Monthly: August 2020 (& Pandemic Back-to-School)

 A few days of summer remained... we tried to enjoy them, but the fact that I was allowed back into my classroom, plus the pressure of limited time and long to-do lists, plus the smokey skies perhaps made these few weeks not quite what I'd envisioned. 

Alice enjoying a bowl of blackberries. 

The kids went camping in the mountains with the grandparents - and these were the pictures they sent  - ha! They had a GREAT time - and are ready to go back!

We spent a lovely Saturday morning in Boise getting the yummy treats - this kind of thing fills my bucket. 

I had been meaning to do upgrades in the kids room all summer and with time running out I was determined to finish Liam's since we had started this project (by getting a new bunk bed) months earlier. When we had moved in (8 years ago!) I painted his room gray, but the closet was still purple - first it was Cars themed and then Star Wars themed, but this year we had started switching it over to  a Chiefs / football theme. We had traded out his old bunk bed because it was kind of destroyed and it was just too low for a big kid to sit on the bottom bunk. The walls were all gross from little boy, so that was the main job - we did white and black. We also got him new bedding and moved his furniture around. But the best, was his Chiefs "feature wall". 

(The worst was Ripley walking through my paint pan...)

 Old room - click here to see what it looked like the last time we refreshed it.

 The new look:

Ignore the big sticker that I still can't get off of the bed post - this bunk looks so much more "big kid" than the last one - although, it's almost a little too big... it reminds me of a college dorm a bit. 

Todd and I took our last opportunity to have a babysitter and got out for an anniversary date!

One other small project I quickly finished in an afternoon was our bedroom... we had got this new chest of drawers and the bedside tables back in January/February? from an estate sale in Bakersfield that Jeran found for us. The furniture is SO lovely! We had been missing a drawer and some knobs until recently, so once it was done I was ready to finish the rest of the room.

It's very super simple, and I actually love it, it's very peaceful to me. 

There were LOTS of berries to pick in Papa's garden this year!

And, well, then ready-or-not it was the first day of school...

 This girl LOVED it - she had a great first week and was sad when it was over. 

This guy, also had a great first week / 2 days of school + 1 virtual day. The kids are all doing remote learning on Mondays, so thankfully Todd was able to work his schedule to get it off so he could stay with the kids, but Liam will be home 2 days for virtual school. So far it's going pretty well, he has a phone, so we can check in with him, and Todd is home at lunch and early afternoon. The only issue is when our internet cuts out!

This is how we all felt after the first week of school.

This is what I NEEDED after the first week of school.

Overall, I have a lot of feelings about being back teaching in person with Covid-limitations. I don't like it. I've cried a lot. I've felt sad, frustrated, overwhelmed a lot. There is a part of me that wishes we were doing all virtual, it feels like it would be easier, plus we would be able to be with the grandparents because we wouldn't have to risk their exposure with ours. But I'm also happy to be with the kids again, the students are obviously VERY happy to be back (for the most part) and I really am still sad I missed out on the end of the year with my last class. We have had no cases of Covid exposure in our school yet, so that makes me feel somewhat better about what we are doing right now. But I HATE that I can't give high-5s and hugs and build community and relationships like we used to. Everything feels a little (or a lot) impossible.

August 2020 Video (it's very short this month)