April Wrap Up

A few other things from April.

The boys hiding:

Austin doing his Upstart.

Building giant towers.

We got a little pool for the kids for outside since there will be a lot more stay at home time this summer.

(Lydia with her boat that she made)

New Smart watches.

Caleb.

Lots of playing Sharks and Minnows.

Shantel and I took a genetic test to help confirm Lucy's genetic test results.

Austin's hair got so long (and then he finally got a hair cut). We secretly loved it so much.

Building using craft supplies.

Basement Update - April

In April we finally made another big push to finish the basement (without help from my Dad and Bruce due to the coronavirus).

Installing the light fixtures. 

Mapping out where the storage shelves will go. 

We also worked on a few non basement projects that have been on our list for a long time. 

New kitchen light fixture.

We got rid of the entertainment center and mounted the TV. 

Finished the basement shelves. 

We let the kids play on them 1 time and them told them that was the only time. 

Here is where the rest of the basement was:

We were finally able to move all the storage from Lucy's room to the storage room and it is so nice. 

Last thing: New shelves for in the garage. 

Shantel also got bids for carpet and we are so close to being done!

insta-april

{4.14.20}

This is Birdie Amelia Graham McKinnon. My Great-great-great Grandmother. My aunt and then my Dad sent this photo saying that they could see me in her. I can see it, too. (I wish I had a dress that I could try to recreate this photo with.) She lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and although I don't know anything about how it affected her, I do know that she was active in the Church and in her community throughout her life and that she saw her own share of difficult things. I like to think that her faith and her service helped her in her life and I take comfort that the same might be said about me. #familyhistory

{4.14.20}

Caleb wanted some soy sauce with his ham fried rice for lunch. He took advantage of the fact that I was on the phone with my mom to pour himself "enough". 🤣

{4.21.20}

Lydia's was reading a book in the living room the other day. I heard her get our letterboard down and a few minutes later she came in presenting this. 😂😭😂 I'll be honest and say that the impact that Covid-19 has had on us has been mostly inconvenience. We are innumerably blessed and privileged that we aren't affected more severely. As a homeschooling mom, I go back and forth between 1) hoping that everyone will get a glimpse into the amazing, abundant life that can come with a slowed down schedule and a homeschooling lifestyle and 2) feeling incredibly frustrated/defensive because THIS isn't a true homeschooling lifestyle! Being in this forced-distant, self-isolated, practically- quarantined period of life is tough for everyone. We had to stop gymnastics and horseback riding lessons. We are missing our weekly trips to the library and other museum/learning trips. We desperately miss our Tuesdays spent with my in-laws. We are doing Skype piano lessons, distance speech therapy, and NO playdates (unless you count talking from over the fence at 6ft away). We are going without some food staples because I'm only ordering the things we can get on grocery pickup and things are in short supply. (We aren't going hungry, it's just different enough to notice the lack of oatmeal and familiar items.) No more babysitting swap date nights or temple afternoons. I'm worried about taking my kids for hikes because everyone seems to be flocking to the mountains and so we are missing our spring hikes while everyone is usually still in school. Everything is at arm's length and that's HARD. There are blessings for sure. We've been healthy, happy, and had more game nights (via Zoom) than we ever had before. Friday night pizza-and-a-movie has been a huge hit. And David working from home has been the best thing for our busy season (at least for me and the kids!) If there was anyone I had to be quarantined with, these are the people I would choose for sure. But I wanted to document some of the things we've been feeling and missing. Praying for this to end soon, because summer is around the corner and it's only going to get harder to stay inside. Covid-19..We think you're lame.

{4.25.20}

Yesterday we went on a special "service trash pickup" walk on the little dirt path behind our house. We gathered FOUR bags full of garbage and to be honest we only picked up a fraction of what was there. The last time we went on the path, Lydia noticed all of the garbage and when we got to the end of the path there is a little ditch (stream) that is disgustingly full of trash. She asked if we could bring bags to clean it up and planned to build a cardboard raft to access it all. I didn't allow the raft 😂 but she tromped through a huge area of pampas grass to get to a space that she could reach. Once when she was muddy and had just gotten a scratch she firmly reminded herself "I'm doing it for the sea otters!" I'm so proud of her. We read lots of books about animals, pollution, and environmental responsibility. It makes me so happy to see those values starting to show through into action and concern for the world around her. Austin prefers not to touch other peoples garbage🤷‍♀️ and so he was in charge of taking care of Lucy in the stroller, which he did admirably. Caleb helped us pick up trash, and even though I was standing RIGHT by him he ended up jumping into the ditch with his rain boots like it was a big puddle. I'm so glad it wasn't any deeper, although it did come up to his knees. 😳 😂We all came home and showered and then Lydia pulled out some money she has been saving to buy a pet and asked if she could donate it to sea otter conservation. So we did.

{4.25.20}

We had a great Saturday, full of working and playing. But all of my pictures are of this lovely girl right here. She's SO sweet right now. Crawling. Smiling. Laughing. 😍😍😍 Her first bike ride (pulled behind my new bike 🙌🙌🙌) and her deep enjoyment of breakfast were two highlights of her own day.

{4.26.20}

"This plant came from a seed. It started out small, but with good soil and water and air it grew up. Our testimonies are like seeds. We have to plant them and then feed them so they can grow. We have to give them the things that they need and we have to weed them. I know that Jesus is real because I pray and I have read almost the whole Book of Mormon (61%)." Lydia's talk at our at-home-church made me cry today. It's taken us a while to get the hang of church at home, but today was a balm to my "not sure I love church at home" heart. Plus, we talked about hearts and used vinegar on baking soda hearts and everyone loved it and that was a win, too.

{4.30.20}

I not-so-secretly love Austins hair 😂😍👨‍🔬 Unless it's plied with heavy hair gel right out of the tub, It stands on end like a mad scientist. I just keep thinking that if it grows out it will lay flatter. But the longer it grows, the straighter it sticks. A summer haircut was due, and he's so happy. And I'm happy to say I love his short hair just as much. (I probably should hashtag this with "quarantinehaircut" but I always cut my kids hair, and David's, too.)

Church at Home - April

We have continued to have church at Home in April. We've had some good lessons/days and some that were a little harder. However, we have loved having the opportunity to partake of the sacrament during these perilous times. Even more fulfilling is seeing our children's testimonies grow. Shantel does an amazing job of nurturing and teaching and helping our children draw closer to the Savior.

This is from one sweet lesson from Lydia who taught about how we can have faith like a see and how it will grow.

This was a fun activity that Shantel did with the kids where they were able to melt "hard hearts" and find treasures inside. 

Pandemic Update April 19

Here is the update on the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is starting to be discussion about opening the economy in a slow phased approach. In Utah they are targeting the end of April/beginning of May. Although, if that timing will work and what exactly will open is up for debate. As noted below, case counts have continued to climb, however, as a whole the spread has been significantly slowed by social distancing efforts.

As far as us, there have not been a lot of happenings. I continue to work from home. Friday nights are pizza and a movie night. We did Toy Story 4 a few days ago and Up the week before that.

I made another Sam's club trip (Caleb is below helping carry in the bananas).

One day I came downstairs and found that Lydia had put together this sign, which sums up how she feels about COVID-19. 

My work has been doing daily quizzes about the partners and managers to stay connected and I won and we got $15 for a family dinner. We went and got food at Arby's and then drove to Walmart (and Target) to surprise the kids and get a little plastic swimming pool for outside. It is hard to see, but Walmart is now limiting the number of people that can be in the store at one time, so they had tape and carts set up for when they needed people to line up.

We have done quite a few game nights over video and that has been so fun. We did Code Names and Consensus with my family. Then we have done Dungeon and Dragons, Risk and Geoguessr with Shantel's family. Last night we played Secret Hitler with the Wards, Perkins and Rossels. It has been super fun.

That is all for the update this week.