Weekly Review June 28 '19

Well, this was a pretty quiet week for a change! Last week I was still trying to get caught up on everything. This week I was mostly caught up and it's been kind of strange. I am really glad not to be swamped with things to do, but I also felt this unexpected let down. I felt really restless and felt the lack of having something really constructive to do. It's hard to explain. Although it's really stressful and difficult to have a lot of things to do, there is also no doubt that working hard is good for the soul. And in particular, I think having those quilts to work on every time I had a free minute was very fulfilling (as well as overwhelming). I really do love creating things. So I think I need a new project! In the meantime, this week was kind of empty and I felt like I wasted most of my free time. But I'm sure I'll adjust! There are still plenty of things I could be doing or should be doing. Here's a summary of what we did this week:

Sunday: I enjoyed teaching my Primary class again. (I miss the kids when I don't see them for a week.) My companion teacher didn't show up--no doubt she was recovering from her son's wedding--but one of the counselors in the Primary came to my class with me. We were supposed to have the Elders over for dinner but they bailed on us at the last minute. I wasn't too thrilled about that because I had cooked quantities of food with 3 hungry Elders in mind, and now I had way too much. Jared & Jessie stopped by here for a little while on their way back home, though, and Jared ate some of the excess. (Jessie wasn't hungry.) Frank and Seth had a stake priesthood meeting so I had a quiet house to myself for a few hours.

Monday: We officially started our summer routine this week and so far it is going pretty well. Seth has to eat breakfast, shower, and help me with chores (whatever I'm doing that day) and then we do brain balance. After that, Seth is free to do what he wants although he only gets a couple of hours of screen time each day. On Monday he totally shocked me by choosing to go through all his school papers and throwing out what he didn't want to keep. He was in his room for at least an hour doing that, and when he finished his trash can looked like this:

I don't think any of you can fully appreciate what a miracle this is!! My pack rat, distracted son who normally won't part with a single thing he has scribbled on, voluntarily (I didn't even suggest it!) decided to go through his school papers and he actually threw away something. And not just a few things, a LOT of things!! This is totally unprecedented. But I'm NOT complaining!! He didn't even turn on the television until late afternoon. It was awesome. Meanwhile, I kept pretty busy with stuff I had to do, which included figuring out some issues with the business finances. For family night activity we played bowling on the Wii and Seth chose to get chocolate chip cookies for treat. (Just what we need in this house--more baked goods! We still haven't made it through all the leftovers from Tanner's open house!)

Tuesday: We stuck with our routine and it went well. In addition to the usual chores, I also worked on some things for my music calling. I also sat down with Seth and went over the information for scout camp and he picked out the classes he wants to take. He has mostly decided now that he doesn't want to continue in scouts after this year so I told him to just pick things that sound fun to him. He's not totally convinced that he wants to go to scout camp, so I want him to have fun if he goes.

Wednesday: I went to the religion class and in the evening I had a ministering interview with my companion and the RS president. Seth had YM (scouts)--they took the deacons to a park to do a fitness test and then took them to get ice cream. They got back really late; all the parents were wondering where they were! But Seth had a good time.

Thursday: Seth had a pretty busy day. He went to play with the car pool boys for a few hours (meanwhile, I met Frank for lunch) and not long after he got home one of the neighbor girls invited him over to go swimming in her yard. I like seeing him get out of the house and I especially like it when he plays outside. It was a good day to be in a  pool because it was really hot! Actually it's been pretty hot all week. He had to come in from the pool because a thunderstorm was coming. Jared & Jessie were going to stop by for dinner but Jessie had an appointment that ran late so they ended up not having enough time. They did stop by and get some plates of food, though, at my suggestion--I didn't want a lot of leftover food again!

Friday: Tonight Seth had a deacon's activity at another boy's house. They played a board game and then played outside, which is what they were doing when we went to pick him up. Frank and I had run a few errands on the way--we returned some things to the storage unit and returned some white Christmas lights that we had borrowed for Jared's wedding reception. After we picked Seth up, we decided to go to Rita's to get a treat. Seth got a root beer ice / vanilla custard shake, I got a blood orange ice / vanilla custard gelati, and Frank got a chocolate custard cone.

Frank started exercising again this week. He has had some issues with his heart beating really fast in the mornings sometimes so he has had a number of doctor appointments for that over the last few weeks. He had a stress test and a non-stress test and an EKG in the last few weeks and yesterday he had a 24 hour holter monitor (he wore it overnight and had to return it this morning). So far, none of the tests have showed anything unusual, although we don't have the results from the holter monitor yet.

I've been exercising every day too. Seth and I have been doing quite a bit of reading--we finished reading Little Town on the Prairie finally (we didn't read much the last few months!) and now we have started These Happy Golden Years. Seth has done quite a bit of reading on his own and I have been doing a little reading too. I'm still working on finishing our last book for book chat before I start on the new one. Seth is re-reading the Wings of Fire series, and I am still reading the second book in that series. (It's good, I just got bogged down during the wedding craziness.) Speaking of weddings, I ordered a dress for Tanner's wedding this week and I have also been trying to figure out what ties to get for everybody else and I've been looking for gray pants for Seth too.

Seth and I have also been enjoying the fireflies!! We have gone on walks many evenings this week at dusk so we can enjoy the fireflies. We take Snickers with us too and he is always really happy when he can get out of the house. Tonight I think there were a lot more fireflies than there have been up until now. I could stay out there all night watching them, I think! Fireflies are one of my favorite things about summer. They are just so magical!

I spent quite a bit of time this week looking at quilt books as well as some dollhouse catalogs--I'm trying to decide on a new project to start on. I'm thinking about maybe starting to build that dollhouse that I got the kit for several years ago. I'm not sure I'm ready for a big project like that, though. I may decide to do some kind of quilting project instead. Or crocheting? Or sewing? There are lots of possibilities.

Jared & Jessie have come by a couple of times this week but have not stayed long--mostly they have just needed to pick things up or drop things off. We are worried about their car because Jessie's dad was changing their oil and he thinks there was water in it. Which means that there's a blown gasket or a crack in the engine or something really catastrophic like that. It's still running, but we are wondering how long it will last. I'm not sure what they will do if they need a really expensive repair.

Sorry to end on a worried note, but that's all I can think of to write about this week!