All About Spring

With all the stuff about coronavirus going on and all the attention on social distancing and being indoors, and with schools closed, it has almost escaped me at least that it is already SPRING. And it's the last day in March to boot. If it were normal times this would be Johnnie's last week until Spring Break and I'd be starting to gear up for a week long vacation starting next week. Maybe I'd be making reservations to drive down to San Diego and go to Legoland just like we did last year. But alas all that is gone in a puff of smoke now LOL. However, it is STILL spring. And one of Johnnie's homework exercises this morning is to go outside and look for signs of spring. Ahh... the flowers are starting to bloom, grass is starting to grow much faster especially since it has been raining a bit more the last couple of weeks. Look at the pic of Johnnie exploring the "garden" area as he calls it just outside my front door. Pretty cool actually. He had to draw all the signs of spring too for today's class. If anything it got both of us out of the house and walking around. And we even threw in a nice fast 2 laps to the end of my front walkway and back. Hey that's about 160+ yards. Anyway today was a pretty big deal around work as well. Not only are the tents coming up at our health centers today, the telehealth initiative is going live today as well! And as a tech geek, I was happy to hear we actually did 18 telehealth encounters today. That is the real deal! We only had been sitting on this for years as an industry. But now it is suddenly on the forefront of every healthcare provider organization. And we were one of the early adopters that did pull it off. I'm going to stand up with the rest of the clinic operations team and take a bow with them on this one. And so ironically, as I spend my morning happily doing Johnnie's lessons and drawings, I also was cranking in my real job and producing value. The best of both worlds. Funny how that worked out :) About the only thing that is really challenging I think is that Johnnie finishes with his lessons so quickly... usually within an hour or hour-and-a-half or so that I have to spend the rest of the time planning on what to get him occupied with the rest of the day and what to eat for lunch, specifically when I'm checking emails and doing Zoom meetings and working myself. And to make sure I don't replace my parenting with videos. I mean I'm all for getting him in front of videos very much unlike Lisa but I also want him learning and not droning off. Today I even crafted off my own math problems for him... but he polished those off inside of 15 minutes. I certify that he can add and subtract at the kindergarten level at least. He has ventured into 2-digit addition and subtraction as well. He's going to be just fine. For lunch I ventured out to Whole Foods just so I could get him a pizza. And me a turkey and cheese wrap. I know I know I had all this food in my fridge. But half the battle is to keep yourself from going stir-crazy as well. And I figured as long as I followed social distancing standards, then we're ok.

By 5 PM we had made it through yet another one of those Daily Huddles and I am fully aware that I need to work on my own attitude for these. I may not feel they are specifically all that important or that perhaps they may be a waste of time. But I also realize that THAT is my own ego talking and that I need to instead defer to the greater need to disseminate information even though the meeting isn't being done like the style of directness and speed with which I conduct MY meetings. On that note I recognize that even Lisa who had spent a dozen years with a tech guy at her side (ME) had to call me this morning simply to get on a Zoom meeting that I had taken for granted that everyone knows how to do (she was able to get on after a little bit). And I also recognize that other people may be far more thorough than I am as well. It's all about respecting other people and learning patience. Which are the very things I need to get good at if I am to actually be an effective teacher, trainer and wayshower. And sometimes I have to simply get out of the way and let people learn through THEIR instincts. Case in point Johnnie whose gif of himself kicking soccer ball against the wall seems to show that all it takes is practice and repetition and he will be just fine. He did his soccer kicking while I was barbecuing our Italian sausage for dinner of course and we ended up doing our Tuesday night routine just like normal. That would be penne pasta chicken noodle soup for him in addition to his Italian sausage. And same for me. And YES we DID do our cookie night. I bought ready-made Betty Crocker cookie dough from Ralphs with the chocolate chip already in them. And in the end Johnnie ate it up just fine. So NO I did NOT use a rolling pin to make my cookies like Lisa was almost forcing me to do. And I realize with that thought I still needed to clean and clear up that memory. Not hard to do at all since we had a quietly routine Tuesday evening with Tumble Leaf. Added to what turned out to be a pretty productive morning, I'd say we had a pretty good day Johnnie and I. I even got him to do his bedtime routine earlier than usual. Hey he was the one that started to yawn. Maybe it was all those advanced math lessons I was throwing at him LOL.  Anyway I was tired too. And so for the last day in March, an early night it was for dad and son.