It’s Day Whatever over here at the Nerd Factory.
Somewhere in my planner world, it’s supposed to be what’s usually known as “spring break” but that is not the case this year.
Recently, I’ve read of friends who are so excited for the change of pace, they are seriously considering unenrolling their children from their regular schools and continuing to homeschool them. All I have to say is “You go, girl!!”
I will watch from over here while my children are logged into their school Chromebooks. As they complete the lessons their teachers send them on Google Classroom, I’ll still teach them the fundamental rules of grammar which lead to great writing, but I cannot tell you the massive relief it was to not have the pressure of “teaching” them. Life as we now know it is hard enough.
So what does A Day in the Life look like?
I do my darnedest to get up and moving by 8am – as in completely dressed in actual pants after a real shower and stuff. This is critical!
Then I make sure the progeny have eaten breakfast and taken care of their dishes. One in particular usually needs to be woken up and pried out of bed.
We do a quick tidy – because clutter and stuff seem to metastasize if we let them.
This week has been project-based learning. Each child picked a topic or area that they wanted to learn more about or become better at doing: two chose drawing and one chose food science. I’m sure with our new online school next week, we will eventually find a new routine.
By noon, school is usually finished and we play/create. I’ve let the rules on tech become quite lax this week, but normally any tech time is tied to our chore app. At Home is a great app that allows me to customize the chores and the rewards. If they want to play the Wii or have time on the computer or a device, they need to have completed a certain number of chores for their desired points. I do have to point out that this app is only as good as your consistency in checking that the workers are meeting your expectations – but there is the option to post a picture of what the job looks like when it’s done for self-sufficiency.
The afternoons usually mean each kid migrates to a favorite reading corner or listens to an audiobook while playing with Legos or puts in their earbuds and finds a job to do outside. If you know my children, I will let you figure out which one does which!
I definitely have not figured out the swing of getting back into the writing saddle. There are days when regular tasks feel so heavy and overwhelming and then others where I almost feel normal and accomplish many things. It does seem to correlate to how much I allow myself to take in the current news. Even with the limits on my phone, I know part of this lethargy is grief and figuring out how to keep going while in this bizarre holding pattern.
My characters wiggle into my thoughts and I’m still reading my stack of research books. I know they are probably up to mischief while I’m trying to find a rhythm. But I will get there and my fingers will fly once again.
In the meantime, the dog chases the cat up the neighbors tree and later rolls in wild animal crap in a nearby ditch, the fridge starts to give us concern that maybe she’s on her last leg… life goes on while we stay home and stay safe.
Even as this week contains some of the greatest days of our faith, I’ve felt horribly disconnected. If you felt like your feelings seem stuck on a bizarre merry-go-round that is less than merry, try this broadcast of Christ Community’s Good Friday service.
David sure didn’t have any qualms about telling God exactly what he felt and thought. But somehow, when his emotion was spent, he could see again how faithful God was even in the awful stuff. He lamented and hurt and God had no problem listening and taking what David handed out.
God is big enough to handle our stuff too.
