"ANOTHER Mother's Day!" as my Grandpa Happy Jack would sing. I definitely have been doing some unexpected mothering lately, with a missionary out and all my others quarantined here at home. Things have gone better than expected, and we've been able to do some fun things we normally wouldn't have, although the following memes were very accurate a time or two...
Our Easter egg hunt was here at home, which the kids tend to like better anyway because we give out more chocolate. This year we also used a bag of dumdums and stuck them in the grass, fence holes, etc. Rosie loved that. She did great and was cracking us up with her exaggerated huffing and puffing as she ran from egg to egg (as if that denotes speed).
First time of Easter Sunday with Sacrament meeting at home. Holding worship services in our own home has been special, although we miss our ward members and the love and support of meeting together in person.
Leslie has found some creative ways to use her missionary quarantine time, but she is actually very busy teaching lessons virtually. We were very priveleged to have the unique opportunity to watch her first baptism via zoom (usually not televised and not recorded). How cool is that!
I love this picture and the way it depicts her positive attitude, even though her mission is very, very different thus far than she imagined. We are so happy that she got to arrive safely and then stay there, and also have people to teach in her area, with the technology to do so. (Some of the WV and KY areas are very rural, low tech.)
This list of strangeness was on facebook, but I thought it would be good to be in our family journal, even though it's already outdated and incorrect (such as the school reopening part, for Utah). Despite all the "closed", "cancelled", and "don'ts", we tried to actively brainstorm plan some fun so we would not go too crazy stuck at home.
Macy and Rosie making cupcakes.
Macy and I decided to have a girls' spa night, where we locked the bedroom door, had manicures/pedicures, ate treats and watched a movie. The face mask plan got the kabosh, though, because she was so sunburned from riding bikes all afternoon.
The boys played around quite a bit on our high school tennis courts, which were luckily available.
Firepit night. The tent was attempted but the children chickened out. They may or may not have been told by Boston that kidnappers were going to come get them.
Rosie likes to pretend that she is a kitty, and every morning when she wakes up our ritual is that she meows at me, so we meow and purr at each other, and cuddle, and she asks me if I wanna be the Mama kitty and she will be the baby kitty. It's pretty cute. So fun to be a Mama kitty to this little Fluffernutter.
Lots of forts. All the time. Atleast Luke is good to read stories to Rosie for his reading time.
The chalk art mosaics are kind of a fun fad. Macy spent a long afternoon on our fence.
Luke likes to do chalk art cities. He included a temple, since it's so sad that the temples are closed (barely reopened for wedding sealings, by appointment). Looking forward to going back. I was a little emotional when we got the email this week that they are phasing reopening, and took a screen shot of our part of the list.
We got this letter from Leslie post-MTC, but a lot of her "lessons learned" could potentially apply to our slowed-down, together quarantine time.
This was a funny picture Macy brought home from their 100th day of school, back when they went to school...sigh... of what she will look like when she is old. I think I have jowls like that right now.
We got to be part of a really cool event, right in the tightest part of quarantine, with NOTHING else on our calendar for like, that whole week. Our ward held a Welcome Home parade for the missionaries that had to return home from out of the country. It was so fun and such a needed breath of fresh air to actually see our neighbors and celebrate these missionaries and their sacrifice. We had posters, sparklers, neckties, music playing, it was great. I hope it is one of the kids' fondest quarantine memories.
One of the missionaries is our next door neighbor, returned from Brazil.
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The Y flag was some ribbing, as Elder Groneman shown here is from a staunchly red family.
As part of the Homecoming Event, all the current missionaries were represented by their country's flag. It was the coolest thing ever to be asked to participate for Leslie, and very memorable for me to get up early, pull on my boots and coat, yank our flag from our snowy yard (for school-in-session), march down the street alone with a mallet under one arm and a flag over my shoulder, whistling the Star Spangled Banner so I could say I did, snow dusting my face, wave at the curious cars driving past, and meet the other mamas at the designated corner to place our flags. Just awesome and a celebration of our crazy circumstances.
This picture is of Leslie's Zone Conference, shared by the mission president's wife. Cool that they can meet, but hard not to be together. Leslie and her companion Sis. Dye are fourth on the top row.
Sorry about all the screenshots, but it's such a crazy time, I want to document a bunch of these funny things. This is my cousin Nikki with the BEST TSHIRT EVER! ("Panic at the Disco" is a band).
And this was so dumb, but true, for a little while atleast, and Natl Parks are still closed. We were supposed to go to a nice place in St. George for Spring break, but out-of-county travel was not ok. As soon as some restrictrions were lifted, we got outta Dodge, and went to a house in Cedar City instead for our anniversary, with the fam. We needed something to look forward to. No swimming pool, takeout only, and continental breakfast was made to order, but we rented a trailer so we could bring all the bikes and Rosie's trailer.
Took an amazing drive up to Navajo Lake. We were up so high Luke said, "I can see the ocean!"
The frozen lake. We were hoping to hike to the waterfalls, but the trail was snowed in.
We were listening to a mix CD my mom had made for us that included some nostalgic songs. Right when we hit the summit, the song "I'm on the Top of the World" by the Carpenters came on.
The next day we went to Snow Canyon state park (state parks had just opened, and the water-related parks were crowded, but Snow Canyon was fine.) for the first time. We lucked out by starting at the north end of the park where the main bike trail went downhill. Super fun for everyone except Rosie, who was freaked out by the speed and the wind in her hair, and Mark, who had to stop halfway and hike back uphill to the van. He had misjudged the steepness when he saw all these old people biking uphill--realized later their bikes had motors. So, we did a second run and I just drove the van and trailer.
Some pioneer names and dates are carved on that left hollow.
Macy asked if she could do an aerial. I told her no, gymnastics are too dangerous around here. No Mom, Ariel. The mermaid.
Waiting at the dunes for Mark to pick us up. Wasn't much shade.
Fooled ya. These two pictures aren't from Southern Utah at all. It's Red Ledges in our home county. (This was our dry-run get outta Dodge.) Even letting the kids throw rocks in the creek felt like an indulgence.
Our kids' social lives have revolved around bike rides. Here are Boston with two of his buddies about to have a great time on the mountain bike trail above Spanish Fork. |
Leslie and her new companion Sis. Poulsen having a little fun on PDay.
Rosie kept stretching and stretching out this angel hair pasta. She held it up proudly and said, "Look Mom! It's a Leslie noodle!" Lots of cooking happening during quarantine. Unfortunate for my jowls, but it has been fun to have the kids (and Mark) take turns cooking a nice dinner once a week. So far Cooper made Zuppa Toscana (and also grills for me regularly), Boston made enchilada soup and is about to make honey lime chicken enchiladas, Macy made some rather messy shepherd pies (she also makes and decorates cupcakes pretty often), Luke made mac n cheese (he got a lunch turn), Mark hosted two separate French nights, making quiche, au gratin potatoes with fancy cheese, and raclette. The cheese sampler from Costco was a big hit.
So far this is what baseball season has looked like. This was Day family home evening baseball on the empty field. We got word that there might* be a short season in June. Mark was looking forward to coaching both boys on the same team, and Luke was looking forward to starting his first season of coach pitch.
My sister Brooke has been busy making jewelry. She sent me a baseball pair and these sparkly rose gold ones. Thanks Brookie! Way to keep yourself sane and give this mama a pick me up.
Loved this view on my walk (some of the fam were biking) down the River Trail. There was this enormous gorgeous apple tree, strikingly covered in shriveled apples and blossoms at the same time. It just seemed like such an object lesson to me that we can either be stubborn in our ways and become shriveled and rotten, or we can embrace the rain and snow and wind and blossom. I hope this crazy Twilight Zone time will help us blossom.
One school day Luke was supposed to make a boat for the sink and see how many pennies could float on it. He had so much fun working with the tinfoil I just gave him the whole roll and told him to make a river. The kids have had lots of fun playing with the hose. Particularly the teens.
Good morning sunshine!
Last week I signed up to help with Project Protect, where you sew 100 medical grade masks in under a week. The big kids helped with most of the pinning and Luke pulled pins and separated my chains of masks with the seam ripper. Another memory I hope they keep of this time.
We took a day camp trip up to Bear Canyon (unfortunately, this is a literal name and I'm too chicken to sleep there) to take in the gorgeous views and try out some of our 72 hr kit cooking gear. And dutch oven. And junk food. For me, camping is all about the forest and the food, so I didn't miss not laying awake on the ground all night, debating every two seconds whether those ferocious sounds are my husbands snores or a just-out-of-hibernation black bear looking for a juicy Day child.
All the boys have hammocks now, and Rosie tried all of them out.
Leslie made up a celebratory rap song (?) for Racheal who got baptized a couple weeks ago, Leslie's first (first rap and first baptism). Sis. Dye is a skilled beat boxer, so they had to seize the opportunity, with rapping, singing, beat boxing and a little dancing. I didn't realize her mission would be so unpredictable. They aren't allowed to put stuff like that on social media, but we did get to watch it. These are some screen shots from their performance. Lyrics to follow.
Racheal's Rap
Verse 1
The Savior said, "Come follow me."
He's bread of life, the Prince of Peace.
Christ's here to lead,
So take the leap.
He is our shepherd, and we are his sheep.
God gave commandments for us to obey.
When we submit, we can't go astray.
And good things come
To those who pray:
Blessings of hope, and joy that will stay.
We're sick with sin, but Christ got the cure.
He conquered pain, death, and sin galore.
If you doubt it,
Or you're not sure,
The Book of Mormon teaches truth that is pure.
He clearly tells us in 3 Nephi 11
Come be baptized, you'll get the kingdom of heaven!
We must repent
In him believin'
For us to 'ppreciate the chance we've been given.
Chorus
God wants us to come home safe.
Through His words He shows the way.
He shows the way!
Verse 2
Faith in Christ leads us to follow His prophets who give direction.
Humbly repenting allows Him to cover our imperfection.
Soon you'll be all dressed in white clothes and be baptized by immersion,
Followed by gift of the Holy Ghost strengthening your conversion.
Trust in the Lord;
His promise is sure.
It's not without Him that we're asked to endure.
He offers us
Eternal perks.
But we can't slack 'cause we're judged by our works.
*beatboxing ensues*
It is a privilege to feel God's love for you as missionaries,
Building your knowledge and power to take the adversary.
Racheal's come closer to Jesus Christ, Savior, through isolation.
Even Corona can't stop her from claiming her exhalation!
Chorus
He shows the way!
He shows the way!
He shows the way
To those who pray.
He knows the way.
Saturday was Aden's baptism. Leslie got to give a talk. (No rapping.) It was also a big deal that they actually got to attend since the allowed number is now 10 instead of 4, like Racheal's baptism. The baptisms were the first time Leslie met both Racheal and Aden in person since they've been teaching them online.
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