May

 I truly feel as though life was on pause, or at least slow motion, for the past 13 months, and then May rolled around and someone hit the fast forward button. It's been a whirlwind of a month!

We finished up school on the 13th and seminary wrapped up the following week. Abraham and Mercy both passed all their final tests and finished their final projects without incident, but Hyrum did not. Without going into detail, he made several unwise choices and has had to continue working on history, biology, and math well into his summer break. We gave the kids a sort of free week, then jumped into our summer schedule on the 24th. They each have about two hours of goals to work on each day, in addition to a couple daily chores. The first few days were rough, as they were testing the waters while I was trying to get into a new routine of my own. It didn't take too long to smooth things out though and I feel optimistic about a successful, happy, productive, and hopefully really fun summer break.

Matthew and I have started working on the YouTube channel in earnest and as of today have three videos and a short out with nearly 1,000 views in total. He's also got a set of plans for sale on Etsy and has sold a couple to people other than his friends. It's both more work and more fun than I think we anticipated. I'm so far behind on the blog and have the goal to post once a day until I'm caught up (I'm writing today's post today, but am back at the beginning of April as far as pictures and publishing goes). 

We've worked hard this month, but a lot of fun and exciting things have happened as well. Matthew and I were able to attend the temple, we continue to swap between our house and the Brown's for Monday night dinner and archery, Matthew and I went on an eventful bike ride at the volcanoes, Mabel got spayed, I made a quilt and attended a baby shower, I got my second Covid vaccine and Hyrum got his first, I went to Flying Star with Hannah, Matthew and the kids have played a lot of Fortnite with the Browns and the Browns, Abraham got a new bike and Mercy learned to ride Abraham's old one, we've met up with various friends at the park a couple times, Matthew and I put in several hours on multiple occasions helping a sister I minister to move out of her house, Matthew and his friends started a new D&D campaign, and I baked for Pam's wedding. There has been very little down time, to say the least!

Covid update: This might be the last time I post specifically about Covid. Life has gotten nearly back to normal. The CDC came out with new guidelines saying that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks or social distance, so it's been about two weeks since Matthew and I have had to wear one at all. We started having a shortened second hour of church and while the kids still have to wear masks, vaccinated adults don't. They authorized the vaccine for kids over 12, so in about a month, many of the youth will be able to stop wearing their masks at church as well. Hyrum had two in person YM activities, and Abraham had his primary activity in person. Mercy's was still virtual. There are still many parts of the world that do not have a handle on the virus (India in particular) and many places that have not been able to vaccinate at a very effective rate, so the global pandemic isn't over just yet, but certainly our corner of the world seems to have come out on the other side of it.

Goals:

I started a new cycling plan, but all the boys have pretty much given up on zwift running. Matthew is focusing on his archery and the boys have taken to running outside more often than on the treadmill. Mercy got a new stretching plan for her splits and is so, so close to accomplishing her goal. Music is still going full force, and scripture reading has improved with the addition of journal writing to accompany it. Hyrum has made a more concerted effort to focus on his personal prayers and Mercy is paying more attention to her personal grooming goals. Abraham is absolutely slaying life right now and is thriving in every conceivable way. 

(It doesn't precipitate a lot here in NM, but sometimes a monsoon rain really dumps on us. I got caught out in one such rain and the water in the Walmart parking lot was up over my ankles. It reminded me of some of the downpours we got in Miami on my mission)

Meals:

Shepherd's pie

Pork pot pies and salad

Chicken and black bean enchiladas

School lunch pizza and salad (5 times)

Tamales and horchata

Leftovers

Broccoli cheese soup

School lunch chicken wings and salad (3 times)

Hot dogs

Pizza

Chicken and pasta

Chicken tikka masala

Breakfast burritos

Hamburgers and ice cream

Tacos

Shrimp scampi and salad

Treats:

Chocolate soufflé with crème anglaise 

Angel food cake with sugared strawberries

Chocolate lava cakes

Ginger cake

Strawberry shortcake pie