Around Here Week 47: 11/15-11/21

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  529+ hours (of 1000)
bleh.

Reading Outlander by Diana Galbaldon and reading the intro to our next Project Lit book Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Astonished that our new shed held up in the crazy wind on Sunday during the storm at our house. Since the weather had called for high winds, Brandon thankfully spent a portion of Saturday tying down the shed with cranks and we crossed our fingers as we kept glancing out the window to see if the shed stood it's ground in the 60+ mile winds. It did! (thank goodness, because honestly we just bought that thing this month and for a bit of money and that would have just been such a bummer). We had multiple pine trees crack and fall in the wind though - including the beautiful pine tree that we love in the goat pen right next to their shelter. And our trampoline flipped off the legs and cracked the frame. We still may be okay on the trampoline (that poor thing has taken a beating up here on the mountaintop over the last 8 years of owning it). 

Thrilled to get a new vacuum on Monday after ours officially kicked the bucket this weekend. Aunt Uch and Gem picked it up for me on the way home from the basketball game (thank you!) and I immediately unboxed that sucker and plugged it in and went to town vacuuming the whole house at 8:30p at night. I think that's how you know you are officially old and boring - when a vacuum brings you joy. (I got this Shark and I'm loving it, really great at pet hair #twodogfamily)

So glad that Violet finally pulled that very wobbly front tooth out! She doesn't let anyone else pull her teeth out and she literally waits until it is dangling out of her mouth. It's so gross and makes me crazy, but she pulls it out on her own, so whatever. She caught us off guard and we ended up getting the "rich" tooth fairy that night because um...no change for a $5 bill! She was pumped, but the kids all know that normally we have the "poor" tooth fairy - HAHAHA. 

And as one kid loses teeth, another gets his first teeth. Red is still cutting teeth and oh boy the slobber, cranky, fussy little squishem is making me nuts. Good thing he's so darn cute. 

Re-organizing schedules on Thursday and Friday when the kids' school went virtual. They will be learning from home until at least December 8th since covid is hitting our community pretty hard. The kids all have chromebooks from the school and they've been practicing all year how to access their teachers' online classrooms and digital homework. So it will be an adjustment, but I'm grateful that their school took precautions to keep everyone safe and the kids are familiar with what should happen - so we are going for it with hearts wide open. They are stationed in my classroom as I teach virtually and it's a chaotic mess, but also okay. We are together and getting through it and we are safe. So okay. Their teachers have been amazing too (we love you CT teachers!)

Getting the thumbs up for Gemma on her foot. She had her follow up appointment at Children's Hospital on Thursday and she is all cleared and looking good!

Sighing and letting B use the 'ole "but it's the last day." Oh hunters' wives, you know what I'm talking about. For any of you outside of the hunter wife zone, 'but it's the last day' is the line that husband's give you with big sappy eyes about how they definitely need to be out in the woods on the last day of the season (it was archery season in this case). So wives sigh and figure out a way to manage all of the children for the day so that their hunting husbands can spend the day in woods from dawn to dusk. B did say that having the whole day without responsibility to the children and being in the silent, vast open woods was like salve to his soul. But ugh, 'the last day' line makes me nuts. Where is my "the last day" - yeah there's no equivalent which is why it's so annoying. (I love you B, but also...grr).

Smiling about Grey taking siblings out to spot deer for Dad with him. The meatballs (Violet and Rust) just think he is about the coolest dude ever - so when he asks them to go with him they are so happy. He took Violet out and watched for deer, saw the horses chase a deer out of the horse fence (they said it was so cool!), and came back to the house right before dark. 

Getting Covid tests for Gemma and Brandon after they received news that they had been in close contact with people who had tested positive. To be honest, we've all been feeling pretty crappy - congestion, dizzy, hot/cold, so tired, crabby and cranky. Fingers crossed that they are negative but for now we are hunkering down and resting until we get the results back on Tuesday. 

Winter sporting with a game on Monday night for Gemma and her first basket! Aunt Uch took her to the game and was the witness to her bucket while B and Grey headed off to the first CT basketball practice and I kept the littles at home. Gem had practice on Tuesday night but by the weekend we had received phone calls that both Gem and Brandon may have been in close contact with people who had tested positive through basketball ....so for now basketball season is on hold. 

Teaching virtually from school this week. Our high school decided to do a week of virtual learning as we were having lots of kids out from positive tests or close contact quarantines. I taught through Schoology using Google Slides, Screen Castify, Audio recordings of myself reading Spanish novels aloud, writing feedback and comments on students' spooky story drafts, and hosting conferences for writer's workshop. It was a really busy week between converting all our work to digital versions and answering emails and messages - but the kids did great and we were in such a better place in preparedness than we were in the spring. I had my own children in my room doing their virtual learning on Thursday and Friday which made for real chaos and running to and fro to help with homework and Zoom log ons. Very grateful for my coworkers who were happy to shoot hoops with the kids for awhile in the gym and requesting their help to decorate their classroom Christmas tree. (thank you!!) 

Making Mississippi Roast in the crockpot, wild rice and broccoli soup with beer bread, tacos, Korean beef over rice with green beans. We had Teachersgiving at school on Thursday and I made mini cheese balls with a pretzel stick skewer to bring to the potluck.