Intentional Outdoor Hours: 496 hrs (of 1000)
Up ten hours this week thanks to some beautiful fall days. We still don't have enough leaves in our yard though to build a proper jumping-in pile, much to the kids' and dogs' disappointment. The boys and I spent an evening at the football field as Grey and his flag football team were announced beforehand for youth night. Then, Rusty and I braved the cold morning to stand on the lines and cheer on Greyson and Brandon in the color run put on by the PTA (they did great!) The kids and I spent one evening at Greenhouse park on the playground and collecting acorns down by the river. It was a nice (much needed) energy release before tossing everyone in baths and jammies before they all passed out for bedtime. outside for the win - as usual!
Reading....ugh. does Greyson's spelling words and my students' writing assignments count?
Experiencing a new parenting milestone as the tooth fairy made her first visit to our home ever! Grey's bottom tooth finally (!) came out after a week of him whining about hating it being so wiggly. He pushed it all the way back (yuck) and then Bud pulled it out for him. He was so relieved and excited.
Visiting with people we love - like Dobber, Siri, and Claire on Saturday night at our house for wings and brews, and Aunt Dar and Pappy as they swooped in to help with babysitting duty this week (thank you!), and Abba and Chum at their house after they took all the kids to the pumpkin patch and then had a sleepover at their house with the girls, and Kuma, Uncle Buck, and Mimi while we cheered on our cousin Morgan at her soccer game.
Celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. We made a fancy dinner that night for us (salmon and pumpkin risotto) and had a glass of wine and watched This is Us. Because well, that is so us. Literally while typing this right now I just reminded myself that we still need to finish our yearly tradition of writing down details about our life in our book and to slow dance to our first dance song to really complete the anniversary celebration. Gosh, we can't seem to get it together in our old age (read: four young kids).
Feeling proud of most of my students for their progress over the past nine weeks. The first marking period will be up next week and the difference in their Spanish (and their confidence in trying a new language) has grown incredibly these first two months.
Bunking the girls beds and loving it. There room has been a great source of stress for me as Gemma is clearly going to be my "throw things into a ball and toss it under the bed and then tell Mum the room is cleaned up" child. She and Violet each have about three wardrobe changes daily and the babydoll/girlfriends messes are staggering. Getting a bed off the floor somehow makes the room feel cleaner and gives Gem less places to hide her messes. Plus, now we have space to keep the barbie house up and open all the time!
Struggling with not mastering how to use all of my awake hours as efficiently as possible. I know part of the problem for sure is not getting to bed early enough and I definitely feel trapped under mountains of clutter and too.much.stuff. I have a huge list of things that I'm slowly marking off as I dig out from all that was left to lie after the summer of a newborn followed up by the spontaneous acceptance of a part-time job - two huge things that were crowded with lots of regular life stuff too (birthdays, new school year, sports seasons, broken appliances, etc). I just keep telling myself that it will happen one small step at a time...and also, this is a season of life, it will pass - which I accept both graciously and hesitantly.
In shock that this is my forty-second Around Here post! I've kept up with these posts all year and now only have ten left to go in the year! that's crazy to me. I'm so grateful to have kept this weekly record and I love sometimes jumping back into earlier weeks in the year to distinctly remember what we were doing, and how little the kids all look, and remember those feelings from that snapshot in time. thank you, Ashley, for introducing me to the Around Here theme! xxox
Making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with the girls one afternoon, my own white pasta sauce from scratch for the kielbasa and pasta casserole one night, and ground turkey and broccoli over rice another.
The girls bunk beds remind me so much of my childhood spent sharing a bedroom with my little sister. Oh what fun we had! It makes me excited for when Carly is old enough to play baby dolls!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sorry to say it, but I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do during the day as the mama of four. Gosh the time just disappears like sand through fingertips. I, too, am hoping that with the arrival of winter and things slowing down elsewhere that I will get on top of the to do list that currently feels so daunting.