Another Sweet Maple Sunday

Jared brought his three older children to Maple Sunday today.  Miranda was enthusiastically telling her mother of how much she liked Calvin and Jacqueline as they loaded their car in preparation to return home.  Jacqueline had expressed some worry about going to a different seminary next year when Adam is eligible for seminary.  She worried about finding friends.  I assume the seminary at Timpview has people from her ward.  I assured her that she would have friends, but if not, if the group she joins for seminary is haughty or exclusive she needs to deepen her relationship with the spirit.  I baked a pork roast and a cauliflower casserole.  Nancy brought bread, desserts and a salad plus drinks.  Jing brought up a rice dish, Taylor brought drinks, and Tisha brought cake in honor of her husband, Brad's birthday.  I gave small paintings to Jared and Brad.  Jared had first choice and he chose a blue encaustic snow scene.  The other painting was an oil of pomegranates which Tisha said Brad favors.  It was a rather random gathering.  Rudy stayed in my room where he played with the marble game and a world globe.  The youngest was Lilah who mainly refused contact although she is willing to give me a 'high five'.  The teens played games and the adults conversed on a number of topics while avoiding politics.  I ate nothing, although I did take a few bites of dessert as I cleaned up the dishes and tidied the kitchen.  Tomorrow I hope to make renovations on my temple dress so I can carry a pack of tissues and a vile of hand sanitizer.  I want to get back to temple attendance and I am feeling somewhat better today. 

Pictures

Today my major labor was preparing pictures taken at the art exhibit for publication on the website, the Facebook page for UVAG and the newsletter.  The corruption of my Word Perfect file created some difficulty.  The most serious is that I can no longer prescribe the degree of rotation, but I've developed a number of work arounds.  I create and manipulate most images in Presentations, save them as an image file then either upload them to the web or print them after dropping them into Open Office.  I also came much closer to the goal of protecting the chicken run and only a gentle rain kept me from completing the barrier over the gate.  Adam and Ralph pulled up the mulch along the sidewalk and revealed some rather alien looking tulip and daffodil sprouts.  They should recover in a few days.  Tomorrow is spring forward time.  I plan to have Maple Sunday and leave church after sacrament meeting.  I am feeling much better today and feel I was under hydrated instead of being anemic.  I had a lovely ribeye steak today after having two eggs in the morning.  I think some of my abdominal discomfort stems from a form of constipation.  The one thing I had planned on was getting the mess in my storage area straightened out.  Jacqueline came over to watch 'Enchanted' and I pointed out that although the costumes worn by the key character were 'immodest' she had an essential innocence. 

Lovely, Busy Day even if ill

Today I got quite a bit done.  I took the kids to seminary, purchased some ribeye steaks and liquid hand soap at Day's, worked on securing the chicken run against coons, drove up to Bountiful for my usual activities with Hannah and Rudy, and returned home in enough time to take Jacqueline to the art exhibit opening at the Covey Center along with the candy palettes the girls made yesterday.  I was feeling very weak while working on the chicken run and was unable to finish the job all the way.  The weakness was reminiscent of the way I felt when I had severe anemia but I'm feeling quite a bit better this evening.  Tomorrow I hope to finish closing the obvious weak points along the lattice fence and gate.  Maybe I can also mount the wall chick feed container.  Adam noticed that it was time to remove the mulch from the front strip and let the tulips and daffodils up.

Feeling Sickly

I had hoped to go to the temple this morning but although I woke in time I realized that my physical level was still somewhat compromised.  I'm conscious of having a mild inflammation of my throat and less energy than normal.  I went shopping for supplies for the special molded chocolates I provide for openings.  I also bought some supplies for my chicken house and groceries for the Maple Sunday this weekend.  I got some cauliflower, a pork roast, loaves of cheap bread and sour cream.  I didn't use a cart either at the craft store or the grocery store and felt almost ready to faint.
Jacqueline and Diana came up and made the candy treats which they packed in transparent treat bags using silver twist ties.  I feel this is the best way to present the chocolates since they offer less threat of melting.  I had hoped to do some securing of the chicken run using screw eyes I purchased at Lowes but I couldn't find the supplies my grandsons used the other day.  I also cut the angles to make a feeding wall in the coop.  The current feeding situation takes up too much room and gets too mucky to see the level of the contents since it perforce sits beneath the perches.  The feeding wall I had in the coop previously worked quite well and had a good capacity.  I hope to get around to fixing it tomorrow, but since I plan to go to Bountiful and bit earlier than usual in order to return in time for the UVAG exhibit opening I may not get around to it.

Tidying up UVAG

The other day when I purchased an independent website for the Artist Guild I made new graphics to refresh the look. Meanwhile I have the responsibility of accounting for memberships and proper addresses for the newsletter, both electronic and printed.  I spent a lot of time today on my computer tidying up the ragged ends.  I made a new mailing list complete with new mailing labels.  I tried to complete a list of members.  Tomorrow in the afternoon Jacqueline and Diana will come over to make the molded palette candies that I have formerly placed on cupcakes.  This year I will make them stand alone.  Or rather my skilled helpers will make them.  I hope to go the temple tomorrow.  I hope to feel somewhat better after taking it relatively easy for the past few days.

No Hand Shaking

Probably as a result of eating carbs I have had inflammation of my lungs and frequent coughs.  It is flu season and the Corona virus has increased the awareness of how personal contact is a major vector for disease.  I had planned to go to the temple as usual this morning but last week I had a difficult time suppressing coughs.  When I found that seminary was canceled because of ACT tests at the high school I decided to sleep in late and do the tasks I had planned after going to the temple, none of which would involve personal contact with others.  I picked up my check from the lawyers office, took pictures of the award winners at the Covey Center and went shopping at Smith's with the aim of building up my gas points.  I found a sale on beef, a good price on toilet paper, a bag of buns for Richard, and an unanticipated sale on Kerry Gold Butter.  I purchased ten packages of Kerry Gold, three packages of steaks, a large package of toilet paper.  I also bought a hand of bananas.  I ate one as I drove to the bank and deposited my alimony check at the drive through.  Once at home I waited for a visit from the president of our Art association, Sandy Whitby, who came to pick up the awards I printed out and provide me with a copy of the sign in for the exhibit.  After she left I cooked my steak.  I also ate some pastries and another banana.  For a while I worked on getting the photos of the award winning pictures onto e-mail.  My digestion was rumbly so I took a nap.   When I woke up I continued working with the pictures, cropping them and putting them with their titles and the names of the artists. 

Just another Sunday

I struggled against waking up on time this morning but Richard and I made it to church on time.  I scanted on my exercise and shortened my prayer, but I made my bed and left my room tidy.  I fasted for those caught in the plagues that are raging around the world.  I couldn't raise my hand to sustain Brother Youngblood as a Sunday School teacher.  He nibbles at the edge of orthodoxy but his doubt seems all too often to outweigh his faith.  My ministering brothers came over for a visit and I showed them Diana's diorama.  Tomorrow I will likely help Jacqueline make a silk painting of the scene.  Jared came over for a visit with Patricia and Timothy and they did quite well aside from a brief tussle over the Star Wars trading card album.