Fun family mini golf

Our family had a "clear calendar" day today, and we decided to take advantage of it.  Catherine had mentioned earlier this summer that she wanted to play mini-golf.  Today was not only open on the calendar, but it was a lovely summer afternoon.  It wasn't terribly hot at all, and the humidity was tolerable (until this evening).  I was a little appalled at some of the prices for what amounts to only about an hour of entertainment.  I found a little place though, that on Friday's offered a family special that was not only about 25% cheaper than other places, it included a scoop of ice cream!  Yes please!  We were only gone about three hours altogether, but we had fun spending those hours together.  We had spent time together last evening watching the TV show "Holey Moley II", so that even added to our laughter.  I am so grateful for this afternoon.  I am also very grateful that Catherine has chosen to attend school close enough that we can still have days like this even after she goes to school!

Very disappointing (and discouraging) information

We learned today that our district is going to be voting Monday on a recommendation to begin school remotely.  This is not at all unexpected.  What is COMPLETELY unexpected is that the recommendation will be that school be remote for the ENTIRE FIRST SEMESTER.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would not be allowed to go back to school until January.  It makes my heart hurt tremendously.  Furthermore, they are recommending the complete and immediate suspension of all extracurricular activities.  This is far, far more draconian than we had anticipated.

I completely accept that starting remotely is the safest plan.  I am even aware that with my mom moving, and with Catherine going to college but having some extra medical appointments, having flexibility was going to be important.  Again though, I never in a million years thought that my income would be eliminated until January.  The elimination of extracurricular activities also means that Andrew will lose his supplemental.

We will be okay though.  We told the kids that we aren't broke and it will be okay.  The announcement was also made that the district will be eliminating jobs, but Andrew is not in any danger of losing his position.  We are safe, we are healthy (mostly!), and Andrew has a great deal of job security, and our house is full of love!

I listened to Christmas music

Tuesday I had to make another trip to help my mom at her "new" house.  I decided I wanted to listen to some Christmas music on the way.  I almost never listen to seasonal music "out of season", but yesterday it just seemed necessary.  I love Christmas music, and it seemed a perfect distraction for the drive.  At the same time, it did make me wonder (and worry) about Christmas this year and what it will look like.  I would love to tell myself that is five months away and so much can happen, but we are four-and-a-half months into this hell, so five months doesn't seem that very far right now.  Regardless of all that, I enjoyed belting out Christmas tunes during the drive!

I found an absolute treasure

Andrew has taken Catherine and Thomas to visit his parents.  They left Saturday and will be back tomorrow.  They even took our sweet pup with them.  I'll be honest, I have very much enjoyed the 72 hours of basically no responsibility (other than being at my mom's to help).  At the same time, I will be so glad when they are all home tomorrow evening.

I spent the first two evenings watching movies that I knew would make me cry.  Not only do I not like to cry in front of my family, but I really need a good "all out" cry with all of the emotions I've had lately.  I pretty much sobbed while watching "Steel Magnolias" last evening, but in many ways it felt so good.

For today, my plan has been to watch the Reds game this evening while working on scanning some photos.  For some reason, the CD on which 2009 photos appears to be corrupted, so I am scanning the photos to have them digitized.  Thank goodness I was so good about printing things out!  Unfortunately, the area has had some pretty heavy rain this evening, so while the game will happen eventually, it isn't happening yet.  While eating dinner I decided to see what I might have that I could watch for a little bit.  I came across a video my aunt & uncle had taken at a pool party at their house...in 2006!  I'm pretty sure I had never watched it before.  It's almost an hour of the kids playing in the pool.  I loved watching Catherine.  I had forgotten how determined she was and always on the go.  It seemed like nothing ever scared her.  I also loved watching her older cousins be so sweet with her and so helpful.  I was also able to hear my father's voice.  It was wonderful.  I'll never forget his voice, but it was good to actually be able to hear it again.  He was on the video only for a moment or two as the camera was pointed almost exclusively at the pool, but I did get to see him.  I loved getting to hear his voice, and I loved getting to see my kids be so little again.  Not just in a picture, but see how they moved, and in the case of Thomas, how he screamed (he wasn't necessarily a fan of the pool at age 2).  It was truly a treasure to find that!

We aren't on the trip

Our fourth trip of the last four months is a no-go.  I know that makes us sound spoiled, but this trip was actually a quick two-day get-away that was supposed to replace our cancelled vacation.  We were just going to spend a couple of night at Great Wolf Lodge.  A water park would be spectacular right now because the heat index is currently 104 degrees.  Ugh!!!  Anyway, as things began to explode in Ohio again at the beginning of the month we decided it probably isn't a good idea to do something like that, especially at an indoor venue.  This is NOT a tragedy.  I just hate feeling like my kids are constantly disappointed this year.  But, we aren't worried about paying our bills, so we all need to remember that life is very blessed!

July is taking forever

For the first time I can ever remember, I feel like July is taking forever.  I think it probably felt this way when the kids were younger, and especially those years when school didn't begin until September.  But once we moved and school began starting in the middle of August, July was a month that flew by and made August "loom".

This year though, we have, like everyone else, been home since the middle of March (it's been seventeen weeks, in case anyone wanted to count and lost track).  Overall, it hasn't been awful on a daily basis.  Not at all.  I LOVE not getting up with a number of "5" staring at me on the clock.  Not even a "6", except once this summer.  School is not starting until the end of August, so we have another four weeks of not getting up before the sun.  So this all makes July feel like it is forever.

And I also need to acknowledge, that part of the reason I'm not dreading the end of what is usually a zooming July is that there is a BIG part of me that doesn't believe we will be getting up before the crack of dawn in four weeks either.  The super sent an email to staff this morning that he is beginning to lean toward not starting school in-person.  Well, yikes!  While I love the thought of not having to be up so early, it makes me very sad to not have a "real" first day of school.  I had really hoped that we would have a week in, and then maybe have to go remote.  I know how important those first few days can be for both teachers and students to develop expectations.  But I also know that the virus doesn't really care about that!  As with everything involving this virus, there are so many different thoughts and emotions running through my head!

My mom is moving

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but my mother is moving.  She has decided to move into what was my grandparents' house.  To be honest, I've never thought this was a good idea.  The house in which she currently lives is smaller, has a smaller lot, is in a lovely little neighborhood, and is completely handicap accessible.  Every in the family loves my grandparents' house though, and my grandparents built it in 1952 so it's never been out of the family.  My grandmother left the house is absolutely horrific condition.  I'm not sure she had thrown anything away in years.  My sister has been helping a lot, and a good friend of my mother has been very helpful as well.  My cousin and her family have also been at the house a lot.  Our family was trying to be helpful, but we also needed to get ready for Catherine's grad party a couple of weeks ago.  And when Catherine's episodes began happening, mom understood that I needed to be here and focus on life here.  Today though, I was able to make a trip back to Mom's and be helpful.   I know how quickly she wants this done, and to be honest, it just adds to my stress.  In many ways, if school does go remote again, it would give me more time to be helpful, and might even do me good to get out of the house if everyone else is here.  Mom is hoping that she can host Christmas this year.  That would be helpful!