School Days (Week of 11/23/20)

 Our school year is humming along. I am having fun this year with my girls and although this school year has been hard socially with COVID I feel like we are moving right along with our coursework. Because of the holidays, the next few weeks will be pretty stop and go with what we accomplish, but I am okay with this. This is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. 

Joshua and Andy are wrapping up their first semester at college. Because of COVID, IUPUI ended the semester for most classes this week. Josh took 5 courses and 3 of them are finished. The other two will end in the middle of December. All three of Andy's classes are now finished. They are looking ahead to next semester and are deciding on how many courses to take. They both plan on signing up for their classes in the next week or so. 

The main focus of this week is the girls reading. Elizabeth and Sarah both read aloud to me most days. Elizabeth does so because she struggles with reading/spelling at what public education would deem grade level (very much like Andy), and I want her to feel comfortable with where she is at and help her grow more confident in her ability to perform both skills well. We are reading the last book in the Land of Stories series which has been such a blessing to us because it is the first series that she is actually interested in reading. I knew there had to be something out there that would grab her interest. It just took a little while to find that series. (By the way, Chris Colfer has done an amazing job with these stories. Just outstanding. I love hearing these stories as much as Elizabeth likes reading them. They are so creative and take the classic children's story characters that you and I grew up with and turned them into something magical.)

Sarah and I are currently working through the Little House on the Prairie series. We are currently reading On the Banks of Plum Creek. Sarah reads to me in braille and our focus is on getting her reading speed up. (Her braille tutor would like her to be reading something more challenging, but I have never read through the series, and we had already started it before her instructor suggested she move on to something harder. I don't like not finishing a series once I have started it. Plus, the goal is to increase her speed, not learn braille. I figured an "easier" series would help her accomplish this better than a "harder" one.)  She knows how to read braille fluently, but is a bit on the slow side. Even though technological advancements have made it so that learning to read in braille is not a necessity to get by in life, I am insisting that Sarah learn to be solidly proficient in her reading accuracy and speed. Call me old fashioned, but I just feel it will serve her better in life if she can read braille despite the potential non-necessity of it. 

The third book that we are reading is one that I read out loud to Sarah. When Josh and Andy were high school homeschoolers we had a subject that I called Great Books. I read aloud to them from books that I considered classics, usually ones with life lessons or important social implications. I tried to expose them to all different types of stories, and we ended up reading through a good number of books. Josh enjoyed the class more than Andy did, but I know that they both got something out of that time. I wanted to continue that tradition with the girls because it is something that I feel is an imperative part of their education as it opens their minds to different experiences outside their own. 

Horses and stories make up the majority of Sarah's interests/life, so this "subject" was a no brainer for me when she decided to come home this year.  Plus, she was working on an Honors Diploma when she was in public school. I would like to be able to help her accomplish this as a homeschooler. Reading the classics and then having her write out extended responses/essays pertaining to those books will help her to meet the language arts portion of an Indiana Honors Diploma. We are finishing up our second book since she came home in September. The first book we read was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. We are going to finish up Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls this week. 

So, that's what going on in our house schooling wise these three school days before our Thanksgiving/Sarah's birthday break. 

Cleaned & Purged

A couple of times every year I take 3-4 days to do a super deep clean of my house. Everything gets washed and cleaned from blinds and curtains to baseboards and walls. No drawer or closet is untouched as I pull out all of its contents and place them into three categories: clean, to be put back, donate to Goodwill, or throw away. 

I always feel amazing after I get this monumental task done. I usually do this kind of deep cleaning alone - my kids know to just leave me be for the duration of my super deep clean. They will help me cull the items in their rooms, and will perform an occasional task if I ask them to, but for the most part they just let me hum right along to my own song as I work through each space that makes up our home. 

Generally, I like to do these kinds of deep cleans in the early fall and spring. I love having the windows open as I move from room to room especially after the air conditioner has been running all summer and the furnace has been running all winter. There is something about having fresh air reinvigorate the house that gives a sense of ultimate cleanliness. 

I love being able to have us all get into bed the evenings after I deep clean each bedroom with every sheet, blanket, and pillow washed and dried out in the sun. One of my favorite 'clean' smells is laundry that has been hung on a line to dry. There are fewer things that I associate with deep cleaning like sun and wind infused clothes/linens. 

I had intended on deep cleaning the house in late September/early October of this year, but I wasn't feeling particularly motivated when the time came. Sarah had just made the decision to withdraw from public school a couple of weeks earlier because on-line learning wasn't working out for her and she did not feel safe going back to school in person because of COVID even with the abundance of caution the school was taking with its safety protocols. (I don't blame her. She doesn't have the luxury that you and I have of  making choices that increase our risk of getting the virus.) We were working through what her homeschool experience was going to look like during those weeks and that took precedence over the house getting a thorough deep cleaning. 

With the holidays coming up, I made the decision a few days ago that I was going to just do what needed to be done and plow through a deep clean. I am so glad I did. Not only does the house physically shine from top to bottom, inside and out, but it also mentally feels 1,000 times better. For me, being a homemaker, I just adore when I know that my house is in tip top shape. I love knowing that no drawer has been untouched and no corner has been left alone. The atmosphere is different after a deep clean - I don't know why, but it just is. Because we are spending the holidays alone this year, I think that this deep clean really came at the right time; it has mentally lifted the collective family's spirits during a time when we were feeling a bit down because we know that we are the only one's choosing to abstain from family get togethers. 

Generally speaking, I like to make as many of my cleaners as possible. The partial hippie in me doesn't like the thought of spraying caustic chemicals in my home if I can find a safer alternative, but I also want to make sure that I am disinfecting my house. Since moving to Indiana I have gone away from do-it-yourself bathroom cleaners for my toilets and tubs/showers though. Our water in this part of the state is so hard and calcium filled that it leaves hard water calcium spots in both the toilet bowl and on the walls of the showers. No matter what homemade recipe I used there were still hard water spots remaining;  I now use The Works and Lime Away for those surfaces. (I still use homemade cleaner on the toilet seats/sinks/ cabinets though.)

If you are looking for a good recipe book for homemade cleaners my favorite go-to-book is shown below. I have been using this book for multiple years. There seems to be a recipe for just about everything.  

  

Now that the house is clean, it is time for me to tackle the mountain of laundry I have. The sheets and blankets may have gotten washed these past few days, but the clothing we wear certainly did not. Good thing it's football Sunday, so I can listen to the football games while washing and folding the pile of clothes that are waiting to be tackled. 

How We Are Getting Through COVID

 I think it is fair to say that we are all way beyond COVID fatigue; we are at whatever stage lies beyond fatigue. (Exhaustion, maybe? No, that doesn't seem strong enough of a word.) This new wave of (not totally unexpected) COVID cases has our family quarantining beyond what is being asked by our state. Bob and I have chosen to go back to March (Indiana) protocols and quarantine from family and friends as well as making only necessary shopping excursions. I do understand why some families may choose to do things differently, especially with the holidays coming up. Who wants to celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and/or Christmas alone? I hear ya. Especially when you have a healthy family in the low risk category of serious health repercussions if you contracted COVID. We are deciding to quarantine in the way that we are because we cannot risk Sarah getting it. It's as simple as that for us. I would never be able to live with myself if we weren't minimizing our risk of catching the virus, and then Sarah (or any of my other children) got it and it caused irrevocable consequences. 

While riding out these recent unprecedented COVID numbers, I am trying to find ways to keep my family sane. I know that we are all fighting battles in our own homes as we wait for things to go back to as normal as they are going to get when this pandemic is over. Mental health issues, whether they be minor or something much bigger/more longer lasting, are very real in most of our households right now. I know in our own home each of my kids has struggled mentally. Some of these struggles have lasted just a day or two, some of them have been longer, and some of them have had struggles that have come and gone and then come back again over the course of these last 8 months. I myself have had some bad days, but I have been able to pick myself up knowing that my household is not the only one facing some dark days. I try to point out to my kids that this season of time will not last forever. That the only constant in life is change. I also try and help them to remember that there is always something to learn in each season of life, even if you cannot see it at that moment. (Obviously, there are also other discussions as well. Minimizing mental health with cliches is not something that I do as an overall mental health strategy, but in the course of my conversations with my kids as I walk beside them with their own struggles, I do try to point the above mentioned items out.)

From the very beginning of this pandemic I knew that the way I chose to conduct myself during these times would be of paramount importance to the way that my children handled themselves during this time. I also felt very strongly that this was going to be a time where I would be able to see where our family life needed some tweaking and what our strengths were. I knew that I was never going to have an opportunity in my parenting life to have all of my kids under one roof for an extended quarantined period of time to have the influence that I do now. I wanted to make sure that I was mending and strengthening their roots, so that when they fly off into a life of their own choosing I would know that they were soaring with the best foundations that I could give them. From this perspective, I feel that I have been more successful than not during these last 8 months. I have learned an immense amount about myself and our family as a whole, but also as the individual people who make up the six of us. I still have some work to do, but as we all can see how this pandemic is going, I am confident that I still have the time to finish up what I set out to accomplish. 

As the months have passed I have implemented some strategies/ideas (some better and more consistent than others) that have helped us get through this time. Here are some of the things that have helped our family:

1. Limiting Electronic Usage

I know, I know. This seems completely counter-intuitive. I get it. BUT...I am HUGE believer that when my kids spend too much time on electronics they lose their creativity, their will to do anything else, but electronics, and their attitudes begin to stink. Because we are all spending so much time together, a bad attitude can infect a house like wild fire. This in turn makes life unbearable for us all. 

Don't misunderstand me. There are still days when my kids are on electronics more than I would like. But I do try and make a concerted effort to limit electronic usage whenever I feel that bad attitudes are on the rise (or if I just feel like our family is spending too much time on them in general). 

The plus side of doing this, is that after a day of detoxing (in which I totally brace for a  grumpy child complaining of boredom) my children actually remember they are the creative beings they are, and spend time doing old school things like using their imaginations to occupy their time. It is a win-win for us all because the kids end up having more fun together (which helps combat the feelings of isolation and aloneness that COVID has brought on) and I get my kids away from the electronics I loathe. (On a side note - I too have given up a large portion of my electronic time. I am not going to ask my kids to detox from electronics if I am not willing to do the same. I think that is hypocritical of me and I want to be the example my kids learn from as I mentioned above.)

2. Going Old School

If you have teenagers like me, this suggestion may seem a little unusual, but if you are willing to try it out I think you will be surprised by the end results. A few months into quarantine I knew that I would be investing more time and energy into detoxing our family from electronics. I also knew that I would need something to point my kids to when they came to me to tell me how bored they were. I went online (thank goodness for Amazon Prime) and purchased some new coloring books and crayons. I checked our inventory of play dough (and supplies) as well as crafts and board games. Anything I felt we needed, I purchased. I stocked our home with some of the things my kids did when they were little. And you know what? It worked. The kids have used more old school activities such as crafting, coloring, reading books, playing with playdough, using Legos, designing houses out of cardboard boxes, playing board games, etc...than they have in years. They are occupied and not on electronics, and as far as I am concerned is money well spent. I plan on investing in these types of activities for the foreseeable future. 

3. Trying New Things

With winter coming up, and knowing that I didn't want my kids spending too much time on electronics, I thought about things that I could introduce into our family that would be relatively cheap, new to the family, and might interest at least some of them. I took this idea and invested in (what I hope to be the first of many) a puzzle. Both Sarah and Andy have helped me put the pieces together. I have a dedicated puzzle space so that the puzzle can remain undisturbed while we take the time to put it together. I have found this time to be well spent and really have enjoyed putting the project together. It is always nice to have company too. Prior to COVID I would have never thought to purchase something like a puzzle for our family, but now that I have done so I cannot imagine not having some sort of puzzle to work on for the foreseeable future. 

4. Getting Out of the House

I feel pretty strongly that during these times getting out of the house is of utmost importance. Too much time spent at home can sometimes make it seem as if the walls are closing in on you. Because COVID has limited so much of what we feel comfortable doing, Bob and I offer one of the only things we feel is safe for our family: spending time in nature. Almost every weekend, Bob and/or I will take a couple of hours and spend it outside - away from our home. We make sure to always offer the opportunity to the kids, but we do not (usually) require them to come. I know for myself I always feel better and refreshed when I have spent even the smallest amount of time out of doors. 

We also walk around our giant neighborhood just about every night. Again, we make sure to offer this opportunity to the kids. Sometimes they come and sometimes they don't. We also sometimes visit a little park down the road to let Max off of his leash to run around or we will head to a park/dog park near our home to play tennis, basketball, let Max run around in a fenced in area. Again, just getting outside, even if only for a little bit, can really be good for the entire family. I feel that Mother Nature has her own little reset button on our psyche. 

5. Find a Show/Movie Series to Share Together

By now you know that I am not a big fan of electronic usage, but I think what I should really be saying is that I am not a fan of unintentional, lose track of time electronic usage. Intentional, occasional TV time (I think) can be really good for a family. I know it is for ours. We are big fans of the Survivor Series. Almost the entire series is on Hulu and back in March we made the decision to begin the series from the very first one and work our way through to the newest seasons. Our viewing time varies, but I would say right now we intentionally gather once every other week to watch anywhere between 2-4 shows in one sitting. If the weather is particularly heinous we will watch the show once a week, and very rarely we will even watch it more than once a week. But it is something we do together as a group. (The group watching does vary depending on the season. Right now Bob, Sarah, Elizabeth (on & off), and I are watching this season)

So, this is pretty much how we are getting through COVID as a family. Sometimes I wish there was an instruction book on how to get through these uncertain times because I don't know if the choices I am making are the right ones, but all I can do, all any of us can do, is just make the best decisions for our families based on the information that we have in front of us. 

Stay safe. 

Thoughts

 There is a youngish tree that grows in our front yard, I don't know if it is a Maple or an Oak tree, I guess I could find out if I really wanted to, but I don't really care to put in the energy to do so. Over the past two and a half years of living in this house I have watched this tree grow; I have watched the cycle of growing and shedding leaves (this time being the beginning of the third cycle) and seen it getting taller with each passing year. I have seen bird nests come and go. 

I have loved watching this tree as time as passed. While the world seems to be standing still this tree is a reminder that indeed it really is not. Mother Nature is still pressing on in spite of deadly viruses that are causing discord and unrest across the world and US elections that are causing fissures between friends and family alike. 

I am in awe of the chaos our country is in. I have read enough history books to know that this is not the first time that most things seem turned upside down, but this is the first time I feel that I have really felt the affects of this chaos. 

As the numbers of COVID cases rise our family has decided to go into strict lock-down again. Friends and family are off limits. Store visits are down to the essential things only. This lock down feels especially hard because we were all really looking forward to getting together with family this holiday season. We do not have the luxury of assuming that all would be fine if we contracted COVID though, not with Sarah among us, and I am sometimes jealous of those who feel that the risk of living a semi-normal life is one worth living in spite of the risks of catching a virus we do not yet fully understand. When Bob and I shared the news with our kids that we were self-quarantining again they were all understanding of why. My kids have been through the trenches with Sarah medically (and all ways, really) and they know that the monster that lives inside her is not one to joke around with or not take seriously.  It has been shown that COVID kills those with weakened immune systems; they know that this blanket statement includes their sister, and as much as their lives are inconvenienced by this family mandate, they would rather protect their sister as much as they can rather than potentially risk her life. I am grateful for their understanding, and I know that they would do anything to keep her (and each other) safe. 

I know that one of the side affects of this long term seclusion is mental fatigue, and we certainly have not been immune from this. Sometimes I feel like a firefighter bouncing back and forth between each child trying to help him/her extinguish the internal mental fires that burn within from long term isolation. I am desperately trying to balance that with my own inner strife and anxieties; Some days I feel like I have won the battle with the infernos, other days not-so-much. What keeps me anchored is that I know that this will not last forever and that there are always lessons to be learned in any situation one faces. I also hold on to the fact that tomorrow is a new day full of new promises and new opportunities. 

When we look back on this time I want my children to see that they can do hard things. I want them to be able to reflect on this time and use it to propel them forward in future times when their lives get hard. There is always a Light at the end of the tunnel. There is always Hope where you believe it exists, even if you cannot yet see it.