26 April 2020

A few kids in our neighborhood painted rocks with encouraging messages and left them on the sidewalk outside their house.

This is the rock I took.

Helen drew a fun picture on our patio.

Gibson has had a persistent cough and has been short of breath.  Tests are now readily available in our area, so Brandan took him to be tested for the corona virus.  The waiting room for the urgent care is each individual's car.  This is a photo of Gibson waiting in the car for his turn to be tested.  Fortunately, his test was negative.  Overall, the rate of infection in our area is low.

This is what our house looks like a lot these days, with Abe, Helen and Gibson each watching shows on their own devices.

Happily, our kids have been riding their bikes for hours every day.  Abe rode 26 miles on Thursday.  It's a safe and easy way to meet up with friends and still stay 6 feet apart.  In the photo are Abe, Abigail, Alena, Aunika and Gibson.  They're waiting for Helen to join them.

 Brandan took Friday afternoon off of work and we went hiking in the Jacksonville woodlands.

We hiked the Rich Gulch trail, a reference to Jacksonville's history of gold mining days.  During the gold rush in the 1880s, miners stripped the hills bare in their search for gold.  The woodlands have grown back since the gold rush ended.

 In this photo, we're standing on top of a "glory hole," a relic of more recent mining history.  During the Great Depression, men would dig holes 20-30 feet deep, looking for enough gold to buy a tank of gas or a bag of groceries.  This hole was originally 80 feet deep before the previous landowner filled it in with dirt and a 1950 GMC pickup truck.  The BLM put an iron gate over the hole to preserve the history and keep hikers and animals from falling in.

The Jacksonville woodlands are famous for being home to a rare wildflower called Gentner's fritillary.

 We've worked in the yard more than usual, including taking out a very ugly shrub.

 Abe and Gibson dug up the roots.

 Here's the root ball. It was surprisingly small for such a large shrub.

 Abe let Helen and Abigail give him a haircut.  It took them about an hour and half and was quite good for their first haircut.  If this quarantine lasts long enough, they'll become pros.

19 April 2020

Last Sunday for our "Come Follow Me" study we read from Mosiah 2:17, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." We gave ourselves a challenge to do acts of service as a family every day this week.  The current corona virus restrictions gave us some new opportunities.  For example, our local library is closed, but our neighborhood has 3 little libraries located in a park and along a walkway.  Anyone can take a book or leave a book.  We sorted through our own books for kids and teenagers and left several at one of the little libraries.  Brandan and Gibson straightened all of the books so the library looked tidier.   

We made a few corona care kits with art supplies, puzzles, baking ingredients and beauty masks and dropped them off to friends.  This is a photo of Gib with one of the kits.  We also took dinner and a jigsaw puzzle to our missionaries, dropped canned food off for low income senior citizens (our senior center, which provided low cost lunches, is closed) and participated in a digital baby shower.  Our service projects were a highlight of the week for us and will become part of our family corona culture, the things we do to find meaning, take advantage of our unscheduled time and be proactive during unsettling times. 

Brandan made a lip sync video of the kids.  They drew faces on their chins and sang along to several songs.  Their upside down mouths are very funny to watch.

We tried out a trail we've never hiked before, the Applegate Ridge Trail, also known as ART.  We had gorgeous views of the Applegate valley.  The Siskiyou Mountains are in the distance.

We stopped for smoothies after the hike.  Hiking is another important part of our corona culture.

12 April 2020

Happy Easter!  The kids wore their new Easter clothes to our home church.  We still went to the temple for our traditional Easter Sunday photo.

 Maybe this photo is more appropriate to the times we are living in.

This year for our Easter countdown we studied doctrine of Jesus Christ that was restored through Joseph Smith.  Our knowledge of the Savior is wider, richer and grander because of scriptures found in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.  Our poster kept falling off the wall so we reinforced the tape repeatedly the past 12 days.

For family night we wrote corona virus haikus.  This is Gibson's.

Here is Helen's.

Here is Abe's.  By the way, he does not think Abigail is boring.

Here is Becky's.  Sofi texted us her haiku, "I sit on my bed, Time is immaterial, What's human contact?"

Abe's soccer coach asked everyone on the team to send him a video showing themselves juggling a soccer ball.  This is a photo of Abe on the roof of our porch getting ready to juggle.  Gibson is on the sidewalk below, ready to film Abe.

In an ordinary year, our kids might think they were too old for an Easter egg hunt, but right now there aren't a lot of other activities going on.  Abe hid the eggs for Helen and Gibson to find. 

He was very creative and tried to make the egg hunt challenging.

 With some hints, Helen and Gib found all of the eggs.

Gibson found the grand prize egg.

 It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  The weather was warm enough outside that some of the chocolate in the eggs had started to melt before all of the eggs were collected.  Abe is already thinking of new hiding spots for next year!

5 April 2020

Last Sunday we visited a few of our neighbors from the sidewalk outside their homes.  Helen brought her violin and played a few hymns.  Our intention was to help some of our elderly friends feel a little less lonely and instead we found them to be very well adjusted to sheltering at home.  They are working on projects, checking in on friends and family and celebrating their blessings.  The visits and the beautiful music lifted our spirits.

The kids moved back into their newly painted bedrooms.  Abe and Gibson unstacked their bunkbeds for the first time ever.  It's a tight fit in their small bedroom, but they are enjoying the change.  They hung a map of the world on the wall and put pushpins into all the places they have visited.

Helen's bedroom turned out beautifully.  The new paint combination is very peaceful.

Abe asked if he could invite Abigail over to paint a Bob Ross painting.  We agreed if he could maintain physical distancing guidelines.  Abigail brought her younger sisters, Aunika and Alina, so Helen and Gibson joined in.  Tuesday was rainy and cold so the kids crowded under a tarp, pretty much disregarding the whole point of distancing themselves.  

Abe spent several hours gathering supplies and setting up painting stations for everyone.

When our family had a Bob Ross painting night, we used acrylic paint for easy clean up.  This time the kids used oil paints for the authentic Bob Ross experience.  (He says acrylic paints are the devil.)  It was incredibly messy -- so much paint everywhere.  The kids used about a quart of paint thinner to clean up.

Here is Gibson's finished masterpiece.  Two things we learned: don't rely on teenagers to keep their distance from each other and stick to acrylic paint.  On the other hand, it was so nice to hear giggles and chatter from the patio for a couple of hours on a gloomy day.

School started back up for our kids on Wednesday.  Abe and Helen's school allowed each teacher to develop their own teaching plan.  Abe's teachers are using a mix of live teaching and online assignments.  Abe claimed the library for his classroom.  This is a photo of his first meeting with his calculus teacher.

Helen is using our desktop computer in the family room.  Her classes are exclusively independent assignments on the internet with no live teaching. 

Gibson's school is super organized.  He has a full schedule of live teaching every day and he submits his homework online.  Gibson first tried out the landing for his classroom.

Then he moved to the closet under the stairs.  So far online school is going smoothly for all three.  It's lower quality from an educational stand point, but at least they can keep moving forward.  They are all excited to be able to return to regular school when the stay-at-home order lifts.

We keep asking each other how we can serve in our community and still keep our neighbors safe.  Our kids are excited about our plan to order take out frequently from locally owned restaurants.  Our family rarely eats out.  Usually it's cheaper and quicker to cook at home.  Brandan picked up some pizza on his way home from work on Thursday from an amazing local restaurant.  He's also been buying lunch for his team at work once a week, both to support local businesses and to thank his team for great work during a stressful time.  

We got the message this week to start wearing masks when we leave the house.  It's a good idea, but it is impossible to buy masks right now.  Brandan received a stack of homemade masks from a generous donor for which we are thankful.  

Abe turned 17 on Friday! While continuing to stay at home is not how he would have chosen to celebrate his birthday, Abe made the best of it.  We were happy to celebrate Abe and enjoy his company all day.

With all the cancellations and closures, our kids were pretty disgusted that the Oregon Music Teachers Association found a way to hold the annual syllabus exam safely.  Every year, the kids memorize songs, learn scales and arpeggios and other music theory and are tested in the spring by an independent judge, not their piano teacher.  The last month before the exam is stressful for students and teachers as everyone works extra hard to polish their pieces.  This year the judge used Skype to evaluate their performances.  Even though the kids were nervous and hoped syllabus would be canceled, they all passed their evaluations beautifully.  This is a photo of Gibson with his piano teacher, Marsha, setting up a laptop for the exam.  

It's been a joy to gather for general conference this weekend without leaving our home.  We started Sunday morning off with a pancake breakfast bar: lemon/blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes with lots of toppings.

 Helen has been practicing watercolor painting while she listens.  It's magical to watch her paint.  And watercolors are very easy to clean up.

 Brandan, Gibson and Abe put together a couple of puzzles over the last two days.

Like usual, we saved general conference bingo for the last session.  No one got a blackout this time because of the square labeled "family history." (President Nelson invited all of us to use the time we would normally spend in the temple to do family history, but that was during the morning session.)  We enjoyed the rich celebration of the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the gospel.  We are very, very blessed.  Abe liked the youth speakers who spoke in the Saturday evening session.  Helen liked the closing song, "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet," sung in many languages by many choirs around the world.  Gibson liked participating in the Hosanna Shout.  We have many messages to revisit and study as the adventure of the restoration continues.