June - Graduation and Getaways

Lily walked up the sidewalk covered in the first names of the 5th grade graduates, stood in front of a post it easel pad, received a graduation certificate from her teacher, and picked up a T-shirt.  She walked over to a side entrance of the school to pick up a garbage bag full of her locker belongings. We stopped for a picture.  We walked home.  Goodbye Chapman. When it comes to processing all the emotions of how Lily had to finish Chapman, I'm over it.  I'm moving on.   Lily did just fine with distance learning and she will be fine with whatever form she'll need to keep going next year.  Paul and Elise's experience was disappointing and I simply had to step up and teach them; the emotional outbursts they'd never had at school but definitely came out for mom became just another part of the routine.  We persevered.  Last day of school pictures typically taken with their teacher were taken with me this year; it felt right.

A change of scenery helps everything.  Play in the ocean, explore a new house, fly a kite, dig a hole, repeat.  We had the beach to ourselves.

 The only camp not to be canceled was Paul's mountain biking camp out in Hood River.   I found a last minute horseback riding camp open for the girls and they loved it more than I expected.  Score!  We stayed on a friend's property that has two residences which made it ideal to be comfortably social with friends during these COVID times.  Besides my solo hike to Mitchell Point, watching the kids play together outside was my favorite view. 

No question this utopia we experienced to kick off summer is bizarre compared to the state of our country.  The higher-than-ever spike in COVID cases is scary and reminds us that letting our guard down has its consequences.

 I have learned more about American Black history and systemic racism in the last month than I ever did in school.  I was never a history buff so that plays a role too. There are so many stories about the heated debates around defunding police, taking down confederate statues, and reopening cases like the death of Elijah Mcclain (reading the transcript of his last words angers me with tears).  I'm curious what else will come of the BLM protests.  I'd like more momentum around making sure every state is ready to vote by mail come November.  Living in a state where it works makes it hard to grasp why it's so hard to implement across the country.  Still learning.  

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

My kids see the boarded up businesses near our home.  They hear the helicopter hovering over us every evening well into the night for the last week.  They are curious, scared, and confused.

We tell them what the protests are for. We teach them the difference between protests and riots.  We tell them the stories of how George Floyd, Ahmed Aubrey, and Breonna Taylor died and how Amy Cooper's actions are racist.  We introduce systemic racism to them and hope more questions come at future dinner conversations.  We connect the dots for them on the history we do know.  We tell them that racism and COVID-19 are two deadly pandemics at this moment.  We validate their fear that seeing so many people together protesting could make more people sick with COVID. We tell them to look at the beauty of seeing so many people around the world protesting for change and how important it truly is. 

Being kind and treating others like you want to be treated isn't enough, even for our elementary school aged kids.  Speaking up against acts of racism and unjustness is necessary at their age too.  It's up to Nate and me to maybe not shelter them anymore from the happenings of the world so we can be even more clear with our values and set the example. 

Black Lives Matter