Mulberry Street

In a new strange reality, it's difficult to feel content regularly.  So as we adjust and adapt to our new norm we are trying to hold on to moments of contentment.

It turns out that trying to be both parent and teacher is tough, like really tough. When you're isolated from everyone else and spend A.L.L. D.A.Y. E.V.E.R.Y. D.A.Y. with your family, it is difficult to focus on various things. We have also discovered that keeping to a schedule has been important for anxiety, but that we need to build in time to process all the feels that arise and fall on a daily basis. This all means that we are trying to be flexible and creative. This also means that as we each try to do our best, we will try to be understanding with one another.   

We converted the dining room into our homeschooling home-base.  I imagine we will be tweaking ideas, schedules and assignments as we figure this out.

Found this explanation on a recent visit to the Hirshorn Museum... Close to Nothing How can "nothing" be articulated in the object-based world of visual art?  The understanding of "nothing" differs strongly from one culture to another; it can suggest infinity and mindfulness or it can represent absence and loss .  Regardless of its interpretation, the expression or form of "nothing" depends entirely on whatever is actually present , and vice versa.  Artists have increasingly exploited the limits of this mutual dependency, expanding the field of their artistic expression and emphasizing the fault lines between emptiness and material representation. I taught some school kids about MC Escher recently.  It was fun to share his use of negative space and optical illusions.  Walking them through the complex layers in his artwork blew their minds.  I thought of his 1952 piece titled Puddle when I came across this image Emory shot - reflection caught in a...

Emory felt really sad after an interaction with a sibling and when I found him on the couch, he was hiding his face, trying his hardest not to cry.  I told him it was okay to feel sad and it was okay to cry.  He let me hug him and hold him for a long time and I relished every second of it.  Emory isn't an affectionate child and I have to ask to hold his hand or give him a hug so to feel him melt into me while I stroked his head was pure bliss.

Since we had a two hour delay we rushed outside to play in the snow before the bus came.  You never know if the snow will melt by the time school is out in the afternoon so you have to cash in whenever possible. Jake continues to impress us with his non-cat behavior.  He runs through the snow, climbs trees and follows us through the woods despite the cold and wet.  

Difficult Run Supreme Court US Capitol Marine Corps War Memorial

A quaint civil war town that sits at the junction of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.  The kids had a good time, despite the cold, exploring this old town, watching trains and enjoying hot cocoa.