April 2020

I saw a meme that had Back to the Future characters on it and it said "Whatever you do Marty, do not go to the year 2020!" April was a blur of one same day running into the next sameness as we dealt with COVID restrictions. In some ways it was nice to not have so many places to go and things to do, less stress, and we had a lot more time together as a family, and thank Heavens Jared and my jobs were secure and we still had work to do. On the other hand we had an almost 19 year old trying to recover from a breakup, isolated in an apartment with no social activities, and furloughed from one of her jobs, a 17 year old going stir crazy and absolute sick of being in the same house all the time, but also trying like crazy not to expose herself to anything bc she works in an elderly care facility in an essential job as a CNA, and we have an almost 16 year old getting nowhere with driver's ed, not socializing or doing the sports he is so accustomed to, and whiling away the time on video games. We are opting to trust God and be still while the world recovers from this pandemic.

There were some highlights of April.

• We have actually really enjoyed having church at home with just our family. The flexibility on when and how long to do it has worked well for our teens. It is very joyful and spiritual to see Jared and Weston blessing and passing the sacrament, and we have had some of the best family gospel discussions we've ever had during our lesson time. 
• We also broke a couple quarantine rules and had some family over for Easter. It was so fun to get together with cute nieces and nephews and my parents and siblings to celebrate the resurrection and hunt for eggs. 
• Starting the marco polo app has been an amazingly fun way to connect with family and friends while we have been limited in our socializing time. I've seen more of my sisters than I usually do because of marco polo!
• Its been nice to not have to drive to work and I've been able to have more relaxing mornings taking time to exercise and spend time with Jared. (It was still too cold for me in April, but may is looking nice! When its cold all the time I very appreciate the warm.)
• We got away to the cabin for a couple days, to get out of the house, and took Trevan with us
• Sav, Fiora, and I took a hike one day up to the G and it was the first warm day of the year so it was glorious.
• Savanna improved our spare room and made a Jesus wall, it's so beautiful!
• Fiora passed her CNA certification tests! She is so smart and awesome and doing good in her CNA job.
• My parents and sisters spent a night at our Scera house while Fiora and I grandma sat. Jared and Weston took a nice bike ride while we were away. Sav came over that Saturday while I was at mom's and we took a fun walk to the park in Cedar Hills.
• Trying to spend more time outside--on the deck, setting up the tramp, walking the trail, chalk art, or sitting on the porch. God has blessed us even in the midst of a trial.

March 2020

Weirdest month ever. With the Corona Pandemic halting life as we know it, we've all done our best to adjust and keep pressing forward. I'm working full time from home now, Wes and Fiora are doing online school at home, Savanna moved back home so she isn't isolated alone in her apartment, also Joey broke up with her so she is trying to recover from that, we all are trying to recover from that. :(
We were still living in a mess at the beginning of the month, but soon our master bathroom and bedroom were finally finished hooray!!! They are so beautiful I feel so blessed to be isolated n a home with such a beautiful room, a wonderful bathtub, and lovely new carpet. There are some progression pictures as we were setting it up, the glass shower door is on now and everything, it is lovely.
Just in case you forgot what our bathroom used to look like, here are some before shots:

 Now for the AFTER shots!!!

New large window, vanity, tub installed

Glass shower door coming

detail of shower tile

closet with new paint and carpet

Weston helping set up the new bedframe

I love the ceiling and light fixtures

It's hard to tell in this lighting, but that wallpaper is forest green, so pretty

Decor and color added. That is a wall space heater under the towels.

Ta da! Love it. Look at that view, we had only a slit of a window before.

I made my sisters and mom come in and check it out.

Looks even better with beautiful people in it!

We spent quite a bit of time the first two weekends in march getting things back in order in our bedroom, bathrooms, and closet. And just in the nick of time too, I had to set up an office in my bedroom and start working from home due to the COVID social isolation orders. My home office is lovely too! Got all the pictures back on the wall and the desk back in, I get a little crazy being in the same room all day but it's pretty! I snapped a picture of myself in my new work environment. And I am posting the work picture FS headquarters took, they let me have a copy of it for all my web cam meeting profiles. It turned out pretty good.
Also I snapped a picture of the kids doing school from home. VERY strange for me to have kids at home doing online school, but it has its advantages. Thank goodness my work gave me a laptop so I could give mine to Fiora, Weston has the home computer so they can both do their work all day. Weston is keeping up on his workouts and school, getting all A's. He likes getting up a little later in the day I think and is good about doing his work without being asked. How are mom's with little kids doing it??

Even though March was one of the weirdest and hardest months of my life, the finished remodel was a blessing, and there was another very bright spot: my sisters and my mom got to have an overnight retreat at our mountain home to celebrate Heidi's upcoming baby. To have ALL my sisters together for more than a couple hours and play and work together-- *Holly's van slipped into the same snow back I slipped into last month and we all had to work hard to dig her out*-- what a heavenly blessing! Holly was inspired to put it all together and we ate great food thanks to her and played Mow for hours, and gave Heidi gifts and all shared lots of memories together.

Fiora has been going a little stir crazy being at home so much. She transitioned from a server at Spring Garden to a CNA right before the pandemic, so she had cut all her server shifts to do the course but due to CORONA her CNA class was cancelled for a while. She is doing it online now, but at first she went from going to school for 6 hours and then going to work for 4-5 hours to just being at home 24/7 and having no work. We went to Target and got these floating shelves to give her something to do and improve her living environment, that was a happy day. She has some shifts as a CNA now and its a job that can't stop just because of a virus pandemic, so she has job security hooray! Tender mercy that she got that job at Spring Gardens.

The stress of the pandemic wasn't the only hard thing about March. Savanna and I had to update her medical history/care for my insurance and amazingly Sav found a psychiatrist who could see her that week and helped her get appropriate medication and therapy for her OCD and anxiety issues, who also took my insurance. She had just picked up the meds and the NEXT DAY her boyfriend Joe who she has been with for a year decided to break up with her. !  She was completely blindsided, came home in the middle of the night, and couldn't sleep or eat for two days. Miracle that we happened to get her some meds that helped her get through it, and double miracle I was working from home so I could keep an eye on her and make sure she was doing things and never alone. The first day I helped her make cinnamon rolls. She has been such a trooper trying to get through the next minute this past week. We are all heart broken for her, it will be a while yet before she is healed from this one. She really loved Joe Jones. I see the tender mercy in the timing and I'm grateful the Lord is watching out for Sav.

 Also our dog got his spring haircut, he sheds this time of year and I don't like it.
I'm very grateful I have a good paying job that can still operate under the current circumstances, with some flexibility and benefits. I'm grateful for a supportive husband that made that possible. This last picture is a selfie I sent him at work. Jared is hanging in there in this economy still showing and selling homes, and takes time to ride the horse a lot. So last but not least, here is handsome Jared riding his handsome horse.