And so it begins....: May 2020

Every night I go to bed and reflect on my day. As I lay there, I have all these thoughts that I want to blog about or share with my fan club. However, morning comes and I don’t remember everything. So here are some random thoughts in a random order. Enjoy!

Today is the day that I learned that I will be teaching the rest of 2019-2020 school year from my living room, or my bedroom, or the closet, or outside, or the playroom. It all depends on who is on a zoom during my class time.

The positives of being quarantined:

As an introvert, I am ok with staying home and not having to interact with lots of people all the time. I don’t miss shooting the breeze with people while waiting in line at the grocery store or chatting at a ball game. I honestly don’t mind sleeping a little later and staying up to binge watch t.v. During the school year I never really have the time to watch all the shows or movies that I want to. I usually keep a list of what I want to watch and slowly watch it all during the summer. I think I am pretty caught up to date at this point. I actually find it hard to watch t.v. shows right now. I think I have watched too much and my mind just doesn’t have the attention span for more t.v. right now. I enjoy wearing pj’s or sweats while teaching. I like that I can do a load of laundry during the day because I am home. I like being able to have family lunch time during the middle of the week. We always eat family meals on the weekends. It is nice to do a family dinner in the middle of the week. It is nice to listen to everyone share about his or her day. No one is rushing off to a meeting or rushing off to a sporting event. It is just nice to spend quality time together. Being able to exercise in the morning. I love my morning runs before work. Playing family games during the middle of the week. Reading Harry Potter out loud to my son and daughter. We have made it to book 5. Just to let you know, book 4 has over 700 pages and book 5 has over 800 pages. That is a lot of reading out loud. But….we have the time so why not. Hanging in the dark with my son and his starry sky night light and watching the stars cover the ceiling and just share silly stories together. Sunday family movie day. Ordering from a restaurant once a week. It is so nice to not worry about cooking for a meal. Sometimes I have no idea what day it is. Sometimes I have no idea what time it is. I am not counting the days of quarantine because it doesn’t really matter? Day 15 and day 16 are exactly the same. Listening to my son on instant messenger with his grandfather. Their conversations are great and the pictures from the conversations are also very entertaining. Reading books. I have been able to read so much more. Long walks. Each morning I try and walk up my street and take in nature. I usually walk with one or two of my children up the street a few times a day.

Negatives of being quarantined:

I miss being able to spend time with my extended family. I worry a lot about my aging parents and relatives. We zoom and video chat regularly but it just isn’t the same. I miss seeing my students and colleagues daily. I have spent way too much time on 4th grade assignments. Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching and I love my son but doing both of those things at the same time all the time is ..….. I find that I have very few free quiet moments to myself. I miss the hour in the morning when I am up and the house is quiet and everyone is still sleeping. I miss the hour when I get home before everyone else gets home and the chaos starts. There is just something about the quiet that I miss. I sometimes find myself going to sit in the car. I don’t go anywhere but just sit there and enjoy the quiet. My kids have figured out my hiding place. My neighbor suggested driving to the next block. If you see me on your street in my car….I just needed some quiet time. The constant asking what to eat or the constant eating all the time by the little ones. It seems like they just eat all day long. My eyes hurt from staring at a screen all the time. I desperately miss seeing my students. I get so excited when they show their faces on “meet.” I miss interacting with them and learning how they are doing and what is new with them. I miss teaching and I miss teaching them. Online teaching is not the same as being in the classroom.

I often think of this time as a unique experience. I never would have imagined that I would be teaching from my house. I know that I will never get time like this with my family again so I am trying to capture and enjoy every moment. I mentioned to my oldest that I feel like I am on maternity leave without the baby. I went back to work so quickly with all three of my kids. I think of this as a tween/teen leave where we spend our days together and enjoy each other’s company.

Enjoy the pictures-

I have included some special surprise at the end.