Around Here Week 51: 12/14-20

 This is it parents, the week we train all year for - Let's make that holiday magic happen, baby!

photo cred: Jackie F

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Megan M

photo cred: Chelsea L

photo cred: Maria G

fire alarm evacuation photo (hah)

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Jackie F

photo cred: Uch

photo cred: Uch

photo cred: Chelsea H

photo cred: Jenn V

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 572+ hours (of 1000)
Wacky winter weather this week. Enough wintry mix conditions early in the week for a 2hr delay for all the schools, then the temps reached almost to 50 degrees, only to drop back down for crazy ice on Friday afternoon (right at school dismissal time?!), and then back up again to nearly 50 again on Saturday afternoon. The weather whiplash is crazy. B took advantage of the sunny weather on Saturday to pick up some hay to stock up before winter remembers to come back. 

Reading By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 

Listening to My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Marco antics: Wearing a Spiderman mask hanging over the kitchen table, wrapped the TV with Christmas wrapping paper, rolled up in a tortilla on Taco Tuesday, littering the kitchen with a bunch of post-its that say '67' on them, holding a fishing pole over our trout mount in the living room, hanging in the mini basketball hoop, and asking to play rock, paper, scissors (with a real rock, paper, and scissors). 

Christmas movies watched: Home Alone

Christmas prep: 

• wrapping! 
• picked up teacher gifts (we did peppermint sticks) for 13 teachers for all our kids! Brandon printed the notes for me and we got them all assembled and handed out by Friday!
• Ordered our family matching Christmas jammies (Old Navy)
• dress up days for pre-K, elementary, and high school! all the spirit days! 
• buying and wrapping Rusty's class gift exchange gift 
• helping Gemma buy and assemble her friend group secret Santa gift exchange 
• Delighted that Grey's secret santa gift for his friend group exchange arrived in time (it was tracking as late all week)
• Violet's gift exchange for the jammie sleepover at Addy's house 
• cookie baking! 

Letting out a huge sigh of relief when the PA State Ed Department sent a confirmation that everything had been received and all is fine and up to date with my certification. Whew, that scared the crap out of me and thank goodness it is over.

Hosting a wild cat around here. Hah, exactly what we need. We have known about a stray black cat that hangs around our community, but this week we have spotted it mostly around our house. I think our kitties and it are friends and we keep mistaking it for our cat, Nova - but then we see it run past and then turn around to see our Nova. We started calling it Shadow because it's always right out of the corner of our eye zipping away. 

Watching one of my fav 'Christmas' movies, While You Were Sleeping. (Not really a Christmas movie but takes place at Christmas / New Years) While B took the kids all to Pappy's house to vacuum pack all the deer meat, I got a small window to be as productive as possible and I wrapped a bunch of presents. Nothing makes me smile bigger than Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman slipping on the ice together, and the family all talking over each other!, and Joe Jr...I just absolutely love that cheesy movie. 

Celebrating our two little Pre-K'ers at their character trait award assembly. Red and Olive were both selected by their teachers to win the "Mindset" character trait award! Brandon and I were invited to the assembly in which they were honored (thank you to the teachers who covered for my classes so I could attend! Grateful for you Sarah, Mike, and Mandy!) They were so proud to have us there and the assembly was very spirited and cute! 

Thankful for a new dresser for Grey. His had fully busted out of the bottom of several of the drawers so we got our resident Facebook Marketplace extraordinaire on the job (Chummie). Chum found a big dresser and side table for a great price and picked it up to deliver it to us (thank you!!) He and Grey got it shimmied up to his room and Grey did a great job cleaning and reorganizing his room. So thankful to have that random task finished with zero effort on my part (thank you Chum and Grey!!) because it was making me twitch to see clean clothes in piles on the floor with no where to put them! 

Free Night for Mom & Dad when all the kids were out of the house. We ate dinner and relaxed before the full crazy of Christmas descends on us. We had full intentions of getting some things done (like wrapping or cleaning) but bailed on that and just chilled without any kids demanding our attention (it was just what the doctor ordered!) Red, Olive, Violet, and Gemma were all at Aunt Uchie's house, Rusty was at his friend AJ's house, and Grey was at the Valentines for a sleepover. 

Time with Family and Friends The football seniors to the rescue again, babysitting Red and Olive at Gemma's game so that Brandon and I could watch without kids hanging off of us. Red and Olive adore DJ and Cohen and sat with them for the whole game laughing and teasing them. (we love you guys!) Rusty got to take the bus home from school on Friday straight to Abba and Chum's house so he and Chum could go on a wild goose chase for new sneakers together (no luck on finding any but they still have a blast together!) Rusty also had fun at his friend Logan's Harry Potter birthday party and at a playdate with his friend AJ. Violet went to her friend Addi's Christmas Jammies sleepover on Saturday night. Grey went to team dinner at Primanti's with the basketball guys on Friday night. He also had a Secret Santa gift exchange party with his best buds at Gabe's house (thanks for hosting Valentines!)

Teaching and hanging on for our dear lives because the Christmas-crazy-antsy-pantsies are out in full force. Elementary school learned about Navidad traditions in Mexico with the read aloud 'Twas Nochebuena. Expo finished up their geography unit and took the map test this week. Spanish 1 finished and turned in their capibara RAFT projects and learned about Las Posadas and used Navidad songs to fill in missing lyrics. Spanish 2 learned about La Lotería and El Tío Nadal - both Navidad traditions in Spain. 

Sporting with a basketball practice (Rusty tagged along) and an indoor soccer game with the Sparks for Violet (thank you for taking her McDannells!) Gemma had three basketball games, two basketball practices, one basketball shoot around, and an indoor soccer game (and a partridge in a pear tree). Grey had four basketball practices, two basketball games, and team dinner and film at the Dinyar's house (thank you for hosting and feeding!)

how I laughed, when Heather messaged me this.

Making sausage and pepper sammies in the crockpot, beef and noodles, tacos, takeout pizzas (Grey earned a whole pizza pie for taking a charge in the basketball game!), copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, cheddar/ bacon/ ranch roasted potato fries, and shrimp fettucine 

Christmas cookie baking: 2 dozen white chocolate dipped gingerbread and 2 dozen shortbread cookies that were eaten on the back porch by a creature - Shadow? a racoon?....So, I remade 4 dozen gingerbread cookies, 4+ dozen Christmas swirl sugar cookies, peanut butter balls (Brandon's favorite), I am very thankful to have the happiest ugly cookie taste tester: Reddy. He said, "I will taste any cookie you ever need tasted, Mom!" 

Around Here Week 50: 12/07-13

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

photo cred: Tribune

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 571+ hours (of 1000)
Some big 'ole snowflakes this week! So pretty! 

Reading By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. We stopped by my friend Renee's bookstore (The Laurel & Leaf Bookshop ) to drop off her secret Santa gift that was delayed for our book club Christmas party (love you!) I picked up a Christmas rom-com novella while I was there - I chose The Christmas List by Maren Moore

Listening to Christmas music 24/7 and when not Christmas music, I'm finishing My Friends by Fredrick Backman

Christmas movies watched: Christmas with the Kranks, The Naughty Nine, Elf

Christmas prep: 

• finished addressing the Christmas cards (finally) and got them all stamped and closed and sent!
• printing our neighborhood thank yous to hand out for their lights and decorations that make our neighborhood so lovely this season
• Brandon put up some Christmas lights over the garage, yay! 
• Celebrating St Nicholas day (one day late)
• 12 days of Christmas dress up for the babies at their Pre-K 
• hanging up Christmas cards received from family and friends (thank you for sending them). Violet has taken the task of hanging them all up for me!
• finished the ordering (mostly) of gifts that need to make it through the mail before Christmas eve
• updated my budget tracker and feeling pretty okay about how things are going - I think it's going to be alright timewise. 

Marco antics: sitting with the kids' shoes filled with candy for St. Nicholas day, hanging off of our bear mount, writing potty-themed lyrics on the toilet paper, sitting in Olive's babydoll high chair eating marshmallows, drawing silly faces on the eggs, hiding in Violet's cardboard gingerbread house display, and trying to fool everyone by dressing up like a Little Debbie Christmas tree cake and asking "Is it cake?" (I will never stop laughing at this)

A deer for Daddy! Brandon, Grey, and Pappy went out hunting on Sunday and B got a nice 8point buck. Hooray for a full freezer and we are shipping the head (and the TWO OTHER HEADS) to be European mounted. Yes, you read that correct - I have had two deer skulls in my deep freezer for months?! God bless hunters' wives, honestly. 

Confirmation class for Gemma, one more lesson closer to getting confirmed this spring! Gem also did her acolyte duty this week and Violet did it with her so she wouldn't have to fly solo. #sisters 

Trying to just knock out one single item from every category each day. LOL FOREVER. Did I do one extra school task (like grading/ filing/ email)? Did I do one home chore (laundry/ vacuuming/ cleaning)? Did I do one Christmas action item (card addressing/ present ordering/ planning)? Then okay, as long as I can do one of those things every day - I'm not fully submerged yet. I'm still doggy-paddling over here! 

Clapping for Gemma and the Jr high chorus at their winter concert. They sounded beautiful (and looked beautiful). I have never been to a school concert for my kids that I didn't get choked up. Every.single.time. These young people out here singing and learning the arts makes my heart sing and my eyes water. (thank you to all the educators teaching kids creativity and spirit and the arts - I appreciate you!) Gem stayed after her chorus part to take photos of the band concert for yearbook too. This girl - she does it all! 

Looking for my glasses. I really should probably be wearing my glasses everyday...I mean I can see just fine but for a crisper view of the world (LOL). I do not want to wear contacts (which makes Brandon crazy) but I just want to open my eyes and see like I always have but 40 is putting some strain on lots of my body - eyes for sure included! 

Giggling and retaping many times Violet's How To video for her writing class. She chose to Make a Breakfast Sandwich and at 9:15p at night this week, we filmed the steps and laughed the whole way through (taking a multiple takes) and then Grey added some humor to the end of the video and the three of us were cracking up in the kitchen way past a school night bedtime.  

Full blown panic when I was notified that my paperwork is not up to date for the state ed department. Real true desperation for a few hours thinking that I was going to be in real trouble with my teacher certification. And then I had so many people step in to help me and support me, I was overwhelmed with appreciation and relief. Thank you so much Loni (for talking me back from the ledge of doom), Ella (who said, "I will literally start taking online courses in your name if I have to?!"), my former principal who searched high and low and to the ends of the internet for answers for me, Nina who emailed and called on my behalf, Barb who sat me down and walked me through the process like I was a little child who needed cared for (I did! omigosh, how I appreciate your patience!), and my former universities who were so quick to respond and helpful. Yeesh. deep breaths Tab. Everything has been submitted and now we just wait for the state to finalize.

Eating peppermint and candy canes every day. Kids are concerned that I have a real addiction but peppermint is bringing me so much joy! I have been enjoying peppermint creamer in my coffee and we pack candy canes in our basketball games bag for the bleachers. 

Time with family and friends. God bless those football seniors who showed up (in the snow!) to Violet's indoor soccer game to cheer her on - she appreciated it so much and felt like the coolest 'little sister' having her football buddies cheer for her (you are the sweetest - DJ, Cohen, and Dawson!) Grey went hunting with Chum early Saturday morning. 

Teaching a full week while the kiddos are already bouncing off the walls for holiday vacation. The elementary school students continued learning about Chile and the Moai of Easter Island. My Expo students finished up week 1 basic vocabulary. Spanish 1 finished Capibara con Botas, took their final book test, and started on their RAFT projects. Spanish 2 continued practicing quehaceres vocab and using Deber as their target structures. My Spanish 1 and 2 students are all practicing the Spanish Christmas Carols to prepare for the upcoming caroling at Patriot Manor Nursing Home and/or the Senior High Christmas assembly! 

Sporting with a basketball practice for Violet (but Rusty tags along) and an indoor soccer game for Violet and her Sparks team. Gemma had three basketball practices and three basketball games. It was our turn to provide away game snacks on Monday so we sent clementines and granola bars for the girls. Grey had two basketball practices, three basketball games, and a basketball tournament at UPJ (they earned champions again!) Grey also had his sports massage with Miss Emma this week. Brandon worked the concession stand at the JV basketball game for our volunteer duty for the basketball boosters and the kids buy chuck-a-ducks for all of our halftime games! 

Making crack chicken sammies, sheet pan kielbasa, tortellini, veggies, buffalo chicken dip (to eat at the school during chorus concert/basketball game night), Pioneer woman lasagna (small batch at 10p for the oldest athletes), meatloaf with roasted carrots and potatoes (I can never make enough! We always ending up wishing we had more!), frozen pizzas, sheetpan chicken fajita rice bowls,  I made a batch of strawberry cake mix cookies (Brandon and Gemma ate most of them straight out of the oven!) and I made some peanut butter & oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. For breakfast on Saturday I made Fruity Pebble muffins.