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.