Living Full on Life

Quip of the Day: “At Target there was a Big RED “X” on the floor by the register for me to stand on… I’ve seen too many Road Runner cartoons to fall for that one.”

I read this funny quote today on the Perspectives Consulting Group Covid-19 survival guide website. It made me laugh because for the past two years I would not stand on those floor stickers. Sure I maintained 6 feet of distance from other people but I wouldn’t stand on those silly stickers. Now I know why. It is from all those years of watching the Road Runner! It was a subconscious manifestation of self preservation.

I was missing my kids, Sam at college and Lizi in France on her mission and decided to do a little Facebook stalking. I noticed this funny coincidental similarity in both of their missionary Facebook mastheads. 

I love this quote I heard today on making promises with God. It says:

“When we covenent all we are, we can become more than we are.” – Elder Gerrit W. Gong. It reminds me of a scripture I love from the New Testament, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24)

Lizzie is about to embark on her missionary service in France. I am so excited for her! She is already such an amazing girl. I am excited to see who she can become as she loses herself in the service of others for the next 18 months!

Yesterday the mask mandate ended for all air travel. It took a ruling of a federal judge. It also caused much celebration! Many flights announced the ruling mid-flight and people ripped off masks and cheered. Mask mandates have been such a polarizing thing. No one says it better than what I read this in the New York Times this morning:

“Rigorous laboratory tests show that masks reduce Covid transmission, but supporting real-world evidence tends to be much weaker.

The most glaring example in the U.S. is that liberal communities, where masks are a cherished symbol of solidarity, have experienced nearly as much Covid spread as conservative communities, where masks are a hated symbol of oppression.“

The New York Times has historically leaned left when it comes to this pandemic so this article really surprised me. Here is another part of the article I appreciated: “The reality is that masks are less valuable today than they were a year or two ago. Covid vaccines are universally available in the U.S. for adults and teenagers, and the virus is overwhelmingly mild in children. Treatments for vulnerable people are increasingly available.

And consider this: About half of Americans have recently had the Omicron variant of Covid. They currently have little reason to wear a mask, for anybody’s sake.

Together, vaccines and treatments mean that the risks of severe Covid for boosted people — including the vulnerable — seem to be similar to the risks of severe influenza. The U.S., of course, does not mandate mask wearing every winter to reduce flu cases. No country does.

Still, if Covid illness begins surging again at some point, there may be situations in which mandates make sense. To be effective, any mandates probably need to be strict, realistic and enforced. Imagine, for example, that a subway system mandated KN95 or N95 masks inside train cars — but not on platforms, which tend to be airy.

Or imagine that the C.D.C. required high-quality masks in the airport and aboard a plane on the runway — but not in flight when people will inevitably eat and when a plane’s air-filtration system is on. “When I travel, I’m always more worried about in-airport exposures than I am the plane,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University epidemiologist, said.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has spent much of the past two years with the worst of all worlds on masks. People have been required to wear them for hours on end, causing frustration and exhaustion and exacerbating political polarization. Yet the rules have included enough exceptions to let Covid spread anyway. The burden of the mandates has been relatively high, while the benefits have been relatively low. It’s the opposite of what a successful public health campaign typically does.”

I was thinking lately about how I never really record life so much anymore. It seems like my kids had such clever and funny things to say when they were little but now we are just older and maybe not as entertaining. However, life is never dull, in fact, it is full of interest and excitement as well as the occasional pain and challenge. I will attempt here to create a small snapshot of what life looks like for us in the early Spring of 2022.  I will write about the youngest kid to oldest…

Anna at 12 is independent, social and fun to be around. She loves dance, particularly jazz and ballet, has recently discovered basketball and loved being on the 6th grade team. She enjoys reading (is working on the Harry Potter series and Land of Stories), and watching Disney channel sitcoms. She and I share the love of a book from my childhood called Chicken Pox Papers and watching the super cheesy and entertaining show H2O about mermaids. (It took real courage for me to admit that in a public space.)

Anna doesn’t like the drama that comes with middle school and is constantly trying to figure out people’s motives and intentions when they do or say mean things to each other. I think it takes her by surprise that people are willing to intentionally hurt one another because she is such a friendly and accepting person. In the past couple of years some of her closest friends in our church congregation were a lady who’s husband is in prison and an elderly woman who was new to the neighborhood. Sadly the elderly woman quickly declined mentally and her daughter told us that the only person that this woman remembered was Anna. One of Anna’s recent achievements was starting a petition banning the tights requirement for the Friday dress uniform at school. She got more than 100 signatures and tomorrow will be the first Friday that the girls are not required to wear tights! Anna is somewhat of a middle school hero because of that! Anna’s best school friend is Zoey. Anna is also very affectionate and will do anything for a back rub, neck rub or back scratch. She will also play with my hair to get out of going to bed on time. And speaking of going to bed on time, Anna thinks that she should not have a bed time, mostly because her siblings don’t have one. She has always felt like she should have the same privileges they do! And speaking of siblings, Anna gets along really well with them. The girls love being together, Anna and William will sometimes get on each other’s nerves but for the most part are kind to one another and Anna and Sam are such similar people they love to tease and joke all the time….

Read More »

Tomorrow Lizzie goes to college. Tonight she is still our little girl. Tonight she, like always, came in our room after we had gotten in our bed and started to play, jumping onto our bed, luring Anna and William in for acrobatic feats and wrestling, then got in our bed and snuggled, showed us funny videos on her phone (usually about cats or skiing), told us about her life, then started to play again. This time she stole our blankets and ran outside like a crazy girl and jumped on the trampoline wrapped in them and howled at the moon. Tonight it seems like my life should and will always have my girl coming in to talk and play and share. Tomorrow she will leave and although I am so excited for her, it is killing me knowing that tomorrow night some lucky roommate will receive the joy and blessing of Nighttime Lizzie. My heart is full of excitement for her and sorrow for myself. After tomorrow half of the birds in our nest will have flown away. Where did the years go? When did this happen?

This is the first time in more than a year that we can walk into national chains like Target or Costco without a mask. I felt a little guilty walking around with my face hanging out, like I was doing something wrong. At the same time it was so freeing! They even had food service started up again at Costco! I expected someone to ask for my vaccination card at the door but no one did. What a great day this is!