COVID-19

So I haven't blogged for about 5 years now. I thought this would be a good time to start again since it seems like the world is ending. The last 2 weeks have been a non-stop roll of bad news. 

Nothing like a world wide pandemic to get a person started blogging again huh? Coronavirus hit the Untied States hard several weeks ago, starting with a crew ship and has continued to spread like wild fire throughout the US. We currently have 602 cases in Utah. There are only 20ish cases in Utah County which is good news for us, but it still makes me feel nervous.  Our Governor has issued a "Stay Safe, Stay Home" order for the state of Utah. Our schools are closed, all Temples world wide are closed and Missionaries from all over the world have finished their missions early and have been sent home. There is a shortage of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and even worse....medical supplies for so many hospitals through out the world. It is getting serious and scary. 

Our amazing Prophet, President Russel M. Nelson no doubt saw this coming because he has been giving us amazing instruction and hope over the last couple of years. He has been preparing us for this very experience by asking us to be prepared spiritually, to have gospel centered home learning, reach out to those around us and minister and most importantly not to FEAR.  He has asked us to find ways to #HearHim and while it is hard to do right now with social distancing going on....it actually isn't really that hard because of technology. There are so many ways to reach out to people right now via technology. I trust and believe in our Prophet. I am so grateful to have a living Prophet on the earth that I can still see and listen to whenever I want. 

Our small family has felt deeply blessed during this time. Usually our purse strings are pretty tight but we have been watched over and have what we need for this experience. My kids are feeling some stress but are actually loving being at home where they don't have to worry about their peers. They love online school and are such obedient children I hardly have to do anything to motivate them. Joseph just finished driver's ed and will hopefully be able to get his license when this is over. There have been disappointments with school being moved online of course. Joseph's choir tour was canceled and Olivia's play, Cinderella was also cancelled. And of course, all visits and hangouts with friends are cancelled. 

It has been hard to wrap my brain around all of this. I feel off kilter and am having trouble getting used to not touching people. It's so weird because I don't think of myself as a touchy person, but I am still working at the elementary school and I have to keep being reminded by the lunchroom staff not to touch other people. I didn't realize I did until this all happened. I am so used to the kids hugging me or tapping my arm and now they just drive through the breakfast and lunch line and I get to see them through the car window. I miss the kids deeply. I miss being able to run over to the neighbors house to visit. I will miss not being able to go to Oklahoma for my niece's baptism next week, especially after I finally got brave enough and booked a flight. There is so much to this world wide catastrophe that I'm not even mentioning. It is too overwhelming. 2020 already had a rocky start and when March hit...the crap hit the fan. I have just never liked the month of March anyway. It's so LONG. This has been the longest March I've ever experienced. 

For now I'm going to try to simplify our life. I'm going to try to get closer to God. I'm going to let things go that don't matter. I'm going to listen to our Prophet and local leaders. I'm going to find joy in the small things. I know we are going to get through this because God is on our side.