February 2021 W.I.S.H. - Being your own Fabulous Self

[Summer2018]

Our kids have handled it really well. DS just goes with the flow but right now I can't even get him to go to the store. He tells us that there are too many people. But he has always had issues with turning in homework so now that he is home I can make sure he hit the submit button. DD I am very worried what next year will bring. Being home has been great on her. She has anxiety that I feel interferes with school. She gets caught in the drama and spends lots of time with the nurse for something hurting. This is one of the reasons we kept her home. We fears she would only be in school for a day or two before being quarantined for 2. This year she has not had that and her grades are so much better. Not that they were bad before but now she is getting straight A's. Going back to school with lots of kids is going to be rough on her. We were finally getting better this time last year. I feel we will be starting over again and this time while in High school. We are hoping to get both kids in summer school to take the health class they need to graduate. This will get them both slowly back in the classroom and a chance to get a feel for the layout of the new high school that neither have see the inside to yet. It just opened this past August and is huge. They will also both play soccer so that should help to easy them in as well.

There are many days I feel like I have failed the kids by keeping them home. It has not been easy and I know others have a circumstances. This parenting is so hard sometimes. DD always has me on my toes.



This is so interesting to me. Same with the fall break some have. In my area in Ohio we only have long breaks at Christmas (usually 2 weeks) and a week at Easter. Thanksgiving they get 3 days. Other then that it is a day here and a day there. We have had a few more day this year because of COVID though. The kids are off today for the teachers to get their first shot and on March 5th for their second. But normally they only have Presidents day off. Sometimes they throw a teacher work day or in-service day to make for a 4 day weekend (Friday and Monday off). It has been like this since I was a kids. I have never heard of these long breaks until I started to follow more Disney Parks stuff.

First of all, you have not failed your kids. You did your best in the circumstances. (I would have kept mine home...DD attends art/design school online since it would be unsafe to attend in person in NYC.) Some kids do better with homeschool...I know many families that have done it successfully...whatever is best for your kids.

Secondly, I don't know if it is a northeast thing, but February vacation goes back a long time...I remember going to Ft. Lauderdale as a kid that week. Some towns tried a week in March, but that messed up vacations for teachers having a different week off than their children. When they took the full week away, it was devastating. A lot of teachers take personal time to make it a week off.

 

[blackdogg]

Yes... exactly as we’ve aged up migraines & nausea- true physical symptoms from anxiety have taken over for oldest causing school absences. We’ve moved 8 times- maybe 10 schools before settling here so we are using this as our time to really work through before college hits ‘time’... Only 2 more years I think the summer class + soccer will help a lot for y’all. Mine are not interested in any sports. I threw down this year & said tennis - you’re doing tennis! Outside. Distanced. Active but a smaller grouping right? Making it work... the best we can. That’s all that can be done.

 

[piglet1979]

First of all, you have not failed your kids. You did your best in the circumstances. (I would have kept mine home...DD attends art/design school online since it would be unsafe to attend in person in NYC.) Some kids do better with homeschool...I know many families that have done it successfully...whatever is best for your kids.

Secondly, I don't know if it is a northeast thing, but February vacation goes back a long time...I remember going to Ft. Lauderdale as a kid that week. Some towns tried a week in March, but that messed up vacations for teachers having a different week off than their children. When they took the full week away, it was devastating. A lot of teachers take personal time to make it a week off.

Thank you. I am better with it now but I agonized over the summer about it. Now it is worrying about next year.

It must be. Though I think the longer breaks are becoming more common. Easter break never lines up with each school. My kids district it has always been the last week of March until a year ago. It really threw me off when scheduling a mini vacation. My mom's district and the one I grew up in it has always been the week after Easter with having Good Friday off as well. Other schools it is the week before Easter with the day after off. None of the schools ever line up with each other. There is a bigger move lately for the schools to move to the last week in March and call it Spring break like the colleges rather then an Easter break. Though it may all change because there are talks of year around school in the state. They have talked about for years but it is coming back up again. Plus our Governor wants plans from the schools on how to help children that are falling behind this year. He talked about extending the school day or going longer into the summer. We will know by April what his plan is.

 

[piglet1979]

Yes... exactly as we’ve aged up migraines & nausea- true physical symptoms from anxiety have taken over for oldest causing school absences. We’ve moved 8 times- maybe 10 schools before settling here so we are using this as our time to really work through before college hits ‘time’... Only 2 more years I think the summer class + soccer will help a lot for y’all. Mine are not interested in any sports. I threw down this year & said tennis - you’re doing tennis! Outside. Distanced. Active but a smaller grouping right? Making it work... the best we can. That’s all that can be done.

We knew DD had anxiety from the time she was little but in elementary school the counselor was awesome and really worked with her so she was good. 5th grade she moved up to the next school and it all went down hill. she was shaky, stomach ache, headaches (which she does get from her eye issue and allergies), foot pain, thinking she has broken bones by just hitting it on stuff. It was bad. We still tried to handle it at home until she told the school she couldn't see out of one of her eyes and by the time I got to her she said the other was very dark. we spent hours between two ER's and was told it was anxiety and that she can really see but her brain was telling her she couldn't. After that she has been going to a therapist once a month. We have taken 3 breaks since. Once when her therapist had twins, another when she was out with cancer (therapist) and the other this past summer when she seemed to be doing really good. Each time ended badly with getting her back in as quickly as possible. We found as long as she goes once a month she stays more grounded. It has been a rough road with her. I can see her staying home to go to college. We live in a college town so it would be very easy to stay home. Plus I am ok with it because it will save money.

 

[blackdogg]

Sounds like a similar boat. We’ve tried counseling but consistency & the moves were not great for this. Thankfully we are finally setting roots & establishing with Drs here. We’ve already planted the seed & began nudging for more local college plans too. Thankfully we have options there too Feel free to msg any time... going into the teen years- such a special time!

 

[piglet1979]

Sounds like a similar boat. We’ve tried counseling but consistency & the moves were not great for this. Thankfully we are finally setting roots & establishing with Drs here. We’ve already planted the seed & began nudging for more local college plans too. Thankfully we have options there too ❤ Feel free to msg any time... going into the teen years- such a special time!

Thank you. This is all so rough. I will have a 10th and 9th grader next year. I am not sure I am ready for that. It is going way to quickly. I love having the more in depth conversations but I miss my babies.

 

[sjrec]

Thank you. This is all so rough. I will have a 10th and 9th grader next year. I am not sure I am ready for that. It is going way to quickly. I love having the more in depth conversations but I miss my babies.

I’m glad Summer2018 said it, because you and Blackdogg are doing your very best in very trying circumstances! My daughter has agonized over the same situation-and she’s a librarian in my grandson’s school complex. I think what we need to remember is when the kids go back, their teachers are certainly going to be understanding that they were learning under difficult conditions. Everyone is going to have catch up and readjust.
Taking the health course over the summer is a good idea. A lot of our kids liked to do that because it frees their schedule up for another class.

 

[MickeyMom76]

There are many days I feel like I have failed the kids by keeping them home.

As the others have said...you have not failed them. But I know how you feel. I kept mine home from Thanksgiving until just this week when the semester changed. And while they were home and some days miserably, I felt like I had made the wrong choice in keeping them home. But then their first day back, our superintendent sent about an email about double masking because the faster spreading strain of the virus has made its way to our area. So then I felt like I failed them by sending them back in the midst of this.

I have to believe that the only reason we feel this way as moms is because we care so deeply. And if we care so deeply, we can’t be failing them. We can only be loving them and doing what we think is best in the moment. So keep loving those kiddos whether they are babies, toddlers, youth, teens, young or grown adults. We’ll never stop caring and loving our kiddos! And there’s nothing wrong with that! Like the good old saying...what doesn’t break us makes us stronger! Imagine how strong we’re going to be when this pandemic finally passes?!?!

 

[sjrec]

Beautifully said, MickeyMom76!

 

[sjrec]

What are you watching? Or reading? Recommendations for these cold winter nights?

 

[sjrec]

A friend recommended The Dig on Netflix and we really enjoyed it. A widow in pre war Britain hires an archeologist to dig up a find on her property-it’s based on a true story. The Queen’s Gambit was another favorite-it’s in six parts. If you had told me I would watch six installments of a movie about a young woman playing chess I would never have believed you-but it was riveting.
We’re hooked on the new (to us) FBI
procedurals on CBS Tuesday nights. There’s something comforting about the bad guys being caught (usually) every week-probably why I enjoy murder mysteries!

 

[Summer2018]

As the others have said...you have not failed them. But I know how you feel. I kept mine home from Thanksgiving until just this week when the semester changed. And while they were home and some days miserably, I felt like I had made the wrong choice in keeping them home. But then their first day back, our superintendent sent about an email about double masking because the faster spreading strain of the virus has made its way to our area. So then I felt like I failed them by sending them back in the midst of this.

I have to believe that the only reason we feel this way as moms is because we care so deeply. And if we care so deeply, we can’t be failing them. We can only be loving them and doing what we think is best in the moment. So keep loving those kiddos whether they are babies, toddlers, youth, teens, young or grown adults. We’ll never stop caring and loving our kiddos! And there’s nothing wrong with that! Like the good old saying...what doesn’t break us makes us stronger! Imagine how strong we’re going to be when this pandemic finally passes?!?!

100%

 

[Summer2018]

This is Us, Below Deck, Blue Bloods, SNL, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City...(I watch all of the Housewives except for Dallas), Jane the Virgin on Netflix, reruns of Hawaii Five-O, NCIS LA, 90 Day Fiancee, The Young and the Restless (since the first episode in 1973).

 

[MickeyMom76]

I’m currently reading “The Guest List”(recommended by a coworker) and next in my pile is “Untamed” (gift from a friend). My husband and I started watching Arrested Development on Netflix. As a family, we started watching WandaVision. It took a few episodes to get into it. The first one left us questioning what the show was even about. But now I want to go back and watch some of the Avengers movies to help me remember the background info....

 

[MickeyMom76]

I also watch This is Us and The Good Doctor. Forgot to include those since I mostly watch those by myself.

 

[sjrec]

I’m currently reading “The Guest List”(recommended by a coworker) and next in my pile is “Untamed” (gift from a friend). My husband and I started watching Arrested Development on Netflix. As a family, we started watching WandaVision. It took a few episodes to get into it. The first one left us questioning what the show was even about. But now I want to go back and watch some of the Avengers movies to help me remember the background info....

The Guest List is on my to be read pile-does your family watch The Mandalorian? We have been wanting to start that now that we Disney+ (a Christmas gift).

 

[sjrec]

This is Us, Below Deck, Blue Bloods, SNL, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City...(I watch all of the Housewives except for Dallas), Jane the Virgin on Netflix, reruns of Hawaii Five-O, NCIS LA, 90 Day Fiancee, The Young and the Restless (since the first episode in 1973).

This is Us is one of those shows I meant to start this winter. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[MickeyMom76]

The Guest List is on my to be read pile-does your family watch The Mandalorian? We have been wanting to start that now that we Disney+ (a Christmas gift).

I will finish The Guest List today. It’s finally all coming together, so I just can’t put it down...except when I heard water dripping. Come to find one our windows leaking from all the ice melting down our siding.

Yes, we also watched the Mandalorian together. But we’re all caught up and left waiting for next seasons.

 

[Oneanne]

And we've got snow...


... the view out the front door this morning, and it's been going steadily in the hour since then. I'm trying to keep as much of it off of the front porch as physically possible, but no way am I going to make it down the steps to the front walk or sidewalk.

As for what I've been watching, I think I've consumed everything British on Acorn TV, except the murder mysteries which really aren't my jam. I'm going to discontinue that subscription and sign up for Netflix, because there is a lot there I'd like to see. I'd also like to watch the road-trip show "Men in Kilts" and watch two handsome guys as they travel thru Scotland, but is on Starz. Other than that I watch Food Network and HGTV the most... favorite HGTV show is House Hunters International because each episode is like a mini vacation.... with people who are bickering.

So far this year I've read "Wintering" about the fallow dark passages in life and the cultural rituals around winter... highly recommend it. Second book of the year was "The Salt Path" which I heard about thru the author of "Wintering", as it is a memoir a dark wintering passage. This weekend while I'm housebound I'll read "In Five Years" which is a romantic time traveling tale.

 

[Summer2018]

This is Us is one of those shows I meant to start this winter. Thanks for the reminder!

It is a very special show. It is not for the faint of heart. DH and DD won't watch it. I have to watch it alone when nobody is in the house or they are sleeping. I have to mentally prepare myself ahead of time. I cry every time I watch it, but it is truly beautiful.