It has been two weeks since that last post, and our quarantine is lifted. My husband went back to work yesterday after two weeks of fielding calls from home. A lot of his work these days centers around covid testing and tracing. It was nice having him around because I have been glued to the computer for the last two weeks getting my class converted to online status. He was happy to take a lunchtime swim in the pool with our daughter, so I could focus. Secretly I have been glad to have the excuse to turn down the occasional request for a play date. Not that we have much to cancel.
Since we got Ben's test results, I have heard at least 5 different cases of people who got calls that they were positive -- and they didn't even take a test! One waited in line but had to leave before her turn, another had an appointment but didn't show, and 3 were people who received mail-in tests but never mailed them in. It makes you lose a little faith in the system.
If my son had never had the scare with the contact with his boss, I would have no doubt that his test was flawed. Maybe there is a slim possibility that he had trace amounts of virus that didn't show up before his first test, but whether the test was right or not, he certainly has not been sick, nor has anyone he has been in contact with.
The boys started school this week - This is the Princess Cake our third son made before leaving. That is homemade marzipan on the outside. They also made homemade steamed buns that turned out deliciously.
So on to other things: I am really craving a trip to the mountains. Everyone is going on vacation these days. I need to take a break from social media, so I'm not triggered by envy. I already had a couple little camping trips this summer. I should be basking in those memories, instead of wishing fo rmore. Sometimes I need a good reminder to be grateful for what we have and have done.
For instance, today is the feast of Santa Chiara, our daughter's patron. I made a trip to Trader Joe's and picked up some cacio e pepe ravioli, a baguette, heirloom tomatoes to make bruschetta, asparagus, some mozzarella and prosciutto, and meringues because somewhere on the internet my husband read that they are a dessert for St. Clare. I'd have preferred gelato, but I wasn't going straight home after the store. Plus, she won a pint of free gelato a month for a year from the local gelato place awhile back. (Guess how much a pint costs at this place? $14. I bought one because I felt a little badly she was getting a free pint a month, but now I've done my part. I think this place will survive the Covid shutdown because it is the kind of place you order and walk out. And there seem to be plenty of people out buying food on the town these days. The city has granted restaurants the right to set up tables on the sidewalk and in some street parking spots so that they can stay in business.)
I made a browned butter, sage, and garlic sauce to go with the ravioli. I haven't cooked in weeks because the kids and my husband had taken over the kitchen, but I have to say, supper was ready in less than 30 minutes, and it was really, really good. A little trip to Italy in the imagination.
What else is going on? The fall sports started practicing, but their seasons are postponed till winter. The cross country team is still practicing, and our son went to enough football conditioning sessions before they ended to get motivated to use the weights I bought back in April more.
I had a basal cell skin cancer removed. It was a tiny spot, but the dermatologist removed a huge chunk of flesh. The last time they just carved out a spot, it left a little scar like a cigarette burn, but now I look like I've been bitten by a shark. I'd post a picture of how awful it looked the day after the surgery, but I vagelled when I saw the photo of it my daughter took, so I won't traumatize you, although we all have a fascination with the gross. I had to lay on the floor until I didn't feel faint anymore. The doctor who did it was a resident, and while he was stitching, the attending physician made him redo a couple stitches. I feel like someone's science fair project. Here's hoping the vitamin E oil I'm rubbing on it will minimize the welt.
Another thing occupying my time has been fielding questions about home schooling. A part of me wonders if I could have stuck with home schooling through those few hard years when Dan was gone all the time, we''d have reached a place of smooth sailing. Our daughter who needed a boost in math just finished an online summer math class for high school that was not synchronous with a B+. So I could see how we could have used online resources for teaching hard topics. And now that they are home all day with just a couple friends that they see on a regular basis, they have settled in. When I am tempted to look back with regret, I remind myself of the good teachers they have had at both the Catholic and the public school. I remember going to a spouses' club meeting years and year ago when my older kids were tiny, and two moms were arguing about private vs. public schools. It was awful and uncomfortable, but even now I remember the public school mom saying she wanted her kids to be salt and light for the earth. That's a lot to ask of teens, but it stuck with me.
And now here we are back to home schooling in a way. I am officially home schooling the first grader, but the two high schoolers will be online from 8-1 everyday. We have to get a new laptop and wifi extender pronto. They start in two weeks. I start online on Monday, as does my college daughter. She laid on the floor and cried when they announced students wouldn't be coming to campus. Meanwhile, the two boys going to school in Indiana started class this week.
And I will be teaching 3 classes online this semester. I was originally signed up for just one, but one of the composition faculty decided to retire early rather than transition online. Although my military class has been hybrid or completely online that past few years, it is not a synchronous class, and it is only 8 weeks instead of 15. I don't use many bells and whistles with that class - I post a few videos, but mostly communicated through the announcements and email and point them to outside resources. The grammar videos out on the world wide web are much flashier than mine. I use TedEd and Hippocampus for videos primarily, and post some of my own materials. We do miss out on reading essays together for examples of fine writing, but the students have to reflect on them in the discussions. It's a weak substitute, but it accommodates the schedule of military personnel who are frequently out to sea.
For these classes at the school where I'm teaching now, I am trying learn about all of the interactive features in Zoom (how to take attendance and polls and setting up break out rooms and integrating Jamboard and Google sites), and creating videos for the grammar material, instead of pointing to external sites, although I may do half and half. I am not a film maker, although I've been watching trainings that the university is offering and trying out some of these things. But it took me 2 hours the other day to make a 10 minute Screen-cast-o-matic video and get it uploaded, in between re-recording because of interruptions or me messing up my script and trying to download and then upload the file, which should be easy, but I'm working with the free version, and there's a learning curve...
As a stay at home mom, I appreciate the opportunity to work from home, but I will need to relinquish over-thinking and be satisfied with good enough in a number of different areas of life for a month or two or more until we hit our stride.
All that to say - a lot of people are turning to home schooling their younger kids right now. A friend at church has started a text group of 14 other moms from our parish who are checking out of school. We met yesterday to talk about getting together occasionally and share books and info on the legal process in California. I'm happy for these families to be finding each other and all the wonderful resources online. While church attendance is down, families are bonding together more at home, in prayer and play.
And lastly - the puppy! He is doing great. He's funny looking and funny acting. He has a spazzy session every night after supper until he finally flops down beside whichever kid has the cushiest pillow on the couch. He has been a great source of distraction for the kids. He still has the occasional accident when we aren't attentive, and he picks up any loose socks left on the ground, but he is pretty good about dropping them without a wild chase. The youngest is sad that she is not his favorite - he usually picks a more sedentary teen to lay by - but other than that, he has meshed into family life pretty smoothly.
While I have been designing an online class space, the rest of the family has been watching the survival show Alone and the international food show Ugly Delicious, which does teach about food and culture - but the language! I did sit down with the older kids to watch A Hidden Life the other day, but no one could stay awake. It was very Terrence Malick, lots of anguished looks, waifish females walking through fields of grass, and dramatic embraces, along with absolutely stunning scenes of the Austrian mountains. Watching it reminded me of watching a ballet - quiet drama, a bit overacted. It is beautiful, but could be shorter than three hours. I did appreciate the point it was making about the quiet lives of small heroes, but that analysis rests a lot on the helpful quote at the end from George Eliot's Middlemarch, from which the title is taken.
We also watched JoJo Rabbit, which was much more fun to watch. Colorful, playful, clever, but I knew what was coming in the end. Well, not the absolute end, but the sad part. It reminded me a bit of Life is Beautiful, but self-consciously so. The young star was phenomenal for a child actor.
What else? I have mostly been reading essays for class, but I did finish a book about a man who was imprisoned and tortured in Iraq under Saddam Hussein before coming to American as a refugee. I reread Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was beautiful. I had forgotten much of it. And the last Penderwicks book, The Penderwicks at Last, was also fun to read, but bittersweet because the girls are grown up and getting married. And Fun Home, which is one of those books that has received so much acclaim I felt I ought to read it. It is a moving, but difficult, graphic novel to read. I turned it in to the library before the kids could read it, but I can see why it has garnered a lot of attention. I also read most of White Fragility. My husband's leadership group is reading it. It, too, is hard to read.
On the other hand, I am excited about reading One Long River of Song, the collection essays of Brian Doyle published just after he died. I am calling this a school purchase for me. Now I'm going to publish this and get back to course design.
The flowers are thriving.
