the beat goes on

School has had it's much anticipated ups and downs.  With the kids in two districts and three schools with three different learning platforms, there has been one constant: change.  All three schools made an attempt to do part-time in-person learning.  Brett participated; we elected to do full time online with the other two from the start.  The deciding factors were a combination of school size, ability to keep the shuffling to a minimum, and individual needs.  Not surprisingly but still disheartening, the last of their three schools will be transitioning to full-time online learning this week.  Secondary students in our district's hybrid model attended a grand total of 16 hours of in-person learning.  

The demographics and culture in our school district provide a unique set of needs.  Our inner ring suburban area brings together nearly 11,000 students, about 60% free and reduced lunch - but also plenty of affluence - and 57 different languages spoken among the families.  There is a large population of multi-generational and first generation immigrant families who tend to work in frontline and service-oriented industries that do not lend themselves well to work-at-home options.  This is partially why about half of the district's secondary students elected to do online learning.  They are responsible for the care and education facilitation of younger children in the home.

What's wrong in this picture? 😏

I praise our district's attempts at making education equitable where the privilege is blinding.  Think about teaching gym online to a population of students so diverse.  Do students have a safe place to go outside for exercise?  Do they have a brother or a sister to kick a ball to? Or even a ball?  None of this can be assumed.  And really, how many days and weeks and months can teachers engage kindergarteners in calisthenics?  Last week, Reggie was doing his online gym class in the living room when I overheard the gym teacher say, "Today we're going to do some jump roping. If you don't have a jump rope, you could place a towel or a stuffed animal on the floor to jump over."  How ironic that last year I was in the PTO meeting that approved buying new jump ropes for the gym teacher. 

Quite honestly, I have grown tired of people whining about kids missing out on sports or birthday parties or homecoming or trick-or-treating.  The truth is kids don't need any of that, and though some believe otherwise, these all have a degree of risk contributing to the spread of the virus and shutdown of our schools. Please don't mishear me - I like all of these things.  But what price are we willing to pay for them?  For this false sense of normalcy?  I believe that some time in the future, historians will look back on this global crisis with a lens that it is yet another example of the privileged asserting rights that ultimately oppress their less-fortunate neighbors who are just trying to survive. (Not even to mention the health care community that is relentlessly working on our behalf.)

School is not going to be world-class this year, and our students might not meet all the standards and benchmarks.  But that's okay with me.  What my children need to learn is not found in a textbook.  They need to learn that our actions affect other people in very real ways, both positively and negatively. That sometimes we need to give up our personal comforts for the well-being of our community.  And when we go through hard stuff, we often grow in ways we didn't expect. 

This photo was taken in September!  Our table is under a few inches of snow now!

furry forever friends

My computer broke.  It was still under warrantee, but it took nearly a month to get the repair done. That's my excuse for the lag time on the blog.  I think I will leave our general fall happenings for an upcoming post.

We had a sad goodbye in September.  Our loved guinea pig, Milo, died.  He was a part of our family for 6 years.  He was a good boy who would make even the worst of days better.  He could restore calm to the saddest Brett.  He was very easygoing and was perfectly content with being a lap pet.

His passing was not a surprise, as his health had been declining for a few months.  Brett thought we should have a cake and punch as apparently all good funerals do. This we forewent, but we did have a ceremony of sorts to say our goodbyes and then we got take out.  

Most guinea pigs are happier with a friend, but getting guinea pigs that will get along with each other can be tricky.  I was hoping to get three guinea pigs so each kid could have one to call their own.  So we quickly snatched up a trio of little girls from a local rescue when they became available.  I also got rid of the old cage that was in our dining room.  It was too small to house three guinea pigs and I didn't want the guinea pigs in our dining room anymore. Our new cage is bigger, upright so it takes up less floor space, and on wheels so it can be moved.

The guinea pigs came with an interesting story.  Two of the piggies were abandoned at a pet store in February, about 6 months old.  One of the guinea pigs was pregnant and had a girl and a boy.  The boy was placed with another male guinea pig.  The girl stayed with her mom, so we have a mother and daughter!  

The mom became Brett's pet, and he named her Oreo.

The "baby" became Lydia's friend, and she named her Violet.

The "aunt" is Reggie's piggie, and he kept her given name, "Penny".

The trio are so different from our other guinea pigs.  They are very active and curious.  They are loud and messy.  They are a little wild and opinionated!  

My kids are smitten and they have already brought them so much joy.

Happy 11th Birthday, Reggie!

This post is a little late.

Like everything else, Reggie's birthday was different this year.  We are almost always in Green Bay for training camp on his birthday.  We didn't make the trip this year.  On his birthday, we had cheeseburgers and cake.

That week, he was also able to have two friends over to play baseball, have a water balloon fight, and eat pizza.  One friend lives in the neighborhood and they play baseball together, so we see them regularly.  Reggie hadn't seen his other friend since March even though he only lives a couple miles away. 

Reggie is the first of our kids to topple over 100 pounds, though he is still a couple inches shorter than Brett.  He has lost all his baby teeth, so he got braces on his bottom teeth this summer.  He also got glasses.  He just barely needed glasses, but I got them anyway.  It was worth the forty bucks to me for him to not be teasing Lydia mercilessly because she actually did need glasses.  Reggie hardly ever actually wears his glasses and I don't care.  My plan worked!

Reggie had some fun playing a little baseball this summer.  His team wasn't very good, but it was nice to get some games in anyway.  He accomplished his goal of hitting a ball over the fence. Bryan was at the game, so I missed seeing it.  He got to sign the dugout and keep the ball.  It wasn't long before he hit another one over the fence during practice.  I saw it, but pretended I didn't.  He came to the car after practice with an enthusiastic "Mom, did you see my hit?"  I responded, "What hit?" His jaw dropped, but I couldn't keep a straight face for long!  For the rest of the season, he was legendary to his teammates...and he lavished every minute of it.

Reggie is fun-loving, high-energy, and fearless.  He is an early riser and wakes up each day ready to take on any challenge.  He can be a real pill sometimes, and it still feels like everything with Reggie is full-blast.  But beyond all the noise and crashing, he is gentle and kind.  Yes, I feel very blessed to be his mom.

north shore adventures

Our annual mom and kids road trip this summer was the trip I wanted to do in 2019, but didn't have the guts to do. I've been wanting to visit the state parks up the North Shore of Lake Superior, but most of the parks don't have camper cabins to rent.  

Due to Covid, (1) the state parks weren't renting the cabins out anyway, (2) I wanted to stay in Minnesota, and (3) I wasn't crazy about the idea of staying in a hotel.  Sooo......that left me with camping.  

No more excuses to state park skip up the North Shore.

In total, we visited 10 state parks in 5 days. The detailed descriptions are for the future me to look back at before our next trip: 

Banning State Park: Hiked along the rapids from Teacher's Outlook to Blueberry Slide Rapids. 

Moose Lake State Park: Ate a picnic by the small lake and played at the beach. 

Jay Cooke State Park: Camped, explored the swinging bridge, hiked the East Ridge Trail and River Trail. 

Gooseberry Falls State Park: Explored the upper, middle and lower falls. 

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park: Toured the area around the lighthouse (no access due to Covid) and surrounding trails. Hiked the Little Two Harbors trail and played at Pebble Beach with views of Ellingsen Island. 

Tettegouche State Park: Hiked to Shovel Point and drove to Palisade Head viewpoint. 

Caribou Falls State Wayside: Hiked the trail to the base of Caribou Falls. 

Temperance River State Park: Hiked the trail to the river gorge and played in the waves on the pebble beach of Lake Superior. 

Cascade River State Park: Hiked the Cascade River Lower Loop. 

Kadunce River State Wayside: Played in the mouth of the Kadunce River and the pebble beach. 

Judge CR Magney State Park: Hiked the Devil’s Kettle trail. 

Grand Portage State Park: Hiked the High Falls trail.

Some memories and funny stories from our trip:

• On our way up the shore, there was a food truck parked by the side of the road.  We were so hungry!  Brett got a gourmet grilled cheese, Lydia had mini donuts drizzled in chocolate and salted caramel, and Reggie and I had yummy gyros!
• I'm super careful about putting everything away at night when we're camping because I'm afraid of bears.  But one night a package of graham crackers got left by the the campfire.  In the morning, we had a whole family of chipmunks dining on graham crackers all around our campsite.
• By happenstance, my cousin's son was on a boy scouts camping trip on the North Shore at the same time.  It was fun to get to see him!
• We stayed at a private campground for part of our trip.  The coffee shop had great coffee, bakery treats, pizzas, calzones, and nachos.
• The kids dared each other to dunk their heads all the way into the cold water.  Watch the video to see who won the challenge!
• Lydia was excited to see a caterpiller on the trail and as she was investigating it, Brett came along and stepped on it.  We decided you can't kill creatures who have been named.  For the rest of the trip, Lydia would immediately name any creature we met so no one could kill it.
• Reggie was being a bit of a pill midway through the trip.  I told him he couldn't instigate trouble for an hour.  He asked, "What do I get?" I sarcastically responded, "A star!"  For the rest of the trip, he behaved for imaginary "stars".
• Each night we'd have a campfire and s'mores. My favorite part of camping is sitting by the fire and relaxing under the stars at night. It took me 3 nights to figure out that once the the s'mores were eaten, Brett would announce, "Well, I'm getting eaten up, think I'll turn in for the night!" Then he'd go in the tent and play games on his kindle.  I guess relaxing by the fire isn't for everyone!
• On the last morning, I wanted to pack up our campsite and get an early start.  It was drizzly and I didn't get enough coffee to attack the day before we hit the road.  On the hiking trail of the last state park, I saw a lady with a to-go coffee cup and asked where she got it.  She told me about a place a few miles down the road.  Then her husband chimed in that they also sold ice cream.  And that's how my coffee cost me $13 and the kids got ice cream for breakfast!
• Brett's speech therapist told us about a place to buy world-famous pies along the highway.  We stopped on our way home and bought two pies.  We met Meemaw and Papa for a picnic and I split both pies so we could each sample some of both!  Betty's pies was worth the hype.

This trip was so much fun.  I can't believe I've lived here so long and never gone all the way up the shore (to the Canadian boarder).  It's a trip that I think I could do every year.

Since March 13th, we have visited 15 state parks in Minnesota and 2 state parks in South Dakota.