General Conference during Coronavirus and Chalk Art

General Conference weekend was something we all were looking forward to; I look forward to it every six months, but this time in particular with what's been going on in the world with coronavirus. They broadcast general conference from a smaller room in the conference center and no one was allowed to attend except those who were speaking and filming. The first presidency's chairs were positioned 6 feet apart from one another. They used choir pre-recordings for the musical numbers. 

 Because it was the 200th anniversary from the time Joseph Smith had the first vision, there were many talks on that sacred event.

I loved Joy D. Jones' talk (she's the primary president), and the video clip she included with an encounter of President Nelson with some young children. They asked him if it was hard to be a prophet and he said yes, that everything we do to be more like Christ is hard, but that the Lord loves effort and effort brings rewards.

I also loved Neil A. Andersen's talk on learning to recognize and record our spiritually defining memories and moments.

I loved Douglas Holmes talk on relationships and his messages about the youth. There were so many good talks, I'll definitely go back and read them through again.

 We won't be losing these remotes again! Glad we got them mounted to cardboard as we seem to lose them weekly.

 A couple of random selfies I found on my phone...I actually found many, many more than this.

 Sunday morning we all did a Hosannah shout led by our prophet. He also asked us to all join together for a Fast that coming Friday, Good Friday, just before Easter for relief from the effects of coronavirus.

The girls made a tent both days, as per usual.

 Before Conference I brought the girls in my YW class a goals sheet to fill out after they'd listened to conference. I told them if they took a picture and sent it back to me, all filled out, I'd bring them a little treat. I brought them a blow pop and a couple of mini Twix along with this message:

 My kids have been doing sidewalk chalk a couple of times a week as a creative way to kill time during coronavirus season when they can't be with friends. I love seeing their drawings.

KSL news internet safety, Drawing, Onward the movie

It was my sister Becca's birthday recently. Nora and Annabelle drew her a special picture. I loved this picture Nora came up with on her own of toilet paper and a water bottle and a note that says, "get some toilet paper and water." (because of coronavirus)

Annabelle asked Becca who her favorite Disney Princess was. Can you guess from the picture below? It's Mulan.

I am not a news watcher. Not at all. Perhaps it's because when I was little, the only thing my elderly dad watched (and which he often asked us to sit and watch with him) was Judge Judy, Cops, or the News. I had my fill. And so it seems fitting that our family was on KSL news recently :). We have a friend who has a connection in KSL and they were wanting to do a segment on family quarantine-life and technology/internet safety (mostly it was internet safety) and our friend knew I used zoom for young women's and things and asked if we'd be willing to help out.

They had me send them pictures and video clips of my kids studying online. 

I was amazed that they pulled the segment together in one day and aired it that night. All the kids were on it minus Charles who did not want to be on the news.

We have assigned each child a day to help with dinner. The oldest two can make it all on their own; they just tell me what they're making ahead of time so I can do the grocery shopping. Annabelle can mostly do dinner on her own as well, but I'm always nearby to help. I cook along side the youngest two, but they get to pick what we're making. It's a pretty nice setup.

Annabelle is our baker and often likes to make a batch of cookies on the weekend. Since we've been quarantined and stores are often low or completely out of stock of flour and sugar, I've asked her to not do this quite so frequently, which she's respecting. I think she's only made cookies once or twice since we've been in quarantine and it's been 6 weeks now.

During the week we're not watching movies, though the kids can watch an episode of a show or play video games from 4-5pm if they got all their school/piano/exercise done. On the weekends we'll often watch a movie together, sometimes we'll rent from Amazon Prime Video or sometimes we'll pick something on Disney Plus or from our own library. This particular week we were excited to watch Onward which was just newly released onto Disney Plus. We made sure to watch all the credits until we found my cousin Jack's name. He's one of the artists for Pixar so we do this whenever we watch one of their movies.

Mother Teresa's letter to Richard Jones

Yesterday while watching the Don't Miss This YouTube Channel, David Butler read a letter from Mother Teresa to a man named Richard Jones. She wrote it in response to his asking for her autograph(she had won the Nobel Peace Prize by now; this was written near the end of her life). I loved her letter so much I listened to it again and recorded it here:

"Dear Richard Jones,
Thank you for your letter. More important than autograph is what we do for Jesus, and through Him for others. Look around and see. There are so many in the world who are lonely, unwanted, who have no one to call their own, maybe in your own home. It is easy to love the people far away. It's easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and the pain of someone unloved in your own home. Be the sunshine of God's love to your own, for this is where our love for each other must start. Let us pray. God bless you,

(Even though it's typed with a typewriter, she signed it)

Coronavirus Silver Lining and Nora's Pre-Baptism photos

We're finding that because of quarantine, we're saving a lot of money on gas, and our mud room is staying cleaner than ever...mostly because it's not really being used. No one needs shoes and they mostly just keep their backpacks hung up and grab what they need. 

Because I'm not going to the grocery store as often, just once a week, we're also incorporating some food storage that's been collecting dust for 15 years...like these freeze dried strawberries. They are great in oatmeal! 

We've been doing more coloring and drawing. We have a particular coloring book I love that has all sorts of uplifting phrases like 'create your own sunshine.'

Since we taught the kids to play solitaire, at least once or twice a week in the evening, we'll play a not so friendly game of Nerts. We're a little competitive. It's usually just Annabelle, Elisabeth, me and Scott.

We'll sometimes pay our kids to read specific books. In this case, we bribed Charles to read the YA adaptation of Unbroken. It took him a couple of weeks but he did it! 

Nora sometimes joins me in the gym when I exercise. She's working really hard, standing on the trampoline, watching a show and eating string cheese.

March 28- Nora is turning 8 soon, and although she'll most likely have to wait awhile to be baptized because of Coronavirus, we decided to prepare now and take pictures of her in her white baptism dress in front of the temple. 

I love how the temple is reflecting on the wet sidewalk.

Celebrating Jane's birthday during Coronavirus pandemic

I loved this meme! Hilarious! 

Jane turned 10-years-old on Thursday March 26th. Because everything was closed and we couldn't have friends over (effects of coronavirus), we decided to decorate the house a little more than usual and I prepped the kids and reminded them her birthday was coming up early on in the week in case they wanted to make or buy something for her.

Annabelle created a scavenger hunt for Jane which lead to her gifts.

Jane asked for Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. We had the delivered to the house at 730am.

Her primary teachers sent her a card in the mail with some stickers and a bookmark which made her happy.

Jane was in charge of the menu for the day. For lunch she wanted Ham and Cheese Sliders.

As you wish...

We're still doing piano lessons, but virtually and her lessons happen to be on Thursdays.

Family from NC did a group video call and sang Happy Birthday.

For dinner we had little caesar's pizza with breadsticks and then for dessert she wanted an icecream cake.

Stacey stopped by with a special gift. A nickel board and some cash...just what she wanted!

Jane also got some cash from Grandma and Grandpa  Smith...she's rich!

Her Aunt Pepa 'Amazoned' (I just made up a new word...it's a verb meaning shipped from amazon) her some gel pens and an adult coloring book.  Even though we're in quarantine she still had a great birthday!