Weekly Review February 23 '24

 We had a fairly busy week. Last Friday I did get my second Seminary lesson done, which was good because Saturday was really busy. On Friday after dinner we went to the church to do some cleaning. It was our turn to help with that and we were actually supposed to clean on Saturday morning but I had a hair appointment that conflicted and because of the predicted snow it just seemed like it would be easier to do it Friday night instead of Saturday morning. We cleaned the chapel and sent an email to the member of our ward who is in charge of the cleaning to let him know what we did. 

There was quite a bit of hype about the storm coming in overnight Friday...we were possibly going to get up to 5 inches. I woke up around midnight and looked out the window and there was already snow on the ground and it was coming down hard. When we woke up Saturday morning, though, it didn't look like there was any more snow than when I had looked out the window around midnight. We got maybe a half inch of snow, and it didn't even stick to the roads or sidewalks. I'm not complaining about that...it made getting around a lot easier...it was just kind of funny after all the hype. 

As I already mentioned, I had a hair appointment that morning. The lady who does my hair is in my ward, so I always enjoy visiting with her while she works on my hair. Since I am letting my natural hair color grow in (gray!) she did a bunch of blond highlights to help blend the gray in (my base color has been quite dark, so we are lightening it up so that the contrast between the gray growing in and the rest of my hair isn't so great). The highlights she put in this time made a big difference...the gray is blending in a lot better. I'm actually pleased with it...I don't think it looks bad at all, and the gray color that is growing in looks like it's going to be a nice color. 

We had Stake Conference that weekend and Frank was helping with all the audio / visual technology stuff so he was really busy. We had a member of the seventy visiting...Elder Peter M. Johnson. He wanted to meet with all the tech guys about an hour before the Saturday afternoon leadership session started to test out all the microphones and other things, so even though Frank didn't need to attend the leadership session, he was still there an hour before it started and stayed for the entire time to make sure everything was working correctly. I met him at the stake center at 6:00 with some dinner, which we ate together before the adult session of stake conference started at 7:00. Frank was not able to sit with me for that meeting (or any of the meetings, actually) because he was helping with all the tech stuff but some members of our ward sat with me the adult session. Elder Johnson was the only "speaker"...he actually led a discussion...and it was really good.

On Sunday morning at 8:00 there was a special meeting for all the youth and their parents and leaders, so I took Seth to that. (Frank had to be there an hour before we did). They had given the youth a chance to submit questions ahead of time, so the whole meeting was Elder Johnson leading a discussion to answer several of those questions, and again...it was really good. Since we were already at the stake center, we decided to stay there for the general session at 10:00. We were able to save seats for Jared & Jessie and for Jessie's parents, so we were all able to sit together, which was nice. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening and we enjoyed hearing about their trip and playing a game that they brought with them called Quixx. 

Monday was President's Day so Seth didn't have school and I got the day off from Seminary also. Unfortunately, I had one of my bad nights so I ended up sleeping in and got a pretty late start to the day. At least I got a decent amount of sleep! I did get all the regular chores done and did some Seminary lesson preparations and we had family night.

My lesson Tuesday morning wasn't one of my best, but I kind of knew going into it that it would be that way so I didn't stress about it, really. (And it wasn't bad...just not great.) I knew Wednesday's lesson would be better, and it was. I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Tuesday. We tried out a place called Frederick Coffee and Cafe. Obviously, we were there for the cafe part, not the coffee part! I had a chicken salad sandwich that was pretty good, and enjoyed getting caught up with Rebekah. 

The lesson on Tuesday was about the Gathering of Israel and the lesson on Wednesday was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Here is a picture of the board from our discussion on Wednesday:

The kids participated well and I felt like we had a meaningful discussion. I did my fourth VITA shift that day and it was super busy. We were totally swamped the whole time I was there and it was a little stressful, but not too bad. I completed four tax returns and did at least one review (maybe two...I can't remember now). Frank took Seth to YM and also picked him up, which I appreciated because by 7:30 I was super sleepy and I went to bed about 7:50 and didn't even wake up when Seth and Frank got back home. 

Yesterday I didn't do anything out of the ordinary...I got all the regular chores done (laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming...) and I also prepared Monday's Seminary lesson. I still need to prepare my second lesson for next week but I'm not teaching my second lesson until Friday, so I have plenty of time. (We switched things up a bit because the Doctrinal Mastery reviews always come up in the schedule on Fridays and they are easier to prepare and usually involve fun games, so my team teacher thought I should have a chance to prepare a DM review once in a while.) I'm certainly not planning to put off preparing it until late next week...I'll probably prepare it tomorrow. We had a pretty decent rain storm last night--we even got some lightning and thunder! 

This morning I went to the temple. It's been closed for maintenance the last few weeks and just reopened on Tuesday. You may remember that I am helping a friend complete some temple work for her family and that she asked me to do the proxy endowments for a set of twins. (I did the initiatories for both of them in January.) I did the endowment for the first twin the last time I went so I did the endowment for the other twin sister today. It felt great to be back in the temple again but it was a bit challenging for me to stay awake. I'd say that overall I am sleeping much better the last month or so, but apparently I'm still not getting enough sleep! 

I have continued to do a lot of reading. I finished the book Everything Sad is Untrue and really enjoyed it. It took some getting used to at the beginning because the writing style is really different from most books but it was definitely worth persevering. It was really full of profound statements and things that made me think and understand things in a different way. I would definitely recommend it, but it is written for middle school age kids and be prepared for a few stories about poop! I promise it's not too bad and there are actually some good lessons to be learned, even from the poop stories. After I finished that book, I started reading a book called The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I just got into it far enough to get really interested when I got an email from the library letting me know that I can't renew it because someone else has put it on hold and it is due on Sunday. I'm on page 109 of 438 so I have a lot of reading to do in the next couple of days if I'm going to return it on time! It's about a pair of sisters in occupied France during WWII. 

I've been toying with the idea of going to visit Amy (and Curtis and Ben) in Texas during spring break, but after a bit of discussion with her and Mom, she and I are both going to go to Utah instead and Seth is coming with me to Utah too. (I definitely want to go to Texas another time, though!) We just booked our flight last night and I am looking forward to seeing Amy plus all the Utah folks including Mom, Hans, Scott, Tanner, and Shellie's and Tim's families.

We got a really nice email from Seth's English teacher this week. Here's what she said: "Good afternoon, I just wanted to reach out to say what a pleasure it is to have Seth in class. He actively participates every day in a positive way that truly contributes to his classmates' understanding of the difficult materials. Thank you and have a great day!" English is not usually Seth's best subject, so it was really great to get this email. He does seem to be enjoying this class a lot more than his previous English classes. He has made positive comments at home about it. They have been reading Hamlet, and I even heard him say "Shakespeare was a genius!" It's nice to know that he is learning to appreciate great literature. 

And on that happy note, I will finish because I can't think of anything else to say.