Around Here Week 7: 02/15-21

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

photo cred: CTES

photo cred: Tribune Democrat

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship (the student section after Eric's dunk!)

photo cred: Becky C

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 9+ hours (of 1000)
I played lots of catch for baseball this week with Reddy and Rusty and Olive and I did a little fake ice skating routines on the blacktop when the snow all melted away  - yay! We could see grass and our solar panels are fully generating energy again! 

Reading and finishing This Tender Land by William Ken Krueger. I really enjoyed it and was another confirmation that Historical Fiction is my favorite genre. I tried to continue reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, but my heart is just not in it. I might DNF because it's so huge (600+ pages!) and there are just so many other books that I want to read! 

Slowly putting the house back together after the multiple reno projects last week (new carpet upstairs, new wall and bedroom installed in the living room). We moved a dresser into the boys room and I got it all cleaned out and reorganizing for Reddy. I returned most of the things that we had stored in the bathroom back to where they go (but still will slowly be returning things or donating!)

Finishing the new wall in the living room. We made it an accent wall and it looks so cozy - we love it! Everyone helped a little bit between painting it dark brown first (in case any of the wall was visible behind the woods), the installing the wood pieces, to hanging up the shelves and adding the plants back into the room. On the girls' side, Pappy and Brandon got everything mudded on the drywall and now we wait for it to dry. 

Double special day for Lunar New Year and Mardi Gras which landed on the same day this year! I made Asian-style dinner (chicken over teriyaki noodles with roasted broccoli) and for dessert we had Kings cake (made quick from tube cinnamon rolls!) with six babies in it so that each kid got a baby in their piece! 

Cheering for Violet when she found out that she made the Math24 team to compete later this spring. She was the only girl to make the team and she was proud of her hard work at practice. This chick - she is determined to do all the things and win all the things. (she also had reading competition practice this week too!) Lord help me! 

Celebrating our fourteen year old: Gemma Rose! She is going to wait until the summer to have her party - but my girl is still happy because fourteen also means social media in our family (if you've deemed yourself trustworthy of it and was able to handle a phone without social media for a year). She did great - so she was allowed to get Snapchat and instagram (after a lot of conversations about appropriate posting & commenting, and friend requests, DMs, etc. I have no filter which always makes Brandon laugh - but I just tell the kids how it is in the most blunt way possible. It is common knowledge around here with our teens (and their friends even who have recited this back to me before!) "if someone sends you a picture of some part of their naked body - delete it immediately. If you really deserved to see it, you'd be seeing it in person!" 

Wishing a very happy SIX SEVEN !!!! to Pappy on his 67th birthday! Pappy spent most of the day at our house helping finish up the living room wall (LOL, such a pappy kind of birthday!) We sang over cinnamon rolls and gave him lots of hugs! 

Time with friends and family. Reddy got an afternoon with Pappy since he was home sick (thank you Pap!) Violet was so happy and proud to have Cohen (a Senior football player) help Coach Daddy at her last basketball game (thank you for coming Cohen - you made her day!) Gemma went to her friend Elle's birthday party and she got a facial at Swanky Aesthetics too! Grey got to celebrate his besties' birthday (the Conn twins turned 16!) at their sleepover party

Teaching only four days this week because we were off for Presidents' Day! My elementary school students continued watching Pachamama and my Spanish Expo students worked on their final week of expo learning the classroom supplies vocab list. Spanish 1 finished their Verb conjugation unit and took the big test (they did so well!) Spanish 2 learned about stem-changing verbs and practiced using Direct Object Pronouns. We are really in the thick of the school year where everyone is starting to have a little cabin fever - the end is still too far away to see and we are all absolutely tired of the winter. We just have to dig our heels in and push through! We got this! 

Sporting with a little more of a taste of spring sports. Reddy had a coach pitch baseball practice, Rusty had a minor baseball practice. Violet had a Sparks soccer practice and her last basketball game. Gemma had an indoor soccer game with her Gators team and a softball open gym. Grey had one baseball pitching practice, a baseball open gym, four basketball practices, and the district playoff basketball game! He also had a sports massage with Miss Emma too! 

Making meatloaf with roasted potatoes and carrots, teriyaki noodles with roasted broccoli and shredded chicken (a family favorite and so insanely simple), crockpot chicken taquitos, hot sausage sammies with sweet peppers, texas toast mini pizzas. To celebrate Mardi Gras, I made Kings Cake (with canned cinnamon rolls and sugar sprinkles!) and hid tiny babies inside for all the kids to find. For Gemma's birthday, she picked strawberry crinkle cake mix cookies and for Pappy's birthday I made homemade cinnamon rolls and cream cheese icing. 

Around Here Week 6: 02/08-14

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

photo cred: Uncle Kevin

photo cred: Kristi P

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 7+ hours (of 1000)
Some of the snow has melted and the chickens were overjoyed to get outside and dig around. The boys and I walked back in the woods, but the snow was still pretty high and filled up all our boots. We tried to walk lightly so that we could stay on top of the snow and then laughed when we inevitably fell down through up to our knees. It was a laborious hike back to the house but we mostly laughed the whole way. 

Reading This Tender Land by William Ken Krueger. I am really loving it and have been emotionally effected by it multiple times already. 

Superbowl Sunday! Yay to the Seahawks! We were rooting for them because they have cool jerseys and a female owner and also they haven't won as many Superbowls already as the Patriots (haha, underdog fan always). But I do like little Drakey Maye (who I call Reedy because he looks just like one of Grey's best friends Reed!) The halftime show by Bad Bunny was incredible and had me smiling ear to ear trying to catch all the symbolism, Hispanic heritage, latino celeb cameos, and sing along. Gah, the cultura and the joy and the unity! When he said, God Bless America and listed all the North, Central, South, and Latin American countries - I almost cried. I said aloud - "my students have a geography test this week, I hope they are hearing this!" Bravo Benito! 

House Projects underway this week 

• Painting the boys' room & Grey's room before the new carpet comes
• Building the wall to separate the living room and the girls' new room downstairs
• Prepping the upstairs for carpeting (moving everything out of closets, off floors, moving furniture around to accommodate the carpet workers)
• Hanging new curtains up in the boys' and the girls' rooms
• Adding lamps to the living room and the kitchen (yay!)
• Prepping the new divider wall in the living room (paint  for the background of the wood side & mud for dry wall on the girls' side)

New Carpet!! The carpet guys were here two days this week and got our entire upstairs and our steps finished. Gosh - what a difference new carpeting makes! It has been a project that has needed done for a long time and Gigi had always had it on the top of her list of things she was excited to see us update. She even set aside money for us to do it when the time was right. I know she is smiling so big to see that project finally knocked off the list! Pap and Brandon were at the house for both days to help move furniture and then also work on the girls' new room downstairs. So it was a full week of mayhem with everything everywhere, dust, nails, drills, cords, shop vac...all the things. It was an upside down week but very happy to have it be real progress in a direction that better works for our family! 

School Projects underway this week: 

• Violet finished her art submission: inspired by the book The Mitten. It was a multimedia piece including sewn felt and a watercolor background and mitten. 
• The four littlest kids colored, addressed, and assembled their valentines to share at their valentine parties in school 

Math24 practice for Violet. She was competing to make the team this week. Just like our girl Vi, working towards adding another team/club to her long list of activities! 

Someone Special Dance with Violet and Rusty at the elementary school. It was Western themed, so we donned some cowboy hats, fringe, and plaid to fit the vibe. The PTA did a wonderful job planning and decorating (bravo to our friend, Onara who led the committee!) and there was even a line dancing group there that taught us a line dance! Violet and I loved it! 

Smiling about the 'mailbox' in my classroom that Olive has with two of my sophomore students. They make each other pictures and leave them in the mailbox to surprise each other. Thank you Emilia and Abby for being so sweet to Livy - she loves checking the mailbox every afternoon! 

Celebrating Valentines at home with each other. Brandon got all the girls flowers and I made delicious food for all the fellas (heart shaped pizza, tandycake, and peanut butter chocolate balls!) Plenty of hugs, kisses, and snuggles to go around! It was a perfect valentines. 

Time with family and friends: Gemma, Violet, Rusty, Reddy, and Olive all got to hang out at Uch & Kevin's house with the nephews for a giant playdate/babysitting gig (hahah, good job Gem and Violet!) Grey took a day trip to the Harrisburg Outdoor Show with Uncle Kevin and the three nephews. Grey loved it so much and even won a walleye fishing trip in Ohio (thank you Uncle Drip - best day!) and then got plenty of time at the Valentine's house - first for the Superbowl and then again for a sleepover the next weekend. 

Finding a new favorite quote and mantra - Bees don't waste time trying to convince flies that flowers taste better than shit. I can do my best to live in my life in a good and decent way and be an example to others. I can do everything I am able to do to try to steer this little family and this little corner of the world towards the flowers. I can be an example of what life can look like when you choose flowers (even when it's harder, even if it's less convenient and plentiful, even when they're hidden and you really have to seek them out). But some people are just satisfied with garbage.  

Teaching and showing Pachamama in the elementary school (kids are loving it!) Expo finished up their geography unit and too their map test. Spanish 1 started the verb conjugation unit with regular AR/ER/IR verbs. I always love this part of the year because you can really see the lightbulbs go off in their minds recognizing the patterns they've seen all year up until this point. One of my students literally said, "Oh wait, Duolingo makes so much more sense now!" Spanish 2 took their final Ekeko quiz and speaking presentation. Then they started reviewing verb conjugations as we take a dive into stem-changing verbs and direct object pronouns. I got the special honor of attending the Girls' Varsity basketball game for the Cheerleaders' teacher appreciation night as I was selected by my student, Elisa. She is a foreign exchange student from Italy and she is in my Spanish 2 class. She is excellent (trilingual!) and so very sweet. What an honor to be chosen by her (proud of you Elisa!) 

Sporting with one basketball game and one indoor Sparks soccer practice for Violet. Gemma stood by her teammates for the last two Jr high basketball games (didn't play because of her sprained ankle - so bummed!) and was recognized at the Varsity girls game with the rest of the jr high basketball teams. Gem's ankle did feel good enough though by the weekend to attend the softball open gym (thank goodness it is on the mend!) Grey had one baseball pitching, a baseball open gym, four basketball practices, and one basketball game. Brandon attended the Ken Lantzy football coaches' meeting this week too (we had four of our football players selected to play in the game this summer! Congrats to DJ, Brennan, Liam, and Barty!) 

Making candied kielbasa, crack chicken sammies, take out pizza, sloppy joes with shells&cheese, sheet pan chicken fajitas, sheet pan kielbasa/ veggies/ and tortellini, homemade heart shaped pizza (happy Valentines day!) and buffalo chicken dip. We ordered in wings and pizza for the Superbowl (we tried a new local place - That Dam Bar, we liked it!) For Superbowl desserts, Gemma made her cinnamon pretzel bites including letters to spell out Bad Bunny. I made strawberry pretzel cheesecake, pretzel/ Hershey kiss/ m&m bites in the colors of the Seahawks and Patriots, and Tres Leches. I made my own whip cream and I am astonished that it is that easy...like why have I been buying cool whip? I had Reddy taste test it and he said, "It's good! Actually, maybe it's too good!" For Valentines day desserts, I made Tandy Kake and chocolate covered PB balls!