Pandemic at School
Week 25
Day 166 – Saturday, August 29, 2020
Oliver let me sleep all night for two nights in a row. That doesn’t bode well for tonight…
I got up around 6am, so I could go to Walmart at 7am when it opens. Hannah had the SAT this morning. I’m so glad that her high school is always a testing location, one less thing to stress about. She felt much better about the SAT than she did about the ACT, which she took twice. Her scores come back in about a month, just in time to decide if she should apply for admittance/scholarships with or without test scores. Her grades and AP scores are fantastic, but her ACT scores were okay, not fabulous. The SAT really is more her style, heavy on the verbal.
After I went to Walmart, and got everything put away, I took Leah to the thrift store. The plan was stop at Starbucks, go to the thrift store (opens at 9:00), go to the mall to pick up her contact lenses (opens at 10:00) and go home. Well, the mall wasn’t open at 10am. I checked the eye doctor and it said it opened at noon…. So, we went to Target for a bit, then stopped and got a carwash to kill a few more minutes. We finally got to the mall, got her contacts, stopped at Old Navy for a pair of jeans, then trekked to Bath & Body Works for some hand sanitizer. Leah was really living her best life this morning, she ended up with quite a shopping spree.
To celebrate the first week everyone was in school and Hannah’s SAT, I promised a trip to Moe’s for dinner. The last time we went was March 14th, our last hurrah before everything shut down. There weren’t too many people, so we ate inside. I would have preferred outside, but Elijah hates eating outside.
Laundry was done, but the grass remains un-mowed… all the neighbors mowed today. I’ll have to get it done tomorrow.
Day 167 – Sunday, August 30, 2020
I just realized I started the new week on Saturday… Whatever, lol.
Today seemed really long, in a good way. I got eight hours of sleep, which is amazing. I did have to get up around 4am to clean up cat barf…
I goofed around all morning and did a couple of loads of towels. Leah made cookies, so I put a load of dishes in the dishwasher.
Leah had Libby over for a couple of hours in the afternoon for a tea party and some bracelet making. They started off on the front porch and ended up in the party house. The weather was very nice, cloudy and cool. I kept waiting for the dew to dry so I could mow…. It never really did, so I just mowed the front yard after dinner.
I finally finished reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. I don’t feel like it should have taken me three weeks to read, but here we are. It was interesting, but I didn’t like it as much as An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I still have 12 books to read to reach my goal of 36 books for the year. I’m not sure I’m going to make it because the two books that are supposed to come out this month that I want to read are likely over 1000 pages each. Ken Follett has a new Kingsbridge prequel and Brandon Sanderson has a new Stormlight Archive book.
I made chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and biscuits for dinner it was amazing. I’m sure to be swollen tomorrow from all those carbs and gluten. It was worth it, lol.
None of us are ready to go back to school tomorrow….
Day 168 – Monday, August 31, 2020
It’s the end of meteorological summer. The last six months have been a blur of warped time.
This morning, I was surprised when my alarm woke me up. I was in the middle of a dream where I was meeting with some teachers, so it didn’t really seem like much of a dream.
Leah really likes her math teacher and says he’s a really good teacher. That’s not something I ever expected to hear her say. She was finishing up some homework last night, and we were discussing her social studies class. She is being pulled out in a small group that’s being taught by the assistant. Like she’s always in another classroom with just a few kids. Also, she is getting the fill in the blank worksheets instead of the “summarize in your own words”. She’s in honors math and English, but I think she’s in inclusion social studies, with modifications. She doesn’t want me to mention it to anyone because she’s happy with it. (Cammie, if you read this, mums the word). I’m really not sure if the classroom is just too full, so they are pulling some kids into another room, or what.
I saw a lot of my students today. It went pretty well. I got everyone logged into Google Classroom and then logged into BoomLearning. Everyone is going to get virtual homework every Wednesday to get kids and parents in the routine of doing it. All the elementary classroom teachers will be doing a virtual assignment on Wednesdays as well. I sent out a Remind message with that information, and I got a response from one parent that “[she] had no idea”. That’s why I sent the message… right?
We started the day with a socially distanced fire drill…. It’s the last day of the month, so it had to happen. They sounded the alarm for 30 seconds, then called two classrooms to file outside at a time. It went well.
I really don’t have enough time during the day to get everyone seen. That isn’t much of a surprise, but I’m not sure how it’s supposed to work. Two more kids officially moved to Virtual Academy. They hadn’t come to school, so it’s not really a surprise.
Tomorrow is another day, with a different group of kiddos…
Day 169 – Tuesday, September 1, 2020
It’s the first day of September, that means there’s new stuff on Animal Crossing, lol.
I had another busy day of seeing kids. Some new kids, some kids I haven’t seen in six months… Let’s just say that no one’s R’s sound any better than they did back in March. No surprise there.
It was my plan to see my self-contained students in their classrooms, but it’s so distracting. I may have to pull the younger one’s into my office. I wear my mask, and some of them are able to wear a mask (lots of autism), but six feet apart doesn’t work. I am able to keep exposure down to 15 minutes or less, so that’s something.
I have a homework assignment (a super easy, get to know you activity) scheduled to be assigned at 3pm tomorrow on Google Classroom and a Remind message scheduled to go out at the same time. All the elementary teachers at my school will have some sort of virtual homework assignment on Wednesdays. It will be interesting to see who does the homework.
It was a busy day. There certainly isn’t enough time to do all of the things that need to be done. I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon….
Day 170 – Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Wednesdays are my crazy, see kids at three different schools day. I started off by attempting to see one of my preschoolers. Her mom is a teacher, so she gets to school earlier than the kids that come by bus. I had confirmed with her teacher that the time was ok. Well, on Wednesdays, she goes to her outside therapies and doesn’t get to school until 10:15, so she wasn’t there. I headed out to Perry Heights (Leah’s middle school) early in hopes of talking to one of the special ed teachers before seeing my 6th graders. That went well. Both 6th grade students were lovely and easy to work with (and almost certainly should have been dismissed from services in 5th grade, but I digress). I made it back to Daniel Wertz in time for my group lesson with the older self-contained classroom (mostly autism). That lesson went surprisingly well, with only one computer snafu with one student. He had changed a bunch of settings, and somethings were no longer working correctly (totally reminded me of Elijah at that age…). Then I went to get my TWO preschoolers since the first one was now available. They are both very sweet, but individual therapy would really be better for both of them…. I had an early lunch, saw half a dozen kids for some quick articulation sessions (the R’s weren’t great, but the younger kids working on early developing sounds had all improved YAY). Then I headed to Reitz (Hannah’s high school) for a group lesson with my life skills kiddos. Once we got everyone logged in, that went surprisingly well.
During kindergarten dismissal, I had an interesting interaction with a little girl. One of the very chatty kindergartener girls, and the only one who has attempted to call me by name, said, “Miss Rose! Miss Rose!” She grabbed my photo ID and asked, “Why don’t you look like your picture?” I explained that I was dressed up and was wearing makeup and jewelry in the photo. She said, “No! Your face is different”. To which I replied, I’m wearing a mask now, but not in my picture. I stepped back and removed my mask for a second so she could see my face. She gasped. LOL. I’m pretty sure we are stunting these little kids’ development in some way by wearing masks….
It was a good, but exhausting day. My kids all hung out and talked physics/math before dinner which was kind of fun. After dinner, I helped Hannah with a physics problem. We had the answer, so I worked it out by feel (lol) because she didn’t understand how to get there. Elijah is taking the same physics course (AP Physics B) at Sig and is several weeks ahead. He had also worked the problem, but Hannah forgot to give him the final piece of information. I haven’t thought about physics since 1993…
Day 171 – Thursday, September 3, 2020
Well, today was really one for the books.
My trial pair of contacts were a month old, so I tossed them and cracked open a new box of lenses. I could not see ANYTHING with them in. It was like I put magnifying lenses in my eyes. I took them out and pulled out a new pair from an older prescription. I can definitely see enough to safely drive and read. So, that’s something. I put “call eye doctor” on my to do list.
Today was my day to work with some of my brand-new kiddos in one of our self-contained rooms. Therapy went really well with the four I saw before they went to recess. All four were able to do the task I had for them, and they were all pretty motivated to do the task. All four sat in the chair when it was their turn. All in all, they were fabulous… and super cute. My words as I left the classroom were, “I’ll be back after recess!”.
I went to my office to prepare to see another student during that recess, but I noticed I’d received a voicemail from Elijah’s school…. Elijah had a coughing fit at the beginning of the class period, and he had a bit of a sore throat. His friends encouraged him to let the office know. So, at 9:45, I had to leave work. I asked what the protocol was for me (and my girls) returning. Elijah will need a negative COVID test or a doctor’s not saying that his symptoms are not COVID related. I had that discussion with our doctor a month ago because of Elijah’s allergies & acid reflux and the girls’ migraines. In the end, it made more sense to get a test.
I picked up Elijah, who was sitting outside the school trying to listen to his class on his computer. He felt pretty guilty about the whole thing, but also anxious that he might be sick. He definitely wanted to get tested.
When we got home, I started making phone calls. I called our doctor first, but the nurse’s line went to voicemail, so I decided to just schedule a test myself. Evansville has two hospital systems St Vincent’s and Deaconess. We’ve almost exclusively used St. Vincent’s doctors, but Deaconess is the one doing COVID tests. Elijah’s allergist is a Deaconess doctor, but I never signed up for their patient portal. I had to call Deaconess to get his portal set up and schedule the test. It was quite a process, but the person helping me was super friendly and helpful. Since his symptoms started this morning, he won’t be eligible for a test until Sunday. I scheduled it for Sunday at 9am. In the past few weeks, test results have been coming back super-fast (like 6 hours), but they may have slowed down a bit.
I called my school’s secretary to let her know I’d be out tomorrow, and she said I needed to pull my girls out of school as well. So, I called Leah’s school, and they pulled her out of class. I texted Hannah to make sure her test was over (it was) before I called her school. Hannah had to call from the nurse’s office so I could tell the nurse that Hannah was allowed to drive home. Everyone was home by 11:40, Leah and I ate lunch together, and then the kids all did their schoolwork virtually.
I got around to calling the eye doctor, and talked to my good friend, Sean who is the manager. He’s my good friend because I’ve had to call him about a million times this month in regard to Elijah and Leah’s contacts…. I told him the trial pair was perfect, but something was clearly wrong with what came in the mail. Blah, blah, blah… after a good while, he figured it out. They had sent me +3.25 and I wear -3.25… no wonder I couldn’t see anything. So, new lenses have been ordered, and I will take back what I have (I’m sure they will salvage what they can). In the meantime, I will wear my old prescription because they don’t have any trial pairs in stock.
I got a phone call, that I almost missed, from the dermatologist’s office. My biopsy finally came back (just over 3 weeks!), and it is basal cell carcinoma which is what was expected. I would have scheduled an appointment to have the rest of it removed… Now, I have to wait to get Elijah’s test results before I can do that. I’m supposed to call back mid-week.
I haven’t really heard Elijah cough since he’s been home, but he says his throat feels “tight”. He thinks he will wake up feeling terrible. I guess we’ll see.
Day 172 – Friday, September 4, 2020
Besides having to use one of my sick days, today was pretty great. I still have 40 sick days (we get 10 each year, and I’ve worked for 6 years… I’ve taken many partial days to take kids to doctor’s appointment). The weather was absolutely perfect, and the humidity was super low.
Elijah got up at his normal time and got ready since he has to attend class synchronously. The girls can do most of their work asynchronously, and they were done super early. Leah did have a math quiz that she didn’t have access to until afternoon, and Hannah had an individual WebEx with her English teacher after school.
I had to return the contacts lenses that were the wrong prescription to the eye doctor’s office, and on the way home I picked up the DVD Leah had ordered from the library for movie night. I finished the book I was reading (Black is the Body) and started a new one (At Home by Bill Bryson). We had our normal Friday pizza night and followed it up with movie night.
Leah chose Kiki’s Delivery Service for movie night. She was pretty bummed that any Labor Day plans that might come up were pre-cancelled. Hannah and Elijah were both interested in watching the movie as well. Leah set up her tent and filled it with pillows and blankets (the cats were ridiculous). We all kept expecting something dark to happen… we were all convinced that the old ladies were going to steal her broom and try to eat her… nothing dark happened.
Elijah is feeling fine, if a little congested. I re-scheduled his test for tomorrow morning, so we are more likely to get the results before Tuesday. I have groceries ordered for pickup in the afternoon, and I should definitely mow the lawn. Maybe the cooler weather will slow down the growth of the grass. I hope so.
Day 173 – Saturday, September 5, 2020
Elijah and I got up early-ish, so we could leave by 8:15 for his COVID test across town. There were 4-5 cars ahead of us when we got in line. The nurse was super nice and explained the process. Elijah was anxious, but it was over in 10 seconds. His eyes watered, but he didn’t sneeze. He said it felt like a gentle spray (like a nose spray). He said, “it felt nice” and he was happy that he could breathe afterward (he’d been congested). We were done before 9am, which was his scheduled appointment time.
On the way home we stopped at Starbucks and chatted with my friend, Karen, on the phone via car speaker.
I did laundry and goofed around until my grocery pick up time at 3:00. There were no substitutions or unavailable items, which seemed weird. As we unpacked everything, I checked it against my shopping list. Two items that I know I ordered were missing (but I wasn’t charged for them), sliced cheddar and tortilla chips. I’ll have to get those things tomorrow.
We had shepherd’s pie for dinner (Leah always asks, “Is it made with real shepherds?”) because fall weather is just around the corner. Actually, this morning was nice and cool, but it got up to 85 in the afternoon.
After dinner, I checked my email, and amazingly, Elijah’s tests results had arrived at 6:02pm. Not bad. He’s negative, which isn’t really a surprise. I emailed the results to his school.
He was supposed to spend the night with his friend for his friend’s birthday, so he asked if he could go. Yes, but I had to mow the lawn before it got dark. I did that, then drove an hour round trip to get him to his friend’s house.
The next time Elijah gets sent home from school for being sick, I’m getting him tested the same day! I need to see if I can get Deaconess accounts set up for the girls… I don’t think they’ve ever seen a Deaconess doctor, so they aren’t in the system at all.
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