A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| selfie cred: Gemma |
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| 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!)
