Keeping busy

My desire is to keep a record of these days. I think one day when we look back, it will be interesting to see what we did and thought. But of course, best laid plans and all. Despite the fact that we we have nothing but time on our hands, our days are still very full. For me this means juggling between lots of jobs: homeschool teacher/helper, zoom (online chat platform) coordinator, college instructor, resume reviewer for 100 students, problem solver, household manager, food scheduler and purchaser, chef, counselor, entertainer, listener and probably a billion other things I am forgetting. Definitely a full plate! I wish I could say I am mastering them all, but there are some days I am doing better than others.

Regardless, we are thriving and there are lots of positives. The girls have gotten efficient with school work and are enjoying some other activities in the afternoons. For a long time Paige has been lamenting the effects of middle school on her relationship with her sister. There's just not a lot of time to spend together when you have a sister with a couple of hours of homework. Well, that has been resolved and they are spending lots of time together.

Here are some pictures of our happenings:

online art classes with Make

The Powells are our "tribe." We hang outside together and don't touch each other.

Turtle hunting with Cici.

Home worship with our favorite worship leaders. 

The professional mullet: business on top and casual on the bottom. This is how I role for online class. 

Division with this 3rd grader. 

Homemade whoopie pies!

Zooming with her class for the first time. So good to see these kids!

Reading on the iPad in their school fort. 

A neighborhood challenge: draw art on the end of your sidewalk for the walking art exhibit.

Painting with things in nature. (We are loving art!)

A late night outside, playing

Maintaining safe distances with friends.

Nature time with Paige as we explore ecosystems.

Building their new LEGO set. 

homesteading with the Kellys

We're all settling into a new routine of being at home. Most days have been good. This past weekend (before the SC Governor suggested it) Patrick and I cleaned out the garage and we tackled yard work. The annual pine straw dump was made and Patrick got it all laid out. With the recent rain and warmer temps, it's beginning to look like spring around here and I just love when our yard comes to life. The girls happily played outside or with Legos.

On Sunday, we enjoyed home church, especially since our regular worship leaders recorded songs for us this week. I help a Zoom meetup with my 3rd-5th grade girls and it was absolutely precious. We all took turns sharing what we enjoyed recently, something that stunk about being at home, prayer requests and even said our memory verse together. I think I'll surprise them with some lollipops and a note in their mailboxes this week. We also did a Zoom with our parish and it was nice to connect with our church body. I really loved that my family pitched in and we tackled some major cleaning too. My 30 day spring cleaning list is getting shorter!

School work is progressing with both of the girls. Anna is so independent with the work she gets from her teachers each day. Patrick and I have helped a little bit with math, which I tell you is a challenge in itself. We both aced Calculus so why is 6th grade math so hard!?

Paige is tackling her packet and I am trying to modify her work as needed. She finished up her March writing piece and I was just so proud of her. It's an awesome story that she worked so hard on. She is so diligent with her work and has had a great attitude, even though I know it's not her favorite. Check out the school fort they made, complete with desks and reading beanbags.

Tuesday was a tough day for Paigey. She was frustrated about some minor things and I could tell there were some deeper issues bother her. This sweet girl broke down into alligator tears and confessed she really misses school. We had some good convos, lots of hugs and sweet snuggles together. In the end, I guess I am glad she misses school this much. It means they are doing it right. And if I'm honest, I've teared up over the loss of school for them as well. It's mostly the email between her and her teacher which is absolutely precious. We also just found out we will be doing an additional month at home and that was not well received. The one thing we could agree on was that doing what was hard for us is what is right for the well-being of others.

I started my class on Monday and it was a rocky beginning with technical issues. By my second section which is just 20 minutes after my first section, I figured out the issues and it was much better. Talk about stressful! But we're off and now I'm just hoping I can juggle between the girls and teaching 100 students in 6 weeks.

a new normal

Wow! This week has been a little different and challenging at times. The girls jumped into the homeschool routine pretty easily. The first half of the week we were waiting for official school assignments, but that didn't stop me from making them work on some other stuff. Here's some of the fun we've been up to:

learning about the census

eating a green noodle dinner for St. Patrick's day

homeschool jammies

#coronakindness notes for our neighbors

Facebook Live art class

our thoughts on starting homeschool again

Today started official homeschooling with work from the girls' schools. They have done a great job tackling their work and I have loved staying in touch with their teachers. Paige received a packet of 133 pages which didn't thrill me, but I've worked through what we will do and what I will supplement instead. Her binder is organized and she's set to go. Anna has had a couple of virtual hangouts and is doing some awesome independent learning.

I've realized the area I need to make sure both the girls are being filled is with social interaction. They don't have phones so it's hard for them to know what's going on with their friends. We walk regularly with the Powells and have some FaceTime convos with others. 

We've also done some fun online yoga classes through Cosmic kids, made lucky charm treats, eaten picnics outside, played Monopoly, cleaned various things around the house, done some writing we've not had time for before, practiced instruments and made yummy recipes. My favorite part of the day has been our morning devotion where the girls have come prepared with verses to share and we pray. Such a sweet time.

Patrick worked for the first part of the week and now he is home. He will have office hours for his students to contact him and he held his first online class today. Because he is an AP teacher he can continue with new content and it was good for him to be with his students. 30 showed up for class this morning!

My class has been shortened by a week and put entirely online. I will have a live class with them on Mondays for the next 6 week and the rest of my content is in videos already online. There was a lot of back and forth about whether to continue my classes and the other three sections have been cancelled. I am grateful I will still keep my sections and will actually be teaching 100 students total.

There have been surprisingly wonderful thing about this time: seeing kids playing in our neighborhood, spending time with my family, having a slower pace, redirecting our attention to the Lord and His promises, learning together, wearing comfy clothes and no make-up for days and the many awesome materials people are making available online. I'm not going to lie. This has been tough in some ways. Processing with others is hard, but for right now we're just going to keep doing the next right thing as Anna in Frozen 2 reminded us from our movie night the other day. :)

COVID-19

These sure are strange times and I bet we all have lots of thoughts swirling around in our heads. I'm posting some things here mostly for memory's sake.

On Wednesday, I woke up to news that the USC was extending spring break one more week. I am currently on spring break and finding out via a news outlet was not ideal. Apparently, it was leaked to the press and then the administration scrambled to get accurate information out to students, staff and faculty. Later I found out via daily newsletter we would also be going to online learning for a period of time. My main issues were with the disorganization in informing people who worked there, but overall I felt really good with where I was at with my two upcoming classes because I've actually been doing video lectures for three years. I then spent the next couple of days in phone conversations and texts trying to figure out how to get the rest of our staff on board with my curriculum that was poised to be good solution. We're still working through that and honestly, there's not a whole lot of certainty in the university's overall plans at this point. I'm just staying flexible!

On Friday, other areas of our lives started shutting down. Field trips, school activities, Patrick's conferences he was attending or planning, church services, youth, Bible study and even soccer for Paige. The last one really made me sad as we were supposed to have her first game today and I was so excited to see her play. Understandable, yes, but also disappointing. It's amazing what an empty calendar looks like and I'm already jotting down some ideas on things to keep us occupied when/if schools are next.

Then Sunday it was confirmed the girls would be out of school for the next two weeks (at least). We had a sweet home church and discussed plans for homeschooling during dinner. I am getting flash backs of our time in DC when I was teaching a different 3rd grade student! Who would have guessed I would homeschool both girls in 3rd grade?! I am happy to report the girls popped right up this morning to start their school day as I get my class stuff ready.

And of course, we finally had to cancel our trip to England in April. Funny as our passports arrived in the mail this past week. We'll be working with the airlines to rebook our trip and I am hopeful it will be this summer, but realist enough to know that even that may not happen.

So some general overall things:
-We are well stocked on supplies and food.
-We have homeschooled before and I know we can keep the girls on track.
-We both have jobs that are mostly insulated from a lot of turmoil others will face. This both makes me grateful and aching for those who will see very hard time because of this.
-We are utilizing technology to it's best advantages. So often I am trying to push it further from our daily lives, but I know it will be valuable in keeping up work, school and church life.
-We will not live in a spirit of fear, for fear is not from God. The truth is we are not promised tomorrow, easy times or control. BUT we do have a God that hears us, is in control of all things and promises good for those who believe in Him. That good may not look like what we think of as good, but my faith and trust is in Him alone. What a wonderful opportunity we have to glorify Him, shine brightly for the world to see and have great conversations with others.

Anna goes under the sea-The Little Mermaid

Holy moly! Has it been a crazy week or what?! I'll do a separate post on Covid-19 and what that looks like around our house. Just like everybody else, we are fine and adjusting to a new normal with things canceled and shutting down. One thing I am very grateful for is the fact that Anna did get to perform in her middle school musical before things got crazy. Praise the Lord!

This past Wednesday, Anna finally got to perform on stage with her peers. She has been practicing since December when we found out she landed the roles of sailor, sea creature and chef. I loved that she was in the ensemble because we got to see her multiple times on stage. This has been such a great experience for her. She has had to balance time and manage stress when things conflicted. She met new people as well as performed with a few friends (like our best bud Madison). She stretched herself by stepping into a new activity. She learned new skills and even has a very lovely singing voice that I was not aware of before. It really has been a great experience!

This past week she had dress rehearsals at the high school so it was a bit of craziness juggling activities, people, transportation and the like. We managed great with the help of friends and a well organized calendar. On Wednesday, both sets of grandparents arrived and we had lots of friends in the audience to support her. She sure felt loved! Paige helped me pick out the flowers for her performance and I snagged great seats when I arrived early to help with backstage stuff.

The show was so cute! They all did a wonderful job and it came together so nicely. Anna sure sold her role as a sailor managing invisible ropes and nets. Her jellyfish hat waving gently cracked me up. And I cannot get over the mustache as a chef. She yelled out her two lines right on time and loudly so all could hear. I could tell she was excited afterward because she was hardly able to focus on one thing. Let's just say she was dragging the next morning! We all came back to the house after the performance and ate dinner/snacks as well as buntini cakes my mom brought along.

My parents hit the road the next morning and I was able to have breakfast with them at their hotel. Patrick's parents stayed until Friday to be able to visit a bit more. It was tough having the performance in the middle of the week because we were still in full on schedule more for Thursday, but I'm grateful Friday was a day off from school for the whole crew.

Hard to believe the many weeks of rehearsal are over, but we are super proud of Anna and her many talents!

Anna and Madison

Kids from her youth group