COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 62

By the numbers:
62 days of homeschool so far (counting today)
11 interested parties who came to look at our house this weekend
3 (maybe 4) Google/Zoom meetings left this week
3 days until moving day
2 days until we close on the house
1 day of homeschool still to go after today

This is it. This is the week when it all happens. School is over. We close on and then move into our new house. We consider offers on our old house. We change our lives. We begin a new adventure. We close one chapter of our lives and open another.

Not surprisingly, my emotions are all over the map. I'm sad, I'm thrilled, I'm excited, I'm terrified. Sad to leave a home with so many happy memories. Thrilled to be moving on to a new adventure. Excited for the opportunities ahead for every member of my family. Terrified to be starting over in so many ways.

But even as all those changes come, there are some constants. We still need to eat three meals a day. We will still get up and get dressed and laugh together and learn together and play together. There are still birds to watch at the feeder and chipmunks in the yard. There are still sunrises to enjoy over a cup of coffee and sunsets over a glass of wine. Before long, we will be enjoying all of them with new friends and a new sense of familiarity.

But right now, we're still in the familiar, the comfortable, the known. We're still enjoying our "new normal" routines. And so we will spend two more days of homeschool, even as we finish packing our lives for our new adventures.

Here's what today's "normal" looked like.

7-8:30am: I had promised the kids that our last two days of school would be fun and easy. My daughter's class is having a Google Classroom Meeting at the end of our school day today and tomorrow; my son's class is having one tomorrow as well. I have yet to see what other assignments they have for today and tomorrow, but we're planning on movies and swimming being a major part of our day. So we began with bacon and pancakes. Followed by some degree of getting dressed, brushed, and washed.

8:30-9:30am: We started by watching a link to an 11-minute video on the history of Walt Disney, posted by my son's teacher. That had a link to another video in the series covering the history of the Disney theme parks, so we happily fell down that rabbit hole and went on learning about a bunch of individual rides and virtually riding them. 

9:30-10am: I had also told them that we could watch a movie, and since they couldn't agree on one between themselves, I got to pick (standing rule in our house for movie and TV watching). I found a cute family movie called Annabelle Hooper and the Ghosts of Nantucket, so I got them started on that while I went upstairs and packed everything we can live without for the next four days.

10-11am: My daughter took a quick break to watch Circle Time with Miss Tracey, and my son (who was not loving the movie, despite the adorableness of our heroine Annabelle) went to his room to read on Epic for a while. Once Circle Time was over, my daughter went back to watching the rest of the movie. I continued to pack. The medicine cabinet was an interesting exercise in statistics: What are the chances that anyone in the family will need Pepto Bismol in the next 72 hours? Or Benadryl? Or an Ace bandage? Meh, it's all going in the box. I'll try to remember which box everything is in just in case of emergency and we need to bust something out. (We all know I won't remember, but there's a CVS down the street, so it's a gamble I'm willing to take.)

11am-1pm: Long lunch break and free time! I grabbed a quick lunch and then continued packing up the kitchen. I have 3 K-cups lined up and mentally labeled as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We have three breakfasts, two lunches, and one or two dinners left, so I am running through meal options in my mind as I pack. I packed the spice and baking cabinets with the exceptions of vanilla and cinnamon (for French toast), Montreal steak seasoning and vegetable oil (for grilling steak), a few measuring cups and pancake mix (for obvious reasons), and salt and pepper. For similar reasons, the gadget drawer now consists of mainly pancake turners, meat thermometers, and a couple of spoons.

1-2pm: My daughter has a Google Classroom Meeting. My son is going for a swim in the pool. I'm supervising, timing his laps, listening to the local mockingbird going through his repertoire, and hoping a hummingbird or two will wander by. I already swapped over a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, and I've packed everything that can be packed today, at least in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen. There's still stuff in the laundry room (mostly my husband's tools, so I'm leaving those for him) and the office (also leaving that for my husband), so I think the only other nook I can clear out more at this point is the hall closet, and there's not much left there other than our liquor stash. So I feel like we're in good shape! Or at least as good as we're going to get. Once my daughter's call ended, she and my husband both threw on their suits and jumped in. I'm dunking in my toes and delivering warm towels as needed.

This evening's dinner menu is salmon (cooked on the grill because I already packed the cookie sheets), so not much preparation needed. Which means we can all kick back and relax for a bit, content in the thought that there's only one more day of school and it looks like we're going to make it through the week just fine!