A Morales Minute

We have church every Sunday from home now. Our prophet truly received revelation for the church by moving to a home centered, church supported curriculum because now we're able to continue with Sunday school lessons. Everyone in the church is on the same lessons and we're accustomed to having lessons at home prior to this. The biggest change for us currently is having the sacrament at home every week. I'm so grateful for Jaime and Aidan having the priesthood to be able to bless and pass the sacrament.  We use the piano bench and a small white table cloth. Tiny mason jars on a white platter for the water and a white plate for the bread. It really does look beautiful and does set a reverent tone.  We have songs, talks, testimonies, conference videos, prayers, Sunday school lessons, and singing time. Occasionally for my calling as primary music leader I post ideas for singing time on the ward Facebook page. I will admit that I have been relieved for the break of ...

The World is hurting right now. Not just Washington, not just Tri Cities, or even just America. It truly is the entire world. The world has been infected with a virus called COVID-19 or Coronavirus. It is a disease caused by a virus strain that began spreading to people in December 2019 in China. It spread quickly there and first hit America in Seattle due to travelers. It's all over the world now. Some places it's worse than here. Little is known about the new respiratory virus. Many have died from it. Originally thought to effect the elderly there are more and more cases of people in their 30s even getting it. Due to the rapid spread of the virus it has caused everything to shut down. Schools, universities, churches, temples, businesses, restaurants, museums, sports...even the NCAA March Madness games came to a complete halt. Cancellations of all sports (my girls were both sad to have barely started their tennis seasons and then told it was over), concerts, cruises, and ever...

 We celebrated Lindsey's birthday early on the 15th at Grandma and Grandpa Morales's house. Can't believe this girl is 16!! She loves music from so many different decades. She's more cultured than I am. lol On her birthday she wanted her favorites. Dinner was chicken broccoli casserole. Same as the past 15 years, why stop now! Ice cream for dessert. She's like me, ice cream over cake.  She had planned to have a 1920's flapper murder mastery dinner for her party with friends.  She picked out her costume. Which she looks adorable in. But due to the COVID-19 spreading fast around the world everything had to be canceled. So no parties or gatherings. No restaurants to dine in at so no dates. Luckily, her first date was with her Dad. :) He took her out for dinner, Zip's to go - they ate in the car, then went for a walk along the river and then Jaime surprised her with a new movie to watch in the car. Onward. She loved the movie. She had a gre...

We were having family scripture reading tonight and I couldn't help but melt over my girls. They're friends. Real friends. I hope it never changes. I hope when they're in college they call each other to give updates or ask for advice and I hope it continues on till they're old ladies. I liked seeing them sharing the oversized chair, sitting close and not complaining if one is touching the other. 

Olivia has been getting together with friends so frequently lately. They organize their outings so it makes things easier for me! She checks with me to see what's on the calendar and if I can take her. She's been rollerskating, the trampoline park and the latest was ice skating. I'm grateful for friends I'm grateful Olivia is making the most of her last year in middle school. 

Marcus has been wanting to get all of the family together a Great Wolf Lodge. It took a while but we finally were able to get a weekend put together for us all to make it. It was such a quick trip. We drove up Saturday Morning and spent the day at the water park.  Me, Lindsey, Bel, Olivia  The kids went down and down again on the slides.  They got some fun in with Grandpa even. :D There's not really a pool to swim in. The wave pool was a bit of a disappointment. The one at Boulder Beach in Silverwood is a lot more fun. So we weren't in the wave pool long but just went on the slides. I enjoyed getting the time with the kids to go on slides with them. After water fun was done we got dinner at Burgerville for Olivia's birthday and then the kids played games around the resort. Aidan LOVED the Magic Quest scavenger hunt type game. They got their own magic wand to go through the quest. All the kids enjoyed it but it's all Aidan could talk ...

 Happy 14th Birthday Olivia!! This girl is seriously hilarious! She makes me laugh all the time. She's developed a sense of style and she always looks so cool. She has some great friends at school who showered her with love and gifts all day long. She truly felt special, and I'm glad she did. She deserves it.  She'd been wanting some Birkenstocks for a while now. You can see how excited she was to get them.