Around Here Week 38: 09/15-21

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

photo cred: Kitty (the Northern Lights visible in WA!)

photo cred: Kitty

photo cred: Kitty

photo cred: Abba

photo cred: Jackie F

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Uch

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 541+ hours (of 1000)
Rusty and Violet had a playdate at the Cables house to visit with their new puppy and then to exchange the kids, we just hiked halfway to meet up. Rust and Vi got to swing on a vine on our hike back home that we found and they were cracking up and asking for 'just one more' eight thousand times in a row. Outside is the best side. always. 

Reading and finishing The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler. It was such a great read and I am so glad my fellow bookworm and friend Jake Rising suggested it! (thanks and hi, Jake!) Next up with Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls.

Listening on my commute to The Reformatory: A Novel by Tananarive Due. The narration is perfect.

First week of Sunday school for the kids. I met with the rest of the confirmation class parents to get the schedule for the upcoming year (classes with Pastor, fundraisers, and volunteer opportunities and requirements). Our youth program at our church is so wonderful and creative. Gemma will be confirmed next year (2 year process) and Rusty will make his first holy communion this year! The two babies were joyful to attend the preschool room this year! 

Supporting Vi in her attempt at earning a spot on student council. She has her nomination paper signed by staff and classmates and she finished her posters this week! (she got on!)

Taking 5 dozen of eggs to work because we are overflowing! hahaha, thanks chickens! I know have three teachers scheduled to get an egg delivery every week! yay! 

School picture days! Thank goodness for the big family package (!!)

Smiling at the award that Gemma wrote for Ms Jenilee (our school's trainer). Jenilee has taken Gem under her wing since B became coach and asked her to be one of the sideline crew. She has taught Gem how to tape up minor supports before games, Gem helps her do pre-game set up (water coolers, etc). Jenilee and all her daughters are such important people in our lives; extended sports family, truly. We are all blessed to have them, but especially Gem and I was proud that she picked her for the award as someone that has been a supportive voice in her life (great assignment, Mr. B)

Saying a very tearful, but grateful goodbye to our pup Trixie. What a loyal, loving, and patient dog she was and how deeply proud and thankful we were to be her family. Trixie came to us right before Gemma was born; a brindle pitbull baby who we should have called Thumper because the moment anyone came near her, her tail started going. She loved sleeping most of all, cuddling came in second. She was our certified pup-vacuum, she ate every crumb off the floor - and with six kids, there were plenty of crumbs over the last 13 years. Although always ready for a nap, Trixie was fiercely loyal and ready to keep her family safe. Once on a walk with me, a horse saw us across the field and took off at a spring right in our direction. There was a fence between us, but the movement felt so aggressive, I did feel scared. Trixie set her feet, turned and looked at me and then turned back toward the racing horse in a defensive posture. I felt so sure she was going to die for me if she needed to right then. (she didn't and the horse stopped abruptly before the fence, but Trixie was ready if I needed her). Her heath had been declining...we knew. Gosh, we knew but didn't want it to be true either. Trixie had her last day on Thursday; B and I took her to Cambria City vet and were there with her to the end. Sweet girl, we were so lucky to be your family. Thank you for taking care of us until your last breath; so fiercely loyal. Humans really don't deserve the love of dogs. 

Stopping at the DMV to renew my license photo. I was ready! Brought my book, got there was early as possible, had plenty of time before any other commitments. But it was quick and painless and I was in and out in under 20 minutes!

Fun Saturday for the kids. Grey had a sleepover at the Conns house, Rusty had a birthday party at Maddox's house. Violet had a birthday party for Madelyn at Uzelac's Gymnastics building! 

Wishing a congratulations to our cousin Jordan and his new bride Tessa at their wedding on Saturday night. It was beautiful and so nice to see our Kovalchic side of the family and lots of our CV friends and be able to catch up. We love you Jordan and Tessa - happy forever! 

Kitty & Bryan PCT Update THEY MADE IT! It was the last week, the last stretch and we all waited at home home on baited breath of the confirmation that they made it to the northern terminus. On Wednesday, we got the GPS ping that that they had done it! We had a kitchen dance party at the Studer House and Gem moved our tiny Kitty&Bryan marker to the tippity top of our tracking map! We finally got to see pictures from Kitty on Friday afternoon when they got back to cell reception (after a very strange voice message from her that had me in a little bit of worry, not gonna lie; thought a Wendigo got her for a second there). So very proud and so deeply grateful that I got to live through her stories and photos and videos. My little sis; the forever free spirit bada$s. We are so proud of you Kitty. thank you for being such an incredible example to our kids of how you can live your life arms stretched out, courage up front, and eyes wide open. 

Teaching some great lessons for Hispanic Heritage month at the elementary school. The kids are really engaged and it's been a great week. Grade 3 is learning about music from famous latin artists (we're watching clips from animated movies that include the song - like Conga by Gloria Estefan in the Chipmunks movie!) Grades 4 & 5 are working on a collaborative mural of Frida Kahlo. In Spanish expo, we finished the geography unit with country infographs and a map quiz. Spanish 1 conjugated the verb SER and learned about personal adjectives. They did a Adjectives Selfie project which they loved and hated simultaneously (hah).  Spanish 2 finished up their food unit practicing ordering and restaurant vocab (with speaking!) and they started their first movie study - Canela. 

Sporting with 2 flag practices for Rusty (they had a bye this week so no game). Violet had 3 majors cheer practices and 2 minors football practices plus a pizza party! Gemma had 3 soccer practices and two home games! B and Grey had 4 football practices and a home game (senior night!) on Friday night. I attended the football booster meeting on Sunday night and the soccer booster meeting on Wednesday night. On Friday afternoon, before the football game - the entire team in jerseys, the coaching staff, and all the Studer kids stopped by the funeral home to see Coach Cover at the viewing of his mother who had passed this week. It was very special to see all those boys lined up in jerseys waiting to give a hug to Coach and his family. Well done boys, football is more than football. 

Making chicken, biscuit & veggie casserole (Olive helped!), taco pasta, and Hawaiian meatballs over rice. Olive and I made some chocolate covered pretzels because momma be needing a chocolate fix (LOL)

Around Here Week 37: 09/08-14

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

photo cred: CT Media class

our favorite first responder! Mr. Mike! photo cred: Roxanne B

photo cred: Stacy B (you are amazing!)

photo cred: Stacy B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 529+ hours (of 1000)
I took the babies for a hike in the back to the apple tree for a climb (they saw a picture of it back when Grey and Gem were young in the family yearbooks and wanted to check it out for themselves!) Kids are earning plenty of time outside afterschool on the trampoline (need to get those post-desk wiggles out!) and of course of the fall sports fields. I'm snagging most of my time on the sidelines of fall sports and not much besides that and outdoor chores at home. 

Reading The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

Listening on my commute to The Reformatory: A Novel by Tananarive Due and very invested in the story. 

Seeing colors changing! Geeking out because I love fall so much but always perpetually terrorized that it will go too fast (LOL). The golden rod is out in full force - there is a section of my commute home where you turn in a corner on a field that is golden rod for acres; it's incredible. There are a few trees in the yard thinking about making the change already. It's still feels mostly like summer, but every few days we get a breeze with a little chill in it and I know fall is really making her way to me! 

Sending big kids to help grandparents. Grey went to Pappy's house to work on some projects while Gemma went with Chum & Abba to help move stuff from the storage units into their completed (!!) upstairs of the new house. They are officially moving into the upstairs now that it is dry-walled, painted, carpeted, and has plumbing and electric! So exciting to see the project nearing the end (they've been working on their full home reno since January!) 

Scheduling family Christmas card photo (here's your reminder if you do that sort of thing!) I scheduled a mini with Bridge Perspective for early October!

Thankful for the news from Rusty's extra tooth consultation. It seems he will need oral surgery to remove the extra tooth (and two baby teeth!) but the tooth that is the problem is pretty close to the gum and it doesn't seem like it's going to be very invasive. (thank goodness!) Next up - we will need to choose our oral surgeon and get a consultation with them and then the surgery on the books! 

Showing love for First Responders on September 11. In school, my students in both elementary and high school signed homemade thank you cards that we delivered to our building resource officers. At home, we dropped off cookies and a thank you card to our neighbor Mr. Mike who is also the resource officer at our kids' school district! 

Playing catch all day everyday because Reddy is obsessed with football and making diving catches on the trampoline or inside on the mat in the living room. 

Elementary school open house. It's my tenth elementary school house attendance (LOL), so even though most of the teachers already know our family and I've been to every grade level multiple times - I still like to go and say thank you to the teachers, grab some classroom wishlist items, and see the hallway artwork. Also, always a happy time to swing by the library to catch up with my favorite librarian and dear friend! (hi, Kate!) 

Working through big feelings with all the kids. All these babes have different personalities and reactions and worries. I have been working overtime trying to get to all the kids to make sure everyone is working through things in a healthy way. Trying to balance the kid who gets overwhelmed easy by wanting to do all the things, the kid who holds on to shame and worry when they say the wrong thing, the kid who thinks nothing is 'that deep' when actually it is a little bit deep and we should probably talk about it, the kid who needs to practice recognizing the varying degrees of disappointment and not every minor inconvenience warrants a mini meltdown. 

Booking 40th birthday plans and a place with Ninna for our husbands' upcoming birthdays! We have been chatting back and forth for a few weeks about protentional ideas and made the final decision this week! For those two best friends' milestone birthday year, we booked a big house to fit both our families (and the grandpas too!) to stay in Erie in December so the boys can all steelhead fish and we can all be together. So excited and proud of the planning we did, bring on the memories and laughter and hot tub! (yay Ninna! can not even wait!!)

Visiting with my Aunt Marlene at the varsity football game! She, Uncle Terry, and our baby cousin Wyatt all came by to watch the game! I was so happily surprised to see them and loved chatting and laughing on the sideline together all game long. Thank you guys for coming!

Happy to see some of my former NS students on Saturday at the youth league games. Even though their not technically my students anymore: once my kid, always my kid! Many of them have younger siblings playing youth league and a few of them were volunteering at the game. It was so nice to catch up with them and tell them I will always be rooting for their life! 

eeeeeeee, meeting Violet's friend's new puppy! So teeny, so sweet, so snuggly! Thank you for letting us visit with him, Cable family!

Kitty & Bryan PCT Update: Down to the final 120 miles! They started the week in Snoqualmie Pass, WA. We got to group call this week while she was walking through the "prettiest pass they walked this whole time" - she sent a video and it was incredible. By Saturday, she and Bryan had made it to their last stop in a real town in Leavenworth, WA. Next stop will be the terminus at the end of the PCT! Kitty (and her sore feet) are very much ready to come home though - only about two more weeks and she will be back in town to get all our hugs! 

Teaching for the first FIVE day week of the year! Gulp! Elementary school continued with Lesson 1, Session 1 (Pez y Gato video, sí/no, estudiante/maestro, and the Buenos Dias song). 8th grade Expo finished out Week 2 learning about El Encierro del San Fermin and then started the Week 3 and Geography. Spanish 1 continued practicing colors, numbers, and calendar words while also learning about Me Gusta/No Me Gusta. Spanish 2 practiced their food vocab, flipped perspective of verb conjugations, worked on some writing, and even made cheese quesadillas! I always talk about 9/11 in my class on Patriot day and like in previous years - I have students sign thank you cards for our resource officers because when bad things happen we look to the helpers (as Mr. Rogers' mom says). 

Sporting with two flag football practices for Rusty. Violet had three minors football practices and two majors cheer practices this week. Rusty and Violet both played football games on Saturday at North Star and Vi cheered for the majors game too. Gemma had two soccer games and two soccer practices, she also took yearbook photos as the boys' varsity soccer game too. Grey and B had four football practices , a team dinner & film night, and a Varsity game at Marion Center this week.  I worked the concession stand at the boys' jr high soccer game as part of the soccer boosters and I attended the jr high soccer banquet meeting that night too. 

Making spaghetti, slow-cooker cream cheese chicken taquitos, Korean beef with rice and green beans, turkey/brocolli/pasta casserole,  baked sammies (to go to the football game), and crockpot potato soup for post-game. I made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too because we all needed a little sweet pick-me-up for the busy week.