The Rocc Flock: Frogs, bikes and sunny days

Here we are coming to the conclusion of week 2 of being quarantined because of the COVID-19 virus. The United States now has the most cases in the world, New York being hit especially hard. The unemployment numbers are at a record high as the country continues to shut down. The shelves of the grocery store continue to be empty as people still continue to hoard items. CVS is now allowing you to buy only 1 roll of paper towels at a time to combat this.

During the few times that I do venture out, I have noticed that myself and other drivers no longer speed. In fact, I drove behind a car that was driving about 15 mph under the speed limit the other day...the old me would have been berating this person from inside my head....but the new me enjoyed driving behind this car and seeing their little dog stick her head out the window and enjoy the gentle wind pushing her ears back.

I have to get a handle on this snacking. I've done a good job of getting up and exercising each morning...but boy, the snacking is a bit out of control. You don't notice the weight gain when you're wearing sweats and yoga pants every day. Seriously concerned if I don't get a handle on this my "real" clothes will not fit me when it's time to wear those again. As usual, Michael McGyver has come to the rescue in making me a walking treadmill desk. The entire family has enjoyed using it!

Allie and I enjoyed taking some of our COVID-19 aggression out on this thing the other day...

FaceTime, Zoom and KidMessenger continues to be a wonderful part of our days. The twins have enjoyed connecting with friends and family through these platforms. We picked up the twins' ipads from their school on Thursday so now they can access a lot more learning websites as well.

I had a great Zoom meeting with my choir officers the other night. My school district is rolling out "remote learning" on Monday where teachers are expected to begin working 6 hour days to get our high school students at least 40 minutes of work to do each day of our class over the next 2 weeks. I am actually excited about the projects I am creating for my students to complete. I am not trying to teach piano or choir the way I usually do but rather having them work on other things that can be taught through music education. I am thankful for my graduate class I am currently taking which focuses on Social Emotional Learning. The professor offers many projects that students can do with music and also focus on social emotional learning....something that is greatly needed during this stressful time.

I miss my students!

The twins continue to enjoy "Mommy/Daddy School". Cameron and Allie both miss playing with their friends during recess....Allie said she misses ice cream offered from the cafeteria on Fridays.

It is SO nice to not be in a rush all the time. Michael and I are actually able to give the twins time to finish their thoughts (and sometimes these thoughts are very convoluted!), time to answer their questions (and they have a lot of questions!), and time to just breath. I am realizing a fault of mine is I also feel the need to be multitasking or doing something every minute of every day. I still do this (knitting has become a great way for me to feel productive while FaceTiming!) but I am now aware of how out of control this need to be achieving something all the time has become in me. I am learning to quiet the voice that says, "You should be doing something. You're wasting time." and finding that I like it. Work in progress, that's for sure! I'm sure Michael will be glad when he reads all of this.

I continue to worry about the nursing home residents, children who are home in abusive situations, children who are not able to connect to their friends or teachers with technology. I continue to question why some children are able to have access to ipads and a multitude of online learning sites (like our children) and other children have nothing. Why is there such a disparage between the school districts in our country???? I sent my first letter to our State Representative and Senator on Monday. I plan to continue this endeavor in hopes that many, many things can be fixed because of this health crisis.

And now...for some super fun pictures of the Rocc Flock's week 2!

We finished our "Corona Wreath".

Or Simon seems to think it's a new bed for him.

Michael finished his puzzle!

We have always enjoyed the Wildlands Conservancy. Now we really appreciate it!

We discovered a bunch of tadpoles in this pond the other day...we returned back to take a few home with us!

Do you see it?

Yup.....now we have mud, slime, snails, and tadpoles in our kitchen.

Our homeschool adventure continues! Mike and I make a pretty good pair of teachers if I do say so myself.

Allie decided it would be neat to make our front window into our bulletin board. Rhys agrees!

We did a fun "Paint What You Hear" activity. I liked it so much that I decided to use this as one of my activities for my classes next week.

We listened to Gustav Holsts' "Mars" and everyone painted what they heard. I was really impressed with everyone's artwork!

Cam put together a Lego set he got for a Christmas set. He was excited that it only took him one and a half days.

The kitties are loving having us home all day long.

Now onto the bikes!! The twins have been trying to master the art of riding a bike on and off for the last several years. We almost had it last summer but then things got busy and we stopped having time to keep working at it. We decided to take advantage of all of the empty parking lots and set off to finally master that two-wheeled invention!

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Never thought I'd be lounging in the parking lot of my children's elementary school on a Tuesday afternoon....

Please watch the progression of our week....Allie started out with her little bike with the pedals removed so she could get used to the balance part again.