Around Here: Week 36: 09/01-07

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

cousin campout

photo cred: B

photo cred: Colbie H

selfie cred: Kitty - she's literally in the clouds!

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

always grateful for our center Gabey. He's been Grey's center since first grade!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 512+ hours (of 1000) 
Another beautiful early fall week! We filled up the storage unit with hay, enjoyed plenty of hours at the fall sports fields, and even snuck in an afternoon hike with the kids and Violet's friend Giada who was over for a playday. We spied plenty of acorns on our walk, tis the season! 

Reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler, still a little slow reading - but loving the story in the small chunks that I'm getting this week.

Listening on my commute to The Reformatory: A Novel by Tananarive Due. It was a suggestion from an instagram account that I follow and wow. incredible story and the narrator is spectacular. 

Last swim of the summer at Pappy's pool. We spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying wings at Pap's house and it was the perfect close out of the season. The water was perfect and we all got in to take one last dip! 

Cousin sleepover with our nephews. Wells and Heath had a sleepover on Sunday night and the kids had a giant 'campout' in the living room. I loved coming downstairs on Monday morning to see their little resting bodies all over the room. Red and Olive were thrilled to have them and they played outside all day Monday and even helped with farm chores. 

Making it to Labor Day which is my goal at the start of the school year - just get through the two weeks until Labor Day for a little breather. It was so nice to have off on Monday (thank you Labor Unions of the past!) to get chores done and catch our breath after a very busy few weeks of sports and starting school. I got totally caught up on laundry on Sunday and Monday! 

Bummed to miss our annual county fair visit this year - but there was just no way with the busy week in sports and school.

Attending the high school open house and visiting with Grey's and Gem's teachers. I love how our school does open house; you follow the schedule that your kids' do each day and it is such a nice glimpse into their travels through the building each day. Gem's ELA teacher had their Who I am poems displayed (so sweet!) and I got to chat with some of my fav teachers and fellow parents as we roamed the halls together. Bless those educators! Thanks for loving and encouraging all our kids each day!  

Smiling at the photos from my mom for the Goodies with Grandparents event at the babies' preschool. What a blessing for Reddy and Livy to have four grandparents to have cookies and juice with (Abba, Chum, Pappy, and Mimi!) 

Finding a groove with the afterschool backpack clean out, homework around dinner, figuring out how to wash enough laundry during the week so jerseys are clean, but also not too much that close sit in wrinkled hampers when we can't get to them fast enough. Prepping the night before to make mornings easier and keeping a notebook with required chores or events each morning so that everyone is on the same page and we can all work together. It's a process, but it feels like we are getting to the point where things feel like their moving in a predictable pattern and that feels good. 

Kitty & Bryan PCT Update: in the final stretch of a state now - They hiked through Whites Pass/Packwood and made it to Snoqualomie. It is starting to get cold and wet now, so Kitty is hoping to resupply with some more layers during a rest day this week. She said Oregon was so beautiful, but somehow Washington state is even more beautiful?! Hah! 

Teaching only 4 days again this week thanks to Labor day. The elementary school learned new words (camina, ve, pez, and gato) and watched a video they all loved that encouraged learning a new language. 8th grade Expo worked through week 2 lessons (camina, corre, El encierro de San Fermin). Spanish 1 got their colors and calendar vocab, practiced numbers, and learned Los Pollitos Dicen song (a fan favorite!). Spanish 2 got their food vocab list and started Somos 8 which included learning Cielito Lindo and watching Doña Angela on Youtube. 

Sporting with another week full of fall sports again. Rusty had 2 flag practices and Violet had 2 cheer practices and 3 football practices. Rust and Vi played at home vs. Meyersdale on Saturday. Gemma had 3 soccer practices and 3 soccer games this week! She got selected for one of the game captains this week too. Grey and B had 3 football practices and an away game at Blacklick vs. United Valley on Friday night. I gave Team dinner this week and we had breakfast for dinner: French toast, ham, sausage, 2 kinds of muffins (fruity pebbles and double chocolate), fruit, and orange juice or milk. It was hit and all the players were gracious and hungry! (I made giant batches of French toast on the blackstone and then just kept it warm in the roaster). 

Making a butt-ton of french toast (LOL) for team dinner. For our dinners this week, we had chicken queso flautas, pierogies & kielbasa, Pioneer Woman skillet lasagna, burgers wrapped in aluminum foil for the ride out to the football game on Saturday night and chili over mac&cheese for Saturday because it felt like true fall outside! I made banana bread with some very old bananas on Saturday morning.

Around Here Week 35: 08/25-31

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

photo cred: Shannon L

matchies!

photo cred: Kitty

selfie cred: Kitty

photo cred: Kitty

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Uch

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 493+ hours (of 1000)
Weather is still beautiful and B took the kids to swim at Pappy's house on Sunday afternoon which they were thrilled about. We are still getting lots of hours outside (especially the kids) who need to run and jump when they get home from school. Now that we have eggs in the coop, Livy and Red love going to help at the farm too! 

Reading The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler pretty slowly this week because of the first week of students, but I love getting into bed with a hot tea on my nightstand and reading as much as I can before I fall asleep - sometimes that literally a page only, but still such a comforting routine each night.

Listening on my commute to The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab and finally finishing it (after about 6 months, hah!) There were parts I really liked, even loved about the story and writing, and then quite a bit that I wasn't a fan of for various reasons. I thought it was good, particularly the thought and detail that went into the weaving of the story were immaculate. I loved the narrator's voice even though it lulled me into sleepiness often times, but overall it was just  okay for me. 

Wild pumpkins discovered growing in the goat pasture. We fed the goats pumpkins last year after the Halloween season and from those scraps, nature found a way! We had a whole little patch - 8-10 tiny pumpkins already started! 

Celebrating my birthday! My 41st! My parents stopped by on Sunday evening to sing with cupcakes and give me a hug since they knew the week would be hectic (thank you!) On my actual birthday, I had school and then Meet the Teacher Night, so there was a lot of logistics that I made sure to work out for that day. Pap went out to Grey's JV football game in United (thank you) while B took care of dinner and homework. B and the kids had a cake and number balloons up for me (41!) when I got home from Meet the Teacher night as a surprise. I had so many thoughtful messages, comments, Happy birthday song recordings, phone calls, and dessert deliveries throughout the day. It was a perfectly (mostly normal) day - which is exactly the kind of birthday I like best. 

Gem's braces adjusted at her ortho appointment and it is surprising every time how quickly her teeth move around after she gets them adjusted. The last stint had pulled her teeth apart a bit (there was a gap in the front two) and after one day from the adjustment, the middle gap was already closed. Poor Gem's gums were pretty sore, but she's a trooper and was happy for the gap to be closed again. Her teeth are looking really good and I know she's anxious to be braces free - but we still have some time yet! Thank you to Pappy who was on ortho appt duty! 

Working through preschool schedule adjustment. Red and Olive are not pleased to have somewhere to go most days of the week. They always had at-home nannies (we love and miss you Miss Emma and Miss Baylee!) so getting up and ready and spending the day at preschool/daycare is a big time adjustment for them. I made a colored paperchain for the fridge for them so they can visually see red rings are school days and blue rings are weekend days. It helps a little bit as they get to watch red rings disappear each day. But I know it is an enormous adjustment and they are only 4 and 3 years old. It will take some time, but I know we'll get there, especially with the kids feeling proud of their school work and art projects now. But, truthfully we still have a lot of tears and hugs and we just are not there yet. 

Getting into fantasy football. Well, only because Grey invited me into his league. He invited Brandon, me, both grandpas, and some friends. I have no idea how to do anything but I feel grateful to have been included (story of a teenage boy mom, right?) Grey helped all the elderlies get the app downloaded and ready and our draft was on Thursday night (thank you auto draft mode for me!)

Dazzled by our sunflowers. They are gorgeous and we didn't even mean to plant them - the seeds were just in the potting soil that we used to plant our potato buckets! They've taken over the buckets though (potato plants still seem fine) but they are bright and beautiful! 

Smiling at Olive who loves building creations with MagnaTiles just like her momma! Heather hilariously got me a set of MagnaTiles for my birthday because I was nerding out with them on our Hershey trip this summer. (Heather is the most thoughtful gift giver!) When I took the MagnaTiles home all the kids were so happy, but no one more than Olive who makes a new creation every afternoon after school to show off to everyone. She is legitimately good and we are impressed dail with her engineering - hah! 

Kitty & Bryan PCT Update: they started the week in Oregon and walked through the iconic Tunnel Falls this week. She sent us some more videos and I am continually inspired that we get to live on an Earth this beautiful. GET OUTSIDE, it is so freaking gorgeous and miraculously - even if you are not on a curated hiking trail like Kitty, your own neighborhood is incredible - look at those stoic trees reaching toward the sky! look at the flower gardens! Listen to the birds! Watch how the tiny ants march in a line! Anyway, they ended the week by crossing over the Bridge of the Gods into Washington - their last state to get through! It is surreal that I haven't seen her since March and they've been hiking on their own two feet since then, but soon I will get to see and hug my little sister again after this incredible experience! 

Teaching for the first week of school! I was at school on Monday then headed back Monday night for Meet the Teacher night. I got to meet a few students and parents and put the last finishing touches on my classroom. The students arrived on Tuesday and it was a whirlwind of a day (of a week!) teaching at the elementary school in the morning and then at the junior/senior high in the afternoon. My elementary students did an intro to Spanish special (class meeting, rules & expectations and reviewed introductions while making name tags - I have 400+ students I will see at the elementary school on a rotating schedule!) My 8th grade world languages expo is on a four and a half week rotation - so we started Week 1 (greetings, numbers, hay). Spanish 1 got started pretty much the same way expo did because I only had about 3 of those kids last year in expo. Spanish 2 did a week of review through reading, writing, and listening to gauge where they were and what the retained over the summer including their first descriptive writing. Overall, a good week - but whew! I am tired getting back into that high speed back to school groove.

Sporting with lots of fall sports activities. Rusty had 2 flag football practices. Violet had a very busy week as she added minors football to her plate this week. She had 3 cheer practices which were then immediately followed by football (2 practices and a scrimmage vs. McCort). Both Rusty and Violet played at Blacklick on Saturday; Rusty for flag, Violet for minors football, and then I helped her wardrobe change in the baseball dugout (LOL) so she could cheer for the Majors team. Gemma 3 jr high soccer practices and 1 game vs. Berlin. Gemma also helps on the sidelines with the trainer for the Varsity football games. Grey had a JV football game, 3 football practices, and played in the Varsity football game on Friday night then he got up on Saturday morning and went to basketball open gym at 10:30a. (parents of athletes - I am sending you hugs, and reminders to do all the jerseys and also wishes for good deals at the grocery store because GOOD LORD, the food). B had the same football schedule as Grey (duh) which also included team dinner & film on Sunday night where he received a signed game ball from the team after his first coaching win (the sweetest!)

Making tacos, chicken / veggie/ biscuit casserole, please-make-me meatballs over mashed potatoes, homemade pizza, and sheet pan chicken fajitas. B got ice cream cake for my birthday! I made a batch of peanut butter powerballs because we need energy and a booster for afterschool snack!