Scorching the World

There is something about Tom being gone that motivates me to get stuff done. He left by 5:30am, so I got up and dressed. I did a load of wash, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the toilets, did some Clean Queen, practiced the piano, and started going through my clothes to change from winter to summer. He got home about 2pm and I felt very accomplished. Tanya texted to see if they could “drop by” and of course I said yes! She and Todd had gone out to dinner, then came here and watched 2 episodes of This Is Us and 2 of Doubling Down with Derricos. I wanted to show them an episode of Jeopardy to see the reigning champion, but by then they needed to get home. We have spearheaded a block party for tomorrow morning and needed to get some groceries. Tom went alone since I didn’t feel like I should leave with Tanya visiting. After they left we started getting things set up for tomorrow before we watched some bedtime tv.

First thing in the morning (after I had done some Clean Queen) we went to Madera to sign off the title of our rental. They bought it on a rent-to-own and finally paid it off. They weren’t very good renters – they went months at a time every year and we had to threaten foreclosure for non-payment lots of times, but they finally got it all paid off. We are so glad to have that done! We celebrated by going out to lunch on the way home. Caeli comes over soon after we got home. I made some cookies for her, but had to turn off the oven after baking the first batch to go get my hair cut. Caeli helped Tom install a flagpole in our front yard. I love the sister who cuts my hair. Lisa Roubechec is a fun person and there is always a LOT to talk about while she cuts. She is pretty rough with my hair and head and it feels really GOOD! It makes me want to get my hair cut more often to be able to visit with her more! And she sure does a good job on my hair. Caeli and Tom were watching some show...

Now that I’m doing less and less with Clean Queen, I was able to go with Tom to see Ryan for an adjustment. It was fun to be able to go with him – fun for me to not be left home alone and fun for him to not have to drive all that way alone. Before we left, Tom picked and juiced a bunch or oranges and I bagged up some of the cookies I made yesterday. We left at 8:30 and went to see Alissa first. The girls were in school and Marc was at work, but we got to spend about half hour with Alissa and Bowden. It has been so long since we’ve seen them that there was a lot of news to catch up on. Bowden is so stinkin cute I could hardly stand it. He was out of school because he has a little cough. He showed us his plants that he is growing and told us what each one is, and said, “They are growing quite nicely, actually.” So cute! I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture! Alissa needed to take their dog to the grooming place so we rode with her just so we could spend a little longer time talking. We...

Tom has been looking, applying and following up on possible leads for a new job for several weeks. He found three that sounded good and he applied, but the people wouldn’t get back to him. He actually went to the job sites of two of them to try to catch the people who weren’t returning his many calls. Finally yesterday, one called back and hired him to start today! It is a job delivering food items to certain grocery stores. Some are nearby and others are almost an hour away, but he gets to use a company refrigerated van, saving mileage on his truck. He starts super early and got everything ready the night before. He hoped to not wake me up, but he was in and out of the bedroom, turning on closet and bathroom lights, so before he left I was wide awake! I think he left about 5:30am. I did have plenty of things to do while he was gone. I finished the aprons yesterday, but I needed the gift bags and ribbons and stuff, so I went to Walmart and got groceries and a few other things whi...

My Mom’s favorite saying when it came to big projects was, “All it lacks is finishing!” That’s where I was with the aprons I’m making for our Relief Society presidencies. We are giving the aprons to them each time we visit a ward. I had them all cut out and sewed but they needed the ties and a heart on the front. I had to cut those out one at a time to get the right fabrics to match each one since I hadn’t bought quite enough of some of the fabric. It took most of the day, but I finished them all and got them each tied with ribbon. Now I just need to get gift bags, labels and the wooden spoon I tie to each one. Then the gifts will be ready for the year – the rest of the year because this year is almost half over already! I was able to clean up all sewing supplies that were all over the kitchen table and whole sewing/office room. It’s so nice that Tom never complains when there is hardly room to walk to his desk when I’m sewing and have the floor covered with fabrics. I was also abl...

Tom had early morning meetings, but returned to pick me so we could go to church in the same car.   I’d sure like to reduce how many trips to Fresno we do a week, but so far we’re not doing too good at it. We made at least 6 trips this week! Sacrament meeting was good, and the lesson in Relief Society was really good, mostly because sisters made really wonderful comments! I love being in a group where we can all contribute and be edified from each other. Tanya’s stake had stake conference today, so they were available to come over a couple of hours earlier than usual. That meant we couldn’t get a nap before they got here. They brought broccoli and canned chicken so we could make tuna casserole with chicken instead of tuna. It turned out good in spite of the substitutions and most of it got eaten. Tom made carrots and peas to go with it, but I burned them really bad. We also used the air fryer to make some chicken nuggets, and I pulled some rolls out of the freezer. We tried t...

Tom chose to not work in the yard today so we could “spend the day together”. But I spent all day sewing and loving it, so he did do a little outside First thing in the morning, Tom went to clean the church. I didn’t go with him, and felt a little guilty, but not bad enough to go. I love sewing. I can happily do that all day except that it does wear me out eventually. By evening I was aching all over. We took a break about 2pm to go out to lunch. When I go to lunch with the RS presidency, I learn about all these great places to eat and I wanted to take Tom there. He liked it too. Good food. We had no other errands to run except that Tom remembered that he had planned to go help our friends move in! We had planned to do that first thing in the morning and forgot all about it! Oh well. We watched a movie before going to bed. It wasn’t a very exciting day, but it was nice being together and just doing stuff. it was beautiful weather! I love this time of year when we don't ne...

It seemed everything I needed to do today involved sitting. I spent a LOT of time on the computer, updating my blog, finances, typing up notes from classes and meetings, and helping with Clean Queen. I finally got off the computer in the afternoon and cut the fabric for the aprons. I thought I had bought way too much fabric but when I cut, I found I barely got enough, and it may take some fancy imagination to make it all work. I’m making 4 aprons for 4 wards. It is a simple pattern, so it was easy to cut and should be easy to sew, so I’m looking forward to it. I love sewing. Tom spent most of the day indoors, too, working on his computer. It has been colder lately, which just makes me happy. I’m glad summer hasn’t hit yet. But it was so cold in the house that Tom cuddled up with me under a blanket on the couch right after breakfast to watch a movie I had recorded. He decided it was cold enough that he needed a fire to warm up. So we cuddled for a couple of hours under a blanket in ...

Was today the first day of Spring? We had rain, off and on most of the day. It is RARE for us to get rain after March, so we were happy that the sky let some water escape! Tom went again to see Ryan in the Bay Area for chiropractic adjustments. The last time he went he said it would be the last time, so I was surprised he went again. It isn’t cheap for us, but Tom needs the work done and we are happy to help Ryan get his credentials to finish his graduation. So he left at 8:30, the same time I left to go to Laurel Lawrence’s class. I also had lunch scheduled  at 11:30  with the stake RS presidency for our meeting, and sure didn’t want to drive all the way back home in-between. I pondered what I could do in that time. We didn’t need groceries; I don’t need anything else that I could think of and didn’t want to just wander around stores for nothing. In the middle of the night I remembered I needed to buy more fabric to make the aprons that we take to the RS presidencies in t...

When Tom and I went to the thrift store a few days ago, I mostly bought clothes that had potential – like a long skirt that was XXL but beautiful fabric, a bust-length dress, and stuff like that. Today I had the fun of taking those apart and making something I could use out of them. I cut off half the width of the skirt and made a bodice that I attached to the skirt and turned it into a dress! I took one shawl-type thing and turned it into a swimsuit coverup, and things like that. It was so fun. I love sewing and easily forget to eat when I’m sewing. In the afternoon, Caeli came over to spend a little time. Tom wanted her to watch The Intern with us. I had warned him that she really isn’t into watching movies; she can’t sit still for them. But soon after she got here, he asked her if she wanted to watch it. She said she had seen it a long time ago, and did have other plans for today but wasn’t sure how soon she needed to leave. but it was fine to watch it again. Within 10 minutes she...

I haven't been doing as much Clean Queen lately. It's been so nice! Today I basically ignored all the texts that had to do with clients and scheduling. That gave me time to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. I consistently go out to eat breakfast and lunch by the pool. It's so relaxing. While I was eating by the pool, I noticed an area where the weeds are taking over. Tom had mentioned that it was one of his next projects. So I decided to tackle it. I counted it as my exercise for the day. I pulled weeds and pulled weeds. It wasn't hard, it was beautiful weather (a little on the chilly side) and was quite satisfying.  Best part of the day – chatting with my sisters. I’m so glad we’re smart enough to use Zoom to be able to see and talk even if we don’t have anything all that important to convey, it is fun to just see each other; it’s almost like being together. We talked two hours. I did get a nap. I just couldn’t stay awake. It felt good! The missionaries h...

I’ve been trying to focus more on getting exercise every day. I made it a goal again. So with that focus, each time an opportunity arises to do something productive, I like that bettered than doing calisthenics or doing boring exercise by myself. This morning Tom and I agreed to go for a walk, but his knee is so bad that we have to cut the walks very short – about 10 minutes instead of 30, and then he limps the whole time. When we were arriving back home we saw our cute little neighbor across the street. She was out with her 2 children, raking rocks that they got delivered in the front of their yard. The rocks got dumped in two big piles and she was trying to smooth them out over the whole front along the street. She is the 2 nd on the street to do it, and other neighbors are about to do it. It’s the best way to deal with the lakes that are created when it rains hard. We went over to talk to her and found out her husband hurt his shoulders and was at the Dr office getting an MRI. So...

Tom didn’t have any meetings before Church, but I wanted to practice the organ, so we still went early. Before leaving, we put the ham in the crockpot, took some things out of the freezer, and got other things ready for dinner. I practiced about half hour before others started showing up. We had a choir rehearsal, Ginger and Bishop practiced their duet, and we practiced the hymn the choir will sing with Erilynne and Arlene Wadsworth at the organ – one on pedals and the other on the keyboards. After all that, I went back to playing prelude. It didn’t look like many people were going to come to our special Easter program, but by 5 minutes after it started, the chapel was full to overflowing. That was nice to see! My organ/piano duet/congregational opening hymn went pretty good. The piano was so loud I really couldn’t hear the organ, so I was never really sure if I was on the right notes. I had to watch the notes and focus on my finger placings much more than if I had been able to h...

We were assigned to clean the chapel this morning, but Tom completed all the cleaning during the week while I practiced the organ. He’s so amazing at service! So instead of having a leisurely Saturday morning with nothing to do, we needed to go work in the vineyard. We got ready to go but when we looked outside, we saw that it was raining in the back yard. Oddly, we couldn’t see rain in the front yard, but it was raining hard in the pool! So we waited a while, puttering around the house until the sun mostly came out, then we went to the vineyard. It was almost complete deserted, but we went ahead to our ward’s rows and began working. Apparently there had been al lot of people there earlier, in the rain, so it looked like most of it was done, but we walked down a row, then up another row and occasionally found things that needed done. The spring assignments are to break off the “succors” and tie up any branches that are hanging loose. It went pretty fast even though it is a very lon...

Playing with grandsons 4/15 Erilynne Christiansen had arranged to have 4 of us get together at the church to practice together – she plays the piano incredibly beautifully, Ginger who is leading the music and wanted to practice tempo with the pianist and organists, Arlene Wadsworth, the real organist, and me. We were to meet at 9am, so I Tom went with me at 8:30 so I could warm up and be more ready when they got there. He is so nice to go with me so I don’t have to be in the building alone. While I practice, he cleans the building, so in the evening when the building cleaning coordinators called to remind us it is our turn to clean tomorrow, he told them we were all done and they didn’t even need to go. They were thrilled! Anyway, my part is the opening hymn and the Sacrament hymn, and a little interlude while people walk up to the stand. I’m playing the opening hymn with Erilynne on the piano. Her part has 2-4 chords for every one of mine, so it is really impressive. I’ve practice...

Caeli and Tom made an arrangement that she would come over to visit every Wednesday when she gets up, which is around noon. Her family comes on Sundays, but she doesn’t like to be here when they are all here. So she showed up in the afternoon with her girlfriend, Leah and a huge German Shepherd. She and Leah work at a rescue place and that dog was abandoned. It is a beautiful dog, and even well trained. They spent their whole time here outside grooming him and picking off ticks while Tom worked in the yard. Later he came in and fixed them something to eat. He even made them fresh-squeezed orange juice! As soon as they were leaving, Tanya arrived. They just bought a new car, so now they have more cars than will fit in their garage and driveway, so they plan to park one here until Kaden starts to drive next March. She said she will come to drive it now and then. Then she needed a ride home and didn’t want to leave with Caeli because she wanted to watch tv for a while. She had arranged ...

We scheduled to go to the temple tonight at 6pm, so everything else we did was in preparation for that. I did a whole lot of Clean Queen again. There has been a huge rash of canceling clients, sick workers, and constantly changing schedules. Not easy, but we are getting through and eventually make it work out. I got ready early for the temple, when there was a lull in Clean Queen. That turned out to be a great decision because there was another flurry of texts and things that needed done right before we left. Besides going to the temple, the best part of the day was talking to my sisters. I love that we can do that – 1. We are each willing to set aside time, 2-we have the technology, 3-the technology works, 4-we have fun talking, 4-we always have lots to talk about, 5 etc., etc. I had lots of clean Queen going on while we were talking, so I had to keep putting my mike on mute and miss parts of sister-conversations, but at least I didn’t have to leave completely. Disneyland adve...