Around Here Week 33: 08/10-16

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

photo cred: Uchie

photo cred: Uchie

every time a yellow butterfly flies around me, I believe it is my grandma Irene visiting. (hi Gram xxo)

photo cred: Bobby B

photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Kristy P

photo cred: Kristy P

photo cred: Stacy B

photo cred: Gregory R Sports Network

photo cred: Gregory R Sports Network

photo cred: Eva M

photo cred: B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 430+ hrs (of 1000)
it's motorized bike fun all over the place here. Pappy got Gemma's quad all fixed up and it is back at home which makes hay to the goats a million times easier - plus the kids just like to ride around. Our two sweet kitties are still a big hit and the kids can be found outside snuggling them on the back porch or in the hammock. 

Reading Shark Heart by Emily Habeck and still loving it but taking it so slow because it is so lovely and needs all of my attention so I can soak in every moment of it. (and attention is hard to come by around here right now)

Listening to the New Heights Podcast with Taylor Swift!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. love them.

Official football season and our whole house and family gets a little wild. On Sunday morning, the football team had a car wash to raise money for their new black jerseys and the community SHOWED UP big time. (thank you Township friends and family!) Then Sunday evening was the annual football camp sleepover - so we kissed Coach Daddy and Booboo goodbye and they stayed overnight at the field house with the rest of the team! Football camp was all five weekdays (8a-5p) and that meant we didn't get much of Coach Daddy, Grey, Gemma, or Violet at home because the girls watergirl / assistant train for the team and they spend football camp at the school to help. Gemma got lots of hours in taping ankles and wrists, and Violet is a master Gatorade jug filler at this point! Football camp went great and at the end of the week - after their team photos, they had a visit from Bobby Bridges of Bridge Perspective (a CT grad and football alum!) who got them all set up to make the new jersey reveal video! We are all excited to see it because Bobby had some awesome set ups and cool ideas (plus, he's just amazing at his job anyway!) And then we had our first scrimmage at Homer Center on Saturday to really truly start the season - it's game time, baby! Meanwhile, I'm at home holding everything else together (hah) and making sure there is plenty of food for all these athletes as they are hungry at all times and they have clean clothes because everything in this house smells like sweat. LOL 

Owl Pellet dissection day! (tell me your mom is a teacher without telling me) I bought a owl pellet dissection packets for the kids to do this summer and I forgot to do it until we nearly made it to the end of the summer! Rusty, Reddy, and Olive laughed and fake gagged their way through dissecting the pellet and we used the little charts to try to figure out all the bones. We are pretty sure our owls ate voles and moles, but maybe a mouse skull too! It was a fun activity to do with just the three youngest kids since everyone else was at football camp all day. 

Errand running day (my least favorite) but so glad that all the items got checked off. I mapped out the route to be most efficient (stopping the furthest spot away and working back towards home). Red and Olive joined me on my travels and we counted off all the stops: Staples (for my teacher planner), Tractor Supply (for Chicken and Dog food), Walmart (for sneakers for Red and Olive), Ron's (to pick up our tractor tires), Jiffy Lube (for an oil change), and Richland Vet (to pick up Bullet's pills). It was an afternoon of buckling and unbuckling (ugh) but the little kids hung in there and we got everything accomplished! 

Trying to get things organized as best as I can before we take a jump from the high dive into school and fall sports. I pulled all my papers out of my planner and folder and tried to get them organized by category and when I have things due. The fridge calendar and my planner got updated with dates and color coded by kid.  Thankfully, we all kind of thrive in chaos so the start of the madness means we will all be operating at peak efficiency and the prospect of that has me happy. 

oopsie! I got the tractor stuck in the driveway ditch and B had to use the come-along to pull it out. Hahhha, imagine having to be my husband some days - honestly. this poor man. Thank goodness he is so handy and strong and handsome and loves me even though I get everything stuck and sometimes run things over and also break appliances occasionally. Oopsie, my bad (say it in Cher's voice from the movie Clueless)

Back to School Prep: 

• School shopping with Pappy tradition for the boys and girls! (Thank you Pappy - I know Gigi is looking down from heaven smiling that you still do this tradition with all of them!)
• Sending the fall sports schedule out to family and friends
• picked up new shoes for Reddy and Olive
• got a few school supplies like planners for the girls and notebooks for the babies
• submitted my classroom / office snack order to Heather (Sam's Club - thank you!)

Time with family and friends: Olive and Reddy had a playdate at our house with Bowen, Rusty had a sleepover at Liam's house. Rusty and Reddy got to spend the evening with Chum playing and splashing in Benscreek catching crayfish! Violet got to sleepover and help at the fair with Bria who is showing two pigs this week. Gemma went with Chum to get new sneakers for school (thank you!) and Gem also got to babysit the Moore boys for Uncle Drip's birthday dinner. Grey participated in the annual football team water balloon attack on the Girls' volleyball sleepover (Thank you Mrs. Roman for hosting and all your patience with that tradition!), he also went out to eat after the scrimmage with some of the team to Texas Roadhouse. B took most of the crew to Pappy's to swim on Saturday evening (which meant I got an evening with no one!) 

Teacher prepping by finalizing my high school syllabus for each level of Spanish, buying my teacher planner (yay!), picking out some teacher friendly new clothes and shoes for my birthday wishlist for my mumma who asks every year (thank you!). I also stopped into my high school classroom and started to redecorate with the help of the three littles. We took my plants back in and they colored and played in the room while I started to unpack my summer order and logged into my laptop to try out my new SmartBoard (yay! so very happy to have a SmartBoard in my room!)

Sporting with two minors football practices and a scrimmage at Ligonier Valley for Rusty. Violet had three cheer practices and Gemma had five days of soccer practice again this week for camp. Grey and Gem both had team photos on Friday. Brandon and I went to the annual Coaches hang out at the Valentines house on Thursday night (thank you Jenn and Joel for always hosting a fun evening!)  I attended the football booster meeting (thank you Mrs. Conn for letting Red and Olive play with Mr. Watt the bunny during the meeting!) and the soccer booster meeting this week too! I made the award certificates for football camp for Coach Daddy to hand out at the end of football camp. 

Making cream cheese chicken taquitos, Marry Me Chicken and Orzo, Pioneer Woman lasagna, Fiesta roasted potato taco bowls, and leftovers.  I made a batch of peanut butter powerballs and a batch of cake box mix cookies for the house AND some cowboy cookies for football camp on Wednesday

Miles Walked: 1.5 miles in real life. thousands of miles running through my brain trying to make sure we have everything prepared for the next couple weeks (LOL).