Back in my high school days I could be quite hilarious. I was actually on our forensics team. I did original comedies. (Ok, it was only for one year, but I did pretty good.)  As the years have passed I’ve become more of a fuddy duddy. My SIL (sister-in-law) actually heard a story about my past and was confused because it didn’t match with the version of me she knows.  I miss being silly and easy going. Today I’ve decided to write a quick and informal post that might help me on my journey of rediscovering the silly part of me. As usual I feel a little like a fraud and so I read up on what a blog is again. Everything that I have read and looked up about blogging is that it is informal and conversational. I think I am taking myself a little too seriously with my blog and it’s stressing me out a bit. Today I’ve decided that I’m just going to write about some of the little things that are going on in my life.

Hybrid Learning

As much as I try to ignore it we are currently living in a pandemic. Regardless of our opinions on the pandemic, things have changed in our day to day lives. For those of us with littles that are in school many schools have modified their school days. In the case of my littles their schools have been closed and they have been e-learning since March of 2020. (Someday I may come up with clever code names for my littles to make stories easier but today is not that day.) This week both of my littles returned to school for hybrid learning, meaning they will be in school for half days a couple days a week. With the littles finally returning to some in classroom learning for the first time in almost a year it feels a little bittersweet. I can tell you that my littles are so freaking excited to be back in school that they couldn’t care less how different or awkward school is. My one little literally said, I don’t care if I don’t get to talk to anyone it will at least be 4 different walls.

Bus Stop

The first day of school is always so exciting. There are first outfits to pick out, parents torturing kids with the endless pictures and chalkboards with arbitrary information. Some things I didn’t realize until this year’s first day, picking out a mask is like picking out the first day outfit. Also, at least for me, you don’t usually have to worry about freezing fog, icy roads and clomping through snow. It’s a lot easier to trust a new person to safely transport your littles when the driving conditions are ideal, there’s a new level of anxiety when road conditions are bad.  Anyway we make it to the bus stop. (PS facemasks do a great job of keeping you warm too.) While we were waiting for the bus, a neighbor was also waiting with their little. (Another thing you don’t usually have to worry about, cleaning a path to the road to get on the bus.) This neighbor happens to live at the corner where the bus stop is. While they have been cleaning their sidewalk they haven’t been worrying about the path to the road. Actually that’s not true either. The snowplows always leave giant piles of snow by the side of the road. Living on the corner they felt obligated to make a path for the bus. (I told them not to worry about it.) So they had walked their little to the corner and brought a shovel with them. As we are waiting she is digging a path through the mountain of snow. Their little decided they didn’t want to wear boots to school that day. We start talking about how excited we are, it feels like we’re taking steps in the direction of normalcy. We both know a couple people who have received their first dose of the vaccine within the last week. The littles are returning to school. The neighbor mentions that one of their littles was in basketball and they were allowed to return to practice. They came home from practice to tell how they had received an elbow to the eye. We laugh; it’s the little things that make you feel normal. The bus pulls up and the kids each step off to the side and walk through the snow mountains to get to the bus. Guess they really didn’t need to shovel a path.

The littles did a great job wearing their masks at school. My oldest little was also so excited because they got a welcome back gift from their teacher, face masks, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes. This is the world we live in right now. But it’s the little things that make it ok.  

As always, stay positive and much love