Welcome Spring

We spent the first day of spring in our backyard.  First, Tom and Leo put together a loveseat.  

It's our first piece of furniture for the new backyard.  We have a list of other items we need to get but we had trouble deciding so it's taking us a while.  This is a good start though.  

We also added a dart board.  Leo is a fan and decided he's good enough to give me pointers. 

Serafina got better and better the more she played. 

We had a little competition and the Mom/Leo team won. 

Tonight we had a little Peeps taste test.  We tried three flavors of the marshmallow Easter candies and scored them.  

We tried (from left to right): Cotton Candy, "Party" cake, and Hot Tamale

Cotton Candy beat out Hot Tamale by one point.  Party Cake came in a distant third.

I've been asked by a few people recently how homeschool is going.  I answer honestly that it is a mixed bag and some days are better than others.  She's not always a big fan of the tasks I have her do.  In fact, she often groans at just about everything I make her do.  We've been keeping a list of unfamiliar words we come across while we read and on Thursday I had her start looking up the definitions of these words.  And because I'm mean and old fashion and a former English teacher, I made her use the actual dictionary instead of Google.  This may have received the biggest groan to date, and this annoyed face.  

 

A Year Without a Classroom

One year ago today was the last time these kids were in a classroom.  I've seen plenty of people on social media put a positive spin on living through this pandemic - gushing how this has allowed them so much togetherness and whatnot.  I can't say I share that sentiment.  I like time to myself, and my kids learn better in a classroom.  Fortunately, things are improving and a return to normalcy (or a new version of normal) is on the horizon.  More and more people are receiving vaccines. In fact, my mom got her second dose on Thursday.  

Local schools are making plans to reopen, though that won't impact my kids.  Obviously, Serafina was pulled out of the district when we opted to homeschool.  We do not regret this decision. Leo's school announced in December that it will be closing permanently at the end of this school year and not reopening for in-person learning this year.  The small school's enrollment was already low before coronavirus and unfortunately the pandemic brought about its end.  I was devastated when I received this news and bawled my eyes out. I love Leo's school and his teachers there.  They "get" him and that is so huge.  I couldn't believe he wasn't going to be able to do his final year of middle school at Sierra School. And worst yet, I couldn't believe I was going to have to find him a new school.  School searches are stressful, and even just my preliminary poking around made it very clear that we were getting an amazing bargain with Sierra School.  Maybe that contributed to their downfall.  I asked around for recommendations and did some internet searching, but a yard sign reminded me of a local charter middle school.  I looked into it and attended their virtual information meeting.  I talked to a mom whose daughter had attended the school. That young lady has similar learning differences and anxiety issues as my kids.  They were very happy with the school.  My kids and I took a private tour, and they both were fans.  They said they wanted to go there.  Here's the thing with a charter school...admission is based on a lottery system.  We had to hold our breaths and wait until the lottery date of March 5th.  I didn't have a plan B.  I figured I would make a plan B if they didn't get in.  Luckily, they both got spots to attend next year.  It will be the first time they are the same school in three years. I'm pretty confident they will actually be able to attend in person too, which is great.  

 This is a grim milestone of a year without traditional schooling.  We are lucky we have stayed healthy and Tom has stayed employed, but it's been hard.  It will continue to be hard for a little bit longer. But there is light on the horizon.  I sometimes go back and read blog posts about times that seemed really difficult while we were living through them, like when Serafina broke her leg or was doing early intervention for speech. It's interesting to relive those times. I recently read some posts from this time last year.  Oh man, were we naïve.  I wonder what it will feel like to read about this years from now.  Right now, it feels a little too soon. 

Happy Gotach Day, Mousse!

 One year ago today, we brought home a tiny, baby Mousse.  We had no idea our world was about to be turned upside down by a global pandemic.  We had Grandpa Skip here and the 80s party that night.  We were excited to have a puppy, even if we didn't quite know all that would entail.  It's been tricky raising him in this situation since we don't have people over for him to get used to guests, and we don't go anywhere so he can get used to being alone.  But we will work on those things.  We've put in time and energy training him, and we will continue to do that so he can learn how to handle the world as we make the slow, gradual shift to more normalcy.  

At his core, Mousse is a sweet boy who wants to be loved and is extremely goofy.  He loves to play all the time and doesn't always know how to deal with his energy or his nervousness about his surroundings.  He's also very handsome and looks especially shiny on our artificial turf.  

Lizzy Update

 My friend Lizzy did great with her surgery today. I had a feeling she would but it was so awesome to hear that she was doing well, and she was even texting the group tonight about the bad hospital food.  She'll spend the night but be discharged tomorrow.  She has her own blog to keep people updated on her cancer journey.  I've been helping her by just proofreading her posts and altering them slightly for clarity.  She asked that I don't edited them too much because she wants to keep her authentic voice.  To be honest, that has been hard for me but I've honored her request.  Today I helped with updating her blog since she was busy with surgery.  It made me think about the fact I've been blogging for over 13 years.  That's kind of crazy!

Anyway, here's the link to Lizzy's blog: L is for Lobular (lizzyksmith.com)

Here's a picture of her with her husband before she left for the hospital this morning.

Team Lizzy

 I met my friend Lizzy seven years ago when she moved into the neighborhood and enrolled her middle daughter into Laurelwood preschool.  She came to the final preschool board meeting of that school year and because she was willing to pipe up a few times, I pegged her for my replacement as president.  I don't know what job she was supposed to do but with some serious downplaying of the role, I got her to agree to take the job.  All these years later, she likes to remind me how I bamboozled her into the job.  On the upside, I also brought her into the friend group and the rest is history.  We've spent holidays together and taken trips to Tahoe.  Of course COVID has complicated things and I haven't spent much time with her this past year.  There have been Zoom happy hour calls and plenty of texting, but it's not the same.  On February 2nd, she sent a text to the group that made my heart sink lower than low.  She just got diagnosed with breast cancer.  Oof.  Unfortunately, I have too many negative experiences with loved ones having cancer.  I'm confident this one will be different though.  She is young, healthy and has the best medical facilities practically in her backyard.  Things have moved quickly for her and she'll have surgery this Tuesday, March 2nd.  Tonight our friend group got on Zoom to laugh and chit chat and tell her we love her.  And we all wore our Team Lizzy shirts. 

Here's my crew posing in ours before the call. 

And here's my favorite picture of us together at the 80s party two years ago. 

Happy Birthday, Nana!

It's Nana's birthday today.  Fortunately, a COVID birthday celebration for her isn't too much different than her usual preferred birthday celebration.  

Here's the birthday girl after a delicious Thai lunch and a walk with her grandkids and granddog. 

I tried a new recipe - a buttermilk vanilla cake with a pour-over caramel icing.  

The results were pretty yummy. 

 

End of "ski week"

 This past week was mid-winter break from school, also known as "ski week".  This is the first time in nine years that my kids haven't spent at least part of the week skiing.  It made for a bit of a sad week honestly.  Both kids talked about how much they miss skiing and there was moping and boredom and bickering.  We tried to have some fun, but honestly, it's a challenge in our current situation.  I think it's also weighing on us that we are coming up on a year of having our world completely up-ended.  

Here are a few things we did to try to distract ourselves. 

Tom and Leo went mountain biking. 

The kids and I took Mousse on a hike to an off-leash open space so he could explore and play frisbee (his favorite). 

We made S'mores in our backyard chimenea. 

We went to the local park for some more frisbee. 

I did some baking with Mousse underfoot. 

Tomorrow it's back to our usual school routine, which means homeschooling for Serafina and logging into Zoom for Leo.