If I Have to Quarantine....6650 Blackjack Oaks Rd Is the Place For Me

Today is actually July 20th.
I've been catching up on my blogging for the past three months.
But we are still in quarantine.
No church, no temple, no friends homes, no anything except groceries, gas station and the grandkids houses.
So I am quarantined to 6650 Blackjack Oaks Rd.
And I'm content.
I took these pictures over the past few weeks of some areas on our land.  They are simple things - but they bring me so much joy and peace.  Yes, Del is going to be building a tree house for the grandchildren.  The snake he found, was with the help of one of the grandchildren, but it came from exploring our back forest.  The wild flowers come up every year, right at the back of our garden, along the fence to the creek.  They are beautiful and can be seen from my office window facing the backyard.  The beautiful tree with the bright pink blossoms is one of three such trees that blossom every year in the flower bed in the front of our home.  The apple trees, of which one, I call the Tree of Good and Evil, were transplanted this year to the back of the garden, and it too, I can see from my office window.  The creek if full after a rainstorm that replenishes our yard with moisture and nourishment.  And I know the grandkids will LOVE wading through the muddy water when they come over later today.  They will leave wet and filthy dirty, but happy.  Content.
I love where I am.  And if I have to be quarantined, then there is no where else I would rather be.

Rykert and Lilly Come For a Visit

Rykert and Lilly are Ammon's oldest children from his first marriage.  They come and visit Ammon every year in the month of June.  This year, they stayed at our house.  The grandkids would come over at least 1-2 times a week and play with them.  The kids all really got along  well and did tons of fun things. They learned a lot of interesting things interacting with Rykert and his disability .  They had a lot of patience and even FUN, as Rykert really can be quite child like at times.  Neither child wanted to go home at the end of the month.

Girls Night With My Girls

Even though the Night Out was used as a ruse to get me out of the house, I still loved being with my girls.  The plan was to take me out to play and dinner while the men were all home putting in my new double oven in my kitchen!!  A wonderful Mother's Day surprise.
My girls are funny.  Kylie is usually quite fashionable to the best of occasions.  Lexi loves an excuse to get dressed up, because her opportunities are far and few between events.  Kathryn and I love to be comfortable, so we wear comfortable clothes.  When we're all together, we compliment each other in likes and dislikes - we talk both casually and in depth, whichever the mood allows.  We enjoy being together, of which I'm really glad.

Not Sure What's in That Creek Water

Emerson and Evie love to come over to Nana and Papa's house, probably more than anyone else.  They love to explore, play and find things all over the place.  This visit was right after it had rained a heavy rain and there was excess water sitting in the creek.  Emerson wanted to find little fish - and I mean LITTLE fish.  And tadpoles.  Of course, Papa and Jordan were able to figure up some kind of contraption with the rake and screen and some other things that when smack in the middle of the creek, they were able to catch tons of these little fish.  Evie had to strip down to her undies as she didn't want to get her pretty dress wet.  But Em?  Just put some of Papa's rain boots on and he was ready to wade into anything, no matter how deep it was or what he may find.
They had a blast.  Must have played for over an hour or so.  Simple things.

Memes of The Quarantine

April 2020 General Conference -

Back in the October 2019 Sessions of General Conference, President Nelson asked us to make certain preparations for the following General Conference, which would be a celebration of the Restoration of the Church - focusing specifically on the First Vision and the Coming of the Book of Mormon. Then during the following months, the prophet asked us to study diligently, the experiences of Joseph Smith and the First Vision and the Restoration of the Gospel.
Months were spent reading and re-reading the accounts of the first vision.  I tried hard to understand what the Lord was wanting me to understand.  We were asked to fast and pray about the truthfulness of the events shared by Joseph Smith, and I took that challenge seriously.  We were asked to fast as a church, and then as a nation, for the healing of the Covid 19 virus, pleading for the Lord to remove it from the earth. 
April General Conference, President Nelson presented to the members of the church and to the world, the new proclamation of the Restoration of the Gospel and the accounts of the First Vision.  There is no longer any mincing of words as to the truthfulness of the gospel and the announcement that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the ONLY true and living church on the face of the earth.  And the proclamation is intense.  It is poignant - it is bold - and it is TRUE.
There was also the presenting of the new LOGO for the church.  Whereas it was the symbol of the Angel Moroni with his trumpet before, it is now a statue of the Savior Jesus Christ with the official name of the church underneath it. Something that was comical about that change is - currently the Salt Lake Temple is being refurbished and in that process, the workers were working on the Moroni statue and accidentally broke it, where the trumpet had fallen out of Moroni's hand.  Someone came up with the following meme which brought some much needed humor to members of the church.

General Conference was also the week of Easter and the Passover.  Much thought and comments were given to the life given of our Savior and for the crisis of the virus currently throughout the world.  I found the following quote to be quite profound.

General Conference had a completely different format - not held in the Conference Center and no members were allowed to attend.  It will be remembered for years to come, as will the rest of the events over the past 2 months.
There were eight new temples announced also.  The ones of significance were in Shanghai China, the first in the Republic of China...and then Dubai India.  Both of these temples are being announced after invitation from those countries to have temples there.  THEY invited US to have temples there.  Epic events.
The Church is true.  I miss the socializing with members - the feeling of unity with ward members as we've not been together for 7 weeks.  But the principles and doctrines of the church remain the same.  We are sustained by living prophets and scriptures.  We are sustained by our Savior and our Father who hears and answers our prayers.
This is just for a short time. But there has been much to learn during these past months that will be of significant strength to us in the coming months and years.
I don't want to ever go back to what we understood to be our normal.
I want a new normal to consist of what we have learned from the experience - eliminating the unnecessary and busyness of our lives - and living basically with needs and desires to be better people, better ministers, better servants - better parents, families children of God.
That will be MY new normal.

Testosterone Levels Are High

You wonder, when you have children, if when they grow up, they will carry characteristics and traits of one or both of their parents. I have always thought that two of my children looked like me - Michael and Kathryn.  And that Jordan and Kylie looked more like Del.  But there have  been a few times when I have posted my engagement picture or pictures of my first 5 years married, that MANY have said that Kylie looks like me.  She does.
But Jordan remains his father's son.
Over the past few years and especially with Del's facial hair, I see a few more similarities in their mannerisms and expressions.  They are currently working together on a few business projects and I find it interesting to see how they interact - how they play off each others strengths and weaknesses.  How they each contribute to conversations - their patience level with irritations, differences or lack of understanding. How they tackle home projects together - how they respect each other.
How they love each other.
You know, it wasn't always there.
Del was hard on Jordan.  Or I should say, he expected a LOT from Jordan as a son.  Even perfection.  Jordan, more often than not, did not meet Del's expectations.  Not many people did.  It's one of the hardest things about being in Del's life.  But as Jordan has grown into an adult and had a family of his own, he has come into his own worth.  He's more confident and knows and understands who he is and what he has to contribute in life and to other people.  And in the same sense, Del has realized that there was only one perfect person on this earth and he has started to give the rest of us a break.  Now Del interacts with all of us a little differently, making it much easier for love to flow more freely between parent and child.
And both of my son in laws have lost their fathers so Del has been able to slip into the role of father for them fairly easily too.  It's been nice to see the level of love and respect they all have for the patriarch of our home.