I have to be honest, I am an eternal optimist. That fateful day in mid-March, I left my classroom, oblivious to the fact that I would not spend another day teaching my precious students. I really thought, “ok two weeks at most and we will be back”, then “ok, after Spring break…” “Surely we will get to finish up in May, I will at least get a few weeks with my class to end the year the best we can!” Nope! Drive through graduation it is. The first 50 days of quarantine were actually nice. My friends and I had a Facebook group called “QuaranTea” every day at 11:25 from;
QuaranTea time
Proverbs 11:25 He who refreshes others will be refreshed.
We would pause and have a cup of tea and post a Bible verse. My daughter was about to get married, I now had time for the two of us to work on all the details. My college senior son was back home, I definitely shouldn’t have had that extra time with him. But by early June, I was in a funk. My little blog project I started came to a screeching halt due to said funk! As quickly as my son came home, he was out on his own, starting his new grown-up life. And my daughter and I held out hope every day that all the planning for her big day would still happen. (It did and despite Covid, it was a wonderful day.)
Now, here I am two weeks out from having a completely empty nest, I am ready to clear out the fog and turn my attention back to the classroom. And as much as I hold onto the hope that this school year won’t look too different from my last 18, I am starting to deal with the reality that some changes are coming. I stopped by my classroom today, and like a ton of bricks, it hit me! Just like last year looked so different, so will this year. My head is swirling trying to visualize the new year. And the 250 ideas I thought I had to blog about might not be the same. I decided I would start back with this post. I did a little research about past quarantines and learned a few interesting facts that I would like to share with you.
Interesting Facts, Did you know?
Did you know that in 1948, Eleanor Abbot invented Candyland at a San Diego Hospital as she was isolated and fighting Polio? She was surrounded by children fighting the same disease, and as a retired school teacher, she decided to give them something they could do in the hospital. And did you know that in 1665 as the bubonic plague swept through England, Isaac Newton was sent home from school to quarantine? His time at home would later be known as his “year of wonders“, this was the prime age of his inventions in Math and Philosophy.
It is now the new month of August, day 139 of the Coronavirus pandemic and I am ready to start fresh.
I may not invent a board game and I definitely won’t be making any strides in the field of Mathematics, but I am ready to get my head back in the game and make something of this time.
Bring it Back to Jesus
Bring it back to Jesus In my Sunday school class, at the end of each lesson there is a Christ Connection. When I am done reading the lesson I say to the class “Now we…” and they bring one hand to the other, clap, and say “Bring it back to Jesus!” So, I will end each story by bringing it back to Jesus.
Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as if working for the Lord, not man.”
Wow, I know the first time I read this verse I thought, “That is a good verse. I am going to show my children this so they will do their homework and chores with a better attitude! Now, years later as I read this verse, the meaning has slightly changed. Let’s talk about what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “Children, whatever you do”… It doesn’t say “Some of the time” or “Some of the work”. And it doesn’t say “with some of your heart” It says
EVERYONE! EVERYTHING! ALL THE TIME! ALL OF YOUR HEART!
That’s BIG! That’s all of the last 139 days of quarantine; 3,336 hours of quarantine; 12,009,600 seconds of quarantine! And every hour from here on out. I guess that means it’s probably time for me to delete the decorating app I downloaded in May- all 645 designs I found time to make. I am glad Netflix doesn’t give me a weekly report of hours wasted… but maybe it should.
