Survival

 We all survived the first week of school! It was different, painful, weird. But it was also necessary, empowering, and accomplished. 

So many schools in Illinois have given in and decided to go strictly online, but we are fortunate that we get to go in person. 

Here's a another bulletin board in my classroom that features more than 50 quotes about how music helps us heal.

I used old (only songs that were incomplete) sheet music I had as a background.

The girls put together most of this board. I cut out the sparkly letters and drew the letters for 'YOU,' but they did everything else.  Annah put up the die cut music notes that are the last 2 phrases of the school alma mater. ("All your sons and daughters ever shall be true to the diamond in the prairie--the silver and the blue."

I really want my students to know that their music does belong to them. A teacher can teach them, but they are the ones who have the talent, who work to increase their skills, and who use their voices to create the music.  It belongs to them, and no one can take that away from them. 

I started with teacher in-service days Monday 8/17, and the first two were forced online at the last second because someone who had been in the building had been exposed to someone with Covid19 and the school had to be deep cleaned. 

The in-service days were great, and helped me a lot. I thought it was awesome when our elementary principal put this quote on the screen at the beginning of our first in-service day.

My office has been painted, and I've made it look as different as possible from how it looked before. It's still a work in progress, but it is functional enough for now.

I need something really big and great to cover the door!

The elementary classes are cohorting, and I will travel to them. This is my classroom-on-a-cart!

It's actually a desk on wheels, and I probably won't take it with me every day if I can get away with just using a backpack. But it allows me to have speakers and play songs on the keyboard. 

The girls stopped at the Dollar Tree and got me the colored containers for each class.

I also have my own school website now.

We went on a walk around town the night before everyone started school.

We started Friday 8/21. Jeremy moved Annah in at SIUe that same day, and she started classes (both in-person and online) Monday 8/24.

Jeremy is still working from home, so he took our first-day-of-school pictures.

SENIOR!

Sophomore!

We go together!

Every morning before we go to school, I have to complete an online self-certifying wellness check for the kids and myself.

 The staff has been so supportive and encouraging of me.  I received these beautiful flowers from the elementary guidance counselor on the first day of school. 

It has been an uber emotional week. I’m exhausted in every way, and went to bed at 7:30 a couple nights this week. (Hey, I haven't worked full time in 19 years!!) 

The disappointments continue to pile up. But! We continue to hang onto Jesus. Good things and blessings are in the mix too. I will continue to fight to focus on those things...

Mr. M taking a moment after school to show Caeden how to re-string a guitar I found in the music library.

Annah checking in to tell us how much she loves it at SIUe...

The art teacher and I with our classroom carts--and our photo-bombers in the elementary office!  Haha!

Encouraging emails from our Principals and Superintendent, and an anonymous donor providing lunch from Subway for the entire staff!

There are blessings in there. We will be thankful.

Last Day of School?

Today was the kids' official last day of school--more than 2 weeks early, actually, due to the COVID19 shelter-in-place order and remote learning.  Honestly, neither of them had much actual class work this week, but each had a few Zoom meetings to see their teachers and classmates and say goodbye for the summer.

I honestly almost forgot to do last-day-of-school photos, since they haven't grabbed their backpacks and driven off to school for 61 days!

Sylvia actually liked the online learning for most of her classes. She liked that she could go back and re-watch specific parts of lectures as many times as she wanted to. She liked the fact that classes and lectures weren't interrupted with other students' asking questions. She missed in-class discussions, friends, music, and lots of other things though. 

Even if the end of it was odd, there were plenty of awesome, amazing things during her junior year. 

Caeden did not like remote learning at all--except for Zoom meetings with his favorite teachers/classes, Biology and English. It wasn't that a lot of work was done during those Zoom meetings, but the teachers needed to see their kids just as much as the kids needed to see each other and their teachers! (On one Zoom with his English class, kids were apparently showing each other around their houses, and kind of having a show-n-tell where they were trying to come up with the weirdest random item they could find in their house.  One student showed up with a baby, and he won!) I know for sure that remote learning was just as hard for the teachers (if not harder) as it was for the students. For Caeden, it was very hard to stay focused and complete his work at home. He usually does almost all of his work in class, and he feels like home is where he unwinds and doesn't think about school work.  So staying on task with classes on his own was a bit rough. Also, Caeden is such a social person; not seeing his classmates and friends has been the hardest part. We did grant him the concession of SnapChat, and he has connected with so many friends that way...it has been the best thing for him, really...as much as I hate SnapChat and hate to say that.  

His freshman year started out loaded not only with new classes and high school academic responsibilities, but vocal jazz, marching band, cross country, and fall play keeping him at school for about 13 hours a day! Talk about ending the school year in complete opposite! 

Now officially a senior and a sophomore, oh wow!

I'm calling this group the "socially distanced skateboard gang."  Coby bought Caeden a skateboard and gave it to him today so he could actually skate with them; so sweet. And they got Jackson to come along too! 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17

Jeremy took Annah to Greenville today to move the rest of her things out of her dorm room.  They were able to get most when he rushed down to get her in March, but there were still a few of the larger items, like her rug, microwave, rolling cart, mattress topper, etc. 

Once the university was able to set the protocol for COVID-19 move-out, she had to request an appointment. She didn't feel there was time last week during finals, so today was her assigned day.  She was given a 3 hour window between noon-3pm. Only one person was allowed to go with her on campus. Only one person per floor of the dorm could move out at a time. Traffic into and out of the dorm was one-way...up one flight of stairs (She lived on the 3rd floor.) and down another flight. Face masks were required to enter the building.

Annah's roommate Tori had moved out last week, and left this on her whiteboard along with a letter and a gift. Annah had to call her once she had emptied and cleaned the room to "check out," since Tori was also her R.A. 

She had to lock her room key and her mailbox key in the room, rather than turning them in to a Resident Director.  Jeremy said they didn't see anyone else in or out of the building while they were there. What an odd feeling. 

 Jeremy took Annah to Doc's house to turn in her choir folders and music, and she was able to visit with him (from 6 feet away).  Jeremy sent me this picture he took from the car, and I just cried. We love this man, and are so thankful Annah had daily influence and encouragement from him throughout this year.  He was one of the biggest reasons she went to GU, one of the biggest helps in getting her there, and he encouraged her even today. 

That was definitely the best last stop/encounter Annah could have had in leaving Greenville.

When she got home, she and Sylvia made room for all of the rest of her dorm room stuff, and she put up her little message board in their room.

First Year Done

My favorite part of Annah's workspace are the snacks that appear daily.  Nice choice on the Oreos for the last day, Ann.

She did it.  She finished, and she is so glad to be done with this school year.  Right now she has very few positive things to say or feel about it, but I pray that one day she will be able to look back and be so thankful for ever part of it. 

I am proud of her for continuing to try when she really did NOT want to. I am proud of her for enduring Music Theory 2, Audiation 2, and Class Piano 2 with essentially no instruction for the entire semester.  I am proud of her for completing a 6-credit Humanities: Philosophy of Religion course that was super intense. There was more learning about being a grown-up and dealing with the unfairness of life than we would've wished for her this year, but I can totally see God's hand in all of it.  Even though it feels like almost everything is uncertain for her right now, I cannot wait to see where the Lord takes her next!

Fun Orthodontist

Caeden was supposed to have an orthodontist appointment way back in March, but of course, they had to close their office for COVID19. He had a chain break a couple weeks ago, so I finally called on Monday and asked if that was considered an emergency.  It was! So, we got out of the house today!

It was annoying to have to wear masks (mostly because we wear glasses and they fog up when you have a mask on too), but we totally understand and complied! 

I had to sign a paper verifying the fact that no one in our house has had fever, cough, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, fatigue/exhaustion or been around anyone who has. We were asked to use hand sanitizer as well.  No problem!

Dr. B fixed Caeden right up, and we scheduled his next appointment. This was the first place we had been inside besides our own home in 53 days. We talked with Dr. B about how, strangely, no one seems to be talking about how this shelter-in-place is so detrimental to mental health!

As we were leaving, Caeden said, "That was fun!" He is such a social boy; this shelter in place order is pretty hard on him.  And you know it's getting to a person when a teenager genuinely says that going to the orthodontist was fun! We do love Dr. B and his staff though; they're great.

 This evening, Jeremy and the girls and I took a walk around Arrowsmith.  We kept seeing these square concrete slabs that we had never noticed before. Sylvia decided they were spots for posing as a statue--until we saw one with a half-barrel planter on it and remembered that they all used to have them. I think the barrels just disintegrated and were removed. 

Another weird thing related to COVID19...

We received this information today for returning Chromebooks and other school property and getting the kids' items from their lockers.  They won't be allowed in the building.

 And, you know, the murder hornets are coming! (I actually read that praying mantis kill them, so I'm not worried because we have lots of those!). I also saw that these are shark birds are sure to arrive this summer in the midwest...!  ;)

Starting to Crack

For the 3rd month in a row, my Amazon Subscribe and Save order of toilet paper has been canceled. This is the least of my concerns. We have plenty of TP.

And we still have plenty of silly and SnapChat filter fun going on.

Annah was only required to record one of the pieces she's worked on this semester in her private lessons for her juries. She sang a Mozart aria that I didn't know, and I loved getting to accompany her.   We had a few challenges recording, as it was the first beautiful day we'd had in a while and all of our neighbors were outside mowing and the sound was picked up on the recording. When we finally found a few minute window where no one was mowing, and trucks weren't driving by our house constantly, we got this take...ignore my little screw-up at the end and Annah's hair getting in her eyes. We had fun making music together.

When she got home unexpectedly in March, Annah cleared a spot on the table in the den to set up her computer and work. Notice her phone in front of her computer...She and Ryan are FaceTiming while she works and he is playing video games at his house. 

She has had to push really hard (and needed several pep talks) to keep going. One more week!

I've really appreciated Jimmy Fallon's putting out "Tonight Show" videos from his home with his adorable family. And I really enjoyed this song, and maybe identified with some of the references a little too much.  Haha.

It does feel like we're "starting to crack" a little bit sometimes.

This afternoon, in his daily COVID19 public address to the state, our governor officially announced that Illinois schools will remain closed and classes online for the rest of the school year.  While we assumed this was coming, the fact that it was put off and we were given false hope for the last several weeks made it more difficult to take.

We have a wonderful new superintendent this year, and he sent out a voice message and this letter to our entire district:

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It is difficult to process all of this.  For me personally, only minor inconveniences:

 *I am not able to work as a substitute teacher. I was supposed to cover a maternity leave teaching HS and JH health from 4/24 through the end of the school year, but now that classes are online the teacher will cover it during her leave (God bless her, with a new baby!)  

*I was also hired in January as the Theatre Club Sponsor for the high school, which includes directing the annual Variety Show...which is now a "no-go."

*I don't know whether or not to even bother planning to direct a fall play.

For Caeden, I think he feels that he will have opportunities to do all the things later, since he is a freshman.  But, he is struggling with focusing on his school work online.  And he really, really misses his friends.  He is thankful for Zoom classes, Fortnite with his boys, and SnapChat to keep him in touch with some people besides the ones in our house! 

Sylvia, on the other hand is missing out on a lot.  This most recent announcement was the straw that really broke the camel's back for her.  She has felt like she couldn't grieve things she's missing out on because she's not a senior, but today she did break down and cry, finally.  

She has (or will) missed out or can't move forward on:

*Performing in Guys and Dolls

*Going to Sectionals with the WYSE team

*Spring concert for choir, vocal jazz, band

*Being part of the induction ceremony for National Honor Society

*Junior Prom and AfterProm

*A chance to perform in the variety show

*Going on college visits

*Taking the SAT and ACT

*Walking as Honor Guard for commencement

*Going back to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp this summer (closed for the year)

*And possibly the most devastating is that she won't get to perform the Haydn cello concerto as the featured Howard Rye soloist competition winner with the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony this spring.  It is a really big deal, and we are all really sad for her and pray she will be able to compete again next year. 

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Although the announcement today doesn't change anything specific for Jeremy or Annah, they are both dealing with loss too.

It has been really hard for Jeremy to remain at home.  Not that he doesn't like being at home, but in his job, he thrives on the social interaction with others.  He was explaining to the kids the other day that it's not that he loves the content of his job, but it's the relationships and interactions with others that makes it enjoyable for him.

He also feels that way about going to the gym.  It is his sanctuary! He has cleaned the old weight benches in the basement and is using those every morning, but not having the social interaction at the gym is difficult for him.

Poor dear Annah is just really struggling to get through her coursework online.  Her theology and philosophy honors course is difficult and very time consuming for her. Music is not really something that works online. 

She is working with SIUe on her transfer for the fall and has an advising appointment to schedule classes next week.  However, she is really worried that the university will have to remain online even in the fall and it won't be worth it for her. Then when she thinks about that, she worries that music will be cut from schools for the near and foreseeable future, and getting a degree in music education would be fruitless.  She is very overwhelmed on a constant basis right now, and I am praying hard for her.

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Dealing with so many unknowns right now is so difficult.  Everyone is facing challenges.  People are getting angry.  Some are angry at the government.  Some are angry at the media.  Some are angry at protestors who are angry at the government. 

I am not angry. I am overwhelmed at times.  But I know there is only one person who holds the real truth. So I will look to Him.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.

 No one can come to the Father except through me. 

- John 14:6 NLT

Dean's List

We are proud to announce that Annah made the Dean's List in her first semester at GU!

Now, we are not surprised at our hard-working girl, but we are a little more proud, I think, because of the extra emotional difficulty she has been through the past few months.  In October, Greenville announced that they are "phasing out" Annah's major--music education.  While they technically have to help her complete her degree there, the music education professor has already been let go.  Also, the head of the MacAllaster Honors Program that Annah is part of has been let go, as he is head of the philosophy program which has also been done away with.  

Annah chose Greenville for several reasons, most of which now feel moot.  She is looking into transferring to SIUe, was accepted in December, and has an audition scheduled in February. While it is very difficult for her emotionally, we know and trust that God has big plans for her--wherever she goes!