Slice of Life: Day 23--"Is Anyone Else's Clock Totally Messed Up??"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Ugh.

Y'all.

I've got sleep issues.

Despite the schedule, the bedtime, the reduction in anxiety, Spring Break, daily exercise, prayer, staying busy, getting outside, productive time each day...

I just can't find my day-night stride. It's like sometimes the day is just one long year, and other times it's like a flash of lightning.

The hours crawl and fly without me knowing which is coming next.

Is this how it's going to be for the next 6 weeks?

I can't live like this.

If this is what retirement is like, I want to work forever.

Y'all.

UGH.

Slice of Life: Day 22--"Lunch with a Friend"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

My roommate and I are both teachers, so you can imagine the intense amount of screen time we've both been accruing the last few weeks. As life has shifted online, we find that screens are our only way to do so many things. As an extrovert, I hate it. As an introvert, she's handling it better.

Today, though, we sat down and had lunch together. We realized that our 3-5 nights/week "dinners" (albeit cooked separately and different) had reduced to a big zero the past week or so.

It was nice to talk and eat and not worry for a little while. It's taken a toll on both of us in different ways. We made a plan for the next week....a little schedule for Spring Break that included lunch together each day.

I think it will be good us to put our screens away, focus on talking, and relax....away from work, away from the news,  away from life.

There aren't many distractions from life right now, despite the fact that life has basically been reduced to a list of distractions. I find that my lack of interaction with people is really affecting me, much more than I'd anticipated.

But for an hour or so each day, we're doing lunch. And for now, that plan gives me space to breathe.

Slice of Life: Day 21--"A Quiet Saturday Poem"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Today Saturday crept in

On little cat's feet

Awoke for a few hours

And is on it's way back out again.


This first Saturday of Spring Break

Doesn't really feel like any day

It's defined by a calendar

Not by what I did, really.


This Spring Break is much different

It comes with an extra month attached to it

Not of break time, but of isolation

It's quiet this Saturday, and I'd rather it not be.


Normally, quiet Saturdays refresh me

But this one didn't so much

I feel I'm in an endless march of quiet days

One after another, for as long as I can see


I'll be glad when Saturdays are loud again

When Saturdays feel busy

When Saturdays are full

And quiet Saturdays are sweet again.

Slice of Life: Day 20--"Thoughts after a Week of Quarantine"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Today was our one week mark of quarantine. It's officially been 7 days of this new norm, and I thought it was worth recording some observations and noticings...

-I've only left the house 3 or 4 times, I think. Two grocery store visits, a pharmacy run, and a trip to the hardware store to buy some supplies to garden this spring.

-It's been hard to work from home, but I've adjusted. I've found that making a schedule each night for the next day has been my saving grace. Even if I don't keep it exactly, I find the structure makes the day more productive and rewarding.

-I miss my students. BIG. It's hard to be separated from everyone and I feel that most with my students. I can call and talk to family and friends, but it's killing me to not have that with my kiddos.

-I've adjusted to this new norm (to some extent) much quicker than I thought I would. I walk the dog in the morning and sit outside to drink my coffee. Tonight I sat on the front porch and shivered in the night air just because I wanted to.

-I've found some creative ways to find meaning seperated from others. I'm starting to do online Zoom Bible studies with ladies at church, and while it feels weird and different from face-to-face time, it's also my favorite thing I've added to life since quarantine. Last night, as we all looked at each other and chatted after the study, I looked at one lady and tears were coming down her face. "I've missed you all so much," she choked out. It was heartbreaking. It's hurting us all to be apart.

-Connections are making all the difference. I'm intentionally making sure that, as an extrovert who craves human interaction, I am super careful to not go to long without talking to someone. I call people, I do zoom meetings, I email, I blog, I tweet, I facebook....all the things that make me feel like I'm connecting. And, it's working somehow. I get to the end of the day, and I feel so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life.

-I'm still a little scared. I feel like I'm not ready for what's coming because I don't know what's coming. I'm afraid for my parents and my family who are all far away. I'm a little afraid of things getting "out of hand"---whatever that means. It's the unknowns.

-I've put some thought into what life might be like after this. Will hugs come easy or a little tentatively? What scars will we carry? What things have our children internalized? How will this affect life going forward....will this be a moment in time like 9/11? One of those before and after defining moments, or a blip on a radars in a decade where we all look back and laugh, kind of like Y2K? I think maybe somewhere in the middle...but I have no idea at all.

-I'd like to say that this all feels comfortable, but I think I'm a little ways from that. I try to avoid these thoughts most of the time and take it one day at a time. It's all I know to do. Breathe. Trust. Focus on the good. Prepare how I know how. Do my job and love my students. And then breathe, again.

It's going to be okay.

Slice of Life: Day 19--"Today I Almost Stole a Daffodil--Part 2"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Read Part 1 of the daffodil story here, if you'd like to! :)

Short story: I was so close to picking the forsaken daffodil from the empty school lot today, but my roommate used her teacher voice and told I was going to be fined. I didn't get to take it home today, but all our schools closed until May 1st, so maybe tomorrow?

A poem based on "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams--read it here, if you haven't! It's a classic.

"This is Just to Say"

I have picked
the daffodils
that were in
the flower bed.

and which
you were probably
saving
for the children

Forgive me
they were so beautiful
so bright
and so cheerful

**No, I didn't pick them, but I thought this poem was the perfect fit for how I was feeling....and my possible legal defense in the future...? ;)

Slice of Life: Day 18--"Online PD that Made My Heart Happy"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Today we had online, remote PD in my District.

It was excellent material. Engaging, interesting, and useful.

But, mostly...I "left" smiling because I got to see the smiles of some familiar faces. We come together once a month, and this month was no different.

Some things don't change, and I'm so very thankful. We smiled, laughed, and waved at each other. Kids cuddled up by parents to listen to a session about how to teach reading more effectively. I felt like we were together, even though we were all in our homes.

Today it was PD that allowed me to feel a sense of normal, even though my dog fought me for screen time and couch space.

It made me feel like it's going to be okay.

Slice of Life: Day 17---"Today I Almost Stole a Daffodil"

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers website and blog. Join me!

Today I almost stole a daffodil. I don't think I've ever stolen anything, so this is big.

I could use some moral guidance on this issue, actually. so please help me out.

My roommate and I took the dog for a walk today to get out of the house in between our online learning "office hours".

There's a school across the street from my house,  so I like walking around their grounds when they are out of session...usually afternoons, but now with our quarantine, it's everyday.

One of my favorite flowers are daffodils, and I was too lazy to plant them this fall in MY yard, so I've been admiring the appearance of them in other people's yards. (admiring, not planning a heist, I promise!).

But today was different. I saw the flowers in the school's yard. I smelled them. They were blooming and gorgeous and I just felt that they needed me and I needed them.

We connected.

My roommate had different ideas.

Me: I want that flower and no one is going to even enjoy it with school out. I think I should pick them.
Her: They have cameras. They'll know it was you.
Me: Do you know sign language?
Her: Some.
Me: Can you tell them that I just think they are beautiful and I am taking them home to a place they will be loved.
Her: Umm. Maybe a little bit of that.
Me: Okay. Work on it. Tomorrow I might need to rescue these daffodils from this quarantined school and take them home.
Her: I probably won't do that.
Me: Okay, fine. I might risk jail time to take that poor flower home.

So, here's the moral question: Does a daffodil deserve to die without being admired? Will they check the cameras in two months and call the police? Or, as I suspect, will no blame me for wanting a little ray of sunshine in my house during a worldwide pandemic?

HELP.