Around Here Week 48: 11/24-30

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

photo cred: Peyton L

photo cred: Grey

photo cred: B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 611+ hours (of 1000)
yeesh, cold cold now and I have never claimed to not be a baby when it comes to cold weather. Brandon bought me a heated blanket for our bed and it might be the single greatest gift of my life. I got me some very fuzzy mittens and I'm just getting through it, okay? farm chores are literally the only thing that are keeping me getting any outdoor time. I have ambitions for the new year, but for now I'm going easy on myself. 

Reading Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls, still a nice slow and relaxed read.

Listening to The Chain by Adrian McKinty still very exciting but ready to get to the conclusion.

Marco the Elf antics: he only just arrived on Saturday. The kids found him in his 'charging box' hanging on the front door handle. 

Christmas movies watched: The Grinch (cartoon version)

Football Boosters fundraising event at Forbes Trail Brewing. Grey volunteered as a cashier for the first part of the day. Uch and the nephews, Kitty & Bryan, and Pappy all joined us for some yummy food, snackies, drinks, and laughter. 

Girls Breakfast and Lunch! I met Heather at Corner Coffee Shoppe for breakfast and it was so nice to sit and eat food that I didn't make or have to clean up (hah). We always have great conversation, so thankful for that girl. The dentist was able to squeeze me in on Wednesday when someone canceled, so I got a teeth cleaning and then randomly called my sis Uch to see if she was available for lunch since I was in the neighborhood of her job. She was! So we had lunch together at Harrigans for more delicious food and great conversation.  

Family Yearbook from 2023-24 is here! She's a beauty and I love her so much! It is a 14 month process to put it all together and 900+ photos, but worth it every year. It brings our whole family so much joy and a flood of memories of all the things we do together and how many people in our lives bring happiness and support to us in all we do. 

Some nephew squeezems with baby Blair. We got to babysit while Kev and Uch got a little date night (and the other two boys were at the movies with Miss Emma - luckiest!) We got to snuggle him and read him books and he is just the sweetest little dumpling. 

Laughing so loud when Brandon showed Olive the turkey he was prepping for Thanksgiving and explained to her that these were its wings and this is the body...etc. And Liv said, "Okay, let me see the face." 

Thanksgiving first at Kuma's house with our Studer side of the family. The food was delicious and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins Logan and Ryder. Kuma even had a little game of pin the tail on the turkey! We brought sparkling cider (Rusty's favorite Thanksgiving tradition) and pumpkin roll. It was a beautiful afternoon and we all talked about Gigi when she came to mind. It was our first big holiday without her and mostly right now it feels surreal. There have been holidays in the past that she was sick or in the hospital and we missed her, but knew that as soon as she was well - we would make it up and celebrate with her. So it doesn't feel so odd that she wasn't at Thanksgiving but then when I remember truly why she wasn't there, the bottom of my heart falls out and I feel stunned all over again. Navigating the season will be delicate. sending love and strength to everyone grieving this holiday season - whether your grief is fresh or many years deep. xxo

Hosting Thanksgiving for my side of the family at our house. We kept it simple with turkey sandwiches, haluski, spinach & cheese casserole (from Bab's), roasted sweet potatoes, and pumpkin roll. My parents brought wine, Uchie brought shrimp cocktail and cheese & crackers, and Kitty brought chocolate chip cookies. It was a relaxed Thanksgiving evening while all the little kids zoomed all around and jumped off the windowsill onto the couches LOL. We sang happy birthday to my dad (Chumsgiving!) Before the nephews left, Reddy and Rusty were having baby stroller races with Wells and Heath in them (!!) and it was hilariously dangerous but they were all so trusting of each other - it was honestly blowing my mind. Cousins make the very best friends and memories!!

Ordering our new living room couch and rearranging the room. We have had the couch part of our living room in the front part of the living room since we moved into this house 14 years ago...but with our new couch picked out - we switched the sides of the rooms and it feels both exciting and disorientating (hah). It always is a relief to vacuum, mop, scrub, and purge broken toys (hah) when you move furniture but it will take some getting used to. Gemma and I manhandled two pieces of the furniture downstairs into the basement den (Girl Power!) Our new couch isn't scheduled to be delivered for another 3 weeks, but I like that we are getting comfortable in this new setting first. 

Rifle season! Tis the camo season in full effect now. Grey, B, and Violet spent most of Friday out in the woods scouting out their spots with our Gilmore cousins. Early Saturday morning, Grey, B, and Rusty headed out to the woods with Pappy and the Gilmore cousins. Grey and B both harvested deer on the first day. B got a 7 point and Grey got a spike. Thankful for those fellas filling up our freezer, we definitely will use the meat! Cousin Reid got a deer too, so before they headed out for their annual chicken wings out to eat together - we had three deer hanging in the garage! 

Having a bad tech day. Our brand new tv is stuck on a loop of "Smart Hub is updating please try again" so I can't update any of the streaming apps. I was on the phone with support trying a million things to fix it (no luck yet). Then I dropped my phone and the screen blacked out, still working alarms and can receive calls and texts - but that doesn't help since I can't see anything. Ughhhhhh. 

MAGIC SEASON is upon us! Marco, our elf, arrived on Saturday morning. I made a full calendar of Holly Jolly tasks that are traditions for our family that I am fitting in between practices and games and pageants. Gemma helped me bring down the Christmas tree and get it set up (no decorations yet, but it's up at least!). All the kids helped put up some decorations around the house too. We are stuffing and addressing Christmas cards, compiling my cookie list, and I have my Christmas Budget spreadsheet on fire (LOL) as I try to get all the things done in this very tight window this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sending my love and thoughts to all of you magic makers out there. xxo

Teaching only 2 days this week because of the holiday - good thing because everyone was becoming a little unraveled. My elementary students practiced the phrase "Doy gracias por" and then reviewed all the Spanish words we have learned so far with a game of 'human gimkit' moving around the room. Spanish Expo worked on practicing their classroom objects vocab, Spanish 1 read Chapter 5 in the capibara novel and did a walk around quiz to review. Spanish 2 took their Tumba final book quiz and did great on it - proud of them! 

Sporting with three swim practices for Rusty and one basketball game for Violet. Gemma had a double scrimmage at North Star (vs. NS and Somerset - I knew every person in there! LOL), a home scrimmage, and one practice with team photos. Grey had six basketball practices and team photos too. We all attended the football booster fundraiser at Forbes Trail on Sunday (Grey volunteered and I made pumpkin roll)

Making teriyaki chicken rice bowls, beef tacos, homemade stromboli, hot dogs and cheddar brats with mac&cheese, and baked ravioli. B, Grey, and the hunting crew went out for chicken wings at Tollgate after the first day of rifle. For Thanksgiving I made 2 pumpkin rolls, a turkey, roasted sweet potatoes, spinach & cheese casserole, and haluski. For sweets this week, I made a pumpkin roll for the Football boosters fundraising event at Forbes Trail, a batch of cowboy cookies early in the week, and a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the hunters on Saturday.