Well PHEW!  I don’t think the first day of virtual school could have been any more hectic!  I don’t know what I was expecting, as I knew it would not be as monumental as the first day of school usually goes with a cute photo of kids out front, in new outfits, sporting clean new backpacks.  Instead it was alarms going off abruptly, kids with messy hair making their way to their desks/virtual learning spots with a frown and 0 excitement.  I told my son he had to wear a nice collared shirt like Dad does when he’s on Zoom calls and could wear whatever he wanted on the bottom.  But there was definitely no brushing of hair or teeth before school on this day, he basically just rolled out of bed.

Thank God my mother-in-law had brought over some banana bread for a 1st day of school breakfast, so there was something done right. Thanks Nana.

Here’s how the rest of the morning goes…

 

 

 

7:44 am-  Get my 5^th grader on his Zoom meeting that starts at 7:45.  I sit down next to his working space (still in my PJ’s) to be sure all is working well.  His class goes around saying their names.  I keep checking his video over his desk, and thinking, “Oh his face is too dark, the light is coming in behind him (I know, a big Zoom no no). So I am trying to close curtains/shades (while still in PJ’s and most likely visible on his screen).

 

8:00 am-  First Zoom meeting is over already so he has “Independent Time” until his next Zoom meeting.  Which for now means just sitting there and doing nothing. Which then means complains about being awake.  He runs in his room and changes his shirt and puts on a hat.  He only made it 15 minutes in his collared shirt.

8:30 am- His next Zoom meeting starts so I sit right next to him with my laptop thinking I can now start on my day.  HA!  First, his screen freezes while it’s his turn to talk.  So here comes me in my PJ’s trying to fix it and I call Dad to come to help also, so both of our faces are in his Zoom shot.  Doorbell rings and it’s a floor company coming to fix our grout so Dad leaves to let him in.  Screen unfreezes, and I am back messing with the lighting for my son and end up just shining the desk lamp in his face.  There. Now they can see his pretty face.  I sit down, start to work on my listing docs and then…a squirrel again!  His 8:30 zoom meeting is already done and it’s back to that “independent time”.  He begins a project and he can’t find the slides he is supposed to use to answer the questions.  So I try to log into his system on my laptop so I can help him.  I have to go through 500 different log in pages to get there because they decided to change everyone’s passwords the day before school starts which was SO SMART, and while we are all trying to go online virtually at the same time.  I finally get logged in and he’s having to do a scavenger hunt answering questions about his teacher.  So I immediately go to Facebook as I am sure I can help him get all the answers there! Well of course that spirals and there is yet again another squirrel as I start scrolling to see everyone posting their “back to virtual school” pics.  He decides to problem solve and zooms his teacher to help him find the slides.  Turns out, he was in the wrong course all along, of course he couldn’t find the slides!  We sit and do the scavenger hunt together and then he’s done.  OK, what I was doing again?  Oh yea, listing docs.

 

9:45 am-  I am just now realizing I still haven’t even brushed my teeth and I am in still in my PJ’s and should probably get dressed.  But I don’t think I can cause the floor guys are here.

I yell up at my hubby, “are the guys still here?”

“No, they left, it took them like 5 minutes.”

Well great!  So I run upstairs, brush the teeth change from PJ’s to a sports bra and shorts and I hear “MOM!!!” I run back downstairs.   Now my 8^th grader is up and on her first Zoom, which is a high school course and she is still in middle school.

“You told me my Zoom started later cause it was the high school block, but it started at 9!”

“Ooops, sorry honey, the principal’s email said to read the white block not the gold block I thought.  Well I guess I read that wrong.”

Now what was I doing again?  Oh yea, getting dressed.  So now I realize I am starving and I need to eat something cause I have 20 pills to take (you can’t stay healthy enough these days!) and I pop a gluten free waffle in the toaster.  I walk off to let the dogs outside because they can’t get out by themselves right now (we are building a pool so there is that noise and mess as well to deal with!) and the dogs decide to run for the trash cans that apparently had a raccoon in them and all the rib bones are all over the yard!  So now my dog is eating rib bones, nice!  I finally get them back inside, forget about my waffle in the toaster and head back downstairs to see what these kids are up to next.  My daughter tells me her Zoom camera is not working as I walk into her room.

“Well turn it off and turn it back on.”

“I did that.”

“ Well, let’s wait until you are off and we will re boot it.”

Freaking technology!

Meanwhile, my hubby is like, I am getting on out of this crazy and he leaves to workout.  I then hear a tapping at the front door and oh yes, the appliance repair guy is coming today to look at the oven!  I open the door abruptly and tell him they were supposed to call before they came and he said, “Yes we did try like 3 times”.   Oops.

 

My friend calls to chat, and we try to have an actual conversation, and I think we got interrupted 5 or 6 x’s between her kids needing help with their meetings and the people coming to my door for this and that.  So after the repair guy leaves, the kids seem somewhat settled in and then here comes my 5^th grader asking me what’s for lunch.

Oh right… now I am making 3 meals a day + being a teacher AND a real estate agent!  What was I thinking??!?!?!  I stupidly ask him what does he want and name some normal ideas for a lunch that he can have (like a sandwich) and he picks chicken tacos!  But it’s the first day of school, so of course I have to do it!

After lunch the rest of their meetings go more smoothly and I actually found myself getting a full hour of interrupted work in, thank God.  I start to feel bad I don’t have a special treat for them to celebrate this special first day so I start pulling out the flour, sugar, butter, and chocolate chips and try to make them smile with some good ‘ole home made chocolate chip cookies.  Why did I start a diet today??

My son’s first day was over by 1pm, wait what?!  How are they every going to learn everything with this new way of learning?  Beats me, but hey, at least we got through it.  Here’s hoping tomorrow, and the rest of this week, is a little less stressful.