Life Within the Cuckoo's Nest: Happy Thanksgiving 2020!!!

A beautiful day with some beautiful people :).

As with everything this year, Thanksgiving was difficult to pull off. Our governor ordered that, because of the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, nobody is allowed to have more than 10 people in their households during the holidays. At first I was devastated by this, but after talking to Grandma Wiegel, I realized that most of my family (on my side) are total shipwrecks and I really don't want to be around them this year anyway. For example, the week before Thanksgiving, my Mom decided to drive down to the gas station at 1:00am. For what reason? I have no idea because I have stayed out of it, and I'm sure I wouldn't get the truth even if I asked. Anyways, she drove her car through the gas station. You heard me right. She literally crashed her car INTO the gas station!!!! She broke her arm, and thankfully nobody else got hurt! It just knocked the power out. Yes, this is the kind of crap I have been dealing with on my side of the family and both Grandma and I decided we didn't want to host a big get together to celebrate all of these idiots. Because of course my Mom isn't the only insane one in the bunch... So we invited Josh's parents over! I was actually shocked they accepted our invitation because they have been super cautious with the pandemic, but Janis already got COVID-19 a couple of months ago, so that could be part of it. All I cared about was that someone was coming to our house and I was determined to make it a beautiful holiday! I lost 5 pounds that week from all the stress of homeschooling, cleaning, prepping, Isla caught a cold the week before, etc., but it was all totally worth it to have some semblance of normalcy and happiness during this very depressing time...

Janis and Steve were the PERFECT people to invite over because they are ALWAYS happy (which I love), and they always come bearing gifts (which the kids loved)!! Because of the pandemic, we didn't leave the house the entire time they were here, and I desperately cleaned the house so they would feel comfortable (the pandemic has made everyone extremely leery of germs), but we had ourselves a great time! I didn't feel I had the energy to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal for everyone, so we ordered a pre-made Thanksgiving Feast from Cracker Barrel and then I added sides to it that were missing from our traditional meal. I still had to cook it all up for about 2 hours, but it was sooooo nice to have everything pre-made for me! You just slide it into the oven!! :) Evie and Grandma Janis helped me with the other sides, while Grandpa Steve set the table, and Austin lit the candles. I planned the meal time perfectly with Isla's nap so I could actually enjoy my food and enjoy it I did!! I had second helpings while we all talked over the beautiful table about what we are thankful for and how much we love each other. It was the perfect meal, and for that I am so grateful. I needed that.

They stayed for three days and the night before they left, Evie and I both cried our eyes out. Evie had to keep going downstairs to get more hugs from them because she was so sad. I just felt sad that the only two people in my life who are semi-helpful and actually care were going to leave me and life would go back to the way it has been. Tons of stress and never enough energy, with me constantly working to provide happiness for everyone while never getting enough help to fill up my own cup :(. Supposedly there is a vaccine that is coming out next year that will make this all go away but I'm not going to get my hopes up yet. I'm hearing that even with the vacccine, we will still be mandated to wear masks everywhere and to stay 6 feet apart from other people at all times. Which means the next school year will be just as ridiculous as this one has been :(. Don't get me wrong, we are all loving homeschooling and are doing our best to make a terrible situation into a wonderful one! But sometimes I would really love it if life could just be normal for a day. However, our prophet in his last address has urged us all to remember gratitude during this tough time and it really has helped! I am so incredibly grateful that my family hasn't gotten sick from this disease, and that Josh's job can sustain us so I can work only once a month and we still have enough money to stay afloat! I am so grateful I have a job that is allowing me to work Per Diem so I can homeschool my children and be here for my family during this tough time. It could always be worse, and as I am hearing about little elementary school kids who are committing suicide, or the man down the street who threw his 3 month old baby off the apartment balcony, or the people who's loved ones are struggling to breathe in the ICU because of COVID, I remember how trivial my problems really are. Thank you Lord for that.