Coronavirus

The US started to freak out in earnest about the Coronavirus shortly after we got home from our Miami trip. Grocery stores ran out of toilet paper and many other staples because people panicked and started hoarding as a global pandemic became a reality. The toilet paper thing was an issue for us because we had a household of 10 people, mostly girls. Luckily, we were able to snag some bulk toilet paper before it got too bad. We also sent Aaron and Stephen out for a Walmart run right as they opened one Saturday morning, and they were able to bulk up on lots of staples. It is surreal going to grocery stores and seeing empty shelves and people walking around with face masks. 

By mid March, all Arizona schools were shut down. Originally the shut down was only for 2 weeks, but it ended up being extended through the end of the school year. All parks, pools, restaurants, non-essential retail, and fun places have been shut down, and everyone has been instructed to stay at home as much as possible. I was very glad to have a full house- I'm a very extroverted person, so having a house full of people made it easier to give up volleyball, playgroup, and all the many social gatherings that I took for granted.

The Church shut down meeting houses and even temples all around the world. It is so miraculous to me that this happened a year after the church implemented the new 2 hour church block that put an emphasis on home centered, church supported gospel learning. We already had the basic idea down, and it has been really awesome to see how we can have church with just our own little family. We are blessed to have the priesthood in our home. The sacrament water has been served in bottle lids and medicine cups, and the kids are pleased with how big the bread pieces are. Our lovely primary chorister does a half hour music time via live video on Facebook, and then we have an opening song and prayer. Then we have the sacrament followed by the lesson for the week which is aimed at the kids. Then we all review our goals from last week and set new ones for the coming week, then end with another song and prayer. It is short and sweet, and I feel like the kids get a lot out of it. 

We soon settled into a new weekday schedule. Brianna and Eowyn did their school work up in their bedroom in the morning because they got too distracted downstairs. I would take the little kids on a walk to this nearby grassy area in the morning to get them out of the way for an hour or so. The schools did this free lunch program where you could drive up and get a free lunch for all kids age 1-18, so Claudia loaded up the van and took the kids to pick them up every day. After lunch was nap/quiet time while I would sneak away and work for an hour or two. The kids ran wild inside and outside in the afternoon, and occasionally we would take the whole gang on a walk/scooter ride (which almost always ended with at least one kid screaming). We subscribed to Disney+ on the day that they announced the school shutdown, so we also got to watch a lot of Disney movies.

One day I took the older kids out for "desert school." Bree had been freaked out because there have been lots of javelina sightings lately, and she had a nightmare where a javelina ate Ethan. I was hoping that teaching them about desert plants and animals would help her not be afraid. I don't know how well it worked, but I sure had fun!

A friend from the ward organized a "bear hunt" where people could leave teddy bears in their front yards for a day. The kids got to walk around for a few blocks seeing how many bears they could spot.

Enjoying their quiet time together

My nice friend heard that Elliot was having me make up homework for him so that he could be cool like his cousins. She kindly donated her kindergartner's optional math worksheets to him.

Our biggest outing since the stay at home order came out was a morning trip to Madera Canyon. The secret waterfall had more water than we have ever seen, but it was way too cold to get in it.

Stephen didn't want Choco to get wet so he carried him across the stream. Choco's wolfish ancestors would probably howl in shame for the pampered pooch

Hands down the best part of having Stephen's family as quarantine buddies was the daily dance parties. Ethan could only speak a handful of words, but he had a few songs that he would ask for by doing specific dance moves. He usually asked to dance to "Monster Moves" or "I Like to Move It" before he went to bed each night and a few more times during the day. I loved these family dance parties so much.


It was super interesting getting Coronavirus updates from Claudia's family members in Spain and Peru. Both countries had much stricter lock down policies than we do in the US, and her family members were constantly telling her that we needed to not leave the house without face masks and to bleach our groceries when we brought them into the house (which we did end up doing). We could still go on walks around the neighborhood, but in Spain and Peru people could get arrested for leaving their houses except to get food once a week.

Aaron is lucky enough to have a job that he is able to do from home. We had to move our home office up to the master bedroom so that he could have a door to lock out the kids, but the transition has worked out great. We love that he gets to eat lunch with us. He will take little breaks throughout the day to chase the kids around and throw them on the bed. Rooms with locks on them became a hot commodity with Aaron and the girls always needing rooms where they can focus without the little kids barging in on them, and a few times I needed to work in the mornings when all the hooligans were awake as well. This led to some creative arrangements.

I was going to just sit on the floor, but Aaron rigged me up this cardboard box desk complete with the iPad as a second screen!

Sadly, Stephen got laid off from his new job at the beginning of the shutdown. He's not the only one we know who lost their job with this crazy worldwide event. He applied to several jobs in the area, but unemployment and uncertainty were at an all time high, and it seemed like no one was hiring. After a week or so, Elizabeth and Kade said they had some work for Stephen up at their house in Nevada. Three months after they got settled in, they loaded up their minivan and made the 14 hour trek to Paradise Valley. Our only consolation for them leaving is that they have to come back at some point because all of their stuff is still here. It has definitely been an adjustment having them gone!

I forced everyone to take this quarantine picture the night before they left

With the fun cousins gone, I had to start actually spending effort figuring out how to entertain my kids. 

I stole this "mission impossible hallway" idea from a friend. Annie's skirt knocked over most of it right away.

Dyeing Easter eggs. All of Annie's turned out green.

My lovely ministering sister dropped off a bag of kid entertainment including balloons

YouTube instructed me on how to turn them into swords (easy) and dogs (not so easy)

"hey girl, want a carrot?"

Our big project as of late was to turn our downstairs office into a 5th bedroom. It became apparent that we could use more space with Stephen and Claudia's family living with us, but even before that there have been times we would have used an extra bed for visitors. The major obstacle was that there was a big entry way to the room with no door. We eventually found a handyman that was willing to come install french doors during the coronavirus lockdown, but it took several weeks for the doors to arrive at Lowes. The morning that the handyman was supposed to come, he called to tell us that he just broke his finger and wouldn't be able to do the job anymore. Luckily we got a great recommendation from our brother-in-law Michael for this guy who ended up being awesome and charged half as much. Elliot and Annie both LOVED him because he let them watch and hand him pencils and whatnot. They pretty much hung out with him all weekend. Aaron decided to do all the painting over the newly installed drywall and doors which ended up being an aggravating project for him, but I am super pleased with how we turned this into a much more functional space!