I’ve got a YA historical fiction title for you check out.

I’d like to give you a juicy post either reflecting on something related to the book, or just a review of the book. Here’s the truth: I’m having trouble getting away from the news and concentrating on getting basic homeschool done at our house.

I have two extra students, for a total of seven, when I determined a couple of years ago with much deliberation that five homeschool students was all I could handle.

I’m not able to log into my work email from home unless I go to work to activate an app, and my hospital keeps cancelling my per diem shifts, so I can’t get to work to activate it. My job updates us on the current response to the virus through our intranet, which I can’t access from home. As a result, I’m in the dark about my hospital’s changes in policy and response to the crisis, and I haven’t worked in a couple of months.

Without updates from my hospital, the only source of information is the news. I’ve been on our local public radio station for regional updates, with periodic checks on the international and national news. I thought it the news was hard to take before COVID-19 took over our lives, but now it’s truly too much.

My preschooler is frustrated by school and I’m frustrated by having added a student who needs so much hands-on help when I already had two students who needed a lot of hand holding because of their age and education level.

My baby, who was accident-free on for our entire trip to Tobago just a couple of weeks ago, has completely regressed to a 20% success rate with pottytraining, and that’s being generous. Nothing I’ve tried has helped.

What’s a girl to do? Well, a lot of Zoom calls. Family Zoom, Zumba Zoom, a mental/spiritual wellness group Zoom, a Zoom game night with my bros. Today my little guy has a Zoom meeting with his pre-K class. Grandma Zoom, Couple Friends Zoom, and Zoom with a fellow crafter who’s also an author and her followers coming up this week.

We’ve consumed a ton of cookies and brownies made by my oldest daughter, who is stress baking. We’ve listened to a lot of music, trying different playlists but usually coming back to soca.

I am still looking for the balance between keeping our homeschool and home running smoothly, staying sane, and keeping up with current events. I’m going to bed too late, and looking at news right before going to sleep and before I meditate in the morning.

I’m going to have to clamp down, I know it. Things are not sustainable the way they are right now.

Nothing feels solid or safe about our life now. Will the church where the Chaplain works even be there when this is over? When will our school kids be able to go back to school? Is this entire academic year going to be a loss for our oldest kid?

Everyone in the world was going about their business a few months ago, separate and unconcerned, and now we are all simultaneously experiencing the strangest, most isolating way of being united that I could have ever imagined. I know it’s an opportunity for great things.

You have your own concerns right now, completely different from mine.

If you have access to e-books on your library’s online offerings, or if you have a couple of bucks to purchase a book online, check out The Downstairs Girl, by Stacey Lee.

The book’s setting is the early 1900’s in the South, after the Civil War and just as segregation is starting to be enacted as official policy.  The story is full of wit and wisdom and it’s a great escape from what’s happening in the world right now.