I listened to a podcast on my way there but decided to opt for my apple music on the way home. I don’t have a playlist so all my songs are bunched together in one big pool so absolutely anything could come on from Christmas to Hamilton to 80’s Rock. The song Glorious came on by Macklemore, which is a song I love, but not necessarily a spiritual, peaceful song. I will always like my rock music and ironically it calms me more than the MoTab choir would. There were lyrics in there that I felt were meant for me to hear. It sounds crazy, but I felt the spirit in a Macklemore song.
Then, the very next song out of the hundreds in my library was of the same title “Glorious” by David Archeletta and you know what? I felt the spirit in that song too.
I got all teary-eyed driving home from Costco and knew it wasn’t a coincidence. I believe God can speak to us where we are and in a way very personal to us. Heavenly Father was letting me know that he’s with me. Even in a Macklemore song.
The next song was “Good Life” by One Republic and while I’m not sure that was completely meant to be it’s also true. “It’s gonna be a good life” – even serving as Relief Society Pres – Ha!
I received a text during institute from our bishop’s wife Natalie, my minister sister, asking if I could go for a walk this afternoon or tomorrow. I thought maybe she might know something about my calling, she was RS President before her husband was called as our bishop. If she knows something she didn’t bring it up. It was nice to catch up with her but I was also feeling like there were a thousand other things I should’ve been doing.
I helped Jason a bit with preparing a new meal for dinner tonight and then I had two tennis matches. I lost both but felt decent about how I played. My second match was with all strong players – stronger than me, but I was able to hold my own and we ended up tying it up at 6-6 and having to go into a tie breaker. It was fun – discouraging at times, but fun.
Tuesday [6/8]: If I think about all I need or should be doing I start feeling overwhelmed so then I avoid thinking about all the things I need or should be doing and get nothing done. I hoped to tackle some household to-do’s today and did ok. It’s been a weird week chatting on MP with friends and not saying anything about my new calling. Not that they need to know or even that I want them to know, but when talking about what’s going on in my life that’s a big part and it feels easier to not engage much with them instead of not being totally real.
Carly’s last home match was today and they were scheduled to play the toughest team in the league for the fourth time – thankfully, they made a last minute call and sent their JV team to play our varsity team so Carly got her first win of the season. Justin and Jason came with me which is the first game they’ve seen (Jason’s first tennis match ever). I’m proud of Carly for doing her best in such a tough season. She really has improved quite a bit and I look forward to seeing her back on the courts next spring!
Wednesday [6/9]: Wednesdays probably shouldn’t even count as a day around here – at least not in a productivity kind of way. The morning always seems to fly by – Katie and Drew now have piano lessons on Wednesdays at 11 and then HCJ have our tennis lesson in the afternoon and I’ve added my tennis league in the evenings.
I found Jason in bed last night at 11:15pm playing the Nintendo switch so he was relegated to cleaning out two of the cars today as his chores / consequence.
Tennis lessons went well as did my three matches. I lost 2 and won 1 and didn’t expect to win the one I did and didn’t expect to lose the one I lost. Bishop let me know today that he’s released the current RS President and that I could reach out if I thought it would be beneficial. I think I’ll wait. It would be beneficial for me to wait.
We have Mary and the kids coming into town tomorrow so we needed to get some things straightened up tonight. I’m not sure what to expect of their visit or how much we’ll be involved – guess we’ll see and just play it by ear. Tyrone is having some health issues so he won’t be able to make it so Mary is bringing along her niece instead.
Thursday [6/10]: This morning I spent some time this morning finishing cleaning up the house and getting the boys room ready for Mary and the kids. I left a little early so I could pick up some groceries on my way to the airport as well as something for lunch.
We had some time back at the house to relax before KD got out of school. I mentioned that we could walk down to the school and surprise them and Brooklynn jumped at the idea. I mentioned several times that it was a steep hill, but she was all for it. Katie and Drew were surprised to see us waiting for them. Both were quite shy – Katie exceptionally so. She kept her face mask on until we got all the way to Jeanne Hansen Park and walked in front of all of us the whole way there. She seemed to even be avoiding making eye contact with me. Clearly she’s a little out of practice being social. I knew it wouldn’t take her long to warm up and they were all running around the park playing tag soon after. We made breakfast for dinner and the kids spent most of the evening enjoying the Nintendo games that Brooklynn and Kingston have.
Apparently Brooklynn is one of the tallest kids in her grade. Katie is just two weeks older and makes Brooklynn look short.
Friday [6/11]: We had CJKD all in the same room last night. Apparently Jason woke everyone up early trying to check the time and then he snored as well so not everyone got a restful night sleep. Brooklyn slept until after 10am so it was a pretty slow morning. My kids had some calls for school but there was plenty of video game playing throughout the day. I walked with KD down to school to get some exercise and then showered and cleaned up a bit. Before I knew it the afternoon was over and it was time to prepare dinner. Mary went into Seattle for the afternoon but was back in time to join us for dinner. Jason made some Biscoff Hershey Kiss cookies and when we didn’t think that batch was enough, Abigail made some lemon crinkle cookies as well.
It’s been great to spend time with Mary and the kids. Mary is very easy to talk to and we had some great conversations about her family and how Tyrone is doing. The kids have played lots of Nintendo but there’s been some good ole fashioned games in there as well.
Saturday [6/12]: This morning was our stake activity day camp. Because of covid we couldn’t meet all together so the wards met at their church buildings for the activity and they tried to bring us “together” over zoom at the end. It was a fun activity but we had technical difficulties so we couldn’t hear President Smith when he spoke and the timing of the activities was off so we had to skip over some parts. Brooklyn came with us and seemed to have fun. Drew didn’t really have any friends to pal up with but I don’t think he really noticed. They did a cool nail craft of a temple which was a bit of a struggle for some kids, including Drew.
Mary was off getting donuts from the North Bend Bakery when we got back which was a yummy treat. We decided to head into Seattle and catch a ferry to Bainbridge since riding a ferry was on Mary’s short list of things she wanted to do. The line to get into a ferry took much longer than we expected, over an hour, but we made it!
We were pretty hungry when we got off the ferry so we headed straight to a pizza place that Carly’s friends recommended about 15 minutes away and ordered three large pizzas. It was fun to try some different toppings that we haven’t had before. I wouldn’t say the pizza was exceptional but it definitely hit the spot and we finished all of it. The pizza place was right near the water so we walked down to the beach and the kids immediately started playing with a large dog that was there with its owners. They were throwing large sticks into the water and making the dog run out there to fetch it and bring it back to the beach.
We decided to head back toward the ferry terminal and go to Mora’s ice cream which is well known on the island. They have some pretty unique flavors which we were excited to try. It’s very expensive so between the six in our family we each paired up and shared a double scoop of ice cream.
We headed straight home and tried to cycle through a few showers before getting to the kids to bed after 10pm - a fun night! Definitely an adventure that took a little longer than expected but I think everybody had a good time.
Sunday [6/13]: I wasn’t sure how today was going to go but I will woke up feeling relatively calm. Justin made a big breakfast for everyone and then we had plenty of time to get ready for church. Abigail went to the SnoFalls ward to listen to her friend Morgan give her farewell talk and she didn’t end up getting to our ward until the last few minutes of our sacrament meeting. I was sustained today with my new presidency. When we went into Relief Society Abigail was taken by surprise that they were setting me apart since she had no idea that I had been called. She wasn’t too surprised since she felt pretty confident that bishop had given me a new calling when he came to the house a few weeks ago. Bishop sent me apart and I particularly appreciated how he talked about my being able to receive inspiration needed to serve in this capacity as well as the ability to balance things at home which he emphasized was my first priority. I wasn’t incredibly emotional as he sent me apart but when he set apart my second counselor that made me tear up. He spoke a lot about her supporting me and working together as a presidency. It reaffirmed that I am not in this alone and that I have some incredible ladies to help support the work. We couldn’t find my first counselor so we went ahead without her. Justin thought she might be traveling internationally with her husband. Turns out she was just subbing in primary so it’s unfortunate that she wasn’t there was a with us. I’m still not sure what exactly my calling fully entails. Our current RS president took care of everything today during the meeting so that was nice. I left immediately after we were set apart to head into the young women’s room so we could be there to support Carly as she was set apart as the president for the oldest group of YW. Two President Fletcher’s in the house. I pretty much missed all of the RS lesson today and really didn’t get any chance to talk with anybody about anything. I got home and sent a few texts to my presidency to figure out when we can meet. And thus it begins…
Mary went into Seattle with the kids today and we weren’t sure when she would be back. Turns out she didn’t get back till dinner time. Justin cooked up some burgers and Katie and Drew finished preparing a dessert that Jason started and decided not to finish because he couldn’t listen to technology while he made it. Parenting continues to be oh so fun.
I had a meeting with Bri (whom I’m replacing) to go over a bunch of the RS stuff I need to know. She was here for over two hours and we covered a lot. No doubt I’ll have lots of questions as I get going.
