A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| storm snacks! |
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| photo cred: Joanna A |
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| photo cred: B |
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| Ms Jenilee! We are so grateful for you! |
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| photo cred: Michael O'Ship |
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| photo cred: Michael O'Ship |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 5+ hours (of 1000)
Always a lot of stress when we have sub-zero temperatures with making sure the animals are all good at the farm. Fresh hay everyday for warmth, warm water to drink multiple times a day, everyone fed hearty amounts. It is just a lot of stress on my soul. Brandon climbed the pine tree to shake a branch to get the chicken to fly out just so I could catch it and put it in the coop for warmth!? (the chicken had been hunkered down way high up in the pine tree for two days in the sub-zero temperatures!) Meanwhile, Osa is living her best life flopping and hopping through the snow without a care in the world. I did give her a good brushing though to make sure her coat is as fluffy as possible....because again, I always been stressing with these temps.
Reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Enjoying storm snacks since I bought chips that I never buy normally only because of the snow storm (Hah). We had flavor twist Fritos (literally everyone in our family loves them but I can't buy them because the entire bag is gone in minutes), Doritos, and Jalapeno kettle chips. The kids kept asking, can I have a bowl of storm snacks? LOL
Yeesh, this weather. It was a lot of kids stuck in the house for a lot of days (and everyone was hungry). It turned out alright for Grey's foot because he got extra days of rest from snow days and 2hr delays from school this week (another reason I wanted to get it checked pre-snow storm because being stuck at home and not knowing if it was getting better or worse would have been such a nightmare. Again God bless the staff at Pittsburgh Children's ER). We got about 15 inches of snow along with sub-zero temperatures all week - so the kids weren't really even able to go outside for very long because it was just too cold. Despite the weather, we still had most of our evening activities because after the morning arctic blast, it warmed up to the single digits so games and practices were still on!
Zoom school for Red, Olive, and I every day this week! The kids were absent on Friday, so they did not bring their school iPads home in preparation for the storm. They attended zoom school together on laptop (Red's class in the morning session and Olive's class in the afternoon session). God bless those preK and elementary school teachers leading these kids on Zoom! They are incredible (we love you Mrs. Lesko and Mrs. Gongloff!) Reddy and Livy also had FID packets to do and they kind of liked having some at home school work, so it all worked out - but a whole week of Zoom school is too many days of Zoom school - hah!
Finishing the paperwork and making plans. Lots of things checked off the to do list this week with being stuck in the house, so at least for that! I finished up the paperwork for Red's and Olive's upcoming Kindergarten registration (will be in March). We got our summer vacation house booked this week (thank you Uchie for doing all the heavy lifting on that one!) I ordered the kids' valentine goodies and designed the cards on Canva to be printed, and I finished a letter of recommendation. On Tuesday afternoon, Gemma and I visited Swanky to be seen for a consultation on some ideas for skincare (and we scheduled a facial for her birthday there too!) And finally, I got all the January pics loaded into the Neveo app for Mimi's monthly photo recap (she loves those catalogs - a big recommend from us for a gift for grandparents/great grandparents. It has been our Christmas gift for Mimi for several years now and she has kept every catalog! All the cousins can upload pics throughout the month from the app and then it gets printed and mailed right to her door!)
Haircuts for all my fellas from Lamont. Mont has all my fellas looking handsome and fresh - thank you as always, we love you!
Time with family and friends. We celebrated cousin Logan's birthday party at ACRP playcenter, Reddy, Violet, and B&I visited the funeral home for their favorite football player whose grandma had passed away (we have always taken our kids to the funeral home because we want them to know we show up for people we love especially when it is hard and sad). Violet had her sewing class with Kuma and got a snow play day with Giada. Gemma babysat baby Baker on Friday night. Grey had team dinner at Tollgate.
Your silence will haunt you. They are still killing children and women and civilians in Gaza. Sudan is still committing genocide. Our own country has turned into scenes that we are already familiar with from historical events or fictional dystopian. The Epstein files, God help us. You are either thinking a) I can't pay attention to this because it overwhelms me b) there's nothing I can do because I am just one nobody c) it can't really be that bad ...to which I would like to say to you - a) how lucky you are to be born and live in a bubble that you can choose to not be worried about the wider world. That it doesn't directly affect you and the people you love. I'm sorry to tell you, it will not always be that way in your life - maybe not this exact thing, but at some point in your life, you are going to need help and you will wonder why know one cares. It makes for a lonely world when you don't get involved when someone needs you. b) you are not nobody. you have something specific to YOU that can help. a voice. a skill. a connection/ relationship to someone with more power. a prayer. influence. a heart. a mind. there are teenagers 3D printing whistles for protestors. there are grannies knitting red beanies. there are moms calling their representatives while mixing muffin batter. You are not a nobody. c) it is. Bad things happen, and I still made cinnamon rolls. Bad things happen, and I still turn my face toward the warmth of the sun through the window. Bad things happen, and I still kiss booboos and sing lullabies. Bad things happen and I don't close my eyes to it, I do not let someone carry the load alone. Bad things happen and I find the way I can use my voice and my mind and my heart to push the scale in the favor of good and decency. you can too.
Teaching with a weird week due to the snow and subzero temperatures. We had a snow day on Monday and then Virtual Days the rest of the week. I didn't go to the school building one day this week!? I would so much rather be in school with my students, but we found a way to make it work. Elementary school practiced their Spanish vocabulary from the year through a Gimkit practice set. Spanish Expo learned new vocab (camina, corre, hacia) and we even went over El Encierro del San FermÃn. Spanish 1 learned all about Spain since we are trying to finish our bullfighting unit - so when we get back we will watch a real bullfight and then start our movie study of Ferdinand. Spanish 2 finished chapters 5 & 6 of El Ekeko, but I didn't want to read too much farther ahead for fear that we'd lose some understanding. So we practice conjugation flipping (third and first person) and did some comprehension question studying. I had Show your Face Friday for bonus points, just so kids would turn their Zoom cameras on because I felt like I was talking to the void all week!
Sporting with two basketball games, and one indoor Sparks practice for Violet. Gemma had one softball open gym, one basketball game, and three basketball practices. She also had it confirmed that she'll move up to Varsity basketball next year (cannot believe she will be a freshman next year - I do not understand time in any capacity). Grey had one basketball practice (testing out the wrap for his foot injury - thank you Jenilee!), and the played in two basketball games this week. He is very happy to be back on the court and his foot is holding up and healing great! I registered Violet and Olive for AYSO spring soccer (I am willing to coach if needed and Gemma is going to ref) and got Reddy and Rusty registered for youth baseball.
Making so much food because everyone was mostly home due to winter (and everyone is always starving). We had baked sandwiches, pierogies and kielbasa, sloppy joes and mac&cheese, buff chicken dip, chicken Philly cheesesteak sammies, tacos and roasted potatoes, copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, frozen pizzas, loaded baked potato soup, breaded baked chicken with baked beans and green beans, and Pioneer Woman lasagna. For breakfasts this week, I made two banana bread loaves, a blueberry Bundt cake (absolutely delicious!), pancakes, double chocolate & pumpkin muffins (with an added scoop of protein powder!). Gemma made some incredibly delicious cinnamon sugar pretzels (the blessings of teenage children never end!). For desserts, I made double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and puppy chow (chex mix, pb, chocolate, & powdered sugar). We also hammered through some letftover frozen cookies from Christmas (thank you Abba!)
