Weekly Review July 31 '20

Well, let's see...what did we do this week that is worth talking about? 

Last Saturday (the 25th) was really busy. We weeded in both the front and back yards, mowed the lawns, and power washed the house, shed, and deck. Oh, and as part of the weeding I dug up all the iris plants I had in the front and back yards because I decided they are just too big for the yard. (Much as I love them.) Temperatures were in the 90s and the humidity was high too, so it wasn't a great day to be working outside but we really needed to get those things done. We borrowed a power washer from one of Frank's clients. It was a lot of work and wore us out but we managed to get everything done and the house and yards look much better. The back of the house unavoidably gets coated in mildew because of the moisture from the river, so it's nice to have it looking clean again. I did most of the weeding (with a little help from Seth), Seth did most of the mowing (with a little help from me) and Frank did most of the power washing (with a little help from me). Here's a few photos I took during the process:

I took this photo from the kitchen window while Frank was on a ladder on the deck cleaning the top part of the house.

Here's the top part of the house when he was half way through...clean part on the left and dirty part on the right. Can you see the line? The top part of the house actually wasn't as dirty as the part under the deck, but I didn't take any pictures of that. 

Besides the yard work, I also cleaned the kitchen & living room floors (they both got a lot of grass / water / dirt tracked across them during the power washing), so I did a lot of manual labor and I was pretty tired and sore by the end of the day. Frank was sore too but neither of us had any major problems with our backs afterwards, thank goodness. Frank's left knee was also really sore because he slipped on the stairs Saturday morning and got a really deep rug burn on his knee, along with a bruise. It's healing up now. 

On Sunday Frank had an online EQ meeting and Seth had an online Deacon's quorum meeting. I had signed up to take dinner to the missionaries; the sisters serving in our ward were replaced with Elders a few weeks ago. The Elders are in a new apartment and it turns out the new place is in our neighborhood, on an adjoining court. It's close enough to walk from here, so we just walked over. We left the food at the door, knocked, and then backed up several feet so we could talk to them for a few minutes. One of the first things they said was "So you're the Clevelands...aren't you the family that's related to Elder Pew?" He's got quite a reputation in the mission (a good one)! One of the Elders had served in the same zone with him recently. Seth started working on a jigsaw puzzle a few weeks ago...he separated the edge pieces from the middle pieces and made the entire outside frame without any help from us, but then he lost interest for a while so the project stalled. He started working on it again on Sunday, though, and got quite a bit done.

 

Seth got sick Monday evening around dinner time...his usual mysterious head ache / stomach ache illness. He threw up a couple of times and then fell asleep for a little while. By bedtime he was feeling better and kept down ginger ale and then some crackers, and by Tuesday morning he felt fine. I really wish we could figure out what is causing this strange illness! So far, we have not been able to see any kind of pattern in when it happens. Frank had an overnight install on Monday night, as he often does. He didn't get home until 6:00 and he was up again by 9:00 but for once he didn't have to work all day...he was able to stop working by early afternoon.

Tuesday evening I had an online RS meeting where we had "show and tell"...we could share something we've been working on or something we'd created, or something that was made for us. I shared this cross stitch piece that Mom made for me several years ago; Dad made the frame too:

I also shared the cross stitch projects which I've been working on lately but they're gifts that I want to keep secret so I'm not going to share them here right now. I enjoyed seeing several other women in my ward and seeing the projects that they've been working on. 

On Wednesday morning I "attended"  (via Zoom) the funeral for the former member of our ward that I mentioned last week. They held the funeral outdoors, at the cemetery because of COVID-19. There were probably close to 80 people watching through Zoom and the connection was not great so the sound went in and out a lot. It was a bit frustrating; I missed a lot of what was said but I did hear some of it at least. His wife talked about his life and she did a really good job and managed not to get super emotional, which is pretty impressive. She has 5 kids between the ages of 19 and 12 and she is only in her early 40s, so it's pretty tough to lose your husband that young. Thankfully, he left them pretty financially stable I think...he owned his own business building houses and he built their house himself so I think they don't have a mortgage, at least. It's still not going to be easy for them of course. At the end of the funeral, whoever had the camera panned the crowd and there were a LOT of people there, spread all out over the cemetery. Only family and close friends were supposed to attend in person but I think a lot of other people went anyway. I'm sure it was nice for his family to receive all that support, though. 

Wednesday afternoon Seth had a televisit with his counselor and that evening he watched the church's youth music festival online. He seemed to really enjoy it. We worked on the puzzle quite a bit that day and I spent a couple of hours in the evening working on it and made lots of progress:

At the beginning of the broadcast

Seth watching the broadcast

At bedtime.

I can't think of anything significant to say about yesterday...Seth didn't have a Deacon's activity because they counted the music festival as their activity for the week. Oh, we did finish the puzzle yesterday morning too:

 I haven't been sleeping as well lately so I've been waking up a lot later in the mornings (a lot later for me is around 8:00) and getting a late start a lot of days. By the time I get all my work done and get showered, it's early afternoon.  My back was hurting and I had a sore throat on Tuesday and Wednesday so I didn't exercise those days but I was feeling better yesterday so I exercised yesterday and today. In my free time, I've been working on the cross stitch projects (I finished the cross stitch part on Wednesday) and reading a book about the White House. I also did some organizing of photo files and started working on a project for Christmas. I guess that's not too bad, although overall I feel like I'm being pretty lazy and not getting much done. I have not been watching as much on hulu, although I did watch Sleepless in Seattle on Netflix last night.

This morning I went to the library to get some books I put on hold (they still just have curbside pickup; the library isn't open yet). One book is for book chat (Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine) and the other 3 books are books about ADHD. I want to read up on that a bit to understand it better and to get some ideas of things that will be helpful for Seth. (The books I chose are mostly geared for parents with kids who have ADHD.) Overall, Seth has been doing pretty well but then he also hasn't had much social interaction lately! But just in his interactions with us, I feel like he gets less angry / frustrated / anxious lately. I'm sure part of that is because we have so few obligations right now that we don't have many things we have to do or places that we need to go. I have also begun to realize that the medication he takes may be the source of a lot of his angry outbursts (or the transition time when the medicine is wearing off each day) because he really hasn't had any of those lately. (He has very rarely needed to take his medicine since school got out.) 

On Wednesday our local school district announced that school for the first semester of the school year will be in full virtual format. There are two semesters in the school year and the first one ends in the middle of January. So Seth will not be going in to school until at least then. I anticipate that it's going to be very different from the experience we had last spring, though. They are supposed to be putting in 30 hours per week (6 hours a day) and last spring he usually had 2-4 hours of work per day. I don't think it's going to be a picnic! Hopefully we'll get through it without too many meltdowns. At any rate, I'm glad that at least now we know what to expect up through January...makes it easier to plan things. 

That's everything I have to report for this week.

Weekly Review July 24 '20

This was another quiet week, so I don't have a lot to report (again). It's been really hot and humid around here for days on end, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. One good thing is that we have had a little bit of rain--just brief thunderstorms rolling through a couple of times, but that's better than nothing. We're supposed to get some storms today too. We've had very little rain for several weeks and our grass is looking a little yellow, so a little bit of rain is good news.

When I wrote last week, I was feeling sore after helping with some cleaning and I was worried about my back. Thankfully, I didn't have any trouble with my back although the muscles in my thighs were really sore for a couple of days. It really hurt to go down stairs! I must have done a lot more squatting / crouching than normal. However, they were just normal sore muscles and healed quickly and I was really relieved that my back, shoulders and neck were okay.

On Sunday this week we had Sunday School for the adults and Seth had Bishop's Youth Council meeting (both online, of course). There was also an online stake priesthood meeting in the evening. Seth's Sunday school teacher didn't have an online class this week but he did send out a question for them to answer in an online format so that they could share their answers with each other. We found out that we are, for sure, starting to have Sacrament Meeting in August. Our ward will get to meet on August 2nd and again on August 30th. The format will be as I mentioned before--only 25 people so they'll have multiple meetings to accommodate the number of people who want to attend. We had to sign up this week to let them know we wanted to come, then they will decide how to split things up to ensure they have only 25 people per meeting and that they have enough priesthood holders to administer and pass the sacrament. The meetings will be short--only about 40 minutes--because we have to do cleaning in between meetings. I also hear that we won't be singing hymns...just listening to music instead. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. At any rate, we're glad we'll be able to see a few people from our ward and we're grateful that we are starting to work our way back to "normal" (even though I don't know if we'll ever get back to things the way they were).

Tanner had a bit of an adventure on Monday...he and Darlee found a stray female puppy outside their apartment and as he was playing with it, the puppy bit him. He called me because he wanted to know if he had ever had a rabies vaccine (no, because they don't give anyone that vaccine unless they've been exposed). The bite was a playful bite, not an aggressive one, but we still felt concerned since we have no idea where that puppy has been. On Tuesday, though, Darlee's mom took the puppy into a vet to find out if she had a chip (that would help them identify the owner) and while she was there they had the puppy tested for rabies too. She came out all clear, so that was a relief and Tanner won't have to get the vaccine. The puppy didn't have a chip, though, so they are still trying to locate the owner. If they don't find an owner in the next week, they have a friend who will keep the puppy. The vet identified her as a 6 week old Great Dane. Both Tanner and Darlee sound like they are VERY attached to her, but they are wise enough to know that this is not the right time in their lives to get a dog (especially a Great Dane!) I think they are going to be very sad when they have to give her up, though.

I met my friend Rebekah at the park on Tuesday and we talked for a few hours--still sitting far apart in the pavilion at the park. I always enjoy talking with her. It was a hot & humid day, though, so even in the shade it got pretty uncomfortable. On Tuesday evening I had book chat and we met together in person for the first time since February. Instead of sitting together at a table eating snacks while we discussed the book, we sat in a larger room, spread out 6 feet apart, wearing masks. We did have snacks...each of us got a little sack "lunch" with snacks in it. We only removed our masks briefly if we wanted to eat something. (I brought most of my snacks home, rather than eat them there.) It was super nice to meet in person again, though! Now we are going to read a book called Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I requested the book from the library, but haven't gotten it yet.

On Wednesday I got my hair done. I'm going to the same salon (company) but at a different location because the lady who was cutting my hair before the pandemic broke out has retired now and in the meantime a lady in my ward started working at this salon, but at a different location. Since I was going to have to find a new stylist anyway, I just decided to go with someone I know. The new location is only slightly farther away than the one I was going to, so it's no big deal to go there instead. I was glad to get my hair done and wearing a mask the whole time wasn't as irksome as I thought it would be.

Last night Seth had an online Deacon's activity where they each came up with a 5 question quiz about a different topic. Seth did his questions about the Chronicles of Narnia. I think he had fun; I was sitting next to him the whole time but I was watching a movie on my laptop so I didn't pay very close attention to what he was doing / saying.

Other than that, the week was pretty quiet and I mostly worked on a cross stitch project or read in my spare time. While I was cross stitching, I watched a few shows on hulu and I also watched all the Twilight movies, which are on Amazon Prime. Not my favorite series, but they are somewhat entertaining!

A former member of our ward passed away this week and we've been sad about that. He was only in his early (maybe mid?) 40s, so way too young to die. He's been battling cancer off and on for several years, though, and particularly the last 3 years. He had melanoma skin cancer and had one tumor removed several (10+) years ago then another tumor removed a few years after that. He was well for quite a few years after that, but then the cancer came back 3 years ago and he had to have a couple more tumors removed. It's been really up and down since then although he was doing well for a while and his treatment seemed to be working and he was tumor-free up until this spring, when they discovered some tumors on his liver. He had started treatments again but on Monday when he went in for his treatment he was feeling weak and looked yellow so they did blood work and discovered that the tumors had taken over and his liver had stopped functioning. They gave him about 2 weeks to live, but he passed away Wednesday evening, so he only made it 2 more days. We heard the update on his condition on Monday, so we knew his time was short but I was still kind of shocked when I checked my email shortly before going to sleep Wednesday evening and got an email that he had passed away a few hours before. He and his wife moved into our ward shortly after we moved here, and they were newlyweds at the time. They had all five of their children while living in our ward, then they built a house that was in another ward's boundaries so they haven't been in our ward for probably about 9 years but they are still in our stake. (He's a builder so he built their house himself. He built several houses and he also did lots of home repairs / renovations. He is actually the guy who put in our kitchen, bathroom, and living room floors back in 2012.) They were Jared's nursery leaders when they first moved into the ward, and later he was in one of our bishoprics. I actually worked with him quite a bit then, because I was the Primary president and he was the counselor assigned to work with the Primary. Frank also worked with him in a YM presidency and his wife was my visiting teacher for years, including during the time when Seth was born so she has done a LOT of service for me. It's really heartbreaking to see him go, although we are all glad that he is not suffering anymore. He and his wife both grew up in this area and both sets of their parents live in our stake, as well as several of their siblings and their families. I'm glad they have so much family support nearby since COVID-19 restrictions prevent most of us from doing many of the kinds of things to help them that we would normally do.

Frank has been really busy this week, as usual, although maybe not quite as busy as last week? (Pretty close, though.) He worked most of the day on Saturday although he was able to be home by 5:00 pm instead of 7:00! He did an overnight install on Monday night and was up again by 7:00 on Tuesday morning and worked all day. I've decided that I just need to be okay with that. It's actually been making me really agitated to see him working so much with barely any sleep; I worry about his health. Sometime in the last week I just realized that I can't do anything about it and it's kind of useless to get upset about it. I prayed about it and just felt like I need to let it go and focus on the positives (he has a job, for one thing!). I've felt better since then. Don't get me wrong...I still don't like it and I feel compassion for what he's going through, but I don't feel the high level of frustration / worry mounting to anger that I was feeling before. He has had some time to relax some evenings, and he has been playing video games with Seth and I like seeing them spend time together.

Seth has continued to have moments of boredom and therefore has been "in my face" a bit more than I would like, but this week was better than last week.

I guess I ended up writing more than I anticipated, but this is really the end. Sorry for the lack of photos...I didn't take any this week.

Weekly Review July 17 '20

This week was quieter; I don't think I'll have a lot to write about.

I was quite busy on Saturday doing the regular stuff (like lawn mowing and cleaning the kitchen floor; Seth helped with the lawn) plus I made a big long list of all the little things and the projects that I need or want to get done at some point. I feel like I've had a lot of things floating around in the back of my mind that I need to do something about so making a list helped get all those things off my mind, and now I have a list of things to go to when I have free time--I can pick something from the list and work on it.

On Sunday I had an online RS meeting and I was asked to share a few thoughts about Elder Bednar's last General Conference talk (about the temple). When I was reading the talk earlier in the week, it really resonated with me--I feel like I've definitely experienced being "changed from the inside out" by temple covenants. I found myself wishing that I could share some of those thoughts with others, so it was really cool that a few days later the RS president sent me an email and asked me to do that! I was really grateful for the chance to testify of the power of temple covenants. Seth had an online Deacon's Quorum meeting on Sunday too.

The rest of the week has been mostly routine but I don't feel like I got much accomplished, for some reason. I have mostly been working on a cross stitch project in my spare time.

One of our neighbors went out of town and asked us to take care of their cats while they were gone. We let the cats out every night and in every morning and made sure they had food and water. It was kind of an adventure, though, since cats are psycho! :)

Seth gets 2 hours of screen time on weekdays (he gets more time on Fridays and Saturdays) but last week we kept getting in battles because he would "want to finish his level" (in the video game he was playing) and he would end up playing a lot of extra time because I would get distracted and forget to make him stop. So this week I made a new rule that he couldn't play video games until the weekend. (He could still watch television, or a movie, or do something on the computer for his 2 hours). He didn't like it, but he did a lot better adhering to his 2 hour limit. He was bored, though, and hung around me a lot which kind of drove me crazy! Plus if he wanted to do something on his computer I would have to sit next to him (he's not allowed on the internet without one of us sitting nearby) so that sometimes interfered with the things I wanted to do. But overall, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it means he's on screens for less time.

Seth had a short online presidency meeting on Tuesday evening so they could make plans for their Thursday activity. One of the boys is having  birthday tomorrow so they wanted to do something to celebrate. They got him a small gift and they met at his house and took him to play tennis, because that's one of the things he likes to do. The moms of the other 2 boys came too so we enjoyed visiting while the boys had their activity. At the end they had cupcakes and donuts.

Seth had a dentist appointment on Monday afternoon...his 6 month check up, which was supposed to take place in February but he was sick so I rescheduled his appointment for March but then everything shut down the week before his appointment. We had to wear masks, of course, and we had to slather our hands with hand sanitizer and have our temperatures taken and our oxygen intake checked before we could go into the dentist's office. My first oxygen intake reading didn't come out so well, but the lady adjusted the monitor on my finger a bit and tried again and the second time it was fine.

On Monday I also made an appointment for Seth to get braces on his upper teeth (that was supposed to happen in April but the orthodontist shut down too) and I made a few more appointments and did errands like returning a book to the library and returning a skirt that I bought online (which didn't fit right).  Seth's appointment to get braces is in early September now and he STILL has some teeth that need to come out (they've been loose for ages) so I hope they come out before then.

Remember that last week I helped with a move for a sister in my ward? This week she needed some help cleaning her old place so that's how I spent my morning. Four other sisters from my ward came to help also, so we got a lot done, working together, and in a little over 2 hours we had the whole place cleaned up. I feel kind of sore now, so I hope I didn't over-do it. (My back has been doing better than last week but my neck has been somewhat stiff and sore still, although the last day or two it has improved. Hopefully I didn't sabotage myself by doing that cleaning.)

Frank has had a super busy week, as usual, and I really haven't seen him much. He did an over night install on Monday night and yesterday he had an install at a new store that's opening soon so they were able to do it during the day time. For some reason that install took much, much longer than it should have, though, and he didn't get home until after 7:00 last night. he has another install for another new store tomorrow morning so I expect I won't see him tomorrow much either. (Both stores are in Pennsylvania, so there's travel time involved too.) Besides that, he made a couple of emergency trips to a store in Gaithersburg one day and today he's been dealing with a couple more emergencies. He intended to take today off, since he'll be working tomorrow, but as usual--that isn't working out. He did get a raise this week, though. He was supposed to get one back in March, right around the time the world went crazy. Then he was told that no one was getting a raise this year because of the huge financial hit his company took. So we weren't expecting anything, and it's nice that they made the effort! It's a really small raise, and certainly not what he deserves considering how hard he's been working but still...it's better than nothing and we are grateful for it. I'm glad that they recognize how hard he works and that they are trying to reward him for it, even though they can't do as much as they'd like to do for him.

The local school district had a meeting for parents this week to discuss the options they are considering for opening schools in the fall. There are still a whole lot of unknowns, though, so we still don't know what to expect when school starts. I think it's likely we will begin with all distance learning, then possibly shift to going to school two days a week and doing distance learning two days (with one group going to school on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other group going to school on Thursdays and Fridays) and everybody gets Wednesday off. Then later they may go back to everyone going to school 5 days a week. However, parents will also be able to choose to stick with total distance learning if they aren't comfortable sending their child to school. It's going to be interesting to see how it all works out and I'd really like to know more specifics (so would the teachers!!) but I guess we're all going to have to be patient for a while longer.

We also heard this week that we may start having Sacrament Meeting once a month, starting in August. But only groups of 25 people are allowed, so they will have multiple meetings to accommodate the number of people who want to come. We're still waiting to hear all the details on that too.

That's everything that we've been doing around here, so I will sign off until next week.

Weekly Review July 10 '20

We had a fair amount of things going on this week so I actually have a few things to write about!

When I wrote last week, Seth had been sick but was getting better. He's been fine since and thankfully Frank and I have been well too...we didn't get whatever he had. I have had a few headaches and my throat has been slightly sore at times...I suspect that's allergies, though.

Saturday was the 4th of July, of course, and it was pretty quiet for us but that's okay. No parades, no patriotic breakfast, no fireworks. Seth & Frank played games together for a few hours while I read and enjoyed quiet time. We did hang up our American flag, had a traditional American dinner, and we set off a few small fireworks of our own since the city of Frederick cancelled all their 4th of July festivities.

A lot of people got their own fireworks this year and we could hear a lot of others going off (and saw a few illegal ones too) while we were setting ours off (although no one else in our part of the court set any off). Some of our neighbors came out and watched ours. Frank set off most of them, but his finger was hurting so I did some of them. I've never done that before and don't like getting anywhere near fireworks but I managed to do it without blowing myself (or anyone else) up. We heard lots of fireworks going off, even late into the night. (Actually, we heard a lot of fireworks the night before and the night after the 4th as well). We are grateful to live here and love America...even with all the crazy stuff going on lately, we still have it better living here than anywhere else!

What always follows Independence Day? Yep, my birthday of course. It was kind of quiet since it was a Sunday this year but it was really nice. Our ward had an online testimony meeting in the morning. After that I opened presents and got thoroughly spoiled--I can't believe how many presents Frank got me! They won't even all fit in one picture. 

Shoes

Boots

No, that's not a real diamond! But my real wedding ring doesn't fit right anymore so he got me this set so at least I look married. :)

Jelly beans, paperdolls (yep, I'll never grow up), 2 scarves, a nerdy historical book about the Apollo program, and a Newbery book.

A game

And a rotary cutter

Besides that, I got a ton of lovely text messages and Facebook good wishes from friends and my older boys called me AND I got a nap!! So it was pretty much a perfect day. Later on we had a yummy ham dinner and even later we had blueberry cheesecake:

So all in all, birthday #52 was pretty great!

On Monday one of the sisters I minister to was moving so I spent most of the morning and early afternoon helping her. A few other women helped too and we managed to get nearly all of her smaller stuff moved over to her new place (which is a super cute little old house) so I felt like we accomplished a lot. The men in the ward went over last night to move all her furniture / bigger stuff. It was a really hot day so after doing that I was pretty tired. I still had to get some groceries, though, so I did that...Frank went with me. He worked from home on Monday and he and Seth kept the laundry moving while I was gone so all I had to do was fold it. We had family night activity and treat that night before Frank had to go to work for another overnight install. (We did the lesson part of family night on Sunday.)

On Tuesday I met several friends from my ward at a park and we ate lunch and visited (still keeping somewhat far apart). That was really fun! Frank had a follow up visit to see how his finger is healing and thankfully it is healing great!! (That doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt though...it does!) He can straighten out his finger now if he wants to and he graduated from the splint to this:

It's much easier to get on and off (fastens with Velcro) so that is making his life much easier. My older boys sent me this great birthday gift, which arrived that day:

On Tuesday evening we did a video chat with the missionaries in our ward who are new, and they are Sisters now instead of Elders. It was nice to get to know them! Then Frank went to bed because he only had about 2 hours of sleep Monday night. My lower back was twinging quite a bit that evening which had me worried but it wasn't any worse on Wednesday.

I had my annual well woman exam / mammogram on Wednesday, which should have happened in April but they weren't seeing anybody in April except for emergencies / health concerns. That all went fine, but while I was waiting to be seen I noticed a spot in my upper back, near my shoulder, was starting to hurt. After the doctor visit, I had shopping to do and then I was thankful to come home and relax because my back / shoulder / neck were really bothering me by then. It felt a lot like it did last fall when I had that really excruciating back / shoulder / neck pain, and I really didn't want to go through that again! So I spent most of the evening lying on a hot pad while reading a book, trying to take it easy in the hopes that it wouldn't get a lot worse.

Thankfully, that seemed to work because it felt quite a bit better on Thursday morning. It's still bothering me (maybe a bit more today than yesterday) but it didn't get worse and even improved so I'm grateful for that. I tried to take it easy yesterday, too. Seth helped me get some vacuuming done as well as the laundry but I didn't do much other than that. I read a lot, and finished the book for book chat (The Giver of Stars). It was an interesting book...a bit rough in some places, but overall I liked it. Actually, it was funny how many similarities it had to the last book we read, although I liked this one better. I didn't love either book, but this one was pretty good. There was an online Primary activity yesterday afternoon which only a few children attended but I got to see one of my girls and it was fun. Seth's activity for Deacons got cancelled because both of the leaders couldn't come. There was only one other boy in town or able to come besides Seth anyway, so that was probably for the best.

Yesterday morning I heard chain saws and looked out to discover that our next door neighbor was having the trees in her backyard cut down. They were pretty Japanese maples, so it was kind of sad to see them go but they had definitely gotten too big for her tiny yard and one of them has been encroaching on our property for years and creating so much shade in our yard that our garden and some of our grass wouldn't grow. So overall, I was glad to see that tree go even though I'm always sad to see trees get cut down. (You just really shouldn't plant trees in tiny townhouse lots!) She also had a large bush cut down which was also growing into our yard and making it difficult to mow the lawn so I am happy about that too. I'm pretty sure she is going to have a fence put up...that's probably why she's having the trees and bushes cut down near the property line. Anyway, it looks really different and we have a clearer view of the hill behind our house now.

I noticed when we went outside to watch fireflies last night that we could see a lot more. It was definitely a nice night for fireflies! They'll probably only be here for about another week, so we're enjoying them while they last.

Today I haven't gotten much done yet besides this post and reading scriptures. I'm feeling kind of achy and I'm still trying to take it easy a bit because of my back / shoulder / neck, and I haven't exercised since Tuesday but hopefully I'll be able to start doing that again on Monday.

That's all we've been up to this week!

Weekly Review July 3 '20

This week was back to being mostly quiet, but I think I'll have a few things to talk about.

On Saturday evening (June 27th) Jared & Jessie came over for dinner and we played a card game afterwards. It was fun having them here to visit. They came over on Sunday the 28th for dinner as well. We played Amazing Labyrinth and I got really crabby because Dad & I were really close to winning but Jared kept blocking us so eventually Seth won instead. Sometimes I get too competitive! :) On Sunday we also had an online Sunday School class for the adults, Seth had an online Deacon's Quorum meeting, and that evening there was an online stake youth fireside. Seth listened to some of it, but he got bored and didn't listen to the whole thing. They had two members who are medical professionals & who went to NYC to help during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic share their experiences. The first guy was a much more dynamic speaker than the second one, so Seth lost interest during the 2nd speaker's part. They did share some pretty amazing experiences; mostly missionary opportunities that they had.

Jared & Jessie had to return to Utah on Monday the 29th, and I gave them a ride to the airport. It was nice to have that little bit of extra time to visit with them! Other than that, Monday was a pretty normal day except I also went to the library to pick up a book I had on hold...the book we're reading for book chat this month, which is called The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. The library is not open yet, but they do have curbside pick up now. Frank had an overnight install on Monday night, so we did family night mostly on Sunday and just had treat right after dinner on Monday, before he had to leave. There was a big issue that came up with the overnight install (not his fault at all) so he ended up not getting home until 9 or 10 am on Tuesday. I figured out that by the time he got home Tuesday morning, he had already worked 24 hours this week! He got a few hours of sleep before needing to go to a meeting--at least he could do that over the phone; he didn't have to drive to the office. Meanwhile, Tuesday was a pretty average day for Seth and me. I got all the bathrooms cleaned first thing, before Frank got home from work, because I knew it would be difficult to get that done when he was trying to sleep.

On Wednesday the 1st, I met my friend Rebekah at the park so we could visit for a few hours. Seth had a televisit with his counselor that afternoon. I finally got around to cleaning the stove (been meaning to do that for weeks). Other than that, it was a normal day. Seth and I watched the movie The Princess Bride that evening, and Seth loved it. (I knew he would, which is why I talked him into watching it.)

Frank decided that he would be on call on Thursday but that he wouldn't work unless something came up, since by Wednesday evening he had already put in enough hours to equal a full work week. (He put in a full day Wednesday, plus he had to go to one of the restaurants to do some work Wednesday evening as well.) Unfortunately, an emergency came up Thursday morning and he ended up working all day on Thursday too. So much for a day off! Seth was supposed to be helping with a service project Thursday evening and I was going to go help too but then Thursday afternoon Seth began complaining that he didn't feel well--stomach ache and headache--and in the late afternoon he started vomiting, so neither of us helped with the service project after all. Instead, Seth rested and I sewed another mask (I decided I want the kind that has elastic that fits over the ears, rather than the kind that ties behind the head, so I made myself one.) I also worked a bit on a cross stitch project.

Seth woke up feeling a lot better this morning, thankfully. He has been able to keep down soda and crackers and he's a lot perkier. I have a headache now, but fortunately my stomach seems fine. Frank had today off work since tomorrow is the 4th of July. He hasn't done any work for Roy Rogers (in spite of all the emails he says he's been getting all day) but he did end up spending nearly the whole day doing work for one of his clients. This poor guy never really gets a day off! At least he gets paid "extra" when he does work for a client.

That's about everything I have to report this week. Seth and I have been going out on our deck most evenings to enjoy the nightly dance of the fireflies, and one day I went on a short walk and got some pictures of some wildflowers that are growing in the median of the main road that runs past our house. Someone (from the city of Frederick) planted wildflowers around the base of all the lampposts several years ago and they are really pretty every year. I'll finish up with some of those photos.