A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| if you look closely, that is Violet on the back of that sheep! |
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| Can you find Rusty? hahah, he wore full camo on our hike |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 454+ hours (of 1000)
The kids and I went took multiple walks around our house this week - I call it the treestand loop - and it is exactly the right distance that Red can do the whole thing on his own two feet! Then the three littles and I took a walk with Uch and baby Wells at Stackhouse park on Friday.
Reading The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Swimming one last time at Pappy & Gigi's house before they closed the pool! It was a chilly day on Sunday and the pool was pretty chilly too - but the four big kids all at least jumped in once to make it official - last swim of the summer!
Labor Day grilling out with my parents and sisters and baby Wells on Monday. I took our whole crew to play and eat for most of the day to give Brandon a few hours to get a bunch of outside chores that just needed done (mowing, clearing out the animal feed shed). So while the kids and I enjoyed good food and company (thanks Adams crew!) Brandon did the 'labor' part of the holiday - HAH. However, we are both in agreeance that a few hours of uninterrupted time to just get chores done is a massive gift in a big family.
Cheering on my sheep rodeo kids! We headed out to the county fair on Sunday night with my parents and sister Kitty (annual tradition!) and my dad got Violet and Rusty signed up to participate in the Mutton Bustin event (aka sheep rodeo) that was set to occur before the bull rodeo. The kids had never done it, but we had watched a few youtube videos over the weekend and they were pumped. There were 20 kids signed up (ages 4-8) and Rust and Violet did awesome. It was absolutely hilarious and I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. Those sheep are fast; they come zooming out of the gate! Violet scored a 69 and Rust scored a 70. When he fell off the sheep, he went flat backed into a huge mud pit and his hair was spiked up in the back from the caked mud (manure? HAH). They had a great time and want to do it again. Although Rusty told us that the sheep was kind of wet and it's wool smelled like "dead turd" and it the smell and wetness got on his cheek while he was riding it. (lol forever). You can see the videos here: Violet and Rusty - thank you Aunt Kitty for the videos!
Laughing so hard with Violet at the fair - she agreed to ride a little baby ride for Reddy's sake and then it went on and on and on and on and at one point she looked at me exasperated and mouthed "How long is this ride?!" Neither of us could stop giggling after that and it literally went on for like seven minutes (which is the longest time ever on a carnival ride!? Especially one that does nothing but go around and around). It was really so funny and Vi and I had a real moment of being the only two people on the whole Earth laughing about something so weird and random. (I love those moments).
Excited about Gemma's motivation to run for Student Council. She wrote her speech (she wants to hold a dribblethon to raise money for new outdoor basketball hoops!), rehearsed it multiple times in front of us and our extended family, and made all her posters for school. The election was on Friday and she was able to read her speech to the class and then came home smiling to announce that she made it! Sometimes she is so much like me that I get vertigo. My sister Uch asked me, "how is it to raise your own actual self?" HAH.
Making our rounds at all the appointments. Grey and B had eye doc appoints, Rusty and I visited the dentist. And Gemma had a vision test with Dr. Conway to see how her eye muscles work and a whole host of other things to see if that might be contributing to her struggles with academic learning. B and I had a consult with the doctor on Friday and it seems that vision therapy to help Gemma's eye learn to work together might really help her. Basically, when you read, your eyes need to travel together along the page, but her left eye (the one she complains often about 'being tired') can't keep up with her right eye as she reads on a page so often times it is blurry or looks doubled or even that a word/letter/number will "jump" to a place it wasn't before.
Delighted to see that we had four sunflowers survive the goats' attempt at munching them all down!
Catching up with Heather one afternoon. She brought lunch over and we spent most of the afternoon chatting on the back porch -finally!- after we hadn't seen each other in way too long. Something about getting to just chat with an open heart with a judgement free friend is such a comfort. Thankful for you and our friendship, Heather! (thank you for lunch too!)
Finishing up breastfeeding. It feels like the right time for me; for us. It's sooner than I had originally thought, but with five other kids it has been so hard to have her feeding fall solely on my shoulders multiple times a day. It has really been a relief to be able to let others help me feed her and she has taken to a bottle and formula really smoothly. Maybe it's selfish of me, but she is doing great with the switch and it feels like a true weight lifted off my chest (hah, pun intended) to be able to share her at mealtimes with other people that love her. She is good, I'm good; we are good.
Attending the open house at the elementary school and soaking in joyfully the full hour of adult interaction time - hahahahhaha, I nearly forgot that particular sahm struggle.
Finishing our 2020-21 family yearbook. OMG!! Doing a happy and proud and creativity outlet dance because yaaaaaaay! it's done! and yaaaaay I can start working on this year! (LOL, NERD.)
Smiling for Rusty who was so proud to be gifted Grey's old bow since Grey has 'graduated' to a bigger size. Luckily for us (and our wallets), he gets to use Brandon's old bow (from his childhood) and then passed his down to Rust. Archery season is on the horizon and my camo boys could not be more excited.
Thanking Mr. Mike on September 11th. Mr. Mike is our neighbor and our kids' resource officer at school - plus, he was a state police officer on 09/11/2001 and was one of the first responders to the Flight 93 crash which is only a few miles from our house. He is so friendly and kind and a real life hero! We delivered some handmade cards and snickerdoodles to let him know we are grateful for him.
Sporting Grey had two football practices and a jr. high golf match. Violet had three football practices, and Gemma had one cheer practice and a soccer practice at the Highlands. B participated in a fundraiser golf outing too!
Making instant pot pork chops, chicken, veggie, and stuffing casserole, ground turkey tacos, leftover rigatonis with texas toast, shrimp and broccoli with alfredo sauce, and chicken and zucchini casserole. B and I tried to eat more Keto than not this week too, so lots of Bulletproof coffee, avocado, and limited carbs.
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