Social Distancing - Part 14

April 4th - Saturday

Some things that are causing me stress:
     Hamlet - our Great Dane - barking and waking up Ron, who is working nights. He likes to bark, and because he's big, his bark is loud. Is the UPS truck on our street? Maybe someone isn't mowing their lawn right... Hamlet has to tell us about it.
     The stuff in the craft room that shouldn't be there. There are things that I had intended to donate, but I'm not sure I can right now. I hate to throw them in the trash, but... Going to find out about whether Community of Hope is accepting donations on Monday, and if they are, it's going... if not, the trash. It's still going.
     Too many dirty dishes, and/or the kitchen trash can is full. Some of the other messes/stacks of stuff also can get on my nerves, but I can't deal with them all RIGHT NOW... they will have to wait their turn, and it is not today.
     Worry that family and friends and students are healthy.
   
Some things that are helping me deal with stress:
     Not worried about my job, or Ron's job or having to struggle financially because of Social Distancing. Also, a comfortable, if not fancy, house.
     Talking on the phone to, texting, emailing, and messaging with friends and family and connecting with them. Students too. I'm actually looking forward to interacting with them, even if it will be online. I texted with my niece today. Also called my aunt and talked to her for a bit.
     Petting and snuggling with our dogs and cats.

Kaliegh!

Kaliegh snuggles

Hamlet loves Ron, and vice versa.

     Daily routine (still under construction, frankly). Getting up and getting dressed. Completing chores. Cooking. Working at home for school. Taking care of house and family. Including time for things like sewing & crafting.
     Whittling away at stacks of stuff that have been waiting for me to have time to attend to them.
     Noticing cool things.

Raine's cat, Janis, in her window, which is also reflecting the new leaves on our tree.

     Sewing and crafting.

Cutting out a new top, today.

     Cool music. Listening to audio books. Reading. Watching some TV, but not constantly, and not even every day.

Abney Park did a streaming concert. It wasn't free, but it was worth the price of the ticket!

     Walking. I'm getting it done almost every day. I want to add some steps, and set a goal for them. I think recording steps will help me with that.
     Supporting my friends and family, as they struggle with these things, too. Sharing a kind word, or a supportive comment. Being willing to discuss my own issues, so that we all know we are not alone, even if we are at a distance.

   

Social Distancing Part 13

April 2 - Thursday, right?

Today I worked on making myself a workspace for my "home office" I really should call it my home classroom, I think. I took over the kitchen table, which wasn't really a great feat. But I cleaned it, and the chairs, brought some supplies to work with, and kinda got set up to spend time working there. I think it will really help me to keep my work time a reasonable part of my day, consistently. I'll be able to communicate with my students, and keep track of what we are doing, and also give me a place to get ready for next year, as well.

some workspace

I also found that I needed something to put my cup or mug or whatever on, and when I was looking through my craft room, I came upon a quilt square I had made a couple years ago to practice some english paper piecing. It didn't take much to finish it into a cute mug rug.

it's supposed to look like arrow fletching

Now, I feel like there's something pretty and functional and ME in the space.  I'm loving those blues and greys and tans together... Making things is something important to me (if you couldn't tell by this blog).

I have work piled up behind the computer to go through and organize. We'll be doing some grade level planning tomorrow, I think. The superintendent mentioned about cleaning up classrooms, but that's not happening immediately.

Cooked, cleaned up after, like one does. I think a cleanish kitchen is helping me keep my sanity. Even more so since my work space is basically in there. We had beef stroganoff for dinner tonight. It was yummy. Thinking about making the beef equivalent of shepherd's pie for tomorrow.

Went to Sam's, yesterday. They had many of the things that had been off the shelves for several weeks. Toilet paper, eggs, pasta, rice, and cheese among them. They are still making rotisserie chickens, but I did not get one this time. I did get some of the items mentioned above, though. They were letting 30 people in the store at a time, and you waited in line for people to come out. That was weird, in Sam's. They also wanted you to get done and out in 15 minutes. I think I took a little longer than that, but not too bad. Gas was down to $1.90 a gallon there, and weren't many takers, even at that price.

My phone seems more important these days, of not getting to see my friends and coworkers (who are frankly among my friends, awesome coworkers!) much less my students. Communication becomes more thoughtful, I think. Perhaps even more attention-worthy. I'm not normally attached to my phone so much. But I do want to know the people I love are doing OK.

Social Distancing Part 12

March 31 - Tuesday

And out of March we go...

Today I found out what it's like to work from home. I wore one of my "work shirts" today. That made it feel more like being at work, for me. There was a Zoom meeting at 8AM, and we worked on learning targets for our students. It took a bit of kvetching, but once we got down to the work of it, I think we did all right.

After that, I worked through my list of Advisory students, for the third time. I think today was the hardest to get hold of some of them, but I did, finally, talk to all of them. It's nice because it is basically an up-beat conversation. They get to hear a friendly voice, and so do I.

Then there was a department meeting, also on Zoom. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep the bandwidth for that one, but I managed. Good thing voice takes less than pictures, because I could hear what was said, even if the pictures were frozen. Nice to see my department people, too.

So now, I need to make room for a school office. I think the kitchen table will work, and I will have a place to keep records, and "be at work" for office hours, etc. I am thinking about what to put behind me, on the wall, that will be pretty, or interesting, but not too busy...

I also had time to make cauliflower soup, and some ranch dressing for dipping. Salsa and ranch (or blue cheese) dressing is so yummy on a salad or as a dip for veggies. Potato chips are a veggie, right?

I got some sewing done. I've been working on some masks to donate. Here's a sample:

mask for donation

What else? Walking done. Working done. I think I'm done, for the day.

Social Distancing Part 11

March 30th - Monday

Not your normal Monday. Hah! Is there any normal day of the week, right now?

Did laundry. Didn't cook significantly (does microwaving a quesadilla count as cooking?) Got some sewing done. Finished one face mask, but have 4 others in the works. I kind of figured it out the finishing with the first one, I think. I'll get a picture to share tomorrow.

I went into the school today. We were allowed to go in and get what we needed through the summer... or until next school year starts, and I wanted my planning binders. So I got them! Yay. It was dark, and it was quiet, and we took turns and did proper social distancing, and I walked around in my socks, which felt weird.

Over the weekend, my brother, his wife, and a friend of ours had some online social time. We used discord for chatting, and played a couple of electronic versions of table top games. It was fun, and I definitely felt like I had socialized. We played Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride. We got them from Steam, and they were not particularly expensive. Everyone has to one the game to be able to play it online, but the set up is quick, and the clean up is too... And the computer keeps score for you, no cheating! (not that we intentionally cheat, but sometimes mistakes are made. I recommend a game night (or afternoon!).

Looking forward, I need to contact my advisory class tomorrow. I got the spreadsheet set up for that and added some information if I could. I'll also be participating in the learning goals meeting tomorrow morning. I am really interested in how this is going to work, and being a part of it.  It starts at 8, which is a reasonable time, really... but how quickly our routines slide. I'm usually up by 8, but not always dressed. Going to be tomorrow, though... although I'll probably be working on my coffee still.

Social Distancing Part 10

March 28 - Saturday

How is it that this week, the week of "Spring Break," if you will, went by so fast? Just as if we were not social distancing...

I did some cleaning on Friday, and broke my broom. How does one do that? you ask... Well, the handle, near the broom part was evidently rusted to weakness, and some vigorous get-this-dirt-off-the-patio swipes was enough to snap it off. Sigh. I wasn't done sweeping yet. Not surprisingly, there has not been a run on brooms in the stores, and I picked up a new one with no problems.

While I was at Albertsons, looking for the rest of the items on my list, I noticed that there were a few more things on the shelves than there had been. Sure, there were still gaps. I didn't get eggs, but I got pasta. There wasn't rice, but there was some barley, and I do enjoy beef and barley soup. There was a good selection of meat, and some mozzarella cheese (maybe we will make some pizza from scratch), but not the cheddar that I usually pick up to grate. I got almost everything I went for.

I even did some baking today, I made a chocolate cake. I used a recipe that has mayonnaise instead of eggs and oil. It has been a LONG while since I've made a cake from scratch, and it turned out all right. I whipped up some chocolate icing to put on it as well, and here's the finished product:

icing, to hide all the flaws...

I've also been thinking about making some biscuits. Maybe that would go good with the corned beef and cabbage that didn't get on the menu for St. Patrick's Day, but seems to be on the menu for tomorrow. My kitchen make-over this year may be to trade out all those old cooking supplies for new ones. The baking powder I threw out today had a good until date of 2014. No, I didn't use that in my cake, I had bought a new container today. I also threw out some old teabags, hoping the new teabags would bring some better flavor to my sun tea.

So, enough of the kitchen, and the shopping! Yesterday Onate English department had a meeting with Mr. Schapekahm to find out about how we are going to be doing school the rest of this semester. The building is closed for the semester, but we will be doing school in some other ways, including online. The kids will receive a pass/fail grade. It will be nice to be in regular contact with our students, and I think many of our students will think it is nice to be in regular contact with us. I'm interested to see what develops as we go into this unfamiliar place. I think it will be a learning experience for us all.

I've been keeping up with my walking this week, and getting into a grove of being more comfortable with it. When I first started walking regularly, a couple of years ago, it was a struggle to get comfortable with it. I'm not an athletic person, but walking is pretty basic, you would think. I had to change how I wore my shoes. No more sloppy slip-ons, I had to lace them up tight each morning, or I would get blisters on the bottom of my feet. That was kind of scary, because my mother, who was diabetic, lost one of her feet from an infection that she fought for over a year, that originally started as a blister. I'm also diabetic, so it kind of freaked me out when I first got a blister on the bottom of my foot. I also kind of stomped and staggered around my neighborhood and called it a walk. As I walked more, and got off some of the medication that can make me dizzy, that improved, and as I got stronger, it helped even more. I really like how I feel when I do that regular exercise, but I can't say I will ever love doing it. There are people who really enjoy exercising, but I am not one of them.

I know there are other things that I thought about writing about, but it's late, and I think I'm done for today.

Social Distancing Part 9

Wednesday, March 25

Kinda hit a wall, yesterday. My eye was twitching all day, a sure sign of stress for me. I hadn't thought I was feeling so stressed, but evidently I am... Doing a little better today.

I did get out for a walk yesterday, that helps me with stress. Got out again today, as well. Touched base with my next door neighbors, who are a nice older than me couple.  I had wanted to make sure they were OK, and that they had my phone number if they needed anything.

I also took on a new project yesterday. Sewing face masks. It's been a thing on social media. Sew the face masks, as many care facilities are running short! Oh face masks aren't enough protection unless they are (insert whatever standards here...). It is kind of confusing, actually. But it is something to do to feel like you are trying to help, and I definitely AM for that. So, my colleagues at Cruces Creatives are trying to put together an effort to support the mask making efforts, and I am helping. I went in today (they are closed, so social distancing protocols were kept) and picked up a bunch of fabric so that I could wash it before we passed it out to mask makers. We're taking a page, I think, from some of my Charitable Crafting projects - and Joann's as well - and making kits of supplies for people to take and sew. And that is going on tomorrow... Again, following social distancing protocols. Once the masks get made, a local dentist will autoclave them to sterilize them before they go to their final destinations. BUT I'm still kind of struggling about being part of this organized effort. It is a walking the fine line in terms of social distancing. How many hands are going to touch everything... Who is going to be in the chain? That sort of thing. Once they get to the dentist, who will sterilize them, whew, but up to that point? Does that mean I don't want to take part? NO, if I didn't want to take part, I wouldn't, and I wouldn't be having this issue with the whole thing!

This whole how many hands thing is a part of the whole social distancing thing for me, right now. Facebook is full of restaurants encouraging us to go drive through and get food, or get it delivered, and we have! What if you need something from the grocery store? Go get it, and hope they have it! It doesn't feel truly distant. I drove around today, and felt like there were too many cars out there, and one of the too many was probably mine.

It's kind of like the rice. Right as hoarding started, we ran out of rice. We don't eat it all that often, but it is a staple, right? And now we don't have any. There isn't any in the store. Oh no! I need rice, and I can't get it. Are we planning to have it today? No. This week? Again, no, probably not. Then what is the big deal? There's not one. Except that it keeps nagging my mind.

I think this is my process of internalizing our whole situation right now. I feel like things will return to normal-ish in the grocery stores soon, and I can wait for that. We aren't running out of food, despite having no rice. I might even make biscuits or cornbread from scratch, if I have the ingredients... WHAT?!?!?

I do have projects that I really want to work on, and pay the house some attention, and I am mostly a home-body, but the most socially outgoing of my family. So, I'm the one that goes out for the groceries, and I have been out several times, already. I'm practicing waiting.

I'm walking. I like walking through my neighborhood, kind of checking up on the neighbors, in a subtle way, waving if they're outside, saying hello from a distance, checking out who else is out on a walk, or getting some yard work done, or watching their kids play outside. That sort of thing.

There was a woodpecker in this tree. I could hear it, but I couldn't see it.

Spring is beautiful, this year. Oh, I know the winds will blow, and the dust will fly, but it was in the 80's today. And the sky was blue, and it was lovely.

Today, I called my advisory kids, to check in with them. I talked to quite a few. They seemed upbeat, generally and positive. And I tried to send that to them, as well.

Social Distancing part 8

Monday - March 23, 2020

The governor of NM made a statement today, tightening up the social distancing in the state. Many businesses are closed, including the malls, but not including grocery stores. Instead of gatherings of 10 people, it is now down to 5. I will be surprised if we go back to school this semester. I hope we can hold a graduation ceremony of some kind for our seniors. It is an important rite of passage. They will survive - and even remembered - if it can't happen, but I hope that it can, even if it is "late."

I got out walking today. The wind was gusty, and if it hadn't been so late in the afternoon already, I would have said a dust storm was brewing. It may be, for tomorrow. It seems like the poppies have been multiplying, though, and they were so pretty in the wind.

more pretty poppies in my neighborhood

I've been keeping in touch with one of my aunts in Texas, and tried to call the other one, but the lines were all busy. I'll try again tomorrow. I texted her son (my cousin, of course) but I haven't heard from him yet either. My friend in Arizona is doing well so far. Her husband will start working from home this week, but she is in health care, so she - of course - can not. Her daughter is home from college probably for the rest of the semester, doing her classes online, I think. I found a class that Raine might really enjoy but didn't get her to come look at it and see... ah, teenager.

I did get some grading done, and some sewing. Looking forward to more of both, tomorrow, lol. I also have a couple errands I hope to get done tomorrow, and then be home until we need more groceries.