Hello world

First, let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Amanda and I have been married for almost 16 years (this July) to my husband, Fernando. We are high school sweethearts. We three beautiful, amazing daughters, Tegan, Tenley, and Teala. They are our everything. We are Christians - we are not religious (we do not follow rules), we follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does this mean? This means that we love everyone, that we are broken, and that Jesus died and rose for our sins. It also means that we will not push our believes on you, rather, if you want to know about them we can have a respectful conversation about them. The other thing I want you to know is that if you need prayer, just ask - I would be happy to pray for you or someone you know.

So, let's get right into it...

This week has been a hard week. Well, ok, so this MONTH has been hard. We have to Covid-19 thing going on, kids are doing distance learning, and my husband and I are still working (by the grace of God). Life is pretty challenging right now. But, long story short, it's ok because God's got this.

My dad's birthday was this past Monday (happy birthday dad). My grandma also went to go be with our Lord and Savior on Monday. I am sad about her leaving the earth, but I am also so incredibly happy for her as I know she is in heaven. Miss you grandma, love you big, big, big. My parents are snow birds (even though they don't believe they are). The live in Florida in the winter, and in New York (upstate) in the spring and summer.

We are so blessed to still be working. I have changed my "have to" to "get to" this week. So I don't HAVE to go to work, I GET to go to work. It is not easy right now as my entire staff in on furlough. I say this not just because I am working alone, but I want my team to be able to make ends meat. I don't want them to struggle.  I pray for them and I hope they know God's got this.

Are any of you struggling with this distance learning thing with your kids? For me it is challenging because I want to make sure they are getting their work done but I am not always sure what they need to do. I am use to college LMS (learning management systems), but not so much Google Classroom. I just hope that the kids and I work through this together and get better at it (although they know how to use it, where I am still learning). I just want to make sure that they are continuing to LEARN!

One good thing that has come from this whole thing to is that we are eating home a lot more. We are not eating out as much. The challenging part has been not eating the same things over and over again. We have been trying to make more recipes and trying to eat healthier foods. I try to have the kids pick out two recipes each for the week - sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. They usually want to make deserts instead of dinners. We will keep trying and maybe I can even post some stuff we make.

All in all world, times are challenging and we have to try to keep it all in perspective, but also try to find the good. I have been finding good and raising hallelujahs to Jesus on my Instagram account. I think it is important to raise a hallelujah in the midst of the storm just as much as it is during the good times...why...because God's got this!