Catching up on the backlog

I got behind again.

23 days this time. Dec 25 - Jan 16 (the day I'm writing this).

That might be the record. 

The blog became "one more thing." And it was "one more thing" that I could let slide without it being a catastrophe, so I did. It slid.

It slid enough the backlog increased to where it made a barrier for re-entry, but now it's gone far enough I don't want to let it go further.

So I'm hopping back on the bandwagon....for now! Hopefully, I'll be fully caught up before I lapse again. If not, I'll just blame virtual school.

Adventure Day with Mom

Wednesday was the first day of break. Shane and Carrie went on an adventure. Carrie wanted to find a saddle that fit Maddie better. She knew there was a cheap used one that might fit the bill.....in a consignment shop two hours away!

Yep, she went for it! She drove the truck down to the barn to collect a pair of old saddles that didn't fit she could use as comparisons and possibly sell. Carrie's skilled at that and normally manages to do a good deal of swapping and selling to pay for her horse gear habits.

Shane tagged along for the ride. I wouldn't have volunteered, but he's a good traveler. He likes to talk, listen to music, and look at the window....and Carrie bribed him with using his tablet. She also planned to get lunch out and Shane suggested Arby's!

Carrie's first stop was only 20 minutes away at Heidi's house. Carrie checked in and offered to drop off some of Heidi's old gear at a consignment shop on her way north. 

Shane got a surprise, too. Heidi gave him a large stuffed bear.

He loved it. He showed it off when he got home.

I'm trying to convince him to call it a bär instead of bear since it's German!

But back to the trip, Carrie hit up three tack shops on the journey. It took longer than planned and Shane took a nap on the way home.

I guess restrooms were limited, because he had to go in a cup at one point. I don't know who was more shocked: Shane or Carrie! She sent me home a picture, so I know it happened.

If she was trying to gross me out, it didn't work (Been there; Done that!). I commented that she needed to get Shane some water, because he was looking too golden to be hydrated.

Side note: Pay attention to when Shane's browsing cards for sale. He came home giggling about a birthday card for an older woman. "It said, 'I thought I was having a hot flash, but my boob was in my coffee!'"

Meanwhile, I stayed home. And blogged. A lot. I wrote 9 posts and set up the pictures and drafts of 9 more future posts. My goal is to catch up over break and the road trip really helped me gain ground!

Last Days "Off"

"Have fun on your 2nd honeymoon," Grandma said.

If she thought we'd have lots of spare time with Shane being away, she wrong. Shane being out of the house gave us an extra hour or two tops! There were lots of chores and work to do!

I took this picture when I was picking up stems from a feeder. It reminded me of a boneyard.

I spent a large chunk of my Friday making up a unit test for triangles after my office hours. I probably could've got done faster, but I got the idea in my head to add superhero stick figures to some of the questions.

Hopefully, I won't get sued.

I don't have the time or talent to make them all myself, so the internet came to the rescue. It wont' be enough to make anyone who hates trig like it, but if I can get a smile where there normally wouldn't have been one, I'll take it.

 .

Virtual school has only gotten more draining with time. I probably work at least 65 hours a week between it and the barn (and paid for 36.25!). 

It's gotten more frustrating, too. I have students who don't show up at all and others who do maybe 10 minutes of work for the week. Meanwhile, I think 5-6 hours of work a week is fair. Split between 4 classes, that's an expectation of 20-24 hours per week....and the students who actually give a consistent effort have made progress and can usually finish faster than that. In physical school, I could hunt slackers down, but in virtual school it's much harder. 

Saturday I got to take a break from grading to do something I've wanted to do for a while: We went to the dump!

Some tasks are 'Carrie-locked.' She knows how to haul and she's good at it. We need to get the small trailer inspected, so we can haul the gator and mower to get serviced. But for today, I got to help put on my first hitch lock.

Then I filled up the back of the truck with over 200 lbs of trash (according to the dump's scale). 

Including at least 20 lbs of cat waste (according to "That's a lot of poop!"). We left the metal trash can at the dump when I realized there was nothing to brace it against once I threw out all the bags. The cat pee had corroded the inside and it had warped over time, but it still felt a little wasteful. 

Shane going to my parents didn't give us a ton of time off, but the time it did give us off helped. For me, it was one less thing to juggle. I knew he was getting the best care and attention and I got to turn my focus elsewhere.....but apparently not to blogging! My last post was right before Shane got home and I didn't start to catch back up until Thanksgiving break! But it wasn't that I didn't have ideas of what to write.

I took this picture while trying to scoop poop in the waning light. There's still plenty of light to see and walk around, but the turns start to blend with the dirt in the shadows. It all sort of blurs. The big piles are easy enough to distinguish, but sometimes I'm scooping at nothing looking for little bits while stepping over (or on) others.  

I imagine it feels similar to slowly losing your vision. You think you see well enough most of the time, but then you find you're missing more and more little bits and it gets harder and harder.

And the metaphor could be extended to being desensitized to something. Or to having the right tools for the job, like light!

Sometimes mundane tasks are great for having time to think. I work in the quiet when mulling something over, but will put on music or the Dice Tower to fill time, as well.

Shane's at Camp Nana-Pop....and the timing was perfect

Shane got to spend two weeks at Nana and Pop's. He's been living it large with cousins, trampolines, fast food, and grandparents! Nana and Pop have him call many nights and he talks about how wonderful it is.

Meanwhile, it was been hectic and busy at the barn. Shane got a ticket to paradise that left the station just before the stress express came in behind!

It started with Carrie trailering horses three days in a row and me picking up the chores while she did so. Ernie had surgery and then gave us all a scare by starting to colic. Carrie was especially scared, because she'd recommended the surgery and the owner's dad went into the hospital and into hospice at the same time all this was happening! Throw some other ongoing issues/conflicts in and Carrie was at her limit.

So I picked up whatever slack I could and stayed busy the whole time. I didn't write a single thing. If I ever realized I had the energy and focus to write, I quickly spent it on something else (like work emails!).

My own virtual school workload has continued to increase throughout. No longer is it "less work, but more draining." It is now "more work, because everything takes longer and I'm still not able to help everybody." 

It's still going well for what it is, but the work/home divide was destroyed when I started having zoom meetings 6 or 7 days a week (Only 5 days are required, but I've had 30 minute chats here and there on Saturday and Sundays to help kids).

And that's why I'm two weeks behind on the blog. The only reason I'm catching up now is, because Carrie and Shane are both out of town and I'm two weeks behind! 

Consider this the "tip of the iceberg" post. 

Post ideas...

I am constantly thinking of posts in my head. "This could make a fun story!" or "I feel this way about this. It's short and clear"

Two things tend to happen: I either never write the post or I start to write but 'short' and 'clear' are nowhere to be found!

Yesterday's post fell into the latter. "It's important to allow kids to makes choices. Because....and because this...and that....this, too....can't forget about.....oh boy."

I've got a good example of the former, too.

A few nights ago, Shane had Loki barking wild and Carrie had enough. 

"Each time he barks I'm sending you to bed a minute early!" she said.

Shane slumped on the couch. He wasn't happy about it, but he took the hint. 

Things calmed down.

Later I plopped down on top of Shane. It wasn't fast. It wasn't loud. It wasn't intended to make the dog bark, but Loki came running across the room broadcasting he wanted to join in.

"Uh oh! 1-2-3....I wonder how early I can get you to go to bed!" I said.

"What!?" Shane yelled. "You can't do that!"

"..7-8..He's looking pretty pumped! 12!" I laughed.

Shane looked me right in the eye. He looked unsure if he should laugh or protest.

Carrie looked up, too.

"What are you all doing!?"

"Nothing! I'm just laying here and smooshing Shane into the couch. He's not doing anything!"

Loki continued to bark.

And then Carrie took up the count.

"20...21...22..."

But she was smiling.

By the end of it, Shane could have been sent to bed an hour early! We all had a laugh, Loki got out some energy, and the TV went on to wind down afterward.

And I feel like I could've told that story so much faster in person. But as is, it at least avoided being never written!

I hate the new blogger interface

Google decided to change the blogger UI. They forced the change over the summer.

I didn't like it.

However, they had a button for "revert to legacy." It was annoying that they added a click and a pause to load the old UI I like, but I lived with it.

Well, the revert button disappeared. It's "New UI or bust."

I get it. Blogger is free. Google wanted to update and it's theirs.

But I miss the old UI. I used to be able to click on a certain page to look at old posts rather than scroll....wait for it to load.....scroll some more.....wait some more.....wait for it... 

It used to be if I clicked on a picture I could choose a size. Now I have to click on the picture, a button to select "change size" and then I can click on a size. An extra click isn't a big deal, but it's annoying when it used to be streamlined. Yes, they added the corners so I could stretch images if I wanted, but I don't. 

There are other things like the loss of the ability to directly edit the HTML, set a date for a draft without publishing, and an extra click here and there, but I'll spare you the litany of grief. Without the "revert" button, Google has taken the stance of "People will eventually stop complaining."

And they're not wrong. I've got years of material posted. I'm not planning on going anywhere.

But I can still be annoyed.

Trying to Get Stuff Done!

Life is busy! I took some pictures of me trying to accomplish things like blogging and reading over the weekend.

You may notice a theme.

Not that Shane was the only perpetrator. Just the only one that hummed.

Ear Worm

It took me a while to get back to the blog writing. 

Part of it was I had to go through a ton of pictures and write this behemoth. It probably over 4 hours with uploading, sorting, writing, going "Wasn't there a picture of...," finding the picture, and then finishing writing. It's much easier to write the shorter posts where I can see my vision and pull it off in one sitting.

The other part was Shane. He likes to sit next to me and talk.

And talk.

And talk some more.

I've tried to coach him on asking people questions, pausing to give people time to speak, and listening when they do so, but that's still a work in progress.

I feel bad when I tune him out, but maybe I shouldn't. He doesn't seem to notice or care as long as there's a warm body near by. I could probably be deaf and he wouldn't stop talking.

So one time I was sitting on the couch trying to read and Shane plopped down next to me. He started to talk and I listened at first. When it was clear he wasn't going to stop I phased him out. I've set a timer before to see how long he'd talk, but I had a new idea this time: "What if I recorded him?"

So I did.

Keep in mind that I didn't have a recording app on my phone. I got the idea, downloaded, and ran the app while Shane was talking. As part of the experiment, I then sat stone-faced and as still as possible to see how long he'd talk if I didn't give any feedback.

I did say something between the 3 and 4 minute marks, but otherwise the file is nearly 8 minutes of Shane.

Yup. That's my boy.

I like that he's using his imagination and keeping his mind active, but there are times I just want quiet to read a book or write a post! I'm sure he gets the talking and the imagining from my side of things.

After all, writing is basically a more methodical (but quiet!) thought dump.

NOTE: Shane is sitting next to me at the table and humming songs from from The Messenger game really loudly as I write this. I'd tell him to knock it off, but it's proving my point with every keystroke! I'll try to address it more when he's older. Until my patience runs out, I'd like him to feel loved and valued.

Look Back: Posting over the Years

Ever feel like a day repeats? Ever wondered where you were on the same day at a different time?

I decided to take a look back through my blog and see what stories popped up for April 28th.

2019 - Genevieve and Chris visited for the weekend! There was soccer, lots of kids, getting ready to sell our house, and I ran a D&D campaign. It was the social opposite of 2020 with COVID!

2018 - Shane and I drove to NOVA for International Tabletop Day. John was running a program at his library and Nana and Pop were in town visiting Jama.

2017 - I thought about our favorite TV shows from house to house. We've been watching Avatar the Last Airbender this week. The 2017 post from the day before was Shane's swimming lessons.

2016 -I posted a video of Shane dancing to the music at the end of a movie.

2015 - There were two posts. 1) I was in classroom 221B and posing as Moriarty. 2) The Prius died.

2014 - Another two poster. 1) Shane was climbing in the back of our neighbor's truck in Chantilly. 2) My work laptop was stolen.

2013 - Igor got married!  And Shane didn't play well with a little girl. And I bruised my butt jumping over a fence.

2012 - There was nothing posted on the 28th. I posted a post about a lack of posts on the 27th, though (seems fitting....). The post before that was when the space shuttle flew over my school to go to the Air and Space Museum.

2011 - Another post-less April 28th, but the 27th spoke of Shane's fondness of warm diapers.

2010 - The blog had not yet begun, but Carrie was pregnant with Shane.

COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Virtual School Update

Virtual School has taught me a lot. 

First and foremost, it's taught me what it's like to teach virtually 

To interact with someone online only feels like interacting with their shadow. It's them, but it's not the real them. The shadow can wildly fluctuate based on the angle and the light and in the darkest moments it vanishes.

I've thought about being a virtual educator/professor before. This period of forced online education has given me a free sample of what it might be like. 

Would I still do it? Maybe. It'd have to be part time rather than full time, the right subject, the right students, and the right pay!

So I guess that means, "Highly unlikely."

I've been working hard and earning my money. In some ways it's a lot less work (content creation, commute, hours spent in school, grading), but it also drains me more because I don't get to experience the parts of my job that reward and energize me as much (the relationships, working through problems, dawning comprehension, free food when someone puts cookies in the breakroom, etc).

A lot of the other things I've been learning have been about the how's. How do I run a lesson online? How do I run a PLC meeting online? How do I try to connect to students who don't respond? How am I supposed to use this tool to do this thing?

The line really blurs with everything being at home. I played a game with Matt and Patrick last night. As the game ended, I got an email from a student who I hadn't heard from in weeks. I stopped everything and made sure my reply was buzzing in his hands before he could put down his cellphone. 

I spent the next half an hour going back and forth. The kid was working and putting up barb wire fencing, so he wanted to talk at 5 PM the next day. 

After that, I crawled into bed. 

It's May 12th as I write this. That's how far behind I am!

Shane only managed to interrupt me twice while I was writing. He came running out of his room loud while Carrie is sleeping on the couch. He wanted me to stop everything and look up something on MegaMan X2 (I didn't). He came out again 5 minutes later after I told him "I'm trying to finish this and it's going well!" He spent the next two minutes two chairs down from me, chased the cat into the chair next to me, and just tapped me on my arm to say, "Where'd you get that cow?"

I answered a few work emails mid-composition, too.......and thus, that's why I'm behind. Emails are shorter and I can fire one off in between Shane-terruptions.

COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Why aren't you writing EVERY DAY!?

Put "consistently blogging" on the list of things I thought I'd do if I ever had the time.

So why am I behind now? I blame three things.

1) Virtual School - I am on the computer a lot. I write a lot of emails. After being on the computer and writing replies for a good chunk of the day I don't feel like sitting down to write some more.

2) Shane - I've tended to let Shane play with electronics when I need him out of my hair for work. When I'm done working, I often have him take an electronics break....which means I can't get anything accomplished. Without the electronic pacifier, Shane rarely spends more than 5 minutes on his own without entering my orbit to poke, hum, talk, tackle, bother a cat, or rev up the dog. I like to sit down, get in the zone, and finish a post in one go and Shane turns into a start and stop, hodgepodge, concentration nightmare!

3) Some serious posts - My normal style of posts are really easy for me. I use pictures to make a visual outline. Then I either write chronologically or I rearrange pictures into how I view the narrative flowing. It's easy! I normally write about facts and my feelings on the matter, so I don't feel a need to do research or quote sources.

Whenever I want to write about something outside that framework, I feel the need to do it right. Anyone at anytime in the future could read my post, so I want to put a good effort into it.

When you're tired, been on the computer all day, and can't concentrate with a kid popping your thought bubble every time it finishes forming it makes a barrier to starting and that leads to a progress gap.

I'm aware of all this, but that hasn't been enough for me to surmount it.

So I'm breaking the ice with a warm-up post. I've uploaded pictures and I may skip the 'serious' posts for now until I catch back up and my work load drops (It's not like we're going anywhere!).

This post started with me thinking about  my blogging habits and I want to continue in that vein.

I made a graph.

Minimum: 40 posts in 2010 (partial year)            Minimum in Full year: 102 posts in 2011

Maximum: 494 posts in 2015                               Average post per year (all time): 321.18

It's been a long time since I posted a graph. I haven't commented on keywords like "Patrick" and "Poop" in a while either! ('Patrick' is up to 53 posts while 'Poop' is only at 18 nowadays!)

In the beginning, I didn't do daily posts. I usually posted little stories, thoughts, and reflections. I didn't have a smart phone at first, so there weren't as many pictures. 

In the middle, I posted A LOT. More than once a day! When I went back to look at those posts, I noticed that I would break up posts into shorter posts.

Now, I tend to do one post and string together multiple thoughts. Because I can be a little behind in my updating, I can post on one topic, but then string several days worth of pictures into it to make a longer story than a bullet-point. 

There's nothing wrong with any of my earlier posting styles. I tried different things and I've fallen into a groove. That groove works for me, but it's also contributing to that effort barrier that arises when I try to mix things up. 

Ice broken!

I only got a week behind this time. Hopefully, my fanbase (Nana) hasn't been too starved for posts!

COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Survived the first week! Random Thoughts

How much space did the average sailing vessel have in the 15th century? 

Those things were packed with people for weeks at a time. I'm pretty sure they didn't have wifi, refrigerators, and air handling systems to boot.

I posed the question to Shane as something to think about. We're 'trapped' at home, but unlike those sailors we can go outside and enjoy all sorts of technological marvels they could only dream of (When they weren't working full time sailing and killing rats!). They had more people to interact with being completely cramped by comparison to us, but there's enough parallels to think about.

Will people go as crazy as sailors on shore leave when restrictions are eased?

Let's take this to the future. What would it be like on a space vessel? How long would you be 'quarantined' on it going to a far off star?

I looked up the International Space Station and it has a living area "larger than a six-bedroom house." 

We're fortunate to be a healthy and functional family unit for this season. God has blessed us.

There are plenty of houses with strife, separation, and needs going unfulfilled.

It's not perfect sailing. Shane's dying for other kids and is all over me for socialization. It feels like he can't do anything for more than 10 minutes without calling me over to look, join his Minecraft world, or coming into the room where I am. I'm tired and would love to have some quarantine-buddies to talk to in person myself (I'm not as extroverted as him, but I'm a teacher because I feel God's calling for me is to be a servant to others!). I wanted to get together some online gaming, but it never really worked out to my satisfaction and my own motivation fizzled. I feel like I'm always holding back a little bit of energy back for whatever comes next. I'm pacing myself for a marathon rather than just being in the moment always. My house and family are my responsibility and I don't want to let them down. Did Carrie crash on the couch before 8 PM? Gotta take care of the horses and put Shane to bed. Did Shane take care of the cat pot? Does the dog want outside? Is that cat puke? What about dishes?

But again, there's so much to be thankful for. We're healthy. We're well fed. We have options and we have things to do.

I saw an apt analogy comparing the stay-at-home orders to a storm.

A storm covers a large area. There may be pockets of lightning, flooding, or even a tornado, but there are other areas in the storm where it's only raining. That rain may be light in some areas, but it doesn't lessen the storm for people in other areas. Everyone's in the storm regardless.

COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: St. Patty's Day and Teaching From Home

St. Paddy's day was quiet this year. My siblings all started the day keeping my phone abuzz with leprechaun antics! I wish I was that creative, but it was a lazy year. I had been planning to where my kilt to school, but it got lost in the rush. I stuck with pajamas at home.

Carrie didn't make our big St. Paddy's day meal until the next night, but I did raise a glass with some of Mark's beer. 

I like the flavor and the name! ("Math is all about patterns!")

There were five days off school this week, but I swear I did at least two days of hard work (Maybe three if you'd factor in lunch breaks and kids talking to me so that I can't get grading done!).

This guy made it a challenge. Any time I wanted to focus on something he'd pop up and just start talking. Or he'd chase the dog into the room and have to turn it into a barking circus under my chair instead of anywhere else! Blog work and school were tough to accomplish (This is why I normally go to work on workdays even when I could stay at home!).

I did a solid four hours of grading on Tuesday, because Shane got into Sim City and I just let it ride. I counted it as math work for homeschooling!

Shane popped up and I made him get lunch and some other stuff in that time window. I felt great once I had caught up on ALL my paper grading.

Wednesday was our second (and now weekly) virtual meeting. I waited to hear what was going on before I started updating my Schoology page, so that I wouldn't have to backtrack on anything I did.

My plan is to update every workday to keep connected. Right now, there's no new work allowed or anything, but I'm trying to keep little things consistent. I have one student who helps me pick a word of the day. I tend to post a picture of what's happening at the barn or if Loki or Shane does something funny. I wanted kids to know I'm still available AND accepting any late work they want to email in.

Shane helped me make an intro video with my school account. We did it in one take rather than practicing!

I kept up the updates all week just to emphasize "I'm here! I haven't changed!"

Friday I had to send out an email to check in with all of my 3A student families. Most didn't write back, but it's something I'm supposted to/going to do each week after the Wednesday virtual meetings.

I thought I'd fully catch up on my blog this week, but Shane, chores, and horses kept me super busy. I played a game with Matt, John, and Patrick Thursday night, but was barely on anything else the whole week. My downtime was either spent reading The Eye of the World or watching something with Carrie after Shane was asleep (We've started Picard).

Carrie's been super busy with the horses and the barn which will be the subject of my next post.

School Happenings

Shane was drawing "bosses" when I picked him up from after school. He had an interesting day.

That's because he got to visit my high school! There was a field trip where elementary schools in our feeder pattern took turns gathering for a pep rally of sorts. Dylan's school came the same day as Shane's, so they got to say hi in the gym to each other!

Shane met several of my students while he was here, too. One of the girls in my freshman seminar said he gave her a really hard high five. Another said that he walked into the gym and loudly asked everyone if they knew who I was. "Because I'm his son!"

At least he's not embarrassed of me!

There was one rougher encounter where Shane was in the bathroom and some high schoolers came in. They were talking about something inappropriate and cussing. When Shane came out of the stall, he asked them not to curse around him!

Their first response was surprise and "Who are you to tell us what to do?" Shane asked them if they knew me, and the tune changed. One of them was in my class and Shane said that were very nice after that.

The student in question actually came to see me and told me he saw "my mini." I heard the story from both sides. He explained he hadn't even realized Shane was in the bathroom. There are a few lessons to be learned there, so the seed of wisdom grows.

Also -

I came to school and I heard a noise while I was getting ready.

The custodians never covered the hole in my wall and a mouse found it's way into the glue trap. I contacted the head guy and hoped he'd show up before class started. If not, I was just going to carry on and see if anyone realized we had a visitor! 

The head custodian showed up while there were kids in the room but before morning announcements. There were definitely some surprised customers.

There's Always Stuff to Do

As I was about to write this, I typed "Busy" in the search bar of the blog.

I've used the word a lot!

Most of it was a bunch of fun times, though. I scrolled through for a while and smiled before I refined my search.

"Life is busy" was the new investigation. I sorted by date.

I wanted to see the last time I posted a post saying, "Wow, I'm busy," but not with a bunch of pictures.

Why?

Because that's the sort of post I'm about to write.

I'm about a week behind and needed to backfill a post for today, but was drawing a blank on anything specific. I don't seem to have any pictures to jog my memory either. I have felt busy and drafted a mental breakdown on what I'm typically up to in my head and decided to use it.

Then I ditched it and went on a tangent with the blog search....which I'm getting right back to now.

I found what I was looking for in an April of 2018 post. I thought I had posted something over the summer, so I switched my search to "backlog," and found a post in November of 2018. (There was another short post in January 2019, but that didn't count because it included "I'm actually playing video games again to fill some time!")

It was longer ago than I expected, so now I don't feel bad about writing, "Man, I'm busy."

Man, I'm busy.

A typical day here starts between 6:30 and 7 AM. The animals rise with the sun (which includes human ones). My day starts with taking the dog out for his morning reprieve. Then on weekdays it's getting ready for school and, if I'm up early enough, horse chores. From there it's off to work. I typically arrive a little after 8 AM and stay busy all day until around 4 PM.

I used to be able to move a little slower during the day and consider things, but wrestling starts at 4:10 PM now. I have to pack up, cross the school, get dressed, and get in the room. Right now, the team is very small and there are multiple coaches, so I'm not the busiest in the room. There's a different vibe from my old team and since I'm new man I'm hanging back and observing more rather than taking charge.

I leave wrestling practice early around 5:25 PM. That gives me time to get dressed, leave, and pick up Shane. When Shane and I get home around 6 PM, it's time for even barn chores. Carrie and I double-team those. We come back to the house to make and eat dinner and things are normally settling down around 7 PM.

Shane is supposed to keep an eye on the animals and read while we're at the barn. He's pretty good about doing it, but it's hard to confirm. He's normally on the couch reading a Dogman or the like when I get back to the house and Loki hasn't been missing a leg or tail yet!

From 7 PM to 7:30 or 8 PM (later when I have my way), the electronics are off. When the electronics go on, everyone is mentally done for the night. Shane normally hops on the TV and does his thing. Carrie could be on her phone or on the computer doing something with me. I've had to use some nights for grading and taking care of planning that I can't do during the school day.  What I haven't been doing is keeping up with the blog.Sometimes, I've managed to load a few dishes or two, but I normally let those wait until the weekend.

There's always something more to do, but I don't feel bad letting it go. I've normally had a productive day and feel good about not being a lazy bum.

Yeah, I'm way behind

I think I was 19 days behind at the max this time. I'm doing my best to play catch-up.

Rural Internet - We're using a nighthawk router that basically acts like an AT&T hotspot. It required no installation. We pulled it out of the box, made a phone call, and set it up lickety-split.

It's getting around 16/mpbs download and 1.0/mpbs upload at best and costs about $90/mo. It works okayish for our purposes, but it's not what I would call great. Running games on multiple computers while streaming something on the TV is probably out.

The other option would be to install some DSL lines from Centurylink. Supposedly, they run at 10/mpbs for $45 a month. We could have separate lines installed for two different 10/mpbs lines (his and hers?). Opinion on Centurylink seems divided and we've decided to stick with the hotspot style internet for now.

I wonder if Ting is going to show up at our old house now that we've moved out.... (fiber optics)

NOTE: We had some visitors who suggested we switch our antenna to the other side of the house. They were right. We're pulling around 20/mbps download and 1.4/mpbs upload now.

The Rubber Band Update Game

What you're not seeing in retrospect is I'm going 4 or 5 days without posting (Maybe even 7 or 8 or more...). Then the next few days I rush to catch up.

The following week I fall back behind and the cycle repeats.

I came across a meme the other day.

I mostly agree. If the meme changed "Unpleasant" to "An unpleasant lesson to be learned" I'd agree even more.

I'm dealing with my burnout. Sometimes it takes a summoning of willpower to do things at work I'd consider basic. 

And yet, through it all I still have hope. I don't believe the burnout will last forever. In the end, God's got this. If anything, this season will help me empathize with other people who go through something similar.

Maybe that's the plan.

Even if it's not, I'm living it and time will march on.

I'm still working on "...consider it pure joy,..., when you face trials of many kinds...," but I'll get there. 

I had a personal turning point this morning. It was feeling extra rough (My boss was checking on people to make sure they weren't 'hopeless') and then the next day my outlook brightened. I can't tell you a reason other than I prayed about it. I find myself going back to thinking about how I felt before and after, but the only thing I can tell you is, "I feel better." Not that I'm there yet, or that I'm not counting days of school and doing the math to see what percentage is left, but I feel better about things.

Which is good timing, because there's lots of work to be done prepping the house, updating my resume, and doing everything else that needs to be done! All in God's time... 

Rain, Rain, Wash the Internet and County Away?

It rained A LOT from Wednesday into Thursday.

So much so my phone rang at 5:37 AM with an emergency fanout from Cville City Schools.

"We will be open on time."

....

SERIOUSLY?

I don't get upset easily, but being awoken early to a rush of excitement to be told, "Don't be late! Good luck getting back to sleep!?"

That struck me as asinine.

The counties around us were all on two hour delays and Albemarle decided to close later on. A large portion of the staff for CCS don't live in the city, so they were all affected by the rain/sleet and closures. We were short-staffed for the day at my school and the kids were all cranky about the rain.

Meanwhile, Shane had a field trip to Monticello that was still on. When I picked him up from school he was excited, because TWO trees had almost fallen on his bus. The first one fell on the road in front of them and they had to wait for it to be cut and cleared! The later one was a separate incident and his school had to send out messages that all the buses for kids to go home were delayed.

"Let's tell Mommy about that one tomorrow when the rain has passed," I said.

Friday, we were short staffed again. Three of my coworkers who did make it didn't arrive to work until after the kids! It took my boss over two hours to drive to work due to all the closed roads and backed up traffic in her county which is normally 30 minutes away!

The internet pooped out at start of our 2nd block and didn't return. The school behind us and the Upper Elementary school were completely without power. Naturally, this made our kids crazier than normal and being short-staffed it made for a rough day.

Transportation came and picked up the kids an hour early. That let me drop by the house before wrestling practice, so that was nice, at least. Next week is going to be interesting with only two days and the Thanksgiving feast!

Struggling to Keep Up!

In case it wasn't obvious, I've been having trouble keeping up with the blog.

If you only check the blog sporadically, you may not have noticed. I take pictures, upload them, and try to keep drafts open of titles I want to write about. That helps me organize thoughts and remember things without a gap in total posts. I lose details in the time that goes in between finishing anything, but something fills the gap.

The rubber banding about posting started this summer. I go for stretches without writing and then try to sit down and pour everything out over a night or two to catch up.

A lot of things factor in to the backlog. I am still feeling burned out. School, wrestling, and activities eat a lot of time and energy. Some of my friends have been going through life stresses and I'm working to support them. Shane is older, faster, smarter, and takes a lot more energy to meet his needs physically, mentally, and emotionally and I'm stretched as is.

Still, there are good times. The blogs should show that! With all of the challenges, we have fun. I've been more social outside the family with trivia and playing 'King of the Hill' with Silas and Zora. Carrie's been staying up later which gives us time to talk and watch something instead of blogging.

I enjoy writing, but it's not necessary to daily survival and has dropped down the priority list. I plan to catch up wherever and whenever I can.

Work Burnout + Busy Life = Blog Backlog

I'm writing this in the future and backdating this to the past.

As I write this, my last blog posts were 4/16 and 4/18. The 4/18 was an easy post, so I typed it out while thinking, "I need to start that longer one..."

The longer one was never started. 

I was already a week behind when I was writing those posts, too (I think). 

It is 4/30 as I write this. I'm almost two weeks behind!

Work is busy. Shane's active. I'm active. Then I'm spending time with Carrie at night to unwind. That hasn't left time for blogging. I'm going to start going through my backlog of pictures and start posting now.

I may have to skip posts on some days, but I'll catch up eventually. It starts now.