I tried to start this blog post last night but I ended up taking Frank to the doctor instead (more on that later) and by the time we got home and I had dinner, I was too tired to think and decided to go to bed. (It wasn't that late...it was 8:30, but when you get up at 3:30 am, 8:30 pm feels late.)
Going back to Saturday the 7th, that morning I went to a Stake Women's Conference in the morning. It was really lovely. We had a yummy brunch, beautiful music, a great speaker, and then we did a service project. The speaker is a older woman in our stake (nearly 80) who has been instrumental in working with the Church and a couple of other charities to open a clinic in another country (can't remember the country name now, it's one of those middle east countries that end in "stan") for mothers and babies. There will be a NICU and they will be giving midwives training to help reduce mother and infant mortality. In her speech, she told all about her life as a nurse and all the other opportunities that came to her over the years that helped her prepare for being able to open this clinic. She also talked about the challenge of not marrying and having children, which is something she really wanted. It was really interesting and inspiring. For the service project, we made flannel baby blankets for preemies that this sister will be taking to the clinic. Some people cut them out, others ironed the edges, and others sewed the edges. Since I had volunteered to bring my sewing machine, I was one of the people who sewed down the edges. It was really sweet and I felt kind of emotional thinking about the babies who would be wrapped in these blankets.
Since I was sewing blanket edges, I had to wait several minutes to start working while the first blankets were cut out and ironed, so I took a few pictures. At the end, I took a couple more pictures of some of the completed blankets getting folded and boxed:
After the conference, I met with the sister missionaries in my ward to discuss the Seminary lesson that they were going to help me with. It's too complicated to fully explain, but there were some really cool things that came together for my two lessons this week...things like having to move Monday's lesson to Tuesday--which gave me the chance to do some things on Monday that helped set up Tuesday's lesson-- and coming across a lesson we hadn't been able to teach the previous week that was perfect for incorporating into Monday's lesson. I really felt like I got some divine direction in planning those two lessons! I spent most of my time on Saturday, after I got home, finishing preparations for those two lessons. I was also trying to help Frank as much as possible since his foot was hurting a lot.
On Sunday Frank went to church to take the sacrament but couldn't stay longer because there was no way to keep his foot up and it was really hurting. Since driving wasn't possible either, I took him home and then went back for the rest of the meetings. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening. We enjoyed visiting with them, playing a game (Frank didn't play...he had to lie down with his foot up), and Jared also made cookies for us. While we were making the cookies, a funny thing happened. I told Jared he could move the unbaked cookies closer together on the tray, and he agreed and said "if they spread out and touch each other a little bit, it won't be the end of the world, they're just cookies." I said "That sounds like a good slogan for a cookie company 'It's not the end of the world, they're just cookies.' Too bad we aren't opening up our own cookie business." Jared said "Yes, we could call it 'Acopolypse Cookies', and that would be our slogan." Then we started thinking up funny names for cookies like "Rapture Worthy Cookies" and of course "Death By Chocolate Cookies". It's really too bad that I hate to bake because I really felt like we had some good ideas there!
On Monday morning my lesson went all right, but not as well as I had hoped...it really depends on the agency of the kids! Do they feel like participating that morning or not? It wasn't one of their best days. I felt really disappointed and upset about that all day on Monday, although I knew part of the reason was because I also barely slept Sunday night...I had another one of those nights where I woke up at midnight and never went back to sleep. It's hard to keep things in perspective when you're exhausted! Seth also slept poorly on Sunday night, so he didn't go to Seminary that morning. That afternoon he went with me to the church to help me set up the tables and chairs for the next morning (I wanted them set up differently than normal because it would work better for the lesson) and that evening I went over Monday's lesson with him...basically taught it to him. It went really well doing that one-on-one. Doing that helped me figure out a few things for the next day and it also meant that he made up for his absence that morning.
Things went a lot better on Tuesday. The sister missionaries came to help and they ended up bringing another set of missionaries with them. I asked the missionaries to take a few minutes to talk to the kids about what they do to prepare lessons, and they said some really great things. It also helped to have 4 extra adults to help when we divided up into groups. The kids rose to the occasion and really did a great job preparing and teaching their 5 minute lessons. It was really great to see what they are capable of doing! I was super grateful to have such a good day after having a discouraging one.
I guess I will finish up talking about Seminary for this week before I go on to other things that happened. 😅 We had a guest teacher--the stake YM president--on Wednesday. A lot of the kids (including Seth) were taking the PSAT at school that morning so my team teacher also provided some egg bites, muffins, and fruit that morning to support those kids and encourage them not to skip Seminary that morning. (We usually have breakfast only on Fridays.) The stake YM president did a good job with his lesson and had us move around to a couple of locations. One of them was outside, which didn't go over too well because not only was it pretty cold (we sent out a message telling everyone to bring coats but apparently the kids don't pay much attention to our messages!) but also because there was a lot of traffic noise. I'm kind of glad he did that...now we know that going outside for part of our lessons is not a good idea! He also had us go into the mother's room for part of the lesson (we were talking about the importance of women) which was hilarious because there were 21 of us there that day and the mother's room is really small. I was actually surprised that we all fit in there and it wasn't as crowded as I anticipated (but it was still crowded). Of course, I didn't anticipate that Seth and a couple of other kids would crawl under the counter...that created a bit more room.
(A few kids didn't show up in the photos because they were sitting on the floor and at least one more was behind the boy in the gray hoodie, on the other side of the wall).
That afternoon I called the CES guy for our area. My team teacher and I had sent him some emails that he never answered, so we decided one of us should try to call him. To be honest, we've been pretty frustrated with him because he hasn't been responsive to our emails and hasn't provided much training for us at all. He did answer his phone, though, and actually remembered what ward I was from, which surprised me. It turns out that our emails were going to his junk folder for some reason, which explains why he hasn't been responding. I was able to ask him a bunch of questions and he had some very good answers and lots of helpful suggestions. He also agreed to come teach our class one morning in November. It's good to know that he actually does want to help us! That conversation cheered me up a lot.
My team teacher taught on Thursday and Friday. On Friday we did a scripture chase to review the doctrinal mastery scriptures that we have learned so far. I ended up being on a team to help even out the numbers on each team. I haven't really memorized the doctrinal mastery scripture references very well--I guess I will need to work on those some more! I held my own with the kids, though, since they don't know them all that well either. Overall, it was pretty fun.
I guess that's enough about Seminary. I have this Monday's lesson prepared and have partially prepared Tuesday's lesson too. I will finish preparing Tuesday's lesson after I complete this post. I sometimes feel like I am never going to catch up!
Frank got permission to work from home this week since he was supposed to keep his foot up as much as possible and he can't drive with the boot on. It's really a good thing he could work from home since he's been in a lot of pain and being in pain is really draining. He got a lot of work done but he had to take a nap every afternoon because he was so tired. Driving to work and back would have totally wiped him out, I'm sure. As the week went on, his foot improved a bit. It wasn't all that noticeable, but today when I think back to how he felt a week ago, I can tell that his foot has improved quite a bit. Last week, it was too painful to touch and he could barely walk. Now he can touch it and walking is a lot less painful.
His foot has improved, but on Thursday he started to not feel very well. He had a headache and an upset stomach, so he barely ate anything for dinner. On Friday he couldn't keep anything down and he also had a fever, which is really unusual for him...I don't think he's had a fever for a couple of decades. He took a nap late Friday afternoon and when he woke up and I was talking to him, I noticed that he had a rash on his arm. Investigating further, I realized that the rash was on both arms, his trunk...front and back, his legs, and was spreading to his face. He said he'd noticed the rash beginning earlier but hadn't thought much about it. I thought we'd better call the doctor. Of course, it was after their regular hours by that time. He was able to do a virtual visit in which the doctor determined that the rash was probably an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he's been taking for his foot. She also wanted him to come by the office, though, to be tested for Covid-19 and for the flu, since he had a fever and upset stomach, so I drove him over to the office to get the tests done. We haven't recieved the results yet. He's doing a little better today...his temperature is back to normal and he's been able to keep down some liquids, including chicken broth...but he still doesn't feel great. This morning he had a follow up visit with the foot doctor so I took him to that. She was happy with the improvement in his foot but wants him to keep it up for another week. She also prescribed a steroid for the rash (she agreed with the other doctor that the rash is probably an allergic reaction to the antibiotic) which will also help with the remaining inflammation in his foot. The rash looks worse today, by the way...much darker and more thickly spread over his skin. It itches a little bit too. This is how it looked yesterday:
Now, almost his entire leg is bright red. We will both be really happy when he is feeling better again. It seems like it's just been one thing after another with him for the last month or more.
Seth had a YM activity Wednesday evening (dodgeball and ice cream) which I took him to since driving is really hard for Frank right now. Rather than drive back and forth, I took my Seminary lesson materials with me and found a quiet room so I could work on Monday's lesson while I waited for him to finish. I did get quite a bit done, but having to stay to the end of the activity meant I got to bed later than I usually do. Today Seth is going to a regional youth activity in Martinsburg, WV. I don't have to take him all the way there...just have to take him to the church for carpooling. This week I downloaded an app that will help us keep track of how many hours he's driving. I took him the church parking lot a couple of times this week to give him a chance to practice driving. He doesn't feel ready to drive on the road yet, but once he feels ready I will have him start driving to Seminary every morning. It's a good time to do that since there's not a lot of traffic on the road.
Between Seminary and all the other things I normally need to do, plus taking care of Frank and trying to take up the slack on some of the things that Frank usually does and extra trips to the store to get soup and soda and things that he needs, I have had a very busy week and I admit that today I am feeling overwhelmed and pretty crabby. I'll probably feel better once I get my other Seminary lesson prepared. I feel stressed when I know I need to prepare it and haven't gotten to it yet. I did find a little bit of time earlier this week to work on the pillows I'm making. I finished cutting out the rest of the pieces but I haven't been able to get back to it since Tuesday. I still need to mark the pieces before I can start sewing. I was hoping to do that today, but it's probably not going to happen. I laid out the pieces after I cut them to get an idea of how the pillows will look when they're done:
They will both have a dark green Christmas print (different from the one in the blocks) as a border. I'm not going to cut those pieces out until I have completed the blocks, to make sure I cut them the correct size.
Yesterday I got to go to the temple...I already had an appointment, and Frank insisted that I go even though he wasn't feeling well. I am helping a friend get some work done for her family, so that was another reason to go. I'm glad I got to go...it's always so peaceful and I really needed that. Ironically, even though I had slept well the previous night, I felt really sleepy. On the way home, I called Tanner and got to talk to him...that also helped me stay awake!
You can see that yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Today it is a lot cooler and it's been raining all day. We need rain, though, so that's okay.
This morning we purchased plane tickets for Scott and Tanner to come out here for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing them! We will all be going together to NC for Thanksgiving but they will be spending some time here with us in Maryland too.
I've probably forgotten something, but that's the update for this week.
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