Slowly Returning to our Previously Scheduled Programming

Mid October, after six months, church was back on. Only twice a month, and only for forty minutes, but it was sure nice to go back. It felt a little lonely only having half of the ward there and maintaining social distance, but it was lovely to see our dear church family.

Just a week later the library also opened up! We have been requesting library books online for the last six months, but nothing beats browsing. I did a happy dance around my kitchen when Michael told me. The next day we headed to the library for their limited browsing hours and it felt like coming home. Don't let Sam's face fool you, he was very excited as well. Ethan wandered off to the youth section while Grace and Sam headed to the children's section, where they were enthusiastically greeted by some of our favorite librarians. We were only allowed to be in the library for twenty minutes, but we made good use of our time.

These are Grace and Sam's books. The stack under Sam's hand goes all the way to the floor. I refuse to believe we went overboard.  Ethan and I each had a canvas bag of books in the back. For the rest of the day I barely heard a peep from the kids. They were buried in books and stories.

Along with church and the library, school is open. Kinda. Ethan, Libby, and Grace all attend their respective schools on Tuesday and Thursday and then are online the other three days. They are so happy to be able to see their friends and finally meet their teachers in person. Sam is still being homeschooled, but we are hoping to start him back at the neighborhood school in January.

Just a few weeks after in person school started Grace brought home a bag full of goodies. She won the Jefferson character award for Honesty/Integrity. She was very pleased with receiving recognition. I had to laugh at her prize bag. It was full of pencils, crayons, paper, pens, notebooks, assorted office supplies and a box of nerds. It looked like they emptied the school supply storage closet into a bag and offered it as a prize. It wasn't a bad prize; just unexpected. I think this year is all about making do. The pumpkin and water bottle were not part of the prize pack, they just jumped in the picture.

The school is making do and Ethan is doing for himself. The truck was in desperate need of new shocks. Michael suggested we take it to a mechanic and get it done. Ethan crawled under the truck and announced he thought he could do it himself. Michael found some shocks that were on clearance and ordered them. Once they finally made it to the house Ethan started ripping apart the truck, and even managed to get it put back together. He spent a couple afternoons on it, scraped his knuckles, borrowed a jack from the neighbor when ours wasn't steady, and got the truck back in fine form. No longer does going over speed bumps feel like riding a slinky. It's amazing. As a bonus, Ethan went to the junk yard and found a horn and replaced the truck's broken one. $50 for the shocks, $3 for the horn, and the truck is in fine form. I'm proud of his willingness to attempt new things. I would never consider trying to replace the shocks myself, but he did it, and did it well (I hope). As he saved us a fair amount of money, he has been released from his car insurance payment for a month or two. I may have got the better end of the deal.

We still spend a couple days a week with this dude. He brings much needed levity to our home. The kids adore playing with him. He and Harley have a special relationship, built primarily on mutual tolerance. He will occasionally throw the ball for Harley and Harley will frequently steal his snacks.  They don't seem to have much more use for each other, but sometimes it's obvious they love each other. A lot.

P.S. This is my 601st blog post!! That is crazy. I've been doing this for a long time and apparently I think I have a lot to say. Crazy!

The Germinator

Today Sam told me a great name for this period in time would be "The Germinator" and I couldn't help but laugh. The boy is not wrong.

Currently our life is overrun by a invisible germ and I am exhausted. This year my children were supposed to all be in public school and I was going to start the process of going back to work. After almost seventeen years as a stay at home parent, I was ready to be someone besides Michael's wife or Insert-Kid-Name's mom. I was looking forward to being known as myself and not part of a family unit. Instead this year I am helping three kids with online school. They are mostly independent, but the math, the math, I tell you. It turns out I do have a use for the math I learned my junior year of high school: I'm using it to help my 10th grader understand her math. I guess my math teacher was right after all. It did turn out to be useful.

I'm also homeschooling Sam this year. It seemed easier than the on-again-off-again nature I assumed this school year was going to be. So far I have not been wrong.

In all honesty, I am so very tired. I'm tired of COVID, I'm tired of remembering my mask and using bottles of hand sanitizer. I'm tired of having all the kids doing online school. I'm tired of being told they might go back, or might not. I'm tired of not attending church since the middle of March and I'm tired of being told that we are going back. I'm tired of feeling like a yo-yo. Up and down and all around. I'm tired of scientific experts saying one thing and politicians saying another. I'm tired of this being a political fight when really it's a disease we need to fight, not each other. It shouldn't matter what party you support when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable citizens. 

When this disease first started spreading I didn't understand. I thought it was on par with the common flu. Now that 200,000 Americans have died and almost 500 Idahoans, I realize I was wrong. This thing is nasty. It's currently the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. So, yeah, I'm tired of wearing a mask, and avoiding crowds, and turning down invitations (and I know that has hurt some feelings). I'm tired of all my kids schooling at home. I'm tired of not seeing friends and family. I'm tired of being made to feel guilty about my desire to protect others.

This disease has taken my chance for employment, my free time, my kids preferred schooling and with that my sanity, my social life and my energy, and now it looks like my traditional holidays. And yet I keep on masking up and avoiding groups of more than 10, per current local recommendations. I wash my hands when I get home and keep hand sanitizer in my van. My kids are avoiding athletics and group activities. And we will keep on going, even though we feel a little crazy. We keep trying because we can come back from crazy. We will eventually be able to shake hands and cuddle babies again. We cannot bring back the dead or reverse heart inflammations. We cannot give back the lives of the elderly who should have had a few more years, or in some cases the young and healthy. We cannot give back the health of all those who will suffer long term from this disease. I'm giving up a lot, we all are, but I'm providing safety for others. The trade off doesn't seem that big. 

I am tired, but I am healthy. My kids are healthy. My family is healthy. I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.

Everyday Life

With school back in session (kinda) we are settling down for the fall. We haven't had any grand adventures, we are just enjoying our everyday life.

Sam and I went for a walk. He walked fully clothed into the river, in October, then had to walk home dripping wet. He had no regrets.

Ethan seems to have forgotten he doesn't fit in a stroller anymore. He became thoroughly wedged and had to ask for help. Michael took pictures before offering assistance. He had a few regrets.

Sam had the opportunity to go camping with Grandpa and shoot a .22 pistol that belonged to his great grandfather. I only had a small heart attack when I found out.

The monkey loves playing in the hammock. Love his little face.

Grace was invited to a cake decorating class, but I didn't feel comfortable with her going. Instead she made this little guy at home. He's pretty cute and then she got to eat him!

This is currently my favorite plant. Michael bought it for me for Valentine's Day. It is now October. This orchid has been blooming every day since he brought it home. I'm sure it's trying to send me a message about blooming during adversity. Sometimes I almost believe it.

Like most American families with children, my house has become a slime factory. Among all the other uses of slime, the kids discovered that they could make huge bubbles with it. Much joy was had and much slime has coated my house.

Another popular fad has infested my house: the game Among Us. Ethan has been playing quite a bit of it lately. Then he decided to make all the characters out of Sculpey. They proudly grace his desk.

The adventures haven't been big, but it's still pretty awesome at my house. (We will not talk about the trauma that finding a space for everyone to do their schoolwork is causing)

Libby

Libby turned 15 all the way back in August. Even though it has taken me many moons to post about it, I still love her! Life has just been a little overwhelming lately.

She wanted a tall beach cake. To keep with the theme we filled alternating layers with raspberry and pineapple sauce. It turned out...okay. The pineapple was a little weird and the cake oozed raspberry sauce so that it looked like it should be in a beach-themed horror movie. The decorations were also a little sad, but we tried.

Libby used the extra cake bits to make cake pops. They turned out better than the cake.

Libby got mostly makeup for her birthday this year, just as she likes. She was pretty pumped about her temperature changing lipstick.  I guess it comes around once every generation or so. I loved it when I was a kid, even though it basically turned my lips orange. Hers came in a variety of colors, so she probably has a more ghastly palette to select from.

No blog post about Libby would be complete without a photo of her eye roll. She discovered it when she was two and has spent the last 13 years mastering it!

I can't believe this sassy girl is now a sophomore in high school. She finds her joy in choir and baking. Even with choir online this year, it is still her favorite class. I'm so thankful for this plucky addition to our family.

Spring Break is Finally Over

School let out the week before Spring Break back in March, due to health concerns. Students did not end up going back for the rest of the school year. There was some effort put in to finishing the semester, but it was lackluster and piece-meal.  

Now six months later, it is again time to learn!

Online.

From the comfort of home.

While eating and drinking. Ethan's ginger beer is completely non-alcoholic, but I am considering taking up day drinking. It's been a strange first week full of a lot of hiccups. Not the least of which is finding space for everyone to work without annoying other scholars. There is no current consensus, and so the battle rages on.

The three older kids are attending school online. In a last bid to save what's left of my sanity, I decided it would be simpler to homeschool this one. He's on board, as long as he gets to go back in January if the other kids do.  

I definitely have all my kids schooling from home until the first part of September. In my heart though, I suspect this will be our new normal this school year. 

*Okay, I'm actually I'm not going to start drinking. All donations of dark chocolate will be accepted, though, with joy. I need some coping mechanisms.