faux friday

first off some pictures from not my day, per say.  Dani had her two thursday helpers for the big move!

and cute Hannah expecting baby Ezra!

Rob works 4 ten hr days a week. That means Thursday is like a Friday for him.  (when he doesn't work extra, which is often but theoretically. So today he went to work looking forward to a weekend.  I also worked.

This morning I walked the dogs first thing and it was pouring rain.  We all came home soaked.

We played Mexican Train and Tenzies today.

Rob's flower boxes turned out great.  I love them.

This evening we had family scripture time poolside.

Night

2 puzzles.

5 dog walks.

3 meals.

2 kids doing school.

4 hrs working for mom.

1 load of laundry

2 runs of the dishwasher.

6 episodes of Call The Midwife.

4 Tylenol.

1 YW scattergories Zoom meeting.

1 band zoom meeting.

1 choir Zoom meeting.

1 super sweaty afternoon walk.

1 apple pie.

1 box from Ohio!

3 FaceTime calls.

3 bored kids.

5,321 prayers for the end of quarantine.

And that was our day.

Morning

This morning I find myself out in the backyard. Florida has been blessed with the nicest weather the past few days. There is a cool breeze and it’s been less humid. I know the sauna like heat is coming but for today, and the last little while, we have been relishing our perfect weather.  The world is quite and still with Covid. I hope that more people are seeking Christ, that they are using the time to know Him and hear Him. I hope my children are, and my young women are, and I am.

Monday

 Today we switched things up and played qwirkle. We ate dinner outside. We cleaned things. Walked dogs. Worked. Did school.

Ethan got the outstanding senior in Spanish award. And we were able to make an appointment for next week to get his physical!! We were super excited about that. Also today he went to the Roddy’s and played pool basketball. Besides walking the dog I think that may have been the first time in two months that he’s gone anywhere. 

Sierra and I went to Walmart this morning and they had flour! No cleaning wipes but we were excited for the flour. 

Weekend

Yesterday Rob built two garden boxes. We were thinking about putting our hydrangeas in them but now Rob thinks it’s too sunny. We are thinking about a lemon tree or hibiscus. 

Grace had a lesson with Nickolay. 

I worked on my blanket. 

Today we had home church. 

Sierra and I watched Indiana Jones. 

Rob had a meeting with Kaulin Hinton about emergency preparedness.

I played with Snapchat filters.

This is the Brandt’s last Sunday in their house. They bought a new one and are moving in at the end of the week. Val also bought a new house and will be moving in a couple of weeks. Life keeps going on with its ups and downs and good news and trials. 

Fri-yay!

This morning Claudia posted this on Facebook. Every so often someone spots a big one. So far we haven’t seen any out of the water that are that big...but we remain hopeful. 

Yesterday we made dinner for Kristina and her family. She had surgery and is slowly recovering. I was delighted to be able to serve and they loved the dinner so that was extra nice. I made double so we enjoyed the same dishes and it was yummy. I made enchilada casserole and there were no left overs. I also made a chocolate peanut butter pie that everyone loved. So win win!

Today Shannen had her baby girl! All is well and we are so excited for Baby Kate to have arrived safely. Her mom is here this week (always a relief for a new mom) and then next week we will get to bring dinner there too! Can’t wait. 

Gracie wanted to make disney churros. We made them while watching the Disney fireworks that were streamed on Instagram. We also got her band picture today and it looks great. Band ended abruptly and sadly. Lots of craziness right now. We are looking forward to next year and a great new season. 

In other news senior awards were announced today and Ethan won outstanding student in economics. We are proud of that boy and all his good grades and accomplishments.

We played a lot of games today.

Chickapig, Uno flips, Quixx, and Phase 10.

Tonight Rob and I watched “Fighting Preacher” and we both loved it!

Lastly from Lu’s Instagram her best friends. 

So it was a good day. 

Masks

Mom sent us some masks. Which is awesome. If we need them we are set. I see most people

wearing them at the store or picking up food. 

Grace and I went to Target and it was a lucky day. We were able to buy toilet paper, paper towels and napkins! We couldn’t buy antibacterial wipes or flour. 

Ethan is getting better at the piano. He can play a lot of the simplified hymns. Poorly but you can tell what they are for sure. Another month of quarantine and he’ll be able to accompany a small group on his mission if needed. 

For young women we had a zoom Zumba night. Katty taught and it was a lot of fun! 

Jess and Isaiah are having a baby in November! It’s a boy! So exciting!! I hope we get to see them soon. 

Phoebe’s bday

Today is Grace’s friend, Phoebe’s, birthday. We did a drive by. Lots of kids came! They had a little basket in front of the house and some girls brought gifts and ran them up and dropped them off. Some made signs and had balloons. I think she was really excited! Then about 10 of them stayed on the green across from her house and made a band video. They stayed 6ft apart (mostly) and so did the moms. It was a very wonderful change of pace. 

And we played games.

Day 39

Grace looked cute today. She’s getting so grown up. 

I FaceTimed with the Brandt’s for a long time this morning. Penny had a stiff neck. Dani read Mercy Watson out loud to us and we all laughed. I remember reading that with Ethan and we laughed then too. Tatum was looking for something to read so I sent her that and the Wrinkle in Time series. 

The other day Marshall told me he wishes there was no Covid because I missed my trip to Utah. I was so happy he said that🥰. I always hope to be a good grandma but it’s tough when I am so far away. 

Our new refrigerator arrived today!! Yay! It is awesome and it will keep our food cold so that’s the main thing. It also shows you who is ringing your doorbell, what’s in the fridge and when it expires, anything online, recipes and it will tell you step by step what to do, it will turn off lights in the house, make the TV or music louder and Idk what else yet.

We worked, did schoolwork, played games, ate dinner, walked dogs.

And the cat took a nap.

Sunday

Home church went nicely. It was reverent and everyone participated.

52

Today is my birthday and it was a good one. I slept in. Sierra walked the dogs. Then I lounged in bed and read. Eventually I got up and went downstairs. Sierra was making crepes and she got me a birthday balloon! So fun!

I got lots and lots of birthday messages and birthday phone calls. It was awesome. We have friends around the country and it’s amazing to hear from them. I got to hear fun news from different friends and I felt very loved! Stories of weddings, babies, good weather, struggles, Covid and wished for reunions filled my day.

Rob and I went to Lowes. We bought a new fridge and a sink vanity. It’s very exciting when you are old:). I finished my book club book “Where the Crawdads Sing” and we had Olive Garden for dinner. 

Bonus picture: Coco and Ruby post their hike.

Friday

I had a surprise message on my work email this morning! A happy birthday greeting from the guidance team! So fun. I miss those faces:)

We spent a lot of time outside today. We played Quixx and I read and napped outside. 

Here are some of my nieces and nephews making the best of quarantine time. Reggie and Noah are always doing fun things. Andrea is a super cute mom! 

Miss Scarlett is a sweetheart. She gave Grandma a home pedicure:)

Daniel turned 2 and had a family party!

And Anna and the boys enjoyed a bike ride. 

Love those guys ❤️

Covid log

Sierra and I started our day with a long walk with the dogs. It’s been overcast and drizzling and on the cool side, which is so nice. After our long walk it was business as usual for the day. 

After dinner we grabbed a blanket and Sierra’s laptop and sat outside to watch a movie. The birds and crickets made it hard to hear but it was a fun change of scenery. When it was over night had come and it was time for our last walk of the day. You can’t see that well but that lit window on the top is Grace’s room and that dark shape is her with her clarinet serenading the dark. 

mid week

This morning we were talking to Jenna and the girls.  Abe is a giant dog.  This led to us wondering who was taller Abe or Lincoln (ha ha) Well Linc is bad at standing up but I think Abe is definitely taller.  Brown haired girl with blond dog, blond girl with brown dog:)

Papa is feeling a bit better.  On our group text someone said all he needed was a mask and he'd look like the dread pirate roberts.  I don't know if this is an indication of too much time on their hands or of their good sense of humor but mom and dad came up with this gem! 

Our house workers are done and they did a good job.  We are happy with it.  I love the backsplash.  I am glad they are done because everyone hated being trapped in their rooms & I hated worrying about if we were doing something dumb or not.  If it was dumb and least it's done.

We did zoom mutual tonight.  Our connection wasn't great but the girls still want to do one next week so that's good.

My friend Alecia did a random things about her post and asked for others to do the same...again too much time and a good sense of humor ;), it seemed like fun so hear you go:

1. brussel sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables. I also like carrots, artichokes, cucumbers, potatoes, salad, tomatoes, broccoli, edamame, peas and beets but not asparagus or okra or squash.
2. for years, like 45 years, I never dreamed.  At least not that I remembered when I woke up.  This was a source of disappointment for me, especially during the years I was studying psychology.  Now I do occasionally remember a dream and it is even a bigger disappointment.  My subconscious is quite boring I guess.
3. when I go underwater, which is rarely, water ALWAYS goes up my nose, and it hurts.  I wish I was a good swimmer but...
4. I am the least musical person I know.  I rarely listen to music and I don't know the words to any songs all the way thru except for hymns and nursery rhymes. 
5. my favorite color is blue.
6. I still like watching Disney movies, and will watch them by myself.
7. I'm a nervous flyer.
8. I love the smells of summer: camp fires, beach, sunscreen, woodsy walks, BBQ, etc.
9. I like to drink milk.
10. I love to read although I don't do it as often as I used to.
11. I only speak one language and I find this an embarrassing fact.
12. There are a lot of jobs I wish I knew how to do but the best one is being a mother and I feel very lucky that I chose to do that and was able to do that. I would have liked to be a counselor, or a midwife or a dolphin trainer or a fairy godmother though.
13. I always thought I was a morning chicken, until covid, now I'm a night owl.  What??
14. brushing my teeth is my favorite hygiene activity.
15. I only had one epidural with my 6 births, and it was my least favorite experience.  I miss being pregnant and nursing and having a baby.  Those were sweet days.
16. I love being the mom of older kids a lot.
17. My sisters are my best friends...and I am a little sad that we don't have the same biological dad.
18. I love shellfish.
19. I love to go new places...but I don't love the actual travel part.
20. With The Covid Crisis I am watching new things on the internet that entertain me. Such as Sir Patrick Stewart reading sonnets. SGN with “Jim”. Astronauts reading stories to kids from the space station. And of course my favorite Don’t Miss This.

Tuesday

Today is Hannah and Sawyer’s 2nd wedding anniversary! They have been through a lot. Lots of moves, jobs, school, baby. They also have lots to look forward to. Two more moves this year, Ezra’s birth, more school and soon graduation for Hannah. It’s an exciting, stressful, busy time of life. Anyway I sure love those two.

I got a lot of work done today! Yay!

One thing I love about quarantine is the amount of time we have to talk to family and friends. Also, weirdly I have a feeling of calm and peace. There is no where to go.  No outside obligations or distractions. I love our busy life and can’t wait to get back to it but I think I will look back at this time
with some positive memories.  I do hope I go back to normal sleep. I spend more time laying in bed at night not sleeping.

Today our fridge broke. Not good.
Luckily we have a garage fridge and the kids moved all the food into it. Rob replaced a circuit board of some sort thinking that was the issue. It was not. He ordered a capacitor online and it should be here on Saturday. Hopefully that is it.

Our new backsplash looks great. The kids hate having the workers come because they have to stay in their rooms the whole time. The project is almost complete, tomorrow will be the last day and I think it won’t even be a whole day.

Things I am looking forward to:

• Getting a pedicure. 
• Going to church with our friends
• Going to a restaurant and sitting there and eating, with other people around.
• The kids not being trapped.
• Disney being open open open. 
• Going to the grocery store with out a sense of foreboding. Trying to avoid people, wondering what will be available to buy. 
• Getting together with friends.
• Back to work and school.
• Going to the beach.
• Getting Ethan’a mission stuff off pause.
• Summer and the trips we have planned.
• Hearing the fireworks at night.  
• Shops and offices back open and people back to work.

Things I hope stay changed:
More family time
More compassion being shown
More thoughts turned to God

This picture was from this morning. I was FaceTiming and Cora was “cooking her baby mouse” in her play kitchen and she thought it was so funny!!

Why do I keep writing

Every day is very the same. Well today was actually different. We have had a list of things we wanted to do to the house. Mostly small, a few bigger. I tend to procrastinate things like that. Pulling the trigger on spending the $, finding workmen, being home for the work to be done, deciding exactly what color or tile or whatever it is, spending the money.

Last week Rob was working in the yard and saw some guys working on our neighbors house. I guess he talked with them, I didn’t ask, but the next thing I knew Diego was walking thru our house and we were pointing out the items on the list (from 6 ft away). Then before I knew it things were settled and today they came. The kids literally stayed in their rooms the entire day. Grace did all her school work for the week. Sierra discovered the joys of VPN and signed up for a German one that lets her watch different shows. Ethan slept, did homework and idk what else. I sat on my bedroom couch working from home, or talking on the phone, and occasionally answering a question from the workers.  They wore masks and we stayed far away. Dumb and reckless?? I really don’t know.  We are having them paint, put up a backsplash and build a door between our master bedroom and the master bath.

So when they left the kids said it was even worse than normal quarantine and how long was it going to take. 3 days.

I talked to Anna for a long time. Hannah and Sawyer for a little while. Nana for a medium amount of time, and Dani and Tatum longishly medium.

I also talked to JaNee and Mom a couple of times. Dad was out running and tripped and fell, he scrapped up his poor face really badly. Luckily he didn’t break any teeth and after a visit to urgent care which turned into a trip to the ER we learned he didn’t break anything or have bleeding in his brain or anything. Thank goodness. He looks terrible though and I feel so bad for him. I think he’ll have a horrible headache.

I hate that we live so far away.

Grand Easter

❤️❤️❤️

Easter

Well, it was a weird one. Like the rest of life right now. I asked the kids if they wanted to have an egg hunt earlier in the week. No one did. No one really had any preferences on how to celebrate so I guess we are past all that. I didn’t get baskets or eggs to hide. I did get everyone a chocolate rabbit and put it on their plate. I thought that was festive. 

Anyway we had Easter lunch. It was tasty. We sat around the table laughing about different silly things and even though it started a little rough if ended up nice. 

After that we had our home church and Rob and Ethan blessed and passed the sacrament. 

We did some chalking and played Quixx. 

Rob and I walked the dogs. Cat came as well. 

Blueberries and other joys

This morning Rob and I went on a date.  I did my hair and everything.  We drove out to a local blueberry farm that was so cute! I bet in non quarantine time it's hopping.  The drive was very pretty. We saw two alligators on the way, which is always fun for me.  We had gone on line and placed our order so when we got there we joined the other cars in the que and had time to look out the window and to talk.

When we got home I made blueberry muffins that were really delicious, thank you Paula Dean for your recipe, and we had blueberry lemonade.

Last month when we had our YW service auction Grace auctioned off her services as an Easter Bunny.  Tonight she and I drove over to the Barton's and hid eggs in their yard.  It was actually pretty fun to do.  Then we came home and dyed our eggs.  

Grace also had a Skype clarinet lesson with Nickoly.  We face-timed.  Rob had a good day fishing.  We played Quixx and I actually one a round, which is noteworthy.  I think it was a pretty good day!

I enjoyed talking with Rob and our nice drive.  On our way home we were listening to Alma.  We were at the part where Alma goes to Ammonihah and all the people reject him.  I could picture how awful that was.  Discouraged he left the city and soon was met by an angel who told him that the Lord was pleased with him.  He also told him to go back and that he would be blessed and bless the people.  This is, of course, when he goes and meets Amulek.  What struck me this time was the love between Alma and his angelic messenger.  The angel tells him that he was the same messenger that came to call him to repentance years before.  Now we know that true repentance means you are clean and all is forgiven.  One trap sometimes people fall into is to continue to feel bad about past mistakes.  This can lead to them feeling uncomfortable around people who they confessed to, or who know of their sins and mistakes. Sometimes people think that the bishop will think less of them.  This is a perfect example of how that is not the case.  It is obvious that there is great love between the two of them and that they are happy to be brought together.  Truly when you repent you are made new in Christ.  What a tremendous blessing!!

Alma 8:

13 Now when the people had said this, and withstood all his words, and ^areviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be ^bcast out of their city, he departed thence and took his journey towards the city which was called Aaron.

14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much ^atribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an ^bangel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:

15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that ^adelivered it unto you.

16 And behold, I am sent to ^acommand thee that thou return to the city of Ammonihah, and preach again unto the people of the city; yea, preach unto them. Yea, say unto them, except they repent the Lord God will ^bdestroy them.

17 For behold, they do study at this time that they may destroy the liberty of thy people, (for thus saith the Lord) which is contrary to the ^astatutes, and judgments, and commandments which he has given unto his people.

18 Now it came to pass that after Alma had received his message from the angel of the Lord he returned speedily to the land of Ammonihah.

We have also been watching "The Chosen", which I love love love.  It is a dramatization of the Saviors life.  It is so powerful and so beautiful.  I find myself just waiting for Jesus to show up and thinking Jesus, where are you! Come!
It’s not strictly to the Bible but an interpretation of what it could have been like, an imaged filling in of the details. 

And lastly, look at cute Ruby! She still fits in her blessing dress!!!