How is year 2 of the COVID going for everyone so far?

Anyone else still virtual schooling? I know almost everyone in our area is. There are days I wish I had jumped on the private school bandwagon fast enough to get one of those spots. However, other days I remind myself I need to try to enjoy this extra time I have been gifted with my children.

Sometimes the boys’ character flaws cause extra stress, things like not turning on the camera when they know they are supposed to or just giving up instead of asking for help. ….Or partying in the kitchen because they see a brother having recess when they in fact should be sitting in class.

The non-synchronous recesses are an actual problem in a house of four different kids with four different schedules.

But other times it is just my own character flaws: impatience, laziness, refusing to take a computer class in college….etc, causing my own problems.

You’ve all heard enough of me whining about the struggle. Today I want to document a day to remember this experience by.

7:00 Hit snooze. Chastise Midnight April for reading the internet last night instead of going to sleep. Since when do you follow politics? Vow to go to sleep earlier tonight.

7:30 Stumble out of bed and wake the oldest boys.

7:45 Arrive downstairs for coffee. Microwave it because I slept so late.

7:50 Stare out the window and drink coffee. Relish in the silence.

8:00 Check some apps on my phone. Scold self for wasting time on the phone when I could be reading my Bible and praying for the day ahead.

8:10 Read Bible and pray.

8:40 Feed Daniel and JD breakfast. Today was pancakes: Wegman’s frozen pancakes with Log Cabin syrup. We are not fancy.

Make my to do list for the day.

9:00 Realize boys are running late for class. Boot up and sign on to their computers for them. Sleeping late is a domino effect of this sort of thing.

9:00 All boys are in class. Phew. Remind them to turn on their cameras.

Go upstairs to get dressed. Alan is in my room on a virtual meeting with like 100 people at the Pentagon. He has a stand up desk using the top of my dresser. Make sure his camera is off before I get dressed. Ha! 2021 problems.

Put in earrings which makes me feel better about myself.

Spot my nail stickers on the counter. Hope to find time to fix my nails later. It has been about a year since I have found time to do that.

Carry the laundry hamper downstairs.

9:20 Come downstairs and do the dishes.

9:25 Help JD figure out the special instructions for reading class today because his teacher is in a meeting and can’t be in class. Check email to find the instructions. Help JD find the worksheet and a sharpened pencil, glue stick, and scissors. He so rarely uses the glue and scissors.

9:35 Try to figure out what Daniel is doing. Help Daniel with username and password for social studies activity. Make him turn his camera on. Feel accomplished and happy that we did that successfully today.

9:47 Head down to laundry room to start the day’s laundry. I pretty much have to wash one or two loads a day. Yesterday was sheets day, so I am finishing up that.

Fold fitted sheets. Seriously consider making a How to Fold a fitted sheet video. Maybe one day. Alan’s Aunt Janet taught me how to do it. I’m still not as good as she, but I do all right.

10:15 Check on everyone. Check things off on my to do list. Make sure everyone has everything they need so I can leave the house for 17 minutes for a walk.

Call Rosie. Huh, she didn’t come.

Call Rosie again. I hear her scratching. That means she is in someone’s room and is waiting to be let out to run to me. So cute. Alan lets her out of our room, and she comes bounding excitedly down the stairs.

I heard it was cold and windy today, so I put a sweater on the dog, plenty of winter gear on myself, and we head out.

10:23 Short walk. What a life giving ritual. So glad I made the time to do that.

10:40 Check on everyone again. Start the robo-vacuum in the living room.

Sit down to work on the blog. Check Facebook instead.

Suddenly, everyone in the house is up and hanging around me. Some are on break, and others are not. Alan is eating lunch and talking to everyone. He tries to help Daniel with a music assignment which was hilarious. Daniel finishes on his own, and then I helped him upload and submit his work.

I hear John David answering a subtraction question in math class. Very happy with how well he is paying attention in class today.

Clean the hair out of the robot vacuum cleaner so it will get back to work.

11:15 Cycle the laundry. Find a boy not taking notes during a math lesson, and make him take notes.

11:20 Haul a Christmas bin upstairs and begin taking down decorations. Clean out the robot vac again. It cannot handle the rugs.

11:35 Help JD photograph and submit his math quiz.

11:40 Make peanut butter sandwiches and Ramen noodles for lunch. I told you we are not fancy, but in my defense, I did serve them turkey, strawberries, and crackers yesterday. We do try to cover the food groups.

Get hair off the robot vac brushes again. Gracious, this thing. Two long red hairs and some black thread and it just can’t possibly go on.

12:00 Do more Christmas un-decorating. Find Daniel’s Halloween pillowcase full of candy in the corner of the office. Dig out a couple of pieces, and rake the rest of it into the trashcan. Feel impressed that one or two of my children actually refrained from eating all of his candy. I never could.

Loose strands of plastic garland are everywhere. The whole house will need to be cleaned up from the Christmas clean up.

12:15 Talk a child into trying Ramen noodles again. Hurray! He ate them!

12:30 My Lunch: Greek yogurt and kettle chips while I read the book I am almost finished with. I love this book. Fascinating!

1:05 Realize I’m five minutes late. Oops! Head downstairs to make sure everyone is in class. Make them sit up and listen, etc., again.

Make Daniel another bowl of Ramen noodles.

Watch in dismay as JD runs free style science projects because he has a few spare minutes…

1:25 Clean up all the lunch dishes. Restart the robo-vac again.

1:35 Work on laundry. Take down another bin full of Christmas decorations. Have the boys carry the bins down to the basement.

2:00 Help JD with a library quiz. Trap the robo-vac into a corner and beg it to clean it.

2:10 Help Daniel with math.

2:15 Drink a mini coke. Log JD into writing class. Sharpen 10 pencils.

2:30 Sit down and work on blog. Resist the urge to take a stress nap because energy just left the building.

250 Help JD submit more work. Desperately wish to collapse on sofa. I have not been sleeping well lately, which is unusual for me. Then remember I promised Caleb I would take him to Target

3:30 Headed to Target with Caleb so he can buy the Millenium Falcon Lego set with his Christmas money. Pick up a few groceries too. Wander around in there a little because I love that place.

4:45 Pick up Burger King on the way home. Oh well, nutrition took a hit today. There is always tomorrow.

5:15 Read emails from teachers. Print out work for the next day. Have kids find missing assignments.

6:30 Lose all track of taking notes for the “day in the life.” This was only a few days ago, but I cannot remember anything else that happened.

Daniel and I finished reading The Prince and the Pauper together this week.

But that’s the basic gyst of what the days look like. Of course, each day is a little different.

I go back and forth between being thankful for the extra time we all have together, and yearning for more head space. It is hard to find a spare minute alone with this current schedule, but then that is how I lived for ages, birthing four kids in seven years.

Oh, and by the way, I finally gave up on the robot vacuum cleaner. My new upright man-powered vacuum works much better, though I do have to power it myself.

Are your days anything like this? It is fun to me to hear about the different ways people are doing virtual school or home school. We would love to read about your experiences in the comments below.

The post A Day in the Life of a Virtual School Mom appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

A month ago, COVID case numbers were down, and they announced that we would gradually start sending the children back to school. The funny part is that it was only for one day a week anyway. Around half the county signed up for this, and the other half elected to just stay full time virtual.

Wow! There were so many people who were not so terribly desperate for a quiet day that they actually chose to stay full virtual. All people are different, y’all. We really are, and that is okay.

Me, I was disappointed to hear it was only for a day because I have always thought of home schooling as a nightmare, and I do not like feeling this overwhelmed.

I will take what I can get, so I signed the boys up for the their one day/week.

Our second grader went back three weeks ago, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He hates virtual school. This child was made for running wild through open fields, digging holes, and showing off all that he knows. It is hard to do any of those things while doing school on a computer. He is free-spirited and uninhibited. I admire his spirit. That was never me. I was much more uptight.

I wrote all about the hilarity that is our second grader doing virtual school here. He is actually quite adorable.

Our fourth grader began his one day of in-person school just this week. He got to go ONE day and reported that it was WAY better than virtual school. Then the announcement came that night.

The Announcement

This week our county announced a return to full virtual school. Even the children enrolled in learning centers were sent home. All hybrid hopes are over.

I am surprisingly okay.

Something has happened in the last couple of weeks in my spirit. I believe it is called acceptance. Kicking against the goads has been my default. Things are not how I want them to be. Who wants a world like this, filtered through a mask, isolated in our little huts?

But these are the cards we are dealt. These are the years, yes years apparently, we spend with our kids full time at home. Rooms are less tidy. Social calendars are emptier, and yes, sometimes it is lonely.

Keeping little boys paying attention to a computer teacher is sort of a joke.

I am so done constantly fighting against that. Actually, I will not be done for a while, but internally I very much WANT to be done. It seems like when I go off to other rooms and leave them alone with their computer screens, they actually get more done and listen BETTER than when I am in the room with them. If I am with them, they feel the need to keep me involved, ask me for snacks, and tell me stories.

Good news: It looks chaotic, but learning is actually going on just fine.

I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day while I cooked lunch. Daniel had asked me to make baked potato soup that day. Normally, I do not talk on the phone during school hours because it is too distracting for all three boys who do school downstairs, but that day I did it anyway.

Daniel was beside me, peeling baked potatoes. John David was trekking in and out to show me the story he was writing. Caleb strolled by to show me his latest drawing and say hello to Nana.

I joked to my mom, “As you can see, they are all working very hard at their school work.”

Mom and I got a good laugh out of that. Were the boys all at recess? I mean I hope so, but I am not totally sure. They are usually on task, but we do still have all of these interactions like this during the day. It feels very much like a home school situation. There are home school programs you can do where the kids have teachers teach them on videos, just like this.

The boys are getting time here to explore their interests. Caleb would be drawing in class whether he is at school or at home, but Daniel would not be squeezing in extra cooking time. This is a bonus. John David probably would not have extra writing time either.

The virtual schooling has also helped me make peace with Alan remaining in the Army.

Remaining an Army family is another life circumstance that my spirit has bristled against. There is this deep longing in me to gather up our family and worldly goods and move to a nice piece of land in Alabama. I have written about that many times this year.

Several things about being in our nineteenth year of military service have bothered me. First and foremost is watching our older children be so strongly affected by changing schools over and over again. Our high schooler is now on his FOURTH school in FOUR years. That is ridiculous. We are not talking about moving every FEW years. No, this is far more drastic than that. He has changed schools four years in a row.

Stressful does not even begin to describe it, and I have guilt!

But wait. With half of the country thrown into virtual school with no options, it has ushered in the idea of another path. Our teenager says he rather likes virtual school. Tennis has kept him active and interacting with the world, and with church starting back, I am hoping that will too.

I suppose we actually could move teenagers during high school if they opt for a home/virtual school type option. That might be far less stressful for them.

Plus, my oldest son does not need my supervision the way the younger boys do. It is not a drain on me at all. Home and virtual schooling feels much easier to me with older children than it did with little ones.

But these younger two, aughhhh!!! At the moment they are literally chasing each other around the house, and I can still see a second grade math class going on in the living room.

Okay. I got both little rowdy buddies back in their virtual classes. Ugh. How I love my new role of “hall monitor.” (Not.) ….And now I am a math tutor….for common core…..

Today I have peace though. Acceptance has occurred.

This is our lot, and it is not so bad. Yes, it is busy, and I will have no energy left by three or five, depending on the day. I am okay though. No one is coming over– it is a pandemic. So the house needs to be clean, but not necessarily decluttered.

There will always be a list full of things to do, but isn’t that a good thing? That makes me feel useful and fulfilled. God has given us purpose here, a whole ton of purpose.

We are going to make the best of this.

What else can we do? This is the lot that God has given us for 2020/2021, and we will graze in this pasture and feed on this soil. We are in the palm of God’s good hands.

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”

Ezekiel 34:15-16

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

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The post Accepting Life As It Is While Maryland Returns to Full Virtual School appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Probably every parent still stuck in the virtual school nightmare with multiple children can relate to the feeling of helplessness as you watch your children have the lowest grades of their lives. What in the world happened to the leniency of the spring? It is gone. The motto is “sink or swim” now. If you cannot figure it out and get it in on time, here is your zero. The middle and high school no longer accepts late work.

When your work is not handed in on time, you get an NHI.

That stands for “Not Handed In,” and for middle and high school that is a zero here, of course. Elementary school is nicer. That just means a 50 for them.

This lady right here is sunk. Sunk hard. I am at the bottom of the ocean with the nastiest of the creatures and those sharks that hide in the sand.

Some of the NHIs are from technical problems. Others are from forgetfulness or not wanting to make a video. Many of these assignments were finished and sitting on their desk, but they never uploaded them. It is so frustrating because in person there is so much less of this problem.

Why do I take their grades so personally? They feel like my grades, and I was an extremely serious student.

No, I cannot check behind eighteen classes per day. I mean I could, but then no one would get to eat or wear clean clothes.

So in the midst of my depressed state, I turned to my daily Bible reading for comfort. Only the thing is I am currently reading in Jeremiah! Ha!

That does not feel super comforting. Jeremiah’s job is to warn the Israelites to turn back to God and away from worshipping idols before he gives their country away to others. They did not listen, and in came the Babylonians and the Chaldeans.

Then after all these terrible things happened to Judah, and even the governor that Babylon had left behind for them was murdered, things still managed to get worse. The people asked Jeremiah to ask God what they should do next, all those poorest of Hebrews, left behind. They promised they would DEFINITELY do whatever God said this time.

So Jeremiah went and prayed. It took ten days before he heard an answer from God. Have you ever been there? Asking for answers, and you wait and wait before answers arrive?

Finally, God tells Jeremiah that the people are to stay in Judah, and he will take care of them. He warned them not to take off for Egypt looking for safety because safety would not be found.

And what did the people do? Well, they took off for Egypt and dragged poor Jeremiah with them.

What a downer!!! That was my reading today.

It all feels a little like the sadness I already felt. Except for one thing: there is HOPE in there too. If they had just done what they said they would, none of these problems would have happened. So many if onlys! Those if-onlys are not so hopeful though.

We are dealing with if-only here at our virtual school, especially “If only you had made those jump rope videos, your P.E. grade would be better.”

“If only I could fix this!”

But you know what? I cannot always fix everything in this house. Jeremiah could not fix the Israelites. Past mistakes cannot always be changed. What we have is this day. We have this moment and our next assignments.

A teacher of ours had a good suggestion.

She recommended letting him earn increments of time on his xbox games and devices. For each graded assignment, he earns 15 minutes.

Mrs. P

Some kids do not need this, but others do. This sounds like a surprisingly great idea. I judge myself for not thinking of it. Ha! It could work!! But I will still have to check behind him for that. I must insist he comes to me with it though.

To be honest, after fifteen years of parenting, this does not fill me with any false sense of high hopes.

Will this work perfectly? No. There is no perfection in a family of six. Haaaa!!!

The one child will have to come show me all the work he submitted each day, and the others will not because they have earned more freedom.

Yet, it feels good to have some sort of plan in place, you know? It feels slightly less like sinking, and more like reaching for a floatation device slightly out of reach as you struggle to maybe float back up to the surface! Ha! We may reach it, but we probably will not, honestly. But by golly we are certainly going to reach for it!!!

P.S. About that Jeremiah story…

Eventually, God did bring the Israelites back to their land. And eventually, God will end this trial too. 2020 is going to stretch right in to 2021 with more virtual school for us. In the meantime, we will grow, and one day, it will be over.

“Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.”

Ezekiel 11: 16

God is a refuge for us in the present day too.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Jesus in Luke 12:22-25

The post A Brilliant Way to Eliminate NHIs (Not handed ins) appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Since all people and family situations are unique, all of our virtual school experiences are also somewhat different. This is how it goes down at our house. If I did not constantly check on, like borderline harass, my fourth and second graders, one would only get a fraction of his work done, one would not even watch his classes, and I would get phone calls from teachers. Oh wait. I tried my best to stay on top of them, and I still get emails and phone calls.

It can be quite hilarious. For funny stories from week one, click here.

10 Things We Learned in Virtual School this Week:

#1. Did you know you aren’t supposed to have swords or Nerf guns in virtual classes?

Obviously. I promise we told him that, but he did it anyway when we weren’t in the room. He could not understand why he could not hop around the living room with his weapons while the teacher was talking…. We had to move the entire “toy weapons bin” to the basement. I replaced said weapons with a box of super hero action figures, which he has played with all day long.

Friends, actually, be SUPER careful about this. An innocent kid in Colorado was basically arrested for doing this same thing John David did. That is one of those news stories that is so ridiculous it is maddening.

#2. My younger two could use a parent sitting by them all day long.

We need to help them make it to all the links they are sent to, keep them on track, and explain to them what they are supposed to be doing. The older two boys are mostly fine, though they occasionally need technical or algebra support.

I cannot actually be in three places at once, so we just have to let things fall where they may. Sometimes, a kid misses a deadline honestly. We fix that as it comes to our attention. All of the time, I have to walk around the house cringing over how bad it needs to be swept and dusted, but there’s no time. I mean sure, I can find time to sit down and look at my phone at night, but time to clean is just gone…

#3. If you think class is boring, you can just wrap up Creeper in a blanket, put your shorts on his head, and stick him in your seat, while you go chill on the sofa.

This way your teacher will think you are still listening! Brilliant!

#4. It turns out that even after going all the way through Calculus in high school and in college, I am useless as an algebra helper.

Scratch that. I do know how to reference a textbook or Google to help with classwork, but it will take me a solid few minutes to dig up what a function, range, and domain are exactly. I remember precious little.

#5. At least three of us now know how to take a webcam photo with the new non-Apple computers.

Eventually, we will also figure that out for the Chromebooks.

#6. What you actually need to survive second grade online is a ginormous stuffed Creeper.

You can buy them at Target stores. Some of you may not know Creeper. He is a type of being in Minecraft. Creepers can explode. This particular one poops explosives I am told.

Our Creeper can be a wrestling opponent, pillow, and your twin! He is so multi-functional!

#7. You have to scroll down to find and check the “Agree to terms” box in order for that big green sign-up button to work.

No, I surely did not spend 10 minutes trying every single different way to sign up before finally listening to the teacher answer a student’s questions before figuring this out. Her box was larger and did not seem to require scrolling. This all happened over the course of two days. Yeah. Two days we worked on this.

And there are some other things I still won’t sign in to because a person can only figure out so many usernames and passwords. Y’all, there is a limit!!

#8. Tennis has very specific postures that you use when you play, not just ways you hold your racket but also how you are supposed to stand.

File this under “things I learned while watching my son’s tennis lessons when my internet wasn’t working.”

#9. Storyboardthat.com is a really cool site for building illustrated stories!

I could spend a good amount of time on there! It looks fun. Daniel did the one above. It was the second board of his story on Pacific Northwest Native Americans.

#10. There is no ideal method for educating four children, all different ages.

….But dropping them off at school came pretty close to ideal for me!! Haaaa!!! Go away, Rona.

The post 10 New Things We Learned in Virtual School Week 2 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We are now on our third day of virtual school. There are four scholars in our house, and the youngest is a second grader. Do you want to know what it’s really like? It is actually quite hilarious.

I cannot even imagine what it must look like in kindergarten or first grade! How are teachers and parents doing this???

In order to maintain a healthy mind, you have to approach the whole thing with a gigantic sense of humor and absurdly low expectations. I am telling you. It is the only way we will survive it. You have to find the humor.

Things I Said This Week:

“No no no, you are not hiding under the table. If you were in school in person, they would see your face there too. You will be fine. Get in your seat.”

Thankfully, the hiding under his desk behavior only happened that first morning..

“JD, you can’t just go into the kitchen to eat snacks during class. Put that down and get back over there.”

“Augh!! JD, go put a shirt on! Quick Oh my gosh!!”

“JD, why aren’t you over here in your seat? Your class is still going on. You can pet the dog later.”

“You know they can see you, right?”

“That distracting, JD. Sit still and listen, just like in real school.”

“JD! Put the Creeper down. You are being so distracting. John David! Cut it out!”

“Why are all the grandparents on the screen asking questions? What site are you supposed to be going to? Do you know how? I don’t either. Here, move over. Okay, just go play with Daniel. I will call you when I figure this out.”

Watching the virtual 2nd grade classroom is equally amusing.

Many of the kids are being kept and helped by their grandparents. As you can imagine, they are not used to using this technology either. So you see all these sweet heads of white hair pop into the screen.

“I don’t see that link. I only see boxes.”

“Her mom only gave me the one link to use, and we just use that. If you want her to use something else, can you please send that link to her mother?”

The kids without a helper, including JD sometimes, just sit there and look at the screen like, “Eh, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Where’s my blanket?”

Kids in the class say, “I don’t see that on my screen”

“What are we supposed to be doing?”

And of course, my personal favorite…

“When is this class over?”

“After this class is over, are we done for the day?”

Y’all! Second grade is hilarious. I hope the school’s hopes aren’t up too high for *accomplishing things*. Ha!

Now this is just the funny parts.

Transitioning to virtual school has truly been a huge challenge with all their different computers, personalities, classes, and schedules. The third day of school is actually the FIRST day that zero tears were shed. But don’t worry. The boys are fine. All tears were my tears. I reserve my right to be an overwhelmed cryer…

We are going to make it, y’all, and we would love to hear your funny virtual school stories too. I know you got ’em! Share your own stories with us in the comment section below!

Oh! Let me tell you what just happened. Ha!!!

I stopped by the office desk to check on our fourth grader. He was laying down in his desk chair with his computer screen facing the CEILING. So I walked in and said, “Oh my gosh!!! What are you doin’??”

Then I pointed the computer screen right at him and made him sit up. Daniel was a little embarrassed, but he grinned sheepishly and said, “My mic was not muted. They all saw that and are laughing at me.” He knew he was wrong anyway. We moved him over to a softer place to sit on the sofa, and he got back on track.

Pssst! If you are even doing part time virtual or home school this year, you are welcome to join our support group on Facebook! You can find that here. We’d love to have you! I hope you are all able to find the humor this week too.

The post 2nd Grade Virtual School: What It’s Really Like appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

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Do any of you ever feel so subconsciously overwhelmed that you just feel like doing nothing?

This week I definitely did not do “absolutely nothing.” In fact, I picked up all the boys’ school-issued materials for virtual school, set up and then re-set up work areas, and figured out how to work these new Chromebooks. That was a lot of things that I DID accomplish.

But it didn’t feel like I was getting so much stuff done, even though I was. I had so little energy most of the time.

And this morning, now that all the obvious things are done, I find myself wanting to seriously do absolutely nothing at all. My head feels sleepy, though I am not sleep deprived. There is almost zero energy in me, and I cannot think of any reasonable explanation for feeling so bleh.

My best guess is that my mind is more stressed than I realize, so my body is acting tired. Have any of you felt that lately?

Another monumental life change is charging towards our house like a bull charging towards a matador. Virtual School!!! I am over here feeling like I am standing with the red cape, bracing for impact, because no way do I actually know how to manage this bull…

Only the funny thing is we are all more prepared than we think we are. We did a bigger version of this back in the spring. Back then, there were no live classes, but we had to coach our children through their assigned tasks.

See, it is important to think these positive kind of thoughts because the fact is that I am sure there will be days when none of this goes right, and we NEED to scream.

This morning I was watching my husband out in the backyard, weed-eating, trimming shrubs, and coaching the boys through the lawn mowing. I thought, “He isn’t sitting on the sofa reading the same posts on Facebook over and over again. Where does he find this energy? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I feel like that?”

Comparing yourself to others is always a terrible idea.

Yes, Alan scaled mountains this morning and had 12,000 steps logged by 11 am. He is not facing the enormous changes the rest of us are here this week. Yes, the boys are his kids too, but during virtual school, Alan does not even know what website they go to to log in each day. Nor does he already have the attendance start times memorized for each boy, along with their teachers’ names. I do not say this to knock Alan. We have equally important roles, but we don’t both try to do all the same things. That would be counterproductive.

Alan will be spending the first day of school working hard in our master bedroom-turned-home office. He makes enough money for both of us, and we need that. Team work makes the dream work. This week matters to Alan, but he is not the matador in the virtual school situation. He has different bulls to worry about, though he does support me in my bull-managing role as well.

I take comfort in the fact that back when Alan was facing returning to work after our two-week vacation, he too was sitting on the sofa all day, playing his Township app.

I’m telling you, doing nothing is a natural human response when facing a large, dreaded task.

Don’t feel bad if you find yourself playing seemingly useless apps or sitting on your porch staring at your flowers. This is how we cope! Letting your mind have time to think, process, and prepare is a very healthy thing to do.

There are actual research studies that support the health benefits of doing nothing, but I was too tired to read very much of them. haaaa! But you can read all about it here at Ivy Exec or here at Elle magazine.

I thought Pooh’s words said it well enough.

You guys take the time to enjoy your Labor Day weekend! The week with all of its demands will be waiting for us on Tuesday, and we will handle that then. Happy Labor Day, friends!

We are all going to find a way to make this work, and when things get rough, we will pray! I never cease to be amazed with how quickly God answers my prayers.

If you haven’t joined our Virtual School and Newbies’ Home School Support Group on Facebook , be sure to join us! It is called Schooling at Home. We are a safe place to talk about this new reality of education that we are all facing together, and we’d love to have you pull up a seat at our table.

The post It’s Okay to Do Absolutely Nothing When Facing Big Changes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We are exactly eight days out from our first day of virtual school.

How do I feel about that? Mostly on edge and nervous again. Surprise, surprise. When I feel anxiety about an upcoming event, I get super edgy, as in I actually feel sorry for my family members.

This morning I set my phone alarm clock for the first time since last March or April. Since we are only a week out, we DO have to get back in the habit of getting out of bed on time. I sure will miss those lazier days of summer.

Hmmm.. getting up early today… maybe that’s another reason I am grumpy…

After I walked the dog this morning and had breakfast with the boys, I had a glorious half hour that was delightfully chill. Daniel, J.D., and I went to the backyard and hung out quietly. They swung, and I pushed them. The whole time I kept thinking, “Man, I love this. This is so nice.” Taking the boys in the backyard has been some of my best moments over the past fourteen years. It is the best part of parenthood.

Stress was nowhere in sight out there.

Our only worry was who could swing highest, and they were not actually concerned about that. Each swing seems to pretty much have the same limit.

I did not even realize I was on edge about school starting back because out there in the yard, we were quite content. When I first gave J.D. his good high pushes on the disc swing, he said, “Oh! This is giving me anxiety. OH, anxiety!”

Hearing a seven-year-old talking about anxiety was kind of funny, but I know he hears that from me.

Today is the day I take our very first high schooler to pick up his books. We sat down and carefully planned when to go. Our goal is to go when it is least crowded.

I did not realize my own anxiety was building up until I started facing tech issues with the Nintendo Switch and my blog. Computer issues give me feelings of frustration like nothing else can. Driving? I’m good. I seriously never get road rage. Children? They can be frustrating when they aren’t listening, but I can mostly deal.

But a computer telling me for the third time my password is wrong, when it was right five minutes ago? Code displaying as code instead of text on my website for no apparent reason? I have zero patience for these things. It is in those moments I would love to just go full Dude Perfect Rage Monster and start smashin’ stuff. Was there any scene more relatable than that Office movie scene where they take the printer out and start beating it with sticks?

You will all be happy to know I did not damage any electronic devices today, no matter how much I wanted to do so.

Instead, I decided to sit down and write about how apparently anxious I am feeling about returning to virtual school. In the spring, I still controlled the schedule for the day. This year is not that way. The boys have times appointed to log in to their classes and a lunch hour, a very specific lunch hour. In fact, I am officially their lunch lady. As it turns out, the school system has decided that I will be serving lunch from 12:15-1:15 everyday.

Or was it 12 or 12:30? It is buried in my email, so I hope they send us a reminder…

So that is where I am at today.

It is material distribution week, and this is getting real. The boys already know their assigned teachers, but we cannot remember their schedules. Hopefully, they will provide a copy of that with the book pick-up this week.

I bought an actual 2020/21 school year planner and filled it in with all of the events I already have to attend. It is time to sort of rejoin the world. I am both happy and reluctant about that.

How are you all doing with this? Anyone getting hyped up and nervous like me??

I co-teach a high school girls’ Bible study Sunday nights, virtually. We still call it Sunday School. Last night my co-teacher taught on James 1. Then this morning I read Ecclesiastes 1-3.

These are both good reminders of how temporary these problems are. What are the trials of mankind, when we are on the earth such a short time in the grand scheme of things? It is almost comical how worked up we get about the hurdles we face when you see how quickly it all passes!

⁹ Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, ¹⁰ but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. ¹¹ For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

James 1: 9-12

 I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” ¹⁹ For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. ²⁰ All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. 

Ecclesiastes 3: 18-20

That almost sounds hopeless, but it isn’t. It reminds me that look, this is all just today’s problem. Tomorrow it will be something else. In the end, all of our fleshly concerns fade away as the flowers of the field.

So lighten up. Step away from the frustrating things when you need to calm down. Trust God with the big picture. All of these trials hurt, but they make us better people.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces ^[a]patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be ^[b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

James 1: 2-4

We are all going to be okay. God is still in Heaven, and here are we on Earth. I still need to work on that whole “letting my words be few” thing..

I hope you all have a perfect start to your back to school year. If you don’t, that’s okay. Most of us in virtual school will have difficulties with all this new technology, but it will be okay. God’s got us.

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