What's Keeping me Sane

I never would have thought when I was young helping my dad carry branches to the backyard or avoiding weeding the garden with my mom, that I would absolutely LOVE working in the yard.  During this time of isolation, it has truly saved me!  If I can weed the garden, spread mulch, cut the grass, prune the bushes, plant some new flowers, or even just over-seed that lawn it lifts my spirits.  I am so thankful to live in a place where we have the space to work in the yard.  I am thankful for God's beautiful creations that I can enjoy...they really are food for the soul.

Our rock project

Love the bright yellow forsythia

Beautiful tulips

The one time I let Dad drive the tractor:) Haha

My lilacs!!

RIP Little Baby Blackberry

Little Baby Blackberry 2018-2020

Such a sweet little hamster

Blackberry was sick for about 4 days before she finally left us.  Poor little baby.  It was so sad for Summer (and me)...especially burying her:(  I don't think my heart can handle any more of these pets that don't live very long.  We sure do love our fluffy friends.

The Kid Car

What happens when your 16-year old totals her glamorous 2003 Toyota Corolla?  She gets a 1999 Toyota Camry that only unlocks from the back seat-haha.

A couple weeks ago I was waiting up for Kya to get home when I got a text saying she crashed the car.  Such a scary, awful moment.  Luckily she wasn't hurt and she didn't hit another car (just a garbage can, fire hydrant and telephone pole).  But the car was totaled...and poor Dad and Kya didn't get home until about 3 am dealing with the whole ordeal.

This is the 3rd and last crash for this kid car.  Mike and I didn't really know what to do.  About a week after the accident, a family in the ward had an Camry they were giving away, so we snatched it up.  We haven't insured it or added either kid back to the insurance yet...we'll see.

Easter in Isolation 2020

Easter weekend was not the greatest for me this year.  Not only were we in isolation (so we couldn't go to church), but I was also really sick the entire weekend.  Luckily I was finally well enough by Sunday so I could make our ham dinner (but not well enough to eat it) although, it was hard to enjoy the day.  The kids did humor me enough to get dressed up and take our traditional Easter Sunday pictures.  Since we are social distancing, the Easter Bunny decided to leave everyone a new game with their basket.  Summer and Tyson hunted for eggs, we played some family games, had a nice dinner, and lots of family time.  During this pandemic, it's comforting to know that life is eternal because of our Savior Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

Entertaining Ourselves (at home)

I love being with my family AND I love being home, BUT when you can't go anywhere BUT home and you can't see anyone BUT your family, it starts getting a little tricky! 

Here are some of the things we've been doing to keep life interesting during this "isolation" time:

Photo Shoots

Puzzles

We bought Summer her first bike

Baking

(I made French Bread for the first time ever and it was DELICIOUS!)

I tried some new recipes...like Chicken Gnocchi Soup AND THESE Cookie Dough Brownies-YUM!

Dying Hair...PINK!!

Watching Home Movies

Going Through Memory Boxes

(and trying on every single dance costume Jordan has ever worn)

Eyelash Lifts

(I didn't even know this was a thing!)

Campfires

School Projects

(Somehow I convinced Tyson to build a bird feeder for his art project:))

Building Forts

(Can you spot the kitty?)

Learning to do Dutch braids

As much fun as we are having keeping ourselves entertained, we are still aching for our old life to come back!!  We miss our friends, our family, going places and doing things! 

Jordan's Home

At the beginning of March 2020, all schools in Washington were closed because of Covid-19.  It didn't take long for other states to follow...when I heard that the BYUs were switching all classes online, I was anxious to get Jordan home.  I was worried about flights being canceled and her getting stuck in Hawaii.  The only problem was, she had friends from Washington who were scheduled to fly out to visit at the end of the month.  Just a few days before they were planning to leave, all parents agreed it wasn't safe to fly, so we booked Jordan on the next flight home.  It felt good to have all my kids under one roof, especially during such crazy, uncertain times.

Back to the 80s

Before the fear of the Coronavirus truly hit, we had a fantastic party with some of our great friends!!  I've always wanted to do an 80s party, so this year I finally did it! 

We had a costume contest, a guess who game (everyone brought a picture of themselves from the 1980s), Name That Tune, and 80s Outburst.     

This picture doesn't show Mike's pinch-rolled jeans and my neon legwarmers:)  But I managed to crimp my hair, find pink frost lipstick and do my eyeshadow half pink half blue!  So much fun dressing up for this party!!!

The best male costume went to Scott (the one with the pink hat) 

The best female costume winner was Jessica (beside me with the lips shirt), but everyone had such great costumes!  Traci in front with the 80s prom dress was fantastic--haha.

I was so proud of my cupcakes...and the toppers I made.

I really struggled with party favor ideas, then Mike mentioned that Pepsi was super popular in the 80s and I went with it.  I found these cute mini six-pack cans and bought some Bublicious gum to go with it.  And look at those cute neon bows from the dollar store!

I definitely need to do a 90s party next year!!

Coronavirus 2020

Remember when I said we were hanging on by a thread in 2020...well, the thread broke and we are freefalling.  Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did...a lot worse.  The world has been infected with Coronoaviris (Covid-19).  It started in China, then Italy and now it is all over the world.  And guess where the American epicenter is?  You guessed it--Washington.  School is canceled, everyone who can is working from home (including Mike), stores are sold out of hand sanitizer (and toilet paper), the stock market has crashed (big-time), college kids are coming home, temples are closed, church services are canceled, all concerts are canceled, the NBA season is over, March Madness is done--basically everyone is in a huge panic.  I just feel like a dark cloud resides over my head.  I keep telling myself, the silver lining in the whole thing is more family time.  But it is hard to enjoy it when this virus is looming over us.  We had a week of online school, but that too has come to a screeching halt because of equality concerns.  So now, basically everything is done...with no end date in sight!  Luckily the weather is starting to warm up so I can work in my garden and the kids can play outside.  I sure hope this doesn't last as long as they are predicting...

Here are the kids doing their online school...while it lasted

Outdoor PE (badminton, trampoline & scooters)

  

Callie was finally allowed outside:)

  

And even a little chalk art

Now if I can just focus on the positive, I think we can get through this...well, that and if we don't get taken out by this deadly virus--wahhhh.