Losing my Mind!

Last week, I posted a blog entry about how difficult home schooling has been this year and wrote about how I am kind of losing my mind.  I described a few things that I have done recently that show how my brain is turning to mush while trying to juggle so many different things at once.  Well, I discovered something else this week that proves my point.  It was so bad that I actually laughed out loud.  A few weeks ago, I took Emmett into the photo studio to get his 18 month photos taken a month late since the studio had just opened up after being closed for many months.  Since I had a coupon for a free collage that would expire before January when I take Emmett in to have his pictures taken again, I decided to order one with some of my favorite pictures taken that day.  Like with previous collages that I have ordered, I asked the photographer to include Emmett's name and age at the bottom of the picture.  After the photo came in the mail, I inspected it and then put it in one of our frames in the living room.  Since then, I have looked at it several times and admired all of the adorable photos of him.  However, it wasn't until yesterday that I discovered for the first time that I asked the photographer to include Logan's middle name instead of Emmett's middle name on the collage.  I just couldn't believe that I had made such a mistake AND that it had taken me almost a month to notice it!  Ahhhh!  What is going on with me?!  I am really losing my mind!  Luckily, I took the picture into the JC Penney studio this morning and the photographer agreed to fix the mistake and print out a new collage for me for free.  Thank heavens.

Emmett's framed collage innocently sitting on our photo table in the living room.

A close-up of my crazy mistake!

 

Big Foot

Emmett has been fascinated with trying on his shoes and other people's shoes for the past several months.  He will usually walk into our laundry room on his own accord and come out wearing a pair of shoes or holding a pair of shoes that he tries to put on in the kitchen area.  Although he usually favors his own shoes or his siblings shoes, he has lately been trying to put on Ron's shoes which is so funny because they are GINORMOUS on his feet.  This was no exception the other day when Emmett actually managed to put on Ron's new pair of sneakers and take a few steps before inevitably tripping over them.  Here is the hilarious picture I managed to take of him before he tripped over his own feet..or Ron's feet. :-)

 

Barely Surviving...

Well, it has been almost three weeks since we started Round #2 of online school at home and it's been pretty rough.  As a result, I have not written any updates as we have all just been on survival mode.  But after talking to my mom the other night and telling her some funny stories, she told me that I should be writing down some of my experiences so that I could "look back on all of this one day and laugh."  After she said that, I realized that it was time to sit down and share some of my thoughts on this second go at homeschool.  

To put it simply, none of us were excited to go back to school at home.  ALL three of my kids AND me were so disappointed when our district announced in July that we would not be returning to school.  It was a huge blow for all of us, but Ron kept on reminding me that online school would look different this fall as the teachers would be required to do more and the parents would be required to do less.  Since he is a high school principal, I thought he would know best and so I decided to trust him and hope that homeschool would be different.  After finishing the first day of school, I realized very quickly that Ron was both right and wrong.  Since he works in the secondary education world, he was very correct with how online school would work for the 7th through 12th graders which includes our Lia.  She goes into our office and attends three periods a day for three hours in the morning before breaking for lunch for 30 minutes at noon.  At 12:30, she goes back into the office to attend her second set of three periods for 1.5 hours.  After that, she usually has one to three hours of homework.  With the exception of needing help accomplishing some assignment or submitting some finished work online, Lia totally takes care of herself and requires very little attention from me.  But, oh how different online, elementary school is!  Logan's and Ella's schedule requires SO much work, time, and effort from me every day.  In fact, it is more demanding than last year.  The number one reason is that they are in and out of three to five virtual meetings every day with their teachers and it is not done in a back-to-back order.  They are in and out of meetings all day long and I am not in control of the schedule.  In addition, the two of them have totally different schedules, so I am required to remember when they are needing to join one meeting or another all day long.  When they are not on their computers being instructed by their teachers, there is a lengthy list of assignments that need to be be completed for reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.  Although Logan can read by himself and complete some work independently, he always needs a lot of work finding his assignments and figuring out how to complete them.  Ella needs constant help with everything she completes and it really is a full-time job bouncing back and forth between the two of them.

In addition, since I am no longer in charge of their school schedule, they all start class in the morning before I am ready for them to begin.  Last Spring, after feeding the kids breakfast, I would give Ella and Logan an hour or so to play while I cleaned up breakfast, did the dishes, got ready for the day, and took care of any necessary phone calls or emails.  Since I am unable to get any of this done before they start school, I find myself still in my pajamas most day at 10 or 11 a.m. which drives me crazy!  I also am no longer able to schedule a daily P.E activity like last Spring.  We always would go outside for a bike ride around the neighborhood or an activity in the backyard after lunch and before Emmett's afternoon nap.  Since all three of my children are required to be back in an online meeting at 12:30 with many meetings and assignments to complete after that, we never find the time to do P.E. anymore.  As a result, none of us are getting the daily exercise and fresh air like the last school year and this is very frustrating to me.

Another new challenge is the fact that I have now dropped one of Emmett's two naps.  He only takes one now and I put him down for his nap every day right after lunch.  So, he is awake the entire morning while I am trying to run both Logan's and Ella's homeschool.  To put it bluntly, it is pure chaos!  The poor, little guy just roams around the main floor of our house wanting attention and someone to play with.  He is constantly getting into things and getting into trouble.  He tries to unplug their computers, sit on their chairs and touch their computers or write on their schoolwork, or pull things off the table.  By the time we break for lunch, the kitchen and family room look like a tornado has blown through with the amount of things that are scattered all over the floor.  It is so frustrating to me because it is not Emmett's fault.  He is supposed to be home ALONE with me getting all sorts of love and attention, but instead, he is just an afterthought and someone who is always in the way.  When Ella and Logan are in between assignments or online class meetings and waiting for my help, I now require that they play with Emmett instead of playing educational games on their computers which has helped a little bit, but it still is not an ideal situation.

Every day, there are melt downs and arguments between one or both of our elementary school kids and me.  I get frustrated every single day that we are once again back in this same situation that we were back in the Spring.  I was so burnt out when we started up again on September 3rd that it has actually been harder for me in many ways than it was when we first started up on March 16th with little direction and help from our school.  I just want all of my older children to be back at school to leave Emmett and me at home alone to do "our thing" which includes spending one-on-one time together, running errands, and getting some projects done.  I have had to pray for forgiveness many times from Heavenly Father for my less than stellar performance as a mother during the day and for the strength to make it through the next day.  Normally, I love being a mom and try hard every day to be the best mother that I can be, but this entire homeschooling situation has made trying to do this very difficult and almost impossible at times.  I just want to be a happy mom and to be happy being around my children and this has not been the case on a daily basis for the past three weeks which is very discouraging and disappointing to me.  I just hope that one day this will all end...

Here are a few pictures of the kids that I took this morning while they were "in school."  Here is Logan working on one of his math assignments at the kitchen table.

Ella attending one of the many online meetings that she has with her teacher and the rest of her class each day.

Lia joining her 2nd period class online at 10 a.m.

While I was walking around taking these pictures of the kids, Emmett was following me.  When I finished taking Lia's picture, he immediately ran into the living room and climbed up onto "his chair" where I take his monthly photo.  I just couldn't believe it as he thought of this all on his own after watching all of his siblings get their pictures taken.  Of course, I had to take a few shots of this darling, little boy!

A close-up of my smiling cutie!

There is a little light at the end of the tunnel, but if there is one thing that I have learned in this pandemic it is that I cannot trust ANYTHING that anyone announces until it actually happens.  From our Washington governor releasing the anticipated date to move to the next phase to our school district announcing when in-person instruction will resume to the Hawaiian governor declaring when tourists can return to the islands without needing to quarantine for 14 days, it's nothing but a bunch of words until it actually happen.  So, although this is promising news, I refuse to believe it until my children are actually heading off to school.  So, with that said, here is the latest plan to return to in-person instruction from our school district.  We shall see if it actually happens...

And, lastly, due to my mother's suggestion, I wanted to end this post by recording a few of the "funny things" that I have found myself doing these past few weeks since we began homeschool.  I will be the first to admit that my brain has turned to total mush during all of this.  Between not getting as much sleep since Emmett has gotten into the habit of waking me up every day in the hour of 5 a.m. to having to juggle a 100 things at once to never getting a break to just be alone every day, my brain has just become fried.  I barely remember simple things anymore and I find myself doing crazy things all the time.  For example, I went to make waffles for breakfast for my children the other day.  After stirring the ingredients for the waffle batter in a bowl, I looked up at my kitchen island to find BOTH the waffle iron and the pancake griddle plugged in.  Never in my life have I done this.  In addition, I was spraying some Spray 'n Wash on one of Emmett's shirts last week that was covered in stains.  After I realized that the bottle was almost empty, I reached down into one of my laundry room cupboards and pulled out the refill bottle.  After filling up the entire bottle, I discovered that I had refilled it with Windex and not Spray 'n Wash.  Once again, I have never done this in my life and I was forced to dump the entire thing down the drain since I now had a Windex solution mixed with Spray 'n wash soap which was totally unusable.  Lastly, I walked out into the garage the other day to get something and saw Ron's garage door open.  Since we always keep our garage doors closed, I immediately thought that I had accidentally left it open from earlier in the day.  After pushing the button to close the door, I heard a noise and saw Ron hurrying around the front of his car to avoid getting hit by the door.  I hadn't even noticed his big, black Suburban was parked one foot away from me in the garage that is only ever in the garage when Ron is home.  Oh, heaven help me.  Will this house still be standing when our kids finally go back to full-time, in-person school? I have no idea...

A Table for One

In this world of chaos and confusion that I am currently living in right now in our house, I just don't notice the simple and little things that Emmett does on a daily basis like I used to.  Often times, I am either so busy or exhausted that this growing baby of mine does not get the time and attention that I wished he could get from me.  I have to hold on to the hope that one day it will just be the two of us again after we receive the all-clear from our school district to send our older children back to full-time, in-person instruction.  However, I walked out of my bedroom tonight while trying to get the kids to bed and noticed the cutest thing.  We currently "house" two large pieces of American Girl Doll furniture in the loft area outside our bedroom.  On a daily basis, Emmett will take all of the small pieces of food (that Logan and Ella have organized at my instruction the night before) from these two sets and will scatter them everywhere making a huge mess.  Tonight Emmett decided all on his own to sit down on the booth-style chair (that perfectly fits him) that goes with the 1950s style diner and to pretend that he is eating a meal.  It was just the cutest thing to see his chunky body squeezed into this booth while wearing his pajamas and sucking on his pacifier.  I just couldn't resist taking a few pictures with my phone that I luckily already had brought upstairs for the night.  Here are the pictures I managed to take of him before Logan came running up the stairs and distracted him...

A close-up shot of Emmett eating alone.

A farther away shot to show what kind of mess he makes on a daily basis with all of the AGD food that belongs to these two sets!  Poor Logan and Ella are such good sports to pick it up every day.  It's just a good thing they love Emmett so much...

20 Months Old!

I can't believe that this little stinker of ours is no longer a teenager!  He officially turned 20 months old today!  Time is going by so fast.  Emmett is getting so big.  I just can't believe it.  I moved him into his 24 months/2T clothes this past week and he was long overdue for the change, but I just never found the time to take care of it over the summer.  Emmett continues to be such an active, busy baby who is into everything all of the time.  He loves taking things out of the cupboard, dropping things on the floor, pulling the chair up to the kitchen island to see what I am doing, the list goes on an on.  He also loves playing with his siblings and spending as much time outside as possible.  The change from summer to fall over the next few weeks is going to be a rough transition for him as he has loved all of the walks and bike rides around the neighborhood and the hours spent playing in the backyard with his siblings.  Emmett continues to eat like a machine and is hungry or asking for food almost all day long.  He continues to take one or two naps a day (depending on whether or not I put him down for an afternoon nap) and sleeps fairly well at night.  With the exception of a pacifier plug-in and an occasional rocking in his recliner chair, Emmett sleeps through the night every single night.  It is a far cry from the horror show that he put me through during our two weeks that we stayed at Priest Lake in July and August.  To put it simply, he HATES sleeping in a pack 'n play and I HATE what it does to his sleep and my sleep!  I am so traumatized by how horribly he slept in August that I am truly afraid to travel with him again which is not a good thing when you have three other children who are itching to go on a trip at any given moment.  Luckily, we have no plans to go anywhere until Christmas Break when we head back up to Priest Lake, so hopefully, things will have changed by then.  

Other fun developments of this past month include a whole new list of words.  Emmett can now say the following:  bye bye, woof woof, out, two, eight, poo poo, pee pee, ew, baby, quack, and hi.  He loves to bark at any kind of animal that he sees whether it is a dog or a bird and we all think it is the funniest thing.  Amazingly, Emmett has also figured out whenever we ask him a question--probably due to the intonation change in our voice.  As a result, he now answers "no" to every single question we ask him.  It's so funny as he will even say "no" if one of us asks him if he wants to eat something (which is always a "yes").  This just shows the sassy part of his personality that is definitely coming out these days.  In addition, Emmett gets a kick out of running away from me at times when I want to change his diaper or put him to bed, etc.  He knows that he is doing the exact opposite of what I want him to do because he always has this mischievous grin on his face.  Luckily, he normally changes his mind and eventually comes back to me.  

Overall, we just continue to love our Emmy-Bems.  He is such a light and joy in our lives and we are still so grateful that he joined our family 20 months ago today!

Another cute picture of my cutie before he started climbing up the stairs next to the chair in this picture.  He is nothing but trouble at times. :-)

Labor Day Weekend on Blake Island

After having to juggle packing for a camping trip while home schooling three children, we set out Friday afternoon to drive to the Manchester boat launch to meet Chris to head off to Blake Island for the weekend.  Luckily, Ron was able to leave work early on Friday which allowed me to leave Emmett behind with him instead of having to hire a babysitter to watch him for a few hours which is what I have done in years' past with our other children who were left behind.  I say this every summer--our camping trip to Blake Island is MY trip!  It is the one trip of the summer when I leave behind all babies (after the summer that they are weaned) and toddlers and only bring children with me who are easy to take care of and I LOVE it!  I work hard all summer long to drag my children everywhere I go and I am always exhausted by the end, so Blake Island is my gift to myself.  I absolutely love it out on this island and so do my older children!  Thanks to Chris and his boat, we have enjoyed a decade of camping there at the end of the summer and this year was no exception.  The weather was stunning all weekend long and the kids and I had a great time playing on the beach, swimming in the water, walking around the island, sleeping in a tent, and playing with the cousins.  Here are some pictures of our two nights and three days out on our beloved Blake Island!

Logan and Ella were so hot after we arrived on the island on Friday afternoon that they changed into their swimsuits once I had pitched our tent.  Logan and Trenton enjoyed floating around on a makeshift raft that they made out of driftwood with Chris' help.

Logan trying to make a teepee out of driftwood on the beach.

Ella climbing on top of one of the many forts built along the beach.

Enjoying our Friday dinner together with Chris' family.

Par tradition, the kids and I had to have a family photo taken at sunset.

A close-up of my kiddos and me.

Ella really got into climbing the large tree that Bryce, Riley, and Trenton have been climbing for years.  At first, they were reluctant to let her into "their club," but after a stern talking to from me, they eventually let her join in on the fun and she loved it!

The beautiful sunset on the sound Friday evening.

On Saturday morning, my brothers organized a baseball game for the kids to play in.  This was the first time that both Ella and Logan have ever played this game and they both had a lot of fun.

It was so fun to watch Ella play as she just gave it her all with every swing of the bat.  Here she is getting ready to hit one of Lia's pitches.

Lia hitting the ball.

Before lunch, the kids and I wandered down to the huge fort made out of driftwood that has been there for years.  Here they are hanging out inside the fort.

Logan then built an adorable, gnome house on the beach.  Here he is posing next to his finished product!

Lia and Ella helped me build our own creation on the sand.

After lunch, we all walked the 30 minutes to the beautiful, sandy beach on the other side of the island.  Everyone had such a good time playing there for a few hours before heading back to our campsite.  Here is Ella doing a cartwheel for me on the sand.

I asked a bunch of the kids to do a cartwheel at the same time for a picture.  This is what I came up with.

The kids and me and the Puget Sound.

Another close-up photo of us.

Riley twirling Ella around the beach.

For the first time ever, we didn't have church to get back to on Sunday morning.  As a result, we decided to spend a second night out on the island.  So that we didn't have to drag out food to make a second dinner in camp, we decided to do something fun and take the boat over to Bainbridge Island where we picked up food at a restaurant walking distance from the marina.  We enjoyed a beautiful boat ride to the island and back taking in the sunset and views of the Seattle skyline, plus an up close and personal encounter with two huge, sleeping sea lions on a buoy.

A shot of the younger kids who rode in the front of the boat as we approached the marina.

Lia, Logan, and Ella eating their dinner on the marina dock after we picked it up.

The gang getting back into the boat to head back to Blake Island.

Trenton, Ella, Logan, and Lia in the front of the boat on the ride back.

Another stunning sunset on Saturday evening.

We woke up to beautiful, blue skies again on Sunday morning.  Here is the view of the water and Mount Rainier right outside our tent door.  When do you ever get a view like this right outside your tent?!

Another shot of Mount Rainier that I took inside our tent.

All three kids climbing up the large tree that leads to the boys' "club" up at the top.

Another shot of Ella climbing in the tree.

A group shot of all of the cousins:  Bryce, Riley, Trenton, Logan, Ella, Callie, Vivi, and Lia.  We were missing Garrett (on his mission) and Brynn (visiting friends at BYU before going on her mission in a few weeks) this year.

Toyota!

Another shot of the cousins.

A group photo of everyone before we packed up and headed home!  It sure was a glorious way to spend Labor Day weekend.

First Day of Virtual School!

We were all totally in denial last night when we rolled up to our house at almost 9 p.m. after spending the day at Lake Sammamish and at my parent's house that school was starting today.  In our eight years of having a child go to school in this district, we have NEVER started school before Labor Day weekend and before our annual camping trip to Blake Island.  So, it just didn't feel "real" that school was starting today.  In addition, since the kids were not starting school at their physical schools this fall, we didn't buy any new school clothes, backpacks, or supplies which also contributed to the fact that it really did not feel like school was starting today.  Everything is SO not what the beginning of school should be like this year and so we were all kind of out of sorts this morning.  Nevertheless, I managed to get the kids up, dressed, and fed in time for a quick photo shoot on the front porch before Ella and Logan had to join an online meeting with their teachers and classmates at 8:30 (Lia didn't start her first period class until 9 a.m.)  Although the kids are not actually heading off to school, I thought that it was important to take their traditional, first-day-of-school pictures on the porch for our family record.  Logan suggested that everyone should wear their backpacks from last year, and the girls agreed.  So, this is what I managed to quickly take of the kids outside before hurrying back inside to log onto Microsoft Teams.

The Hartland children line-up:  Lia with Emmett, Ella, and Logan sitting on the front porch steps.

Lia starting her first day of 7th grade AND her first day of junior high!  

Gasp.  I honestly felt like this day would never come--like she would be in elementary school forever.  However, she looks, acts, and thinks like such a teenager at times that this entire transition just makes sense as much as I hate to admit it.  Once "real school" starts, Lia will be walking up our hill to her junior high school every day.  It is less than a 5 minute walk from home.

Logan's first day of 3rd grade. 

Where has the time gone?!  I honestly feel like he just started Kindergarten.

Ella's first day of 1st grade.

She is still such an adorable, little peanut that being in 1st grade still makes sense to me as her mom.

We then hurried back inside to get both Ella and Logan into their first class meetings.  We then spent the next six hours jumping back and forth between four virtual meetings and classwork while juggling Emmett and several technical issues.  Needless to say, this was not my favorite way to start school and I found myself cursing homeschool again like I did daily back in the Spring.  I eventually got Emmett down for a morning nap and we figured out most of the technical issues, so the day did improve after a rocky start.  I am seriously going to try to make the most out of this, but I sure will praise the day when our county's Department of Health gives our district permission to send our children back to school.  I just was not cut out for this homeschool thing.

Logan listening to his teacher talk during his first of several virtual meetings today.  He discovered several friends during his first online meeting which was a welcome surprise as we only knew about one friend who had been assigned to the same teacher before school started today.

Lia's online learning went a lot smoother than her younger brother and sister and required very little help from me.  She met with her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period classes today back to back for an hour each.  She basically sat quietly in the office (which is now her "classroom" since Ron has moved back to working at his high school) listening to her teachers.  After a lunch break, she went back on her computer to meet with her homeroom teacher for 30 minutes before finishing up for the day since she was not assigned any homework today.  It was surprising to see her finishing before both of her elementary school siblings, but I know that this will all change in the days to come!