Fourth at home

Wednesday was July 4, a day at home for us, though it's not a holiday here. We never got in the car, which was a wonderful feeling. I walked up to Todis in the morning, looking for buns for our Friday dinner, but they only had the small ones and not the larger ones we wanted. I bought all that they had, figuring that a bun in the hand is worth two in the bush, and we will look again on Friday. I also got some fruit and some soda in case we decided to join one of the July 4th activities (which we never did).

Later I walked to Conad for some produce for me and a few household supplies. It was wonderful to have AC in my home office, where I spent much of the day working on my lessons. In particular, I copied and pasted a number of pages from Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes and translated it into Italian. It comes from the chapter on honor/shame culture and really makes you think about how much our interpretation is colored by our culture. As you know, I highly recommend the book.

In the evening we took a little walk together down to the Chinese store so that Dee could get out of the house. I was in my room with AC, but she likes to be in the living room, even though it's only with fans. Yes, it was sweaty, but I like my desk setup. We bought a few small things, including some tape to try as padding for her crutches and a big candle with 40 on it for our anniversary on Friday. I made the trip with the walking sticks, which are light and convenient. They aren't good for leaning when standing still, though. And people sure do stare when I use them.

I also did lesson prep. I'm teaching Primary Sunday, and Relief Society on July 22. The latter is pretty far away, but since Wes and Alyssa will be here, I need to prep in advance. It was really great to start to organize my thoughts so far in advance. Doug was stunned ;-)
We have a new blender for the Institute. It's going to be handy this summer for salad dressings. We don't have an easy way to make ice, so no smoothies. The freezer is made of drawers, so an ice cube tray would spill, and we don't have enough room anyway.

On the Fourth, I was surprised to hear fireworks outside our apartment!

A new favorite vegetable: Agretti, also known as Friar's Beard or Monk's Beard. I love to steam it in the microwave and eat it with a little lemon. I hope I can find it in the USA.

Our district meeting got changed to a day when we can't attend. When Wes and Alyssa are here, we planned to skip them, too, so we're going to miss several in a row, for the first time. 

It's great to be doing some ab and back exercises again.