Around Here Week 3: 01/12-19

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

photo cred: St David's Confirmation class

photo cred: Gemma

photo cred: B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 6+ hrs (of 1000)
It was a relatively nice day on Sunday, so I parked at our local deli and walked to pick up Gemma at the church after her confirmation class (double win - time outside and steps!) She was happy to walk with me back down to the car since I promised a stop at her favorite micro coffeeshop Cafe Dodie. Then the snow fell and mother nature was NOT messing around. So very grateful for our winter tire upgrade on Jillian just in time! 

Reading The Martian by Andy Weir. The science! I love it!

Listening to and finishing The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and it was perfect! No notes. Thank you, Shelly, for introducing me to it - I really loved it. I started Funny Story by Emily Henry 

Acquiring my first ever sourdough starter from our friends Bobby and Serena. Violet helped me name our sourdough starter "Sourdough Sabrina Carpenter" so that we can sing "please, please, please" to her. LOL. (100 Small things # 66) The selfie I took with the starter has me thinking, "It made me look like a psychotic poodle" - Guess that movie! xxo

Annual check ups for B and I to go over our bloodwork and general maintenance (hah). All went well and we are both looking good!

Winter tires for Jillian, our Honda Pilot and what a difference! I am so grateful to have them on even though it was a big expense we weren't planning on spending. 

Introducing myself to my Spanish teacher mentee. She is brand new fresh out of college (graduated in December!) and teaching my former students at my old school. I am so incredibly grateful that they have her and very humbled and touched that I was asked to be her mentor. We got to chat over email and we will be meeting a few times in person for the rest of the school year and as many times as we want / she needs through calls and chats. (100 Small Things # 87)

Much needed haircuts for the boys. At one of Grey's basketball games this week, I turned to B in the bleachers and I was like, you need to text Mont! Look at our son - this is a hair cut emergency?! LOL, God bless Lamont who always does right by my fellas and makes everyone looks so sharp. xxo

Laughing so much when I told the little kids that we weren't eating the appetizers from Applebee's until we got home and Olive said with fear in her voice, "But Grey will be there!" Hhahaha, if you have a teenage son then you know that fear is VALID! (lol) I assured her that I ordered him a completely separate amount of food and that she would be guaranteed some appetizers. Girl, same though.

AKT + kids weekend at Blue Knob (100 Small Things # 84 ) Endless thank you to Katie and Michael who were the most incredible hosts and to Karpy and Matt who made the long drive up from NC for the weekend! We lounged around and laughed and shared food and everything was comfy and relaxed like it only ever is with friends who have known you so long and loved you through all the different phases and stages of you. How much I wish Katie, Karpy, and Tab from our senior year of college could peek in on us now with our early bedtimes and giant bowls of guac feeding all these kids of ours laughing over board games with the same fellas shaking their heads at us. Violet said to me on the way out, "I know they aren't our cousins but I call Sophie & Charlie and Andrew & James our cousins because they kind of are, right?" I told her yes, they are because their moms are too dear to your mom to just be friends. Words usually can barely contain the real feeling of a thing. You call them whatever will help get the closest to the feeling of it! 

Teaching another NOT full week, hah! We had a two hour delay on Wednesday and Friday due to drifting snow and it is such a blessing to have a 2hr delay when the rest of our family does not (haha, sounds evil) but that means that I get to see everyone off in the morning - fix the girls' hair, make a little something for breakfast, check backpacks and give kisses. We also got out an hour and half early on Thursday!  The snow has made most nights and mornings a waiting game to see which schools will get the call! On the days we are in school though, we are getting in the learning! Elementary students got new winter vocabulary words and my 8th grade expo students got their classroom object vocabulary. Spanish 1 learned about clothing vocabulary while Spanish 2 reviewed question words. I was honored at the Varsity Wrestling teacher appreciation night too by my student Addy alongside many colleagues. They had a ceremony and then they revealed who our wrestler was that picked us (it was a surprise!) I even got a wrestling spirit tshirt as a gift! Thank you Addy for choosing me - I love being your teacher! 

Sporting with three swim practices and the Sprint for the Duck swim races on Sunday for Rusty (he won 2 ducks!) Gemma had two practices and three basketball games this week. Grey had one baseball pitching practice, two basketball practices, and three basketball games. All these games have my washer working overtime on jersey duty, yeesh. 

Making Pappy's meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn, "crack chicken" sandwiches, Hawaiian meatballs, General Tso's popcorn chicken over rice, copycat Olive Garden chicken over spaghetti, and Applebee's appetizers (using gift cards - still upheld No buy January!) I also did my meal prepping for the work day: protein packed breakfast burritos, taco rice bowls, taco salads. And with my sourdough starter I made 2 loaves of sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls

Sourdough update: my first two loaves of sandwich bread! Still trying to get a hang of when to feed and how much and how often and if I can put it in the fridge and when and what a paint smell means and how watery is too watery and when to stir and when to discard. The learning curve is EXTREME over here right now, but thankful for the internet and my sourdough mentor Bobby!