Wednesday, May 27, 2020

2020 Months 3 and 4 (they were sort of a blur anyway!)

Dear blog I haphazardly write in....Thanks for receiving all my rants about online school.  I'm sorry I have mistreated you!  You are not my therapist!  No one is, at the moment, but maybe I should say everyone that gets the pleasure of my company these days is sort of my therapist!  I have been so lucky to see friends here and there lately - I always feel bad, like I'm talking their ear off....anyway, I'm getting a few minutes to write here now so I thought I'd try to get caught up.  My goal this year was to use the Do, Read, Learn and Be prompts each month.  Welp!  I missed months 3 and 4.  I probably would have missed some along the way in a 'normal' year but surprise!  Sequestration has messed w/me.  I'm fighting back though by posting it - better late than never.

DO: March - In the 2 weeks before school went online there was wrestling and life was really starting to get busy.  Two boys on the middle school team, their younger brother having practices too.  At the same time, there were extra DI practices.  DI regionals were scheduled for March 14 and I was starting to wonder how I was going to keep track of everything, keep people fed and get them to the right place at the right time.  I was stressing.  And then...DI was canceled.  Three days later school was called off.  I went from one frying pan to the other - all my stress shifted...A few months earlier, we had planned out a spring break trip to the south, the Gulf Coast, during the last week of March, leaving on the 20th.  We prayed, fretted and probably sweated a little once the whole virus thing blew up.  We were not sure we were still going to go, even up to until the week before.  However, we made the decision to go forward with our plans.  We shared a beach house w/my best friend and his family.  It was insanely relaxing!!  That was a great way to rest up before the 'storm' that was going on in our lives when we got back home.  So yeah, I guess March was eventful...April on the other hand...Real talk - mostly we did a lot of online school and laundry.   I think I already posted about hiking in the IAT and other little things that happened.  Happy little things!  
READ: More real talk - I didn't pick up my book once in April.  I probably read for a few minutes on Spring Break.  I just picked it up again the other day but that wasn't in months 3 or 4.  The lockdown hasn't helped - the library extended the due dates for all their materials!  I didn't feel the rush to turn it in - HA!  I did buy another book though, that I hope to read soon.  
LEARN: Oof.  I learned a lot of new technology...there are so many educational platforms out there and I feel like I have sampled them all.  Can't wait to cancel my subscriptions!  The coolest thing I have learned about is the way they help each other.  "Yeah, uh, sorry kid I have no idea how this program works..."  (Cue some other kid volunteering to teach me how to do it...)
BE: Pretty sure I spent most of months 3 and 4 being crabby.  I can't lie about it - I was sullen, depressed and frustrated.  I sulked.  I felt lousy.  I knew I needed to get up each day and attempt to start school on a good note, but I didn't want to face a bunch of screens and try to interpret the assignments.  Don't get me wrong, the teachers are rocking this.  I'm not.  I have an amazing husband who often would get the day started all while being on a meet or zoom.  I finally figured out a routine that worked for all of us though!  Those months were hard for so many reasons.  We're past that now...so I promise I will 'be' something different in the next month!