Sunday we had church in the morning and sacrament meeting with mom and Joey in the afternoon. I wanted to get a picture of Andre. Doesn't he look good in the beard? This may be the longest beard he has ever had.
Our ward had a fireside Sunday night to hear from 4 missionaries who came home. Tanner was the one who asked the questions.
We all watched the fireside on our own devices.
Monday we washed Grandma's windows. And when I say "we", I mean Tanner washed the windows.
We got to talk to Jaxon on Tuesday. It was transfer week and we talk to him of Tuesdays on transfer week. His companion was transferred! They were only together for 4 weeks (transfers are usually 6 weeks) but missions are really kind of messed up right now with so many changes in the world. Jaxon looks good and seems good. Too bad it is so hard to find people to teach.
Tuesday we helped Joanna get her classroom cleaned up. Her kids all went home on a Friday not knowing that they would not come back to their classroom. So we had to clean out their desks and and get them ready to give to the kids and clean off the desks really well.
Someone got behind on their schoolwork so they have been working really hard to catch up.
Alex made a video for his theater class. It was a tennis themed skit. So then we played tennis.
I told Chase he could hit the ball if it came to him. He could not run after it.
We played a marble game. It is kind of like keep-a-way or like at the end of croquet when someone is poison.
It was kind of fun.
We also played a board game called Agricola. It is a good game.
The boys all had their young men activities this day. Alex's quorum played fortnite. Alex had not played before. He does not really like fortnite but he had fun with his friends online. Chase and the deacons all took pictures of things really close up ad then they all tried to guess what it was. And they did 2 truths and a lie. It is fun to have some contact with the kids in the neighborhood. Tanner got together with some of his friends in the neighborhood. They were playing games at a park. Then they were playing a- run through the neighborhood in the dark trying not to be seen-game. That is a pretty good social distancing type game. They all tried to call in for the priest quorum video call.
I had a video call with my brothers and sisters and that was exciting to see everyone. It was just a practice for Joanna so she could practice doing it with her first graders. I want to do it again when we have more time to chat.
Then the next day we heard that my nephew Parker got engaged! So that was exciting! It is such a weird time. All the temples are closed. So we will see what happens with that!
Alex chose brownies with ice cream on top for his birthday treat.
The birthday gathering:
Alex needed to see his friends. Things are starting to open up and and we will need to be around people eventually. Also Alex needed to have a normal day in the middle of this disappointing few months. So we did a lot of social distancing things. Everything was done outside- less germs. We got food from Panda Express.
They played board games
They played Bocce and Croquet.
I took sneaky pictures through the windows.
It was just nice to see his friends.
This boy is 14 years old! That is so old.
Alex loves pasta so he choose to get food from a restaurant called "Noodles". It was really good. He had been really upset to have his birthday during this quarantine, but I think it turned out to be a good day.
Saturday we cleaned out the garage for a good part of the day. There was yard work and other stuff like that. That night we played some board games.
Jill called me in the afternoon asking about a treat that she had had once- maybe at my Grandma Young's house. We discussed it and I found a recipe called Mousse Balls. We still don't know if my grandma made these or if we had them somewhere else. I had the ingredients so I made them. They are good!
Sunday we had our church again. The boys are really good at writing talks. I really felt the spirit at our church. I hope the boys remember this time with good feelings. I love it. But it is weird. I do love seeing other people at church. It is also amazing that they all slept in to 9:30. Chase is usually up at 7:15 every day to get on a computer. But with them not going to school, they are all going to bed later so sleeping in is more normal.
We went on a walk and it is the perfect weather. I think it was a high of about 75 today. Why does it have to get hotter than this? This would be perfect! Alex got a hammock for his birthday and Chase borrowed Tanner's. They were reading and relaxing.
We had the sacrament with grandma and Joey. Then we had dinner and went on a walk/enjoy being outside at daybreak lake.
This is me. No one ever takes pictures of me.
Chase has been listening to the Harry Potter books. He has been building cool Lego creations. Look at this amazing street scene. (I think Tanner built the fire engine)
Joey came over for game night again. We love that!No pictures of that. In fact I am taking less pictures of a lot of things.
Monday Jaxon called and that is always fun. We had FHE. We did a preview of all of the traveling of people in the book of Mosiah. We made yummy chocolate pepermint bark. and played one night werewolf.
Andre at his home office
Tuesday we had school, I weeded a lot, Andre worked. Then the boys had young mens activity and I went to my moms. I have also been going through my recipes and organizing them. I am waiting for my pictures to come from Costco. I think they are lost. They are about 2 weeks late so scrap-booking is on hold for now.
Wednesday we had regular school stuff and I weeded the yard forever. It was nice except that the back of my legs got sunburned. That was not fun. The weather is nice. It was about 84 degrees and that is the hottest it got. So I enjoyed that. I also finished listening to all the Harry Potter books. I think I started them the beginning of April. I listen while weeding, scrap booking or whenever I am by myself.
That night we all worked in the yard. We need to re-paint out deck so we are scraping paint off. We are also cleaning up and still working on flower beds and trimming bushes and getting rid of dandy lions in the grass.
Here is a before picture and an after picture. And no, it is not an after picture. This is a continuous project since grass will not stop growing in the garden beds.
"Before" pictures.
After pictures
There were probably 30 strawberry plants growing on the edge of our paths. So I moved them into the more empty strawberry patch. Hopefully we will have a lot of strawberries this year. Nothing else grows there. The garden beds get watered and have a lot of good rich soil, so all the roots from the trees have just invaded. If I plant veggies, they grow great until about June. Then they just stop growing. I did this for years and gave up. The strawberries grow there so that is what is planted. I do need to figure out what to plant in the garden near the fence. I typically have flowers there. I have some weird self seeding plants that have furry leaves and get really tall flowers. So those come back every year.
I am also working on the weeding in the side yard. That is always a mess. Why do I have so many flower beds. I just need to pour cement in them. That will stop weeds.
Thursday is today. I worked hard on Chase's award banner. Each my my 3 older boys earned their eagle award. They have a lot of patches and pins and had award ceremonies. Chase has a different program and I want him to have something similar. So I have purchased tie pins and they will be his awards. I made a banner which isn't completely finished but I have to figure out what I want it to hang from. He earned his Faith in God award and this was his first pin. Faith is God is in the "old" program and he is one of the last kids to earn it. I wanted to recognize him because the primary kind of forgot about it and never recognized him. It is a Liahona. It stands for "Faith in God" will show Chase the way to go. He will set goals and earn pins in the four areas while he is 12 and 13. I think I will have him do a big service project to mimic an eagle project. He will continue setting goals but this award system is taking the place of scouting in my mind and my other boys finished their merit badges at 14.
We watched a flyover of some jet airplanes that flew from Hill Air Force base to St. George to Logan to Hill Air Force base in 2 hours. We could barely see them but they were loud for a long time.
That is the end of April. March seemed like it was 100 days long.
April was not so bad, but it has been long too.
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