Back to School 2020-21

Today, after five long months, three of my kids went back to school (Eva starts kindergarten later in the week). 

Daisy and Zoe

Nicky wasn't thrilled about

going back 

I spent Saturday updating the kids' checklists they use to get ready for school. I also updated our chore charts since we now have a basement that needs to be kept tidy. 

Yesterday we had some good discussions about returning to school. Scotty gave all the kids a blessing, and then we had a back to school dinner. The kids made their lunches (Zoe's consisted of two pieces of lunch meat and a large box of Junior Mints) and got all of their stuff ready to go. 

This morning, Zoe was up at 5:30. All the other kids rolled out of bed early as well, but none quite as early as Zoe. She was so excited!

I dropped Nicky off at school at 7:35, then took the girls to school at 8:25. Eva went to spend the day with her cousin, leaving me kind of alone. I say "kind of" because there's this new situation I haven't dealt with on a school day: Scotty works from home. It was just a few days ago that it dawned on me... my kids were going back to school, but Scotty wasn't going anywhere. I don't mind him being at home, but it's definitely different. He is in online meetings for a lot of the day, so I can't do things like listen to Hamilton full blast on the Alexa while I do dishes or vacuum the living room. 

I spent the day feeling completely disoriented. I wanted to be super productive, but as usual, I didn't have any energy. I also felt restrained - like I shouldn't do anything but sit and wait for my kids to get done with school. 

There was a little excitement in the house today, however, that made me really glad Scotty was home. Before she went to see her cousin, Eva went into the downstairs bathroom and found a mouse in the bathtub. It scared her to death. I was upstairs, and she came up in a panic and told me about the mouse. Sometimes Eva is a story teller, so I wasn't sure what to think, but she was definitely portraying real fear. I went downstairs, and she was right - there was a mouse in the tub and enough poop to indicate it had been there for a little while. 

As I approached the tub, I scared the mouse and it went scampering down the drain! 

DOWN THE DRAIN!!!

(What if it had died in there, and we didn't ever know it was there? Yowza! It made me think of the time my cat got stuck in the heater vent. But I digress). 

I waited to see if the mouse would come back out. I tried turning the lights off, leaving the room, and giving the mouse some time to get comfortable again. I wasn't sure if it even could get back out! It never came out on my watch. Scotty was in a meeting, so I texted him and said, "Let me know when you have a free minute. I have a problem for you to solve."

When he finished his meeting, he went downstairs, and the mouse was still down in the drain. He turned on the faucet, and the mouse came skittering out (sooooo glad he wasn't stuck). Scotty trapped him under a cup/shampoo bottle combo and eventually moved him outside where he met his fate.

That made for an eventful half hour! But for the rest of the day, I felt a little lost. I'm hesitant to start any routines while my kids are at school because I feel like I have to be ready for them to transition back to distance learning any minute. 

When the time came to pick up kids, I started with Nicky and then went and picked up Daisy and Zoe. The whole process took over an hour, and I remembered how much time I spend in the car during the school year.  

It sounds like things went okay for all the kids. They each had some positive and negative things to say. Lunch was complicated at both schools and will need some tweaking. Nicky was really ornery when he got home, but that's not unusual. Zoe has gone ahead and determined her best friend for the year, so I already have parents to meet (it's my life's version of dating, and I dread this kind of stuff, plus I have to add all the corona factors into it now).

Other than feeling like I can't accomplish anything during the day, I actually feel very good about sending my kids back to school. I have been so impressed with the staff from both schools my children attend. Over the past month, as things have been so ugly with the various school districts and the differing opinions about how school should be handled, I have found peace in dealing directly with our schools. I have to shut out all of the outside voices and just go with what I see right in front of me. 

That is not a statement about what anyone else should be doing. I know many people are better served by distance learning or other means of education right now, but I'm glad that we had options to choose from. 

One day down. 

We'll just continue taking one at a time.