Around Here Week 49: 12/03-12/09

 A glimpse into what it is like to be in our family just this moment. 

selfie credit: Chum

selfie cred: Abba

photo cred: Deanna M

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 686+ hours (of 1000)
We got our first laying snow this week which immediately prompted Reddy to ask a million times if that it meant it was Christmas now (lol, send help). The snow was gone by the next day though and we are back into cold but sunny days...too cold for me to be spending any real amount of time outside because I am a huge chilly baby girl.

Reading and finishing These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong and I loved it! My student Ruby is still finishing book 2 of the series, so while I wait (ahem, Ruby! haha, just kidding) I started reading our Project Lit book In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner and omigosh, I was sobbing by page32. Beautiful writing and the characters are so much like my people; my students, my grandpa, my community. Then I stayed up until 1:30a on Saturday night to finish the book because I was hooked. It was beautiful and painful and wonderful. Big recommend for young people or any people actually!

Pink eye update: OMIGOSH, B had the worst reaction of any of us and since it's gone now, we can laugh about it. His eye was almost totally swollen shut and was so red and miserable. I could barely look him the face. 

Marco the elf antics: wearing a diaper and holding a pacifier, sitting in our giant Santa's arms, taking a marshmallow bath, and sitting by the kids' candy-filled shoes on St. Nicholas day.  Marco also crafted up a zipline line through the living room, tried to guess Aunt Uch's new baby gender (he guessed a girl!), and turned our milk green!

Singing happy half birthday to our Rustman James! He was seven and a half this week! 

Volunteering at a local assisted living community with Grey's confirmation class on Sunday. Gemma and Violet joined us too and we played Bingo with the residents. Thank you to the youth leaders at St. David for organizing it! 

Buying a new car and saying goodbye to Sheila. I actually got a little teary-eyed leaving Sheila at the parking lot. She was so good to us and our family - since Rusty was born all the way until now. Poor thing took a beating but always showed up for us. We loved you Sheila, go rest now. (apologies if you aren't the kind of person who anthropomorphizes every damn thing...because I AM. lol). Our new car is a Honda Pilot (we named her Jillian) and so far we are absolutely loving it. It's an 8 seater (bench seats - thanks Car Mom!) and most importantly - all wheel drive! Not getting stuck going up our own driveway in the winter will be a first time in 12 years at this house! LOL. 

Checking off some school magic holiday tasks: both Vi and Rusty had Santa's workshop this week. I also sent in supplies for the first grade gingerbread house making competition (graham crackers, icing, hard life savers). Money was sent in to contribute to the teacher gifts (thank you homeroom moms for coordinating!) Gemma had her Middle school chorus and band concert on Wednesday night.  She did great in both and it makes me so emotional to see all those kids playing instruments together. (bravo to the chorus and band teachers!) 

Gulping at the orthodontists office when we signed our life savings away to pay for Grey and Gemma's braces (just kidding...kind of). Grey is doing Invisalign and Gemma will get her top braces on next Friday (!!) and her bottom braces on a few weeks after that. Yikes at the cost, but also it needs done...so we will just need to figure it out.

Special time for the kids. Vi got to see the new Trolls movie and go out to eat with her friend Bristol after their basketball game (thank you Deanna!) and Rusty got to play hooky on the half day to go hunting with Chummie (thank you!). Abba took Gem and Vi Christmas gift shopping and out to lunch too (thank you!) 

Finding out that I'm going to be an aunt to another NEPHEW! My baby sis Uch is expecting another sweet baby boy in April 2024 and I cannot be happier for that boymomma. She is the best and this baby is going to get all the squeezas and huggas come April! 

Sadly saying farewell to one of our goats, Oak. Gosh, it was such a long time that B tried to nurse him back to health. So many times we thought he was turning a corner only to still be sick the next day. In our goating experience, it is so quick for a goat to go from sick to death; and so we really thought maybe he was going to pull through after weeks of receiving treatment and still eating and being near the herd. We know it's a part of farming life to live right next to the line of life and death with animals, but it doesn't ever stop breaking your heart.

Teaching Capibara con Botas Chapters 4-8 in Spanish 1. Spanish 2 is reading the Billy y Las Botas graphic novel this week; breaking into 3 parts and working through some comprehension papers to get us through the story. Spanish 3 and 4 started reading Bananas and we are deep in our reflections about the banana industry - the kids are pretty invested. We read the prologue and chapters 1-3 this week. On Wednesday and Thursday, I hosted all of my classes in the library because my room was getting the light fixtures updated. It was kind of a huge pain in my butt, trying to get supplies to and from for each class; you know I'm using coloring tools and multiple novels and make-up work, and post it notes, and grading - so it was a lot of back and forth. But we made it through without any projection screen or student chromebooks. I was grateful to get back into my room though on Friday! 

Sporting with two wrestling practices for Rusty, and Violet's last two basketball games in the East Hills league. Gem had one practice with her 6th grade bball team, one practice with the JrHigh team, and she did Stats in the book for them at their away game too. Grey had three basketball practices and his first two basketball JrHigh games this week!

Making homemade strombolis (4 of them!), pierogies & kielbasa, baked Italian chicken with veggies & potatoes, a double batch of chicken & biscuit casserole (a new family fav), and tacos with decide your own base (shells/rice bowl/ or sweet potatoes). I made meat spaghetti in the crockpot at Brandon's office so that we could have a hot, homemade dinner in between Grey's basketball game and Gemma's chorus and band concert. I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for Rusty's half birthday breakfast too.