Around Here Week 42: 10/17-23

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

photo credit & editing: Greyson

photo cred: Becky Conn

photo cred: Angie McKool

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 542 hours (of 1000)
What a beautiful fall week we got all the way until Saturday when the weather took a big dip into the chilly (I actually turned on the heat just to warm up the house before turning it off again, hah). We took lots of walks during the day and the boys loved exploring in the woods behind our house - it is the perfect time to do it since the weeds have all died down and there's so many sticks to swing and debris to climb over. 

Reading and finishing The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Such a great book, literally three times I thought I knew what was going on and three times I was wrong (and happily surprised that I was wrong). Really good and if you are going to read the book, try so hard to stay away from any spoilers, it is worth it to go into the story completely clueless. That was my 18th book for the year and I'm down to about 2 and half months to finish 6 books to hit my 100 small things goal. Eek! Taking suggestions for great, quick reads - please! 

Grateful (AGAIN) to be home for the school year. Violet hasn't been feeling great the past few days (runny nose, little cough) and so I kept her home with the little crew to give her a break. It was such a welcome blessing to know that I'm here at home and she needed to rest and it was no big deal. The five of us played outside and watched movies and snuggled and she felt a whole lot better to get back at school the next day! Then the kids all had an early dismissal on Friday and there was no mad scramble to get them off the bus! 

Cluster celebration week over here with our 13th wedding anniversary on Monday and then Brandon's birthday on Saturday (my parents' anniversary is on Sunday too! hah!) We made our anniversary dinner at home (baked honey garlic salmon with goat cheese risotto and maple roasted brussels sprouts - all from Aldi!) For Brandon's birthday, I ordered in a bunch of wings from Tulune's and got some take out pizzas and we had Gigi and Pappy over to celebrate with us. I also made some pumpkin roll to sing and it was as perfect evening to be thankful for our Daddy. 

Trimming the goat hooves. This was a farm chore that's been long overdue and on our minds now for awhile. We've watched a ton of how to videos over the past few weeks and we just dove in on our anniversary eve (hahaha, we're super romantic). B went in the goat pasture with them, and while I held a bucket of feed for them - we had the goats put their head/neck through the gate to hold them steady. They all did pretty good and we were able to get all four goats done in one night - that's four hooves each = 16 feet cleaned up! It only needs done about twice a year, so it feels really good to knock that one off the list. 

Chatting with the prom committee through messages and meeting notes. We are working on just preliminary stuff like dates and fundraisers - but I am excited to work with my students still on this special event! 

Finishing two letters of recommendations for two former students. I am so proud of both of them and can't wait to see all they will do and accomplish in their life. Their letters of rec went off with their college applications (La Roche! St. Francis! Harvard!) Always honored to be asked to write letters of rec for my awesome kids. 

Collecting all the costume supplies for Halloween next week. We had some new stuff arrive through the mail, a piece ordered through a local tshirt screen printer, and some supplies dug out through the boxes in the attic.

Binge watching Midnight Mass on Netflix. So good and so thought provoking about good intentions paving the way to (literal) hell. 

Bringing home the trophy, BABY! Our majors football team (Grey and Brandon) won the AYFL championship against Meyersdale on Saturday. B has been so proud to coach them for the past four years - they threw their water bottles on him at the end of the game! 

Sporting with the playoffs on Sunday. My parents took Gem to cheer at the playoff game for the minors in Blacklick (thank you!) and the rest of our family headed to the home field to watch Grey play in his playoff game - same day, same time (ugh). Gem's team lost and finished their season that day, but Grey's team won and headed to the championship on Saturday! It was cold, cold that day so Olive watched the game from Lucille parked up high on the hill with Pappy and Gigi. Red and I joined them at halftime and Rust around the end of the third quarter.  Besides a big game week - Grey practice for football twice, Gem had two basketball practices, and Brandon spent the Varsity game in the box for offense. 

Making beef vegetable soup with the leftover roast, hot dogs & mac and cheese, ground beef stroganoff, slow-cooker cheesy potatoes and chicken. I also made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for an afternoon snack and some monster cookies to deliver to a friends' post-championship party.