Plan B

When your buddy is turning 13 and she can't have a real birthday party, Plan B is a drive by honk parade for the "Quaran-teen."

 When your school is cancelled before you could get to the biggest project of the year, a personalized and hand painted dinosaur shirt for each student, Plan B is to put on your own Teacherasaurus shirt and round up your best teacher friends to spend 3 days doing all the shirt work for the kids as a gift.

 When your days are supposed to be busy with school activities and homework and church meetings and time with friends, Plan B is to embrace laziness and rest and recognize that at least the puppy is the big winner in all this.

 When one of your favorite lessons is teaching your kiddos how to put the big lines and curves together in just the right way to write the word MOM (the first word many of my kids will ever write after their own names!), Plan B is to send the writing lesson in a video format and delight in the pictures that get sent back!

When your end of the year is supposed to be celebrations and hugs and last everythings, Plan B is to write your students a goodbye letter that makes you cry, assemble a bag of classroom goodies, decorate a table, and host another drive by for goodbyes.

When you are super Type A, but your life becomes an ongoing Plan B, you rest in comfort from God's word.  "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Psalm 91:1-2  "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces Hope." Romans 5:3-4 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

BOOK Challenge!

For fun BOOK challenge!

📙 The last book you read: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk 

📗 A favorite novel: Rain of Gold

📙 A favorite author: Kristin Hannah and Susan Meissner currently 

📘 A book that makes you laugh: Wednesday Wars

📔A book that makes you cry: The Nightingale

📒 One that's a classic: Les Miserables

📕 One that's better than the movie: Unbroken

📗 One that's not as good as the movie: The Hundred Foot Journey or Hidden Figures

📘One you've re-read at least once: Redeeming Love

📒A favorite children's book: El Deafo

📙A book with a memorable character: A Prayer for Owen Meany

📔One you hated/abandoned: Grapes of Wrath

📕 A series you loved: Seeds of America trilogy by Laurie Halse Anderson

📗One that changed the way you look at the world: So many!  This is the whole reason we read, right?! 

-The Hiding Place

-Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

-Where the Wind Leads

-Quiet

📖 Up next on your reading list: 

-This month’s Book Club pick: Sensible Shoes

-The next in my stack of professional books to read during quarantine: Thirty Million Words; Building A Child’s Brain

Preschool Wave Parade

When we are not able to give hugs, or share our lessons face-to-face in the classroom, what does love look like in these strange days?  It looks like creatively crafted signs waved from a safe social distance, kisses blown, and "I miss you's" shouted through an open car window.  It looks like tears as cars pull away, because the 4 year old passenger in the backseat just wants to stay at school with their teacher.  

Since it seems pretty unlikely that we'll be returning to school, our preschool hosted a Wave Parade last week to give each of our students a little gift and some love.  It was a great thing to be a part of.  Though I'd trade it in a second to finish off the year as normal in my beloved Room 4, this is something I will never forget.

This school year began with our crazy 24 hour move in and ended with quarantine.  In the middle was my lost and found diamond.  Wackiest.year.ever.

Losses and Joys

Welcome to our Snapshot of Quarantine, the 3rd installment!  The past few weeks of life have included much of our same predicable routine-- distance learning, reading, watching movies, taking walks, doing puzzles, and completing chores.  My house and yard have never been so pristine!  Except for the never ending parade of dishes marching across my counter.  SO MANY CUPS.

The things that were different about life these past 2 weeks, though, were the losses we felt more acutely as their dates came and went on the April calendar.  I had to acknowledge it and whine a bit with my current letter board. ;)

Over Spring Break, we were excited to take the kids to Hamilton for an early birthday present for Ella.  Not only did that obviously get cancelled, but the SF production of Hamilton has officially ended all shows for this city, so we're not sure when or how we'll see it again.  As King George would say, "I'm so blue".  We tried to cheer ourselves up by dressing up and playing Hamilton trivia Kahoot on the day we would have been at the play.  Not pictured here is camera-shy Ella playing the part of Eliza in one of my old bridesmaid dresses!

Then this weekend the biggest blow yet-- Aladdin.  Delia has made it clear that the middle school play was expected to be the best part of her year.  At the beginning of the year, she may have even said something like, "Fine, I'll endure 7th grade.  But only because of the play!"  She was thrilled about her part and continued to practice in hope, but alas the show did not go on as planned.  I tried to cheer her up on Opening Night with a little 3 Wishes gift.  She got to pick our dinner, our entertainment for the night, and one small treat.  He wishes included steak and asparagus on the grill, a long walk to the local ice cream shop, and a new book to read.  I did not paint myself blue, as one friend suggested I do, to deliver the genie lamp to her! ;)

Ella learned yesterday of the closing of Mount Hermon for the summer, so it was yet another blow for her first year at HiCamp to be cancelled.  It was a 1-2-3 knockout this month!  BUT, I am so proud of my girls' resilience and attitudes!  On her own, Ella chalked this art work on our driveway, impressing and challenging me with the message to keep giving thanks, no matter what our circumstances.

And of course she's right!  Each day continues to bring blessings.  Friends drop off flower bouquets and gift certificates to local restaurants, and "Corona Care Packages" (how cute is this?!).

 Distance learning continues to go just swell.  In fact, I suspect we'll actually miss the days of being able to do Geometry in the hammock!

Our church continues to reach lots of people each Sunday.  Dave continues to get positive feedback and encouragement.  Our staff continues to find creative ways to engage in ministry-- including keeping GEMS Sunday on the calendar and having our girls lead the worship from a prerecorded distance.

Our small town continues to pull together.  People out enjoying our beautiful spring weather on the streets are abundant and friendly.  In our attempts to seek out and support all the local businesses, we've found some fun news ones-- including a yummy sushi place!  Who knew our little town had a legit sushi restaurant?  We'll try to keep our eyes trained on the good stuff.  :)

Snapshots of Quarantine Pt. 2

Since we all sit home all day, I'm realizing I have way more opportunities to take pictures and way more time to write blog posts now! :)  Again, for the sake of preserving history, here are some more snapshots of things that would have seemed odd a few months ago, but are now our new normal!

We did a little porch dropping ourselves on Good Friday.  Ella hand painted a rock and wrote a nice letter for each of her friends. We plotted a ten-stop route to drop all these gifts off.  As we pulled up to each house, we'd call and a happy friend would come running out to greet us, hungry for a (6 feet apart) opportunity to connect.  It was the sweetest time.  It took us 3 hours!

 "Sure, we can dye your hair purple." These are the kinds of things we say now, I guess!  

 This one requires some explanation.  Our church films services with 2 cameras.  There is no light indicating which camera is currently on the pastor.  So, Dave and Patrick came up with this job for Delia each time we film a service-- she sits on the wall behind our tech booth and uses a long umbrella to point at which camera is live!  It's crazy looking, we know, and we've definitely had some laughs about it.  But, it has been hugely helpful in our pastors being able to make eye contact with cameras much more effectively, and Delia just thinks it's awesome to help in this way! 

 Any time Delia gets to see her friends in an online meeting, she is recharged and full of pep!  She's our extrovert and the time away from her people has been hard on her.  Here, she and a few friends take a study break to play "Never Have I Ever" on Zoom.

I'm trying to use the time I would have spent at school to get caught up on a bunch of professional reading I've always wanted to do.  I'm about halfway through this pile!

Distance learning continues to go great for my girls!  We thank God every day for awesome teachers and motivated kids.  It's really been a seamless transition for them.  Ella just completed her big art project from home-- a magazine collage self portrait.  Her art teacher said it should take about 5 hours.  Ella put in 21!

And how sweet is this?!  A peek at distance learning in preschool too!  I've been tremendously blessed to stay in touch with my families!  They send me pictures of things they are completing from the lesson plans I email.  And last week we even did a virtual Yellow Sharing Time!  Soooo cute! 

Of course, we'd rather be doing Sharing Time and art projects in our classrooms, playing games in person with our friends, and sitting in our normal spot, umbrella free, with the rest of our church family on a Sunday...but this is our reality right now and we're making the best of it!

Good Gifts

One of the best unexpected blessings through this ordeal has been the outpouring of love and encouragement!  Dave gets texts and cards every day from appreciative congregation members.  We've been so delighted to find gifts on our porch regularly!  Everyone is seeking connection and just has way more time on their hands.  I think a new love and care for one another will be one of the things we gain when this is over!

On the day we filmed the Palm Sunday service, we found this beautiful palm branch arrangement on our porch.  It smelled soooo good!  It hung over our mantle till Easter.  From my co-teacher Doreen!

Another co-teacher, Lisa, porch dropped this adorable Easter basket!  We had a brief time to visit/yell to each other also, her in her car in my driveway and me on my porch.  Even a long distance conversation and air hug with this dear friend was a gift!

A church friend, and family Ella babysits for, is the most amazing cookie decorator!  She and her kids dyed and shared these awesome Easter egg cookies with us on Sunday, since real eggs are scarce right now!

  

Another lovely couple from our church was looking to support a local bakery, so they blessed us by bringing by an amazing apple pie!  It was delicious and it made our Easter dinner that much more special.

Some ranchers in our church have a huge piece of property up in the hills where they graze their cattle.  Since all parks, trails, and beaches are closed right now, and they know our family loves to hike, they gave us a set of maps and all the gate codes to spend a day hiking in their spectacular scenery! We hiked 5 miles and still saw only a fraction of their land.

It was a fabulous reminder that though the pause button has been pressed on our life, the wildflowers still bloom, the brook still babbles, the birds still sing, and the deer still skitter away.  Creation continues to glorify the Lord!

The change of scenery for a whole Saturday did wonders for our spirits!  And we got some great exercise too as we climbed up and down all the hills!

Not pictured is the beef our dairy farming friends have filled up our freezer with, the free movie codes our cousin Derek, who works at Universal, shares with us, the strawberries a friend dropped on our porch, and the Bible verse art work a sweet friend mailed us.  We ache to see our friends and church family again face-to-face, but are being upheld by these generous and heartfelt gestures of kindness in the meantime!

Just Gotta Laugh

Recording some of the memes that have made us LOL this month!