Scorching the World

  November has ended (as of today) and December comes! It is my favorite time of year, but it sure is busy. Today I was most stressed about playing the organ. The piece the music director chose for the Sacrament was actually not a Sacrament hymn, but an Easter hymn. It was really hard for me to learn and I spent a month of very concentrated practice, many times every day for at least a month. It was a huge blessing that I did actually learn it. I was nervous to play today, but I made it through – not without any mistakes, but without any major mess-ups. Whew! (Oh Savior, thou Who Wearest a Crown). It wasn’t familiar to most people, so they had a hard time picking it up. It is a beautiful hymn though. We went to the church at 8:30 so I could practice/warm up longer, but there were no early meetings, so the building was locked. There was someone in the car next to us who we didn’t know, who was also waiting, so I decided to talk to him. Turned out he might be a good resource to...

All day yesterday I had one song going through my head and it continued through the night. I woke up over and over trying to change the song in my head but every time I relaxed, it came back. During the night I was screaming at brain trying to change the song in my looping over and over. I really wanted to get up and get my phone to listen to some other music but I just didn’t ever get up. I think all that started about 2:30am or 3am and it kept me awake the rest of the night/morning. I also slept in some kind of weird position that cause my toe to be smashed/squozen. It hurt enough to completely wake me up so I changed positions and tried to sleep with nothing touching it. It was throbbing for a long time so after about an hour I got up and put some muscle pain relief drops on it and went back to bed. The pain went all the way up my leg never did go away. It was starting to feel better when Tom woke up about 6am. What a night. When I was trying to go back to sleep, I also was ma...

  Tom went to play pickleball at 8:30. While he was gone I had plenty of things I needed to do before Pettus’ got here. He was supposed to arrange to get their van door fixed at his special mechanic in the south of Fresno, and I wasn’t sure what the arrangements were. He had talked about us meeting them there as they came into town. Trina texted that they would be here about 11 and Tom said that meant he would need to leave pickleball early to accommodate that. H e had said that he needed to meet them at the place so he could talk to the mechanic . That was the last thing he told me. I watched Trina’s travel progress on Find My and as she got closer I texted Tom several times saying where she was and that he needed to hurry home so we could meet her there. He didn’t reply because he was busy playing. He had our only car because he loaned out his truck again, so I couldn’t leave without him. I got totally frustrated that he wasn’t home in time and wasn’t answering my texts and I...

  Last night I cooked the 2 pies. This morning I got the turkey in the oven about 7am and turned the heat down after 4 hours, then baked it all day. I made strawberry Jello with banana pudding, tapioca pudding, bananas, blueberries, and mandarin oranges, made the cranberry sauce, and in the last hour I cooked the sweet potatoes, gravy and stuffing and Tom made the mashed potatoes. We set the table and had everything ready at 2pm. Christian was about 15 minutes late so we started without him. Everything was delicious. It didn’t take long to reach fullness. In Relief Society on Sunday they are doing a cookie exchange. I decided to make the same pumpkin cookies I made a couple of days ago which are better on the 3rd day, so in the morning I made the cookie dough.  So after we finished eating I started baking the cookies. Tom and I needed a nap really bad so we slept during the 10 minutes between batches. When I finally finished all the batches we took a real half-hour nap. Tu...

  I had a headache in the night but was able to sleep through most of it. I sure don't know why I've had so many headaches this week. I got a lot done on the computer before Tanya came over to watch tv. Today was her birthday and we offered to take her to lunch, but she preferred to just relax and watch tv at our house. She got here about 8am and spent all day watching things I had recorded and saved for her. She said she didn’t feel good yesterday, but was better today, but after she got here, it was obvious she wasn’t better yet. Gradually through the day she lost her voice and didn't feel great. (Tom worked today instead of his regular schedule because of it being Thanksgiving week) Since it was her birthday, we were happy to spoil her and take care of her. She didn’t want breakfast, but about 10am she was ready for a snack. I offered yogurt and blueberries, which she loved. We offered to buy Panda Express for lunch instead of going out for lunch, so after Tom fini...

  I have a lot of stuff I need to do right now that are pressing on my mind. Some are stressful and some are just things that need done. Because of that, I couldn’t go to sleep last night. I woke up   about midnight and couldn’t go back to sleep. I finally got up and listened to conference talks until I started falling asleep during it. I listened to 6 talks before I could fall asleep. They were really good talks! We woke up at 5am again and got busy. My first priority was ink for my printer. There is a song I have to learn for our ward Christmas party but I can’t print it out to practice it and there are several other things I really need printed. So as soon as Walmart opened, we went there. Tom also needed something from Kaiser and we needed to buy a turkey so it would have time to thaw before Thursday. Somehow in my mind we could do all that, plus go work out and still be home before time to chat with Anne. My brain was coo coo. I don't know what I was thinking. fortu...

  I had a mild headache all night that just didn’t want to go away. I wanted to just lie down and close my eyes all day. But that was not to be. Tom and I woke up early, so there was time to get a lot done before he left for pickleball at 8:30. I practiced and did computer stuff while he was gone. We had an appointment with Logan at noon. When Tom got home from pickling, he had important synergy calls to make and barely finished before Logan called. I didn't feel like we need Logan’s help right now, but he still has good ideas, so we were glad we talked to him. Once again, things were left pending while he and his team research stuff. The sister missionaries texted this morning to remind me that I had signed up to feed all 4 missionaries today at 6pm. I didn’t even have it on my calendar! So as soon as we finished talking with Logan we went to the grocery store. I needed printer ink and had several things pending including a lesson I wanted to do with the missionaries, plus t...

  We needed to be at church by 9:30 to go through the choir number before Church. Since we woke up at about 5, that wasn’t a problem. The choir sounded a little rough in the run-through, but there were a few people missing, so I wasn’t worried about it. When we sang, it really sounded great! I got lots of complements. We sang O Render Thanks and because it is such a short song, we created a repeat to sing the whole thing twice. Then we sang the first page a Capella. It turned out quite good! Sacrament meeting and Relief Society were both good. After the meetings, we had a very rushed choir practice. Everyone wants a short rehearsal and to be done before 1pm but we can’t start until people get out of the room after Relief Society, so we barely get 45 minutes. I like short rehearsals, but i think I planned too many songs for December so we really need longer rehearsals. I got too ambitious and am regretting it now. Oh well. I’m sure it will all work out in the end, then I can ...

  I had a not-major headache when I went to bed last night, so I took a Tylenol PM. The headache didn’t ever go away, but I was able to sleep better than I would have without it. When we woke up, I was sure that if I got up and faced the day I would feel better. And I did. Mostly. The headache returned off and on throughout the day, but I had things to do so I tried to ignore it. My most fun project was making a daily planner for Tom for next year. It was darn fun to work on. We had errands to run in Fresno and wanted to go to the gym, so the agreement was that as soon as I finished the planner, we could go. I finished around noon, so we took off. I took the planner to Fed Ex and got it spiral bound with a frosted cover. Tom agreed to let me wrap it for Christmas so I didn’t let him see the finished product. Then we went to Best Buy so we could drop off electronic recycling, then to drop off a letter at Janna’s house that was sent to us even though she moved out of our studio...

  I had planned to get into more sewing projects today, but I never could get the ánimo (energy/desire) to   go out to the shed. Instead. I stayed busy with stuff inside. After Tom left for work, I did my morning routine, spent a lot of time getting my new watch programmed, and worked on setting up and figuring out my new Mac and other quieter activities. I didn’t feel sick, I just didn’t feel like doing anything. When Tom got home we took a nap which really helped. Then I just did more stuff inside. Tom worked on Synergy until the mobile home parks closed. Tom bought a new planner for next year but decided he didn’t like it after all and will return it. Every year he spends a lot of time looking for the perfect planner and after some slightly pushy conversations, I convinced him to let me make a planner for him to his specifications. That was super fun. I set it up on excel so that it is a 2-page spread to show 1 week. After I get it all laid out and printed, I’ll take ...

  We were awake at 5am, so we got up to get ready to leave. I took a shower and got ready as fast as I could. Tom had paperwork to straighten out and get ready, then we left, about 6am. I didn’t know he had errands to do before we could actually get on the road. After all the rain, the “lake” in front of our friend Rosie’s house was huge. It is in front of her whole house out to almost the middle of the street, making a deep area to drive through to get into the driveway and a really deep area to go through to get to the mailbox. So yesterday he took our little pump over there and hooked it up. He let it run all day. He asked her son who lives with her (she is our age) to check on it before going to bed last night and he unplugged it. So this morning, we stopped by there and Tom plugged it back in so it could run all day again. With it running all day yesterday, the water had receded about 3 feet off the middle of the street. Then he told me he had promised to loan his truc...

  Tom went to play pickleball in the morning and I cleaned up the sewing area. I spent a lot of time printing out instructions for other projects I would like to sew and generally just did stuff in the   house all day.  I can't find printed instructions for my sewing projects that are free, so I watch an instructional video and do screen shots and type in the instructions into a word doc. Then I edit it down as much as possible - hopefully 5 or fewer pages. It does take a long time.  Tom picked up some groceries on the way home plus printer paper. I was almost out! other than that, I practiced the piano and general stuff. I found a recipe for Oatmeal Bread I wanted to try. It wasn't hard, but making bread does take a long time. It turned out really good. yummy! Tom worked on Synergy   all day. As we were going to sleep, Tom said he needed to go to Vacaville and areas around that to sign up more mobile home parks. I told him I would go with him when he went, ...

  I woke up almost every hour last night, No particular reason, but I was able to go back to sleep each time, which was a blessing. Except when I woke up at 5, I held very still for the last 55 minutes until Tom’s alarm went off. Good thing for afternoon naps. I did all my morning routine then worked setting up zoom on my Mac so I could sit on the couch instead of at the desk while we chatted. But my list of what I wanted to talk about was on my desktop computer and I didn’t want to do whatever to make it available from the couch, so I got ready for zoom on the computer after all. I also cleaned up the kitchen and mopped the floor before it was time to chat with Anne. It sounds impressive, but it is a tiny kitchen and a tiny amount of floor to mop. I should do that daily instead of occasionally. Anne and I had a fun chat. There is always so much to discuss and as soon as we finish, I start a new list for next week. Tom got home from work right as Anne and I were finishing...

 .... don't get me down! I got nothin’ done today. Just sayin’. Tom left to play pickleball at 8:30. Ok, so I did get a lot of computer stuff done first thing in the morning and practiced 3 or 4 times during the day. I made a cake for our renter’s birthday today and baked it in two 8”square pans so we could keep half. They aren’t big dessert eaters, so that sounded fair to me. When Tom got home, he had some last minute phone calls to make for Synergy before he was ready to talk to me about what we needed to talk to Logan about. We had a meeting scheduled with him at noon. We were able to gather our thoughts and prepare a little before Logan started the zoom meeting. We had 4 questions for him, and he had a lot of really good questions and suggestions, clarifying our thoughts and plans quite a bit. We had 2 questions that he needed to research so we scheduled another meeting for next week. He is really smart for someone so young. Right when we were finishing up with him, T...

 I can't believe this month is half over. The last 3 months of the year always go much faster than all the rest of the year which makes me happy because we will be closer to moving back into the house. It just keeps raining. It is actually more of a light sprinkle. Alexa said it would rain 0.2 inches in the whole day, yet our pool is really, really full, and we have a nice size lake in front of the house. Tom slept while I watched Church History Matters last night before bed. I think he slept from 8pm to 10pm, then we went to bed and slept until about 3am. I coaxed him back to bed at 4am and he slept until almost 7am. I think for seniors there isn’t such a thing as a normal night’s sleep, or normal night-time sleeping hours but I sure wish I could keep him awake until actual bedtime. I gave him a haircut and beard trim before church. He looks much better now. He offered to make a “Tom breakfast” this morning, so we had fried spuds and French toast with blueberries and whipped...

  Today I got to stay home and not put on makeup all day! It was sprinkling outside most of the day, so it was nice to just be in my cozy little room. Tom and I are in charge of the nativity presentation for our Ward Christmas dinner. They asked us to use  senior members of the ward. That seems silly to me, but I wrote a pretty good script (since it is 100% from the scriptures) and I put Tom in charge of asking people to be in it. So he spent most of the day texting and responding to texts, A lot of our senior members don’t text, so he will talk to them in church or have to call them. One of the ones he contacted told him he should be getting children to be in it instead of old people. Lol. I got to go outside and sew to my heart’s content. It was chilly out there but I was fine with a jacket on. I sewed until I ran out of red thread. Tom had signed up to help with a youth fundraiser today at 3:30pm. Our stake center is within 2 blocks of the Fresno State football fiel...

  We were awake again when Tom’s alarm went off to go to work. It was raining and apparently had rained all night because we have a lake in front of hour house even though I never saw any real rain – just light sprinkling. I did all my usual morning routine, focusing most on practicing the piano. I’m having a really hard time learning O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown. I would try to simplify it for myself but it is so beautiful that I really don’t want to leave any notes out. Then I spent most of the day cutting and sewing. I’m making 16 gift bags for Christmas gifts. I did finally get all of them cut out and got the first phase of sewing them almost done. I think I can finish in one more day of sewing. It was sprinkling most of the time I was out there, but wasn’t terribly cold. Way better than when it’s so hot outside. A couple of times while I was out there, Tom called to have me put something in his computer. He was trying to work on Synergy while he was driving or st...

  We woke up too early. Tom woke up about 3am and when he came back to bed we slept some but both of us were wide awake by 5am. So dumb. We tried to go back to sleep but gave up and got up, figuring that   if you’re awake, you might as well be productive. We’re trying to figure out how to afford more solar panels so Tom took advantage of the east coast being awake at that hour to call a bank. He had a long conversation with a loan officer and discussed all kinds of things like kids and sports. By the time they finished they were good friends but we don't want their loan. I got caught up on computer stuff. I hurt my toe somehow stepping into the shower on Sunday. It has been extremely painful ever since even though I can't see anything wrong with the toe. I assumed it was an  invisible    sliver, so I tried different things like drawing salve, a baking soda soak, and duct tape but nothing has worked. At least by today, I don’t limp when I walk. It has never b...

Today isn’t a day that Tom goes to work, but we both woke up before 6am and got up and got busy. I worked on laminating the Pay It Forward cards first thing. I laminated and cut for about an hour, then worked on the computer, practiced, etc, etc. Tom went to go play pickleball, then I met him afterwards at the gym. We are not as regular as I would like to be and it sure felt good to be working out. When we finished, Tom stopped at a store on the way home and I went to a thrift store then the bank on the way home. My main reason for going to the thrift store was to find something I can use as a tablecloth. I found a sheet that might work and I also found some fun blouses. Tom had lunch waiting for me when I got home, then we grabbed a nap and then worked on other stuff. I finished the Pay It Forward Cards  then finished the Christmas gifts and began wrapping them. I didn't finish, so I still have too many projects in process in the house. Tonight we (the Relief Society activ...

                                                                          Happy Veteran’s Day! I sure felt like I should have been more aware of the wonderful people who serve our country than I was. I was totally focused on other things today. Tom went to work and I got a whole lot of stuff done before time to chat with Anne. Still, I could have kept working for another hour or two. I seem to be in the middle of a whole lot of large projects right now and I’m not giving any of them enough time. Some of them didn’t get any time today. It was fun to talk to Anne. I love that we keep up on each other’s lives. I only wish I did it with all my kids! I need to work on that. Tom got home soon after I finished chatting with Anne. We had lunch then took a nap. We had time to work outside before it got dar...

  When we served in Madera 3 rd (Spanish) ward, we learned quickly that more than half of the ward was related to one couple, Fortino Torres and his wife whose name I can’t remember. She died a number of years ago, but Fortino died this past Halloween at the age of 86. Today was his funeral and Tom really wanted to go. It started at 10 so we had plenty of time to get a lot done before we left. There was a road closure and a lot of traffic and Tom wanted to drop off a battery at an auto parts store on the way, so he was really nervous about being late. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot when we got there but we found a parking spot and still made it a few minutes before time to start. The whole huge family was in the Relief Society room for the viewing and family gathering and we were very surprised that NOBODY was in the chapel yet. We sat down and greeted dear friends as they came in. We sat there a very long time waiting for it to start. Everything the Spanish w...