Around Here Forty-One: 10/07-13

A look into what it is like to live in our home just this minute.

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  496+ hours (of 1000)
I did terrible this week (only up 3 hours!) It was pretty chilly and kind of rainy, so my level of interest in being outside was at an embarrassing low. I scored some time though with football, volunteering, and playing in the yard.

Reading The Tenth of December by George Saunders and eating it up. I really loved the short story Home and Saunders' ability to create characters and a world that you can become so invested in within a short story of a few pages. I lent out a few of my favorite books to one of my favorite friends this week (Dear Mr You, Dark Matter, and Big Magic) because we are nerds and wanna talk about all the books all the time.

Beginning the new year of Sunday school. I'm teaching grades four and five again this year and Grey moved up to the exciting year of second grade (first reconciliation and first Holy communion year!) and Gem started Kinder CCD.

Taking a much needed regroup day on Monday as all the kids and I needed some time to rest and heal after a long few weeks of being run ragged. I let the slept in, made soup for lunch, baked some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and let them spend too much time in front of the tv so everyone could get a solid day to give their snot noses and sore throats some real rest. It was nice to be home with everyone for a day and made me grateful to know we will have the whole summer together again too. (also reminded me how much I appreciate our kids' teachers and the incredible patience and love they give them everyday while I'm apart from them. Also reminded me how much I value my time to be the senora Studer me too)

Loving the last minute fun nature of our friendship with the Stankans. Last minute decision to have lunch together at Kings and Queens (yep!) Last minute hang out at our house on a random Thursday night (yep!) Last minute writing swap with Loni (yep!) ...exchanging our first attempts at writing was both exhilarating and horrifying - especially with someone who loves to read and knows good stories and writing when they see them. Thank you so much Loni for your encouragement, kind eye, and embrace of spontaneity! xxoxoxo #readersandwritersunite !

Enjoying a great week at school. We finished our el tourneo de la musica (Bailando by Enrique Iglesias was the big winner!) and had an exciting and hopeful Spanish Club meeting for all the fun projects we hope to do all year. The blood drive was this week and I donated and so did a ton of first time donor-students! My Spanish 2 Honors students started writing spooky short stories in Spanish on Friday the 13th and will have them ready to go for Halloween!

Volunteering as photographer at the third annual Zombie Crawl downtown with You in Flood City. The kids came to help too and had fun pretending to want to eat brains (Violet especially, hah!) and stay alive (Grey who hates face paint). Someone was oohing and ahhing over our little zombies and said, "boy, your kids will never be afraid of anything!" hahaha! So proud of my baby sis Uch who is so creative and inspiring and does so much for this community we love!! xxox

Making Pancakes for dinner to celebrate Greyson's 7 and a half birthday on Sunday, Chinese green beans and ground turnkey over rice, taco Tuesday, and baked meatball sub sandwiches.