Second week in September was pretty average

What do I tell you about my week?  It is back to being stupid hot and we still have not had rain. I guess morning glories don't care about that because they are so pretty right now!

I did a lot with Kindness Begins With Me this week:

- Monday morning women's group resumed

- I continued to collect and price handmade items from the Afghanistan women 

- I visited the City Sewing Room to get more materials for the women

- I taught my English class Thursday night

- I opened up the church Friday morning for some training with girls from a local Catholic high school.

- I spent all Saturday morning at a nearby park where a fund raising pickle ball tournament was held. I helped at the station where we sold the handmade items made by the Afghanistan women.

We didn't sell very many items, sadly. I think the main culprit was the heat. People were just not wanting to be outside or, if they were, they did not want to linger. And I don't blame them. I came home and had to take a second shower, I was so yucky with sweat!  We are thinking we need to just sell them on-line....

Wednesday morning, Emily called me around 8:00 to ask if Larkin could hang out at our place since she was not feeling well. Emily had medical file extraction to do quite close to us so she dropped Larkin on her way to work. Whatever ailed Larkin early that morning dissipated at our house and she just spent the time watching Monster's Inc. and Monster's University and doing some drawing of birds (she is really GOOD!). We dropped Larkin off where Emily was working in time for our 3:00 dentist appointments (routine cleaning - but I have to say I am not a fan of the high powered water pic!!!). Wednesday evening, Steve and I hopped on our bikes and rode to a nearby snow cone stand for a refreshing treat to beat the heat. 

Steve and I were at the temple two times on Friday. In the morning, we did sealings and we brought along our friend Cinnamon Ontiveros so she could do baptisms. I have been seeing quite a bit of Cinnamon lately. She has no car - her ex wrecked it - and recently she had hip surgery so I have been in the pool of individuals driving her to and from P.T.  I also drove her and her kids to their eye appointments Monday afternoon.  The second time at the temple was in the evening to take Lucy and Quinn to do baptisms. Afterwards, we met Emily and Larkin at Oberweiss Dairy for ice cream (and to see Noah who was working there)

Sorry, no photos of Quinn :(

Steve and I watched the season finale of Strange New Worlds and I loved it so much, I watched it again the next night!

We had our neighbors, the Van Voorens, over for vegetarian lasagna last night. Then we got a tour of the progress they are making on the remodel next door. It is going to be beautiful when it is done, at which time, they will sell it and move to their villa in Greece.

I got a happy piece of mail yesterday - my We Rate Dogs order. In case you can't read backwards, the shirts say "tell your dog I said hi"

 

Here we are in September!

But, first, we need to close out August with a celebration of Larkin's birth! She turned nine on Saturday, the 30th, and we went to their home to eat cake and ice cream on Sunday evening. 

We celebrated Labor Day at a noonday ward picnic. We brought a gluten-free pasta salad, mini corns on the cob and leftover gluten-free cake from the orchestra picnic. And, we brought Jer, a fellow we take to church every week. In the evening, Steve and I rode our bikes to the cemetery across the street so I could take more tombstone photos. (It might seem odd that we have to ride our bikes to just go across the street but the cemetery is fenced and the entrance is waaaay down from our house on Bates. So, it is not a very long bike ride but it is much faster than walking).

I finished my HUGE book, Wind and Truth, Sunday night. It is the last of a set of five enormous volumes written by Brandon Sanderson. I started reading the first book fifteen years ago so it has been quite a journey. And, there is another five-book arc planned for the future but the amount of time it takes to write each book is so great that I will probably be dead before Sanderson finishes the final book! Sigh. I read books at the end of the day just before turning out the lights to sleep and all this week, I have missed reading about Dalinar and Shallan and Kaladan. They have been a part of my reading life for so many years and now it feels like they have moved to a distant planet. 

Tuesday I got to work all morning on my dad's history and I got to do some oil painting in the afternoon. Nice! It was the first rehearsal of the season for civic orchestra and it was fun to see everyone again. We are playing some really hard music this year so my almost seventy-year-old brain is really going to be challenged. I left early so I could give Quinn and Larkin a piano lesson before rehearsal started.

Wednesday was a Happy Hookers meeting. I brought some zippered bags and a large bunch of nifty- knitter hats of various sizes that I have been working on all spring and summer. In the evening, while Steve was at a meeting at the church, I started watching the new Captain America (Brave New World). I haven't finished it and I am wondering if I even want to. I guess I am growing weary of the Marvel universe and their convoluted story lines and constant violence (thankfully not graphic but still, someone always seems to be throwing someone else across the room!!!) I'll let you know if I ever finish it.

Thursday I put my nose to the grindstone and did first-of-the-month finances for much of the day. It was the first evening of English classes after our short two-week break and I had a student, who had not attended most of the summer, show up and she almost derailed the class! At the end of the summer classes, you might recall that I distributed a bunch of sewing projects for the women to work on to make money at the upcoming International Fair September 13th and for the Trivia Night in November. Some of the ladies brought their finished items to class on Thursday and this woman was VERY incensed that SHE didn't have anything to sew. And, of course, no one in my class speaks a lick of English so poor Maliha, my interpreter, was just inundated by everyone needing to tell me things all at the same time - with the upset woman at the forefront of it all. Whew! Who knew I would need to practice classroom management with a bunch of adult women???

Friday morning started cool enough that I wore a jacket on our walk with Beckie. We have had autumn-like weather all week and we even got a rain shower or two. Nothing like a drenching rain but enough that I didn't have to worry about watering for a few days. Steve and I attended the temple in the morning. In the afternoon, I started three new piano students - siblings who belong to Paul, an oboist in the civic orchestra. He learned at the civic picnic last week that I taught piano as well as cello (and violin) and he asked if I would consider going to their home to give lessons. At first I resisted but, the more I thought about it, the more I figured I should give it a try since I had just recently lost two cello students. And, it turns out that his wife, Ellie, is from Columbia and she went to school with Elise! They were in String Project together as well as in KICS (an auditioned singing group for 4th and 5th graders) and they were both in the Hickman High production of Secret Garden which Emily was also in!  Small world!!! So, every Friday afternoon, I will drive fifteen minutes to their lovely home next to the Botanical Gardens and teach piano lessons. All three have already been studying piano via Zoom with someone so hopefully, an in-person teacher will be a much better situation.

Saturday morning I attended a stake Relief Society event. I brought Karen Bazdresch with me and it was a lovely affair. We listened to a speaker, were fed breakfast (they had gluten-free options, happily), we worked on a service project and attended two classes. In the evening, Steve and I had a fire in the pit and cooked our hamburgers over it. (our gas grill is dead and, even though we have a charcoal grill, I wanted to see if we could cook over the fire) Then we rode our bikes to a nearby auto parts store to look for pin striping tape that I use to mark finger positions on string instruments. Then, we watched Strange New Worlds. The weather was absolutely perfect!