Around Here Week 24: 06/ 13-19

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

photo cred: Kayla

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 215+ hours (of 1000)
It's summertime, baby! Lots of time outside in the yard and at the baseball and soccer fields. We are making full use of our back porch and have had lots of meals out there too. We are daydreaming about all the ways we want to upgrade the space, but for now, I am just so grateful we have the outdoor space with shade and rain protection. 

Reading I’mSorry…Love, Your Husband by Clint Edwards and How to Raise a Wild Child byScott D Sampson

Shaking my head at B and Gemma who planted our sunflower, watermelon, and pumpkin seeds in a severe thunderstorm like lunatics. B knew the rain was coming and wanted to get them in the ground so they could reap the benefit of the natural watering but it wasn't five minutes of him and Gem starting to plant them that it started pouring buckets. By the time they were almost done, the wind was whipping and thunder and lightening started. I kept waiting for them to bail on the planting but they were laughing and rushing and making all kinds of lasting memories. Those two are always working side by side down at the farmette or in the garden. 

Shouting "Are you kidding me?!" all day, everyday as the goats wreck through the snow fence. Honest to goodness, we are struggling over here. They have a whole new patch of overgrown weeds we want them to eat (and that they love!) but they keep crashing through the darn fence and escaping to free range in our grass pasture. They ate our blueberry bushes (again!) and stripped a wild cherry tree of all of it's bark in under 10 minutes (rest in peace cherry tree). At least the chickens and ducks have all been kept safe from the fox who hasn't seemed to manage entry into the snow fenced area. 

Settling into a nice slow summer routine. Up with Red and Livy in the morning with coffee and time outside. The big kids slowly wake up throughout the morning from their no bedtime summer kid sleepout spots in the living room. Lots of door opening/closing as kids hop from imaginative play inside and outside. So many “watch this mum!” shouts from the trampoline. Having helping hands from all the kids for chores. No tv or screens all day until it finally starts to get dark (these days that about 9p) and the kids reassemble themselves on the couches and vote on what movies they will watch until they all pass out.

Picking up our kids' free summer food at the school. If you didn't sign up for this program, you are missing out! Our kids graze all day long so this extra breakfast and lunch items in the house has been a huge blessing to our kids' bellies, our wallet, and my sanity! 

Welcoming tadpoles to our home. Good grief. Grey picked some up out of a puddle behind our house and now he's been keeping them in a mason jar and feeding them frozen lettuce. He's been on top of it actually, so whatever. #boymom 

Rolling my eyes at our internet provider who had to come back out (second time in two months) to check on our modem. We were without internet for almost a week, only to discover that as we were putting the snow fence pulls into the ground, we must have split the cable for internet coming from the electric pole. Like, seriously? Of the 14 acres of land surrounding our house and the inch thickness of the cable and the 2 inch thickness of the poles – we managed to exactly hit the cable? It’s almost laughable (if it wasn’t such a pain in the butt). Our new mesh router arrived (we ordered this one) and now (when our modem is working at some point in the future – eyeroll) the internet should be strong throughout the entire house.

Attending Rusty's 'humming class'...aka meditation class where he lights a candle and then sits on some blankets and leads us in "Ommmmmmm"

Breakfast supervising with Violet and Rusty. Because the bigger kids can make so much in the kitchen, the littler kids often get overlooked on explicit cooking teaching. This week when both Grey and Gem were out of the house in the morning, I took time to walk Violet through making an over-easy egg and Rusty how to make butter toast (and clean everything up after!)

Giggling at the text message my sister sent from her concrete pouring 'party.' She had asked the men in our lives to come pour her patio pad and my Dad, my husband, and our brother in law all show up wearing the same shirt. Hahahaha, she texted, "look at the triplets" 

Celebrating Rusty’s birthday in a belated way, but at the Pittsburgh Zoo! We started with breakfast with the Vorndrans who are also Rust’s godparents and they were so sweet to get him a beautiful cake and have breakfast meats ready for the pre-zoo celebration! Then we headed to the zoo with Matt and Caleb and met Uncle Jonny and his two (Tessa and Tristan) for a full day of zoo fun. It was me and the Daddy Daycare Crew (LOL) but honestly I can’t get over how smoothly and wonderfully the whole day was. The four adults and nine kids managed to traverse the whole zoo & aquarium without any major meltdowns and no eating in expensive (long waiting/sitting) restaurants! We had snacks on hand, water balls filled, and happy kids joyfully checking out all the animals and playspaces. It was really the best day and birthday for our Rust and I am so grateful to have these friends who love our kids so well.

Grateful for a whole month of our Livy Lou already! Sweet baby girl hit her month birthday on Saturday and she dazzles us with her wise patience and sweet alertness every day. She is such a great eater and sleeping a little more each night (gosh – thank you my darling!) She really prefers to be held and snuggled or worn in the carrier all day. But perks of being the baby of the family – that’s generally always an option with parents and siblings who are ready to snuggle all around her.  

Happy the kids all had some special days this week. Grey got to swim after basketball camp with his buddies (thank you Conns & Valentines) while Gem had a sleepover with her friend Molly (thank you!). Rust and Vi spent Saturday at fishing camp with Pappy and Gigi and we all got to spend some fun friend time at a friends’ house on Saturday night swimming and chatting (thank you Valentines!) It’s been a really tiring and baby-focused four weeks with Olive’s arrival, so I am grateful the kids got a little special one-on-one time.

Sporting with the last week of organized sports until the fall ones pick up in August! Grey had two games to battle for championship. They lost game two, so the season has ended with our boys in second place. Grey also attended a basketball camp with his buddies every morning. I was blessed to have Mrs. Conn (extraordinary chauffeur service with her van Connie) pick up and drop him off each day (thank you so so much!) I played volleyball at Roxbury with our team, but Brandon had to miss this week because of a school board meeting. Gemma had one practice and then her last soccer tourney on Saturday. And Grey got to be a water boy for the Ken Lantzy all-star football game!

Making cheesy broccoli & rice casserole, grilled shrimp with jasmine rice and steamed Brussel sprouts (when B came home for lunch on Wednesday!), and shredded chicken parm in the slow-cooker. Miss Hannah stopped over and brought us lunch (thank you!) and stayed for a visit which always makes us so happy. We had some yummy Green Chef this week including roasted tomato and pesto flatbread, edamame & pickled ginger poke bowls, and plant-based protein tacos. Red helped me make some blueberry muffins for breakfast and Violet (and Red as the spoon licker) helped make Rusty's birthday cake.