Week 1: January 4 – 10

I’m going to try something new this year and break down posts into each week of the year.  I think it will help me stay on top of it and hopefully also give me a chance to document more than just the who, what, when details.  I’m so glad I posted daily during the COVID lockdown and even though this weekly idea will likely be too much detail for anyone but myself to be interested in I love the idea of being able to look back at even the mundane and remember this crazy, wonderful life of mine.  As I type this it’s already midway through January so the beginning of this month is already fuzzy, but here goes….

Monday [1/4]: Last night I got a text from my friend Stephanie asking myself and four other Auburn-ites if we could have a zoom call later that night.  She didn’t give any indication what it was about  (just “top secret stuff”) so my mind thought of all sorts of possibilities.  Thankfully nobody has cancer or any other terrible life changing event.  Our friend Tracy is turning 50 in March and her husband wants to fly all of us down to Arizona for a weekend to celebrate.  We’re we all in?  Heck yes! Our flights were all booked this morning and I’m so excited about it.  I’m a total homebody, but if I can travel I’m all for it!  

 

We wanted to take the family out to dinner for Abigail’s birthday before she headed back to school, but we’re still under heightened restrictions and indoor dining isn’t allowed.  I called Cheesecake Factory because they have outdoor dining; however, they wouldn’t seat more than four of us at a table so we decided to just take Abigail out without the other kids.  Dinner was great and we enjoyed having her to ourselves.  We talked about school, roommates and future plans.  We asked if she was still considering a mission and she said probably not so we talked about applying for business school for this fall.  She’s such a great girl and will thrive in whatever she chooses.

 

Tuesday [1/5]:  I set an alarm this morning which doesn’t happen very often.  The crazy part is that an alarm was necessary in order for me to leave the house at 9am.  I sure love sleeping in. Andrea and I went for a walk on the Snoqualmie Valley trail instead of doing a P90 class since our friend Kari, that teaches the class, has had COVID the past few weeks.  It seems like cases have really ramped up lately and we now know several people who have had it.  Until today it’d been several weeks since I’ve spent time with any of my friends.  We’ve definitely had lots of family time though and I’ve loved it.

 

Wednesday [1/6]:  I don’t really follow the news myself so I found out about the riots in DC today from my friends via Marco Polo.  To be honest I still don’t know much about it aside from that the Capitol was attacked by a mob of President Donald Trump supporters in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the election.  Things are so crazy out there.  Perhaps it’s inappropriate, but I got a kick out of this…

And this…

Thursday [1/7]:  Another alarm today because we were getting some drapes installed in our bonus room at 8am as well as having the designer that helped bring us some accessories to decorate the room with.  I’ll have to do a post about the transformation when it’s complete.  We’re still waiting on some chairs to arrive for our game table and then it will be done! 

 

Abigail went on a winter hike to Franklin Falls today with her friend Mckaye.  

When she was done she met us at the post office in North Bend to get the kids passports renewed (we had an appointment yesterday to do Abigail’s but didn’t bring her birth certificate with us so she had to take Carly’s appointment today)  Anyhow, Mckaye is starting online MTC next week and apparently over the course of the last few days and Abigail having a few different interactions with friends, Abigail’s decision about serving a mission moved from a probably NOT to a probably.  She told me this on the way home from the post office in her matter-of-fact way and I had a thousand questions I wanted to ask, but I realized she is still figuring this out and she will.  Either way I know she’ll find success and happiness, but I’ll admit I sure would love for her to serve a mission.  I think she would be an incredible missionary and learn and grow in ways she can’t otherwise.  I guess we just wait and see.  It feels like were becoming more spectators in her life than directors, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be I suppose.  Means we’ve raised a confident, responsible daughter.  I can’t wait to see what she decides.

This was Abigail’s last night at home before heading back to school.  She invited a few friends over to hang out.  They were upstairs in the bonus room until around midnight and then she moved the party downstairs thinking they wouldn’t be as likely to disturb the rest of us who were upstairs trying to sleep.  Little did she know that moving downstairs put her right under my bedroom.  I’m such a light sleep that I got very little sleep.  I think they finally called it a night around 3am!

 

Friday [1/8]: My third alarm of the week – ugh!  Abigail and I had to head out this morning by 9am to get her to the airport and also swing by Chick-fil-A for a few free breakfast items.  After dropping her off I hit up Walmart in Renton, which is sketchy on a normal day, but with everyone wearing face masks there was a moment I thought that nearly everyone in that store could mug me.  And a WinCo run which admittedly always makes me feel like I’m killing it at life – a stocked pantry and food on the ready is success in my book! 

 

Saturday [1/9]:  Katie and Drew got me out of bed this morning to diamond art with them and before I knew it it was 2pm! I don’t remember much else of the day, but at some point this weekend we watched the Disney movie Soul which was quite enjoyable.

Sunday [1/10]: Today was our one Sunday of the month that we get to attend church in person.  We stayed afterward so that Jason could be ordained a teacher.  Due to COVID our bishop didn’t participate in the ordinance so it was just Justin laying his hands upon Jason’s head.  I thought a picture to commemorate the event was appropriate – masks and all.

Tonight Carly and I squished together in one of the chairs in her room to watch a stake zoom meeting about mission prep.  I can’t believe that in only two years Carly will be the one deciding if she should serve a mission.  While we watched she got a private little zoom chat message from President Smith (who we know personally) asking her if she would say the closing prayer.  I thought it was funny that I was just as nervous as she was.  I took a picture of some of the slides the stake president shared.

Having just talked to Abigail about the real possibility of her putting in papers soon I was especially interested to hear what our stake president had to say.  I appreciated that he talked about the negative culture pressures of not serving a mission especially for women and that there continues to be a stigma about whether someone gets called to a domestic mission vs. foreign.  He also talked about the idea of youth waiting until COVID calms down and we get back to “normal” before serving.  He shared that because of COVID missionary work has been able to evolve and grow in amazing ways and advised the youth to not see that as a reason to delay serving.  He emphasized the spiritual growth someone can experience because of the concentrated focus of a full-time mission.  I’d love for all my kids to serve if they want to – so many blessings and goodness that will benefit them for their lifetime and beyond.