Online School, Here We Go

 There was a lot of talk about school opening this summer.  I have used the words hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous more than I ever thought I would in my life.  There have been memes, serious commentaries, and viral videos.  At first we thought, of course we're going to send the kids back to school.  They have to go back.  Then, we thought, but if they go back, they can't see my parents, which is supposed to be one of the main benefits to being home this year.  Finally, Arlington made the decision for us, saying everyone will start the year online, and that they will keep evaluating the safety of going back to buildings as the school year progresses.  I think it's the best choice, since so many of the schools that chose to go back ultimately had to go to online once people started getting sick.  This way, we start by putting together the best online program we can, and then we have it ready to fall back on if in person doesn't work out.  I saw a great meme which captures the way I'm feeling about the start of school this year.

Still, if schools reopen in person, we will need to seriously consider what the best fit will be for us as a family.  The girls definitely need some socialization.  The highlights of their week before school were a big piece of bubble wrap, and us putting down their favorite carpet.

The highlight of my week was getting to go to the school and see what would be my classroom if we go back to school.  It looks really nice.

I've been able to set up a good work area at home in the living room, so that I'm not completely removed from the girls when they're "in" class.  

I also have a table in my bedroom for when I need to close the door and teach.  

The school system had some technical glitches at the start.  They provided every student with a device, but they picked Apple devices, and a crummy VPN, so everything froze up.  We are very lucky to be a family with lots of devices, so Vivi got back on her Chromebook, and Elena took my Chromebook, while I used the Macbook the school gave me.

We're still figuring out the best places for the girls to do school work.  Vivian has used the living room and her room.  The set up she has in her room seems to make her happy, and it's easy to clear out of the way when she wants space for other things.

But we've discovered it's also good to have her start her day in the living room, away from the temptation of her bed, where we can keep an eye on her.

Elena spent most of the week at the dining room table, so that a grown up could easily sit with her when needed.  Of course, she managed to have a particularly dramatic start to her school year by losing her second front tooth on camera.

Her favorite class so far is art, but she's been doing a great job participating in all her classes.

Her morning is in Spanish, and her afternoon is in English.  She's only had one "I don't wanna" incident, and she bounced back pretty fast.  It's a HUGE improvement over how things were going at the end of last year.

Vivian is also doing fine in her classes, although she's not terribly excited about any of them.  She is still focused on her look, even though no one seems to be turning the camera on, so Mom and I got her some more clothes to try on.  One of the items was a really soft pink and purple sweater.  I knew it was a long shot that she would like it, but it was so soft I couldn't resist.  Turns out, Elena feels the same way, and she appropriated it for herself.  Luckily, there were several other items that Vivi did like.

Elena totally worships her big sister.  She insisted that she needed an "office" like Vivi has in her room, so we set her up in the living room.  She also insisted on wearing her new sweater most of the day.  Her headphones fit under it, and the resulting image just cracks me up.

Her Spanish teacher read them Knuffle Bunny in Spanish, so Elena brough our own Knuffle Bunny to show the class, and then kept it close for the rest of the day.

I'm only working part time this year, which has turned out great.  My students were able to get into our online class, and I had a lot of fun working with them, but I still had time to support the girls during their first week of online learning at a new school.  While this entire set up is far from ideal, I feel like we had a good week.  I don't know how long we can sustain this, but we're okay for now.

Finishing Up Our Strangest Summer Ever

 We're used to moving in the summer, and it usually comes with exploring the area around our new home as well as a road trip.  This summer we've stayed very local and focused on moving into our new house, but it's been hard not having those summer fun breaks.  We're so glad we got the Airbnb with the pool, because it gave us a semblance of a vacation to enjoy with family.

While we were at the Airbnb our things started to arrive at the house, so we would make little trips over there to unpack and check on the kitchen progress.

On one of our trips, we discovered that our dishwasher was a lost cause.  We ran it and it sounded like it was about to take off for space, so we added dishwasher shopping to our list of things to do.  By the end of July, it was time to leave the Airbnb, but our house really wasn't ready yet.  We still didn't have most of our furniture, and the kitchen still didn't have the backsplash tile.  Thank goodness for Mom and Dad who said we could come back and stay with them.  They do love the girls, so that makes it an easy sell.

Vivian continues to grow at a ridiculous rate.  She is now 5'2" and rapidly approaching 5'3".  I am not okay with this.  Luckily, she's generally maintaining her happy attitude, but she is also trying on teenage moodiness for size.  We're trying to counteract moodiness and general negativity by having time outside.  Our house is near a beautiful county park, so we tried to work in regular visits to the house that incorporated outdoor time and indoor maintenance. We had a fun park and lunch trip to kick off August.

We also got to try out our newly installed dishwasher.

Finally, during the week of August 10 our items arrived from storage, and the new furniture we had purchased was delivered.  Jeff and I worked a little each day of the week on unpacking and making our house into a home.  We took pictures to show the girls who were excited about moving in.  We found some fun stuff in the storage items, including a sock and a penguin toy we had been looking for for years stuffed in between sofa cushions.

In addition to furniture arriving, the window and the backsplash tiles arrived too.

Of course, just as we were getting ready to declare the house move-in ready, we had a problem.  The contractors had been using the outside faucet during their tiling and window work, and that's how we discovered that when they were redoing the flooring, they had nicked a pipe with a nail.  We discovered it with water leaking through the basement ceiling and wall.

Luckily, there were no debates about who was responsible, and the contractors immediately set about fixing everything.  We decided not to let it deter us, especially since we were able to just shut off the water to the outside spigot and leave the rest of the water on.  We officially moved in, despite the large amounts of work still left to do.  The kitchen turned out beautifully.

Our new dining set fit just right, and we were able to have our first dinner in our remodeled house.  The last time we lived here as a family, Elena couldn't really eat solid food, so we have come a long way.

The following Monday, I started "new" teacher training online, while also still trying to finalize everything to have the girls ready to start school.  We had registered them in July, but getting doctors' appointments for all the medical forms took a while.  We were also trying to figure out online learning solutions for them.  Vivi liked her new set up, but I vetoed the bed location.

Thankfully, the girls seem to be very happy in their new digs.  They both love their rooms, and they like hanging out in the living room as a family as well.

I've been trying to put together balanced family dinners each night.  Some are more successful than others.

We've discovered Google's animal of the day feature, which has been a lot of fun, and we've also enjoyed trying out different kinds of dinner music.  Occasionally we even watch a family movie.  We showed the girls The Princess Bride, and they gave it a rave review.

Jeff is still on home leave, and he's been trying to get the girls out at least once a day, especially when I have live things online.  Robeks is a favorite destination, and the girls have no problem wearing a mask if it means they will be rewarded with a smoothie.

Jeff and I had our 14th wedding anniversary on August 26.  We didn't feel like doing the in-person restaurant thing, so we ordered from Carlyle, one of our favorite restaurants.  My parents took the kids for the night, and even though we didn't got any place fancy, we enjoyed good food and good (uninterrupted) conversation.  To me, that's a good anniversary.

My mom's birthday is the day after our anniversary, and she also didn't feel comfortable going to a restaurant, but she really wanted to do something special with all of us.  My dad took on the challenge, and hired a catering company to set up a serve a beautiful dinner on their back patio.

The girls were thrilled by the fancy set up and the fact that their milk was served in champagne glasses.

Dad toasted my Mom's awesomeness, and we all agreed that his dinner efforts were worthy of her.

We even had some after dinner entertainment provided by Vivian with her beautiful singing.  It was a wonderful evening, and a real highlight in a summer that could have used more fun times.  Still, we are so lucky to be together and to be able to celebrate where we can.

 

Happy Birthday People

July has been good to us so far.  Jeff and Vivian both have their birthdays in July, so there's always lots of cake and general celebration.  This year, the start of July was particularly important because it meant that the four of us could be back together again as a family for the first time since May.  Jeff had been staying at a hotel after he got back from Colombia, but on July 1 we went to pick him up and drive to our Airbnb for the month.  The best part was that the Airbnb had a pool, so in he went with the girls.

I got excited to all be back together again, so the next morning I made biscuits with special gravy for Jeff.  It was wonderful to sit down together as a family again.

The Airbnb has proven to be very comfortable, and of course we love having the pool, but another bonus is that it's close to parks, so if we get up early enough before it gets really hot, we can have a nice walk too.

The temperature most days though has been rapidly climbing to the 90s, so we've been spending quality time in the pool instead.

Although we didn't do much for the 4th of July, the 3rd of July was a major event in our household, because it was the premiere date for Hamilton on Disney+. 

We've settled into a routine of pool at least once a day, usually twice.

Some quiet indoor activities during the hottest part of the day, and then Elena's new routine of reading the same two books every night.

She reads Pigs Make Me Sneeze and Oh, the Places You'll Go.  These are books she picked from the bookshelf in my parents' basement, but the connections to the current world situation are not lost on her.  "Gerald is afraid he can't be near his friend, just like with the virus."  We're trying to keep things as normal as possible for the girls, but they both feel the strangeness in our new day to day lives.

We did our best to make Vivian's birthday special.  I had brought the Birthday Queen crown in my suitcase, but I felt like she required something extra, so I got a colorful Happy Birthday banner.  She liked it :-)

Amazon and Mom helped out with presents.  Jeff and I knew that Elena was feeling particularly sensitive, so we got her a present too.

Of course Vivian opened hers first.  We've been trying to teach her about trees as an outdoor activity, so she got the Audubon guide to trees

We've also been playing lots of games, so it was time for some new ones.

And it was also time for an updated Marvel encyclopedia.

Now that Vivian has a year without uniforms, she's trying to find her "look", and Mom was more than willing to help out with lots of new shirts.

After waiting more or less patiently, Elena ripped into her present.

It only took a minute for her to become completely engrossed.  She loves animals.

Since it was Vivi's birthday, she was in charge of the menu, so after morning swim and cleaning up, we had shells and peas in the sunroom for lunch.

For dinner, she requested Thai food.  My family wanted to help celebrate her birthday, but we were also trying to do another full two week count from when Jeff got back, so we decided the best plan was socially distanced dinner outside.

At the end, Vivi got birthday brownies.

She also got birthday Nerf guns from Judy, so the next day Jeff took the girls to the lawn behind the pool for their first shooting lesson.

While they were doing that, the contractors were installing the granite in our new and improved kitchen, so the next day, we went to have a look.  We are so excited about how well it is turning out.

We picked tiles for a backsplash, but they're on back order until August.  It feels like August will be our month of finalizing our move in, and I hope that by September we'll be all settled in.  Our air freight has arrived, and our sea freight is due to arrive before the end of July.  Ironically, it's our storage items which will probably take the longest to get, because the don't have availability to deliver them until August, so our things from Colombia will get here before our things from down the road.

Jeff took the opportunity of Vivian turning 12 to talk more about the positives of serving in the military.  He's advocating for the Air Force, so they sat down together to take a survey to see which jobs she might like in the Air Force.  I have my doubts about anything coming of it, but I want her to have as many choices as possible.

Our second round of two weeks ended perfectly on the Monday that Vivian was starting her Virtual Camp Shakespeare.  She has online sessions every afternoon Monday through Friday for two weeks.  After our morning swim, the girls and I went over to my parents' house for hugs and fun. Vivian found a good spot to do her class, and Elena played with Safta and Grandpa.

Jeff came over for a special celebratory dinner followed by a combo birthday cake.  We weren't sure what to do about the numbers, so we decided on a birthday total.  When Elena figured out the addition, she started laughing like it was the best joke ever.  She is such a math nerd :-)

Next up was Jeff's official birthday.

He didn't feel the need to wear the Birthday Queen crown ;-)

Since we had figured out how to do socially distanced dining for Viv's birthday, we decided to try it again with some friends we hadn't seen in years.  One of them even made Jeff a beautiful carrot cake, his favorite.

It ended up being another great birthday to close out the week of birthday.  We are enjoying our pool, being closer to family and friends, and watching our house come together.  We have the rest of July in the Airbnb, and hopefully enough things show up to make our house habitable in August.  So far, July has definitely been a month that reinforces the importance of family and friends.