Four Days Down

Great news! I survived the first week of school. It was borderline brutal, but I came out from under hundreds of emails a day (I wish I was exaggerating), Zoom office hours, so much information, and what felt like just a constant whirlwind relatively unscathed. I feel like I can sum up the past 5 weeks of my return to work by saying I feel like I have never worked so hard, or so relentlessly, to have what feels like so little progress made. The first year of anything is hard, but this is a lot of firsts on top of each other. Thankfully, I have a very supportive team, and I am quickly learning to be more patient with myself not knowing everything yet.

We are still finding time to have some fun as temperatures seem to finally be falling into tolerable numbers. Last weekend, we went into DC with the intention of walking around Roosevelt Island when we got there it was so crowded we couldn't even get a parking spot. We ended up just going to see the FDR Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and walking around a bit. When we were walking back to our car along the river we winessed a Trump rally on the water...definitely interesting.

Quinn wanted to see the White House so we drove over closer and started to walk into the park but they wouldn't let us in. We walked around to the back so she could see it from there. On our way back up, we could tell something was about to happen, so we decided to stop and wait for a couple minutes. We were able to see Trump's motorcade returning to the White House. This blog now says the current president's name about two more times than I am comfortable with. After this we went to the Black Lives Matter plaza before heading back home and stopping by one of our favorite places to eat on the way home and having a car picnic. Safe to say we saw all parts of the DC political spectrum this day. 

We spent this weekend outside and doing a few things around the house. We played some games, got some ice cream (a rare treat for us with the peanut allergy), and we are finishing the weekend by watching Trolls World Tour. I'm hoping this week slows down a bit as we work toward this new and hopefully temporary new normal. I miss school energy! Good luck this week friends!

Screen Time

We had to physically go to the library to renew our cards, and Quinn was allowed to get her own.

Up until recently, the majority of the last five plus months of my life have been spent in the sweltering heat of summer in Virginia. I would give in to some TV time late in the afternoon, or if it was a good day after dinner. I am not a technology loving person - this bodes well for virtual learning. The past three weeks have been brutal. I stare at a computer allllll dayyyy long. The first week I thought my neck and back were permanently damaged. Never in one million years would I have dreamed this was in the realm of possibilities for my work life. But here we are. I haven't blogged in so long because I seriously have no desire to look at another screen until the next morning. I don't know how people have desk jobs.

First day of work before I had 3 computers and one million post its and notes

I miss normal school. I feel like this whole experience will definitely make me more appreciative of going to work everyday if nothing else. I am so lucky in that my new team has been super helpful and kind as I learn my new position. It has been a challenge to say the least. 

Everything else has been pretty normal around here. When I started back to work my mom came for two weeks to entertain Quinn during the day, and our official year long childcare provider started this past week. Quinn has been LOVING it. She cried when my mom left for two days, and now she gets upset when it's the weekend and Abby, our babysitter isn't coming. So at least that's going well. Current routine means I am working before Quinn get up usually. Matt does breakfast and hangs out with Quinn before Abby comes, or Quinn hangs out with us while we both work. Then I take over at about 3:00 and Matt finishes his work before dinner. We both go in to work about once a week at this point. In other positive news we are surviving sharing an office, but I think Matt is getting pretty close to over School Counselor life...too stressful. 

Tomorrow is Freshman Orientation at my school. It's drive thru style, but I am looking forward to actually seeing students, and doing something that feels remotely normal. The beginning of the school year is usually so new and exciting. I guess this is new and exciting in a different way.

Playing in the rain

Still setting up my office, but my plexiglass was delivered. 

Summer's End

Today we said goodbye to summer as we have known it, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Just like everyone else we have had a summer like no other. We made the best of it. I think the highlights include the "vacation" I posted about earlier this week, a few swims in a real pool, the flamingos (who I think might be the MVPs of the whole damn pandemic), walking/running hundreds of miles, Quinn learning to read, so much together time (for better or worse), getting things done around our house, and discovering things close to home that we otherwise still would not know exist. It's been a crazy time, and there's been a lot hanging in the air with the return to school. I'm anxious to begin my new position tomorrow (high school counselors report a week before teachers and elementary counselors), but I am also sad to see summertime go. 

Finally got some garden tomatoes

We squeezed in a few fun things this week - the biggest probably being a trip to Burnside Farms to see the sunflower fields. There was also a tropical storm because why not 2020. There was also a lot of playground time. Friday I took Quinn to Target (for I think the first time since March 12th) for some retail therapy. Appropriately, we said goodbye to our beloved neighborhood flamingos this week. We happened to run into the flamingo owner and we chatted for a few minutes, mainly I thanked her profusely for entertaining the neighborhood for all these months and giving us all something to look forward to. There was also one day this week where Matt and I both had to work. Matt and I both now have a desk setup in our extra bedroom. Say a prayer for our marriage. While you're at it, say an extra prayer for Matt because he's my IT department during distance learning. 

The office 2020

School supplies 2020, two stop signs for when we can't be interrupted, colored and cut by Quinn

Attempting to make my own pickles...I'll let you know how it goes in a couple weeks. 

It's Been Awhile

Hey Coronavirus subscribers. As I mentioned in the title - it's been awhile. This past week we have been busy being tourists close to home, but more on that later. I wanted to just drop off some pictures from a few weeks ago, just to document life. It's still been deadly hot. I'm definitely ready for some cooler temps here soon. I mean I'd take anything less than feels like 103. 

I mentioned in my last post mid-July that my school district has decided to go back virtually for at least the first quarter. Quinn's school decided shortly after to completely shut down for the entire school year. While we had been leaning toward not sending her anyway, this was still a very sad email to receive. I have mentioned many times on this blog how much I love her school and the staff. I was making it through Spring thinking that she wasn't done there, but now she is. The next time she goes to school it will be real public school Kindergarten. So crazy. I'm referring to this as Quinn's gap year. Matt should be working from home for at least a few more months, and my schedule is still pretty up in the air. We decided to hire someone to come mid morning to early afternoon to entertain Quinn so that we can both focus on work for those hours, and then we will adjust our own schedules as necessary to cover the rest. 

The highlights of the week before last include the first harvest of peppers from our potted garden, a week full of VBS activities, making our own chocolate ice cream, and we did get to go to Quinn's school to pick up all her projects from her teachers. Other that that we were still moving rocks around the neighborhood, trudging ourselves through miserable heat to get out of the house, and visiting our flamingo friends. In my next catch up post you can look forward to a change of scenery. 

COVID Summer

It's been an exciting week around here. I'm officially done with school which is a moderate relief, but I have quite a list of to do's to prep for next year. I decided that I'm taking a few days off from thinking about that.

Quinn has recently started placing phone calls mostly to me or my mom. She taught herself this and sometimes I don't even know it's happening until I hear her talking to people. 

Monday I got a very fun end of the year surprise when my friends and coworkers stormed my street with a car parade. I was so happy to see everyone and wish we could have hung out. I am going to miss my people so much. We also had a fire Monday night...both Monday and Tuesday were perfect weather here in the mid 70s and cool in the evenings. So much better than hot and humid Virginia summer.

Tuesday we were up and at the newly reopened playground before 9:00 to try to get there and have some time before anyone else came. It was short lived, but still fun. While organizing our bathroom vanity that afternoon I busted out the hot rollers and put them in Quinn's hair. She thought it was so fun. We then drove a bus route, in her newly styled hair, delivering signs to the front yards of my 5th grade students.

Today was a weird rainy day (in the 60s) but we still got a walk in, did some math, played in the garage, played Uno and Sorry!, and found the missing remote so that we could turn on Disney+ this evening to watch the Bears version of the nature movies. These movies really show you how brutal nature is man.

The Ending of the Beginning

Today was the finale. I cried my way through the entirety of a staff meeting yesterday, and today I finished my packing, turned in my keys, my computer, etc. It's some weird times people. The day was capped off by celebrating our fifth grade class. Typically we do a formal ceremony, but today we had a car parade and it was about 500 times more fun - even though it was 95 and humid. It could have only been more perfect if the DJ played the graduation song they sing every year - The Ending of the Beginning. I have stated multiple times in the past few weeks how much I will truly miss my colleagues, my students, and the community, so I am keeping it short today with many pictures.

83 Days Later

I made my return to school today after 83 days. I got to see some of my people and it was so weird to not give everyone a hug. I wore a mask and had four hours. This wouldn't be that big of an issue if I was returning to the same school next year, but I'm leaving and I have what is the equivalent of an apartment's worth of things in my office. Thank goodness I made a massive purge last year or I would really be in trouble. I get a full day next week to finish, and I did make progress today, but I am still just totally overwhelmed. It's also sad to be packing and leaving under these circumstances. Once I got home I met with three 5th grade classes to wish them luck as they move on to middle school. My last days next week will be accompanied by student pick up so at least there will be celebrating as well. 

Student belongings