March 19 – Day 2 of the COVID 19 Adventure

It Is All About Learning

I keep seeing lots of posts from my teacher friends about what they are doing to keep teaching during this.  Many are plowing new ground in the virtual world, others are old pros.  Some parents are also beginning to reach out.  They are asking for ideas and support.

Here at White Rock, we learned a lot today.  Here are a few of our discoveries.

Thunder Follows Lightning

On top of our self-imposed semi-isolation, it was storming this morning.  I am wondering if the rain is serving to make staying at home seem more natural or more painful.  It changes moment to moment.  This morning it was storming and we had a lot of lightning and thunder.  JW is all about the “funder”, but today there was enough lightning that he knew that the “funder” was on its way.  That was pretty cool.

Home Grooming Tips

Not to be outdone, Izzy shared some of her best tips for personal grooming.  At lunch, she cleverly re-purposed the juice from her grapes and used them to shape her eyebrows.  Really very smart of her since the results looked a lot like the fancy (and expensive) eyebrow stuff lots of people seem to be going for these days.  No need to spend the money or leave your home.  This should be very handy during this period of isolation.

Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine

Jerry and I are writing leadership curriculum for the orphaned and vulnerable children world.  Not for the children, but for all the folks who work in that world.  Jerry works while I play with the babies and then we switch.  Izzy had other ideas and wasn’t too happy about me being on my computer.  JW looks shell shocked.  Jerry is just over it.  I thought the entire picture was hilarious.  When Jerry saw the picture later, he laughed.  Jacob saw the photo and asked for me to send it to him.  I think we may frame it to remind us of our time together.  These babies make me laugh.

We Learned That We Made A Good Decision

A week ago today, Izzy’s daycare told parents they were closed for the rest of the month.  No warning just “Glad you came to pick up your child…don’t bring them back tomorrow” sort of thing.  JW’s daycare was still open but were taking temperatures at the door and really starting to freak out.  Jerry and I wanted the babies here at White Rock and their parents sweetly allowed us to bring them home with us.  Today, we found out that JW’s daycare closed.  Nana and PopPop are still open for business.

We Finished The Day Strong

It finally stopped raining this evening and we were able to go out and play on the porch.  The babies love being outside and it helps to break up the day when we can change locations.  Jillian sent Izzy’s inflatable pool with her, but it has been too cool to set that up.  However, there are lots of cool things to get into on the porch (which is also serving as our workshop until we finish all the projects for the house).

Tonight, JW cleaned sawdust off the table saw with a paintbrush and then we practiced our stacking skills with pieces of wood.  A sword fight broke out between JW and PopPop.  JW doesn’t quite understand why he can’t play in the dirt.  The concept that there are seeds planted is a bit much.  Maybe it will be easier when the plants appear.  He looks at us like we are crazy when we tell him there is something in the planters besides dirt.  Obviously, to him, there is not.

We had a wonderful, warm shower before we all went to bed.  We were tired.  Learning is fun, but it takes a lot of energy.