Seminary on Zoom

When life outside the home was basically cancelled, seminary was obviously included in that. I was devastated! The direction given to seminary teachers was to have students do the online work and to hold a zoom class once or twice a week. So, the first week I did that and it was okay. But some time during the second week I received the strongest impression to hold a daily zoom seminary class for those who would like to attend with the mandatory class still meeting on Friday. I threw it out there to the kids and there were several of them that were very interested. So every day we met at 11:00 and it was wonderful. It was much harder than in a classroom but I had a core group that was always there and it was such a great connection to have during such a difficult time. I even had some of the 8th graders, my future class members, start to attend with their older siblings. I tried to make it fun, like the time I told everyone to come to class in disguise the day we read about Abinadi coming among the people in disguise.

I loved how they fully embraced the challenge, with some of them even changing the name on their computer! Jack and Grace,

Sydney, Chloe, and Sidney,

the Dalling twins, Molly, and Evan.

On May 4th we dressed up as Star Wars characters. I loved Molly's Princess Leia hair and was extremely impressed with Emily's Darth Maul makeup!!

Grace as Lando Calrissian was hilarious and of course Evan was sporting the trendy Chewbacca mask.

Some Cinco de Mayo fun...

crazy hair day...

and spirit wear.

So grateful for the technology that kept us connected! What a blessing!!

Keepin' Busy During Covid

No hair salons open means no hair cuts or hair colors. Ugh, especially for me and my grays. Noah's was an easy solution - David just buzzed him!

Games and more games!

A little bit of class work...

and lots and lots of work hours for Savannah! And look who got employee of the month!!!

Savannah's senior sign arrived!

I can't post the videos but the kids have been doing a lot of dancing and we even made a lip sync to two Nacho Libre songs to get tamales from the Eck family. They call it Lip Synco Day Mayo, ha ha! Savannah was amazing as Nacho. Although we've tried to stay positive life is so different right now. Here are just some of the new "normals" in our lives: 

 -so many people have been laid off or furloughed as our economy has taken a nose dive and companies are unable to pay for non-essential services 

 -on April 18th a mask mandate went into effect for Maryland 

 -everyone must social distance meaning staying 6 feet apart at all times; there is even tape on the floors at grocery stores to help enforce this as well as to tell us which direction to go down an aisle 

 -non-essential stores and businesses were mandated to close so nothing is open except for grocery stores and other stores deemed essential, like Walmart and Costco 

 -there's also a limited number of people allowed inside the stores, therefore there are long lines of people outside waiting to be allowed in 

 -restaurants and fast food places no longer offer dining in but are providing drive through or carry out, thank goodness 

 -no plans to return to school, Savannah's prom was cancelled, Noah's Hershey Park band trip as well

 -distance learning is in place but it's pretty much a joke

 -the kids are not earning grades this quarter but will receive pass or fail based on work turned in 

 -parks and trails are closed 

 -zoom church and seminary 

 -all sports cancelled including March Madness and all professional games

 -concerts, tours, festivals, and entertainment events are cancelled including our tickets for Miss Saigon in May - boo!!

 -panic buying has set in for many and strangely enough toilet paper is one of the hardest things to find! Also, disinfecting supplies, paper goods, and hand sanitizer

 -store shelves have been bare; many times we can't get chicken or fruits and vegetables

 -the government closed the borders for all non-essential travel and David isn't going anywhere for work 

I could go on and on. Basically we're just trying to find ways to stay busy and stay sane. So many people are so scared so no one wants to get together and do anything, even if it's just to walk outside. It's just such a crazy time right now.

Noah's Officially a Teenager

It's hard to believe that our youngest is finally a teenager!!! Happy 13th birthday to our silly, outrageous, sometimes crass, witty, creative, artistic Noah! Oh, how he keeps life entertaining! Unfortunately there was nothing fun and exciting to do since the world is in lockdown but we attempted to make it a special birthday.

An awesome movie for my twin history lover. He loves the hero in this movie, Dick Best, and told me that he wanted to name one of his sons after him. I thought that was so cool until he told me why - it's so he can yell, "Come here, Dick!" And that's our Noah.

Due to Covid several of the gifts I had ordered were late. So he would have additional gifts to open, I wrapped pudding boxes and taped a label of the gift it represented to the box. I don't think Noah appreciated my creativity.

But he did seem pleased with the gifts that had actually arrived on time.

Of course he got straight to work builing!

Easter 2020

President Trump had announced that he would like to get our country's businesses opened back up by Easter but that didn't happen so...here we are, decorating Easter eggs on Friday night. Still in lockdown. At least it was something to do!

Not quite sure what he's looking at.

Xander's cool half and half egg!

The eggs are lookin' good!!

We caught a glimpse of the Easter Bunny!

The kids still enjoy getting Easter baskets and gifts.

And amazingly enough they were still down with doing an Easter egg hunt!

The hunt even extended to the upstairs this year.

When Covid restrictions shut down every fun thing in your life, you're willing to do whatever it takes to have some fun!!