A glimpse into what it is like to be in our family just this moment.
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| photo cred: Miss Baylee |
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| photo cred: Onara C |
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| photo cred: Kitty |
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| photo cred: Lisa |
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| photo cred: Lisa |
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| photo cred: B |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 344+ hours (of 1000)
Spent a few hours this week monitoring our goat Polly who is really struggling. We did all the de-worming interventions last week and our other goat we were treating, Donut, seems to be back on track. I just don't like the way that Polly looks and I've been checking in on her and encouraging her to get up and move around. It's just been so unbearably hot that even if she felt well, it's too hot to be active. Ugh, farm life is not for the weak of heart, man.
Reading and finishing Miss American Pie by Margaret Sartor. I really, really enjoyed it. It was all things growing up and girlhood and those wild, sweeping emotions. It's a recommend from me!
Reflecting on heading into Grey's freshman year (only 4 years of Varsity sports left?!) and on the brink of sending the babies to preschool (pg 242) Miss American Pie: July 29 - ...It's like that scene in Mary Poppins, just before the captain fires his cannon from the rooftop, and everyone in the house prepares for the building to tremble - and they know that when it does, it'll be a miracle if nothing breaks.
Started reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros a recommendation & gift from my dearest bookish friend Taryn - thank you!
Listening during chores to The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
Painting the basketball lines! It's been a long time coming, but our line kit arrived this week and we picked out the paint (blue at Grey's suggestion). Pappy, B, and the kids got to work early in the morning and it looks great (and was actually pretty easy - so thank goodness).
Garage to Den project update - this week, Brandon worked on dry-locking the walls and he and Pap removed one of the garage doors so that we can put in a partition wall!
Manual Labor for Grey! He had the opportunity to work with Darren Altimore Home Services replacing a local roof. He was on clean up and carry duty which was hot work in the sun and humidity but he hung in there and took all the fiberglass rash and sunburn that was required to get that job done each day.
Meeting up with my Spanish co-teacher for lunch to talk about some rough ideas for curriculum mapping and the upcoming school year. Gah, I'm a huge nerd but talking about school and brainstorming ideas just gets me geeked - so I left our luncheon feeling energized and inspired. Thanks Ella - can't wait to work together officially! While I was at my teacher meeting, the three littlest kids spent the afternoon at Miss Baylee's house which made them so happy. They got to spend time with Miss Baylee and swim with her siblings and cousins and visit all the animals at the farm! (thank you Miss Baylee!)
Hoping to remember that in every grate we see, the babies bend down to check to see if 'Crunchy and Munchy' are in there. During Reddy's soccer season, I took the 4U players over the little hill by the school to practice ball control while kicking it down and back up the hill. In the valley of the hill were two drainage grates and we joked that there were alligators in them named Crunchy and Munchy. It was an easy way to get the 4year olds motivated to practice their ball handling over the hillside if we were going to stop and check on Crunchy and Munchy. Well - the alligator checking lives on and we are always looking for Crunchy and Munchy at every drainage grate we ever seen anywhere. We'll never stop looking for you Crunch and Munchy! hhahh.
Experiencing the dizzying feeling of the mirror of life reflecting and refracting. Twenty five years ago I was headed into my junior year of high school at volleyball camp flirting with a freshman football player...and well, here we are again somehow; only I'm the mom this time. (Gigi, I feel your love and laughter all the way from heaven, girl).
Time with friends and family was kind of a theme as we had some random fun sprinkled in to this week. Grey had a blast at Josey's birthday party at their family's pond. B and I had dinner with my parents on Monday night at the Pike Inn (just the 4 of us!) and then we got to visit their house reno which is coming along beautifully (well done, Abba and Chum!) Vi & Gem got to sleepover Pappy's house and then helped him get his two pups to their vet appointment. Becky road tripped it out with us to the 7v7 and had a whole Studer experience with us (our big 12 passenger van and all the kids - hah!) And Rusty and Violet attended Evaley's birthday party sleepover on Friday night!
Mini family getaway to Elizabethtown for a cousin weekend with the Gilmores and Rummells. We stayed at Ray & Lisa's house where they fed and cared for us in the relaxed and warm way that only come from cousins who have been friends for all of life can. Ray and Brandon were glad to get to hang out and our kids love spending time with cousins. The moms (Lisa, Heather, and I) took most of the kids to the local swimming pool for a little on Saturday evening - all the kids had fun but Red and Olive especially in the splash pool. Saturday included delicious meals from the Gilmores; burgers & hot dogs on the grill for lunch and smoked pull pork sandwiches for dinner - all with fresh fruit from their local farmer's market. The kids stayed up playing all night while I made a million MagnaTiles creations (obsessed) until the babies played Tetris in the bed and then couch with me because they are velcro children. And then on Sunday -
Hershey Park on Sunday with cousins! It was such a great day - so so hot, but that also meant that we had little to no lines in the rides because everyone was at the waterpark. Literally we waited for less than 5 minutes for Great Bear (unheard of!) The kids all loved it; all the ages and sizes (!) I also love amusement parks, so I made sure to get some rides in with all the kids individually - it was fun to scream and laugh along with each of the kids on the different rides. B, Heather, and I took the babies through ZooAmerica to beat the heat for a little while - but even the babies loved trying out the rides (they were kisses, so they got to ride two "big" rides: the Coal Cracker (a toboggan style water coaster) and the Trailblazer (a real coaster!) The top 4 biggest kids all agreed to do the Hershey Tower drop (I have been trying to convince them for months!) and Violet was big enough to ride most of the rollercoasters and even rode Fahrenheit and Stormrunner! We were split between favorite coasters being Farenheit and Wildcat's Revenge. It was great to be there with cousins, especially as both Heather and Lisa have bigger kids now and were happy to stroll through baby rides to give me and B a chance to ride with the big kids for awhile (thank you guys!) The day was so hot and so much walking - but the best time and so many laughs and memories made with cousins. (love you guys!!)
Big family tip: we purchased three All Day Dining Deal wristbands and it was a saving grace for eating all day. With the wristband, we were able to get food every 90 minutes for the whole day - no one wanted to eat every 90 minutes (too hot, too full, too much fun on rides) but we could get something to share between us or stagger our meals and it was enough to sustain our whole family through the entire day. For feeding 8 people all day in an amusement park - it was such a money and time saver!
Kitty & Bryan PCT Update: 1,267 miles clocked and made it to Quincy, CA. They are officially in Northern California and putting in 20+ miles each day now that the terrain is less brutal than the Sierra mountains. She said though that it is hot, hot, hot but the bugs are a little more tolerable now that she's "used to them." LOL, I guess you really can get used to anything!
Sporting with equipment handout for youth cheer and football - so Violet and Rusty picked up their uniforms and we turned in all the paperwork. Gemma had two days of lifting/conditioning and two jr high soccer kickarounds, For football, Grey had three mornings of lifting/conditioning, a joint practice with CVHS, and a 7v7 at Bald Eagle HS (B too), and then he had a playoff game and the championship game for his pony league baseball team and they won! Pony league champions - congrats JR&S! I had a football booster meeting and still working on the planning of the upcoming golf outing fundraiser too!
Making copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, Korean beef/ rice/ green beans, apples / cinnamon / and pork chops in the crockpot, and chicken, veggie, and biscuit casserole. We went out to eat with some of the baseball families at Jim&Jimmies to celebrate the championship win and I was deliriously happy to eat my grilled chicken salad & hot pepper cheese balls (hah).
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