Day #22: The Day that Should Have Been Opening Day
I almost wrote Day #33. Ye, gods. We'll get there. This is a marathon and not a sprint.
My family are baseball people. It's how we relate. It's how we share memories. It's our language.
I got 2 text messages this morning. The first was from my sister to the group text we have set up with us and my dad reminding us that today should have been Opening Day. So that had me feeling blue. But the second, after last night's blog post about our friends at the hospital, was an invite to dial in to their virtual class this morning, on the day that would have been our shift.
What a lift it was even to just listen to the class remotely. No, it's not the same, but the guest speaker on coping with emotions and anxiety in this time and then the voices of our instructors, repeating their often told stories and phrases...nothing could have been more soothing. I mean, yes, thank goodness for my mute button because I was wrangling my kids at the time, but it was a beautiful thing. I think Thursdays may be our favorite day of the week once again.
Something staggering I heard from the BBC yesterday: one quarter of the world's population is on some kind of lockdown right now. That's a pretty crazy thought.
We didn't do a lot of "school" today. James started counting all by himself for math and I let him. It's been very fun to watch how much he actually likes having the time and freedom to experiment with learning. This experiment is not going to turn me into a homeschooler...I still don't have the temperament for it...but it has made me appreciate why that choice makes sense for some families and some kids. The school is rolling out a new educational model next week which I am so not looking forward to...it's going to be instruction at certain time of the day starting mostly at 9 a.m., which he doesn't do normally and which is not going to be fun. We'll do it, I'm going to try not to start out complaining about it, but I am savoring these next couple of days before that starts. Never thought I would say that. Tomorrow we are meeting his kindergarten class via Zoom, which should be a hilarious nightmare.
This morning he told me there are real actual ghosts in the basement. One of them is named Leonard. I told him that today we were going to write the story of those ghosts because I wanted to hear it. And then I came to him this afternoon and said, James, I'm tired. My brain is fried. I don't think I have the power to do writing today. Can we just skip it? Can we write tomorrow? So we did. I leafed through a book about the ballparks that once were and embraced my melancholy about the Opening Day that wasn't and he read a book Gramma sent. And it was really nice. It turns out there are some advantages to homeschooling. Like sometimes you get to just chuck school and read. And we will write the ghost story tomorrow.
The local sports radio station is broadcasting classic Mariners games, so my night ended with the voice of the late great Dave Niehaus on the radio calling Ichiro's first game as a Mariner. That was nice. Opening Day came, just in a different way. Kind of what I told James about Easter.
So today was a good day. As I speak Max has gotten out of bed to share late night popcorn and baseball with Mama and fell asleep on the couch with me. Gonna have to try to transfer him to his own bed in a bit, but you know what the snuggles are good. Some people are alone. Some people don't get the snuggles. So this has been a bit of a disjointed post, but it's another day in pandemic paradise. We learned a few things.
Today I'm grateful for the positives of homeschooling, the power of letting it all go, the beauty in the melancholy, baseball, things coming anyway, health, love, friendly voices, virtual hugs, fresh air, books, stories, a hot shower, and clean hands.
My family are baseball people. It's how we relate. It's how we share memories. It's our language.
I got 2 text messages this morning. The first was from my sister to the group text we have set up with us and my dad reminding us that today should have been Opening Day. So that had me feeling blue. But the second, after last night's blog post about our friends at the hospital, was an invite to dial in to their virtual class this morning, on the day that would have been our shift.
What a lift it was even to just listen to the class remotely. No, it's not the same, but the guest speaker on coping with emotions and anxiety in this time and then the voices of our instructors, repeating their often told stories and phrases...nothing could have been more soothing. I mean, yes, thank goodness for my mute button because I was wrangling my kids at the time, but it was a beautiful thing. I think Thursdays may be our favorite day of the week once again.
Something staggering I heard from the BBC yesterday: one quarter of the world's population is on some kind of lockdown right now. That's a pretty crazy thought.
We didn't do a lot of "school" today. James started counting all by himself for math and I let him. It's been very fun to watch how much he actually likes having the time and freedom to experiment with learning. This experiment is not going to turn me into a homeschooler...I still don't have the temperament for it...but it has made me appreciate why that choice makes sense for some families and some kids. The school is rolling out a new educational model next week which I am so not looking forward to...it's going to be instruction at certain time of the day starting mostly at 9 a.m., which he doesn't do normally and which is not going to be fun. We'll do it, I'm going to try not to start out complaining about it, but I am savoring these next couple of days before that starts. Never thought I would say that. Tomorrow we are meeting his kindergarten class via Zoom, which should be a hilarious nightmare.
This morning he told me there are real actual ghosts in the basement. One of them is named Leonard. I told him that today we were going to write the story of those ghosts because I wanted to hear it. And then I came to him this afternoon and said, James, I'm tired. My brain is fried. I don't think I have the power to do writing today. Can we just skip it? Can we write tomorrow? So we did. I leafed through a book about the ballparks that once were and embraced my melancholy about the Opening Day that wasn't and he read a book Gramma sent. And it was really nice. It turns out there are some advantages to homeschooling. Like sometimes you get to just chuck school and read. And we will write the ghost story tomorrow.
The local sports radio station is broadcasting classic Mariners games, so my night ended with the voice of the late great Dave Niehaus on the radio calling Ichiro's first game as a Mariner. That was nice. Opening Day came, just in a different way. Kind of what I told James about Easter.
So today was a good day. As I speak Max has gotten out of bed to share late night popcorn and baseball with Mama and fell asleep on the couch with me. Gonna have to try to transfer him to his own bed in a bit, but you know what the snuggles are good. Some people are alone. Some people don't get the snuggles. So this has been a bit of a disjointed post, but it's another day in pandemic paradise. We learned a few things.
Today I'm grateful for the positives of homeschooling, the power of letting it all go, the beauty in the melancholy, baseball, things coming anyway, health, love, friendly voices, virtual hugs, fresh air, books, stories, a hot shower, and clean hands.
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