Whew.... January was, well, rough.

The new year has not been off to a great start.  It's been pretty hard - honestly.

We had the riots in early January at the Capitol.  

The next day, my mentor & colleague's daughter died from MIS-C... unknown infection was causing inflammation in her body and she could not overcome.  It has caused a lot of grief within our school -- for a staff member's child to pass, but also she was a freshman at our school.  Her classmates and her teachers also were grieving.  The school had counseling sessions and a reception for her after the funeral.  In our department, we were asked to help out at the reception.  I've been covering his two "Architecture 2" classes for the past few weeks.  He's scheduled to be back in early February.

Also, a friend of my mom's passed away this month:  Farrar.  She had some heart issues that she was being treated for, but unfortunately did not survive.  My mom was recovering from surgery and could not go see her while she was in the hospital... plus Covid restrictions would have prevented her from going to see her (almost) life-long friend.  Farrar had been a part of my mom's life pretty much ever since I can remember.  

Although I no longer work in the Cobb school district, I am still very much following what is happening - as we live in Cobb and I have a lot of friends who work there.  Two more teachers passed away from Covid this month.  They have had 3 die... they have a superintendent who does not support the teachers as well as several board members.  They are protesting and want most of the board + the superintendent to be fired.  I am really grateful to be where I am now.  We are neighboring school districts, but it feels like we're a world apart.   

(In Cobb, there have been over 50,000 cases and 700 deaths as of the end of the month.)  What was scary to watch was the hospitalization rate... especially thinking about ANYONE ELSE who has a life-threatening emergency not being able to get hospital care because the hospitals have been full.  

In Georgia, the Covid death toll from this virus is over 14,000.  Nationally, it is close to 440,000.  World-wide, the death toll is over 2.2 million.

A former colleague is making "super teacher" masks in honor of the 1st teacher to pass away and is selling them. Mine is blue & white - my school district's colors... the hundreds that she made were red & black -- their school district's colors.  She has collected almost $3,000 in donations to send to the three families.  

I should also mention that Hammering Hank Aaron passed this month as well.  He gets a mention here because Todd and Mercer have talked a lot about how significant his achievements were (and Mercer did a report on him for school once because he admired Hank).... but he was also a "hometown" hero here in Atlanta.

It's been a sad, sad month.

We did not hold soup night like we normally do.  But - we still made soup each weekend and reminisced about soup nights in years past.  I did share some soup with a neighbor.  Does that count?   We had the usual (tomato basil, chicken& black bean and french onion) + Isabella's favorite - broccoli cheddar which we actually made 2x.  

Onto a positive note:

I reported on the last blog entry that history was made January 6th for the Capitol being stormed.  History was made again on January 20th:  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as President and Vice President of the US.   

Harris is the first woman to be elected as VP.  She is also the first part black / part Indian to be elected into that position too!  For girls everywhere -- this is HUGE.  

(And - of note - her 1st duty as VP was to swear in the two historic senators from our state of Georgia.)  

This shirt was made for Isabella by the same former colleague who made the masks mentioned above.  This photo was taken in November while we were in Edisto, but it is appropriate now.

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I watched the historic moment of Kamala being sworn in at school during my short lunch break.  I showed it to the handful of students that were in my room that had just come back after lunch too.  And we watched it -- as well as the performers and the young poet laureate -- as a family once we were all home.  We had a "red, white, and blue (and green)" dinner:  spaghetti with red sauce (+ salad), blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream.  

It wasn't too fancy, but we did 2 things to make it more special:  we brought out the china AND we sat around the coffee table, put the dog away and ate dinner in front of the TV - which we only do on an occasional family movie night.   

This is a much nicer image of the Capitol than what we saw just two weeks prior.  whew!

We are hopeful that things will improve in 2021 !!!

In terms of anything that we did... it was all thanks to Uncle Jim & Aunt Becki.  They sent $ to go out to eat for both of the kids -- They got to choose what they wanted to eat / where we went.  (well, we got take-out... we didn't actually go anywhere.)  But - he's pretty politically-correct like that... wear your masks... support local restaurants. 

For Mercer, he chose sushi.  We honestly had not had it in a year since the pandemic started.  

We coupled it with a family game night -- Mexican Train -- that he didn't really enjoy, but Isabella loved it.

For Isabella, the only thing she asked for was mac-and-cheese (of course).  We don't make it often, but it's her favorite and we actually bought the "blue box" instead of the organic variety.  (She does not like real mac-and-cheese... restaurant style.  So - with the $ he sent for her... she had a lot left over!)  She also asked to go to a light show.... in January.  

Well, as luck would have it, the light show near us extended their drive-through light show into the new year... so we did that followed by a quick visit to "Insomnia Cookies" for a treat of fresh-baked cookies and hot cocoa after the light show.  

Even though we did not really support a local restaurant for a full meal (only dessert) -- he approved and loved that she crafted the perfect evening that was all hers!

Almost forgot:  after 6 years, I got a "real" haircut.  (I had to take Mercer b/c baseball is starting and he has to wear a cap as a part of the uniform.)  

So - I decided if HE'S getting a real haircut at a salon, so was I. The lady blew it out with a big brush and basically straightened it out.  I liked it, but.... a lot of work that won't happen before I leave the house at 6:45 each morning.   the FIRST thing I noticed and then the FIRST thing Mercer noticed:  when it's straight - how much gray hair I really have that you can't see when it's curly!  

With the brighter light at the salon, it looks like I have way more than it did (thankfully) when I got home.    I hope I don't wait another 6 years for a real haircut!  

I should work on the weekends to wash and blow it out / style it like the hairdresser did... but....  

Well, we'll see! 

Mercer said his teacher almost didn't know who he was!  

Check out this "before" photo..... just the week before.  

(The kids want LOTS of photos with the dog, so I was able to catch his before cut hair-do.)

And.... I'll close with extra photos of the kids and the dog.

Isabella was playing with the camera.

Meanwhile, Mercer and I were making a "bionic" hand for his science class project.   (Lucky for him - I had done this project several times at my previous school in my STEM class.)  :)