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PowerSchool Quirks and Perks / Day 306

My job each day revolves around PowerSchool. 

It's the base for everything I do. It's used for attendance, scheduling, reports, addresses, grades, finding a student's homeroom and the list goes on. It doesn't crash often, but when it does, well - there's not much left for me to do but look pretty while answering the phone and door. 

The disadvantage of being both a parent and working with PowerSchool as part of my job, is that I lose the ability to see things the way that parents see them. If I try to log out of my admin log in and log back in as a parent, it automatically bumps me right back into my admin view.  The first time it happened, I thought it was me. But no - it's a PowerSchool quirk. It recognizes me to the point that I can only be an admin, not a parent. It's happened both on my computer at work and my laptop here at home because I do a fair amount of work from my recliner.  

It's a weird quirk, but workable - as I just cheat then and look at what I need to for my own kids from the back door.  Like today, when I wanted to see their 1st semester report card grades. 

BUT. It makes it challenging to try and troubleshoot issues that parents are having if I can't go in the parent door and try to figure out what it is that's happening and work out what's causing it.  Case in point today. I wanted to figure out a certain toggle in school forms. I wanted to know if it's something that parents can change, or how and where it comes into play. 

I wanted to figure it out badly enough, that I went into my own kid's PowerSchool and reset my parent password - having long forgotten it. 

I then came home and logged into the parent portal from my kid's computer - the only way that I've been able to successfully log into the parent portal; from a computer that I don't use regularly.

Logged in, the alert message came up that an admin had changed my password, and I would now need to update my password.   !!!

What?!  Why had an admin changed my password when I had just, this very day, gone in and done it myself.

Then. 

Oh. 
Wait. 

The admin was me. 
I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I didn't catch on quicker.

A new new password created, and in I am. As a parent. 

I proceed to the update school forms option, and....... 

ugh. A notice that I need to create another new log in and username in order to do that. 

I gave up. 

Another day or another way. 

 

 

This and That / Day 305

Just a little this and that: 

• This coming week should go further to bring my living room project together. My desk is on track to be completed (more on that later), my new bookshelf should arrive and I should have purged to the point of everything having a place.  
• We're having a big garage sale sometime this spring. 
• Brian starts Segment 2 of driver's ed tomorrow.  Via Zoom. So weird. I'm glad he got Segment 1 done in person. 
• The weather has been fairly mild which means I've been able to get out and walk every evening. Trouble is, even though we live in town - not everyone maintains their sidewalk. That Noxgear visibility vest I bought last year is paying off as I'm walking in the dark on the streets to prevent wrenching an ankle and/or slipping on unkept sidewalks. 
• We had dinner company after church today. I was craving people. We ate pizza, and visited the people. 
• After Greg and others left for the annual meeting, my Goddaughter and I did some long overdue catching up. My favorite day of the year so far.  
• I don't do crowds/large groups, but I am not opposed to company. People need people. They enjoyed the banana cake Mark made yesterday. 
• I've not got in any hiking yet this year. I need to get another pair of Yaktrax so someone can come with me. In case I fall.  The trails are slippy this year. 
• This coming week is my last week of a full time schedule as I cover the librarian hours. I'm hoping it's not a quarantine heavy week. 
• We tried a new recipe this weekend: Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies. I'd make them again. 
• Winter sports start soon, winter sports start soon, winter sports start soon......

That's all I've got. 

be good

First Semester - Second Semester / Day 298

Today is the last day of our holiday break. 

Tomorrow it's back to school, and the first day of the second semester. 

The Governor has deemed that the high school kids shall be allowed to return to in-person instruction at this time. 

I pray every night that they shall be able to remain in person. I did not enjoy leaving my high school student home alone while I went off to elementary, his brother went off to middle school and his older brother and dad went off to work. I did not enjoy that my always on top of things straight A kid was suddenly slipping, and the PowerSchool alerts were suddenly causing me anxiety.  He was struggling to find a purpose and reason, and I'm not the most patient and eloquent of motivators within my own home. 

As a mom, it was hard to pinpoint where the struggles were coming from. Being remote? The actual class? The teacher(s)? Frustration and being, in his mind - wrongly quarantined right before they went remote? Covid depression? Normal teenage boy at 15? His brother moving back into his room? All of the above? How to tell? 

One night I woke up having dreamed that he grew a scraggly mustache, had multiple piercings, had rings threaded into his mustache and was a bum living on the streets. Allan drew my dream for me. 

Mom anxiety is not fun.
He did pull it all together in the end.  

On the positive side, elementary and middle school made it a full semester of in person schooling, and it went well.  Does my whole job now revolve around Covid?  Yes. It takes up the majority of my days now, and when we get notified that we have to quarantine a class - it takes more than my full day, no matter how much we try and prepare. 

But in that there are rewards, for it's when making those phone calls home and meeting the parents at pick up that we hear so many words of gratitude and appreciation, from parents all over the spectrum of agreement in the current system. We hear how much our parents are glad to have the option for in person schooling, how thankful they are that we've made it this far, how they know that we are just doing our jobs, how proud they are of our district, and how they don't mind the bumps in the road if it means we get to keep in person schooling. The gratefulness fills my heart and makes the longer days worthwhile. 

More positives: I did not get quarantined, I kept up on all exclusion letters: emailed, printed and filed, only once did my inbox grow to over 50 emails, and I kept 98% of my thoughts to myself. 

These next two weeks I'll still be covering the librarian's hours (full day) until our new librarian starts, then I go back to my 5.75 hours a day. 

That will be timed well with when my new living room pieces should arrive and when archery and winter sports begin.

Meanwhile, I had fun over our two week break. I filled the dumpster, moved all the furniture around, started filling a storage unit, purged many boxes of stuff, got some things out of the crawl space, and ordered some more workable pieces.  While I had originally hoped to paint this week as well, we agreed to wait until spring. Maybe by then I'll be ready to paint the kitchen too. 

As for making my annual hopes, dreams, and goals list for 2021 - yeah, I'm going to pass on putting that in writing this year. Right now, I'm just going to choose to appreciate each day as it comes, focus on the positive, keep on purging and hope to get through the second semester with no mom anxiety or in home quarantines. 

I don't think that's too much to ask. 

Be good. 

Winter / Day 275

This is one of the last cross stitch projects that I did, quite a few years ago already, and I've pulled it out recently with the intention of finally framing it. 

I'm stacking up some winter projects. 

Winter has me a little worried, ain't gonna lie. It's when I most feel like the walls are closing in. The one thing that I heard repeated over and over last spring, and that I said more than a few times myself when Covid shut everything down was, "Thank goodness it's not winter" 

And now, here we are. It's winter.  
Sports aren't happening, restaurants are shut, I'm not a shopper by nature, the group exercise classes that I've done in the past - all gone, all my volunteer activities - not currently available, no snow to play in, and I don't do well with damp weather for walking/running. 

I've warned my family. When the Christmas tree comes down - I'm going to have to throw myself into some major home renovation project - even though everyone (but Wendy) is currently at home. I need to, somehow, irk out a space for me beyond my recliner. Greg's office is in our bedroom, the three boys take up the other two bedrooms, the crawl space doesn't offer much by way of creative space, the people in this home seem to like to be able to use the kitchen table for eating several times a day - so all that remains is to rearrange and get rid of/replace some furniture.  And if I'm going to do that, then I'll be painting as well.  

Greg: If we wait until spring, we can open the windows when we paint. 

Well then, that kind of defeats the whole purpose behind my winter plans.

BUT. If sports start back up, then forget all that and put me back on the sidelines - my preferable escape, and then yes, I'll paint in the spring....unless there are still sports, then I might make the boys paint.  (And I wonder why we never get anything done)

Here's to a new week, the last week of the first semester and the last five days before the holiday break. I'm hopeful it's not too chaotic. 

 

53 Things / Day 273

I'm 53 today. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. It was a busy, full day at work and I wasn't able to respond to them all individually, but I appreciated each and every one. 

Here are 53 completely random facts that my kids are most likely not aware of. So - documentation. 

1. I was born the day before my Mother's birthday
2. I was a meconium aspiration baby. 
3. Having acquired pneumonia (a result of the aspiration?) - I spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, coming home just before Christmas. 
4. I had pneumonia multiple times as a kid, and have many memories of hours and hours spent on breathing treatments and my mom banging on my back to keep the fluid from sticking to my lungs.
5. I was tested for cystic fibrosis multiple times. It was a frequent topic of discussion amongst the doctors and specialists. 
6. I remember confusing cystic fibrosis with multiple sclerosis, and wondering why they thought I had that. 
7. The average life expectancy for someone with cystic fibrosis is currently 44 years. 
8. At the time the doctors were testing me for it, those who had cystic fibrosis seldom lived beyond their teen years. I repeatedly tested negative. 
9. I will never take my 53 years for granted. I nurtured my lungs as a teen, avoiding smoky restaurants and driving many places separately as most of my friends smoked. I continue to nurture my lungs to this day. It's a lifelong habit
10. My youngest brother recently became a father to twins. I woke up this morning to a picture of him with both of them in his arms, and my eyes got all wet and drippy. I'm a sap. 
11. I am the oldest of five kids. I have three brothers and one sister. My youngest brother is 16 years younger than me.
12. I don't actually think any of them know my real health history, all of them being that much younger than me.  
13. I do enjoy life.
14. One of the lessons I teach our kids is to try things, even if you're the only one interested. Don't wait for someone to join with you, or do things only because someone else is doing them. Find what sparks joy for YOU.
15. I find joy in backpacking, kayaking, photography, writing, creating, exploring, spreadsheets and more.
16. Before the age of email and cell phones - I left home and lived in Finland for a year. 
17. I was a nanny to 2 boys from one family and a girl from another. 
18. I got snow blindness when skiing in Lapland, something that still bothers me now when driving long distances. 
19. In our area, I have lived in Detroit, Redford, Milford (3 Locations), Novi, Northville, Livonia, Walled Lake, Wixom, South Lyon and Howell. 
20. Ask me tho, and I'll tell you that I still consider myself a yooper, where I lived from K-7th grade. 
21. I've not lived in the UP since '82, and I still get people asking me if I'm from up north - but I don't think I have an accent. 
22. I enjoy people. I gave birth to four people. 
23. I've had two miscarriages. 
24. I'm a bit of a workaholic. 
25. I once worked through a miscarriage. I was subbing a hard to fill position, and I'm simply not wired to call in. Some of my wires are crossed, no doubt. I would do the same thing again, even while admitting it was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done. 
26. I have fast births. No warnings and no epidurals for me. 
27. I've been published. For my layouts and cards, for my writing and for my photography.  I do sometimes contemplate writing something - I just don't know what. 
28. I've skinny-dipped multiple times. The most risky time was in Lake Michigan on the side of US2 on the way north. 
29. I've ridden in the back of a cop car going 100 plus miles per hour. 
30. I've delivered news of a death. 
31. I was with my dad when he died. 
32. I've only had one alcoholic drink in my life, and that was by accident. Really. 
33. I can whistle like a bird. 
34. I've held quite a few jobs. I've hired people, fired people, worked as a custodian, worked as a manager, measured women for bras as a part time high school employee, and I've worked four jobs at once to make ends meet.
35. I used to change in my car while driving from one job to the next. I don't recommend this, but I believe I could still do it. 
36. One of my jobs was as a live in caretaker for a wheelchair bound, McGyver loving, family friend, Alice. I miss Alice. 
37. I have flown in a hot air balloon, multiple times. 
38. I've been given lessons on how to land a balloon, should the pilot fall out. 
39. I'm 67% confident I could remember those lessons in an emergency. 
40. I've voluntarily taken suicide training classes. 
41. I've lost friends to suicide. 
42. I read lips. I'm anxious for mask season to be over. 
43. I'm starting to feel like I've written this list before and this blog post is a total bore. 
44. I hold a position with the Sheriff's Department, complete with a uniform and a go bag - but the unit I work with has been on hold since March 13th, when Covid shut everything down. So I just train. And train. And train some more. And pray to be active someday soon. 
45. This month I've had trainings on grief during the holidays and responding safely during the pandemic. Now if we could only respond during a pandemic. 
46. I miss participating in 5K's, more than I thought I would. 
47. I used to milk the goats when Greg's family would go out of town. 
48. I believe in ghosts. I don't claim to understand them, but I've heard, felt and seen too many things to not believe in them. 
49. As a young adult, I applied for jobs on cruise ships multiple times, but never even got an interview. 
50. I've never been on a cruise. Almost, several times, one time even having paid for it and having to get a refund. It has just never panned out. I would love to go on an Alaskan cruise. 
51. As an elementary kid, I'd regularly walk to the store to buy cigarettes for my mom and my dad. One pack of Kool Longs and one pack of Pall Mall. 
52. I have never taken a puff of a cigarette. Because - bad lungs. If it weren't for those, there's no doubt in my mind that I'd have been a smoker, at least in my teens. 
53. I really do enjoy life.

Nursing My Wounds / Day 268

So much for improving my blogging. It was a busy week. 

Wendy and Kirk headed back to Minnesota last Monday, and I began working more hours at school until we get a new librarian hired.  I work until 4:30 now (rather than 2), which has me getting home as it's getting dark. It's been an adjustment. Last week was also the first week since March that Greg (unexpectedly) worked away from home each day. I spent this weekend catching up. And nursing my wounds.  

I was really just struggling for a good blog title so I went with that,  but I really do have wounds. 

On Monday I took a one-legged slip when my wet shoe hit the tile floor, and I quickly found myself on my knees. I thought I was fine, but a half hour later I felt blood seeping through my leggings.  It's hard to heal a knee wound this time of the year. I spent the weekend in shorts trying to get it aired and scabbed over. It's still not quite there. I've also had to rearrange my entire to do list. Doing anything that involves my knees ain't gonna happen for another week or so. 

Then on Thursday evening, I was slicing apples with my mandolin - trying to quickly get them into the dehydrator after I got home from work so as to have them done by bedtime. It was the switch between a firm apple to a softer apple that had me slicing my finger wide open right after I had just given Mark a verbal lesson on being careful with this particular tool. We're missing the part that holds that food, helping prevent just such an incident. I hit the ceiling, rinsed my finger and hucked the tool right into the dumpster, the remainder of the apple and part of my finger still attached. It hurt like a booger, but wasn't half as bad as the time I nearly put that knife through my palm when pitting an avocado. No ambulance this time, and it seems to be healing much more quickly than my knee. 

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This and that: 

• This morning as I was going to pour myself a cup of coffee....
  Greg: I wouldn't use that cup
  Me:   .Why.
  Greg: We poured brat juice into that cup last night. 
  Me: But this is my cup, and I already had my morning tea in it. 
  Greg: Oh. Well. Did your tea taste like brat juice? 
• On Thursday morning my husband asked me if I had any gift suggestions. 
  I told him I felt like I might finally be old enough to handle a good knife set in our kitchen. 
  And then I cut my finger open on that mandolin. 
  Now I want slippers. 
• School. 
  It used to be when I called a home, I'd start with "Not an emergency, just a courtesy call to let you know ... "  
  Now I start with, "Not an emergency or Covid Exposure, just a courtesy call to let you know......" 
• Our high school is still on a Michigan mandated remote learning. 
  Brian's remote learning and our holiday baking recently collided when I was looking for my rolling pin.  
  Me: Has anyone seen my rolling pin? 
  Brian: Oh - I had to use that for my ceramics class. 
• Brian was quarantined just before they went remote. He decided he needed a hobby - something to do while listening to audiobooks. He was born with a need to keep his hands busy. 
  He decided to teach himself how to knit. 
  I think he's on his fourth scarf now. His current project even has a pattern to it. 
  I tried knitting once. Not in my wheelhouse. 
• Me: Alright boys - with both now have the same brand of vitamins, but mine say for women 50+ and yours say for teens. Be very....very....very.... careful! My teen boys: (insert look of fear here)
• Me: Hey honey, according to the oldest, there is still something wrong with the dryer.
  Honey: What's wrong with it now?
  Mark: Well [pause] It sounds like an ocelot is choking a penguin while a polar bear is choking the ocelot.
• Mark caught me scrolling shoes this morning.
  Mark: Wow. Why are some of those so expensive? [pause] Well. I guess part of the money goes to the price of raising the livestock needed to make the shoes.
• Mark: Hey dad, what do you want for Christmas that a 13 year old kid won't cause suspicion by buying?

 

Grandma on the Table / Day 258

Happy Thanksgiving! 

It's been a busy few weeks.  Greg was gone for an off the grid nine day hunting trip (no buck this year), in which time - the state shut down again, I tackled a water leak in the laundry room, the high school switched to remote for three weeks of schooling right after Brian finished up his quarantine, something ate all the peanut butter out of our basement traps, Greg came out of the woods to find out he doesn't go into the once/twice a week anymore until further notice, the district gave us the whole week of Thanksgiving off so I've been home all week, and restaurants are closed for indoor dining again. A lot happens in a week. 

Meanwhile, Wendy flew home on Monday. A trip long planned as she's standing in her bestie's small private wedding this weekend. She came home early in order to get to the dentist. She had tried finding a dentist in Minnesota, but the one that was recommended wasn't taking new patients during Covid (why does everything have to be so difficult) and the one that that dentist recommended was totally shady. They told her she needed eleven fillings (not), took blurry x-rays that aren't even usable by our dentist, and were insurance challenged when it came to figuring out our insurance. People ask why I drive into Novi, a 30 minute drive, for our dentist. Why? Because he's honest, does a great job, and I've got 38 years invested in training him. Wendy will now schedule visits each time she comes home. He's not her only out of state patient.  We were a little nervous that she wouldn't get in when her Tuesday appointment was canceled due to a water main break, but they opened early on Wednesday to get her rescheduled and in before the holiday and her trip back home. 

Boyfriend drove all day yesterday, landed at his uncles and came over just in time to get the sweet potatoes going. They'll keep an eye on the weather and head back to Minnesota either Sunday or Monday, after Saturday's wedding. 

Oh. Hey Mom! 

She was supposed to come for dinner, but is feeling a bit under the weather.  She's antsy to feel better and get to see her new grandbabies, so we ran over and picked up her dinner contribution, traded her a plate of fixings and then used the Duo app to have her join us at the table so we could all eat together. When asked where she wanted to be placed, she requested to be between Wendy and Kirk. 

Done. 

After cleanup, we began a game of Unsolved Case Files. We've been playing a lot of games this week. We're currently on intermission (napping) while grandma gets her dessert delivered. 

My mom has also closed her Facebook account, and has requested that I blog more. This seems like a fitting restart after a long November lag. 

 

Tagged / Day 241

It's funny to me (I admittedly have an odd sense of humor) that last night I blogged about the kids at yesterday's birthday get together playing their made up game of Covid Tag, and today I saw the high school pop up on my Caller ID.  I instantly knew that either 1. Brian had tripped on the freeze heave on the sidewalk again or 2. He was about to become the first one in our home to be quarantined. 

It was two. He won't live it down. Of the five of us currently living in this home, he is the most unsocial and the least likely to be within six feet of anyone. He even says - Mom! I know who it is (because kids know, they talk, they figure it out) and there's this floor to ceiling sheet of plastic between us in that class. Yeah, we're within six feet - but there's a plastic wall between us!  

I told him to enjoy the week. I mean, come on, it was 80 (!!!) degrees today. He walked home from his unexpected early dismissal.  And he's only out for a week, not two, due to the date of contact. I called yesterday's host and gave her a heads up, sharing that I'm not concerned as Brian is not having any symptoms.

Our kids hate missing school, and he can't quite make out how he can do this week's two quizzes from home. Being quarantined and doing a scheduled remote day are two different things. Being quarantined is going to require him to take a more active role in communicating with his teachers. 

It's a learning curve. 

For me, it's interesting to be on this side of it as my work in the office has me daily answering questions in regards to when to get tested, what happens when they get tested, who has to test and who doesn't, what the attendance codes mean, what the quarantine expectations are, and and and and....the list goes on. Now I know exactly what they are hearing on this side, and I'm just that much more the fountain of knowledge. Not something I went into this year thinking I'd be an expert at, but there you have it. Add another bullet to my resume. 

--------

I went shopping before dinner this evening. 

I can count on two hands the accumulative number of stores I've been in of any type since March. I do mostly online and/or Greg goes. It works for us. 

But Christmas is coming, there were things I needed, and I'm a little concerned that we could be looking at closures happening again soon, even if just on a store by store basis based on staffing. So I went. It was quiet, relaxing and I got what I needed. 

Unlike Brian, I like people. I've long said that I'm convinced I can make a connection with anyone, and I enjoy trying. 

At the register this evening, we got to talking and I realized that the cashier was a high school student. Within minutes the student said, Wait - I follow you on Instagram, you took my picture recently! A quick scroll and the exact picture was pointed out. 

I love connections. 
I enjoy people. 
I was worried about this few weeks for not having any outs available to keep me busy, so it was an encounter that has my heart feeling a little lighter. 

Happy Monday

Covid Tag / Day 240

Seventy plus degrees in Michigan in November. How is that a thing?  I'll take it. I'm enjoying it. But how is that a thing? 

I've gone on two hikes this week. I'm not adjusting to the time change and early darkness very well, and Thursday evening had me crawling out of my skin restless. I grabbed my camera and Mark and we went for a hike at Kensington. I'm a little nervous about this lull between fall and winter sports when my normal dark month activities are limited or not happening at all.  I need to get rid of and/or move some furniture around to make room for some creative space.  For everyone's sanity. 

This week has been so warm, that yesterday had Mark itching to take a record late dip in our local lake.  We were a little surprised at how low the water level was when we got there. The beach was twice the normal size. Between that and no buoys to give him any distance/space awareness, he ended up just doing a dunk rather than swimming laps.  November 7th.  A new record.  There is no doubt in my mind that he would have done a lap had the water level been right. 

On this beautiful afternoon, we ended up at Greg's sister's home for our nephew's birthday. 

The kids played what they called Covid Tag. 

The rules: If you get tagged, you're infected and then you turn into a zombie. 

Heard:  Are you infected? 

Back to our Thursday nature hike, I think Mark fed at least 30 birds from his hands in under 5 minutes. We've done this multiple times, and never had the action that we had this night. I should have done video, but honestly - I was just so caught up in it that I almost didn't even get any pictures. There were moments when he had five in his hands at once. #simplepleasures

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On deck this week - it's a quiet week

• Brian made the archery team - so, parent meeting
• I need to make eye appointments for both Brian and myself
• Haircut appointment for me
• Hunting season. I've challenged my husband to get a bigger buck than that 8 point above. I got a couple dozen pictures of that buck, as he stood still and calm for a long time, fully aware that we were there. 
• And that's about it. I'm going to be restless. 

 

Election Day / Day 235

It's Election Day. 

It's here. I pray for patience. I pray for the safety of my friends and family. I pray for understanding. I pray. 

I've signed up for a webinar, and I was thankful that it was offered this evening as it provides a much needed distraction from social media and the news.  I plan to go to bed long before the west coast closes their polls.  

A fan of irony, it struck me that the subject of my webinar is a well-timed topic that I've discussed with our own children many times; tonight's class is about taking a closer look at what influences a person's reactions, and how to help while respecting who they are. 

We each come from our own unique place. 
We all have different influences. 
We've all had different experiences, different paths, and different inspirations. 

We can disagree, but still respect and treat each other kindly. 

I think Mitch Albom wrote it best in this November 1st piece, shared equally on social media by my friends on both sides of the vote (and it is therein where my hope in our future lies):  Election will be meaningless if we don't change our ways

Be safe
Be kind
Vote