A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| dinner in the coaches' locker room! |
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| the danger of being a sideline photographer! Gemma, watch out! photo cred: Jenn V |
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| photo cred: Shannon L |
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| photo cred: Shannon L |
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photo cred: Shannon L
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| photo cred: Shannon L |
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| selfie cred: B |
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| cute spirit gear by cousin Becky! |
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| photo cred: Mr. O'Ship |
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| photo cred: Gregory Ricupero Sports Network |
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| photo cred: Mr. O'Ship |
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| photo cred: Mr. O'Ship |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 469+ hours (of 1000)
Welp, the heat turned way up and the storms came pounding through this week. My classroom feels like a sauna by the afternoon, hahaha - the sweat literally dripping down my back is a real classy professional look (LOL). The rain, thunder, and win then pounded us on Thursday night and knocked out the power in our whole town from Thursday until Saturday evening! And I know what you're thinking - but you have solar panels! We do indeed, however, they are leased so all the power we make gets returned to the grid!
Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Not doing a great job of reading this week because it was such a busy one with the first week back to teaching. I am determined though to get these books done in the next two weeks!
Listening to and finishing Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Very interesting story by way of such an unlikeable character! I was laughing out loud at how awful she was in her running thoughts - most of the time hilarious in the way they were so bluntly terrible.
Running to do list:
- I registered the kids for Sunday school
- Grey got scheduled for his first drive with Tim Saylor's driving school
- I did a little social media reflection and decided I needed to reset because the overwhelm is starting to affect my anxiety.
- Gemma had a dentist appointment (thank you Chum for taking her!) and is still taking her antibiotics for her untreated strep
Figuring out the daily flow with everyone now back in school. Always an adjustment period and I shoot for Labor day to be a good moment to reflect on how things have been going. I feel very thankful we went back to school in shifts this year; the kids first last week and then my students this week. Laundry piled up, crockpot was working overtime, and my planner had a lot of logistics detailed out - but we made it in one piece!
No electricity from Thursday at 8p until Saturday at 5:30p! We had incredible storms on Thursday night that knocked the power out for 2000+ people in our area. My sister Uch in Westmont experienced the worst damage with possible tornado touch downs. We got to thankfully borrow Pappy's generator (thank you!) to keep our fridge and deep freezer on during the outage. Otherwise, we pulled out our camping lanterns, opened windows, washed dishes by hand, and cooked meals on the Blackstone grill. The wet laundry sat in the washer (oops) and we tried unsuccessfully to flip on the light switches a million times out of habit (LOL). The kids actually did great without screens - lots of wrestling, mess making, and trampoline time. They followed us around like little shadows and we all went to the Somerset football game together on Friday just to get out of the dark house!
Catching a Friday Night Lights game that wasn't ours! We all loaded up to go to my students' football game since our game was rescheduled for Saturday due to the power outage. I never get to see my students' on Friday nights (band/ cheerleaders/ football players/ fans) because we are always at our own games - so this was a real treat! Violet was at a sleepover, but everyone else came with B and I and all of us together is generally a sight - but my elementary school students were shocked to see my kids in real life when I talk about them often in class. My fourth graders love to see a video highlight from the football game before we see class and they were awestruck to see Grey in the flesh! One of my little fourth grade boys said, "You are the GOAT for real" ...hahah, Grey was in his glory! It was good change of pace of our crew and we certainly didn't have much else to do since we were still out of power on Friday night!
Reflecting on power outage sustainability at our house. The science data was out this week on the Super El Niño brewing in the Pacific that guarantees more intense weather to come in months ahead so I felt weirdly grateful to have this little dose of no power and how that might look for us at our house. How lucky we got to try it out when the weather is comfortable rather than it being the middle of winter and we have no heat/power. We collected and organized all our camping lanterns for next time. We organized a list of things to do before late October like chopping wood to keep in the basement near the wood-burning furnace, getting extra batteries for the lanterns, making sure our propane tanks are full, etc.
Time with family and friends. We all went to Pappy's for lunch and one last swim before he closes up the pool. Olive, Red, and Rusty got off the bus on the early dismissal day at Chum and Abba's house (thank you!) Rusty got a sleepover at Chum & Abba's house. Violet got a sleepover at Bristol's house. Gemma and Violet had a shopping day with Abba and Shelly for most of Sunday (thank you!) Grey had a no-electricity board game night with friends at Quinn's house and a movie night with friends at Leah's house after the football game. B and I went out with the coaches and their wives to Old Tollgate Inn after the football win on Saturday night.
Teaching the first week of school! We had a four day week and it went great! I am at the elementary school in the morning and then have four classes at the high school in the afternoon; Grades 8-11. Elementary school started right into Spanish with Me Llamo and creating nametags. I know almost all of the fourth and fifth graders' names but the third graders are all new to me. Grade 8 got into week1 with introductions and some basic words. Spanish 1 starts off with an expo bootcamp (remembering things from 8th grade) and Spanish 2 starts with a review and remembering also. We play Taco Tuesday at both levels, learned about Tomatina, and tried to remind our brains that we did actually retain some Spanish over the long summer break (hah!) Of course, we also did Dancing Friday!
Sporting with one basketball practice for Reddy and two Minors football practices for Rusty. Violet practiced with the JrH soccer team two times. Gemma had three Varsity soccer practices and two Varsity soccer games. Grey and Coach Dad had team dinner and film on Sunday, then had football practice six times and a Varsity football game on Saturday! It was supposed to be our first home game, but because of the storm and power outages, our school and field didn't have any electricity! We played a "home" game at Forest Hills stadium (thank you FH!) vs. West Shamokin and the community traveled well to show up for our team! Grey also had his sports massage with Miss Emma. I donated hot dog buns and chopped onions to the soccer concession stand, created the Football booster Tailgate flyer and spreadsheet to share for the first real Home game (!!), and organized plans for the senior night game.
Making crockpot copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta (we ate that in the coaches' room at the field house at school because the day was packed with activities in the evening!), sheetpan chicken fajitas, sloppy joes with shells&cheese and roasted broccoli, bbq chicken and roasted sweet potatoes, takeout pizza (power outage), turkey taco rice bowls on the Blackstone (power outage). For breakfast with no electricity, I made pancakes, bacon, and eggs on the Blackstone grill. For dessert with no electricity, I made peanut butter power balls. For our teacher potluck on Monday's Act 80 day I made Ramen noodle salad to share.
Intentional Movement with only 1 mile weighted vest walking. Red and I took an evening walk down the road together (he was climbing the walls and making everyone insane). We saw two black snakes on the walk! He loved it and it was nice to be one on one with him while also getting some of his wildness out in a non-destructive way (lol).
