Update

The last six months have been crazy. Thankfully, we've been able to find things to keeps us busy. I will post photos later. 

First, we have seen many blessings in our lives. Thankfully, Brian has been able to keep working through this whole covid thing. We have been blessed with good health, we and our property were safe during the earthquakes, we have seen an abundance in our garden, and we have experienced other tender mercies regarding our family along the way.

We have also recently started homeschooling our kids. It has been a bit of a struggle, but it is getting better. We have decided to do the Language Arts and our science units through The Good and the Beautiful. For history, we are focusing on Utah history and going through the Utah Journey book. For math, we are using the books they would have used in school. 

Things are interesting when it comes to the weather. We had really hot days and then the weather turned into rain, which was a God send. The weather had been in the upper 90's to low 100's, but yesterday, we had "hurricane force" winds anywhere between 70-100 mph! I think in Tooele County, it was low 70mph. My dearest friend around Ogden had around 100mph winds and the weather dropped to the mid 50's. We also lost about half our pears on our tree but I look at it as God probably knew better than we did that they needed to be thinned out anyway. Thankfully, we were all safe and I thank God for that. 

We and our loved ones have been watched over and protected by the hand of God through all of this. Yesterday's wind confirmed that to me. I wasn't scared or frazzled by it, but was calm and knew it would pass without any major issues to us or our property. We are truly blessed. 

Life is definitely interesting these days, but we are thankful for all the protection and prosperity we have received.

Back to School 2020-2021

Brian and I have decided with everything going on to homeschool our kids this year. The main reason is because if the covid gets worse in the fall and winter and ends up closing things down again, our kids education will not be disrupted. We have found what I hope to be good curriculum. 

This year coming school year will be a bit of a challenge as I will be taking classes from BYU-I. For summer semester which just started, I am taking a Teachings of the Living Prophets class and in the fall I'm going to be taking Math for the Real World. I really hope I can balance everything. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous; I am terrified! I don't want to mess anything or anyone up. 

We are choosing to blend what our school district does with a little bit of The Good and the Beautiful and a little bit of Easy Peasy. For our math curriculum, we are using the school math books and just going off of that and supplementing with a program called Splash Learn for practicing their math skills. For our science, history and art curriculum, we will be using The Family School (aka American Heritage Academy). 

My plan is to work with Zach and Silas in the morning with language arts and math while Tali and Jairus work on their language arts and math independently. Then, in the afternoon, I will end the day with either history, science, or art. Or I may have to reverse the Family School to the morning and the independent later in the day so that once we're done with independent work, we can do other things and I can get started on homework sooner. 

Wish us all luck!

Late Night/Early Morning Reflections

Today, I woke up at around 12:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. This seems to be a recurring thing lately. I have been filled with anxiety due to everything that is going on, but mostly with regard to the likelihood of homeschooling our four children while trying to go to school myself. It feels at times like a monumental task. I am constantly second-guessing myself wondering if I can actually do this and how I will do it all. I have been incredibly worried that I may miss something critical to their education. I have felt overwhelmed yet excited to be able to teach my kids in the way that I feel is best. I think that venturing into this new part of my life will definitely require me to rely more on the guidance of the Holy Ghost and trust God that I am not messing up my children. After all, this is part of my sacred responsibility to teach my kids.

I have found myself wishing life was different, wishing life would go "back to normal", wishing my kids could go back to attending school like before and also wishing that I could attend the temple to receive the added strength and peace that I need. I have mostly felt sorry for myself instead of taking this opportunity to do family history or updating my journal. 

Looking back on the last couple of months, I realized how much time I had wasted by complaining about what I couldn't do anymore because of COVID-19. I have wasted so much time by continually focusing on my frustration rather than my blessings. I would see others around me exercising their agency to be with family and friends, which I desperately wanted, despite local government advice to "stay home and stay safe." I noticed i would become frustrated with many good people I knew because  they refused to social distance or wear masks while our family was "stuck at home" not socializing at all which only added to my frustration. I became confused about whether this all was politically driven or if I should continue to be cautious. I was focusing too much on those around me instead of my focus being heavenward.

This morning, I started reading some of my older posts from Facebook where I had shared talks from General Conference or scriptures that touched me and I felt as though those messages were being spoken to me again by the Spirit. I felt like I was being instructed and taught a valuable lesson. I had come across this video from President Nelson, Elder David A. Bednar, and Elder Ronald A. Rasband talking about the temple and giving a virtual tour of the Rome, Italy temple. While watching this video, I felt like I was walking the halls of the temple again. Just being able to see inside the temple brought me a sense of peace that I needed. I desperately miss being a part of temple services and walking the halls of the temple. A thought had occurred to me though. I wonder if perhaps the reason for this closure could possibly be so that we can have the time to do family research so that we can take more names to the temple. Perhaps this is a time for us to slow down and focus more on the gathering of Israel on the other side of the veil. I know I have not kept my focus where it should be. 

During this pandemic, I have had times where I would connect more with my kids without really realizing it and being grateful for it but instead, I focused on what I was missing. It has taken me many days and many sleepless nights and being up at 4:30 in the morning to realize this important lesson. I know I have not been showing as much gratitude as I should be. I am however grateful for the important lessons I have learned these past 4 hours. I'm grateful to be strengthened by past experiences that I haven't necessarily written down but had recorded on social media regarding the words of a living prophet and apostles as well as from the Book of Mormon. I'm grateful for my family's health and for the fact that my husband wasn't put out of a job during this time. I'm grateful we've been able to provide for our family's needs. I'm grateful for the use of technology and being able to still stay in contact with family and friends even if it isn't in person. Thanks be to God for this realization. Gratitude goes a long way. I know that as we count our blessings instead of focusing on what we lack, we will be much happier in life. When we choose to show more gratitude for blessings we've received, God will show us that he is in the details of our lives and we are not alone. 

Play Ball!

Before this whole COVID-19 thing happened, Brian and I had signed up all of the kids for Tee-Ball/Baseball/Softball. They had recently allowed kids to play so we are keeping pretty busy with that. It has been nice to be able to get out and see people again...with precautions of course. They seem to be having fun though. Tali scored her first run! It was fun to see her do so well! She was so excited!

The umpire made her tuck in her shirt. She wasn't real happy about that but at least it looked better. 

 She looks so cute in her softball stuff and her team actually got her favorite color for the shirts. It was supposed to be neon green. 

 This was from Zach's practice yesterday. He is improving from his first practice. I wasn't able to get Silas because Brian and I had to divide and conquer. Unfortunately, half of Zach and Silas's games conflict with Tali's so Brian takes one of the games/practices while I take the other and then we switch the next week.

And here is Jairus. Poor kid got smacked in the face with the ball but at least he was okay. Not even so much as a bruise. He seems to enjoy it. He's made some friends on his team and he also has a kid from his team last year on his team this year. So that's been fun.

First YW Girls Camp 2020

Yesterday, Tali began her first year of Girl's Camp. Her leaders decided to have a morning zoom devotional every morning at 9 am which has been so fabulous! 

Her leaders had dropped off a box for the girls to decorate and leave out on the porch every night. Then, every morning, the leaders would put activities to do in their box that day.

Yesterday the girls got to play some water games- water balloon volleyball and kickball- at the church pavilion. She had a blast!

They also got to participate in "cake wars" where the girls were given a boxed cake mix, some frosting and a glittery gel to decorate with. Tali had received a strawberry cake mix and vanilla pudding. What she decided to do was strawberry lemonade cupcakes. She made the strawberry cupcakes like normal and then we got some lemons and zested them into the frosting and size the lemon juice in it along with a little lemon extract and used powdered sugar to thicken it. She then quartered strawberries and put them on top and sprinkled more lemon zest on the frosting that we piped on the cupcake. This is how they turned out. They were super yummy! We wanted to share them with our friend, Leora since we missed her birthday. 

Today, she received a plain white pillowcase to decorate with two colored fabric markers-orange and green and also stuff to make smores. 

She even shared her marshmallows with me!

This is how her pillowcase turned out. I think she did a pretty fabulous job!

She also got to go canoeing with the girls at the lake. They had to wear masks, but they really didn't mind. She absolutely loved it and now, just like me, she wants some canoes.

I'm so glad she is enjoying herself. Especially with not being able to do the normal type of camp. Tonight, I decided to have the kids sleep downstairs in the tent (because the weather is crazy weird and can't decide if it wants to be spring or summer). It is really too cold to let them sleep outside, so we will be setting up the tent in the basement and letting the kids roast marshmallows and possibly Starburst candies in order to make it feel a little more like girls camp. 

Tali & one of her best friends

She absolutely LOVED canoeing! I think a canoe purchase may be in our not so distant future.

This was Tali's wonderful gift from her secret sister. I thought her secret sister, Holly did a fantastic job on this. That young woman is so incredibly talented! 

My daughter is turning into a pretty great young woman.