Since I last posted, for Helen’s birthday, the world has essentially turned upside down. I must confess a lot of me wants to not even mention the COVID-19 pandemic; but I think it is probably good to document such a momentous time in history.

I know that a lot of the world is experiencing a lot more trouble due to this pandemic than we are; and for that I am immensely grateful. I just hope that we can help lift others’ burdens somehow. I’m grateful for the gift of fast-offerings that makes it really easy to do something even though I can’t leave my house.

Anyway, rather than focusing on the anxiety and uncertainty I have experienced, I want to focus on the good stuff: being at home together. For us, quarantine has actually been pretty fun. Because we don’t have anywhere we need to be (like Young Men’s, Dance practice, school, work, RS meetings, etc.) everything feels so much more laid back. Josh lets me sleep as long as I need every morning; and yet we still have time for exercise in the morning as well as breakfast. Josh doesn’t have to catch the train and I don’t have to get the kids to school. It’s great! We are still doing school with the kids; but it’s whenever we want to do it–which is never before 9:00 AM. This is the best I have ever felt at 37 weeks pregnant: extra sleep, low stress lifestyle, exercise, lots of Josh time!

Here are a few of the things we have been doing to have fun.

#1–St. Patrick’s Day!
The day of St. Patrick’s Day, I was actually really stressed out by the whole quarantine thing. Plus we fed the Sister Missionaries for dinner (which I usually LOVE doing; but this time was just the straw that broke my camel’s back), and I basically didn’t have anything cool planned to do. We did have some cool shamrock-shaped ravioli for dinner; but other than that and the decorating I had done prior, I had nothing. Fortunately, Josh always has fun up his sleeve, and he threw together a little Irish experience for the kids, complete with Celtic music, treasure hunting, games, and a Leprechaun Legend! He’s the best (if you haven’t heard).

Here are my contributions to St. Patrick’s Day.

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Also, Portia’s joy-school has been cancelled–like everything else, and the mom who was supposed to teach on March 16 sent her St. Patrick’s Day crafts around to each of the kids since they wouldn’t be able to do them at school! It was so sweet! Of course, the other three kids wanted to do the same project, so I pulled what I could together so that they could.

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#2–Family Party!
The kids have continued to plan fun and exciting activities for us to do each Monday. Fay’s activity two weeks ago was family outdoor games and play. We swung on the swings, slid down the slide, played with frisbees, walked on stilts, played fetch with the dog, played catch with hand-held nets, and just had a great time!

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Carter’s choice for last week was a family game night on the Switch. We all played Mario party, which is about as sophisticated a game as we can handle right now. 🙂

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#3–Random little games people frequently forget exist.
We have played Huckle-buckle beanstalk, a Leprechaun version of Sardines, Pictionary, and tag. Josh also made up a little beanbag game where the kids were supposed to run beanbags from one basket to another. When you have so much family time, you start getting creative. I, personally, am really enjoying it all!

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#4–Playing outside
I am feeling VERY blessed to have a big back yard with lots of toys for my kids. I am also grateful that we live in a circle and that each child has a bike they can ride. When the weather is nice, the kids will happily spend most of the day outside doing a lot of those things we did for Fay’s family party. It is healing for all of us to be able to enjoy this beautiful spring even though we can’t go out.

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#5–Going out…very cautiously.
We went to a park last week just to play in the grass–not getting near any people or the playground. We also took a little road-trip out to the Bonneville Salt Flats last Saturday. Both times were thoroughly enjoyed by all!

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#6–Etc.
The kids have also been working on school, we’ve all done some crafts (more on that another day), we’ve been watching more movies together (all 4 of Portia’s birthday Barbie movies), eating together, and more etc.

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We have also felt very privileged to be able to have the Sacrament in our home for three weeks now. It is definitely not the most reverent Sacrament experience ever; but it is still really special. I hope the kids will remember it.

Writing this post has reminded me of a couple of things. One is that we have a really good little life around here. Even with earthquakes and pandemics we are happy together and have a lot of fun. I am so grateful that we are a happy family, especially at this time of relative chaos. The other thing this post reminds me of is that reading any kind of social media is rather deceptive. We HAVE been doing these fun things, and they ARE as sweet and simple fun as they appear. BUT, that’s only one little fragment of our life. Most of the time we’re still just trying to do school and work, do laundry, wash dishes, stop people from fighting, keep the house clean enough that we can at least walk in it without danger, and all those other things that make up real life. And I’m not saying it’s not good. But it’s also just real, and not photograph or blog-post worthy.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the last date Josh and I had before going into quarantine. For Christmas Josh gave me a session at a place called The Gem Studio. I’m kind of a pretty-rock nerd these days, and this place lets you choose a semi-precious gem and you (with the help of silversmith) craft your own ring or pendant out of silver! I think Josh originally intended for me to go alone; but everything is more fun with Josh, so I arranged for us to do it for our date (Thanks Mary for watching the cuties)! If anybody is interested in hearing about the experience I will totally tell you more! But, in the mean time, here’s a picture of us (me wearing my new malachite ring!!!) after the workshop.

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