions of a Domestic Failure.
I was working on financial stuff this afternoon, as I usually do on Friday, and I realized again--as I was looking over the numbers--that the Lord really has looked out for us and taken care of us these last several months. Just one example--I had to move funds from the business account to our personal account to cover all the expenses for the last couple of months. (Although Frank is working now, he hasn't received a paycheck yet.) I also paid tithing on the income that has come in from the business for the last couple of months. (I set tithing money aside when income comes in, but sometimes it accumulates for a while before I remember to actually pay it.) And guess what? The tithing I paid was almost exactly 10% of the amount I had to move over. So in other words--the amount of income that the business brought in was almost exactly the amount we needed to cover all our expenses. Normally, the business doesn't bring in that much. Another thing that I've noticed is that we don't run out of stuff as often. (You know, things like toothpaste, paper towels, shampoo, etc.) I'm sure that's not a coincidence either. I've actually been praying that we would be able to manage our resources wisely and that what we had would last longer. That prayer has definitely been answered. Just wanted to record that so that I will never forget!
I've managed to exercise every day and while I am exercising, I have been watching a show called Victoria, which is about Queen Victoria. It's pretty interesting and I've mostly enjoyed it. They definitely embellish the facts a lot, or move actual events to different time periods to make things more dramatic or help the story line along. (I can't watch anything historical without checking the facts!) But anyway, it's pretty good. It also helps jogging go faster if you have something interesting to distract you!
That is everything I can think of to report this week but I have to finish up with this cute photo of Snickers curled up on a pillow on the couch:
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