The first week of “quarantine” has been crazy! It has been full of new situations, changes to our normal routine, and a fair bit of stress. Schools, businesses, churches, and gatherings of more than 10 people have been nixed by the governor. These things are not illegal as of now, but highly discouraged.
Our first week of home church was actually really wonderful. Joe and Kym’s family was down visiting us when the “limit gatherings” order was issued, so we let them stay like planned. Our Bishop had not yet authorized us to perform the Sacrament in our home, but Joe’s had, so we let him bless the Sacrament for all of us. We found our best white tablecloth and set up our own Sacrament table. The kids were so reverent, and the Spirit was strong. As I looked at all of us sitting in our living room, worshipping together, I was overcome again with gratitude for the new program that fit so perfectly with home church, for the blessing of having the priesthood in our home, and for the chance to worship in any situation.
Everyone participated in our home church. Jonathon conducted the meeting, Joe blessed the Sacrament, Christian passed the Sacrament, Andrew read a scripture, Hyrum chose a song, Kym did the weekly Come Follow Me lesson, and I did a Primary Singing Time for the kids. Our hour of worship was incredibly powerful, and I hope my kids will remember the experience.
On Monday morning, the kids were home, but the schools had not yet figured out how to transition to online homeschool, so they had a free day. They were pretty excited to get a brief vacation from schoolwork. We went for a walk down the river trail. McKay got to stay with us for a few extra days, so they had fun exploring. We found a big nest of baby snakes that they thought were really awesome.
When we heard news of the shut-down, I immediately determined to go to the grocery store on Monday and pick up some items to get us through the next few weeks. I had heard rumors that some supplies were being hoarded and were completely out of stock including: hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, and toilet paper. We had quite a few supplies at home, but I figured I would pick up an extra package of those things to get us through. When I arrived at the store, it was packed! People were scooping supplies off the shelves, and there was literally no toilet paper, wipes, canned food, hand sanitizer, flour, rice, milk and on and on and on.
Suddenly, I became a bit panicked. I knew that our family would be fine because we have plenty of food storage, but the sight of an empty grocery store was nerve-wracking. I have no idea how long this will last, and my heart began racing a little. I picked up a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables to go with our canned food at home and left. I was so thankful that we had lots of food saved and 400 pounds of beef in the freezer. That was a huge blessing!
On Wednesday, I got up and got in the shower. Suddenly, everything started shaking. I thought maybe I was just getting dizzy, but when I steadied myself, I realized that I wasn’t moving, the earth was moving. I quickly got out and got dressed. I yelled for Jonathon and asked if we had just had an earthquake. He felt it too and so did all the boys. It was a 5.7 centered in Magna, UT. We had never been in an earthquake before, and combined with everything else that was going on, it felt very overwhelming. There wasn’t a whole lot of damage around the valley, but the angel Moroni on the Salt Lake temple lost his trumpet. Thoughts of the Second Coming immediately entered my mind. I don’t think it will happen right away, but the signs of the times are definitely starting to increase. I just have to remember and teach my children that “if we are prepared, we need not fear.”
Also on Wednesday, the schools finally came up with a plan to help get the kids through the next two weeks. We picked up a packet of work for the kids, got them signed up for online programs like Zoom Conferencing, Google classroom, and Canvas. It was tricky to figure it all out and get organized to do everything from home. The kids and I struggled those first few days. We didn’t have enough computers to go around, the Internet was running super slowly, and I was spread so thin because the kids were constantly asking for help. We were definitely frazzled.
When Jonathon got home on Friday night, I told him that we really needed to upgrade our Internet and get another computer so that we could do the things we needed to. The school district allowed us to check out 2 Chromebooks for student use, and Jonathon contacted google to get faster Internet. That should help us with our schooling next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment