Habits forming, Finances, Cake Pops, New Washing Machine, and Cake Pops

This is an interesting week because I was hardly able to get shifts at Amazon (only 2) and up until now I've only worked one shift this week. Last week was similar, I worked 3. When that happens, it reflects on our income. Sarah and I had a money council several weeks ago. We had decided that we were going to work on our savings. Sarah asked me to pray to Heavenly Father to find out what method we should take to begin building our savings. I did and I got this answer: to take $260 out on weeks where Sarah and I get paid, and $160 on days that only I get paid. We started with the $260 last week, but only working 3 shifts this week leaves us with very little money in the bank. Sarah asked me to pray to see if we should change how much we are taking out this week and I got the answer to continue with the revelation that God sent me. However, with the caveat to use our savings this week to pay for a warranty for our tire that surprisingly just got flat after one month of use because of a nail. We both feel good about it.

With our money council we figured out a system for getting gas and a gift card for groceries at Winco, the favorite mart we get groceries at. We also were also were able to set aside money for all our bills last week, including rent. And I was able to get some of the luxuries, including a habit journal that I had found from reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. We also got some Lume deodorant. I also found a deal on Udemy for a guitar course that I wanted that was valued at $160. We got it for $25. I also got a plugin for my Sibelius called NotePerformer, which emphasizes dynamics, among other things (but this was free for the first month). So, overall, we are very happy with how things are going.

Speaking of guitar and my habits journal, this week I have been very good with the habits that I have set. On my list is to take this course. It is also my desire to complete the Adobe Premiere Course that I have started, also on Udemy. As of today, I am 85% done with it. I also want to get a handle on Italian (so I will be prepared for diction in the fall). I started taking Duolingo course in it and reading the diction book on it. Sarah and I set a time and a place for reading scriptures, and since we did that, we have not faltered from studying scriptures. The time that we do it is right after Sarah gets done with work at 3:15pm. We study for the first minutes, and then we take time to do some personal study. I decided to start reading the Book of Mormon again. I am studying with the YouTubers "Don't Miss This" from 2020 Come, Follow Me, by David Butler and Emily Freeman. It's like taking a mini seminary.

Some things that I need to work on is making working out fun and easy. Right now I have it on the list of habits I want to create, but it is not something that I am doing. I am looking to the book Atomic Habits for ways that I can work with this. Another thing is I want to become better at incorporating the habit of working on composing music and studying music. I just need to sit down and do it, as much as I can. The book says to start and do something for at least two minutes and usually that will propel you to do something for a longer time than that.

However, something I am excited about is I changed the time I did dishes and I have been going strong for five days. Not only that, but after a month and a half of waiting, we finally got a new washing machine for our clothes, yesterday! Yay! And Sarah helped me clean the house yesterday, so it is looking very nice.

Last week, the Klingers allowed us to do the Laundry at their sister (AirBnB) house. We were very grateful for it. We brought over 4 or 5 full trash bags of clothes and left with 6 or 7 bags of folded clothes. Sarah and I spent the day at that house. Hours even. We watched an episode of the very first Simpsons horror show. We also watched Top Gun (prompted by the release of the newest sequel, Top Gun: Maverick).

For FHE, Sarah wanted to do, or really, was assigned to do something, which was to make cake pops for activity on Wednesday. We took that first night to form the pop and then we used Wednesday to cover them in chocolate. We had two chocolate melt colors, chocolate and white chocolate. The chocolate worked out really well. The white chocolate was not thick enough and fell off the pop too easily, so we ended up just using the chocolate ones. The ones that I had were super good. They are also surprisingly easy to make.

We also made appointments to go to the temple throughout the month of June and first weeks of July. We went on Tuesday to the Mesa Temple. We had left early enough to arrive with time to spare, but we got hungry and stopped at a Circle K. We got wraps ('cause they didn't have hot dogs). We ended up being one of last few people to show up for the session. Weird how time works. We did names for Forrest Chapin, II.

Speaking of Forrest. I had sent him suggestions for songs I would like to conduct for Arizona Saints Chorale (ASC), his choir. They were Thou Art God by Lionel Bourne and Isaiah 44:3 by Jackson Berkey, both performed on the BYU Men's Chorus album called Praise Him from 2015. He said he chose the first one. Both are my personal favorites, tbh. So that's exciting. When school starts again is when that will begin. He told me he would sit with me to tell me the details.