In the afternoon I tried to mark attendance for seminary after
I had graded my students’ work, but my class is not accessible to me. I used to
have it but it’s gone. I’m sure it has something to do with my dual role. In
the evening we went to home teach.
Monday I had great plans for the day that didn’t quite make
it. We had a district meeting at Tohlakai at 1 PM. It was a potluck lunch
followed by the meeting. I figured I needed to double the recipe I was taking.
Ted suggested I should make a little less, so I cut the chicken down to 1 ½
recipes. I couldn’t really ½ the recipe for the cans. The chicken breasts were
frozen as usual. We had to leave at 12:30, so I planned to shred the chicken
about 11:30. When I checked at 11:30, it was still raw. I had a call just as I
discovered the problem, so while I talked on the phone, I hurriedly put a pan
of water on to heat to steam the chicken. I needed to shred the cheese, so I
quickly did that while the chicken cooked. I then realized the rice would need
to be cooking to be done in time to leave, so I put that on to cook. After a
few minutes of steaming the chicken was ready to shred. Finally everything was
done.
When we arrived we found that the couple that was supposed
to open the building was going to be late. We opened the building and everyone
pitched in to set up tables and get lunch ready. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, but
only about half of my food was eaten after all that.
One couple who was on their second mission here had replaced
a garden missionary couple that had a fabulous garden going. They brought a car
full of produce. After we had taken all we thought we could use, they gave us
everything that was unclaimed to give to others here. We had a car full of
food.
From there we drove to family home evening. We’d had a call
from Mortensons that they were not going to make it so we were in charge. We
had 4 or 5 kids and it turned out to be a fun evening. When we returned home we
unloaded the car then tried to find a home for all the food. We bagged up the
leftovers and put them in the freezer—it was at least two meals worth. We then
shredded as much zucchini as we could fit in the freezer and bagged that up. I
still had to open seminary lessons for the next day, so it was fairly late when
we got to bed.
Tuesday morning we drove to the senior center with several
large containers. The elders had told us late Friday there was a very large
container of body wash they were trying to empty and to bring gallon bottles.
We found the container was probably about a cubic yard with a spout for
emptying it. We took some small bottles and left our other containers for them
to fill. Next month they are getting shampoo.
At home I thought I had an appointment for a Webex seminary meeting.
At the appointed time I went to the email and clicked on the link. The meeting
was not in session yet, so I waited. After a few minutes I looked at the notice
again and I had the right time. After a few more minutes I read it more closely
and discovered it was for Wednesday, not Tuesday. My goodness!
Later in the afternoon I met with one of my online students
for our weekly meeting that was supposed to be last Friday. We had a good
visit. She’s not really open, but she appears to be a really cute girl with a
sweet spirit. I feel badly because she is the only online student for the class
meeting as of this time. I spent the rest of the day grading assignments and
preparing for seminary tomorrow. I’m hoping the kids will catch the vision of
the program and do the work.
Wednesday I met with my supervisor and several other
teachers via Webex to discuss the online program. It was really helpful. Most
of the first half hour was spent getting people connected and visible. We were
told our virtual meetings would probably follow this same pattern with quite a
bit of time spent getting people on. That sounds frustrating. Afterward we discussed
students that attend boarding schools. Since several of my students attend
boarding schools, I participated. Basically, the students don’t meet with the
others for a virtual meeting. They are able to watch a recording of the meeting
at their own convenience.
After the meeting I made a double batch of zucchini bread
for institute refreshments tomorrow. After I was done, just in time to cut some
up for my Tohlakai class, Ted reminded me that I had planned to take some cookies
from the freezer for refreshments. I am my own worst enemy, building my own
stumbling blocks.
At Tohlakai two of my students are riding with another lady
while their mother/grandmother is in school this semester. They were actually
on time, but they had to leave 15 minutes early so their ride could get to school.
One student had his makeup work for the classes he’d missed. He said he didn’t
get it all done because he got busy with school. I reminded him he wasn’t in
school when I gave it to him. He couldn’t find the book of James. I was
incredulous. I asked him if he’d tried the Table of Contents. I told him Joseph
Smith didn’t have any trouble finding it. When I asked for the notebooks, none
of the students had done any work for the week. I know I told them to start
their work last week. Yikes! I hope things get better. We were able to have a
good discussion so I think we at least got something out of the lesson. I was just
so disappointed that not one of them had done anything.
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| Proud pillow creator |
Thursday we had two ladies come to quilting. One picked out
some fabric to make herself a quilt. I think it’ll be nice. The other lady
finished sewing her pillow. We found a pillowcase that we could use for the
backing and sewed it on. We used some of the pieces of batting for the
stuffing. It turned out to be really cute. She still needed to sew it closed,
but I was so proud of her. She also picked out some pre-cut squares that she
wants to start to sew into a quilt next week. It’s fun to see her excitement.
In the evening we went to institute. We only had two
students because at least one of our students was at mission prep. After class the
mission prep teacher stopped by to let us know they are switching to Sunday
because they have too many conflicts right now. It’s good we will no longer
have that conflict.
I got another online student during the day so I sent her
the letter with instructions on how to access the system and what to do. My
computer was not doing what it should so it was frustrating. I also had to tell
a couple of students they needed to do better on an assignment.
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| LDS Booth at the Window Rock Fair |
Friday morning we drove to Window Rock for the Navajo Nation
Fair. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest fairs in the area with lots of fun
things going on and great displays. I’m sure most of the action will be
Saturday. The fair was somewhat disappointing to me. There were some great 4H
projects. There were interesting booths for schools, entitlements, and other
benefits available to the people. We visited with a lady and her husband who consult
for businesses in energy areas to help them get started. They don’t charge for
their time, but the businesses are required to create jobs for people. We visited the arts and crafts building where
there were a few stalls set up. Most of the stuff was expensive and with not
much variety. There was a wood carving of a Navajo legend selling for $17,000.
The legend sounded like a bit of a takeoff on Christ. Ted had a good
conversation with the artist about the church and the Book of Mormon. We
watched the fry bread contest for a while, enjoying our lunch while we sat in
the shaded arena.
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| Frybread contest |
We bought some flour from a coop near Farmington. When we took
our bags out to the car, we discovered we were further away than we thought.
When we came back in we realized there wasn’t much more we wanted to see. We
bought a huge cup of lemonade and went into one of the buildings to rest. We
were sitting on the stairs of a 4H display. We watched some judges evaluate a
couple of watermelons for taste. The lady in charge brought us each a piece to
eat. It wasn’t all that good, but we were appreciative. We figured we looked
pretty worn and bedraggled. She said they usually serve watermelon to the
visitors, but there were only two entries this year so there wasn’t enough.
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| Arts and Crafts display at fair |
I spent the afternoon grading seminary assignments online. In
the evening we walked to the high school for the football game. The air felt so
good we didn’t even think about jackets. We found ourselves sitting next to the
fans for the other team. As the game progressed they had more to cheer about
than we did. Our team only caught one kickoff and fumbled frequently. Their
team picked up our fumbles and intercepted our passes. They ran nearly the
length of the field for a touchdown at least once.
We had a couple of good plays, but the only one I noticed
was when one of my students tackled their runner to stop a touchdown run. There
were tons of penalties, including a couple for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was
like they had no clue what they should be doing. The score was 50-0 at half
time and they called the game. The air was really nice and fresh, but it got a
little breezy toward the end and I was not unhappy to be headed home earlier
than planned. I really hope the team can get their act together or it’s going to
be a long unhappy season.
Saturday I spent time catching up on seminary things. I put
together an attendance chart and a birthday list. I am finally able to have my
classes in the attendance program, but the link from the online program does
not work. I gathered my things for seminary in the morning. We’ll see how this
group of kids does.
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