Friends and Family

Continuing Gallagher & Kittle's questions from the previous post:

Share the effect it has had on your friends and family. 

My children are already feeling the effects of their routine disrupted and cabin fever. They are more irritable than usual, quick to fight or argue. As adoptees, loss and uncertainty are special challenges for them, which is how it often goes for them. I have to trust that they will be stronger for having overcome this challenge as well as so many others. We are sorting out their school challenges, and I've become head home school guru chief. It's really tough: I know that my second-grader will write a better online letter to his teacher if he drafts it first and doesn't worry about spelling, but my years of expertise – longer than he's been alive – mean absolutely nothing to him.

We are working on taking breaks when we are upset with each other and returning to problems when we are more ready to deal with them. Parenting is difficult in ordinary times, but we're there to do it and no one else is.

My 91-year-old grandmother was quickly put in isolation in her retirement home, as were her fellow residents. My father is hoping to teach her how to Facetime: a worthy endeavor.

I've yet to reach out to my siblings, but I hope to do so soon. Today was a tough one, and I'm rather spent.

That's all for Gallagher and Kittle's questions. Living is tough and going to get tougher.

I continue to commit to keeping our shared living space clean, doing dishes 3-4 times a day and running laundry twice a week. We read a lot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in that series, and eat most of our meals at the table together. We gather to play a tabletop game every day in the afternoon, rotating who gets to choose.

I love how many children's authors and illustrators are providing things for kids at home. My daughter loved doodling with Mo Willems today. She loves to draw, does it often, and seems to have a knack for it.

I'm on Spring Break, waiting for my district to finalize our instructional plans. I'm looking forward to connecting with my students. I hope that our district will put grades on the back burner and push us toward providing learning experiences that will help our students make sense of and put into perspective what is going on in the world.

I remain concerned about taking my son to his therapist tomorrow, my flat bicycle tire, and two plant cages, all of which will require me to leave the house. I haven't left my neighborhood in three days.

We're going to make it through.