Week Three

Another week of quarantine under our belts!  We are slowly getting into a groove.  Chores in the morning, piano, then school. Lunch, then fun!  I bought a bunch of little crafts on Joann.com and they came!  The boys are putting together airplanes, the girls are doing paint by numbers.

Kaley is putting together a cute Spring banner for the mantle.

We went to the Provo River Trail on a super sunny, but totally windy day.  Thomas wanted to fish, and the rest of us just hung out and danced around listening to our music.  Jace dug holes and looked for worms for Thomas.  

Josh fixed up all the bikes and we were able to start going on bike rides every day!  The kids like that a lot more than going on walks!  

The Young Women's leaders did a drive by parade one evening. 

Some tiny daffodils popped up!

We did a Zoom meeting with the YW/RS and Sister Bailey Jones, who just got back from serving a mission in Kirtland Ohio visitors center.

Kaley made some yummy cookie bars.

My peach trees are blossoming!

Where would we be in this world without Dads?  Bells is by far our most social child, and she has struggled. She misses her friends deeply, and has had the hardest time adjusting to all the extra sibling time.  

Thank heavens for FaceTime and good friends!  Jace and Bryson have been good a regularly checking in on each other.  They have planned to play Battleship the next time they FT.

They also have baby chicks, which has been super entertaining!  It's also hard, because we just want to go over and hold them!

One of the many puzzles we have done lately!

Kaley and I got lucky this week at Walmart and found toilet paper!!!  What a funny story this will be to look back and remember the time every store was out of TP!

It was a sad day when I had to change the calendar on the wall....  Not much of anything new going on this month!  Everything is cancelled!

General Conference cinnamon rolls!  Yum!

Bunny Mix for a conference snack!

General Conference set up!

These two thought they were hilarious roasting their marshmallows by the glow of their Echo.

Conference was the only "normal" thing I was looking forward to for weeks!  We knew it would be a special experience, and it sure was!  My favorite was the Hosanna shout, followed by everyone singing "The Spirit of God" - I could barely sing, my heart was too full.  There were so many special experiences at this Conference - President Nelson announcing 8 new temples, announcing a new symbol for the Church, and the reading of a new Proclamation.  All things that were historic and not soon to be forgotten!

I think one of my favorite things to come out of this quarantine, is all the family time!  These kids have had to become real friends.  They play and laugh and tease each other all day long.  They will talk to each other, and I think they have become closer.  We have had many moments of "Oh, I don't think that child is going to live another day! That child is going to commit murder!" But, all in all, we have weathered pretty well!

Just some documentation.... They took the nets off the tennis courts; our pickle ball courts are closed; the playground is closed.  It's really a weird thing!  I can't imagine if this would have happened even 5 years ago - my world would feel drastically different!  So thankful I have the age of kids I do right now, and that we are able to still play without these things that just a few years ago, would have seemed essential to our Spring life!

Look at all these puzzles!  It's been a full week of them!

It's Palm Sunday, and we have started our Holy Week celebration!  It's one of my favorite things to do with the kids.  I'm looking forward to all the good spirit-filled week!

Week Two

Another week down!  Wow!  There are some days/hours/minutes where I am loving this everyone at home at the same time, and others where it feels like too much and we can't go on.  It is a minute by minute thing!  I read an article that said it perfectly though.  I have always wanted more time with my kids, more time to slow down and do nothing, more time to talk, more time to bake, more time to exercise... etc.  That's what this quarantine time is!  It's a gift of TIME.  When I read that this week, my outlook changed. Don't get me wrong, it is still extremely hard - battling my own mental challenges during cold weather days, while helping these 5 kids deal with the fact that we really just have to stay home, no friends, and online school. It's been a rough week!  Here's a few snapshots of the week for posterity's sake!

I love that Jace and Sophie's teacher has a daily google meeting.  They all catch up and chat for a few minutes each day.  She also reads to them in a video that they watch every day.  It really brings me to tears every time!  The love and sacrifice of these teachers!

On Monday, after jobs, school and piano was done, we went to Sipn to reward ourselves!

Then Kaley baked the most delicious peanut butter cookies!  These were bakery worthy!

We've been trying new recipes for dinners too with our extra time.  This one was taco pizza!  It was a hit!

I helped put up a "We miss you" sign at the school.

We played a really long game of hide and seek one cold, rainy day.  Sophie is hiding IN the cello case!

On one of our walks, I took pictures of the kids to send on postcards to family.

Josh built shelves for our storage room!  They turned out amazing!!!  The kids and I loved organizing all our food storage that night!

The elementary teachers did a parade through all the neighborhoods!  It was the sweetest thing.  I could not stop tearing up!  I am amazed at the resilience of our students and our teachers.  I am so proud to be a part of such a great and positive community!  I hope I never forget the kids yelling, "That's my teacher!  Oh I miss her!  That's Mrs. So and So - I miss hearing her laugh!"

I completed the 2020 census!  Woot!  That's a cool thing!

Soph and I learned how to do the Renegade this week!  It was hilariously funny!  I made Kaley take a video of it to send to the Aunts.  

The kids also got into Boondoggle this week.  I love how creative they have had to be to entertain themselves!

Josh and I went to Costco and Walmart this week for fresh food and milk.  I had to snap a pic of the Costco line!  You are supposed to stand at the cones (the Costco Cone Zone), they are 6 feet apart.  Then you wait til you are given the OK to go in!  These are crazy times!

I made a couple videos for my Primary kids.  I miss being in Primary with them every week!  I made a video to teach them the names of the prophet and apostles.  I also made one of me singing the first verse - that's as far as we got in March - of I Will Walk With Jesus.

4-wheeler rides

Sunday - we broke out the puzzles.  I had been holding off on puzzles.  Once the kids start, they are obsessive!  We started with one called "Hold to the Rod."  It was something to help us as we joined in a worldwide fast. President Nelson asked us to fast for help with the Covid-19. 

Kaley has been wanting to dye her hair with Kool Aid while in quarantine.  Maybe I'm the coolest mom... I helped her do it!  I figure when this is all done, she'll probably get it cut off anyway!  She loves the way it looks in her high pony tail the best!  It's pretty cute!

For piano... I had been still having kids come to my house - I only have 3 students, 2 are sisters.  Starting next week, Elsie will do her lesson remotely.  I will try FaceTime with her!  The sisters are still coming to my house, and I feel ok about that!