Covid Contests

To keep the family busy and involved during this COVID-19 Pandemic we have had a series of family contests. I think it really helped us adjust to the new normal of staying home.

First contest was to guess how many rolls of toilet paper George and I actually had.  We had some already plus we filled a suitcase with more when we left Dubai.

Actual total of TP rolls that we had -71. YES we are toilet paper hoarders!

        John won this contest with a guess of 66.

Next question involved how many photos we took on our trip to Dubai

        There were 3 categories:

How many total photos did we take during our 10 day trip?

How many photos did George take?

How many were taken on our cell phones?

For the overall winner, George subtracted their guesses for each category from the totals and added the 3 numbers.

      Over all winner was John

      Matt guessed exactly the total number of photos we took which was 2250 - pretty impressive!

      Scott guessed closest to the number Dad took which was 250

      Monica guessed closest to the number on cell phones which was 1518

Our next activity was a Quarantingo game.  Unfortunately only the girls of the family got involved with this one.  Monica completed every activity!

 But Mary earned a special award.  One question was to find the oldest thing in your home.  Mary and Mark have a coin from 1816.  It was given to Mark by his grandfather who got it from his father, who was a plumber.  That is really OLD!

Matt dug out a big bush in our front yard that was right out the front door by the sidewalk.  Our competition was to guess when Dad would notice that it was gone!  It took 4 days before he noticed and Monica won this one too! 

Next one was to poke fun at me a bit!  I had never watched the TV series Gray's Anatomy before and I've been binge watching it.  The question of the week was, "How many episodes Mom watched in a week.  John got this one almost exactly right.  And the number I watched in a week.  22!!!!  I dream about the characters sometimes.

Last question involved our visiting cat.  The neighbor's cat, Shadow, likes to come and visit us.  She wanders in, gets petted by George and sometimes takes a long nap before leaving us.  Somedays she comes over multiple times, other times she will go for days without making an appearance.  The question was, "From Monday morning until Friday when we go to bed, how many time will Shadow come over to visit?"  

The breakdown:

      Monday 5 visits

      Tuesday 5 visits

      Wednesday 3 visits

       Thursday 0 visits

       Friday 1 visit

Monica won this one with her perfect guess of 14

Our last event was one that we all could win.  The goal was to walk/run 50 miles in one month.  And there were even medals!  You can tell how emotional the awards ceremony was for John!

And I think the medals turned out pretty cute! It's a coronavirus, naturally with crowns and toilet paper ribbon and even a hand sanitizer dangle.  

And a good time was had by all!

Prizes will be awarded for each competition whenever I can get out to a store!

Memories on Memorial Day

After seeing the photos from John and Monica's recent hike at Box Canyon State Park, George and I decided to check it out.  We were glad we did.

The canyon is beautiful and the hike just strenuous enough to be fun!  It was quite a climb down but well worth the effort.

There is a lot of water coming down that box canyon.  Underground springs???  I'm not sure.

At the bottom was a delightful swimming spot.  Notice the people are social distancing Idaho style! I'd like to come back in the summer with John's family and swim.

We made a big loop and actually hiked up a road to get back to the top.  It wasn't quite as pretty as the hike down but was a lot easier and a lot less crowded!

I needed a water and peanut M&Ms break before the climb!

The road goes to the right with one switchback and then a long climb to the top.

George and I did amazingly well!  I think we could have made it to the top without even stopping!  But we did stop for a couple of photos!

It was a perfect day.  

COVID-19 - Week #10

I just counted and this is the starting of the 10th week since we got home from our Dubai trip to start 'sheltering at home'.  Some days I feel a little stir crazy but mostly I have survived.  My house has never been so organized.  I've finished going through and redacting my old journals and organizing my memorabilia into notebooks.  Our children will thank me for this someday.

I finally got my brow and lip waxed which was wonderful....I know vain and frivolous but still wonderful!  I've been knitting again, or more appropriately TRYING to knit.  I have managed to figure out how NOT to make my knitting so tight and also isolated the mistake I was making to add stitches.  I ordered some new yarn and can hardly wait for it to come in so that I can see if I can actually follow a pattern now!

I just finished making my photo book for the Kenya 2019 trip.  I've done 2 Zoom Bookclub meetings and 2 Kenya Keys Zoom board meetings.  Technology is great!

I'm still baking a lot and everyone is happy with that.  Bread and rolls and cookies - actually lots of cookies and we now have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe!  I was also happy to learn that even with all the baking, I've only gained about 4 pounds! 

Our evening walks have helped me not gain more.  Plus I've been doing some AARP exercise.  They make me feel young and fit, unlike the other exercise videos I've tried.  Most of them make me feel old and fat!

On our nightly walks we have loved watching the baby ducks and goslings. It was chilly here last week so we saw this cute little duck family huddling together for warmth.  The mom has a large family of 13 and has done a wonderful job of keeping them safe.  With cats and dogs plus foxes and herons, it is not easy keeping ducklings together and alive.  Oh and storm drains...they say that a huge number of calls to our fire department this time of year are to rescue baby duckling caught in storm drains.

 Also fascinating to watch the geese.  There is one large group of what appears to be 3 families that have formed a community and are always together.  

This family has the youngest babies.

Then in this photo you can see the two families - one with 'teenagers' that are almost as large as they are and the other with middle sized tweens!  You can't get too close or the ganders will hiss and act threatening.  Geese make great parents.

Speaking of birds - we have so many that I fill the feeders daily.  I love watching them so it is worth the effort and expense.

Matt and I were thrilled when we had several days of visits from the very striking Western Tanagers as they migrate north to the McCall area. 

Other frequent visitors to our feeder - American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, House finches and the show stopper Western Tanager!

Matt got this great shot of one of our hummingbird visitors.  I love them!

Thanks to Matt,  the little garden is ready to be planted.  Normally in Idaho, you plant on Mother's Day but this year the following week had temperatures into the upper 30's so I'm glad we waited.

And of course we are spending a bit more time with Isabella and her Mom and Dad.

Chick-fil-A delivery

Pretty exciting when you and Grandma have matching shoes AND you find a painted rock that perfectly matches!

The kite I bought years ago in China was a popular diversion one afternoon. 

And we even did a little fishing in the ponds by our house.

Another fun fact is that I filled up my car on April 9th and have used a little less than a 1/4 tank.  Fred Meyer grocery pick up continues to be the way I feed the family.  It is easy and efficient.  They do a good job picking out produce and I am happy.

The church is making plans to reopen soon but the guidelines at this time say that they don't suggest attendance for people over 65 so I guess we'll be enjoying 'home church' a while longer.  

All in all, it hasn't been a difficult time for me.

Orpha Moore Lewis

Ever since Mother's Day, I've had the feeling that I should do a post about George's mother, Orpha Moore Lewis.

Born in 1922 in the small town of Spanish Fork, Utah, she lived most of her adult life in our nation's largest cities.  After receiving a degree in Clothing and Textiles from BYU she lived in Los Angeles, New York and then Chicago, where she raised her family.  While living and working in New York she received a masters in Retailing from New York University. After marrying Walt Lewis, she moved to Chicago and devoted her life to her husband and 4 children.

Orpha was 28 when she was married.  The birth of their first child, George, thrilled her.  She once told me that he was the 'most beautiful baby' she had ever seen.  Her joy with this little guy is evident in her radiant smile.

George, baby #1 was born on October 1, 1951 

Karen followed on September 15, 1953.

John made his appearance on September 18, 1954, just after Karen turned one and just before George turned 3. So for a couple of weeks she had 3 children under the age of 3!  And she didn't drive.  Can you even imagine taking 3 little children on a city bus?  George remembers running and hiding from her in the clothing department of the store.  Turns out there is a great hiding place back behind the clothes racks.

Here are the 3 Lewis children on a vacation to Utah.  The photo was taken in May of 1960.  We aren't sure where they are but I can see the Y on the mountain so somewhere in Provo.

I especially love this photo as it looks like it could be in an advertisement for Christmas in the 1950's. I love that George received a doll house and a doll!  Quite progressive thinking for the early 50's.

4th child Tammy didn't join the family until 9 years later.

I wanted to share a few memories of her that George wrote down just after she died in 1998.

• Mom loved music.  I took piano lessons from her friend who was a concert pianist.  When I practiced and made a mistake, I would hear her call out, "WRONG"! from the kitchen.
• While walking in the badlands of South Dakota, Mom slipped and sat right down.  The kids got a laugh from calling her. "Sitting Cow".  Mom didn't think it was that funny.
• In the 1960's I would often discuss or argue with her about the value of the hippie theory.
• Mom was always 'doing'.
• She loved shopping and merchandising, always looked for value for money.
• Mom was a determined, intelligent, well educated woman who put her commitment to her family FIRST.
• Mom and Dad had stake callings way back when the Chicago, Illinois Stake covered many, many miles.  They put 100's of miles on the car fulfilling their stake callings.
• Mom was always faithful to the gospel - without question.
• When I was quite young, I had saved enough money to buy a set of golf clubs. Unbeknownst to Mom, I rode my bicycle to the store and purchased them before realizing that I couldn't ride my bicycle home carrying the golf clubs.  When I called to tell her that I needed a ride home, she  came.
• John's Siamese cat had been trained to jump up on John's shoulder.  It could reach about the middle of the back and then would use its claws to climb the rest of the way.  The cat would jump on Mom's shoulder too but it wasn't as comfortable for Mom since she normally wore a thin cotton blouse as opposed to the jean jacket John wore. 
• Mom loved crossword puzzles.  I inherited that from her.

For all of the years that I knew her, 1975 - 1998, she suffered terribly from rheumatoid arthritis.  I know it must have been so difficult for her to not be able to participate fully with her children and grandchildren.  Yet as the daughter-in-law, I never heard her complain about the difficulty she had been dealt in life.  The grandkids adored her kind, sweet, temperament.  She was always willing to read a book or hear a story.

1988 - Mary, Matt, David, Andrea, Johnny and Scott.  She would have been thrilled with the 7 grandchildren that were added to the family when Tammy married Richard. And the multiple great grands we have since added.  I'm sure she has kept a close eye on things from her heavenly home.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mother!

To pass the time during these 'stay-at-home' days, I've been reading through all my old journals that include lots of letters to and from my mother.  This is a project that I've wanted to do for awhile but have put off.  It is good to remember and reflect on the past.

Reading letters from my mother has made me really miss her. In the first years after her death, I would often make a mental note of something that I wanted to tell her. After 11 years, those times are few but reading her letters has filled my heart with longing to share my life with her again.  One of the songs from Phantom of the Opera is called, "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" and is sung by Christine at her father's graveside.  A heartbreaking line of the song says, "Wishing I could hear your voice again, knowing that I never will."  Thankfully, I know that I will hear her voice again and that I will be able to share my thoughts and feelings with her once again.  This is truly one of the most beautiful teachings of our church.  Families are forever.

For Mother's Day, I reflected on how my mother had influenced my life.  There are a million ways but the one I want to share this year is summed up in this little verse.  

Here we are when I was only 2 years old and we lived in Providence, Rhode Island.

We have a clipping from the Providence paper that has my photo because I was the youngest library card holder at the local library!  This was about 1 week before my 2nd birthday.  Moma said that I was very independent and loved to pick out my own books.

My parents didn't have a lot of money, but they bought a set of 15 volumes of Childcraft Books.  There were books with poems, books with fiction stories, parenting books, nature books...a whole treasure trove of wonders. One of my favorites was Volume 6 - Great Men and Famous Deeds. These books didn't just look good sitting on a book shelf.  My mother read to me from them and later I read them myself.

I can still quote the beginning of my favorite story.  

"Clara Barton was getting over the mumps, and this was her first day downstairs....."

When we lived in Sicily, I went through a stage where I didn't eat much.  Moma would read to me every morning while I ate my breakfast so that I would eat more. Often I picked a story from Volume 6 and learned of great men and women like  Christopher Columbus, George Washington Carver, Alexander Graham Bell, Louise Alcott, Jane Adams and, yes, Clara Barton.  There was even a section of stories from the Bible and one on myths and legends.  I was inspired by the stories.

I had completely forgotten the hero of the story just before Clara Barton.  Yes that is Robert E. Lee on his horse, Traveler.  The last line of the story of General Lee says, "So noble and dignified was General Lee's character that he was honored and admired by North and South alike".  And no these books weren't published in the south.  They were published in Chicago.  Isn't it wonderful to read that people on both sides admired and honored him? I am sure that there is a lesson for our day in this Childcraft book published in 1954.

Happy Mother's Day in heaven Moma and Grandmas and Aunt Mary!