Days With the Duerksens

 Since we couldn't go to church on Sunday, we settled in for a family game of "Ticket to Ride."  With 5 players, the train routes got a little tricky!  Chelan won, like usual! I got news on Monday morning that my Covid test was negative, like I thought it would be.  I joined the district-wide meetings virtually, so I didn't miss anything.  A year ago, I'm not sure any of us would have been able to figure out how to do that!  Since the test was negative, Caiden and Cambry both got to go to their respective practices Monday afternoon - their first day.  So far, sports are on for this fall.  The week was a mix of work time and meetings.  In fact, on Wed., Janna and I led our first Trauma-Informed & Resiliency Training during the morning.  Then, again on Thursday afternoon, Janna finished up with what we didn't get covered the previous day.  This was a new role for me - to be up in front of everyone.  I rarely speak up in staff meetings, let alone stand up and

 Well, this was my last real week of summer.  However, since we have an extra 2.5 weeks before school starts, it didn't really feel like the last week.  We didn't have anything exciting planned, but we also didn't expect to be quarantined because of a Covid test! I woke up Wed. morning with some shortness of breath - kind of.  I was just really conscious of needing to take slow, deep breaths.  And, it seemed like when I closed my eyes to try to sleep, I felt like I was going to black out.  I didn't get much sleep, but I did manage to wait until 8:00 to call the doctor (it had been so long since I had been to a doctor, I didn't even know who my doctor was!)  They decided I had enough symptoms to get tested for Covid!   Chelan and I pulled into the back of the clinic where the dr. checked me out a little bit and decided she should go ahead with a test.  That may have been one of the most uncomfortable 10 seconds of my life!  It felt like a needle spinning around way u

This week was very quiet until the weekend when we celebrated Delaney turning TEN YEARS OLD!  Our youngest is in double-digits, and I just can hardly believe it!  She enjoyed having her friend Quinli over on Sunday to play and to swim.  Elaina was supposed to come too, but her family ended up being quarantined because of Covid.  Luckily, they met up with her virtually to open presents - so sweet!  We also had family over for dessert to celebrate.   We see Delaney's personality really exploding, never shying away from a dramatic performance (for us), finding anyone and everyone to talk to, and when she can't talk to them, she sends letters or emails - all the time!  She also takes the lead on many projects around here, and just recently took over mowing 'the big area' on our yard.   Delaney, you are a blessing to our family and we pray that you will continue to grow into the confident, courageous, and caring young lady we imagine you will be someday!

This week brought some answers for school - or at least 1 big answer.  The first day of school was moved to Sept. 2 - a 2 week delay!  This extra time will hopefully allow for more planning to be done collaboratively among staff. It will also allow for extra time for supplies to arrive and to prepare the space for the students coming back. On Thursday, our task force met to begin the work of reopening plans.  There were at least 20-30 staff members at the meeting (either in the building or online), and we looked through the Navigating Change 2020 document from KSDE.  After that initial meeting, I began to wonder if 2 extra weeks will be enough to get everything done! In other news, the girls and I went to visit the animals and Addi at Tanganyika on Tuesday.  She was stationed at the giraffes and the kangaroos that day.  It was fun to see her at work, and the girls had their first experience feeding the lemurs!  Bonus - we actually saw the otters swimming around! What kind of eggplant d