This week has been our last week of summer vacation...school starts on Monday. Sort of. It's all virtual. For now, anyway. More on that later!
Last Saturday (the 22nd) started early because a car alarm in our neighborhood started going off at about 5:30 am, and it kept going off every 5 - 15 minutes for the next couple of hours. I never went back to sleep. Finally Frank got up and went outside and got the license plate number and called the police, who said they'd figure out who the owner was and knock on their door and tell them to take care of the problem. (We don't have any idea who the car belongs to, but this was the 3rd or 4th time this has happened over the last few months, although all the other times it only went off once or twice.) It hasn't happened since then, thankfully. Meanwhile, Seth had a hike with his Deacon's Quorum that morning so after we dropped him off at the church, we came home and took a nap! Seth seemed to have fun on his hike...they went to a place called Sugarloaf Mountain, which is a place that we have hiked before and it's really nice. I can't remember what else we did on Saturday, so it was probably just the usual things like cleaning the kitchen floor. Oh, except that evening I was feeling cooped up and decided to go on a walk and Frank came with me. We saw a little bunny:
On Sunday the 23rd Frank had an EQ meeting and Seth had a Deacon's Quorum Meeting but I didn't have anything besides our short family sacrament service. I did a lot of personal history stuff. That afternoon we had a brief strong thunderstorm and then a rainbow appeared, which was nice:
Actually, it's a double rainbow, if you look closely. The rest of the week was mostly the usual stuff with a few extra things added in, especially to prepare for school starting next week. On Tuesday evening there was an online RS activity where we discussed things we do to keep educating ourselves, even though most of us are not involved in any formal education. It was fun and some good ideas were discussed.
I visited online with one of my ministering sisters on Wednesday afternoon (always enjoy talking to her!) and I had book club on Wednesday evening. It was cool enough that we could meet outside. I enjoyed book club a lot, as usual, and we ended up talking until nearly 10 pm. (Not just about the book; we always diverge onto other things at the end. This time we were mostly talking about school and all our concerns about how it is going to work.) This month we are going to read The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I actually have never read although I saw a movie version a long time ago. I can't remember anything about it except that I really liked the movie! So I think I will enjoy the book a lot. I hope so, anyway.
On Monday I bought school supplies for Seth (we finally got a list from the teachers at his school). I couldn't find everything I was looking for so I looked at one other store and then decided to go online to order the elusive items. It was still challenging to find watercolors (!) and pastels, even on Amazon. Apparently everyone in the world is buying those things right now. I actually didn't have to get a lot of the things on the list because we already have them at home but I still ended up spending over $100 on school supplies because I had to get more art supplies than usual and some things for PE and for music that the school normally provides. Plus I decided that I didn't want Seth's school stuff taking over the whole house so I bought some containers to put stuff in. (Containers were also very hard to find...it was pretty slim pickings at the store and what was left cost more than I usually would spend.) All the supplies I ordered got here within a few days, so we are ready to go now, I think. This is Seth's bin for "specials" (art, music, PE):
I attended two online parent orientations for Seth's school this week. One was on Wednesday afternoon and the other one was on Thursday morning. The first one was with the Middle School teachers and the second one was with the specials teachers. They both had some good information, although I still think things are going to be a mess at first. (I don't blame the teachers...they are doing their best in a crazy situation!) Overall, I don't love how they are doing things because I think we're going to have all of the disadvantages of having kids at home without any of the flexibility that we had last spring. They are expected to put in 5 solid hours of work per day. They are actually going to have a set schedule (although they don't know exactly what the schedule is yet, because I asked!) with a "homeroom" meeting and some instruction online starting at 9:00 am every morning, some time to work independently (not online), a break at noon for lunch and "recess", and then he'll have to log in sometime in the afternoon for specials. So basically it's like he's at school all day except he's at home and I have to make sure he's logging in at the correct times. Ugh!! I'm glad they will have some actual instruction from the teachers (they didn't have that in the spring) and I don't have to supervise him much but I am going to be stuck at home mostly all day because I'm not comfortable leaving my 13 year old son home alone with full access to the internet (go figure). (As a matter of fact, he has a laptop but it is password protected and he does not know the password...I have to log him in. And I'm not planning to change that procedure anytime soon.) I asked them what would be the best time to schedule outside appointments (like the orthodontist)...is he going to be "in school" from 9:00 am to 3:45 pm every day, as he would be if they were actually going to school? The response I got was "we don't know yet". Well, hopefully they will figure all that out soon. Seth was scheduled to have braces put on next Wednesday afternoon, but after those meetings I called and rescheduled him for late October. I think next week is going to be crazy enough without throwing that in...we need to get through these first couple of weeks. With my luck, there would be something really important that he needs to log in for at the exact same time as his appointment! (And yes, I know he can miss school sometimes, but Seth freaks out about missing school at all so it's better for his mental health and saves me a load of trouble if I can avoid scheduling anything during school hours.) I need to schedule an appointment with his therapist too as soon as I know what the new schedule is. He was supposed to have an appointment this week, but the therapist had to reschedule. Oh, and he's due for a medicine check up with his doctor too. All that is going to have to wait until I have a better idea what is going on with school. So fun! I was also a bit annoyed when the art, music, and PE teachers mentioned during orientation that we don't necessarily have to get everything they put on their supply lists. "It's a lot of stuff, so just do the best you can. I don't expect you to get everything." That would have been nice to know before I bought everything on the list!! But as I said, I'm sympathetic to how difficult this must be for the teachers. They've been thrown into a pretty difficult situation.
Speaking of that, this morning when I looked at the local news headlines, I was flabbergasted to discover that the governor of Maryland announced yesterday that the Covid-19 metrics for the state are looking really good and it should be safe to reopen schools. And he encouraged school districts to open the schools as soon as possible! What?? Four days before school starts, he's suggesting that they switch gears and go to in-person instruction when they have all been working their tails off for the last few weeks trying to get ready for a totally virtual environment? (They didn't find out until late July that they were going to have to go all virtual.) Don't get me wrong...I'm glad things are looking better and I am eager for Seth to return to school in person...it's the fact that the information keeps changing constantly and the school systems are being told to adapt at the last minute that I disagree with. Most of the school districts responded with an answer that was basically "Forget you. We can't change at this point.", and I can't say I blame them. What a mess! But maybe this means Seth will be going back to school in early February...or even sooner. We'll see what happens.
Last night we took Seth to Cracker Barrel for dinner as an "end of summer" treat. My food was on such a pretty plate that I had to take a photo:
Other than that, though, it wasn't Cracker Barrel's best night. We had to wait nearly 45 minutes for our food and some of it wasn't very warm. We also ordered a "dirt cup" for Seth for dessert and asked to take it to go. While we were waiting for that to come, Frank went to pay our check. Our waiter showed up with the dessert, hurriedly dropping it off as he went by and not waiting to see if we needed anything else. The cup was only about 1/3 full, had no lid, and he didn't give us a plastic spoon either. But he was already gone...helping someone else. I actually felt kind of bad for him...I think he was new and he looked super stressed and busy all night (although there weren't a ton of customers there, so I'm not sure why). Anyway, we went out to the store in front to find Frank and showed him the cup, and he took it to the lady who had just helped him with our check and asked "Is this what the dirt cup is supposed to look like?" She said "Absolutely not" and she got Seth a new cup that was properly filled and had a lid and a spoon. I'm glad Frank is not afraid to be assertive about things like that because I am a wimp and avoid confrontation of any kind!
In between all of that stuff, I've been working on a personal history post about Christmas (which is going to take forever...don't expect to see it anytime soon...I'm still gathering information) and also trying to get the things I need to begin a few more projects. I want to try crocheting some hats, but a trip to JoAnn's did not yield the kind of yarn I wanted so I ended up ordering some online and it just arrived last night. I have also decided to try building that dollhouse that I got several years ago. I figured now is probably the best chance I'll ever have to do that...we have an empty guest room and I don't anticipate that anyone is going to come visit anytime soon with all the Covid stuff going on and I definitely have more free time right now too. (Not sure how that's going to change next week, but hopefully I can work on it while Seth is doing schoolwork, as long as we're in the same room.) I went to the storage unit on Monday and pulled out the dollhouse kit and the dollhouse wiring kit. It's going to take quite a bit of preparation before I can actually get started on building...I have to choose a color scheme and buy the paint because most of the parts need to be painted before I start assembling. I also need to buy a few tools, and I am looking for a really good tutorial about how to wire a dollhouse because the instructions that came with the wiring kit are super brief and clearly intended for someone who already has a basic knowledge of how to do that, and of course I don't! But it will be an adventure, right? I'm hoping I learn some things and have some fun and don't end up giving up in frustration at some point! At any rate, I don't expect to get this project done quickly, and that's okay. I'd rather have a finished product that looks great and that I'm happy with than to rush through it and have it look sloppy. I fully intend to take my time and do it right. Hopefully I'll finish it before I die, haha!!
Frank has been pretty busy this week, as usual. He had an overnight install on Monday night, so we did family night on Tuesday evening. Even though it is nearly 5:00 pm on Friday right now, he is still working and won't be home for a few more hours because he had to take care of an emergency at one of the restaurants that is over an hour away. He wasn't thrilled about that and I don't really blame him.
Seth was supposed to have a Deacon's Quorum activity on Thursday evening...they were going to do a service project...but then it turned out that Seth was the only boy who was going to be able to come so they decided to postpone it. Seems like that keeps happening! I think things will be a little more settled when school starts.
It's been really hot most days this week but we are thankful we aren't dealing with a hurricane or anything like that! We probably will get some of what's left of Hurricane Laura tomorrow, but nothing major. Poor Louisiana!! While I was writing this post we had a thunderstorm come through...the wind was really blowing and it rained really hard for a while but the storm is gone now and the sun has come back out. After tomorrow, temperatures are cooling down and we'll have highs in the 80s (or even 70s) most days next week, which sounds really nice. We've had some pretty clouds in the sky this week so I'll finish up with a few photos I took:
I know...there's an ugly power line and so forth in this photo, but I was stopped at a light so this is the best I could do. I liked how the sun was coming through that little break in the clouds. I took this photo last night on our way home from Cracker Barrel.
The other two photos I took on Monday afternoon from the parking lot at JoAnn's. The clouds don't look nearly as cool in the photos as they did in real life! We did get a thunderstorm later that night...no big surprise.
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