Around Here Week 18: 05/02-08

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 84+ hours (of 1000)
Ugh, the weather was mostly a bummer this week. Lots of rain, lots of chilly temperatures after we had just been getting used to the warm and sunshine. All the rain brought the plant world into full bloom though and everything is bursting with green. Those pink dogwood blossoms I keep seeing - o.my.gosh - reason enough alone to live in temperate climate! Our yard is filled with dandelions both yellow and wishies which is hysterical - we can't mow fast enough!

Reading and finishing Clap When You Land by Karen Acevedo. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed another read by this author (my third book of hers in the last two years!) . I picked up again in Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward and I also ordered my next self-designated reading in my personal interest in learning about outdoor play for kids - How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson 

Enjoying another year of Screen Free Week! I have a different post about how we pass our screen free time, and we only had two little cheats on Friday & Saturday nights when I was having false labor and it was rainy and cold outside and the kids were all running around and screaming and I was so overwhelmed with frustration and wanting this baby out. So the kids got to watch a movie and B and I watched some Designated Survivor on Netflix to try to distract myself from the misery. #thanksbaby#6 

Keeping the goats in the pasture until Brandon can deer fence the blueberry bushes. Those sneaky goats just pushed aside the bird fencing we had over the bushes when they were free ranging and literally ate every single leaf off of all six bushes! B and Gemma worked on putting in the posts for the fence. 

Working through the grumpiness, hungriness, sleepiness of a growth spurt for Red. He's also cutting some new teeth, but he had to be going through some growing because this kid was so sleepy and hungry and clingy for several days in a row - just so unlike him (minus the hunger, this child can always eat, hah). 

Working through the grumpiness, uncomfortableness, and sleepLESSness of week 37 of pregnancy and carrying so low it feels like she might just fall out! Students are not holding back at all and just flat out saying, "Señora?! you are PREG.NANT!" and "geez, that doesn't look comfortable" - hahaha, it's become a freak sideshow at school now to see if I'm going to show up everyday or if this girl will finally put me out of this giant belly'ed misery. I had a check and all is well, she's locked and loaded and now we either wait for her to decide to come on her own, or her induction is scheduled for May 19 (thank the Lord and my midwife Meg!) I even suffered through some prodromal labor (false labor) for most of the day on Friday and was pleading with this baby girl to please let it be true. Alas, nothing was timeable even though it was incredibly uncomfortable/painful at times. 

Trying all.the.things to get this baby moving on out into the world: pineapple juice, bumpy roads, nsfw, yoga positions, lots of walking, spicy foods, dancing, meditating and visualization, warm showers, mac & cheese with ketchup (which is what 'worked' with Grey)...she is just so low and I am so done with being pregnant after being pregnant for two years in a row (literally). Brandon tried to be encouraging and said, "Babe, if it was up to effort alone, you would have had this baby 8 times already." Ugh...the only sure fire way to get your baby to come out.....WAIT. (which I'm very bad at it). 

Marveling at our caterpillars who all moved into chrysalis this week. When the caterpillars moved to the top of the cup on day, Violet went around the house grabbing us each by hand in whispering "I bet they'll be chrysalis by tomorrow!" (she was right!) The kids (and us parents too!) are all fascinated. Even though we've done this annually for years - it is still miraculous to watch how much they grow in a span of days and then see them transform in front of our eyes up close. 

Servicing our internet because we have had a dead modem for over a week (oops!) The internet guy came and gave us a new one and was like, "um, your modem is so old, you really need to upgrade" HAHAHAH, like dude - for real, we've had that modem since 2012. He told us that we should get a mesh modem to be fully functional all the time and now we are on the hunt because seriously our internet can be super sketchy but we always just chalk that up to mountaintop life. Any suggestions on mesh modems much appreciated! 

Sending Grey to my parents house for a full weekend sleepover much to his sheer delight. He and my Dad went golfing, fishing, and he got to just be a single kid for a whole two days with full attention from his Abba and Chum. He loved it (thank you!)

Walking 2.5 miles with Gem, Violet, and Rust on the Jim Mayer trail while the three of them biked. We made it the whole way to the Ferndale side (we usually stop at the waterfall and turn back because little legs are too tired). We spotted centipedes and I got a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers for Mother's Day, and the kids loved using the old bridge support as a sliding board! It was exactly the right thing I needed to get my mind off this pregnancy discomfort and get our kiddos outside and their bodies moving!

Sporting with a wacky schedule this week thanks to off and on thunderstorms that made for lots of rescheduling. Rusty had his first soccer game ever and because of all the other games being rescheduled, the whole family was able to be there to cheer him on. It was hilarious listening to the big kids cheering for him and Rust was so proud! He had another game too - so two soccer games for him this week. All of Grey's baseball games got rescheduled, Gemma had two games and Violet had one game and about half way through the games, the sky opened up and dumped on us. It was crazy and by the time my slow pregnant butt got to the car I was sufficiently soaked through to the bone. 

Teaching Billy y las Botas graphic novel in Spanish 1 and trying to keep these freshman boys under control as we are in the final stretch of school. Everyone is a little antsy pantsy, especially my freshman boys who are ready to just burst out of their skin with summer anticipation. We are staying the course and still doing work even though everyone wants to be done because it's the only thing that keeps behavior reasonable. Spanish 2 had their final this week (those that didn't have enough LMA passes) and then we started watching Rio because I will barely see them next week due to Keystone state testing (how?! why!? I loathe standardized testing and it's been a pandemic school year - wtfff?!). Spanish 3 finished their novel Felipe Alou while Spanish 4 worked on their piñata for two days and then they had senior walk out day, senior prank night, and senior skip day for the rest of the week. Luckily for me, they spared trashing my room on senior prank night (thank you!) We gratefully had an ACT 80 day on Friday and it was heaven to be able to finally try to catch up on grading and finish my maternity leave binder for the sub that I will leave out on a clean desk every single day until this baby comes (hah!) 

Prom planning: ordering decorations, ordering prom tshirts, confirming with vendors, and double checking permission slips with ticket distribution all week. The prom will be the end of this month (literally the week I'm supposed to have this baby) so I'm feeling the pressure to get all of our ducks in a row. 

Making meatball sub sandwiches, tacos for cinco de mayo, sloppy joes and mac&cheese (kid favorite!), frozen pizza, and leftovers. Brandon I had some yummy Green Chef recipes including Maple Cauliflower power bowls, Japanese Fritters,  and Kidney bean burgers (actually super yum!)