Around Here Week 46: 11/09-15

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment. 

photo cred: Jackie F

photo cred: Becky C

selfie cred: Gemma

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 569+ hours (of 1000)
Saturday was the perfect day for jumping in leaves - it was mid-50's and tons of leaves everywhere. I found another chicken egg-laying hiding spot! They've been laying eggs under one of bushes in the front of the house (found about 2 dozen) and I cleaned out the cat house where they've also been laying (another half dozen there). Literally an egg hunt every week!

Reading Strange Pictures by UKETSU. I sadly missed my teacher book club to discuss My Friends by Fredrik Backman because of the norovirus. I didn't finish the book yet, but there were so many insightful snippets about teenagers (definitely as a mom to teens but also a teacher to teens) that I appreciated and found valuable reflection from. I don't love Backman's style/ voice, but I did appreciate the characters, story, and the powerful points about young people. I sent my notes and love to the book club girls though - I'll keep those germs away! 

Listening to When Things are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent which is my pick for my Lit Ladies book club. I also set my date for hosting book club for later this month! 

Oof. stomach bug descended upon our home early Sunday morning. I didn't leave our bedroom for 24 hours. Kids carrying around puke buckets, the laundry piled sky high, I placed the most 'we have the norovirus' grocery order of all time (crackers, Pedialyte, bananas, and bread). I called off on Monday and kept the babies home. Thankfully, the other four kids already had a day off for Parent/Teacher Conferences. We all just hunkered and endured. When all was said and done- the virus claimed 7 of the 8 of us! Only Brandon made it out unscathed! 

Prepping the outside for winter weather. We added straw to the cat house on the back porch and got Bullet set up in the downstairs den.  I got some much needed time in the side flower bed (trimming back all the plants) and the littlest kids (Red, Olive, and the nephews) all helped clean up the cuttings.

Proud to have my little sister, Kitty, as the guest of honor with Red and Olive at our elementary school Veteran's Day program. Our two elementary schools put on such a sweet program, I was glad to be there to see all the local veterans (but especially my sister) stand up at their own branch's song being played during the ceremony. We love and are so proud to be yours, Aunt Kitty! 

No luck on viewing the aurora borealis this week. We kept checking on it the night of the solar flares, but didn't see anything here in western PA. The night sky sure is always lovely anyway - so no complaints from us! 

Worried maybe that Reddy's cheekbone is broken (?) About 2 weeks ago, he fell into the ottoman playing football in the living room (typical) and his cheek was black and blue for a couple days. But now, when he smiles there is what looks like a dimple (or an indentation) where he hit his face. When we touch that spot, he says it "doesn't hurt hurt", but there is a clear difference in how it feels on that side compared to the other side. Almost like a ridge. Ugh, the worries never end. The internet (LOL) says there's not much to be done anyway - unless he would need reconstructive surgery (!?) but it's not bothering him...but also - like, what the heck? Good grief. 

Smiling at Grey in his Letterman jacket. It came in this week and looks great. 

Proud of our community that came together for the volleyball tournament and Shave it or Save it event. (Bravo Mrs. Buckham - the kids' health teacher who organized the whole event!) The proceeds for the whole event and basket raffle all went to fellow classmate, basketball teammate, and friend Ethan Matera who is battling T-Cell T-lymphoblastic lymphoma. Grey and Gemma both played for volleyball teams in the tournament all day and Grey and his team made it pretty far into the event (one of the last 3 teams at the end). There was an incredible turn out for the Shave it or Save it event - many students and many teachers/staff participated. Most of the participants just shaved their beards - but basketball players shaved beard and heads in support of Ethan, including even Coach Lesko the head coach! The whole basketball team is planning on shaving their heads for the season in solidarity with Ethan (Grey has an appt scheduled with our barber Lamont next week!) 

Receiving our 2024-25 family yearbook! It is a labor of love that takes over a year to complete but I secretly love doing it and it is really cathartic for me to organize and design a whole years' worth of our family memories. I go full nerd and hand pick each photo and design, crop, and organize every single layout. (It is actually a form of psychosis, I'm sure, like some way to give me a false sense of control over the passing of time? LOL) but I am so happy with the way it turned out and everyone in the house loved it too. It is our 15th family yearbook and they are all treasures in our home. 

Overwhelmed (like this time every year) with the state of our home. Since June (football pre-season) until November (end of football season) it is absolute mayhem around here. Back to school, summer with 8 people at home, and fall sports - it is a mad dash everyday...so by November, when we are finally able to come up for air - B and I look around at the house like - wtf happened here? Everything unorganized, a million things just left wherever they were last used. So B and I had a long morning chat, wrote a list, and got started on tackling the list of things that need attention. It will take a several weeks, but we usually can get it under relative control before the holiday season (just to ramp up the crazy again!)

Cousin Day! At our house since Uchie was the next one to get hit with the stomach bug and she was solo parenting while Uncle Drip is in Montana hunting elk! It always feels like the best kind of party when the fella boys are here - so we spent the day playing and snacking and Violet even took everyone for a little hike around the treestand loop! 

Celebrating Sophia's 16th birthday with Gemma and Peyton. I can't believe our Soph is sixteen, gah, a little part will always just be that teeny two year old of my best friend. I just do not understand time in any way. Katie and I were chatting and Peyton was staring at us and then said, "you guys talk exactly the same" - not the first time we've heard that - but that's what happens when you're best friends I guess! The party was so cute - Gem and Peyt spent almost the whole time dancing to the most fun playlist from the DJ (Katie's cousin Sam who is an adult now but who I've known since he was eight years old?!) So glad we could be there to celebrate Soph - love you forever my darling. 

Time with family and friends. Rusty went to the Thomahawk hockey game with Liam and then had a sleepover at his house. Violet went hunting with Chum and also got to have a sleepover with her friend Kaylee. Vi and Gemma both had a dentist appointment and Pappy too them (thank you!) Gemma went to the movies with Cooper, Peyton, and Devin. Grey got in his tree stand a few times this week 

Praying for Gaza. Praying for Sudan. Praying for all victims around the world to be heard, believed, and find peace and receive justice. 

Teaching about the Dominican Republic in elementary school. The students were excited to learn about all MLB players that come from the DR (including Oneil Cruz, a current Pittsburgh Pirates player) and they watched how to make a baseball glove out of a cardboard box like many Dominican kids do. Rusty and Reddy made them at home with cereal boxes and played with their cardboard mitts all week; playing catch with an orange. Spanish Expo started their geography week and Spanish 1 got into the capibara disguise project (always a fan favorite). I had some really creative ideas this year and they all got so into it. Spanish 2 started Somos 12 with personal belongings vocab and target structures like 'no conoce a nadie' and finishing the lyrics for Shakira's Sale el Sol. 

Sporting with an indoor soccer game at Turfside for Violet and her Sparks team. The two oldest kids had the tiniest window of a sports break this week until Friday when the winter sports season officially opened with practices. Gemma had two jr high basketball practices and Grey had two varsity basketball practices. 

Making chicken teriyaki noodles, chicken quesadillas, kielbasa and pierogies, sloppy joes with mac and cheese, Parmesan garlic sheet pan chicken and veggies (thanks Instagram), and meat sauce spaghetti. It was a lot of crackers and pedialyte around here while the stomach bug worked through the house. 

Around Here Week 45: 11/02-08

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment. 

calavera design: Grey

photo cred: CTHS

photo cred: Megan M

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Daily American

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 568+ hours (of 1000)
The chill is officially in the air! Winter is starting to make her way to us. It is hot cocoa season! 

Reading and finally (!) finishing The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It was a good read - different than I was expecting but I did enjoy it. Poor Eleanor and I could relate to her in some ways myself and could see my students in her too; in the way she would work herself up into delusions just from focusing too much on imagining what others thought of her. And because I love trees and think they are so wise and old and incredible, this quote stood out above all the others - 

“Around her the trees and wild flowers, with that oddly courteous air of natural things suddenly interrupted in their pressing occupations of growing and dying, turned toward her with attention, as though, dull and imperceptive as she was, it was still necessary for them to be gentle to a creation so unfortunate as not to be rooted in the ground, forced to go from one place to another, heart-breakingly mobile.”

Listening to My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Unpopular Opinion: I actually love Daylight Savings Time and the clocks changing. You don't have to tell me twice to put on my jammies and have a hot tea at 6:30p when it's dark! Hello bedtime, call it a day! LOL I do love the long hours of summertime sunshine, but when winter comes - it is time for rest and healing. I embrace early bedtime with arms wide open. 

Compromising with the babies that they can pack their lunch once a week. So we look at the lunch calendar and decide which day has the 'yuckiest food' (hah) and they pack that day but eat hot lunch every other day at school.

Putting together a raffle basket for Gemma's volleyball team with her. We tried to make it something that teen boys would like so we loaded it up with weird chip flavors, ice tea, donuts, and a Fortnite gift card (hahh!)

Another massage and cupping visit for Grey with Miss Emma from Peak Performance Therapy. We are so lucky to have her and Grey always feels so much better and more loose afterwards.

Afternoon double date lunch with Uch and Uncle Drip! We left all the kids under the supervision of Gemma and Violet at our house and went out to dinner at Woodside just the grownup parents! Then we all hung out at our house into the evening just hanging out and chatting. It was the slowest, longest goodbye (like always! our favorite!) but the kids even know now that when Tia and Uchie say "okay, we're going home" that it is a lie and we are definitely going to have 40 more things to talk about and Uncle B and Uncle Drip are definitely going to find another 40 more topics on top of that.

Time with Family and Friends. Rusty played at his friend Jase's nerf gun birthday party and then hag out at Chum and Abba's house after his dentist appointment (thank you for taking him, Chum!) Gemma went to Peyton's birthday party (happy birthday Peyt! We love you!) and she had her confirmation class this week too. 

Grateful for election day. Grateful for the opportunity to vote and have a voice. Grateful for all the voters who used their voices as well. Always grateful for the poll booth workers who spend all day there so that we can all have voices. I love those poll booth grannies who hand out candy and stickers fueled by coffee and the belief of democracy. 

Teaching about Costa Rica in the elementary school and bringing the students' pasaportes back out for learning. They all loved seeing the photos and hearing about my time living in Costa Rica during my study abroad experience. I also taught them about the natural hot springs around Arenal volcano and their minds were blown. Spanish Expo started week 2 and practiced camina/corre and translating some sentences in musical chairs style. Spanish 1 got started learning about Ecuador and capibaras as we prepare for their first novel of the year. Spanish 2 took their final assessment on El Silbon (including a speaking portion) and then started watching Coco to celebrate Day of the Dead. I ordered more tissue paper because these kids are obsessed with making paper flowers - so we did some more of those during the movie! 

Sporting with equipment return of the youth football and cheerleading (thank you to the volunteers who were out until after dark collecting all the stuff - you are appreciated!)Violet had her first indoor soccer game at Turfside with her Sparks team. Gemma had two basketball open gyms and it was another week of Varsity football because we made it to the district championship game! It was rainy and cold but an incredible game that truly came down to the final seconds. So proud of this team - 2nd place team in District 5! Every person in my family cried a little bit for the last game and to lose our senior players - how they have been such a big part of our family over the last three years and how they have loved and laughed with all of our kids. We love you Cohen, DJ, Dawson, Barty, Baker, Kaden, Burnie, Brennan, Liam, and StevenStango! On our way out of the game, I looked at cousin Becky and we both took a huge sigh and then laughed about how only just at that moment at 10:30p on Friday Nov 7th did we realize how tired we truly were as coaches' wives from June-now. What an incredible season but sheesh - this momma is T.I.R.E.D. 

Making baked ravioli, Korean beef and rice with roasted broccoli, Pioneer Woman skillet lasagna, chicken and biscuit casserole and chicken gravy over mashed potatoes (both at 10:45p on Friday night - because I can't take away the heartache of the last football game, but I can make comfort food to warm their bellies before bed). I made a batch of cowboy cookies too.

Around Here 44: 10/26 -11/01

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment. 

photo cred: CT Football

pan de muertos cred: my student Itzel and her family

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Daily American

video cred: Coach Joel R

photo cred: Deanna M

photo cred: KP

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 563+ hours (of 1000)
We harvested our potato buckets and got quite a few of them! Not an overabundance but exactly the right amount to roast for dinner one night. They tasted amazing and now we are hooked! Potato buckets for the win! 

Reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Listening to My Friends by Fredrick Backman and liking the story a lot! Not a huge fan of the style of writing though (not new for this author - I've felt this way before for his other books).  

Hosting spooky lunch at our house and marveling over the incredible snacks that Heather made to share with us. That girl is so good at making spooky snacks that some of them we had trouble eating because it looked so realistic (hahhah!!) We ate delicious food (even if some were legit spooky!), played a fun nerf game, and laughed and laughed. Thank you Heather for treating us to such a fun afternoon. You are honestly incredible and we love you so much!! My zero! 

Red Ribbon week at all the schools - so dress up days everyday! Red and Olive also had bounce house day at their school on Thursday and they were so excited about it! Then we ended the school week with Fall / Halloween parties at the elementary schools. Reddy and Olive had mini parties with snacks and Rusty & Violet had their fall fest parties including the costume parade and fun games from the PTA (a huge thank you to all the parents who organize, plan, and oversee all the fun stuff for our kiddos! You are appreciated!!)

Excited for my little sister, Kayla, who had the grand opening of her new coffee shop (she is one of 4 owners) downtown. They have been working so hard to get it ready and I know it is a big relief to finally have the day arrive where they open their doors and welcome in the community. So many locals have been waiting for this day and I am so proud to be able to say she is our Aunt Kitty. Congrats to all the ladies down at Moon & Mug. Check out their awesome website (bravo, Aunt Kitty!) and if you are a local - please go visit and be dazzled! 

Updating the November fridge calendar and feeling (like always) that I can't believe we are at the end of the year...Time? hello? 

Thankful for my little artist girl who was willing to take on the project of gluing googly eyes and bat wings to 24 brownies for the babies' class snack. God bless that Violet girl...only then to get the reminder message from the pre-k teachers that snacks needed to be dairy / egg/ nut free....LOL. oops - we saved all the bat brownies to hand out at the football game to the trainers and Rowdies (student section) instead. 

Going viral...I guess? I don't understand social media apparently because my 'Guess the brother' football video we made after last week's game with Grey and some of the football players and Olive took off on Tik Tok and Instagram and I'm so confused why anyone but our local community even cares about it. I mean, great, but also like wtf? Over 2million+ views on Instagram and 375k on Tik Tok (insanity) And so many likes and comments which I don't understand at all. I watch those 'guess the husband and dad' videos and smile and try to guess in my mind, but I never comment - let alone screenshot the video and add photos to the comments (!), or go to someone's profile and screenshot from there to prove that I'm right. I literally cannot understand and even though 99% of the comments are sweet and happy - of course the less than 1% crappy people make me feel super self conscious (even though the trolls get roasted in the comments by nice people) but still. I don't know - all very weird and I'm looking forward to a time when I'm not getting 100+ notifications when I log in to my accounts. I do not have the mental and emotional bandwidth for this kind of attention. 

Trick or treat night! Our whole family including Osa and Violet's friend Evaley headed out in Lucille the Studermobile to the Huffman's house for our annual tradition of Trick or Treat night. All the kids and some parents head out and then when everyone gets too chilly or have bags too full of candy - we head back for food and company at the Huffman's (thank you for hosting Pam and Larry!) Grey was Sully, Reddy was Mike Wazowski, and Olive was Boo from Monsters Inc. Gemma was Wendy Peffercorn and her friend Cooper was Squints (this about the fourth year they've done a pair costume - so sweet!)Violet was Daphne and Evaley was Velma from Scooby Doo. Rusty was a spooky pumpkin face that pumped fake blood through the ribcage! Uchie, Kev, and the fella nephew boys joined us, along with our friends Jake, Mo, and their sweet baby, Wesley! It was actually pretty chilly, so we held in as long as the little kids wanted to. Osa did great and got about a million pets! 

Grey. My biggest baby, I don't care how big you get, or how good at sports you get, or how handsome you get. You are still my little boy and my heart has tiny fractures all through it because I cannot believe I get to be your momma. You are a real actual freak of an athlete and when I looked at dad this week and said, "What am I supposed to do?" he said like it was obvious or something - "enjoy it?" I'm going to try to just enjoy it (and not be worried all the time if your body can take the work you put it through and not be stressed if I'm doing enough to support you in all the pressure you have as only a 15year old kid). But just know, Booboo, that I know that you are a freak of an athlete but I would be proud and love you even if you weren't. You are more than just a great athlete, baby - the biggest challenge of being your mom is to make sure you know that you are also a million other awesome things, the athlete thing is just the one that gets the most attention from everyone else.

Another round of antibiotics for the babies. Double ear infection for Olive and Strep Throat for Red. Reddy needed picked up early from school on Friday with a high fever and sore throat (prompting another visit to the peds which confirmed strep). Yeesh, the first round of public school will do that to ya! Hahhaa, if we aren't immune from everything after this year, I'll be shocked. We have germs from the Red and Olive's elementary school, germs from my elementary school and high school, germs from Violet and Rusty's elementary building, germs from Grey and Gemma's high school, and germs from Daddy and Grey's football team.

Time with friends and family:  Rusty had a playdate and steak dinner at Liam's house (lucky!!), Violet got to attend a Halloween party with her friend Evaley and then went to UrbanAir indoor trampoline park for Kendall's birthday party. Gemma and her friends went to the movies to see Regretting You (she loved it!) and then went to a party at Evelyn's house on Saturday night. 

The script for our current state of society is truly coming straight out of a dystopian novel: my local community reporting places available if you are facing food scarcity, local grocery stores offering double payment if you'll cash in your pennies, murders in the sea with no justification, arrests and kidnappings in the streets with no due process, the propaganda off the absolute rails on social media. I.have.read.this.book.before. Also, despite the "ceasefire" there are still babies and civilians being killed in Gaza. 

Teaching and still watching Coco in the elementary school and we had a bulletin board ofrenda posted and the kids were really proud and sweet about writing down the people (and pets!) they are thinking about for Day of the Dead. I got a new batch of 8th graders for the Spanish Expo to start the new marking period. Spanish 1 had a 'backwards' spelling test (I spell the word in Spanish and they had to write it letter by letter). Then they learned about Día de Muertos and we started watching The Book of Life. I taught the class to make tissue paper flowers (they could make them for bonus) and the kids went crazy over it and made about 200 flowers (used up all my tissue paper?!) I literally had a student say, "No seriously, thank you so much for teaching us how to make these). My goal for my classroom is for it to just get progressively more psychotic as the year goes on - and with all these flowers up now, I am well on my way! jajaja! Spanish 2 read chapters 5-13 of El Silbon (finishing the book) and even did reader's theater which had us all laughing because everyone was invested in their costumes. I also had my first book club meeting with our in school staff for Act 48 hours. We are reading Social Emotional Learning.

Sporting with the Majors championship game that Violet cheered at on Sunday - officially closing out cheer season for that girl. She still had to watergirl at the football game on Friday night too. Gemma had two basketball shoot arounds and then asst trainer at the Varsity football game. Brandon and Grey had team dinner (at Tollgate!) and film, four practices, and then the D5 playoff game at home vs. Windber (we won! on to the D5 championship game next week!) I got Grey and Gemma recertified with the winter sports paperwork online and also confirmed Gemma's participating in the winter indoor soccer league with her Gators team. 

Coach's wife brag (you've been warned). THIS MAN. The pride and gratitude that I have that my good and decent husband is the coach of this football team is more than I can ever find words for. In three years, this team went from 0-10 to 500 to a district championship game!! That wasn't all B of course, that was so many things - the off season weight room, the time and talent of all our coaches (so many of them volunteers), the players working on their individual skills and their team togetherness, the leadership of our seniors and captains, the community support including the band and cheerleaders, the booster leadership and all the players' parents, and every single time they got back up after being knocked to the ground. But...I'm going to say it was B too, because if my man can do anything, he can lead. He has a way of getting people to remain calm under pressure and BELIEVE. He believes so much that you can't help but believe too. And heart and grit will go a long way to motivate towards a common goal.  THIS MAN. I cannot believe I get to be married to him. Good Lord. I'm just over here living the Tami Taylor dreams of my life. Gah dayum Coach Studer. Dibs forever.

Making roasted potatoes (that we harvested from our potato buckets!) and crack chicken sammies on Hawaiian rolls, homemade strombolis (I made 4!), white chicken chili, take out wings to celebrate the playoff win (!) and we had a leftover fridge clean-out night. I also made two loaves of banana bread and rice krispie treats this week.