Around Here Week 06: 02/05-11

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 11+ hours (of 1000)
Thursday night was so gorgeous, high 50's, totally clear star-filled sky, with a breeze that felt like the beach with a storm brewing...except B and I were outside trying to wrestle the shed tarp down because the wind was so strong it bent the shed metal and ripped the tarp almost in half. It was down there whipping around so hard and loud that the goats were terrified. We it got tied down, but now we need a solution for the hay to keep it safe from rain/snow. Ugh, it's always something when it comes to farm life!

Reading 1000 Hours Outside by Ginny Yurich (which is 2/3 of the way done from last summer!) I also borrowed The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (from my student Lily) and If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin (from my student Alyssa). We had a our school Project Lit meeting on Friday after the early out where we discussed our two books: Almost American Girl by Robin Ha and The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Welcoming a new member to the farm. Dude! We saved him from a preserve and he is really nice except he STINKS. it's terrible. male goats are so gross with all their peeing on themselves and stinkiness. Ugh, I think I actually hate him, but he's getting along with the girls just fine and I'm glad he's saved but also...I hate his stench. 

Up to our eyeballs in tissues, blankies, cough drops. We spent most of the week feeling pretty sick and exhausted. It was just one of those weeks where we need to try take it easy and just get better. My parents took Grey and Gem for most of Sunday (they were the healthiest of us) to just separate us a little bit - thank you! 

Taking off (again!?!) Reddy was just too sick and Violet stayed home from school and Miss Emma was still sick...ugh, none of us can shake this sickness. I took Red to the Peds and we came home with a nebulizer, antibiotics, and a mini steroid. He was just so pitiful with the most disgusting cough. We saw some pretty quick positive effects though from the meds/nebulizer so fingers crossed this moves on quickly. 

Writing A Day in the Life post which meant taking a photo every hour. It was fun and a such a great reminder on how my day (albeit very busy) is filled with moments of joy and valuable relationships with people. 

Offering help. Usually the best help anyone can offer is to just come right out and say, "Here's what I can do right now. Do you want that help?" No amount of suggestions or trying to fix someone will work; sometimes we just have to get our hands right in the dirt.

Dropping the kids off at St. David's on Saturday morning so that they could volunteer with the youth group preparing for their Souper Bowl fundraiser. 

Teaching Present tense verb conjugations in Spanish 1. Spanish 2 Honors finished their Ekeko book, took the final, and had a little end of novel celebration! Spanish 2 is still working through the novel but should finish next week. Spanish 3/4 is working on creating their Preterito's Project; making cereal box with rules for the preterito tense in Spanish. This week was our big Jr Class Prom Fundraiser. I had 87 juniors in the library working on texting friends and family to buy popcorn on Wednesday for two periods. It was really successful and I feel proud of how well the kids did and focused.

Sporting with 3 basketball games and two basketball practices for Grey to close out his 7th grade junior high season! He also had two baseball practices for his pony league team which is on deck for the next season (so punny!). The Jr High basketball team was announced at the Varsity Girls game on Tuesday and then Gemma's basketball team was announced at the Varsity Girls game on Thursday! Gem & Vi had basketball open gym on Saturday too and Brandon had his basketball game on Sunday night. I got all the paperwork in for Violet's Sparks soccer team this week! 

Making cream cheese chicken taquitos, tavern ham in the crockpot, homemade pizza. Heather brought over pizza and salad on Monday night (thank you!) For keto we also had beef/cauliflower/cheese and one day I made banana bread with some brown bananas as a before-bed snack and it was devoured within minutes. 

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 2 days
make-out: 6 days
affirmation:  7 days
out of bed by 5:45a: 3 days