Around Here Week 03: 01/15-21

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

photo cred: Abba

Intentional Outdoor hours: 5+ hours (of 1000)
The weather here has been bananas for winter. This week alone we've had snow and very cold, sunny and warm/chilly (felt more like spring), insanely thick fog (it was actually creepy how thick the fog was one night), and thunderstorms (poor Osa was terrified). All of those weathers together mean muddy, muddy madness. It seems that winter can't quite make up it's mind, but we're trying to get outside no matter what, especially when we can soak up the Vitamin D because seasonal depression is for real. I wish I wasn't controlled by the weather...but I kind of am.

Reading The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna for our Project Lit book. I really like the premise but something about it feels too slow while at the same time too overwhelming. The book is so much world building right from the get go, so it takes awhile to try to understand what everything is all about, but then on the flip side, it's first person narration; so sometimes I feel frustrated by how much we focus on flitting thoughts/emotions of the narrator instead of giving me more information about the world. I don't know - it's hard to explain.

So very grateful for our friends and family who squeeze in to get us through the tricky days. MLK Jr day is a day off for our kiddos but B and I both had to go to work for an in-service day. So Miss Emma came for the babies as usual, Grey spent the night and then hung out all day with the Conn twins and their grandpa setting traps (thank you! best day ever!), Gemma and Violet had the most fun girl playday with the Lasure girls, and Rusty spent the day chopping and hauling wood with Pappy (best day ever!). 

Laughing about Reddy's "shorts on pants" fashion which is mimicked after Greyson. He is adamant about wearing shorts on top of his pants every day. Good grief, base-layer has a special place in the hearts of Studer boys. 

Puzzling for our January tradition. We got our family 1000-piece puzzle dumped out (ie. we finally cleared the dining room table enough to make space for it). Violet and I have the biggest obsession, but mostly everyone has had a little part in putting it together. 

Trying out some new routines with the dogs because we've been having way too many accidents in the house (!!) from BOTH Osa (puppy) and Trixie (11 years and stressed about new puppy). So Osa is going to be spending her days out in the goat pen, Trixie downstairs for human interaction/snuggling, and Bullet upstairs for resting and peace. Osa has been loving her farm dog job during the school day (although she comes up looking like a muddy possum everyday!) Good grief, it is a CIRCUS around here.

Grateful to come home from work to a house full of hugs and snuggles! Imagine arriving home everyday to three big toddler huggas around the necks from Reddy, Liv, and Wells and then a snuggle in that heaven-scented baby neck of Heath's. The toddlers all run to the door waving and smiling and try to jump into my arms before I can even put my bag down. Oh my. I look forward all day to those hugs and snuggles! 

Glad to have our chickies and duckies who provide us with eggs - especially in this economic season of crazy egg prices. Our ladies are definitely earning their keep and we are so grateful to those fluffy butts.

Singing happy birthday to Logan on Friday night. We were so happy to be invited to celebrate that little dude and visit with his mum Becky and our cousin Butter. The kids had a blast playing at ACRP Playcenter and it was the perfect winter evening to get all those wiggles out! 

Chippity chopping my hair off! I got about 8 inches cut off because it was just too long and all I do is pull it in a ponytail. Also I hate blow-drying, straightening, and/or curling (ie. lazy) and it was just really straggly and dead. So woohoo! It feels so light and fresh and I'm happy working a fresh new cut for the new year. (thank you Jo! I love it!) Gem also got hers chopped - about 5 inches off and Violet got a little trim. 

Spending the day with friends on Saturday; laughing and hanging out. We are all so grateful that Giada and Violet brought our families together! 

Teaching only four days this week, but participating in an in-service on Monday. In case you needed reminded of what it means to be a teacher of children in this country - I went to school this week to be trained on how not do be killed and how to save as many of my students as possible in the event of an active shooter. That also means I spent most of the morning crying - like literally in front of all my co-workers because it's not just that I need to be ready to defend my students, but also that in a high school it's not some random bad guy that shows up to hurt my kids...it would be one of my kids. A kid that I care about, and have spoken too, and seen in the hallways. It's a lot for my bleeding heart; so I cry and try to stay focused and logistically prepared, and then cry some more, and then make it my daily mission to push so much love and care into these kids I see everyday so that it never ever happens.

Sporting with one practice and two basketball games for Gemma and an open gym for Gem and Violet on Saturday too. Grey had three basketball games and two basketball practices (it's the height of the season!) and one baseball practice. One of Grey's games this week was at my school (North Star), so watched Grey play, then ordered pizza and they watched Encanto in my classroom while B and I caught some of the varsity game. #teacherskidperk  B had his Sunday night game at Franklin gym too. 

Making baked ravioli, chicken/broccoli alfredo and pasta, sloppy joes, and buffalo chicken mac and cheese. We ordered in pizza twice this week! By day 3 of Keto, I was feeling totally fine and started experiencing my biggest perk of doing Keto: not feeling hungry all the time. Yay! This week I ate broiled flounder (YUM), chicken and broccoli with lots of cheese, egg roll in a bowl, mushroom/swiss burger (no bun), and buff chicken with veggie dippers. I also had two Subway protein bowls this week for lunch because we kept forgetting to pack! I had a Mexicali and a Bacon/Chicken/Ranch; both were delicious.

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 3 days
make-out: 3 days
100 novel words: 0 days (!!)
affirmation: 7 days