The (Virtual) Struggle Is Real

Okay, peeps.

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it.

Today was an absolute sh**show around our casa.

By 9 a.m., after an hour of wading through technological issues just to get Chica launched for her first day of standardized testing, I was ready to throw in the Monday towel.

Not a good sign when you feel that way before you’ve even managed a bite of breakfast.

And it just got worse from there.

With tears (again, Chica with the standardized testing, that frustrated her because she didn’t know the answer to every single question, because it’s designed to get tougher and tougher with every correct one, to push her limits; and also, because it’s weird to know your parent is there but absolutely can’t help you).

We also threw into the mix some lost math homework when we were two slides from the end and had to start all over from scratch, just because one of the kiddos (still can’t figure out which one), leaned over the laptop and hit a button that erased it all.

Factor in some difficult discussions about the hubby and his ongoing gut rebuilding process that is a constant source of angst.

And sprinkle in some disappointment from Little Man because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and unable to work puzzles with him at the exact moment he wanted.

So...yeah.

Failures all around. 

But lemme tell ya what we did to lift our spirits around 11 a.m. when I knew we couldn’t keep spiraling at such an accelerated speed and the kiddos were all on school work breaks.

I hauled them downstairs, told them we were going to make ourselves happier...and we pulled up tons of music videos of our favorite artists on YouTube and sang and danced our cares away.

We watched until we were better.

And then we watched and danced and sang some more.

And then, just to make sure we could hold our attitudes steady through the afternoon hours...we did a quick project before we all and had to get back to the grind.

And, look: smiles!

Not gonna lie...Mama’s smiles were a bit more forced and fake-it-till-you-make-it, but we got to a stable point and powered through until 4 pm when we finished the last school work and I finally sat down and just wallowed in the crappy Monday for a short spell.

Anywho...project pics:

And some up close and personal sibling love.



And, lastly...a tranquil shot of Chicklet and Little Man when school was done, and they had their iPads for a bit of decompression.



On the plus side: when you have a crap Monday, there’s really nowhere to go but up.

So that’s where we’re gonna go.

But to all those virtual schooling parents or adult helpers—stand strong. Some days are good, and some days are oh so very bad. But we’ll take each one as it comes.

Day by day.

Stay healthy, stay sane(ish), peeps.

Over and out.