Final Post of 2020

End of year. What a year! I have not shared too much. My feelings are so raw that its not possible to even write. I have learned a lot. My faith has increased. 

I just thought I would go over some of the goals I set at the end of January last year. 

Temple attendance. My goal was 24 times. I attended 11 times, but that was good since temples closed up March 15. 

I established a morning foundation of listening to at least one General Conference talk, Book of Mormon reading (at least one chapter) and then Come Follow Me Study through Book of Mormon Central, and prayer before I touch any social media. That has been my lifesaver, and I have discovered that I "Hear Him" when I am out on that jog/walk. 

I read the Ensign each month...at least ten articles/stories. 

My goal was to index 10,000 records. I ended up indexing 19,995 records and reviewing 131,313 records last year. 

For the house, I updated the Personal Information book with current insurance, titles, cards, etc. I also got my travel driver's license (still need to put a copy of that in the book).

With all the furlough time, we cleaned out the entire attic, the music room (now is a preparedness room), Dad's office, Dad's shed,  that old file cabinet in the garage, organized all and set up a woodwork station on the back porch. I also have gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I didn't love in my holiday decor and have moved things that are only occasionally used for cooking, etc out to my hut. 

I finished the playroom (though the bedspreads I ordered are not what I thought and are too big) with sheets, comforters, etc. I also changed the bathroom up a bit, got new pics of the grandkids in the hallway, and got rid of things I no longer need or use. 

My planned travel to Georgia and to Vegas was cancelled due to Covid but I did get to see Kaylee's Dance recital, Sam's graduation, and Grace's Graduation virtually. It ended up instead of my flight funds expiring mid January 2021, they are good till 2022! Kind of a nice surprise.

I did try out sourdough...but I think I used the starter before it was ready and I ended up with two bricks. Flour was not plentiful enough at the time to waste any more so in the future. 

Gratitude was something I had let be overshadowed by the evils of this time, and I have begun a new gratitude journal program to start January 1st. However, this year, I started to just begin my daily prayers expressing gratitude. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and their love for me. I could literally feel them holding me up during these last twelve months. As of this moment, all my children have jobs. All gave their families a wonderful Christmas. All have survived any health concerns. They all are great children and great parents and friends. Everything that is the most important to me could not be better. While we miss the temple greatly, we do try to ponder and remember our covenants we made their and our times there. 

Tomorrow begins 2021. Lots of challenges are surely ahead. I pray we all can learn and survive them.

Week of December 20-26, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Our ward Christmas program was beautiful! Cello duet, socially distanced quartet, duets by mother and daughter and brother and sister, and a lovely soprano solo. We have such amazing and talented people in the ward. While I so missed being in the choir.

Temples remain closed for work for the dead. 

I was blessed to have some special Christmas scripture studies this week, along with my Book of Mormon reading and General Conference Talk studies. 

I have indexed 19,738 records and reviewed 130,279 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

On Sunday, a local trash company owned by a member of their stake, has a Santa Train under normal circumstances, but with Covid, this year, they had a Christmas Parade in a local neighborhood. They saw friends, Santa and had a wonderful time. Church numbers are still kept small but Allison was able to attend with Adam and Josh. They enjoyed a wonderful speaker and then delivered treats to the missionaries. Last week went well. School was either review, relax, or finals. Tuesday, they were able to see the lights at the cactus garden. The reservations opened up and they were able to enjoy it so much! Mike and Allison continue to do well at work and have been blessed with good hours. 

Adam's finals went very well. He got a haircut and got Senior Portraits taken. He has enjoyed playing video games with his friends and he is looking forward to sleeping on Winter break. Adam loves pink so his pajama shirt was pink and he got new sweats. 

Grace's week of relaxation included sleeping, a face mask, working on her room, finishing her room. Grace's Christmas pajamas were Elf pajamas. 

Josh finished up his soccer season this week. He had a great game Saturday and scored another goal. 

Sam had a Christmas book exchange and pajama day and a little school party. Sam got to open his Christmas pajamas early to wear to school. His were full of Santa sharks and were so cute! He has another wiggly tooth. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo headed with the kids to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to celebrate the holidays.

Snowy icy weather brought them home a day early, but they had such a great time. It was as if there was no illness anywhere and the streets were packed with people. 

We enjoyed a Christmas morning visit as we both opened our gifts from each other. 

Happy 8th Birthday on Saturday to Kaylee. 

She looked forward to being able to use her new roller skates she got for Christmas. We were able to Facetime as she blew out her eight candles on her birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday. 

The Doran Rice Family

We visited Doran, Amber Kelsie and Kooper on Tuesday. Amber had been able to return to work this week and she was ecstatic! She enjoys her coworkers so much and the kids are off school. They had a good week and Kooper even enjoyed the quick project school desk Dad made.

Morgan

Morgan is doing well, working as a maintenance person at his apartment complex. Unfortunately, he had his tools stolen while he was working but he is hoping to find some yard sale deals, etc. He and Cassie came by for a visit on Wednesday evening. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good week, working, watching movies, and was a super great help cleaning up after the Cookie Party.

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica, Anna Ellie and Emma had a wonderful week. We saw them a couple of times to play outdoors and Nathan and the girls took Dad and I out on Wednesday evening to see Christmas lights. 

They celebrated Christmas Eve with Jessica's family, Santa came on Christmas morning leaving a special note for each girl and awesome gifts. 

Dad's Garden

Dad's garden continues to do well, though the phantom plants that are NOT Chinese cabbage are being removed. 

Other highlights

First Annual Cookie/Cocoa and Gift Party was held on Sunday December 20th.

Charcuterie board included all the makings for great hot cocoa including crushed candy canes, marshmallows, a myriad of flavors of Hershey kisses, plus some cookies. We also had Christmas chips, doritos, Nano's velveeta cheese dip and a cheese ball. 

So many yummy cookies to eat and then take some home. 

The girls had worked and practiced two beautiful Christmas songs...the last one my favorite, "Silent Night". The one thing I had so missed at church that morning was no primary children singing and no "Silent Night", and they gave me what I had so missed. 

Christmas Eve was quiet. We got some groceries. We ended up watching White Christmas and then looking at the luminaries in the neighborhood north of us. 

Christmas Morning is the BEST jog, since many people keep their outdoor lights on all night. It was quiet and wonderful! I even got to jog past the temple and was sprinkled on with a bit of rain. 

Christmas Day was great for everyone! We are so thankful for all of Santa and his Elves' hard work this year! 

We enjoyed a lovely dinner with Grandma, Susan, Tom, Curtis and Jennilee.

Week of December 13-19, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting again this week, though they have taken all our hymn books away again. Sunday was good. 

Temples remain closed for work for the dead. I last attended and completed work for my ancestors on March 12, 2020. 

I continue studies of the Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, and listening to General Conference talks, at least one daily. Plus, on my Scripture Plus phone app, they have had a Christmas Advent devotional daily with a scripture and music from various artists including the Tabernacle Choir and a video that goes with it. My days start out with a great and firm foundation. 

I have indexed 19,473 records and reviewed 126,801 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison spent Sunday night putting some beautiful ribbon on her Christmas packages. Their gifts are Want, Need, Wear and Read, and then Santa brings a stocking and a gift for each. Nevada has had a three-week quarantine pause so church-attending has been limited and confusing. Stuart the Elf brought elf cereal and dyed the milk pink. On Friday, they went to Bass Pro Shop because Sam really wanted to see Santa, so they had an appointment and got a photo. Interesting with everyone in masks except Sam. They had a good time and enjoyed walking around and seeing things. Sam so enjoyed seeing the aquarium! On Saturday, they had a ward party, with a drive-by meal pick up, jump out and see Santa, and got a bag of candy. Sadly there was not enough food for more than two people in it. They did have a wonderful Sunday dinner of pot roast and vegetables. Allison had a work party and won a crockpot in their white elephant gift exchange. She also got given an air fryer from a friend. She works Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week. She is planning a January Youth bonfire to help the girls set goals with speakers and smores. Mike continues working and is blessed with extra hours. Allison shared a piano solo of Adam's on Instagram. It was absolutely beautiful!! Allison made a finals bag for Adam for the upcoming week with pencils and sweets and earplugs. Praying he has a good week and does well. Allison picked up his Senior shirt and yard sign. His school mascot is a pigeon and the yard sign has a pigeon on it. I think it's quite cute! He continues to work out each week and is really enjoying lifting. Senior photos are next week so haircut is in store for Monday. Grace goes to school tomorrow to check in classes, and then is done. No finals for her! Hooray!! Allison made her a relaxation bag with a face mask, soft socks, and awesome things to get a rest from finals. Off for the next three weeks. She might get to help at a daycare building graham cracker gingerbread houses. Josh and Sam still had a cough last week so they could not attend school. His work is all caught up for the last week of school. He has an upcoming project for his gifted program with he is researching. Josh had a soccer game on Saturday and made a goal! He will have three practices next week and the season will be over after the last game. Sam was curled up sound asleep as Allison Marco Polo-ed me. The tooth fairy did visit on Saturday night. She left him some sugar-free gum and some money and he was thrilled! All work is completed and he has a review week next week. Sam is having pajama day on Thursday this week and a book exchange with his classmates. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Happy Birthday, Ethan on Sunday!

Kaylee school week began great, dressing like Mrs. Claus

And all in plaid

But on Wednesday, they went all virtual, so she enjoyed pajama day...at home

On Friday, she was able to join her friend, Madeline for her virtual class party. 

The Doran Rice Family

Happy Birthday, Amber on Friday! Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper had a good week, with virtual school and work. Doran also made a very neat looking composite knife handle.

Morgan

No news from Morgan this week. 

Kayty

Kayty worked two days and used up more vacation time sleeping. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica, Anna, Ellie and Emma had a good week. They came by Monday night with some treats Nathan was baking. They were awesome! They had a fun and busy week. Nathan spent his entire Saturday serving his brother in law with a block wall clean up and helping someone in his ward move, which entailed lots of driving and even packing. Jessica was great to give up their only vehicle on Saturday for this endeavor. 

Dad's Garden

The Garden is doing well and Dad has many plants nearly ready to plant. Tomatoes outdoors already have blossoms and we are still getting beets and greens, basil, radishes, turnips, etc. 

Other highlights

Baked all week long! Tons of cookies. I had planned on giving out the old recipes, but I found some were not that easy to use...so next year I am going to use some more updated recipes. Then I will share. 

Dad's car broke...again. This time: harmonic ballencer disintigrated. New truck search proved way more costly than others had said. So we are sharing my vehicle and deciding what to do. 

Got the news Wednesday night from President Day that my inmate Debbie Neumann was released and that the prison has been returning all the letters I have sent. I mailed a card for Christmas to her Wednesday morning. Oh, well...hope the best for her. My last inmate, Jessica, has not responded to any letters either. Covid has been hard on so many things, but the prison branch has been very affected. So sad. 

Shooting stars on my runs were the icing on the cake of my running with Christmas lights everywhere. 

Visited Nano on Wednesday morning. I took her and her friends there some Christmas cookies and tried to get some cards for Nano sent out. She had no memory of her brother, cousin, or sister. I am going to compose a letter to them and send it. She is in good health otherwise but seems always grouchy.