Pogativity

The Cathedral's Patronal Feast St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral - at the start of Vespers (courtesy Fr. Benjamin Tucci) Tonight was just what I needed - a calming evening in church with the boys to celebrate the Protection of the Theotokos. "Calming" and "with the boys" don't often go together, but tonight they were both so well behaved and the singing was a balm for the soul. M decided he was going to stand the entire service. I told him he could sit during the Old Testament readings, but he refused and stood the entire time. L worked on crossing himself correctly and pointed out each of the plagues on the Egyptians in his Children's Bible.  Throughout the chaos of the world today, I just wanted to go to church. Yes, it was our feast, but something just drew me this evening. As we were driving down, we could see the storms rolling in with the lightning streaking across the sky. The first drops began as we raced into church. Once we settled in, a peacef

Wednesday Learning Challenges Today was a bit of a mess. I didn't exactly plan for school work, other than L had his first Google Meet with his half of class. M's Wednesday work was one page of Math Facts (100 addition facts) and reading for at least 30 min. I had blocked one hour of time from 9-10 am to help the boys with anything they needed. Of course, I worked 12 minutes into that time and then had to 1) scramble to get L to change out of PJs before his Google Meet at 9:30, 2) convince M to relinquish the computer so L could have Grid View (I don't know how Google Meet works on the iPad yet), 3) convince L to do his meeting at his desk and remind him the rules of the meetings, and 4) realize at the last minute that I'm still in my PJ pants and may be seen on the screen, so change into actual pants. We made it and L had a successful meeting! Google Meet with L's Kindergarten Math Facts Time! Then on to M's work. He had a sheet of 100 addition facts. At the bo

Second Grade & Kindergarten I can hardly believe that my baby is in kindergarten! My lands, they are growing up so fast! Yesterday, we made a last ditch run for haircuts, which turned out awesome!  Seriously... a car that runs on toothpaste? Eventually I’ll let him know maybe he would want to consider “alternate fuel sources” 🤣 Deciding to do the hybrid model for school this year was a happy medium for us. I don’t think that school full-time for us would have been ideal, given the class sizes. For them to be able to go two days a week, this would allow them some social interaction as well as safety in smaller class sizes. M has 12 kids in his class, L has 9. We carpooled to school with a neighbor friend, and it was so chaotic at the drop off that I didn’t even have time for tears. I got a little emotional after I got home, but these COVID days are not the same. Any other year, I would have been a blubbering mess! School Prep Has anyone ever mentioned how challenging it is to get o