Starting school, solving an egg mystery, and more (7 Quick Takes)

~1. Reading and writing and where is the log-in code~

The other day one of my colleagues who’s also a virtual learning mom asked me how online learning was going. I told her I was excelling at all of it, handling everything beautifully, and not finding it stressful at all.

“It turns out that I was born to do this,” I said.

We laughed and laughed. Because, of course, this whole situation of balancing a full-time job with overseeing online learning for your children is crazy and intense. It has been a week of bumps and adjustments. I’ve realized that our WiFi was not designed to support so much live learning. I’ve also lost the ability to feed people meals at mealtimes, and I keep giving them the wrong log-in info for classes. There are moments when everything is in chaos and everyone seems to need me urgently.

That said, thanks to incredibly low expectations, the week has gone much better than I expected it to. The children are figuring things out on their own because I’m just not available or a technology whiz. The teachers are incredible and patient and creative.

I’m so relieved we made it to the weekend. But someone here just said, “I can’t wait for Monday.”

Mileage may vary, that’s for sure.

~2. What’s your fortune?~

To celebrate that we made it through one morning, I decided to order Chinese food for lunch. Lunch is the trickiest meal of the day for me. I’m not good at breaking for lunch, and the boys have to eat during their designated lunchtimes.

One of our fortunes said, “All things are difficult before they are easy.”

Sounds true to me.

~3. Bowls, bowls everywhere~

On our kitchen counter, w e have three huge bowls full of gelatinous pellets our children are using in toy guns. In our bathroom, we have two more bowls of pellets.

I can’t believe how much space they take up, and I sort of miss having bowls to use in the kitchen.

But I recognize that if you don’t have something growing or taking up space in a bowl on your kitchen counter, you might lose your certification as a Boy Mom.

~4. Bigger egg-spectations~

We have been wondering why our pet finches’ eggs keep falling out of their nest. Then the other day, the two eggs in the nest fell and got caught in a spot just below the nest. When we saw how they had fallen, we realized the nest might need a little extra material on one side. So, we pushed some into that spot and gave the finches extra to build with.

Meanwhile, the boys tried to put the eggs back in the nest. One egg fell and broke, but they managed to return one egg safely to the nest. I thought the birds would reject it since it had been touched by human hands, but Ron flew to the nest to lie on the egg right away. Hermione laid another egg next to it, and those two eggs are still in the nest today.

It’s feeling like maybe, just maybe, we could end with with baby finches here. But we still have some time. And we don’t actually know there are babies in the eggs. So much anticipation!

~5. The anniversary of 2131~

I can’t believe it has been 25 years since Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played. I remember that day so well, feeling so in awe of that moment in history, so proud of our city, and so happy for Cal and the Orioles. That was a golden time.

I was trying to explain how exciting that day was to my sons, but they are more impressed that I stood in line for hours with my brother outside Borders to get Cal’s autograph. That’s a better story.

~6 Across~

We celebrated my mother’s birthday last weekend with Zoom singing and a gift that I dropped off on her front steps. When I sat down to make her a card, one of my sons said, “Just don’t write her a poem. You always write poems.” They came up with the idea to make her a crossword puzzle card instead.

I sat down and made clues for her children and grandchildren and other topics that might be fun for her, and I programmed them into a free crossword puzzle maker. Then I found out I would have to pay $18 to print the free crossword.

So, our seventh grader sketched it out on graph paper instead, and I delivered it with our gift.

~7. Grandpa’s Cookies~

My father makes the best cookies. When he gave us some this week, our fifth grader decided they were all his. I think they call that a grandson’s prerogative. No one argued with him. We just took cookies while he wasn’t looking.

Was that asynchronous or synchronous cookie-eating? I don’t know, but I bet the virtual learners in our house could tell you. If we’re learning nothing else, we are learning some lovely long words about online education.

Read more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend!

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