Hello out there? I am so happy to have you read this. I am so happy to have connection, though this format is foreign to me. Thank you for reading. Do you want to know about me?
I am a mom of four active, silly, lovely little boys.
I am also a doctor. Not the kind of doctor like this...
No, no. That's my hubby. He spent months on the front lines of a pandemic, and I was home with our boys because the hospital needed him more than me at the time. And our boys needed their mama.
This is me, or well, it used to be me.
I am a board certified dermatologist. It's really fun and rewarding work and I love it, but during the pandemic I was not doing it much. At least not as much as I was. This is my office, where I used to spend whole bunches of time. For a while, we only seeing urgent cases to limit the spread of a virus that took the world by storm. It's quiet these days.
But at home it's super loud.
Like so many other parents in the world, now I am a "homeschooler".
And though I never really imagined I'd homeschool, if I did, I am sure I imagined it would be beautiful. I'd be like the mom in Little House on the Prairie, and we would be homesteaders AND homeschoolers. We would study hard, be committed, practice our music and our times tables, eat homemade meals in an impossibly clean house and all of our projects would look like this:
But, so far that is definitely not happening. My boys made these in REGULAR school, and when school closed I had to FaceTime their handwork teacher to remind me how to cast on in order to knit a potholder. I worry their artistic skill have atrophied while they were in my hands. Can't win em all I guess. but we sure did try.
Fortunately. we are better at watercolor.
Warning everyone, I am not the world's most patient mama. Getting these two watercolors done took almost everything out of me. Yikes.
Luckily we live in Vermont where I am so grateful that we get to spend some time outside. Parents of the world everywhere did this inside closed doors, I bow to you. You are incredible.
I, on the other hand, am a one trick pony. I rely almost exclusively on outdoor distractions. These hemlocks are perfect for Hide n Seek...(I think they are hemlocks...). Prize goes to the person who figures out which one of us is hiding.
Or how about in here?
Overall, we tried to get some good lessons in. But my disclaimer is that they are sure to be disjointed, being frequently interrupted by snack time and crying babe.
We (I) had big plans. That usually causes problems. Expectation is the enemy of peace. But, I stayed after it. We covered some science- earthworms and salamanders...
Which will really got me driving home the point about handwashing being a great thing.
We covered planting after seeing this beauty. That's part of Ecology, right?
But ours looked more like this.
It was super fun. In retrospect we were too early to get the seeds outside. Those are details though. The boys were focused for 15 minutes which for me was a solid win.
And being outside has helped us get through the first couple weeks of this homeschool social distancing thing. I'll try to keep you up to date on how it is going in our neck of the woods.
We are all in this together.
I hope you're well. I hope reading this or reading about anything OTHER than the pandemic gives you some solace. I'm thinking of you. Oh, and along the way, I know I'm going to end up talking about skin stuff because I love it and I need an outlet for it. So get ready.
Be well everyone. Let's stay in touch, from afar. xo, Dr. Swae