[Trigger warning: Child suicidal ideation and depression are discussed in this post] When I heard the doorbell ring the first time, I didn’t think anything of it. It was in the middle of the day a few weeks ago, Emily was gone at an appointment, and I was immersed in a task for work that I had been trying to finish for some time. Taylor and Jackson were home and in the room right next to me as their school had gone to an online-only format for a two-week period. Jackson was playing Minecraft on the iPad as he didn’t have any ...

It was the Thursday after St. Patrick’s Day and the first week of homeschooling since we’d been put on quarantine lockdown in our homes due to the coronavirus. The missionaries from our church had reached out to ask if they could share a brief spiritual message with us via FaceTime that evening and we resignedly accepted. And it went exactly as Blake and I expected. Well, at first anyway. As we sat on the couch and huddled around the iPad, Jackson became restless and overwhelmed and therefore resorted to hitting me and Blake and jumping off the back of the couch ...

I knew it probably wasn’t a great idea, but Emily needed a break. It was a chance to get all four kids out of the house on a Saturday afternoon so Emily could rest. They’ve all been to BYU basketball games before, and usually we manage to last at least until halftime before any one of them gets bored or overwhelmed to the point where we have to leave. We were offered some tickets and I knew Grandpa would be there to help out. It was a non-marquee opponent early on in the season, so the crowd wouldn’t be as big ...

If you’re looking for some inspiration during these challenging times, check out Taylor’s “inspirational posters” as she called them. She decided to make these yesterday, and they seem to be very appropriate for everything that’s happening. I guess she felt we all needed a little inspiration. “On the rainiest day… you can be brave.” “You are awesome!” “You can be strong! Keep on fighting that negativity! Turn this : ( [frown] into this! : ) [smile].” “Be you. Even if you’re different.” This was a good reminder for me and Emily to continue to do the best we can each day. ...

What a week it has been. Oh, it’s only Thursday afternoon. It’s our first full week of home school because of the school closures from the coronavirus concerns. Like most families, we are still trying to get into a routine. Emily normally teaches preschool from home 4 mornings each week so she had some tentative ideas of what the kids would do (we didn’t have all the login info, assignments, etc. from teachers yet). On Monday, all of the kids were obedient, stayed on task, and even helped create the “school” schedule for what each day would look like. Tuesday started getting a ...