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.