Around Here Week 30: 07/25-30

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

photo cred: Becky

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 340+ hours (of 1000)
We had a long morning at the Que with my friend Lisa and new friend Chelsea (both mommas who care about raising up outdoor-risky play kids!) We swam and played and snacked. We also went to the drive ins with our cousins on Friday night to see Jungle Cruise (very good actually, I was surprised by the plot twice!) 

Reading and finishing The Book of Dreams by Nina George. I don't know how to adequately describe the book, my feelings were love so much in the beginning then the middle got a little dark and twisty-turney that I started to feel upside down under an iced over river, and then I loved the end so much. 

Church 'shopping' with the big kids. We have been doing a lot of discussion at home about attending mass and Olive hasn't been baptized yet. Between covid and busyness it has been so long since we have attended church and it has been weighing heavily on my heart. Brandon and I were both raised Catholic and we feel connected to the church and teachings but mostly in this is what we've always known sort of way. I have always felt more spiritually connected with kindness and karma and community and giving in a broader sense. I'm still (at nearly 38 years old) figuring out my spirituality and beliefs, but I do know I want my children learning about those things: kindness, community, giving, karma in the sense of getting out of life what you breathe into it. I cannot tell you the struggle it is to try to get my family inspired, encouraged (threatened) to get up and moving on Sunday to go to mass. But, there is a Lutheran Church only minutes away from our house where we have family and many of their school friends attend. So the two biggest kids and I attended their outdoor mass on Sunday morning (outdoor mass! already a win!) The sermon was beautiful and we got to chat with friends and family afterwards and it was so close, we weren't even late (imagine!)

Decluttering our bedroom and closet. We filled about 8 garbage bags full of stuff. We have clothes going to the attic to reassess in July 2022 and clothes that went straight to the garbage bin. I pulled out some stuff to send to my sister who is expecting and then a ton of maternity stuff to go to the Women's Health Center that my sis Kitty delivered for me (thank you!!) We limited our clothes in our drawers and closet; it is so much more manageable and not overwhelming to look at. We put all the kids' stuff up in their memory boxes (art projects, report cards, birthday cards from family members, photos, etc). As everyone in the history of ever have always said (it's true), just removing the clutter lifts a weight off my mind and soul. On to the next room! 

Checking on Olive's little couch/mucous trapped at the Peds office (again!) She now has some blocked tear ducts - poor little thing; she looks pitiful but she really doesn't seem to mind her mucousy sounding cough nor her blocked tear ducts. Her lungs are perfectly clear though so she is all good. 

Cheering on USA at the Olympics! 

Sending love to Pappy and Gigi who celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary this week. They also took the four bigs to swim for most of the day on Tuesday which was such a blessing to me as I was not feeling well. I was able to spend the day slowly getting chores done while letting the two babies get a good long nap in too. (thank you!) 

Giving the farmette lowdown to Kitty who will be pet caring for us while we go away for a few days. She got the run through of how to care for our whole crew: dogs, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, and goats (!) She is on Rover if you ever need her! (thank you and love you Kitty!) 

Having a sleepover at our house! I promised Violet & Rust that they could host their cousins for a sleepover before summers end - and eek! It's coming pretty quickly. We had Brookie and Bennie over and the four of them played and ran around like bandits. At football practice that night, Gemma negotiated a sleepover at our house with her friend Cora (she's a sweetheart) and then Grey was like - what!? so he and the Conn twins negotiated their own sleepover at the twins' house where their momma Becky agreed to a hike to Yoder Falls the next morning to catch crayfish (!) best mom ever! (thanks for keeping your bonus Studer kid - hah!) 

Giving Red lots of hugs and kisses as he tripped over a pillow and slammed his face off the floor. Busted his top lip wide open and it was fat for 2 days! 

Feeling the stir of hunting season excitement in Grey and B. It is prep season and Grey has spent time this week setting up trail cams, checking memory cards, and texting on my phone with his dad and uncle.

Getting our electric checked. As B has been working on finishing the back porch, we need some electric tie-ins for the ceiling fans and overhead lights. My dad got us introduced with an electrician Mike (we now call him Electric Mike, hah) and they went through to check all the breakers and boxes and make sure everything looked good. Well...it didn't!? The breaker to my dryer was heating up (very very unsafe). I was so grateful that we found that issue and then even more grateful that my Dad purchased the supplies and fixed it for me the next day so I was only out of a dryer for about 16 hours (THANK YOU!) Electric Mike also helped us discover that our outdoor outlets are connected to an indoor switch - can you believe we didn't know that for 10 years of living here and just figured almost all the outdoor plugs were bad. Electric Mike for the win twice!!

Back Porch progress: Brandon and his Dad finished the soffit on Friday (yay!) and Gemma and my Dad went through the outlets to update them all and make sure we had all the switches correct in the house so they'd work (what a tedious job!) Gem loved working alongside Chum and learning some new tools - she is so helpful and really thrives off of apprenticeship type learning. 

Scheduling appointments: chiro and eye doc for everyone. 

Packing for our Poconos family getaway!

Fall Sporting with the first week of practices. Just our footballers practiced this week. Grey had four practices and Violet had three. The whole family goes most nights, Rust practices with the majors, Gemma plays with her friends, and Red and Olive hang out with me at Violet's practice. Gemma also had her basketball open gym this week. 

Making homemade pizza dough (seriously my go-to when we are low on groceries), instant chicken pot pie, walking tacos, and chicken nuggies. 

Things I've made out of zucchini this week:  zucchini cookies with cream cheese icing, zucchini roll (like pumpkin roll, but zucchini), Mexican zucchini skillet for dinner