Mousy's posts

I find that “The Princess Bride” and “the Office” can be quoted in absolutely any context 🤣

My coworkers and I always say “bye Buddy... hope you find your dad.” Anytime we’re leaving work and the other is staying for a bit longer. That’s from “Elf”.


Right now- my husband and I are quoting Schitts Creek with “it’s a write-off” anytime we’re talking about buying something for the house since we’re both working from home.

@kitalpha hart: this same HOA sent me a letter when I lived there about grass on our driveway. The only time there had been grass on the driveway during the timeframe of the letter was a time we were literally outside doing yard work and mowing and some grass had gotten onto the driveway during the process and cleaned up the same day. This guy was driving around, looking for houses that didn’t comply with HOA rules and did not once think “I see the people working outside. It’s gonna get picked up.” 🙄

@kairu: the ducks are apparently having the time of their lives 🤣🤣
It’s a good time to be a duck I guess.

My sisters’s HOA sent out a letter saying they would be raising their HOA fees due to more people staying home, walking around the “lake”, and feeding the ducks.

Their reasoning is that the ducks are getting happier, fatter, and mating more creating more duckies and they need to clean up all the poop. They are also getting into the community pool that happens to be beside the “lake”.

I’m quacking up over here 🤣

@totalanimefan: Sooooo I may have gotten sick last week (just allergies, but terrible ones) and I only worked the very bare minimum. And guess what? no one said a word. not a single thing. it was really liberating. I feel like I can work like a normal human.

@Bonnie: I'm not compensated for more hours because I'm salaried. It all just kind of comes with the contract under all other duties not listed above or some nonsense like that

@kwisshiie: They do.. I think we're all equally stressed. I am excited to be done with this part. haha

@Lucifera: I set up a work office in the guest bedroom, but I made the mistake of letting it become my son's "classroom" too and it's a WRECK now. I need to clean it and kick him out. Haha. I've been in the living room since he destroyed it. Not as productive, but TV....

@Eruca: So, I spent a lot of time keeping him quiet and making sure he didn't interrupt my calls, but I chose not to for one of my meetings last week. At the end of the meeting, I just shrugged my shoulders and told my boss "Sorry, this is my current reality. It is what it is." and she was really understanding. My son drove his firetruck complete with sirens through another and I was just like "Kids... amirite?" IDK if they judged or cared, but It is what it is! I'm working really hard on not being apologetic for my situation. People have got to understand and if they don't, then they're a terrible person. XD

@kegs: I was definitely feeling the burnout and then I got sick and stopped working so much for about a week and a half. and the world didn't end. I didn't get in trouble. Not one got mad at me that I know of.....

I don’t suffer from it, but my son had eczema. The pediatrician prescribed this insanely expensive cream. I don’t even remember the name of it. It was hundreds (I wanna say $600- it was extreme) even with insurance and we could not afford it. We found an alternative at target that really helped treat the symptoms- cortizone-10 for eczema.

I say he HAD eczema because I was confiding in a friend about how nothing was really clearing it up even after we’d gone to a dr and she asked where his eczema was located- legs, back of knees, inside of his little elbows. She said it could be a dairy reaction. We eliminated dairy and it went away. We haven’t had an issue in over a year and we still mostly limit his dairy now.

I've been at home since March 9.
That first week was a break, but the rest were "work from home" weeks.

As the weeks have progressed, my job has been doing "soft" rollouts of new expectations every single week.
We've been told that we are supposed to work 6 hours a day-whichever 6 we want, but to be mindful and flexible in our scheduling to accommodate the many needs that come our way.

I'm finding that now, I'm never done working.

I'm getting calls from coworkers to troubleshoot tech problems until 11pm
I'm working on documents/videos/slidedecks/websites well into the night because I have a 3 year and I can get quality work done after his bedtime.
I'm expected to be available for emails at any time because "we don't know anyone else's circumstances- their work hours may not complement your work hours".
I'm receiving mixed signals- "you're communicating too much." "you're not communicating enough." "This other person does it this way." "I love what you're doing."
I'm attending online meetings.
I'm facilitating online meetings..
and the list just keeps going on.

I have no work life separation now that my whole house is my workplace.

I'm also trying to juggle a 3 year old staying home through all of that, trying to make sure he gets the education he needs, a husband that has his own meetings/work from home demands from his job, and we can never keep the house straightened.

It's too much.
I'm overwhelmed and
I
can't
stop.

I used to keep my work email off of my phone to prevent working too much, but it's not possible to do that now. I might miss an email. I used to just leave work at work by 5:00 each day and would have my evening dedicated to family and relaxing, but now I have to be available for any need that may arise.


Don't get me wrong- I'm super grateful to have a job and still be getting paid- I just wish the demands were more realistic.
I'm having to be understanding and accommodating of everyone else's circumstances and situations while I'm not being given that same grace, flexibility, and patience with my own circumstances and situations.
It just sucks.

/end rant

Honestly, I was having a really rough time at work and I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it to June prior to this distancing. This was the out or break I needed from a toxic situation. I’m still working, it just looks different now and complements my skill set.

I’ve been able to-
take care of myself better
Spend time with my immediate family
Say no to anything social with no feelings of guilt
Try new things and explore new interests

@kegs: I'm really sorry. I know it's tough.

We've been out for a week of vacation and I'm coming up on another week and a half of being off of work with a few more weeks ahead of me of nothing.

I thought I was fine because I'm introverted and this year of work has been really tough and I needed a break.
But I found myself feeling really- blah. Like useless, aimless, lethargic, mopey, and just getting into a rough state of mind AND I'm even with my son and husband.

One thing that has helped me is getting dressed in the morning. I may not be waking up at the same time as if I were working, but when I do wake up, I get dressed. Maybe not as nice as I would normally dress, but not in my sloppy clothes either.

I've also created a running list of random stuff I want to accomplish.

-Make instant coffee taste good
-Try out a new hairstyle
-Learn how to watercolor
-Learn how to use magnetic eyelashes
-Organize my son's room

and so on...
I tried to make sure they weren't linked to my job in any way and that they were things I could accomplish in my house, but still feel proud of what I've done.

@priestess of pie: thank
@sunny: you
@miss sandman: all

@shark: that was gonna be my next question 🤣
@bioshock: I was afraid I’d have a little shop of horrors situation on my hands

Hello Citizens of Voltra,

I received this plant as a thank you gift from someone who appreciated an event I put together irl.

They didn't tell me what it was.
Just to "keep the rocks wet."

It started as a cute little bulb in a jar with rocks.

All fun and fine, but now the plant is trying to climb out of the jar.

Do any of ya'll know what I've got on my hands?


Here's the plant with literally the only information given. Not even the name of the person giving it to me.

We’re closed for at least this coming week, but it’s definitely looking like it will be longer now. We’ve been on Spring Break this past week.

We got an email last night saying we needed to put up a mix of pencil/paper, experiential, and digital activities based on the standards we were due to teach this week on a grade level choice board by midnight tonight.

Sooooo, about 24hours to weed through resources that match our standards and are able to be posted online. We scrambled and threw something together. If we’re closed longer, hopefully I can create better things for the kids to do. AND create actual lessons since I still have new content to teach before our state test that may or may not be cancelled?

I’m just grateful our math and science curriculum has digital content ready made by the publishers. It was mostly getting it accessible to the kids. I’m the only techy one on my team, so it was up to me.

Im hoping to create some nearpod lessons this week when I have more time than a 24 hour notice.

@kaichoukai: well, I’m closed for the next week and then the district will re-evaluate once the week is up.

I’m sure distance learning is where I’m headed. I’m gonna go ahead and get my lessons together.

@kaichoukai: Ping again.

Here's a growing list of companies/sites that are providing their resources for free to affected schools
Click me for the list!

@kaichoukai: My extremely large district has been on spring break all this week and has just now cancelled all school trips outside of the state. We didn't have any confirmed cases in our area until after the break started, but I am curious as to how my district is going to handle this. Like I said, it's HUGE.

Right now, the city itself has banned quite a few large scale events.

They have been sending out press releases every few days and said they are going to send out one tomorrow about the plan for after spring break.

My particular campus is a low SES elementary school. My students don't all have access to computers/wifi- much like yours.
I don't have the sped subpop, but I do have the ESL/DIP/OHI subpops. If my district entertains the distance learning idea, I'm not really sure how it'll be effective or equitable.

The middle/high schools are all 1:1 tech, but not the elementary schools. I have 14 chromebooks that I have to share with 40 kids.

We have schoology, google classroom, and many other resources that are awesome, but not if the kids can't access them.
Even if the kids DO have access to them, I've got parents that won't allow their kid on a device (even for school related things) and I've got parents that have absolutely no idea what their kids are doing online. I have no way of ensuring my students are using the resources and I have no way to ensure that they are even understanding the concepts if they do have access to them.

As for providing the accommodations- I know I can make videos and provide that oral administration for assignments, I can add more visually helpful elements to the videos/nearpods/assignments and I can provide differentiated assignments individually to my kids through some of those platforms we have, but that is all IF THE KIDS CAN GET TO IT.

and then there is the issue of child care.
My kids are all elementary. They can't stay home alone and my parents are mostly low income and can't afford to take time off.


We've also got state testing coming up soon....