Quarantine Sunday

Today we had permission from the Stake President to administer the Sacrament in our homes for the first time in these 2 weeks of Social Distancing.  It was sweet to have P and G administer and pass the sacrament.  I'm so grateful for all the ways we are blessed in this time.   Our ward had a Zoom testimony meeting and there were 40 devices connected, many with 2-8 people represented.  It was an amazing gathering. 

We were asked to fast today for the Covid-19 pandemic.  I got food poisoning last night so I wasn't able to fast after all.  The family did though and I'm grateful for that.


The kids had macaroni and cheese from a can of food storage someone gave us last year.  I added butter, hot dogs and american cheese to liven it up.  It was pretty old.  But I'm grateful for it.

Week at home

We social distanced during Spring Break.  This week we stayed home.   I went out for groceries alone on Tuesday.  Tonight I took the kids to take a nature hike.  It was the first time they'd ridden in the car for a week.  We are incredibly fortunate that P works from home, I'm not employed, we stocked up in addition to other preparations last month.  We live in a beautiful large home with large lot and porch.  We all made it to the end of 2 weeks without obvious symptoms.  G, B and L had headache and fever on Sunday/Monday.  But I'm very grateful for the privilege we have to stay home.

2020 Spring Break

This was an interesting Spring Break.  As the need to social distance became more and more real, we carried on separated and still had a positive week.  It was pretty full of wonderful and active things.  Ft. Matanzas, before it closed, bike ride, kayaking, online museums, one trip to the beach, 2 picnics on the back porch, a cookout, computer turns, kids doing school work, and buying a new car.

We'd been planning to buy a car for a few months, shopping and deciding what car fit our budget, and finding the best available option.  Yesterday we had the money together and today we went and bought it.  We like to do these impulse buys in slow motion.  We make sure the kids know how that works.  You plan it out, save up the money, then you go and do it.  Yay!

Because we spent last week on a whole family schedule, M and G planned out the schedule and menu for today while they were home alone for 6 hours.  It's moments like that, when they are acting on principles I have modeled, that make me really hopeful for them.  I'm grateful for the marriage and home life that we can model for our children.  We pray they will be able to have joyful families of their own someday.

seaworld passes

P takes the little boys to Seaworld with his teacher pass and their pre-school passes.  He takes awesome pictures of it.  He wanted to take them on this past Saturday but I asked him not to, so he didn't.  But look how cute they have  been.  I'm glad he takes so many pictures of these sweet times they have together.

Mala Compra

 My friend SM has been telling me about this place for a while and we finally went.  I loved it.  About half of the trail was under trees, with gravel and winding paths. 

 

 This was a great family outing and I'm grateful for all the work P does to silently bring it all together.  This is a strange and difficult time of isolation and I feel so blessed to have this wonderful family and this beautiful place to explore. 

scheduling

 lP really responds to a written schedule.  It brings her so much happiness to know what is coming up and to do what is written down.  She helped me come up with the first 7 days plan for this social distancing period of our lives.

I created this list (1st draft) so the kids could have input into what we do on future days.  I think we could eventually have them choose their own activities for individual time.  They always try to sneak back onto the computer and fight about it.  So for now, we're doing everything together so we have less conflict.

stampeed - corona virus - hand sanitizer

There is a world wide struggle currently over the corona virus 19.  I write this more for posterity's sake.  I have a few thoughts about what's going on locally and generally.  P advised me to buy a months worth of food 2 weeks ago.  We stocked up on paper products that we were running low on.  I tried to buy more of the things we usually eat.  It became hard to think of things to buy since we already had plenty and I usually keep the fridge not very full.  So the surplus clogged my ability to see need.  In the last 2 weeks I've tried to keep getting our usual items and ignore the surplus, but like I said, it's hard to realize what we need.  It's even harder to not eat it all up!  Oh tater tots!

Around the time I was stocking up on everything our family could use for a few weeks, others were stockpiling hand sanitizer and face masks so they could make a profit selling them online.  Then we started to hear that nobody could buy these things.  This was an artificial shortage created by greedy people trying to profit off the misfortune of others. 

So we have what we need and we're keeping to ourselves.  Church and school are canceled until further notice.  General Conference will be just the General Authorities and the Choir.  Even that seems risky to me.  But at least it is not the crowds of people all together for so long.

I'm very grateful that aunt L recently shared Netflix with us.  That will be wonderful since we'll be home and not gong to the library or other activities that usually fill our days. 

So what good are we going to do?  Homeschool, practice cursive, do more art, learn more songs etc...  This is unprecedented and I hope our health care system does not get overwhelmed. 

I don't like it that people are panicking.  Social media allows people to be filmed and the contagion of fear to shared and amplified.  Was panic necessary to motivate people to social distance.  I see on social media a lot of people trying to convince others to take this seriously and limit their contact to slow the spread of the sickness.  The spread is inevitable but if it is not slowed our health care system will be overwhelmed.  And I see other people that don't believe the reports and are more worried about the impact on business. 

So we'll do what we can to slow the spread, and accept that it will spread.

Family time

Yesterday afternoon I had a debilitating nap as my brain decided it was finally safe to shut down after the stress of the fundraiser.  Today P talked in Sacrament meeting then had a similar crash.  Our brains take up a lot of energy! 

I played so many games with the kids today!  Feed the Kitty, Labyrinth, Global Pursuit, Pandemic and Dixit.  We even wanted to play Apples to Apples but ran out of time.

The kids wanted me to play Pandemic but I don't like learning new games.  So they all took good care of me and helped me along.  It is a very cooperative game and I'm glad I played it.  They were really so good during this game, using great tone and offering helpful strategy to one another.

Early Cheetos and behavior modification

I am not a prompt person.  I always underestimate the time it will take to get in the car and the time it will take to drive to places. 

A few months ago I got a pack of gum and let the children share a piece of gum when we arrived early for things like church or picking someone up.  But the gum is gone and last week I was late for most everything.

Last week we also put a lot of effort into running a fundraiser for girls camp.  Also last week, I made a dress (!) and exercized 3 times, held 190 and shopped obsessively for a van.

I mentioned in passing to M that I might do better at arriving early if the reward was something I could even eat, like Cheetos. 

P loves me so much that he ordered a gigantic box of Cheetos immediately.  He really values being early-on-time.  He also believes in the power of his team mate, me, to have dramatic behavior modification.  He's seen me do amazing things.  So here's to early cheetos.   Huzah!

Navy Band and Publix field trip

 Grandma got us tickets to go see the Navy band perform.  It was a wonderful concert.

 We sat in the balcony and got to see all the action.

 I took the 3 peas to a field trip at Publix.  They showed the kids every department and fed them at most departments.  Then they let them run the scanners.

Miss Shirley put on a fantastic tour.  We'll definitely make sure to send positive feedback!