With writing about the schools around the lower valley, I think about the kids who will be forever shaped by this year with the pandemic pushing schools into a completely online teaching model.

Mother Nature has a way making her presence known and living harmoniously with a pair of energetic robins residing in a non-bearing plum tree right outside my front door – I witnessed the ongoing story of them raising their three baby birds with the last one successfully leaving the nest on Saturday.

January 7, 1789 was the date Congress set for the original 13 states to choose electors for the first ever presidential election in the newly forged country, the United States of America.

At its founding, the United States of America was the first-of-its-kind: an experimental government based on the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Gaining our independence from Britain was, in a way, a changing of the tides – for those who declared themselves Americans, our future generations, and everyone in between.

I consider myself rather lucky. I have an abundance of veterans in my life that have fought for our freedom and have worked for something bigger than themselves, something that’s rather rare.

Like so much else about this spring of pandemic isolation, things that usually bring pleasure to each of us are prohibited in the name of personal and community safety.

My grandmother on my father’s side needs extra love this Mother’s Day and I am not going to be able to visit her to give her that much needed hug.

Things have been pretty odd for those of us who spend a big chunk of our time visiting with family, especially family members not living in the same house as us.

Wishing moms everywhere a rich and wonderful Mother’s Day – celebrating from a distance at this time is genuinely meaningful as we keep our moms’ health and safety the priority.

There continues to be wide range of personal stories shared throughout the Lower Yakima Valley which have made an enduring impact on us all as we acclimate to life during this COVID-19 period — individual accounts of hardship, sacrifice, perseverance, achievement and love, bringing communities of people closer together as we make our way through this, one day at a time.

We are all essential! I don’t need an executive order from any governor or state public health official to recognize my ability or anyone else’s to assist in helping others during this pandemic crisis.

I’ve been watching in horror at the empty grocery store aisles during the past couple of weeks, as our state — the so-called epicenter of COVID-19 — has gone from a very chill place to live to the nucleus of panicked over shoppers.

It’s hard to find the right things to say at this moment in time.

With the story I covered on a dog being killed due to aggressive behavior and the K-9 who was also shot (and, luckily, saved), I can’t help but worry about my own four-legged fur babies.

As spring approaches, the subject has come up again and still, the answer is as tangled as a weedy garden.