A lot of crazy stuff has been going on in the world. The corona virus, or Covid-19, started in China and has been making its way to the United States over the last couple of months. It finally hit Utah a couple of weeks ago, and within a week, the Church had announced that there would be no more Sunday church services, temples are closed except for live ordinances, General Conference will not allow people to come and watch it live, missionaries are being sent home and no activities or gatherings are supposed to happen. The government cancelled school for all ages. We are supposed to practice "social distancing" which means that we kind of quarantine ourselves unless something is absolutely necessary. Because we had been watching what was happening in China and around the world, I had ramped up our food storage, in anticipation of this, so we are good that way. All schooling has gone to online, and we started that a few days ago. The first day of online classes, we woke up at 7:15 A.M. to the house shaking--we were having a 5.7 magnitude earthquake! Sure. Why not?! I'm sure the timing was actually a blessing. Most businesses had started a work from home policy, and the kids were not heading to school, so there were less people out and about than usual. It woke everyone up in our house, except for Grant, who wasn't very happy to have missed it. But, we had a pretty big aftershock an hour later, which he felt, and that appeased him. We actually had aftershocks all throughout the rest of the day, but we could only feel a couple of them really well. Gramma Lana's house got it much worse than us-she was closer to the epicenter and lives in a mobile home and felt it more than we did. Dustin spent a good chunk of the day helping her clean up plants that had tipped over and things that had fallen off the walls and cabinets. It was a little hard to focus on online school after that excitement, which was not a great way to start our week, but we've tried to catch up in the few days after. We continue to have aftershocks and for the first couple of days I felt like I was feeling them, even when I wasn't. My brain was playing tricks on me!
Before all of this craziness started, we had planned a trip down to Cedar to see Monica and James and family, who were coming in to town for their Spring Break. Dustin had been in St. George all week for a work conference, so the kids and I left for Cedar Thursday after school, and he met us there that evening. Monica's family got there about an hour before we did. The kids were very excited to see each other. We had so much fun staying up late, laughing, talking, playing games and playing in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.
We took the kids to the Cedar City Temple to do baptisms for the dead for the last time for a while. I'm so glad we had one more chance before the temples closed!
While we took the older kids to the temple, Lynnette and Grandpa took the other kids 4 wheeler sledding (mostly in the mud). If their fun was measured by the amount of mud on their bodies, then they must have had a blast! The older kids were jealous of the mud sledding, so Grandpa took them after we got home. He is a very kind man.
The next day was Saturday, and we spent it hiking in Snow Canyon. The red rocks, exercise and warmer(ish) weather were theraputic. We played in caves and in the sand and hiked all around. It was lovely.
Coming up out of the cave entrance.
There are pioneer names written up there in axel grease. I stayed down to take pictures and to ensure that we wouldn't need to call a helicopter rescue that day (for myself-because I would have gotten stuck and not made it down).
And to take pretty pictures of green and red scenery. Southern Utah is such a beautiful place!
After much hiking we headed to the dunes to play. Much joy and entertainment was brought to us by trying to get the best in air picture as we jumped off of the sand dunes.
So. Much. Laughing. We had a great time!
We had one breach of quarantine conduct when we stopped at Arctic Circle and got the kids dinner on the way home. As you can see, we filled up one side of the restaurant, so we were still plenty far apart from other customers.
Ryan and Grandpa gave us a clarinet concert, which was wonderful!
And then we came home, to a very lonely house and school work, which wasn't super fun for our kids, but we are slowly getting into a new routine. Oh, and the earthquake. We would have been sad to have missed the earthquake. And since the economy is potentially going to tank, we decided to buy a new car! Dustin now has an electric car (we affectionately call it the bubble) to commute in, although he might not be commuting for the next couple of months as we try to eradicate this virus from our society. I swear we are living in a science fiction book!
We stopped by Wal-Mart for milk and bread and this is what we were met with. Very few people were in the store with us, and there were very few groceries to be had.
However, we somehow managed to fill up our grocery cart and then our little bubble of a car.
So now some thoughts on the current state of our world and family:
This is definitely a strange time! I was very relieved when the schools finally announced that they were closing. That last week of preschool was a little unnerving, watching those 3 and 4 year olds put markers, crayons and toys in their mouths, cough on everyone and everything around them, shower my face with spit as they talked to me up close, etc. Just by chance, March is when we learn about Healthy Bodies, so we had many discussions on how to stop the spread of germs, but I knew that if one child got it, they would all be getting it. Even with the relief though, I miss them and feel pretty uncertain about what will happen for the rest of the school year. I follow the school district, so I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks, but I will be surprised if they let the kids go back to school before the end of April. Church was cancelled a couple of days earlier, and when this was announced, again, I felt relief, this time that our prophet has prepared us for this scenario. We have been studying from Come Follow Me, as a family for over a year now and the emphasis has changed to a home study, church supported curriculum and so this feels very normal for us. We've had plenty of time to practice having "church" at home! We miss the interaction and connection with our neighbors and ward family and so we are getting creative with how to connect with friends. Maren is my most social child and she seems to be missing it the most. It has been an adjustment for sure! But, occasionally we visit with neighbors outside as we work in our own yards, and when we are out on walks. We have lots of facetime on the phones and overall, the kids have done a great job playing together and staying positive. It is an unprecedented time! I keep telling my kids that they should be writing about this in their journals!
I have really felt that Heavenly Father is very aware of His children right now and loves us! When I have moments of feeling overwhelmed with the uncertainty of it all, I am trying to rely on the strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That brings peace and confidence that we can do this!
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