I'm going to start this week with a few categories. Then I will talk about a few of the daily events.
Weather: It feels less like Siberia than it did last week, although it's still cold. We got a dusting of snow last Friday, after I finished writing last week's post. Saturday and Sunday were extremely cold and windy but we had a few days with temperatures in the 40s midweek, so a good deal of snow has melted (although there is still plenty out there). When I drove to Seminary Monday morning, it was so cold that I remember thinking "I don't want to do this anymore!!" (It was about 8 degrees when I drove to Seminary and only 4 degrees afterwards--that was a very cold day.) Other mornings, I have gone outside and thought "This isn't so bad". Today is colder than the previous few days--it's only 34 degrees and it's mid day--but we are supposed to get some warmer days this coming week. I took a few photos in a parking lot on Monday, just to document some of the tall piles of snow left by the snow plows (and that are still around 2 weeks after the storm). These photos don't show the snow at it's highest--by the time I took these, quite a bit of melting had occurred--but it gives you an idea:
These aren't the tallest piles I've seen, either. The next day, I was in a different parking lot and some of the piles were a lot taller than the cars.
Taxes: Last Friday (after I wrote last week's post), I started working on our tax return. I did a little more work on them on Saturday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I have all of our information entered into the tax software now except for some investment info (I was waiting on a document from our broker, but we just got it yesterday so I can enter that now) and the information for Frank's business. One snag I ran into that took some time is that I needed some information from one of our banks to enter some interest income (it was a small amount, so we didn't receive a 1099 from them, which would have had the information I needed). I had to call the bank and when I did, I was surprised when it turned into a two day process with several phone calls going back and forth. I did finally get the info I needed yesterday, though. I'm hoping to get the rest of the info entered into the software over the next couple of days so I can check one thing off my list!
Reading: I finished The Messy Lives of Book People on Tuesday morning. For a while there, I was worried that I wasn't going to like the book--it looked like it was headed in a direction that I wasn't going to be happy about--but happily it resolved in a good way and overall I enjoyed the book. I started reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance on Wednesday. I haven't progressed very far into it yet but it's pretty interesting, especially since Frank is from "the greater Appilachia area" and some of the things he describes are similiar to things I encountered when I was serving my mission in that area. I think there will be a lot of food for thought in this book.
Dollhouses: I don't remember what got me thinking about my still unmade dollhouse kit again (I've had it for a little over a decade now), but a few weeks ago I did start thinking about it and wondering if maybe I could find the time (and space) to build it. Over the last few weeks, I've been doing some research and I even found a series of videos that document the process of building the exact kit that I have. Watching those videos (I skimmed through some of them) has helped me realize that maybe I could actually do it. I noticed that there's a lot of steps that involve gluing something together and then letting it dry for a day or two before doing something else. (Same goes for a lot of painting steps--paint & then let dry). Although that means it will take a lot of time (I already expected that), it also means that it can be done it small steps that don't take a lot of time. And just seeing how it's done has helped me to feel less intimidated by the whole thing. I'm still not sure I'm ready to dive into a big project, but I'm thinkng about it! I definitely need to decide soon because the only available space I have to work on this project is the guest room, and I wouldn't want the guest room to be taken over by a project if someone decides to visit. That isn't likely to happen until sometime this summer, though (if at all), so if I start on this project soon, that would give me about 3 months to get hopefully the bulk of the project done before it's truly summer. We'll see how it goes. Frank has agreed to help me--at least some of the time--and I think it would be a fun project to do together.
Seminary: I taught on Monday and Tuesday, as usual. Both lessons went pretty well. I was particularly happy with Tuesday's lesson--I really struggled with the preparation process and didn't feel great about it, but it turned out a lot better than I expected, with some good participation. We had a guest teacher on Wednesday--a young adult--and he did a great job. I always love to see different teaching styles and it's great to see how each teacher brings unique strengths and life experiences to the teaching process. This teacher had the kids do a journal writing exercise that I am sure was so good for some of the kids in our class. I have not made much progress on my lessons for next week yet. I have read through both of them, and one of them I have read through twice, but that's about it. There's no school on Monday so I'm not teaching until Tuesday and Wednesday, so at least I have an extra day to prepare. I am actually combining parts of two lessons for Tuesday's lesson. Wednesday's lesson is a life prep lesson and there's some overlap with it and Tuesday's lesson, as well as with another life prep lesson I taught in January, so I've been thinking about how I can link all of these things together without being too repetitive.
This week Tammy and I have been encouraged to see some change in one of the girls in our class. She has never been super happy to come to Seminary and definitely sends off negative "I don't want to be here" and even "I don't like you" vibes. A few times, she has been quite rude to us. Last year, she put her head down a lot and wouldn't participate. This year she has had her head up and been alert every day, but still won't participate. As a matter of fact, sometimes she has spent the whole class talking to some of the other girls and it has been quite disruptive at times. A lot of days she is just on her phone the whole time, though, and is quiet but won't participate in any way--even something like reading a verse out loud. This week she has been participating a little more, though. She has read a few times when asked to do so and the last few days she has mildly participated in a few things (yesterday, for example, the kids were supposed to get up and walk around the room to read things posted on the walls and she did that. Normally she will just stay in her seat on her phone if we do something like that) and she has even answered a few questions when invited to do so, and gave some good answers. Today was also her turn for devotional, and usually she doesn't prepare something. Today when it was time for devotional, she did get up and she said she hadn't really prepared anything, but she wanted to give a report about her brother on his mission (who most of the kids in our class know because he was in our class last year). It was really sweet to see her do that, and it makes me happy to see her participating in any way. Sometimes it has been hard for me to love this girl because we don't have much positive interaction and it's hard to feel love for someone who doesn't like you. But the joy I have felt this week just seeing a little bit of improvement has helped me realize that I do love her--at least a little bit! I'm happy to see even a tiny bit of change, even if it doesn't last. 😉
Sleep: I slept GREAT this entire week! I woke up abour 45 minutes early one morning and didn't go back to sleep, but other than that I have been waking up with the alarm and most nights I didn't even wake up briefly in the night--I just slept solid from when I climbed into bed until it was time to get up. HEAVENLY!!
Seth: He's had the usual things this week--YSA FHE on Monday, Institute on Wednesday, work on Saturday (that's the only day they seem to schedule him to work anymore), and classes on Monday through Thursday. Today he is going to get an MRI (to check for a fistula). I'm sure we won't know the results of the MRI until he visits the surgeon again on the 26th.
Now I will share a few events that happened this week.
On Saturday, Frank helped with an openhouse for the family history center at our stake center. It was recently remodeled, so they had an openhouse when it re-opened. He also got a haircut. I practiced a song that our choir was singing the next day.
Sunday was our Ward Conference. I had to get there a little early for a brief choir practice before the meeting. We sang the song for the prelude. It was an arrangement of "Where Can I Turn for Peace?". I think it went well and our meetings were really good. We also got a new RS presidency, which is always interesting. After church, I talked to Jared. He sang a musical number for his sacrament meeting with a small group. He sent me a recording of their song, and it sounds really good! We had family night that evening (the lesson portion). Seth didn't have mission prep class because of parking issues--still too many huge snow banks covering all the potential parking places. We did the activity and treat portion of FHE on Monday evening, before Seth left for his other FHE. We played Candyland (haven't played that game in ages, but Seth wanted to play it) and ate donuts.
On Tuesday I got to talk to Tanner for a while. He is mostly doing well, although he's having a few health issues. (Nothing too serious, and he's got some appointments to try to get some treatment that will help.) I watched Pres. Oaks's BYU devotional which I thought was so good! Also, I really felt the spirit testify to me while he was speaking that he is the Lord's prophet now. It was sweet! Frank had a busy day--after work, he did some work for a client. That evening I went to a RS activity. There was a hot chocolate bar with a lot of treats and we did these funny mad lib things. The point of the evening was to laugh and have fun, and I definitely did that!
I had my second VITA shift on Wednesday. Once again, a new person was shadowing me for most of my shift. It went well and I had fun. Frank talked to his sister Dawn for a while that evening--she just returned from a trip to Florida with his parents, so she was telling him about their trip.
On Thursday I made Valentine's cupcakes for my Seminary class:
They were happy to get them this morning! Frank had a very busy day with a lot of meetings at work, followed by some prep work for Stake Conference (coming up next week; Seth helped with that too), followed by completing monthly maintenance for his clients.
The temple is still closed, so I didn't go to there today. I did the usual financial updates this morning and tonight we have the missionaries coming over for dinner. Frank got me some beautiful red roses for Valentine's Day and tomorrow morning we are planning to go out for breakfast.
We have been discussing our summer plans this week and will probably be attending the Bracken family reuion in Florida (as well as the Pew family reunion in Utah). We are still figuring out the details for Florida--how long we will stay, how we will get there (fly or drive), and if we will do anything else while we're there (besides visiting family, of course!) Seth needs to work, so he will not be coming with us, which is kind of sad--but going on a trip with just the two of us sounds kind of fun too. 😀
To finish up this week's post, here is a photo of yesterday's sunrise, which was quite nice:
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