Around Here Week 49: 12/01 - 07

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

photo cred: B

photo cred: CT Media class

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 612+ hours (of 1000)
Ugh, tis the season of frozen water buckets at the farm. We have amped up our egg retrieval because we've already had a few freeze and crack on us. Osa is getting more food to keep up with the energy burning in low temps, but she is happy as a polar bear to be outside doing her job down at the farm. The chickens are still producing pretty steadily, dealing with frozen water is always our least favorite winter farm chore. 

Reading Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Listening to and finishing The Chain by Adrian McKinty. I love the premise of the book, but it did get a little more gory than I normally like for books. I don't know that I would recommend, but I have used the premise of the book as a conversation starter since reading it! 

Marco the elf antics: hanging on the sled decoration in the kitchen, hunting deer in the living room, hanging from the mini basketball hoop, drawing faces on our eggs, sitting in the baby doll stroller, sitting next to our shoes on St. Nicholas Day, and turning the milk green!

Christmas movies watched: The Santa Clause, The Knight Before Christmas (we all call each other 'old crone' because of this movie),  The 12 Dates of Christmas (just me while I was sick because I love that cheesy movie)

Setting up our Jesse Tree at home after a great morning at Sunday school to celebrate Family day to start Advent. We made Jesse Tree ornaments and helped finish lap blankets for the residents of a local nursing home. Red and Olive got to practice their song for the upcoming Christmas pageant too. 

Seeing camo because it is still the first week of rifle. B, Grey, Rusty, Pappy, and the Gilmore cousins went out on Sunday and Grey harvested a doe (that's three deer for our freezer! So grateful actually to have a full freezer!) The whole hunting crew came to eat at our house that night while they got everything butchered and cleaned for freezing in the garage. The cousins all helped moved Osa's house to the goat pasture (so so grateful!)  On Monday, B, Grey, Violet, and Pappy spent some time in the woods and Pap helped B get everything bagged up and in the freezer on Monday night (thank you!) 

Holly Jolly Season in full swing. We finally got the tree fully decorated on Thursday night. Christmas music is playing on repeat on the kitchen echo or in the cars. Both Rusty and Violet had their Santa's workshop this week and we all got little presents personally selected by them (thank you PTO for always making this so special for the kids!) We were visited by St Nicholas on 12/06 and woke up to candy in our shoes. And the kids are full on obsessed (like every year) to eat their chocolate every morning from their advent calendars from Abba (thank you Mum, they honestly love these so much!)

Knocked on my butt with a head cold on Monday (thankfully it was first day of buck season and we were off of school). I laid around all day with fever, chills, extreme head pressure, and a nasty cough. I am a stubborn brat and refuse medicine (B hates it) but I know my body will fight it off and if I feel better too fast I actually won't get the rest that I need because I have no chill (Virgo / Enneagram 2 / Oldest sister problem). So if it takes my body being slammed by a terrible day of illness to get some naps in - then I'll endure it. (we listen and don't judge - LOL). 

Singing happy half birthday to Rusty! Eight and a half this week and we had mini donuts and measured his height on our kitchen doorframe. My Mr. Handsome is always thoughtful but also very young boy right now wanting to play video games and saying 'what the sigma' after every single statement anyone says, and sighing about doing chores. He is so patient and generous with his little siblings though and still such a good hug-around-the-neck giver. 

So bummed to cancel our weekend getaway to Erie, PA. We were all ready to go: meal plan created, farm duties covered (thanks Kitty!), logistics for practices/games organized, educational trip papers signed, substitute schedule and lesson plans printed...only to be faced with a Winter Storm warning in our area and Lake Effect Snow warning for Erie (on top of the 5ft of snow they got last week!?) It was such a last minute cancelation, but our host Adam (of Arundel Cellars & Brewery) was so incredible and understanding our concern of travel with a group of 8 kids traversing two separate snowstorms. VRBO worked with us too and we were able to get a 50% refund and hold the other half for when we rebook. We were all really looking forward to the weekend away and celebrating Daddy and Uncle Jonny's 40th birthdays with steelhead fishing - but mother nature had other plans. 

Reworking my whole planner for this weekend since our getaway was cancelled I had to re-meal plan, cancel my substitute, confirm kids at practices and activities that they were previously going to miss, cancel Kitty on farm duties. I love my planner and having things organized and scheduled...so this was a little bit of an annoyance in my heart and mind. But we do what we have to and regroup - I got my white out going and started from scratch again! 

Taking every advantage of the snow day combined with my follicular phase (LOL) and knocking random tasks off the list. Gemma cleaned out and organized the junk cupboard (we have a junk drawer AND a junk cupboard!!). I had the four youngest scrub the wainscotting in the dining room, and I took everything out and scrubbed the entire fridge (much overdue!) Olive helped me finish the Christmas cards too and B dropped them off at the post office! Plus I did 5 loads of laundry and vacuumed upstairs and downstairs - woohoo! 

Blessed with the sweetest surprise of 12 days of Christmas packages from our dear friends and Rusty's and Violet's former preschool teacher Miss Nell and her family. The kids are so excited to start opening a little surprise and a beautiful corresponding story each day starting on Dec. 14. Thank you Miss Nell, Fuzzy, Grampy, and Pappy Resh. Love you and so very grateful for you in our lives and our kids' lives!! 

Youtube fireplace on the tv all the time around here, it just puts us all in the cozy vibes. I love the crackling ones best, but we sometimes choose the instrumental Christmas music ones too. 

Laughing about Reddy and Violet who made beds in the hallway linen closet and actually slept in there on Saturday night. I saw them playing in there earlier in the day talking about making beds, but then was cracking up to actually find them sleeping in there in the middle of the night when I got up to let Bullet out. Kids are so weird and hilarious. 

Teaching and barely surviving the day on Tuesday because I was still struggling through the sickness - but honestly as a teacher it is more work to call off than it is to just suffer through it. I made it and by the time 7th period rolled around, I was actually kind of feeling a little better (maybe just moving around helped loosen some stuff in there?) It was already a little hectic at school since the kids are fully aware that we have a mere two and a half weeks until holiday break....and then we got a Snow Day on Thursday. Oh goodness, it is going to be a tough two weeks trying to keep these kids focused. Elementary expo closed out the Thanksgiving lesson and reviewed Spanish words. It was my last week with my current group of 8th graders in Expo and they took a vocab test on classroom objects and learned about Los Castells de Taragona. Spanish 1 read chapters 6-8 of Capibara con Botas and Spanish 2 got personal belongings vocabulary, did a great job dissecting a reading, and learned about their upcoming Bolsa project. 

Sporting with no swim for Rusty this week because he has the head cold too, Violet had one basketball practice and a basketball game. Gemma three basketball practices and two bball games. Grey had four basketball practices and one basketball game (one postponed on the snow day). Brandon joined one of his football players at a local college recruiting event to support him (go Sammy!) 

Making crockpot meatballs for sub sammies (for the hunters on Sunday), chicken, biscuit, and veggie casserole, deer roast sammies, sheet pan chicken fajitas, homemade pizza, turkey burgers with fried eggs and chili on top, For breakfast on the snow day, I made Fruity Pebble muffins.