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: Stacy B |
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| photo cred: Stacy B |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 483+ hours (of 1000)
Lots of time on the sidelines this week at fall sports games and the weather continues to be beautiful (although we could actually use some rain. It literally has not rained in months?!) On Saturday night, our whole family - even the two kitties came with us!- took a flashlight hike on the "treestand" path after dark. We laughed and tried to scare each other and were spooked by the kitties darting out from the tree line the whole time. Reddy tried to run as fast as he could on all fours and Grey and Brandon recounted stories that were a little bit spooky walking into the woods before dawn to get to tree stands. Olive reached up and held my hand and said, "We have a great family" and I said, "we do, huh, baby?" And for that little walk, I was really in the present (which is so terribly, humiliatingly rare for me). I am so very grateful for this big family of weirdos that go along with their momma's ideas like flashlight walks in our jammies.
Reading Listen to your Heart by Kacie West. Very cute.
Listening to Story of my Life by Lucy Score. Classic Lucy Score which is bringing me laughs and joy. It is a good pickmeup - she is good at writing those small town grumpy yet kindhearted men that become everyone's next book boyfriends.
Shocked that the babies slept for 13 hours on Monday. They fell asleep on the ride home after Gemma's soccer game and continued to sleep the whole way until the morning! I tried to wake them up multiple times to eat or get changed, but they were not having it. So we got them changed for bed and let them sleep until the morning. They were starving in the morning (hhaha) and they ate breakfast in the car on the way and then said that they ate school breakfast too! I'm very glad they caught up on some sleep - poor things still adjusting to our new routines (me too!)
Actually everyone is operating at pretty much half-asleep this week. Gemma fell asleep on the sidelines of the youth games on Saturday - like zonked. I went an entire day with two completely different earrings in and not one person said anything until Gemma around 5:30p at the end of her soccer game gave me a hug and said, "Why do you have two earrings in?"
Helping Violet get her elementary student council stuff finished for the upcoming election. She finished her proposal, got her signatures, and finished her posters for the hallway this week. She did a great job and she got selected on Friday as a student council member. Another thing to her plate this year (my little busy bee). This year in fifth grade - she plays the flute, is a member of student council, is on reading competition, is on the scrabble team, cheers for the Majors football team, will play youth basketball, plays on Sparks soccer (indoor Dec-March) and travel (March-June), and will play AYSO U12 soccer. And then she will be promoted to the sixth grade at the end of the year and will go up to the big school next year which honestly feels so jarring to me that I cannot yet think about that. Not my Violet yet; it cannot be that she will be in middle school next year.
Retaining wall project got started this week. Pappy spent some of the school days at our house digging away the rotted and old railroad ties of our retaining wall. The kids are thrilled to have a dirt hill to 'slide down.' The project doesn't really have an end date or even completion ideas yet - but since we had the digger borrowed from cousin Butter, it was go time! Thank you Pappy!
3 roosters were culled from the flock this week - thank goodness. They had started to chase and scare Olive when she went down to get the eggs and one even chased Violet up through the yard. They have been terrorizing us with the crowing (at all hours of the day and night) and they have been hanging out on the back porch and stealing Bullet's food and water. Enough was enough and my wonderfully good husband took care of the situation (thank you, B). I swear you could see relief on the hens faces. hah! We did discover later this week that we have a teenage rooster yet (good grief?!) He's not annoying yet and maybe it will be good to have him around? Time will tell - he lives to see another day.
Laughing because Olive is a real hoot these days and she says the most hilarious stuff. We read The Three Little Pigs recently so at random times she says things like, "Those bees are going to sting in you in your chinny chin chin." She also busts out in ballads from Zombies 4 with full facial expressions at random moments.
Attending Rusty and Violet's open house at the elementary school this week. B was like - do you have to go? you've been so many times?! and I told him my rationale for going (even though I'm exhausted and would so much rather stay home and prep for the next school day) is yes, I have been to the fifth grade open house twice now, but never because it was Violet in fifth grade. And I've been to the third grade one three times now, but never because it was Rusty in third grade. So I keep my work clothes on for a full 14+ hour day and see their writing and artwork in the hallways and listen to their teachers give the overview like I've never heard it before (xxox love you educators!) and the kids feel proud and glad that I was there.
Visiting my friend Renee's new location for her book store Laurel & Leaf. Her new store is beautiful - she spent most of the summer renovating and designing the space. It is so open and bright and everything a bookstore of my dreams looks like. Gosh, I am so proud and thankful to know her. Red and Olive were thrilled to stop by - all my kids love going to Ms Renees bookshop!. The babies picked out slime and I picked out Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Saying thank you to first responders as is our tradition on Sept. 11. My classrooms all wrote thank you cards for our school resource officers. The kids took thank you cards to their resource officers too. Violet had to interview someone about their memories of 9/11/01 and she got to interview our neighbor and former state police officer Mr. Buncich who was one of the actual first responders to the Flight 93 crash (only a few miles from where we live). She got to hear about his day and see photos that he has. What a gift it is to know and love so many first responders who choose to be brave everyday.
So sad we live in a time of awful violence. I was disheartened to hear that before Grey even got home from school he had seen the video of a murder online. I gave him a hug and said, "Please don't watch that. You don't need to watch the video." and he kind of laughed it off and was like, "It's not a big deal." and that's exactly the thing....it IS a big deal to watch someone be killed. It is actually and to have it run again and again and again does something to our humanity. I know, because I refuse to look away at the devastation that is happening to the Palestinian people. It harms my well being (I know it does!) but I will not look away, I will be a witness and I will continue to hold them in my heart and speak out for them despite being one tiny person.
Teaching for the first full five day week and we made it (although everyone was a little tired by the end of it). My elementary students went over beginning of year procedures, we signed thank you cards for our resource officers in honor of Sept.11, and we made some pasaportes to prepare for our year learning about Spanish speaking countries. Spanish Expo started the geography week and Spanish 1 continued practicing colors, days of the week, and took their first vocabulary test. Spanish 2 practiced their food vocab and target structures through writing, reading, and unscrambling post-its. For mental health Thursday, we did a little exercise where the kids wrote down any worries they were carrying (after the awful week of violent news) and then also wrote post-its about how they find peace when they are worried: going outside, spending time with friends, playing their sport, listening to music, etc.
Sporting with three Minors football practices for Rusty and then his first game (he played tight end, cornerback, and QB2). Violet had one cheer practice, two soccer practices, cheered at the Majors football game on Saturday, and watergirl'ed at the Varsity football game on Friday. Gemma had three soccer practices and two JH soccer games, and asst trained at the Varsity football game. Grey got another sports massage and cupping from Miss Emma of Peak Performance Therapy. Grey and Coach Daddy had team dinner and film, four football practices, and a home game on Friday night vs. United Valley. I reminded soccer families about our fundraiser as team mom, got our youth league fundraiser sold and turned in, (thank you family and friends who purchase fundraiser tickets from us every season - we appreciate you!) and I made Team Dinner on Sunday for the Varsity football team and coaches.
Making kielbasa and tortellini on the Blackstone, bbq chicken sammies, sheet pan chicken fajitas, pork roast with gravy over egg noodles, take out pizza, spaghetti with meat sauce, and smash burgers. For team dinner on Sunday: I made12lbs of sloppy joe meat (no leftovers!!!), baked beans, corn on the cob, watermelon, pasta salad (my mom made a giant 4 lbs of pasta bowl - thank you Abba!), cowboy cookies, mini zucchini bread loaves, and strawberry shortcake sheet cake. The vibe I was going for was the last picnic of the summer! For dessert at home, I made another sheet pan strawberry shortcake because everyone is obsessed and was mad they didn't get any from team dinner.
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