Mothers Day and More

May 11, 2020 - Mom and her kids: Dylan, Jacob, Mary, and Sarah.

For the most part, April 2020 is a month I'd prefer to put out of my mind. It was the month of the covid-19 quarantine; the month of shutting down our nation's economy and destroying livelihoods; the month in which media-promoted fear overcame common sense; the month of oppressing liberties in portions of the United States; the month of Mark being underfoot every day after Denny's shut down on March 20; and the month when Sarah and I were forced to cancel our long-planned and long-awaited girls' getaway to Monterey Bay. To say I'm not a fan is an understatement. 

If not for the anchor my family represents, I might have been overwhelmed by the constant emotional strain caused by concern for our nation's welfare; frustration with unnecessary restrictions and ongoing incidents of government overreach; anger at deliberate manipulation of information to promote fear; and bouts of mild depression from being denied my usual self-care outlets. I'm so grateful I was not alone in this.

I didn't post anything at all in this blog during April. Mostly it was because I struggled to get motivated each day. After all, I could barely remember what day it was, with no job to drive Mark to and no church on Sunday to help mark the days. My rebellion against the ridiculous "stay-at-home" concept is likely what saved me. Sarah and I took a day-long trip down Salt River Canyon and met Jacob for lunch in Globe one day, just to get out and enjoy some freedom and fresh air. I refused to avoid my children, despite being part of the at-risk class as a 65-year-old, and our weekly get-togethers gave me something good to look forward to. 

My heart goes out to those who languished in hospitals for weeks, and in many cases even died, without the solace of family close by. To those who buried their loved ones without the comfort of friends and family to mourn by their sides. To the young people who weren't able to join with those closest to them to celebrate long-planned weddings and graduations and other meaningful events. For too many in this time of crisis, the fear of sickness and death made them choose to stop living in the now.

May 9, 2020: A dark storm system moves in the day before Mothers Day.

I took this picture from the Safeway parking lot.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled that May has come at last, with warmer weather, blooming plants, and the reopening of businesses and other activities of life...at least in our conservative-led state. Sadly, not everyone is so lucky.

The coming of May also meant the coming of Mothers Day...and another excuse to spend some time with my children! It also happened that, after weeks of a dry, warming trend in our mountain weather, a thunderstorm chose that same weekend to descend upon us.

Jacob and Dylan take a selfie while grilling steaks and burgers

on Saturday evening.

Jacob even drove up on Saturday to spend a few days with us. As always, we enjoyed the visiting and teasing and laughing and wrestling and off-color jokes and general hilarity that ensue whenever all three of my kids are together.

Jacob mans the grill while Jake and Dylan keep him company.

On Saturday we had a delicious dinner of steaks and hamburgers, grilled by Jacob, served with chips and toasted onion dip, as requested by the guys.

On Saturday night, Jake, Dylan, and Jacob play a few games of Jenga...

After dinner was cleared away, Jacob, Dylan, and Jake played a few games of Jenga while I took pictures, Mark relaxed in front of the TV, and Sarah watched the boys' game from the living room. Later, everyone headed home except Jacob, of course, who rode home with Dylan and Jake since that's where he stayed during his visit.

...while Sarah watches from the love seat in the living room.

The storm moves into our neighborhood on Mothers Day morning.

Mothers Day dawned cool and wet, with rain preceding the thunderclouds that rolled into town around noon. While it wasn't a torrential downpour, the rain was nonetheless steady enough that we gave up on my idea to take family photos outside. I'd even put on makeup in honor of the occasion, for the first time in a full two months (what's the point of wearing makeup during a quarantine, after all?). So we put off the photo shoot until the following day, when my slept-in makeup wasn't quite so fresh.

Mothers Day gifts from my family.

As usual, my family made me feel special with lovingly selected gifts. Sarah gave me a huge, padded card filled with affectionate, personal thoughts and a pair of beautiful pink flowering plants to put on my porch. She also prepared a big batch of homemade chocolate-covered macadamias for me. Yum!

Sarah made me a dozen of these chocolate-covered macadamias. So good!

I loved the sweet way she decorated the bag she stored them in!

Jacob brought me a tower of gifts rising from a small vase, that included red silk flowers, a mini-heart "I love you" balloon, a small teddy bear holding a heart with "I love you" stitched on it, and assorted glitz and bows on a decorated package.

Mark gave me a card, along with a yellow daffodil and one of my favorite sugar-free candy bars.

 A collection of sweet gifts from our bishopric (church leaders of our ward).

Other little gifts also arrived throughout the previous week. Our bishopric sent out envelopes containing a gift card for Dairy Queen, a packet of flower seeds, and inspiring messages in appreciation of women and the gifts they share with the world. Traditionally, our bishopric does something really nice at church for the sisters of our ward on Mothers Day, but since all church meetings were cancelled two months ago, they had to get creative!

Flowers from the Johnsons...

And our friends from church, Jacque and Kendall Johnson, dropped off flowers a week before Mothers Day, and a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries on Mothers Day. There were actually five strawberries, but Sarah and I each ate one before I took the picture!

...and hand-dipped chocolate strawberries from the Johnsons.

I love how Sarah totally photo-bombs this picture of Dylan and Jake.

After the gift-giving, we went out into the drizzle for a bit, while Jacob checked out a bad brake-light in Sarah's Jeep. It was kind of nice outside, until the drizzle became heavier and drove us all back indoors. Even inside, though, the feel and smell of a rainy day is amazing! A while later the thunderclouds were overhead, with lightning strikes splitting the air and the rumble of thunder shaking the house. It lasted only a few hours, but it was exciting.

Dylan and Jacob during a hand of Skip-Bo.

We spent the afternoon playing games and enjoying the fun and camaraderie of getting silly together. It started with a couple hands of one of the kids' favorite games, Skip-Bo. I'm not really that much of  game person. I'd rather just watch and enjoy the visiting that goes on, but I've been letting the kids teach me how to play this card game. It's taken awhile for me to catch on to the strategy, but I'm getting better!

Jacob and Sarah during the same hand of Skip-Bo.

Jake ducks the camera during Skip-Bo.

After Skip-Bo, the guys retired to the family room for some raucous games of Super Smash Bros. While it's probably not among their top-most revered games, all being the extremely serious gamers that they are, I do believe it's one of their top favorites for going head-to-head against each other. It gets pretty cut-throat.

When they moved on to the racing game Mario Kart, Sarah joined the boys. She can get pretty intense herself when it comes to racing games!

Next, into the family room for some video games.

Eventually it was time for dinner, and I didn't even have to lend a hand. Sarah totally took over, preparing her specialty casserole (one of our favorites), Mexican Chicken. On the side, she served chicken-flavored rice and Spanish rice. It was wonderful and we ate until we were stuffed. In fact, we were so full that when it was time to say our goodbyes, no one had room for yummy cheesecake. However, we enjoyed it when we got together again, briefly, the following morning.

My kids didn't think I'd post this cringe-worthy shot, but here it is!

The kids all came over again on Monday morning, before Jacob headed back to Mesa at 11:30. I had asked them to do a quick project for me. As you can see in the previous photo of the family room, painting supplies and 12-foot-long baseboards (for an upcoming painting project) were taking up the already-limited floor space. This is the room where I work out with Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch, and I needed more room to move around. Jacob and Dylan measured and pre-cut the boards for me so we could stand them up in a corner, and then I was able to move the rest of the supplies out of the way.

With that accomplished, Sarah suggested that we do family pictures, now that the storm was gone and the sun was shining. So we did just that. At times we got so ridiculous that we could barely stand up for laughing so hard. I'm sure our neighbors, who were working in their garage, wondered what we thought was so hilarious!

Finally, we shared the cheesecake and sadly said our farewells. Jacob set off for his valley home, I headed to my chiropractor appointment (Sarah joined me since she was waiting for the mechanic to finish her car), Dylan and Jake went back to their house, and Mark returned to raking up piles of pine needles in our yard. Back to life as we know it.

And as for April:

April 9, 2020: More Skip-Bo at Sarah and Chris's house.

As I stated earlier, there were good things in April despite the pandemic madness. We had a wonderful Easter get-together on the Wednesday before Easter, since most of the kids had to work on Sunday. We enjoyed baked ham, mashed potatoes with country gravy, buttered corn, dinner rolls, and much later, pies. For some reason (motivation being in short supply during April), I neglected to take pictures to commemorate the occasion.

Cheesecake Bites are "to-die-for."

The very next evening, a Thursday, Sarah invited us all over to her house for games and goodies. This was the night I finally gave in and let them teach me how to play Skip-Bo.

Diego keeps an eye on our game. No cheating will be tolerated on his watch! 

His 13th birthday was on May 6th.

April 16, 2020: Dinner-and-a-Game night at my house. 

A week later, we got together again for family dinner. Afterward, we broke out Dylan and Jake's Pirates of the Caribbean version of The Game of life, which the rest of us had never played before. It was a lot of fun, getting to play as a pirate or a landlubber, sailing around the board on sailing-ship game pieces, buying or winning ships, and leading raids.

A close look at the Pirates of the Caribbean/Life game board and its sailing ships.

Birthday cake for Jake's 29th birthday.

Finally, the very last day of the month was Jake's birthday. We got together for a dinner of the spaghetti and garlic bread he'd been craving. Afterward, we had gifts and cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) and ice cream (Oreo cookies & cream). Since Jake wasn't feeling well that day, I didn't take many pictures, but we're glad we got to celebrate with him.

Jake's gifts.

I gave Jake a succulent cactus in a cute little brown vase, plus some cash. Mark gave him a bag of beef jerky and a box of crackers with soft cheese. Sarah and Chris got him a big candy bar and a gift card. I'd had the plant sitting on my table for more than a week, praying it wouldn't die before I gave it to him. I was so happy when we finally got to see him open his gifts!

When it comes right down to it, these are the moments that make my life meaningful!

And a homemade cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries for Sarah and Me!