Hi. It’s been a while. How have you been?

Me? Oh, I don’t know. It’s kinda hard to say.

As the months have dragged on during this global pandemic with all of our lives flipped upside down in various degrees, my answer to that often generically asked question has felt a bit of reach. It’s as if, at some point, my ability to discern how I’m truly doing in the midst of this surreal reality fled deep into the woods, down a hill, and across a hazy ravine.

And I don’t feel like chasing it.

I don’t feel like writing about it either. Not today anyway.

Today I’d much prefer to write about this season’s fragrances of the earth, colors of scarlet and gold, whispering rustles of leaves, pumpkins growing fat and large, Sweet Tango apples dipped in caramel sauce, crockpots bubbling with hearty homemade stew, and my 9th grader’s virtual back-to-school scavenger hunt!

Let’s start with the virtual back-to-school scavenger hunt. But first I’ll give a quick rundown on what back to school currently looks like in our household.

Like millions of other kids, my high school freshman and high school senior, along with their classmates, are distance learning this fall as part of the district’s “modified hybrid” plan. Modified hybrid means some kids have in-person classes here and there, but most classes at the high school level are online.

It’s a decision made by the district based on state guidelines aligned to the number of COVID-19 cases per 10,000 for our county. My college sophomore is also doing much of her schooling online, but she does have a couple of in-person classes and is living on campus.

Although I’m all for doing whatever we need to do to protect others, and I have nothing but gratitude for teachers and administrators making difficult decisions and preparations, it’s still, as you know, a bummer in so many ways for everyone. Whether kids are attending school online or in-person while social distancing and wearing masks all day, it’s not the way any of us would want it to be.

But we’re all trying to make the best of it. And with ample Wifi, self-motivated study habits, and nutritious food at home for lunches, I fully acknowledge this is much less of a hardship for our family than it is for many others in this world.

Each morning, after breakfast, the freshman and senior head to their individual workspaces, which were finally decided upon after a bit of bickering. Neither of them wanted to set up shop in their bedrooms and both wanted to set up shop in the three-season porch.

My son, the one who ended up getting the porch because of his senior status, spent approximately zero minutes on the aesthetics of his corner workspace. It consists of a small black card table and a few scattered pencils and notebooks. I “spiffed” it up a bit, though, by scribbling “Welcome to Senior Year” on a piece of printer paper, which I taped on the wall above the card table. (I’m actually deeply amused he hasn’t taken it down yet.)

My daughter, on the other hand, adorned her workspace that’s, for now, in the room next to the front entryway with a scented candle, white markerboard, cute red pencil holder, small stack of multi-colored post-it notes arranged vertically in a zigzag pattern, and a pinkish-orange stress ball.

I freelance from home so I’m around more often than not; however, I surely don’t plan to hover or eavesdrop as they Zoom. But on the first day, during the first-class, while I was drinking coffee and responding to emails at the kitchen table, the freshman walked briskly into the kitchen and asked, “Mom! do we have a copy of Catcher in the Rye?”

I said, “Oh, I’m sure we do somewhere. Do you want me to help you look?”

“No, never mind,” she said hastily.

After that, she opened the freezer, dug around a bit, pulled out a bag of frozen shrimp, and rushed back to her workspace in the next room. A few seconds later, I heard her through the glass door announce, “I’ve got the shrimp!”

As it turns out, her teacher was engaging them in a virtual scavenger hunt as an ice-breaker.

At that moment, upon hearing the subtle triumph in my daughter’s announcement through the glass door, a sense of joy and relief I hadn’t felt in a while washed over me.

Despite having to spend her debut into high school at home with classmates randomly split into computer-generated “break-out rooms,” she was doing okay, having a little fun, and even feeling at least a tiny bit victorious.

We have to celebrate the small victories, my sister Amy, a steadfast optimist, wrote in a text to me not long ago after I had unloaded a few of my laments upon her.

And she’s right.

We need to acknowledge and relish in our little triumphant victories more than ever these days. And if one of those victories comes in the form of finding a bag of frozen shrimp in your freezer, then you go girl.

Kudos to my daughter’s teacher by the way. Because when you think about it, what involves more little triumphant victories than a scavenger hunt?

It got me thinking about my own little triumphant victories from recent days and weeks:

♦ I found an extra pound of French Roast coffee I didn’t know I had on the third shelf in the cupboard next to the fridge.

♦ I baked my first apple, blackberry cobbler.

♦ I finally trimmed the hedges and pulled the weeds by our front steps.

♦ I treated myself to a package of colorful sparkly hairpins and a soft, cream-colored sweatshirt.

♦ I scored a beautiful used dresser with only a few scratches on Facebook Marketplace for $10!

♦ I got my teeth professionally cleaned.

♦ I finally learned how to use the iMovie app on my phone.

♦ I took a few walks around the nearby lake and did some squats.

♦ And, cue the drum roll please . . . Without being asked or paid to do so, my freshman started a new habit of unloading the dishwasher each morning right after breakfast. My senior made his own fried egg and avocado sandwich for a lunch break. And my college sophomore stayed on her weekly budget for groceries! These, of course, are primarily their victories but as the mother who is raising them through a minefield of sweat and tears, I’ve earned the right to claim those victories as mine, too.

I think I could probably go on and on. Because when you take the time to acknowledge and relish in the little triumphant victories instead of the big disappointing losses, you realize the days are full of them!

It’s a busy day ahead, but if I can squeeze it in, maybe I’ll embark on my own little fall scavenger hunt today. I’m doing mine outdoors, though, while on a walk. Maybe I’ll even spot a solid gold sunflower!

I’m Julie Jo Severson, mom to three teens, freelance journalist, editor, coauthor of Here In the Middle, and author of the newly released Secret Twin Cities: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. This blog, Carvings on a Desk, is where I reconnect with my own voice swirling around in the middle. Subscribe and receive the occasional stories in your inbox. Read other recent posts.