Now on to Christmas. I think we’re going to get our decorations out today.
Lexa also made maple brown sugar cinnamon cookies, pumpkin bread and monkey bread for thanksgiving breakfast.
For quarantine Halloween we mostly ate things. We got some Halloween cupcakes, cookies, candy corn, pumpkin pie and orange and black chips. The
Hugh turned 5 and had his turn for a quarantine birthday. We put up decorations, ordered pizza, ate cake, and gave him presents. He was very happy. He had been asking how many days until his birthday for months. We started counting at 47 days.
We had our own close call a couple of weeks ago. Patrick found out someone who’d been in his office for over an hour 5 days prior had tested positive. The district was not going to tell him because they only contact trace four days back. He only found out because he’s an administrator seeing the information. He got tested. It was a nail biting, stress eating 2 days later that we got negative results back. He bought some more of the portable hepa filters for the house and a 6th month supply of the high rated AC filters.
Otherwise we’ve just been playing outside a bunch, resting on the weekends.
Hugh and Will have matching shirts they love to wear.
Hugh rode Will’s big bike
Patrick grilled chicken drumsticks
Will and Lexa inside peeling potatoes for French fries to go with the chicken
Will
Breakfast
They've already had their first reported Covid case at the high school where Patrick works. That took a week with just a fraction of the students there. It was a virtual student just coming to school for softball practice. So she probably got it from or gave it to you he softball team. They also already have one at Timmy and Lexa's middle school within just a few days of opening, so I'm glad our kids aren't there in person.
Hugh had his first virtual preschool class today. He'll have it just once a week. He was happy to see his old teacher again. They sang songs and looked through their backpacks with school supplies that they were all given that I picked up earlier. He did a little book report afterwords.
I can hear Lexa singing in her room. She's having choir class right now.
I've been lighting a candle and opening the curtains to see the tree outside while we do virtual school upstairs. I've really been enjoying sitting outside while the boys play during their morning break and after school. They always want to play in the front for some reason. I guess so they can ride their bikes and Hugh can sit in that tree. I've started bringing out my knitting and something to listen to, and mosquito spray because they're bad. It so nice to spend time outside again though. We usually eat lunch at the table in the backyard too. I just cleaned up the kids' toys and trash back there so it's nice. It's amazing how much better just a little bit less hot is. Come on fall!
Lexa and I have finally started back up going through our watercolor painting lessons book after she finishes her last class most days, and I've started reading The Land of Stories books to them, which they're really enjoying.
I'm still not used to Patrick being gone all day being back at work after six months of him working from home. I can't just go for walks alone at all hours and remember that I have to bring the little ones with me on any drive through errands I run. There was so much preparation for that first day back, like he was preparing for a trip, laying out work clothes, of which the pants he hadn't worn the whole time home. They were tight. He'd been wearing workout shorts with his dress shirts on virtual work calls. He cooked and packed his lunch, laid out all his masks, hand sanitizers and cleaning supplies to bring. He says he's stressed the whole day there worrying about getting sick. He doesn't even want to sit in any chairs other than his own in his office. It sounds like he's been able to be in his own office alot of the time, doing zoom calls with the other administrators in the offices next to his and observing classes also on zoom. He has to do lunch duty twice a week though and be in the cafeteria with fifty students eating with their masks off. He says he tries to stand as far away as he can against the wall the whole time.
Yesterday was kind of a rough day with the virtual schooling. Will didn't finish his breakfast in time and took it to his first class. Hugh keeps having tantrums for the iPad. Will was paying attention nicely and so for the first time I decided to do some chores downstairs instead of sitting and watching him the whole time, but then for some reason our alarm didn't go off, and Timmy never got out of bed, even though I'd already gone in there to wake him up earlier. So he was very late to his first class. On top of that we keep getting notifications that he didn't turn something, in and this is the last week before his report card. It's very stressful. He seems to think he's turned the things in.
Today has been better though. I hope Timmy finally gets everything taken care of.
Yesterday we were all surprised when we stepped outside to find it was fall!! It was 61 degrees. Will and Hugh quickly ran inside and this is how they felt they needed to dress, mittens and winter hats included!
Patrick had to go back into work in person last week.😬 The governor forced the Texas Education Agency to force school districts to let anyone who wants to go to school in person do so regardless of local infection rates. The rate has gone down slightly but is still dangerously high. It will surely be going back up with schools opening of course though. I hate that Patrick has to be at risk and that we value our teachers lives so little. Last week was just the administration on campus.
We bought a portable Hepa filter for Patrick’s office. He said he’s planning on doing meetings with students outside in their courtyard.
He has an elaborate cleaning process when he comes home from work. We can’t hug or touch him until after. He takes off his shoes which stay in the garage, his outer clothes, he drops immediately in the washer, takes a shower, then cleans his glasses, phone, lunch box and everything.
Today they started phasing in students returning in person. This week is special ed students, kids with no internet, and the entire 9th grade that wants to come in person. Our kids are sticking with virtual classes since we can to keep them safer and doing our part to keep teachers safe. Can you tell we’ve been very stressed about this happening? We were both so cranky this weekend. I guess Patrick’s an “essential worker” now. We’ve gone from being worried about exposing ourselves to other people whom we don’t know where they’ve been to being the people we don’t want to expose others to..
With the schools having to start accommodating in person students, they changed Will’s teacher and schedule, and the middle school lunch schedule. Lexa and Timmy have different lunch times now and on some days go back and forth to the class that lunch is during. They’re getting the hang of it though. Lexa’s lunch still intersects with part of Will’s and mine which is nice. Timmy just comes down and grabs a quick lunch and takes it back to his computer anyway!
Lexa is doing great. She has all 100’s in her classes! Timmy is attending virtual class fine and likes it and has been doing work all day, but we’ve been finding out that he’s not finishing all his assignments or writing a one word answer for his summary of the Mayflower Compact, for example. He got a long talk from Patrick last night.
Will was very grumpy when we told him his teacher was changing. He was just getting used to his first teacher. He said he was “having a very bad day”. But the next day he watched his new teacher’s introduction video and had a virtual meeting with her, and he was super friendly and happy. She seems to be great, and now that I can see the contrast from the first teacher, his new one has put way more into the virtual assignments and videos and better email communication with parents. So I’m actually happy with the change, except maybe that the new virtual class has 33 students. They’ve made the virtual classes bigger so that the in person teachers have smaller classes to space further apart.
We were also just getting into a rhythm with the old schedule. Now Will starts an hour earlier at 7:40am and finishes an hour later at 3 pm. It’s hard to draw it out longer rather than just getting everything done, and he’s on and off the computer more times because it’s broken up more. But he has a break in the middle of the morning that he didn’t have before which has been really nice. I took the little two outside to play during it today which was great.
Other news: I had to fill up my car with gas for the first time during the pandemic. I had just filled up the tank in March before lockdown happened. Sara dropped off some awesome gifts including a beautiful quilt she made for Lexa and an owl feather for Timmy which amazed the kids. Patrick’s been hanging up curtains, after we’ve been here a year. He bought a big new board game called Gloomhaven that we played with Timmy and Lexa after the little boys went to bed last weekend which was fun. You can keep playing more scenarios of it with your same characters, so we’ll play it again on weekends, I think.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in the rain the other day. They built dams in the street gutters by our driveway.
It’s raining again now. It’s kind of nice to be cozied up inside during the thunderstorm.
Lexa made applesauce. The kids love using the apple corer/peeler mom gave me way back when.
Hugh drew a picture of “blueberry monkey face” from a book we read.
They tried to make ice cream by shaking it in ziplock bags with ice and rock salt. They ended up with melted ice cream?
I got fed up with my super long dried out hair, so I cut it! I watched some YouTube videos and used the unicorn method to cut layers with my sewing scissors. I also attempted bangs, which of course want to curl, hence the reason hair dressers have always told me, bad idea!
Lexa made herself rainbow lunch one day.
