March Madness

 In March we learned we would be returning to the classroom.  I had mixed feelings.

As a teacher, I didn't enjoy zoom lessons.  My students were doing great, but many were hard to reach and I worried ALL the time about them.  In September I kept a student on my zoom class after everyone else left in order to go over things with him one on one.  I had him unmute himself.  The noises of baby toys were in the background. The conversations of older brothers and parents were present. After we got off the zoom call I had my first ugly cry.  How... how am I expected to teach my students when so much is already working against them?

As a parent, I loved working from home.  I was able to sleep a bit later. I was able to see my children throughout the day.  I could start laundry and move it over to the dryer in the middle of the day during a break. I also loved being able to PEE whenever I wanted or needed to- something that we laugh about, but is seriously distressing to me and my weak bladder.  I was also able to walk with Nathan every day(even though we stopped tracking... ooops). 

As a teacher I was concerned with the plans going back. We were expected to clean all desks between classes. We were expected to keep kids 6 feet apart. It felt like we were the last line of defense between my students being healthy or sick. I resented these expectations.  

Nathan would stay on EDGE- the online program SKPS set up.  Kathryn was going to come to school with me.  Grayson would return to Early College High School, but he was taking two classes at Chemeketa Community College which were online, so he only had to show up to class physically twice a week.  A lot of changes, but we were ready.

During spring break I went to the beach with Joe the first weekend for my birthday- we stayed at the Ester Lee Motel in Lincoln City and enjoyed ourselves.  Later the next week, I took the kids back to the coast- we rented a place in Gearheart and stayed a couple of nights.  We had so much fun. We explored the coast, got some pizza one night, made pancakes for dinner another night.  I felt a little overwhelmed with making sure the kids were entertained and got a little a cranky-but the kids forgave me. We went on a night hike down to the beach and really had a lot of fun.  

One scary thing in March was my Mother having a stroke.  Kathryn and I went up to see her on my Father's Memory Day, visited his grave, had dinner with Mom and Beth.  Monday morning I got a call from Beth that mom had fallen- she woke up not feeling right and fell down and couldn't get back up.  Thankfully she was able to get to her phone.  Because of covid, she could only have one visitor a day. I worked on Monday, then went up on Tuesday to be with her.  She was doing well, had some weakness in her left side.  We looked into some rehab centers for her to get completely up to speed with.  Beth went above and beyond to make sure she was taken care- but it surely was scary!  Makes you realize the important things in life are not things. They are the people we love and care about.