Last pre-Chirstmas

We love doing the Messiah Sing in.  This year they did a free streaming from home service, so we hung out, sang and chatted.  It was fun.

 

The Christmas Star

 

On Dec 21st, we were able to see the "Christmas star".  Jupiter and Saturn aligned for the first time in 800 years.  It was so exciting!  I love that it's something that the entire world could see.  We went to Utah Lake with my parents and Janelle.  There were a couple of people out with their telescopes and we even met on of the landscape photographers that I follow on Facebook, Wesley Aston.  Jer got out the telescope that we inherited from Seth and lined it up so we could get a good look.  It was cool!  You could even see the rings around Saturn. There are more detailed or artistic pictures of it, so I'll share, but I'll also share ours.  

From Thailand

From my mom's cousin in Midway, UT.

This was my favorite of my shots.

This is the only one that I got that if you zoom in on, you can see the stars lined up behind Jupiter in a line that make the points of light of the "Christmas Star".  I do believe in signs and miracles.  I'm hoping this is a sign of something good to come.  We can just keep moving forward, teaching our families and rejoicing as we see each other progressing.  Here's something to celebrate!  My nephew, Joseph B. has filled out his paperwork for a mission.  He'll be a great missionary.  He's shy, but he is genuinely a good man with a good heart.  I'm excited for him. When we asked if we could contribute to his mission, he had already worked and saved the money to pay for his whole mission. 

Mom's doing alright after her back surgery.  She's a little sore after my camping chair broke under her not long after this picture.  Sorry momma!

Ada held all the snow that Vivien could pack into her arms.  It was adorable.

Our kids kept tackling each other and rolling down the hill together.  It was adorable.

Thea

There were people down walking out onto the ice on the lake.  My kids wanted to go so bad.  I didn't want to slip and fall when I'm this close to finishing physical therapy so I promised that we'd walk on the lake another time.  I hope I remember.  That would be neat.

Official!

 

McKay and Sophie have finally finished the 3 year battle to adopt Isaiah and Michelle.  Their court day was this last Tuesday and I couldn't be happier for both them and us!  They fit right in as if they'd always be with us.  Love you cousins!

Last weekend

 

The last three weeks have been hectic.  With me doing daycare until my partner's family is recovered from Covid I haven't had time for much else... but that hasn't stopped anyone else in the family from enjoying the holidays.  Jer's birthday, two days of wedding photo shoots, and on Sunday I played the organ for the Christmas program (They asked me on Wed.... eyeroll... but it turned out fine.  I actually love the Christmas and 4th of July programs the best, so I had fun.), Jer got released from his 6 years as the executive Secretary (Yay for me and both happy and sad for Jer), and we had a family sing along with the Robertson Family to celebrate Christmas.  It was also Jim and Judy's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  We couldn't get together, so we all sent pictures and messages to Emily D and she put them into a beautiful video that she gave to Jim and Judy.  

The sing along was so fun!  We tried all singing at the same time, and as Jay said, "That was very entertaining."  It was terrible!  So we muted everyone but Mary's family because she was playing the piano for us.  Then we all sang along in our own homes.  It was so fun.  We missed seeing John, Margaret, James and Emily's families but I loved seeing who we did.  Then Grandpa read us his traditional Christmas stories before we all went to bed.  

Jer's birthday

Pandemic or no, we still have birthdays!  This last week was Jer's birthday.  Seth knows exactly how old Jer and I.  He even corrected me when I accidentally told someone that I was 40.  It was not an easy day for Jer.  We had to have the daycare kids all week because my partner's family had COVID.  I closed down the daycare on his birthday to spend time with him, to deliver the Christmas presents to the school staff from the Parent Organization, and because I was taking wedding photos that night.  I ended up spending most of my free time napping because we had been up way too late the night before finishing the staff presents.  I felt really bad that Jer's birthday was so thoroughly focused on other people.  But, Jer was a peach and enjoyed delivering the presents with me and Ada (who was out of school).  When I finished the wedding pictures, we went home and had sushi and the yummy mouse that Jer and Ada had made.  I love this man so much.  He is kind, selfless, patient, and he wants his family to enjoy each other as friends as well.  I love it.  Here's to the next 42 Jer!

 

The Mulberry Tree

 

The workers showed up to cut down the tree and we had 3 family members in tears.  I didn't think I'd cry, but I did a little.  It was fascinating to watch them cut the tree down.  Hauling themselves up the tree by just a rope and then cutting branches.  They actually cut 4 of our trees down.  A couple were leaning into a neighbors yard and making him nervous.  That makes 5 that we've lost this year and 9 that we've lost since moving in.  We have another 4 aspens that are needing to come down, but I think we're going to do those ourselves.  The daycare kids were glued to the windows and doors.  It was great 2 days of easy entertainment for them.  Our backyard now looks absolutely huge and empty.  We want to plant a southern live oak, but we don't know if it would survive here. 

The stump is wide enough that you could fit 4-5 kids sitting on it across.  And you can see where the split was happening right in the middle.

My memories

Showers, parties, family reunions, Thanksgiving dinners, etc... Jer and I called it the Party Tree for a little while.

Family soccer games.

I also have so many pictures of nieces and nephews hanging out of the tree.  My nephew, Matthew, made a swing out of a rope and a bit of pvc pipe.  It was used for years until Jer had to limb it up last year and took down that particular branch.  This picture is after it had been limbed up very dramatically for two years in a row.

Daycare and kid playdates.

For my children

This is not a pity post.  I actually know that very few people read my blog and I realized that I've never written down my perspective of this year for my kids in the future.  Children and grandchildren, here was the year from my point of view.

The year started out very busy.  Mom stopped teaching fencing for the first time in almost 7 years.  It was a hard decision, but it would have cost our family $4000-$5000 a year to keep going instead of the $200-$300 a year before.  It made me sad, but I had the feeling that something had to give and it had to be that.  Besides that heart wrenching decision, we had 4 kids in school. I was also part of the Parent Organization at school, doing our 3rd month of daycare in our home, had soccer and dance schedules, and helped with Grandma and Grandpa's yard/snow removal while Grandma Robertson did chemo and radiation treatments... we also had responsibilities with church.  Dad as the executive secretary and mom as a YW leader in the laurels class.  The YW's got rearranged in January and now my class went from 7 girls to 15.  Ada also started in the youngest class for the first time.  She got her temple recommend and had started going to do baptisms for the dead regularly with the youth or with Mom and Dad.  We heard of a terrible sickness that had been going on in China that had recently come to the US. 

I was so grateful that it was far away and that it didn't seem to be coming to Utah.  We heard of hard times in New York and in Washington.  People having to quarantine and stop going to work.  Losing jobs, losing homes, losing entire working fields.  The entertainment business shut down completely.  My friend that worked on cruise lines lost her job and had to move back to Utah.  Soon the virus came here too.  Our neighbor got sick and died within a week.  I stopped doing daycare for three months so that I could help with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson's yard without taking germs to them.  

By March school and church were being done at home and the virus was most definitely here in Utah.  A Mom who had never had any desire to homeschool was now homeschooling 4 kids.  Seth was struggling with reading.  Ada was in 6th grade and learning 7th grade math.  She was having a hard time with it. (I had to relearn 7th grade math to help her). I spent an hour learning her math lessons every day and then an hour teaching them to her.  Evelyn was working on her work, but not all of her work.  Just the pieces that she wanted to.  Sam would get his work done as fast as he could and not pay attention to how well it was being done.  Mom was trying to balance all of their work and keep them happy and motivated to do other things.  We made progress with Seth's lisp and reading as well as Ada's math.  But they were very hard won. Ada was so sad to miss her last half year of being able to see her friends before going off to different jr highs. She missed working on the yearbook and 6th grade graduation.  

I was so emotionally and physically overwhelmed, but I didn't break down.  Just tired, but there were many friends and family that didn't understand why we weren't allowing in person contact while we were in contact with so many immunocompromised people.  That was hard on me emotionally.

The kids were playing way too many video games and watching too many movies.  It really bothered me that we weren't doing other things but I didn't have the emotional capabilities to try to engage them elsewhere.  The soccer season that we'd paid for was cancelled with no refunds.  Ballet was put online instead of in person.  It was so hard to get Evelyn to participate without her friends around her.  Ada's and my gym was closed for several months and put online, but we didn't have the equipment that they use.  We did our best with all of it.  Dad started having everyone walk on the treadmill to get exercise in.  Piano lessons were cancelled.  Friends were only seen online or over the phone.

Our YW's group tried and failed to safely do social distanced activities.  The older girls just stopped responding to texts.  We sort of successfully were able to convince the girls that we could meet online once a month.  That worked for the first few months, but by August it was not.  They really need in person contact.

My daycare partner was so completely overwhelmed by May and asked me to help.  Judy was done with chemo and radiation so I said yes.  Plus Sam's medical expenses were $7000 last year and I really was missing the income from the daycare. I knew that it was risky for her and Walter so I took a COVID test before going to the Robertson family reunion.  It turned out negative, but the mom of one of two of the daycare kids was Covid positive and we had to miss the Robertson reunion anyways.  That was sad, but we said that we'd make it fun.  We did activities at home with the kids and built a new playhouse hobbit door for the backyard.  That was fun, but it was a lot of work.

We had booked a trip to Yellowstone for June the year before.  We thought they wouldn't be open for us to go, but they opened the week before our reservation and we were so excited to be able to get out and do something fun!  It was not crowded and everyone wore masks in crowded areas, so I felt it was fine.  I made sure that everyone washed their hands with sanitizer after being in the public bathrooms, but otherwise I felt great about being out camping.  In late May, I found out that the reason why I've been in chronic pain is not only because of my plantar tendon, but it's also because I have arthritis in my hip and neck as well as a collapsed disc in my back.  They've been painful for at least 15 years, so the damage must have been done a long time ago.  The week before our Yellowstone trip I started physical therapy and getting shots in my hip.  It got so bad that I couldn't get out of bed.  It took me 15 very painful minutes to wiggle slowly to the side of the bed enough to be able to force myself upright.  This was very stressful for me to realize that I couldn't keep up with my family anymore.    I want my family to be active and adventurous.  I don't want my husband to have to always wait for me as I struggle along.  That was a very hard summer for me.  I've been doing 7 months of physical therapy and they are anticipating at least 3 more.  It takes 10 hours of my week and it's so hard to be consistent, but it's worth it.

Daycare guidelines changed dramatically. I had to start cleaning toys and playground equipment daily.  For someone already doing physical therapy, this was really hard after an 11 hour work day.  My kids, you became my best weapons.  You would step in and pick up, clean, do dishes, lysol everything.  I will appreciate you forever for seeing a need and stepping in to fill it.  I had to wash hands of kids as they walked in the door.  Parents weren't allowed into the house anymore.  Lots of things to adjust to.  And I struggled to.  Daycare was 10x harder with all the new restrictions.  I could understand why they are there, and they are hard still. I also potty trained two kids this year.  That was never my favorite, but I did realize that it was easier now that I'm not emotionally invested in it like I was with my own kids.  In the space of a month, my daycare insurance agency decided that they can't insure us because we have a trampoline on the property (even though they were told about it and that it is kept locked at all times while daycare kids are present), and my license inspector tried giving me a huge fine.  It was my third inspection and they were all told about having a rifle locked away in the garage... but for some reason, the third inspector decided that it was not locked up well enough. I had to step through ALL the hoops and eventually got my license renewed and my insurance back together.  Then a mom in the daycare had an anxiety attack and accused me of not being a safe environment for her baby that I'd been watching for 6 months already.  That was not helpful for my own anxiety.  I very rarely lose nights of sleep because of other people.  I lost several because of her.  My partner talked to her, she brought her baby back and never said another word about it.  

It was a hard decision to send kids back to school.  I was afraid, but I knew that the kids got by at home with me, but excelled at school with their teachers.  I didn't think I'd be able to run the daycare and help with homeschool either.  We choose to send you guys back to school and pray for the best.  I'm the president of the Parent Organization and so I'm required to go to the school board meetings.  I saw how hard the admins were working to make everything safe for you.  I also saw how many teachers were concerned or scared.  I thought that school would be out by October and it would just give us enough time to get you settled into your course work before having to work from home.  We decided not to sign you up for soccer.  Fewer people that you'd be exposed to, and I didn't want to spend $400 on getting you signed up to be cancelled again.  That was also a hard decision because all of you love soccer and your teams so much.  I was right in one thing.  You have excelled being in class.  Ada LOVES jr high.  Her advanced math teacher was just the thing she needed.  Drama helps her have a creative outlet and she learned more in the cooking class then she has ever let me teach her about cooking.  Sam got the perfect teacher that saw that he needed a challenge and gave him one.  He's finishing up 7th grade math, is the first to memorize and recite all the poems assigned, and is learning chinese while others are finishing up their classwork.  Evelyn is loved by her teacher and I always get emails telling me how kind and happy she is.  I think that's a good thing, because her teacher was one of the ones that was terrified to come back to school.  Evelyn is never behind on her work and is always ready to read another book.  Seth can read anything thrown at him and has learned how to sit still long enough to get a task done before bounding off to jump off things again.  He's found good friends.  Here we are in December and still going strong.  The highest number of cases at the charter school was 3.  Currently there's only 1 case of Covid.  They are careful and while we've had to get rid of a lot of fun things about school, they are still thriving.  

Since the start of school, we've still helped our Robertson grandparents with the lawn, building a shed, planting the garden and harvesting grapes and apples.  We stay outside, visit Grandma from far away and when the number in Utah jumped really high in the middle of November, we stopped visiting all together.  All this time, I've been using my Saturdays to get shots in my hips, neck and back to hopefully build up the tissue and reverse some of the damage done.  And all this time, you kids have taken the list of chores to do and gotten them done, or mostly done, by the time Dad and I get back from the clinic.  It's painful to get the shots.  It's painful to watch my kids have to be the adults.  But I'm also very proud of what you've done this year and the responsibilities that you've taken on.

Grandma Wilcox had major back surgery and you guys all took it in stride.  Watching each other while I hung out with Grandma.  You prayed for both Grandmas and your cousin Walter all year.  

Halloween was very scaled back, but you didn't complain.  The race riots all summer and the fighting over a very heated presidential election caused fights in both our extended families. You didn't care about the issues, you cared about your extended family.

We were thankful to be able to make it to Bryce Canyon the week after Fall break.  There was no one there and is was a beautiful break from our hard year.  Thanksgiving almost didn't happen for us, but again you didn't complain.  We don't know if the latest COVID scare will change our Christmas, but you've all just taken it in stride.  

This year has been hard.  It has been full of challenges and changes in our daily lives.  It continues to be challenging, but you have shown that you're up for the challenges and that you'll keep going.  There has been some complaining, but you're learning not to.  I've loved doing home church with you.  I love that with every challenge is an opportunity to talk about our faith in Jesus Christ and His eventual second coming.  I hope that when you are grown that you will remember this not as a hard year, but as a year of growth and faith. The new year will not bring an end to our current obstacles, but it will bring another year for us to learn, mature and grown.  We've been very blessed that through all this, it was just hard but it has not been debilitating.  

Anti-social weekend

 

While we're not sure whether we've been exposed to the virus or not, we've been keeping ourselves busy.  I replaced the bottoms of my Great-grandma Camenish's chairs because they were torn and threadbare.  Jer introduced the kids to pickleball.  And sadly, we said goodbye to our marvelous Mulberry tree.  It's scheduled to get cut down on Tuesday.  The crack in it it has widened to 7 or 8 inches and I'm so scared that it will fall and hurt our house, fence, swing set and our neighbors tool shed. It's a good thing, but man I'm sad about it.  I have loved that tree for 14 years.  It will make raking leaves easier for the next couple of years.    I'm grateful for professionals that are willing to come do the job instead of Jer doing it on his own.  It's a very heavy and big tree. We figure that Jer can be the man that can talk to the tree guy.  He didn't have very much contact with the daycare, and if we are contagious then he's least likely to have gotten it yet. 

Day after Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving we love going to Baum's and getting our Christmas tree.  This year we did it a couple days after, but we still had fun.  It was still pretty warm and we didn't look at ALL the trees this year.  We got in, got out tree and got out. Then we made a second turkey dinner.  We had bought one just in case we didn't end up going to dinner with my family.  It was yummy and we've been eating turkey soup, turkey burritos, and just plain turkey and gravy for a week.  Yum.

Then I got sick and didn't feel well over night but woke up just fine.  Then on Monday as the daycare started to show up, we found that 4 of the 6 of us had fevers.  My daycare partner took over the daycare so that we could all get COVID tested.  The tests were the spit ones this time and we like those a lot more than the up your nose ones.  My test came back Tues night, the rest of the tests came back on Wed all 6 of us were negative.  A 5th person came down with a fever, but we figured it was just a flu bug at this point. Ada and I went to breakfast with my Mom and Dad, Janelle, Seth and Reid to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  That was fun and Ada loved being included.  I took over at the daycare for Thursday and Friday and my partner says that her husband just came back positive for COVID-19. Gah. Her husband works night shifts every couple of weeks, and this was one of those so he had no contact with the daycare kids or his own family all week.  They sent him off to a hotel to quarantine and I'm taking the daycare while they are quarantining too.  They were told that they could go back to work or school 10 days after last contact with dad.  That would have been a whole month if they had kept him home...  So far it's been 4 days with him gone and no one has developed any symptoms.  If they don't by the end of this week then we haven't been exposed.  If they do then we will have to quarantine for a week or two.  As it is, we did online church and skipped out on all our weekend activities.  This year has definitely called for us to be flexible.  It was a intense week of cleaning and very patient children.

 

Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving this year almost didn't happen for us.  With me running the daycare, we're always worried that we're going to be Covid spreaders.  We all seemed healthy so we went.  Ada helped me make two of the pies, Sam stayed up til midnight with Jer making the apple pies, and Ada helped Jer make rolls.  Every time there was an imperfect roll she would say that that it was one that Jer made.  It was really funny.  I'm grateful that my mom's recovery from her back surgery is going well.  We're grateful that Seth and Reid were able to find a nice roommate.  We're grateful that Janelle has found a nice guy.  We're grateful that Sharon's house is finally making progress.  We're grateful that the adoption of the twins was finally approved for McKay's family.  I'm grateful that we haven't gotten sick while doing the daycare and that I have a partner so that I'm not doing it on my own.  I'm grateful that Jer can work from home so that I can see him throughout the day.  I'm grateful for all the wonderful people that surround us even when we are far apart.

The kids and Jer have gotten into playing Magic the Gathering with their cousins and my brother.  Jer took the opportunity to help the kids make their own wooden boxes for their cards.  They look spectacular and I am so glad that they each could learn a new skill.

Finances

 I was doing finances this morning and thought it was funny that our bank auto labelled Evelyn's ballet class as Dining out.