It has been one month since the craziness of COVID-19 began. Social distancing requirements are still in force and many stores are closed or limiting customers. The store shelves are still pretty bare and you can't find toilet paper anywhere. The threat of spreading the disease is still high. We found out that the two-week closure of school would now be extended to the end of April. Church also continued to be cancelled for now. Until cases of the Corona Virus starts to decline, we will continue being under a quarantine.
While we have been home, we have been doing some fun activities and getting used to life at home.
On April 1, Mother Nature played a good April's Fool Day trick on us. While we had been getting excited for Spring and warmer weather, she had other tricks up her sleeve and we got more snow... Hopefully this is the last snow storm of the winter and we can move on.
General Conference was really different this time. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, General Conference was not held in the Conference Center. In fact, the only way people could watch conference was through broadcast. Only the First Presidency and the speakers during that Conference session were allowed in the room to record Conference. The speakers had their seats situated so that they were all six feet apart from each other. The Tabernacle Choir did not sing at Conference but their prerecorded songs were used for the music. This was definitely a memorable Conference not just because of these changes, but because of the messages given. This Conference commemorated the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's First Vision and the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel. All of the messages were about the Restoration, personal revelation, the truths of the restored gospel, and finding peace and comfort.
During the final session of Conference, the Prophet led us in the Hosanna Shout during a solemn assembly. This was part of the bicentennial celebration of the First Vision. This was fun to do with the kids. We each had white handkerchiefs to wave during the Hosanna Shout.
President Nelson also introduced a new proclamation to the world. It was called "The Restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World."
The Proclamation invites people everywhere to learn that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the Earth again today.
Some of the cool things about this Conference was that a new symbol for the Church was announced, eight new temples were announced, and two teenagers talked during the Saturday night session. On March 26, President Nelson called for a Worldwide Fast because of the Corona Virus. This was a good thing for us. This fast really taught the kids the importance of fasting and praying for others. During Conference, President Nelson asked for a second Worldwide Fast. He asked us to fast again on Good Friday April 10. He suggested we fast and pray "that the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy strengthened, and life normalized." This second world fast was taken seriously by not only members of our church but people all over the world in all types of religions. It was pretty cool to participate in this with millions of people around the world. We all want this pandemic to end and people to be safe. This was a great and memorable General Conference.
I do want the pandemic to end but to tell you the truth, I kind of like social distancing. Okay, I think what I like the most is spending more time together as a family. We don't have a lot of things vying for our time so we can just do fun things together. That is one thing I don't want to change. I also like that we are reading our scriptures more often and learning more about the teachings in the Book of Mormon. I like this new normal but I don't like Covid-19. Maybe this is just an eye opener for us and the world telling everyone that the family is more important than anything.
Here are some of the fun things we have been doing lately:
After 27 days in quarantine, Russell took up smoking. Well, smoking turkey that is! Russell got this smoker for Christmas and he has enjoyed learning how to smoke meat. This week he tried smoking a turkey. The smoking took all day long but the turkey was so good!!
We had a great little Thanksgiving in April. The boys loved eating the huge turkey legs. Russell learned a lot from smoking this turkey like how you can't rush smoking perfection. He also learned that smoking a 23 pound turkey uses a lot of pellets. I think we went through a whole bag! We ate turkey for the rest of the week.
Another fun thing we had been doing is teaching the kids cool tricks on the trampoline. When you do home school, you can do things like that.
They didn't believe that I could do a back flip, but I sure surprised them. Logan has been trying to do a back flip ever since. He is getting pretty good.
But the kids are getting really good at front flips and other tricks.
They have been spending a lot of time on the trampoline. In fact, ever since we set it up, they have basically been jumping non stop. I'm okay with this because they are having fun and getting exercise and finally being outside for a change. I am glad we have playground equipment in our backyard because all of the parks are closed. There is yellow caution tape on everything so that people will not use the park equipment. It is so sad...
One Saturday we took the bikes out for a family bike ride. Up near the park in an empty lot we found these cool bike jumps and obstacles. We had a blast riding around on them for quite a while.
There were so many cool jumps to take our bikes over. It brought back a few memories from riding bikes as a kid. My friends and I used to ride our bikes everywhere and make jumps and trails through the vacant lots near our houses. Russell also had these same memories as a kid. We loved showing the kids how to ride off jumps and pedal hard to get up the hills. Yeah, we still got it and were able to take our bikes off the jumps as well.
It was so fun riding around the trails.
When we got home from the ride, we decided to shoot a few hoops.
One of Colby's goals for the year is to get better at basketball. He loves practicing his shots and dribbling. Russell taught the boys how to play "Horse" so they have been playing that more often to improve their shooting.
Finally, every Friday is Spirit Friday at the school. Even though we are doing home school now, the Elementary school still gives out prizes for celebrating Spirit Friday. All we have to do is send in a picture of us in our Canyon Colt colors. We haven't won yet but hopefully we will soon.
Well as you can see, we are enjoying this time together as a family. It is nice to have more time to do what we want. Home school is going better. The kids seem to have a system down now. They know if they get their work done quickly they can play the rest of the day. They like to get up early in the morning to start working on their assignments from their teachers so they can get done by lunchtime. The teachers are still putting all of their lessons online and doing Zoom meetings with the kids everyday. These meetings are fun for them because they get to see their teacher and their friends from school. On nice thing the school district has started to do is hand out free school lunch.
Each day at 11 we go up to the school and collect lunch and breakfast for each of the kids and then bring it home to eat. They really like having school lunch and it gives them something to look forward to. It is great for us too because it has really saved on buying food. It's nice because it gives the kids something different for lunch and breakfast besides peanut butter sandwiches and cereal.
So I guess we will continue quarantine life and enjoy every minute!
