Around Here Forty-Seven: 11/18-11/24

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 520+ hours (of 1000)
Snagging about a half hour for a little walk twice this week. The three kids (minus Gem who was at tutoring) and I took the dogs for a little walk back to the cornfields and tried to play detective figuring out what kind of animal left tracks and scat back there - my guess was bear or bobcat and Grey was adamant it was a coyote - we checked our pictures against the internet when we got back and Grey was right! All four kids and I took a little walk after our first Thanksgiving meal to let out a little energy - a little muddy and cold (!) but a nice little break.

Reading The Nix by Nathan Hill and enjoying it; what a look at modern society and pop culture, it really has me pulled in.  We also pulled out our Christmas book collection including some of our favorites like Snowmen At Night, Mr. Willoughby's Christmas Tree (my favorite holiday book!), Rabbit's Gift, and It's Christmas David!.  I just ordered Soft Enough for a King and I cannot wait to have it arrive! I've been feeling bad about our (lack of) effort toward 12 Months of Kindness and this will inspire us all to be extra kind all season.

Organizing and minimizing baby clothes. It's such an emotional chore but one that needs done. With #GivingTuesday on the horizon (it's this Tuesday, November 28!) I want to get all the baby clothes girls & boys 0-12mo packed up to be delivered to our local women's shelter. I'm putting aside any pieces of clothes that make me legit feel like crying because of the memories into a single tote to stow away for my sisters - but other than that -everything goes! It's not really the most urgent project that needs done (and as Bud said, you're cleaning up the one part of our house that no one ever sees? LOL) but it's like mental clutter that is bringing me down. With our poor performance on 12 months of kindness this year and all this stuff everywhere and #GivingTuesdasy - it just feels like a pickmeup that I could use.

Administering antibiotics...again. Gem and I headed to UrgentCare with a three day fever and picked up the confirmation of an ear infection and some antibiotics. Rust is still coughing up some nasty phlegm and we've been using Vick's vaporub and the humidifier like it's our job. Oh winter sick season, you are no fun.

Getting teary-eyed with a surprise visit and dinner for us from our cousin Tausha. On Tuesday afternoon, I got a text from her that she was delivering dinner to us. She showed up with arms loaded down with food and dessert and wine and the sweetest note. Meanwhile, she also has four kids and was hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her own home two days later and she was thinking about me! Honestly, kindest, most thoughtful momma.  (thank you Taush!!)

Passing, setting, and serving at the volleyball tournament at school with the teacher's team on the day before Thanksgiving break. What a fund day at school! Besides the volleyball tournament all day, we also had movie options for the students and then everyone came down for the championship game at the end of the day. Teacher team went undefeated and then won in the championship game! We even got a chance after the champ game to play the real girl's volleyball team and they were awesome. I was so impressed with them (many of them Spanish students) and was really excited to see them do something they love.

Stuffing ourselves on Thanksgiving and feeling so very grateful. We traveled first to Gigi and Pappy's house to celebrate the holiday with our Studer family with food, and silly games that had us all cracking up. Then we traveled out to our Aunt Mar and Uncle Terry's house to celebrate with our Adams family with food, cousins happy to play with our kiddos, and facetiming with long distance family (Kayla in Bermuda! Kara in Missouri! and Becca in Florida!) As tiring as it is to load up kids and hustle and bustle all around - we know there is no room for complaining about having places to go where people love (and feed) you to full capacity!

C.l.e.a.n.i.n.g. the living room. I'm talking under couch cushions, throwing out broken stuff, and scrub-a-dub-dubbing to get ready for Christmas tree arrival and also to help my soul rest more easy because it has been out of control around here with the dust and piling up of stuff. Gem was a big help and she was very excited to get the mistletoe hung up (hah, my girly girl). Since the bottom of our vaccuum isn't working, I moronically used the hose attachment and spent most of afternoon in a half bent position and now my back is d.e.a.d. waaaahh. #givemealltheheatingpads

Black Friday shopping and knocking items off the list. I am a 'online shopper' when it comes to Black Friday deals and couldn't be paid enough money to go to an actual store any day between a week before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. So I hit up Idlewild website for our annual grandparent & kid season passes (shh! pretend you didn't read that grandparents ;) I ordered our Christmas cards from Shutterfly and we did a little shopping for Grey's big gift!

Speaking of shopping for Christmas - our The Hunting Daddies board books are on special through Monday, November 27 at our website. Two board books for only $12! A great gift for new parents, grandparents, and babies that belong to hunting or fishing families.  (thanks for enduring that shameless plug of our little small biz xxox)

Making beef roast in the crockpot (with water, brown gravy packet, ranch, and an Italian packet) green bean almondine and three pumpkin rolls on Thanksgiving morning to share with our family later that day at the celebrations. I roasted an 11 lb. turkey for just our family at our house on Friday and it turned out so moist and delicious (secret tip: go full Julia Child on that baby and use a ton of butter, hah).