New Life- Week 28 (Send Help)

 What to say about this week??? It was a rough one.  We have been struggling through the first weeks of school and trying to find a routine without the proper materials or logins for our online program.  Carrigan's teacher had been encouraging them to try to work in the program as much as possible and gave us some workarounds for things we were missing.  Merrick's teacher encouraged them to hold off while we got things sorted.  Apparently that shifted sometime this week and she began expecting them to begin working.  Merrick thought he was doing everything he needed to, he was not.  By Thursday I figured out we had a problem and he was way behind.  We were all completely stressed and he was in tears because he felt like I was only helping Carrigan (he wasn't wrong).

Thursday we played catch up as best as we could and Friday we hit reset on our plan.  I tried to be more present for Merrick and still help Carrigan as much as possible.  I have to do this while simultaneously keeping Elsie entertained and occupied.  Thankfully Carrigan had a light day on Friday, but I am extremely worried about how this is going to work going forward.  I feel like I need three of me and at some point I have to figure out how to add preschool back into the equation.  It's all a little overwhelming.

The only bright spot in all of it is that we finally did receive all our logins this week and some of our materials have started to arrive.  I am hoping that excitement will give us the boost we need to keep going.

New Life-Week 27 (Routine)

 This week we worked to try and get into a good routine for the school year.  It's been a tricky situation because we still don't have full access to the online program we are supposed to be using and we are still waiting on materials kits with workbooks and manipulatives.  I feel like I have been trying to walk this tightrope walk of trying to get the kids used to a school routine, schedule, and workload with very little actual work (well for Merrick at least, Carrigan's teacher has been better about giving them enough work).

Anyway, everyday we start our day down at the preschool (hopefully by 8).  The plan is to work really hard and get all our work done by noon.  On our way home from school everyday we have to drive by a house nearby that has these inflatable dragons.  If you have talked to Elsie lately you know how obsessed she is.  She insists that we go see the dragons everyday.  It's how I motivate her to be good when we are trying to get our work done.  We then do lunch and take our neighbor's dog, Millie, for a walk.  After that we play games, do crafts, and, now that the smoke had cleared, swim.  This week Carrigan missed an afternoon art lesson so the kids decided to come up with their own art project and had a blindfolded drawing contest, drawing pictures of me, a dog, and a flower.

It doesn't really sound like it, but it has been pretty stressful as we adjust to our new life.  I am hopeful that the stressful part will settle out and that we will be able to enjoy the flexible nature of our new schedule.

New Life- Week 26 (First Day of School But Not Much More)

 This week the kids started back to school.  Monday was a holiday (Labor Day) so they were scheduled to start Tuesday.  Monday night one of the biggest wind storms in many years blew into the area.  It took down trees, made a huge mess, left people without power, and started fires.  We started school Tuesday with the caveat that the district was aware than many students and teacher might not be able to log on due to not having power or internet, the hazards of an online school year.  My kids and their teachers were able to get on so we started our "soft start" to the school year.

Wednesday and Thursday morning I got text messages on my phone from the school says that we would have school but they would monitor fires and adjust if necessary.  We made it through Wednesday and Thursday.  By Thursday afternoon the air was really bad and we were in level one "Get Ready" evacuation.  School for Friday was canceled soon thereafter.

Since then the air has been truly terrible.  The smoke is so thick in the air and even inside it smells like a campfire.  School has already been canceled for tomorrow.  We are doing everything we can to stay inside and not go crazy.  We have played games, dressed up in costumes, played with our neighbor's dog, Merrick did the "gallon challenge" (he only made it about half way through), and had WAY too much electronics.  We are praying for rain and hope it comes soon so we can go back outside.  I never thought I would long for the days when it was just the pandemic we had to deal with.

New Life- Week 25 (Merrick Turns 11)

 This week it was Merrick's turn for a pandemic birthday.  Back when we started this (25 weeks ago apparently), I knew Carrigan's birthday would definitely be affected by the state of the world at that time but I was hopeful that life would be back to normal by Merrick's birthday.  Flash forward 25 weeks and, spoiler alert, it's not.  So our task was, once again, how to make a birthday seem special when most of the activities we would typically do to make it special were off the table.

Thankfully for Merrick, the universe was looking out for him.  We started the day with doughnuts and presents.  Merrick scored everything on his list  with baseball cards (including some of him made by Carrigan), an airsoft gun and mask, and cold hard cash.  While we were eating I got a text on my phone.  It was from my neighbor with a link to an article saying that the governor had decided that parks and pools could open in our county.  I had heard the night before about parks but was unaware of the pool part.  After a quick pow-wow with the pool committee, it was determined we would open the pool right away.

We were supposed to be meeting cousins for home run derby, but we couldn't resist letting Merrick jump in the pool really quick.  He had been waiting ALL summer, even collecting signatures to try to petition the governor.  Finally, as the ultimate birthday gift, he was finally able to swim.

After a quick jump into the pool we went to play baseball.  The boys all played until they were exhausted and we headed home for Merrick's chosen lunch (Three cheese Mac and Cheese and watermelon).

The pool was officially up next after lunch.  To be honest it was a little cold since the heater had just been turned on.  Merrick didn't care though.  He swam his heart out.

Merrick chose dinner next, gyros from Gryo2Go (which we ate across the street at a picnic table at an empty business park) and homemade ice cream cake with funfetti cake and cake batter ice cream.

After dinner the girls went to bed and Merrick got to stay up and watch a movie with Mom and Dad.  Unfortunately we watched a movie from my childhood, Top Secret, that, while rated PG, turned out to be pretty inappropriate and twisted.  It was a low spot in an otherwise great day.

I don't know if Merrick would have chosen to have a pandemic birthday, but I think it ended up being a pretty good one.  Definitely one that won't' soon be forgotten.