Garden 2020

I was beginning to feel stressed that I hadn't been able to get my peas planted. They can go in the ground from March 8-14 here in Colorado. With the arrival of Covid-19, the cancellation of school, and trying to social distance, I missed my March window of opportunity. I had planned to pick up some seeds and then the stay-at-home order was issued. So, I bought some seeds off of Amazon and hoped that they would arrive quickly. Quickly is all relative now, but I finally got my seeds planted on April 4th. Go me.

The peas are planted in 3/4 of that bed. I will plant some watermelon and maybe some peppers there as well.

Spring Yard Work

I have spent the past two days getting the yard and garden cleaned up for Spring. The clean up involved trimming bushes, removing the dead parts of plants, and digging up the garden beds. My back does not enjoy all of the bending and squatting.

I was grateful for my girls who all came out to help on one day or the other after they had finished their on-line classes for the day. Misha mowed the lawn on Tuesday and Kristen came out to finish on Wednesday before we had the lawn aerated by a young man trying to earn money for his mission.

This is just the clippings and debris from Tuesday. I added two more bags on Wednesday and filled up my compost bin as well.

SimplyJolayne

I have felt impressed to start a new website, though I'm still in the process of refining and defining my goals with it. Looking to the future, I have also created Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Gmail accounts for SimplyJolayne to claim the name on all of these sites.

I am entering unknown territory in creating the website and getting everything up and running. I hope that I can get it figured out this next month. Chris has helped with the security aspect of setting up my account, and man, I am so grateful for his technical support.

Kristen April Fooled Us

I woke up this morning to find that Kristen had put googly eyes on all of our family photos.

Sunday Family Selfie

After our church meeting at home on Sunday, we took a family selfie. I must say, we all seem to be enjoying our Sunday meetings at home. Our testimony meeting was particularly awesome.

Around the Firepit

None of the girls wanted to get smelly next to a real campfire, so we all snuggled up in blankets around the propane fire pit on the deck and played Apples to Apples on Sunday evening. I love how this quarantine is giving us plenty of opportunities to be together as a family. And Spring. I love Spring.

Pro-Kristen-ator

Kristen is a procrastinator. That's a fact. Her most productive time of the day is from 10 pm to midnight. One of the family coined a new name for her—pro-Kristen-ator.

Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt

Chris came up with the awesome idea of a picture scavenger hunt. We originally thought to have a parents against daughters activity, but in the planning, Chris and the girls decided to invite friends and family to participate.

Chris and I headed out on Saturday afternoon shortly after the girls with a 90-minute time limit to see who could find the most items on our list. We had a few other families participate as well. The nice thing was that we didn't all have to do it at the same time but went for our 90 minutes and then posted our scores.

Chalk Art

Kristen finds new activities every day to keep herself occupied. I love the tones she created in her chalk art.

The Smoking Toilet?

Amy walked out of the bathroom and with some alarm said to her dad, "The toilet is smoking!" He took the bait and quickly checked it out.

Granted, Amy is going a lot stir crazy.

Misha, on the other hand, was born for social distancing!

Sunday Walk

The blizzard cleared out quickly and by Sunday, we were all ready for a little fresh air and a Chris-mandated family walk. We drove to Sandstone Park and walked along the pathway. There were other bikers and walkers out for the afternoon, but we kept our distance.

It was nice to just have a change of scenery.

Church at Home

I didn't take pictures of our family sacrament meeting, but it was an amazing experience for me to have Chris bless and pass the sacrament to each of us.

We sang hymns, opened and closed with prayer, and Chris and Kristen gave talks. I gave a short lesson on Come, Follow Me...and even in that, our girls thought it was too long. Still, it was spiritual and uplifting and just what we all needed.

Making Bread

I made bread. I even ground the wheat.

I had hoped to teach my girls some bread making skills, but they were "busy" doing other things. I even tried my hand at cinnamon roll bread. I think it would taste better if it were white bread, since the whole wheat can be a little sour, but it was still pretty tasty.

Fresh bread is the best and there were even a few oohs and aahs as it was pulled out of the oven.

OUR Center

Chris was asked to help out with making a meal at the OUR Center on Saturday. There was only a skeleton crew of helpers coming in and the lunches they made were then handed out to people in the parking lot. Amy and Misha went with Chris to get some service hours in for their county scholarship. Unfortunately, one of the members of the Stake Presidency allowed some missionaries to also come and help out. They were not good about social distancing. Fingers crossed.

Hopefully they will be blessed with good health for their service.

Minecraft

Do you remember when Misha used to spend hours on end playing Minecraft or watching other people play Minecraft? I do. Chris and I even had to limit her time from Friday after school until Saturday evening because it seemed to be taking over her life.

Not sure how much time she spends on it now since she plays with a group of friends, but I bought a membership for Kristen so that the two of them could play together.  Again, not sure how that will work in the long run, but the played "next" to each other for one night!

Happy Spring and a Blizzard

The weather didn't cooperate with welcoming Spring with great fanfare. If being quarantined wasn't enough of a reason to keep us inside for the day, then the blizzard certainly was. I sat at my desk and watched the snow fall throughout the day. (That's a bonus to having my desk face the window now. The drawback is the brightness of the snow that makes me want to wear sunglasses!)

Grocery Shopping

Misha and I left the house early to try and buy milk at King Soopers before it was all gone and before the forecasted blizzard set in. I dropped Misha off at the front door of Soopers and had her run in quickly. Happy to say she was successful in finding two gallons of milk, although she noted that the dairy section was closed off and an employee handed out the milk.

From there, we drove to Walmart to try and find the rest of the items on our grocery list. The snow began to fall in earnest—big, fluffy flakes. We were just glad that we were able to find what we needed. It reminded me of shopping while traveling in the Philippines (not the snow, mind you), and going out early in the morning to get what we needed for the day.

With being quarantined and a blizzard, we were happy to stay inside for the day.

College Classes Online

Misha and Amy both had classes starting online this morning. Misha set up her laptop at the laundry room desk and Amy is taking over a corner of my office.

Tennis with Amy

One of the benefits to tennis is being able to get out of the house and still maintain one's social distance. The weather is hit and miss for early Spring, but Kristen was able to get a little practice in with Amy to keep improving with her skills.

Coming Home

Amy and Misha left Logan around 8 am Tuesday morning.

They called me a little while after leaving and just before reaching the Wyoming border. The freeway was overrun with sheep. They said it took them about ten minutes just to slowly pass through.

They made good time throughout the day, stopping mostly for gas and bathroom breaks, and drove into the driveway honking and announcing their arrival at 4 pm. I was just glad to have them home, though the noise volume at home just went way high!

Thanks to My Brothers

Thanks to my brothers for offering to help my girls move. A special thanks to Brad for risking coronavirus germs to allow Amy to drop off her college gear at his house for the summer. Amy and Brad then drove to Provo to help Misha finish packing up (Misha was able to pack and clean and turn in her work key in one day). Misha's stuff filled both Brad's truck and Amy's car. Both girls will be back in Provo for the Fall and Brad graciously agreed to let them store stuff in his garage for the summer.

Misha had to be completely moved out of her apartment otherwise she would fail her cleaning check and check out. So, back Amy and Misha went to Logan for the night before heading for home on Monday morning.

Mom Quote

This quote is particularly meaningful to me right now:

"A mom is only as happy as her saddest child."

Online Schooling

All three of my girls will have school online for the next little while. We are not sure how this will play out for Kristen with high school, but both Amy and Misha will finish out the semester with online classes. And I get to join the fun with online early morning seminary!

Covid-19

We are currently trying to self-quarantine as much as possible with the current world pandemic of Covid-19 or coronavirus. We talked to our college girls this morning and Chris felt impressed to tell them both to come home and make it happen as quickly as possible. Misha had planned to stay in Utah for the summer to get residency so this throws her plans into a tailspin, but she was so good about being willing to change her life plans for the next year. Plus, getting to see your parents and sister isn't such a bad thing either.

Both girls got packed up today. Amy's car is packed full with the stuff she is leaving over the summer. Amy will drive to Utah County on Monday with a car packed full and drop stuff off at Brad's. Brad is going to help Misha move her stuff and bike to his house. Misha is waiting until her complex office opens at 11:30 tomorrow to see when she can check out. Hopefully since her apartment just had a cleaning check on Saturday, she won't have to do too much cleaning before leaving.

Neither of the girls are sad to be leaving their roommates.

Amy will pick up Misha and they will drive back to Logan to pick up Amy's stuff that she is bringing home and then be on their way Tuesday morning. Our prayer is that they won't come in contact with the virus between now and getting home.

New Family Portrait

In light of the world conditions and coronavirus quarantine, Kristen created a new Kline Family Portrait.

I believe I am the short one one the end. Beside me would be Misha, then Amy, Kristen, and Chris. Sad to say, Amy just got bumped down to shortest child status by a 1/4 of an inch.