A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Kitty |
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| photo cred: Kitty |
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| photo cred: Becky C |
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| when you scheduled the first offseason football practice but it's torrential rain |
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| photo cred: Eva M |
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| selfie cred: Gem |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 230+ hours (of 1000)
Great weather for walking most days although we did get two major downpours! The kids and I took a walk up the back way past the water tower to "the forest." We found a good swinging vine and they had fun testing it out (only a couple scrapes from thorn bushes below). We took Osa with us too so she could get some non-goat attention (hah). I also got some hours mowing and I figured out how to hang up the hammock on the back porch despite the rain spout - so now we're all happy about that. Reddy was in it the other day and called me out and wanted to talk about ants (he was watching them in the rock bed).
Reading Good Material by Dolly Alderton. It is so well written and I am really enjoying it.
Listening to nothing because I need a little break from disassociation. LOL
Haircuts for the boys on Father's Day! Thank you Lamont from Ambitious Cuts for always making my fellas look so good!
Father's day at the Que which is becoming an annual tradition. I booked the camping site over near the dock and we set up with canopies and a hammock. Grey and Brandon loaded up the rowboat and the kayak so they could fish. I brought sandwich rolls and deli meats and cheese for Build-your-own-sub-sammies and we had lots of other yummy snackies too. It was kind of an overcast day, but the little kids still were happy to go swimming anyway. B did his annual #studerkidshoponpop photo and we celebrated the dads we love so dearly: Chum, Pappy, Uncle Kev, and Dadda. Happy father's day to all you daddas out there raising up kiddos with love and grace.
Relishing my quiet mornings. My favorite part of the day is with my coffee and planner. With no-bedtime-summer in full swing over here - the kids sleep until 9a (Grey is at Strength & Conditioning until then) so from 6a until 9a I have peace to just do the little things that make me feel like the day is starting off right. Coffee, planner, starting chores (laundry/dishwasher/farm/breakfast).
Summer food pick up program at the school. I am very grateful that our school is participating in the Student Summer feeding program that is organized by the state of PA (thank you!) Each Tuesday in the summer months, we can stop by our elementary school and pick up our food. 5 breakfast items, 5 lunch items, and a half gallon of milk PER KID (0-18yrs old). It's definitely enough to support constantly hungry summer time kids which is so appreciated in my heart and in our grocery bill wallet. Uncrustables, apples, muffins, and frozen mini pizzas are always the first thing eaten when we get home. You can check if your PA school district participates in the link above!
Time with friends and family! The little kids and I had the longest game of Uno ever where we had a fine balance of laughing and also being super competitive (always a challenge for us Studers). Violet had a birthday sleepover at Bria's house for her birthday party. Most of the kids and I took a little afternoon swim at Peyton's house. Gemma got dressed up and went out to dinner with Chum and Abba. Grey went out to post-lifting breakfast at Denny's with some of the football guys and also went fishing with his friends one afternoon.
Cleaning out the freezer because of a leak. Something must have leaked from the pipes and then froze in the bottom part of the freezer and then melted because the fridge/freezer keeps leaking all over the floor. So I pulled everything out of the freezer which was actually helpful to go through and inventory everything that was in there. Then I ice-chipped underneath the bottom shelf (only sustained one injury, hah) and got everything wiped down and put back in a little more organized. A big, annoying job but glad it was done. Fingers crossed it holds up.
Black snake situation. Second black snake we've seen around our house (or is it just the same one but moved? unlikely). We had one down near the garage in the retaining wall earlier in the week and then one on the back porch! I didn't even notice the one on the porch, Olive just said - "is that a pretend snake?" and it took me a minute to even look at what she was pointing at because I thought she was kidding. Thank goodness the solar panel guy was there to help us get it picked up and put way out in the weeds (hahha - he wasn't expecting that kind of fun at his visit today I'm sure). Black snakes are dangerous to us and they eat mice and keep other snakes away - but still nobody wants snakes this close to their house!
Clearing out the bushes at the turn in the driveway which has been on my to do list for two years! Pappy came over to help B get everything chopped way back and we finally have clear sight lines through there!
Scary moment at Pappy's pool when Olive fell in the deep end. She pushed Rusty in playfully and then got caught in the wind behind him. Gemma watched it happened and shouted, "Olive fell in the pool" while immediately standing up. By the time I looked over, she and Brandon were both jumping in the pool (fully clothed with shoes on) and scooping her out of the water. Olive was actually sort of treading water with her face out (yay for kind of swimming!) It was scary but also a little hopeful that she knew how to kick her limbs to stay afloat. Everyone's clothes went into the dryer for a half hour so that we could attend Hannah & Eric's rehearsal dinner that night!
Celebrating Hannah & Eric at their wedding. Reddy was the ring bearer (Ms Hannah is his godmother) and I was honored to do the readings at church. Red and I went to rehearsal on Friday night and then we all went to the rehearsal dinner at her parents' house that night (after the Olive pool rescue!) On Saturday, everyone was up and ready on time to get to the church. Ms Hannah was beautiful and all the bridesmaids and groomsmen were so sweet with Red, hyping him up before his walk down the aisle. Reddy did an awesome job as ring bearer and all went well with my readings. It was a perfect ceremony. We had appetizers at The Fifth in between the ceremony and reception and then danced our hearts out at the reception. Decorations were gorgeous (always a job well done by Little Details by Reese) and we had a blast in the photo booth. We love you Ms Hannah and we were honored to be part of your special day! (now we can't wait to hug and kiss that new baby in a few weeks!!)
The news has me very stressed. Gaza, ICE kidnappings, Iran it feels like a near constant onslaught of one awful thing after another. I am trying to stay aware while also maintaining my own peace and joy (which is in it own form of protest). Mommas, I am trying to raise people that will grow up and do better. We must take better care of one another; we must be able to look across the way and see humanity in each others' eyes. We are all on this one planet together; all people, all animals, all plants, all things we find beautiful and awe-inducing. We have each other, that's it and we are doing a shit job of having each other right now and it is breaking my heart every moment.
Sporting with just the big kids. Gemma had one summer league basketball game and her last 14u AYSO soccer game to close out the season. She attended strength & conditioning MWF in the afternoon sessions. Grey is still dedicated to strength & conditioning and attended four AM sessions this week (7a-9a). He also had one Colt city league baseball game, one football practice, and three summer league basketball games. He left for team basketball camp at Juniata College on Friday morning until Sunday too. Coach Daddy was happy to get the boys back on the field with the first offseason football practice to get ready for the first 7v7 next week. It was pouring rain an hour before practice, but thankfully the skies cleared up and they got the practice in!
Making baked deli pockets, taco pasta, Korean beef with rice and green beans, copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, For breakfast I made confetti muffins and we had a big breakfast with eggs and bacon and bagels for father's day. I made a quadruple batch of cowboy cookies (4 dozen for home and 4 dozen for Wednesday weight-room reward from Coach's wife, lol). The amount of baking I do is directly correlated to my anxiety levels...so that might be telling you something.
Celebrina stuff: a loaf of discard sandwich bread and it was very good and all the kids like it (thank goodness! I've been waiting for a unanimous win!)
Keto favs: roasted green beans with shredded parm, apple chicken sausage with cabbage, and baked salmon with mayo & parm on top
Miles Walked: 5
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