A Day in the Life...

Today is the 97th day of March. Haha. But really. I have not slept well because of my lower back, and today it took its toll. I woke up super grumpy. Everything with homeschool didn't go super great so we finally just stopped and went outside. We might try school again later on or we might give up for the day, I haven't decided yet! My work regulations change on what seems like a daily basis. It is very frustrating. So I've been thinking long and hard about how I want to direct the rest of my day and week and what thoughts I want to focus on. Here's what I came up with: Sometimes we have stress, even as we recognizea an abundance of blessings around us.  Sometimes we just need space! Sometimes we're frustrated, short-tempered, angry, or walking around in circles. And it's okay! But I hope to remember that a grateful heart will make grateful choices, a loving heart will make loving choices, and a peaceful heart will make peaceful choices.

An unpopular opinion about everything going on... I'm grateful for this time- this pandemic, this physical distancing, this time I have to spend with my family each day, all day. I knelt in prayer last night to begin a fast, to join President Nelson's plead to unite in worldwide prayer for relief from Covid-19. I happily joined that fast to help others find relief and endure suffering and hardship. It's sad to read the news and stories.  It's sad to hear about the effect it's having on people's incomes and livelihoods. Part of me, though, doesn't want things to head back to "normal" so soon. I think we need more time to turn our hearts to God. I love the blessings my family is seeing as we spend all day together. My kids love each other more. They are more obedient, patient, loving. Me too. I love the spirit our home has. The outside world is crazy and chaotic- but inside our home is peace, hope, laughter, and a more sincere effort to spend our t...

This might have been the craziest week we've had.  All the everything related to coronavirus- no school, church, going out to eat, public gatherings; no playing with friends, no going to the movies, no going to the office, nothing.  Then an earthquake in the middle of the week.  It was kind of a time stopping second or two... I was in the kitchen with Copper and Dakota when the house started swaying.  We literally watched it sway for what seemed much longer than it was, and watched the kitchen light above us sway and the little things on our shelves shake.  It only lasted a few seconds, and thankfully, where we live, there wasn't any damage or anything.  Still.  Pandemic and earthquake in the same week?  The next day we woke up to snow.  Fitting.  At least Red was happy. I follow this guy, Hank Smith, on social media.  He's an author and motivational speaker and he's also hilarious.  Maybe you have to have read some of h...

The world keeps getting a little bit crazier.  It's weird to live in a time when the world is in crisis.  Today I took the girls to school to pick up their work for the next several weeks.  The school was a ghost-town.  Most teachers left packets and instructions in the main kiva and most faculty wasn't around.  The twins' teacher was there and had put together a really wonderful (and a bit overwhelming) packet of work.  Tomorrow they'll all begin online education as well, with a bunch of their work being done through online education and classroom interaction.  What an incredible time to be alive- school where you can talk to your teacher, interact with the class, and submit work all online.  Both of my girls' teachers have been great to email us daily (or three times a day), provide their cell phone numbers, and offer help and guidance anytime. We came home and they all wanted to get started right away.  So grateful for kids who adapt ...

Tonight I was telling the girls a story from a conference talk titled Deceive Me Not. It was about two young boys going to meet their great uncle, who warned them about skunks that lie in the back field of his house. After the boys had played for a while, the father asked if they had seen any skunks. The boys cheerfully replied they had not seen any skunks but had indeed seen a black kitty cat with a white stripe down its head and back. We talked about how some things in life may appear to be something cute or fun, but are actually dangerous. I asked if they could think of any real-life examples, and Micah quickly replied that if we see a herd of elephants running down the street at us they might seem cute but they would actually run us over… And we also had a good talk on how to have unshaken faith even when things seem crazy or we don't know how something is going to work out. It's from the Come Follow Me lesson this week, and part of it included the analogy of a tree....

On another note- life goes on! Copper is deep in thought after church last week, hahaha... but she sure looks so grown up! Last weekend we went to the movies to see Onward.  It kinda stressed me out but it's a cute movie.  Kota was obviously NOT ready for a picture... We're working on the pavers for the front porch, and Red says hi! I don't know why I take pictures of food, but I do!  Yummy homemade cast iron skillet pizza! Found a selfie on my phone from Copper! I sure love Tim.  He's been home most of the winter with pretty little work.  It's been hard on him but kinda wonderful for me.  He took over a lot of the things I was doing- running the kids to all their appointments, helping with carpool, doing the laundry, helping the kids with chores, and all that.  I've been able to stay at work later and not have to worry.  I'm so happy the weather is warming up and he can go back to work, because he's a really...

What a crazy world we live in!  Corona virus is taking over the world and people think it's a time to panic, which meant I couldn't get bananas, potatoes, peppers, spinach, flour, or deli meat at Smith's.  They were also out of bread, which I didn't come for but noticed they were out.  The next day we went to Macey's and noticed they were out of milk and almost out of eggs.  It's a bit surreal.  I didn't anticipate having to use our food storage because stores couldn't keep the shelves stocked fast enough- I kinda thought it'd be for an earthquake or something.  Still, I'm grateful that food storage is something I try to keep up on.  We have like 40 pounds of wheat, which I regularly use anyway to make bread (so I guess it's okay the store was out of flour), and we have plenty of other grains, canned stuff, baking stuff, snacks, and a freezer full of the cow I bought last year. It's interesting to watch people panic and go to extre...