Weekly Review November 22 '19

This week was pretty busy although I'm not sure how much of it is worth telling you about. We'll see how long this gets!

Saturday the 16th: I did the usual music calling stuff, practiced ukulele, and cleaned the kitchen floor. But besides that, I submitted my timesheet for my Arc job (I haven't worked since September but I did some online training that I get paid for), got a birthday treat ready for my Primary class (last birthday this year!), and Frank and I went to Walmart and to Lowe's to get some things we needed. Then we came home and spent the afternoon spreading mulch, raking / mulching leaves, and mowing the lawn. I sincerely hope that's the last time I will have to mow until next spring! Then our backs hurt for the rest of the evening, especially Frank's. But the yard does look a lot better. (At least, it did--we need to rake & mulch leaves again.)

Sunday the 17th: It wasn't a very relaxing Sunday because after church I had a song practice at 3:00 and then we all went to the Face to Face program to learn about the new children and youth activity program. The Face to Face was good, but Frank had to sit out in the foyer (remember his back is hurting) and Seth was totally unmedicated by then so he couldn't sit still. He kept getting up and going out to the foyer and then coming back. Hopefully he got something out of it! Back to the song practice, it went well but we actually ended up changing songs because the accompaniment was super strange--the pianist (who is really talented; she can pick up practically any piece and play it beautifully without practice) said that it was actually impossible to play on a piano in some places. We're singing the same song (The First Noel), but she found a different arrangement. I like the new arrangement better anyway. At church I was sustained as an activity days leader but they forgot to release me from my Primary teacher calling so I currently have 3 callings. Hopefully they will rectify that mistake on Sunday. I also had the first half of my temple recommend interview on Sunday before church. So anyway...I feel like I ran from one thing to another most of the day. Kind of reminded me of the days when I was Primary president and Relief Society president! I'm glad it's not like that every week, at least.

Monday the 18th: Mostly an ordinary Monday, but I spent the morning picking up those donations from my friend and delivering them to where they needed to go (see last week's review, if you don't know what I'm talking about). I also did some work for my music calling and made a follow up call to the child psychologist. I got a call back from the therapist the next day but I haven't scheduled an appointment for Seth yet because they are so busy that they usually can't fit kids in during the after school hours. Since Seth will have to miss school to go to appointments, I wanted to get some feedback from his teachers about what times of day / days of the week might be the best for him to miss school. After getting that information from his teachers,  I called again today and had to leave a message, but hopefully I'll hear back early next week and we'll be able to schedule his first appointment. For family night, Seth wanted to get donuts for treat so we did that (only a half dozen this time, though!) and we played Mario Kart because it was Frank's turn to choose the activity. (We do the lesson portion on Sunday, and this week we decided the Face to Face broadcast would count for that.) Frank won the Mario Kart races, but he always wins. I'm always terrible at Mario Kart but I did even worse than usual this time.

Tuesday the 19th: I worked hard and got all the usual chores done by lunch time. Then I spent some time doing some training for the volunteer tax preparer position. I got an email on Saturday with the information about training. I'm not positive I will be able to do it this year because the training is extensive--takes about 40 hours, and they want me to be done by January! It's all online, so I can do it when I have time here and there but I'm still not sure I'll manage to squeeze in 40 hours during the busy holiday season. We'll see how it goes. I worked on it for an hour or so that day and didn't feel like I made much headway. But part of the problem was that I didn't sleep well the night before and so after only about 15 minutes of working on it, I had to stop and take a nap! Then I worked on it some more before I had to run an errand to the store and then pick up Seth from school.

Wednesday the 20th: Originally I was planning to work on that Christmas project that I'm still trying to get done, but then the compassionate service leader asked me if I could help a sister in the ward get to an appointment (she doesn't have a car). Originally, I was just dropping her off, but it morphed into me watching her two babies while she was at the appointment and then that hour-at-the-most appointment turned into an hour and a half. So there went any chance of working on that project that morning! Besides that, I was almost late for the religion class. I wasn't too thrilled about it but oh well. It was kind of funny, though, because when I dropped her off she suggested that I could just go for a drive if I wanted, rather than take her kids back to my house. (This is when we thought her appointment would be an hour, tops.) She said the kids would fall asleep if I did that. And since my house is not very baby proof and I don't have any baby toys at my house either (the ones I saved are in the storage unit), I decided a drive would be a good idea. So where to go? I remembered that every time I drive to Walkersville for any reason, I always see a sign for a place called Taneytown, which is only about 15 miles north, but in the almost 20 years I've lived here, I've never been there. I doubted there was anything exciting to see there, but it just always kind of bugged me that it was so nearby and yet I've never been there. Every time I pass that sign, I think "I should just drive up there someday." But of course I'm always busy. So here was my perfect opportunity--I needed to drive somewhere, so why not Taneytown? So that's what I did. (Besides that, I knew it would be a pretty drive through the countryside.) I was right--there wasn't anything particularly exciting about Taneytown. It's just a cute little Maryland farming town, like many others I've been to. But at least now I can drive by that sign and not wonder! Besides that, the babies did fall asleep, so they were no trouble at all. After that adventure, I went to the religion class and did the weekly grocery shopping before I needed to pick Seth up from school. Meanwhile, my friend that I had helped on Monday emailed me and asked if I could help her get some prints made of some photos of her dad (for a display for the funeral, which is tomorrow) so I spent the evening doing that, along with getting some prints ordered that I've been meaning to order for myself and it also morphed into ordering our Christmas cards. I'm glad to have all that done, though. Frank and I also went to the stake center that evening to get the second half of our temple recommend interviews, so we both have shiny new recommends now.

Thursday the 21st: Snickers went to the groomer and he looks so nice now! I got all the regular chores done, picked up the prints and Christmas cards that I ordered on Wednesday, and spent a little bit of time practicing machine quilting. I want to learn how to machine quilt, so I can make quilts faster. (I enjoyed hand quilting and I will probably still do that sometimes, but it took forever!!) I had to buy a few supplies (like a walking foot for my sewing machine) and I've been getting tips from friends who know how to do it, reading directions, and watching YouTube videos to try to learn how to do it. By this week I felt like I'd finally gathered enough information to give it a try. So I used some of the leftover fabric squares from my two quilting projects to do some practicing and my first attempt turned out quite well. So there's hope I might actually be able to make a real quilt someday and have it turn out looking nice! The evening was busy because I had activity days and a song practice (this practice was for the funeral song). The two events overlapped, so I just went to the beginning of activity days and then went to the practice. They had 2 leaders there besides me, so it was okay for me to leave. (There are 3 leaders right now but there are 11 girls and 6 more coming in next year and none leaving! So they are actually probably going to call a fourth leader and then split the group into two groups.) Seth was supposed to be at YM at the same time I had those two things, but around dinner time he started complaining of a headache and said he didn't feel very well. So he stayed home, and it's a good thing because shortly after I got home he threw up. And unfortunately, he was sitting in the kitchen at the time and didn't run to the bathroom (or even the kitchen trash can or sink) but instead threw up all over the floor. Ugh!! At least the kitchen floor is tile--that made clean up a lot easier, although it still wasn't fun.

Friday the 22nd: Our heater has been acting up lately and on Thursday it wasn't coming on properly so Frank called a repairman, who came this morning. Frank stayed home and did some work from home so that he could talk to the repairman. I was trying to mentally prepare for the fact that we might have to replace the whole system, because our heater is 26 years old. The repairman determined that the control panel wasn't working so he said they would check into getting a new one and call us to let us know how much. It turns out that our heater is so old that they can't get that part anymore. They could get a different control panel, which costs $600, but can't guarantee that it will work. So it was looking like we really would have to get a new heater but then resourceful Frank decided to look on eBay and he found the exact part we need (used, not new) for only $100. So he ordered it, and we'll see if it works. In the meantime, we are leaving the heater off unless it gets really cold. Fortunately, it hasn't been terribly cold here (highs in the 50s) so we haven't needed it to be on much. By the time the repairman left, Frank wasn't feeling very well so he decided to take a sick day. Seth slept well last night but he did throw up a few times this morning. By early afternoon he was starting to feel a lot better, though, and he's been able to start eating normal food again (and he's bouncing off the walls). I spent most of the day working on the budget and I also got my hair cut. I tried to pay a medical bill using the flex card and it was denied again, so I'm super annoyed / frustrated by that! It was supposed to be working now! So I tried to call the lady at Frank's work, but I had to leave a message. Hopefully I will hear from her soon. Frank spent quite a bit of time on the phone trying to clear up the problem with his CPAP payment too, but I do think he finally made some headway there and I think when I am able to talk to the lady at his work, we'll be able to get that cleared up at least. But I'm kind of losing faith that the flex card is ever going to work.

Other than that, I've been reading my book for book chat and I have less than 100 pages left. I'm hoping to finish in the next day or two because one of my friends is waiting to get the book from me when I'm done. I exercised every day this week and while I've been running, I've been watching a documentary about WWII which has been really interesting. The episode about the Battle of Midway was particularly fascinating. Frank is usually eating his breakfast and getting ready to leave for work when I'm running; I've noticed he's been getting interested in this documentary too, and often sits down to watch some of it with me before he leaves for work. And I've been telling Seth different stories / interesting facts from it too and he has really liked that.

So that was our pretty busy week. I forgot to take pictures this week, so I guess this one will just have to be boring words.