Around Here Week 40: 10/02-08

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

welcome baby Heath! photo cred: Aunt Kitty

photo cred: Mrs. Conn

photo cred: Ms Jo

photo cred: Gemma Rose

photo cred: Gemma Rose

photo cred: Kristi Purdy

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 698+ hours (of 1000)
ah! Mother Nature is still not joking around and it is stressing me. The leaves are changing so quickly which makes me so happy because it is so gosh darn beautiful - but also! they are going to be bare in like a week and it is barely even through October !? I have photos from this time several years going back and all the trees are still mostly green. Why you doing me like this October!? We are bundling up and trying to get outside and I'm trying to just take the leaves changing for the beauty that it is, but I'm being a little cranky about it. 

Reading and finishing Love in Focus by Yoko Nogiri (my first manga!) What a great, easy introduction for me into this genre of literature. I really love reading traditional books with all the words and sentences, but I also found so much beauty in the manga style. I loved the pauses and emphasis that the illustrations added to the story. There were so many tiny details added to the setting and feeling of the book through the creative manga style of illustrations and use of stage direction type of words. I'm kind of really digging it. I would love to see side by side versions of books - like Where the Crawdads Sing but make it manga. My mind is opened to a whole new genre and I'll really grateful to be encouraged into it by a student because I wouldn't have picked it on my own (thanks Faith!) I borrowed another book from my student Mya, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by by Holly Jackson and my student Izzy has one on deck for me, The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.

Really wishing I could call my grandmas. I was just so run down on the way home from school on Monday (! first day into the week!) and I really felt the need to talk to my grandmas - they just were always there to love me unconditionally with no weight of feeling like they had to solve my problems, just love me through them and let me vent and carry them alongside them. Both of my grandmas are long passed away (Helen 17 years and Irene 12 years) and I then started to wonder about how human of a thing it is to be able to forget what I had literally for breakfast yesterday, but 17 years later I can still ache to pick up the phone and call my grandma. What does that mean that we can carry love so deep and rich across time and space and life and death? Who is studying this? Anyway, love you grandmas (and grandpas) through all the time and space and life and death and all the everything every single day. I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart. 

Wearing 2 different shoes all week because Olive has lost one shoe each from my school flats. I only have a left pink flat and a right purple flat (at least they make a pair!) and that's what I rocked all week because I could not find them anywhere in the house. She also lost my classroom key like 3 weeks ago and that is still somewhere in the house. I swear we are going to someday stumble upon her little squirrel's nest stash and it's going to be full of random things like my shoes, keys, and about 15 binkies. 

Glad for Violet who had a fun week with friends (my 8yr old girl - getting so grown!) She went to bring-a-friend-to-dance class with Ellie after school on Tuesday and then had a sleepover with Giada on Friday night and then stayed for her birthday party on Saturday too! She also had a big birthday wish granted from Abba and Chum with the delivery of a drum set! She's been wishing for one and has jammed out all week in the garage since getting it (thank you!)

Dentist check ups for Gem and Vi bringing in the news that Gem may need braces for a little while because her eye teeth are coming in hot and maybe some braces early might give her a little extra room in there while things all adjust. We will see - appointment with the orthodontist first! 

Getting a new nephew!!!! I'm a Tia again with the birth of sweet baby Heath born on Thursday, October 6th. That little nugget is so sweet and I am so proud of my baby sis - she is the best momma. Our whole crew headed down to the hospital to see them on Friday after school and every snuggled him up and smelled his heavenly new baby scent and oohed and ahhed until we were in physical pain from his cuteness. Happy birthday baby Heath - you are loved beyond measure. 

Kissing our two half birthday boys and measuring them on our doorway. Our Reddy is two and a half and Grey is twelve and a half and officially as tall as me! Time ain't no friend of mine! 

Getting spooky while pulling out our Halloween decorations and children's book stash. The babies were so happy to read all the Halloween books and even the big kids were excited to see our favorites like Ten Timid Ghosts and Zombie in Love. Next on the to do list - order costumes! 

Camo time for Grey with Pappy on Saturday morning. That boy sure loves to spend time in a tree stand! 

Big grocery haul on Saturday. We do two weeks at a time so it is such an exhausting task - the meal planning, the list making, the shopping, the carrying in, the unpacking - but when it's done, what a relief! 

Teaching Spanish 1 about El Encierro de San Fermin (the running of the bulls) and they were so engaged and curious. I love bringing culture into the class and giving them a peek into how the world lives outside of this small town that most of them have only ever known. We also practiced some speaking this week and they did great and most were brave about it! Spanish 2 started their first novel, El Silbon de Venezuela while Spanish 3 finished the musical tournament (Selena Gomez; Love you Like a Love Song was the winner) and started learning about Frida Kahlo. 

Sporting with two flag football practices for Violet, and one cheer practice for Gem. Grey had two football practices and a baseball workout. Vi played a wet and cold flag game at North Star (they won!) but we all freezed our butts off watching. Gem cheered later in the day and it was a tiny bit warmer and dryer (but not much). Grey played Northern Bedford for football on Tuesday (they lost, bummer). B took the big four kids with him to the CT Varsity game at CV on Saturday (I stayed home with the babies, yay!)

Making crockpot potato soup, chicken/veggie/stuffing casserole, meatball sub sammies, cheese quesadillas, copycat chik-fi-la sammies, Asian beef and broccoli over rice, and chicken nugget/mashed potato bowls with corn and gravy!