This post is about our entire September 2020. I’ll try to let the photos do most of the talking!
The boys helped somebody move.
I love Dallin’s eyelashes!
We sold this dresser to make room for desks. I never thought getting rid of old and broken furniture would be cause for meltdowns from my son. Turns out, it was a big trigger for Tanner. He argued, cried, kicked, screamed and tried his hardest to negotiate other alternatives. He eventually came to a point where he was able to tell the dresser goodbye. Change and loss is really hard for him.
Just playin around.
I don’t know why Tanner is holding a mirror, it might have been from a lesson I taught in the park.
A yummy charcuterie dinner. I think this was the first one we had with the boys and it was a BIG hit!!
Giant owl in the tree!
Beautiful canyon scenes on our walk to the Shwarma Food truck.
They were doing road construction right next to the food truck.
Tired Dad.
My hair vs Jeremy’s hair. So beautiful together!
Saturday zoo visit.
School began Aug 31, all online. It was very disappointing, angering and difficult. One glimmer of joy we had each day were the free lunches at our school campus, which we got everyday. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without this. It gave us a reason to leave the house, see their school and feel some sort of connection to the outside world. It also lifted a huge load from Jeremy and I with meal planning and cooking.
Tanner took up a job as Mother’s Helper at the neighbor’s house. He did it for about 8 weeks and made some good money. He took activities to play with the little boy out in their yard. Tanner was so proud going on his first day that I had to get a picture.
Sardines was our try at corporal punishment for September if you spoke unkindly. It totally backfired because both boys didn’t mind the taste at all.
With online school for 3+ hours a day, and no reopening date in sight, we decided to do what everyone was doing- buy desks. I went to Ikea and sent Jeremy photos of things. There were hardly any options because everything was sold out. The store said that the morning they get their new desks shipped in, they are all gone before noon. We ended up getting desks online from companies that I’d never heard of before.
We did a big remake to the boys room with their new desks!! It took a lot of time to get everything in just the right spot. Here’s a visual tour:
Dallin sometimes gives me massages. Here, he is treating my feet!
Another great day at our pool.
We took a weekend to visit Great Grandpa Davidson and Grandma Sharon out in Hemet CA. It was quite the adventure because the weather was 110 degrees. And their power went out!! We knew this ahead of time and decided to brave the heat. It was really fun keeping the grandparents company and finding ways to pass the time and make do without power. Grandpa BBQ’d for dinner.
The boys brought their legos with them and stayed well entertained through the night. The power came on at about midnight. The next day, it was 110 by ten o’clock, with the heat rising.
We had a church lesson, and showed grandpa how much we had worked in the Book of Mormon coloring books he gave us.
We tried cooking an egg in the cast iron skillet on the driveway!
The boys LOVED grandpa’s magic tricks and riddles, especially Dallin.
On our way home, the temperature gage kept rising.
Wow, it was getting hot. But I still was fine in my scarf.
Say what?!
It got up to 118 degrees, folks!!! CRAZY.
Back at home, we tried clams for corporal punishment.
The following weekend, JoMatta came to visit!!
You can’t really tell, but Matt is helping Tanner skateboard.
We went to a beach in Chula Vista for the first time. I think it’s called Imperial Beach.
During this time, Tanner and Dallin were struggling a lot with online school. This was totally different than distance learning from the spring. Before, the kids had three 30 minute zoom lessons during the entire school week. Now, it was 3 hours of zoom every day, plus lots of assignments that needed to be completed independently, mostly digitally.
I’m not sure how any level-headed human being thought this was a healthy and viable solution for our kids during the pandemic. Some parents I knew said their kids were doing “fine” and one even said their child loved it. But most families were experiencing what we were: struggle after struggle, hour after hour. If it wasn’t poor zoom connection or the teacher’s mic then it was the 2 kids who can’t figure out how to mute their mic. The schedule kept changing each week, the assignments were overwhelming, and our kids found it hard to feel a personal connection to their teachers because they’d never met them. They missed their friends, they were zoom fatigued and became more defiant with school.
The teachers did their best to stay positive. So did the parents. And I made an honest effort, too. But in all actuality, I think we all fell victim to toxic positivity. I found this poster online and shared it on Facebook because I was getting really sick of everyone trying to sugar-coat a very awful and unfair situation for our children.
We got sick of this desk and sold it. Like many other families, we had a lot of office furniture come in and out of our house during school and work shutdowns!
They couldn’t go to school or church, play with friends, or sign up for after school sports or classes. They just had each other. Many times they were completely sick of each other. But they managed not to kill each other!
I pooled together grandparents, aunts and uncles to help us keep the boys engaged. My Dad created a WWII class for the boys and taught them every Monday and Wednesday on the Alexa Show. They read together from the book “WWII for Kids,” did experiments and activities, and watched video clips. They stuck with it until xmas break!
On this day, they are learning how to confiscate a bomb from their home the way that children had to in Europe when bombs would land on or around their homes.
Grandpa Papa coached them through every step of getting the bomb to safety.
Because of the pandemic, I didn’t get a teaching job that I was counting on for the school year. It was a real bummer, but also a blessing. I was able to focus my efforts on my kids and growing my own business. Dallin is testing out the clarinet for my class in the park that I started called “Meet the Orchestra.”
I got the boys out doing some sidewalk chalk, and Tanner got really into it this time. Can you see the food chain he created?
I took the boys to get Gelatto at the real brick and morter place, not just the food truck. They were so excited!
Another zoo visit! I think this was our first time using the new red wagon! Easily one of my best purchases ever.
This is the Art Village at Balboa Park, right next to the zoo.
Jeremy tried making a lemon meringue pie and it turned out to be really gross.
Reading on one of the rugs we were experimenting with.
Tanner and Jeremy designed these shields. It was a big project that Tanner had been working on all summer. He paid for the wood himself. With Jeremy’ help, he cut them, sanded them and painted them.
I organized all my teaching stuff in the garage. It looked so beautiful!!
Tanner lost another tooth! Here’s before…
still before…
And AFTER!!
More WWII class!! Tanner was able to listen much longer than Dallin, so after about 30 or 40 minutes, Dallin would run off to do other things and Papa and Tanner would keep talking and reading for another 30 or 40 minutes.
I took a special hike with just Tanner to Ivy canyon. It was my first time there and he was really patient showing me the way. Jeremy picked us up at the end of the trail.
Jeremy created a nice outdoor living space for us on the balcony. He bought some wooden wall panels, stained them, attached them to the wall, shopped for furniture, installed lighting, cleaned the floor and made it all look beautiful. It took a few months and now it was all done!!
The boys enjoyed being out there in the cool evening. For about 2 weeks, Jeremy read them The Indian in the Cupboard out here. (I read the first several chapters to them when we drove to Hemet to see the grandparents.) One night, they all fell asleep outside on accident.
Jeremy took the kids on a hike and night out in South Park. The swing in the canyon was upgraded! I think they ate pizza and enjoyed browsing the shops.
Since the kids had no opportunities to socialize, I took matters into my own hands and created a Friendship Pod. You can look up how Pods became a big thing this school year. Some pods were for kids to do school stuff together with paid tutors, other pods were just babysitting swaps so parents could get work done while their kid’s schools were closed. Some pods were very strict where families agreed to not interact with anyone except the people in their pod.
Our pod was basically a group to have playdates with. We didn’t have super strict rules. I invited a bunch of families with boys that were the same age as Tanner and Dallin, and we ended up with 3 families doing it consistently- the Zavoral family, Cavey family and Steadman family. 7 kids total. This is our first time altogether, at Laguna Shores beach! We made the kids buddy up with a partner and they all went boogie boarding. They had a blast.
Tanya and Clay did a 4 week class with Tanner about the presidential election process. They taught him why we vote for a president and congress, how the electoral college works, and how campaigns work. Tanner got to predict which states would vote red or blue and who would win the upcoming election. They also sent him a really cool graphic novel about elections.
Jeremy decided we’d use mini homemade pizza kits for dinner one night and they were a huge hit!!
I think the boys are bouncing the balls off of the window? Even though we have a clear rule against ball throwing in the living room. But I do let the boys play ball in their bedroom.
I started a project called Sing Me a Story.
Johanna and Matt came over for dinner by surprise. I think this was the night we figured out how to put the kitchen table in the living room so things weren’t so cramped. Then we had a fun time rough housing and playing a silly game where we make up funny ways to walk.
Here we are making up a game with the back roller.
A picture from Dallin’s perspective
The railroad model museum opened up, so Jeremy took the boys.They loved it.
I found the boys one day showing their friend all of our instruments. So cute!
Here are some cards that Tanner chose during one of his therapy sessions. I want us to remember that this was a really difficult time for him, and me, and all four of us. Zoom school and lack of church was becoming more cumbersome and we just felt trapped from being able to socialize with other humans in normal ways. The sting of Covid was still affecting us a LOT.
There were many times where I had to tell Dallin to stop reading books and get back on his zoom school lessons. It felt completely backwards to make him do that! I hated feeling obligated to make my kids sit in front of a screen.
No fault to the teachers, they were doing the very best possible given the circumstances. But screen school just isn’t how my kids learn. They were really hating it now. Dallin did not like getting called on or having his screen on. Most of the material was either way too easy for him or really difficult to participate becuase of the limitations with everything being online.
Tanner was doing okay with being willing to get onto the calls, but things like the timed math facts tests and writing time was starting to stress him out a lot. Also our children would not do any of the school assignments independently. We were having meltdowns more and more. Jeremy and I started to seriously consider other options for our kids.
The only times that my kids were mostly engaged in learning was when they were doing one-on-one calls with family members. Like the WWII class with grandpa, Body Science with Auntie Desha, World Cultures with Grandma Nana and here is Dallin doing Writing Time with Taryn. I’m so grateful for the time that everyone spent to help our kids. It helped make our struggles with anxiety and depression much more bearable.
At that same time as Dallin’s lesson with Taryn, Tanner was having a class with Auntie Tanya and Uncle Clay.
And in the next room, Jeremy was online with his work meetings. He has 5-6 hours of online meetings everyday during the entire pandemic.
We were all online so much it was driving me crazy. Trying to keep their schedules straight, and make sure we had devices constantly charged, trouble shooting every call (because theres always problems with these video calls, no matter what platform we use!) gets really exhuasting. Plus, I was teaching several of my own lessons online. UGH!
Luckily, more than half of my private students transitioned back to in-person piano and voice lessons and we started our Fall season the 3rd week of September. Phew! I made lots of changes to the studio so that we could be safe, including making this plastic barrier that made it possible for my voice students to sing indoors without a mask. I don’t know if plastic barriers have always been expensive, but since they were in high demand at this time, it was hundreds of dollars to buy what I wanted. I felt very clever for finding a way to do it with a clothing rack and shower curtain for less than $70.
More working out in the canyon.
More reading Indian in the Cupboard
Dallin was having trouble going to sleep during this time. I attribute it to the stresses of zoom school and also he often needed space from Tanner in order to fall asleep. We let him fall asleep in my bed alot, usually while I worked on the laptop.
Another tooth getting really loose, it can turn all the way around!
Coronado beach day.
Another playdate with our Friendship Pod! The kids rode bikes and played baseball at the park. This was one of the first times that we saw a playground structure open, and the kids were really awkward trying to decide if they wanted to play on the playground or not. Some of the kids they interacted with told them to put on masks, but oddly enough they didn’t have masks on themselves. Weird. This park was outside of SD city limits, so that’s why everything was open and there were not a lot of people masking up.
Voice Lessons in the park were going well! In fact, all my lessons were going well. I was able to arrange my schedule so that I had a small group class on Monday, Voice in the studio on Tuesday, Piano and online in the studio on Weds, Friendship Pod on Thursday and Voice in the Park and Early Childhood classes on Friday. At this point, I had 7 private students, and 8 students total in the group classes. Little did I know that by the end of the year, I’d have double of each!
The boys like to steal our phones and take random shots of our lives. Here’s a few examples of what the images they get.
The boys got more work done in Fort TOD. I was excited that Tanner started playing out there again. He went through a phase during COVID where he didn’t want anything to do with it. I can’t remember if that phase was before or after this time.
We tried to take advantage of the museums being open. We enjoyed seeing the San Diego Museum of Art one weekend. It was nice and small and had a lot of cool pieces in it. Dallin really liked one of the pieces and chose to sketch that one. I love how just walking around El Prado to get to the museum is an artistic experience in and of itself. It felt so good to be back in society!
In addition to our art museum visit, we did a family art project at home. This time our project was to make wire sculptures. We followed a lesson in the art education text book that I have. We had our sculptures on display for a few weeks in the family room. This is us working with the wires.
The boys enjoyed their World Cultures class with Nana. On this day, she featured Norway. She included a special delivery to our house of Norwegian chocolate!! The boys got to eat it with her during their lesson through the Alexa Show.
Body Science class with Auntie Desha. I think they are drawing all the directional terms for their bodies in this lesson.
Here’s one of the schedules I made for the family so we could all keep each other straight. The first four weeks of school we had schedule changes each week, so it was really confusing for everyone.
For a month or so, Jeremy’s desk was right next to our bed. This is what I woke up to!. I heard everything that Jeremy was doing at work and shared my two cents before and after his meetings, which got really annoying for Jeremy.
A few more random photos taken by Dallin.
