Weekly Review April 3 '20

Here's the photos I was trying to post last week from one of our walks:

I love that we can walk a few minutes from our house and see these wide open spaces! I suppose someone is going to build something there eventually, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

We had a few more things going on this week than last week, so I have a little bit more to write about. Last Friday night we decided to have a family movie night. We watched Cool Runnings. I've seen that movie a bunch of times, but not recently and it was fun to see Seth's reaction to it, since he hadn't seen it since he was really little and really didn't remember it.

On Sunday our ward had a "virtual meeting". Not sacrament meeting, more like a 5th Sunday meeting. We got updates on the missionaries--both missionaries serving in our ward had to go home because of Coronavirus concerns so we have two new ones. Also, one Elder from our ward serving in the Philippines had just arrived home and a Sister serving in New Zealand was due home soon (she's home now). The other three missionaries, who are serving in the States, are all confined to their apartments. We also had announcements...one of the little boys from my former Primary class just got baptized (they did it in a river!) and a convert baptism is coming up soon. The missionary who had just returned home from the Philippines shared his testimony, the Sunday School president shared some thoughts on the First Vision & the Restoration, and the bishop shared a message of hope and encouragement. It was really nice to feel somewhat connected to our ward again! The screen that came up when we connected to the meeting made me smile (read the small print):

Also on Sunday, we made this puzzle...the whole thing in one day:

Funny story from later in the week...we had moved the puzzle to the coffee table and Seth put "his" laptop down on top of the puzzle and somehow managed to accidentally move the puzzle so that a corner of it was off the table and pieces started to fall onto the floor. I went over to help him salvage the puzzle when all of the sudden Frank started yelling incoherently...neither Seth nor I had noticed that the laptop was starting to fall off the table too! It was too late...the laptop fell, but thankfully it was okay; no damage. Frank was kind of mad at us for not understanding him and saving the laptop, but Seth and I are still laughing about the incoherent noises Frank was making and the expectation that we would somehow be able to translate them into "the laptop is falling! Grab it!!"

Seth started "distance learning" on Monday and so far it's going pretty well.

I have to hand it to his teachers...they have everything so well organized and they really have some good content too. They also have designed some activities to help the kids stay connected and have shown real concern for the kids' emotional well being, not just for their intellectual learning. Seth does most of his work in Google classroom, and I'm really grateful there haven't been technical issues. From all the emails we've received from the school system, I gather that most of the school district is using something called "Schoology" and it has been having a lot of problems because of the sheer number of people trying to use it. We have not had to deal with any of those headaches! I'm also grateful that he's my only child at home (how are moms dealing with having to help multiple children with their school work?!) and that he is in a unique Middle School situation...only about 75 students in the whole middle school and the teachers work together as a team, so we don't have to check in with several different teachers. And I'm thankful that Frank had an extra laptop lying around that he was able to set up for Seth to use so that I'm not sharing my laptop with him. He is able to get most of his work done in 3 - 4 hours most days. I sit next to him while he's working because he's on the internet and we have a rule that he can't be on the internet without one of us supervising him, but I've been able to do things like read my scriptures and catch up on email and so forth while he's working. (As a matter of fact, he's working on today's school work right now.)

We had a spot on the ceiling in our living room that looked like this:

We've been noticing some staining on the ceiling for quite a while (even for years, but the last time we had someone look at it the area was totally dry so they said it was an old leak and painted over it) but the last month or two it's been getting worse--spreading to the wall and some of the plaster on the ceiling started to come off. So we decided we'd better do something about it. (We suspected it had something to do with the toilet in Seth's bathroom, which is right above this spot.) A guy came and looked at it on Tuesday and he cut this hole in the wall to see what was going on:

The joist just below the pipe was damp (although thankfully not rotted or anything). He had Frank go upstairs & flush the toilet, and sure enough...water started leaking. So the next day he came back and removed the toilet, and discovered a broken flange. He replaced the flange and put the toilet back in place. Then he cut a larger hole in the wall because some of the drywall was damp:

And then he put in new drywall and ceiling pieces. The next day he came back and sanded and painted so that it all looks nice again:

You almost can't tell anything happened, except that the ceiling paint is hard to match so it's slightly different. Not bad, though! It's nice to have that fixed although it wasn't nice to have the expense right now.

The weather here has been mostly cloudy, which I admit has been hard on me. Makes things feel more gloomy, as if I weren't feeling that way already! However, yesterday it was sunny and today it is too, which makes me happy. It's been quite windy both days and temperatures in the 50s / 60s, so not incredibly warm but still...I'll take it! Yesterday Frank and I went on a pretty long walk and I appreciated these flowers that we passed:

We've had a couple of other "virtual" gatherings this week. My book chat group met via Skype on Tuesday evening. We had a few technical difficulties, but mostly it worked and it was really fun to see / talk to all of them again, and to discuss our book (North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell). We picked a new book to read, The Enchanted April. The funny part came when we decided to pick our next meeting date. "How about April 21st?" someone said, and everybody else immediately said "Looks good. I don't have anything." We usually have to go back and forth for quite a bit before we find a day that works for everyone, working around travel plans and meetings and ward activity nights! Seth also had a virtual Deacon's Quorum presidency meeting on Tuesday night so they could plan some virtual activities. Then last night they had their first activity. They played chess, as teams, and it seemed like it was a pretty successful activity. They all had chess boards in front of their computers and one team (after conferring privately in a chat) would say "Okay, we're going to move this bishop this many spaces..." and everyone would move that piece on their own board so that they could see how it looked and then decide their next move. I know Seth had fun, anyway. (And in the end, his team won.) 

I'm grateful we have technology that allows us to connect with other people in these creative ways! What would we have done if this pandemic had happened before we had the internet?!!

Frank decided to work each weekday, from about 8:00 to 1:00. He's definitely worked more than that, but he has had some time off...more time off than I expected, anyway. I still don't feel like I've seen him much. He is always really tired by 9:00 pm because he never sleeps well at night. (I'm still having a lot of insomnia, but the last two nights I slept quite well, which was really nice.)

I made some good progress on one of my projects this week. Other than that, I'm just doing the usual chores and I'm still exercising faithfully. Oh, and I mowed the lawn again. I tried doing both the front and the back lawns, but the lawnmower battery died before I could finish the back lawn. So yesterday (after the battery charged for a few days) I finished the back lawn. We've had some rain the past couple of weeks and the lawn is growing really fast.

I'm really looking forward to General Conference this weekend! I haven't been in the best emotional state these last few weeks. I've tried to feel at peace about things, but peace has been rather elusive. It's strange because I feel more anxiety now than I did when Frank was unemployed for 8 months. Why does partial pay for at least 30 days feel so much worse than no pay for an indefinite period of time? I think what is really bothering me is feeling even more helpless than usual--the whole world feels out of control, instead of just our little world. Also, just feeling like the economic impact is going to be very severe and very long term. It's pretty likely this 2 day a week furlough situation is going to extend beyond the next 30 days, and even if it doesn't, I know for his employer things aren't going to immediately be better and go back to normal. It's going to take a long time for them to bounce back. (If they bounce back at all, and don't go under completely). And if Frank did need to find a new job, who would be hiring? So all of those things add to the anxiety level. However, it could always be worse! Frank talked to a former coworker from Marriott this week and she said that 80% of the people at headquarters are on full time furlough for the next 60-90 days, and the other 20% are on reduced hours and pay. So if he hadn't been laid off 2 years ago, we'd definitely be in a more difficult position now. I'm thankful that we're not. And I'm feeling a little better than I was. Just looking forward to being spiritually uplifted this weekend!

To finish up, here's a few photos I took from the deck this morning. We are so spoiled to have such a beautiful view!