Online school, week 1

Online school, week one is done. Amber officially starts online kindergarten next week, on Tuesday, so as I sit down to document this past week, I am realizing that next week will not look much like whatever limited rhythms we have managed to establish already. But, we SURVIVED the first full week of distance learning! Here's a run-down:

I. Family Routine

This is the routine that I created to give structure and freedom to the kids. Each day is divided into three parts: before school, school, and after school. 

Before school to-do list rhyme: clothes, chore, hair, piano, scripture, prayer. The chore changes from day to day. I'd love to have designated chores for each day of the week, but  I leave that as a per-diem decision so the most-necessary chores get done first. It has been relatively easy to get back into the practice piano each morning, largely thanks to Tonora--the app that our piano teacher uses to track practicing. It is an excellent motivator. We have fallen back into our 7am family scripture and prayer routine nicely as well, which is nice.

Eastside Trail Run

For my own personal Shainadventure this week, I wanted a moderate trail without drastic inclines. I needed shade because the temperature was in the mid-80s, even in the mountains. It also had to be a two hour drive or less from home and out of the wildfire smoke that was clogging our valley. That was a very specific list of demands, but I managed to find a trail that not only met my requirements, but also exceeded my expectations. 

Wed-venture: Union Creek Falls

Last week, when the horrific riptide waters of online elementary school were closing in around my head, mother nature plunged in her hand to rescue me. I gripped it hard and emerged, taking deep breaths of life-giving oxygen. As I organized my thoughts, one fact became clear. If we were going to stay sane during distance learning, the kids would need to get OUT of the house regularly. 

Problem: online school takes until noon every single weekday. It's like we only get the bad parts (cooped up) of homeschool without the benefits (free-form outings). I began to see why so many families had withdrawn from school to do their own homeschool curriculum. But we are committed to our Sunnyside School District! I have never doubted keeping our kids enrolled in our local public schools. It's right for our family, so we have to work within the new distance learning parameters, however confining they may seem.

Burroughs Mountain Trail

Part 1: Drowning in Domesticity

It's hard to believe that the pandemic has been drastically affecting our lives for nearly six months now! Quarantine life is starting to feel almost normal, and it's been going on so long that I didn't think that school starting would feel different or even be a big deal. We would still be at home all day every day just like we were during spring and summer, after all. Sameness defines life right now. So starting school seemed that it would just mean extra screen time each day for the kids. No big deal, right?

Wrong! 

All three of our kids are competent computer users, and for the most part Jay and Rose are pretty independent with their online school schedules so far. When something goes wrong with school stuff, however, they need me RIGHT NOW to fix the problem immediately so they can attend their class meeting before it ends. Consequently, I am the most restricted to the house that I have been since the days of napping diapering babies. 

Distance Learning 2.0

SCHOOL HAS BEGUN. As of Wednesday, August 26th, the school year is officially in session--from afar. Our school district is doing distance learning all online, while we [continue to] wait for COVID-19 to back off. Jeff is able to teach online from his classroom, which is a great setup for him since he has unlimited quiet and much faster internet there than he has at home. On Tuesday, I helped him lug his various electronic devices into his classroom. 

The first day of school was anticlimactic on the home front. No special outfits, no new school supplies, no backpack assembling. No pristine front porch pictures. No waiting for the bus. Well, ok. We did do front porch pictures, but nobody wore special new clothes or backpacks. We did wait at the bus stop, but rather than picking up the kids and taking them to school, the bus delivered school lunches to us. It was so strange! Nothing felt new or different. Although Jeff leaving for work was a novelty after nearly six months of having him home.

August Strong

Back in April, I started doing yoga for the first time ever, in hopes of strengthening my achy weak left shoulder and developing more flexibility. A friend recommended the YouTube channel Yoga With Adriene and I went for it, building strength slowly over weeks and weeks of downward dogged determination. Yoga is hard! After a few struggling sweating months, I started noticing that I was developing shoulder tone, wrist strength, posture awareness, and better balance. It felt amazing. I felt strong! That strong feeling kept growing. My left shoulder was (and is) still weaker than my right, but I could tell that overall it was much stronger than it was before I started yoga-ing.

Kachess Lake

We went to Kachess Lake at last! It was a long time coming, but well worth the wait. 

I. Delays

I first planned our family lake day over two weeks before we finally ended up going, but a set of delays pushed the trip out of July and then farther and farther into August. First we postponed it because our gear was too wobbly on the roof, then we put it off again to wait for warmer weather. I began to think that this lake was cursed! On Monday, August 17th, the variables finally aligned for a family day at the lake. I got up early to prepare our cooler of food. When I had everything all ready, I discovered that Jeff was still in bed. The man never sleeps in. It is not normal for him to stay in bed past 6am, and it was nearly 8! He was sick. We didn't know what he had, but he was too weak to come to the lake.

Awareness, adaptation, and waiting

Lots of thoughts have been building and swirling in my mind over the past two weeks. This post is my attempt to organize them, make sense of them, siphon them off, and share them. Hopefully it makes sense!

I. Awareness

For several weeks this summer, I felt somewhat spiritually stagnant, like I was going through the motions of daily scripture reading because it was the right thing to do, but not getting too much out of it. I understood that it isn't always fireworks; often it's quiet daily work with subtle small simple effects that aren't immediately visible. So I kept at it through the uninspired weeks, but it felt dull and hard.

PCT to Shoe Lake

After bathing in Deet, I met another wilderness celebrity on Monday (August 10th). The Pacific Crest Trail was beyond dreamy. How have I lived in WA for over ten years and never run on the PCT? Words seem inadequate to describe the beauty, especially since I'm still sapped of sufficiently descriptive superlatives after last week's run on the Wonderland Trail. It has been a great summer for magical WA-exploration!

A Victory on the Sunday Battleground

For the most part, home church at the White house is short, sweet, and to the point. Brevity helps us avoid (or at least stave off) the inevitable tussles that seem to occur whenever we are all in the same room trying to Do Something Spiritual Together. Today I approached home church with a different attitude: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! The Come Follow Me Primary manual had a stellar idea that was right up my family's aisle. I love it when pre-made lesson plans are perfect! That rarely happens, because I'm picky and tend to resist overly cheesy activities. This week it worked! 

Wonderland to the Panhandle

Ever since I first read about the Wonderland Trail a few years ago, I have dreamed about it and drooled over descriptions of its epic terrain and scenery. It became something of a celebrity in my mind, with an allure similar to that of the Appalachian Trail. The Wonderland Trail circles around the entire base of Mt. Rainier, creating a premier 93 mile loop. For some reason, I always thought of that 93 mile trail as a whole and never considered doing a day hike or a trail run on a small section of it like I often did on the Appalachian Trail back in Virginia. Then we drove past a Wonderland Trail access point on our way to the Snow and Bench lakes trail last week, and it clicked: I could enjoy the Wonderland in pieces! No need to commit to a multi-day 93 mile trek! 

Target: acquired.

Excessive heat warning

At the beginning of the week, the weather forecast issued a four day "heat advisory." It quickly expanded to five days, and soon devolved into an "excessive heat warning," with triple digit temperatures five days in a row. The Yakima Valley was a scorching place to be--not uncommon at this time of year, but blisteringly uncomfortable nonetheless. We fled to the mountains for a family hike on Tuesday, and spent the next two days recovering from our exertions. (Why are family hikes more tiring than solo trail runs?) 

By Friday we were ready and rarin' to go again. I picked out an easy-access, family-friendly mountain lake with beachfront that was a mere 2 hour mostly-highway drive from home. The highway component was key--we didn't want another carsick puking kid on this outing! The forecast was 23 degrees cooler at the lake than in Sunnyside. We craved that break from the heat ravenously.