Back to School! (Well, sort of...)

Months ago when the pandemic first got going and it became clear it was going to stick around for a while, I frequently wondered how we'd survive through not only the end of the school year with both kids home (and Carter fighting schoolwork like crazy), but also more than two additional months of summer vacation with very little structure.  It seemed overwhelming to think of all that time without any outside activities or interaction.  Jacob ended up getting some through basketball, but Carter has been a hermit, which pretty much confirmed my fears of a summer without structure.  I'm not sure what was harder--dealing with Carter's schooling or managing the constant summertime mess of bored kids, too much screen time, and Jacob's constant frustration with Carter's disinterest in doing anything with him.  Both were exhausting in different ways, though if I'm honest, as summer wore on, exhaustion won out and Carter's screen time went through the roof as a result, just because work had to be done and I didn't have it in me to keep battling.  It was terrible parenting, but mentally I am just spent so I'm choosing my battles.  I very well might regret it later, but I'm not sure what alternative would have been feasible given the circumstances.

Well, six months later, here we are, ready to start school again.  We made it through both spring schooling AND a crazy yet boring summer.  I'm sure we were hoping for a more complete resolution to this pandemic by now, but that hasn't come quite yet.  So a weird school year it will be.

Jacob started yesterday.  

He's going in person all five days.  Back to uniforms and lunch packing and early wake-ups and the long commute for the first time in six months.  He went to a half day orientation on Tuesday, which they always do, but this year it was focused on a lot of their new rules and restrictions to work around COVID.  He seemed to be in decent spirits after that because his class has gotten much bigger (not sure if it's due to Catholic schools shutting down, kids aging out of schools that end at 6th, or all of the people that wanted five-day attendance), including some kids he's played basketball with.  But he was less thrilled after day 1 because he wasn't in class with any of those kids.  Luckily, after today he was much happier because his B-Day schedule did include some of the new kids, which will hopefully mean he can build some new friendships.  He hasn't seemed phased by the masking or any of the current restrictions (although the lack of locker access for now would drive me nuts!), so I guess that's good.  He even said that if he was able to do fully remote (which we didn't think they were offering but it now seems they are), he wouldn't.  So that's progress!

After I dropped Jacob off on his first day, I realized I'd have enough time when I got home to squeeze in a 5K run before work.  There was a work-based remote 5K we were being encouraged to do, and I'd been putting it off because I have some sort of leg problem (either high hamstring tendinopathy or piriformis syndrome--or maybe both) that's been bugging me much of the summer but has only gotten worse since I've been back to working full time.  I suspect it might have something to do with my chair or desk posture, though I'd had what I thought was a tight hamstring for most of the summer.  Running is the one thing that irritates it like no other activity, but I'd rested it almost three weeks so I wanted to try and it was a pleasant morning for it.  Work requested documentation, so here are my before and after shots...

My time was pretty decent - 32:34 - considering I was going slow to baby my leg.  I've been paying for it ever since, mind you, and probably will be for a solid week.  At least until I finally call a chiropractor and find out how to fix it once and for all.  But it was nice to start out the day with a run before I even sat down to work!

Oh, and I'm also still having fun with flowers.  The other day I came out to discover a new color of morning glory--pink!

And then I went out yesterday and realized that this one was different than others in this medium purple hue.  I've seen lavender stripes, reddish-purple stripes, and darker purple stripes, but these were a bit more hot pink!  I don't think it's just lighting or the camera.  I keep looking at the pics to be sure and marvel at the subtle differences.

Today was Carter's first day...sort of!  We didn't have to wake up too early or get moving too quickly, because he didn't have a bus to catch.  We leisurely took his picture before I sat down for work and he ran back to YouTube (ugh).

He didn't have to do anything until 11am when it was time for his class meet and greet.  He got to test out his new desk area in a corner of the dining room for the first time. 

He got to "meet" his teacher and see the kids in the class (well, most of them--quite a few didn't make it into the call, which only makes me worry even more about the kids doing remote learning).  He has a couple kids from last year's class and I think someone from his Kindergarten class, but it seems like most of them are new to him--and even among those he'll only be in class with maybe half of them.  His teacher seemed nice and upbeat today, although she's clearly struggling a bit with the technology.  Beyond that meeting and another tomorrow, he just has a bunch of videos to watch that will help prepare him for the year, plus 30 minutes of reading and 30 minutes of physical activity (ugh) each day.  He won't actually be in school until Tuesday, so we have a bit of a wait before he gets the classroom experience.  We already struggled a bit with timing and breaks and not asking 200 times during the 30-minute reading session how long he has left, but I hope that he gets a little more settled in this new routine once he gets an every-few-days reminder that school is still a real thing.  Time will tell.

So, school has begun.  The weather has been really cloudy, somewhat cool, and just generally blah lately, which is making me extra sad about fall's arrival.  I like fall, just not what comes after it.  I miss what we leave behind, too--flip flops, no jackets, lots of sun, pool time, more free time, ice cream outings, etc.  I appreciate a little more structure right now, though it does add other stressors into the mix.  For example, we've been trying to keep the kids off the bus, but I think I'm going to give it up for Jacob's afternoon return because it's a giant pain to stop work for 50 minutes to go get him though early rush hour traffic, particularly with Carter in tow.  And the timing for getting Carter on his days complicates things further.  Carter's school is close so that seems a bit easier to maintain--and good thing since his bus is currently still set up to go to the afterschool program, which we're not doing this year (not yet, at least).  I'll switch it eventually, but that trip's a lot easier than Jacob's so I'm OK with that one for now.  I figure that Jacob is already in a classroom all day, so what's another hour?  At least bus windows are open for as long as the weather holds up.  It's a tough decision but I don't want to resent that drive from doing it a bit too much.  We might have to do it if he ever gets to play basketball for school, but they just postponed fall sports to spring so I'm losing confidence that Modified Basketball will be in our future.

Anyway, my brain is full for tonight.  Just too many things to think about right now, so I'm sure there are first day things I wanted to mention but am forgetting.  More soon I'm sure...and if nothing else I'm sure I'll have thoughts on Craig and me getting some alone time in the house on Tuesday!