tales from a far-land

Another perk of being quarantined at your home for the last past seven weeks is the amount of quality time we have been able to spend with our dogs.  I think they are really enjoying the extra attention and love.  They have been going on morning runs and walks with us.  They have enjoyed hiking on the weekends with us.  They have been getting extra treats.  They love laying under my feet in the office while I work.  All in all, I think they are growing accustom to having us around. Unfortunately, Harley was hurt on our long Easter day hike.  We didn't notice it on the hike itself, but afterwards, he was profusely licking his paws.  When we turned them over, we realized that he had sliced them pretty deeply.  One was much worse than the other, but both were injured.  We quickly cleaned them and bandaged them up.  They seemed to worsen by the next day so we made a vet appointment and dropped him off.  During this new time of COVID-19, the process is much differnt than pre-COVID

We had a very quiet, but family focused Easter this year.  With the COVID-19 "stay at home" order still in place, we spent the day enjoying some quality family time.  Traditionally, our local country club hosts an Easter brunch and egg hunt.  That event had to be canceled this year.  However, they did find a special way to let their younger members know that they were special by creating a drive through Easter Parade.  It was very cute!  The Easter Bunny gave each of kids some treat eggs to take home. On Sunday morning, after waking up and enjoying some coffee, the kids enjoyed their egg hunt that the Easter Bunny had left for them.  There were over fifty eggs to find this year.  They found them all!  We then enjoyed brunch on the patio.  The kids FaceTimed extended family members whom we were not able to be with this year.  It was fun to hear their interactions with everyone.  After brunch, the kids played Minecraft with friends while Josh and I took the kids for a five mi

One of the questions asked during a Passover Seder is, "Why is tonight different from all other nights?"  Well, this was an easy question to answer this year.  Unlike in the past years, where we traditionally celebrated surrounded by family and friends.  This year, we celebrated Passover virtually via Zoom.  Thus, we had a Zeder.  In fact, we had two Zeders.  One with our Phoenix Jewish family, the Pattees and Goldsands.  And then, we were able to join our California family, the Vorobiofs, Reismans and Selma.  Each seder was uniquely special and offered us a insight into how different families chose to celebrate this year's holiday virtually.  We missed being with everyone in person.  Plus, we had some technical and ritual issues this year.  Also, our kids may not have really enjoyed sitting through two different Zeders, so we may have had that challenge too.  Either way, it was a night we will not forget and we were blessed to have celebrated it with family and friends.

One aspect of COVID-19 that I have found thoroughly amusing is that everyone is embracing technology in a whole new light.  Every week, I spend most of my work day in some sort of web-based meeting.  Everything from Zoom to WebEx to FaceTime or Skype.  My kids also spend half of their homeschooling day reliant on virtual connections.  They meet with their Lookout Mountain classmates and teachers through Google Meet and with their Blossom Park instructors on Zoom.  And after school, they are FaceTiming their friends so they can play Minecraft together.  I am even volunteering on my non-profit board meetings virtually now.  And then, there are the other moments of my day that I connect with family and friends for virtual "happy hours."  It amazes me how easily we were able to transform our lives into communicating with each other through screens.  Now, I am not arguing that this is all for the good, nor is it ideal.  I definitely miss the more personable and tangible meet-ups

On March 20th, Governor Ducey announced that the already statewide closure of schools would be extended through April 10th, which ultimately then was extended through the remainder of the school year.  With these announcements, our family started homeschooling on March 23rd, the date that they would have returned back to school after spring break.  By this point in time, I was also working from home, so in order for all of us to function under one roof, we needed to start structuring our our days. In order to prepare, I started researching homeschooling routines and curriculum.  I quickly became overwhelmed.  There are so many different approaches and schools of thought.  However, after researching on the internet and collaborating with friends, I came up with daily itineraries for each of my kids to use during the week.  At the beginning, we hadn't been given any formal guidance from my kids' school district on class assignments, so their curriculum included a cross-section