The Starfish Story - Coronavirus Week 4

Here I am on a pretty normal Friday night.  The Rocc Flock just had an epic Friday Night Dance Party (YouTube video included below) and we're eating pizza from our favorite place and watching "Little Giants".  However, it was kind of a rough day for me and things are still very, very weird.

I'm calling this post "The Starfish Story" because while I was frantically cleaning the house today (with 3 great helpers!!) I thought of this story.

Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. 

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

  Why did I think of this story today?  Well...it's because I really wish I could turn my empathy off right now.  I have such a heavy heart for a multitude of people (children living in an abusive household, residents living in nursing homes, my students, my family, my neighbors, my friends) and I feel like every day I want to reach out to all of them and help them.  However, I am slowly realizing that I can't do this.  I still have these thoughts and feelings but I am learning to be like the boy above -- help who I can and be very, VERY happy with that.

  We learned yesterday that schools in Pennsylvania will be closed for the rest of the year.  This rocked me.  I was at first numb to the news and then as it set in, I couldn't stop crying.  I cried for the students (my children/other children/my seniors), I cried for the teachers (myself/the children's teachers/other teachers), the parents who are struggling with homeschooling the administrators who have been trying to keep things positive with hopes of returning.  I've worked through that and have recovered a bit.  I was rocked again today when our power went out around 1:30 PM.  A transformer blew (it's been very windy the last 2 days) and we were first told that the power would be out until about 11:00 tonight.  I started ugly crying for about 2 minutes and then realized I had to pull myself together because I think I was scaring the twins.  I pulled myself together and got back to frantically cleaning the house - the twins are now both PROS at cleaning a bathroom.  THANK GOODNESS the power came back on around 3:30 PM.  SO THANKFUL TO THOSE WORKERS.  Always moving forward...

  I've always been a planner but this situation is making me have to plan in a very strange, weird way.  We have decided to quarantine all packages and food that we can for at least 2 days...we have to really work to plan out our grocery shopping as we do Giant Direct where we can pick up our groceries from the parking lot.  I totally messed up the other day and forgot to schedule one -- and now we don't have one for 2 weeks which stresses me out....I have to plan when to drink water because there's never any time during the day to think about my health....I have to plan when to go to the bathroom (oddly I have less time to go to the bathroom now than when I was only a full-time choral director).

 I am still using my treadmill desk -- we've named it "Trex".  I call it going into my "dungeon" when it's time to go to work because there are no windows down there.  Oddly my stress level is lower when I'm in the dungeon.  I have a clear goal of what I need to do during my working hours....I am trying to help my choral program survive this shut down and be there for my students....and also plan for next year which I am HOPING AND PRAYING will be "normal".   I've always liked organizing things but this is a little too much for my tired brain.

  It is hard to stay focused.  I have to force myself to focus on one thing at a time...for example, today I had to tell myself, "Clean the stove and then think about something else."  This still reminds me VERY much of my life with the twins as newborns.....I successfully fixed my sewing machine and sewed a patch on Allie's Brownie vest today....but the entire time I was thinking of about 50 other things that I should be doing instead.

  Our good friend, and wonderful colleague of my mother's, said something in a text message the other day that really resonated with me:  After sharing some fun pictures of turkeys in her backyard she said, "Have a great time with your kids.  You'll never have it like this again I hope...except for summers!"  She also agreed that my mother would have LOVED being a nanny and 2nd grade teacher to the twins through all of this.

The twins have enjoyed taking picture of the kitties with my phone...

 We are enjoying the sunny, warm days!

Mike took us on an exciting walk across the broken bridge....

And we got caught in a rainstorm and got pretty wet...but then this lovely rainbow came out.

Trying to do some normal things with the kids...purple hair is pretty normal!

And I LOVED our Friday Night Dance Party -- this can become tradition for sure!

Allie and I made Friendship Bracelets.

Love them!

 Cam has once again revitalized his bedroom.

I finally got a patch sewed on Allie's Brownies vest.

Rico's Restaurant has been a favorite pastime. 

Things got a little dangerous in the restauran!

Gym class is always the best.

The Dungeon....

The kiddos loved this art project.  They had to look out our window and draw what they saw.

Allie's

Cam's

  Piano lessons are still up and running!  Here is Allie's POLKA

Fun project...with so many cats that are now allowed outside, we had to devise a system to keep track of all of them!

Music class -- twins had to watch Peter and the Wolf and do an activity on their iPad.  Great assignment!

Little extra art class...spreading some joy to the people who walk by our house.

Twins also helped me get this flower bed cleaned up for spring!

The twins are doing great with morning routine...we strive to get dressed each and every day!

Allie's Lego project...can you pick out who is who??

A very common scene at the end of each day....

Hot Tub pad is almost done....now to get a hot tub...

Squeezed in some time to dye eggs!

The Stanton Tradition of mixing all of the colors together for THE LAST EGG OF EASTER!

Allie made Gammy this lovely Easter picture...we'll mail to her once we get some more envelopes~

THE LAST EGG OF EASTER!

Still having fun with Pete's challenges....

Michael has taken over Cub Scouts with Cam thankfully.

The kiddos continue to be a shining light in our lives...Cam is having nightmares and Allie is having emotional outbursts..but a lot of the time they are helping to keep me grounded and sane.
Some videos!!  The first one is our endeavor to get one step closer to the Van Trapp family!

 The one above is our latest submission to Pete's challenges....create a 30 second commercial for a gym but we couldn't include any real exercises or gym equipment.....

Last picture....really love this girl here.  Amber Cook and I continue to connect twice each day for me to sing to her residents. I can see how amazing Amber is at her job and this remains a highlight of my day.  :)