I have three boys. Eighth grade, sixth, and third. This past weekend we began our self-quarantine at home (thank you Coronavirus). Our school teachers have vigorously been learning Google Classroom and we, at home, have been attempting to log in and familiarize ourselves with this tool as well.
Monday was a perfect day! When my husband came home from work and I told him the boys didn’t fight even once and we had a fantastic day together, he laughed. Yep. Laughed. He thought I was being facetious.
But it was wonderful! We had a leisurely morning, we played outside. A lot. We had lunch together, dinner together. I even peeked out of my kitchen window while doing the dishes to see two of my boys, shirtless in 35-degree weather (boys!), hugging each other. I kid you not.
So, I was hopeful for Tuesday. Not as ideal, but a good day nonetheless.
Yesterday I began lessons with my third grader while my two older boys completed a couple of lessons from their teachers. Still an okay day but I only got one page of writing done. ONE PAGE. Ugh!
Today? Today I’m realizing that this is going to be SO much harder than I anticipated. Typically when I write, I need my cup of coffee and the comfort of my couch as well as my classical music playing in the background and at least an hour, preferably an entire day to be really productive.
But today I’ve gotten pretty much none of this. I got to sleep in (score!) but as soon as I woke up, my third grader and I started on his remote learning and completed several lessons. My two older boys are thankfully self-sufficient and responsible so they’ve done the lessons required of them today. My eldest has a video conference with a teacher soon but is taking a break as I type.
I was right there with my youngest as he completed his lessons today. And when it was time to read, he wanted to read out loud to me. I love this. I really do. But it also means that this is another half hour of no writing. AND, he doesn’t have a school laptop as my older boys do, so he uses my work Chromebook to do all his lessons. Yep. The Chromebook I use to write.
Lunch arrives and my husband comes downstairs. He’s been home since yesterday and I’m so pleased he’s able to work from home during this time of quarantine, but it adds to the chaos. I need to attempt to quiet things while he’s up in the office. No vacuuming, no yelling boys (yeah, right!). It snowed last night and while these past few days we’ve played outside quite a bit, they don’t want to do so today. I forced two of them out after they were wrestling in the kitchen earlier. Ha!
I just sat down to get some writing done. Finally. But I also let the boys play some electronics for the first time today and between screaming for joy, arguing, and just the noise from the computer and game consoles, I can’t think, let alone write.
So there we go. I’m rocking at this remote learning thing for my kids, but for myself? Not so much. I need to somehow figure out when I can lock myself in a room and get creative. I’m used to writing during the day when they’re in school and my husband is at work but I’m thinking I may need to reevaluate. I hope I’m not too beat at the end of the day because that seems to be the only time I think I might be able to shut the door of my bedroom and get my fingers on the keyboard to type off a good amount of words for my new book.
Jeepers!
I hope you’re all being safe and productive! 🙂