We survived another week of school. 5 weeks down, 4 more to go. It was another hard week. 
Although summer may not feel that different, I am looking forward to NOT having to juggle TEACHING while keeping the kids occupied / focused / productive. (I'm still taking my teaching classes and that will continue through the summer, but it will be nice to take something off of the plates that are spinning in the air!) There is not a lot of photos to take from "school." I have one of Isabella's Daily Challenges posted by her teacher: to build a fort (on a really rainy day). They were also studying 3D shapes. Isabella built a triangular prism fort and a rectangular prism fort. She wanted to sleep in it. We tried, but in the middle of the night - she went back to her room because it kept collapsing!
Friday morning, a friend - Joan Ellars - passed away. She was the director of Keep Marietta Beautiful. I really didn't post about sassy Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann). I can only remember mentioning her once / posting a picture during Easter 2 years ago after she had her stroke. I took dinner over to her (and her care-givers) once, but then invited her over for Easter dinner that same time-frame in 2018. Even though there has not been a lot of mention, she has been a part of my (sort-of) professional life for close to 20 years. I got hooked up with KMB when I organized a street clean for the last architecture office I worked for before moving over to the non-profit.
She was our kids self-proclaimed "Georgia Grandma" because her grandkids live in Texas. We visited her at every Marietta festival. She doted on us and the kids. She knew how to make you feel special. (She also had our kids' photos / Christmas cards on her wall in her office. She got us in to see Santa one time when we didn't think we'd get to see him. (She coordinated the beautiful Santa's visits to our square.) She was very outspoken about politics and we didn't agree on a lot of things, but, she did care for the environment and she certainly cared for May-retta. 
Certainly, while I was at the non-profit, the work I did was - in many ways - related to the work of KMB (which promoted clean water, recycling, and tree-planting). I went to conferences related to recycling with Joan and she even got me a speaking gig at the National Keep America Beautiful conference when it was in town a number of years ago. I say "sort of" professional life (she wasn't the most professional person to say the least). She was crass. She told jokes that would make a sailor blush. She shocked people with what she said most of the time that I knew her. But that's what people loved about her! She was hilarious.
As mentioned, she had a pretty bad stroke in 2018... but we're not sure why she passed in her sleep Thursday night / Friday morning. A friend that was in touch with her said that she wasn't feeling well Thursday, but refused to go to the hospital (either b/c she's stubborn or b/c of all of this Covid stuff). Somone else I spoke to Friday said that she had been having kidney issues.
We'll probably never know because her family is in Texas and I doubt they'll share the results of the autopsy. There have been a lot of tributes to this woman who served the city of Marietta for 30 years. The historic theater put a tribute up in her honor. There was also a nice write-up in our local paper, the Marietta Daily Journal.
She approached me in November about taking over KMB. I was honored and I was interested in the position (at the time). I did brush up my resume and wrote the head of Parks and Rec a letter letting him know of my interest. (I've known him for a long time too.) But, unfortunately, nothing has happened with her position since she retired at Thanksgiving. It is sad to sort of see this legacy she built up dwindle over these past 5 months since she left. I still go to some of the KMB board meetings (she would never let me quit her board even after the 2nd child!)... a lot of board members quit when she retired b/c they just went for her fun and her antics. It will never be the same going back when they have meetings again. The position will probably go to someone in the Parks and Rec department who helped a lot of KMB activities, but honestly, no one will ever be able to fill her shoes.
I tried to get my students involved and encouraged them to share in some Earth Day activities, but only a handful participated. Honestly - with the juggle of working with the kids and trying to teach, we didn't do anything on our end to celebrate on that specific day.
I did research Earth Day earlier in the month for an article I was working on and here are a couple of the most interesting facts I found on EarthDay.org:
"Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities."
"Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first of their kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act." 
On Friday, we already had a boat trip planned with our neighbor, Orie. He had offered awhile ago, but restrictions were tightened up after his offer, so he said we'd have to do it later. Friday was "later." The governor of GA lifted restrictions on Friday. People are now allowed to go to the gym, to bowling alleys, to tatoo shops, hair and nail salons. (Some of these choices do not make sense as there is no way to socially distance!!) I told Orie taht I would bring temporary tatoos on the boat so it was legit. :) I forgot, but as you can see - we were pretty spread out.Isabella did not want to be photographed.
Mercer was having fun watching his hair flop around in the wind. He did not mind pictures this day!
I'm glad he got to chill a bit... because after the boat ride, he had to help me change my tire. It was F-L-A-T. Thankfully Mr. Orie spotted it. It took all three of us to get the job done! (At the tire shop, they couldn't figure out what caused it.) A mystery.
We saw a bit of nature too... a heron (no photo), a duck that Isabella got to feed and some geese with babies.
It was nice to get out of the house for a change of scennergy even for a few hours.
Even if he did not get a change of sceenery, Mercer did get a change of activity this weekend.
He had a "virtual" birthday party. It was an online video game party. The boy's mom dropped off a goodie bag when we got home from the lake. The parents set up a Zoom meeting. The boys could see each other on the zoom on the computer (his mom sent me this photo)... and played inside the video game together. The boys ate popcorn throughout the party, drank gatorade, had candy, then sang and had cupcakes towards the end of the party (these treats were wrapped up and included in the goodie bag). It was a cute idea. There have been a lot of creative celebrations.
Mercer slept in the tent out back ALL BY HIMSELF last night. I asked if he wanted me to stay out there with him.... and... nope. (We did sleep with our back bedroom door and pulled the screen across so we could hear him if he needed us. He did feel more secure knowing we could hear.)
He did it! He came in about 8:00 this morning. He survived the night on his own! (He was listening to sports raido the whole time... and ultimately, so were we since we could hear it!)
Even though Mercer was supposed to do everything, Todd worked pretty hard to make sure this happened.
Speaking of sports.... Todd - as always - tuned into the NFL draft. Of course, things were different because of the shelter-in-place. It was being hosted in the Commissioner's basement and all of the draft picks were shown in different people's homes. It's interesting how they figured out how to have this big annual event.
There is a show that I am enjoying watching: John Krasinski (Jim, from the Office) has started reporting "Some Good News." (SGN) He's reporting about how people are making masks. Corporations are donating massive amounts of money to different relief efforts for the hungry and for medical supplies. Technical programs in high schools and colleges are using 3D printers to make face shields. 
In fact, there's something really cool happening here: someone who used to go to our church started a fund-raiser to support BOTH the healthcare workers at the hospital near our house AND local restaurants where their sales have declined. They had a fundraiser to sell signs to show support of the healthcare workers. We have one at ourhouse and one at Todd's office since he works really close to the hospital. Hopefully they see and they feel supported. (To date on the go-fund-me and other fundraising efforts, they raised ~$55,000 and fed about 6400 meals so far.) It solves 2 problems and helps lots of people!
Not only are great things happening in our community.... they're happening across the country. So, there's Some Good News to add to this blog post.
(This particular episode of SGN - above - has our former pastor, Keith Gunter in it. He and his children made their own SGN episode. How cool is that?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilZ1hNZPRM )
I have stopped following the news updates and the overall totals (almost 3 million have tested positive / over 200,000 have died. There are almost 1 million in the US that have tested positive / over 54,000 have died in the US). It's hard NOT to hear how much critism the Govenor and the state of Georgia has been getting (nationally). Georgia has been on the Today Show, the late night shows, etc. People are citing us as guinea pigs to see how the virus may start spreading more. Colorado and Texas also started releasing some of the restrictions. People are very concerned about the economy. (On the news, a lot of hair salons, for instance were saying that they were NOT opening.) Our church was able to open again today, but our pastor said that they don't have enough PPE (personal protection equipment) or sanitizer... so they were waiting. Restaurants and movie theaters are able to open tomorrow. Again - many are waiting.
The graph shows when the limits on the public gatherings was established in Georgia. And - about 2 weeks later, the upward trend of deaths did slow. Then the graph shows when the shelter-in-place took place... an the curve flattened. (the gray part - the statistics are still coming in and the data is likely to increase.) I hate to say it, but predications are that it will spike and the death-toll will go on that upward trend again. We'll see.
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