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| one of my Spanish 3 Honors students, Mattison, is a seriously talented artist |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 517 hours+ (of 1000)
I've surpassed my outdoor hour count of last year (510 hrs all year!) I'm pretty sure I'm not going to reach 1000 before the end of the year, but I'm already pretty pumped that I beat last year's attempt. Always moving forward, right? I snagged some outdoor time this week in the beautiful sometimes crisp, sometimes warm, sometimes downright cold air doing all sorts of activities related to the season, including spending an evening well into dark raking and jumping into leaf piles illuminated by the light of the tractor headlights (hah!)
Reading and finishing Tenth of December by George Saunders and loving it! We then got to enjoy our monthly book club night, this time at The Windber Hotel on trivia night where we ate, chatted about the book, and did miserably at trivia, hah! Up next: The Nix by Nathan Hill and for Halloween (and because we've teased Lonnie too much about it) The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle
Dancing to the awesomely fun bluegrass band SwampCandy at our cousin's annual Stuverpalooza party. We got to visit with our cousins from the South (hi Tamra!) and clap and dance along with the band.
Hiking 1000 steps near Mt Union with Lonnie and Jess. We had a beautiful fall day and it was such a perfect brain and soul break to be out in the open air and chatting with good friends. It was no joke though and my calves were sore for about three days after our hike!
Pumpkin patching it with our favorite friends, The Fiores. We met half wayish at the sweetest little corn maze and pumpking patch: Barr Ridge Farms. Why Kate and I torture ourselves with corn mazes every year is annually baffling. The kids had so much fun together (as always) and so did Kate and I chatting, laughing, and catching up (as always). The kids played on all the fun little centers, picked pumpkins, burned their tongues on hot chocolate, and we were all sad to hug goodbye (as always).
High fiving Gemma Ro after finally getting on the Letter Wall of Fame for knowing all her uppercase, lowercase, and letter sounds! She was so proud! Continually grateful for her amazing teacher who keeps pushing her along and also supporting her patiently and helping us with tips and tricks too.
Finishing up an awesome undefeated flag football season! Grey had such a great time with his teammates and coaches - what an amazing group of dudes. We had a last minute football party at our house and got a beautiful, warm fall day to celebrate. We played the funny clothes dress up game which had everyone cracking up, we bobbed for apples (even me after I lost a catch game with our running back!) and built a fire. We are so lucky to get to watch these boys grow up together and be part of the team family!
Hosting a picnic at our house with some W&J basketball friends and their babies. The very next day after the football party, we got to spend a perfect, squeezable afternoon with our friends The Vorndrans, Kochs, and Bringmans. Two new babies have been added to our crew (Tessa and Caleb) since we had all be together the last time, so there was lots of hugs and kisses to go around. Gemma loved being little momma to the babies, while Grey was happy to be punching bag to the toddler kids on the trampoline.
Celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary and Brandon's birthday in the same week. Nine years married to this guy (and eight years before that) and I'm thankful every single day we get to live this life together. We keep our anniversary pretty low key and had a little dinner together after the kids went to bed - but then we got to attend Press Bistro's wine pairing dinner with Gigi, Pappy, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Ginger as an extended celebration too. (thanks for babysitting Uch!) Brandon's birthday was on the day of the last football game/party so we kept saying that was the only way he could have a party - was to invite the flag football team (hah!) but we got to sing happy birthday too at our w&j picnic!
Getting way behind on chores and laundry at home. I'm trying to be kind to myself and give us lots of patience and grace as this season of our life is straight up bananas. I spent a full two weeks believing that I was in charge of buying pretzel bags for Grey's Halloween party at school only to wait until the night before and discover that Walmart had sold out of them. So the next day, I text the homeroom mom and apologize and tell her that I will pick some up that weekend and have them for sure for Monday when she replies back that (first) she's the homeroom mom for Gemma's class and then I go back and check my text from Grey's homeroom mom to read correctly that I never was in charge of the pretzels at all. I'm.losing.it. Thank God for homeroom moms and PTA moms and coaches and teachers and all the people who make our everyday lives run despite how many things I'm late for, or I forget, or need reminders. Seriously, bless you guys.
Working out with the 21day fix videos in the morning before school. Despite the fact that the house is in shambles, I threw on working out on top of one more thing on my to do list...and it's actually been a huge positive. I'm so exhausted at night which is annoying (like passing out asleep at 8:30p) but if I get up at 5a and work out before getting ready, packing lunches, and heading out the door to daycare - my days are a million times faster and easier. The sweating and movement is boosting my days and I'm hoping if I can keep it up, maybe I'll finally have enough stamina to get home from work and be able to do some stinking chores?!
Preparing for the end of the first nine weeks and el día de los muertos with my students. We are finishing up some units in Spanish 1 and Spanish 2, working on our final drafts of spooky stories in Spanish2 honors, and completing a Movie Review of The Book of Life using the preterite tense in Spanish 3 Honors. First marking period nearly done already for the school year and I'm finally feeling like I'm kind of sort of getting a hang of our home/work schedule. hahha, only nine weeks later, right? and still kind of maybe only. Oh sheesh. #stillworthit
Trick-or-treating two nights in a row. We spent Thursday night at Abba and Chum's house with Aunt Uch going around their neighborhood in the chilly fall air (really chilly actually) and then on Friday night we headed up to Mimi's house with the Garretsons and Rummels to do a giant cousin trick-or-treating event. Grey was a spooky Grim Reaper, Gem and Violet were both Wonder Woman, and Rusty was a dinosaur!
Making chicken & stuffing casserole, Pappy's meatloaf, wild rice and broccoli soup. I made some cinnamon swirl banana bread and homemade pumpkin roll for brandon's birthday (his fave). For the w&j picnic I made my Aunt Dar's potato casserole dish and we threw hot dogs and kraut in the roaster for the football party, whipped up some buff chicken dip and easy 4 ingredient cheddar beer bread. For our anniversary at home dinner, I made crispy shrimp alfredo (so delish everytime).
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