Around Here Week 04: 01/22-28

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

photo cred: Gemma

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 6+ hours (of 1000)
We got some snow time this week and some sunshine time outside! We snagged our friend Brody on the way to the basketball tournament on Saturday so Rusty had someone to play with instead of whining the whole time in the bleachers (hah). They spent the time between games eating our take out pizza outside and racing each other the length of the sidewalk. A picnic in end of January? I'll take that! 

Reading and finishing The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. Really interesting premise; would very much like to see this done visually (Illustrated novel? tv series?) but I really hate first person narration in a novel (personal preference) and there was so much world building and didn't feel like enough character building for many characters - and a lot of characters there are! I liked it, but I'm not going to read the sequel. I started and finished It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover which was a borrow from my student Maryn (thank you!) I really enjoyed it and was grateful to have a follow up to Lily and Atlas after reading It Ends With Us. 

Calling off of work on Monday to stay home with a sickling. Gemmi woke up and felt terrible - so I quarantined her to our bedroom where she watched girly movies all day, sipped Ginger Ale and puked it all up (lol, but seriously). She felt better by the afternoon, thank goodness. It was good to be home with her and the babies all day though. My sis, Kitty stopped by to save the day with Gatorade, Pedialtye, and little noodle soup (thank you!) I have been feeling exceptionally run down as well - so I took it easy and just maintained cleaning all day and didn't push too hard to accomplish much but to get through the day with two needy toddlers, a sick 10 year old, and a pupper. 

Struggling with our nightime schedule because Osa still isn't house trained and both toddlers have been sort of nightmare-ish, middle-of-the night wakers for the past few days. I think Liv is teething and Red is just a maniac sleeper normally. B and I have been splitting sleeping downstairs and I'm just anxious for us to go up to bed each night and tuck ourselves in and sleep without the worry of waking up to dog poo and pee everywhere or kids waking up cranky. 

Snow day at home with 8 kids, hahah! It was loud and wacky and fun. #parentinghack : it is ALWAYS easier the MORE kids you have at home (especially if there are non-siblings added into the mix!) I had my six and my two nephews; so the big kids helped with the little ones and the little ones kept the big kids laughing and everyone ate, ate, ate all day long. So with one hand I did my flexible instruction/grading/messaging students and with the other I cooked, cleaned, diapered, and snuggled. 

Organizing our monthly Staff Potluck event. We had a soup & salad theme to support our staff weight loss challenge participants. We had so many soups (seafood soup was voted best) Someone brought in strawberries and angel food, we had salad fixin's, and veggies and dip. Everything was delicious and I am always so impressed with how our staff goes all out for potluck days! 

Sending B off with hand warmers early on Saturday morning to help as a guide at the High Ridge Jambo. It was cold! 

Teaching only three days in the classroom today. Took Monday off to be with my sickling and then Wednesday was Flexible instruction (not Live virtual instruction). Spanish 1 got a new vocab list of action verbs which means they are about to take a giant leap when they learn how to conjugate regular AR/ER/IR verbs! Spanish 2 is working through El Ekeko and we are trying to be more brave in writing in Spanish - spread those wings, kids! And Spanish 3/4 is jumping into the past tense verb conjugations but I'm trying to keep it fun for them. They are such a sweet group and I adore them. I had a really tough emotional/mental day on Thursday, just feeling beat down from sprinting from school to home all year and then the freshman were just overall kind of bratty and apathetic and screen addicted... it just felt like, "What the heck am I even doing here everyday trying to motivate these kids to learn while they roll their eyes at me when my own babies need me at home?!" After a good cry that night, I felt much better - but teachers, I know you get it...some days be like that. 

Sporting with a soccer practice for Vi with her Sparks team on Sunday. Gem had a basketball practice on Saturday and Grey had two basketball practices, two basketball games, and a basketball tournament on Saturday. He had one baseball practice too, while B had a basketball game with his old man league. We had the sweetest blessing on Saturday for the basketball tournament; our neighbors/friends took Violet, Red, and Olive for the day so that they didn't have sit in the bleachers all afternoon. Their daughter Sophia was the most patient and sweet babysitter all day - Gosh! what a blessing (thank you Altimores!!) 

Making meatloaf, chicken fajitas, Keilbasa and haluski, copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta, Hawaiian meatballs over rice, chicken wings, and crockpot spaghetti. Snow day had me making all the things: coffeecake for breakfast and homemade pizza for lunch. I whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on Sunday to start the week, because everyone needed a little pick-me-up (and those are the best no matter what season!) For keto I also made creamy shrimp and cauliflower, sautéed zucchini for the Olive Garden chicken, and cream cheese chocolate fat bombs. For our staff potluck day I made 'Skinny' Chocolate cake

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 2 days
make-out: 1 day (this was intentional; we were sick and trying not to swap germs!)
write 100 words in my novel: 0 days (!!)
affirmation:  7 days