A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Abba |
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| selfie cred: B |
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| selfie cred: Pappy |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 571+ hours (of 1000)
Ugh, my hours are terrible this year, but I also weirdly do not feel guilty about it. hahaha. The snow started to fall on Thanksgiving eve and that made everyone get in the holiday spirit. Kind of hoping for a very snowy winter (light on the freezing temps, but heavy on the snow, please).
Reading By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Violet and I are each reading it; sometimes together and sometimes on our own)
Listening to and finishing When Things are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent. I loved it, four star recommend from me!
Christmas movies watched: The Grinch (cartoon version) and Christmas Chronicles 2
Celebrating the football team and Coach Daddy at the football banquet. The football boosters put on a lovely banquet (thank you for all you do - you guys have been incredible all season!) with good food and lots of laughter and some tears (we will miss these seniors so much! Coach Daddy had a great speech, Greyson lettered and was included in stats for throwing and rushing. Gemma and Violet were both honored for their service on the sidelines as assistant trainer and watergirl. As is tradition, the senior boys give a little speech to a coach of their choice at the banquet - Burnie said some incredibly kind things about Coach Daddy; it was so touching and heartfelt (love you Aiden!) Dawson chose to do his speech for Violet and Reddy (instead of a coach). It was so sweet and I had tears in my eyes - he said that after he was injured in the fifth week of the season (torn ACL), he still came to every practice and game and Violet and Reddy were the ones that kept him laughing and positive. Playing catch with Reddy at practice and doing Mrs. Roman's vocab cards with Violet made his football season even though he couldn't be on the field with his brothers; he knew he had a little bro and sister on the sidelines with him. So many people say to Brandon - I don't understand how you head coach the Varsity football team with a big family - how is there time for both? What most people are missing is that Brandon is not involved in football by himself; it truly is our whole entire family that cares about this team. From June to November, our entire family is fully invested in whatever is best for the team. Every person in this family would agree that our favorite season of the year is football season. We love you seniors, congratulations, but good Lord will you all be missed. We will be cheering you on forever.
Working with our school athletic trainer Ms Jenilee to figure out a solution for Grey's feet. He only gets the problem during basketball season from his hard cuts and stops. The skin on his feet - especially his pads, has ripped off and is creating enormous painful blisters. He complete ignores it for practice and games and then hobbles around during downtime. Thankfully Ms Jenilee is the greatest in the biz and she is working up solutions with cushions, vasoline, and I got some sliding pads for his shoes. Sorry, no feet pics for the internet. LOL
Knocking out some random appointments this week. Violet had her well check and Brandon had an eye appointment (he was down to his last pair of contacts...nothing like waiting until the last moment!?) Olive was able to sneak in for a dentist check up too.
Giving Violet some puffy paint and cardboard cut outs and letting the magic happen! Violet is hard at work at creating a gingerbread village to decorate our dining room built-ins for the season. Our little artista loves creating (and making messes) and how lucky we are to have our world decorated with her creations!
Visiting Moon & Mug downtown twice this week! (my little sister Kitty is one of the owners and baristas!) The babies and I stopped on Thanksgiving eve morning and I had the most delicious Peppermint Mocha and breakfast sandwich. Kitty and the girls (her best friends and co-owners) have really created something uniquely special and magical at Moon & Mug. If you are local, do yourself a favor and visit. The moment you step in the door you can feel that you've walked into somewhere special. Truly transfixing. After our visit, I honestly could not stop thinking about that Peppermint Mocha (LOL, I wish I was joking - I assure you, I am not). So Uchie and many of our combined children stopped by again on Shop Small Saturday. The place was packed - but somehow still cozy and comfortable...again with the magic of this place!
Smiling so much at the football field on Thanksgiving eve. The senior football players and underclassmen organized their own two-hand touch game. The boys all wore random jerseys and played and laughed and even brought a speaker to play Christmas music during the game. They all had a twinkle in their eye like little boys on the playground playing at recess. Gosh, we love these kids.
Feeling very thankful on Thanksgiving. What a great day full of family and good food. We started the day off with the Thanksgiving parade and assembling our meal contributions before heading out. We had Kuma's house first (Studer side of the family). Great food and cousins; Gemma and Uncle Ray tried to battle at the wishbone and it was too flexible and never cracked (do both get their wishes then?). After Kuma's we went to Abba and Chum's for more delicious food and family time. We also celebrated Chumsgiving (my Dad's birthday). We played game and laughed and Rusty had his absolute fill of 'kid wine' (sparkling cider) which is his favorite part about Thanksgiving. I had several hefty helpings of my kale & roasted veggie salad to the point that I was questioning - 'how much salad is too much salad' ...spoiler alert, I had too much. LOL
Designing and ordering our Holiday cards to mail out. Glad to have that holiday task checked off the list.
Getting as organized as possible in my planner for the next three and half weeks. Thanksgiving was so late this year, I feel like I am not prepared AT ALL for the Holly Jolly season. I ordered a bouquet and boutinner from Grace & Bloom for Grey's upcoming winter formal. I updated the fridge December calendar with games and events, and I set up my budget tracker too (I love this thing - you should make your own!) It took time to set it up last year, but I just made a copy of it for this year. It keeps me on track with my budget - but helps also to have a visual for who I bought for and who still needs done! And I put everyone on there like kids' teachers, Brandon's secretaries, etc.
Swapping out decorations. We put all the Thanksgiving decor away and pulled out all the Christmas stuff as is the tradition in our house the day after Thanksgiving. The kids helped put the tree up, we hung up old Christmas artwork in the kitchen, and Violet helped me hang wreaths and bows around all our outside lights.
It's fully camo and orange season. Rifle season started this weekend, so all my hunters were out all day Friday kicking out spots and prepping for the weekend. We had an assembly line situation for lunches and snacks to get everyone loaded up on food and everyone got their own thermos of hot chocolate for the day too. Our Gilmore cousins came in on Friday afternoon and hunted all day with the crew on Saturday. Rusty sat with Brandon, Violet sat with Pappy, and Grey got to go out after basketball practice on the first day. Uncle Butter was the only one who got a deer - a giant 11point buck! But ask any true hunter and you'll hear that the best part of hunting is the time with family.
Even more extra time with family and friends. Red, Olive, Gemma, and I spent the afternoon at Uchie's house with the nephews just hanging around and relaxing (the best!) Rusty and Violet participated in the annual Turkey bowl at Pam & Al's house on Thanksgiving morning with Abba and Chum and had a great time. Gemma got an afternoon with Abba and washed her sheets (she loves when my mom washes them with her fabric softener. We don't use it here because we have too many sensitive skin kids; Grey, Violet, and Olive)
Teaching only 1 day this week and participating in the Rachel's Challenge Chain Reaction training day the other day this week (only a 2 day week - yay!) Elementary and Expo students enjoyed playing BINGO with thanksgiving themed Spanish words. Spanish 1 learned who won the capibara disguise project and got their awards. They also read chapters 6-8 in our capibara novel. Spanish 2 created a Mad Lib story and swapped with a partner and got to play El Que Sabe, Sabe (a favorite game like Wits & Wagers)
Sporting with an indoor soccer game with Violet and her Sparks team at Turfside. Gemma had three jr high basketball practices and Grey had five varsity basketball practices and one basketball scrimmage vs. McCort.
Making spaghetti, sheet pan sweet & sour pork tenderloin with veggies and rice, homemade crunchwrap supremes, and homemade stromboli. For breakfast I made cinnamon rolls with boiled icing. For weekday desserts, I made pumpkin/devil's food cake muffins and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. For Thanksgiving I made: Kale & roasted veggie salad, 2 pumpkin rolls, pecan pie butter cookies, and acorns (Hershey kisses&mini vanilla wafers).
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