2020 Blue Jeans Week 17

Man, what a week.  This week was kind of hard.  We should have been in Utah with our oldest and at her college graduation.  That didn't happen.  My two youngest should have been in Washington D.C. for a National school competition.  That didn't happen.  At my husband's work, he had to lay off some people.  That was tough.  Lots of things going on right now.  I went grocery shopping in a mask.  When in my whole life did I ever imagine I would need to do that?  Kind of disconcerting. Lots of hard things, but we have a lot of be grateful for.  We got outside a lot and enjoyed nature.  We are grateful for technology that allows us to stay in contact with our college girls.  So much going on, but then we are just at home doing nothing it feels like.  What crazy times!  Take a look at our week....

Our Sunday "church" with our college girls.  Grateful for zoom!

Our Sunday walk on the trails.  It has been beautiful weather!  I am grateful for nature!

What I have been studying lately.  I am grateful for scriptures and for my Savior Jesus Christ!

My son's socks that were in the laundry this week.  Seriously?  We go on where and he wears this many pairs of socks?  But I am grateful I have a washing machine and it is easy to wash all these socks, and then he has to put them away. 

Some beautiful tulips from my yard.  I am grateful for flowers and the color they bring!!!

Did my once very two week grocery shopping, and I had to wear a mask!  That was like of crazy.  When in my whole life did I ever think I would need to wear a mask in public and to go grocery shopping?  Never.  Crazy!  Kind of disconcerting and I had to convince myself that, yes I could breath through it, and no I was not going to have a panic attack as I felt like I couldn't breathe (even though I could). But I am thankful that the store had everyone I needed on my list and I went right when it opened so there were very, very few people there.  The new "normal" shopping in a mask.

Went on a family bike ride this week.  I am thankful for my family and we enjoy doing things like this together and that we can do things like this together!

Miss A and her graduation pictures, minus the actual graduation :)

Super, super proud of this amazing young lady!  Wish we could have been there to be with her, but so love her and so proud!  

Excited so see what her future holds!  Law school in the fall!

Ben and Miss E playing a game one afternoon this week.  I am grateful we have lots of games as we still continue or daily routine of playing one every day.  

Saturday we had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and had s'mores.  S'mores are one of my favorite things!  I am grateful for bonfires, roasted hot dogs and especially s'mores!

Hope you had a good week.  Stay safe!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 16

In some ways we seem to be adjusting to the "quarantine normal" but in others, I just struggle.  We are fine and healthy, Ben still has a job, my kids at college are fine and healthy.  We just stay home and only go to the grocery store once every two weeks.  We hike or bike or walk outside every day we can.  That has been our saving grace.  We read books, watch movies, play games, and try not to get on each other's nerves too much.  We try to give each other space.  Such a weird, unique time.  Kids are still making dinner every night. I love that.  We miss church, our friends, and normal school activities.  Today we should have been flying out to my oldest daughter's university graduation. Hard to see that on the calendar today and that it is cancelled.  So, yes, hard times, but we are blessed.  Take a look at our week.... 

Easter Sunday we did a turkey breast in the instant pot.  First time for Miss E to do that.  It was not her favorite thing, but it turned out amazing!  Happy Easter!  He is Risen!

And thought I would take some pictures of "school" right now.  Mr J doing his jazz band class in the basement.

Miss E doing her "school" one day this week.

And the kids trying to entertain themselves and not drive each other crazy.  Getting outside helps a lot.  We are grateful we have had nice weather to get outside!

One of Mr J's school projects was to write a story.  Very appropriate title to our lives right now!

I had a bunch of strawberries that needed to be used, and so I made our favorite strawberry jam!  Yummy!

And then I made another new recipe for me this month to go with the strawberry jam--homemade English muffins!  

Hope you and yours are safe and healthy!  Wash your hands, stay home and prayers things return to normal as soon as possible!  Have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 15

Even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, there is much to be grateful for!  I am grateful for good books, friends who keep in touch, family who is always there, a warm home to live in, food to eat, eyes that see the flowers of spring and ears to hear the birds that sing.  I am grateful for sunshine and light, and I am especially grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the peace and love He gives me.  Even when life seems unreal, He is real.  I was grateful for Holy Week last week and the time to study His live and His words, and it gave me great peace.  I hope you are also able to find some peace in this crazy time!  We had a good week.  Talk a look...

I made cinnamon rolls on Sunday as we watched our church services online with our worldwide General Conference.

Miss O at Miss A's place also watching General Conference, but she was also watching it in sign language as she is studying that in college.

We try to get outside every day in our yard or to the trails by our house.  Got to the trails today and enjoyed a beautiful hike!

Trying new recipes as the kids cook for us each night.  Tonight Miss E made shakshuka.  It was good!

Kids getting outside and playing some "tennis"

Making Easter cards to mail to family and friends this week just to keep in touch and hopefully brighten someone's day.

My new recipe for the month of April was homemade marshmallow eggs.  Miss E and I did it together and Mr J helped dip them in chocolate.  Yummy!

Our annual Easter egg hunt looked a little different this year than in years past, but I think these two still enjoyed it.

And our egg dying results.  Looked good!

Hope you were able to enjoy your Holy Week!  Prayers all are safe and healthy where you are!  Have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 14

What a stressful, crazy time!  Miss E said the other day, "we will be able to tell people 'We survived CO-VID 19'"  yes, this will be a historic event for sure that we will be talking about for a long time.  We are healthy and doing well.  Ben still has a job, so that is a blessing.  "Home schooling" week one was last week, and I think it went pretty well.  We are grateful we can walk outside and go to the nature trails close to our house.  Still playing a game every day, and that has been good.  Ben is also reading a book out loud to us.  We just finished Brandon Sanderson's Star Sight, and we started Harry Potter #1 last night just for fun.  Can't go wrong with those books, and it has been a while since we read them.  So much to be thankful for!  Hope you all are safe and well!  Stay home, wash your hands and stay healthy!  Take a look at our week...

We played the board game Pandemic today.  It is a cooperative game.  First time we played it we lost in 5 minutes, so we played again and actually WON the 2nd time we played.  Feeling optimistic that we can beat this thing!

Are they doing bear hunts where you live?  They are in our area.  You put out a teddy bear and then kids can walk around and go on a "bear hunt" (based on the children's book Going On a Bear Hunt) in the neighborhoods and find them in people's windows.  I have seen a lot of bears out.  This is ours.  

Spring is here and the trees are blossoming!  These are the ornamental pear trees in our front yard.  So pretty!

Continuing with my goal this year to make something new and unique each month.  For March I waited until the very last day and was limited by what I could make because we hadn't been to the store in a while, but I did decide to make Joanna Gaines' cinnamon squares.  They were good, but we all decided we liked regular cinnamon rolls better :)

The new "normal" piano lessons today at home over the computer.  So grateful for technology that still allows us to do these things!  

Enjoying the outside--Mr J showing off on the trampoline while Miss E watches.

Our Easter Eggs to put up in the front window.  Now our neighborhoods are replacing our bears with big Easter eggs so the kids can walk around and find Easter eggs in people's windows.  Fun stuff!

I have put my kids in charge of planning and making all dinners here for the last 3 weeks.  They are doing a good job.  These are their menus for the last two weeks.   They plan the 2 week menus and then we make a grocery list, and I head to the store, so we only have to go once every 2 weeks which is nice!  Lots of yummy stuff they have been making, and I love not having to make dinner!!

Thanks for visiting!  Stay health!  Wash your hands and stay home!  We will get through this!  Prayers for all!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 13

So I guess this week was unofficially our 2nd week of spring break, as starting next week school will be online and packet learning.  Another surreal week.  Things we were grateful for this week...home church, yummy cheesecake with lemon curd for my birthday, getting what we needed at the grocery store, and enjoying beautiful spring weather that allows us to be outside!  Take a look at our week....

Sunday--our home centered church around the kitchen table with Miss E wrapped up in a blanket and Mr J giving a lesson.  It was pretty awesome!

And Happy birthday to me!  Ben and the kids made me a divine homemade cheesecake with an even more divine homemade lemon curd that I love!  It was a good day!

So, We stocked up before all the crazy and have not had to go to the grocery store for a few weeks, but we had to go today.  During this stay at home crazy, I have put the kids in charge of dinner menu planning and cooking, so they planned out 2 weeks of dinners/breakfast/lunches/snacks and made a grocery list, and we decided to head to the store as soon as it opened to hopefully avoid other people.  It was still dark when we headed out to the store.  So grocery store shopping, here we go....

This is a sight I have never seen in my whole life..... completely empty grocery store shelves.  Wow.  It was disconcerting.  This was the cereal isle.  Toilet paper isle looked the same.  Thankfully cereal and toilet paper were not on our grocery list, but everything else we needed was.  That was a blessing!

So last summer I made the declaration that we were going to play one board game/card game every single day. And we did it!  It was a lot of fun.  So, starting last week I made the same declaration and since my family always loves everything I decide to do (yeah, right, but they know better than to contradict me) they are being good sports about it.  These are just some of the games we have played the last two weeks.  Lots of fun!  It helps keep things a little more normal and gets our mind off more heavy topics which we are dwelling on a lot lately.

It was a beautiful and warm sunny day, so these two decided to have a water gun fight.  Lots of fun!

These two, since they have extra time now (lucky them) got the job of washing and vacuuming out all 3 cars, but it was a gorgeous day to do it, so they didn't complain (too much)

And then we had a super windy day, and they got out a kite, but it was a little too windy, and that poor kite didn't last too long, but it was something fun to do!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are all healthy and safe where you are!  Find Joy in the Journey!  See you next week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 12

It is really, really hard to describe the emotions and what life is like right now.  Surreal, crazy, unimaginable, the world turned upside down, and as I told a friend, I wake up each morning and think, "No, this is not a bad dream.  We are living this crazy."  It seems like life changes almost hourly, and we really have no right to complain.  There are many that have it way worse than we do.  I am grateful I have a home.  I am grateful I have food. I am grateful we have toilet paper.  I am grateful my kids can still learn even though they will not physically be attending a school building.  I am grateful for technology that allows me to communicate with family not close by.  I am grateful my husband currently has a job.  I am grateful to a Heavenly Father who hears and answers prayers. I  am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for an amazing and hardworking husband.  I am grateful for good leaders on all levels of government who try their best.  This is uncharted territory people, we need to have patience and say lots of prayers.  Even amidst the crazy and uncertain and scary, there is much to be grateful for.  So, this is at look at our constantly changing week that was our scheduled spring break....

Family walk on Sunday.  It was cold, but we all needed to get out of the house!!!  Living in the country and near a rural community is a blessing that we can get out and walk and enjoy the beautiful earth.  Spring is coming!!

So we got word that our library was closing for the foreseeable future, so we went and loaded up on lots of books, board games and some movies.  I am grateful we have a library and were able to check out all these books!

And then the bomb dropped.....schools closed for the rest of the school year.  I have a senior.  Her year is over.  Learning will still take place at home be that through online or packets mailed to homes, but her senior year is over.  No track meets, no school play, no prom, no graduation, no senior picnic and the list goes on--anything and everything associated with school is over.  She had no idea when she left school the Friday before spring break that it would be the last times she sees those friends she has had since kindergarten and those teachers.  It is hard on my freshman boy too, but especially for my senior girl. Man, it was a HARD day.  This is HARD stuff for these teenagers.  Not to minimize the hard things that others are dealing with, because I know it is a lot worse for some people, but just taking a moment to acknowledge how tough this is for these seniors.  Ugh.  Makes my heart hurt and tears come to my eyes.  

Despite the bad news, these two made some awesome chalk art on the driveway to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

And our traditional all green dinner on St. Patrick's day.

And then my mom stopped by this week to drop off this surprise for Ben.  She made him this awesome quilt.  So much love!

And even though it is spring break, with travel restrictions and rainy weather, we did a lot of stuff inside.  Mr J working through his lego sets.  Love it!

And I enjoyed a walk with these two on the trails by our house.  They have had a hard week, but I am proud of them!  We have had a lot of rain and this river behind them shows it, but it was nice to get out.  I am grateful we have nature trails by our home that allow us to get out and enjoy outside and still practice social distancing.

Prayers and patience, my friends, for all!  Hope you were able to find things to be grateful for in your week!  I know so many are dealing with so much at this time!  Prayers and patience!!!