A Typical Week in the Winter

I love reading letters that my mom wrote to her mom or journal entries from my relatives and think about how different my daily life is from theirs and probably in many ways that they could never even consider....so I decided to summarize our week.  This is for a hundred years from now so will be very boring reading for those of you alive today.

Monday:  I drove myself in my own car to work in Salt Lake (about 28 miles one way)--rush area traffic, of course, but not too bad.  Unfortunately, I started getting the chills mid-morning and when one of my two afternoon appointments cancelled due to illness, I cancelled the other one, and headed home.  Was running a fever, so I mostly slept and watched TV, including starting a new series called Blindspot which Gary had discovered.  Being off cable now for about 2 months has been a good thing and it is nice to be able to watch a series from the first show forward.

Gary, Jena and friends headed down to Provo without me and Gary was able to visit with Ben before heading back home.

Tuesday:  me still with a fever and slight headache, Gary busy with trying to go to the temple--He was meeting his brother in law, but timing didn't work out and Gary forgot his temple clothes, so they ended up not going.  I would imagine that even in 100 years from now, temple work will still be a "in-person" kind of thing.  Gary had Webelos with his new Scout partner, Chris Parsons, and they had a good time doing the "Cyber Chip", something Cubs need to do to learn safety on the internet.

Jena started her Geology class this week at BYU.  She took a picture of her first class, but somehow I lost it off my phone.

Wednesday: I was feeling better and it was my regularly scheduled day off which was good.  I had my yearly check-up and then went to get my new replacement drivers license.  Because I had completed the application on-line, I only waited about 2 minutes before being called and was out of there in about 5 minutes.  For a government process, that was terrific.

I think had a visit with Kristy Sparrow and Debbie Woodrow.  It was so nice to just sit and talk.  Debbie had to head back to work, but I kept Kristy until almost 3.  It reminded me of my other friends who I don't talk to much any more because our lives are busy and so different.  When you had kids in sports or Cub Scouts or simply playing at each other's homes, you had chances to talk often.  So I spent the evening texting some of my neighbors and nearby friends to check in on them and let them know I was thinking about them.  And Gary and I decided to invite people over for games this coming weekend (Feb. 3) to connect with some of the people who we love.

Meanwhile, Jena was having fun at BYU.

Jena, Sara, Emily and Brooke

Thursday:  Tosha and Austen finally got their household goods and his car from their shipment from Okinawa.  They have been without their stuff since November 14th--that is a long time, especially with two little boys.

I headed back to work finally and had a busy day with appointments and meetings.  I was suppose to watch Liam and Zander that evening, but everyone was sick at their house except for Liam.  Jessica sent me this picture mid-day.  She had told Liam that I was going to hang out with him today and he thought it was right then.  She reminded him it was at dinner time and it made him sad to wait.  You have to love grandchildren.

So Liam and I had dinner together at a nearby McDonald's where he played with some kids, following them around the play equipment.  It was fun to listen to them laughing together.

Jena headed to work at the bowling alley in the evening, despite showing signs of a cold.

Friday:  Work for me, school and skiing for Jena, and driving for Gary.  Jena came home from skiing and her cold was definitely progressing so she has had a quiet weekend at home.  At least, no fever for her and no cold for me.  And I think Friday was the first night I actually cooked dinner this whole week.  It was that kind of week---leftovers and eating out (or being sick.)

Saturday: This was the first Saturday in what seemed like months that I didn't have any place to go at all.  I prepared my Primary lesson and started doing the laundry and other mundane tasks in the morning, while Gary was doing Special Olympics bowling.  We let Jena sleep in so that she can be recovering from her cold.  Then I moved to my major task for the day.

 I thought that it had been a couple of years since I had cleaned out my craft closet in the basement.  I am guessing from the piles and stacks from a variety of events over the past few years that it might have been even longer ago than that.  Perhaps sometime before graduate school started in 2014.

I had always imagined having a craft closet where my grandchildren could come and get the things they wanted to draw or to paint.  Finally I feel like it is ready for that.  And any one in my family, come check out my closet before buying supplies at Hobby Lobby---After years of Cub Scouts, Primary, and UDSF events, I have enough crayons for everyone, yarn, paper and assorted craft supplies to keep us all busy for years.

There is no "before" picture, but trust me, it was not a pretty sight.  The floor in this closet was piled almost waist high with bags and boxes from different events where I didn't take time to put everything back "in its place."  It took most of the day to get it organized and things put into the right spot, here or in other places in the house.  I think there were five bags to the garbage and recycling with some more boxes that still need to be broken down.

As a by-product of cleaning the craft closet, I also cleaned up the sewing/exercise/family history room.  It also is a stopping point for boxes of "stuff" leftover from parties and events.

Lest, you feel discouraged and think my house is all organized.  Here is the wall you can't see in the above photo.  These are piles of photos and family history items which I have sorted into large categories and need to now sort and scan and do something with each item and organize it in a meaningful way.  That is a project for another day (and perhaps another year from now!)

Our "gift" from Walmart.
It came with coupons and some snacks.

Because I knew this day was going to be packed with cleaning and organizing, I decided to try out the "Pick Up Service" at our local WalMart.  People had been raving about it and I thought it was a good day to try.  I signed up, made my order, added the ap and waited until 7 p.m. and went to get my groceries.....and I loved it....except that I unintentional ordered UNSALTED mixed nuts instead of lightly salted and I ordered a huge bag of chicken nuggets.  Not bad for my first go.  I think it will be a weekly thing now.  It was so nice.  Everything was bagged together so it was easy to unload into the right place at home. That is something I didn't think would ever be possible without hiring someone to do your groceries shopping for you.  I highly recommend it!  (Now if someone would cook for me! Maybe a hundred years from now.......)