Weekly Review February 28 '25

It's the last day of February! Usually February seems to go by fast, but this year it has felt really long to me. We did have some warmer temperatures this week...up into the 50s some days, so that has been nice. Looking ahead, it looks like we are going to have a lot of ups and downs in the temperatures over the next few weeks. I guess that's to be expected in very early spring.

Last Friday night Seth went to a youth dance in Martinsburg, WV. He was able to ride with another family in our ward which was nice. They got home really late, though, and Frank and I were both so tired!! It was really hard to stay awake. I think we are getting too old for this parents of a teenager thing!

I don't remember a lot of details about the weekend (as usual). I got my Seminary lessons mostly prepared (I was able to finish up with details the day before I taught each lesson), the regular chores done, attended stake choir practices on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and I sewed the back onto one of the April pillow covers. (I finished sewing the other one on Tuesday.) Seth worked on Saturday from 3:30 to 8:00. The adult session of Stake Conference was that evening. Frank had to go to our building for that because they were testing out the live stream between the Stake Center and our building so it would be ready to go for the next morning. Since Seth would need to be picked up from work before the meeting was over and his work is closer to our building, I decided to go with Frank and watch the session from our building. Unfortunately, there were a lot of issues and they couldn't get the broadcast to work, so we missed the whole meeting. Frank needed to go to the Stake Center to help solve the problems with the broadcast and I went to pick up Seth from work. Frank didn't get home until shortly after midnight, but they were finally able to figure out the problems so that the broadcast for Sunday worked perfectly.

On Sunday morning Seth went with me to the Stake Center to help with the broadcasting. Frank watched the session from our building since he was monitoring the broadcast from there. Singing in the choir was awesome and the meeting was really good. After church we rested and had family night lesson. One of Seth's friends picked him up for mission prep, so we didn't have to take him to that which was nice. He got home later than usual but Frank stayed up so that I could go to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well so I definitely needed a nap on Monday. 

There's not a lot to say about the rest of the week...we mostly had the usual things going on. Seth worked on Monday evening. Frank had his temple shift on Tuesday and Seth had YM activity that evening. The activity was combined with the YW and they did something called a "Connecting Generations Dinner". I made mashed potatoes to contribute to the dinner. They invited some of the older couples in our ward and the youth served them and then sat at the tables with them and they all ate dinner together and got to know each other better while they ate. A great idea, I think! Both the youth and the older couples seemed to really enjoy it, from what I heard. Because they were having dinner, they started an hour earlier than usual which was great because they ended earlier too. Even so, I was so tired that I had to fight to stay awake long enough to go pick Seth up at the end of the activity.

On Wednesday I did my VITA shift...we were really busy the whole time. I completed 3 tax returns and reviewed two others. On Wednesday afternoon / evening we did our family night activity and treat. The local Rita's opened up last week so we went there for treat and then played some Mario Kart. 

I taught Seminary on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. Most of the class looked exhausted on Monday and there wasn't a lot of participation but on Tuesday things went better. Wednesday was okay too. I feel like I could do better at encouraging more of the kids to participate, though. I'm going to work on that. I got one of next week's lessons prepared on Wednesday evening and got a basic outline for the other one prepared yesterday. Still need to do some fine tuning and prepare some Power Point slides, etc. but I'm glad to have a lot of the prep work done. 

This morning we provided breakfast for Seminary. We took muffins, some danishes, fruit, juice, and chocolate milk. I went to the temple after Seminary and that was really great since it had been 4 weeks since I last went. When I arrived, it was really cloudy but the sun came out by the time I left:

I did an endowment session and it was completely full...they actually brought in a couple of chairs. It's always nice to see the temple busy! This afternoon after school Seth left to go to the temple to do baptisms. A group of youth in our ward went together...the boy in my Seminary class who was baptized last month went for the first time. Seth rode with one of the other boys in our ward (he's been driving for over a year). He'll be back around 7:00. In the meantime, Frank and I are going to go out to eat and probably watch some Madam Secretary together. 

Scott took the test to get licensed to sell life insurance a few days ago and he passed it, so he is ready to start his new job on Monday. Frank found out this week that the reorganization at his work which they announced last year is finally going to happen and everything will be in place at the beginning of June. He does not need to worry about not having a job...he will have a job no matter what...but he does have the opportunity to apply for new positions, so he will probably do that. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. 

This is another short post, but that's all I have to report this week.

Weekly Review February 21 '25

It's been another cold winter week in Maryland....highs in the 20s or 30s and lows in the teens all week. Yesterday and today I noticed cakes of ice floating on the river behind our house:

Hopefully temperatures will be warming up soon. (I'm ready for spring.) We didn't get any snow this week, though, so for once we didn't have to adjust the Seminary schedule. It still wasn't a full week of school though since Monday was President's Day (day off) and today was midterm so school got out a couple of hours early. 

Last Saturday I went to a stake choir practice (the choir is singing at Stake Conference this weekend). I missed the first practice because I had a haircut appointment that conflicted and I missed the second practice because I forgot about it. (That's what happens when I don't put things on my calendar.) I decided not to sing in the choir when I realized I had missed half of the practices, but someone in my ward choir encouraged me to do it anyway so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did...both songs we are singing are beautiful and they aren't incredibly difficult so I feel like I have a decent grasp on them after one practice and a little bit of practicing at home. (No practice tracks available for my part, but I have recordings of both songs that I can listen to and by following along with my sheet music I have been able to learn a bit.) At the practice we had a brief discussion about the healing power of music and one choir member shared that there have been studies done that show that singing helps us heal all along a major nerve that runs from our head to our gut. I think that's why I always feel so great after going to a choir practice or after singing...because I've just had a healing experience. I love music so much!!

After the practice I went to JoAnn's to get a few yards of muslin because I realized I was going to run out before I finish all the pillow covers. When I got there, the parking lot was packed--hard to find a parking place--and the store inside was a mob scene. I've never seen so many people there! There were probably 40 or more people waiting to get fabric cut but I got on the list and thought I'd just browse the store while waiting. Then while walking around I discovered that the line to check out (after getting fabric cut) extended all the way from the front of the store to the back of the store and was winding around along the back wall. Never mind! I could see it was going to take hours just to buy 2 yards of muslin and I didn't have time for that, so I just left. I'm not sure how soon the store will close...maybe it has closed already...but I can get muslin while I'm out in Utah.

The rest of Saturday was very busy with some household chores, quilting, and Seminary lesson prep. I got both of my lessons completely prepared and I also finished quilting the first April quilt block. 

Sunday was restful and I don't remember much about it except that it was really windy in the afternoon and evening. (Some people lost power for a while, but we didn't.) Seth decided not to go to mission prep class and I was kind of glad because I didn't want to go out into the windy cold.

As I mentioned, there was no school on Monday for President's Day but Frank did have to go to work. (They bump the day off for President's Day to December so that they can have the whole week off between Christmas and New Year's without using any personal vacation days.) Actually, Seth worked on Monday as well...his usual 5:00 to 8:00 shift. He also did a lot of homework for his CTC class on both Saturday and Monday. I didn't have to get up quite as early as usual and didn't have Seminary of course, but I still had all the regular household chores to do. 

The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful. The temple reopened this week so Frank had his temple shift on Tuesday evening and I took Seth to his YM activity. I tried working on Seminary lessons for next week while I was waiting for him, but I was just too tired to do anything that took a lot of mental effort so I didn't get very far. 

Wednesday was busy because I had my VITA shift. My first appointment had to reschedule because he didn't bring everything he needed but after that I was able to complete 3 tax returns and review another one before my shift ended. Wednesday evening I had book chat. It was our annual "fondue night"...one member of our club who is a gourmet chef always makes chocolate and cheese fondue and the rest of us bring things to dip (I always bring keilbasa to dip in the cheese). It's so yummy!! Everyone really enjoyed Meditations and it was fun to discuss it. Now we are reading The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu. We don't typically read mysteries, but we were in the mood for something light after reading philosophy this last month. This book is set in Singapore in the 1930s, so that also makes it interesting. I've only read a few pages of it so far, but it's already been pretty entertaining.

I've been doing a lot of quilting this week and yesterday I finished the second April pillow cover:

I just need to sew the backs onto both of them, and they will be done. 

I haven't made much progress on Seminary lesson preparations this week so I will have a lot of work to do on lessons over the weekend. I'm teaching three lessons next week so I have a lot to do. I'm feeling a little bit burned out on lesson preparation lately so I keep putting it off. (Easy to do since there's always something else that needs to be done besides preparing lessons.) I'm trying to find ways to make the lessons more engaging and meaningful but haven't had a lot of luck with that yet. 

Today I originally planned to go to the temple but I had a restless night last night and I've had a slight sore throat and headache off and on the last couple of days so ultimately I decided not to go. I knew I would be fighting to stay awake. I took an hour nap after Seminary so I feel more rested now. I was able to get the finances updated before I started writing this post so now I'm done with the Friday chores and I can devote some time to Seminary lessons. 

This is a short weekly review, but I doubt anyone is going to complain about that. 😆

Weekly Review February 14 '25

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Last Saturday I worked on Seminary lessons, did some sewing, and we had the Elders over for dinner. Neither of the Elders had been to our house before and it was nice to get to know them. Sewing: I sewed the border strips onto the first April quilt block and got it ready to quilt.

I also started sewing part of the second April quilt block together, but I couldn't finish it because part of it has an applique piece and I realized I needed a special kind of pin for the applique part. I ordered some of those pins, which arrived on Monday. Here's the part of the quilt block that I finished:

I started quilting the first quilt block this week but haven't gotten very far yet. Yesterday I sewed the applique part of the second quilt block and then finished sewing it together, sewed on the border strips, and got it ready to quilt:

Back to Saturday...after the Elders left, I noticed that I had missed a phone call from a sister in my ward that I minister to. When I called her back, I found out that her husband had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance with severe chest pain. She did say that the EMTs had done an EKG on him before they took him to the hospital and that his heart appeared to be okay but of course they still wanted to know what was causing the pain and to get him some relief. She didn't go to the hospital with her husband because they have an adult daughter named Genny with special needs...she's more like a 2 year old (but very sweet!) We offered to go stay with her daughter so that she could go to the hospital with her husband. Frank and I went over and helped her get her daughter to bed and then she went to the hospital. Frank and I watched a couple of episodes of Madame Secretary together and then he went home to go to bed because he needed his CPAP. I stayed and slept on the couch for a while. I thought I was going to be there a lot of the night because when this sister left for the hospital, she knew that her husband was still waiting in the ER waiting room (3+ hours after he was taken to the hospital). She came home around 12:30 though because he husband convinced her she should go home to get some rest. His pain had abated, but he was still waiting to be seen so he knew it was going to be a long night. I called Frank and he picked me up and took me home. It took me a while to fall asleep but I'm sure I slept better at home than I would have on the couch. 

In the morning we got ready for church and then went back to this family's house to pick up Genny and take her to church with us. (Her mom was going to get some sleep and her dad was still at the hospital getting some tests done.) When I got to the church and walked into the foyer with Genny, one of my friends was there and she said "Oh, that's why you weren't at choir practice." I had completely forgotten that the choir was singing that day and that we had choir practice before church! It was our ward conference and teh choir sang a song for prelude. I wasn't sure I should sing since I missed the practice, but the choir director told me she wanted me to sing, so I did. Genny was no trouble during church and afterwards we took her home where a neighbor met us and took her to her house for the afternoon. Genny's dad came home from the hospital that afternoon...they determined that he had a gallbladder attack. 

The rest of Sunday was calm and restful and Seth didn't have mission prep class so we were able to have family night and get to bed on time. I was also able to watch a training for Seminary & Institute teachers which actually happened in January but I didn't know it was happening then. The training was excellent.

My Monday Seminary lesson went pretty well except that I planned too much and ran out of time to do everything I wanted to do. By this time, we were pretty sure--based on the forecast--that we were going to have to cancel at least one day of Seminary this week so my team teacher said she would teach the remaining three days since I taught three days last week and she ended up only teaching one day because of last week's snow day. I decided not to finish preparing the 2nd lesson I had been working on because I am tired of preparing lessons that I don't end up teaching for weeks! Seth worked as usual on Monday evening. 

We did have Seminary on Tuesday, but since a storm was coming in that afternoon the school system sent out a notice Monday evening that school would be released 3 1/2 hours early on Tuesday. That meant that I only had a few hours to get a lot of household chores done before it was time for Seth to come home, but I did get a lot accomplished. My team teacher and I also met together after Seminary for a bit to do some planning for next week. Frank left the office early to avoid the incoming storm and worked from home that afternoon. The boy in my Seminary class who was recently baptized asked if he could come hang out with Seth that afternoon so we picked him up shortly after school got out. He and Seth seemed to enjoy playing some games together and he stayed and had dinner with us. By then it had started to snow so he decided he'd better go home before the roads got too bad. We enjoyed having him here. He lives with a friend of his father's and has no family in the United States so I think he gets lonely and we are happy to be "family" for him. (By the way, youth activities were cancelled that night and the temple is still closed so Frank didn't have his temple shift either.)

I got to talk to Jared for a while on Tuesday evening. He and Jessie are doing well. Jessie is doing great in school and Jared is also doing well with the class he is taking. Jared is teaching a Primary class at church (the 10 and 11 year olds) and he has also joined the choir and has been asked to sing a solo or duet sometime soon. 

Around the time that Frank and Seth left to take the boy from my Seminary class home, the school district sent out a notice stating that a decision about whether to delay or cancel school the next day would be made at 5:30 am. I wasn't too happy about that because I didn't want to get up just to find out that I didn't need to get up! But then my team teacher texted me and asked "How would you feel about making the decision tonight to cancel Seminary so no one will have to get up early to see if we're having Seminary or not?" Since it seemed highly likely that school would be at least delayed in the morning I said "I think that is a great idea!" Turns out that we made the right choice because at 5:30 the decision was to delay two hours and re-evaluate at 7:00 am. At 7:00 they decided to cancel school for the day. I was a little surprised by that because although we got about 3 inches of snow, the roads didn't look too bad to me. There was a possibility that we were going to get sleet that afternoon, though, so I think that's probably why they cancelled. 

Early Wednesday morning snow shots:

And a few later on:

The University of Maryland closed that day too, so Frank didn't have to work (unless an emergency came up, but it didn't) and VITA also closed so I didn't have to go anywhere. I feel like I should have got a lot done, but for some reason I didn't. I did get one Seminary lesson for next week prepared, though. 

Frank went out in the afternoon to do some work for a client and I asked him to go to Costco to get a few things. He did get what I wanted, but he also totally surprised me by coming home with a huge vaseful of roses and some dark chocolate. He decided to get ahead of the Valentine's Day rush, which was probably a good idea! I had Seth take some photos of me with the flowers to show how big they are:

By Wednesday evening it was raining and it rained quite a bit overnight. I was surprised the snow hadn't melted by the next morning but the roads were clear so school was on time and we had Seminary as usual on Thursday morning and this morning. It was really cloudy, drizzly, and gray Thursday morning but by afternoon the sun came out and the temperatures warmed up to the low 50s so all the snow melted. Today has been a lot colder, though, and last night it was really windy for a couple of hours. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary yesterday--just got all the regular household chores done and got a basic outline done for my 2nd Seminary lesson for next week. Oh, except I took Seth to the store after school so that he could get a card and some chocolate for Lorie. Frank was busy last night doing maintenance for all his clients.

Today for Valentine's Day we gave Seth a card and some candy and Frank and I exchanged cards. We also went out to breakfast together after I got home from Seminary. (Our bishopric provided breakfast for the youth today but I didn't eat any of it.) After we got back from breakfast, I took a nap because I woke up at 1:00 am and didn't go back to sleep. I woke up in time for lunch and then got the budgeting done before Seth got home from school. Seth and Lorie had planned a date for this afternoon so shortly after he got home from school I went with him to pick up Lorie at her house (she lives in Brunswick, about 30 minutes from Frederick). They originally planned this date for tomorrow, but since it is supposed to rain tomorrow I told him that should consider rescheduling to today and that's what they decided to do. They wanted to spend some time walking around seeing the sights in downtown Frederick, so I dropped them off at the library. After that, I dropped some food off to a friend who needed it and then Frank and I had dinner together while watching an episode of Madame Secretary. Then Frank had to leave to go pick up Lorie and Seth. They took Lorie home and they just got back. 

I've been doing a little bit of reading but haven't had a lot of time for it. I did finally finish the introduction to Meditations and I am finally reading the actual book. It's interesting. Some of it I don't understand, but a lot of it I can really relate to and sometimes it even makes me laugh out loud. 

One other piece of news is that I heard this week that the JoAnn's in Frederick is going to close...and so are all the other stores within an hour or more of Frederick. That's sad news...there isn't another fabric store in Frederick, so I don't know where I will be able to get fabric and other sewing supplies in the future. My friend Rebekah (who does a lot of sewing) and I are going to go on a field trip to a Hobby Lobby store in Hagerstown (about 30 minutes from Frederick) sometime soon to see if they carry fabric. I can probably find a lot of basic sewing supplies online or even at places like Wal-Mart, but I don't want to buy fabric online...I want to be able to see it. I do know that there is a small quilting store in downtown Frederick that carries some fabric so maybe I will be able to find some things I need there. I hope so! Hopefully I will be able to find yarn somewhere also, the next time I want to do a crochet project. 

That's it for this week.

Weekly Review February 7 '25

 I don't feel like there's a lot to report this week, but maybe I will think of more things as I go along.

Last Saturday (the 1st) started out with all three of us getting haircuts. Frank did some work for clients and did a repair on our refrigerator. Seth mentioned Friday evening that there was an area of the kitchen floor that was wet but I didn't think much of it because sometimes an ice cube will get knocked onto the floor and melt, leaving a puddle. On Saturday morning, however, I noticed this same area was still wet. There wasn't a huge puddle or anything, but when we investigated, we could tell that water was leaking from under the refrigerator. We pulled it away from the wall and Frank discovered that there was a tiny leak in the water line that runs from the sink to the ice maker / water dispenser. 

Fortunately, the leak was near the end of the line that attatches to the refrigerator, so Frank was able to cut that part off and replace the piece that goes on the end and reattatch it to the refrigerator and that fixed the problem. He's really glad that he didn't have to pull out and  replace the whole water line, and I'm really glad that he is so good at fixing things.

I kept busy all day on Saturday with a lot of different tasks. I prepared Power Point slides for my 3 Seminary lessons, practiced ukulele, bought a plane ticket for Utah, and researched the possibility of going to Palmyra in June, after the BFJ family reunion in Kirtland. It was also the first day of February, so I replaced the sign on our front door, switched out salt & pepper shakers, and put the February pillow covers onto the couch throw pillows.

I also sewed together one of the April quilt blocks (and finished listening to the First Vision Joseph Smith Papers Podcast while I did that.): 

I bought a plane ticket for Utah because I'm going to go there in March to help Mom file her tax return...and of course visit with her and with my boys and other family members too! Amy will be coming then too. I will only be there for a few days, but I'm really looking forward to it. Plane tickets are really expensive right now (about $800 roundtrip on most airlines) so I decided to try a new airline called Breeze that has flights from Dulles to Provo. A number of people in my ward have flown on that airline to Provo and they have had good experiences with it, and the cost is a lot less than all the other airlines. The base price is very low and you can choose to pay more by adding on things like checked baggage or extra legroom. I ended up getting one checked bag and extra legroom (they come together...what I really wanted was to be able to check a bag)...and the price was still almost half what I would have paid anywhere else. On Sunday I asked two of my friends to substitute in Seminary for me while I'm gone (they only need to be the extra adult...my team teacher teaches on the days I will be gone) and they both said yes. I also let my supervisor at VITA know last week that I would be gone that week in March. I may need to get one more substitute for Seminary but it depends on whether or not we get a guest teacher that week. So I mostly have all the details worked out for that trip, and I am excited to go!

Sunday we had church, of course; we also had family night (the lesson part) and I took Seth to mission prep that evening. (Well, actually Seth drove there and back but I had to be in the car with him, of course.) 

The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful, but we did have a few things going on. Seth worked on Monday evening (as usual). We did the activity / treat part of family night that afternoon before he went to work. We played a game called Forbidden Island, which is a group cooperation kind of game...you're trying to collect four treasures and get off the island before it sinks. It was close, but we did win the game and felt proud of ourselves. 😆 My team teacher and I had a phone meeting where we planned the next month of lessons, so of course we had a snow day later in the week which means our plans are already messed up a little (and there's more snow predicted next week...) 

Tuesday was different than usual because the temple is closed so Frank came home after work instead of going to the temple for his shift. Seth also didn't have a YM activity because this Sunday is our Ward Conference and the youth leaders had visits with stake leaders that evening. I worked on Seminary stuff that evening and got one of next week's lessons planned. Tuesday's Seminary lesson went great, by the way...so many wonderful comments and participation from almost everyone! But just so I don't get too comfortable, on Wednesday morning we had very low attendance and almost everyone who came was half asleep! 😂 I'm grateful that I am at the point that an off day doesn't really bother me! 

I had my VITA shift on Wednesday and it was really busy and went by fast. It was one of those days where every return I did ended up with unique issues so they took longer to complete than usual, and it seemed like all the other volunteers were encountering the same thing so we got a bit behind in the morning but things settled down and we got caught up by the time I left in the early afternoon. My first appointment actually was fairly straightforward, but the taxpayer wanted to tell me her life story so it took a long time to get through the intake part of the appointment. The second taxpayer I helped didn't have a form we needed so she had to reschedule, but I spent several minutes going through her documents before I realized she didn't have one of the documents I needed. The third taxpayer I helped had very little income because she had cancer and was sick / getting treatment most of the year. (She is doing better now.) In talking, she mentioned she has an identical twin sister and I told her that I do too, and she gave me a fist bump. 😁 I meet so many people through VITA that have had really hard lives or are in really difficult situations...it's always very humbling!

On Wednesday evening the school district sent out a message that school would be delayed 2 hours the next morning, with a re-evaluation in the morning. This wasn't too surprising because we were predicted to have freezing rain overnight and in the morning. It was really nice to know ahead of time that I did not have to get up in the morning! Because of the predicted ice storm, I had also decided to go grocery shopping Wednesday evening instead of Thursday morning (as I usually do). Frank went with me to help me. 

It was really nice to sleep in a bit on Thursday morning. I was still up before 6:00, but that is sleeping in for me! Frank worked from home because of the icy roads. At 7:00 am we got another notice from the school district that school was cancelled. The roads cleared up before the day was over, but the freezing rain was still coming down until around 11:00. Seth enjoyed having a day off, of course. He did go out that evening...the missionaries asked him to go to a lesson with them at 5:00 so he did that. Frank took him to the lesson and waited nearby until he was done and brought him back home. I think it's really good for Seth to have the opportunity to go out with the missionaries, so I'm glad they asked him. I had all the usual things to do on Thursday (except grocery shopping) but I had some free time and watched a few episodes of a show on Netflix. I worked a little bit on another Seminary lesson but haven't finished planning it yet. I will finish both lessons today or tomorrow, but it is fairly likely that I will only teach one of them next week because the chance of more snow is pretty high. 

Today I can't go to the temple as usually do because it is closed, so I am getting this post done a lot earlier than I usually do. I already have the budget caught up so I should have some time this afternoon to work on Seminary lessons or sew (or both). 

That's all the news from us!

Weekly Review January 31 '25

Where did January go? It really flew by. I'm not complaining about that, though!

There weren't as many events going on this week, but we did have school and Seminary all 5 days this week for the first time this year! I noticed that I have been feeling a bit more tired, but that's understandable since I'm adjusting back to getting up really early every weekday. On Tuesday I took two naps! (They were both short.) It was a really good Seminary week, though. The youth in our class are starting to participate more than they ever have and there's just a happier feeling in the class, overall. It's really great to get a peek inside their minds when they choose to answer questions...they have some amazing thoughts!! I'm teaching 3 lessons next week and somehow I miraculously have all 3 of them planned. I still need to create Power Point slides for all 3 lessons and probably do a little fine tuning, but the bulk of the work is done. I prepared 2 of them on Tuesday evening (while at the church during Seth's YM activity) and I prepared the third one yesterday. I am really loving diving into the Doctrine and Covenants in a way that I never have before. I love hearing the voice of the Lord! It's been really sweet.

Going back to last Friday...our heater was having some issues so we had someone come look at it. The humidifier is leaking water and unfortunately the guy who came couldn't fix that problem...we are going to have to get a plumber to do that. Frank was able to buy the part we need, but we need to find a plumber to do the work. The good news is, the rest of the furnace is fine and the guy who looked at it said it will probably run forever...it's probably just not as energy efficient as new ones. The other problem is we may have problems finding parts if they need to be replaced. But anyway...no need to replace the furnace at this point, and we're happy about that.

As usual, I can't remember much about Saturday. I finished up Seminary lesson preparations and I also sewed the backs onto the March pillow covers, so they are done. I'm sure it didn't take all day for me to do those two things, but that's all I can remember! (I'm sure I practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor too, because I always try to do those two things on Saturdays.) 

Sunday was quite busy...I feel like I went back and forth to the church most of the day because we had church from 10:30 to 12:30, I had an appointment with our bishop at 1:30 (with my team teacher...to talk about Seminary), and choir practice at 4:00. Somewhere in there we also had family night (except for the activity / treat part) and dinner. Frank took Seth to mission prep that evening so that I could go to bed. I got to talk to Jared for a little while, too.

On Monday after getting the regular chores done, I worked on the pillow covers for April...I cut out all the pieces. I'm not sure I like how the different fabrics I chose look together, now that I have the pieces cut out, so I may make a few adjustments. 

Seth worked on Monday evening as usual. We did family night activity and treat before he left. Frank and I got some dinner and watched an episode of the show we are watching together (it's called Madame Secretary). Shortly before it ended, a friend in the ward called me...she didn't have any food for dinner, so I took her some cans of soup, canned chicken, and a loaf of bread. Then I contacted the RS president to let her know what was going on and she is working on getting some more food for her. By the time I took the food over and visited with my friend, Seth only have about 40 minutes left of his shift and I had to drive right by his work on my way home so I just went to his work and read through next week's Seminary lessons while I waited for him to finish his shift and then brought him home.

Tuesday Frank had his temple shift as usual and Seth had a combined YM / YW activity...they had an etiquette dinner. He invited his friend Lorie to come to this activity. We walked her out to her car at the end (as we were leaving at the same time) and I noticed she and Seth were holding hands. She also gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before getting into her car. I guess things are warming up in that relationship.

On Wednesday I worked my first VITA shift of the tax season...well, sort of! We actually didn't have any appointments. I have no idea why the guy in charge had us all come in when there were no appointments scheduled! He did say he wanted help with some of the scheduling, so I spent a couple of hours helping him go through that. Then I got to go home early, at least. Next week we do have appointments, so I should be jumping into the actual tax season next week. 

After I got home, some friends in our ward came over to use our showers. They have a well and something went wrong with it so they didn't have water from Sunday through yesterday (it finally got fixed yesterday). I can't imagine going without water for that long! They were really happy to have a chance to shower. We enjoyed visiting with them for a while afterwards. 

Seth had an assignment for his English class that he needed help with that evening also so I didn't get any Seminary lesson prep done that day. (The assignment was challenging...he had to read a 7 page essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson and then write a reaction to it. I read the essay so that I could help him with the assignment, and it was hard for me to understand! Definitely not easy reading.) 

Yesterday I got caught up in watching the news about the plane crash at Reagan National (so sad!!) for quite a while in the morning, but somehow still got all the regular chores done and also prepared my 3rd Seminary lesson. I'm not sure how I managed that, but I am grateful! Seth worked for quite a while on homework for his CTC class. 

Today I went to the temple as usual. It was my last chance to go for a while because the temple will be closed for the next couple of weeks for maintenance. 

I've done a little bit of reading this week, but have not made it very far into Meditations. There's a very long introduction (50 + pages) and I haven't even got through that yet. (Frank says I should just skip the introduction, but the introduction gives a lot of background information that I think I will need to know to understand the book itself.) 

I listened to a lot of podcasts while I was working on other chores this week. I finished the podcast about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. Now I'm listening to a podcast about the First Vision, which I did listen to already but it was a few years ago so I'm listening to it again. I have felt two things happening to me as I listen to these podcasts...one is that I feel my testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet growing. The other is that I feel drawn to my ancestors who lived through those times with him. I have really been wanting to pull out the books I have about Benjamin Franklin Johnson and Frederick Granger Williams and read those parts of their histories again. Hopefully I will have time to do that sometime soon. I definitely want to read them before I go to Kirtland this summer.

Speaking of going to Kirtland this summer...I got an email this week inviting me and Frank to be chaperones for youth conference this summer (they are going to Kirtland). Our stake leaders decided to give all the YW presidencies and Seminary teachers and their spouses first dibs on being chaperones for this trip, if we want to be. Normally, I would definitely want to do that, but since I will be going to Kirtland the week before youth conference, I'm not so sure I want to turn around and go back (plus Amy may still be here). So we're considering it, but thinking it's probably not going to work out. 

The weather has warmed up quite a bit (thankfully) since last week. Yesterday it got into the low 50s which felt like spring thaw after all the subzero weather we had last week. Today is not as warm as that but it's still in the 40s and it's been raining off and on all day. 

That's all the news from us for this week.

Weekly Review January 24 '25

This week was busy, as I expected, but it was also another week where things did not go as I thought they would. 

Last Friday night Seth went to a party at Lorie's house. A girl in our ward was invited to go to the party too and her parents had a conflict so we took her to the party and back along with Seth. While Seth was at the party, Frank and I went to dinner with a couple from our ward (the Whipples) to celebrate both Frank's and Brother Whipple's birthdays (their birthdays are a day apart). That was a lot of fun.

As usual, I can't remember much about Saturday. I did get my 2nd Seminary lesson for this week planned and the usual chores done. Frank did a lot of work for clients, including a trip to his client that is 90 minutes away. I'm pretty sure I did quite a bit of quilting on one of the March quilt blocks, too. 

There was a snowstorm predicted for Sunday and it looked like it was going to be pretty significant, so on Saturday evening our ward leadership made the decision to combine with the ward that meets at 9:00 am and to only have Sacrament meeting. (The storm was supposed to arrive around 10:00 am.) It turns out that they also decided to shorten the meeting...they asked the sister missionaries who are assigned to their ward to share their testimonies, and they were the only speakers. We were done by 9:30. By then, the timing of the storm had been pushed back a bit but that was a blessing because we also had a baptism to attend that day (for the boy in my Seminary class). Originally, his baptism was scheduled for 5:00 pm, but the decision was also made on Saturday evening to move his baptism to noon. I was afraid that still wasn't going to be early enough...it was supposed to be snowing pretty hard by noon originally...but the storm held off and it was only snowing lightly when we left for the baptism. By the time we were heading back home, it had started to snow harder and was beginning to stick, but we made it home without difficulty so it all worked out perfectly. The baptism was beautiful!! Several kids in my Seminary class came and a lot of people from our ward came too. Really, every baptism should be like that...with so much love and support from the ward. I felt so much joy! I have some nice pictures from the baptism but I'm trying to be more cautious about including photos of other people's children on my blog so I won't include them here. Just looking at them makes me happy, though! They are such a great group of kids and there is a lot of love between them. 

After we got home from the baptism, it snowed the rest of the evening. Frank and Seth went out later to shovel and clean off our cars. We got about 5 inches of snow in the end, which was less than predicted but still a decent amount, and it looked really pretty. 

You can see Frank and Seth cleaning off our cars in this photo:

The next day was MLK Day, so there was no school and Frank was off work which was convenient considering the recent snowfall. The sun came out and it was beautiful:

It was really cold, though, and like most of the nation, we have been in the grip of an unusually severe cold snap all week. Today the temperatures got above freezing and it felt almost mild by comparison. The weather was responsible for all the things that didn't go as I thought they would. We were supposed to have a 4 day school / Seminary week, but there were two days with 2 hour delayed openings, so we ended up with only 2 days of Seminary. I think most of the shoveling / plowing got done on Monday but the temperatures in the mornings were in the single digits with wind chills below freezing so they opened the schools 2 hours late on both Tuesday and Wednesday so the temperatures could "warm up" to the teens before kids had to be waiting at bus stops or walking to school. 

A few screen shots from my weather app on Tuesday:

And one from Wednesday:

The delays meant that my team teacher and I had to do more adjusting to the Seminary schedule. I taught on Thursday and she taught this morning. We changed next week so now I am teaching 2 lessons instead of 3. (I'll probably teach 3 the following week.) The two lessons I am teaching next week are mostly prepared...one of them I already had done because I was supposed to teach it this week. I came up with an outline for the other one on Sunday evening. I haven't actually looked at it since then so I will need to finish preparing it tomorrow. It's definitely been a crazy Seminary month, though! It's January 24th and between scheduled days off and snow days / delays, we have only had 6 days of Seminary! We'll probably get back into a regular routine soon (unless it snows some more!). 

Late mornings notwithstanding, we did have a lot of events happening in the evenings this week. Seth worked on Monday evening. After I dropped him off at work, I ran an errand for one of the women I minister to. She and her husband are both sick and they needed some medicine so I picked it up and took it to them. On Tuesday evening Frank had his temple shift as usual. I had an orientation meeting for VITA that evening, which was online. I had to leave early to take Seth to the YM/YW activity. I stayed for the activity because parents were invited. It was "New Beginnings"...they introduced the two new girls who were coming into YW (there weren't any boys coming into YM this year) and then did a "guess who" activity about the rest of the youth. Then they had a slideshow of all the events from the last year. It was nice, but went kind of long so we didn't get home until about 9:00. We already knew schools were delayed the next day, though, so we weren't as anxious to get to bed as early as we usually do. 

On Wednesday after Frank got home from work we had family night since we hadn't been able to have it before then. (For the activity, we played a new game I got for Christmas called Tenzies. It was quite fun!) After family night we had dinner and I had book chat that evening. We discussed I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Now we are going to read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It was my turn to bring the book suggestions this month and I'm glad they picked this book because I was really interested in reading it. Book chat actually ended earlier than usual so I thought I would get to bed almost on time but just as I was getting ready to get in bed, Tanner called. (He forgot what time we go to bed on school nights.) We didn't talk a long time, though.

Last night there was a RS activity...we played board games and it was a lot of fun. Yesterday I also had a dentist appointment (just my bi-yearly check up). Today I went to the temple. So as you can see, it was a pretty busy week. 

In between everything else, I did a lot of quilting and finished both March quilt blocks. I finished the first one on Monday:

(The coloring looks a little odd because it was sitting in bright sunlight)

I finished the second one yesterday:

While I was quilting, I listened to Joseph Smith Papers podcasts. I finished listening to one about Kirtland and then I listened to one about the Nauvoo Temple and have now started one about the events leading up to the martydom. I've really enjoyed listening to these podcasts. 

I made a number of trips to the library this week and last week because I had requested a number of books through inter-library loan (so I could decide which books to offer for choices for book chat). I read one of the books this week (it was very short) called Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson, MD. It was a self help book about managing good and bad times in life. I really enjoyed it and think there were some valuable ideas in it. 

I also made a trip to the fabric store this week because I realized I did not have enough fabric to make the backs of the June pillow covers. However, I ran into the same problem I had last time I went to the fabric store to get more of a certain fabric...they didn't have the fabric I need in stock anymore. So frustrating!! I found something else that could work, but I wasn't super happy with it so I decided to see if I could track down the fabric I was looking for online. The employee at JoAnn's said if I could find the item number I could probably find it on their website. She said the item number would be on the receipt. I bought the fabric in July, so I wasn't too hopeful, but after a fairly short search through our huge bag of receipts that need to be shredded, I actually found the receipt I was looking for and using the item number, I was able to find the fabric online and ordered it today. I had to order more than I needed and the shipping costs are ridiculous, but I am really happy to be getting the exact fabric I wanted. One of my friends who sews a lot was at Jo Ann's last week and one of the employees told her that it's looking like the store might be closing. There is no other place to get fabric in Frederick, so we are both really concerned about that. We decided that we will just have to fly to Utah to get fabric for our projects in the future!

My right eye has been bothering me off and on all week. It's not as bad as my left eye felt when it was infected back in December, but some days there have been times when it feels like there is something in that eye. When I look, I can't see anything unusual. It also stings some times and waters a lot at other times. I guess I really should get an appointment with an opthalmologist and have both of my eyes thoroughly checked. It's possible that it is just the blepheritis acting up, though. I am very diligent about cleansing my eyelids every day (which is the only thing that helps prevent the symptoms of blepheritis) so it's frustrating that I still have so many issues with it. Meanwhile, my left elbow still bothers me at times. It's not hurting as much as it did back in November, but it still hurts sometimes. I love getting old!

This was the first week of the school semester so Seth's schedule has changed. He goes to the CTC in the afternoon now. His first block class is English 101, which is a college class through FCC (but the teacher teaches it at the high school). It's actually a Tuesday / Thursday class, so technically he doesn't have to go to it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. However, they have a place at the high school where he can go during that block and work on homework for this class and on Fridays his teacher has "office hours" and is there to help them if they need extra tutoring. For second block, he is taking a required Health class this term and he will take a financial literacy class second term. 

I can't think of anything else that happened and Frank wants to go to bed (and for that matter...so do I) so I will sign off until next week.

Weekly Review January 17 '25

January is going by fast, which is fine since it's usually pretty cold and miserable. We are definitely having a colder winter this year than we have had in quite a while. We kept pretty busy this week but I don't think there is as much to talk about. 

On Sunday evening all the youth from the 3 wards that meet in our building gathered to watch the youth devotional that was broadcast the previous Sunday, so Frank took Seth to that. I stayed home to look over my Seminary lesson for Tuesday (still hadn't done much to finish preparing it) and then went to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well...I had one of those nights where I woke up after a few hours of sleep and didn't go back to sleep, so I had to take a nap on Monday. I did manage to get all the regular chores done and finished preparing Tuesday's lesson also. Seth had to work that evening, so we weren't able to do family night activity until Wednesday night (we did the lesson portion on Sunday). 

Tuesday was Frank's birthday. He worked, but got to come home earlier than usual. We went out to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate and gave him some gifts. (He didn't go to the temple that night and Seth didn't have a YM activity because they had a temple baptism trip planned for Thursday instead.) 

He got a bunch of fun socks and some items to help care for his new cast iron pans. (Btw, I am a fan of cast iron now. They do require a little extra effort to maintain them, but stuff doesn't stick to them and they are easy to clean and practically indestructable. Much better than the non stick pans we have been using the past 3 or 4 years, which just don't last long.) He also got some Crumbl cookies that Tanner sent to him. 

On Wednesday I started working on Seminary lessons for next week but didn't get very far. We had Frank's birthday cheesecake that night because we were too full (after eating out) to eat it on Tuesday. Frank actually made it himself because he's better at making cheesecake than I am. It had an oreo crust and he wanted blueberry pie filling for the topping.

We did our family night activity that evening...we played a game that Seth got for Christmas called Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. It was absolutely hilarious...we were all laughing so hard at all the mistakes we made! 

On Wednesday evening the high councilor who talked to me last month about YW camp called me back to follow up and much to my surprise but delight, said that they had found someone else to be in charge of the food for camp! Remember that feeling I had when I was at the temple that it would all work out and I didn't need to worry about it? That's exactly what happened, and I am so grateful!! (And especially grateful that because of that spiritual impression, I have not been worrying about it for the last month...a tender mercy for sure!!) They also found someone to be the assistant, so I don't even have to do that. He just asked if I would be willing to be on the committee to help and I am more than willing to do that. What a relief!

Wednesday was the last day of the semester at school and Thursday and today are days off (and Monday will be as well, because of MLK Day). It looks like Seth will get As in all his classes (not totally sure about his CTC class because the grade doesn't get updated regularly). He had a certification exam for LINUX on Wednesday which unfortunately he didn't pass. He wasn't really far below a passing score so he probably could have passed it if he had put more effort into preparing for the test. I have been nagging him about it for weeks, telling him he should put more time into preparing. Maybe next time he will listen to me! He has one more class this last semester where he can earn a certification so I told him he should set a goal to do whatever it takes to prepare adequately for that test and he said he would. 

One side note about Seminary: it is really nice to have a television mounted on the wall in the RS room. We use the television almost every day, and for the last year and a half we have been walking down to the library (on the other side of the building) to get a television every day and then returning the television to the library after class every day. It saves a lot of time now that we don't have to do that! They took down the blackboard when they put up the television and are replacing it with a white board but the white board hasn't arrived yet. 

Oh, and another Seminary note: on Wednesday the lesson was on the First Vision. At some point last semester I watched a video of the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve reciting The Living Christ. (They each recited a portion of it.) I mentioned to my team teacher that I thought it would be cool to do something like that with the Seminary kids and she really liked the idea. On Wednesday she decided to do that: she gave each of them a few sentences from Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision (from the Pearl of Great Price) to memorize, and then she recorded them as they recited it. (I was actually in it too because we were one student short of what we needed.) It turned out really well and my team teacher shared it with the parents. It was actually really powerful when we went through it the first time and both my team teacher and I really felt a strong spirit and we both got teary eyed. It was beautiful! (I think the kids felt something too. 😊) 

Yesterday I got all the regular chores done and worked a little more on Seminary lessons but I still have quite a bit to do. I teach two lessons next week and one is completely prepared but the other one is still just an outline. I want to finish it and work on one for the following week, if possible, because I'm teaching 3 the following week and next week looks really busy so I know I won't have a ton of time to prepare. Seth was supposed to go to the temple to do baptisms last night but when I drove him over to the church it was snowing and ultimately they decided to cancel the trip because it looked like the roads were going to be really bad between here and the temple, especially as they were coming home. Of course, they didn't make that decision until I got back home, but Frank picked him up so that I wouln't have to go back. We didn't end up getting much snow but I think they got more to the south of us (where the temple is). 

Today I did not go to the temple as I usually do since Seth is home from school. The tax season starts the week after next, so I will probably go to the temple every other Friday instead of every Friday until the tax season is over. That's what I did last year, and it helped me balance my time so that I had time to volunteer, prepare Seminary lessons, get the household chores done, and also go to the temple regularly. I got the finances caught up this morning and Frank and I also met with a guy to talk more about life insurance...we're still trying to work out what to do about that. He gave us some good information so hopefully we will be able to make a decision soon. (Frank is working from home today, as he usually does on Fridays but between work meetings and doing work for clients I have not seen him except for the 30 minutes we were meeting about life insurance.) 

In between everything else, I have been able to get some sewing done this week. On Wednesday I sewed the backs onto the February pillow covers, so they are done.

I cut out pieces for the strips and the backs for the March pillow covers on Wednesday too. Last night I sewed the strips onto the March quilt blocks, marked them, and got them ready for quilting. 

After I get the March pillow covers done, my progress is going to slow down quite a bit because all I have done to prepare for April and May is to choose the quilt block patterns and buy the fabric. I still have to cut out all the pieces, so they are going to take a bit longer to put together. Hopefully I will still be able to stay ahead enough that the pillow covers are ready by the month they are needed. 

I'll finish up with a few sunrise photos from yesterday:

And one more from this morning: