My cell phone rang around noon today:  my daughter was calling from out on her walk down the driveway with the dogs. 

“Mom, you should see Sofie,” she said through her laughter.  “She’s been barking all puppy-like for the last twenty minutes and she doesn’t want to stop.  She thinks there is a mouse or something under something down here.”  Indeed, I could hear our eleven-year-old lab as she kept up her high-pitched insistence.

“Take a video,” I suggested, chuckling myself.  There is nothing like seeing a dog you love all excited and happy.  “Dad will want to see her too.”

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with how much free time my daughter seems to have while doing her remote schooling this fall.  I see her watching some TV show on her lunch break, or even during a Zoom class.  But if I ask her why, she says that she has all her work done already.  And when I check her grades, she’s doing better than ever before.

I know that not everyone has found remote learning easy, and I recognize that some kids (including ones I know personally) are really struggling.  It’s not ideal.

But in our house, remote learning means a noon time walk with the dogs is possible—and good for all, making it the silver lining for today.