A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Heather |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 299+ hours (of 1000)
the kids set up the tarp outside for a slip'n slide all on their own and played their modified version of rundown on it. It's the thick of summer - literally thick with humidity in this pretend western pa rainforest we live in these days! - so when the weather is tolerable, we are outside. I try to get Red outside first thing in the morning because he plays so hard out there and it makes naptime a breeze (he fell asleep at lunch once this week). He has started walking right down over the hillside, pulling down the snow fence far enough to climb over and then chasing the chickens and ducks all around (good grief!?)
Reading The Book of Dreams by Nina George and really enjoying it!
Drowning in zucchini. omigosh. pick everyday or we find 12 inch+ zucchs in the garden. All this rainforest weather has been great for our garden but the bikinis (we still call them that because Violet did when she was three) are getting out of hand.
Closing out the baseball season officially with the end-of-year picnic.
Swapping out the boys' clothes...Well, I started this project and then got overwhelmed and it was too hot in the attic and Rust and Grey kept mixing up the clothes piles with their dirty laundry....so I gave up for a minute. Honest to the good Lord, if you could see the boys' room right now you would immediately call TLC Hoarders. Good thing the boys sleep down in the living room every night for kid campout and Red has been going through it this week and has been co-sleeping with us. Ugh, a project for next week's ambition!
Joyfully watching the tadpoles try out their new legs!
Meeting a new friend. Thanks to facebook, I discovered a very cool outdoor program that will be available in the fall at Nathan's Divide Watershed, put on by Wildernest. I reached out to the program director, Lisa and asked through messenger if she was ever interested in meeting up because I had a lot of questions about how she got her program started. She was gracious and obviously an outdoor free play enthusiast too - so we met up at Nathan's Divide Watershed and walked around chatting non stop while the kids explored the forest. Oh gosh, my soul sings! It was great convo and really inspiring and the wheels in my outdoor free & risky play mind are buzzing at full speed.
Splashing at Ebensburg pool. The kids and I met up with Kate and her two for a fun afternoon swimming and splashing. It was actually the most perfect day to go because it was overcast and there was a short little thunderstorm, so outside of having to wait it out under the giant umbrellas for ten minutes - we basically had to share the entire pool with like 4 other families!
Putting up a new-to-us trampoline. After a terrible storm on Sunday - worst winds we've ever experienced in the 10 years of living atop this mountain that we actually took everyone down to the basement!- our trampoline had suffered enough trauma that she was d.e.a.d. The trampoline is the only thing the kids consistently play with every single day, so we knew we needed a replacement fast. Luckily, my parents were looking to get rid of theirs (which is the original frame from when I was in sixth grade. They don't make things like they used to!). So the big kids helped Chum disassemble it and then reassemble back at our house. Chum even brought us sand so we could make sandbags to put around the trampoline to keep it grounded no matter the storms to come. So far, the sandbags work like a charm because we already had more severe storms this week, and the trampoline stayed put! (thank you Chum & Abba!!)
Crunching the numbers of our life to figure out what is even possible or responsible or logical for our present and future. My stomach is in knots and it's really overwhelming to think about. I know a decision needs to be made and I will at least feel better to get pointed in the direction of whatever the decision is - but until then; in this limbo phase, is making me physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted.
Thanking my generous husband who took one for our team this week. Lots of ice and resting for two days for that guy - but I am so grateful that he suggested he would do this one thing for us since I grew and birthed six babies for our family. He was a champ and I feel so excited to grow up with this big 'ole family we grew.
Kissing Booboo farewell for the weekend. He got a super fun weekend with his cousins at Jellystone Campground. They stayed in a cabin, swam in the pool, won a cornhole tournament (like father like son with those two guys and their athletic freakishness), and had so much fun making memories. Thank you Heather & Albert for taking him!!
Swimming and sun'ing at the Que on Friday afternoon. As B was resting after his surgery, I scooped up the five (Grey was camping) and we headed out to the Que for 2 hours. The kids are always so happy to just play there and Red can walk right into the water, so it's less nerve-wracking than being at a swimming pool. The weather was perfect and we got a little spot right by a tree with some shade for Olive to nap and breastfeed while the rest played in the water and built sandcastles. It was actually kind of idyllic.
Celebrating a new home for my friend and co-worker Renee at her housewarming party. Congratulations!!
Sporting with our last volleyball games of the season. We had a double header that included a huge thunderstorm in between the two matches. We were soaked and hid out in the truck until it passed and then headed back onto the courts for Match #2! Afterwards, we had team dinner at the Woodside! (as always - we loved playing with you Cats!) Gemma participated in a basketball open gym on Tuesday morning (she loved it) and Grey was headed to middle school golf practice until it was canceled due to the storms. Violet had her meet & greet with her flag football coach on Friday night and is now really excited for the upcoming season!
Making chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes, mac & cheese and hot dogs, butter & garlic zoodles (using up that zucchini!), and our last Green Chef (and Brandon's all time favorite) Plant Protein Baked Rigatoni - no joke he literally talked about it for two days after. If I've said it once this summer, I've said it a thousand times - thank goodness for CT family meal pick ups each week! If you have not done it yet, you are out of your mind!? It has saved my grocery bill all summer, although I did finally have to order a grocery pick up from Walmart because we've been out of ketchup, pepper, and olive oil for at least a week now (oops!)
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