September '20 WISH Challenge - New Beginnings

[MickeyMom76]

I have to fit in a 7 hour online training on Dibels which is a kindergarten assessment.

We use Dibels at my school too!! Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer. Sorry you have to squeeze the training into your busy schedule though.

 

[MickeyMom76]

DS20 found out the school for his first teaching prac which will be in October.

So exciting! It’s always good to observe and then be able to practice. Best of luck to him!

 

[MickeyMom76]

She reminded us today that we don't have to be perfect, we just have to keep taking a step forward.

Such great advice, both for teaching and life! What a great example of leadership!

 

[MickeyMom76]

 

[sjrec]

I’m thankful for my mama! I needed some baby troubleshooting (my normally not screaming baby would scream anytime I set him down) so I called her. She came up and sat with me while I calmed down my little dude. I wouldn’t have survived the past 3.5months without my mama.

And as a grandmother, we love to be able to do this!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I love the quote about small acts of kindness! September 11th was on my mind this morning as well.

I just looked at the date and realised that it is the anniversary of 9-11 I always remember as DS19 was born in November 2000 and it happened just before his first birthday and I remember thinking OMG what kind of world will he grow up in?

I think our sons’ birthdays are close to each other. - Mine will also turn 20 in November, and it’s hard to believe how fast it all went!

Looking back on those times, and the fact that we came through them and went on, does give me hope that our current difficulties will become just memories soon too.

Thursday thankful I meant to post last night:
The kids listened really well (much better than Tuesday). We got some “ready for school” things done, and accomplished the most amazing “four minute clean up”

 

[piglet1979]

Does it look something like this?
View attachment 524676View attachment 524677

If yes, it is referred to as Aussie Rules Football or AFL (Australian Football League). I personally am not a huge fan of this one - When I was young it was not typically played in my state - it used to be mostly played in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australian states. I don't understand the rules and to me it just ends up looking like a giant mess of people chasing the ball lol Interestingly the grand final for AFL has always been held in Melbourne, Victoria - but due to their high rates of COVID at the moment and lockdowns - Queensland my state created a sport bubble so that many of the professional sports could continue and for the 1st time in like 150 years the Grand Final is taking place here in Brisbane. It apparently originated as a hybrid of Rugby and an Australian Indigenous ball game.

Yes this was it. It is defiantly a weird sport. It was interesting to watch but not something I could get too into.

One of our struggles here at home is that "daycare" is actually my MIL. It's great because it's free, it's someone I trust, and I know loves the crap outta my kiddo. But it's a problem because they don't necessarily follow the things that I ask of them. They've gotten so much better so it's still a learning curve. I asked yesterday for them to get in 20 min of tummy time with DS. They did 12 min. It's better than the 0 min they'd gotten prior! But I told my SO that I don't want to send DS over to gma's every day until she starts consistently doing the tummy time that I ask for. Once or twice a week is great but otherwise... developmentally he NEEDS as much time as possible. It led to a bit of an argument of me "withholding" the baby from MIL. I reminded my SO that I'd be having this conversation with my own mother and if it was someone I was paying then I'd fire them if they didn't do what I asked. 20 min of tummy time isn't an unreasonable request. One thing I hadn't anticipated about motherhood is this conflicting feeling of not wanting to be a SAHM but also not feeling like anyone else is capable of giving him the level of care that I give him. Thanks for reading my venting haha.

I understand this. My kids are 13 and 14 now. I worked at the daycare that they went too up until my 13 year old was 6 months. Then my sister watched them until they were 4 and 5. Both were rough. We had issues with my sister and I was stressed all the time but we didn't have any other options at the time. I would also have talks to DH that he needed to tell his grandmother to stop coming over every day while I was on maternity leave with both kids. She would always tell me what she thought I was doing wrong. Drove me crazy. I still have the guilt sometimes that i am not a SAHM. Something that I always wanted to be, but just couldn't afford to be. There would be so much more I can do.

I had three tastes of the cookie dough last night. And two today. Gotta stop! I'll have the twins help me bake them tomorrow and that will be that.

My daughter made cookies this week. I took one taste. Thankfully I was working and not helping. It is so hard not to eat the whole thing.

 

[piglet1979]

I missed a few days. My woohoo is that we survived the first day of virtual school. It was rough though. We are using Blackboard and it cashed as the kids were going to their second period. But they made it through and yesterday was much better.

I am Thankful for my mom. She is a teacher so whenever I get mad or upset about a school thing I ask her what I should do or am I over reacting. I wanted to send a letter to the Board Office yesterday letting them know that I was not happy with the switch in how they were going to handle the students that will be staying online once school is back face to face. For my kids it will be no better then what it was in the spring. There will be no teacher interaction. My mom told me not to send the letter. That it was not going to change anything. But told me to talk to DD's councilor about my concerns for her to go back. She has anxiety and I get calls at least once a week from the school that she is in the nurses office for either a headache or stomachache. I need to know how they will handle this. Will she be sent home every time and have to be out for 2 weeks? So that is what I am doing. DS will go. He has too much to lose it he doesn't go.

 

[Oneanne]

Ah Friday...

... crazy busy work week, yesterday I was flying from thing to thing, I don't think I dropped any balls but time will tell. I did touch base with my manager tho to confirm, yet again, that I have too much work. I'm OK keeping up trying to juggle everything as long as it remains clear that there's too much going on.

... As @glss1/2fll has already mentioned, the air quality has gotten worse because the wind direction has changed and now we are getting smoke from the Oregon and California fires. Today is supposed to be the smokiest, unless things get worse tomorrow... I've got the house closed up, but the kitten and I are still snuffly, she keeps sneezing but there isn't any discharge so I think she's doing OK. The temp is supposed to "drop" to the low 80's today, yes, we had 90 degrees yesterday, really strange for September around here.

... have a few more things to load in to the car, then it's down to the ferry dock in the morning for the 6:45am boat. Pippa and I have settled into living together, so it's going to be weird to have another little stranger in the house. Hopefully she'll stay as attached to me as she has been with a new playmate to take some of her attention.

 

[ski_mom]

And as a grandmother, we love to be able to do this!

I was thinking that too. My kids are a ways from having their own kids, but I hope someday if they do, I will be able to help them like that. Sounds like a huge blessing

 

[MickeyMom76]

Let’s share a favorite Disney related story/memory.

We saved up and I planned a sabbatical for the year the twins were in kindergarten (2010). Our first family trip to Disney World and I was the only one who had been there before. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for a week. One night, we decided to go to Epcot to watch Illuminations. We took a boat from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom. Then the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Then switched to the Epcot monorail. As we approached Epcot, we saw the first fireworks go off. I figured it wasn’t worth it at that point, so we just stayed on the monorail and headed back to the Wilderness Lodge. Hubby & I were a little bummed. But the kids (6 yrs old at the time) loved riding the monorail and the boats, so they were fine. Well, we boarded a boat from Magic Kingdom back to the Wilderness Lodge and we were the only family on the boat. It was a Halloween Party night at Magic Kingdom. The boat captain got permission to stop the boat on the lagoon and played the music for HalloWishes on the boat while we watched the fireworks! It was the most magical night! So amazing! And all because our original plans didn’t work out!

I can’t wait to read all of your stories!

 

[glss1/2fll]

Free for all Friday: I feel like I've been self-sabotaging the last couple days. Stupid cookie dough and also stress. So tomorrow's weigh in will be revealing! I think I'm better now, though. I couldn't sleep last night because the house was too smokey. I skipped yoga so I could get five hours of sleep instead of four last night! ugh

Story: Our first trip there DS2 was six. He was meeting Captain Hook and Peter Pan came out. DS2 told Hook that his middle name was Peter and therefore he liked Peter Pan better than Hook. Hook grabbed a sword and dueled DS2. It was so marvelous. He was over the moon happy!

 

[PollyannaMom]

So many moments over the years, but I’ll go with our most recent trip - Dec 2018, since it’s freshest in my head. We’d been several times, but never during the Christmas season, and it was magical! I still remember my first glimpse of the castle all lit up, and the huge trees were amazing! It was also our first split stay, and our first deluxe stay. There are some pictures here:
Mini Trip Report

 

[Summer2018]

We use Dibels at my school too!! Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer. Sorry you have to squeeze the training into your busy schedule though.

Thanks! I decided to take a personal day. Normally we are provided with professional development days, but if I requested that, I would end up in some random room if any are available, in 90 degrees with no ventilation, wearing my mask. I would rather waste a personal day, and be in my climate controlled home in my nightgown sans mask.

 

[dsnyfn1022]

Last night I decided to re-join weight watchers. I was losing weight on my own but it wasn’t as healthily as I wanted. I wasn’t creating good habits. WW had helped me create the habits before. Pregnancy made everything fly out the window. So I want WW to help me build the foundation again.

 

[Summer2018]

On our first trip to WDW, on our first day in Magic Kingdom, we were at rope drop at Toontown. Minnie Mouse picked my 6 year old daughter out of the crowd, grabbed her hand, and ran to her house with my DH and I running behind them. (In 2004, I could still run!) DD got a private tour of Minnie’s house before everyone else was allowed in. It was so magical and exciting for all of us, but especially DD.

There have been many moments since, but this introduction to Disney Magic remains my favorite.

 

[ShannyMcB]

The fam did "virtual walk a thon" this morning. The annual walk is normally a 5k. We did 2 miles. Got to give credit to DS 5 he did the whole thing without complaint. Hoping the translates to decent stamina but the time vaca (hopefully) rolls around next summer.
A have some chickpea Buckeyes chillon in the fridge ready for chocolate dipping later today. Will be a vast improvement over the cookies I've been scarfing. Maybe not calorie wise...but much better in fats, processed sugar etc.
Have a zucchini I need to shred as well. Cant decide if I want to make cookies or muffins. I tried air dryer zucchini chips and they did not work...burned ashy mess.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

 

[ShannyMcB]

Dis memory huh...I've only been 3 times and have yet to bring the kids.
Last trip was in 2010. On our last night DH and I were in epcot and leaving to go to MK for fireworks. As we were on our way to the exit we saw a sign for a meet and greet with no line. Hhhhmmm
Upon closer inspection we saw it was for disney chase card holders. I yanked my card out of my wallet and in we went. To our very pleasant surprise the characters included Mickey.
After we had our pictures taken we left and decided to not go back to see WISHES for the third time that week. We decided meeting the mouse was the perfect way to finish our vaca.

 

[glss1/2fll]

hooray! I lost a pound this week.

 

[Summer2018]

So far, my Wednesday WooHoo is just that I’m home today, because I have a ton to catch up on! (Somehow the longer the weekend, the less I get done. )

I watched the little ones yesterday so their mom could go in and do some classroom set up, and they were both tired and cranky after the long weekend. My “tutoring is going to go so well” feeling from last Thursday is a little shaky today.

But hopefully once we’re on a real school routine, things will go smoothly. Right now, we don’t even have a schedule of when I need to log on with them because their teachers are still in trainings and the open house isn’t until Friday.

And nephew especially does not. like. change. So being able to practice and prepare more would probably have been good for him. I think I’m going to do one of those “what are most excited about? / what are you most nervous about?” things with them tomorrow.

I really feel for you.

Being on the opposite end of the computer screen, we teachers have found that our schools are not ready for this. Even though we had the ENTIRE summer to prepare, a lot of time was spent debating and arguing over how to handle it all. I'm not even going to mention how the safety protocols are still not in place, not to mention our HVAC systems.

Our I.T. Department is completely overwhelmed. They provided mandatory training sessions the week before we opened, while other departments also provided mandatory trainings. I missed some important I.T. stuff for some Early Childhood Department workshops, including Epi Pen administration. We could have used another couple of weeks to get our ducks in a row, but our district's attitude of "we've got this" while we don't actually have this just makes us look inept and stupid. Teachers can't live stream to our virtual learners because we don't have our classes on the platform. On Tuesday, I had someone's Social Studies class, another teacher's Music class, among others. I had to manually create my own online class, which is working out fine except when I lose my connection in the middle of a lesson. Other teachers are still not teaching to their distance learners.

Meanwhile, I have students in my room taking off their masks and misbehaving while my para can't control their behavior. I'm reading books, singing, and speaking much louder to try to block out all of the background noise. At times, I have to stop teaching to deal with the nonsense. Maintaining my social distance is proving to be impossible. I can only imagine what my virtual students and parents are thinking. I feel bad for my distance learners. They are all in, ready to learn, and my room is chaos.

I do think that eventually routines will fall into place, and your charges will get comfortable with this new way of learning. Transitioning into something new is always scary. If you can laugh about the inevitable glitches that are going to occur, it might take away some of the stress the kids are feeling. You can also point out that they are in a comfortable home and don't have to wear a mask (and in my case, a face shield) like those of us on the other side of the screen. They are the lucky ones.