We had a pretty busy week. I feel like my days are very full lately! Here's the details for each day:
Saturday September 5th: Frank and I ran a lot of errands and did a lot of things to prepare for our ward's Labor Day picnic. First, we went to the church to check the closet for paper products and pulled out the things we knew we would need for the picnic. We also grabbed 4 large water dispensers to use for the picnic. Next, we went to Walmart to buy the remainder of the food (except for ice). While we were at Walmart, we got groceries for ourselves so that I wouldn't have to go back to get groceries on Monday morning. (Which was a good move...Monday morning was very busy with a lot of other picnic preparations.)
After bringing all the groceries home, we went to At Home to get some new towels, a shower curtain, and a floor lamp. Our towels & washcloths needed to be replaced because I unknowingly used some face cleanser that had hydrogen peroxide in it, which bleached all the color out of the towels and washcloths. They were getting older and worn out anyway. Our shower curtain also needed to be replaced because things in this humid area get moldy, even though I clean the shower curtain regularly. And the lamp needed to be replaced because the base piece broke and was leaking a sand-like substance onto the floor. It's actually been like that for years, and I was pretty tired of sweeping up the sand twice a week (every time I sweep the floor). It just took a long time to find a lamp that would work with what we already have.
After we finished at that store, we drove to the park where the picnic was to be held to find out if there was potable water available (there wasn't, so we knew we would have to fill the water dispensers and make the lemonade ahead of time, instead of at the park). On our way home from the park, we stopped at our storage unit to pick up our two ice chests and to put a few things away. We did all of those errands before eating lunch.
After lunch, I wanted to clean the kitchen floor, but realized that I was out of floor cleaner. I did not want to go back to Walmart to get that, but fortunately Seth was getting off work in about an hour, so I texted him and asked him to stop at Walmart after work to get that for me. (Chick-fil-A and Walmart are right next to each other; he actually parks in the Walmart parking lot when he goes to work.) While I waited for Seth to get home, I practiced ukulele and read scriptures. Then I cleaned the kitchen floor after he got home. We had dinner and I spent a couple of hours watching mission videos (I finished the annual compliance training videos). I read a little bit of Sense & Sensibility before going to bed, but not much because I was really sleepy!
Sunday September 6th: In the morning before church, I read scriptures and sent an email to the RS president for her to send out to the ward. It was explaining the next RS activity--Group Dinners--because I knew with the new schedule (Sunday School / RS & EQ every week for shorter times) that there would not be any time to announce it. I was planning to send around sign up sheets for this activity that day, and I did put an explanation on the sign up sheets, but I just wanted everyone to have a "heads up" about it so they wouldn't be spending a lot of time reading the explanation instead of paying attention to the meetings.
After church, I waited for Frank to get out of the YSA Sacrament meeting so that we could come home together. I spent some time talking to the new Seminary teacher who replaced me. She is doing pretty well, but she also just started letting people know that she is expecting a baby. The baby is due in February, so she will only be teaching this semester. She found out she was pregnant right after she was called and she has been feeling pretty sick and yucky all summer. I am pretty impressed that she is trying to teach Seminary at all, in that condition! I don't think I could have done it. I feel bad for Tammy (the other teacher) that she is going to have to start over with a new teacher twice in one year. I mean, I'm sure both teachers are / will be great. It's just a bit of a transition, with a great deal of uncertainty until things get settled, and that adds to the stress level. However, I knew before this teacher was called that she and her husband were thinking about starting their family. And when I found out that she was the one who was going to be called, I remember I was a little distressed about it because I didn't want them to feel like they needed to put off having a baby until she was released as a Seminary teacher. So I'm very happy that they are having a baby!
When Frank got out of his meeting, we were all talking for a bit, and then one of the counselors in the stake presidency walked by. Then he came back and asked if he could talk to me for a few minutes, which really surprised me. He told me that my name had been submitted for a calling, but he recognized that I have a lot going on already, so he just wanted to let me know about it and see how I felt about it--no pressure to accept! I don't actually know the official title of the calling, but it was the stake communications committee chair who asked for me, so I guess it's just being a member of that committee. He said he thought that all I would need to do is attend a community meeting once a month and report back to the committee chair what happened at the meeting. It's too complicated to explain exactly what this meeting is about (and I don't fully understand it myself), but it's related to a group that is trying to build affordable housing for low income people in this area, and our church might be able to help in some ways so the stake wants someone from our church to represent them at this meeting. So anyway, attending one meeting a month doesn't sound like a lot, but he couldn't tell me exactly when the meeting was (which is important since it would need to not coincide with other commitments I have), so he said he would find out and let me know. I would actually love to help with anything that is going to help low income people get into affordable housing, but I'm not at all sure that I am up for taking on any more responsibility right now. I feel like I have a lot on my mental plate with my mission, temple work, ward calling, and (of course!) my home and family responsibilities. I've actually been a bit stressed the last couple of weeks trying to find the time to put in 12 hours (each week) for my mission. When I talked to Frank about it, he said "I know you, and whatever you agree to do, you give it 100%, and I don't think you have time for anything else right now." I have to admit it--he does know me, and he is probably right. I'm waiting for more infomation before I make a final decision, though.
After we got home from church and ate dinner, I baked a cake to take to Monday's picnic. After Seth got home, we had FHE. We also got to talk to both Tanner and Jared (first week of work went well for both Jared and Jessie, although his commute isn't great) and I did an hour or so of mission work.
Monday, September 7th: The morning was very busy preparing things for the picnic. We made lemonade, sliced onions and tomatoes, frosted the cake, cut up a watermelon, and cooked some chicken (for me to eat--since I'm not eating beef or pork right now, hot dogs and hamburgers are out). We probably did some other things too, I've just forgotten now. We discovered after making the lemonade that one of the dispensers leaks a lot, so Frank sent Seth to the storage unit to get our dispenser and we transferred the lemonade from the leaky dispenser to ours. Then we loaded everything up and headed to the picnic, stopping to get ice on our way.
The picnic went well. The weather was great (not too hot and low humidity), a lot of people came, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. We actually had a much larger turn out than we expected. We planned for 60 people, and closer 80 people came but thankfully we had enough food for everyone. (We bought an extra box of hamburger patties, thinking we could return them to the store if we didn't use them, but we used all of them!) The sign up for the sides was full in every category except for fruit, but somehow we ended up with more fruit than almost anything else. 😂 Not sure how that happened! (But great for me, since fruit was the only side I could eat and dessert was out for me too, of course.)
The picnic was from noon to 3:00. Afterwards, I had quite a bit of clean up--needed to clean all the drink dispensers and our two ice chests, among other things. Then we also needed to return things to the church and to our storage unit. I was too tired to do anything after that except reading (I finished reading Sense & Sensibility). Fortunately, there were a lot of leftovers available for dinner, so I didn't have to cook. When Seth got home from work (he worked 11:00 - 6:00), we played some Wii basketball for family night activity.
Tuesday September 8th: Frank got up really early and went to work, but I fell back asleep and didn't wake up until about 7:30. I got chores done in the morning (listened to part of the Follow Him podcast while cleaning bathrooms). In the afternoon, I had my weekly Cumberland District Devotional and spent some time looking online for RS activity ideas. Before the devotional started, one of the missionaries was telling about a story on 60 Minutes about a family in southern Virginia who purchased a house and later learned that it had been a plantation and that some of their direct ancestors had been enslaved on that very plantation. The missionary mentioned it because the document that confirmed for them that their ancestors had really lived on that plantation was found on FamilySearch. They shared a link to the episode in the meeting's chat, so I watched the episode while I ate my dinner. (Which was early, because I had my temple shift that evening and needed to leave about 4:45). Seth worked from 11:30 to 8:00, so I got a ride with my friend MaryKay to the temple and rode home with Frank. The temple was great as always. Training in Preparation Meeting was really beautiful, and I got to work in Initiatories and Veil. I was done before Frank, so I had some time to chat with a few of the other temple workers and get to know them better.
Wednesday September 9th: Even though I was up late the night before, I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Frank was up then too (that's probably why I woke up). He usually doesn't get up early on Wednesdays because he works from home, but he had two clients that needed work done so he took a personal day to do work for them. But he had PT in the early afternoon, so he needed to get the work done early and get back to Frederick in time for that. Meanwhile, I exercised and got chores done and by then I was feeling very sleepy, so I took a nap. It was a very short nap, though--only about 20 minutes--because the TruGreen guy showed up to do our lawn service and for some reason he felt the need to ring the doorbell and bang on the front door to let me know he was there. (He didn't even need to talk to me, and he didn't leave any message on the door either.)
After that I did lots of hours of mission work. I had several meetings--one with the Record Hints Project Point Person, a one-on-one with one of my Team's leads, and a Team Meeting. The Record Hints PPP just started working in that position and needed to know what I've done so far to be trained for that project. He set up a time to train me on the project, but it's not until next Friday. Besides all the meetings, I also did some new missionary training--I found some other videos that I am supposed to watch that also include stopping, reflecting, and writing things down. It was a sweet experience because it gave me a chance to reflect and realize many ways that I have been prepared to serve in this mission.
On Wednesday I also made bread and spent a lot of time preparing for a RS activities committee meeting, which was scheduled for the next day. In between everything else, I read a book called All the Blues in the Sky. It is the 2026 Newbery Medal winner and I received a copy for my birthday. It wasn't very long and an easy read, so it didn't take a lot of time to read. It was a sad book in many ways--the main character was a young teenager who was coping with the loss of her best friend, who had been hit by a car--but it was good, too. I really liked it.
Wednesday's sunrise (one of the bonuses of waking up really early):
Thursday September 10th: I woke up late (about 7:45), so it was one of those days that felt like it was half over by the time I got up. After exercising, I worked on chores (laundry, some vacuuming) before going to lunch with my friend Rebekah. Afterwards, I went grocery shopping and finished the rest of the chores. I started dinner, and while the soup was simmering, Frank helped me glue the rooftop and the rooftop extension onto the dollhouse. I haven't had much time to work on that this week, you may have noticed!
Rooftop with weights to keep it in the right place while the glue dries. The smaller roof piece on top is not glued on (that's not where it goes); I just put it up there to keep it out of the way:
I looked around the spare room and realized that I only have small pieces left to go on. Lots of different kinds of trim, and the windows, door, shingles, and staircase. It's exciting that I have made it this far!
After dinner, I had the RS activities committee meeting. Two members came in person and another one joined us on Zoom. Two of them were new; this was their first meeting. The meeting went better than I anticipated, which I am happy about. We have basic plans for both the November and December activities, and everyone has assignments to work on until our next meeting in October.
Friday September 11th: I woke up around 7:00; Frank had PT early. I exercised & ate breakfast; then updated finances. Tanner called me while I was doing that (he often calls to talk while he is driving to work). After I finished the finances, I ate lunch (kind of late) and since then I have been working on this post. It's nearly time for me to make dinner now, and we have a game night with some friends after that.
It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I still remember so many details about that day and how I felt. I was talking to Tanner about it; he barely remembers it, but he does remember a little bit.
For my mission, I am supposed to do 12 hours of work each week. This week, I have done about 7 1/2 so far, so I have a lot to do tomorrow. I've decided that I need to choose what days and times I am going to work on it, and block out those times--don't set appointments or anything else for those times. I feel like I will feel less anxious about it if I'm not trying to fit those hours in between everything else going on in my life. We'll see how that goes!
I think that brings you up to date on everything happening with us, and I am hungry so I am going to make dinner now.
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