I will survive ;)

 

We are almost through 3 weeks of school and we are making it.  Some days I'm running from room to room, waking kids, getting kids on zoom, looking for kids, problem solving, getting back on my zoom.  Whew.  Most of the time it's going just fine, but we aren't without our share of mishaps.  This morning, I was a few minutes into my first kindergarten class of the day when I realized Gray was still asleep and supposed to be in his homeroom.  I had to close my camera and run wake him up.  Another day my VIPKID class ran so late that I didn't have even a second between classes to wake the girls and had to say, "Sorry, excuse me" to my student and run upstairs quickly.  I often forget what day it is and what time it is because so much of the day is repetitive (4 groups in a row of teaching the same lesson, then repeat with a new lesson).  But I really love working with my kindergarten teacher and I really enjoy the kids.  Other happenings...or mishappenings with giving a kindergartener free reign of her online schooling:

-Allie loves her PE teacher Mr Westbrook and shouted, "Bye Mrs. Wexperd!" on her first day of PE.  She's still a little confused about his name and yesterday took it upon herself to open his zoom link while a second grade class was in there.  Apparently he let her in so she had PE twice that day.

-I walked in the other day to find her teacher teaching and Allie's face all up in the camera while making silly noises and babbling.  She wasn't muted, but somehow her teacher wasn't disturbed.

-I often find her at the end of a class going, "Excuse me, Mrs. Brooks!  Excuse me, Mrs. Brooks!" until her teacher acknowledges her and lets her share something soooo important like "My Daddy is going to give me money if I put my face in the water."

-She was supposed to cut out pictures of things she likes and make a video for her teacher.  I overheard her making the video and saying, "...and that's a wine bottle".  Yep, she cut out wine bottles as her favorite things.

-She is obsessed with the school-issued ipad and if I'm not careful I will find her surfing youtube or making her own "youtube videos"..."Hi guys, it's me, Allie....I hope you enjoyed this video.  Don't forget to 'scribe!"

-It's been an adjustment for her in not getting the same attention as she's used to.  Especially the first week or two, it was getting cringingly common for her to go bug a sibling while I'm teaching and end up wailing loudly when they ask her to go.  I have to either mute myself if my teacher is teaching and hope she doesn't ask me anything, or smile and speak really loudly if I'm teaching.  Thankfully she is getting more used to her solo time this week.

-On her first day of school, I was encouraging her to be still and quiet when her teacher is talking during her zoom and she said, "I will, Mom, and I'll try not to fart."

Overall, thank goodness, she is really enjoying school and is really making good progress with her writing, which she hasn't really liked to do in the past.  

The other kids are hanging in there. Joshua's work space is in the loft and he enjoys his independence.  He seems to be using boring zoom time to perfect his dart skills.  He doesn't much feel like he's in high school without actually going to the school and experiencing that big crowd. He knows some kids in his classes, but some he has older kids that look like grown men.  He has done a group project somehow and built some sort of bridge in there.  Organization comes naturally to him and he manages himself without much of any input from us.

Gray is present at his meetings but I'm just not sure what he's absorbing.  He spends his day lounging in his corner blue chair looking half awake and often doesn't grasp what his assignments are.  He likes his teachers and they've been super kind to check in on him often.  Much to my chagrin, they do not actually sing in remote Chorus, but do more of a music history class.  I was looking forward to a little musical entertainment coming from that blue chair. 

 Julia has a lot of trouble with math and is good about asking her teacher for extra help on zoom, but she has needed a lot of my help too.  This requires more patience than I have ever needed for anything in my life.  If we don't both end up in tears, I feel like we've been successful.  Julia is able to manage getting on her zooms thankfully, though this week she was trying to pull getting up 5 minutes before and then leaving her meeting in the middle to get breakfast.  She despises me checking in on her or coming near her or looking at her when she is doing her zoom.  She lost a tooth two days ago and I forgot to put money under her pillow.  I remembered the next morning and tried to sneak up to her room, only to find her doing zoom PE there.  Between leg raises, she was giving me the stink eye and hissing at me, "Mommy!!...and you forgot the tooth fairy money!!"  Sometimes you just can't do anything right!  :)

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

We've had a couple of pool trips.  We've been trying to help Allie overcome her water fears but not sure the summer is long enough for that!  It's getting cooold in the pool these days.

Mimi came to help Allie settle in to her first real week of school.  It sure helped to have someone keep an eye on her (see above examples) and Allie loved the companionship.

Sometimes the kids go have lunch with a friend, which is nice.  They are missing a lot of the hard things about being in school with peers and a lot of the fun things too, but I think overall it's less stress to be able to put all the school drama behind and just hang out with the few people that you can be yourself with.

Julia took along her daily companion and fish expert Addie to choose a fish of her own.  She had some setbacks saving up money (i.e. she gave up and spent it all a few times) but finally had enough.  She loves Mango!

Always some vehicle maintenance going on with our resident auto expert.  He's tackled some bigger repairs this summer.

And we continue to enjoy time with our adoption group friends.  The girls all got to go make candy sushi together last weekend and this week we got to celebrate Ava's bday at the park with water balloons and cupcakes.  Somewhere in there, Gray got to visit Mimi and GrandGene too and had a great time there as always.  We also had a family dinner on Matt's side to send off Andrew back to DC.  We've really enjoyed our time with everyone this summer.

So here we are, three weeks into school and we are already ready for vacation.  (Which has me wondering how those long, cold winter months are going to work out!)  But for now, we are excited to have a beach trip on the horizon and we're going to keep on keeping on!

The Night Before...

 Ready or not, here we come, online school year!  I know we've had the kids home since March and it's really been an extra long summer break, but now that we are here, on the eve of the first day of school, it feels too soon!  I am remembering my senior year of high school and how I chose the quote "Stop the world. I want to get off." for my yearbook entry, which sounded like I was depressed, but really I was enjoying life so much and when it came time for that chapter to end, it just felt like the world was spinning too fast.  I think it's always like that with change.  At least for me.  The kids seem to be adjusting to the idea okay, though Allie has been tearful and shouting about things that wouldn't normally set her off.  I think the older ones realize it's not as big a deal as if they were preparing to be getting up early and leaving the house all day again.  I think Joshua might be a bit relieved not to have to walk into that big high school just yet.  

The last week has been tiring, but good, as I've gotten to see what my new job will be like from here on out and I've enjoyed it.  The kids are super cute and I'm getting to actually teach them some--how to write their letters and numbers and begin to read.  They make videos of their work, which I check online, and some are just hilarious as they wonder big thoughts out loud, like why in the world animals are reading books in their story anyway, since that can't happen in real life.  It's been a bit of a learning curve figuring out various features of zoom, like sharing the screen of my cell phone camera so they can watch me draw on the whiteboard on my desk.  The first day of that, I had texts from Matt coming up on my screen as well, asking me what I wanted to do for our anniversary (which parents could read) and once I put in the incorrect password and had to awkwardly wait a minute before it would let me sign in, but overall I feel like I've got it now.  

As for the kids, we have set up the their learning spaces, posted their schedules, planned their wake up times, assembled their supplies, and had one crazy night of open house online in which we ran from kid to kid trying to take notes and not miss anything important.  So I guess we're ready??  The girls will ease in slowly the first few days and have some small group orientation time and some time off.  I am online with a group of kids just about every half hour so I'm glad Matt will be there for the first day to help make sure everything is going smoothly.  Allie met two of her classmates in the neighborhood this afternoon.  She was a mix of clingy and chatty, depending on the moment.  Overall, I'm so thankful that she seems socially on target for her age and really enjoys other kids.  

Here's how the end of summer has gone...

After enjoying their time with cousins on our VA trip, the kids got together to make Part 2 of their movie, The Mask.  Gray was former scientist, Dr Phil, helping avenge his twin brother's death (himself in part 1).  He later got on a Bible Study zoom with the marker beard, not realizing it was still on, but sadly (in my opinion) did not turn on the video feed so no one got to witness it.  

Mama and Daddy were so kind to take the girls for my first week of school, which made my week so much easier since I had to be gone a lot of the days to work at the school.  The boys are so independent and once Matt left for his friend trip, I really took it easy in the cooking department, which was such a nice break.  We played a game a few times and had some marathons of the The Office.  Meanwhile, the girls loved their time with Mimi and GrandGene and would have been glad to say longer.  I worked a ton and by Friday, my teacher didn't have much for me to do, so I set off to the hospice thrift store, where I happily shopped for 3 1/2 hours and found the furniture needed to set up school areas for the kids, plus other odds and ends like 50% off Christmas decorations.  Bargain shopping is my favorite!  I even got to work on refinishing one of the tables that night while watching one of my favorite old movies, as the boys were doing a movie night in the neighborhood.  

Saturday morning, Gray and I headed to VA for a lacrosse tournament.  It was so weird being around that many people again and I felt a little uncomfortable because most of them weren't wearing masks (we were outside of course) and it's just been so long since I've been in a crowd.  

It was a super hot day and Gray had fun but we were glad to finish up and head home.  

The next day was Joshua's turn to play.  He had a great time, as several of his good friends are on the team.  

Matt enjoyed his annual Galax trip with his buddies and then drove with one of them (who also had a lacrosse player) over to the tournament to watch Joshua.  His friend's kid is a senior and had late games so they had a really long, hot day that ended in a bit of sunburned necks. 

This past week was fairly uneventful.  The kids played with friends. I worked all day and tried to keep everyone fairly quiet and busy.  

 

Allie continues to show her knack for learning things quickly and can now braid.

Here she is meeting her teacher on the zoom Open House.  Later, she got her iPad for school and is sooo proud to have a device of her own.  The kids were all so excited about it and crowded around to let her show them.

Julia was thrilled to get back on the ice yesterday for a free skate.

Katelyn met her there to show her the ropes.

Matt and I have our 17th anniversary today and went out last night.  Gray bought himself a new nerf gun this week and that has revived everyone's interest in nerf wars.  The kids had us hide the guns all over the house and they all 4 battled while we were gone.  There were rules, eye protection, tears from Allie and her exclamation that "They 'hud' them too hard!".  In the end, the kids seemed closer to each other when we got back and we were thinking we should do this more often.  We were going to pick up food and eat outside, but the weather wasn't great to so we dined in at a place downtown...the first time we've eaten in a restaurant in forever.  It was a long meal, but so good, and we appreciated the time to talk, just the two of us.  Afterwards, we drove to pick up milkshakes for the kids.  Great ending to this weird summer in which things were nothing like I ever thought they would be, but full of blessings at the same time.  Holding my breath that we'll say the same about this virtual schooling!!

Crazy Days of Summer

We got back from our beach trip and things got really busy really fast, as I started my new job and had full days of training, we hosted Jeannie and fam for a couple days, went on a whirlwind trip to VA, and my school started up this week.  There were many last minute changes along the way that have had my head spinning trying to figure out how to be at all the right places at the right times and do everything I need to do for my jobs, family activities, and getting the kids ready to start school.  Thankful the girls could get away with my parents a few days to limit their time running feral at home ;).  And at this moment, the boys have run off to tennis and it's oddly quiet around here.  

Here are some highlights from this very full last week..

1) Eno River hike with the Moores as soon as they arrived.  We walked and chatted, skipped rocks, got in the water, and (some of us) showed how directionally challenged we are. :)

2) Spur of the moment, everyone pile in the car to witness Joshua driving to get Raven around the corner at Matt's parents'.  Yes, Gray is wearing a mustache sweater on one of the hottest days of the year.  Yes, Julia is sitting in Allie's carseat.  It's a short ride.  Joshua has been eager to practice driving around the neighborhood lately.  I think I'm a pretty calm passenger (ignore the face in this picture).  I just give him lots of grave reminders on what can happen in the blink of an eye.

3) Trip to Whitt's in which 5 of 6 kids got a root beer float.

Then the Moores left, I did a ton of training and got to know my new coworkers (it's an awesome place to work so far, by the way), and we packed up for the next trip...

4) Last fall, Matt's sister planned this 50th Anniversary trip to celebrate Matt's parents.  We got to the lake house in Abingdon late Friday night and headed down to ride the Creeper Trail the next morning.  About a quarter of us were fairly sure we'd fall off.  You can see from Julia's "before" face that she was one of these people, having never ridden with hand brakes.  After a week of training for my new job in things like "growth mindset" and how to encourage students to step out and be challenged, I was kind of happy she was forced to be stretched.  

5) We had an hour shuttle ride in which I enjoyed chatting with the cousin kids, which doesn't happen nearly enough, then arrived at the top of the trail and got on our bikes.  Right about then I was losing my optimism about this adventure because Allie's bike (hooked to Matt's) was ginormous for her and every time Matt moved, her whole body went to the side like she was going to fall.  Matt was having visions of riding the 17 miles with her in his backpack, but this little firecracker came through.  She gripped those wide handlebars, tiny legs just dangling there, and held on for dear life.  In minutes, she was all smiles, and by the end she had even figured out how to pedal a little bit.  

6) And my big girl?  Well she managed to figure out those hand brakes just fine.  She was so brave and tried to keep up with the big kids.  She had a great time!  (And was the only one wearing a helmet, though at times, many of us wished we were!)  

7) We stopped for lunch on the side of the road...in retrospect, we would have enjoyed going ahead to a spot by the river...particularly after a FedEx truck came around the bend like it was going to run Gray over.  At different points along the trail, the people in the front (mostly the teen cousins) would stop and wait for all to rendezvous for a minute before gleefully shouting "on your left" and passing the rest of us as they headed on down the trail.  I loved seeing the kids having such a good time together.  

8) And as for me, my view most of the ride was of these cuties.  When Matt would hold out his legs, Allie would imitate.  She did a lot of chatting on the ride and occasionally made requests to pull over and take a quick break, at which point I could get some pictures, since I could only let go of my handlebars for a quarter second without just about losing control of the bike!  

9) We all made it to the end and then had to tell our war stories...there were falls while biking, near misses, taking out of fences while crashing, falls while climbing rocks on a break, mud splashed on clothes and faces, and my personal favorite-- a story of Joshua losing control of his pedals and riding on his handlebars for a bit, to the cackling delight of his observing cousin.  

10) In the afternoon, we checkout the lake.  It was just beautiful out there with the trees, mountains, and water.  Allie continued to show her bravery at 5 by swimming in the lake and going all the way under the water without crying for the first time.  She is usually so cautious and was incredibly proud of this moment.  She even went tubing later.

11) The boys enjoyed taking out the kayaks.

12) This party raft was pretty cool too.

13) Fresh off her lake experience at camp, Julia was loving every minute.

14) Later, we took out the boat.  Allie was loving her cousin time!

15) Clearly, tubing was pretty boring.  ;)

16) Matt really loved driving the boat.  This picture was of our "sunset cruise" after a nice dinner we made for Barnette and Cindy.

17) The happy couple!  We enjoyed talking with them at dinner about their 50 years together and the keys to making it through.

18) I think Sophia took this of me.  Proof I relaxed and had fun!  It was perfect.

19) Allie rode the tube in various siblings laps and even went one time on her own side of the boat.  I was a little afraid of what would happen if she flipped out, but it was pretty unflippable with people in both sides.  We know because the boys made it their mission to flip each other out later.

19) Just relaxing as we went out to explore the area...all the way to Tennessee on Sunday morning.

20) The older three each got a turn to drive the boat.  Matt even took a turn in the tube and *almost* got dumped out.  

And then it was time to come home and back to reality again.  Matt and I had to be up to leave the house/start teaching at 6 Monday morning, but we were so thankful for the time we had to enjoy the weekend.  This week I've been heading into work for very small "meet the teacher" type days and it's been good to feel more connected to the school and staff and to begin to get to know the kids.  Starting next week, I'll be teaching 8 classes a day of small groups of kindergarteners some days, so it's going to be something!  I've been trying to brainstorm how to set up school spaces for my kids at home and make them as independent as possible so we can all get our meetings and work done at the same time.  Whew.  We're going to need a Julia spa day (see her creation below) when this is over.  :)  Or another trip to the beach would work too!  I'm sure there are going to be a lot of ups and down, tears and triumphs this year.  Here's hoping we all come out on the other side with many lessons learned and a smile on our faces!