Day 16 and 17

Sometimes I am not sure what to write. What will I want to remember years from now? Should I be recording a (depressing) round up of the days news? Just a log of our daily activities? Is it OK to have a sense of humor in the middle of a global pandemic? These are questions I don't know the answer to!

Yesterday, Day 16:
I had the morning shift today. Feeling the pressure to be an amazing home school teacher, along with everything else. I tell myself daily to let this go, to do whatever feels right, but some days I feel guilty and try to pull off some actual academics. M is working on an opinion piece about Harry Potter, and today we really tried at this "sink or float" experiment that the teachers posted. Do you know if a mango sinks or floats?

Turns out a mango sinks! Cool! 

This also led to some fun outdoor time and building a fort with a parachute!

Also turns out, E has a UTI, so I had to to the pharmacy, which was a little scary.  We were able to get her evaluated via telemedecine (they left a urine cup at reception for her, we took the sample at home, and returned it! So while we stepped inside the office for a minute, we did not have to hang out in the waiting room or be seen in an exam room, yay!)But I picked up some sidewalk chalk and later on M and his cousin and I went back to the doctors office and left notes of thanks.

I can't imagine being a health care worker right now. My dad was an OR nurse for many years, and I am so glad that he is home, isolating, and safe right now.  I am worried for my sister in law who is a nurse at the Dartmouth Medical Center over in NH, and for other mom friends who are nurses and doctors all over country. It is such a scary time, especially when there isn't enough PPE for this crisis. 

It was breakfast for dinner, yay! A favorite! I wanted to make a fun, sweet, coffee cocktail, but ended up making a gross white Russian. I used some local coffee liqueur which was quite bitter and the milk curdled and...gross. Which is how I ended up drinking a Kahlua and Ovaltine for a 9pm google chat with girlfriends. A new cocktail, lol! It was great to chat with friends and just catch up!

Day 17:

I found this comic, which really spoke to me:

I'm working hard and letting go of "toxic positivity" and the need to always be positive and "ok". It is ok to feel the hard feelings, to acknowledge that this is hard and that parts of it suck. That even though I am a great teacher, I may not be a great home school teacher, and there may be days where we don't even get to academics! There may days where anxiety is more present than joy. And that is OK!

Today I had the morning shift again while Mike worked, and we traded at lunch. For now the system seems to be working well enough. Today the morning academics consisted mostly of computer games (oh, I mean "Educational online activities") and all went well. 

After I finished by work, we all went for a bike ride. I tried my new mountain bike at the pump track for the first time! I wouldn't have been able to do the whole track last year, but after a few rides last fall, I was able to do it! I was pretty proud of myself! 

Dinner, some dire evening news, kids to bed.  It looks like it is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, and NYC is almost out of ICU beds. Nurses are protesting. More young people are getting sick. We are learning more about the virus as we go. There are still so many unknowns. Life just feels on hold.

US cases: 200,000+

VT cases: 321