Oh Mylanta. I knew this would happen....I didn't post for a week and now the past two weeks have blended together. Gr!
This is such a unique time and I am beyond thankful that we can live a life where the days can blend together. We have really found a good rhythm to our days and weeks and it feels good. I think we have accepted that this is what it is now and have made our peace with it. Like any grief, there are still moments that catch us by surprise and stab us in the gut but as I have learned we just have to keep forging ahead. The past is the past and we can't change it. We can remember it, honor it, cherish it, but we can not change it. It has happened and now we are on a new path. This goes for all the major heartaches I've had in my life: sweet baby Trace, Dad, miscarriage, and school. I feel I can't even put this period of social distancing in the same category as Trace and Dad but it is grief nonetheless.
As we fall into our weeks, it seems that Thursdays are the hardest for me personally. It is a day filled with meetings on the computer and trying to wrap up the next week's online learning. It drains me in a new way that in-person teaching never has. Our solution? Head outdoors. The sky and grass remind us the world is bigger than the box we spend so many hours staring into. It's so good for the kids and especially me.
We've been spending a ton of time outside as Scott and I work in the yard. It's fun for me to watch the kids use their imagination in the yard. What greater entertainer is there?
We wrapped up our big music fundraiser in the midst of this global pandemic and the delivery went surprisingly well. It was awesome to see our families pull up and wave at students. Everyone has their butter braids! I am thankful for an awesome team of music educations (and friends) as well as our admin team and the fundraiser contact who quite frankly is a friend at this point also.
Our rooms had to be cleaned out and students stuff picked up this last week in April and it was a busy week to get everything ready to go. It was a good push and felt good to get all that checked off my list. I went into school one evening and worked for hours, cleaning out students' cubbies, and getting what they left behind to their locker bags. I think it was a success and all things considered, this is the best kids have had things home for a break compared to most summers.
The kids came up to school with me while I packed up my room and took stuff off the walls to paint over the break. I convinced them with Mcd's and we had a car picnic at Ledges afterward.
Online teaching has been an adventure but I have embraced the challenge. My google meets have been mildly successful and it has been fun to connect with my students with a little bit of music and a little bit of fun. I will never again take for granted how my whole ensemble comes to my room at once and we can make music together in person! These are daily gifts.
Students love to show off their pets. It is hilarious. We've tried to get them all in for a photo but some pets are more cooperative than others. :)
Michael and the girls have been missing their teachers although they are doing a good job of staying connected too.
Michael's teacher and associates sent some flat versions of themselves for photo ops and the girls' teacher surprised them with May Day baskets. So sweet!
We've had a few warm days but the sprinkler and hose still feel a bit cool for spring. We hooked the sprinkler up to the hot water in the garage and the kids promptly emptied the hot water heater tank but it helped the chill a bit!
We took a drive downtown with our picnic lunch to eat by the Capitol but it was a cool day. We had wanted to walk at the sculpture park but it was all roped off- it is hard to know what is appropriate to do these days or not.
Finally, our trees are in bloom! My favorite time of year!
Social Isolation: a self-portrait.
All the work outside with the farmers stirring up dirt has done a number on my poor eyeballs. I would never in a million years dream of putting a photo of me in my thick glasses out for the world to see but I guess that is a gift social distancing has given me. I have bad eyesight: deal with it! hehe
Stay well, friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment