A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
Reading Outlander by Diana Galbaldon - I'm down to the final 50 pages but I'm so tired by bedtime that I can get through about 3 pages before passing out with the actual book over my face!
Bringing Holly Jolly into Aunt Kitty's home. All the kids (minus Grey) and I spent Sunday afternoon at my sister's new house helping to decorate her tree and enjoy a new home tour and lunch. We even got to spend some time outside walking around her neighborhood and enjoying the playground since it was such a beautiful, warm-ish winter day!
Going Cyber Monday maniacal. Heck yes! I feel so accomplished and also a little fearful to actually look at our credit card bill - but still what a productive day. I made full use of the deals on Cyber Monday while doubling up with the wins using Rakuten at every opportunity. We are using our purchase eraser (CapitalOne Venture) to use all the points we've accumulated all year to "pay" off our Christmas purchases so fingers crossed that it makes a dent in our annual holiday splurge/debt.
Hugging our hunting cousins farewell as they headed back home on Monday. It was so nice to have the Gilmore cousins with us and I know my boys loved spending time with them in the woods.
Welcoming Marco our elf to our house from the North Pole. The kids were happy to see he had a negative Covid test result with him, so he was good and free from quarantining! This week he hid in the dining room wreath, had a sack race with some toys, brought a balloon for Rusty, did Yoga with Adriene on youtube, and set out the kids' shoes to remind them about St. Nicholas Day (Sunday 12/06)
Listening to the beautiful (fast! fingers crossed for a baby girl) heartbeat of our little nugget. I am 15 weeks along and everything seems to be moving right along normally and healthy (thank the Lord). We scheduled the ultrasound for Dec. 30 - right in time to celebrate before the New Year!
Dropping off Sheila (our van) at the shop. That girl - she is about on her last leg, honestly. While Sheila is at the shop, we are borrowing my in-laws Jeep for our second vehicle (thank you Gigi & Pappy!)
Hosting our three big kids in my classroom this week as we both work virtually for school. I bought them all blue light glasses for their computer time and they are all still doing great through their remote learning (we love you CT teachers!) We picked up CT breakfast/lunch meal pick up this week and what a win! We will be signing up every week for the meal pick up! (you should too!)
Addressing our Christmas cards, but only getting through about 1/3 of them so far. We send out over 100+ Christmas Cards (!!) so it always feels like a huge task until we start getting other families' in the mail and it's motivating to get them out. I ordered them early (thank you past Tab) but now they all need stuffed, addressed, and stamped! whew!
Singing happy HALF birthday to our Rustman who turned four and half this week!
Organizing Grey's school work because #middleschoolboys . We gave Grey a mental health day on Wednesday and he got to sleepover at my parents' house and spend the day in the woods hunting with my dad. Much much needed for him to be in the fresh air with his grandpa - but to miss that day of school sent him spiraling trying to play catch up the next day. I made a big graphic organizer that included all of his past and current work and we had to step-by-step walk through what needed done, who needed emailed, what recorded lessons he needed to find, etc. Gem totally is doing that already on her own (making agendas/check lists) and Violet has everything paperclipped and in folders that I gave her (Red - stop/To do and Green - all done/return). But with Grey it was literal hand holding to dig out of a disorganized panic. Sometimes I forget that what seems like the most obvious thing in the world to me (writing a to do list) is actually not at all obvious to others. It was a good reminder for me and also very helpful to him.
Giggling about Violet's artwork store she set up in my classroom. She spent her off virtual school off time coloring pictures all week and then displayed them in my room with post its for 50 cents a piece. She told me, "it's for your students to buy. And you better give me my money!" HAH!
Grateful for a quiet Friday night as three kids had a sleepover with Abba and Chum (my parents). It was just Brandon, me, and our oldest and youngest at home which made for a pretty calm night. I was able to get to sleep really early and then get lots of stuff accomplished on Saturday. (thank you mum&dad!!)
winter sporting with one basketball practice this week for Grey with his CT team. He is cast/brace free and dribbling with his right hand/wrist with no problems. Hooray!
Teaching virtually this week. Spanish 1 read chapters 6-8 in Capibara con Botas and worked on some assignments on the Kami app (love it because it's easy to convert my worksheets and make them accessible online instead of recreating them in Google doc/slides.) All Spanish 2 classes did the pre-work to read the novel Tumba including learning about Mexico, receiving vocabulary words and working on a leveled reading. Spanish 3 honors read chapters 9 and 10 of La Llorona de Mazatlan while Spanish 4 honors finished up their El Hombre Feliz animated short unit. All is fine teaching virtually, it's not ideal, but it's safe and it works especially since my own remote learning kids can be with me in the classroom. But....we are scheduled to flip back in person starting Monday again!
Making chili, the kids' favorite (hot dogs, mac & cheese, and baked beans), Nachos grande, pizza dippers to celebrate Rusty's half birthday, salads, and leftovers twice this week. We also ordered wings from Tulunes Living the Dream on Saturday for a special treat (the Kitchen Sink wings were amazing)!
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