Summer is passing quicker than expected! Somehow it is late July and we have been doing the quarantine/social distancing thing for 4.5 months. Back in March, when we got home from our spring break trip to the news that school was cancelled through Easter, I remember feeling SO overwhelmed. Pretty sure I cried. Four weeks of everyone being home felt impossible. And yet here we are a billion weeks later. (I lost track of counting the weeks a while ago.)
Some not so great things:
School. Oh man. The school conversation is insanely emotional right now. Our district announced that families can either 1) enroll for in-person full-time school or 2) enroll in a new virtual academy that is basically a new school. Then after the state loosened a few guidelines, the district updated option 1 such that school will now start 1 week later than planned, and the first two weeks will be online for everyone. If we choose in-person for Emma, the earliest she would go back is September 8.
I have ALLLL the feelings about school. There are obviously no perfect options. We are leaning heavily towards in-person school, but also preparing to be told that all school will be virtual through the fall. Which is yet another burden to place on families. Sigh.
The silver lining is that Charlotte has been back at daycare for a month now, and it’s going very well. She enjoys it, we enjoy it. The daycare is taking many precautions and has had no confirmed cases to date. I can’t even describe what a relief it has been thus far.
Today is baseball opening day, which would usually have me really excited but this year it feels really “meh.” I’m still disillusioned by the Astros’ cheating scandal and the stupid arguing between the league and players and owners over whether and how to have a season at all. Does anyone think this weirdo ~60-game season is going to matter? Or maybe that’s the point — anything can happen. (Like smaller teams could go on a hot streak. Or everyone could get covid. I mean, so many options.) Also, for $100, the Astros will take your photo and turn it into a cardboard cutout and stick it in the outfield seats. I mean…
I had an 8-hour telecon yesterday. Ugggggggggh.
Some mostly great things:
Our neighborhood pool reopened! They had opened for a week, then closed down again due to rising covid cases in our area. But then they reopened again with a different system — you can sign up via the HOA website, with one group of no more than 10 people per hour allowed. So we have had quite a few pool visits — although with only 7 time slots per day, getting a reservation can be cutthroat!
I’ve been talking with my bosses about getting some additional support at work. Part of the reason I’m having to be on near-constant telecons is because I’m the only one in my role — the other handful of people in similar roles all have deputies, but not me. The good news is that we’re going to open a rotation opportunity, and hopefully I will get a temporary deputy/backup/associate soon! Someone to divide and conquer with! It cannot happen soon enough. Can’t wait.
My news consumption is way down and honestly, I plan to keep it this way. I had already basically eliminated watching cable news, but pre-covid I listened to several news podcasts. I haven’t queued up Up First or The Daily or any of them in months. I do ponder whether it’s a privilege for me to be able to ignore the news, and whether I’m burying my head in the sand instead of acknowledging reality. But for now, I think I’m better off ignoring it.
A while ago I agreed to dye Emma’s hair, and on the third go-round I dyed mine too. She keeps asking me to do her whole head, but I’ve made enough of a mess of the bathroom just doing the ends!! It’s fun. (And hey, if not now, then when?) We are using Manic Panic in “fuschia shock,” which seems to be one of the only colors that shows up well on unbleached darker hair. (I don’t want to bleach her hair.) It fades after a few weeks.
We’ve been watching several shows as a family in recent weeks, including Floor Is Lava, Holey Moley, Ultimate Tag, and Nailed It. After watching an episode of the latter, Emma came up with this bear cake for me to make in hopes that I would apply to be on Nailed It and win $10,000 so she could buy a lot of squishys. (Lol!) We later decided that Jose would be the better Nailed It contestant, but we did make the bear cake. Yum.
I finally decided to make a few changes to my home desk setup. I ordered a new desk chair, which arrived yesterday (although I still need to put it together). I also ordered a foot rest. I’ve never used one of these before but whoa, it has made a HUGE difference in my posture and overall comfort level! Hooray for that.
I have been quilting like crazy, and working on patterns and graphics. I’ve let my quilting to-do list get a little out of control — which has happened before and will certainly happen again because that’s how I operate — and the only thing to do is keep plugging away! I just finished testing a new pattern for my friend Bobbie. I’ll also have a couple more revamped patterns in my Etsy shop soon, and other fun projects coming in the next couple months.
Our district was slated to start on the 12th and pushed in person back to the 8th. We were going to start off with online learning to begin with but we have no other information other than it will be on a platform called Canvas. I am also very interested in homeschooling and if things go sideways with online learning I would heavily consider it for the rest of the year. It would be only kindergarten and one kid so I can see where that wouldn’t work for others, but the flexability seems easier than online learning. I’m seriously worried about all day zooming and being tied to a computer while also trying to work.
So jealous of your pool opportunities! we did make it to the beach this week on wednesday—very early. Left by 12:45 when it got busier. Worth it if you are willing to be on the beach by 8-8:30 or even earlier possible for y’all since you are much closer.
Yeah, I share the concern about school involving being tied to the computer all day — especially when I have a suspicion that there may be multiple check-in points per day that are driven as much by needing to be able to say a student was present as they are by needing to actually teach. :-/
The $100 picture in the stands is seriously hilarious! Genius. Ridiculous yet awesome.
Regarding schools, the uncertainty is as hard as anything. Most Seattle area schools have closed for the first SIX weeks. I would anticipate that if they are closing given current Covid levels (probably 1/10th of what is in Houston per capita), they will not open before 2021. However, our private school is still open full time, with its normal September start. Will it really open? I just wish I knew so I could plan for it.
I think it’s easy to consume too much news thanks to internet, social media, etc. When I was a kid, we got a daily paper. My parents watched the Nightly News Hour. And that was it. No other news, period. Nowadays, it’s probably normal to check the news several times a day. You have to force yourself not to, and even then, I get ads with my e-mail and on FB etc etc etc regarding the news.
From what I saw on the TV broadcasts this weekend, I’d estimate the Astros have taken in at least $50,000 if not closer to $100,000 with those cardboard cutouts!!! I did read that proceeds are going to the Astros Foundation which is a charitable org, so at least some portion of that income is hopefully going to good causes.
Is B starting kinder this year or did she go last year? I can’t remember. My niece is starting kinder virtually. I think my sister is a combination of relieved and disappointed, the former because of covid obviously but the latter because it feels like all these kids are getting robbed of their school experience and because my niece really benefits from the social interaction.
Briony started K last year. For us, the language immersion is obviously difficult to impossible to do remotely. Jonathan and I are not fluent in French. It was also challenging for her to learn the reading and math while trying to also learn the language at the same time. K is actually a very challenging year, maybe the most challenging, in a language immersion program. So we have spent the summer at least working math so she won’t be behind on that.
So yeah, first grade this year. And currently still supposed to be in person, though I really just don’t know if that’s going to hold.