Happy Birthday!

 Monday Miranda and Rebecca and their children went to the lake to canoe. I picked up four canoes from the garage and we rendezvoused at Panther Bay. The rivers and lake were at high levels, but they canoed across the lake (about a mile) and back safely. A good time was had by all. I was able to order a piece of glass for my pantry door while they were enjoying themselves. I also brought the canoes home and pressured washed them before returning them.

I was able to pick up the oak pantry door and am now waiting for Nathan to pick the door and glass up and make the two into one. It will still be a couple of weeks before the glass lady can etch the glass, but at least the door will be hung soon. And the counter top guy called; he had an opening on Friday 30 July to install the counter tops; was I available? No, I won't be, unfortunately. I will be on my way to Utah then. So, they will have to wait until 18 August as originally planned.

I spent three mornings trimming a long fence line that was being overtaken by brush. 60-90 minutes in the heat and humidity were about all I could tolerate, but the work is done and the fence line looks much better.

Thursday, Rebecca and Marian drove to Little Rock to fly out to Utah. They met Dan there and then drove his car to Rexburg to get Marian situated before school starts on Monday. Dan flew out Friday to LR, picked up Rebecca's car and drove here that evening.

Friday I drove to the St Louis Temple; I had invited ward members to join me and two sisters joined me. We were able to check into the hotel and get to the temple before 3 pm to start ordinances. My temple responsibilities did not start until 5 pm, so I had time to get some of my work done before then. I had an opportunity to visit with the temple president and his wife; they will be released next month and in January will serve a mission in Kenya Nairobi. It was good to share some of our experiences from our mission there.

Saturday, after breakfast, we headed back to the temple for on hour and then drove home. 

Church today was good. I presented the lesson in Elder's Quorum where we discussed Elder Rasband's talk about miracles and that they have not ceased. Then there was a short meeting of seminary students and parents. We will start on Wednesday 18 Aug at 630 am, in person. Had an opportunity to minister to one of my families in the afternoon. Our ward is aging and many have health issues. Some people feel the need to hang on to the bitter end when other options are available.  But their choice places greater care giver responsibilities on others who may themselves be struggling with issues. Hope my kids will know when to tell me to shut up and sit down (figuratively speaking).

Quietly celebrated my birthday this week. Did you know that if you switch the last two digits of my birth year, you have my age?

Its Pie Celebration Time!~

 Monday started off quieter since Rebecca and her girls went to visit Kera Sunday evening. I worked on more kitchen upgrades, those lesser important things that still need doing. I managed to get baseboard and one door trimmed; need the pantry door before I can finish that job. I ordered an oak door, which the cabinet maker will trim to accommodate the glass insert which the glass lady in Springdale will make, once she recovers from a recent motorcycle incident. I got part of the pasture bush hogged in the cool of the evening (cool is a relative term). Nathan also came and attached the last of the kitchen cabinet doors. He had installed a turn table in the corner cabinet, but it was not designed for what we wanted. So we went out to the barn where all the old cabinets are stored and removed the old one and replaced it. It is much more user friendly. The only real item left for the kitchen remodel is the installation of the countertops, which won't happen until mid August.

Tuesday I had planned to drive the 90 minutes to Menard's to purchase exterior vinyl siding to cover the new kitchen. They are the only place that carries what my house is sided with, and I can purchase it by the piece. I had a few minutes before I wanted to leave and remembered the girls saying the downstairs bath sink backed up. Simple fix; just put a pan under the p-trap, loosen the nuts, remove the p-trap, clean it out and replace. Unfortunately, the water softener did it's purging about the time I removed the p-trap (the water from that action runs into the drain line for the sink) and instead of a small bowl of water leaking out, the flood gates were opened and the water kept coming. Reattaching the p-trap should have been simple, except I discovered the reason for slow drainage:  there was a butter knife in the trap which made it a little difficult getting it reattached. There may have been some water overflowing onto the bathroom rug, requiring it to be washed; there might also have been water that seeped into the adjoining water heater closet requiring immediate attention. The water was contained, the rug was washed, the p-trap properly cleanout out and the knife thrown out. It had to have been there for a couple of years since I replaced that faucet about two years ago and installed the sink stopper.

I did manage to get to Menard's and get my siding. Rebecca returned late evening with two cute bunnies that Callie had purchased from her aunt. They are now temporarily housed in the old chicken coop.

Wednesday I spent part of the day (that means I worked for a while until it got too hot, came in and rested, then went back out) installing siding. The new kitchen is about 8 feet by 12 feet and I needed to side three sides. I had enough old siding to do the one side that marries up to a wall with the older siding so the color would match. While the color is the same, 20 years of weathering has lightened the original. So I installed the new siding on the two sides that no one will pay much attention to. And that is when I learned that my math skills need refining. When purchasing siding on Tuesday, I computed cutting 12 foot pieces in half would give me two 8 foot pieces. Hence, I am short two pieces. Miranda arrived with her four in the afternoon.

I finished the siding on Thursday and completed bush hogging the west pasture. I also spent some time cleaning up around the exterior of the house and got help from some grand kids in loading into the truck four months worth of building material trash that had been accumulating around the grounds.

Friday I was off to the transfer station to dump my load of trash. While there, the skies opened up with a tremendous downpour. I was inside a huge metal building and the sound of the falling rain was thunderous. There was more organizing needed before family started to arrive later in the day. Jonathan plus four and Andy plus two were coming off a multi day canoe trip and came directly to our house after pulling out of the river and Miranda's Dan also joined us. We had 19 to feed and house for the night. All the canoers required showers and somehow, we had sufficient hot water!

Saturday was the traditional Pie Celebration Day for which Rebecca started baking pies a couple of weeks ago. Her final pie came out of the oven just as the event started at 2 pm.  Kera came with Charlotte and her Dad; Deborah and her entire family also drove over, so by my count we had 28 family members here for the event. The kids took over, rearranging the furniture to open the kitchen for pies and the dining/living room for visiting. With help from Miranda, she and Rebecca made 26 pies and four more were donated by attendees. As in the past, we let the grands have one slice at the beginning and then banished them from the kitchen until the event was near the end; then they could come and eat as much pie as they wanted. Here is a list of pies:

From my perspective, this was our best pie celebration yet; more pies and more people. When the dust settled, we had  two whole pies plus varying amounts of three others left over. People came and stayed to visit. It was a fun time and the grands had fun playing/interacting with one another.  The children put the furniture back and the house was back to order shortly after the festivities. It was an early to bed night for me.

We had two good youth speakers this morning followed by our high council speaker. Interesting quote:  "Sometimes I win, sometimes I learn". This evening, the daughters made lumpia (yum, yum) for dinner and it was followed with a delicious chocolate cake to celebrate (early) my birthday.

Hope you have many winning and learning experiences this week!

12 July 2021

 Last Sunday evening Kera arrived with Charlotte and Elder Fox - he had been set apart earlier that afternoon in Little Rock by his Stake President and was going to attend 'at home' MTC here in Mountain Home for a week.

Monday Kera helped me finished installing the vinyl planking in the kitchen. It was still early in the day, but I did not want to push things so we stopped there. It was great to have additional help putting planking under the fridge and stove. And Kera knows how to do flooring! Later that evening she headed home, leaving the two children behind.

Tuesday I had a follow up appointment with the urologist in Rogers. I drove over there, arriving just in time for my appointment and saw the PA; she was also involved with my surgery so she was familiar with me. It was a good visit and she exclaimed that I was above average in recuperating. Only a few days earlier I had downsized Depend size from maximum to light and that impressed her. She also explained that those occasional uncomfortable internal rumblings will continue for a few more weeks. I do find that I am able to do more and feel more 'normal' as time goes on. Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped for the usual hot fudge sundae before returning home. There was a stop at Aldis for additional food before arriving home in time for dinner. Rebecca continues to cook excellent dinners that are well received.

Wednesday we went to breakfast and in the afternoon went to visit a good friend that had invited us over to go swimming at their pool. The girls had a wonderful time playing while the adults talked. I left early to come home to cut and install quarter round in part of the kitchen. This is one time when I measure multiple times before cutting; these cuts need to be exact. I need Nathan to bring me the stained baseboard so that can be installed prior to the remaining quarter round. But the kitchen is beginning to look more like a kitchen. We are still trying to find the best place for things; what should go where. I don't lack for storage space; the challenge is there are more items than space in those highly favorable places.

Thursday was a big family day. Isabelle was slated to fly into Kansas City in the afternoon from UT for her endowment session at the temple. Several family members had coordinated to support her; Rebeca's children had offered to babysit as needed. Our plan was to leave Thursday before 9am, check out a couple of thrift stores in Branson, check into a motel 90 minutes south of the temple, drive to the airport to pickup Isabelle, join other family members for dinner, attend the temple and then drive back to the motel. We were half way to KC when we got the text that said Isabelle's flight out Dallas was cancelled. But we were committed and continued on our way. Rebecca and I dropped off 5 girls at the motel, bought them Subway sandwiches for dinner, and drove to IKEA since we had time. Deborah was able to link up with Miranda and drive to the temple. IKEA did not have the specific items I had hoped to find, but we both found some useful things we didn't think we could live without. We enjoyed their Swedish meatballs 

and then drove to the temple to meet up with the other two girls. We enjoyed a great session, 

did the traditional stop at Andy's and Rebecca and I drove back to the motel. You might wonder why we chose a motel 90 minutes away, instead of in KC. The original plan was to go to Silver Dollar City on Friday, and we didn't want to drive to far in the morning.

We got to the motel to find all the girls sleeping soundly. We were up and on the way about 7 am the next morning. Two hours later I missed the turnoff to the park. It seems the highway that was previously designated as '465' is now '76 East'. We were able to link up with Dan Mc who drove three MO Fox children plus Elias English (he is staying there for a few weeks) while Miranda drove her 4 children and we had 5 more children. We spent over 8 hours at the park; ate funnel cakes, 

cinnamon rolls, kettle corn; there may have been a time when the parents thought one of their children was missing, when he was perfectly happy enjoying a ride by himself. A good time was had by all. We got home about 9; I was impressed that 5 teenagers and two adults could all shower and still have hot water!

Isabelle was able to reschedule her session at the temple for 1030 on Friday, while we were off playing. Hopefully, she knows she is loved!

Saturday was a recovery day, that didn't include much recovery. I mowed the yard and helped my neighbor with some issues. Rebecca made more pies. 11 Pies are ready for Saturday's Pie Celebration. We found out today that a ward member passed away this past Friday and her memorial service will be held 20 miles south of here about the same time, so we plan to modify our times to accommodate anyone wanting to attend the service.

Charlotte helped me make blueberry muffins using Adam's recipe. Our bushes have a lot of ripe blueberries this year. Had three members of a family speak in church today, all on the subject of obedience. The two youth stressed that while obedience often lead to affliction in the scriptures, there was always a happy ending. The same should apply to us.

Rebecca is off this afternoon taking Charlotte and Elder Fox back home. Elder Fox flies out to the Provo MTC Wednesday morning. Callie is intent on buying some rabbits from her cousins and will return here with them. They will reside in the old chicken coop until the drive to Utah for Katie's wedding and then to CA to their new home.

Happy 4th of July!

 This week much thought and effort went into organizing the kitchen. Where is the best place to put dishes, or pots and pans? What is the most efficient use of cabinets, cupboards and drawers? Currently blue tape signifies the contents of most cupboards and drawers so we know where things are hiding. Placement of some items seem intuitive, but others are a challenge. Callie and Rebecca have been most helpful in moving things back into the kitchen and providing some semblance of organized chaos. They had to wait until Friday when Nathan arrived with a new lazy susan for the corner cabinet to move a couple of food boxes out of the living room, which by the way is now 90% empty of kitchen stuff! Trying to find shelf and drawer organizers has been interesting. Finding a bin or shelf that fits the specific size that will hold the required item is not always possible, so sometimes second best will do until enough thrift stores have been visited to find that correct item.

I spent a few hours spread over a couple of days patching the hole in my closet wall which was required to run power to the new kitchen circuits. Was even able to match the paint. During this development, my clothes were scattered in two different rooms. Now they are back where they belong.

We had a light rain Thursday evening, but that did not deter Callie from mowing as much of the yard as she could. She finished up the next morning - after running three miles with her mom and sister (who then ran another 3-5 miles). And the past two nights have been delightful with temperatures in the low 60s.

The great news of the week was that the flooring store called to say I could come and pickup my flooring. On Monday I had brought him a drawing to compute the needed amount but then didn't hear anything. I stopped by twice and learned why the silence. He is overwhelmed with work. One big project is a new assisted living facility that has been consuming his time. Another reason for the delay was because my order was in the back corner of his storeroom on the bottom. I stopped by Thursday afternoon to pick up my order; I ended up buying more than needed because he gave me a greater discount (already had a 10% military one) since it was the last of that pattern. So did I really save any money by purchasing more at a lower price than if I had only bought what I needed at a greater price?

Now that I finally had flooring, I had a lot of inertia to overcome. Actually, I was stalling since I wanted this project to be done properly and it needs to look good. It was 10 Friday morning before I started and then it took me an hour to get the first 5 pieces cut and in place. As the first row goes, so goes the rest of the floor. After two partial days of installing 12" x 24" vinyl planking, my knees are revolting, so I am glad to take the Sabbath off. I offered the younger grands to come inspect often, looking for tiles that did not set tightly, paying them $1 for each crack they found. It has been successful in that they found a couple of places that did not seat tightly. By Saturday evening, about 2/3s of the floor is done.

Saturday morning I took Deborah's family (who had arrived Friday afternoon) back to the house that had the downed tree in it that we had partially cleaned up a week ago with Rebecca's family. There was a smaller load of limbs to load which the family did quickly. I on the other hand was not successful in cutting the remaining 20 feet of the trunk. The chain saw had issues. So we cleaned up and stopped by the donut place to reward our efforts. I returned later to finish cutting and loading the trunk.  About 2 pm, we started the bon fire; there was sufficient limbs, branches and such to form three piles; as the first one burned down, I used the tractor to push the next pile in until it was all consumed. But there was sufficient coals for the grands to roast marshmallows for s'mores after dinner. There was still some smoke this morning.

Testimony meeting today was great.  Lots of faith shared thoughts about the founding of this country and on our Savior, Jesus Christ. One 27 year old young lady shared how she had grown up in this ward, moved away, left the church and then came back to the church because this is the only place she felt the love of the Savior.

The Phoenix rises!

 Monday I was still at Deborah's so I could attend an afternoon follow up appointment with the reconstructive surgeon who sutured my eyelid together a couple of weeks ago. He pronounced the eyelid as healing well and entrusted me to the care of my local ophthalmologist although he wants to see me in a year. I drove home afterwards. Deborah, her children and I did drove up to the new temple sight to check on its building progress. This is taken from the north side of the temple:

Tuesday was a big day:  the plumber was scheduled to return - and he did. When he left three hours later, the stove (propane) was functional, the temporary sink had the new faucet and water lines installed, and the dishwasher was connected (to the water). I no longer need to wash dishes or cook downstairs!! So over the next couple of days I brought upstairs the things I had previously taken down there, such as food and dishes. Of course, where do I put things in the new kitchen? The electrician came about 630 pm and installed a new breaker box to run power to a couple of new circuits for the kitchen. He also drew a diagram of how to wire the three way light switch for two over head lights. So while he did his thing in the bedroom closet installing the wire and box, I was in the attic attaching wires. I only had one connected when we tried the light switch; and it worked! Great rejoicing! However, that was short lived once I connected the second light. And now it does not work.

Wednesday, Nathan the cabinet maker returned and finished all he could do. He has a turn table for the corner cabinet and a cabinet door still on order. And he will trim the doors and should be back this week to resolve those issues. But, as far as I am concerned, I have a kitchen!! I also mowed the lawn in the evening. That night, Rebecca plus four drove in about 11 pm, having driven from San Diego in two days. There was great rejoicing before all headed off to bed for a well deserved night of rest.

Thursday I spent the day connecting wires to the new breakers. I was able to get two of the three lines successfully connected and then ran out of time. I was confused about why I had run a particular wire to a box; it made no sense. So I did not work on that connection. I did go with Rebecca to a flooring store to check out their vinyl waterproof planking. Amidst all my other concerns, it did not occur to me that there might be shortages of flooring, but there are. Fortunately, he has something in stock that will work and I will return Monday to pick up my next project. We also made the trip to Walmart for needed stuff.

Friday morning I headed off to the St Louis Temple. They are in need of volunteers to serve there and I had been assigned the Friday evening shift. Fortunately I had made a reservation at a local motel several days ago; they were very busy that night judging by the volume of cars in the lot the next morning. I was able to check in, change clothes and get to the temple in plenty of time. It was a fast paced evening bouncing from one place to another, but it was a good experience. I hope with future visits to be able to schedule myself to perform ordinances for family members. Work can only be done with reservations. I return in four weeks. But that time I hope to reach out to others interested in going to the temple so I don't have to go solo. I did find a Five Guys near the motel and that was my dinner

Saturday I was on the road home just after 7 am; with one stop at Aldi's, I was home by noon. In my absence the girls had removed the remaining linoleum from the kitchen floor. They had also started organizing the kitchen. Where do you put all the odds and ends that are stacked in the living room? They are using blue tape to mark suggested locations, and in some cases, putting items there. Rebecca made a trip to Walmart to obtain some drawer organizers and we are still playing with several options of finding the ideal location for food, dishes, pans, etc. The girls helped me get the final two old cabinets out of the house and into the barn. Progress is being made!

Today was church. Speakers addressed the topic of patriotism and the constitution. And the choir sang for the first time in over 15 months. Less than a dozen of us, but we sounded good.  By an interesting turn of events, I was asked to facilitate the priesthood lesson, which was based on President Nelson's Conference talk about lessons learned that you want to remember from the past two years. He posed some profound questions; what have we learned? Have I made my home a sanctuary? Have I grown closer to my neighbors? How can I help my quorum better accomplish His work? To quote President Nelson:  "Commotion in the world will continue to increase." Are we preparing our ourselves and families?

It is great to have Rebecca and girls here. Rebecca cooks delicious meals and the girls are helpful and brighten things up around the house.  

More Surgery!

 Monday Nathan came and worked more on the cabinet installation. Some of the more critical pieces require more attention; he measures the space and then at his shop will cut the pieces. Once here, they occasionally require minor modifications, which has to be done at his shop. He left early in the afternoon and shortly thereafter I was on the road heading to Springdale. 

Tuesday morning, Deborah drove me to the dermatologist's office for a 730 am check in. Then she went about her daily routine while I had a small cancerous spot on the lower left eye lid removed. This office has this procedure down to a science. I suspect from the number of people in the waiting room, that there were 6-8 of us having the same  surgery performed. I was taken to a surgical room where the nurse anesthetized the lower eyelid; then the doctor comes in, places a large contact lens protector over my eye and then carves out the affected area. His part took 5-7 minutes. Then the nurse patches the eye and sent me to the waiting room while the tissue is sent to their in office lab to confirm complete removal of the cancerous cells.

 I was able to cat nap for the hour I waited. The nurse called my name and took me back to the same room; there was still a small area that needed to be removed. So the procedure was repeated, but after the patch was removed. I learned that if your nurse looks neanderthalish, she is not as delicate as I have become accustomed to. The doctor came in, did his cutting, patched the eye and it was back to the waiting room again. An hour later, the nurse called my name and led me to another office. "Good news?" I asked, to which she responded that only the doctor could do that, and he would be in shortly. He confirmed that he had been successful in removing all the cancer cells and I could go home. Deborah was called and she retrieved me. This entire procedure took about four hours.

Life with only one functioning eye is interesting. On the way home I tried to envision  driving home with one eye patched. Doable, but not ideal. Two hours later I was at the reconstructive surgeon's office. I had a hole in my eyelid (picture available upon request!) which he stitched back together. Deborah was required to remain with me, so after about a 45 minute wait, they took me back to prep me for surgery. They gave me a local, so that I was partially aware of what was going on, but don't ask me what happened, since I don't know. About an hour later I was released. But the best new was that NO eye patch would be required!!!! Can you tell how happy that made me? And not to pass up an opportunity to celebrate, we visited Chick Filet on the way home since I had not been able to eat since midnight.

I stayed at Deborah's on Wednesday to make sure my eye was healing properly. Miranda came down in the afternoon to visit. All three of us did go visit a lady Deborah knows in her ward that has a glass business. Since I am remodeling the kitchen and added a pantry, it only seemed appropriate to have a frosted glass pantry door.  I am now looking for a fox design to be etched in the door. Anyone have a design of a fox laying down looking at you?

Thursday morning Sarah and I drove home without any challenges. Her family arrived after dinner. Nice to be home, although the temperatures are in the high 80s. Friday morning I was able to qualify the three oldest grands in zero turn lawnmowing; that means less work for me. I still spent about 30 minutes doing around the barn. Nathan came back to complete his work only to discover that one piece needs more trimming. He will come back next week; that will be good, since by then I will have the door pulls and he has the template to drill for the screws. Deborah helped me clear off the countertop with the computer. The computer's new home is only five feet away, but there isn't room for the printer - so it is now in the office. This involved disconnecting most of the wires; but I was able to reconnect everything and all systems are working! Friday about 830 pm we were hit with a sudden, exciting, lightening active, intense 40 minute severe thunderstorm. Rain was horizontal due to strong winds. One of two sassafras trees in the back blew over. .46 inches of rain in that time. We are now at 30 inches for the year.

Saturday morning I had intended to empty contents of the two old kitchen cabinets and stick them in the new cupboards; however, Deborah had other ideas. She wanted to tackle the downed tree; so after a brief lesson on chain saw procedures, she basically cut the entire tree.

 Meanwhile, some of the grands loaded the limbs and debris in the truck. Then Sarah drove the pick up the 100 plus yards to the burn pile where the tree was off loaded for future burning. 

Two hours later, the job was done - and so were we. It was hot!

I did scrounge material to serve as counter tops for most of the kitchen, since the real thing won't be installed until mid August. I was able to get one of the two cabinets emptied and moved to their new home or at least for now. It is still challenging to be cooking downstairs when most of the food and utensils are upstairs. And the only table large enough for when family visits is upstairs. My plan this week is to get the last two cabinets off the wall so that I can patch and paint that final section. Then I need to cut a hole for the sink in the temporary countertop so the plumber can come out and connect the sink and the stove. Not ideal, but functional. The electrician still needs to come out to install new breakers so I can see if I wired the place correctly. Oh, then I can install the yet to be purchased flooring. 

Today was stake conference. It was broadcast to our building. Some great talks on receiving revelation. One young lady had previously lived in Utah and was able to attend the temple on a regular basis. Then her family moved to our stake and trips were less frequent. Rather than lament her inability to attend the temple, she started indexing, which then lead her to family search and then accepting President Nelson's challenge and was able to find 150 names for baptisms. Another speaker shared how some of his family members had parted ways with the church and the impression he received was to love them. And they enjoy a good relationship inspite of their differences.

I Survived!

 Sunday I was still at Miranda's house; since her family had departed on an Alaskan Adventure, Sarah came to stay with me. I was still enduring some pain and discomfort due to the catheter and was in no condition to attend church. So we YouTubed the Mountain Home Ward meeting. The rest of the day I did as little as possible.

Monday was not much different. Stay put and try not to move too much. Deborah's family did drive up in the late afternoon and cooked hamburgers for dinner. It was Memorial Day and that is a traditional meal.

Tuesday came at last; the day I had been anticipating for 11 days. Rebecca pronounced June 1st as Tom Fox Penal Emancipation Day! And that it was!! Deborah drove up to take me to my afternoon appointment to have the catheter removed. And what a difference that made! I felt like a new man. The attending PA also assisted in my surgery and was able to share that my prostate was smaller than normal and that the surgery went smoothly. The lab report shows that all the adjoining lymph nodes that were removed were cancer free, so one could conclude that I am cancer free. But one thing I learned from Sandy's experience is that one is never cancer free, it is just hiding someplace to make a later surprise appearance. They recommend regular testing to monitor increased risk, but I am comfortable that there are still a lot of miles in this body of mine. For now, I am just happy not to be attached to 'Fill-up', my urine collection bag, and am able to do stuff. To celebrate, Deborah took us to Andy's Froze Custard; after all, it is tradition.

Now I need to retrain my bladder to take control of urinating instead of leaking whenever it wants. I am now dependent on my new friend Depends; not too awkward, but at least I don't go around with wet pants. I am learning how best to navigate this new situation to minimize leakage; I can almost tell when that will happen and am working on training my body.

I drove myself home on Wednesday without incident. Good to be home. When I first drove to NWA on 20 May, I had hopes of coming home after a few days. But that obviously did not happen. I was gone for 13 days. And I got to sleep in my own bed.

Thursday I returned to working on the kitchen; some drywall touch up, electrical work and such. It felt good to be active again - at least until I got up Friday when my body reminded me that I needed to take things slower and follow the restrictions that doctor gave me as far as lifting and taking things easy for a few weeks. It is hard for me to sit still when I see so many things that need doing. So I basically did nothing on Friday. However, Nathan showed up with the kitchen cabinets and started installing them; he brought his own help, so I just watched and cheered them on. They were able to install a majority of them that day. Nathan and his young son returned on Saturday for a half day to install the cabinet hinges and doors. The kitchen is taking shape, but isn't complete yet. He will return on Monday to hopefully finish, though I suspect there will be a couple of minor items that will linger. Even though the cabinets will be installed, the counter tops are scheduled to be installed late August; even though I made that appointment six weeks ago, they are that busy. I can use some of the old counter top temporarily and I have some plywood that can be cut to fit. 

Here is the kitchen Friday morning:

And Saturday afternoon:

Today was church. Good testimonies and a good Come Follow Me lesson focused on missionary work. It almost feels normal at church now with the restrictions removed.