Covid tired

I had a very mild case of Covid and I feel very fortunate about that.  I feel very very fortunate that no one else in our family got it.

For the past several weeks, I have been SO tired.  I am relatively fine through most of the day and then in late afternoon, it hits me like a ton of bricks.  I will come home from school in a stupor and sleep for an hour and then it takes effort to stay up until 9:00.  I made the mistake of googling Covid and fatigue and I found all sorts of discouraging things.

Two mantras to live by for safety:

1-don't talk about politics online

2-don't google health topics

Both things end in gloom.

What I'm mostly trying to do is be patient.  I'm rotten at being patient so that is probably why I have lots of opportunity to practice.

Adam is picking up all of the housework slack which I feel guilty about.  The other day my guilt turned into whining and he said he'd rather pick up the housework slack than hear me whine about it.

I understand.

I hate it though.

I want to zip around and do things and I have no zip.

None.

I'm grateful that I can make it through the school day before the worst of the fatigue hits.  I'm slipping behind some with my prep because I get too tired but Thanksgiving break is coming and hopefully I can catch up.

I'm trying to be OK with being kind of worthless after school.

I'm trying to remember the world will be okay if I rest.

I also kind of want to smack people who refuse to wear masks because this is the worst and I know I don't even have it that bad.

Oh, to be a third grader

We have been doing addition and subtraction (once they passed the addition) timed tests every day.  I have students that have never completed one test.

Now we've started multiplication and even though it's kind of ridiculous because it's so easy, I gave them a multiplication by zero timed test.  I know they know that the answer to every question is zero.  They were incredulous and giddy because it was so easy.

Students that are never fast said, "Done!" before the time was up and they were exultant.

There was one student though who didn't get them correct.  She put all sorts of random numbers as answers.  I know about hard things in her life that are sad and chaotic.  I know that she hurt her foot at the recess right before the timed test.  I know she was having a bad day and that she'll get it eventually.

The students around her saw her test and a murmur flew around the room.  "______ didn't get it!" "______ got it wrong even though it was just all zeroes!"

Then one student said, "It's OK!"

Then a chorus of "It's OK!" went around the room.  The student who had struggled on the test grinned.  I think I took a breath because I'd been holding mine.

If third graders ruled the world it would be a kind place.

No one would be able to keep track of their pencil, but it would be a kind place.

Things delighting me

On our family text chat, in referring to our scripture reading in Ether 1-5, Mark wondered which sinners had to be on the barge with the bees.

Emma replied:  

She's also been known to say "Get glucced" when referring to diabetes....

She makes up words and no one minds.

***

Speaking of delightful text groups, Tabor has started sending a song of the day to our sibling chat.  It makes me happy.

***

One of my students who had been online moved to coming to school in person.  Yesterday was his first day.  At the beginning of the day, I could tell he was nervous.  After school he came up to me and said, "Today was a good day!"

***

Adam went to Jersey Mike's yesterday and made them nervous by asking to speak to the manager.  He explained the situation with the stolen sandwich and offered to pay.  Instead, she said, "Sounds like you had a free sandwich."

***

A third grade boy recently told me about how he helped make dinner with his family.  They were celebrating because the doctor said his grandma's cancer was gone.

Hurray for happy news!

In which Emma and Mark steal a sandwich

Emma needed a quiet place, free of distractions, to get a lot of work done on Friday so she asked if she could come over.  We said "Of course!" and "You don't need to ask!"

(Because we completely forgot about the governor's mandate not to mix households....)

I don't know how it came about because Adam was in Salt Lake at work, but Mark was home at lunchtime and Adam said he'd order them sandwiches from Jersey Mike's.  (Adam is that kind of dad--indulgent.)  Emma and Mark went to Jersey Mike's and said they were there to pick up the order for Adam.  It was one sandwich.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Emma and Mark figured Adam had mistakenly ordered only one sandwich.  They shared the sandwich.

Hours later, Adam contacted them.  "I am sorry!  I forgot to order your sandwiches."

Emma and Mark had stolen another Adam's sandwich!

Later that night, Adam and I picked up some insulin for Mark.  The pharmacist's name tag said Adam.

I wanted to apologize to him for my kids eating his sandwich....

(Also, Adam is going to go to Jersey Mikes and pay for the sandwich.)

Grateful Friday

The other day, one of my girls said dreamily, "I'm grateful for everything!"  Then she hastily added,   "Except Covid."

Another girl, who is something of a sassy contrarian said, "I'm grateful for Covid!"

"What?!?" exclaimed the first girl.

"Without it, I wouldn't have realized how much I love school and I love seeing my friends."

The first girl looked at me incredulously, as if to say, "Are you hearing this?"

I appreciated the truth in the statement.  I'm not grateful for Covid but I was reminded of how much I love my job when it was snatched away.

I have a tree on my classroom door and I had my students write things they were grateful for on leaves.

It makes me happy every time I see it.

the hand sanitizer dispenser is new this year....

Mostly the students were grateful for their family and friends but this leaf makes me smile:

I guess she hears both /s/ sounds in Mrs. so she added an extra.

I'm also grateful for my children.  It still astounds me from time to time that I was lucky enough to be their mom.  They make my life better.

Utah is really struggling with Covid cases right now.  Wednesday night Adam was going to teach the deacons to make three types of gourmet burgers and the boys were excited.  It was all canceled because of our new restrictions.  Adam got home from a hectic work day and launched into a few hours of making sliders for each of the boys.  They each got three: BBQ cheddar and bacon; onion, mushroom and ranch; and green chili and jack cheese.

We delivered them to the happy boys and I felt grateful that I am married to the kind of man who would spend his evening making sliders magically appear on the doorsteps of six 12 year old boys.  (And then he cleaned the kitchen.)

Happy holidays

I have a collection of Halloween riddles and I wrote one on the board every day in October (every day I was there, so not every day).

How can you tell it's a cemetery?

From all the coffin. (coughin')

Yesterday a student asked me if I had any Thanksgiving jokes.

I said, "I don't know any."

Another student excitedly said, "I know one!"

"OK," I said.  "What is it?"

She said, "What did the turkey say to the cookie?"

"I don't know, what?"

"Wake up!"

It was one of those times when I really had no words.

Yesterday we talked about Veterans Day and I showed them my poppy bracelet that I bought at Normandy.  We talked about the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  We talked about what a veteran is.  Everyone wanted to tell me about the veterans in their lives.  Then they wanted to talk about wars.  "When was the Revolutionary War anyway and why did they cross a river?"

Things like that.

It's nice to have those conversations though.  Veterans matter.

On my way home, I turned on the radio and they were playing Christmas music.  Mark would have had an aneurism if he had been in the car.  Christmas music before Thanksgiving is a high crime to him.

I didn't change the station though.

And I'm not even sorry.  

Covid facts

 People are super curious when you've had it.  So many people have asked me about my symptoms, duration, where do I think I got it?  For months, around here at least, no one knew anyone that had it.  That has changed, but I'm still sort of a novelty.

I'm tired.  On Sunday one of my friends, who's also in the I've Had It Club, asked me if I was tired.  I said yes.  She said she was too and she goes to bed early.  I'm embracing it.  I went to bed in the 8:00 hour last night.

We're in a state of emergency.  Mark has essentially been grounded by the governor.  For at least the next two weeks we can't have casual social interaction with anyone out of our household so Mark can't hang out with even one friend.

We're used to masks.  I have to remind my students to take them off when they go to lunch because I don't want them to get lost (it's happened).  Sometimes I'll be working in my classroom alone and after about an hour, I'll remember, "Oh, I can take this thing off."

Our classrooms are a little chaotic with students quarantining and some online students coming back and some in person students going online.  So far no third graders have actually had it and we are knocking on all the wood!

Masks keep your face warm on recess duty.  We don't have to wear masks for recess but I think we just might.

It's bizarre.  Yesterday I sent my students home.  "See you tomorrow!"  

One girl yelled back over her shoulder, "OK!  Unless I get Covid!"