Weekly Review March 22 '24

There was quite a bit going on this week so this post may be kind of long. I'll try not to get too detailed, but you all know that I am not good at not getting detailed! 

On Saturday I finished up Seminary lesson preparations and did all the usual chores. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner. I picked them up at a park and it was a beautiful warm day with lots of people out enjoying the lovely weather. It felt like full-on spring! I say that in the past tense because it got a lot cooler this week...I'd even describe it as being cold a lot of the week. Today the high was 51 and we've had below freezing temperatures overnight the last few nights. Our heater has been coming back on, which wasn't happening for a while. 

Sunday was eventful since there were a lot of changes in our stake. I went to choir practice before the special meeting that they had for the entire stake. The meeting was broadcast to all the buildings so we went to our usual building. They had maps showing all the new ward boundaries in the foyers and a QR code you could scan to download a document which had the entire stake membership listed with which ward each person is now in listed next to their name. In the meeting the stake presidency explained some of the process they went through to decide the new ward boundaries and how everything came together and they testified about the inspiration they received in making all those decisions. In the meeting many of the wards also sustained new bishoprics and Elders Quorum presidencies. Every ward in the stake had changes to their boundaries and some of the changes were extensive. Two wards were dissolved and three new wards were created, so we now have 9 wards in our stake and each ward is approximately the same size. (I guess there was one ward that didn't change...the Frederick 2nd Ward...but that's because it's for all the Spanish speakers and it's boundaries cover the entire stake.)

We are still in the same ward (Walkersville Ward)--but just barely!! The southernmost part of our (former) ward was put into Frederick 1st Ward and the dividing line is Schifferstadt Boulevard...the main road that runs just south of our house...so we are literally right on the southern boundary line. There's a family that lives just on the other side of Schifferstadt Boulevard from us...their road and our road could actually be the same road, but the name changes as you cross Schifferstadt Boulevard...and now they are in the other ward. The last few weeks, as we've been contemplating the possibility that we might be moved into another ward, we were keeping a mental inventory of what other families would be moved with us. All of those families were moved...we are the only ones in the group who are still in Walkersville Ward. A lof of people in our ward have expressed surprise that we didn't get moved...but they have also been nice enough to add that they are glad that we're still in the ward. 😊

Although our ward lost a number of people in the southern part of the ward, our western boundary was extended so we have a lot of new ward members who used to be in the Frederick 1st Ward. Five of the youth in my Seminary class who used to be in the Frederick 1st Ward are now in our ward, so that is great! They all attend the same high school as Seth, so he is no longer the only youth in our ward who attends his high school. In addition, there is another boy from Frederick 1st Ward who does not attend our Seminary class because he goes to a high school farther north who is also in our ward now. He is in the same CTC class as Seth so they know each other and have become friends (and I know his mom because she comes to my book club). Besides more youth and their families, we also have several other older couples who are strong members so overall the changes have been really good for our ward. We will, of course, miss all the families who were moved out of our ward. It just so happens that both the RS president and the Primary president were among the families moved to the other ward so there will definitely be a lot of changes coming up! (We lost the RS 2nd counselor and both the RS secretary and Primary secretary too.) Hopefully I'm safe from getting a new calling...I feel fairly safe where I'm at as a Seminary teacher. 

I would say that in spite of all the changes I just mentioned, the impact on our ward was a lot less than many of the other wards. At the meeting they told everyone who had been moved into another ward that they were released from their current callings, so there are a LOT of people without callings and a LOT of wards without a lot of the leadership positions (or any other positions) filled. I was looking at the ward organizations in LDS tools yesterday (it took them a few days to set up the new wards and even now not everyone has been moved into their proper ward yet) and it's kind of crazy because although every ward has a bishopric and at least an Elder's Quorum president, 6 of the wards don't have RS presidencies, 6 don't have Primary presidencies (and the ones who do don't have full presidencies) and 5 don't have YW presidencies (and again, the ones who have them do not have full presidencies). 

Jared & Jessie were in one of the wards that was dissolved--Braddock Heights Ward--and now they are in the Brunswick Ward. Their ward is going to be meeting in our building so maybe we will see them once in a while in the halls! Our building has had 3 wards meeting in it but now we will have 4 wards, so we are going to be crowded. (We've had 4 wards meeting there in the past, so we know it's possible but it's not ideal.) 

Sorry I am going on and on about all the ward boundary changes. I'm sure most of you don't care about the details, but one of the purposes of this blog is to help me remember the things I want to remember. Hopefully you just skimmed through all that! Here is one last thing I want to remember, though, and then I promise I will move on to something else. Another thing I have been thinking about the last few weeks when we knew changes were coming and that we might end up in another ward is this: I kept thinking that if we got moved into another ward, it would likely be into Frederick 1st Ward and I was thinking that at least Seth would be with a few kids he knows because over half of our Seminary class was in Frederick 1st Ward. I realized later in the afternoon on Sunday that nearly all of the Frederick 1st Ward youth that attend our Seminary class were actually moved into Walkersville Ward, and all but 2 of the other ones were moved into one of the newly created wards (Catoctin Ward). So if our family had been moved into Frederick 1st Ward with the rest of the families in our area of the ward, Seth not only would have been moved away from all the kids in our ward that he's known all his life, but he also would have been moved at the same time that all the other kids he knows from Seminary were moved into our ward and he wouldn't have known any of the kids in our new ward. That would have been really rotten for him, so I feel really grateful that things worked out the way they did. A tender mercy for our family, for sure! 

No more ward boundary change information, but I'm not done with Sunday yet! That afternoon I went to the RS broadcast commemorating the RS birthday. Our ward decided to do it at 4:00 because that was better for a lot of people. It was really nice. When I got home, we had dinner and games with Jared & Jessie, as usual. We played a game called Timeline, which involves putting different historical events in the correct order. I'm usually really good at this game, but didn't do too well this time. I kept drawing cards with inventions, and I'm not as good at placing them in the proper time as I am with actual events like wars and such. It was still fun, though! 

Frank had Monday and Tuesday off work because it was Spring Break for the University of Maryland. I don't think he got a whole lot of down time, though...he ended up doing a lot of work for clients. We did get to go out to lunch together on Tuesday, which was nice. 

I taught Seminary on Monday and Tuesday as usual. Monday's lesson was about baptism and Tuesday's lesson was about enduring to the end. They went okay. Attendance wasn't as good this week as it usually is. Actually, Seth didn't make it on either Monday or Tuesday...he didn't sleep well so he was really tired those mornings. I went over Monday's lesson with him on Tuesday but I haven't had a chance to do Tuesday's lesson with him yet. 

Wednesday's VITA shift was busy but overall it went well. My first appointment was with a lady who is deaf and there was no interpreter so that was a bit challenging! I ended up writing notes to communicate with her and it all worked out. She was a bit upset / frustrated when she arrived but she left happy, which made me feel happy. At one point she wrote me a note that said "no one has ever explained to me how that works, so thank you for explaining that to me." (I explained the difference between itemized deductions and the standard deduction.) When I sat down with the lady for my last appointment, I quickly realized I was not going to be able to complete her tax return because she moved to Maryland partway through the year from Louisiana. We can complete tax returns for two states, but only if they moved from an adjoining state such as Virginia or Pennsylvania. She then explained that she had actually completed her return in Turbo Tax but she got a message and knew something was wrong. She couldn't afford to go to a paid tax preparer either. I told her if I could see the message, maybe I would be able to help her figure it out. She was able to pull it up on her phone, and it turns out that the message was saying that she couldn't e-file (and when I looked at it closer, I could see why she couldn't e-file, but I'll spare you all the details on that!). I explained to her that nothing was wrong...she just needed to print her return and mail it in instead of e-filing. She was overjoyed that her problem was solved and said "thank you so much! You have been such a big help to me today!" That was a nice way to end my shift. 😁

After I got home from VITA, I somehow miraculously managed to get most of my Seminary lesson for Monday figured out before dinner time. After dinner I went to the store and Frank took Seth to Seminary. After I got home with the groceries and put them all away, I went to bed. I woke up briefly when Seth and Frank came home, but fell back asleep quickly. For YM they played a "get to know you" bingo game, since there were some youth attending our ward activities for the first time. 

There wasn't any school today (end of term) so yesterday was our last day of Seminary for the week and one of the families brought in breakfast (we usually do that on Fridays). Since Seth was home today, I decided to go to the temple yesterday. As a result, yesterday kept feeling like Friday and today has felt like Saturday! 😂The temple was wonderful as usual, but I struggled a bit to stay awake. 

After I got home from the temple, I did laundry and vacuumed and watched the BYU basketball game (sad that they lost!). One of my ministering sisters came to visit me that evening.

Today I woke up briefly around 4:00 am when Frank was in the shower. Then I woke up again when the alarm went off at 5:00...that's what time Seth has to get up on school days and I forgot to turn the alarm off. However, I fell back asleep again and the next thing I knew it was nearly 7:00. It was nice to get a decent night's sleep and I'm sure I needed it but I had a bad dream between 5:00 and 7:00 which involved getting bitten by venemous snakes that also wrapped themselves around my legs and refused to move. I was really happy when I woke up and realized it was just a dream! 

Today turned out to be pretty eventful in an unexpected way. I was trying to finish up my preparations for Monday's Seminary lesson so I could move on to preparing Tuesday's lesson. I did get some things done but then Scott called me. I was happy to talk to him, of course...hadn't talked to him in a while. I was still on the phone with him when I heard loud sirens, so I went to the front window in time to see a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance racing down our street to the back part of the court. (It's hard to explain, but we live on this weird cul-de-sac that has 3 "branches" and we live on the first "branch" that you come to when you turn off of the main road onto our street, so there are 2 more "branchs" behind us). I walked out to our deck in the back of the house to see if I could see what was happening. A lot of trees block the view to that part of the court so I couldn't see much but I could see a lot of firemen jumping off trucks, grabbing hoses and ladders, and running around. I also had a clear view of the fire hydrant and saw a fireman rush over to it and open it up...a lot of muddy water came out for a few seconds and then it turned clear and they attached the hose to it. Seth decided to walk out the front door and around the corner to get a better view, and he soon came hurrying back to report that a lot of thick black smoke was coming out of the front door and second story windows of one of the townhouses at the back of the court, and that firmen were on ladders and were breaking the windows. I went back out with him in time to see the fireman break the second window, but by then there was only a little bit of smoke so they must have put the fire out very quickly. I'm sure there was quite a bit of water and smoke damage to the house, though. 

I took several photos but they really don't capture the crazy scene with all those emergency vehicles on our street!

From the deck--Seth coming back to tell me about the thick black smoke

How the scene looked when I got outside...a little smoke, and a fireman on a ladder breaking one of the upstairs windows.

Lots of emergency vehicles

More emergency vehicles

 

...and even more emergency vehicles

Firemen on the roof 

More firemen on the roof

Firemen entering the house

I was trying to figure out what was in the doorway...maybe rolled up carpet?

Another view of emergency vehicles

And more

And another big truck arrives (kind of late!)

Another view from the deck, while they are wrapping up all the clean up.

After all that excitement (this happened shortly before 11:00 am) I managed to get my Seminary lessons done (I have some minor preparation left to do, but not much) and I also got the budget updated and made a batch of brownies to take to our ward Easter party this evening. 

The Easter party was a dinner and program. It was well attended, and quite a few of the new families who were just moved into the ward attended, so that was nice. I got the chance to talk with quite a few of them and there was actually a lot of mingling at the tables...lots of new families sitting with long-time ward members, which was sweet to see. I think we are all going to get along great! At one point I said to Frank "I think someone should get a photo, since this is our first ward activity after the boundary change" so Frank got up and took a photo:

Seth was asked to be one of the narrators for the program. The narrators told about Jesus's death, resurrection, and visit to the Nephites and there were pictures to accompany the narration. We also all sang several songs throughout the program. The dinner was really good...we had ham, green beans, cheesy potatoes, and rolls and there were a variety of desserts. 

After we got home, Frank had some work to do for UMD (something that had to be done later in the evening and could be done remotely) and I've been working on this post. Now it is actually Saturday so I am going to post this long entry and go to sleep!

Weekly Review March 15 '24

 This week was fairly busy; I feel like I had something "extra" nearly every day. Last Saturday I spent most of the day preparing Seminary lessons. I kind of went down a rabbit hole with the first one which took way too long but I really enjoyed it...there was so much good stuff in 2 Nephi 27! (The Follow Him podcast, which I listened to earlier in the week, really helped me see a lot of that good stuff.) The second lesson came together quicker, thank goodness. The first lesson was on the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon in particular. The second lesson was about identifying and overcoming the tactics of Satan, which was a super interesting topic, actually. Both lessons went fairly well...the second one probably better than the first one. I was concerned about how awake the kids would be--with the daylight saving time shift--and they were pretty tired but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. 

Anyway, back to Saturday...I did manage to get a few other things done besides preparing lessons, and then we set our clocks forward an hour and went to bed. I usually struggle a lot with the shift onto daylight saving time but I haven't had as much trouble with it this year (for which I am very grateful!). Or maybe I'm just used to feeling tired and trying to stay awake all the time. 😅At any rate, I didn't feel more tired than usual. I did notice that I woke up to my alarm nearly every day this week, which rarely happens. (I usually wake up at least a few minutes--if not an hour or more--before it goes off). I'd say I've been woken up by my alarm maybe 10 times this whole school year until this week. So I'd say my body was definitely feeling the need for more sleep at night! 

On Sunday we had church as usual although that was our last meeting with our ward as it now stands. On Sunday we will find out what changes have been made. Rumor has it that we will be losing a handful of people and gaining others (more than we're losing), but will not lose any youth and if that is true then we will still be in the same ward since Seth is in the youth category. I guess we will see what really happens on Sunday, though! After church my team teacher and I had a phone call meeting where we planned out the rest of the Seminary year. We figured out what lessons we'll be teaching each week and also chose guest teachers for the weeks that we have 5 days. That's actually only 3 weeks because the next two weeks the kids have Friday off of school, the week after that is Spring Break for us so we have no school, and the week after that we aren't starting Seminary until Tuesday because my team teacher is going out of town the weekend before and will be flying home on that Monday. Because of that, we decided to give everyone a day off from Seminary to help them ease back into the school schedule after Spring Break. After that we have three 5-day weeks and the week after that is the last week of Seminary! (It's actually a 5-day week too but one of those days we'll be doing the assessment and the last day will just be a fun day so we don't feel like we'll need a guest teacher that week either.) Eight more weeks until Seminary is done, and one of those weeks we're on break...but who's counting? 😂 We have another four weeks of school after that...Seminary ends earlier because the Seniors finish early and graduation happens weeks before school gets out. I still think that's strange, but that's how they've always done it around here. 

That was a long tangent, sorry!! Also that afternoon our good friends Aaron & Susie Schlenz stopped by to visit us. They used to live in Maryland and were in our ward for years and our kids and their kids were good friends. They live in Texas now but Aaron had a conference for work in DC so they were here for that. We had a great visit with them! Jared & Jessie came over Sunday evening for dinner, to do laundry, and game playing, as usual. We played speed Uno and everyone had fun.

It rained most of the day on Saturday and the river was up quite a bit on Sunday:

It was also super windy on Saturday and Sunday both, and the temperatures were in the 40s so it felt really cold. It warmed up during the week, though, and most of the week has been warmer than usual. Yesterday and today both got up into the 70s, which is particularly warm for this time of year. (I didn't even wear a sweater to Seminary this morning!) It's going to drop back down to more seasonable temperatures soon though. You know I'm never going to complain about unseasonably warm temperatures, though! 

I mentioned that I had something "extra" nearly every day this week. On Monday I went to lunch with my friends Michelle and Crystal...we served together in the YW presidency recently. We realized that we don't get the chance to talk to each other much anymore, so we decided to go to lunch together. It was really great to get caught up on how they are doing and what's going on in their lives. We talked for so long that I picked Seth up from school on my way home.

On Tuesday I went shooting with Jared, Jessie, and Jessie's mom, Tracy. Jared taught us a lesson first and then we shot for a while. I've only been shooting once before and it was a year ago, so it felt like I was starting all over again but I do feel like I got a little more comfortable with it and learned a few new things like how to load the gun. I'm feeling a bit more motivated to try to go more often so that I can keep learning. Jessie took a few photos that she shared with me:

I guess I didn't do anything "extra" on Wednesday, but I worked my VITA shift as usual. We had enough volunteers again, which was nice, but I did have kind of a crazy day because the taxpayer who came in for the first appointment of the day arrived several minutes late and then he had a pretty complicated return--he had a regular job, plus he was an Uber driver and a Door Dash delivery person, and he also worked as a contractor for several months before he got hired as an employee at his regular job. Oh, and he was in college too and had expenses related to that. It took a long time to sort all of that out so I ended up completing only 2 returns that day. I did do at least one review too...I can't remember now if I did more than one. 

Seth had YM as usual that night. Frank was busy doing some work for clients, so I dropped Seth off but Frank picked him up so I was able to go to bed. For their activity they made pies (in honor of "Pi Day", a day early) and they delivered one to one of the YW leaders who just got released. 

I forgot to mention that we had a guest teacher for Seminary Wednesday morning. She taught Seminary for years...as a matter of fact, she taught at least two of my older kids, if not all three of them. She's a great teacher and we had a good time. At one point, she had a couple of the boys attempting to juggle (part of an object lesson). 

Yesterday my "extra" thing was to take Seth to the orthodontist. Everything looks good with his teeth and he doesn't have to go back for a year. Other than that, I got regular chores done and I also worked a lot on one of my Seminary lessons for next week and got it mostly done. I'm not super happy with it...I wish I had ideas to help it be more interesting and meaningful...but at least it's mostly prepared. I can think about it over the weekend and I maybe I will come up with something to make it better. 

Since yesterday was "Pi Day", we had pizza for dinner and I made a chocolate pudding pie also:

This morning Seth drove to Seminary. It was his first time driving on a major road (something besides a residential neighborhood road) and he did okay but definitely needs a lot more practice. It was a good time to try it since there isn't a lot of traffic at that time of day. He did get us there without hitting anything or anyone, so I call that a win! 😉 The family who provided breakfast this morning went all out and brought cereal, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and strawberries as well as juice and milk. I spent a good portion of the day preparing my second Seminary lesson for next week and I have an outline completed for that one too. I'm glad to have that done...I still need to prepare Power Point slides for each lesson, but getting the outline done is the hard part. I was able to get the finances caught up before Seth got home from school too which I was happy about. Now Jared is here visiting and playing games with Seth and I will be starting to make dinner soon.

I did a little bit of reading this week...I decided to start reading The Unsinkable Greta James for book chat, even though I haven't finished Atlas of the Heart yet. So far, Unsinkable is pretty good. I don't remember now how I ended up doing this, but this week I watched videos the Church made of the interiors of both the Manti and St. George temples (which were both renovated recently). They are both so beautiful!! I have been in the Manti temple a few times (a long time ago) but I've never been inside the St. George temple. I'm mentioning this because I just wanted to comment on how inspired I am by these pioneer era temples. The early pioneers had so little to work with...both technologically (building equipment and methods) and resources. It's amazing to me that they were able to build these beautiful buildings with such incredible craftsmanship and attention to detail. What a labor of love for the Lord and His work! I'm sure they made huge sacrifices to build these temples. 

I'd better end there so that I can go make dinner.

Weekly Review March 8 '24

 It's been a bit of a crazy day with a lot of interruptions and I haven't gotten much done but let's see if I can put some thoughts into coherent words and let you know how our week went. Most of it has been pretty normal. I wrote on Saturday last week; I got my other Seminary lesson for this week prepared and also got regular chores (like sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor) done. 

I went to choir practice Sunday morning and I always enjoy that. It was a bit foggy that morning but quite pretty:

Seth had ward youth council after church so I went back to pick him up from that later. Jared came over that evening for dinner; Jessie wasn't feeling well so she didn't come and we missed seeing her. We played a game of Dominion since Frank had not had the chance to play it yet (he wasn't feeling well when Seth and I played it with Jared & Jessie last time). Seth won the game this time; I was a close second. He probably would have beat me by a lot more points but Jared kept telling him that he thought I was winning because Jared didn't want Seth to end the game. 😂 That kept the game going longer and gave me a chance to almost catch up (obviously, Jared was trying to catch up too and he did get a lot closer but not as close as I did). 

On Monday my Seminary lesson was about the Millennium and I think it went pretty well. For Tuesday's lesson I did a doctrinal mastery review that we had to skip a few weeks ago. That also went pretty well. I had a couple of different activities they could do that would help them better understand the doctrine of the doctrinal mastery scriptures. Most of them chose to create a visual representation of one of the doctrinal mastery scriptures (a collage, meme, etc.) I was recently contemplating recycling the last couple of years of Liahona magazines that had accumulated in my house; so glad that I hadn't actually gotten around to doing that yet! I took them to class and there were so many great pictures in them for the kids to use. They did a good job, and I enjoyed seeing them busy, awake, and working together:

Here are some of the end results:

Seth and Henry did these two memes. It's hard to see what they wrote. The top one says "When you don't want to feast on the words of Christ. 2 Nephi 32:3". The bottom one says "When you lose the car keys. 2 Nephi 32:8-9" (pray always)

This one represents 2 Nephi 26:33. "All are alike unto God"

This one represents 2 Nephi 32:8-9 "Ye must pray always"

This one represents 2 Nephi 32:3 "Feast upon the words of Christ...for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

This one represents Mosiah 2:17 "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God"

Honestly, I can't remember much about what I did those days besides Seminary. I got all the regular chores done, started working on next week's Seminary lessons (read the scripture blocks and read through the lessons in the manual; I also listened to a couple of podcasts), and on Monday we had family night. (For activity we played Uno and Frank won every round except one! We had cream cheese that needed to be used so I made a cheesecake for treat and it was yummy!)

We had a guest teacher Wednesday morning as we often do...we asked a member of the stake high council to teach. He lived in our ward several years back, so we know him pretty well and he has Seminary age kids. He did a great job and it is always good for the kids to hear testimony from other adults besides just us. I always learn new teaching skills by watching other teachers teach, also. 

I worked my sixth VITA shift and happily it was not as hectic as the last two weeks were. There were two other volunteers besides me and of course the director was there too so we had four people who could complete returns and four appointments per hour...that works much better than two people who can complete returns and four appointments per hour; go figure! We also had a couple of no shows so that made it even less busy (but not so slow that we had nothing to do; I just got a few minutes here and there to breath!) I still completed 4 tax returns and reviewed at least two, so I felt like I accomplished a lot. I only have four VITA shifts left since I will be out of town one week. Hard to believe! This tax season has gone by fast.

I picked up Seth from school that day because it was raining and on that same trip I went to the library to drop off two books and pick up another one. I finished reading Remarkably Bright Creatures and it needed to go back because someone else put it on hold. (I did enjoy it!) I picked up the next book for book chat (The Unsinkable Greta James) but I haven't started reading it yet because I was already reading another book (the last of the 8 books that I checked out in January as possible suggestions for book chat) called Atlas of the Heart. It is a nonfiction book about emotions. I like it in some ways but not in others, although overall I feel like I've learned some things and it's been worth reading. I do need to start reading the book chat book soon, though.

Frank took Seth to and from his YM activity that night as he usually does. I appreciate that so much because it allows me to get to bed! Seth reports that they played some "Minute to Win It" games, and he had a good time. 

Yesterday I didn't get much accomplished beyond the regular chores, and I'm not sure why. I mean, there was quite a bit to do with grocery shopping, laundry, etc. The guy from our pest control service came by too and that took a bit of my time. I started working on one of my Seminary lessons but didn't get to it until shortly before Seth got home from school and once he gets home it's hard for me to get much done because I'm checking on his homework situation and Frank is leaving work around then and he usually calls me and then I need to start making dinner. After dinner I got the finances caught up and then I tried working on my Seminary lesson again but then Tanner called us and we had to help him with some things and then Scott called too and by that time it was time for bed so I never got much done. 

Today I went to the temple. I wasn't planning to, originally...I was going to skip going this week and go next week...but on Wednesday I was looking at next week's schedule and realized that next week is going to be quite busy so I decided to go this week instead. Since I was making my appointment later than usual, I wasn't able to get an appointment at my usual time (10:00) but I did get an appointment for 11:00. I did initiatories this time and it was beautiful. I'm grateful that I ended up going today because I was feeling quite worried and upset about some of the things happening with Tanner and it was really helpful for me to go to the temple and feel some peace. I cried most of the way there, but felt a lot better afterwards and didn't cry on the way home. It was also a blessing to have an 11:00 appointment instead of a 10:00 appointment because that extra hour in the morning after Seminary allowed me to take an hour nap (I didn't sleep really well last night) so I was rested and didn't have trouble staying awake for the drive there and back. Tender mercies! We've had a lot of rain this past week and we have also had some warm days (yesterday was particularly nice) so more things are blooming and it is starting to look like spring. I saw a few pink blooming trees for the first time this week and at the temple they have planted pansies.

After I got home from the temple I ate lunch and started working on my lesson again but soon was interrupted by text messages and phone calls and then Seth arrived home from school. Jared came with him; he came to do some laundry and after Seth finished his homework Jared took Seth out driving for over an hour which is awesome! He even convinced Seth to try driving on the road for the first time (instead of just in a parking lot) and he also took Seth to Chick-fil-a to get a treat and while they were there they picked up a job application for him to fill out. So Jared gets big points from me today for helping out with so many things! 

We got Chinese food for dinner because Frank wanted it and I wasn't feeling up to coping with cooking anyway. I still have two Seminary lessons to prepare but it's getting late (8:00 pm...that's late, for us!) so they will probably have to wait until tomorrow. I will say that I've been thinking about them all week so hopefully they will come together without a whole lot of trouble. 

We got an email yesterday morning from the stake executive secretary inviting us to a special meeting on Sunday, March 17th for the whole stake that will take the place of our regular Sunday meeting block. The purpose of the meeting is "to announce changes to ward boundaries throughout the stake and to sustain a number of new local leaders." Who knows how these changes will affect us? It's not completely unwelcome or unexpected news...there are two wards in the stake that are huge and the rest of them are small and struggling so it's definitely a needed change, and one that we've been anticipating for quite a while. Our ward is one of the small struggling wards so it is likely that we will get an addition to our ward, which will be great. However, it is also possible that as they rearrange boundaries all over the stake they may also take away small portions of our ward boundaries, and if so...we live in a section of our ward that is vulnerable to being moved to another ward. So we are kind of anxious about that, but not overly so. We love our ward, but know that we would learn to love a new ward if we end up in one. I also can't help remembering that the last time there were ward boundary changes, I was worried we may end up in another ward and we didn't. However, our RS president did end up in another ward and I was called to be her replacement, so then I kind of wished that I had been moved into another ward! 😆 I feel pretty safe from that outcome this time with my current calling but I guess you never know. I do wonder if the boundary changes will also impact Seminary classes although I doubt they would change any Seminary classes until next fall. I would be really sad to lose some of the kids in our class and I would be especially sad to lose my team teacher because she is awesome and has made teaching Seminary about a million times easier than it would have been! 

That's everything I have to report this week.