March 2020

 WE HAD NO IDEA HOW THIS MONTH WOULD CHANGE OUR LIVES!

WEEK 1 (March 1st - 7th) - March 1st roared in like a lion and with no sight of spring in the near future.  It was super cold and still super snowy.  Ava has been talking nonstop about how she can't wait to move to the beach when she is an adult.  The kids think we moved to Antarctica.  Jed and I constantly saw that "I don't remember it being so cold when we were kids!"  The cows are starting to calve more regularly.  There are a couple new calves every time we go over. 

Ava had a Math Counts night at the school.  The girls ran in to support it.  There was also an author there that had just published her second book called The Wish & the Peacock.  Her name was Wendy S. Swore.  She had also visited the elementary schools and Kinsley was really hoping to get her new book.  We waited in line and Kinsley was not only able to get the book, but she also got a signed copy as well as a real peacock feather to go with it. She has loved it and has been reading it non-stop since then.  Kinsley is such a cutie.  She is very petite for her age and we discovered this week that she still fits perfectly into Dallin's carseat - probably even better than Dallin does.

We are so excited that work is finally getting done on our basement! In January workers came and framed the spare room and textured the walls.  Then we were told it would probably be 4-6 weeks before the painters could come.  It was so disappointing.  Then the last week of February Jeremy was able to come and build all the closets.  We put in two big full size storage closets in our new playroom, finally got Kinsley's closet, put in the new baseboards, and had the back porch storage shelves put in.  It was awesome!  Like a miracle the painter's came the next week!  Jeremy gave me the number for the carpet layers and I made an appointment for them to come the following week.  I was so excited that the same day on my way to get errands in Idaho Falls I stopped at the carpet store.  Luckily it barely fit in the back of the suburban and we brought it home that same day.  The kids used it for a balance beam and toy for the next week.  Dallin, in particular, put it to great use one night as his running board for dunking.  Jed kept pulling it back farther and farther which made Dallin have to jump through the air farther and farther.  He was a 3 yr old version of Michael Jordan.  It was actually incredibly impressive that his little body was coordinated enough to do that to me.  Dallin gives everything 100% effort and slamming into the basketball hoop didn't phase him one bit.

Ava finished up another trimester this week which meant that she completed another physics project.  This one was about spinning something on one end which gave a charge to something on the other end which caused something else to light up or something.  Obviously it's a little over my head. Ironically, Kinsley got her new science kit experiment in the mail this week as well.  She ended up building the exact same type of machine that Ava built for her first physics project last month.  It even used syringes for hydraulics just like Ava's project did.  Kinsley built it excellently and I was even more impressed that Ava had come up with hers in her mind and built it from scratch.

Saturday morning we attended our nephew Matt's daughter's baptism.  I guess that makes Mattie our great-niece??  To our kids she is more like another cousin though.  It was the first time for most of the family that they saw Kinsley in her new glasses.  She definitely fits in as an Erickson with glasses.

WEEK 2 (March 8th - 14th) - This week started off with daylight savings - the worst invention of mankind.  I never had much struggle with my kids adjusting to daylight savings and I don't ever remember it being a big deal growing up either.  However, with each year daylight savings continues to kick my butt harder and harder.  It throws off everything in my internal functions.  I struggled for the rest of the month with feeling totally exhausted and frustrated with the time change.  This week Ava's cow had her calf.  It is a cute little thing.  We also had another animal sighting.  There are two huge snowshoe hares that live around us somewhere.  We spotted one in the yard and it was perfectly camouflaged.  Watching it hop away was pretty cool because it's feet barely touched the ground and hardly made marks.

I was contacted this week to apply for a teaching position in the company Let's Play Music.  I had submitted an application when we moved to Rigby last summer, but the company didn't feel like there was a need for another teacher here.  Apparently that has changed in a year and they invited me to apply by submitting a video of me teaching a mock class.  I reached out to my sisters for help and they were able to gather some friends with 4-5 yr old kids to come to my class.  I was pretty proud that I was able to put it all together in a 24 hr turn-around.

This second week of March will be one I will never forget.  Last week was like any other week of March.  There were the startings of reports that a virus COVID-19 had made it's way to the USA.  It had been a devastating virus in China since late 2019.  It was now affecting Europe.  Last week I said to Jed, "It seems like it's getting more serious, maybe we should take some precautions."  He said that it was really the same as any other virus and not to get too worried.  Well this week the whole world fell apart because of this corona-virus.  The first part of the week started out fairly normal.  Dallin went to gymnastics on Tuesday and afterwards we did the Let's Play Music mock class.  Everybody went to youth activities that night.  Wednesday I had Jed take Kinsley to gymnastics and while he was there I got an announcement that an NBA player had tested positive for the virus and the NBA was putting their season on hold.  The next morning I decided to put my daily plans on hold and drive to Pocatello to Costco to stock up on necessities.  I felt prompted to stop at Walmart on the way down and get a couple month's supply of toiletries like toothpaste, deodorant, makeup, etc.  I got to Costco just as it opened at 10am.  I had Dallin so I could only fill up one cart.  I made that purchase and loaded it in my car and then headed back in and filled up a second full cart.  I had ordered some groceries from the store as well so I stopped and picked those up on my way home also.  When I was at Costco I tried not to go crazy.  I only got one pack of toilet paper for example.  The store was busy like usual, but not out of control.  I felt a great sense of relief knowing I would have plenty of food and supplies for the next little while.  I feel very thankful I was impressed to do that Thursday morning.  Throughout the day Thursday everything in the world changed.  Thursday afternoon the church announced that there would be no Sunday gathering for meetings and no activities through the week, colleges announced they were closing their campuses for the foreseeable future, state-wide all extra curricular school sponsored activities were cancelled, the MLB cancelled it's season, the Olympics were put on hold, restrictions on international travel were put in place by the federal government, and people started to panic.  People started stockpiling food and necessities like toilet paper at record speed.  There were even reports of fights in grocery stores across the country over items.  I was thankful I had gone to the stores before it all started to get really bad.  Saturday it started snowing - big, huge flakes I've never seen before.  We decided to take the kids to the movies Saturday afternoon "before the movie theaters close down" we joked.  We stopped at Walmart on the way home to check for a few things.  This was toilet paper aisle.  The canned goods, rice, baking, bread, and meat aisles all looked similar.

As the whole world was closing down, do not fear that the kids' elementary school was still going full steam with their Suessapolooza celebration/fundraiser.  I had already bought tickets for the kids so I decided we would run over.  I felt bad for all the teachers that had put so much work into getting it set up.  It was like a big carnival and each classroom was decorated with Dr. Suess things and had an activity the students could participate in for tickets.  When we got there the kids wanted to go with their friends.  Kasen disappeared so I followed Kinsley.  I was not impressed with her friends at all.  I thought they were bratty and disrespectful.  I didn't think they were very nice to Kinsley either.  Kasen's friend was nice, but wanted to chase girls around the whole time.  Both sets of friends just wanted to walk around and act loud instead of participating in the activities.  When I got home I told Jed that I really wasn't happy with the environment our kids were in for 6 hours a day.  I felt frustrated by it.  We talked about how so much time at school is wasted time really.  Jed was telling me how he had a few patients that sent their kids to charter schools and a private school in Rexburg that only teaches core classes for 4 hrs a day. I went to bed wishing for another option to school.  Little did I know I would get my wish in just a few days.

Thursday while I was down in Pocatello at Costco the carpet layers came and started working on the carpet.  I got home just as they were finishing up.  It was so awesome!  Everything was done except the lights and hooks for the back porch.  The kids were so excited.  We started moving some items in to the playroom and putting away things in the closet.  Moving out piles of stuff from our living room and office area and hallway was like being defibrillated and coming back to life.  The kids were finally able to get their legos out again and played in there all night Thursday and Friday with the construction ground light on. Saturday morning Jeremy came over and finished all the lighting and electrical.  We didn't see the kids all day on Saturday.

WEEK 3 (March 15th - 21st) -This week started off especially unique as we had our first home church meetings.  Jed put together the program and I taught Sunday school.  Kasen passed the sacrament.  The kids did a great job preparing and giving talks.  Dallin of course wouldn't stop talking and could have given a 50 minute Sunday sermon if we would have let him.  Right when he got up he said, "Brother and Sisters... this church is awesome!"  It was really funny.  My mom had challenged all the grandkids to color this picture of the first vision from the Friend magazine.  Kasen, Kinsley, and Dallin worked hard on their pictures.  I was taking a picture of Dallin when I realized that he was coloring a picture of the picture hanging on the wall behind him.

 

Later that night we went over to check the cows.  It had been raining all weekend and the corrals were a huge, sloppy mess.  Jed had to pull calves in on a little sled so they wouldn't get sick in the slop. Later on in the week the ground dried up a little big more.  Kasen's cow had her calf.  The calf came out breach and the back legs were bent.  Drew made braces for the calf and after a couple of days it could walk without them.  It did end up getting sick and they had to mark it with green to give it some medicine. 

Later that week we also got another surprise - a set of twin babies.  Jed said most cows won't take care of twins, but this mom did and so far they've kept both babies with her.

We got an email Sunday from the school district that school would still be in session this week, but absences would not be penalized if parents decided to keep their kids home due to the corona virus. So our kids stayed home on Monday and by Tuesday the school district had changed their policy to everyone staying home for an extended spring break from March 16th - April 3rd.  The kids were pretty torn - part excited part sad not to go to school.  We got started on homeschool right away and I knew the only way I'd survive is if we had some sort of schedule each day. The first part of the week I let the kids have a a couple of days to just have fun and play since it was technically their spring break.  They watched some tv and movies, played funny games on the computer and phone, played games together, and one night we had a dodgeball fight.

These were a couple cute pictures of Dallin this week.  One night while he was in the tub he was "shaving." He is such a funny boy.  He has been having the hardest time with everyone home all the time.  I thought he would love it the most, but turns out he must miss his alone time.

This week was St. Patrick's day.  Since we were home we celebrated by wearing green and eating tacos on green tortillas and Ava made homemade oreos with green frosting.

By the end of the week we had a pretty good schedule going.  I decided to try a block schedule so things could still be a little flexible.  We kept the early morning for our morning routine.  From 10-12 we do homeschool.  Kasen & Kinsley work in their workbooks and Ava does reading and writing.  On Tues & Thurs, Ava participates in online zoom meetings with other homeschool kids around the country for two classes.  One class is a history class - the other is a self-improvement class where they talk about setting goals, developing habits, and creating a growth mindset.  There are reading assignments with both of these classes.  She has really enjoyed them.  From 12-3pm we have lunch, do chores, and read.  From 3-6pm they can have free time to watch tv or play.  It's been too cold to go outside much unfortunately.  A lot of times during free time they build with legos and draw only to realize about 5pm they haven't watched any tv.  I have been thinking this whole week what a blessing straight from heaven it has been that our basement got finished before this happened!  We feel like we have so much room in our house now and I'm not sure we would have survived without the playroom.

 

The kids have gotten creative with being home all day.  One day during homeschool they asked if they could get the tents out.  I'm so glad that they still have fun together.  Kinsley loves playing with Dallin and Kasen is still at the age where he likes playing with Kinsley and Dallin too.  Dallin is lucky.  I will be sad when the day comes that he is still a kid and the other three have grown up. 

Each morning part of our morning routine is to eat breakfast, get dressed, make beds, brush our hair, do scripture study, and we added get some physical exercise.  This week was actually the warmest one we had.  Still chilly, but warmer.  We started going out for a jog.  Most of the time I take one kid at a time for about 10-15min and then they switch with someone else.  Kasen and Ava say I'm too slow and run far ahead of me.  Kinsley stays by my side.  Dallin he gets a little crazy.  Luckily there aren't too many cars on the road where we live.  There was one day when they all wanted to go at the same time.  We've passed a couple houses with signs on their doors that say basically that they will not answer because of the virus.  Because of the time of year where everything looks dead and wet and  the emptiness of human hustle and bustle it sorta feels like we are in some weird dystopian novel.

 

Friday and Saturday Jed got some fire under his feet and decided to move his horse pens all around.  Kasen and Dallin went out to help him, but I'm not sure how much help they really were.  They had fun though.

I have been thinking about setting up a family economy system for awhile now and this week seemed like a better time as any to instigate another system into our family.  So I organized some jobs the kids would rotate through and get paid for each week.   I basically sat down and wrote out a list of things/skills I wanted my kids to have by the time they leave the house and put them together in 3 main jobs: Nanny, Home Chef & Laundry, and House Cleaner.  The nanny has certain jobs they have to do with Dallin throughout the day and they are in charge of the dishes for the week, the Home Chef gets to make dinners everynight and be in charge of the laundry, the House Cleaner is pretty self explanatory.  Honestly, besides Ava, this is way more work for me than anything right now having Kasen or Kinsley help and learn these chores as it seems I still have to do them all too.  Hopefully it will not be too long before they actually get better at them.

Towards the end of Saturday night, everyone was very looney and sort of losing their mind.  I'm not even sure how it happened, but the kids started a flexibility contest to see who would win.  I did not participate, but everyone else did - even Jed on one move anyway.  Then it turned into a jumping and twisting contest somehow.

These were my favorites for the week:  One big, huge surprise that really sent everyone reeling a bit was that Utah had an earthquake!  Malorie felt it and so did Trena.  It registered as a 5.3 and there were also aftershocks for the rest of the day.  It really made the quarantine even eerier.

WEEK 4 (March 22nd - 28th) - Week 2 of home church and I'll be honest - I love home church.  By the time we can go back to church we might have a lot of people that don't want to!  I love hearing my kids give talks and prepare them.  We have been focusing on the restoration as President Nelson has challenged us to do to prepare for conference. 

Sunday afternoon, Kinsley dropped a mixer on her foot and she was on bed rest with an ice bag for a little while.  Dallin wanted to cheer her up and decided the best way to do so was by blowing the recorder in her face apparently.  Then all of a sudden it turned into a dancing recorder musical performance.  This kid is so full of energy and enthusiasm.  Kinsley and I couldn't stop giggling.  Lately he starts every sentence with "When I was a baby..." and then he will tell some random story about things he has never done in his life.  For example: When I was a baby I went to the jungle and learned all about crocodiles.  That kid has one good imagination.  While he was fluting and dancing he was also telling us one of these "When I was a baby" stories in song form.  In the middle of the whole thing he danced over to Kinsley and put his head on her shoulder and sang, "Kinsley is the best girl ever!" Then without skipping a beat away he went again.

Sunday we took bags of treats to Sydnee's family and dropped off some to Jordan for his birthday as well.  Kasen wrote the notes.  Our little cousin Deantre in NYC is so cute to check in on.  He is doing his part to be a good global citizen on his short daily walks.

Sunday night we were nominated for a pushup challenge that was going around on social media.  See 10 then Do 10 to stay healthy during corona virus.

This week was super cold and miserable so we had to give up our outside running time.  The younger three have been getting some exercise doing GoNoodle activities. 

I'm always impressed with what the kids end up doing for their free time.  One day Ava had set up a station to record the sky and cloud movement.  Kinsley and Kasen and Dallin made homemade edible playdough one day.  Kasen is my most creative, artsy child I think.  They all are, but Kasen seems to gravitate toward creating craft type things the most.  This week he designed an Iron Man mask/helmet from a cereal box.  Another day he made an Egyptian armband because we've been studying about Egypt in our history curriculum this week.  One afternoon I ran in to get some more groceries and came home to find Kasen dressed as below.  He said he, Kins, and Dallin were playing jumanji explorers.  When I said - hey let me take a picture of you - his reply was "just make sure you only use the picture where my abs look the best ok."

Kinsley finished her peacock book this week and was really proud of herself.  I think she said the book was just over 300 pages.  Because Dallin thinks that he needs to do homeschool if everyone else is, I also get to spend time teaching him homeschool as well.  He lasts about 15 minutes so it's not too bad, but this week we worked on cutting with scissors.  I love that whenever he really tries to focus on something he sticks his tongue out just a tiny bit.

Now that our basement is finished I was able to hang up some of our art that has been sitting in the hallway for 5 months. How ironic is Dallin's face below in the picture with the pictures above.

This week Dallin has been doing a little better with a few less meltdowns.  So far Ava has been his nanny one week and Kasen has been the manny (male nanny) another week.  Kasen said by far the worst job is cooking dinner every night.  Ava thinks the nanny takes too much time.  I told them welcome to being a parent - especially a mom.  One thing Ava and Kasen think is super funny to do is make memes.  I'm not sure anything they make is actually funny, but they sure think they are funny.

On Wednesday the 25th the governor of Idaho issued a 21 day stay-at-home mandate for everyone except essential workers.  Essential workers were certain healthcare workers, farmers, grocery store employees, and delivery services.  There were a few others too. Everyone else was supposed to stay home and only leave for the essentials.  Rumors were swirling that this announcement would be made and then the governor announced a press conference at noon.  I quickly ran into Broulims around 10 am to get anything else I thought I might need in the next weeks.  It was a mad house.  I've never seen anything like it before.  I thought "well I might be getting corona virus right now."  Very few shelves were full or even half full.  Here are the chicken freezer and the lunch meat and cheese aisles.

Sometimes the only outside time we get is when we go check the cows a mile up the road.  They are super cute and it does make you feel less stressed out looking at them.  Saturday Jed got the itch to get some projects done again.  I spent the entire day organizing and arranging the house now that I have the extra space.  Jed moved the dike in the pasture back so he can put in a riding arena and smoothed out our driveway with the skidster from the farm before they got busy with potato planting next week.

WEEK 4.5 (March 29th - 31st) - March had a few days left during this last week.  Week 3 of home church.  This week Jed and I gave talks during sacrament meeting and for Sunday school we did a family zoom call with the Ericksons.  Every family shared a spiritual thought.  It was really a great idea.

More learning going on this week.  Kasen told me he hates homeschool and after this thinks he will never need to learn again.  I keep telling him everytime he complains I will happily remind him that there is never a graduation from learning.  He was also on cooking duty and I'm not sure how but the kid might not know how to do anything in the kitchen.  I felt like I was watching a quadriplegic sweep the floor the other day when he was doing it. He might be getting close to running away.  Dallin likes Starfall.com and Kinsley is turning into quite the little scientist.  This week her experiment she did all by herself was using lemons to wire a clock to work.  It was cool.  The instant you took the electrical wire out of the lemon the clock would turn off. 

This was probably the longest week so far.  It felt like 8 years in one week.  Everything about the entire week was tiring. I was reading something that said not to treat your home mandated time as a vacation - well no problem there. Jed has been on an 80 year old man television watching kick without sporting games to watch.  I've officially got too many parts of Lonesome Dove and Man From Snowy River lodged into my subconscious mind forever.  His snoring has reached an all-time loudness level.  We may be getting separate rooms soon.  On the 31st a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit Boise area.  We did not feel it but apparently there were some people in Roberts area that did.