It's my kids' birthday today. I woke up early to try and put a couple decorations up and catch up on some reading for a course that work is requiring. (Who launches a six month leadership course during this mess?!) Instead, I discovered that the pet rat was dead and I had to clean it up and get rid of it before the kids woke up. No decorations, since I was pre-occupied with that.
Then, logged in to figure out the home school work situation, and because yesterday had no school, we've got 4 class Zoom calls today. Plus, I have 2 hour long meetings for this course today. And I have to get my regular work done. And of course, because of the long weekend, I ended up with the kids extra time. So I will only get one day off from them this week to get any kind of focused work done.
I HATE the feeling of waking up already burnt out, but that's where I'm at. I'm ready to just cry and throw in the towel already. 9 more days of distance learning. I just have to survive 9 more days...
Post by librarychica on May 26, 2020 7:50:58 GMT -5
I’m sorry twinmomma. HBD to your girls, though. How was the potato party?
I am also having a Monday-ish Tuesday. I was in bed most Sunday and Monday with a terrible headache. Lots to do today and I woke up early with it gone, hurray!, except now it’s back. It’s going to be a very long day.
My boss’s wife died unexpectedly yesterday morning. She has a pulmonary embolism on Saturday. I’m heartbroken for him. He really loved her. Like they were just one of those couples who were solidly in love. She was in her early 50s and very healthy. They have two kids who are graduating this year, one from high school and one from college.
So an already pretty shitty week got much shittier.
@mommyaty that’s terrible, I’m so sorry to hear. And not that there is ever a GOOD time, but this time has to be especially difficult with all the social restrictions.
Post by erinshelley21 on May 26, 2020 9:19:50 GMT -5
That is awful mommyatty and so heartbreaking. My dad died 2 days after my brother graduated high school so I feel for the emotional roller coaster they are on.
mommyatty, I'm so sorry to hear it. That's so scary.
twinmomma, I hope your day improves. We are definitely limping toward the finish line over here. I went into my office to have a Zoom call with the first grade parents and when I left, DD2 was rolling around on the floor in protest of distance learning.
I'm sorry mommyatty, one of my high school friends mom died unexpectedly from the same thing and around the same age while we were in college. It was such a hard time
I'm so happy my sister is taking DD for a little over 24 hours starting in 3 hours! She is fighting me on distance learning and just all over being a pain. I need this time for my own mental health. She was a PITA Saturday and Sunday but was angel and helpful yesterday. DH had enough Sunday and made her lay down for an hour nap time in the dark because he was tired of the whining.
librarychica, the potato party was amazing, thanks for asking. Beau and ExH meeting wasn't so bad, it all worked out ok. Beau made their dreams come true when he made enough potatoes to bag up and hand one to each kid as they drove by for the parade. It was the funniest thing. None of the parents knew what to do so I was constantly shouting an explanation for why they were getting a paper bag with a baked potato shoved through the car window. Thankfully most folks know my kids are quirky. haha
My weekend was a roller coaster. On Sunday, I had my roof inspected from a hail storm last month and 100% insurance approved. New roof, gutters, down spouts, screens, and a shed. Wahoo! I felt like I won the lottery! They are all 16 years old so nearing end of life anyways.
And then Sunday night we turned on the air for the first time this season and it's not working. (Picture the wilted rose here). It is also 16 years old and may need to be replaced. But I am going to cross my fingers and hope that maybe it was also damaged in the hail storm? Otherwise I will be out a couple grand that I really don't want to spend right now!
twinmomma I’m sorry about the rough start to your week. How did they take the news about the rat?
I’m completely alone in my house (well, besides newborn) for the first time in 2.5 months. The big kids are at daycare provider’s house and DH went to Costco. I’m not sure what to do with myself.
My day is looking up. The family that has caused so many issues for our family and DD1 specifically is leaving the school. It’s like a huge weight has been lifted. I’m a little concerned about blowback on their way out but the fact that no one is near each other right now may help that. I’m really hoping this means a better year next year.
I’m not telling DD1 yet because the principal asked me to keep it confidential and she can’t be trusted not to share it with her classmates, even by accident.
sdlaura, The other one died about a month ago, so this one was less shocking. I lied and told them she died last night and that Beau and I held a funeral for her. I didn't want them to start off their birthday morning with burying her.
Post by erinshelley21 on May 26, 2020 12:46:05 GMT -5
Such a Monday like Tuesday. Though I think all Tuesdays are rough.
A client called with a claim at 7:45am. I was still in my towel. If his house was on fire or his roof blew off, fine. Minor damage to the ceiling of your porch. Give me until 8:00am dude.
My work computer won't stay connected to the internet. Everything else in the house will connect without issue. I'm heading to my brother's now anyways so I'll deal with it tomorrow.
Our A/C wasn't working properly over the weekend. Long story short, we are out a service call fee for them to just plug the damn thing back in. We were hot and cranky all weekend because they left it unplugged when they were working on the furnace or the electricians left it unplugged when they re-wired. Either way, neither of us thought to look there. BUT! The tech might buy our camper that we were taking to be consigned tomorrow. He knows we are on a time crunch so there won't be waffling.
We had a pretty busy weekend and I am dragging today. This is the last week of remote learning for DD and DS1. DH is so happy about it, but I am worried about what the kids will do now. I have to go into the office for the rest of the week to get some testing done. I am very excited to be the only one there (and to get out of the house). My plan is to blast a little music and enjoy my time alone.
polecat8 - DH and I have been talking about the end of distance learning and what the summer will look like. They will get summer worn from school (usually math packets for both, book reports for DD1 for rising 5th grade and spelling and phonics work for DD2 as a rising 2nd grader). We are looking at other stuff...
- DD1 reads several books a week. We are asking for brief summaries of her books to see what she’s getting out of them. DD2 js less enthralled with reading so we just push 20 mins a day.
- Typing.com. The kids spend so much time on the computer now. DD1’s writing is terrible so she always wants to type her school work, but her typing is painfully slow. We are asking them to do that a few days a week.
- Duolingo - we started this when distance learning started and the kids love it.
- Math??? I need to find a better site. Kids did not do well on Khan Academy. It was hard for them to progress or earn “points” so they didn’t like it.
I don’t know how old your kids are, but there are other sites like NatGeo kids and Cincinnati Zoo that are great for DD2. She also likes Liberty’s Kids for social studies/history and Magic School Bus for science. Sometimes I ask her to write 2 facts about what she watched.
We have a few more weeks of e-learning here. The day camp that DS was really looking forward to decided to be virtual, and DD's daycare won't open until the end of June at the earliest. So, on Friday I put out an ad for a nanny on the local university job board. We've gotten a bunch of applications and will begin reviewing them at the end of this week, and do interviews next week. It would be amazing to have some help here, and to have someone get the kids out of the house.
Add us to the A/C that can't keep up to the heatwave crew. We've gotten 3 bids that are.. all vastly different. 1 that wants to charge us $19k for a whole new system and duct works, plus asbestos abatement, one that wants to charge us $28k + abatement and then have some amount of rebate as a Costco cash card for the same, and a 3rd who wants to charge us $28k+ abatement and includes splitting the house so that the second floor is on a different zone so we can cool or heat just the top floor.. which after last night where it was 85 upstairs, sounds really nice.
I just hate that they never quote all the same stuff and make it impossible to compare. (Expensive guy quotes a different furnace than the first two)
mae0111, try out mobymax for math. DD loves it and can earn game time somewhat quickly, so it really motivates here. She really likes the fact fluency portion.
I am currently debating whether or not we bother with the last 4 days of school (next week) or just start sending DD to daycare on 6/1 with DS since we have to pay for the whole month anyways (prorating days doesn't make enough difference)
k3am, Can you find out if they're doing anything special for those last couple days? Our teachers are planning fun Zooms and a drive by good bye thing and other "year end celebration" activities instead of actual work for the last couple days.
DD's teacher included a bunch of packets in with the bag of stuff we picked up a couple weeks ago. Some of the packets would have been what they would have gotten at school already and then there was the normal summer packet. I'm holding onto them for when school actually gets out in 3 weeks to break them out. mae0111, have you looked at I-ready for math? DD hates it but I know a lot of kids that really love it. polecat8, DD and I already talked and she knows she has to do a little math/writing/workbook pages each working day and can read whatever she wants. I gave her a choice of staying with me at work for the summer but having to still do school stuff each morning or going to summer camp which looks like kid prison and she choose to stay with me.
k3am, that sounds like my crazy quotes from last year for my new heat pump. I ended up going with the one who offered the best warranty as the prices were comparable.
mae0111, try out mobymax for math. DD loves it and can earn game time somewhat quickly, so it really motivates here. She really likes the fact fluency portion.
I am currently debating whether or not we bother with the last 4 days of school (next week) or just start sending DD to daycare on 6/1 with DS since we have to pay for the whole month anyways (prorating days doesn't make enough difference)
I think I would send to daycare. Does she have any special goodbye claim calls? I might send with an iPad if they have WiFi and see if they can get her in the call.
Dance has posted 2 in person practices and an in person filming.
Would you send your child? They will be 6 feet apart and marked on the floor. No parents allowed. The in person filming is full costume for the recital.
I just emailed her teacher to see if there were any social calls for next week. I specifically said I don't care about school work stuff, that we'd already finished the math, and that I can fudge a schedule and say she did work if the district wants me to. I'm officially that parent.
k3am, 186momx, thank you for the recommendations - I will check them out. The math program at their school is not super strong. They're working to update and improve, but after what I heard today, I'm uncertain how it will work out. The 1st grade teacher told us that with the new Pearson math program, subtraction will no longer be taught in the 1st grade. Which seems insane to me.
Post by traveltheworld on May 26, 2020 18:37:53 GMT -5
mae0111, I think I've mentioned it before, but if you are looking for a math curriculum, Beast Academy is awesome. Both DH and I are "mathy" people and we both wished we learned math that way.
Add us to the A/C that can't keep up to the heatwave crew. We've gotten 3 bids that are.. all vastly different. 1 that wants to charge us $19k for a whole new system and duct works, plus asbestos abatement, one that wants to charge us $28k + abatement and then have some amount of rebate as a Costco cash card for the same, and a 3rd who wants to charge us $28k+ abatement and includes splitting the house so that the second floor is on a different zone so we can cool or heat just the top floor.. which after last night where it was 85 upstairs, sounds really nice.
I just hate that they never quote all the same stuff and make it impossible to compare. (Expensive guy quotes a different furnace than the first two)
We had a separate furnace and AC unit put in during our remodel. It’s really nice to control the upstairs separate from the main floor.