We had a fairly busy week. Last Friday night (Friday the 13th!) Frank and I went out by ourselves for a little while. We got some gyros to eat and then ate them in the car and just enjoyed talking to each other for a while. It was nice!
On Saturday morning we were supposed to put donations for Scouting for Food out on our porch and even though I had our donations ready by the door, I forgot to put them out! Luckily, I had been driving through Walkersville earlier that week and happened to notice a sign at a grocery store that said you could drop off donations for Scouting for Food there. So we drove to the grocery store and were still able to make our donations. After that, I went to Jo Ann's to get some yarn and a few other things...they were having a big sale and it was pretty busy. One thing I wanted to get was a new iron, because mine is not in very good shape (I've had it since we got married, I think!) but all the irons had sold out already. I did succeed in getting a new glue gun--I noticed when I was working on the family tree board last week that my glue gun is not working very well. It is also quite old (although not as old as the iron). I got some yarn to make some more hats (I think I'm addicted!) and a chalk marker thing that I've been wanting as well. Frank and I also went to Walmart together, and while I was at Jo Ann's, Frank went to Costco to get chicken since we needed that too. At Walmart we got a couple of RC cars because I signed up to get those for two little boys in need (our ward is sponsoring their families for Christmas). I got two more pieces of the skirt cut out...now all the big pieces are done and the smaller pieces will be easier. I THINK I succeeded in matching the plaid pretty well, but I will see how well I actually did when I start sewing pieces together. Between all the shopping and the other regular Saturday chores, I kept pretty busy all day.
Sunday was also busy...really busy!! It was not our week to attend church in person, but we tuned into the Sacrament meeting broadcast...we had speakers from the stake come for the first time since the pandemic started and they gave excellent talks. Then we also tuned in to the adult Sunday School class. After that was over, I had an online presidency meeting with my YW class, followed by online tithing settlement with our bishop (for the whole family, of course). When I was done with all that, Frank drove me to four houses where YW live to drop off journals that we were giving to each of the girls. We also dropped off the RC cars at another ward member's house...she's collecting all the donated items. After we got home we had dinner and after that I watched the Face to Face broadcast with the General YW Presidency. It was so very good! So overall, I had a very busy day but it was a good one. While I was watching the broadcast a very severe storm rolled in...no thunder & lightning, but heavy rain and the wind was just howling! It didn't last very long though.
After that busy weekend, the rest of the week has been fairly quiet for me, but there were still some things going on. Frank's week was NOT quiet...he had drive thru installation installs every night this week. He has also basically worked every day for most of the day (after getting 2 - 4 hours of sleep) so I'd say he's easily going to get in 80 hours of work this week. No wonder he's exhausted. He has NO overnight installs next week though. I'm so glad, and I'm sure Frank is too.
Most of my week I've been doing the usual...housework, supervising Seth, crocheting, reading, watching Education Week presentations (some of my favorites this week were one on the compensatory blessings of the atonement, one on planning for retirement, and one on the power of establishing good habits). Besides that, I had a few other things like returning library books, ordering & picking up Christmas cards, ordering a birthday gift for Tanner, and an online visit with one of my ministering sisters. On Tuesday evening I had an online YW activity...it was a combined activity with all the girls although not very many of them came. We talked about goals...the ones the girls are working on, the ones we (as leaders) are working on, and just some general goal setting tips. It was pretty good although we (the leaders) had to do most of the talking. Two of the girls in my class let us know they weren't going to log in because they weren't feeling well, and I found out yesterday that one of those girls just tested positive for Covid-19. She had just returned from visiting her sisters in Utah, and one of her sisters just tested positive too. Hopefully both of them will recover quickly!
Meanwhile, Seth also had an activity on Tuesday evening and his was in person. It was actually a stake YM activity (although they limited how many boys could attend). They did some testimony sharing but they also played dodgeball. (Everyone had to wear masks the entire time). Seth seemed to enjoy that and I'm glad he got to get out of the house for a few hours and spend time with other boys (he literally can go weeks without leaving the house).
This morning there was a bulk trash pickup for our neighborhood so last night before Frank left for work we were able to put some things out--some wood and a few old computers and a really old stool...mostly things that we decided we needed to get rid of last spring when we were cleaning the basement before the termite treatment was done. All these things have been sitting around ever since then so I was really happy to finally be able to get rid of them.
Seth has been keeping busy with school and overall he is doing well although I detect some "burn out" happening lately. Last week he actually had kind of a melt down on Friday afternoon because he didn't want to work anymore so he ended up finishing up his work for the week on Saturday morning. He did it all on Saturday without complaining, though. This week he had a few sort of difficult days where he put off too many things but he managed to do a lot of catching up yesterday and today he is almost done with everything for the week. Our county has approved a hybrid model for the second semester (which starts at the end of January) so hopefully he will be going back to school at least some of the time then. I'm not totally counting on that, though--with the increases in Covid-19 cases the last few weeks I think it's a real possibility that they will change their minds unless things get better. Maybe we'll get a vaccine by then? That would certainly be great!
Another thing that has kept me busy this week is going over tax law...I'm starting to prepare to re-certify to be a VITA volunteer tax preparer again this coming tax season. I'm not sure how (or if) it's going to work...but we are probably going to be doing taxes virtually instead of in person with the tax payers. So even if Seth is still doing school from home, I will probably be able to volunteer because I'll be able to do the work from home too. So I'm starting to review all the material so I can take the test again (volunteers have to take the test every year). So far, I'm pleased at how much of it I'm remembering...I thought I would have forgotten everything by now! I'm also going to try to certify at the advanced instead of the basic level this year (that means I will be able to prepare more complicated tax returns).
I got to talk to both Tanner and Jared on the phone this week and get somewhat caught up with them, which was nice. I don't get to talk to either one of them very often.
I have not touched the ancestor board project since last time I wrote...I'm still just anxious that I'm going to ruin it when I try to start writing names on it. Plus, I keep looking at it and wishing I were artistic enough to draw some sort of a tree on it. I just want someone who is artistically talented to look at it and figure out how to make it look awesome and then make it look awesome for me! If Shellie lived nearby, I would definitely be asking for her help. But here is something fun that I can share with you. Getting the photos of Frank's family was really fun because the resemblance between Tanner, Frank, Frank's dad, grandpa and great grandpa is really remarkable. His dad and grandpa especially look like each other...in the photos I have they even have their heads turned the same way, and the same expression on their faces! Here's a photo I took of their 5 pictures next to each other:
We are still having really nice weather for November. Temperatures did drop a lot this week so we've had some cold days but today it is back up into the 60s and sunny. We keep having gorgeous sunsets that it's impossible to capture on film, but I keep trying. I can take a photo of the sky, but capturing the light just right is another matter! Last night, the very air was pink, I swear! And faded orange leaves basking in a pink glow are just amazing:
1 comment:
Pink cotton candy clouds so beautiful. Your photos captured them pretty well.
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