Around Here Week 45: 11/06 - 12

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 735+ hours (of 1000)
Up barely, but was grateful to get in a walk with Kate while on our mini trip. Granted, it did pour down raining at one point and we were almost in the middle of a deer stampede (LOL, but seriously) but it was so nice to get some time outside walking and chatting. (thanks Karp for hanging with all ten kids while we walked!) 

Reading and finishing John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin! It was insane and hilarious and awful and bizarre and horrifying and nonsensical and mind-blowing and wild. So grateful to be part of the cult classic crew that has read this book, but also pretty relieved that it's over now! I'm also reading This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron with Project Lit and my student Maryn loaned me It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover which I started too. (why am I this way? so many books at once. finish the books, Tabitha!) 

Thankful for our church community who loves us just as we are. We have had such a rough time getting to actual mass this year (between sports and sicknesses and travel) but we feel loved and supported from our friends and community when we can make it. Vi and Rust have been rehearsing a sweet song in Sunday School for a few weeks and they performed this week while Gemma acolyted. With the advent season on the horizon and all the special events the youth and leadership team - the kids and I are all looking forward to it! 

Gushing over our new windows! They were installed all week long, so each day we got home there was something new to see and delight over. The whole house got done (19 windows!) and although it was an enormous hit to our bank account - it was so needed and I am so happy about it. All of our crank windows are being updated to slide up/down windows. We switched the big window in the kitchen to a picture window (gosh, it's beautiful!) and we made the kitchen window a little bigger which meant we had to do some electrical work to make it happen (thanks Pappy and B!) 

God Bless Miss Emma who had to deal with the window working crew and all their construction sounds and keeping the babies out of the rooms they were working in, all while caring for the three babies. Honestly girl - you are such a blessing to us!! 

Voting on Election day. I took Grey with me and I showed him how to go through the process and we thanked all the volunteers who run our voting station. (My grandma used to be one of those volunteers and I know they run the show from like 5am until well after bedtime. They are the true heroes of the day - don't forget to say thank you to them!) Abba was home with the rest of the crew while we went to the pizza party and then straight to vote (thank you Mom!) 

Parent-teacher conference for Rusty on Thursday. It is always nice to chat with Mrs. McCall and I was happy to get a chance to hear about Rust in school and let her know how grateful we are that she is with him all day (we love you, Kelly!) 

Annoyed that our oven door finally kicked the bucket. The hinge on the one side has been acting up for over 6 months (we have to hold it shut with a kitchen chair), but it has been officially mangled beyond repair. Even a chair won't hold it shut, so it's not pre-heating over 100 degrees and my poor dinner-making and baking heart is broken. But, never one to back down from a challenge - I am meal planning around our other kitchen tools (crockpot, instant pot, electric skillet, stove top, air fryer) while the hinge part gets ordered and shipped. 

AKT plus kids weekend in Virginia! Kate, Karpy, and I (with all our kids in tow) met up at Massanutten, VA to spend two nights all together. We had a two-floor condo and we all found spots to sleep and cozied up for the weekend together. The moments where all the kids were sitting around the table together talking and laughing made my heart swell - if only we could show ourselves as 20 year olds living in our little apartment at college! How they would hardly believe it but be so very happy we are still spending time together and our babies all know each other. The weather was pretty chilly and rainy, so we did a lot of hanging out at the house which was fine with the kids because we had a bajillion snacks, the mini basketball hoop (always a win), tons of games, and music playing constantly.  We did visit the pool and one of the rec centers and then on Saturday before we left, we got lots of wiggles out at the playground.

Making a sweet connection because of language. While we were loading up the cars to leave, Grey came in and said, "this worker guy out there was singing in Spanish so I said 'Hola' to him" and then that same man ended up walking in to the house and asked in limited English if we we needed anything. I let him know that I spoke Spanish and then we had this long conversation about how I learned and where he's from and how his mom had all these babies in a rural village in the DR and he gave us a beautiful blessing for our kids. Then he asked me to translate to everyone else and I looked around and Kate, Karp, and all the kids were standing there in silence watching us. LOL, I completely forgot that no one else knew what we were saying! My own kids were pretty impressed (their old mom can still do things that are surprising!) and now they all have interest in learning more Spanish. Language breaks barriers and weaves beautiful, meaningful threads in your mind and in your world. In case you needed a sign - here it is! Make a resolution of 2023 to practice a new language! 

Picking up right where we are. I know this is so cliche, but that's the kind of friends Karpy and Kate are to me. Minutes, days, months, years (!), might pass since seeing each other and there's no hesitation or awkwardness, no discomfort or judgement - just being with a person that accepts you exactly as you are in this moment, sees through all the mess and chaos to the core of who you are and loves you for it. I love you guys so much. 

Thankful for Lucille the Studermobile who made the 4hour (each way) trip with no problems and gives us all lots of space to minimize car arguments (hah). We are still a no-tech car family, so for most of the way, the kids slept or, we sing to the radio, or we shout "COW!" like crazy people every time we pass a farm, or we talk and reminisce together. It's not always perfect and it is almost always loud - but I cherish the time in the car with all my babies interacting and finding ways to beat boredom. 

Sick and down for every single Studer with the stomach bug. Oh man, miserable and it lingers - not the full blown version, but just the exhaustion, body aches, and general feeling terrible. ughhhh. Reddy got sick while in VA and I spend most of Friday night tending to him while we tried to get to the puke bucket in time. Luckily, we didn't have anyone sick for the ride home to PA on Saturday, but by Saturday night everyone was starting to feel a little off. 

Teaching Ecuador and capybara introductions to Spanish 1 as we prep for starting our first novel. Spanish 2 started Somos 12 and worked on some new vocabulary and target structures. Spanish 3/4 did a fluency reading about the Biblioburro. I missed a day and a half for my trip but I was grateful to get a good report from the substitute. 

Sporting with a basketball game for Gem on Sunday and then one practice this week. She missed her game on Saturday as we were traveling home from VA. Grey had his Jr High football end-of-season pizza party. They ate, watched a highlight video (thank you Jenn V for the photos and Loni & students for making it), got some cool gear, and signed thank you notes for the coaches. I RSVP'ed to the youth league end-of-season banquet too that will be held later this month. 

Making sheet pan "Easter" dinner (ham & veggies), baked ravioli, turkey tacos, church picnic chicken on the grill. Before our oven died, I made pumpkin roll and snickerdoodles for the Jr High football pizza party and to welcome back a staff member at school, I made crockpot Apple Pie crisp for our Sweet Return potluck event. Brandon picked up our chicken order from Fisher's too, so now we have 120 lbs of chicken in the deep freezer (yay!)