Weekly Review January 31 '25

Where did January go? It really flew by. I'm not complaining about that, though!

There weren't as many events going on this week, but we did have school and Seminary all 5 days this week for the first time this year! I noticed that I have been feeling a bit more tired, but that's understandable since I'm adjusting back to getting up really early every weekday. On Tuesday I took two naps! (They were both short.) It was a really good Seminary week, though. The youth in our class are starting to participate more than they ever have and there's just a happier feeling in the class, overall. It's really great to get a peek inside their minds when they choose to answer questions...they have some amazing thoughts!! I'm teaching 3 lessons next week and somehow I miraculously have all 3 of them planned. I still need to create Power Point slides for all 3 lessons and probably do a little fine tuning, but the bulk of the work is done. I prepared 2 of them on Tuesday evening (while at the church during Seth's YM activity) and I prepared the third one yesterday. I am really loving diving into the Doctrine and Covenants in a way that I never have before. I love hearing the voice of the Lord! It's been really sweet.

Going back to last Friday...our heater was having some issues so we had someone come look at it. The humidifier is leaking water and unfortunately the guy who came couldn't fix that problem...we are going to have to get a plumber to do that. Frank was able to buy the part we need, but we need to find a plumber to do the work. The good news is, the rest of the furnace is fine and the guy who looked at it said it will probably run forever...it's probably just not as energy efficient as new ones. The other problem is we may have problems finding parts if they need to be replaced. But anyway...no need to replace the furnace at this point, and we're happy about that.

As usual, I can't remember much about Saturday. I finished up Seminary lesson preparations and I also sewed the backs onto the March pillow covers, so they are done. I'm sure it didn't take all day for me to do those two things, but that's all I can remember! (I'm sure I practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor too, because I always try to do those two things on Saturdays.) 

Sunday was quite busy...I feel like I went back and forth to the church most of the day because we had church from 10:30 to 12:30, I had an appointment with our bishop at 1:30 (with my team teacher...to talk about Seminary), and choir practice at 4:00. Somewhere in there we also had family night (except for the activity / treat part) and dinner. Frank took Seth to mission prep that evening so that I could go to bed. I got to talk to Jared for a little while, too.

On Monday after getting the regular chores done, I worked on the pillow covers for April...I cut out all the pieces. I'm not sure I like how the different fabrics I chose look together, now that I have the pieces cut out, so I may make a few adjustments. 

Seth worked on Monday evening as usual. We did family night activity and treat before he left. Frank and I got some dinner and watched an episode of the show we are watching together (it's called Madame Secretary). Shortly before it ended, a friend in the ward called me...she didn't have any food for dinner, so I took her some cans of soup, canned chicken, and a loaf of bread. Then I contacted the RS president to let her know what was going on and she is working on getting some more food for her. By the time I took the food over and visited with my friend, Seth only have about 40 minutes left of his shift and I had to drive right by his work on my way home so I just went to his work and read through next week's Seminary lessons while I waited for him to finish his shift and then brought him home.

Tuesday Frank had his temple shift as usual and Seth had a combined YM / YW activity...they had an etiquette dinner. He invited his friend Lorie to come to this activity. We walked her out to her car at the end (as we were leaving at the same time) and I noticed she and Seth were holding hands. She also gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before getting into her car. I guess things are warming up in that relationship.

On Wednesday I worked my first VITA shift of the tax season...well, sort of! We actually didn't have any appointments. I have no idea why the guy in charge had us all come in when there were no appointments scheduled! He did say he wanted help with some of the scheduling, so I spent a couple of hours helping him go through that. Then I got to go home early, at least. Next week we do have appointments, so I should be jumping into the actual tax season next week. 

After I got home, some friends in our ward came over to use our showers. They have a well and something went wrong with it so they didn't have water from Sunday through yesterday (it finally got fixed yesterday). I can't imagine going without water for that long! They were really happy to have a chance to shower. We enjoyed visiting with them for a while afterwards. 

Seth had an assignment for his English class that he needed help with that evening also so I didn't get any Seminary lesson prep done that day. (The assignment was challenging...he had to read a 7 page essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson and then write a reaction to it. I read the essay so that I could help him with the assignment, and it was hard for me to understand! Definitely not easy reading.) 

Yesterday I got caught up in watching the news about the plane crash at Reagan National (so sad!!) for quite a while in the morning, but somehow still got all the regular chores done and also prepared my 3rd Seminary lesson. I'm not sure how I managed that, but I am grateful! Seth worked for quite a while on homework for his CTC class. 

Today I went to the temple as usual. It was my last chance to go for a while because the temple will be closed for the next couple of weeks for maintenance. 

I've done a little bit of reading this week, but have not made it very far into Meditations. There's a very long introduction (50 + pages) and I haven't even got through that yet. (Frank says I should just skip the introduction, but the introduction gives a lot of background information that I think I will need to know to understand the book itself.) 

I listened to a lot of podcasts while I was working on other chores this week. I finished the podcast about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. Now I'm listening to a podcast about the First Vision, which I did listen to already but it was a few years ago so I'm listening to it again. I have felt two things happening to me as I listen to these podcasts...one is that I feel my testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet growing. The other is that I feel drawn to my ancestors who lived through those times with him. I have really been wanting to pull out the books I have about Benjamin Franklin Johnson and Frederick Granger Williams and read those parts of their histories again. Hopefully I will have time to do that sometime soon. I definitely want to read them before I go to Kirtland this summer.

Speaking of going to Kirtland this summer...I got an email this week inviting me and Frank to be chaperones for youth conference this summer (they are going to Kirtland). Our stake leaders decided to give all the YW presidencies and Seminary teachers and their spouses first dibs on being chaperones for this trip, if we want to be. Normally, I would definitely want to do that, but since I will be going to Kirtland the week before youth conference, I'm not so sure I want to turn around and go back (plus Amy may still be here). So we're considering it, but thinking it's probably not going to work out. 

The weather has warmed up quite a bit (thankfully) since last week. Yesterday it got into the low 50s which felt like spring thaw after all the subzero weather we had last week. Today is not as warm as that but it's still in the 40s and it's been raining off and on all day. 

That's all the news from us for this week.

Weekly Review January 24 '25

This week was busy, as I expected, but it was also another week where things did not go as I thought they would. 

Last Friday night Seth went to a party at Lorie's house. A girl in our ward was invited to go to the party too and her parents had a conflict so we took her to the party and back along with Seth. While Seth was at the party, Frank and I went to dinner with a couple from our ward (the Whipples) to celebrate both Frank's and Brother Whipple's birthdays (their birthdays are a day apart). That was a lot of fun.

As usual, I can't remember much about Saturday. I did get my 2nd Seminary lesson for this week planned and the usual chores done. Frank did a lot of work for clients, including a trip to his client that is 90 minutes away. I'm pretty sure I did quite a bit of quilting on one of the March quilt blocks, too. 

There was a snowstorm predicted for Sunday and it looked like it was going to be pretty significant, so on Saturday evening our ward leadership made the decision to combine with the ward that meets at 9:00 am and to only have Sacrament meeting. (The storm was supposed to arrive around 10:00 am.) It turns out that they also decided to shorten the meeting...they asked the sister missionaries who are assigned to their ward to share their testimonies, and they were the only speakers. We were done by 9:30. By then, the timing of the storm had been pushed back a bit but that was a blessing because we also had a baptism to attend that day (for the boy in my Seminary class). Originally, his baptism was scheduled for 5:00 pm, but the decision was also made on Saturday evening to move his baptism to noon. I was afraid that still wasn't going to be early enough...it was supposed to be snowing pretty hard by noon originally...but the storm held off and it was only snowing lightly when we left for the baptism. By the time we were heading back home, it had started to snow harder and was beginning to stick, but we made it home without difficulty so it all worked out perfectly. The baptism was beautiful!! Several kids in my Seminary class came and a lot of people from our ward came too. Really, every baptism should be like that...with so much love and support from the ward. I felt so much joy! I have some nice pictures from the baptism but I'm trying to be more cautious about including photos of other people's children on my blog so I won't include them here. Just looking at them makes me happy, though! They are such a great group of kids and there is a lot of love between them. 

After we got home from the baptism, it snowed the rest of the evening. Frank and Seth went out later to shovel and clean off our cars. We got about 5 inches of snow in the end, which was less than predicted but still a decent amount, and it looked really pretty. 

You can see Frank and Seth cleaning off our cars in this photo:

The next day was MLK Day, so there was no school and Frank was off work which was convenient considering the recent snowfall. The sun came out and it was beautiful:

It was really cold, though, and like most of the nation, we have been in the grip of an unusually severe cold snap all week. Today the temperatures got above freezing and it felt almost mild by comparison. The weather was responsible for all the things that didn't go as I thought they would. We were supposed to have a 4 day school / Seminary week, but there were two days with 2 hour delayed openings, so we ended up with only 2 days of Seminary. I think most of the shoveling / plowing got done on Monday but the temperatures in the mornings were in the single digits with wind chills below freezing so they opened the schools 2 hours late on both Tuesday and Wednesday so the temperatures could "warm up" to the teens before kids had to be waiting at bus stops or walking to school. 

A few screen shots from my weather app on Tuesday:

And one from Wednesday:

The delays meant that my team teacher and I had to do more adjusting to the Seminary schedule. I taught on Thursday and she taught this morning. We changed next week so now I am teaching 2 lessons instead of 3. (I'll probably teach 3 the following week.) The two lessons I am teaching next week are mostly prepared...one of them I already had done because I was supposed to teach it this week. I came up with an outline for the other one on Sunday evening. I haven't actually looked at it since then so I will need to finish preparing it tomorrow. It's definitely been a crazy Seminary month, though! It's January 24th and between scheduled days off and snow days / delays, we have only had 6 days of Seminary! We'll probably get back into a regular routine soon (unless it snows some more!). 

Late mornings notwithstanding, we did have a lot of events happening in the evenings this week. Seth worked on Monday evening. After I dropped him off at work, I ran an errand for one of the women I minister to. She and her husband are both sick and they needed some medicine so I picked it up and took it to them. On Tuesday evening Frank had his temple shift as usual. I had an orientation meeting for VITA that evening, which was online. I had to leave early to take Seth to the YM/YW activity. I stayed for the activity because parents were invited. It was "New Beginnings"...they introduced the two new girls who were coming into YW (there weren't any boys coming into YM this year) and then did a "guess who" activity about the rest of the youth. Then they had a slideshow of all the events from the last year. It was nice, but went kind of long so we didn't get home until about 9:00. We already knew schools were delayed the next day, though, so we weren't as anxious to get to bed as early as we usually do. 

On Wednesday after Frank got home from work we had family night since we hadn't been able to have it before then. (For the activity, we played a new game I got for Christmas called Tenzies. It was quite fun!) After family night we had dinner and I had book chat that evening. We discussed I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Now we are going to read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It was my turn to bring the book suggestions this month and I'm glad they picked this book because I was really interested in reading it. Book chat actually ended earlier than usual so I thought I would get to bed almost on time but just as I was getting ready to get in bed, Tanner called. (He forgot what time we go to bed on school nights.) We didn't talk a long time, though.

Last night there was a RS activity...we played board games and it was a lot of fun. Yesterday I also had a dentist appointment (just my bi-yearly check up). Today I went to the temple. So as you can see, it was a pretty busy week. 

In between everything else, I did a lot of quilting and finished both March quilt blocks. I finished the first one on Monday:

(The coloring looks a little odd because it was sitting in bright sunlight)

I finished the second one yesterday:

While I was quilting, I listened to Joseph Smith Papers podcasts. I finished listening to one about Kirtland and then I listened to one about the Nauvoo Temple and have now started one about the events leading up to the martydom. I've really enjoyed listening to these podcasts. 

I made a number of trips to the library this week and last week because I had requested a number of books through inter-library loan (so I could decide which books to offer for choices for book chat). I read one of the books this week (it was very short) called Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson, MD. It was a self help book about managing good and bad times in life. I really enjoyed it and think there were some valuable ideas in it. 

I also made a trip to the fabric store this week because I realized I did not have enough fabric to make the backs of the June pillow covers. However, I ran into the same problem I had last time I went to the fabric store to get more of a certain fabric...they didn't have the fabric I need in stock anymore. So frustrating!! I found something else that could work, but I wasn't super happy with it so I decided to see if I could track down the fabric I was looking for online. The employee at JoAnn's said if I could find the item number I could probably find it on their website. She said the item number would be on the receipt. I bought the fabric in July, so I wasn't too hopeful, but after a fairly short search through our huge bag of receipts that need to be shredded, I actually found the receipt I was looking for and using the item number, I was able to find the fabric online and ordered it today. I had to order more than I needed and the shipping costs are ridiculous, but I am really happy to be getting the exact fabric I wanted. One of my friends who sews a lot was at Jo Ann's last week and one of the employees told her that it's looking like the store might be closing. There is no other place to get fabric in Frederick, so we are both really concerned about that. We decided that we will just have to fly to Utah to get fabric for our projects in the future!

My right eye has been bothering me off and on all week. It's not as bad as my left eye felt when it was infected back in December, but some days there have been times when it feels like there is something in that eye. When I look, I can't see anything unusual. It also stings some times and waters a lot at other times. I guess I really should get an appointment with an opthalmologist and have both of my eyes thoroughly checked. It's possible that it is just the blepheritis acting up, though. I am very diligent about cleansing my eyelids every day (which is the only thing that helps prevent the symptoms of blepheritis) so it's frustrating that I still have so many issues with it. Meanwhile, my left elbow still bothers me at times. It's not hurting as much as it did back in November, but it still hurts sometimes. I love getting old!

This was the first week of the school semester so Seth's schedule has changed. He goes to the CTC in the afternoon now. His first block class is English 101, which is a college class through FCC (but the teacher teaches it at the high school). It's actually a Tuesday / Thursday class, so technically he doesn't have to go to it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. However, they have a place at the high school where he can go during that block and work on homework for this class and on Fridays his teacher has "office hours" and is there to help them if they need extra tutoring. For second block, he is taking a required Health class this term and he will take a financial literacy class second term. 

I can't think of anything else that happened and Frank wants to go to bed (and for that matter...so do I) so I will sign off until next week.

Weekly Review January 17 '25

January is going by fast, which is fine since it's usually pretty cold and miserable. We are definitely having a colder winter this year than we have had in quite a while. We kept pretty busy this week but I don't think there is as much to talk about. 

On Sunday evening all the youth from the 3 wards that meet in our building gathered to watch the youth devotional that was broadcast the previous Sunday, so Frank took Seth to that. I stayed home to look over my Seminary lesson for Tuesday (still hadn't done much to finish preparing it) and then went to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well...I had one of those nights where I woke up after a few hours of sleep and didn't go back to sleep, so I had to take a nap on Monday. I did manage to get all the regular chores done and finished preparing Tuesday's lesson also. Seth had to work that evening, so we weren't able to do family night activity until Wednesday night (we did the lesson portion on Sunday). 

Tuesday was Frank's birthday. He worked, but got to come home earlier than usual. We went out to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate and gave him some gifts. (He didn't go to the temple that night and Seth didn't have a YM activity because they had a temple baptism trip planned for Thursday instead.) 

He got a bunch of fun socks and some items to help care for his new cast iron pans. (Btw, I am a fan of cast iron now. They do require a little extra effort to maintain them, but stuff doesn't stick to them and they are easy to clean and practically indestructable. Much better than the non stick pans we have been using the past 3 or 4 years, which just don't last long.) He also got some Crumbl cookies that Tanner sent to him. 

On Wednesday I started working on Seminary lessons for next week but didn't get very far. We had Frank's birthday cheesecake that night because we were too full (after eating out) to eat it on Tuesday. Frank actually made it himself because he's better at making cheesecake than I am. It had an oreo crust and he wanted blueberry pie filling for the topping.

We did our family night activity that evening...we played a game that Seth got for Christmas called Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. It was absolutely hilarious...we were all laughing so hard at all the mistakes we made! 

On Wednesday evening the high councilor who talked to me last month about YW camp called me back to follow up and much to my surprise but delight, said that they had found someone else to be in charge of the food for camp! Remember that feeling I had when I was at the temple that it would all work out and I didn't need to worry about it? That's exactly what happened, and I am so grateful!! (And especially grateful that because of that spiritual impression, I have not been worrying about it for the last month...a tender mercy for sure!!) They also found someone to be the assistant, so I don't even have to do that. He just asked if I would be willing to be on the committee to help and I am more than willing to do that. What a relief!

Wednesday was the last day of the semester at school and Thursday and today are days off (and Monday will be as well, because of MLK Day). It looks like Seth will get As in all his classes (not totally sure about his CTC class because the grade doesn't get updated regularly). He had a certification exam for LINUX on Wednesday which unfortunately he didn't pass. He wasn't really far below a passing score so he probably could have passed it if he had put more effort into preparing for the test. I have been nagging him about it for weeks, telling him he should put more time into preparing. Maybe next time he will listen to me! He has one more class this last semester where he can earn a certification so I told him he should set a goal to do whatever it takes to prepare adequately for that test and he said he would. 

One side note about Seminary: it is really nice to have a television mounted on the wall in the RS room. We use the television almost every day, and for the last year and a half we have been walking down to the library (on the other side of the building) to get a television every day and then returning the television to the library after class every day. It saves a lot of time now that we don't have to do that! They took down the blackboard when they put up the television and are replacing it with a white board but the white board hasn't arrived yet. 

Oh, and another Seminary note: on Wednesday the lesson was on the First Vision. At some point last semester I watched a video of the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve reciting The Living Christ. (They each recited a portion of it.) I mentioned to my team teacher that I thought it would be cool to do something like that with the Seminary kids and she really liked the idea. On Wednesday she decided to do that: she gave each of them a few sentences from Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision (from the Pearl of Great Price) to memorize, and then she recorded them as they recited it. (I was actually in it too because we were one student short of what we needed.) It turned out really well and my team teacher shared it with the parents. It was actually really powerful when we went through it the first time and both my team teacher and I really felt a strong spirit and we both got teary eyed. It was beautiful! (I think the kids felt something too. 😊) 

Yesterday I got all the regular chores done and worked a little more on Seminary lessons but I still have quite a bit to do. I teach two lessons next week and one is completely prepared but the other one is still just an outline. I want to finish it and work on one for the following week, if possible, because I'm teaching 3 the following week and next week looks really busy so I know I won't have a ton of time to prepare. Seth was supposed to go to the temple to do baptisms last night but when I drove him over to the church it was snowing and ultimately they decided to cancel the trip because it looked like the roads were going to be really bad between here and the temple, especially as they were coming home. Of course, they didn't make that decision until I got back home, but Frank picked him up so that I wouln't have to go back. We didn't end up getting much snow but I think they got more to the south of us (where the temple is). 

Today I did not go to the temple as I usually do since Seth is home from school. The tax season starts the week after next, so I will probably go to the temple every other Friday instead of every Friday until the tax season is over. That's what I did last year, and it helped me balance my time so that I had time to volunteer, prepare Seminary lessons, get the household chores done, and also go to the temple regularly. I got the finances caught up this morning and Frank and I also met with a guy to talk more about life insurance...we're still trying to work out what to do about that. He gave us some good information so hopefully we will be able to make a decision soon. (Frank is working from home today, as he usually does on Fridays but between work meetings and doing work for clients I have not seen him except for the 30 minutes we were meeting about life insurance.) 

In between everything else, I have been able to get some sewing done this week. On Wednesday I sewed the backs onto the February pillow covers, so they are done.

I cut out pieces for the strips and the backs for the March pillow covers on Wednesday too. Last night I sewed the strips onto the March quilt blocks, marked them, and got them ready for quilting. 

After I get the March pillow covers done, my progress is going to slow down quite a bit because all I have done to prepare for April and May is to choose the quilt block patterns and buy the fabric. I still have to cut out all the pieces, so they are going to take a bit longer to put together. Hopefully I will still be able to stay ahead enough that the pillow covers are ready by the month they are needed. 

I'll finish up with a few sunrise photos from yesterday:

And one more from this morning:

Weekly Review January 11 '25

I'm a day late getting this week's post written--I just ran out of time to do it yesterday. This week was busy but definitely didn't go how I thought it would. When I finished last week's post, I said I wanted to do some sewing. I did get to do that...I sewed strips on the edges of each of the February quilt blocks and got them ready to quilt. I also sewed one of the March quilt blocks together.

The snowstorm kind of fizzled out and we didn't get much snow until later. Around dinner time, it did snow hard for a little while and it was really windy too so that visibility was really bad for a while. We only got about an inch of snow, though.

On Saturday the 4th I went to a regional training for Seminary teachers which was held at the stake center next to the temple. My team teacher went also so we went down together. She and her husband were planning to go to a temple session afterwards, so I drove so that she could ride home with her husband later. We had a nice visit on the way down, discussing plans for Seminary. The training was good although maybe not quite as helpful as I had hoped. I ran into an old friend (used to be in our ward) and enjoyed visiting with her during lunch at the end of the training. 

When I texted Frank to let him know I was on my way home, he mentioned that our handyman friend (a member of our stake that we have hired to do a number of home repair / improvement projects in the past) was at our house fixing Seth's shower. Earlier that week, Seth had pulled up on the piece on the faucet that directs the water up to the shower head, and it had broken off. We actually purchased a new faucet / shower head etc. for that shower probably a decade ago but had never got around to installing it. We had purchased new hardware for our shower at the same time and hadn't installed it yet, either. Frank had tried to remove the old faucet but ran into difficulties, so he texted our friend to see if he could come look at it. When I got home, I was surprised to find not only a mess in Seth's bathroom, but in our bathroom as well and there was a hole cut in the wall in our closet and another in Seth's room. What?! I found out later that the holes in the wall were there because he was installing access panels so that we can get to the plumbing to both showers. It turned out that it was extremely difficult to remove the old faucet (it's a good thing Frank called for help) and the new hardware we had purchased didn't fit right so we had to buy some additional pieces to get the hardware to fit right and our friend also discovered some issues with the plumbing, so what was supposed to be a quick project turned into a major all day project that wasn't done until 9:30 that night! That definitely wasn't in our planned budget but we do have new hardware installed in both showers now (finally, after about a decade!), Seth's shower works again, and we have access to the plumbing that we didn't have before so it's all good.

On Sunday the 5th we didn't have to get up as early as we've become accustomed to because our church time moved from 9:00 to 10:30. I really don't mind the earlier time, but it's kind of nice to be in the middle time slot because we see people from both of the other wards that meet in our building. We can't watch Music & Spoken Word live anymore, but we are still able to watch a recording of it after we get home from church. In testimony meeting, I was really happy when a boy who is in my Seminary class (who isn't a member...he's been investigating the church for several months) got up and said that he knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God (he actually said "I would be committing blasphemy if I said it wasn't the word of God") and he asked all of us (who, he said "I love and trust with all my heart") to pray for him that he will know the next step he needs to take. In my mind, I thought "Well, I know what his next step should be, but he needs to figure that out for himself." I have prayed for him this week but I was still a little surprised when I got a text from him on Thursday afternoon. Here are screen shots of our conversation (I colored over his name and names of other people for privacy reasons):

I am so thrilled that he has made the decision to be baptized! 😊 Pure joy! 😇😇 On Friday morning when I woke up I had another text message from him:

That was definitely the highlight of my week. 

Back to Sunday, though...the forecast was looking like we definitely were going to get snow and that school would be at least delayed (if not cancelled) on Monday, so we made the decision late Sunday afternoon to cancel Seminary for Monday morning. Then the school system actually made the decision to cancel school a few hours later. We did get some snow...probably about 5 inches, when all was said and done...but not the 8 or more inches they were predicting. Because of the timing of the storm (it snowed in the morning and then more in the evening) school was cancelled on Tuesday as well. (Not all the roads and parking lots were plowed and sidewalks around the schools weren't shoveled after the second round of snow.) We weren't super surprised when there was a 2 hour delay on Wednesday either but we were completely taken by surprise when there was a 2 hour delay on Thursday as well. I still have no idea why that happened. The decision to cancel or delay was made the night before in every case except Thursday...we got a notice about Thursday's delay at 5:41 am Thursday morning. We were up and ready for Seminary...about to leave...so that was super frustrating!! 

Because of all the cancellations and delays, we went from a 5 day Seminary week to a 1 day Seminary week and my team teacher and I had to keep adjusting our plans. We started out with plan A, then went to plan B, C, and D before finally actually doing plan E! Since one of my lessons was an introduction to the Doctrine & Covenants, that's the lesson that we kept planning to do, so my week felt similar to a week when you're assigned jury duty...I had to be prepared every day, but was never sure if I was actually going to have to do anything! I did finally teach that lesson on Friday. The other lesson I prepared I will be teaching in a few weeks. It's a life preparation lesson, so it can be given anytime. 

A few snow photos:

My team teacher and I met on Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to do some planning (that was plan C 😂). We also cleaned out our wall cabinet...I don't remember if I mentioned in previous posts that the RS room (where we have Seminary) was repainted the last week before Christmas break (we had to meet in the Primary room instead that week). In that process, our wall cabinet got really dusty, so we pulled everything out, dusted it off and then reorganized, threw out a few things, and put everything we were keeping back in it. Later that day, Frank took Seth to the church because the YM had planned to do some shoveling for members of the ward and he discovered that there was a guy there mounting a television on the wall in the RS room. That was good news for us! 

This post is kind of a jumbled mess, but that's probably appropriate since my week felt that way too. 😅I made another trip to the church on Thursday to make sure I knew how to connect my laptop to the new television. 

Meanwhile, Frank was supposed to go back to work on Monday but the University of Maryland campus was closed on Monday and Tuesday so he didn't have to work. On Wednesday and Friday he worked from home (as usual) so the only day he went into work was Thursday. He didn't do his temple shift this week either because the federal government was closed on Tuesday and when the federal government closes, the temple closes too. Seth, of course, had 2 shortened days and 1 full day of school so he had a lot of time off also. He was scheduled to work on Monday from 4:00 to 8:00 but a few hours before his shift, they called him and said they were getting about 1 customer every 2 hours, so they didn't need him to come in. 

I had time off from Seminary, of course, but other than that my week was the same as usual...I still had all the usual housework, laundry, shopping, etc. to do so I kept pretty busy. I didn't spend as much time on actual lesson preparations because the change in schedule was impacting next week's Seminary schedule as well so I didn't want to start preparing lessons until I knew how many lessons I would be teaching and which one(s). We only have 3 school days next week so in the end it turns out that I will only be teaching one lesson next week and it will be on Tuesday. I actually still need to prepare that lesson...I have read it a couple of times and I have an outline, but I need to do a lot of solidfiying and fleshing out still. (That will be my next project after I finish this post). 

On Wednesday I took a friend in my ward to an appointment...she's been on a waiting list to get an apartment for a couple of years at this one place and she finally made it to the top of the list and an apartment was available. She had to go to an interview, though. Another friend in the ward was going to take her but then that friend got sick so I ended up taking her instead. It turns out the apartment is on the 3rd floor and my friend is scared of heights and refuses to live that high up! I encouraged her a couple of times to just go look at it before deciding she wouldn't be comfortable there, but she wouldn't do it. The good news is that she will retain her spot at the top of the waiting list so as soon as a 1 bedroom  apartment becomes available on the ground floor, she gets first chance for it. The bad news is, people rarely move out of this place since it is government subsidized, so they only leave if they need to move to assisted living or a nursing home (or sometimes someone will pass away). So my friend might be waiting for several more months or longer for a place to open up. She has been homeless...moving from one hotel to another or sleeping on friend's or family members couches for 5 years! I was really hoping she would finally get to move into her own place. But it is her choice, of course. Last night this same friend called me because she didn't have any food for dinner so Frank and I took her some food and then I called the RS president, who is going to get some more meals set up for her until her next social security check comes in. Some people have such hard lives! 

Yesterday I went to the temple and it was really great to be able to go back...with the holidays, I hadn't been there in 3 weeks. The temple looks pretty in the snow:

The traffic yesterday was a lot worse than usual and I thought I wasn't going to make it to my scheduled session, but I managed to squeak in just in time. 

After I got home from the temple, I spent a lot of time updating the finances. I also picked Seth up from school and we took scriptures and Seminary study journals from last semester to a brother and sister in our class who haven't been coming lately. We got to have a brief but nice visit with them. Between that, taking food to my friend, and talking to Scott (he called me that evening) I ran out of time to write this post. 

In between everything else, I did manage to get some sewing done this week. On Saturday (after I got home from Seminary training) I sewed the other March quilt block:

I finished quilting one of the February quilt blocks on Tuesday and the second one on Thursday:

After I sew the backs onto them, they will be done. I discovered that I don't have enough fabric for the border strips for the March quilt blocks, so on Wednesday I went to the fabric store to get more and discovered that they don't have the fabric I need for that anymore. 😧 I was able to find something else that will work, even though it won't be as good. 

I had an issue with my car this week...on the way home from Seminary training on Saturday, my check engine light went on. I wasn't thrilled, as I had just got my car back the day before! Frank did some diagnosing and decided the car at least needed an oil change. He took it in for an oil change on Tuesday or Wednesday (I can't remember now which day it was). The light didn't go off and he thought he was going to need to replace a part but then on Thursday the light did go off and it hasn't come back on so that's good news. My car is really dirty because of all the road treatments for the snow (salt etc.) but I can't take it through an automatic car wash until early February because the paint on the new mirror piece has to cure. And it's much too cold to wash my car by hand, so I guess it's just going to look awful for another 3+ weeks. I'm just glad to have it back, and glad it is working!

Since it is now dinner time, I might as well report on today before I sign off for this week. This morning I read scriptures, practiced ukulele, and cleaned the kitchen floor. I went to lunch with two friends from my ward and we hadn't had a chance to talk for a long time so we ended up talking for nearly 3 hours. It was super nice to get caught up with them though! Frank and Seth went to lunch together while I was gone. Seth drove there and back so he got some driving hours in. 

Frank is making dinner and probably has it almost done, so I should go help him. That's it for this week!