Eve found a chalk marker on the floor at school last week. She picked it up and kept it, of course. (yuck!) Now she has started tagging the neighborhood.
luv ur self :)
I love her.
Eve tags the world
2
The world has gone crazy! (Coronavirus takes over)
Wow! What a whirlwind week it has been! Exactly one week ago we were in school, wondering what the status of school in Vermont would be for the foreseeable future. Other schools in other states had started closing down due to the rapid spread of the Cornonavirus (aka COVID-19). Because of my role, the principal had asked me a few days earlier to look into a few tech-related questions associated with closing school and transitioning to elearning. Friday afternoon he was pulled into a meeting at the Superintendents office and the Governor of VT was scheduled to speak in the evening. We were all (mentally) prepared to be shut down. But nope, Governor Scott said that schools will remain open. By Saturday schools within an hour from us had started closing and by Sunday the state of NH closed down their schools. Governor Scott made an announcement Sunday evening saying that schools in Vermont would also be closing and had to be closed by Wednesday, and that parents could optionally keep their kids home all week. There was a lot of confusion about the whole thing and we all waited anxiously for word on Sunday night about what the plan for Monday would be. It felt like a surreal snow day situation. Late Sunday night we got word that school would be open for students on Monday and Tuesday, then support staff would stay through Thursday and teachers would stay through Friday. We went in Monday to about half the student population, and by Monday night we were all feeling the rush. Our Wednesday staff meeting got canceled, the professional development I was supposed to do all morning on Wednesday got moved up to Tuesday with the boss finding coverage wherever he could for me and the other teachers. I had sub coverage on Monday and Tuesday while I rushed around, getting things setup, getting accounts made and Chromebooks organized and staff supported. It was wild. Kids had cracked and bleeding hands from washing so often. The run on Purell and toilet paper was a constant source of amazement and conversation. On Tuesday we had about 25% of the student body and staff was told we would have Wednesday to finish prepping, but that’s it. By 5pm Tuesday, when many of us were still there, prepping and handing out Chromebooks, we got a message from the Superintendent that staff should stay home Wednesday, but admin would be there for the whole duration. As of Thursday, admin were told to stay home full time too. It was crazy! Like every minute things were changing and even sometimes when it wasn’t officially changed, we all had the feeling that it would be changing and were acting accordingly. It was nuts.
Now we are all home. The time is sort of a blur. The kids are in “vacation” mode and I’m in email hell. Flipping a whole district from school-based to “home learning” is a big undertaking, and to do it in three days is insane! The internet is exploding with companies offering free services for closed schools, free books, free video chat, free apps, free this free that. All that’s great, but trying to keep track of any of it is insane. I’m now supporting 300+ people remotely, learning how to use new products on the fly so I can support teachers who are asking how to use them, trying to prep library lessons, and (kinda) keeping track of my own kids. Trying to stay on top of emails. It’s nuts. All the gyms have closed and some have switched to Livestreaming workouts. Karate has closed, but is now doing workouts in a Zoom session (like a virtual conference where everyone is wearing a gi and armed with bos and sais). Even drum lessons will be done remotely starting Monday. That should be interesting.
Also, my kids are supposed to be elearning too! Lots of emails from their schools and their teachers. “Home Learning” doesn’t officially start until Monday, a fact which both kids remind me of, frequently. Next week will bring more emails as parents and students try logging in and using all the new tools for the first time. I’m hoping by the end of next week things will settle down. My boss was nice enough to lower his library expectations (though I have not) so I can focus on the tech.
Hopefully by next week we’ll have settled in to this new normal. We are currently closed until April 6th, but the general consensus is that we’ll be closed (much) longer than that. The unknown makes everything even harder to plan for. What a weird and surreal experience.
On a lighter note, I’m so thankful that I work with kind and flexible coworkers, that the technology exists to make this type of transition happen, and that my own family is healthy and well and not worried for our own health or financial stability. I’m thankful that the weather is warming and the days are getting longer. Can you imagine if this had happened in January?! At least now we can get outside, take the dog for a walk (the hilariously naked dog), and breath in the sunshine and fresh air.
Hang in there world, friends, and family. We’ll all get through this and I’ll see you on the other side. <3
And now, your moment of zen…
Huxley joins Eve for her morning Advisory meeting.
Concert Grande
Concert Grande was last night. Concert Grande is a once a year event where the high school and middle school band and chorus perform together. Each has a few of their own songs, then they have a few combined. Lex was looking forward to it, but also a little nervous because for the big band (high school and middle) they had two drummers, Lex and a friend of ours named Solly. They don’t get to practice altogether until the dress rehearsal the morning of the show. He was pretty happy about how it went overall. He was also excited to perform a piece composed and directed by a a very talented high school senior. Lex said she wrote an amazing song and great parts for percussion. I don’t know about all of that, but it was a good song and the audience loved it! This young lady also recently had a piece she’d composed performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra at the Vermont State House. That’s quite an accomplishment! Back to my drummer boy….
FIRST Robotics Competition
After many years with FIRST Lego League (FLL), Lex has moved up to the big leagues! FLL is for kids in grades 4-8 and the next step FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is for grades 9-12. He joined the team for pre-season this fall and has been loving it ever since. The season officially kicked off in January and they had their first competition this weekend. They are Team 95 – The Grasshoppers!
Lex has spent most of his time on the robot construction (versus programming or driving). He comes home after practices and tells me about the problems they came across and how they solved them. He loves it! At the competition he helped with repairs between matches, and scouted the other teams to help determine who they wanted to partner with for the second day.
The team took a bus to the event after school on Thursday. Alan drove down that night, checked into the hotel, and watched the event on Friday. Eve and I went down Friday after school and watched the event live on Saturday. We all enjoyed watching it live streaming on Twitch when we couldn’t be there in person! :)
The guys in blue, under the #95, are the drive team for The Grasshoppers. They control the robot during the competition.
This is their robot in action.
Handsome boy.
There is a strict rule that you have to wear eye protection in the pit area. Eve somehow went from refusing to wear any eye protection to insisting on wearing ALL of the eye protection.
She can be silly sometimes. :)
I couldn’t help noticing that the other teams had lots more swag than our team has. Flags and banners and buttons and signs. Eve and I immediately got to work planning for the next event. At the beginning of the season I offered to help with their website. They immediately took me up on the offer. I think I have PR/Marketing in my blood. :)
The Grasshoppers were knocked out of the competition in the semi-finals because one of their alliance teams knocked over an opponents robot. There was some debate about how intentional the action was and how top heave the opponent’s robot was, but the judges ruled it a foul and they got no points for the round. It was sad. I heard lots of grumbling from the parents (myself included), but nothing from the kids. Lex had nothing but positive things to say. I was impressed!
When the award ceremony came, the kids weren’t sure if they’d get anything since they didn’t make it past the semi-finals. Everyone has excited when they won the Industrial Design Award and the judges mentioned the “singular,” a specific part of the Grasshoppers’ robot that had impressed them.
This part looks a lot like FLL! :) Line up for a long row of high-fives, trophy and team photo at the end.
He even let me take a picture of him with the trophy! I’m a lucky mom! :)
The team has another meet in two weeks, and a third (if they qualify) in April. I’ve already designed some buttons to have available for the next meet! Lots of other teams were giving out buttons and our team had none. However, our team did give out a package of Keebler Grasshopper cookies to each team. :) Apparently that’s a tradition.
Happy
Happy Sunday. We are officially on winter vacation this week and loving every moment of it. For the past few hours the kids and I have been reading on the couches, interrupted only by dog walks, cat throwup, and the occasional snacks and tea breaks. Poor Alan doesn’t have a week of vacation ahead of him and somehow our calmness has motivated him to work. He installed a cool power strip under the island counter and is now repairing the guest bath toilet that I didn’t even know needed repair.
The real point of this post though is that I had surgery again on Friday, to open up the subglottic stenosis in my trachea. Almost exactly a year from the last surgery. They call it a dilation procedure, not surgery, but it all seems the same to me. Early morning at the hospital, IV, general anesthesia for an hour, recovery, etc. It’s worth it though, because now I can breath again!
Don’t I look ready? :)
The doctors took good care of me and Alan was there to see me in and out. The nurse didn’t like the look of my veins (they never do) so she called in Wayne, the pro, who got it on the first try with no pain and minimal bruising. The anesthesiology team read my file from last time and I think they were working extra hard to make sure everything went well this time! I don’t even remember leaving the prep room or returning to the recovery room. The best part is, other than the open airway, of course, is that whatever the doctor did differently, my tongue isn’t numb this time! The other two times I ended up with one side of my tongue numb for about 10 days. It was a very weird sensation. This time, nothing! Yay! I did have to wear my glasses all afternoon because my eyes were super dry, which is not a problem I usually have, but fortunately I just got new glasses so wearing them wasn’t bad at all. Also, I napped a lot. :)
Evening snuggle
Friday was also Valentine’s Day, which we don’t do much for around here. We never even got around to decorating this year. I left the kids a small display on the piano, but that was about it. Which was fine for all of us.
Yesterday we hung out some more, doing not much, reading, watching TV and a movie (most of which I slept through) and taking care of the neighbor’s dogs while they are off cruising in warmer climates! Eve has three pet sitting jobs this vacation. One every day for nine days, and the other two are just single days. She does love her pets!
I hope the rest of you had a nice Valentine’s Day, Friday, weekend, and week ahead! I’m reading a really scary book, so I have to finish it before bedtime tonight. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. :)
From the camera…
Alan and the kids are watching Pirates of the Caribbean… part eleven or twelve. These movies go on forever! I finished with my lesson plans for the upcoming week, and felt inspired to write a blog post. Unfortunately nothing terrible blog-worthy is going on these days. I went to my camera for inspiration. Most of the pictures are from school. :/
I found a few though! :)
Lex took a 3D printing class last semester and made some pretty cool things, including his Minecraft avatar! (he’s going to paint the head yellow since it’s supposed to yellow and they had no yellow filament)
Eve just whipped up this lovely painting, while having a snack, listening to her audio book, and rambling to me. She’s multi-talented!
I found a fun idea on the internet (what did people do before the internet?!?) and made it happen at school.
The kids LOVE it! I have 22 teachers who gave me their two five books and now have their faces on display. :)
This dog is weird. He likes to eat with his head IN the bowl.
He also loves in toy.
I got new glasses. Eve got a new wig. We tried to put them both on and make a fun picture. It didn’t work. I like the glasses, but the wig is not my style!
Twinsies!
I thought it best to end the pictures with the handsome men, not the crazy women. :)
On other topics, Lex is rocking his robotics team and they have their first competition at the end of February. I’m sure you’ll see lots of pictures from that! He’s also continuing with drum lessons and karate, and currently working on light design for a high school play. He had pink eye last weekend (ugh) and says he feels feverish now. We just had two snow days in a row (Thursday and Friday), making for a 4-day weekend, and I’m hoping a fever doesn’t extend his weekend even longer!
Eve has been drawing up a storm and listening to all the audio books she can. She is an amazing artist! She’s considering doing the middle school play this year, but she’s not sure. She came home last week and said she signed up for an audition, but then we learned auditions are Monday afternoon, the same day she has a dentist appointment. :/ I’ll see if she’s up for auditioning after that, but I’m not holding my breath.
I just booked a trip to Quebec City to celebrate Eve’s 13th birthday! I kept asking what she wanted and she kept saying “Canada!” I can’t get her all of Canada, but I can take her there for the weekend. She opted to bring her bestie along as well. I’m excited!
I’m scheduled for surgery (again!) this Friday, Feb 14th. I’m not excited about that! I’ve done all the tests, had scans and x-rays, and blood work and breath tests and all that jazz, yet no one can figure out why this keeps happening. My next step is an impedance study (scheduled for April vacation) and then maybe a trip to Boston for a 3rd opinion this summer. Yuck.
Ok, my battery is about to die! Love y’all!! Bye. :)
Falafels and lentil soup
A few weeks ago Eve said that she wanted to try falafels and asked if I would make them for dinner. Apparently Magnus Chase loves falafels. Good to know, right? We bought supplies and it took me a few weeks to get to it, but today was the day. I was fully expecting her to not try them, assuming I was too slow and the mood had passed. But nope, she ate them! She even liked them! Actually, officially she said, “they’re ok.” I’m calling that a win! I’m also going to take her to a local restaurant that makes super delicious falafels and have her try the authentic version. Maybe I should have started with that. :)
Sometimes I cook. :)
I was getting ready for grocery shopping today and Eve added lentils to the list. When I asked why (actually, I think I said “Lentils? What?!?”) she said she had a craving for lentil soup. I showed her the can of lentil soup we have in the pantry, but she said no, she wants the soup with the tiny pastas that I used to make a the old house. It was one of Alan’s favorite meals too. And vegan! The forecast for tomorrow is chilly and rainy, to the point of flooding. Guess what’s on the dinner menu?! :)
I think there’s hope for Eve in the food department. <3
2020!
It’s a whole new year, people, and a whole new decade! Crazy as that sounds and seems, things on the home front keep moving right along, just like any other day. We celebrated in our typical homebody way. We said no thanks to a few invites and instead opted to stay home, play board games (some new and some old), eat Cheetos (even the vegan partook!), and enjoy our immediate family.
We started the evening with a game of Catan, using the new Cities & Knights expansion pack. I had very few cities or knights, which resulted in a resounding loss on my end. Oh well. The game took a very long time and we started to wonder if it would be a one-game NYE. Fortunately Lex eventually won and we were able to move on to something easier for the late hour: Apples to Apples!
Apples to Apples and late night giggles.
We also opened our Family Fun jar. Lots of plays and concerts this year. Plus a trip to Florida! :) Its fun to look back and remember that for half the year the kids were in lower grades, and in Lex’s case, an entirely different school!
Tickets galore!
I wanted to make fun party hats to celebrate the new decade. 2020 is just a fun number. It took some convincing (and lovely modeling), but finally I talked them all into making and wearing (very briefly, in Lex’s case) these super awesome 2020 hats!
How goofy can one get on NYE?!
My overall craftiness has taken a nose dive since I started working. :/
We made it to midnight easily and with little awareness of the passing time. Nobody dozed off, nobody got grumpy, and nobody even wanted to go to bed at midnight! Ok, maybe some of us kind of wanted to go to bed at midnight, but agreed to stay up and play the game a little longer while listening to New York, New York on the livestream.
An awesome family selfie to kick off the new year! LOL!
I’m always happy to start a new year (or a new anything!) with this guy by my side.
May 2020 be fulfilling and fun and adventurous for all of you. I’m looking forward to all of the opportunities ahead! I’m also looking forward to finishing my book and drinking another cup of tea. <3
Christmas 2019
Merry Christmas! This was somewhat a usual Christmas, but also felt somewhat unique as the kids are growing up and I realized I have more pictures of the pets than of the kids this year.
Santa came!
Christmas Eve in the dark.
This year the kids each bought each other presents. Lex bought Eve a laptop so she could play Minecraft with him more easily. Previously she had been playing on my computer, which isn’t exactly a gaming machine. Now she’s got an awesome computer and they have been having fun playing together.
First things first, presents from each other.
Eve got Lex a Settles of Catan expansion pack, and the promise to play the board game with him! :) I love that both presents involved playing with each other.
Lex was excited to watch Eve open her present.
This year I was the first one awake (not counting Mema and Tom because no one can beat them!) and when the kids woke up I had to remind them about opening stockings! They were weirdly not eagerly awaiting present opening. Or they were, but they are now more mature about it and not jumping on the be at 6am in pure excitement. In fact, they laughed at me because I was the one eagerly bouncing with excitement while waiting for the whole family to arrive in the morning. :)
This about sums up Eve these days.
But don’t you worry, we opened those presents!
Silly girl.
We also had phone calls with family from one coast to the other, and we did some Facetiming with Barney and Lorie.
Facetiming with the CA crew.
The present theme this year turned out to be cozy clothes and board games. We all enjoyed several (hours long!) games of Catan, and many more (minutes long) games of Otrio! I’m eager to play Prime Climb soon too. We have a NYE game night planned and the kids are already picking out the games. I think all three of those games are on the agenda, along with Apples to Apples and Hearts.
We played Catan for hours!
Eve got a stuffy puppy to match our puppy stuffy.
Stuffy and puppy
Christmas dinner was lasagna, salad, and bread. I the first proper meal I’ve cooked in a long time. My friend and her boys came to join us again and brought a delicious chocolate cake with a drawing of Huxley on it. :)
Christmas dinner. I think Alan has a better picture on his phone.
A family picture. We’ll try this again next year when (hopefully) Eve will smile for the camera and I won’t be as huge. :/
The rest of my pictures are of Huxley. Imagine if this cool portrait mode setting had existed when my kids were babies. Sigh. At least I still have one kid who will smile, an adorable dog, and two beautiful sisters.
Lex and Huxley
Rosy and Huxley
Huxley and the aunties
Post-party pup
Huxley and his lovie
The true purpose of vacation! <3
Merry Christmas to all of you. We have a lovely two week vacation from school this year, and we are enjoying every day of it. We went to an awesome theater yesterday to watch the latest Star Wars movie. It was a fun family outing. Today Alan ran some errands, but the rest of us snuggled in and avoided the winter storm. Tomorrow is NYE and we are excited to play games and eat Cheetos. Yep, that’s our family tradition. Bring in the new year!
PS. Hi Greg!!
Vacation rambles
Hey! It’s Christmas vacation! Yay!!! I’m sitting here in the dark, deleting old emails while Lex plays Minecraft and Alan and Eve watch The Mandalorian. Suddenly I thought, hey, I should do a quick blog post! :)
I got a new toy for school and did some practicing at home. :)
School is going well this year, but I’m perpetually tired and feel like a pretty lousy teacher. I still have no curriculum and I’m not happy with my current 4th/5th grade long-term activity. Fortunately there are lots of kids who like library, so that keeps me going. :) My vacation plans for the next two week include sleep, sleep, some reading, and more sleep. Yesterday my big plan was to make a veggie platter to bring to my friend Elizabeth’s holiday party. My plan for today was lunch with my friend Lisa, and make holiday grocery shopping list. My plan for tomorrow… grocery shopping! Tuesday we clean, and then the real fun begins. :)
Last night we went to Elizabeth’s holiday party. They throw the best parties! I wish there was more time to chat with my bestie, but at least I got to talk to lots of other friends and enjoy the holiday spirit.
I do make a mean veggie platter!
Today I had lunch with my other bestie. We share parenting stories and marriage stories and it feels so good to be heard and supported and she’s hysterical so we laugh and laugh. I’m hoping in the next week or two we can all three get lunch.
After sleeping a lot, my secondary vacation goal is to reconnect with friends. <3
At school my fish had babies a few days ago. All the kids were thrilled. This year I have an interested para and several third graders taking care of the tank. They clean it (somewhat) and feed the fish and are really interested.
See all the tiny babies?!
I decided to make sure I feed them regularly over vacation so they don’t eat the babies. I went in today to feed them and was shocked to find it like a ghost town (tank?) in there. Instead of the usual 12ish fish swarming for food, I could only find five, and all were hidden in the rocks and castles. No babies. :( I think there was a holiday massacre in my fish tank yesterday. I’m going to have some very disappointed kids when they get back from vacation. :(
I took Huxley to school with me to feed the fish. He did not like school! I’m not sure why, but he was in a big hurry to get out of there! LOL.
This cuddle bug doesn’t know what’s about to hit with the holidays coming our way!
Alright, show’s over now so I’m going to turn on the lights and get the bedtime routine started! Happy vacation to those who have it! <3