Around Here Week 42: 10/11-17

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 515+ hours (of 1000)
Only up 6hours this week as the weather has plummeted into legit fall and chilly. I am such a wimp when it comes to cold weather and I know it is 100% due to the fact that I don't dress correctly. I must find things that I don't hate that keep me warm enough. Cold weather people - help me please, point me in the right direction. 

Reading Outlander by Diana Galaldon and starting our first Project Lit book of the year, Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson (so good and sort of shaking me to my core). 

Pulling out the dress-up supplies as it was Homecoming week at CT. I learned a great little trick from my coworker and fellow mom-of-5 (hi, Malinda!): keep all the little trinkets and school dress up supplies in one box that you can pull out for Homecoming, Red Ribbon Week, and holiday spirit weeks. It is so much easier to pull that thing out and find the random supplies (lei necklaces, Christmas headbands, Halloween socks, Patriotic sunglasses) when they need used over and over each year - instead of trying to scramble to buy them each time they roll around again. 

Feeling inspired by the Minimal Mom Youtube channel and really believing maybe I can start small and make real impactful changes to my soul at home. I have been so overwhelmed by all our crap and most of all the laundry. Like at this point, LIGHT A MATCH. That's how I feel about our home and all our stuff and all the clothes and shoes and coats and all.of.it. But, I'm feeling hopeful after watching one video of hers each day this week and I'm hoping to turn this ship around!

Prepping Grey to speak to the Department of Education as he was one of the two fifth graders at his school picked to be a student representative on their zoom call. Our elementary school earned the status of Blue Ribbon school and has been operating in-person five days a week since the beginning of the year. Along with the two students, parent representatives, a few teachers, and the administrators were on the Zoom call/interview as well. I received a very sweet note afterwards from one of the parent reps saying that Grey did a great job and spoke clearly and confidently. (thank you Nicole!) 

Finally figuring out Gemmi's foot. She had her MRI on Wednesday and by Friday we had heard back that she has SEVEN fractures in her foot. (good grief). We are taking her out to Children's in Pittsburgh next week to see a Ped ortho surgeon to make sure it's healing correctly and she doesn't need surgery. So hopeful that she's okay considering that she's been walking on it with just the boot for the last three weeks. 

Celebrating our anniversary on Saturday night (our anniversary eve!) We went out to dinner at Morrison's Tavern while my parents watched all five kiddos (thank you!!) It was super lowkey and kind of perfect. Our only requirement for where we were going to eat was that we were almost certainly  NOT going to see anyone we knew (hah!) Before we took the kids to my parents' house we said, "You guys know that Dad and I have been married for 12 years and we have half as many kids!" and Grey was like, "um, no you don't. That would be 6." and we smiled and were like, ".......yeah, we do actually" Grey said, "What?! No. You're kidding. No." Gemma said, "What the heck, Mom?! It BETTER be a girl" Violet said, "For real, there's a baby in your belly?" and Rusty said, "Red is the baby, right?" They've been sworn to secrecy until my in-person doc appointment on 10/26 but they desperate to share the news! 

Fall sporting with a make up game on Wednesday night at North Star for both minors and majors. and then a football practice and the CT Homecoming parade on Friday night. We pulled Gemma in a wagon for the parade and Rusty walked with the cheerleaders while Violet walked with the football team and Brandon wore Red in the carrier. It was so chilly and we were all ready to get home and warm up with hot chocolate by the end of it! 

Teaching the alfabeto in Spanish 1 including the 'spelling' quiz. Spanish 2 and Honors is at different spots now, but both are in the pre-reading of our next novel El Silbon. Spanish 3 worked on practicing their placement preposition vocab and will start learning about the Biblioburro next week. Spanish 4 finalized their final writing assignment papers to end their novel and submitted their 250 word retell of the story from a first person perspective. 

Making good use of our new Instant Pot (thank you again Heather!) My first two meal attempts in the Instant Pots were big successes! I made meat sauce with spaghetti (cooked the noodles right in there!) and Honey Garlic shredded chicken with frozen chicken in 35 minutes! I also made Hawaiian meatballs over rice, and a slow cooked chuck roast. On Friday night we had our family favorite Snack Dinner of buffalo chicken dip with veggie dippers. We were lucky to get to visit with Uch when she brought pizza on Monday night (thank you!)