Quarantine Day 17

Well, we're on day like 17 of quarantine. The first 2 weeks honestly went by quickly, but today is draaaaging on. I'm getting tired. I'm wondering if it's because this week is "Spring Break" the kids have no online school and we had to cancel (hopefully just postponed?) our trip to St. George/Las Vegas. So I've let the structure and schedule slide, thinking it'd feel more like a break for the kids. I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Sunday we drove to Logan to see the Temple (which is also closed). Grace is thinking about going to Utah State for college so we drove around the campus for a minute.

Yesterday the weather was nice the kids spent a lot of time outside.

The Bayles' heart attacked us! That was so thoughtful of them.

Grace took this cute picture of Lilla in her tent reading.

Grace also started binding the quilt she made last summer.

Happy Birthday Lilla

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Well, we woke up to more snow! And it was still coming down hard! Today was Lilla's birthday, and because of the stay-at-home orders we couldn't really have anyone else over to celebrate. So we made extra special effort to make her birthday extra special.

Gibson and Anderson put together a scavenger hunt for Bee to find one of her gifts. They had some fun clues. My favorite was "Don't be shocked and don't be alarmed, but tell Dad to lift up his arm. (Don't be afraid if it smells like a farm.)" :) They hid the clue in Nate's armpit. Ha! The present was a lego set she'd been wanting. Of the course the boys were happy to help her put it together.

Grace made blueberry lemon scones for breakfast at Bee's request. Mmmm. They are always a favorite. SO delicious.

Bee had asked for her personal stash of yogurt dots for her birthday from Nona and Pa, and they definitely delivered. It was strange and sad that we couldn't invite them in or even get within 6 feet of them in following with the social distancing rules. But it was kind of them to come still the same.

One thing Bee wanted to do today was play Monopoly. So we did, and that ended up taking several hours, most of the day. It got intense and emotional for some, makes me think we need to play more games so we can learn that it's all for fun!

Grace had gathered videos from some of Bee's friends and family earlier in the week. They were videos of people sending birthday wishes. One of her friends had hid Easter Eggs in the yard the day before and in her video told Bee to go find them as a gift-that was a lot of fun. Some cousins made fun music videos, others played handbells, and grandparents played their special music box. It was pretty neat. You can tell by the look on her face in the pictures that she really enjoyed it.

That evening Grandma and Grandpa made a special delivery to the front porch. Another birthday suprise of gifts from far away places and "good chocolate" as Bee and Grandpa like to call it. :)

Bee wanted ice cream sandwiches for dessert. So that was easy peasy. We talked about memories of Bee while we ate them. 

All day she kept saying how this was her best birthday ever! So I'd say it was a success!

Snow and Stress

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Well we woke up this morning to about 4-5" of snow! Noooooo! It was actually very beautiful. But right now we need some Spring in our life. 

I hit the grocery store first thing this morning. It's always so stressful with this COVID-19 business going on. Especially when the guy bagging your groceries coughs on them! UGH. He really did! Luckily I had a container of disinfecting wipes in the trunk and wiped down everything as best I could before loading them in the car. Then Nate and I washed all the produce we could with disinfectant AND soap and water. I just hope that man is okay.

They days I go to the grocery store have not been good ones. The stress of potentially bringing home COVID-19 is extremely stressful for me. I think about it ALL DAY. I think I'm developing a system though, with sanitizing and washing the produce that will help ease my mind. 

Lilla had an online meeting with her teacher and several of her classmates. It's pretty obvious by her smile that she enjoyed it. They sang Happy Birthday to her because her birthday is coming up!

Despite there being a little snow, we hiked to Davis Creek, it was so beautiful! Then we mostly ran down to the trailhead and then, hiked back up the hill on the dirt road to our house. It's been a huge blessing living in the mountains so close to trails during this time of "social distancing." It always feels so good to get outside AND move my body. 

March 24, 2020 Tuesday

This morning I helped Lilla learn to do some stitching, and it went well. She really liked it. She said, "I love this! I can see why Grandma likes this!" The weather was nice enough. Grace got her longboard in the mail and went to the church parking lot to use it, when she came back she convinced all of us that we should take skates, scooters, etc and head down too. So we did. And it was a lot of fun and a nice change of scenery. We even saw a magnolia tree in bloom. I, of course, took Kit over to have a look. :) 

 I was sure these flowers in our yard were peonies, but now that they have blooms. I can see they are not. Ha!

In effort to entertain Kit's insatiable curiosity, we let her play in a bowl of dry rice. She mostly just wanted to eat it.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Today was a hard day. I went to Costco to get diapers and formula (and a bunch of other things) and it was super stressful! I was feeling really anxious about bringing home COVID-19 along with all the groceries and those thoughts haunted me all day. Maybe next time I'll ask Nate to do the grocery shopping. Today they also moved the date the kids go back to school from the first part of April, to the fist part of May. :( So that was a bummer. But it's all going to be okay. We're all healthy for now and have a nice home and yard and mountains to roam, we have a lot to be grateful for.

March 22, 2020 Sunday

Today we got up and got dressed as though we were going to our regular Church meetings, but instead had our own little Sacrament Meeting in our dinning room at home.  We also took a drive to see the temple, which is closed due to COVID-19. It was nice to go somewhere as a family and get out of the house. There were lots and lots of people out walking around, it was a beautiful spring day.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Today for the first time in WAY too long, I went on a walk/run alone. I went about 3 miles. I went from my house down the hill to the trailhead, from the trailhead up to Pretty Valley, then down the dirt road from Pretty Valley to my home. It felt very good and took me about an hour. The hike up is pretty steep and I ran some of it, but also took lots of breaks. Maybe if I do that a few times a week, by the end of this Corona Virus shenanigan I'll be able to run the whole thing. It's a lofty goal, like I said it's steep! but it's definitely feasible.

We did a little yard work and I finally completed our 72 hour kits as much as I can for now. Nate took the kids on a hike a couple of canyons over to Bair's Canyon I think it was. He said there were a lot of people there. While they were gone, I worked to get everything pulled together in the little girls' room to paint it. We've had the paint for weeks! After gathering everything and getting the beds and stuff covered, I was too tired to actually paint. I lay on my bed and slept. It felt good. And then I worked on my quilt (I think I've got all the squares laid out where I want them!) and made dinner. I had no desire to paint. The poor girls though, their room has been in chaos and we need to get that project done. I'm making it my goal for the week. I need to prime it first, then paint. I think the extra step of priming is what is making this seem like such an obstacle. This week though, this week. :)

Then Nate and I and the older kids stayed up WAY too late watching several episodes of Stranger Things. We only watch it with the VidAngel which allows us to edit the language and inappropriate parts, otherwise I don't think that show would be worth watching.

March 20, 2020 Friday

First thing this morning Nate and I went out to the phone store and I got a new phone. So that's good. The new phone has a better camera, and it holds a charge. :) Both good things.

The kids spent the morning home-working and playing with Lego and I worked some on Kit's quilt. Later in the afternoon, we were all feeling a little bit crazy a decided to head out on a walk, and just in the nick of time the sun came out. It was wonderful. Interesting thing though, for maybe the first time ever we didn't go on a family walk. We split up. Some of us were feeling like we needed a little space. (Me!) Grace hiked to Pretty Valley on her own. Nate took the boys up to Hellhole Campground. (Nice name)  Lilla and I hiked up to some rocks, I let her lead. We explored a little, and took it slow. She found a special rock for Gus' grave. (Gus is her bunny who died last week. Poor thing.) Then I insisted we needed to move our bodies more and we hiked over to Davis Creek. We call it the waterfall, but it's not really. We played around. I braided a crown for her from some tall grass. She washed her rock. We admired the beautiful mossy rocks near the creek. Then we ran part of the way home, gathered dried sage flowers. (I thought they would be neat to make a wreath out of, we'll see.) As soon as we got home, Lilla hopped on the skateboard. She just started learning today and she's done well! Grace has recently started skate boarding too and even has a longboard she ordered coming soon in the mail.

I felt SO much better after being outside and moving my body, I think all of us did.

Then we made homemade pizza. I have been having the kids make the dough the last several weeks. Kit ate 2 small pieces of pizza all by herself, and then made these funny kissy faces.

March 19, 2020

We'll we've done our first week of "Self Distancing" and all and all I feel like things went pretty well.  Today while Kit napped I brushed off household chores in favor of working on a quilt for Kit. I think it was a wise choice mentally. I'm just using scraps of fabric I already have, and I'm excited to get creative with it. I worked more on getting our 72 hour kits ready, and did some online shopping for Lilla's Birthday. We're going to have to think of some ways to make it extra special since she won't be able to have friends or family over.

Oh, and my phone is dead. Completely dead. I hope they can recover all my info. I really, really hope. I'm not looking forward to visiting the phone shop, but it feels sort of necessary.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Pandemic to bring you an EARTHQUAKE

Thursday, March 18, 2020.

Yes. It's true. I woke up this morning around 6, I think, to feed Kit a bottle. I was able to get her back to sleep and was in the living room writing lists of projects that might be good to tackle while we're "social distancing" and the house started shaking. Not horribly, I didn't feel afraid, but it was definitely rumbling, and for a while. I was able to walk upstairs to the bedroom and Nate was awake. We had had an Earthquake. We immediately texted our families and started checking the news.

Turns out the quake's epicenter was in Magna, Utah about 28 miles from where we are in Farmington. It registered a 5.7 on the richter scale. We felt several aftershocks here at our home. Maybe 4 or 5 in the morning and then one later in the afternoon. We'll we were supposed to head down the hill to pick up some things the kids needed to continue their schooling at home online, I was feeling a little uncertain about driving down the hill with all the shaking going on, but around 9:00 AM felt like we should get down there, get what we needed and get back. Quick.

I told the boys to keep their hands in their pockets until they needed to use them and to stay 6 feet away from everyone. No dawdling with friends. :( I dropped Gibson off and the Elementary school first, and then went to the Junior High down the street to drop off Anderson. When they got back in the car we sanitized their hands and wiped down the things they'd gathered with sanitizing wipes. We had also sanitized their hands before they went into the school. Trying to be so careful not spread or pick up germs.

Anyway, we got home and were getting things organized in the library so the children could have a good space to do their school work and Grace said she was hearing word that there was going to be another, stronger earthquake in about 30 minutes. I had also just received a text from my mom. Her Stake President had alerted them that he had also heard of another stronger quake coming. I flew into action having the kids load up emergency food and water along with clothes and baby supplies into the Sequoia. I went upstairs, Nate was working from home and was on a phone call. I told him there were reports of another bigger quake and that we needed to get out. And then went back to loading things in the truck. We pulled both cars out of the garage and were all gathered outside, looking to see what information we could find. Then we started hearing the second quake was a rumor. THANK GOODNESS!

There was a press conference we listened to in Nate's car, they confirmed that it was a rumor, but said we needed to shelter in place. Which was what we were doing before. We came inside and discussed how we don't need to be afraid, and what to do in an Earthquake. We decided our emergency meeting spot would be in the empty lot just north of the house. And then we got to work putting together REAL emergency kits.

Had there really been a second stronger earthquake, we would have gotten by okay with what we had, but I was really feeling the urgency to get it together as far as emergency preparedness. So I spent the rest of the day doing just that, gathering first aid supplies from around the house and organizing them into kits, helping the kids put together backpacks of essential items, ordering water filtration systems etc. And I'm feeling better now, hoping  to finish that project up tomorrow, and put finishing touches on when this whole COVID-19 things calms down and more supplies are available. WHAT A DAY!

I thought it was so sweet, Grace's friend Lucy brought her a drink from Fiiz where she works, she left it on the front porch. I do wish Lucy would stop working and just stay home!! But since she's not, it was a very thoughtful gesture for Grace.