I don’t feel like I have much to tell this month. The kids stay busy with their school work. They are still doing everything from home, but it seems to be going okay. Neal goes into the office a couple of days a week, but still works from home a lot. Things are rather mundane and follow the sameness every day. But we are all doing well.
I am thankful that church activities have started up again. The kids have had different times of gathering with their youth groups and doing things outside or in the cultural hall. I had a Relief Society activity in the church parking lot. We set up chairs and visited. It was nice to see people and connect with them. I also enjoy going to my book club. Our ward has started meeting all together again for church. They spread out through the cultural hall and ask families to stay separate from other families. It is nice to be together again. I am enjoying doing some zoom meetings with extended family too. It is good to see people and hear things they are doing.
Ruth had fun going to a party at a friends home. They invited a few people over to celebrate the twins 18th birthday. Ruth also gets lots of mail from colleges around the country. They see her good test scores and are sending things to recruit her. One fun thing was a recruiting packet from BYU that had a car magnet of a Y. She immediately put it on her car. She also did a survey for BYU at one time and won a t-shirt from them. She was glad to get it in the mail and had fun wearing it this week. BYU is still her top choice for university, but she has applied to others as well. Her high school announced the graduation date for May 13. We hope that they can do some sort of ceremony for her class.
I had my birthday this month. It was a nice day. General Conference was that week end. So I basically sat around and watched TV all day. Neal fixed a nice dinner for us. Ruth wanted to make and decorate a cake for me. It was fun to have them do things for me. I enjoyed the fresh flowers and small gifts from Neal too. The evening before Neal and I went to dinner together. We got some take-out and then drove to a spot on the hill that overlooks the valley and watched the sun set as we ate and talked.
Caleb had fun going to a friend from school, Evan’s, birthday party. They held it at a park and the boys were running around playing with Nerf guns. It was nice for him to play with a group of boys. I enjoyed visiting with the other parents there.
I am still working on scanning negatives from my mom’s picture collection. I scanned some pictures this week of Rachel playing with Uno cards and stacking towers with them. Caleb thought it was amazing and wanted to try. He has been working at it, but hasn’t reached Rachel’s abilities yet. I enjoy seeing the old pictures and having so many memories come back to me.
Rachel, 1988
The kids had a fall break with a couple of days off school. We didn’t go anywhere but they had fun not being on the computers for school work. Ruth, Spencer and Caleb made wooden swords. They put them together and then painted them. It was a good project for them to work on together and they had some fun with it. After getting a few smashed fingers and whacks from each other we made it a rule that they should probably only do sword fights with imaginary foes.
The missionaries in our ward are working hard. I had the opportunity to help them a bit with an investigator who had a baby. I organized some meals to be brought in for her. I also fed the missionaries one evening. Because of the virus spreading more right now, the missionaries can’t eat with us, but they came by and picked up a meal to take home to eat. We missed having them in our home to visit with. It is fun to hear that Peter made it home safely from his mission. It is great he was able to serve. Then last night James opened his mission call. He will be serving in Syracuse New York, leaving the end of December. Missionaries are great.
I had an opportunity this month to go to the temple with a sister who was going for the first time. I had been a ministering sister to her a couple of years ago. She wasn’t attending church at that time and hadn’t for decades. The sister who ministered to her after me started bringing her to church. It was fun to see her at church and to see her change as she tried hard to live the gospel. She was raised in the church but was never very active as an adult. Then at 90 years old she was able to go to the temple. I am thankful I was invited to be with the group. It was special to be there. After the endowment session she was sealed to her husband, he had passed away many years ago. It was a special day. I am so thankful for the temple and the blessings that come into our lives because of it.
