Corona Quarantine -- Week 4

April 6-12, 2020

Tom and Eryn decided to get married on April 6^th. They figured the sooner the better since any gatherings are being discouraged and things are shutting down even more. It was hard to see their dream wedding turned into something so rushed and small. Since no temples are open, that was out of the question. They called the Bishop, and he agreed to marry them, but limited the entire gathering to 7 people (including the bride and groom). Eryn’s family lives in Massachusetts, and they have been on lockdown for several weeks, so they couldn’t come. Tom’s mom and sister were there, and Hannah was there to take pictures for them. That was it.

They held the wedding ceremony in my parent’s front yard. Mom and Dad watched it from the porch since they are still on their 2-week quarantine. For everyone else, they recorded the video on Facebook Live. It was very simple, but also very sweet. The only decoration was an arch that was decorated with some fabric, but it looked beautiful on the camera. 

The Bishop spoke briefly about how they were part of a long line of faithful Saints who were unable to get married in the temple due to circumstances beyond their control. He acknowledged their desire to be sealed together forever and encouraged them to follow the guidance found in the Proclamation to the World on the Family. It was short and tender, and just like that, they were married. We look forward to the day in the not too distant future (hopefully) when we can go celebrate their sealing and throw them the biggest end-of-corona party we can muster.

I know that their wedding is just one of so many that was cancelled, delayed, or changed, but it is sad when it is someone you know and love. I have felt a lot of sorrow for all the things that so many people are missing out on because of this pandemic. High school and college seniors won’t get to attend prom or graduation this year, weddings have been postponed, and trips have been cancelled.

Our own much-anticipated trip to Australia will now no longer happen. We are sad, but there is very little we can do. The passport offices are completely shut down, countries have closed their borders, and airline flights to anywhere are being discouraged. Even if the borders do open up before June when we are supposed to leave, the costs now will be astronomical. Since Mom and Dad are back in the States, it will be extremely expensive to find a place to stay and rent a car, and the main purpose for going is no longer there. We are working with the airlines to get our tickets refunded, but so far, we do not qualify. Things are changing every day though, so hopefully, everything will work out.

This week was originally supposed to be Spring Break for our kids. The district decided to continue with Spring Break, even though the entire state was under a “Stay at Home” directive. I was frustrated with this because there was nothing to do. We usually go do fun things or go on a trip, but this week was just more of the same for us. When asked why they did it, they said the teachers requested it. I understand how hard this must be on the teachers to try to adjust all of their lesson plans, so I put on a happy face, and we tried our best to enjoy it.

The first part of the week was super productive. Each day we chose a big spring cleaning job to do and tackled it. I cleaned all the closets in the entire house, we deep-cleaned the bedrooms, and installed new knobs on the kitchen cabinets. I also finally convinced Jonathon that we should repaint our house. He has always hated the brown color on our walls, but he also hates painting, so the two were constantly in conflict. I came up with the idea to just do some of the bedrooms by ourselves and then hire out the main areas of the house that were extra challenging. That caught his interest, and after a few days, he actually got kind of excited about it.

We decided that we would also let each of the kids choose a color to paint an accent wall in their bedrooms. I was surprised at how excited they got at this suggestion. Hyrum chose blue, Andrew chose red, and Christian chose a greenish-blue. It will take many weeks before we get all the rooms done, but hopefully, it will happen someday. For the main color, we knew we needed to keep it in the warm brown range because everything in our house fits that… carpets, tile, cabinets, countertops, etc. We decided we just wanted to go with a lighter, more neutral color. After several trips to Lowe’s and painting several different paint samples on our walls, we still can’t decide. Ugh! We once tried to paint a bathroom gray and it looked purple, so we are a bit skittish now. Maybe next week we will finally make a decision.

Having lots of projects helped me get through the week, but Andrew seemed to get more and more melancholy as the week went on. He missed his friends, he was tired of being cooped up, and every little thing was starting to bother him. I knew he was getting depressed, and Jonathon and I were worried about him. We decided that maybe another visit with the cousins would help.

We called Kym and Joe and asked if they would be up for a visit. They were excited about the idea, and we headed down to Price for the weekend. We went out into the desert by their house and built a fire and cooked hot dogs and s’mores. While the adults chatted, the kids explored the surrounding area and then Joe and Jonathon took the kids on a hike. Andrew found a deer spine that he wanted to keep, but there was no way that thing was going home with us, so I took a picture instead. It was amazing how much happier everyone was after just a few hours of being together. 

 For the rest of the day, we played games and enjoyed being away from our house. Since it was Easter weekend, we decided to do a massive Easter egg hunt. Kym and I supplied the eggs and candy, and Joe and Jonathon hid them. Each child had their own color, so they hid them according to their age. We told them to make sure the older kids would have to work for their eggs. Joe and Kym have a little farmyard area behind their lawn, so it was an epic hunt that lasted almost 45 minutes. They loved it!

The next morning, we again did home church together and had another spiritual feast. It was Easter, so we focused on the Resurrection. Joe again did the Sacrament with Christian helping, and Kym taught an awesome lesson. I know that this new format is so hard for many families and not everyone enjoys it, but my kids have flourished with the shorter meeting, the focused lessons, and the increase in participation for everyone. It has been a huge blessing for us. These are sacred days never to be forgotten.

Since I am currently a co-Primary Music Leader, I have felt a real need to keep in touch with the children in our ward and provide whatever assistance I can. Our Primary President suggested that we could make some videos of us doing a music lesson like we would in church. I decided to give it a shot. It was a lot of work, but it was so fulfilling to be able to do them and have such a good response from some of the families in the ward. I know that many families do not watch them, but even if it is a help for only one or two, it is worth my efforts. This week I finished and posted my third video. On Sunday morning, I also post a link to them on my family’s WhatsApp page to be helpful to my siblings and their kids. They have been so kind about them. They give them rave reviews and send me videos of their kids watching them each week. It warms my heart to be able to help out my own nieces and nephews, and hopefully some of the kids in our Primary as well.

Sundays make up for the hard days the rest of the week. Tomorrow we will be starting school again. We will have to get back in the groove. Here's to another week of quarantine...

Easter Sunday 2020