Around Here Week 33: 08/14-20

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

photo cred: Eva

photo cred: Abba

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 605+ hours (of 1000)
So excited to earn over 600+ hours by August, the badge for 600 hours in the 1000 Hours Outside app is my favorite one (lol). I know it helped a lot being home this school year to get so many hours, but I also know that I have been a lot more dedicated to telling the chores to wait and getting outside myself with the kids too this year. Having things outside for myself (and the kids) is also so helpful - like the back porch, the hammock on the back porch, our big swing down at Agnes tree. It does so much good for us physically, mentally, and emotionally to spend so much time in the wide open fresh air. Also, everyone upon everyone is constantly asking us how we are all so tan (LOL). 

Reading Glow Kids by Nicholas Kardaras and Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Really loving reading a fast paced fiction book again - it's been so many non-fiction books right in a row that getting into a story feels great! 

Visiting with family the day after the reunion at our house. Our Forte cousins stopped by before they headed back up north to visit with the chickens and goats. All three of our families include teachers (me, cousin Meg, and both cousins Kyle and Alyssa!) So all the teachers were trying to soak up the last few moments of summer before we become hyper-focused in back-to-school mode. I am so grateful to be part of a teacher-rich extended family!

Full blown back-to-school mode in my mind. There are lists all in my mind, planner, and on random slips of paper all around the house. The backpacks have all been washed (pro-tip: we bought everyone LL Bean backpacks from the start and they are LIFETIME guaranteed and great quality. We've been able to use them year after year! And if we do have any problems with them, we can get a replacement for life!), we are working off of a To Do Before the First Day of School Chore List (meal planning, laundry, shoe inventory, etc), and my last minute Amazon order was placed! 

Loving up on my Reddy a little extra this week. Not only am I stressed about leaving him for the school year, but he also bit through his tongue pretty bad after falling off the kitchen chair and then ran a high fever with the throw-ups this week too. Poor buddy. His fever has been giving him crazy night terrors where he thinks there are buggies in the bed and on him (it's honestly giving me AHS vibes at 3a) 

Well Check appointment for Olive's 15month and she's a perfect little ball of squishy dough! 

Caring for Trixie after her surgery this week. She got two big lumps removed from her chest/belly. She is a tough pupper but we are making sure she is comfortable with pain meds, giving her the antibiotics to fight infection, and checking her stitches to make sure everything is healing well. Poor sweetie girl.

Securing childcare for the babies! Thank goodness. The universe conspired to bring this together, honestly. We are really grateful to keep the cousins together at our house and have a set schedule for Monday through Friday for consistency for everyone. (thank you to Uch who did all the heavy lifting and researching!) Nanny Minnie is available to start on the first day of school and it feels almost too good to be true! We are so grateful. I am hopeful and optimistic that my little Velcro/pandemic babies will transition just fine - even if it takes a few days/weeks/months (?!)

Moving the kids' bedroom furniture around. The kids all asked to de-bunk their beds, so we made some changes and re-arranges to make it work. A little room redo always gives me a pep in my step! 

Studerbabies this week included a visit from a speech therapist and sessions with two of her clients!

Visiting Rusty's classroom at Kindergarten orientation! We are so happy that Rusty got Mrs. McCall! She was Violet's kinder teacher too and she's the sweetest and most enthusiastic teacher; she has a song for everything and it brings me so much joy to know my babies are with her every day! Rust and I each got our own tour (one for kids and one for parents) and then met back up again at the end. He did great and has asked already a million times to be shown on the kitchen calendar how many more days until school. 

Lesson planning and organizing my Schoology site. Like riding a bike - hah! Almost feels like I never stopped doing it at all! Can't tell if that is good or bad quite yet - gulp. 

Celebrating my nephew Wells. My sister Uch and Kevin planned the most beautiful blessing ceremony on Saturday morning at Stackhouse Park. Everything was so intentional and well thought out - I teared up several times; it was truly perfect. I got to choose a reading and I selected this passage from The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

No one really remembers their own origins. Most of us possess a kind of hazy mythology about our early childhood, a set of stories told and retold by our parents, interwoven with our blurred baby memories. They tell us about the time we nearly died crawling down the stairs after the family cat; the way we used to smile in our sleep during thunderstorms; our first words and steps and birthday cakes. They tell us a hundred different stories, which are all the same story. We love you, and have always loved you. 

Wells, you are so very loved and have always been loved, my darling.
After the blessing, we all met up at Windber Rec to celebrate his first birthday! The kids had a blast playing cornhole, spending time with cousins, and swimming at the pool. Uch & Kev - it was a perfect day. You are incredible parents (happy parentiversary to you two!)

Sporting in fall sports mode mania. Violet had two flag football practices and got her mouthguard fitted just in time for a scrimmage against North Star. She is playing running back, QB2, and linebacker and loving it so much. Gem had two cheer practices this week and the girls' halftime routine is really looking great (so proud of those girls!) Gem is a stunt base and loves her stunt group so much - all day long all she wants to do is practice their stunts, hah! Grey had three practices this week (full pads) and mandatory concussion session too. On Friday night, the boosters and coaches put on the annual ice cream social event for the Jr High and Varsity teams at the fields. All the players and their families enjoyed a meal, made ice cream sundaes and hung out while the players participated in a cornhole tournament.

Making meatloaf and mashed potatoes and veggies (Brandon and I never get any meatloaf even with 2lbs made because the kids eat the whole thing!) Slow-cooker cream cheese chicken taquitos, Asian ground beef over rice, homemade pizza, and chicken parm over pasta. For Wells' birthday picnic, I made cabbage & noodles and pumpkin roll!