Weekly Review March 7 '25

 We had more going on this week and I am a day late posting, but I will try to keep this post a reasonable length. To start, here are a few photos from Seth's temple baptism trip last Friday afternoon:

On Saturday, my friend Rebekah and I went to lunch together (we were on the letter "K", so we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken) and then we drove up to Hagerstown (about 30 minutes from Frederick) to go to the Hobby Lobby store to see if they carry fabric and other sewing essentials. We discovered that Hobby Lobby does have a decent selection of fabric and sewing essentials. It's not as extensive as JoAnn's, but they have enough that maybe I can find a lot of what I need for future projects. Slightly encouraging! They carry a lot of other craft items and home decor items as well, so overall...a nice store. I just wish there was one in Frederick! 

On Saturday I also switched out salt & pepper shakers, pillows, and the door decoration since it was the first day of March:

I also spent a lot more time than I wanted getting tickets for a concert that Seth and I were planning to attend on Sunday because I ran into computer glitches and / or issues with the website. I was finally successful at obtaining the tickets, though. 

Seth worked on Saturday afternoon / evening. I finished up some Seminary lesson preparations and Frank and I watched some Madam Secretary. By 8:30, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! I felt the same way on Friday evening when we were waiting for Seth to get home from his temple trip. That has been happening to me a lot more lately, for some reason. It's a good thing I only have about 2 1/2 more months of Seminary before I get a long break...I need it! 

On Sunday we had Church of course. I planned to take a long nap after church, but that didn't end up happening...I did get about a 30 minute nap, but that was it. I was glad to talk to Jared for a little while too. That evening, Seth and I went with my Seminary team teacher and her son along with another of the boys in our Seminary class to a Baltimore Youth Symphony Orchestra concert. We went to this concert because another boy in our Seminary class is in the orchestra (he plays French Horn). I really debated about going to this concert...I really wanted to go to support this boy in my class and to hear the music, but I knew I would be up really late. Ultimately, my desire to hear him play overroad my desire for sleep! My team teacher drove so I didn't have to do that, which was nice. I admit that I did doze off a bit during the concert, but never fell fully asleep...I could always hear the music, even if I wasn't fully awake! 😁The concert didn't start until 8:30 so we didn't get home and to bed until nearly 11:00, but I did take a two hour nap on Monday morning after getting back from Seminary.

Blurry photo of the boy in my class on stage (we were up in the balcony so he was really far away):

After that eventful weekend, I started the week feeling tired, so it's no wonder I needed some naps and got really tired by 8:00 every night. We mostly did the normal things during the week...Seth worked on Monday, Frank's temple shift and YM activity for Seth on Tuesday, I did my VITA shift on Wednesday, school, work, and Seminary every weekday, household chores, and I went to the temple on Friday. 

My Seminary lesson on Monday went great! Tuesday's lesson felt like a disaster. 😂 On Wednesday we had the Elders guest teach our class and it was soooo good! They taught about being willing to sacrifice and I got to be the Holy Ghost in a fun little skit / object lesson that they did. My VITA shift on Wednesday was unusual because we had several people scheduled who needed tax returns completed for multiple years. Some of them showed up and at least two of them didn't, so some volunteers had multiple tax returns to complete and others didn't have any (because of the no shows). I completed one tax return the first hour I was there but didn't have anything to do the second hour so instead I spent the rest of my shift reviewing tax returns for another volunteer who was completing four years of tax returns for one taxpayer. I also completed a fifth review for another volunteer. That kept me pretty busy for the rest of my shift. 

On Wednesday afternoon (after I got back from VITA) I went with the Elders to a teaching appointment, which I really enjoyed. The friend they were teaching has a baptism date set and she is a really sweet soul. I loved meeting her and felt an instant bond. It was really sweet to watch the Elders teach, too. They are really sincere and spirit filled missionaries (but fun too)! Frank has been helping the RS presidency get an online missionary meal calendar set up so he met with some of them on Wednesday evening to show them what he had done (they loved it!). It rained a lot on Wednesday and both Frank and I got caught in some pretty big downpours (I had a raincoat on, thankfully.) We've had a few milder days lately but only here and there...then it goes back to being cold. Yesterday and today have both been cold and windy.

In between everything else, I have been reading (finished the book for book chat on Thursday) and I have been trying (as always) to get Seminary lessons prepared. I got one lesson planned and the second one partially planned on Thursday. I was struggling with both of them, but then had some thoughts pop into my head about things to do with the first lesson and then it came together quickly...I'm always so grateful for those little promptings that come to me! This afternoon I did all the prep work for the first lesson (creating Power Point slides, printing and cutting things out, etc.). I still haven't finished planning or preparing the second lesson but will have time today, tomorrow, and Monday to work on it so hopefully it will come together. I did have a few thoughts about this one too which should help. I want to get it done as soon as possible so that I can start working on my lessons for the following week. I'm going to be in Utah from Wednesday to Saturday, so I won't have much time to work on lessons next week and want to get ahead now if possible. 

Here are some photos from the temple. After I finished my initiatory session, I went to the Visitor's Center because Seth came home last week and told us there is a really cool stained glass piece on display there right now. It is a replica of the large stained glass piece at the Rome Temple Visitor's Center, except this one is actually bigger. It has the original 5 panels that are displayed at the Rome Temple, but there are two extra panels on each side (total of 9 panels). The original artists created this piece with the intention for it to travel around because they realized that many people will never be able to go to the Rome Temple to see the original. It spent last year in a few locations in England and the DC Visitor's Center is the first place in North America that it is being displayed. I'm sure it will eventually be displayed many places in the United States and elsewhere. I took lots of photos; it is beautiful!

The reason I am writing this post on Saturday is because yesterday I was busy helping Seth get ready for a dance that he went to. Every year a few of the local stakes host a formal dance for all the youth in the area who are 16 and older. It's intended to be like high school prom, only a better atmosphere. Seth asked Lorie to go to this dance and a small group of kids from our ward went together in a group. Earlier in the week, I helped him order a corsage and I also helped him order a vest and tie to wear. There were some delivery issues with the vest that caused us some mild panic, but thankfully it arrived in plenty of time. Anyway, on Friday I picked Seth up from school and we went to pick up the corsage he ordered for Lorie. All the youth in our ward who were going to the dance met in the afternoon to take pictures and then they went to the Olive Garden for dinner before going to the dance. Frank worked from home on Friday but afterwards did some work for his client in Waldorf but he was able to meet us at the photo location to help take pictures (he brought his nice camera, so I will have to get some photos from him and share them sometime soon). We met at a local Civil War battlefield to take the pictures. Here are a few:

(Not all of the boys had dates. In my day, you didn't go to a formal dance without a date, but that has totally changed and now both girls and boys will go to these dances without a date. I think it's kind of nice, actually, but very different from when I was a teenager!) 

Lorie's parents brought her to the battlefield and stayed to take some photos. One of the boys drove the family van to the dance and back so we didn't have to drive. We did need to take Lorie back home after the dance, but Frank did that...I was already asleep! After we finished taking pictures and the kids went to the restaurant, Frank and I got some food for ourselves and then went home to eat and watch some Madam Secretary together. After 2 episodes, I was ready to go to sleep! I did wake up later and was awake when Seth got home. He had a good time.

This morning I got a haircut. Since getting home I have been working on Seminary stuff, this blog, and I also practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor. Now I am hoping to get some sewing done (I want to cut out the pieces for the May pillow covers) and maybe some work done on my other Seminary lesson. We have to "spring ahead" tonight so unfortunately that means I have an hour less than usual to get things done. 

I'm excited that I will get to see some of the Utah folks soon! That's it for this week.