Weekly Review March 28 '25

 This week has been busy with lots of planned and a few unplanned events going on. I mentioned last week that I knew the weekend would be busy, and it was. 

On Saturday morning there was a stake Women's Conference. My Seminary team teacher was playing the piano for a musical number and she asked me to be her page turner, so I got there a little early to turn the pages for her while they practiced. The theme of the conference was "Rooted in Christ". There was a really great keynote speaker who talked about things we know about trees and related them to our relationships in our wards. Then we could go to two classes...it was hard to choose which ones because they all sounded really great. I went to one about helping people who don't feel like they belong and another one about scripture study skills. After the classes there was a luncheon and time for visiting. I really enjoyed all of it.

After the conference I worked on Seminary lessons, which included a trip to the store to get one item I decided I wanted for Monday's lesson. I also practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor. I had an interesting experience when I was leaving the store that I will write about later, because it connected to an experience I had on Sunday morning. 

That evening, Seth's friend Lorie was in a play at her high school so I took him to see that. The play was  a musical called Once Upon a Mattress. I remember Tim being in this play when we were in high school and I remembered the play being sweet and funny so I was happy to take Seth to see it. I did enjoy the play and it was really well done, although the quality of the singing didn't compare to the singing I remember from my high school. I always notice this when I go to anything that involves singing at the schools here in Maryland. I didn't realize how exceptional my school was for it's music program until I started attending high school plays and concerts out here. Some of the leads had really good voices, though. Lorie was in the ensemble and it was fun to watch her and she did a great job. We saw her for a few minutes afterwards. 

The play was in Brunswick...about 25 minutes from Frederick...so we got home pretty late and went straight to bed. (Frank was already asleep.) 

On Sunday morning I had choir practice before church because we sang in Sacrament meeting that day. We sang one of the new hymns, #1019 To Love like Thee. Here's the experience I had that I mentioned earlier. I sent an email to the choir director about it on Sunday evening (she's a good friend) so I'm just going to copy that email here:

I had an interesting experience with the hymn we sang today. Yesterday I went to the store to get a few things. There was a woman standing by the front door of the store holding a sign that said "Need money for food and diapers." She had a little girl with her. I very rarely carry cash, but I did happen to have some in my wallet. On my way out, I gave her some money. She was grateful and thanked me. When I got to my car, I had three thoughts come to me in quick succession. "I should have invited her to church". "Why didn't I give her all the cash I had? I don't need it." "Why didn't I talk to her for a while, ask her story, see her as a real person?" The truth is, I'm always really uncomfortable in situations like that. I want to help people, but I can imagine how difficult it would be to have to ask complete strangers for help. I know I would be really embarrassed to do that, so I feel embarrassment for the person who is asking. It feels awkward, and I just want to get out of the situation quickly. I've been pondering this experience (and others I have had like it) a lot. I'm realizing that maybe what will help that person the most to not feel embarrassed and to feel truly seen and loved, is if I don't act embarrassed, but take a few minutes to engage with them...to talk with them and show them that I see them as a person, not just a need. When I was thinking again about this experience this morning before practice, I remembered some of the words of our hymn: "None is so small, no soul so lost  That I should withhold my charity." and "Bless me, O Lord, to truly see  In each soul I meet Thy child divine." and "Help me, dear Lord, to love like Thee;  Grant me charity, I pray." I'm certain that the Savior would have given her all that He had, that He would have really seen her and taken the time to talk to her, and that He would have done whatever He could have done to bless her spiritually, not just temporally. In a very real way, I think that's what it would mean to love like Him in this situation. Obviously, I have a lot to work on in this area, but I'm grateful for the realization of what I could have done better because recognizing that is the first step to changing. This experience helped the hymn feel very powerful to me today. 

Since writing that email, I have also been thinking that the Lord is trying to teach me what it really means to love like He does in different situations in my life. I have a long way to go, but I'm working on it. That was a long tangent, but I didn't want to forget about this experience or what I learned from it.

Frank's stomach has been improving since last week but he still didn't feel too great on Sunday so he went home after Sacrament Meeting. Seth's friend Henry took him to mission prep class that evening which was really helpful. 

On Monday afternoon while Frank was at work, his left calf suddenly started to hurt a lot. He thought it was a charley horse at first...it was that kind of intense and sudden pain. When he was still limping and experiencing a lot of pain that evening, though, we started to wonder about it. To make a long story short, I ended up reading the inserts about the side effects for the two antibiotics he was taking for his stomach and discovered that a possible side effect for one of them was tendon damage. Some of the symptoms matched what he was feeling, so he called our doctor. Their after hours clinic was still open, but they thought he would need imaging done so they told him to go to the ER again. (Two ER visits in two weeks...this is getting old!!) Seth was at work and I needed to pick him up and I was also teaching Seminary Tuesday morning, of course, so Frank drove himself to the ER (thankfully it was his left leg, not right leg, that hurt) and told me to pick up Seth from work and then to go to bed. He kept me updated with how he was doing by texting me. I did manage to get some restless sleep before Frank got home around 10:30 that night. They tested him for a blood clot (which came back negative) but couldn't do an MRI because there was no one there to do it. (Not sure why.) They prescribed a different antibiotic for him, told him to keep his leg elevated and iced as much as possible, and told him to follow up with his doctor. Frank already had an appointment with our doctor for Wednesday, fortunately. When he saw our doctor, he sent Frank to get an MRI, which he was able to get on Wednesday evening. We just got the results of the MRI late this afternoon. He has a torn muscle in his left calf, not a torn or ruptured tendon, as we anticipated. I still think it must be related to his medication somehow because he was not moving in any way when the pain hit him. So strange!! It has not been easy for him to keep his leg elevated and on ice for much of the week--he's been working and he had to go in on Tuesday--but he has tried to rest his leg as much as possible and will continue to do that. It won't be easy, though, since he has a business trip next week. 

Frank needed to go into work on Tuesday because he had his interview for three possible positions. He feels like the interview went well. He was told on Tuesday that a decision would be made by Friday, but today he got an email stating that the decisions have been delayed. We have no idea how long it will be before we hear anything else. Frank came home after the interview and tried to get some rest. He wasn't up to doing his shift at the temple.

Meanwhile, I had a Dexa scan on Tuesday morning after Seminary. I got the results for that late this afternoon as well and the scan showed that I have osteopenia, which is the precursor to osteoporosis. I'm supposed to start taking calcium and vitamin D supplements and should get another scan in two years. 

Some friends in our ward came by Tuesday afternoon to check on Frank / visit with us. They had heard about Frank's injured leg. They brought him an apple pie, which I think was so thoughtful! We had a really nice visit with them but visited so long that there wasn't time to make dinner before I needed to take Seth to his YM activity. We ordered some food for dinner that Seth and I went to pick up. We also got some Crumbl cookies because it was Seth's turn to choose family night treat and that's what he wanted. (We usually do family night activity and treat on Wednesdays now because Seth usually works on Mondays and Frank is usually gone to the temple on Tuesdays, plus there are youth activities on Tuesdays as well). After dinner I took Seth to his YM activity and picked him back up when it was done. They played a Jeopardy game for the activity.

On Wednesday I did my VITA shift as usual. My first appointment of the day was a man who had four year's worth of taxes to do so I spent a lot of my shift completing those four tax returns. They weren't complicated, so I was able to get all four done in about 2 1/2 hours. Then I did one more return after that which was a lot more complicated, so I ended up staying late to complete it. I picked Seth up from school on my way home. Frank worked from home on Wednesday as usual, which was much easier on his leg. I started working on our income taxes on Wednesday afternoon and got quite a bit done but because we bought a new car for Frank last year and he uses his car for his business, there are some tax implications that are turning out to be complicated. The tax software is asking me a whole bunch of questions about the cars (former car and new one) that I don't always know the answers to, so I have been trying to track those answers down. Hopefully I will get all that figured out soon; I don't think there is a lot left to do besides that. This is the second time we have replaced his car since he started his business and I don't remember it being so complicated last time, but it was nearly 10 years ago so maybe I've just forgotten. We had family night activity and treat after Frank got back from getting his MRI. We played Sequence and it took a long time but I was the lucky winner at the end. 

My team teacher taught a lesson about putting on the whole armor of God on Wednesday morning and at the end she had the youth work together in teams to make things that represent each of the pieces of armour mentioned in those verses. They wrote phrases from the verses on the pieces of armour. Here are a few photos from that. The first two are of Seth and his partner, who were in charge of creating the helmet of salvation. The other one is one of the girls wearing all the pieces of armour that the class made.

 

Yesterday Frank got permission to work from home because of his leg. I spent most of the day getting all the usual chores done and I was also able to plan my Seminary lesson for Monday. This week has been so busy with things related to Frank's injury and so forth that yesterday was my first chance to put any work into Seminary lesson preparations for next week. (I was hoping to get the second lesson planned today, but things didn't go the way I planned.) On Thursday I was still trying to figure out if I would have time to squeeze in a trip to the temple today. The Seminary lesson I was preparing happened to be about the value of attending the temple throughout life and the more I worked on it, the more I felt like I needed to go to the temple whether I had time to do it or not. When I finished with the lesson, I decided to make myself an appointment for this morning but when I got online I noticed there were openings for initiatories Thursday evening. That usually wouldn't be an option for me, but since there was no school or Seminary this morning (it's the end of the term...Seth got out of school 2 hours early yesterday as well as having today off) I realized that going to the temple on Thursday evening was actually a good option. So that's what I did! I signed up for an 8:00 initiatory session. I was able to make dinner and we all ate together before I needed to leave for the temple. I loved going to the temple at a different time than usual. The sun was starting to set when I got there and the temple was bathed in this beautiful pinkish gold glow that of course my camera failed to capture adequately.

I got there a bit early for my session and they got me started early so I was done and leaving the temple by 8:30. By then it was dark and the temple was all lit up.

I'm really glad that worked out the way it did.

This morning I was awakened by my phone buzzing because I forgot to turn off the alarm I have set on my phone that reminds me to give Seth his medicine (and to wrap up my lesson on the days I am teaching). Even so, sleeping until 6:45 is definitely sleeping in for me and it felt amazing! I expected to get a lot done today...Seminary lesson prep as well as budgeting and this blog post...but I ended up spending a couple of hours this morning helping Seth rewrite an essay for his English class. I had a lot of other text message interruptions (mostly related to Seminary) and then Scott called...that's just how my day went. (I'm always happy to talk to Scott, of course!) Seth did get his essay turned in and I was able to finish updating the budget in time to get dinner made before the missionaries arrived (we had invited them over). We really enjoyed dinner with the missionaries--they are really hard working and sincere and they are teaching a lot of people right now. I guess I will be doing a lot of Seminary lesson prep tomorrow, oh well! 

It is still cold more than it is warm around these parts. The mornings in particular are really cold...I even had to scrape some frost off my car window yesterday morning. The days warm up a bit...sometimes quite a bit...but I feel like our house takes longer to warm up and since I am inside most of the time, I feel cold most of the day on many days. I suppose soon enough I will be complaining about how hot it is! I do see more trees budding all the time and our lawn looks like it needs to be mowed, so spring will get here eventually, I am sure. 

I talked to all three of the older boys this week and everyone seems to be doing pretty well. Scott had a really good week at work and he has a lot of appointments set up for the next couple of weeks. He feels like he is learning a lot and that things are starting to come together a lot more for him. Jared and Jessie just went on a weekend trip (Jessie was out of school for spring break last week) that involved some hiking and canoeing, which they really enjoyed. Tanner is doing well in school and work has been slow, but picking up a bit this past week. 

That's all I've got for this week.