Quarantine Week 5, Computer School Week 1: It’s like patience training.

This past week I stopped every few days to jot down a paragraph or two of how quarantine was going for us. I had no idea it was going to be such a challenging week, thanks to the addition of virtual schooling. Our school only involves a little of the classroom videos. It is mostly, “Go to this website, click on the list, click on the links, do the problems. Take the quiz at the end. Create a brochure about it.” But with all four of them going at the same time, that is twenty-four classes I am overseeing at once, and it is a heart attack waiting to happen. I have been extremely dutiful in taking my beta blockers.

This week took me from restfully joyful to crying for help. I can be a lot dramatic.

Friday, April 10

We are enjoying our 3 day spring break. I let the boys go straight to video games this morning. They were required to eat, brush teeth, and do chores first. I mean, even we have standards. Then I dove into my baking. A friend’s precious one-year-old just got out of the hospital, so I wanted to send them a little food. That was a major prayer praise. So many of us have been praying for Parker for weeks, and I know her parents are emotionally stripped. Other than that, no big plans today except to work on healing my feet, getting some exercise, playing with the kids, and writing.

Monday, April 13th ……..Okay, I admit it. I love sheltering in place. This is fun to me.

I am still oddly enjoying the shelter in place situation. We are saving money and spending tons of time together. I have way more access to Alan than I normally do with him working at home, and all the stuff is cancelled. I find it very hard to muster up disappointment about everything being cancelled. That probably does not say good things about me. As a shy person in a new place, leaving the house is still intimidating, but those are part of my own issues. I use withdrawal to cope with stress. The coronavirus pandemic is feeding my coping strategy…which makes me far more mentally healthy at the moment than the poor, poor extroverts. However, eventually this will end, and I will be a little closer to where I was when I started out about a year ago at putting down new roots here.

We have some friends now though. We are going to be okay. I feel so optimistic. Of course, that may be because it is my boys’ three day spring break today, so I have virtual school management off my plate for a few days. That is Wednesday’s problem. We will worry about that on Wednesday and not until then!

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Romans 3:23-24ESV

Thursday, April 16th

Another day, another colossal meltdown. I have not handled this well. The children have been very good this year at our home school. They have not given me the problems that they did when they were younger. Instead, they genuinely care and want to do a good job.

My problem was learning how to use all the technology and help four people with that at once. There is a learning curve. It has been nothing short of an Olympic obstacle course. I get one boy signed into something and explain the directions, and before I am done, there is another boy, “Mom, I am finished. I have done everything. Can I play Minecraft now?”

Okay, only J.D. does that, but still. Usually I get halfway through explaining something, and then the screen disappears. Huh?? Where’d it go? I was going to show you…Grrrr

“Hey, Mom! What is it talking about ‘graphic organizer’? Do I have to do it? Where is it?”

I give up on finding the screen that disappeared and start all over to open a new document. Put in the username. Add in the password. Select this, select that. Now here we are again. Be very careful not to make a swipe motion on this computer because I don’t know how to use this new one, and I cannot figure out where it swipes it to…

We shelled out the big bucks to buy a new computer to get us through virtual school. It is a PC when I have been using MacBooks for nine years, so I am not as good at using it. In fact, I am so bad I cannot even find my email. There’s the whole Outlook thing.

“Mom! What does it mean? I don’t understand.” Another boy, another problem.

Most teachers post all the assignments on ItsLearning for us, but there are a few who use an off-site text book, and you have to know all those links and codes for that.

“Oh, yeah, let me check my email. She sent an email with the link. Where did I put my phone?”

“Daniel, why are you watching videos on YouTube about the nervous system? Did you even do your art? No? You know what, go ahead. That is a really good science video.”

Well, you get the idea.

I have hope though. Why? I have hope because we are learning how to use these programs, and you know what? You never have to do a thing for the first time more than once. This week is our first week. Next week is not. We will have a clue because of learning through experience, and we will be praying quarantine ends soon now along with all the extroverts. I was loving it when we didn’t have to do computer school. Now I am in the boat with the people ready to be done.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Sweet relief. Today was better. It was oh so much better. I put on mascara this morning, and I told Alan, who was probably on a phone call in my room, and I should not have been bothering him really, “I AM putting on this mascara because I am determined not to cry today.”

And I didn’t! Hurray! We even had one class that we could not get into, thanks to random technology weirdness. This particular teacher sent me the user help desk number to the platform company and said that my boy has to do this particular assignment. Haaaahahahaha! Yeah, I am going to spend my Friday talking to a tech company fully knowing it will probably work just fine tomorrow or even later today. Yeah, no. Missing one lesson of math is not worth the long phone call. Thanks. The website worked yesterday and the day before. It will work tomorrow.

Choosing to move on from petty problems when there are other problems to be dealt with of equal importance is a valuable skill. It’s like getting hung up on math question #5 when you have a test of 30 problems to solve. Not today, Pearson EasyBridge. I will deal with you another day.

Believe it or not, other than that one math lesson, all four boys managed to finish all their work. It would not have been quite so insurmountable if I had not made an error on my calendar. I have a tendency to think I have my calendar memorized.

“Oh, we get three days for spring break.”

No.

They actually had only Friday and Monday, so there was me on Wednesday, cramming four days of work into three. Haha! Oopsie…

And so quarantine week five ends. There were tears, and there were fits, and the children were a little stressed too. hehehe But it’s done. Week 5 of quarantine/week 1 of computer school is done, and there will never be a weekend I will be more grateful for than this one right here, even if it does rain all weekend.

Happy sheltering in place! I am off to make french toast.