The End of an Era and a Challenge Ahead

For the past seventeen years, I’ve had at least one child in elementary school. Over the years, my days have been filled with class parties, volunteer hours, book fairs, class programs, etc. But those days are officially over now. Today was Malia’s last day of school as a sixth grader. It was a bittersweet day for me, knowing that my youngest is growing up much faster than I’d like. It was a rough day for Malia because she is leaving a place that is familiar, safe, and loved. Because yes, she loves school. When she has sick days and can’t attend, there are frequently tears because she is missing school. As she has counted down her last days at the elementary school, those tears have become more grievous as the number has waned. The sorrow is deep as well since she and her teacher have become good friends, buddies of one mind, if you will. They both have a bit (or a lot) of humor and sarcasm in them, and her teacher has told me that often she will think something but can’t say it because she is the teacher only to have Malia give voice to the exact same sentiment. We were all extremely skeptical about this particular teacher at the beginning of the year, but she has been amazing for Malia and will be greatly missed by her now that the year is over. 

This ending is even more emotionally charged due to the fact that Malia will attend a different middle school than all her school friends. It was a boundary change that Matthew dodged by being granted a special permit to stay at our previous middle school, but Malia has not been as lucky and will have to go to a school with which none of us are familiar. I wish I could change that for her, but I can’t. All I can do is support her and help her move forward with hope, always looking for the good in a tough situation. And it is a tough one. I was in the same situation, attending a jr. high with only a small number of friends from my ward. The remainder of our elementary went to a different school, so I know what it is like to walk into seven different classrooms and find exactly zero familiar faces. 

But time marches on and we must march with it. So I shed a tear or two for the ending of a phase of my life, and Malia’s, and she shed a few as well. I suspect there will be more tears in the future, but hopefully what starts off looking like a huge challenge (like Malia’s class assignment this year) will end up being a multitude of blessings in disguise.

Yuletide Delights-Part II

A few weeks ago, Malia’s teacher let the parents know they would be doing a cookie exchange in class as part of their twelve days of Christmas activities. Cookies needed to be store bought and commercially packaged due to our district’s food in the classroom policies. The students would each bring one cookie and after their activity each would end up with a different cookie to enjoy. Store bought or bakery cookies are often problematic for food allergy kids and knowing that the odds were not in her favor, I immediately started making plans for Malia to have a special cookie at the end of the activity. While I can’t bake cookies for the other kids, I can bake cookies for Malia, so I made her a delightful Christmas themed cookie and arranged to get it to her teacher the day in advance so it could be a surprise for Malia. Often the food allergy kids are the ones who get left out when food activities occur, but I think Malia got the better end of the bargain today.

And my choice of gingerbread ended up being perfect because Malia told me there was a gingerbread cookie day a few days ago. Her teacher checked ingredients but didn’t spot the cross-contact warnings on the cookies she bought, so Malia had to pull something out of her treat bin rather than enjoying gingerbread with the rest of the class. Malia’s were cuter and I’ll bet hers tasted better too. Malia did have to double check when she got home to make sure it was a reindeer though. She kept trying to make it standard gingerbread man and couldn’t figure out why the face was so weird. 😂

Life in Color

Instead of selling something as a fundraiser, our elementary school simply asks for donations. They have small rewards for those kids whose families donate and there are class and grade rewards based on how much money each raises. At the end of the donation period, they hold a color run at the school. They make it into kind of a mini carnival with food trucks, refreshments, and bounce houses. The color run itself is free and all the students are invited to participate whether their family donates or not, so it is really just a fun event for the entire school.

Although Malia was anxious to meet up with her friends and hang out at the school, she wasn’t very excited about the actual color run this year. She didn’t think she was going to do it and told us that she was just planning to spend time with her groupies. I was hoping that she would change her mind though. She is a sixth grader this year and this will be the last chance she has to participate in this specific event. I know that in a lot of ways she feels like she has outgrown the elementary school, but I’m don’t want her to have any regrets about things later on. I want her to feel like she has taken advantage of every opportunity that interests her and that she had a great year. So I encouraged her to wear her school provided white t-shirt just in case. I was pleased when she did, giving her reason as, “Why not?”

An hour later, Kev sent me a picture of Malia multicolored and pleased as punch. She decided to participate in the color run, just as I had hoped. And she had a great time. In fact, she said that doing the color run totally made up for the lack of mud at the mud run. That’s one thing that I love about Malia. She has faced a variety of disappointments in her life, as we all do, but as she moves forward and has other experiences, she allows the joy of the opportunities she does have to shake off the disappointment. In essence, she lets go of the sorrow and allows joy to grow in its place. 

I’m so proud of this tendency she has to “accentuate the positive.” As a family we have talked a lot over the past few years about looking for and focusing on the good and I feel like Malia is taking that to heart. It has served her well up to this point and having an optimistic outlook will be enormously beneficial throughout her life. 

Happy Little Catz

The PTA at our elementary school sponsors the Battle of the Books competition (Everyone uses the acronym BOB instead of the actual name) nearly every spring. Although Malia has been old enough to participate for several years, last month was her first opportunity to actually experience the “battle” part. In 2020, the COVID induced shutdown began less than a week before the competition was scheduled to occur. In 2021, the schools were not holding any assemblies or whole school activities due to COVID, so the PTA cancelled the entire thing. After losing those opportunities, Malia was extra excited to participate this year.

All the kids who are interested in participating in BOB are organized into teams of five for the competition. Each team selects a name, draws a team poster, divides up the books so at least one team member reads each of the twenty books, and meets together regularly to prep for the competition. Each member of Malia’s team was assigned to read four books, but I made a deal with Malia. I challenged her to read all twenty books and if she did, I promised to take her out to dinner and a movie. She found that highly motivating and did in fact read all twenty books. While she enjoyed most of the books, there were a few she did not. But I feel like it was a great experience because she was exposed to a variety of genres, some of which she would never have selected on her own.

A week or so before the competition, her team, which had selected the name BOBcats as their name, was informed that another team had chosen the same name. As a result, Malia and her teammates had to come up with a new name. I love the humor of this little group of kids because they named themselves “The BOB Ross Catz.” And yes, they do in fact know who Bob Ross is. (If you don’t, google him. It’s pretty entertaining.) As a part of their competition preparations, they had to create a poster for their team, one that they all worked on together. The competition was a month ago, but the team posters were sent home today. One of Malia’s teammates was supposed to have the honor of keeping the poster, but when he told them he didn’t want it, Malia was more than happy to volunteer to keep it. (Yes, she is a packrat. She tries to keep everything she ever touches, and it contributes to the massive mess that is her bedroom.) I had not seen the poster prior to today, and it made me laugh. Out loud. Those kids are funny.

Oh, and they did great in the competition. They made it to the semi-finals. Woot for their hard work and preparation!

Learning to Lead

Last week I was informed that Malia had been selected as the Leader of the Month in her class at school. We were invited to a special lunch that would be held for all the kids who were honored this month. Kev had to work, but late this morning Nathan and I were able to join Malia for this event in honor of her achievements. The kids were all treated to a happy meal from McDonald’s, which unfortunately is not safe for Malia. But this is not our first rodeo, so we rode in with an alternate lunch in hand which featured some of Malia’s favorites: a turkey and cheese sandwich from Jimmy John’s, cheddar cheese Pringles, Fudge Stripe cookies and orange juice, her beverage of choice. We have also promised her a dinner at Crown Burger since she couldn’t eat the nuggets and fries that the school provided as a special treat to all this month’s leaders.

I’m so proud of Malia and her choices at school. She is standing out in good ways and is moving outside her comfort zone and social circle to try things that make her nervous and get to know other kids. Her very first week of safety patrol duty was last week and although she was a bit anxious about the responsibility associated with being selected as the safety patrol team captain, she did a fantastic job, and everything ran smoothly. She is also looking outside her normal, small circle of friends and has gotten to know some new people this year. I think she is happier having a few more people she feels comfortable with rather than being alone if one specific friend is not at school. 

I hope she will continue to make good choices and as such, to stand out as a good leader, a good student, and a good person.

For the Love of Learning

Although I’ve taken first day of school pictures of my kids during their preschool and elementary school years, I never felt a great need to do so after that. In addition to that, the boys were all way too cool for first day of school pics once they hit middle school. And they left so much earlier than they had in the past that I was usually still asleep. So for a variety of reasons, first day of school pics were not a thing as my kids headed into their teen years. But I love my enthusiastic newest college freshman because he sent me a “first day of college” picture to add to the collection. He is obviously extremely excited. I pulled out his first day of kindergarten picture and discovered that they are actually pretty similar: he’s sporting a windbreaker, a backpack and a giant grin in both. Of course, he’s twice as tall now, but other than that, he’s the same excited kid off to his first day of school. 😉

Nathan moved into his dorm just over a week ago and although he was definitely nervous, he settled in much faster than any of us anticipated. Within a day or two, he already felt like the dorm was home. He likes his roommates and they are all getting along really well so far. They are hanging out together, shopping together, attending social events together, basically taking advantage of the many opportunities that college life is presenting them. Nathan is happy and he feels like he lucked out in the roommate area. All his roommates are active church members. Four are recently returned missionaries and the other is the same age as Nathan and is planning for a mission at the end of his freshman year. They are already becoming the core of their student ward and Nathan jokes about them running the ward which is actually not a far stretch as most of them already have callings. In fact, Nathan has two. He is a Sunday school teacher and a ward organist. Nathan has taken advantage of the piano in the common room of the dorm and has met a variety of people who are drawn by the music and poke their heads in to see who is playing. He has learned that setting up a new living space can be expensive and has made going to the store with his roomies to get things like basic food stuffs and cleaning supplies a social activity. In fact, I think he’s been to the store nearly every day over the past week. He didn’t always need to buy stuff but accompanied the others just for fun. Kev and I counseled Nathan to jump into college life with both feet and thus far, he has done just that.

It is a bit bittersweet to see him adjusting to life away from home so quickly. From here on out, his time spent at home will be as a visitor rather than a long-term resident. But I feel like we have been incredibly blessed that his transition to college has been so smooth and that he is surrounded by people that he is learning to trust. Going to classes almost feels like an afterthought to his successful endeavor to move out and live on his own. But as is clear from his first day of college pic, he is overwhelmingly excited about that as well.

 

The Hard Part of Good Parenting

Parenting is not an easy gig. In fact, it is pretty hard. The sleep deprivation that results from midnight feedings and colic is hard. Chasing a mischievous toddler from sunrise to sunset is hard. Convincing a school aged child that homework is necessary is hard. Getting a recalcitrant preteen to talk is hard. Seeing past the surliness of a teen to figure out what is really at the heart of the attitude is hard. No matter what age your children, parenting has its challenges.

For me, today’s hard is a different kind of hard. It is the hard where you manage to survive all the other hard bits of parenting and realize that you did a pretty decent job. Your children turned out to be good, dependable, basically positive human beings with some good life skills, a work ethic and a level head on top of that. And now that you have helped shape those little bits of godliness into beings whom you really enjoy, they move out and embark on their own life journey. And it’s hard.

Both Daniel and Nathan moved up to USU this morning. Daniel has been coming and going for two years so having him pop in and out of our home has become normal but having Nathan leave was a bit of a blow. Of all my kids, he is probably the one who communicates with me the most. He texts and calls all the time, and he has a tendency to “verbal vomit” about everything once he gets home. And FYI, I really like it. I like that my teenager talks to me. I like that he trusts his parents enough to share his innermost thoughts. I like that he trusts and values our opinions. And I like that we have all been able to work together to help him prepare for the next steps in his life.

We have all felt like having a semester of college before a mission would be a good thing for Nathan. It will allow him to have a small separation from home and family when he can come home and call whenever he needs to before the more rigid separation that comes with a mission. But what I didn’t realize until today is that I think I need the baby step in separation as well. Quitting Nathan cold turkey would be much harder. So today is definitely a hard parenting day. But hard in a good way, if that makes sense. It’s a hard that comes because I have a child who is doing exactly what he should be doing, exactly what we have raised him to do. And he is so excited about it.

I have a feeling the house is going to feel strangely quiet for a while.

 

Mixed Feelings

Let’s talk a bit about the first day of school. Generally, I’m a fan of the first day of school. After having my offspring lounging around the house for three months making my day-to-day routine a bit more of a challenge, I look forward to being able to mop the floor on my own schedule rather than trying to work around the varied schedules the kids keep in the summer. I also get to have a few minutes of quiet now and then and I don’t feel like a broken record as I try to get my offspring to do something productive rather than spend all their time face down in their phones.

My kids also usually look forward to returning to school. They like to learn and the myriad of social activities associated with school make them happy. After the weirdness that accompanied the past two years of school, I think they are more ready than ever for the normalcy that a regular school schedule holds. Malia, who is a social butterfly, is so looking forward to being able to see her friends every day. Matthew, who did a hybrid school schedule last year, is anxious to get back to the lower stress version of education that has him attending all his classes in person. Nathan is excited to dip his feet in the larger pond of college. And Daniel is more than ready to get a taste of what college life is actually supposed to be like with in person classes and no taboos on social gatherings.

Here’s the flip side. Although COVID numbers are once again on the rise, the state legislature has tied the hands of the board of health and the schools so that there are no precautions at all happening in the schools. Masks are no longer required regardless of vaccination status. Social distancing is out. Extra cleaning is a thing of the past. And I’m a bit nervous. It seems like a recipe for disaster, particularly on the elementary school level where the kids are not old enough to be vaccinated.

Despite that, I can’t lock my family up in our house forever. And my anxiety is not a reason to throw all of them into full time online school. If we did that, we’d need to throw all of them into therapy as well. So as Matthew and Malia go back to school today and Daniel and Nathan start in a couple weeks, I’ll try to look for the good and not freak out about everything. After all, they love school and getting them to go is not a fight. I know a lot of parents that would give anything to have the education loving crew that I have. And after the insanity the past year and a half have held, they all need to feel like they have some control over their lives and that they know what to expect. So full speed ahead. Ready or not, here school comes.

 

A Prescription for Laughter

In the midst of a pandemic there are generally two choices in terms of mental health: curl up in a little ball and cry or make the best of it. We have tried to make the best of it and in the process, we’ve learned to laugh a bit about the crazy circumstances in which we find ourselves. I absolutely love Malia’s teacher (and miss being able to volunteer in her classroom) and like us, she’s developed a sense of humor. It’s completely normal for the elementary school set to make a Christmas tree ornament in school during the month of December, but I’m betting not many kids are bringing home ornaments like the ones Malia’s teacher had the kiddos create. I laughed. Out loud. Which is a good choice mental health wise.

 

Sentinel Strong

Despite the many changes in school routines due to Covid, our high school is doing everything it can to provide as normal a school experience as possible. One of those normal things is selecting students of the month and Sentinels of the month. Each month, ten students are selected as students of the month. They can be in any grade and are nominated by a teacher for being outstanding students in one way or another. The two Sentinels of the month are seniors who have excelled in a variety of ways and stand out for having a positive impact within their circles at the school. The entire faculty works together to select the Sentinels each month.

Last week Nathan got called down to the office and although he reacted to that news with trepidation, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was being honored as one of this school year’s first Sentinels of the Month and not being sent home to quarantine. The principal then proceeded to share with him one of the reasons he was selected. Over the summer, as Nathan was trying to figure out what his school schedule needed to look like, he emailed the physics teacher (whom he had never met) and basically asked her to change the period that AP Physics was taught so he could take the class. Apparently, it became widely known that Nathan has requested a change to the school master schedule so that he could take more math classes. And the school was able to comply which is not only pretty darn amazing but provided a great deal of entertainment value to the faculty. The whole thing made the principal laugh, but in a good way.

This morning Kevin and I were able to attend a small awards ceremony at the school. It was a light breakfast (sack lunch style in a nod to safely handling food in a Covid careful world) where each student was highlighted, given a nice certificate and presented with a 2020-2021 school pin. These particular pins are only given to students who are being honored in some way, so it is kind of a big deal. Nathan also received a small glass trophy (for lack of a better word). Each one of Nathan’s teachers wrote a paragraph about the impact he has had on the school and the reasons he stands out to them. Those comments were all printed on the back of Nathan’s award certificate and it was so fun to read about the person that he is at school. I’m so glad that despite his concerns about the possible implications of going to school in the middle of a pandemic Nathan has been a force for good in the school. It seems like there is not enough good to go around these days.

A Mixed Bag

Yesterday was back to school day for Nathan and Matthew. Today was back to school day for Malia. They have all come out of their first days with mixed feelings.

Nathan’s A days are rough. Being in two choirs in a Covid world is not all that fun. Singing in a mask is hard. Add to that all the social drama that he desperately wants to avoid, and choir becomes a virtual smorgasbord of ulcer inducing anxiety. He originally had four choirs, but over the past couple of months he decided to drop two of them and add a couple of math classes into his schedule instead. Math translates to Covid altered learning much more successfully than choir. And honestly, he’s so stinking excited about the math that it just makes more sense for him to spend a bit more time there. Luckily, one of those math classes and ASL 3 (he took ASL 1 last year and learned so fast that his teacher told him to skip right to ASL 3), both of which he loves, give him a break between choirs and add some redeeming grace to his A days. So there is a bit of a silver lining there.

In direct contrast to A days, Nathan says B days are going to be awesome. He starts the say with seminary (always a fantastic way to start the day!) and has AP Physics C and AP Statistics on these days. He also has a mythology class, but that one is just to finish filling in his language arts requirement so he can graduate. He’s definitely interested in the topics they will cover, but he’s nowhere near as excited as he is for his heavy math classes. Have I mentioned that he really loves math? I mean really, really loves it. He does math on his own time for fun. Daniel reviewed over the summer so he would back up to speed when school started and Nathan happily, nearly giddily, helped him remember the finer points of calculus. So he’s super excited for B days. His entire demeanor after school today was lighter than it was yesterday.

Matthew is going back to school with a hybrid schedule. He has several classes in person, but he’s not ready to be a part of the mass of humanity that is the middle school. His stress level about being an asthmatic in the midst of Covid is still really high. So he’s going to the school for band, drawing and stage crew (and his teachers have been fantastic about helping him find less populated routes to get from one place to another) and doing the rest of his classes online. We don’t really know what online school is going to look like as of yet because nothing has been posted. We’re not even really sure who all his teachers are, so that could be interesting and is providing a bit of anxiety for him. But the band part is great. His face was lit up when he came home yesterday. He said it is so good to be back in the band room. His eyes were alight when he came home today as well. (The middle school is also using a block schedule this year to help lessen the amount of time spent cleaning each day and to minimize the number of passing periods in each day.) He has tons of friends on stage crew and being able to see them and interact with them was amazing. The only damper on things right now is the fact that the before school jazz band has not started yet. They just barely hired a new teacher (the previous one went full time at the high school so is no longer available to pick up those couple of classes he was teaching at the middle school) and he hasn’t had time to work out all the details. But it will come. And Matthew is ready to go when it does.

School definitely looks different for Malia this year. In response to Covid and the need to push the school start date back from the end of July, our elementary has switched from their year-round calendar to a traditional calendar. That meant that for the first time ever, she had a full summer vacation. She seemed to enjoy that, but we’ll see how she feels later this year when she doesn’t go off track. One of the characteristics of year-round school is the fact that at least half of the kids in each class remain in the same class from year to year. It’s those families (like us) that have a preference for a specific, less popular track and always request that one. But moving to a traditional calendar means a lot more mixing of kids across classes. And to her dismay, Malia only knows a couple of the kids in her class this year. Add to that the fact that they are doing everything they can to keep the kids as far away from each other as possible, and my normally friendly girl is having a hard time getting to know the new people in her class. But she does say that’s its good to be back in the school. She loves school and has missed it a lot. During the stretch of online school in the spring, there were several occasions when she told me that she just learns better when she’s in the school with her teacher. I completely agree with that and hopefully she will learn to navigate the social aspects of school from behind a face mask.

As for me, it has been a really long time since the house has been as quiet as it was this morning. Kevin is still working from home, but he’s tucked away in the sewing room in the basement and I’m rattling around in the rest of the house. I’ve always valued my limited time alone at home, but it has been so long since I’ve had any that for right now, it feels a little desolate. But I’m sure that in no time I’ll fall back into my routine and learn how to cherish these silent moments again. It will probably happen just in time for all the schools to close again when cold and flu season collides with Covid in the fall. 😜

So mixed feelings all around. Excitement and joy interlaced with worrying and wondering. But life is like than, even in more normal times. And these are most definitely not normal times. Some mixed feelings are to be expected and, in my opinion, are much preferred over the raging negativity we could be experiencing.

Leader of the (Online) Pack

Our elementary school has done the best they can to try to provide some kind of school connection for the kids. While all their classes are online, a lot of the additional school programs and activities are just cancelled for now. However, they have continued their tradition of selecting a leader of the month from each class every month and have celebrated those kids’ accomplishment by compiling a slide show featuring several pictures of each child and sharing it with everyone. This month we were delighted to be notified that Malia was selected as this month’s leader in her class! She was very excited and when we picked up her award and her prize package from the school, we discovered that her teacher selected her because she has been proactive in the switch to online learning. Malia has definitely done that. While there have been hard days, most of the time she has been ready and willing to get her schoolwork done. She has not hesitated to reach out to her teacher via email, chat, instant message and video chat open hours in order to ask questions and receive guidance and individualized learning. She is in the habit of turning everything in on time and while she would much rather be in the classroom, she is still learning and progressing.

This was just a little bit of normalcy for Malia and a chance to celebrate some of the good that is to be found in our present circumstances. She has risen to the challenge and is working hard to continue to be a great student.

Return to Hogwarts

 After some heroic efforts on the part of our third-grade teachers and the acquiescence of the district, the greatly anticipated school Harry Potter week actually happened. Even though Malia had already done a full week of Harry Potter earlier in the month, it in no way diminished her excitement for the event. She simply decided that she could be a second-year student rather than a first year. We picked up all her gear at the school and let me tell you that the teachers really went all out. The great thing was that between the two weeks, there was very little overlap. Some activities that worked great at home would have been difficult in a classroom setting (our planting of the mandrakes and the scavenger hunt for the sorcerer’s stone) and others worked much better in a school setting (house points, visits to the house commons rooms, magical math). This week she got to color her house t-shirt (she was Ravenclaw this time), hatch a dragon egg, and engineer a Gringott’s cart track. Some aspects of it were disappointing to her and she felt like is was not as fun as she had expected, but I think that was largely a casualty of Covid and the shift to online school. But overall, I think she enjoyed the majority of the week’s activities. And kudos to our amazing teachers who were able to pull the whole thing off.

The Real World

Now that we’ve returned to the muggle world, here a sum up of some of the non-magical occurrences in the past week. 

Daniel is gainfully employed. He will be working at the Amazon warehouse. He starts in a couple of weeks and is glad to have a source of income so he will have some money in the bank when he gets started at USU in the fall. He had his onboarding earlier this week and will be able to start once his background check is completed. He has decided to double major in mechanical engineering and music and spent this week brushing up on several of his solos from last year so he could submit an audition video to the music department. Once he did, he was conditionally accepted into the music program, pending the passing of his first jury, which is normal. Next week he has a virtual meeting with the academic advisor so he can start planning out his schedule. He also got into on campus housing this week in one of his top choices in terms of which hall. For the first time since he came home, he is actually excited about school in the fall. That is a definitely a tender mercy.

Nathan has also gotten a job. He is working at Harmons as a bagger until he turns seventeen in two weeks, and then he may move to a cashier position. He had his onboarding orientation yesterday. He had a four-hour training scheduled for today, but when he completed it in only two hours, they put him to work right away. He is very excited to have a source of income because he would really like to go on two school tours next year…assuming the world has returned to a more normal state by then. It also gives him a productive way to spend all the extra hours that he currently has. And once his AP tests are over, he will have even more free time. 

With the state of economy being what it is right now and unemployment being so high, I feel like it is a huge blessing that both Daniel and Nathan have been able to find work so easily. It gives them a way to fill the many empty hours, a change of scenery, and a way to prepare for the more normal future we are all looking forward to. 

Matthew did another at home food challenge this morning and unfortunately, it did not go as we had hoped. It was eggs in cupcakes, and he had a reaction after his first bite. He was incredibly disappointed. As we’ve worked through egg waffles, egg muffins, egg cornbread and other egg quick breads, he has become increasingly more excited about adding additional foods to his diet. He has been so courageous with this whole process and today was quite a blow. But he’s not done trying. We’ve spent some time pondering the differences between the foods he is tolerating well and the cupcakes, and we have a couple of thoughts. First of all, waffles and muffins cook at higher temperatures than cupcakes, at least 50 degrees hotter. Muffins also bake a bit longer. Cornbread and quick breads bake longer than cupcakes, at least 15 minutes longer and in the case of banana bread, a full 45 minutes longer. That leads us to believe that perhaps he needs things that cook either hotter or longer in order to break the egg proteins down a sufficient amount. Our next step is to try a full-sized cake since that will bake 10-15 minutes longer than a cupcake. We are also going to increase the frequency of his safe egg consumption to see if that will be beneficial. At that point, we’ll have a conversation with his doctor to reassess the plan. As of right now, it looks like eggs in cookies is not going to be within his reach, but we’ll see how things progress in the future. He is not giving up. 

We received Malia’s track assignment and unexpectedly, she will be on A track next year. That was actually very unexpected because B is always our first choice and since A track is always in such great demand and B is not, we’ve never gotten anything other than B. Nevertheless, somehow Malia ended up on A track and she’s terribly disappointed. Not only will she not be in the same class as all the other B track enthusiasts that she’s been with since kindergarten, but she will not have the teacher she was expecting. Our 4^th grade B track teacher is amazing, and we’re both bummed that we won’t get to work with her. And to be completely honest, I’m also disappointed that Malia won’t be home with me for the month of December. I really enjoy having that time to spend doing crafts and activities. On the flip side, having her on A track makes scheduling a family vacation for next summer easier. She will finish school a week after Nathan and Matthew and will have six weeks before the start of the next school year. Although we don’t have any definite plans as of yet, we are tossing around the idea of going to Oregon next year. It would give Daniel a chance to see more of the state than he did, give us a chance to see the area and meet the people he served with, and provide us one last family adventure before Nathan leaves home for whatever is next. And ever since our trip to Seattle a few years back, we’ve all had a desire to head back to the Pacific northwest. So there are pros and cons to the track assignment. I’m hoping that there are at least a couple kids Malia knows on track with her, and I know she is hoping for the same thing. We’ll have to wait and see. 

Overall, it feels like we’ve hit a new normal around here. Everyone is pretty settled in their routines and I don’t wake up each morning feeling like nothing is as it should be. As a few businesses start to reopen and guidelines about social interactions relax a bit, I think we’re all glad and ready to be able to have a bit more freedom. On the other hand, I still feel a need to be incredibly cautious. I think that will be with me for quite a while. I’m already a bit of a clean freak and a germaphobe (Ok, maybe more than a little. I can be honest here.) and I find myself obsessing a bit about making sure everything is clean and everyone is careful. Being out in public still puts me on edge. But having some semblance of a normal life back would be positive for all of us. In the meantime, we continue to make things work at home and try to add some good to the world every day.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

In an attempt to lift spirits and help the kids feel like they are still connected while they are all doing school from home, this morning the principal from Malia’s elementary school sent out an opportunity to be a part of the school community. We awoke to snow and he invited all the kids to make a snowman, email him a picture, and all the pictures would be featured on the school website. Malia loved the idea and during her morning “recess,” she created a snowman in our front yard. She called him Bob. And she loved seeing Bob and herself in the snowman slide show. 😊

Disappointment

Malia has been off-track, so today was her first real day of online learning. We had everything set up, all her logins ready to go, and knew what was expected of her so I assumed it would be smooth sailing. I was, however, much mistaken. Malia usually loves school, generally learns quickly and is usually one of the first in her class to complete assignments. But that girl was nowhere to be found this morning. Her first two assignments took her nearly four hours to get through and there were tears, stubbornness, refusal to follow directions, etc. It was the kind of response I usually get about cleaning her room, not school. At that point, Kevin, Malia and I had a bit of a Come to Jesus talk about the expectations associated with school at home. And then I looked at her tearstained face and asked what else was going on and she told me that doing her work at home means she can’t talk to her friends. I knew immediately that was the real problem.

The topic of our discussion shifted a bit at that point. We talked about disappointment and how this insane situation means all of us are feeling disappointed because we can’t do things we were looking forward to, things that are normal, etc. Nathan has had tours, festivals, concerts, and most likely a play cancelled. Matthew also has concerts that were cancelled, rehearsals that aren’t happening and a postponed musical. Symphony performances and outings are off and while some things may be rescheduled, I suspect others won’t. Everyone is cut off from friends and colleagues. And as for me, the general conference choir is officially cancelled. While that is in no way unexpected, it is still a disappointment. It is, however, tentatively rescheduled for October and if it happens, I’ll clear my schedule to make sure I can still participate.

Once we had that little pow wow, Malia was able to clear her mind and get back to work. I think things will get a little easier once she has settled into a routine. In fact, I think things will get a little easier for all of us once we can find our new normal. And although it may seem like it right now, this won’t last forever. Eventually it will pass, and we will be able to return to our normal lives. And I hope that with that return to normalcy will come a greater sense of appreciation, an increased amount of gratitude for the many blessings that our lives hold each and every day. Even on the most ordinary of days.

I Looks Like This Will Be Our Classroom for At Least the Next Six Weeks

On the Bright Side…

Homeschooling is delicious when the assignment is food-styling crepes.

And it doubles as a bit more emotional eating. 😉

The World Has Gone Crazy and I’m Just Along for the Ride

You would have to be pretty much dead not to have an idea of what is going on around the world with COVID-19. It has been headlining the news for weeks now. And while we would like to feel like we are unaffected her in our little mountain valley, in our interconnected world, no one is unaffected. That became abundantly clear yesterday when our governor held a press conference instituting “social distancing” in order to keep the spread of the virus from overwhelming our communities. Today’s announcement that all public schools will close for at least two weeks only added to the general hysteria.

It just so happens that Thursday is my regular shopping day so that it what I was doing yesterday morning. And as the morning wore on, the scene became more and more frantic. People were freaking out. The shelves were emptying faster than they can be restocked. The poor, harried store employees were doing the best they can to deal with frantic customers who are freaking out because there is no more toilet paper, milk, eggs, or flour to be had. And as for me? It was a normal shopping day. I was getting normal stuff, although some of it in greater quantities than normal, not because I’m panicking, but because so many others are that I’m concerned that I won’t be able to get what my family needs in coming weeks. All in all, it was most definitely not a normal day.

Today there was more of the same. I ran to the store first thing to try to pick up a couple of items I was unable to find yesterday (and luckily was able to do so) and even early in the morning when the grocery stores are normally very quiet, there was a manic energy flowing through the entire establishment. I can honestly say that I was glad to get what I needed and get out of there.

My kids are worried, stressed and disappointed. They feel like their lives have come to a screeching halt. Both Nathan and Matthew have been rehearsing for shows with performance dates that are now in a limbo. The middle school teacher has assured Matthew and his cast that they will perform even if they need to do it in July. Nathan’s cast has no such reassurance as of yet. Nathan’s choir tour was set to happen in a couple of weeks and that has been cancelled. Due to cancellation policies and such, we don’t even know if they will be able to get any of their money returned. (Although to be honest, I feel much better about keeping him closer to home right now. The thought of sending him to Disneyland was making me nervous.) Matthew had a concert scheduled for Monday evening and he was super excited because, as one of only two seventh graders in the jazz band, he had a solo. Now that is off as well. And while Malia is currently off-track, she is very concerned about what school at home will be like when she goes back on-track in a week and is worried that she won’t be able to understand any new material because she won’t be able to ask her teacher questions and get them answered right away. I’ve tried to reassure her that I am not only skilled, but trained, to do just that, but since she has only ever known me as “Mom,” I don’t think she can see me wearing the “Teacher” hat yet.

Late last night we got a Skype message from Daniel telling us that his mission president had directed them to immediately forward some important info to all their parents. The info contained all the measures the mission is taking to ensure the health and safety of our missionaries. I don’t really know how Daniel’s state of mind is right now as the email from him was very brief since it was not an actual P-day, but we’ll talk to him on Monday and will get a much better idea of how is dealing with all this.

We are all treading in new territory here. This is something none of us has experienced before. And to be completely honest, I’m actually pretty calm. No, that is not my normal reaction to things like this, but right now my only worry is that we might run out of toilet paper since it is very hard to come by just now. But even that is not overwhelming. We are creative. We can come up with solutions if things remain crazy longer than our current supply holds out. I think I’m beginning to get an idea of the seriousness of the situation, but even so, I’m not having a total panic attack. I think my family and I are going to be ok. So I feel a like bit like I’m standing in the midst of a big insanity party and just not feeling the vibe…and maybe that’s what faith is. Knowing the world is a mess and being prepared, proactive, and yet being able to maintain an overall sense of calm and know that in the ultimate end, everything will be alright.