9 Weeks Behind Us

It's been nine weeks since the world was completely turned upside down in Georgia. Doug, Bri and I are surviving (as best as we can)!

Last week, Bri's school sent out the 8th grade "virtual walk" video. This is what I said on FB about it...

 Here is the introduction...

There's my girl!!!

Bri's teachers also started sending out their goodbye messages last week - and that was also bittersweet.

Bri's English teacher (who is leaving middle school to teach for a magnet program at a different high school in the county) sent a sweet video message to the kiddos...

A message from her science teacher...

A joke from her math teacher...

From her social studies teacher...

From her art teacher (except Bri's in 8th grade and sadly won't be seeing her next year)...

Speaking of art, here are a few of B's last art assignments.

Birds...

A flower...

And this was her final assignment...it was to draw a wolf (her school is "home of the wolves"). Very appropriate I think...

Bri did this drawing just for fun...

And here is B's drawing calendar from April (we survived April!)...

I am a bit sad that Bri won't be receiving her "all A" honor roll certificate in front of her classmates. She's worked so hard to get all A's this year (she's been on the A/B honor roll the last two years) and really wanted to get it at the award ceremony. She did say she should still get her certificate at the beginning of the next school year - I really hope so. I told her I'd make her one if she didn't get it.

I have been able to see her receive a number of certificates over the years, so it's really ok. I'm so very proud of her...

So what else were D, B and I up to last week?

Doug's work has been crazy busy - which is a blessing. Bri was very happy to be done with school. She basically just chilled the whole week. She facetimed and texted with some of her friends. But otherwise, she just kept to herself. I'm usually a bit worried with how introverted Bri is, but it can be very useful during a social distancing pandemic - heh. Me - I've been catching up on a lot of things around the house.

This past weekend, we worked a lot outdoors.

 We burned some stuff we needed to burn...

I washed off and weeded the back patio. Doug ordered some new Adirondack chairs and he put them together (our other ones were getting super worn out)...

Doug took Bri out to wash his car...

I spent a lot of time chilling on my back porches. This was me and Miss Mei chilling on Saturday evening...

I spent a lot of last week organizing and filing away paperwork and getting some things together for donation. I came across Bri's service log for beta club. She was just a half an hour away from completing her volunteer hours for the semester before the school went to digital learning. Ugh...

Bri downloaded a coloring book app on her phone to keep busy. She colored in this picture (she didn't draw it)...

The "big" excitement around my part of town right now is the black bear (or possibly bears) that keeps roaming neighborhoods up and down our main road. People keep posting pictures of this poor guy who seems hungry and confused (I snagged these photos off of FB)...

Another exciting thing - FB added avatars! (Ok - that's not really all that exciting, but it's fun)...

So I guess that brings me to my complaining whining semi-informative weekly perspective of what is going on in the world right now. Once again, feel free to read or move right past...

So, here is the graph once again that I check on new Georgia coronavirus cases...

Numbers are still zigzagging a bit, but not as drastically as earlier on. No huge spikes - which is a good thing (hopefully). I'm still waiting to see if numbers start to increase with all the movement happening right now. We are at the two week (plus) mark now of Georgia opening up and I am very curious as to what this week will bring.

If television/internet/social media is giving me any sort of a gauge as to the activities of others (since I am still sticking close to home right now), it seems as if a very large number of people believe this virus has completely disappeared somehow. I have seen more unprotected, lack of distancing, large group gatherings in the last few days than I even want to talk about.

Look, I'm all for people getting back to life cautiously. I totally get that people need to make a living. People want some sense of "normalcy." It's the "reckless abandon" that I am seeing after the "re-opening" that is really getting to me right now.

This was tweeted on May 15th by an Emory Hospital anesthesiologist...

So, I am going to continue to be super cautious right now, protect myself and others, and keep on keeping on. Especially now that I am hearing that children are not necessarily immune to this virus. There is just so much we are still learning.

Caution ~ slight venting ahead...

Those who are in the extremely cautious camp (like me) are being ridiculed and called "sheep" by the "just open everything up" people. Yet, those who are ridiculing us could be just as easily called "sheep" for only listening to those who feed their own belief system. Those who choose to continue to social distance are looked down upon as wimps and scaredy-cats. Right now, Doug, Bri and I go out on a very limited basis, and we are privileged enough to be able to make that choice. I'm just trying to protect my small family that took so long for me to build as best as I can. Some people are proclaiming "I don't have to wear a mask!" and "America is a free country and I can do whatever the heck I want!" I'm really struggling to find where that line is between freedom and self-entitlement.

All the bickering back and forth is overwhelming. Some people are downright hateful. I have to remind myself to stop reading the dang comments - on everything!

It's hard not to feel this way sometimes...

Kind of harsh, I know. But it gets the point across I guess.

Doug sees me get riled up quite often. I know it frustrates him. I wish I could be as calm and logical as he seems to be about all of this. I'm just not wired that way.

So, he sent me this meme to cheer me up the other day...

I think I am getting better at that second one lately - heh.

Is that why Doug got carried away ordering from wine.com the other day?

Do you think he's trying to mellow me out a bit? Maybe? Possibly?

Lastly, I am not going to get into what I think about the president again. If you've read my blog long enough, you already know how I feel. No need to rehash it.

Let me just address one thing though. What he did to Weijia Jiang last week was inexcusable. I had to explain his words and actions to my Asian daughter yet again. There is so much more I could say, but I'm just going to leave it at that...

So when I get overwhelmed by life, I am going to try to remember this...

It's hard to for me to take things day by day. It's hard for me to not take things personally. It's hard for me to not get riled up. But I'm trying. I really am.

Once again, thanks for reading. Be back next week! Hope you'll be too. :)