Weekly Review September 12 '25

This week was busy, but mostly with the usual things so I don't think there is a ton to write about. Last Saturday I had a quiet morning while Frank was gone doing work for a client and Seth was helping set up the tech stuff for Stake Conference. I used that quiet time to do Seminary lesson prep and I did manage to get everything ready for Monday's lesson and planned lessons for Tuesday and Wednesday. On Sunday afternoon I got everything else ready (Power Point slides etc.) for the other two lessons, so I was ready to go for this week, which was great. I had to plan shorter lessons (about 30 minutes instead of 40 - 45 minutes) because we had the kids take turns telling a little bit about themselves so we had to leave time for that. On Monday Tammy and I each told a little about ourselves to give them examples of what to do. Tammy had a slide with a bunch of pictures that represented different things about herself and I brought in several objects. Every other day this week we had 3 or 4 of the youth talk about themselves. Most of them just got up and told a few things about themselves, though. Two of them prepared slides with pictures and no one has brought in any objects. We have still managed to learn a few things about them, though. 

I guess I got a little side tracked from what happened on Saturday. As I mentioned, it was Stake Conference for us this weekend. Frank and Seth were both helping with the tech for both the Saturday evening session and the Sunday morning session...Seth at the stake center and Frank at our ward building. On Saturday evening they were doing a test broadcast from the stake center to our building so Frank was at our building. The last couple of conferences before this one, I went with Frank to our building to watch the Saturday evening session but since last time they actually had a lot of problems with the broadcast and I missed the whole meeting, I opted to go to the stake center by myself this time. Actually, I didn't go by myself...Seth came with me...but I was sitting by myself since Seth was running around helping with tech stuff for the whole meeting. For the Sunday morning session I also went to the stake center because I was singing in the choir. I had choir practice before the meeting started but Seth also had to be there early to help with the tech stuff, so that worked out perfectly. Both meetings were very good.

On Sunday afternoon Tammy and I met at the church to make sure the tables for Seminary Monday morning were set up correctly. The YSA ward sets them up for us since they are the last ward to have meetings in our building every Sunday. Last week, Seth made sure they were set up correctly but he didn't go to the YSA ward meetings this week since he went to our stake conference meetings instead. It's a good thing we checked, because when we got there none of the tables or chairs were set up. 

I feel like all of my lessons went pretty well this week and I am really happy with our class. So far, almost everyone has been awake and participating every day and there is usually a comfortable and happy / fun atmosphere. Every day, there are some great comments and we have even had some of the youth actually raise their hands and offer comments without being asked! *This is earth shattering!!* It's mostly the freshmen who are doing this--go freshmen!! Show the older kids how it should be done! 😊Really, they are all so sweet! The new kids from Frederick High School are also participating and I feel like a lot of the kids we've had for a couple of years are participating a lot more too. And they just seem happier and more comfortable with us. So yes--good things happening in Seminary! I got Monday's lesson planned on Wednesday and Tuesday's lesson planned yesterday. I still need to prepare some Power Point slides and some handouts and make some copies. And I'm not super happy with Monday's lesson, so I may do some tweaking. But it feels good to have most of the heavy duty part of the preparations done for next week. 

Frank got his MRI on Wednesday morning but unfortunately we don't have the results of that yet. I was really hoping they would call him today. Now we'll have to wait until at least Monday before we know what is going on with his shoulder. In the meantime, it is still hurting a lot...I feel like even more than before. He asked for his temple shift off this week, just so he could give his shoulder more of a rest.

Seth's week was a lot like last week...he went to classes, didn't have a lot of homework, and today was the only day he was scheduled to work. He did have a longer shift this week than last week, though. 

Today I went to the temple and did an endowment session. When I arrived, there were two sisters from my stake getting out of the car next to me...they were both in my ward at one time before boundary changes, so I know them pretty well. Another sister who is currently in my ward was also in the same session with us. It's always nice to see friends at the temple!

I stopped on the way home to get some chicken from Costco and then spent the rest of the afternoon working on the budget. Tonight Frank and I went on a date--we went for a drive and then stopped at this cute little restaurant to get some pie and ice cream. I had been there once with friends and discovered that they had a lot of pie choices and I knew Frank would like that so I decided I should take him there to get pie sometime. Frank got blueberry pie and I got peach pie, and of course we shared with each other so we both got to try both kinds. It was yummy, and fun to spent some time together. The drive was beautiful too.

We have continued to have nice weather (although we're probably not getting enough rain) and Frank and I have gone on walks several days this week. I try to take at least a short nap most week days, although I didn't get a nap today or yesterday. I feel like I am a lot more productive after I've had a nap! I talked to both Scott and Tanner this week and they are both doing well. Scott will be starting his new job soon and Tanner is back in school, although he is only taking one class currently.

Like everyone else, we were pretty shocked to hear about Charlie Kirk's assassination on Wednesday. I really didn't know much about him, but it has felt pretty personal to me for two reasons...first, because he was the same age as Scott and second, because it happened in Orem. It feels so strange to me that this relatively unknown city where I lived for 18 years is now being heard about all over the world. And what a tragic thing to be known for! It's also really disturbing to me that someone would be shot just for being vocal about their opinions / political views. And even more disturbing that some people who don't agree with his political views have actually expressed happiness that he was killed. I don't understand why some people can't see that an attack on anyone's freedom of speech is an attack on everyone's freedom of speech. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. Just a terrible thing to have happened.

Oh, one other thing I did this week--I started crocheting a hat. It's been a while since I've done any crocheting, so I've had to re-learn a lot of stuff, but I've made some progress and I'm about half way through with it now. It's been fun for me to be working on a project again! I'm also going to start on a small (very small) quilting / sewing project soon. I'm currently gathering all the supplies that I will need. 

That's everything I can think of to report for this week.

Weekly Review September 5 '25

I survived my first week of Seminary for this school year. Only about 37 more to go....

Last Saturday (the 30th) I had a haircut appointment in the morning. I went straight from there to a RS activity at the church. We made these things called "vision banners". Here is my completed banner:

We cut out pictures and words from Church magazines to make the banners. I chose the theme of "healing" for my banner. I have it hanging on the wall above my sewing machine so I can feel inspired while I am working down there. (I need to start another project though!)

On Saturday I also made some granola (Frank helped me) and practiced ukulele and worked on Seminary stuff, including going to the church to make a whole bunch of copies. By the time I got done with all of that, I had a headache so I didn't clean the kitchen floor as I usually do on Saturday evening. 

Sunday was fast Sunday for us because we have Stake Conference this weekend. Frank and I went to church without Seth (he went to the YSA ward later that day) and we were realizing it was the first time we'd gone to church together without at least one kid in tow since Scott was born (31 years ago)! Well, maybe there's been a week or two in the last few years that Seth has been sick and stayed home alone but you get the idea.

For our 5th Sunday lesson the second hour, we sang a bunch of the new hymns to become familiar with them (I'm already familiar with all of them, because I've listened to them a lot, but a lot of people don't know them at all yet). Frank was helping with the technology for that (music on two television screens and running the interactive music player) so I had to take care of the sacrament meeting broadcast for the ward that meets after us because Frank couldn't do that at the same time. (He handles the sacrament meeting broadcast every Sunday for all three of the wards that meet in our building.) The main thing I had to do was move the camera angle depending on what was happening...someone speaking or everyone singing...and to turn off the sound and camera during the sacrament and then turn it back on when the sacrament ended. I couldn't hear what was happening...I could only see...so I had to pay attention to what people were doing to know what was happening and when I needed to move the camera angle. I was doing fine through the beginning and the opening hymn and prayer; then the bishopric member got up again and I thought he was doing ward business and announcing the sacrament hymn so after he sat down again I moved the camera angle to show the conductor and organist but the conductor didn't stand up and the organist moved off of the organ bench instead of starting to play. What??? I couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I saw men walking in front of the podium and I thought that maybe somehow I was mixed up and they were passing the sacrament. I turned off the camera and the sound but then nothing happened for a long time. (I could still see what was happening, anyone watching the broadcast from home couldn't.) I kept changing the camera angle back and forth between the sacrament table and the podium, trying to figure out what was happening. Then I saw more men walk by and the bishopric member stood back up so I turned the camera and sound back on and then he sat back down and the conductor stood up so I knew they were singing and then they did do the sacrament. I didn't figure out until later (after talking to Frank after our class was over) that there had been a baby blessing! Then it all made sense. Oops! I'm glad that Frank usually handles this job so that I don't have to.

After church Tammy and I had one more Seminary visit. This boy and his family actually used to be in our ward years ago before they bought a new house which was in a different ward's boundaries. He was very young then, though, so of course we wanted the chance to get to know him better. He also attended the same charter school as my boys and he and Seth were in the same class for at least one year (he's two years younger than Seth) and he actually remembers coming to our house once to make navajo tacos for a project he and Seth were working on together at school. I was surprised when he said he remembered doing that! 

Monday was Labor Day of course, so Frank didn't have work and Seth didn't have his college class. Our ward had a picnic with yummy food and lots of games and visiting. After the picnic, Tammy and I met at the church to figure out the best way to set up the tables for our Seminary class and we also did a little bit of cleaning / rearranging of closets and some planning.

Tuesday was the first day of Seminary, and it went well. I brought donuts for everyone and Tammy had planned some activities to help the kids get to know each other. I taught on Wednesday and Thursday and Tammy taught today. Originally, I was going to teach on Wednesday and today and Tammy was going to teach on Thursday, but as I looked at my lessons closer over the weekend, I realized we needed to change some things around. That meant I had to re-plan my lessons a bit so I ended up spending quite a bit of time on Tuesday re-working Wednesday's lesson and quite a bit of time on Wednesday re-working Thursday's lesson. Every week will not be like this, thankfully!! Overall, the week went well and I think all the new kids (both freshmen and the new ones from Frederick High School) are great! I think we are going to have a good year. I didn't feel really great on Wednesday after my first lesson, though. I felt like I stumbled through the whole thing and that it didn't go very well. Thursday felt better to me, though, and I'm feeling more optimistic now. 

It was hard to know how many kids to plan for because there were several that hadn't given us a definite answer on whether or not they were coming. We have 34 kids on our roll, but 7 of those either told us they weren't planning to attend Seminary this year or we were pretty sure they wouldn't come, based on their history from last year. Then there were 2 from Frederick Ward that we hadn't been able to contact at all and 2 more who did come regularly the last two years, but who told us they were still trying to figure out if this year was going to work out (these two always slept through the whole class even when they did come). It turns out that we had about 20 kids come each day this week. All 11 of the kids we weren't sure about didn't come, which takes us down to 23 kids. Then there were 2 or 3 kids missing each day. One girl didn't come at all but she's been having some mental health issues so she's going to do home study for a little while and hopefully start coming in a few weeks. We are providing her with work to do each day from home until she starts coming. Anyway, I think it's going to shake down to 23 on our roll, with a few missing each day. That's not actually all that different from what we've had the last two years. Of course I wish that those other 11 kids would come, but it does make the class size more managable. It still feels pretty crowded in our classroom and I really don't know if we'd be able to fit 34--at least, not with tables. 

Since I spent so much of this week re-working lessons and there were a lot of other extra administrative and communication pieces to do, I have not had much time to look ahead to next week's lessons. I'm actually teaching three next week. I did manage to get Monday's lesson planned yesterday and I've read  through Tuesday's lesson, but that's it. I will be doing a lot of lesson planning tomorrow. After that, I hope I will be more "caught up" and my life can get into my regular Seminary routine. 

I have slept pretty well every night this week, thankfully. A bit restless at times and yesterday I woke up an hour before the alarm went off and didn't go back to sleep but other than that I haven't had any long hours of wakefulness in the middle of the night or anything like that. Even so, I have felt very tired every day and I have taken a nap every day. 

Enough about me! Seth has had a little bit of homework this week, but his classes don't appear to be all that taxing. He worked today, but that's the only day this week he was scheduled to work. He has a lot of free time so I have been asking him to do extra things to help around the house and he has helped me with some Seminary things too. He has been really cheerful and willing to help when I ask and he also volunteered to do a few things to help which I appreciate!

Frank's shoulder is still hurting a lot and it is hard to see him suffer. I'm glad that he will be getting the MRI on Wednesday. I suppose it will take a few days to get the results but hopefully by the time I write next week we will have a better idea why his shoulder is hurting so much (and hopefully it's something treatable and he'll be able to get some relief). The doctor did call this week to say he could call in some pain medication for him, but Frank didn't want to do that because most pain medication really knocks him out. 

Frank found out on Wednesday that he didn't get the position he interviewed for and he feels kind of frustrated about that. It's hard to know for sure, of course, but it seems like there is a lot of politics going on where he works and that people get hired for positions based more on how long they've worked there and who they know than on how qualified they are. But the job he has is definitely good, so we really can't complain. 

Today I went to the temple as usual. I felt really sleepy when I was driving down, so I was glad that I was doing initiatories instead of an endowment session. (I didn't have time to take a nap in between Seminary and leaving for the temple; I took a nap after I got home.) 

The picture I would like to have, but couldn't take (of course): inside the temple, the sun was shining through the stained glass windows and they were glowing like jewels and colored light was fanned across the carpet on the stairs. It was so beautiful!! I will just have to remember that in my mind's eye. 

Tonight we picked Seth up from work and went out to eat at Olive Garden. I'm always happy to have a night off from cooking. 

We've continued to have beautiful weather most of the week. We had some rain yesterday and today it is kind of hot but most days have been warm and sunny, with crisp mornings. Frank and I have taken a few walks and I try to go outside for some fresh air periodically throughout the day. I'll finish this week's post with a few photos I've taken from the deck.

Weekly Review August 29 '25

 This week went by way too fast! I am not feeling ready for the summer to be over, but ready or not it's going to be September in just a few days. 

Last Saturday (the 23rd) was a busy day. I had a stake choir practice in the morning (preparing for stake conference) and then my friend Rebekah and I went to brunch together. That evening, the missionaries came over for dinner. We actually knew they were coming this time! 😂(And by the way...when the missionary meal calendar came around on Sunday, I noticed that we were signed up to feed the missionaries on the 23rd and not on the 16th, so I had it right and someone else got mixed up. Just glad it all worked out anyway!) I can't remember what I did in between brunch and the missionaries coming over but it was probably Seminary related. Frank was busy most of the day taking care of an emergency problem that came up at work. (He was able to resolve it, though.)

On Sunday Seth was ordained an Elder before our church meetings. Our bishop and the high councilman assigned to our ward were there and it was lovely. After church, Tammy and I had more Seminary visits. We were able to visit 4 of the 7 youth who are coming into our class from the other ward and they seem to be really great kids. We have another visit scheduled this Sunday with one more of the youth from that class. The other two are a brother and sister but we haven't been able to visit them yet because as far as we know, they don't know they are in our class yet. Their bishop is supposed to be talking to them, but he hasn't been able to do that yet. They are the two who have not attended much in the past, so we're not sure if they will come or not, but hopefully they will give it a try. Those visits took the whole afternoon...when I got home, Seth and Frank had dinner ready, which was nice! I was also able to talk to Jared for a bit. 

Frank has been having a lot of trouble with his left shoulder for the last month or so...it hurts when he moves it certain ways. It seems like it has been getting worse, so he decided this week to go see a doctor about it. He decided to work from home on Monday, hoping he could get in to the doctor that day, but there weren't any appointments available until Tuesday in the late morning. He worked from home on Tuesday again (just in the morning...his boss told him he could just take the rest of the day off since he worked a lot of hours on Saturday) and then went to his appointment. The doctor doesn't know exactly what is wrong without doing some imaging, but our insurance requires that he get an x-ray before getting an MRI, so the doctor sent him to get an x-ray right then. Our insurance also requires him to take an antibiotic for 10 days, so he is doing that too. So far, the antibiotic does not seem to be helping...his pain has not diminished at all. The doctor called back today and said the x-rays show he has some arthritis in that shoulder, but there could be other problems too so he told him to go ahead and schedule the MRI. He'll be getting that done on September 9th. In the meantime, I feel like he groans every time he moves--not fun!!

Meanwhile, Seth started college this week. He has one class (history) on Mondays & Wednesdays and two classes (Film Study and Math) on Tuesdays & Thursdays. So far, it's mostly been introductory stuff and he hasn't had any homework besides some reading for his Film Study class. I took a few photos of him before he left for his first class on Monday:

Seth also went to Institute Wednesday evening and he is planning to start attending the YSA ward this Sunday.

My week was mostly consumed with Seminary preparations although I did have some down time too. On Tuesday the counselor in the stake presidency who is responsible for Seminary asked to meet with Tammy and I (a Zoom meeting) to talk about our class. I think he mostly just wanted to make sure we have the support we need, which is nice. I don't think we're actually going to know what we need until we get into classes for a week or two, but hopefully we are prepared. I spent most of the day on Wednesday planning my two lessons for next week. I still need to prepare some things like Power Point slides and at least one handout, but at least I have a pretty good idea what I'll be doing for those two lessons. I also did a lot of other Seminary related things like making an updated birthday list and a lot of other things that I have forgotten now. I could literally spend all my time doing Seminary stuff...there are still a lot of things we could be doing to get ready...but I'm trying to find some balance! 😅 Yesterday I took a break from Seminary stuff and did some other things I've been wanting to do, such as going through all my craft supplies and reorganizing the cabinet that I store them in. 

I did do a few other enjoyable things this week. I read the entire book for book chat...it was an easy read and pretty entertaining so I enjoyed it. (The book is called Falling Like Rain.) The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, with a lot of sunny days, cool mornings, low humidity, soft breezes, and high temperatures in the 70s or low 80s. Frank and I went on a walk Wednesday evening and again this evening. On Wednesday we walked down by the river behind our house:

Tonight we walked further, but it wasn't as scenic, so I forgot to take pictures. I've also taken the opportunity to walk out on the deck as much as possible, even if it's just for a few minutes. I've been doing a lot better at going to bed earlier and getting up earlier so I've been able to catch a few sunrises and I have seen some deer too:

I've also done a little bit of coloring, which is very therapeutic.

Today I went to the temple with Tammy and another sister in our ward. Tammy and I were talking to try to figure out a time to do something for Seminary, and discovered that we both had appointments to go to the temple today for the same session, so she invited me to go with her. It was nice to go with friends and to not have to drive. The temple was beautiful as always but I didn't see any butterflies today.

Even though Frank worked from home on Tuesday, he did go to the temple to do his regular shift that night. Today he had an interview for the new position that he applied for a week or two ago. He says he doesn't feel really great about how the interview went, but I think he's probably being too hard on himself. 

Seth worked today but wasn't scheduled the rest of the week so he has had plenty of free time. He did get a call tonight asking if he could cover a shift for tomorrow so he is going to do that. 

I've been really trying to step back and let him figure out all his college stuff without help from me. I haven't been waking him up or reminding him to go to class or to do his homework. (And so far, he's made it to all his classes on time. 😊) If he had gone away to college somewhere I would not be there to remind him or help him, so I feel like he needs to learn to do these things on his own. I also told him a few weeks ago that if he needs something from the store, it is his responsibility to let me know on either Sunday night or Wednesday night (I go grocery shopping on Monday and Thursday mornings). He has some things that he eats that Frank and I don't, and up until now I have been checking those things and buying more of them when they get low. I told him it is his job to do that now. Sometimes he has remembered but not always. Yesterday he got up pretty late and he said "Oh, have you been to the store yet?" When I told him I had, he asked "Did you get bread?" (He uses white bread but Frank and I use whole wheat.) I said "Nope. I didn't know you needed more." Hopefully after things like that happen a few times, he will start remembering to let me know what he needs. We've also been setting down a couple of ground rules like he can't play video games after 8:00 pm, because that's when we go to bed and he can get loud when he is playing sometimes and that wakes us up. Also, if he is not coming straight home after classes he needs to let me know because he has my car and I might need it. (He came home an hour after classes one day this week; fortunately I didn't need my car.) We are figuring things out and hopefully when he is ready to venture out on his own he will be better prepared. 

That's all I have to report from these parts for this week.

Pillow Project

I recently finished a fairly big project, and although I have written about this project and included photos in my weekly posts over the last couple of years, I want to have a record of this project all in one post...so here it is. 

This project began a couple of years ago when I noticed that some throw pillows I had purchased a few years before were starting to look a little shabby. The pillows are Thanksgiving themed, but I had kept them on the couch year round because we can be thankful all year, right? It was fall, and my first thought was that it would be nice to make some Christmas themed covers for these pillows. Then I realized that if I did that, after Christmas I would have to take those covers off and go back to the original pillows and they would keep getting more wear and tear. That's when I had the thought that I could make covers for every month of the year, and this project began. 

I remembered back in a high school needle arts class that we learned to make quilt blocks and then we turned them into pillows. I really enjoyed that, so I decided to make quilted pillow covers. Mom had given me a couple of quilting books and I ended up using patterns from one of these books to make most of the quilt blocks. 

I got a few other patterns from a couple of quilting magazines that I have. It was a long project...I was teaching Seminary simultaneously, so I didn't have a lot of free time. However, I had a lot of fun choosing fabrics and deciding which quilt block patterns to use for each month. I learned a lot of new techniques and it felt great to be trying new things! Overall, I was very happy with the results. Some of my fabric choices (April, October) didn't end up looking as good as I thought they would, but many others turned out even better than I had anticipated. Enough explanations...here's the photos!

January: Bow Tie

The back of Bow Tie:

January: Rail Fence

The back of Rail Fence:

February: Friendship Star

The back of Friendship Star:

February: Wedding Ring

The back of Wedding Ring:

March: Monkey Wrench

March: LeMoyne Star

The backs of both March pillows are made from this fabric:

April: Lily

April: Basket

The backs of both April pillows are made from this fabric (hard to see...there are the outlines of white bunnies all over the fabric):

May: Beautiful Butterfly

May: Spring Bloom

The backs of both May pillows are made from this fabric:

June: Double Nine Patch

June: Jacob's Ladder

The backs of both June pillows are made from this fabric:

July: Ohio Star

July: Grandma's Fan

The backs of both July pillows are made from this fabric:

August: Honey Bee

August: Cathedral Window

The backs of both August pillows are made from this fabric:

September: Maple Mayhem 1

Back of Maple Mayhem 1:

September: Maple Mayhem 2 

Back of Maple Mayhem 2:

October: Nine Patch 1

October: Nine Patch 2

The backs of both October pillows are made from this fabric:

November: Friends & Family (Original Pillow)

November: Be Thankful (Original Pillow)

December: Star in a Star

December: Goose Tracks

The backs of both December pillows are made from this fabric: