And Then The World Turned Upside Down | The Month of March 2020

Well, a few weeks ago I thought I would be packing the car for a road trip. We were going to revisit the Oregon coast, do some hiking and biking, and hit our favorite city, Portland.

But I can't say I'm too disappointed at the moment. It feels quite nice to be doing a whole bunch of nothing right now. #teacherburnout We transitioned to distance learning rather abruptly. The week before, people were saying watch out -- daylight savings, full moon and Friday the 13th all in one week. Well, they didn't know the half of it. Add in three extra staff meetings and then an announcement from the governor and you have some tired teachers. One weekend to prepare, one Monday to train fifth graders, and then Tuesday morning...meeting with students online.

So here we sit, looking Spring Break in the face. But, the weather is lovely and the kids are calling it all luck that we can't travel right now. We'll be fine.

I didn't take many pics this month. If I wasn't deep in lesson planning or grading, I was trying to keep clean underwear and socks in our drawers.

Back at the very end of February, the boys and I got to go to Auburn with the bell choir. That was a bit crazy! 500+ middle school students all eating in one cafeteria? I think everyone had a good time though... It was pretty cool to hear that many bells ringing together.

We took a quick day trip over to White Pass and indulged in some strawberry croissant sandwiches on the way up. *yum* The snow was AMAZING and I was really really having fun. Then we lost Ezra. :( I was racing him to the bottom of the lift and we took different routes around a tree island...he didn't pop out around the other side. I wouldn't have worried so much, except that he should have been RIGHT THERE. So we notified ski patrol and started trekking through the nearby woods calling for him. I was scared. It turned out that he had found a little rabbit trail through the woods and come out down below the lift. He had to tromp along for awhile before finding a different cat track back to the lodge. He took three lifts by himself to make his way back over to us. Thirty minutes later, after the ski patrol had gone out and come back on the skidoo empty-handed, Ez finally comes shooting down where he should have before. I'm like "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" I'm so glad he wasn't really lost and that he knew the mountain well enough to come back to us!

Sometimes we talk about not wanting to lose either of our kids because we've put a lot of work into them. #nojoke Well, when somebody pretended to hurt Ezra's stuffed animal, he was quick to say "Stop, I've put a lot of work into her!!"

Sadly, our mountain has closed early for the season. But we were able to go up and ski fresh powder on their last day of operation. It was a really good final hurrah to a pretty crummy season.

Peter has not failed to have a different project for almost every day. He spent several hours wiring and connecting his many speakers and mixers so we could have surround sound in the living room/kitchen. He built a floor-sweeping robot. He still makes beats sometimes. And right now, he's programming in Python again. All powered by #naveloranges. If we were counting, I don't doubt that he's eaten more than 50 oranges this winter. Maybe more.

We have been doing our jolly best to get everyone outside for sunshine and fresh air! It's warming up as we head towards April and I couldn't be happier about that. My hammock and flip flops are calling.

Tim and I tried mountain biking down at Ancient Lakes last weekend. It was pretty bumpy, with narrow, dusty single track. I love my loop trail rides more, but it was entertaining!

I'm just really thankful I have a buddy to bike and hike with. It's more fun to adventure with a best friend. *heart eyes* Thank you for being mine, Tim Kyle. :)

So -- it was a month to remember and we don't really know what April will bring [besides lots more screen time]. I'm happy to say I met my goal for riding 100 miles on my trainer this month! *yay* But I didn't get to go to IKEA, so my kitchen re-organizing will have to wait.

I will definitely have time to read Nerves of Steel this week. Let's do that.

April goals? 
1) ride the loop trail at least 15 times
2) make soup and bread
3) declutter and better organize my classroom