Ah, Spring Break. Different is Good!

Last week was spring break for Piedmont schools. I felt relaxed. There was definitely more space in my head for figuring out distance learning lessons, taking care of myself, and supporting my family by cooking passover pancakes for breakfast once and matzah brei twice.
Now, we are back to school, back to work, back to feeling stressed. However, things feel a little bit more manageable as I am starting to get used to this new style of school. It's not the teaching I signed up for, nor is it the teaching I enjoy (people person here - I need my face to face interactions), but it is feeling doable for the remaining 6 weeks of school this year. Next year? One can only hope that we will be back to in-person life and teaching. For now, here we are.
Recent Accomplishments: a 500 piece puzzle, lesson plans for the week, yoga and aerobic exercise nearly every day.

Recent Adventures: To break Passover, we traveled to Walnut Creek for a sweet grandma pizza from Tony's Slice House, which we ate in the car, then immediately to San Francisco for a variety of pizzas from Tony's Napoletana (yes, same Tony, yes, two different menus) which we started to eat in the car and saved a lot for home. Delicious! Only Mark was disappointed because of the parmesan cheese sprinkled all over the ones from SF. We tried to get Swensen's ice cream (swiss orange chip is the Bloom family favorite for everyone but me) afterward, as is our tradition, but they closed their shop due to the virus on March 17th. That was disappointing to all of us.
Speaking of ice cream, Three Twins sadly closed up shop suddenly (or at least we thought it was sudden) on Friday. This immediately began an adventure of finding and buying their special flavors such as chocolate orange confetti and mocha difference. We had success at Mulberry's and Rocky's. Sorry to everyone else that didn't get the chance to have one last taste of these amazing and unique ice cream flavors from Three Twins. We would invite you over to share but... maybe someday...
One last adventure: yesterday we stopped at North Beach for some pizza and brought it to my mother-in-law's for a socially distanced lunch date. All four of us sat outside on the patio while Mom sat inside the kitchen and talked to us through the screen door. The food was yummy and it was wonderful to spend time together even though we couldn't hug. Since she lives alone, we wanted to check in with her in person, spend some time with her, and make sure she knows how much we love her. That was a special treat.
Right now I am making myself some jasmine tea from the blooms in my yard. It is sweet and yummy and warms me up literally and figuratively. The jasmine was one of the reasons we purchased this house in 2001. That story is for another blog post.

Not a Math Parody

I love to write math parodies to inspire my students. Our family does a lot with parodies. I was inspired by High School Musical to rework We're All In This Together. Enjoy!
Mrs. Bloom's Pandemic Parody

How could I have forgotten Mah Jongg?

Mah Jongg. It's more than a game.

It is hard for me to believe that I didn't include Mah Jongg when I listed the games I am playing. There are a few good websites for playing National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) mah jongg online. My friends are mostly using realmahjongg.com and myjongg.net, but a few also enjoy the nationalmahjonggleague.org and mahjonggtime.com. The sites have been experiencing overload and sometimes not working very well as they are flooded with new users confined to their homes and looking for ways to fill their time.
We were all really excited when we received our new cards for 2020. It is always fun to exercise my brain this way and learn the new hands. I am so grateful they were able to be mailed out before the league closed temporarily.
My Bubby Myrna Cohen and Mom-Mom Shirley Goldberg taught me how to play when I was a child. My brother and sister and I used to make up our own hands because we didn't have the cards, and it was more fun that way. Bubby played with her friends at the pool, Woodcrest Country Club, while we kids swam and ran around. Mom-Mom memorized her card as soon as she got it. She left me one of her Mah Jongg sets. I have some lovely, happy memories of her playing with me and my friends here in California when she came to visit. So grateful for that.
When I traveled home to New Jersey recently, I taught my mom Siamese Mah Jongg for two players instead of four. It's fun, but not as good as having 4 people playing!
If you want to play with me online at realmahjongg.com or myjongg.net my user name is karenbloom21. See you at the table!

Games and Music and Reading and Puzzles and Exercise

Shelter in Place, Week 3

Music:
Jonah is sitting at the piano playing a song with his not-girlfriend Haylee on his phone watching him and listening. She lives in Northern Virginia and they are spending loads of time together online. Both Micah and Jonah are learning guitar. Jonah started earlier this semester as his Independent Project for Advanced Acting class at Piedmont High School. Micah has just started learning during this shelter in place situation and is already making so much progress. He can already play "Puff, The Magic Dragon." Over and over and over and over again. :-) Mark plucks out tunes on the piano as well, and plays a lot of guitar. I am the only non-musician in the house. I guess I sort of sing. I like to say I can carry a tune in a bucket, but I'm not always on key. My talent lies in the making of parodies which all of the other members of this house also do. My most recent parody is "We're All In This Together" which I will post here after I have recorded it. Mark writes one or two new ones each year for Purim. Micah freestyle raps.

Games:
We have quite a large collection of games in the cabinet downstairs. The boys decided we would work through them one by one while we are here at home. Most of the games are being played by the three of us, but Mark has joined us more often than I expected. The first one we played was Abalone. That was just Micah and me. I started winning , 4 - 0, and he decided it wasn't fun and we were done.
Here are the games we have played as a family of four to date:
Spy Alley, Scattergories, Texas Hold-Em Poker, Yahtzee, Cards Against Humanity, Apples to Apples Jewish Edition, The Magic Kingdom Game, and Water Pong.
Here are the games that Micah, Jonah, and I played without Mark so far:
Yahtzee Turbo, Wig Out, Monopoly Empire, Top Secret Adventures Game, Sorry!, Candy Land, Life,  Baseball Monopoly, and Skip Bo.
We have many, many more games in the closet. As we progress through them, I will continue to update the blog.

Puzzles:
I have a daily Puzzle Page on my phone that my sister introduced me to. I love to do the selected puzzles every day. I also play Words with Friends, Boggle, Wordscapes, Lumosity, and Song Pop pretty much every day.
My neighbor Wendy traded me three jigsaw puzzles, of which we had none on hand, in exchange for some hand weights. I gave her my 5 lbs and 8 lbs because I am too weak to use them. I kept my 1 lbs, 2 lbs, and 3 lbs which I plan to use. Really. I do. And I plan to do one of the jigsaw puzzles after Pesach. Next week is Pesach. More on that in another post.

Books and Magazines:
I thought I would do a lot more reading. In actuality I am spending most of my time doing school related things. I promise a big long post about that is coming. Right now, switching to distance learning is just overwhelming. I did finish reading my TBA book club book, Ester and Ruzya by Masha Gessen, which I recommend. I am currently reading my Through The Tunnel book club book, Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner which is an easy read, but I'm not recommending it yet. I have a big pile of magazines that I plan to get through. Maybe when I am having my screen free Shabbat, I will be able to do a bit more reading.

Exercise:
I am doing my usual 10-ish minutes on the stationary bike followed by my yoga/physical therapy exercises. Some days I have been taking yoga through my friend Karin's club. I will need to make a donation for the classes somehow. I don't have PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or any other electronic money transfer capabilities so I have to figure that out. On Sundays, I am doing aerobics (outside, she uses her front steps) with my friend Lisa. It was super fun last week, and I am looking forward to doing it again.