Fresh Courage Take

 

Since I never got around to unveiling our new family theme last month -- and I've got kids asking me why I never blog anymore -- I figured tonight is as good a time as any to put up a post!  Our theme this year is a continuation of last year's.  The inspiration for THAT theme [Gird Up!] came from a line in the second verse of "Come, Come Ye Saints."  THIS school year, we felt really strongly that covering the second half of that line should be our next step.  

"Gird up your loins, fresh courage take "

(Our Wall of Courage)

This year, more than ever, I want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to imprint this mantra in our minds and write it on the fleshy tables of our heart.  As I was researching the concept of courage, I found so many interesting thoughts and ideas.  Perhaps my favorite insight came from a post I found that outlined the etymology of the word "COURAGE" and how that informs our connotation of the word today.  Because I loved it so much, I'm going to copy and paste it here verbatim:

Courage is derived from the Middle English word ‘corage,’ which is the old French equivalent to ‘cuer,’ which comes from the Latin ‘cor,’ all of which mean ‘heart.’ At its very beginnings courage comes from the heart, and even today it still holds that connotation. For hundreds of years it has been believed that the heart contains ones innermost and strongest feelings. Therefore, someone who has courage, or is courageous, developed that from deep within themselves. From feelings and emotions that run to their very core. This is why those that are courageous are nearly impossible to break or hold down. The strength comes from too deep to be easily shaken.   -- Kat Michels

Isn't that beautiful??  This is why I love words SO much.  I like to think that finding and using the exact right word amplifies the power of whatever message is being conveyed.  

For our poster this year, I wanted to incorporate and combine the various symbols of courage I found in my study.  From the color red, to the lions, to the crowns, to the heart -- everything in this coat of arms should project the meaning of courage!  (Or at least I hope that's the case.  Hahaha.)  This message, along with the rest of our "Wall of Courage," will hopefully be seared into our collective pysches by the time the school year is over.  

So there you have it -- Fresh Courage Take!  Each month, we're focusing on a different aspect of courage and sharing stories and examples to go along with it for our Wall.  Last month, "Courage is standing up for what is right" was the focus and this month we're pivoting to "Courage is facing challenges or trials with faith."  I want to close tonight with a family history story I shared with the kids last week about an ancestor of ours who faced extraordinary challenges and trials with faith.  

I found this beautiful painting by Julie Rogers called, "I Asked God's Help" on familysearch.org.  It portrays the following story about my great-great-great-great-grandmother, Ann Rowley.

Ann Jewell Rowley was a member of the infamous Willie Handcart Company of pioneers.  Along with the Martin Handcart Company, these men, women, and children had already traveled all the way from England and were eager to get on with the final leg of their journey to Utah.  The companies left much later in the season than others had and it wasn't long before calamity and misfortune struck in the fall of 1856.  Ann, her children, and fellow travelers were slowed by heavy snow and weighed down with exhaustion, starvation, and exposure to the elements.  The harsh reality of their trek would leave 60-70 Saints buried along the trail before the company was rescued and they finally entered the Salt Lake Valley.  Here is a portion of Ann's story in her own words:

When we were well into the wilderness, we noticed a storm approaching from the southwest.  The terrifying thing was not a storm, but a large herd of buffalo stampeding right past our camp.  Afterward, I thanked the Lord that our lives had been spared, for we all could have been killed.  As it was, we lost 30 head of our best oxen.  They were swept away by the buffalo.  The men hunted for them but had to give it up.  This was the beginning of our great hardships and probably was the cause of most of them, for we had spent valuable time looking for the oxen.  This loss in turn, reduced our meat supply and because there weren't enough cattle to pull the supply wagon, a hundred pounds of flour was placed in each handcart.

Our handcarts were not designed for such heavy loads and we were constantly breaking down.  They had been made of green lumber and were affected by the weather.  Rawhide strips were used to wrap the iron rims to the wheels and the wood would shrink and the rawhide would come loose.  It hurt me to see my children go hungry.  I watched as they cut the loose rawhide from the cart wheels, roasted off the hair and chewed the hide.

There came a time, when there seemed to be no food at all.  Some of the men left to hunt buffalo.  Night was coming and there was no food for the evening meal.  I asked God's help as I always did.  I got on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuits that were still in my trunk.  They had been left over from the sea voyage, they were not large, and were so hard, they couldn't be broken.  Surely that was not enough to feed 8 people, but 5 loaves and 2 fishes were not enough to feed 5000 people either, but through a miracle, Jesus had done it.  So, with God's help, nothing is impossible.  I found the biscuits and put them in a Dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for God's blessing, then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals.  When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan filled with food.  I kneeled with my family and thanked God for his goodness.  That night my family had sufficient food.   

I am grateful for the legacy of faith and courage that I've been blessed with -- not just from my great-great-great-great-grandmother, but from men and women of strength in every generation on both sides of my family tree.  I hope that each of us in this household can take courage from their examples and face the world and the future with faith and hope.

 

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Not to be cliche, but -- to quote Anne of Green Gables -- I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers!  Fall is my favorite time of year and this year is no exception.  Everyone is finally all better, the kids are back in school, and the weather is no longer oppressively humid and hot.  All in all, life is GOOD!

(Favorite quote of the week from Isaac -- 

ME: I love you to the moon and back times infinity!

ISAAC: Infinity is not a number, mom.

ME: Oh yeah?  What is it then?

ISAAC {thinking really hard, trying to remember what it is that he always hears me say}: It's a concept.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.)

To kick off our Octoberfest (not to be confused with Germany's Oktoberfest -- we'll be eschewing the dirndls and steins of beer) we went to our local "Pumpkin Patch" that's not really a pumpkin patch.  Hahaha.  Already-picked-pumpkins, conveniently located, and aesthetically arranged suited our needs just fine.  The kids were only supposed to pick out one pumpkin each, but we got a little carried away.  

Our fall fest continued into the first weekend of October, as we were able enjoy General Conference at home with our traditional Sunday morning breakfast feast sweetening up the deal.  Many cinnamon rolls and orange rolls were consumed alongside the pleasing word of God and it was an enjoyable experience all around.  Even for Maxwell.  What dog wouldn't like a few pieces of bacon snuck their way?  Hahaha.

(It's funny -- the cinnamon rolls always go first, but the orange rolls are just as good if not better in my book.)

(The only real "must have" items for our Conference breakfast are cinnamon rolls and buttermilk syrup.)

The girls created lots of Halloween decorations for the house while watching the Sunday sessions, and I think we're all excited for the beginning of the whole holiday season.  Surely 2020 will wind down nice and easy for us, right?  Hahahahahahaha.  J/K.  I'm sure that won't be the case, but we won't let that stop us from enjoying our traditions.  :)

Other than that, we're officially back into a routine now that "back-to-school" 2.0 has enabled Grace, Sophie, Jane, and Alex to head back to their actual school buildings post-quarantine.  Sophie was finally able to collect her dance team uniform  last week and cheered/danced at her first football game on Thursday.  Scott took Grace and Jane along for the adventure and I know they enjoyed a semi-return to normalcy as they watched on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Ethan has been hard at work on college applications and was more than a bit surprised to receive an acceptance from Utah State University the day after submitting the application.  {Literally.}  His ultimate hope, though, is to get into BYU.  {Receiving a scholarship would be pretty sweet as well.}  He's still working on THOSE essays, but I think the deadline isn't for another month or two.  Knowing Ethan, I'm sure it will be turned in well before it's officially due.  :)

I really hope that this week we'll be able to enforce a viable virtual school schedule for Alex and Jane on the days that they're home, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  We're still going with a hard copy "to do" list for both of them with their daily assignments, but I'd really love to transition from ME writing it all out for them everyday, to THEM adopting these organizational skills and doing it for themselves.  A mother can always dream.

Speaking of which, I'm LIVING the dream now that I've got a couple of days a week of complete and total peace and quiet around the house while everyone is at school!  Hahahaha.  In all seriousness, though, it's awesome.  I've been keeping myself busy over the last month studying up on government and politics -- and everything in between -- and it's been so fascinating.   I'm currently studying economics and it is hands-down my favorite thing I've researched thus far.  Not even joking.  I kind of love it.  And if I had a more secure foundational knowledge of advanced math, I'd consider going back to school and studying it for real!  Hahaha.  For now, I'm just trying to educate myself one topic at a time and tell anyone else who is willing to listen all about it.  As for the poor victims who are in my most immediate path here at home, I'd have to say that Alex is the one whose interest has been piqued the most by my studies -- if only in the sense that he's constantly questioning why I'm trying to learn all this stuff.  Hahahaha.  

(When you're trying to explain a recession to a 9 year old.  Hahahahahahahahaha.)

I think that just about sums up the last few weeks!  I'm looking forward to more lovely weather in the future and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get back up to speed (pun intended) on my half marathon training that was derailed by the coronavirus.  Wish me luck!

(I finished my virtual Flying Pig 10K on Saturday.  It was rough after not having really run for a couple of weeks.)

(My favorite sight -- the kids playing together without fighting.  Fall does wonders for incentivizing jumping on the trampoline.)

Trying to Get Back Our Groove

My kids have been hounding me for a new blog post, and since I aim to please the masses, I figured it was time to attempt to come up with some content.  If we're being real here, though, there's not much of interest to report.  True story.  

So, I'm going to challenge myself to come up with at least some kind of update for each member of the family.  And I'll start with myself, since a picture of me in the ER is literally the only recent photo of note in my phone.  

I do apologize for the lack of pictures in this text-heavy post.

ME:  I'm finally feeling better after the Covid ordeal, but it certainly took a good couple of weeks before that was the case.  And that doggone cough I had got much worse before it got better.  To the point that one day towards the end of the second week, I couldn't take a full breath without a MASSIVE coughing attack being triggered.  It got to the point that I was having trouble feeling like I was getting enough breathing in between the coughing so Scott brought me to the ER.  Even though it took longer than I thought it should have, I finally got taken back and set up with an IV and eventually some meds.  They took all kinds of blood samples and a chest X-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia and then I got a nice shot of morphine along with a steroid shot to help my lungs chill out with the coughing.  Long story kind of short -- I was there for a couple of hours and then sent home with some prescriptions to help with the cough.  A couple of days later, it was mostly gone and I was mostly feeling fine!  And that is the end of my tale of Coronavirus.

SCOTT:  Thankfully, Scott is finally feeling better, too, and has even returned to his actual office for work!  He still works from home a couple days a week (at his tiny little desk in our closet) and I'm not mad about it.  :)

ETHAN:  Also better!  He returned to school this week and I think it was a welcome relief.  This entire year has been a huge stressor for this kid who thrives on routine and order and knowing what to expect.  But he has done a heck of a job rolling with the punches and I know that this year's experience will help him in the long run to know that even when life is hard, he can do hard things.  And do them well.

GRACE:  Making life work, one zoom meeting at a time.  Hahahahaha.  J/K, j/k.  Although it DID make me laugh out loud when I walked downstairs a few weeks ago and saw a sign posted on the outside of her door essentially saying "Zoom meetings until 3:50 -- Do Not Disturb."  For the kids who DIDN'T test positive for Covid (ie Grace, Sophie, Jane, and Alex) their 14 day day quarantine from school didn't start until 10 days after the last person who DID test positive, which was Ethan on the 6th.  So, while he was cleared to go back to school after his 10 days of isolation were up, all the other kids were just getting started with their final 2 weeks of quarantine.  It's been something else.  Let me tell ya!

SOPHIE:  When I think of Sophie over the last few weeks, the thing that most often comes to mind is her near daily routine of sleeping until noon and staying up until well past midnight most nights, I'm sure.  The eternal sleep battle with children is that you can put a child in bed, but you can't make them actually go to sleep.  And Sophie (and Grace) are both very much night owls.  It is what it is at this point, and she's been getting all her virtual work done for school, so I'm willing to let sleeping dogs (or in this case, children) lie.

JANE:  Oh Jane.  My precious little moonbeam.  Online schooling has been...hard.  And it's probably made harder by the fact that she stays up later than she should each night and wakes up too early every morning which puts her in a perpetual state of tiredness (even though she vehemently disagrees) and emotional-ness.  We're finding that she has a hard time remembering to check through ALL of her Google classroom subjects every day -- especially the Encore ones -- and has regularly had tons of missing assignments to catch up on that she didn't even know existed.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, because the rest of the kids can finally go back to school next Thursday!!!  

ALEX:  It's a toss-up, really, to decide whether Alex or Jane has had a harder time with getting everything done online.  Alex might have the slight edge here, but only because there have a been a few days this month where I've forgotten to give him his ADHD meds in the morning.  Big mistake.  HUGE.  I've taken to writing out all of his assignments for the day on paper even though the exact assignments are listed in his daily To-Do list in Google classroom.  There's something about being able to physically scratch something of the list, though, that seems to make a difference in buckling down and just getting the work done.  Because it's not like it takes all that long to do it once he starts.  (Consequently, I've started writing out Jane's assignments for her, too.  I'm hoping it will help her stay on top of things.  I'm 95% sure she as ADHD as well, but I just haven't been able to get an official diagnosis for her.)

ISAAC:  This cute little crazy nut job was able to go back to preschool this week and he has mostly loved it!  The only part giving him pause to wholeheartedly endorsing the experience is that he HATES nap time.  And even though the pre-K class only has to stay on their cots for about half an hour before any non-nappers can get up and quietly play, he still thinks it's a major grievance that needs addressing.  

Well, that just about does it, friends.  We are slowly but surely getting our groove back post-Covid.  Maybe once everyone is back in school I'll have more stories to tell.  Hahaha.  

Quarantining For Real

In an ironic twist of fate, I somehow caught the Coronavirus last week.  Or maybe it was the week before, we're not really sure.  It is especially ironic, because our family has been fairly strict about social distancing and mask-wearing, etc, and yet here I am.  I don't know WHERE I got it, but get it, I did.

Patient 0

In hindsight, my symptoms started last Saturday when I came down with a really bad headache.  At the time, I chalked it up to dehydration/exhaustion after running 7 miles that morning in 96% humidity, so I just tried to drink lots of water (and Gatorade) and attempted to take it easy.  When I woke up the next morning with a sore throat, I assumed it was from not getting enough sleep (ever) because of our resident sleep terrorists {ie Alex and Isaac}.  Monday was Isaac's first day of Preschool, and since I didn't have a fever and thought it was probably just a cold or maybe strep throat, I took him to school and dropped him off.  However, when I started feeling achy, in addition to the other symptoms, I decided I should go and get tested just in case.  Along with Covid, I had them test for the flu and strep throat and was really hoping one of those would be the culprit.  But it wasn't.  And it was at that point, that I knew in my gut that I had the Coronavirus.

First day of Preschool

I went straight home, calling Scott on my way, and set up camp in my bedroom-turned-sick-bay.  While Scott went straight to the preschool to pick up Isaac, I started obsessively googling symptoms to gauge how I was feeling.  The Department of Health requires self-isolation while test results are pending, so I did my best to stay away from everyone else in the house while waiting.  The school district also requires quarantine for students in close contact with a known positive case as well as cases pending results, like mine, so they have had to be home as well.  The older kids were less than enthused to have to go right back to virtual schooling after just a week of in-person school, but it is what it is.

Alex and Jane have taken over the Bonus Room -- I'd say their state of being right now is roughly equivalent to "Lord of the Flies."  Hahahaha.

We were really hoping I'd be the only one hit with the virus, but when Isaac started running a fever on Tuesday evening and threw up, I realized with a sinking feeling that he most likely had it as well.   I finally got my positive Covid result on Wednesday afternoon, and by that point, unfortunately, Scott was also feeling sick, and Alex and Jane claimed to be feeling sick, too.  Scott and the three youngers went to be tested Thursday morning, and when those results came back, we learned that Scott and Isaac were both positive and Alex and Jane were both negative.  The older kids have avoided us like the plague -- literally wearing masks and gloves inside the house whenever they leave their bedrooms -- and even though they've been beyond cautious, Ethan started feeling sick yesterday and went to be tested.  He says he's feeling a little better this morning, so we're hoping that maybe it was just lack of sleep or psychosomatic type symptoms, but we won't know for sure until we get his results {probably} tomorrow.  

UPDATE:  Ethan IS positive for Covid.  :(  

Poor Maxwell doesn't understand what's going on.  :(

And that brings us to the here and now.  I can't even begin to thank all of the people who have offered help and brought us meals, and Gatorade, and all kinds of other accommodations.  It has been heart-warming and awe-inspiring to see such service and goodness in action.  We are so very grateful!!!  At this moment in time, I'm feeling...okay.  Ish.  This is the weirdest sickness I have ever had.  In the first few days, it felt kind of like the flu, but not exactly.  The headache and sore throat and muscle achiness were almost gone by Thursday, but since then, I keep getting hit by waves of exhaustion/extreme fatigue along with muscle aches and random joint pain.  And I have a much worse cough NOW than I did at the beginning of my sickness.  But, I have also had moments in the last couple of days where I feel completely fine and like I've finally kicked this virus to the curb!  It is so strange that the same virus can create such varying reactions in different people.  It would appear that Scott's trajectory is roughly following mine, but neither one of us ever had a fever, whereas Isaac DID run a fever for a few days and also threw up 4 different times during that period.  Isaac has been running around like he's totally fine since Friday, while I've still got random lingering symptoms and Scott is still actively sick.   It's all just super strange.  

A goody bag someone dropped off for Isaac, with stuff to keep him busy and occupied while in quarantine.

I really hope that we can keep the sickness contained, but if not -- at least we've had lots of practice over the last 6 months of being homebound with each other.  Hahahaha.

In happier times, we went to Isaac's Open House/Meet the Teacher at his Preschool a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure why this is still his go-to pose.  Hahahaha.

Jane is 11!

True story -- I keep thinking Jane is still 9.  Hahahaha.  Seriously.  I don't know why I can't keep it straight in my brain that she's actually 11 now!  Especially since Alex is the one who is actually 9.  So strange, I know.  Jane's birthday was on Friday, however, and she is most definitely 11 years old.  :)

Since everyone was home on Friday (all the kids have virtual/online school that day), we decided to go ahead and celebrate Jane's big day that afternoon/evening.  Of course, things are never perfectly smooth around these parts and Jane had a bit of a rough start to her morning, but thankfully the day ended on a much higher note than it started.  {Unfortunately, she ticked off the WRONG person the evening before when first she hit Grace as hard as she could and then -- for some inexplicably CRAZY reason -- threw a cup of water at Grace.  It didn't go over very well, as I'm sure you can imagine, and there was some residual animosity present on Friday morning.} 

Jane was so excited about the Avatar necklace that Grandma sent...

...and she loved the new birthday outfit that Granny bought her when she was here a couple of weeks ago.

Things had begun to mellow out by the afternoon, thank goodness, and while Scott took Alex with him to Target to pick out some presents and I started making the requested Avatar cake, Jane and the others partied upstairs with the "Just Dance 2020" game she had been gifted earlier in the day.  Once the cake was done and the presents were all wrapped, we gathered 'round the dining room table and sang to the birthday girl and then she ripped into those gifts.  She was genuinely pleased with everything the kids picked out for her {or -- more accurately -- everything that Scott picked out for the other kids to give her}, and after everything was opened, they skedaddled back upstairs for some more "Just Dance."  Ironically, the Avatar cake -- which she LOVED -- didn't even get cut into or eaten until Saturday afternoon.  As Ethan commented, I think we've all OD'ed on cake since the quarantine started.  Hahahahahaha.  {If you'll recall, making cakes was an almost every day occurrence at the beginning of our lockdown.}

Getting their "Just Dance" on.

"Water, Earth, Fire, Air"

I accidentally put 12 candles on the cake.  It would appear that I really can't keep her age straight at all.  Hahahahaha.

Now that Jane's birthday has come and gone, we have exited our August birthday alley!  Maxwell's birthday is next week (our little pup-pup will be 2), but I don't think we'll be doing anything all that big to celebrate.  Hahaha.  The next family birthdays on the horizon are Grace and Isaac in November.  It's so hard to believe the year is beginning to wind down!  

We're in a Rubik's cube phase right now.  Hahaha.  Jane has mastered the 2x2 cube and is ready to move on to the big leagues with the 3x3.

These Airheads were a bigger hit than you would think.

This was probably the biggest hit.  She legit let out a shout of joy when she unwrapped it and saw what it was.  Also -- this is the one present that WAS actually picked out by a kid.  Alex got it at Target when he was there with Scott.

Stay tuned for a check-in on how school is going now that it's in session...