What Did I Miss?

Sooo, I may have forgotten to post a blog on April 30^th. And I may have not realized it until three days later when I was in the shower. (Doh!)

Ahem. Sorry!

But I have lots of stuff to talk about this month! Like, here we are, the restrictions are loosening and we can start poking our noses outside again like human Punxsutawney Phils. Lots of people are happy about this, but, you guys, I hardly noticed a difference in my daily routine! 

Even so, I’m not going to debate the coming of the second wave with you, or why people wearing masks seems to be a threat to other people. Here’s what I will openly and happily discuss: All the good things! And some of the changes.

First, why I now hate Thomas Kinkade and Gone with the Wind:

Our county was one of the first to implement a shelter in place order. It was a chaotic time. No school, literally—no even online for three weeks. And no idea how long the shelter in place would last. In a desperate bid to keep my two high school seniors occupied, I pulled out a brand-new puzzle that’d been sitting on the shelf for years…

…and it took three people three long weeks to finish it!

Mind you, I spent a lot of that time wondering what our deal was when many of my friends were blasting through their 1,000-piece puzzles at a rate of two or three days! Needless to say, by the time we finished, we loathed the thing. It’s no wonder we never did start another puzzle.

Next up, why I will never repaint kid #4’s room—or at least this small section of it:

“Mom, do we have any paint brushes?”

“Out in the garage.”

(Thank you, Bob Ross!)

My strategy to keep my dad from going to the stores: 

Taking him for walks! This has the added life-saving advantage of keeping him from driving my mom crazy. We'll continue walking together after the SiP ends. We're both...all, if you include the dog...enjoying the time together too much to stop.

Now for the bitter-sweet:

As I said above, the two youngest of our five kids are high school seniors, class of 2020. The loss of all their senior activities has been a gut punch for them. Over, and over, and over. (Each canceled event also meant a fresh batch of tears for me, but I know I’m not the only parent who cries.) The best the school district could do was a) have personalized yard signs made for the grads (nearly five hundred from our school alone.) b) film a video virtual graduation.

The latter happened this past Wednesday, and was…interesting. The kids were divided into small groups of about eight students, and given a twenty-minute time slot. They showed up at their appointed time at the theater in their caps and gowns, waited in line (masked and six feet apart), walked across the stage to pick up their diploma folder after their name was called, then stepped in front of a mic to give a 6-second speech.

No audience. No clapping. No cheers. It was “weird,” according to my boys. 

But here’s the thing, the rest of that day was AWESOME. They took pictures with their friends outside the theater. Then several kids they went to elementary school with ended up at our house to take pix with each other and the huge wooden “20” my hubby made from some scrap plywood we had. They couldn’t hug their friends, but they did talk and laugh A LOT. (And I got to see some of my mom-friends too, which was really nice.)

It wasn’t the graduation any of us expected, but at the end it was a memorable day, and both of them were very happy.

I think I’m going to stop here. The only thing I’ll add is this: Due to a back injury two years ago, my youngest has been receiving “home/hospital education.” There have been many times we were hopeful that a new procedure would help him, and as many times there has been disappointment that it didn’t work. For each set back, I have told my son it’s okay to grieve, but don’t let it suck you down. Give yourself a certain amount of time, then say, “Okay, so that didn’t work. What’s the next step?” Always have your eye on the future.

And that’s what I’ll leave you with today. Grieve. Cry. It’s okay. But never, ever forget that there is a future. What's your next step?

May you be blessed by good health and surrounded by love.

~Lea

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lea Kirk, loves to transport her readers to other worlds with her sci-fi romances. 

When she’s not busy writing about the blue and green aliens of her Prophecy series, she’s hanging out with her hubby, five kids (the nerd herd), and a spoiled Dobie mix pup.

She is currently working on the fourth book in her Prophecy series, and three new books for a new series to be released this fall. 

For more on Lea's books (past, present, & future), check out her:

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