As I continue to look for the good in our new life, Remi has to be at the top of my list. She thinks this is greatest thing ever. All her people home all day long. Long walks and playing fetch. She is content and happy.

This morning she lays beside my desk and it makes me feel good too. Although, she did also make me make the bed around her today. She must be tired from all her extra exercise. 🙂

 

She’s pretty happy. She and John ran around in the warm sunshine yesterday which was lots of fun.

 

We had a good day yesterday.  Got a lot done work-wise and home-wise. Here’s a few photos of our good day. 🙂

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Looking forward to a nice day today. Got up at 6am. The alarm across the room, while brutal, worked pretty well. I got up at my target time and did the workout. Got some things posted for the kids and will soon be off to a meeting. Going to be busy at work today.

Pretty morning sun and coffee. Great start to the day!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Afternoon!

It is beautiful outside. I love the warmth and the sunshine. We have already been out one time but will go out again this afternoon. So lovely. Enjoy that!

So darn. I overslept today. Kinda mad that happened but got after the normal routine at 7ish. Ah well. Will put the alarm across the room tonight. Really want to get up at 6am so I can have time to myself. Try, try again. But got the exercises done, and took a walk with John and Remi while Joe had a morning meeting. Then came back and had some meetings with students and worked for a bit. John made a beautiful painting for Nana Lynn!

 

So Joe started a new assignment at work- helping out HR. So he was busy with meetings all morning. But check out his new chair I “built” for him. Pretty slick. 

 

Alrighty. Back to some jobs of work here. Get out and enjoy that sunshine! Feels so good! Reminds me of a song… 😉

 

 

I’ve followed the Hollis crew for quite awhile and done a few challenges in the past.

While there are those out there going through unimaginable life changes and we are incredibly lucky, these two offer me a way to shift perspective and be grateful for the blessings of what I have and also what this situation can teach me. Everyone is going through change and loss.

I’m doing the #next90challenge to keep myself centered during this constantly changing time. Check it out- it’s totally free!

https://thehollisco.com/pages/next90- Click here!

 

It goes without saying that I worry the most about people in my life contracting this disease. I cannot control that other than that we’ve already done all we can to prevent it and we will continue our practice. We just have to hope that they stay healthy at this point.

Other than that, I would say I have two things I am viewing negatively that I can change my perspective on.

The first being that it’s uncomfortable to be so uncertain about what is happening in the education world for me and my students. But to turn that around, I can look at what is GOOD about this for both me and my students. Can we use this as a teachable moment? Of course we can. Can we show and teach our students about vulnerability, resilience, and self-discipline to name a few? Yes.

The second being that this new normal has me juggling my son’s schedule, my husband’s schedule and my own together. And we are together at ALL. TIMES. Which has its very very frustrating moments. To turn that around, I am blessed to have this time to connect with them. Have more family table dinners. Cook more and talk more with Joe. Watch my son learn and to be an active participant with him as he learns. To watch his joy and his laugh when I would otherwise miss it. So many things.

Perspective. There are those out there right now who have it a whole lot worse than me- they might be sick. Someone in their family might be sick. They might have lost jobs. Not sure of how to pay rent or other expenses. Maybe they are an essential worker and have no choice but to power us through this time.

At the end of the day, someone always has it worse than me. How can I make the best of my very fortunate circumstance? How can I honor those who have it worse? Honor their sacrifices? I want to look for the positive. I want to reach out and help out others as much as I can.

I am looking at our new situation through the lens of how I can come out on the other side better for going through this hard time. I am just like everyone else- going through change and loss. Mine isn’t as great as say someone going through the virus or being affected in some direct way. But… I have the choice to do something with this new time. It is a blessing to have time with my family. To connect more. And it is a blessing to think of new creative ways to reach my students.

I can’t control this. But I can control my response.

 

Good morning!

Thank goodness for coffee. I got up and exercised even though I REALLY did not want to today. Would have been nice to keep sleeping…but here we are! And coffee helps. 🙂

Yesterday was a good day, albeit a long day. John Michael was trying. We are working on him cleaning up his own mess at home and that was a fight. Finally lost it and told him I was going to count to 5 (no cliche 3 for me… haha). And then yelled at him. That did it but he told me through tears he didn’t want me to yell at him again! Ugh. Would have been lots easier to just pick up the toys but I refused to pick up even one and made the hard parenting choice. It is exhausting even over dumb stuff like this. Finally it ended with him coloring at his table. Trashed to sorta better. Whew.

But then we danced together and he did some beautiful artwork. He ate with us at the table and even ate the food we made. Can’t complain about that!

Speaking of dancing… he was pretending to sleep. This is so funny.

So anyway, I did the necessary school work and got to put together a new chair for the workspace which is cheerful and helpful for my back.

Joe tried his whiskey- that is some good stuff! Traverse City Whiskey Company. Highly recommend. And I know you are wondering… did we have Taco Tuesday? We sure did! Joe made some amazing tacos.

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Morning!

Taco Tuesday? Maybe. Depends on if the store has the fixings. Joe will find out today. One trip to the store per week or less often if we can swing that. John Michael needs some more things too.

John Michael had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Thanks to everyone who wished him well. 🙂

Not much to say today other than some planning and working. Overcast today again, not too cheery. Joe got an early birthday present today though. 🙂 He is excited to give it a taste tonight I think.

Have a great day!

 

Happy Monday to you all! Today my son John Michael turned 4. Hard to believe- time flies.

Last night we made car cookies. That look a little like they are jail cookies that have already been in a crash…hahaha.

I also tried my hand at making a big chocolate chip cookie in the cast iron. Wow was that ever good. Like a cookie pie. Mom got me this cookbook which has lots of cool recipes in it. I plan to try more. I’m not usually a baker (I enjoy cooking a LOT more) so most of the recipes will not be desserts that I make. Although the cast iron is appealing for those who don’t like baking because most of them are like throw it in there and walk away. I like that!

This morning we followed the routine and I did some work for school (meetings and budget stuff) but John was on the birthday club and we made a nice little breakfast. We also went for a walk in the sunshine before it turned cloudy! Some nice artwork today too.

 

Tonight we FaceTime with Grandma Lu and Grandpa Mike to open their present and sing him happy birthday. 🙂 Not quite like being in person but still pretty fun.

And just for some quarantine laughs? This song is my jam…

 

Hope everyone has a great week!

Afternoon all!

Dreary again. More rain. Hoping to see some sun soon. However, it was a very pleasant weekend. Full of lots of conversations with friends and family. Got the workouts in. Also full of good food and music. And…. my project to be distributed this week is done!!! Watch party anyone??? Stay tuned.

Couple of my favorite hymns this morning, How Great Thou Art and Abide With Me. Haha this first part of the video cracks me up…

 

Really nice church service this morning from the local church we go to. Check it out at the following link if you like: Sunday March 29 (Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Green Bay).

Just a few cool videos of these two neat hymns. These are not part of the church service above (still should check that out). But I love these.

Abide With Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84YASWe3_2Q

How Great Thou Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BL06fxHPVo

In other news, good foods were cooked! Steak w/ potatoes and carrots, and Sunday morning cinnamon rolls.

So, I think today we will take a drive in the rain and enjoy some family time before we go back to work tomorrow. My mom got us an herb garden for inside which will be fun to check out. We will also make some car cookies for someone’s 4th birthday tomorrow!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

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Hello there friends. We made it through another week.  😊

Not too much to say today. I did the normal routine and got some school stuff done. Checked in with the kids. Had some meetings. (John Michael likes to interrupt every meeting). Another win? It is pajama day!

The house is trashed no matter what we do, so eh. I think I will work on a fun project instead.

We have been good about not leaving our house for anything except when groceries are hardcore needed. We finally hit that day today so I went out to the store. The positive of the day was just getting to drive my Jeep for the first time in days. It’s supposed to be raining for the whole weekend so maybe we might just take a family drive to nowhere. Not get out or anything but just a drive to drive.

I find myself daydreaming that if we were in the normal school year we would be stressing over last minute details of solo and ensemble. Marinette was up to host this year. I think about the normal events all not happening and it can be a quick downer. So I’m forcing myself to think about the pros of the situation. One of them? Tonight I will get to sit down and eat dinner again with my family. We’ve been really intentional with this and it’s now what I most look forward to each day.

It’s been my goal to get John to eat at the table with us and I’m finding he is liking it more and more. He asks to light the candle everyday and wants to sit in the big chairs with us. He even tried my pasta last night! (We want him to eat our foods more and more, instead of being picky). The other favorite part of my day is jamming to music while we sit after dinner or cleaning up. This little gem happened after dinner last night. HILARIOUS.

This weekend I will have some virtual hangouts with some friends of mine I haven’t talked to in quite awhile and we will also call up both Joe’s and my family too on FaceTime. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Good afternoon!

We are a bit behind schedule here it seems on this bright and sunny afternoon! However, John thought it would be a great idea to wake up at 1am and then again at 3:45am and didn’t sleep all that great. Got me some more sleep and then did the exercises! Kept the routine, just a bit later today.

It is so nice and sunny! Brightens the mood. Yesterday JM and I made signs because I was inspired by the sidewalk chalk messages someone made. Made me want to make some encouraging signs for delivery workers. Through this process John wrote his name ALL on his own! So proud of him!

Today it is Jersey Day “at school.” Baseball is pushed back but still in the opening day spirit! I also usually make or post memes for my HS Band during regular session. No reason to stop now, right?

 

Overall, it’s been a fun couple days of virtual meetings (love seeing co-workers!) and hanging out with the family. Talked to Nana Lynn and Papa D on FaceTime yesterday which was very nice!

 

 

So I think we will take an afternoon walk and then make some pasta from Hello-Fresh. The sun perks me up and should be good to get some fresh air. Possibly a little Brooklyn Nine-Nine later? (Thanks Rachel and Alex for the recommendation… it is hilarious!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!