Snow Day (morning); see it before it melts!

I blogged last week about the kids heading up the hill 30-40 minutes east of us in seek of snow (which they found!). We had an even larger winter storm hit these parts mid-week (with lots of wind, trees and some people's power lines down!) and heard that the mountains may have gotten 1-2 feet of snow (which we hoped would stick around for the weekend!).

We headed up mid-morning to find the powder. We reached Berry Summit and drove a few minutes up Titlow Hill Road to find some deeper snow, as much of it (at least on the main road 299) had already melted with subsequent rains.  There were plenty of other families and cars headed up the same way with the same idea, but we were definitely able to keep our distance. You could ascend higher up to Horse Mountain but it apparently got more icy and less-well plowed.

It was pretty deep in parts!

Niall kept tripping, falling, and was talked into making snow angels. 

A few snow balls. 

Snow man! 

Iver found a hill to sled on.

Niall saw Pepper licking snow for water...

... and then wanted to taste it for himself. 

We didn't spend a ton of time up on the hill, heading back down before lunch and Niall's nap. Iver, who had on regular cotton pants and rain boots (filled with snow!) was crying about his feet being so wet and cold by the end of our adventure (these California kids don't have much winter gear... we may have to invest in more), but all had fun!

Character Week

Iver is very into "dressing up" and re-creating the look of various characters in his daily outfits for "school," which he has been doing a lot lately. He'll use (or ask to borrow from me!) different colored shirts to "wear" the hair color of his character.

I am not super familiar with all of the people he imitates, including characters from Disney's The Descendants and other movies/shows, although I do hear about them a lot.  Below are just two of his examples for the week. 

  Kim Possible is a crime-fighting teenager, if you weren't aware.

On Thursday, he wore this "Ninja" outfit all day (complete with Kelvin's balaclava over his mask for additional facial covering). 

I wish I had taken pictures of some of his other costumes in this past week. Sometimes it's unicorn gear, complete with headgear, on Fridays. I have long stopped commenting or influencing what he wears for school, even when his choices (tank tops and often shorts) seem strange and not very weather-appropriate nor comfortable. As long as it's not offensive and as long as it's fairly clean, I let him wear what he wants. This kid is such a character-- what he comes up with is so creatively interesting!  

In seek of snow (SUCCESS!)

The kids have been asking to see "snow" for a while, now, which is a really rare thing around these parts (for California kids in general and especially on the coast, and as if we parents could just "create" snow!). Iver's first sight of snow was at Big Bear when he was about a year old, and he's only touched it a few other times total. 

In 2019, our backyard got a dumping of 2-3 inches, which was the first time I've seen snow accumulate on our coast in the almost ten years we've lived here, and which was so fun for the kids!  We've checked the forecast a few times for "Berry Summit," a mountain about 40 minutes east of us at close to 3,000 feet, but haven't caught any snow on the forecast this winter to date. During Thanksgiving 2019, a large storm dumped quite a bit of snow there, and we took some great family shots!

Yesterday, Kelvin heard that there were some snow flurries up the hill east of us. When your kids beg to see snow during a pandemic and the opportunity presents, you take it! He kids headed up there late afternoon to see if they could see some flakes (but he guaranteed nothing lest they be disappointed. It was still to be a snow-seeking adventure). I was on OB call so couldn't be that far away from the hospital but I was eager to hear what they saw (got some live weather broadcasts from Iver over FaceTime!).

SNOW SUCCESS! 

It wasn't much, and it was pretty slushy, but it was actually falling, which the kids loved, and it was enough to make snowballs with! 

I heard there might be a bigger storm coming, so perhaps we'll get another opportunity to go play with the white stuff again soon, when I can go, too! 

Kindergarten "Homework"- Nail or Fail?

I know very few children (especially in grades K-2) who are doing well with "virtual school"  this year (and I know even fewer working parents who are holding things together).  Here in rural northern California, we have had a few "tentative" school-opening dates floated in the past few months which keep getting pushed back due to teachers' and school board's discomfort with local COVID, with our cases rising after Thanksgiving (currently, we have about 30-40 new cases per day for about 135,000 residents), even though people have been very responsible locally.

That elementary school hasn't been deemed "essential" nor prioritized (yet), while restaurants and bars are open and while the pandemic rages across this country due to irresponsible people flaunting mask-wearing has utterly enraged me; however, I've currently resigned myself to focusing on "zooming in" (leaning in) to this "virtual" learning model and not being so disappointed at the "big-picture" catastrophe that this is for so many children and families. While I have strong opinions that the risks of keeping schools closed for a generation of children outweigh the current (especially local) public health concerns, public school re-opening is not something I can control.  Obviously, the academics for kinder aren't so critical while the social-emotional development is, and I'm so thankful that my son still gets to see kids at his exceptional daycare, where the teachers are doing an amazing job supervising multiple kids'  programs in "distance learning," (and staying healthy; no shut-downs to date in his room!) while we await more community herd immunity. I'm praying that our local teachers, including all the childcare heroes, get their vaccines really soon. The kindergarten Maestra is working hard to try to engage and teach the kids with short videos and different computer games and activities, but the content is quite disappointing, and I hate the amount of forced screen time it involves. I'm cautiously optimistic about possible school later this spring, but I'm not actually expecting that Iver will be able to attend public school until first grade. It's hard to believe and so sad that kids may miss a whole year (or more) of formal education due to this country's pandemic mismanagement and lots of misinformation (or fears not rooted in the evidence).

Iver is a smart, curious child, and I have struggled to try to keep him engaged (as Zoom Spanish is not effective at helping him learn this language) in the time we have together. I'm not a patient nor natural-born teacher.  I've also realized that feeling responsible and trying to be his main Spanish/kindergarten teacher while working my full-time "essential" job is not a healthy relationship for us. So we try to do some of his school assignments/worksheets over the weekend, with lots of reading and learning about different topics in science and history, as well as doing art and other projects, and... I pray that this is enough, because it's all I can manage (I've also asked Kelvin to try to jump in and help be the school task-master at least every other day, but he's also not keen on it). Iver surprises me frequently with the depth of his understanding about COVID and the world, with assignments like these (where I was involved in the translations but he did the brainstorming)... 

(basically, I have a dream...My dream for the world is for everyone to get a Coronavirus shot. My dream for my family is to stay safe from Coronavirus and for me and my brother to be able to go to the park... My dream for me is to have any power in the world.)

.... and then we have completion of assignments like this ("La Granja," or the farm) that I also have to turn in (I was not around for his embellished artwork on this one, which he did at daycare, and pretty much died laughing!). I'm not sure if his teacher will be pleased or horrified. 

However, truthfully, I've stopped caring about how he is (and we are) judged. We're all just trying to survive this year, and I've let a lot of my high standards slip! These assignments truly capture how "Zoom-Spanish immersion-Corona-Kindergarten" has been for us and for so many other families. We have seen some deep insights and learning amidst a very challenging time, punctuated by the absence of adequate parental supervision, general absurdity, and, well, a good deal of $*#%.

A New Dawn: Inauguration Day 2021

I don't have a lot more words (that I haven't already said/written) to describe my feelings at the joyous blessing that is saying good-bye to President #45 and welcoming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to our nation's highest office this week (here's my Election Reflection post). To say I feel profound relief, gratitude, and a dissipation of the trauma, piercing anger, cynicism, and crushing existential disappointment of recent years is a bit of an understatement.  Hope is something that all people need enough of to get through this challenging life earthside. And despite truly believing that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him," (Romans 8:28), hope has felt in short supply (and my faith has wavered) in recent years because of how dark things have felt living in this country (full of anti-maskers amidst a pandemic) and in this world full of sin. (I also still don't understand why we have such a long time between Election day and the Inauguration; it is not this way in other countries and it seems a bit cruel at times!).

However, today (and yesterday), it truly feels as if we've awoken to a New Dawn.  

 

I was rushing around on Wednesday, working a full family medicine clinic day, and didn't get a chance to watch any live coverage of the Inauguration Day events. In fact, I don't think I've ever watched any Inauguration Day events before in my lifetime, even when Barack Obama took office, which felt truly momentous.  However, this year, it felt critically important to participate as a viewer/member of our very fragile democracy because it felt like we, as a country, were turning over a new leaf (or at least were reverting back to some semblance of a leaf we used to have). When, during the workday, I asked my patients generally how they were feeling, I had several of them volunteer how happy and hopeful they felt at knowing that our new President was being sworn in (I had one patient in the office for her pap and IUD replacement wearing several strands of pearls à la Kamala, which looked fantastic even paired with just her exam gown!). I was was certainly not alone in my optimism and joy, among almost all of those in my local, friend, and family community. I even allowed weeknight screen time (basically nonexistent in our house) so that my young boys could also watch some video clips of the day's events (they were thrilled at both the TV time and in welcoming the new administration, and it's so refreshing to not have to be worried about protecting their young ears from what comes out of the speakers' mouths!).  

Thankfully, there weren't any armed militias storming Washington and shooting at (or threatening to hang) our elected officials or Supreme Court justices (although I can imagine the security was extraordinary after the events and major scare of January 6th). While the outgoing president did not attend the COVID-adjusted masked and socially distanced Inauguration events (not unexpectedly given his general pettiness, and even though it was probably for the best for all involved), there were members of both parties (including former presidents and their wives, as well as ex-VP Mike Pence) in attendance, who all put national unity over partisanship, maintaining tradition and upholding the norms of the peaceful transition of power, which has been sorely missed in this country (especially in recent weeks) and which felt so overwhelmingly reassuring that it's still so hard to really fathom how dark a place we've been as a country for the past few years. We were really living in a nightmare, and now it's the bright, joyful morning day. I needed to pinch myself a few times.

Barack Obama (by Iver [age 6], January 2021)

We swore in as our 46th president a man who has persevered through multiple personal tragedies and professional disappointments to be in a position to be the perfect person to meet this moment in our history, as this country sure needed a heft dose of empathy and grace. There were patriotic speeches centered around the theme of unity, from now-(finally!) President Biden and others (we are, after all, supposed to be the United States, despite how divided we still are). There were musical performances from Lady Gaga (who performed a stunning rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner"), Jennifer Lopez ("This Land is Our Land"), and Garth Brooks ("Amazing Grace"), as well as others later in the evening (although I didn't watch any of the Primetime events). Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old Black woman (and L.A. native) and the youngest inaugural poet in history, recited her stirring poem, The Hill We Climb.  We witnessed the swearing-in as our 49th Vice President of the first African-American/Asian-American and highest-ranking woman ever elected in our country, something I won't ever forget in my lifetime (and at first, I thought I hoped that my also-brown kids wouldn’t either; however, now I realize that I more want them to view this as normal, unremarkable; “the first but not the last"). It took one hundred years of women voting to see this day! I also adore Kamala's gem of a first “Second Gentleman” husband, Doug. One day, in the (with hope) not-too-distant future, we will see a "Madam President” (and a “First Gentleman”). This is an America I can love and want to believe in.  

I can't stop crying when I see pictures like this.

I have a few 2021 resolutions which my soul, now less burdened, has the emotional space to pursue. Creativity can flourish when one is relaxed, and not stifled by chronic daily catastrophizing (constant outrage and stress upon just reading nonpartisan news is truly exhausting and bad for health!). I've given up coffee and rarely drink alcohol, as they both interfere with my sleep (and now that my kids sleep well and because of where we are where with our country's leadership, I feel like I can actually rest easily at night). I am limiting phone usage and tech distraction (after reading Indistractable, turning off text notifications and installing daily/evening "do not disturb" time whenever I'm not on call). I want to play the piano more and pray/worship/meditate more. I am motivated to clean and KonMari my house.  I probably won't need to do any more political blog-ranting for a good, long while.  I am trying to live more in the moment and avoid worrying about future events or getting frustrated by things (or people) out of my control or sphere of influence. I will try to do more for my neighbors (and to love people better). 

I am trying my hardest at finding grace and forgiving those (including the outgoing president, although I hope to never hear from, read about, or have to think about him again) who have harmed our families, our spirits, our country, and our faith in humanity and in the goodness of people. We as a nation obviously have multiple crises to continue to manage going forward and we have a lot of work and healing to do. However, I truly believe that competent, truthful, faithful, decent people in government can do great things. We are now in exceptionally good hands. Feeling this much peace is a wonderful blessing. 

 

  It's a New Year. It's a New Era for our country. It's a New Page. It's a New Dawn. 

AMEN.