Around Here Week 29: 07/13-19

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

selfie cred: Abba

photo cred: Abba

photo cred: Rusty

photo cred: Lena (team photog)

photo cred: Lena

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 341+ hours (of 1000)
yipee - my Black eyed Susans are blooming and they look beautiful and make me so happy! Lots of in and out of the house this week with the siding project which also meant lots of flies in the house (my least favorite thing). We put up our new swing and the kids love it but it's hard to use without a grown up pushing them (much to their joy) so I spent some time out there giving 'under duckies' 

Reading and finishing The Sirens by Emilia Hart. I liked it - three stars! I picked back up in Good Material by Dolly Alderton because my book club meeting for that book is next week! 

Listening to and finishing Life's too Short by Abby Jimenez. Another great rom com with characters I loved! 

Celebrating Miss Hannah at her baby shower. We are so happy and excited to meet this sweet baby boy in late August. She looked beautiful and the shower was sweet and perfect. Also, the apple cashew salad was off the charts delicious and made me so happy!

Working on redirecting towards gratitude for one of the kiddos. Just a lot of growing pains going on over here - wanting to be grown but also wanting to be little. We had a long talk about all the grumbling and the intense disappointment over every tiny little thing not working exactly as hoped. So there are going to be more hugs and one-on-one time with Mom to help (requested) and a shared daily gratitude journal going on to try to refocus on all the good stuff that happens everyday - even if not everything goes exactly as we wish!

Mealplan for vacation complete! 

Siding Project!! It was two full days and Friday morning and the house is sided! We even rented a lift and had dumpster delivered to get the job done! It was pretty messy and loud with hammering and a lot of beep, beep, beeping for three days straight around here. Thank goodness for all the handy fellas we know and love who were willing to give their time, muscle, and patience to work together for our home. Thank you to Mr. Darren, B, Chum, Pappy, Uncle Jonny, Albert, Kevin, and even Grey's friends Bryce and Reed! It looks so beautiful and we feel like real grown ups with a real house (hhhahah!) Such a huge relief to get that project done - thank you, thank you, thank you to these men of ours! 

Taking a much needed chill. I was so exhausted from the week; even though I wasn't hanging off the side of the house hanging the siding - I did manage all the other things: cooking for all our workers, cleaning up, managing flies in the house (LOL, but for real), regular chores, regular scheduling, Bullet with his anxiety and bowel and geriatric issues (5 times I cleaned up diarrhea?!), driving the kids to all the places, making last minute hardware shop trips, farm chores, prepping and making lists for the beach next week...my brain and body were absolutely fried and so B took all the kids to Pappy's for a night swim and I had a cup of tea and watched the 5 Year Engagement (for about the 60th time in my life) and just chilled. It was bliss.

Haircuts for the girls. Ms Jo got all the girls trimmed up and looking fresh with healthy hair. Violet actually wanted several inches off and it looks adorable - I love it! It fits her spunky little self perfectly. Gem wanted to keep most of her length but Ms Jo got some of the thickness out of it (thank goodness) and Olive was delighted to go first with a trim and then play in Giada's toys while she waited for everyone else! 

Dropping off six bags of clothes donation at the thrift store. It seems like it would be the simplest part of the project - after going through all the clothes and bins and sorting and organizing - surely it is easy to just drop them off. But when I tell you this is the part that I get stuck at every time, I cannot stress this enough. The dropping off is the part that is so overwhelming for me - not because I don't want to part with it but because loading it up and driving there is just the needle that breaks my back. So I'm proud that I just put my big girl pants on and did it! 

Time with family and friends: We all went night swimming at Pappy's on Sunday night and then another night swim for B and the kids on Friday! Rusty got some time fishing and hanging out at the Que with Abba and Chum who let him bring friend too for a special day. Instead of sleeping out in a tent that night in the severe thunderstorms (!), Chum and Abba dropped Rust and Brody at our house and they got to sleep out in our den playing ping pong and watching the Minecraft movie. Colbi came over to do Gemma's eyelashes, go to the baseball game, and then let us hug all her puppies at her house! Grey went fishing with Chum at the pond they used to fish when Grey was a little boy (so sweet). I made a meal to deliver to a local family/teammate who is going through treatments (xxox)

Talking openly to the kids about the genocide of Palestinians. They have a lot of questions and I have facts to give them but no answers that would provide peace or humanity. It's just a feeling of deep despair and helplessness. I got a garbage response from my local representative after I left a voicemail there. To go about my day means I have to intentionally 'ignore' the genocide and weaponized starvation of children and civilians. And the Epstein files situation is insane. tell me you're in a cult without telling me.

Teacher prepping. My Spanish teaching partner Ella and I met at my house to begin talking about the school year. It was so nice to catch up and begin to even just remind ourselves we are teachers (LOL). After our chat, I order El Silbon de Venezuela to read with my Sp2 students this year which makes me feel like I at least have one little question answered for next school year. 

Sporting with equipment pick up for the youth football and cheer league. Rusty picked number 8 and got his helmet and pads for minors football (it will be his first year of tackle!) and Violet got her uniform and poms for Majors cheer. God bless the volunteer coaches and league board members - we are so grateful for you! Gemma had three strength & conditionings, did two summer workouts with the Varsity soccer team, and one jr high soccer kickaround. Grey had five strength & conditionings, two Colt city baseball games, and a 7v7 football tournament. I met with fellow booster member (and dear friend!) Stacy to make plans for the upcoming annual Red&White scrimmage and picnic during football camp (we met at The Morning Grind and I had a Campfire Cold Brew and I then I couldn't stop thinking about it and ordered another one later in the week on the way to Grey's baseball game. So delicious!!) I also made the basket tags for our sophomore raffle baskets for the golf outing (Thank you Becky for organizing the baskets!), I agreed to be team mom for the jr high girls' soccer team, and I completed the necessary athletic forms online for Grey and Gem to participate in fall sports. 

Making spaghetti with grilled chicken on top, baked chicken and potatoes, a double dinner of sloppy joes with mac and cheese and roasted broccoli (one for us and one to deliver to our friends). We had chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes, meatloaf with parm pasta, and ordered in pizza. For all our siding-hanging working men, I made lunch to fuel them: hot dogs with sauerkraut and perogies, salsa chicken tacos, and meatball sub sammies. For Wednesday weightroom, I made pumpkin-chocolate mini loaves nd for desserts, I made cowboy cookies and peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 

Miles Walked: 3 miles!

Around Here 28: 07/06-12

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

selfie cred: Gemma

photo cred: Onara C

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 323+ hours (of 1000)
This includes my tent sleepout because I classify sleeping outside as outdoor hours! At about half way through the year, I'm not quite at the half way point to my goal (1000 hours is the big goal for all of us, but if I can get to 800 then I know everyone else has beat me - so 800 is kind of my mini goal), but I know I still have the rest of summer and all of fall sports season to gain a lot more hours. I am optimistic! 

Reading and trying to finish The Sirens by Emilia Hart because we had our book club meeting to talk about which is always a great time (thank you for hosting Johanna!) Our next book is: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick. I picked back up reading Good Material by Dolly Alderton for my teacher book club.

Listening to Life is Too Short by Abby Jimenez (the next and last book of the Friend Zone series).

Black snake update: another snake; this time in the chicken coop!? The chickens will actually kill a snake, but the snake will eat eggs. I think the snake was actually hanging out in there for the mice though - it was high up in the ceiling part. In the dark, B and I got it into a pillow case (after a lot of hilarity) and then we walked it down the road a half mile to let it loose. I do not want to kill them (I don't want to kill anything except flies, I actually hate flies), and how endlessly grateful I am to have a husband who will fight through his distrust and dislike of snakes to capture it and release it safely for me. Gosh, I cannot believe I get to be married to him and spend all my days with him. 

PreK playground playdate with Red and Olive at their new school. I took the two of them out to the monthly summer playdate and they got to play on the playground they'll have at school and see some classmates. They even organized a little water balloon toss and snack (thank you teachers!) They felt so proud and excited to have something all their own to attend since they spend so much time being dragged to the older siblings' stuff. 

Visiting Abba and Chum at their Quemahoming camping site. They booked a spot for the full moon and the kids and I stopped by to visit and swim. We took the paddle board and the kids had a blast - their favorite lake activity is taking the paddle board out and falling off of it a million times. We have FunVZU inflatable paddle board that we've used for three years and it has held up to Studer-rough housing (which is a feat in itself!) 

Siding Project in full swing over here. Siding has been delivered (thank goodness) and Brandon, Pappy, and Mr. Feathers started pulling old siding and trim boards off. Mr. Darren spent Saturday installing the J Channel (haha, I sound like I know what I'm talking about) and he, B, Grey, and Gemma all worked on getting some of the tricky cutting pieces up where they could - in the blazing heat, it was honestly crazy how long they worked - but what they got done looks beautiful so far and I can't wait to see it all finished. We have friends and family lined up to come out next week to help side the rest while we have a lift here too because we can't get to some parts due to the solar panels. 

Got set up on Reedsy and signed up on Tik Tok and this week I got to work. I am already at 52 chapters and over 55,000+ words (and I didn't write a single new thing - LOL. I've been writing here for 17 years?!) I'm feeling hopeful and optimistic and energized about getting this book out into the world. (my tik tok is: @team.studer ) 

The trail cams are lighting up with photos of deer send straight to phones which have the fellas happy and talking. No matter how much I remind them archery season doesn't start until OCTOBER. LOL, hunting and fishing is all year in their hearts though. (the guys have the Moltrie cameras and apps. very happy fellas). 

Cousin sleepout at our house. We had our nephews over on Friday night to sleep out in a tent. This was one of my 100 small things tasks (# 81!) The boys are the sweetest and the littlest kids always have so much fun together. We had burgers on the grill (thank you Grey!) and smores and then loaded up the tent with a ton of blankets and pillows. Rusty, Red, Olive, Wells, Heath, and I spent the whole night in the tent. All the kids were asleep by about 11:30p and then I slept on and off again worrying that everyone was too cold and adjusting everyone's blankets (hah). We had no wild visitors but at one point I definitely smelled a skunk

Drive In Movies. We loaded up both vehicles and went as a family to the local Silver Drive In movie theater to watch Jurassic World Rebirth and How To Train Your Dragon live action. Spoiler alert: not a single person in the family stayed awake for both movies. Olive was the first one to sleep followed by momma (lol, didn't even make it to the end of the first movie!) Before the movies started, B and I were in camp chairs between the cars and we looked at each other when we heard rushing water. We both tilted our heads and listened again and B said, "wait, is that rain?" Just about then, we could faintly make out the fog rolling over the hillside on the other side of the big screen. No one else was moving yet but we both jumped up and started shoving the chairs in the car and rolling up the truck bed cover to save the mattress and blankets. We made it just in time for it to pour for 20 minutes. Then it cleared and we opened everything back up again! 

Time with friends and family: Rusty had a sleepover at his friend AJ's house and Violet hosted a sleepover with Lillian (back to back sleepovers for those two!) and we got ice cream at Kraus's (a summer tradition!) Violet also got to sleepover for Evaley's birthday party in a tent (for most of the night until a racoon came a knocking!) and then had a playdate at our house with Giada while her dad was there working on our siding project. Grey had a sleepover at Gabe's house too.

Teacher prepping: I pulled out my curriculum map from last year and did a glance over to start thinking about the upcoming year and what might need adjusted. Literally just looked at it and made no changes - but at least I looked it over. I also met with Riley (the teacher I mentored this year) to talk about summer planning and mapping things out. She is the sweetest and it was so good to teacher chat and catch up on her summer (she's wedding planning too!) 

Sporting with youth cheer camp for three nights for Violet. Gemma went to two strength & conditioning, two soccer conditionings (1 varsity, 1 jr high), and one jr high soccer kickarounds. Grey had three mornings of strength & conditioning, two Colt city baseball games, one football practice, and one 7v7 football tournament at Bald Eagle HS. Gemma and Violet both attended the 7v7 with the football team too - Gem as asst trainer and Violet as watergirl. 

Making chicken Philly cheesesteaks on the grill at Pappy's (delicious B!), Pioneer Woman lasagna, tacos, baked Italian chicken & veggies, shrimp and fried rice, smash burgers, and we ordered take out pizza. I made brownies for dessert and cake box mix cookies for Wednesday weight room. 

Miles Walked: Just one! (but better than none!)