It’s week 2 of learning from home!!! That means we did it parents! We made it through our first week of online learning at home..or as I read someone else call it last night, Crisis Learning. I don’t know about you, but I looked last night and there are for sure some new gray hairs. Not even kidding.
Maybe your week looked like mine:
Monday: I got all set up in my bedroom. Locked the door so the kids would hopefully get a clue (HA) and then made my very first call to a parent. Shep tried to open the door but realized it was locked and said “Here hold my milk” and walked through the laundry room, into my closet, then into the bathroom, which is connected to my bedroom. I got one sentence out before I heard “MOM! I. WANT. MORE. MIIILLLLLKKKK.” “Oh I am so sorry. That is my 2 year old. I apologize. Anyways, I just wanted to check if….” “MOM, MILK!!!!!!!!!” I gave him the best evil eye that I could, which produced what I think was his first eye roll ever. He walked away though...WHEW! I got in about a minute conversation before I heard “MOM! HELP ME! MOM!!!” He decided since I was going to ignore his plea for milk that he would show me by climbing the shelves in my closet and getting himself stuck up on the top shelf. There were tears. Most were my tears that day. At one point I told the big boys that learning would happen tomorrow and that I just needed them to read today. Boy were they happy! Ha
Tuesday: While I was talking to a mom on the phone Shep came up demanding marshmallows. It was like he knew that my normal answer would be no so he waited till I would be willing to do anything to get him to go away. It worked. I opened the bag and handed them right over. He won. But I won also….I mean I thought I did till the parent was mid sentence, when a blood curdling scream came from about 15 feet away from me. “OH MY,” she said. You would have thought that a copperhead had slithered up and bit Cambric. No. No. I ran out the front door to get away from it all. When I later went back to check what happened, Cambric had no recollection of screaming at all. All he can remember was Aslan taking the basketball from him. Sweet darlings.
Wednesday: Everything was going beautifully….I mean compared to the day before. We got caught up on schoolwork that we neglected the last 2 days and I felt like I could finally breathe. Once again, Shep said “Hey you aren’t allowed to feel rested. Let me fix that for you.” He has this new thing since we potty trained him, where if it’s before about 2am and he needs to pee, he will wake up and sob until we guess that he needs to pee. I mean I’m really glad he is such a big boy and he’s not wanting to pee in his pull up but my goodness it would really help a girl out if he would just pee in the stinking pull up...especially when I’m dead asleep. So at 11:45pm on Wednesday he gets up out of bed demanding to go pee. I take him into my bathroom and he starts crying saying he can’t pee in that toilet. As I’m trying to sit him down on it, his nails are digging into my shoulder and his legs were wrapped so tightly around me that I wondered when he had been getting in so many leg day workouts. I set him down on the ground and told him I thought he needed to pee. He said “I not pee in there. My coins are in there.” Sure enough. There’s all his 15 pennies from his piggy bank. At this point I just started laughing. Cambric had fallen asleep on the couch earlier (we’re winning at parenthood currently) and was now awake to find out what all the craziness was about. Troy was a genius and went and got a long magnet to get them out with. He was getting so frustrated that it wasn’t working until Cambric said “So you know that coins aren’t magnetic right?” Sleep was obviously needed at this point. Finally we got a wire hanger and I slowly pulled one out at a time, while Troy, Shep, and Cambric cheered me on from behind.
Thursday: I took a work call outside and Shep followed me. I was cool with it because he grabbed his scooter and I could walk and talk. Every once in a while he would start to get ahead of me so I would tell him to turn around and he would...until he didn’t. I came to the realization while talking about textbooks that I was going to need to chase him down the sidewalk barefoot. As I ran at full speed to catch up, I couldn’t help but think about how I wish I would have opted for support instead of comfort that morning while dressing...especially as I was running past this sweet mama and her little girl writing encouraging messages on the sidewalk with chalk. “Hi there. I’m your neighbor down there on the corner.” As soon as I caught up to Shep, he turned and realized I was right behind him and darted off the scooter and started running in the street. Like listen, right now I just want to make sure we don’t get the virus. Can we put on hold ALL other activities that would end us up in the hospital? Thanks friend.
As I marched back down the street with my telephone still on my ear, scooter in one arm, and 2 year old in the other, I couldn’t help but wonder why everyone is posting about gaining weight during this time. Based on the sweat that was pouring from my face and armpits, I have lots of hope others don’t obviously. I frustratingly got off the phone and demanded all the boys get in the house. The big boys had been standing in front of the house thinking it was all HILARIOUS. I made sure Shep got in the house from the garage entry first while the big boys straggled behind. I quickly heard a sweet but loud “BYE BYE” and the sound of the front door. I took off running to grab him while yelling “NO!” He cared a lot. He giggled all the way into the street. I grabbed him and headed back to the front door...where Cambric closed the door on me and locked it. Troy took over from there. Again, I have high hopes for the weight that is going to be lost….while I sit here eating cinnamon banana bread with butter all over it.
Friday: While working outside in the beautiful weather, I looked over to see Aslan had taught Shep how to climb the fence and they were just hanging out and yelling at the neighbors. I allowed it. I mean I remember climbing fences too as a kid...although I was probably a bit older than Shep. ha
So ya...this last week was interesting. But can I tell you something? It was such a good week. We laughed so much. We took lunch breaks and went for walks during the day. I cooked dinner and didn’t feel the anxious feeling of having to hurry to get everyone fed and in bed. I didn’t scold myself when they didn’t meet their regular bedtime. We watched lots of movies together while eating popcorn. We danced and sang a lot. We did drivebys to see family. I got to snuggle Shep to sleep when he needed a nap. Jumping on the trampoline became a daily thing… and after the first few days, Cambric stopped asking me if I was going to pee myself. Hardy har har kid.
Things look ridiculously different at the moment. I would rather be teaching my students in person than posting things online and speaking to parents rather than their children. I looked at my calendar for the month of April and teared up. I wanted to have a birthday party for Shep.I imagined having an egg hunt party with his little friends and cousins. And Easter is my FAVORITE holiday. There won’t be the excitement of welcoming new people walking into church this year.There won’t be an adult egg hunt between me and my brothers where I become a sore loser when they get more money than me. It’s just going to be different. But I can’t help but be thankful for this time we have to slow down. I can’t not be thankful for the memories I am making with my boys right now. It feels odd to be thankful for something that is due to something that is life taking and scary. But I refuse to only see the bad in all this. I will daily set my eyes on the good because I know there is more for me than there is against me!
I know there are many of you who still hear all that and you are overwhelmed and restless and just flat out having a hard time seeing anything good in this. I GET IT! Did you read the first two- thirds of this? I hear you. The only thing I can think to tell you is something I heard this morning while we were listening to a sermon. Sometimes when we see the least, God is doing the most. There are better days to come.
Until the next tale…
P.S. Instead of wearing matching outfits to Easter service, can each family wear coordinating pajamas and post our family pictures in them? It would really help my heart deal with this. ;)
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