Happy Mother's Day

Wishing a wonderful day to one of the most 

adventurous people I've ever known.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Sorry we couldn't go to brunch

with you today.

Hopefully next year we'll

be able to celebrate as a family...

My Mother's Day was lovely. It started at 6:30 with a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and coffee in bed, made 100% by my children.  (They wanted to make sure I didn't get up before they did, and even had the kitchen clean before I came downstairs.) The day ended with a steak dinner with baked and grilled pineapple on the side, and homemade pineapple ice cream for desert. (If you haven't guessed yet - pineapple is my favorite.) It may have been socially distant, but it was a delightful day.

Yum

The other day my friend, Lynn, posted about the doughnuts she and her boys made. My daughter saw the post and decided we needed doughnuts, too. Luckily, we had one of these, so whipping up a batch was a breeze. 

I think I need to reign myself in a bit. Now that I have lots of time I want to bake something sweet every day.

Sharing the Love

My husband cleaned off the game shelf the other day, culling the ones the kids have grown out of and the ones we just don't play anymore. Rather than stashing them in the Goodwill box, I wiped them down, put them on the porch and offered them up on our local resideir new owners get as much enjoyment out of them as we did.

More Masks

Keeping busy is helping me deal with Michigan's shelter in place order. I can't imagine not having a hobby right now.

Let me tell you, the binding attachment my mom got me last year has been getting a lot of use this spring! It has made sewing on the ties go so much faster. The only down side - it doesn't like thick home dec. fabric. 

These masks will soon head to one of the hotels downtown and the Mackinac Island Airport.

Trial & Error

I made bagels.

They were...  OK. 

Not great, but not awful either.

 We ate them toasted, with cream cheese and homemade blueberry jam. I used the recipe from my favorite bread book, but they were quite heavy. In a way it has been nice to have the time to try things like this - I probably wouldn't have taken the time to make these in "normal" times. Next time I try them, I think I'm going to try a traditional bagel recipe - maybe they'll be a bit lighter.

Missing

I miss my students.

We're trying to meet once a week, just for a little bit of fun. Last week - Scattergories, this week - Boggle or Head Bandz; I haven't decided yet. Let me tell you, if you've never Zoomed with six goofy sixth graders*, you're missing out. I  often hear things like, "How can you stand teaching middle school?" and "How do you deal middle schoolers all day long?" My answer is always the same - sixth graders are wonderful. Sure, they have their moments, but 99% of the time they are an absolute delight to be around. They put a smile on my face every single day. It's on these days that I can't see them, that I appreciate the joy they add to my life even more.

*student images used with parental permission

Today's Agenda

On the agenda for today: vacuuming screens. Once the windows were grime-free, I could clearly see that the windows were only part of the problem.

Making Me Smile

The other day the kids who live down the street left postcards for me on the front porch.

J, the elder, is looking forward to being in my classroom next year, and J, the younger, hopes I am staying inside and staying safe. (Which I definitely am.)

Thank you for writing to me.  There's nothing like a handwritten note to brighten someone's afternoon.

I Love Michigan: Reason #9,452

The Library of Michigan and the Historical Society of Michigan have  put out a call for Michigan residents to document and share their Covid-19 stories. (All the official information can be found here.) They are looking for handwritten, typed and video submissions, created by average people, experiencing this time in history. 

I'm going to encourage each of my sixth grade students to send in a submission. The kids will be thrilled - right in the request they make it clear not to worry about handwriting, spelling or punctuation. (Things they always have to think about with me!)

Today

Today in Things to do to Keep Liz from Losing Her Mind: 

Washing Window: Inside & Out

A retrospective of her complete lack of window cleaning for, at least, the past two years. She'll take time to deal with all the finger prints, spider poop and  dead-bug filled webs that desperately need  to be removed. 

It's sure to be at hit. That is, if anyone in her family notices...

Wonderful

I did my first zoom meeting with my sixth graders today. I haven't seen them for three weeks and it was wonderful to see their faces and hear all about what they've been up to. I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

It didn't work...

Homemade

Like many people, I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude about being home. And, I'm trying to keep busy. So, today was a perfect day to try my hand at sewing something new - undies. (Not something I'd normally be willing to spend precious time on.) They were so surprisingly easy to make. And, they use so little fabric that they are the prefect project for using up scraps. (That fabric was left over from shorts I made my daughter about four or five years ago.) I'll have to dig through my scrap pile because these Primrose Panties are really comfortable. Now that I know how they fit, I can adjust the pattern to get exactly the rise and leg opening height I want. I definitely see more of these in my future.

Keeping Busy

I've been working hard to maintain a positive attitude in light of the current situation. I tend to be an anxious person and often worry about, well... everything. For me the key to keeping my anxiety under control these past two weeks has been to keep busy.

Yesterday's project was my sewing room and it was an all day project. Everything came out of the closet, off of every shelf and out of every drawer. (I even vacuumed inside the drawers.) Every piece of fabric was refolded and organized, and five trash bags of hoarded, I mean saved items were moved into the donation pile or city-approved garbage bags. When I was finally finished I just stood back and smiled. It was one of those jobs that has been nagging at me and it feels really good to cross it off my list.

Sewing

I've been sewing like a mad-woman for the past few days. A dear friend of mine, who is a nurse downstate, asked me to make masks for her. I know there is debate about the merits of cloth masks, but she's a nurse and she wants them. So who am I to argue?

20 of them will soon be headed her way. Sewing them was like a walk down memory lane. They were all made from leftover fabric I hoarded, I mean saved for a rainy day: my daughter's bicycle dress, a Captain Underpants cape, headbands, Jaguar Girl, and more Halloween costumes than I can count. 

I hope they keep her safe. She's got some trying times ahead and anything I can do to help her will be time well spent. 

Stay well Chandra!

Read Aloud

I miss my students. I know it's only been a week since I've seen them, but for me, not seeing them every day is just weird. I worry about them. I know most of them are not upset at the idea of time off of school (at least not yet anyway). Give it a few weeks and a few of them may realize they miss school more than they initially thought. 

When we abruptly left school on Friday of last week, I was right in the middle of reading a book aloud my sixth graders. The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, by Michigan author Paul Curtis, is a wonderful book about a 10 year-old boy growing up in Flint, Michigan. After his older brother continues to get into trouble the family decides to take a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit their grandma. I don't want to share any more for fear of spoiling the ending for one of my students. I hate spoilers! 

I may not be able to read to my class at school, but I can post a chapter on the school website every few days so the kids can keep up. I may not be as good a reader as Jim Dale, but it's better than nothing. Maybe it will help give my students a little sense of normalcy in these completely abnormal times...

Survival

It's been a week. And we survived. I don't mean survived the  Covid-19 virus, I mean the kids and I survived each other.  In case you don't know, my husband is in charge of the Island's drinking water system, so it is important for him (and his staff) to stay healthy. To decrease his chances of exposure, the kids and I have been religious about practicing social distancing.

It's been hardest on the kids. Take two teenagers, add a bit of stress and a huge change in routine and it's just put them on edge. Me as well. Despite the challenge of adjusting to our new normal, the three of us had a pretty darn good week...

S and K built the most amazing blanket fort in the living room.

They spent a lot of time in there this week. It was the perfect place for keeping up on Spanish homework  and watching musicals (Hairspray, Rent and Grease.) We've also listened to hours of the soundtrack from Beetlejuice the Musical. (Yeah, its on Broadway right now.)

My daughter spent time inside writing and drawing in her journal while I organized closets.

All of them...

Once I was out of closets (and drawers) I moved on to cutting and sewing mitten linings,

and then on to the outside portion of the mittens...

I've made fresh bread twice, washed every stitch of laundry in the house, hung all the pictures I've not gotten to since Christmas, and the kids and I cleaned pretty much the entire house. It's probably the cleanest the house has ever been. Kind of a bummer we can't have anyone over to enjoy it. That said, I did manage to spend a little time with friends. 

One evening, six of us spent three and a half hours together. It was wonderful! Besides giving me a break from The Whole Being Dead Thing,  it felt so good to laugh. Normally we all get together for a long weekend this time of year, but that's kind of hard to do while being socially distant. So until we can physically get together again, we've scheduled weekly meet-up like this.

The kids scheduled an online D&D game yesterday so they could  spend some time with their friends. It was  wonderful to see some of their stress melt away - I think spending some time with people (other than their sibling and parents) did a world of good for their moods.

New Normal

Who would have though we'd ever be where we are now. The words "global pandemic" use to be the stuff of movies and video games, and yet here we are in the midst of one.  Michigan schools closed for a minimum of three weeks, restaurants are closed,  and we are all practicing "social distancing" in an attempt to flatten the curve.  (Although my favorite graph so far has got to be Cattening the Curve. Dr. Anne Marie Darling, an epidemiologist, altered the chart because she thought cats would be more "compelling" to people than plain old charts and graphs.  Brilliant.)

So here we are, trying to navigate this new normal. My husband is in charge of the Island's water system, so the kids and I are on "lock down," in an attempt to keep him and the other plant operators healthy. Throughout the past few days, I think the hardest thing for me has been the not knowing. I don't like not knowing. I'm especially worried about my dad; he's 79 and has COPD...

photo credits: Corona Pandemic  Cattening the Curve

Back in the Day: The Library

I was going through old photos the other day and came across this picture of the Library building that use to be on the property of Mission Point Resort.

I took this picture in 1989 during the first summer I worked on the Island. I think that was the only summer it was there (while I was) because I seem to remember it being torn down in the early 90s. I don't think it had been maintained very well and the architecture certainly wasn't very "Mackinac."

Sense of Humor

A couple of weeks ago when I was off the Island shopping, I noticed this hood ornament on a car in Petoskey. Who cares if it isn't scientifically accurate; it made me smile on an otherwise dreary day.

Connections

This winter during my family's annual Christmas cookie baking extravaganza, I found this recipe in my cousin's recipe book. I almost teared up when I realized it was written in my grandmother's handwriting. Somehow it made it seem like a little part of her was there baking with us. I think that would have made her smile.

Until, that is, my cousin and my mom started disagreeing about how much flour to put in the Nuremburgers. At that point the smile would have disappeared and Grandma would have informed us of the, ahem, correct way to do things. And they would have been perfect...