November 2020 W.I.S.H. Thread - The Beginning of a New Adventure

[Oneanne]

I frequently tell the twins that they can do hard things. We put that up on our reader board when schools closed in March! We also have tardy slips we give late students to give to their teacher so they know they've checked in with the office to have their attendance changed. We printed them with upbeat phrases and that one was the first one we put on them!

I tell people that my new motto is whatever, whenever. I have definitely shifted my expectations! Lately DH and I have been feeling that having the twins is super hard. We know we are the absolute best place for them to be, but we are looking forward to Thanksgiving when they will be away and we can find some space to rest.

Whatever whenever is a great way to frame up these challenging times!

 

[Oneanne]

Teaching is hard this year. But some days are harder than others. I try to focus on what I can control. Yesterday I was struggling with myself about getting a conference with a Spanish speaking mom. The child speaks English, so doesn’t receive any support from our ELD teacher. And last week I was in the mentality that I can do this on my own. But yesterday I reached out to the ELD teacher for help (she works with the older sibling and has communicated with the family). Being an experienced teacher, I’m usually one that teachers turn to for help. But I needed to remind myself that it’s okay for me to ask others for help too!

Asking for help can be so challenging when you are used to being "the one", great job reaching out.

 

[Oneanne]

Your quote rings true for me and is quite helpful. Out of 3 administrators, we have one, and same with secretaries because of quarantining. I have so many assessments to do and only one day with one cohort. Testing is impossible while teaching virtual learners, so it has to be done during the small window I have in the afternoon. I am canceling PE just to get extra time with my in-school kids.

This gets harder and harder.

I have so much respect for all you teachers, in normal times and now now when things are so hard.

 

[Oneanne]

Who can you connect with? - far away family, via phone and e-mail, DH, who I've been spending more quality time with, DIS friends here in my favorite community, one in-person friend I actually see (because I homeschool her kids while she works)
How can you tend to yourself? - I'm usually the first one up, so I take some quiet time every morning to sit with my coffee and do whatever I feel like
What can you remind yourself of? - that there are a million things to do in the world, and so many of them are still possible at home right now!
What action can you take? - share ideas and get others involved, make things for people
How can you find space to rest? - it's a big house - I forget sometimes how many places to hide there actually are
Where can you receive support? - here, of course!
How can you shift your expectations? - I've gotten much better about rolling with the punches by homeschooling two kindergarteners. I've realized that some days we take off like like rockets and get so much accomplished, and some days we survive to try another day, but it all evens out in the end.
Where can you find some ease? - Hallmark Christmas movies? Also, I've found that there are a ton of free school resources on the internet! I still make some personalized stuff of my own, but I don't have to when I'm busy, and that makes a huge difference in my stress level.

Love all of these... particularly finding a hiding space in the house and finding pre-made resources!

 

[Oneanne]

Who do you connect with? Family and friends. Zoom has been a life saver. Just got off the phone with my sister in law. It was good to laugh for a half hour!
How can you tend to yourself? I think I am pretty good at this I am at the place in my life where I can do this. I’m retired and pretty much do as I please.
What can you remind yourself of? All the things that aren’t canceled-good books, talks with friends and family, walks on the trail or on the beach, spending time with my husband.
What action can you take? Make sure I get outside every day-getting exercise every day is good for my mental and physical health.
How can you find space to rest? I love sitting in front of the fireplace reading, watching a good movie or checking on the Dis!
Where can you receive support? Yes, here! I get so many good ideas here-blogs, books, recipes!
How can you shift your expectations? Especially with the holidays coming, I have to remind myself just because it’s different, it’s still good. All the other things don’t matter if we’re all healthy.
Where can you find some ease? Reading, always. It’s one of my greatest pleasures. And talking about books with my friends. Spending time with my grandson-he is my greatest joy! He called me last night all excited because he got the Final Jeopardy question!

Great ideas to try here... thanks for sharing them! Remembering all the things that aren't canceled is so powerful, as is doing the little things like sitting in front of the fire and reading.

 

[Oneanne]

Who can you connect with? With the move to self-quarantine, to stop making trips to Starbucks was on the top of the list yet this morning I went because it'll be the only time today that I talk to a live human, even if just at the drive-thru window. And I think the Baristas know that is true for most people they serve, as they are always chatty.
How can you tend to yourself? Eat healthful foods so that I'm feeling as good as possible..
What can you remind yourself of? That this is temporary and it will pass, if we each make smart choices.
What action can you take? Limiting my shopping by organizing and planning, making fewer shopping trips and doing them in off-hours to relieve stress on grocery workers and other shoppers.
How can you find space to rest? I need to get back to turning the TV off and turning on music instead.
Where can you receive support? Here!
How can you shift your expectations? I keep gaslighting myself, telling myself I have it easy because I'm on my own and not looking after family... I need to shift this to recognizing that it is hard for me as well.
Where can you find some ease? Getting outside as much as possible.

 

[piglet1979]

This weekend ended up not how I planned it to be. I started with a headache on Friday and I still have it today. DH had his first migraine ever on Sunday and DD has been complaining as well. We have all been a bit congested as well. It all seems to be related to this.

To top off the weekend we got a huge wind storm on Sunday at about 12:30pm. I just came in from making sure the soccer balls were secured and told DH that we should get stuff together just in case the power goes out. As soon as I finished saying that the power went out. There is a tree that fell on the powerlines on the street that mine is off of. It knocked most of the lines down and the tree was being held up by the telephone pole and wires. Then on the other side of us and tree fell and knocked down the lines and also went through the back of someone's house. They are all ok. We went about 25-26 hours without power as temps started to get colder. I think they did a work around to get some us up and running. After we got power we drove around to see if every this was cleaned up. Nothing had changed and I found out as the day went on that the power was still out for many around us. Neighbors that are about 2-3 house down from us are without. I am very grateful that our came back on. If it didn't we would have had to go somewhere for last night and today. Temps today are in the 30's and it has been snowing. It would have been a rough night last night.

We do have 3 beta fish and the bearded dragon. We had to find a way to keep them warm. We still had hot water so we were filling up water bottles with hot water to try and keep them warm. Thankfully they are all ok. The bearded dragon I think had the hardest time. He is still not moving much and not really eating. He needs to be pretty warm to eat. We are adding an extra heat lamp today to help warm his cage up more. This should help a lot.

Today I have to run up to the school to drop off the book they gave us for DD to read for English class and then put up her next book. I am not too happy about it. I really do not want to be in the school. Too many positive cases lately at the school. I tried to see if she could use an ebook but they said no. Also wish they gave us more notice. She needs to get this like today as they are already getting into the book. Had I known or even if they sent an email to et us know (I got all the info from DD) I could have ran up yesterday when I was not working. All the teachers are doing a great job but they all need to work on giving us a bit more time to get stuff.

Our district is also going full remote Monday and Tuesday next week (they are off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) because they do not have the staff. Yesterday they were only able to cover 60% of the teachers that were out. I have a feeling we will be full remote though until after the New Year.

 

[Oneanne]

This weekend ended up not how I planned it to be. I started with a headache on Friday and I still have it today. DH had his first migraine ever on Sunday and DD has been complaining as well. We have all been a bit congested as well. It all seems to be related to this.

To top off the weekend we got a huge wind storm on Sunday at about 12:30pm. I just came in from making sure the soccer balls were secured and told DH that we should get stuff together just in case the power goes out. As soon as I finished saying that the power went out. There is a tree that fell on the powerlines on the street that mine is off of. It knocked most of the lines down and the tree was being held up by the telephone pole and wires. Then on the other side of us and tree fell and knocked down the lines and also went through the back of someone's house. They are all ok. We went about 25-26 hours without power as temps started to get colder. I think they did a work around to get some us up and running. After we got power we drove around to see if every this was cleaned up. Nothing had changed and I found out as the day went on that the power was still out for many around us. Neighbors that are about 2-3 house down from us are without. I am very grateful that our came back on. If it didn't we would have had to go somewhere for last night and today. Temps today are in the 30's and it has been snowing. It would have been a rough night last night.

We do have 3 beta fish and the bearded dragon. We had to find a way to keep them warm. We still had hot water so we were filling up water bottles with hot water to try and keep them warm. Thankfully they are all ok. The bearded dragon I think had the hardest time. He is still not moving much and not really eating. He needs to be pretty warm to eat. We are adding an extra heat lamp today to help warm his cage up more. This should help a lot.

Today I have to run up to the school to drop off the book they gave us for DD to read for English class and then put up her next book. I am not too happy about it. I really do not want to be in the school. Too many positive cases lately at the school. I tried to see if she could use an ebook but they said no. Also wish they gave us more notice. She needs to get this like today as they are already getting into the book. Had I known or even if they sent an email to et us know (I got all the info from DD) I could have ran up yesterday when I was not working. All the teachers are doing a great job but they all need to work on giving us a bit more time to get stuff.

Our district is also going full remote Monday and Tuesday next week (they are off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) because they do not have the staff. Yesterday they were only able to cover 60% of the teachers that were out. I have a feeling we will be full remote though until after the New Year.

Hope y'all all feeling better soon. My Sister texted earlier today that she's been without power since around 4am this morning and it is expected to be a while before it comes back on... fortunately she's got a fireplace for heat. Whatever she gets at the coast we get 4 to 5 hours later and sure enough the wind storm is here now as well.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Sorry to hear about all the troubles, @piglet1979!

And I hope you don’t lose power too, @Oneanne.

 

[Summer2018]

Who can you connect with? My daughter. Friends at school. Extended family virtually. All of you.
How can you tend to yourself? Get a good night's sleep. Compartmentalize...even if school has to come home with me, I can carve out time to relax and put it all away.
What can you remind yourself of? This is temporary, and I have survived some terrible things. I am strong and resilient.
What action can you take? I can do my best under the circumstances.
How can you find space to rest? Try not to stay late at school, and come home as soon as I can.
Where can you receive support? God, family, friends, including all of you.
How can you shift your expectations? Give up perfectionism and have more realistic expectations.
Where can you find some ease? Home. In my car when I have breaks during the school day.

 

[Summer2018]

This weekend ended up not how I planned it to be. I started with a headache on Friday and I still have it today. DH had his first migraine ever on Sunday and DD has been complaining as well. We have all been a bit congested as well. It all seems to be related to this.

To top off the weekend we got a huge wind storm on Sunday at about 12:30pm. I just came in from making sure the soccer balls were secured and told DH that we should get stuff together just in case the power goes out. As soon as I finished saying that the power went out. There is a tree that fell on the powerlines on the street that mine is off of. It knocked most of the lines down and the tree was being held up by the telephone pole and wires. Then on the other side of us and tree fell and knocked down the lines and also went through the back of someone's house. They are all ok. We went about 25-26 hours without power as temps started to get colder. I think they did a work around to get some us up and running. After we got power we drove around to see if every this was cleaned up. Nothing had changed and I found out as the day went on that the power was still out for many around us. Neighbors that are about 2-3 house down from us are without. I am very grateful that our came back on. If it didn't we would have had to go somewhere for last night and today. Temps today are in the 30's and it has been snowing. It would have been a rough night last night.

We do have 3 beta fish and the bearded dragon. We had to find a way to keep them warm. We still had hot water so we were filling up water bottles with hot water to try and keep them warm. Thankfully they are all ok. The bearded dragon I think had the hardest time. He is still not moving much and not really eating. He needs to be pretty warm to eat. We are adding an extra heat lamp today to help warm his cage up more. This should help a lot.

Today I have to run up to the school to drop off the book they gave us for DD to read for English class and then put up her next book. I am not too happy about it. I really do not want to be in the school. Too many positive cases lately at the school. I tried to see if she could use an ebook but they said no. Also wish they gave us more notice. She needs to get this like today as they are already getting into the book. Had I known or even if they sent an email to et us know (I got all the info from DD) I could have ran up yesterday when I was not working. All the teachers are doing a great job but they all need to work on giving us a bit more time to get stuff.

Our district is also going full remote Monday and Tuesday next week (they are off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) because they do not have the staff. Yesterday they were only able to cover 60% of the teachers that were out. I have a feeling we will be full remote though until after the New Year.

You've had a rough time. I hope it gets better.

 

[Oneanne]

WOOHOO WEDNESDAY

Let's take a slightly different approach to our woohoo's this week. Please think back to your most woohoo-y Thanksgiving and then tell us the story about why it was so special.

 

[piglet1979]

Thank you everyone. We have power and it looks like almost everyone in our area is back on. There is an area that is still without power. It is 4 streets but only one side of the road. It makes a rectangle. A tree feel in the back yards (a pretty big tree). It ripped down the power lines from the pole and to the houses as well as went through the back of some ones house. I found out that the electric company is not responsible for the line to the house so these people have to call an electrician to come fix it after the electric company gets the line back up.

I also woke up without a headache so I am crossing my fingers that it stays that way.

Hope y'all all feeling better soon. My Sister texted earlier today that she's been without power since around 4am this morning and it is expected to be a while before it comes back on... fortunately she's got a fireplace for heat. Whatever she gets at the coast we get 4 to 5 hours later and sure enough the wind storm is here now as well.

I hope your sisters power comes back quickly. I know that it is no fun not having it. I hope the storm was not as bad when it got to you. We are looking at having another wind storm today or tomorrow. I was half asleep when I heard it on the news. This time not as bad. Instead of 60 mph gust it will be 30.

 

[piglet1979]

I don't really have a favorite memory at Thanksgiving but what I remember was the 3 meals I had as a kid. My dads parents always did breakfast (biscuits and bacon gravy and other breakfast foods). My grandma taught me how to made the gravy. and I make it on Christmas morning. My step mom's family did lunch (a big Thanksgiving meal). Then I would go to my mom's family for dinner (another Thanksgiving dinner). My step dad's family only celebrated Christmas so we didn't see them on Thanksgiving. I never spent more then a few hours at each house. This maybe why I don't have a favorite memory.

I was so used to this running around at all holiday's that I kept it going and added my husbands family until after the first set of each holiday with my DS. It was just too much. We also didn't go to my step mom's either as my dad and her got a divorce when I was a senior in high school. So now we go to DH's mom's house around 1 and my mom's around 4 or 5. We then go see my dad's family that weekend. I don't ever see my dad's family on the day of the holiday's anymore. I am not as close to them like I was as a kid. There has been a lot of damage that happened in the later part of high school and in my 20's that all revolved around my dad and his drinking. So I felt that if I had to cut one out on the day, I was ok with seeing this family on a different day.

 

[sjrec]

My niece had just moved to Washington DC and had to work that day, so we roasted the turkey, loaded it and my parents, our daughter and her husband in our car and drove there to have Thanksgiving. My sister and her husband met us there and my husband’s brother and his wife. She was so happy to see all of us-lots of fun. My father passed away right before Thanksgiving the next year, so I’m so glad we did it. He loved his granddaughters so much.
Two years later we’re having Thanksgiving with just my mother, daughter and son in law and I notice my daughter isn’t having any wine-and that’s when she announced she was expecting our grandson! We were all thrilled, but especially my mother. It gave her something wonderful to look forward to.
Good memories, for sure!

 

[Oneanne]

This really got me to thinking about family traditions growing up. We rarely had relatives living near us, for a brief period my paternal Grandparents were near and for a couple years one of my Mom's Sisters was living in the area, but for the most part it was just the immediate family at Thanksgiving.

My Mom was a good cook in the 'traditional' sense, in that she had a seven meal rotation that she went thru every week... things like Tuna Noodle casserole, hamburger patties or meatloaf with mac-and-cheese and green peas, and salmon patties. My Dad was kind of a foodie, before there ever was such a thing. He'd figure out how to copy recipes from his favorite restaurants so we also ate things like Ginger Beef, Borscht, Joe's Special (scrambled eggs, spinach and some other stuff) but I don't remember Mom ever letting him mess around with Thanksgiving dinner.

One thing we did for many years was after eating Dad would drive us in to the city and we'd walk around looking at the Christmas display windows. The Bon Marche (later Macy's) always had one window set up with a train set and city scape and you could make the trains go by pressing your hand against the window at certain places.

The years that stand out to me are both from my early teens. One year we decided we could make it snow if we all sang Christmas carols loud enough and gosh darn, it worked! Another year we broke with tradition and went to an Indian Potlatch celebration. That in and of itself was pretty amazing, I remember huge tents and light and warmth and lots of joyful activity. But the highlight was when a woman in full native dress chose me to join her in dancing. I was at that awkward geeky stage where 'not good enough' was taking hold so I was amazed she chose me and thought she was a goddess.

 

[sjrec]

Oneanne, lovely memories!

 

[Oneanne]

My niece had just moved to Washington DC and had to work that day, so we roasted the turkey, loaded it and my parents, our daughter and her husband in our car and drove there to have Thanksgiving. My sister and her husband met us there and my husband’s brother and his wife. She was so happy to see all of us-lots of fun. My father passed away right before Thanksgiving the next year, so I’m so glad we did it. He loved his granddaughters so much.
Two years later we’re having Thanksgiving with just my mother, daughter and son in law and I notice my daughter isn’t having any wine-and that’s when she announced she was expecting our grandson! We were all thrilled, but especially my mother. It gave her something wonderful to look forward to.
Good memories, for sure!

Holidays lately have been pretty sucky starting in 2016 when my SIL passed away right before New Years, then 2017 was rough because it was my Sister's first without her. 2018 was wonderful, my Sister hosted in her new house and at one point I remember looking around thinking how warm and cozy it was and everyone was so happy. Then last year, 2019, my Brother passed away right before Thanksgiving. I'm so glad you had that special Thanksgiving memory with your Father before losing him, you never know when it is going to be the last time.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Let's take a slightly different approach to our woohoo's this week. Please think back to your most woohoo-y Thanksgiving and then tell us the story about why it was so special.

DS’s first - Nov. 2000

He was only a couple weeks old, so it was his first big outing. He slept through most of it, of course, but just having him there gave a lovely new dimension to the holiday! It was my first as a mom, he was the first grandson for my in-laws, and we just had so much to be thankful for.

 

[piglet1979]

Ohio has been putting there numbers out every day at 2pm. They still have not updated today and it is almost 4. Also, the kids school district and my mom's have not updated their numbers. This is not looking good. Several counties, including mine, just put in place stay at home orders/advisories as well.