August 2020

 August - last days of summer fun. We went to the beach and went miniature golfing on our last day of summer. We had a blast! And I won at mini golf, as usual. :)

One of my big projects this summer was to get our school ready for the possibility of having to go virtual again, of having school online instead of in-person. The world is still very much in the middle of the pandemic, and most schools do not plan on returning to in-person learning. Bill's sisters, Kam and Sara, still have not gone back to work since March and they are talking about not going back until July of 2021. They are both still working from home as of January 2021. For our school, I created a blended program where teachers record their lessons and post them online for any learners who do not feel comfortable coming back to school and would prefer to learn from home. It is a lot of work on teachers to have to do both. To record material and upload it into the school's learning management system (called Canvas) is a lot of extra work, but the teachers have done a great job. We do not know what the future will hold for this pandemic, but as of right now, we are going back to school fully and just doing the best we can with cleaning and trying to keep the virus out of our school. Florida is run by a Republican governor and he has promised not to shut us down again. This is not true of most northern states, as Democratic governors are continuing to keep their states shut down. California, New York, and other states are still fully shut down, including the schools. As of August, Florida will also be having sports, which other states are not. The boys are very excited to actually get to be playing football. Professional sports are playing, but there are limited or no fans and the players live in what they are calling the "bubble" to keep the virus away from their teams. There have been many teams and many players fall victims to this virus and it seems as though the world has gone crazy from fear, preferring to shut themselves indoors to being out and living life. That is not true for us. We are enjoying life to the fullest, even if we have to wear masks when we go to places like Wal Mart, grocery stores, and restaurants.

The last pictures in this post are of the boys' first day of school. The very last picture is of Brady wearing his mask so we can remember what it was like when we had to wear masks during the pandemic of 2020. This year, Major starts 3rd grade, Brady 7th grade, and Eli 9th grade - high school! Let's get this school year started!