Around Here Week 44: 10/30-11/05

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 733+ hours (of 1000)
Clinging to the last bit of this beautiful fall weather - it was a gorgeous day on Friday when I got to stay home for my ACT 80 day with the babies. 

Reading John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin (with my adult book club) at home, This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron (for Project Lit book club) at school, and finishing How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong in the car waiting at the bus stop. hahhaa, I am determined to finish all these half read books before the end of the year (2 months and six books to finish!)

New (to us) furniture for our living room. This is a formal challenge to any company out there if they want to test the endurance of their product - you are welcome to send it to the Studer house and if it survives a year in our house: you're product should be lifetime guarantee - because if we do anything, it's beat the living heck out of our stuff. So, we've inherited (graciously and joyfully) Mimi's furniture since we have supremely worn out our last (handmedown'ed) couch. Keep in mind, Mimi has had this furniture for 30+ years, so we will see how quickly our kids can destroy it. Just kidding, but for real. 
      Things that have held the test of time in the Studer house: LL Bean backpacks, wooden tables with a glass fitted top, and our Step 2 Company Panda Climber playset.

Trick-or-treating one more time! Our Adams family (my parents & sisters) all met at Kitty's house on Monday night where she had a beautiful charcuterie spread of veggies and pizza (our favorites!) I took the kids around her neighborhood for awhile and then we all hung out handing out candy and snuggling with baby Heath. Kitty is a little witchy and so we also wrote notes to our deceased loved ones.

Working out every day this week with GrowwithJo on youtube. I love her.

Happy camo boys. Grey and B headed out to Uncle Jonny's house on Thursday night (Grey took a mental health day on Friday at school) and they spent the day in the woods. Then Grey got another day at hunting with Chum on Saturday. Nothing better for my boy than spending time in the woods with his favorite dudes looking for bucks and making jokes. 

Capturing a mouse in the house! 'Tis the season - if you live in the country, especially on a farm, you know! We've been finding mice in the empty garbage cans in the basement all week, but on Saturday we found one in the living room (!!) B, the kids, and I worked together to get it trapped and then released it outside (no doubt he will try to get back in, LOL). Oh man, country life. 

Swapping holiday decor, goodbye Halloween and hello to Thanksgiving. 

Prepping the house for new windows that are being installed next week! We ordered them way back in April and they are finally ready to be installed! We had to take down some kitchen cupboards to make room for the new, bigger window to come which meant we also had to clear out and try to temporarily organize things while this project gets done. 

Sending Grey off to the movies with friends on Saturday night. First official co-ed night 'on the town' for him. He's been to plenty of house parties where parents are present, and out with his friends and their parents - but this was like a drop off at the movie theater and then leave them there to be responsible. They saw Black Adam at the 9:20p showing (!) and then Grey got a ride home from the Holders (thank you!)

Teaching Día de Muertos all week! We watched The Book of Life in most classes (although Spanish 3/4 voted for Coco). On Tuesday we had a full day of food and festivities to celebrate the holiday. I also gave out Leave Me Alone passes (the first for the year!) since the first marking period ended. On Friday, our district gave the staff a virtual Act 80 day since there have been so many kids out with confirmed Flu A this week. (one day it was 68 students and 11 staff members out!) It was good to spend the day at home with the babies while also working on my training videos and getting lots of grading done. 

Sporting with basketball season for Gemma. She had two games at McCort this week and it is so fun to watch her play (it's her favorite!) Brandon is helping to coach with Coach Ang (we love you!) Excited to see this season unfold! We also turned in our sport equipment for the youth league football and cheer and Jr High football! B OC'ed for the Varsity football team on Friday for their last game. I am in charge of the junior high football pizza party, so this week I finalized plans with the coach and placed my order for the pizza. I also reached out to another player's mom (hi Mel!) and we decided what desserts would we make together to add to the pizza party. 

Making fried rice and kielbasa, grilled cheese & ham sammies, spaghetti with meat sauce, meatball stroganoff, sheet pan kielbasa and smashed potatoes, leftovers.