Weekly Review June 4 '21

 When I left off last week, I was about to frost Seth's birthday cake. I did that, and we sang Happy Birthday and had him blow out his candles. Then Frank went to pick up the pizza. He stopped on his way back at our house to drop off the pizzas and to pick up 2 pieces of birthday cake. Then he took a pizza and the two pieces of cake over to the Elders for their dinner. After he got back from that, we all had pizza and cake. 

On Saturday I was busy with YW stuff and errands. I also recorded my part for another virtual choir song...this time we did an arrangement of America the Beautiful. I sang soprano for this song because the director wanted more sopranos. That made it easy to learn, although there was a descant for one verse. I enjoyed it. Frank and I went on a short walk that evening also, and I did a little bit of sewing on the skirt that I may finish someday...and got to talk to Mom for a while since of course I had a question about how to sew something!

On Sunday Frank wasn't feeling really great--his blood sugar must have been off somehow--and his vision was kind of blurry. He ended up staying home from church. Seth and I went, and it was the first time I got to meet with the YW in person for a YW lesson. Since it was a 5th Sunday, all the yough met together though so it was different than it will be when we meet with just the YW. A few families came to church that I haven't seen since quarantine started over a year ago. We also had the sacrament near the beginning of the meeting instead of at the end, as we've been doing since we returned to in-person church. Now that we can sing the hymns and the ordinance of the sacrament is back to its normal place in the meeting and more people are coming, it is really starting to feel like normal church again although we still have to wear masks and they are still taking a lot of precautions with how the sacrament is passed. 

After church I was supposed to have a meeting for camp but I got permission not to attend because we had visitors. Frank had noticed on FB that one of his cousins (who lives in Florida) was traveling in our general area, so he contacted her and invited her to dinner. She was in Philadelphia but she and her friend had been wanting to visit Maryland so they accepted the invitation and came to dinner. It was nice to visit with her and to meet her friend. We enjoyed their visit very much. I also had a virtual bridal shower that evening for a really good friend who used to live here in Maryland but now lives in California. She actually got married already, but she and her husband will be sealed in the temple tomorrow. I have not spoken with her face to face since she moved 9 years ago (we text often) so it was really nice to see her (and she was so happy that she cried). We played 3 games (I won two of them!) and then she opened presents that we had all sent to her house ahead of time. Not sure why they picked Sunday to do it--maybe that was the only time that most of her family could attend.

Monday was Memorial Day, of course, so Frank and Seth were both home. I still had regular chores to get done (grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming...) but Frank helped me with everything so I got done sooner. I needed to go to the fabric / craft store to get some things for an upcoming YW activity and I also wanted to look for supplies for a new project so I made a trip to JoAnn's. I found what I needed for both the YW activity and the project. I am going to attempt to make a couple of throw pillows for our bed because the ones we have are getting really beat up. I haven't been able to find any new ones that I like and I've been wanting to try making some woven ribbon pillows for ages. (We got a woven ribbon pillow as a wedding gift and I really liked the idea although the colors of this pillow were pretty awful...orange and maroon and shades like that. So ever since I've wanted to try making one with colors that I like.) We'll see if I manage to figure out how to make one. For dinner we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and had watermelon and potato salad. It was a nice day, and we are grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy every day.

The rest of the week has been mostly routine with Seth doing school, Frank working (too much), and me doing the usual chores. However, Jared and Jessie are here visiting so we have been able to see them, which has been great! They arrived late on Monday and they came over on Tuesday afternoon to visit and stayed for dinner. Frank had to work Tuesday night and he had to leave at 6:00. Meanwhile, I had a Zoom meeting with the YW (her name is Nicole) who is in charge of the food for camp because I am supposed to be helping her. So we discussed ideas and started planning. Then Seth had an in-person YM activity (they played ultimate frisbee) and I had a virtual YW activity (we made friendship bracelets). Since I couldn't be two places at the same time, Jared & Jessie helped me out by taking Seth to his activity and picking him back up afterwards. 

Frank was hoping to get home by 1:00 or 2:00 am but it ended up being 4:00 am instead. He only slept a few hours and then woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so he was really tired on Wednesday. He had a big online presentation he had to do that afternoon for work and in spite of how tired he was, he said it went well. After he got home from work, he fell asleep on the couch for a while:

He did get a good night's sleep that night, thankfully.

We didn't see Jared & Jessie on Wednesday because Jessie's sister graduated from high school so they were busy celebrating with Jessie's family. On Thursday Jared came over in the afternoon and stayed until late in the evening (Jessie was spending time with some friends). We went over to the storage unit and pulled out all the boxes with his name on them and brought them back to the house so he could go through them and decide what he wants to keep. He is not finished with that project yet...there are 6 large boxes, 3 medium boxes, and 2 small ones!! He has made some progress, though. Seth wanted some of the things Jared is willing to give away (Nerf guns, etc.) but I told him he couldn't keep anything unless he went through his stuff and got rid of some things. So he did. I don't think his room looks much better but he did fill a kitchen size trash bag full of stuff to throw away, so that is a lot of progress, for him. While they were in the middle of all their sorting and cleaning, I went to a hair appointment. After I got back, we all had dinner together (Frank was home by then) and then Jared helped Seth with the new game that Scott sent Seth for his birthday. Frank took a nap because he had to work again last night. He got home by about 2:00 am this time, which was better. 

That brings us to today, which has been pretty quiet so far. Seth is done with school for the day except for his "specials". They have been doing some testing this week and he always gets done early with that. He still has two weeks of school left, but I don't think they're going to be doing much work these last two weeks. The last week they have a field trip planned 3 out of the 4 days! Jared will be coming over sometime but I haven't heard from him yet. I've been busy with the budget and writing this post. 

I started reading the new book for book chat this week which is called The Girls of Atomic City. It's about women who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during WWII, helping to develop the atomic bomb (although none of them knew that's what they were doing). It's pretty good so far. The chapters alternate between stories of the things happening to the women and chapters explaining the basic science behind the atomic bomb. I've really enjoyed the science chapters...I've learned a lot about basic nuclear physics this last week! 

Now it is past lunch time so I will publish this post and go eat some lunch.