Quarantine Life

Two weeks in and we are still on lockdown. They have decided to "soft close" schools, gyms, churchs, everything until May 1, 2020. Utah seems to be doing a lot better than most states of staying home and our curve has flattened. It still doesn't feel hopeful- like this could go on for a while.

It has been REALLY nice (not going to lie) having a break from my calling. It's kind of like I don't have one. With such a large primary, we are limited on how we can connect with ALL the kids. Some primaries are doing Zoom meetings- with over 175 kids, that would never work for us. We posted a little message as a presidency on FB and have a treasure box on my porch with a conference bingo game. Sundays have been SO much smoother and less focused on my job and more about the Savior. Home church has been so so good. I have really enjoyed Mark passing the sacrament and having the kids more actively participate in our home "sacrament" program. I love that Kingston even said, "Mom, I love home church".

Quarantine Primary Presidency- loves these ladies. 

 Quarantine Tisha strikes again- reading hut. I HATE messes (obviously) so this was hard but the kids played in there for most of the day so, it stayed. The kids are making adjustments almost daily of what works for them and where they need a little more help. Mc got busted, thanks to an email from her teacher, that says she hasn't done any Math since 3/17- guess who gets to do 2 Math lessons a day over spring break? She also was spending way too much time chatting with her friends- chat has been turned off until further notice. We are just surviving. We made it through ALL the Harry Potter movies- we would eat dinner, get showered/jammies and then watch a movie. It was so nice to have everyone in the same place not running all over creation.

Reading Hut

Mc has taken up sewing little felt animals. 

Quarantine haircuts. Thankful Mark has clippers or these boys would look homeless.  

Baby Yoda

Mark has a pretty good "honey do" list- these shelves were free (we already had the wood from the basement) and took him no time at all. Finishes the basement nicely. "Top Notch"

COVID19- week one

We had been hearing rumblings for a few weeks of this Coronavirus in China. It was a virus. People were dying yes, but it didn't seem too threatening. Afterall, we had lived through SARs, swine flu and H1N1 without any disruption. It felt like it was really far away and something we would never have to deal with directly. That all came crashing down when NYC basically exploded with the virus. Hospitals were overloaded, so many were dying and it was spreading like wildfire. The kids went to school on Friday and by Monday, schools were shut down for at least two weeks, libraries, sports, movie theaters, gyms, and dine eat restaurants were eliminated. We were now on quarantine. It was issued as a P A N D E M I C.

People started hoarding toilet paper of all things. Luckily, I had just bought a large case from Target and found a random Amazon deal so we were good. Grocery stores were cleaned out of everything. I ended up going at 5 AM just to get bread and milk for the week and it was still full of people. Everyone seemed on edge. We were all worried about what that meant for jobs, leaving our homes and how it would affect the kids. Lots of states are on a "stay at home" order meaning that only "essential" employees are out. We weren't allowed to gather with more than 10 people and now, they are encouraging "social distancing"- 6 feet away from ANYONE that you don't live with.

I have never wanted to homeschool my kids- but here we are. We had two ramp up days before the teachers had to issue assignments and we could pick up laptops from the elementary.  By Wednesday, we were up and running and the kids adjusted pretty well.

Homeschool day one

Quarantine Tisha has been the best- she lets her kids do LOTS of things regular Tisha won't. First time EVER making salt dough. Don't they look happy!?!?

 Just when we thought the curve ball had come and gone, we woke up at 7 AM the day after St Patrick's day with a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocking the Wasatch Front. I had a restless night anyway and was kind of in/out of wakefulness. I was surprised how quickly I was up/dressed/rushing the kids downstairs. It was scary and loud and we have all been on edge ever since. There have been TONS of aftershocks too which isn't fun for anyone.

Earthquake day Namaste

 We survived a whole week of our new "normal". The kids chatted with friends, we watched live Zoo animal videos, did Kids Art Hub and fell into a routine that seems to work for now.