Better

Thank you for the kind and encouraging words after my last post. Thursday and Friday were really hard days for me. Thankfully, I’m feeling better after the weekend.

I took some much needed breaks from work this weekend. I worked late on Friday and early on Saturday, but then took Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening off. I worked again Sunday night but it felt more manageable after the break.

At this point, I would absolutely change things up to make them easier on myself but I just don’t know how. I don’t know what to give my students except what I’m giving them, and what I’m giving them takes an incredible amount of time to create, push out, and then review. If someone handed me a magic goose that honked out something else I could use, I’d absolutely post those golden eggs all over my google classrooms, but I haven’t found a goose like that yet. I’m really struggling. I don’t know how to make this easier for myself.

It’s so hard to find the time to get everything done, while also helping my own children do their work. I’m basically working on my own stuff, or helping them with theirs, for 90% of my waking hours. It’s not sustainable. Thank goodness we only have eight or nine weeks left of the school year, and my kids have one or two fewer.

This weekend was very much appreciated. We hit up the Great Highway again (third time for me in six days). This time we did the beach, at my daughter’s request.

It was a beautiful day and we stayed on the sand for over an hour. Then, to my surprised, they rallied to scooter too. We went eight blocks total and the kids had a great time!

We also visited the duck pond that has become a weekly ritual, but this time there was a turtle. We got a video of it jumping back into the water, which thrilled the kids.

On Sunday my kids played MarioKart against my sister and her boyfriend in London. They have been wanting to do that forever and were so stoked to finally get the chance.

Then we went down to my parents’ backyard to try out their newly refurbished hot tub. My husband would have preferred we didn’t go, but he didn’t stop me. It’s hard because we frequently have different of ideas of what is appropriate right now – he will not leave our house for weeks at a time, but that would make me go crazy. So I do most of the shopping, and I take the kids out and he stays home. I know the visit was not essential, but we managed ourselves in a way I believe was safe. We follow the shelter-in-place guidelines pretty rigidly, but we also take advantage of special occasions when we can. (My husband parrots the “is it really essential?” line all the time, except when I’m getting stuff for the backyard, which is a project he cares about, so I remind him that we’re all blurring the lines when we it serves our purposes.)

{I’ve been reading a lot of articles about how this won’t end, really, ever, and instead we need to change our mindset to reflect the fact that we’ll be living with this virus, and varying levels of restriction, for years. I think it’s appropriate to start finding ways to make what will likely be many more months of intense restrictions more sustainable both mentally and physically.}

I also got to go on a quick run while my kids were in the hot tub (my mom watched them from a chair) and I saw this llama getting it’s own afternoon stroll.

On the way home from my parents, we stopped at the nearby junior college and rode bikes in the empty parking lot. The kids thought it was awesome to have the entire parking lot all to themselves, and we stayed for over an hour.

It really was a nice weekend. My period is finally over and between the hormone shift, the time away from work, and the time outside, I’m feeling a lot better. (I’m also just not letting myself think about the next school year, at all.)

How was your weekend?