Teachers gotta teach

Today was a turning point for me.  I have been scared that the American people would not take social distancing seriously.   I was worried that we are too stubborn to actually read news stories and learn about what is happening in other parts of the world.  I am still going in to work.  I work in am office alone, and now I am Behind a locked door.  Several times today I had people knocking.  One was a new employee genuinely trying to give me his paperwork, I have no problem with this.  The rest?  Older people from town stopping by,   One to give me egg cartons.  One to tell me that the governor is crazy and made a huge mistake.  I wanted to scream at all of them.  When I got off work, I drove by the local restaurant which was packed with locals I’m sure all drinking coffee and chatting.  Post office- full of people complaining because only the drive up windows are open at the bank.    “It’s overkill.  This has gotten ridiculous” were both statements I overheard multiple times.  I had to pick up one of Jim’s prescriptions at the pharmacy today.  I let my girls ride along, reminding them that they cannot get out of the car.  As we drove into town, we see kids all out playing together.   We see a big group having a bbq on their front lawn, and a bunch taking their kids into Casey’s.  I don’t want to be judgmental but seriously?   I was at the pharmacy 2 days ago.  Today you can no longer go inside, you call and they come out to you. All these businesses taking all these precautions, and yet, half the people aren’t listening.  It honestly sickens me.  I’d like to return to normal life.  We cannot flatten the curve if we don’t try harder.  

Meanwhile, ocd Hope has never been happier that we made the choice to live in the country.  If I had to look out and see this stuff going on, I would probably lose my sanity.  

Today Jim and I enacted a 20 minutes of reading and 20 minutes of cleaning per day rule.  The kids and I cleaned the garage, and I cleaned the bus.  I’m really glad I cleaned my stuff off of there because they took it away this evening.   The kids had a paper airplane flying contest off the back deck.   Preston’s plane won.  They enjoyed it a lot.  I see this as a regular event at our house!  

Harper is hoping the school doesn’t want her to turn in her library book before she finishes reading this!  She says it is good!  She spent a lot longer than 20 minutes trying to finish it!  Since the online learning or remote learning starts tomorrow, she is worried she will not have as much free reading time.  I love that she loves to read!  

We also started our seeds indoors for our garden this summer.  The kids weren’t real excited about growing vegetables.  I’m sure they will be happy if we can make salsa and spaghetti sauce this summer!   Of course, Mallory and a couple other teachers encouraged me to turn this into more than just a food growing lesson.  Preston’s science teacher even emailed him some graphing ideas and life cycle projects.  He was not too thrilled.  Mallory has a bunch of ideas for us as well.  These teachers are suffering right now.  I have several friends who teach and they are overwhelmingly sad. 

This is definitely a time to pull together and work for the greater good.