The Corona Pandemic: Week 5

Sunday, April 12th was Easter.  We watched our church live stream again!  We had a Zoom call with Scot's family so that was fun for everyone to see each other at one time and to see Mark & Sarah's new baby Annabelle!  Sad to be apart from family during this time.

Monday, April 13th we went on a very long family bike ride.  I forgot to start my app that would map our route and tell us how far we went, but we knew it was at least 5-6 miles.  We made a social-distancing pit stop to see Dad as we passed by his house.

On Tuesday, April 14th, my sweet precious MawMaw passed away.  It is so hard because we couldn't go to Alabama and she only got a private funeral service with her 2 nieces, which breaks my heart.  She planned her funeral for a long time and didn't get the funeral she deserved because of this annoying Coronavirus.  My heart hurts over this whole situation.

On Wednesday I just needed to be alone, clear my head, and have a refreshing soul walk.  I decided to go the route that we went on our bikes on Monday and this time I mapped it out on my Map My Walk iphone app.  It was 7 miles!  So that means we biked 7 miles on Monday and I walked 7 miles on Wednesday!!  I was exhausted, but it was beautiful weather!!!

We found out on Friday, April 17th, what we had all been expecting but it still hurt when it became official for everyone.  We do not get to go back to school for the rest of this school year. :-(

Rachel doesn't get to finish the rest of her freshman year of high school and Joshua doesn't get to finish his last 2 months at Cypress Grove.  Our seniors might not get to have prom or graduation.  And I don't get to see my math teacher family again and 2 teachers are retiring.  It is so heartbreaking for all students and teachers no matter what grade level they are not getting closure with this year.

We ended our week with a themed dinner that Rachel wants to start doing every Friday night.  One person gets to pick the takeout that we pick up and the movie we watch or game that we play.  And Rachel is going to pick different themes for us to dress up for while we eat.  Tonight was Disney!

The Corona Pandemic: Week 4

I am posting this one week late, but I need to make it a separate post from Week 5.  So Week 4 was Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday on Sunday, April 5th, and leading up to Easter on Sunday, April 12th.  We made some palms for our front door to decorate for Palm Sunday.

Every Monday I go up to school for my virtual office hours and to record a lesson.  As soon as I step foot into my classroom after walking through the eerily empty and quiet hallways, I tear up and get very emotional because I once again see the agenda on the board that was for March 16th and the notes to myself for right after spring break.  We are now almost a month out from that time and it just gets sadder by the moment for all we are missing out on at school right now.

The kids finished up their Easter chalk drawing on our porch that was the only Easter decoration we put up this year at our house.  I put up the painter's tape and they colored it all in with their chalk.

Besides chalk drawings we still complete lots of puzzles and go on lots of walks and bike rides.

I mowed the yard on Thursday, April 9th, and gave myself a terrible blister.  I finished right before a massive storm blew in and flooded our yard.

Also on Thursday this week I found out that my 96-year-old grandmother, MawMaw, was put in Hospice.  She had been falling a lot with her bad back pain and this time the fall put her into the hospital.  She had an infection that they could not get rid of and thankfully decided that she needed to go to hospice and not a nursing home.  If she had gone to a nursing home, she would have been quarantined for 2 weeks with no visitors and probably would have died alone.  But since she went to hospice Bonnie, her niece, was able to visit her and stay with her.  She played music for her and talked to her as MawMaw was put on morphine for the pain so that she could pass away peacefully.  What is so sad is that we all feel that she went downhill after all this Coronavirus stuff began and her living place isolated her to her room where she couldn't socialize with or see her friends.

Friday, April 10th, was Good Friday.  We went on a family bike ride and then participated in our church's Good Friday service virtually.  We took communion so we had to get our own elements for the communion.  We chose croutons and white sparkling grape juice.  The croutons were a wee-bit too crunchy as we all took the bread and were crunching very loudly and then couldn't take the juice when he said because we were still crunching our croutons and chewing them up - lol.  I got tickled and laughed so hard all night every time I thought about it.

We had a fun game of Monopoly on Saturday to finish off Holy Week.  Joshua was the winner with towers on all of his properties before the game was over.

The Corona Pandemic Weeks 2 & 3

So I had planned to blog about the Coronavirus once a week, but I have already failed at blogging again as it's been over 2 weeks since my last post.  So here is my attempt again!  I am going to make a blog post each Saturday because Sundays are spent doing tons of schoolwork to prepare for each week of At Home Learning (AHL) for my students.  So here goes.

Week 2

I decided to write some letters of encouragement to my seniors.  Made a personal letter to each one and put a picture in each letter.  I used all of the stamps that we had left so I hope that doesn't come back to bite us later.  I assume we can probably purchase stamps online.  A couple of the seniors sent me a message thanking me after they received it and let me know how much they appreciated it.

Starting on Monday, March 23rd we began our adventure into At Home Learning for our students.  Just reviewing material at this point, but using Schoology and posting assignments.  Each department at the school was given one day of the week to be able to go up to school and have virtual office hours for our students.  Just have to be near a computer and available to answer any questions our students might have.  So we don't have to go up to the school.  On that first Monday I went up to get some things.  It was hard seeing my classroom with the same agenda on the board that we were supposed to do on Monday, March 16th and how everything was just sitting there waiting for us and our students to come back. :-(  We also decided on this day to make a video to bring a smile to our students.  So we each recorded ourselves smiling, waving or dancing and all the clips were put to the song "Smile" by the Sidewalk Prophets.  Here is my video clip that I ended up not using. :-)

Then we also found out that schools would now be closed thru April 10th (Good Friday). So more planning for teaching into overdrive.

On Tuesday, March 24th, Brazos County ordered us into a Shelter in Place for 2 weeks.  So that drove the school's decision to stay closed until April 10th.  Our days are now filled with cooking, puzzles, tennis, bike riding and working out and REPEAT!  LOL!!

And cookie decorating, yardwork, car washing, chalk drawings and more!!

Easter is coming and we are trying to remember where our hope lies.  It gets hard sometimes when there seems to be no end in sight for this pandemic.  I even resorted to this when I got gas.

 Week 3

It feels like it's getting harder and harder to get the kids to do their schoolwork (and just review still) and I am leaving the house less and less.  It doesn't help when it is rainy and cold outside!!  We have had several instances of the return of winter lately and when going outside is sometimes the only thing keeping us sane - it makes it hard!!  Our newest niece, Annabelle Rose, was born this week on April Fool's Day.  The only people that could come to the hospital were Mark & Sarah.  No special visitors at the hospital for her big arrival!

And on the other end of the spectrum my precious grandmother is probably on her last days.  MawMaw has been falling a lot lately and is not doing well ever since they isolated the residents at the tower where she lives.  So they are having to move her to a nursing home (which are hotbeds for the Coronavirus) so I worry what will happen to her after that.  She is 96 and frail.  Praying she doesn't suffer or catch the virus and can live in peace at the nursing home.

We found out on Tuesday, March 31st, that schools are ordered by the governor to be closed thru May 1st.  So now the earliest we can go back to school is May 4th and I'm starting to think we won't go back at all.  The principals are working hard to offer new dates & locations and alternate dates for prom and graduation.  I hope these seniors get to celebrate both.

We shall see what the coming Holy Week holds for us as they expect the Pandemic to be at its worst this week.  There is even talk of this going all the way into September.  Lord save us all!