Weekly Review October 2 '26

Even though it's October, it feels less like autumn today than it did last Friday. Temperatures have warmed up this week so that we have highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s. I think it is going to cool down again in a few days, though. 

I did a lot of work on the dollhouse this week--mostly in small steps throughout each day. On Friday (September 25th), after I finished the blog post, I painted the 2nd side of the roof / eaves trim as well as the first side of the shutter panels, the first coat of the dormer interior frames, and the first coat of the door trim. I also assembled the remaining five window frames. 

On Saturday September 26th, I sanded all the roof and eave trims, the door trim, and the dormer interior frame pieces. Then I painted the 2nd coat of the interior dormer frame pieces, the door trim, and one side of the roof and eave trim. I also painted the 2nd side of the shutter panels. Then I sanded and painted the 2nd coat of the flute posts. 

All 14 frames, ready to go:

Roof & eave trim, fluteposts, shutter panels and interior dormer frame pieces:

Door interior trim pieces:

Later that evening, I assembled the dormer interior frame pieces and painted the 2nd coat of the 2nd side of the roof and eave trim.

I listened to scriptures and music while working on the dollhouse.

Besides working on the dollhouse, I also practiced ukulele, cleaned the kitchen floor, and decluttered my desk in the kitchen. A lot of papers had accumulated on my desk--most of them were medical related, including a lot of papers that came with prescriptions as well as discharge instructions for Seth's two surgeries, my ER visit for my eye issue, and info related to Frank's gout and shoulder problems. We've definitely had a lot of medical issues going on this year! 

I also did some work rearranging some of the dinner groups (upcoming RS activity). One family had something come up and couldn't host, and several other people had dropped out because they had conflicts, so some of the groups were too small. 

Sunday September 27th: Frank got word that his Uncle Jimmy had passed away that morning. We talked a bit about the possibility of Frank going to the funeral (which was on Thursday), but ultimately decided he wasn't going to be able to go. (Which in hindsight we now know was a fortunate decision). Of course he would have liked to have been there to honor his uncle and to be with his family, but it's a long drive to Florida (and expensive to fly) and he had a big project that he had to do earlier this week at work that couldn't be postponed. 

On Sunday morning, Frank had a YSA high council meeting via Zoom. He came with me to church, but he went to YSA meetings. After Sacrament meeting, the sweet sister who always sits in front of us with her husband and a couple of single sisters took my hand and said "I hate to see you sitting all alone! You should sit with us." I don't think there's actually room for me on their pew--it's already pretty full--but it was so nice of her to think of me! It was kind of ironic, because during the meeting I was thinking that it was funny that I didn't mind sitting alone (as I often do now)--I feel at home and loved with all the ward members sitting around me. 😊

After church, I typed up a bunch of recipes that Amy sent me (she texted me photos of her recipe cards)...these are recipes that I can eat on my current diet. Then I got dinner ready. We had some friends in our ward over for dinner--the Stewarts. We've been to their house for dinner once and to play games twice. She is the sister who replaced me as Seminary teacher. We had dinner and then we played a game that they brought with them called Down Up. It's from Germany--the directions were in German, but they know enough German to decipher the directions. It was a fun game, although I won so I may have a better impression of it because of that! (I do think everyone else had fun, too, though!) 

After we went to bed that night, I remembered that the dishwasher needed to be started, so I got up to do that. I was putting on my pajama pants and got tangled in them and tripped & fell--I am such a klutz lately!! The noise woke Frank up and I got a pretty decent rug burn on my left knee. It was hard to go to sleep for a while after that, but my knee finally stopped hurting and I went to sleep.

Monday September 28th: As I usually do on Mondays, I woke up early (about 4:00 am) since Frank was up and getting ready for work. I read scriptures first but didn't get sleepy, so I got up and did my usual exercising etc. Then I started the laundry going and went to the store to get groceris. By then, I was starting to feel sleepy, so after I got back from the store I took a nap and slept for 1 1/2 hours. I still got all that done, plus vacuuming, before 10:00 when it was time to start mission work. 

I noticed while I was doing my mission work that I wasn't feeling very well. I had a pretty bad headache and just felt tired. I was still able to finish my hours, though. Frank was sweet and made dinner so that I didn't have to. After Seth got home from work, we did family night. I did some reading before bed--started reading the book chat book, Ordinary Grace. 

Tuesday September 29th: My head felt better (still slight headache) and I had a slightly scratchy throat, but I was well enough to exercise as usual and actually had a busy day. Since Frank was up early for work, I woke up at 3:30. I got all the Tuesday chores done (cleaning bathrooms and planning meals), plus mission work and a lot of work on the dollhouse. Seth was at work from 2:00 to 10:00 and Frank did his temple shift after work, so I was home alone all afternoon and evening. Before exercising and starting on chores, I painted the first coat of the dormer pieces and the shutter cores for the dollhouse.

Then after my morning routine and chores were done, I painted the 2nd side of the shutter cores. 

As usual, I listened to the Follow Him podcast while cleaning. I did a little bit of coloring in my color by number book too. I got all of that done and ate lunch before starting mission work at 1:00 pm. My district devotional was at 1:00, then I did work on the AI Research Assistant project for an hour, then I had the Record Hints project meeting (which is held every other Tuesday). 

After I finished mission work, I worked on the dollhouse some more. I sanded all the shutter cores and panels and the dormer pieces. I took a break for dinner and then painted the 2nd coat on all the shutter and dormer pieces. I also finished the second coat on the fluteposts and touched up all the window frames. 

After that I did an extra hour of Record Hints. Then I glued all the window frames onto the dollhouse (except the dormer windows), putting the plexiglass windows in between the frames. Windows glued and taped, inside and out:

Windows after I removed the tape on Wednesday morning:

Wednesday September 30th: I woke up around 5:30 and did my usual morning routine. Seth woke up feeling really sick. (He had a slight headache the day before--asked me for some Tylenol before he went ot work). He called work to say he couldn't come in, and they said he needed a doctor's note to come back, so he called to get an appointment. They said they could get him in within an hour, so he agreed to do that. He woke up with a bad headache, really sore throat, and congestion. After making the doctor appointment, he started feeling nauseated as well, so I decided I'd better take him to the doctor so he wouldn't have to drive. (I had to postpone my one on one with my team lead to later in the afternoon because I wasn't sure I'd be back in time for our scheduled meeting). After we got to the doctor and were waiting, he said he needed to go to the bathroom and when he came back, he said he had thrown up. I didn't go back with him when they called him back, and he was gone longer than I anticipated. When he came out, he had the doctor's note and we headed out to the car. I asked him what the doctor said, and he said "I tested positive for Covid". I hadn't been expecting that at all. The doctor's note says he can't return to work until October 6th. Since we were out, we decided to stop by his work to drop off the note and since it's right next to Wal-Mart, Seth also wanted me to get him some ginger ale and some chicken broth, so we did that. Seth threw up again in the car, but we were prepared for that, so it wasn't too bad. 

After we got home, I got him some ginger ale and he laid down to rest. I still had a slight headache and I also had a scratchy throat, so I decided to test myself for Covid. My test came out negative, and I haven't gotten worse since then (still have a slight headache and scratchy throat today), so I probably don't have Covid although the test I used was probably well past it's expiration date so I'm not sure how accurate it was. Frank was working from home and he also started having a headache and scratchy throat that day. 

I worked on mission work for the afternoon. In the evening, I worked on the dollhouse and talked to Scott. I realized I painted part of the dormers the wrong color, so I sanded them and repainted them. I also noticed that I needed to do some touchup on some of the dormer pieces. I glued all the shutter panels onto the shutter cores.

Thursday October 1st: Frank worked from home since he was feeling worse, plus he didn't want to infect anyone at work. Since Frank wasn't up as early, I didn't wake up until about 7:00. Seth woke up around 9:00. He still wasn't well, but he felt quite a bit better than he did on Wednesday. I kept busy all day with regular chores and working on the dollhouse. I also had an extra Record Hints meeting and since it was October 1st, I also did all the beginning of the month stuff (which includes uploading all the previous month's photos to my Shutterfly account, changing the front door decoration, changing the pillow covers, changing the S & P shakers, and changing my American Girl doll's outfit). 

For the dollhouse, I touched up the paint on the dormer pieces and shutters. Then later, I glued the shutters and the window boxes onto the dollhouse. 

I took this photo this morning, after I removed all the tape. It's looking better to me all the time; very fun!:

Frank started feeling worse during that day--besides the headache and scratchy throat, he also started to fluctuate between feeling really cold and feeling too hot. Mostly cold. He also started to feel really tired. Since Frank was feeling worse and my symptoms hadn't gone away, we decided that we'd better not attend our group dinner tonight, so we let our host know. It's kind of a bummer after all that work I did planning, that I don't even get to go, but oh well! Apparently, there are a lot of people sick in our ward right now. I found out that two of the groups had to postpone their dinner because most of the people in their group are sick. We also decided we'd better cancel having the Elders over for dinner and to watch the second session of General Conference on Sunday. Fortunately, someone else in the ward invited them over instead, so they have a place to go. 

Friday October 2nd: I didn't wake up until 7:30 today (although I was up for a little while in the night). I stayed up kind of late last night finishing a book I was reading (not the book chat book; another book I started reading after I finished last month's book). Seth is still improving, I still feel about the same, and Frank still feels pretty rotten. (He's currently taking a nap.) Fortunately, he always works from home on Fridays, so he didn't need to go in to work. I've been able to exercise every day, in spite of not feeling 100% well. I didn't go to the temple this morning, though, since I don't want to expose anyone else to our family germs. I have spent most of today updating finances and working on this post. I made some bread, too. I haven't done a lot on the dollhouse today, but I did glue together the dormer pieces this morning.

I feel like I've had a lot of small issues come up with the dormers, so they are taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but I think I will be able to get them done in the next day or two. I'll probably work on them later tonight, but right now it is dinner time, so I will sign off for the week and go make some dinner.