2020 :: week 13

March 22

The kids love to wrestle with Dad, even Miles got in on the fun. Elliott has been watching Lego Ninjago and he has everyone pretend to be Cole, Kai, Jay or Lord Garmadon. While Anthony still had a few meetings this Sunday, it was only about half as much as last week.

March 23

Monday evening we played Ticket to Ride Junior for our FHE activity. Lauren won a close game.

March 24

I am so grateful that we finished our basement before we had to "Shelter in Place." We have plenty of room for the kids to spread out and do their own thing, as well as for Elliott to play downstairs while the older kids are doing school work. Elliott has been pretending to be a restaurant chef, organizing our play food and creating a variety of culinary masterpieces. He made his specialty, Fries and Chips just for me.

March 25

Throughout the school year Elliott's teacher Ms. Amanda had what she called "Wacky Wednesday," where she would prepare a STEM activity for her class. She sent a video of her and her son building volcanoes out of playdough and then using baking soda and vinegar to create the eruption. Will and Lauren wanted to get in on the fun and made some as well. The kids' teachers have been so great about sending supplemental ideas for parents to use now that we are doing school at home.

March 26

We jumped on the chalk bandwagon and the kids drew with sidewalk chalk on our driveway for awhile Thursday morning. Later in the day we walked to the trail that runs next to the creek on the south side of our neighborhood. Will's friend Porter and his family painted rocks and them placed them along the trail and the kids had fun searching for them. It has been really neat seeing people pulling together and reaching out to one another in creative ways during this strange time.

March 27

I let each of the kids use their own money to buy a new toy this week from Target. Elliott and Will chose Lego sets I picked up earlier in the week. Lauren ordered a new Our Generation Doll that was delivered Friday morning. She named her "Penny," and anxiously awaited her arrival all week. She made a "Welcome Penny" sign that she hung on the doll bunkbed in her room and had me track the package on my phone each night to see where she was currently located.  Lauren spent the better part of the day Friday playing with her dolls and that evening told me that Leah and Penny are her sisters since she doesn't have any in real life.

March 28

An nice byproduct of having most everything on our calendar cancelled is that we now have lots of time to work on our yard. We have really let our yard go the past few years and, with ample help from my dad, are trying to take it back. Anthony and Will spent hours burning years of accumulated sticks while I worked on pulling vines and raking leaves and sticks. It was hard work, but so very satisfying to get done.

2020 :: week 12

March 15

Our first Sunday with "home church." Anthony ended up having about 8 hours of phone meetings, which was about four hours more than I expected. Our stake has not yet been authorized to perform the Sacrament in our homes (much of the time Anthony was on the phone was discussing with stake and ward leaders how to ensure everyone has access to the Sacrament). I did teach a lesson about having faith during adversity. It was based on the Come Follow Me curriculum for this week, and it felt especially timely. I made everyone gather for a picture (taken with the timer on my phone) to mark the commencement of our "social distancing" time.

March 16

I was feeling all kinds of negative feelings on Monday--stress, uncertainty, anxiety, etc. It was the first "official" day of Spring Break, so our kids were already out of school, but schools across the country were announcing closings and I was feeling wary, knowing it wasn't a matter of "if" our school would be cancelled for awhile, but "when" and "for how long."  Anthony and I took Miles for a walk after dinner while the older kids watched Lego Masters. We are leaving the kids home alone for short periods of time now while Anthony and I go for walks. If Miles is awake he comes with us. We saw a bunch of dog poop an irresponsible person left on a driveway and it made me laugh out loud. Some of the Corona Virus-related memes have been so funny, and the poop reminded me of a meme my sister Melanie sent about people pooping in the yard because they were out of TP. It was so refreshing to get outside of the house, feel the fresh air and laugh about something so ridiculous.

March 17

The John kids are big fans of the show Lego Masters and got started on their own Lego projects Tuesday. Will and Lauren spent most of the day holed up in Lauren's room working on their builds, with Elliott popping in from time to time. Will made a food court and Lauren made a school. While I was making dinner and listening to the news I heard the announcement that the Governor cancelled schools in Kansas for the rest of the year. Even though I knew it was coming, I still felt a bit shocked that it was over for the year. I figured they would cancel it for a few weeks and then see. Lauren cried when she found out and Will and Elliott were sad, but weren't as upset. I felt a real sense of loss myself. All three of my kids have had exceptional teachers this year. They were engaging and nurturing and all three kids were really thriving. The school district sent out an email saying that the district will be working on putting together an online curriculum in the coming days, so we will wait and see how the rest of the year plays out.

March 18

Miles and I had a rough week. His nose has been running like crazy, and I'm not sure it was allergies, a cold, teething or all of the above. Whatever the cause, it has made life less pleasant. I have had a headache for the past few days, so I was sympathetic to his pains, but not feeling especially indulgent. It was very frustrating trying to find a way to soothe him, because nothing really helped. On top of the headaches and general grumpiness, it was cold and gray most of the week. The gray weather and increasing bad news making for a fairly gloomy week.

March 19

Lauren and Will take turns emptying our dishwasher and putting the flatware away. When Lauren puts our IKEA plates, bowls and cups away she stacks them in a rainbow. I love that she does this and it makes me smile when I open the cupboard and see them organized this way.

March 20

When I am on the go I tend to snack less and eat better. Now that we are home all day every day for the foreseeable future, I am trying to eat a healthy lunch. With all this extra home time on our hands I am tempted to bake and snack! Lauren is our salad lover and she helped me prepare our salads for lunch on Friday.

March 21

Our friend JC mentioned on facebook that the arboretum was free for the weekend, so we did our morning chores and headed down south. It felt so good to get out in the wide open expanse, walk the trails and explore. There were a fair amount of people there, but not as busy as the free weekends we have gone to in the past. Since Lauren started gymnastics in January she has been cartwheeling all over the place. She cartwheels in our kitchen, family room and wherever she can fit one in. It made me happy to see her cartwheeling out in the open. After a week indoors with lots of ominous news, it felt great to be outside in the sunshine.

2020 :: week 11

March 8

Tony hosted a BYD at our house Sunday evening. He talked about the First Vision in preparation for General Conference next month. As usual it was a pleasant evening and the kids stayed and visited for awhile after the formal "lesson" time ended. Our kids love having the youth in our home.

March 9

The other day while I was driving home from the gym I had a craving for fried eggs and toast. I have never made that meal for myself, but have fond memories of my dad making "poke the tummy" eggs for me and my sisters when I was young. Even though it seems self explanatory, I still looked up how to cook eggs over easy online to make sure I did it right. I rounded it off with a grapefruit, which also makes me think of my dad because he taught me how to eat them around the same time. I enjoyed it so much I have made it several times recently.

March 10

Tuesday evening Anthony and I went to the Unity Temple to hear Erik Larson speak about his new book The Splendid and the Vile. We had such a great time! The book centers around the year 1942, Winston Churchill and the blitz. Larson is an entertaining speaker and I very much enjoyed his anecdotes. Anthony and I are both looking forward to reading the book. The independent book store Rainy Day Books holds author events throughout the year, and we were able to attend this event because we bought Erickson's latest the book from them.

March 11

I don't know if it is the time change or the season change, but I have been feeling extra motivation recently. I have gone on daily walks and made it to water aerobics three times in the past week. It has also helped having mutual every other week as Anthony is home slightly more in the evenings than before. Granted, this evening he had a meeting at 8pm, but it worked out well because I was able to get to the 6pm class and then he could go to his appointment later in the evening. While he was gone I got text alerts that the NBA was suspending its season due to the "Cornoa Virus" or COVID-19, after Rudy Gobert tested positive. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson also posted that they had tested positive while filming a movie in Australia. I had been hearing about it in the news since the start of the year, but it felt like all to sudden this thing that had been an ocean away was starting to hit close to home.

March 12

Thursday was a weird day. First the Big 12 cancelled their conference tournament, then I found out our church temporarily suspended all in-person church meetings. Later the NCAA cancelled their tournament too. No church or March Madness?! In the afternoon while Elliott was at school I went to Sams to stock up on yogurt and get ready for the upcoming spring break. It was a madhouse! Most pantry staples--flour, sugar, rice, canned beans, and pasta--were out of stock, along with toilet paper. Throughout the day I was messaging with friends and family members about what was going on in the world. My book club was slated to meet that night, and we decided to go forward with it, though a few girls chose to stay home. I am glad we met, not only because we discussed the book I selected (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) but because it was the last time I was able to get together in person with a group of friends for the foreseeable future. I chose to post this picture because Elliott's teacher posted this picture of his class on the Seesaw app that day. Hard to believe this would end up being his last day with his classmates and teachers.

March 13

Friday the 13th was the first day of Spring Break for the Johns. In the morning we  went to the library to stock up on library books. I watched my friend Tami's kids for her in the afternoon. Lauren and Elliott were excited to play with Arianna and Nash and I was excited to have Lauren and Elliott entertained. Originally we were going to trade and she was going to watch Lauren and Elliott next week, but as social distancing became the new standard that did not happen. Will helped me out by feeding Miles. Miles is such a great eater. I can't get over how happy this makes me feel. That evening we were supposed to go to a Fish Fry at the Catholic church in our neighborhood, but it was cancelled and so we got Chick-fil-A with my parents and the Wilsons instead.

March 14

Saturday was a weird day. The world felt chaotic. I went to the grocery store to stock up on a few things. I had head rumors of grocery stores being out of food, but where I went things were *mostly* normal. Toilet paper was the strange item people decided to stock up on, so there was hardly any of that, and then the usual pantry staples--bread, milk and eggs--were in short supply, but most everything else was there. I decided to go to the library and grab a few more books in case things continued to shut down. I was glad I did, because while I was there they made an announcement that the library would be closed until end of the month. That evening we decided to sauna. We needed to relax and that felt like the perfect way to do so. Unfortunately, we had a clogged drain and when we went to shower water started coming out of the drain in our storage area. We called Roto Rooter and they were able to clear up whatever blockage we had going on down there.

2020 :: week 10

March 1

Try as we might to keep things serious, our family devotional time often ends with some sort of wrestling, tickling or other physical altercation. The likelihood of this happening increases greatly when mom and dad want things to go as efficiently as possible. This Sunday evening we had friends over for dinner and were having so much fun we started putting the kids to bed a full hour after their usual bedtime. Of course the older three kids would wind up in a pile further slowing the bedtime process when I just want them to cooperate so they can get to sleep.

March 2

Each year the PTA buys one book for each student during the Spring Book Fair. Lauren picked hers up during library time Monday and after school she was reading it aloud to several of her friends. I'm often impressed with her ability to organize her friends into one cohesive activity. It was also the first day of Dr. Seuss spirit week, so many of the kids, Lauren included were wearing pajamas.

March 3

Miles loves watching the world from our front window. He pulls himself up and watches the big kids play with our neighbors in the front yard. He often yelps, and it seems like he is calling out to them. Since he started pulling himself up at the window I decided that I needed to do a good thorough cleaning of our windows and blinds. It was a great task to do while listening to Volume 2 of Saints, a books about the history of the LDS church from 1846-1893. During the last week of February and first week of March I listened to both volumes.

March 4

Wednesday is typically our busiest day of the week, and this Wednesday was no exception. We had to get up and get going a few minutes earlier than usual because it was crazy hair day and both kids needed a little help. Henleigh was sporting about then hair bows. Curran and Henleigh walk up to school with us most days now. That afternoon Will had his piano theory class and then the kids had activity days and Anthony had mutual. Lauren worked on a vision board, Will's group played basketball and Anthony hosted "Family Feud" with the youth.

March 5

Miles is one! And to celebrate we spent the evening watching Uncle Daniel’s team take on the Roos. It was an exciting game that didn’t end how we hoped (the Wolverines struggled to make their free throws!), but Anthony’s voice was hoarse the next morning, a sure sign of a good time. A fitting way to celebrate Miles’ first birthday. When your birthday is in March you kinda have to like basketball, right? After the game we drove to Daniel's hotel and visited with him for about an hour. Elliott is now a die hard fan of both the Roos and UVU and keeps asking me to look up photos of Kasey, the Roos mascot.

March 6

We are learning that Miles loves dogs. At the park after school several of the parents bring their dogs to play at the park. Miles is fascinated by them and is noticeably excited when one comes anywhere near him. Allison's puppy was giving Miles a lot of attention and he was loving it. He got a little confused when the dog licked his shoe, but was so excited when I got him out of his stroller and let him pet the dog's back. Our older kids are still a little nervous around dogs, so having a baby that likes animals is a new thing for us.

March 7

We have been having some very productive Saturdays lately. Anthony spent time cleaning the leaves that accumulated on the side of our house, as well as out of our flower beds (again!). I took everything out of the garage, throwing many things away in the process. Then I swept it clean before putting anything back. That evening we had a movie night at watched Frozen 2 and ate some delicious ice cream. I love productive Saturdays.