PS to Weekly Review December 6 '24

 I just remembered something I forgot to mention in my last post. On Tuesday I taught a Seminary lesson about the priesthood. As part of the lesson, I showed the class Frank's priesthood line of authority. Later, my team teacher told me that she had noticed the last name of the man who ordained Frank's dad because she was pretty sure one of her sisters in law had the same last name, Dahle. After checking with her sister in law, it turns out that the man who ordained Frank's dad--James Keith Dahle--is her sister in law's father. What a small world! Her sister in law's name is Noel. Frank doesn't remember Noel specifically even though they both grew up in the Hendersonville Ward together because she is probably about 7 years younger than him, but he does remember her dad, who served as his bishop when the ward met in Brevard (I think he said they met in the American Legion building) and later was his YM president after the church building in Hendersonville was built. What a fun coincidence!

While I'm recording things that I forgot previously, I want to share a text message that a member of our ward sent to Frank and I to share with Seth about a month ago: 

Thank you for passing the sacrament to me today. I noticed that at first you were holding the tray at your waist, which is pretty high compared to me when seated.

You noticed how high it was too and you lowered your arm to make it easier for me to take the sacrament. This simple act of lowering the tray made me think of the following:

1. I don't mind reaching up to meet the Lord and renew my covenants with Him. However, as a priesthood holder and good person, you helped me reach Him a little easier. Thank you for that. 

2. I also had the thought that as you noticed it was a bit high for me to reach...you noticed me. You were thinking about what you were doing in the moment, you thought about someone else and how you could help that person. I know this may sound a bit overblown for literally just lowering a tray for someone, but this simple action brought a warm feeling to me to know there are youth who are willing to serve and to meet others where they are at...even if they are actually 2 feet lower than you. 

Thanks for your service, keep up the good job. 

-Brother Nate Rector

I loved the thoughts this brother shared and love even more that he took the time to share them with Seth. Awesome!!

Weekly Reviews November 29 and December 6 '24

 I didn't write a weekly review last week because we were in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. Now I have two weeks to cover, but I've forgotten most of the details so maybe this post won't be too long. Besides that, I'm feeling quite sick tonight and I've spent most of the day updating the finances (I had two weeks' worth of finances to catch up on also) so my brain is pretty fuzzy. 

Seth was sick last week with a lot of congestion and other cold symptoms. He went to Seminary on Monday the 25th but felt sick to his stomach so he came home with me and went back to bed. After an hour or so of sleep, he woke up and felt quite a bit better so he went to school for his classes that afternoon (just missed his CTC class in the morning). He was better on Tuesday but started having cold symptoms. Fortunately, he was fairly functional and able to travel and didn't seem too miserable, but he was not 100% all week. By Sunday he was improving, but I started having a mild sore throat around Friday and by Sunday I was feeling a little sniffly, too. I had a really bad headache Sunday afternoon but felt better on Monday, other than having a lot of gunk in my throat. I've been that way most of the week...my throat has been slightly sore and I haven't had much of a voice, but other than that I haven't felt too bad and I've been able to do all the things I needed to do, but yesterday I took a turn for the worse. My nose started running and today I'm more congested and I've started coughing and generally feel pretty rotten. I hardly ever get sick, so I really can't complain. I just hope I start feeling better again soon. I'm thankful that I felt better earlier this week since those are the days I teach Seminary. I was able to go to Seminary every day, including today, but this morning when my alarm went off I decided to skip exercising and went back to sleep for a while.

Now that I've explained all that, I will see what I can remember about last week. Saturday the 23rd both Frank and I got haircuts. Seth worked that evening and we had the Elders over for dinner. Sunday the 24th I had choir practice before church because we sang in Sacrament Meeting that day. We sang Amazing Grace. I took Seth to his mission prep class that night and talked to Jared on the phone while I waited for the class to finish. Seth actually came upstairs as soon as the class ended and he introduced me to his friend Lori. They've been friends for a while and we often hear him talking to her (they play games together online sometimes) but Frank and I hadn't met her. On the way home from mission prep, Seth told me that Lori had admitted to Seth that she likes him and asked if he likes her. He told her he mostly likes her as a friend but would be willing to spend more time with her. We'll see if he actually asks her out on a date sometime. At least he is thinking about it!

The next few days were busy with preparations for our trip to North Carolina. On Monday when I was doing laundry I noticed shredded candy wrappers on a shelf in the laundry room. We had some leftover candy from Halloween sitting on that shelf, but I had taken it upstairs on Saturday because we were planning to take it with us on our trip to NC. I checked the bag and found a small round hole nibbled into the bottom in the back that I hadn't noticed when I picked up the bag. Yikes! I'm just glad I noticed it before we started eating it. That bag went into the trash. I was immediately anxious about all the Christmas candy and other treats that I already purchased, which was on the shelf above the leftover Halloween candy. I checked over all of it very carefully and thankfully didn't find any holes and there were no shredded wrappers on that shelf either. I ended up going to our storage unit to get a large plastic bin so I could store all the Christmas candy in that. (Frank checked the mouse traps that evening and did find and disposed of the culprit. Hopefully we won't see any more mice for a while!) In the meantime, that little adventure took quite a bit of time that I hadn't planned but I still managed to get the packing and everything else done. I even finished quilting the other pillow cover for January, but I ran out of time to sew the backs onto them and I haven't had time or felt well enough to do that since we got back. I don't have very good photos of them (too dark) but here they are:

Seth had school on Monday and Tuesday with a 2 hour early dismissal on Tuesday. Frank got off work early too so we were able to leave for North Carolina by about 1:00 pm. That turned out to be a great time to leave...we just sailed along and didn't run into any traffic until the last 30 minutes of the trip. We had reservations at a hotel in Christiansburg, Virginia which is about halfway to Brevard so we only had a 4 hour trip and arrived right around dinner time. Originally, we had hoped that Seth would do a lot of the driving so that he could get in a lot of driving hours but since he wasn't feeling his best he decided he didn't want to drive until the next day. Then when we got about an hour from home, he realized that he had left his glasses and his learner's permit at home so he wasn't able to drive at all. That was frustrating, but he wasn't feeling well the whole trip so probably wouldn't have driven anyway. 

On Wednesday we got a fairly early start and drove the rest of the way to Brevard without encountering much traffic again. We drove through some of the areas that were hit really hard by Hurricane Helene, and we could definitely see evidence of that. In eastern Tennessee there was a bridge on the interstate that had completely collapsed and there has not been time to rebuild it entirely so there is a temporary bridge that is just one lane each direction. We could see destroyed buildings and huge piles of debris on either side of the road--really sad! I didn't think to take pictures then, but on the way home I took a bunch. In Asheville we saw some more destroyed buildings and there were fallen trees all over the place. Trees had fallen onto the guardrails along the side of the interstate in many places. The town of Brevard itself was mostly undamaged but areas on the outskirts were flooded and we saw more damaged buildings and lots of destroyed trailer homes and there were piles of cut up trees all over the place. Here are some of the photos I took. They don't really show how bad the damage looked in real life. First, a few of the Blue Ridge mountains:

This is a badly damaged building we passed in Asheville:

This is a damaged building just outside of Brevard:

We had some fun with our hot chocolate cups at the hotel. It bugged us that the cups said "Must. Have. Coffee." on them so we changed them:

This sign is warning trucks over 10 feet wide that they have to get off the road and take another route because they aren't allowed onto the temporary bridge:

We're coming out of the mountains and down into the valley where the worst flooding happened:

Some debris:

On the temporary bridge:

Lots more debris piles:

Damaged buildings:

And more debirs piles:

We got to Brevard around noon and couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00, so we went to Dawn's house first (Frank's sister). Then we got some lunch, went to visit Frank's parents for a while, and then checked into our hotel. Frank and Seth did some grocery shopping after that while I stayed at the hotel and worked on Seminary lessons for this week. I got one planned that day and the second one mostly planned on Thursday. We went to a Mexican place for dinner that night. 

We didn't have Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday because the church (where we usually meet) wasn't available that day. We had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday instead. On Thursday, we visited with Frank's parents and his brother James and we prepared some of the food for Friday. We helped Dawn make some turkey rolls and nearly set her house on fire making stuffing for those (the water with butter in it boiled over and briefly caught the stove on fire). Thankfully, no permanent damage was done! That evening, we met at Dawn's house to have sandwiches for dinner and we played a domino game called Mexican Train, which was really fun. Frank's parents came to have dinner and to play with us too. We stopped at the church on our way back to the hotel to drop off a bunch of the food items that we had made and to set up some tables and chairs.

On Friday morning we were back at Dawn's house to make mashed potatoes. We all met at the church at lunch time for our Thanksgiving feast. All the food was delicious, and afterwards we played another fun game of Mexican Train. (It was paticularly fun for me because I won!) By the time we finished, it was dinner time so we ate leftovers for dinner and then cleaned everything up. We said our goodbyes to everyone because we were leaving for home Saturday morning. I utterly failed to take photos of our feast and of the family! 

The drive home went smoothly and we got home in time to unpack and attend a wedding reception for our bishop's daughter. (She's a year older than Scott and she and Scott were pretty good friends.) I guess it technically wasn't a wedding reception...they called it a "happily ever after party" because she actually got married in July. They were sealed in the Washington DC temple earlier that week...we were invited to the sealing too, but we weren't able to go since we were in NC. The party was lovely and we saw lots of good friends. The weather turned quite cold that day and it's been that way ever since. I guess our mild autumn days are gone for good and winter is here to stay for a while. 

I've already talked quite a bit about this week, but there are a few things I haven't mentioned yet. On Sunday evening there was a choir practice and social that I planned to attend, but since I was losing my voice and had a bad headache, I decided to stay home and go to bed early instead. I was sorry to miss it, but I think that was a good choice. (Seth also decided to stay home from mission prep since he was still recovering.) The practice was to learn some songs that our ward was singing at the town of Walkersville tree lighting ceremony, which was on Wednesday. We sing for this event every year and I always enjoy it but since I had no singing voice at all by Wednesday and still wasn't feeling well and hadn't learned the songs, we decided not to go to that this year. It was really cold and windy too so I wasn't too excited about the idea of going out. Again, I was sorry to miss this event too but it was probably a wise choice to stay home. 

Seth worked on Monday but that is the only day he was scheduled to work this week. On Tuesday Seth had a follow up doctor appointment about his medication. While we were there I also got a flu shot. My arm has been a little sore since then, but not too bad. We had family night on Wednesday evening since Seth was working on Monday (We couldn't have family night on Tuesday either because Frank was at the temple and Seth had a YM activity.) Seth gave a lesson and we played a game of Uno No Mercy, which I lost. (If you end up with more than 25 cards in your hand, you're out.)

In between everything else this week I have been getting caught up on all the regular chores (so much laundry!), working on Seminary lessons for next week (one is planned; I need to finish the other one), doing a lot of other Seminary tasks (such as submitting reciepts for reimbursement), trying to get started on preparations for Christmas without much progress (I got a lot of the decorations put up, but the tree isn't up yet), and trying to get rest so that I will start feeling better. I've taken a couple of naps which has been really helpful. I've been squeezing in some reading here and there and I'm a decent way into the next book chat book. I gave it the wrong title in my post last time...it's actually called I Capture the Castle. It's a unique book, but I mostly like it so far. 

I didn't take my usual Friday trip to the temple today since I wasn't feeling well. I miss the temple and hope I can go next week! That reminds me that Frank and I were actually planning to go to the temple on Monday for a special meeting for all the temple workers and their spouses. We decided not to go since I wasn't feeling well and also Frank heard that it was going to be super crowded and he's never a fan of going places where there are crowds. I was sorry to miss that meeting as well, but it was probably the best choice...kind of the theme of this week!! 

I mentioned about a month ago that my left arm / elbow were hurting. It still hurts when I move it certian ways or lift heavy things with that arm. Shortly before our trip to NC, I was texting Amy and mentioned my arm. She responded that the symptoms I was describing were very similar to something she experienced years ago and that she had been diagnosed with "tennis elbow". She said she got a brace for it (which can be purchased at places like Walmart) and that wearing the brace for a few weeks cleared it up. I purchased a brace a few days before our trip but I haven't been able to get it to fit right. While we were on our trip, my arm started feeling a lot better but it has bothered me more since we got home. I'm trying to pay attention to what motions seem to cause my arm to hurt. So far it's things like moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, taking dishes down from high shelves, carrying the vacuum upstairs, and so on. I guess I just can't do those things anymore! 😂 Fortunately, the pain is not severe so I can cope with it but I guess at some point I should have a doctor look at it. 

That's all I can remember of the last two weeks and I'm more than ready to go to bed so I will sign off until next week.  

Weekly Review November 22 '24

 We had a pretty busy week. Last Friday evening we went to Costco and found a new coat for Seth because his old coat is getting too small. There's been a few days this week that he has needed it, so it's a good thing we got him one. After we bought the coat, we got some food for dinner and took it home to eat. Seth enjoyed some screen time while Frank and I finished watching the first season of 24. Neither one of us liked the ending much...after all that! We decided we don't really want to watch another season (at least not now) so we chose a different show to start watching together this week. It's called Madame Secretary. Hopefully we'll like this one better.

Saturday was super busy. I did some ironing, sewed some buttons back onto a couple of my shirts / sweaters, got out the November salt & pepper shakers, finished my Seminary lesson for Tuesday, practiced the ukulele, swept & mopped the kitchen floor, sewed the borders onto both of January's pillow covers and got them ready for quilting, and went to lunch with my friend Rebekah. Seth went to work in the afternoon. I can't remember what Frank did all day, except that he helped me with some of my things and he played games with Seth for a while.

Frank woke up Sunday morning with a really bad headache so he didn't go to church. We had been asked to help in the nursery that day so I got another sister in my ward to help me with that. There are only 2 kids in the nursery so it was pretty easy and I enjoyed it. Our ward had their Primary program which is always so sweet and heartwarming. I had choir practice after church again. More people came, but there still weren't many sopranos, so it looks like I'll be singing soprano for this song. Frank felt pretty rotten all day, unfortunately. There was a stake priesthood meeting that evening so he asked one of the counselors in our bishopric to take Seth to that since he wasn't feeling up to going himself. 

Frank still didn't feel very well Monday morning so he took the day off. Thankfully, he was better by Tuesday and able to go to both work and his temple shift. Meanwhile, I taught Seminary Monday and Tuesday mornings as usual. Monday's lesson was from Ether 6 and compared the Jaredite's journey to the promised land to our journey through mortality. On Tuesday we talked about following the prophet to avoid spiritual captivity (based on Ether 7 - 11). The lessons went okay, although I would like to see more participation from the class. I think everyone is really ready for a break! Both my team teacher and I have felt discouraged the last few weeks but we are trying to focus on the positive things--and there are positive things each day. 

Seth was really tired this week for some reason and he didn't go to Seminary on Monday or Thursday. He went to Seminary on Wednesday but he was really tired and kept his head down on the table for most of the lesson, (unusual for him) although he did make a comment or two. We had a guest teacher that day and as always I loved seeing a different teacher in action and learned a lot from him. The lesson was about avoiding secret combinations and as he was telling the story of Jared, Akish, and Jared's daughter, he said that he didn't want to keep saying "Jared's daughter" so he gave her the name of "Suzie Q" and called her that name throughout the lesson. Now every time I read that part of the Book of Mormon from now on, I'm going to think of Jared's daughter as "Suzie Q"! 😂

I guess I'll finish up talking about Seminary for this week and then go back to some of the other things we did. I always really enjoy my team teacher's lessons on Thursdays and Fridays, and so often I learn new things or have sweet little moments with the spirit. On Thursday when my team teacher was finishing her lesson and sharing her testimony of the Book of Mormon, I had this really strong impression that I needed to share mine too--to be a second witness--so I did, and in that moment I felt like we were doing exactly what we should be doing as teachers and that it will make a difference for some of the youth, even though it's almost never apparent that we are making an impression on them at all. I am thankful for those moments, and for another moment I had this morning. Before Seminary, I was reading scriptures and the Come Follow Me section for this week sent me to the Church handbook to read a section about principles of leadership. The last paragraph said this: "Your success as a leader is measured primarily by your commitment to helping God's children beome faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Because all people have agency, some may choose to depart from the covenant path. At times this may discourage you, but as you turn to the Lord, he will lift and comfort you. You can know that the Lord is pleased with your efforts as you feel the Spirit working through you." I can honestly say that I am committed to trying to help the youth in my class become faithful disciples and that I am putting my best effort into doing that. I also regularly feel the Spirit as I prepare and teach. So reading that paragraph was very comforting to me. I'm grateful for these tender mercies!   

Families take turns bringing in breakfast on Fridays and today we had crepes...they were super yummy!! 

Okay, back to the beginning of the week...for family night on Monday I taught a short version of that morning's Seminary lesson because I didn't want to prepare yet another lesson and Seth had missed Seminary that morning so it wasn't a repeat for him. 😊Then we played Aggravation and I lost, but managed not to get too aggravated about it. 😉 On Tuesday I took Seth to get a haircut right after school and then he wrote thank you notes for the two people who wrote letters of recommendation for his college applications (one of his teachers and our bishop). I also helped him make some cookies to give to our bishop with the thank you note (because we felt bad for asking him to do the letter at the last minute). Seth took the note and cookies to the YM activity that night to give to our bishop. For the activity that night they had a combined activity with the YW and they did an iron chef competition. When I went to the church at 8:00 to pick Seth up, I got roped into being one of the judges for the competition and sampled an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert for each of 4 teams. I had to score them on creativity, ingredients, presentation, and flavor. It was quite a whirlwind of tasting...we usually were still trying to finish one thing when the next team was bringing up their next dish for us to taste (there were 3 other judges besides me). They all did a good job and nothing tasted nasty but it felt like I ate a whole extra meal and I wasn't even hungry! It also took a while so we didn't get home until 9:00 and I got to bed late. 

On Wednesday evening I had book chat, so I got home late that night too. (But I always love book chat!) We discussed As I Lay Dying, and now we are going to read I Conquer the Castle by Dodie Smith. We aren't meeting again until January because December is a really busy month for everyone. One of the ladies at book club gave each of us a box of homemade chocolates as a Christmas gift--so nice!

Today we saw our first snow of the winter although it didn't stick. When I left to go to the temple, a few flakes were coming down but it didn't really last long. When I left the temple it was raining and as I headed north I started to see really wet snowflakes hit the windshield. The snow soon turned back into rain and it is still raining. 

In between everything else, I have been working on my Seminary lesson for Monday (I only have to teach one lesson since we only have 2 days of Seminary next week) and quilting pillow covers. I finished quilting one of them and have started on the second one. I'm pleased that the quilting part is going quickly. Ready to quilt:

I'll take photos of them again after I've finished quilting both of them. 

I'll finish up with a few photos of a sunset, morning sun on mist, and some pretty fall colors.

Weekly Review November 15 '24

Today is definitely a gray November day. The colder weather seems to have caught up with us this week, although it's certainly not miserably cold. We got some rain this week also...including yesterday and today...which is good since we've had a really dry autumn so far. 

As usual, I can't remember a lot about last Saturday. Frank had to do some work for a client and was gone a few hours doing that. Seth helped sort food at the food bank for a couple of hours and then he went to work. I didn't have Seminary lessons to prepare for once, since I had already completed them, so I felt like I would have a lot of time to get a lot of things done but it didn't really turn out that way. I did weed the front flower bed which desperately needed it so I'm glad I got that done. Frank and I watched a couple of episodes of 24. We did not stay up to watch the BYU / U of U football game--it started way too late for us. 

I was glad to hear Sunday morning that BYU won the football game although it certainly wasn't a decisive victory. I'm glad I missed watching the game since it sounds like it was a real nail biter. We did record it, so maybe we will watch it sometime but we haven't had a chance to do that this week.

Sunday I had choir practice after church--we are learning Amazing Grace. All the sopranos except for one 9 year old girl were not able to attend so the choir director asked me to sing soprano. I may be moving back to alto if more sopranos come next week, so I practiced the alto part as much as I could as well. I talked to Jared in the afternoon and my Seminary team teacher and I went to visit one of the boys in our Seminary class. He has a health problem that makes it really hard for him to attend Seminary a lot of the year. We visited to see how he is doing and also to encourage him to complete makeup work every week so that he doesn't have to do a lot of makeup work all at once at the end of the semester. We had a nice visit with him and his family. They are all really lovely. Frank took Seth to mission prep class that night so I was able to go to bed on time which was wonderful.

I taught lessons on Ether 1 and Ether 2 on Monday and Tuesday this week. They went okay overall. I had a little bit of time to sew on Monday and Tuesday and I was able to finish sewing the 2nd quilt block for January's pillow covers. 

I spent quite a bit of time on Tuesday trying to decide what fabric to use for the borders for both of the January quilt blocks. I asked for feedback from both Seth and Frank. Frank was at work and then at the temple, so I had to send him photos of the different options and it took a while to hear back from him and to clarify what he said so I didn't get anything else done on those that day (or since then) but I do think I know what I'm going to do now. On Tuesday I also finished reading the book for book chat (As I Lay Dying) I'm glad I got to revisit this book because I actually enjoyed it and I understood it a lot better than I did when I read it in high school. I understand now why my English teacher thought it was such a great book.

On Wednesday morning we had a guest teacher for Seminary. It's always really nice when we have a guest teacher because I always learn something (often more than one thing) from watching the way they teach. It's nice for the kids to have a change too. This teacher did a great job calling on kids to answer questions and he wasn't afraid to tell them that they needed to pay better attention, which I loved. 😊He brought donuts, so the youth were happy about that and at the end he sang and played the ukulele for the closing song (and got the kids to join in after the first verse) so that was awesome too.

I spent most of Wednesday working on Seminary lessons for next week and I had brief outlines for both lessons by the end of the day. I got a call on Tuesday that my wedding ring set was ready for pick up so Frank and I went to pick it up on Wednesday afternoon (he works from home on Wednesdays). I'm really happy that I can wear it again now!

When we took it in to be resized, I was surprised to discover that it was originally a size 3 1/2. I thought it was a size 4. Wow, I used to have tiny fingers! I thought I would need to get it resized to a size 5, but we got it resized to 4 1/2 and it fits perfectly. 

On Wednesday night Seth and I went to a financial planning meeting at the high school about filling out the FAFSA. I haven't filled one of those out for quite a few years and I can't say I've missed it. 😂 The process is simpler than it used to be, at least. I'm almost positive Seth won't qualify for any government financial aid, but he needs the FAFSA for a lot of scholarship applications too (and he may not get any scholarships either, but it's worth trying). 

Yesterday morning Seth hit his head on the door on his way into Seminary and got a cut and a bump on his forehead. I put a bandaid on it and gave him some ice and he was fine by the time Seminary ended.

I spent most of Thursday getting household chores done and I also got to talk to Mom on the phone for a while. Seth had to work that evening. Frank worked on maintenance and I worked more on Seminary lessons and got most of Monday's lesson prepared. I still need to work out some details and finish Power Point slides for Tuesday's lesson but I'm getting there. 

This morning in Seminary we played games to review the Doctrinal Mastery scriptures.

Most of the kids participated well and seemed to enjoy it but a few didn't play. It's kind of discouraging to see that happen. Afterwards my team teacher and I both agreed: "It doesn't matter what we do, some of them just don't want to be here." We have to remember to focus on the positive instead of the negative. 

After Seminary I went to the temple as I usually do on Fridays.

There was not a lot to do to update the finances (for once!) so I got that done quickly today. It will be nice to have some down time this evening.

Scott took the licensing test for selling health insurance yesterday and he passed it, so that is great news. 😁 Today Seth got an acceptance letter from BYU-Idaho, so that is great news too! 😊I didn't expect them to make a decision that soon. It is nice to know that option is open for him, and I think it is a really good option but we'll see what Seth decides. (He's happy about it too, though.) 

I'm pretty sure that is all the news from us for this week.