March was a crazy month! Well, at first March wasn't crazy at all. We celebrated Brennan's birthday, went on an amazing trip to St George, celebrated Graham turning four, and then pretty much the world shut down! Well not really, but a global pandemic was announced for Covid-19 and in a matter of a week everything started being cancelled and closed and life as we knew it changed overnight. I've wanted to record this whole experience because one day I know we'll look back on it and want to remember just how unique it is to live during this time. So here's my brief summary of how the coronavirus affected everything!
I never thought I'd see the day when all sports and school and church and even cities were shut down. It started with the Jazz cancelling a game because Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with the Coronavirus. He was the first NBA player to have it which is kinda crazy. Over the next couple of days all of the other sports and concerts and any function that gathered a large group was suspended. Then a couple days later, schools and universities were closed. Actually on Graham's birthday, we got the news that kids would not be going back to River Rock for a few weeks. So online school began the following week. Online school has been hard some days - trying to teach my kids and get them motivated to learn from a computer is no easy task. And something that was new to all of us. And other days the kids do just fine and don't seem to mind it. Their teachers have been AMAZING to quickly put all the material online and help encourage them from a far. Nate was also told to start working from home. He gathered his work stuff and set up shop here at home. It's been unique having all 6 of us here 24/7. It's fun sometimes that we have so much family time but other times it's hard that we don't have any privacy or sense of our normalcy!
I never thought I'd see the day when all sports and school and church and even cities were shut down. It started with the Jazz cancelling a game because Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with the Coronavirus. He was the first NBA player to have it which is kinda crazy. Over the next couple of days all of the other sports and concerts and any function that gathered a large group was suspended. Then a couple days later, schools and universities were closed. Actually on Graham's birthday, we got the news that kids would not be going back to River Rock for a few weeks. So online school began the following week. Online school has been hard some days - trying to teach my kids and get them motivated to learn from a computer is no easy task. And something that was new to all of us. And other days the kids do just fine and don't seem to mind it. Their teachers have been AMAZING to quickly put all the material online and help encourage them from a far. Nate was also told to start working from home. He gathered his work stuff and set up shop here at home. It's been unique having all 6 of us here 24/7. It's fun sometimes that we have so much family time but other times it's hard that we don't have any privacy or sense of our normalcy!
Other things that happened because of Coronavirus: Parks were roped off and Governor Herbert gave Utahns a "Stay Home, Stay Safe" soft order. Churches cancelled all meetings and we started doing our own sacrament meetings. It's neat that Aiden and Nate can administer the sacrament to us. But the kids are missing their activities and we are missing our cute Primary class. All "non-essential" stores have been closed. Resturants have also closed dining inside options so everything is just take out now. The economy has tanked so fast and that has been scary for so many. The economy has effected more people than the actual virus so some people are frustrated the government has shut everything down to keep us safe because it comes at the expense of people's jobs and security. Missionaries from all over the world have been sent home. And all temples have been closed. That has been so sad to see. We had two nephews and a niece come home early from their missions - Joe, Jordan, and Megan. And our nephew Jaxson is engaged but because all temples are closed they will be forced to have a civil ceremony and get sealed in the temple later on. There is a lot of uncertainty in the air. Our prophet held a special fast to help the world recover from this and it was neat to be able to call on the powers of heaven to help us all. The whole world is united to fight this virus and we're hopeful things will return to normal soon.
We mainly just stay home and I venture out to buy "essentials" once a week. I try to avoid Costco as much as possible because they limit the number of people in store and everyone has to stay 6 feet apart. We've gone on a lot of walks and bike rides to get outside. We've played lots of games and had some fun moments as a family. We love good weather days so we can enjoy some sunshine. Utah hasn't been hit too hard by it all luckily but some places are not as lucky - like New York and Italy and some major cities around the world. So that's how to world changed in a nutshell. And I wanted to write this all down to remember what a whirlwind of a month it was!
Here are some pics before corona:
Graham and I met up with some friends for lunch and he was loving my drink :) I love having him as my sidekick and miss all of our one-on-one time together.
We met up with my mom and Rayane to walk at the rec center and have the kids do the climbing wall.
My mom and I got free tickets to see Strictly Ballroom at the Hale and it was such a cute show and the dancing was amazing! It was my first time to the Hale Center in Sandy and it was really fun to spend a night away just the two of us.
Graham had a preschool field trip to the fire station and loved his new hat :)
We had an amazing time in St George but when we got back things started to get serious about the coronavirus and grocery stores went crazy. In a matter of days stores were out of essentials because people were stocking up for what they thought was the apocalypse. Toilet paper, flour, milk, soap, hand sanitizer, and bottled water were the first to go. I went to Macey's one day to just buy regular food and the line wrapped around the store and people had carts of canned goods and pasta and "essentials" they were hoarding. It was the craziest thing to witness madness at the stores.
Someone spilled pasta all over the floor and everyone kept walking right through it making a huge mess.
We had a great weekend celebrating Graham and Brennan (like I previously posted about) and then everything went even more crazy and coronavirus took over all conversation and all news outlets and the whole world!
Here are pics after quarantine began:
We had our first at home church service and it may not have been the most reverent church meeting but it was pretty neat. The little kids loved leading the music and Brennan acted like he was the bishop up on the stand and kept pretending to fall asleep :)
Our barstool was the pulpit :)
At the beginning of all of the craziness, our friends and family were passing around the funniest memes of all that was going on. With everything closing down, it was either laugh or cry. Here are some of our favorites:
Even when the weather was a little chilly or windy, we made sure to go on lots of walks. I love living close to the Jr High track and the Jordan River trail. It's nice to have a lot of open space.
Callie took my phone and took some pictures of herself. I think she's fake crying but that's how we felt those first few days of quarantine with everything changing.
One of Aiden's goals for the youth program is to learn to cook and one night he made us lasagna all by himself and it was delicious!
Since we were home all the time, sometimes we just needed to get out of the house so we went for drives. We headed west past Eagle Mountain one day and another day we drove up to Tibble Fork.
We also played LOTS of card games. Graham especially loves games - Play Nine and 3 UP 3 DOWN are his favorites. He begs to play all the time so sometimes it gets tricky trying to help the kids with school when he just wants to play games but we play as much as we can!
How online school looks:
Sweet treats from neighbors lifted our spirits too.
With so many small businesses closing and the economy tanking, we are told to "support small businesses" and Nate wants to do that often at Crumbl or Zapplez :) I won't complain!
A neighbor is having a paint class every Wednesday online so we've participated in some of those are they are really fun. We may not be the most artistic family but it's nice to have a little project to work on.
Brennan didn't want to paint an owl so he painted a BYU/Jazz sign instead. No surprise :)
Finished product:
We've done lots of Zoom meetings and Google Meets with family and friends. It helps us feel somewhat connected which is nice.
Callie and I had a "spa" day. So fun having Callie love girly-girl stuff.
Nate helped me finish prepping our square foot garden and I planted my first few veggies - carrots, beets, onions, and lettuce.
Another sacrament meeting at home:
We've also loved having more time to bake.
Callie started Zoom meetings for dance. Her teachers are trying their best to help her learn dances online but Callies missed going to class.
And that sums up our crazy month!
No comments:
Post a Comment