Quarantine "Safer at Home" March 29, 2020

I've lost count the number of days we have been "safer at home". The kids have been off of school since March 18, 2020, and I officially started working from home on March 25th. I have been into my school each day to work for a few hours on different things. One of the best parts of my job was being able to help students and I did that by delivering her computer to this student as her mom couldn't get off work early to pick it up. It was so nice to see one of our students.  The teachers in Independence have been remarkable and awesome (as we knew they would be). They are working to create lessons in an online for paper fashion to all the learning to continue to happen at home. Some might say that these will be ineffective and yes there is research that supports that online learning doesn't move the learning needle forward. Some might say that students and parents learning at home is not what the students need right now but I think providing the opportunities for learning to continue to provide some normalcy is also important. I know there will be students that are not engaging but as a district, we will be doing all we can to reach out to these students to support them in whatever ways they need. We continue to offer meals each weekday for those families that what them FREE of charge. We know that many families may be out of work during this pandemic and we know we need to continue to support the needs of the children. If their needs are not met we know that learning can not take place.


As for my own family, we continue to adjust to what all this means for us. The kids have work to do each day and video calls with teachers throughout the week. I do have to admit that there has been less structure to this than I would like but I am working on that with them.  Miney's job is considered essential as he provides safety equipment to our First Responders, Fire Departments and such so he continues to make his sales calls and orders for those that need supplies.  There have been a lot of tasks that have been done not that we have the time to get them done cleaning, organizing and other house projects have been done. The boys did some raking at our lot in Trempealeau to get ready for the summer months ahead and they build a deck for Grandma and Grandpa Pientok's camper as well as some odd jobs that their house. On my to-do list for the house includes painting Max's bedroom and our bedroom and bathroom as well as go through the kids' clothes and closets to start to get rid of the excess stuff we have.  Well, I am off to make a chart for my kids with items to complete each day.

Stay well and healthy all!
-M

COVID -19 Family Update

The Pientok's are doing well.

Being an Assistant Principal of a small rural school (Independence) during this time has been stressful as we completely redefine what education looks like during the school closure.  My husband works as a sales rep for 5 Alarm Fire and business has slowed a little now... Everyone only wants PPE and they are in limited supply. 

McKenna (soon to be 16) is disappointed because as of now her driver's test is canceled but she continues to check in with her teachers and complete some work each day...she knows that if she doesn't it will be hard if and when school resumes. And it definitely doesn't help when you have a parent that is an educator!

Mason (soon to be 13) is taking it all in stride, he wishes he could be playing baseball but is happy he doesn't have to go to school even though he is still working on completing the tasks they are sending to him via online enrichment and review activities, with some prodding from his mom!

Max (recently turned 9) is very happy school is not in session so he can play his video games all day! He was sorely mistaken about that idea when his mom left him a list of items to complete, because, well she is an educator. And he has daily check-ins with his teacher. It was pretty cute when he asked me if he could use the office for his 10 am meeting! He is having fun talking to his friend over Google Meets.

All in all, we are doing well, if anything this social distancing has made us slow down and reconnect as a family.

If anyone needs anything please let us know! 

Stay safe and healthy everyone!!

2016 Christmas Antics!

Well, I haven't been the best about posting to this blog in over a couple of years, but I have decided that it will be my new year's resolution to blog more, both personally about my family and professionally too. I would like to think I could blog at least once a week but who am I kidding, so I am going to take some advice I received from another educator and blog when I feel inspired to do so.

So here goes, I wanted to share some cute stories of my Max from this past Christmas. Max is 5 and is so curious and adventurous and too smart for his own good! This year we had a number of Christmas parties to go to so we decided to have our own family Christmas on Christmas Eve Eve or on Festivus (Dec. 23) for you Seinfeld Fans! After we are all through opening presents Max exclaims, "Where are our RC cars?" I was surprised and didn't know what to say so I said: "Max, mom, and dad didn't get you any RC cars." But being Santa's helpers we knew that Santa was bringing him an RC car. But I wanted to dig a little deeper with this to see how he found out about the RC cars.

I did a lot of online shopping this year because let's face it with free shipping it better than going to the store to deal with other people and look through the aisles at that store dodging carts and people. Online is so peaceful and stress-free! Only down fall is that all the boxes show up and then you have to try to hide them from the kids. Anyways, so I did order the RC cars from Amazon and they, of course, arrived in a gigantic box that made my curious child want to rip into it to find out what it was, but I have to admit my children either are really good at looking surprised when they open their gifts or they do not snoop to find out what they are getting. So the question from Max was a little surprising. After a few more questions, it was discovered that yes, he did, in fact, see the RC cars that were in my room in the big box and that he called Mason to come and look at them too! So being quick witted I told Max, that, "No we did not get you an RC Car and hopefully Santa will come through with what you want, but since you didn't want to sit on his lap and tell him I am not sure what he will bring you". (I should explain that he has been avoiding Santa at all costs!) With some help from Grandma, a story was put into play stating that those RC Cars were for someone else and that she was going to deliver them to that person. Max went along with it and the Santa crisis was adverted! And YES, he did get his RC Car from Santa and he was ecstatic!

This would probably explain why Max avoided Santa at all cost when we would see him at the Mall or when we went to the Rotary Lights in La Crosse, he refused to talk with him or sit on his lap.  When questioned with how will he know what you want for Christmas, Max's reply was priceless! He said "Oh, Mom, he will just know" pointing to his mind and then up to the sky like he was talking to Santa telepathically! I laughed and said, well I hope he gets the message!

If you happened to see the picture of Max on Santa's lap at our Christmas party with Grandma and Grandpa Pientok you will see him in tears and upset...but once Santa said all the good things he had done this year he was at ease. Poor kid, he thought Santa was going to call him out on the bad thing he had done. All in all, Max is a great kid and Santa knew that!

Happy Holidays!

Mishappenings on the Mississippi!

It's been awhile but I found a rare moment of time and decided to share my memories from our 1st 4th of July Camping and boating trip!

We left Wednesday evening for our camper which we have set up in Trempealeau WI in a quaint little campground called Mulberry Meadows. It's a great place the the other campers are friendly and welcoming to our sometimes loud and crazy family. As we left in a little bit of a rush do to a lack of communication between Jeremiah and myself... but all was fine and we managed to get going. We had planned on setting our our water slide but because of our late start and the fact that our friend said there wasn't a really decent place to put (all the sandbars had been claimed) we chose not to drag that along. (We will save that for another weekend on the river!)

We spent our first two days on a sandbar in Fountain City, WI, because the pool  below the Trempealeau Lock and Dam can be fairly busy.  But we quickly learned that getting a good sandbar on during the Fourth of July holiday is much like a bass fishing tournament....you have to gun it and go and apparently cut people off to get a good spot. We did end up getting a pretty decent spot thanks to the Paulson's by just pulling up to a sandbar that was pretty empty on one end and the occupants were nice enough to share. So all was well we had good company, good food, the kids played in the water and went tubing as well. Max even decided to try out the tubing and when for his first ride and loved it!

The next day we were back in the same spot once again thanks to the occupants for sharing because after driving up and down the channel for over an hour we just pulled up to the same spot we were in the previous day. Today, was another good day, we did pack up our things after lunch and went to visit friends in another spot and there is were our first mishap occurred. The water was a little shallow and Jeremiah hit something with his prop and that got pretty chewed up (it still works just doesn't look that pretty anymore). McKenna, Mason and Max enjoyed playing with the kids at this sandbar and we stayed for some good conversation. I however was pretty shaken up after taking Max tubing again on what had to be the roughest water I've been on in a long time. Max still loved it but my stomach did not!

In the evenings we spent our time back at our camper around a camper and relaxing...well trying to relax that is...it is definitely tough getting three kids to bed in beds they are not used too! Max was especially difficult but he did manage to fall asleep.

On our third day on the river we found a pretty amazing spot in Trempealeau, there was even a water slide set up an the owners let our kids go down it and they loved it! We had our lab with us and we decided to take her back to the camper as it was getting pretty hot for her and on our way back we discovered that the fuel gauge that hadn't been working all of us sudden skipped to E (not a good sign when you are out in the middle of a river with pretty swift current) but we made back to our sandbar and it seemed fine. Boy were we wrong... at then end of the day we packed up and headed back to shore, only our boat didn't make it....we had at least 5 miles (if not more)  to go to get back to the boat landing and we were out of gas!! Luckily we had our friend following us to make sure we made it back and they helped by giving us tow. The kids and I however hopped in to the Paulson's boat and we went to get their boat loaded up but decided that maybe we should stop and ask if the restaurant /gas station on the water had a gas can. The did not! But as we were getting out to go ask at the campground (which is right behind Hungry Point) a man pulls up with a boat full of people and he did have gas! WooHOO!! Let me just tell you Jeremiah was pretty happy to see us back with gas because moving at 5 mph was not getting them any where very fast especially against the current.

Overall it was a great weekend spent with family and good friends! I know my kids will look back and think of the good times spent out on the river as trying as it may be for the parents!

So some things we have learned...amongst all the junk we bring with maybe a gas can is going to be added. That sometimes finding a sandbar is like being in bass fishing contest trying to get the best spot. And finally you can not get back time so I'm glad to spend my time with my family and letting my kids enjoy nature and each other out on the Mighty Mississippi!

One HOT Summer!

I have once again neglected this family blog as I find other things to do with my time, such as chase Max around, clean up after McKenna, Mason and Max, shuttle McKenna and Mason to what ever event they are in, teach summer school, prepare for summer PD training, etc I think you get the picture!

Max turned 1 in February and we celebrated with family and he being one probably didn't have a clue as to what was going on! But he did manage to learn a lesson that fire is hot! While singing to him with cake and candle lit he reached up and touched the flame...while all of us adults mind you stood around and watched him do it, I had my camera in my hand can could not react fast enough. Needless to say he was fine but wasn't a big fan of the cake that he thought "bit him"!

With a warm spring the kids were pretty antsy to get out of school

Now that July is upon us it has been HOT, don't get me wrong I enjoy the hot weather but wish it could be a  little less humid. So far this summer we have done a lot of boating on the Mississippi River all three of my kids are officially "River Rats" I think we could live out there and I would hear any complaints about being bored! McKenna and I also took a trip with Beth and Nylah Lisowski to Las Vegas for some mother/daughter time.  It was definitely neat to see Las Vegas through the eyes of an 8 year old. She was amazed by the buildings, lights, people and everything out there. We took in a Cirque Du Solei Show Mystere and the girls were fascinated with everything about it! I have to admit some of those acts are pretty incredible!

McKenna has been busy playing softball this summer, going to VBS and summer school classes. Mason has been busy following us to those places but has developed a fear of actually doing any of those things...he is rather attached to mom at the moment and refused to go to any summer school classes except for the Library Summer Rec Program. Mason has found one thing that he loves to do and that is to help our neighbor "Moss" Rod Paulson every Friday when he is off of work! They do everything from weed the garden to fix things to just hang out together in the garage. To be honest I'm not sure who enjoys it more!

Max is now 16 months old and a very curious and inquisitive child! He as been nicknamed "Hurricane Max" because of the constant destruction he leaves behind! He is into everything and constantly on the go! Here are some pictures of the family from this summer so far! I can't believe that it is July...the rest of the summer is going to just blow by!

Welcome 2012/Family Updates

Yes. I know New Year's was well over a a month and half ago but I thought I would share this with you...

Something over heard on New Years morning...McKenna: Mason did you know that it's not 2011 anymore? Mason: No. McKenna: Yeah, they changed the year its 2012 now. Mason: Where did it go? McKenna: I don't know it's just 2012 now!

That is exactly how I feel about 2011.."Where did it go?" and I am having a harder time realizing that my baby is going to be one in few short days! Where does time go and how can we make it slow down? With this fast paced world we live in it's hard not to get caught up in the moment and let time fly by us. So, while I have tried to enjoy every second of my kids life, they do tend to slip by unnoticed sometimes. I am grateful for the pictures I have take over the years to go and look back on (I'm not very good about getting them printed off so I am thankful for digital photography where I can put them on my computer and have them as my screen saver!).

Here is what we have been up to in the last few months...

McKenna is becoming a more avid reader, but my struggle with her is to get her to read. She is enjoying these fairy books and likes to read them but finds other things to do so that she doesn't have to read (reading is a everyday homework assignment given). She is take a tap class and will have a performance in May, from time to time we get to watch them and she is doing really well and I think that she enjoys it. This past week she had the opportunity to participate in a junior cheer clinic and they performed at halftime of the boys basketball game.

Mason is still loving school. I think 4K is probably the best grade too, everything is so exciting for them. They went to the post office they other day to learn about how the mail is sorted and everyday he was anxious to get the mail like he was looking for something. Then one day we forgot to stop and get it and he was all upset saying "Now that card will never come!" Little did he know that I had already received the post card from him for Valentine's Day! He is such a sweetheart when he wants to be and yet he is very mischievous too.

Max is crawling at warp speed...it is really hard to get him to stop and change clothes, diaper, etc. He is becoming quite the independent little man too! He has taken a few steps but still would rather crawl to what he wants.

Miney has been gone the last few days up in Northern Minnesota ice fishing, he sure picked a cold weekend to do that according to him it was -41 degrees the first morning they were there! After having a mild winter that is a big shock to the system. Not to worry he was equipped with shack and heater so he was fishing in luxury!

It has been a full year of dealing with our Governor's legislation and his ideals about public workers and unions. While dealing with this as well as normal day to day things I have continued to find ways to channel that stress by starting to run again...let me tell you running in the winter months is not easy, luckily it has been mild but still running on ice is not at all fun! While I have slowed down a little in the past month because of time and cold and did I mention running on ice is not fun, I still try and make it out 2 times a week. I am also working on preparing for a technology workshop with some other teachers and technology people to present this summer for teachers at a low cost. There is also a conference in Colorado that I may be presenting at too.

My highlight so far is a possible trip to Spain this June with my sister and brother, I really hope flights come down so that is does happen...but until then we will just keep planning.

I will post more about Max's 1st year in about a week!

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