COVID-19 and CORAD-20

So a new virus popped up in the world a few months ago. The fatality rate was higher than most viruses and China got hit pretty hard. It spread to other countries, with Italy taking a high toll as well. It entered the U.S. a few weeks ago and things have changed quite drastically in the past two weeks. First, the Church announced that they would not be having leadership meetings during General Conference so that leaders from other countries wouldn't be coming into the country. Then, it was changed to a closed conference, meaning no one would be in the conference center. Today, it was changed to only the speakers for the actual session would meet together. Temples are only open for live ordinances and we are all doing church at home. BYU cancelled classes for last Friday and this past Monday and Tuesday and announced that the rest of the semester would be done through remote instruction. They encouraged them all to go home and finish the semester at home. Paul is leaving in the morning to pick up Tink. Our school district announced that it would be closed for 2 weeks, which didn't affect Bucko, but my other kids had to do school online this week. Yesterday, the governor announced that all schools in CO would be closed through April 17. And state testing had been cancelled. Gyms are closed. Our dentist and eye doctor are closed. People are panic buying like crazy. Toilet paper can't be found! The shelves at Sam's Club were all but empty this week. It is like the world has gone insane! But we have felt peace through it all. We know that President Nelsen knows what's going on. I'm grateful we have the food storage we do and have not suffered at all due to the panic going around. But everyone is encouraged to practice social distancing so we are all in our homes. It hasn't affected is a ton, other than activities being cancelled. Bucko was excited to go to the spring formal with his friend on Saturday, but that was cancelled. He was so bummed. Then a group put together a "I'm not scared of COVID-19" formal, but they ended up postponing that too because someone's parent was sick and they were going to go to a grandparents house and didn't want to get them sick! So, in the end, I guess they were scared of it. I've spent the week getting the room in the basement ready for Tink. It's funny that I started getting it ready a few weeks ago. I kept thinking at the time that I was starting too early because it was still months away from when she'd be coming home. When all this happened, I knew it had been the Spirit prompting me to get started. It was a pain to move all my craft stuff out of there. I have a lot of stuff! But I finally finished painting and getting all the furniture in there ready for her. We can't wait to see her!

I listen to this podcast called Out There Colorado. They also send me a newsletter with articles and news. One of the guys coined the phrase CORAD-20 because CO is ColoRADo and it's 2020, so #CORAD-20 came about to get us Coloradans outside during this time, still distancing ourselves from others, but capturing the beauty of the world around us. I hope to do this in the coming days. We got several inches of snow today, though, so it will have to wait until the sun comes out again because right now, it is cold!