Around Here Week 26: 06/24-06/30

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

 

 

 

 

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 242+ hours (of 1000)
Up 21 hours this week, we had some perfect summer days here (high 70s and a nice breeze) that made us all so happy to have the windows open and the curtains billowed up. We visited the high school parking lot twice this week to ride bikes and scooters! By the end of the week, the weather had cranked up to crazy hot and humid. I even surrendered my summer fight and we turned on the central air.

Reading and finishing my local book club choice, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn. It was a perfect mystery for summer but had my dreams all a little distorted and weird (hah). If you liked Girl on a Train or Gone Girl, it was similar to that - little reveals of the whole story throughout so you aren't ever quite sure of what is really happening or true. I liked it! I've also been making my way slowly through Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel, I love me a goal driven quest memoir. My bff Kate surprised me with a beautiful book of empowering women poetry, Stripped by Cara Alwill Leyba and I gulped down half the poems in about a half hour one morning, sending poems to my sisters. (thank you Kate for the book and the inscription xxxo). Grey is finishing The Last Firehawk The Ember Stone (and now I have books 2 and 3 in the series in my amazon cart, because when you have a reluctant reader who gets excited about characters and a story you buy.all.the.books immediately #momprobs)

Celebrating our two boys with a belated double birthday pool party at Pappy and Gigi's house. It was a crazy weather day (sunny, torrential downpour raining, wind gusts, and then sunny again!) but the company was the best, we had delicious food, and a lot of smiling and laughing.

Summertiming in all the best ways - knocking off big ticket projects from our giant list on the fridge slowly but deliberately. The kids have been really good with their chore charts and other helpful tasks like weeding our garden this week (we all hate it). We've been staying up late, sleeping in long, and trying to enjoy the freedom of no schedule.

Potty training the RustMan and hardly hating it. Rust has been our easiest to potty train so far and I've even ventured out in public (by accident) without any diapers because he's been so good about letting us know when he has to go. Thank goodness we have no neighbors because this child spends about 80% of his day with no bottoms

Taking the dogs to the vet which is always a spectacle. I only had three kids that day (Gem had a sleepover with Kitty) so our vet trip was a teeny bit easier, but still. Me, the two dogs (overly excited and 90+ lbs each), Grey, Violet, and RustMan with underpants on. Both dogs AND Rust all peed in the parking lot while we were waiting for our appointment time (LOL) but everything looked good and the dogs are all up to date on vaccinations. Oh gosh, it makes me tired to even remember this day.

12 Month of Kindness task finishing for June by dropping off donations at the Humane Society and spending some time with the pups and kitties with no families. Poor Gemmi and her big heart wanted to take home all the pets (or at least one cat and one dog, momma!) and cried the whole way home thinking about the animals in the cages with no families and no one to play with them and snuggle them all day. Gem is going to have an exciting little giveaway coming up in the next week or so about channeling all her love for the animals in shelters - so stay tuned!

Enjoying Violet and Greyson's bedroom floor sleepovers; the two of them had three bedroom floor 'campouts' in the boys' room this week with sleeping bags and all. I feel so grateful to see their little friendships develop and see how each of them relate to each other. We call Grey and Violet our 'wild skips' because they so cray all the time (and they skip in kid birth order; Gem and Rust are our 'sweet skips')

Date nighting / Sister time / Beer Olympic brainstorming at Tulune's Steak & Alehouse Drinking for a Cause event. We had yummy food, interesting beer tastes, and an intro to a new-to-us local restaurant. I even got to spend time chatting with a teacher coworker (hi Renee!) which made me so happy and get excited about the new school year (just a little, hah, still very grateful for summer).  thank you to Miss Hannah for coming to the rescue last minute as always to babysit!

Playdating it at the Quemahoming Dam with the FioderCrew. We got a beautiful day to spend with our favorite friends - swimming in the dam, building our own sand dams (#meta), playing on the playground, and fishing (Grey). It is always refreshing to spend the day refilling my soul cup chatting with Kate and we crossed another No bummer summer trip off our list!

Relishing a kid-free two days (!!) Pappy and Gigi took the three biggest kids to Ocean City, MD for the weekend (ocean wave jumping, hotel pool swimming, boardwalk bike riding!) while Abba and Chum had a sleepover with Rust Man (visiting Buttermilk Falls, spending time with his aunts, getting spoiled with attention). While the kids were away, we laid on the couch and watched movies during the very hot afternoon and didn't feel an ounce of guilt about it (HAH) and then took the dogs for a long walk which they loved followed up by a super late dinner at Tap814 Speakeasy(I fell asleep on the way home #classicparentdate )

Making a lot of creative dinners with left-over birthday party fried chicken (homemade chikfila sandwiches, chicken salads, chicken wraps), spaghetti,  and B made our favorite old bay shrimp.

Around Here 25: 06/17-06/23

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

second generation Tap Run kids!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 221+ hours  (of 1000)
I'm up 24 hours this week which is nearly 4 hours a day, but still too low for my liking.  It was such a crap week, SO MUCH RAIN, and I was curious to see how my hours this year are racking up against my previous attempts at this challenge considering we're about half way through the year now. I took a peek and In 2016 at this time in the year, I was at 228 hours (7 hour difference) and in 2017 at this time of the year, I was at 245 hours (24 hour difference). So I'm still underperforming at this point, but at least in the same ballpark, considering we've had such wacky weather this year (below freezing to start the year, longest winter ever, such a rainy early summer, ugh). I got the dogs out for a walk down the road while the big kids rode their bikes and it was so good for all of our souls, even though no one (but the dogs) felt like going when I proposed the walk at 8:30p - and then we all felt refreshed and renewed the moment we got out there. Which is basically what it feels like every.single.time you force yourself away from the indoors and screens and get outside. I know, I'm a broken record, but it is truly the path to human healing.

Reading The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn for our new Books & Brews book club choice. We had our book club meeting this week too at Nyko's and both of my girls decided they wanted to join. They had their own little table nearby us, but spent most of the time at our table (and on my lap) anyway. The sushi was delicious, the outdoor seating brought me joy, and the conversation and time with girlfriends soothed my soul like always. The kids and I also made our way to the library this week for free summer kid lunch (noon-1p M-F!) and took home a library haul full of fun new-to-us books to add to our 100 Picture books this summer challenge (we've read 23 so far).

Feeling so grateful for the Dads in our lives and celebrating them for Father's Day. We kept it low key this year which turned out to be exactly what we all needed. B got a lot of homemade cards and a big breakfast. We got to visit both grandpas on the holiday and spend some time loving up on them. We also sent video messages to the kids' godfathers for the day. I am so very blessed to be able to have these men in our children's lives.

Chicken coop'ing. For father's day, Brandon wanted to spend the afternoon working on finishing the chicken coop with the Cherry wood that we scavenged from his parents' newly finished pool fence (yay for re-purposing and free!) It is both beautiful and necessary (to protect the plywood from weathering) but we worked for hours in the hot, hot sun and we both dehydrated and sunburned ourselves (LOL, super romantic). Rusty is a big help when giving food and water to the chickens while Gem was awesome cleaning out the chickens' bedding and rocks this weekend. Bullet is still our champion herder and Violet is our chicken whisperer. We have names for half of them (the only ones we can tell apart for sure:  T'Challa, Chickaletta, Buck, Momo, and Snowball)

Cheering Grey and his team as they won the Championship! We played at West Suburban for the second game of the series on a blistering hot day (there appears to be no middle ground for weather this summer, it's either raining and cold or kill-me-now hot). The team had a great game and clinched the title! Grey and his teammates were so excited after a season of hard teamwork.

Playing volleyball together again! We went through a few weeks there that either only me or B could be at our co-ed league volleyball games due to baseball, soccer, or school board meetings. But we finally got out on the court again together and with the double bonus of not having to worry about the kids because Uncle Juice took them all out for ice cream and a playground visit (in Sheila! hahah, which is really really funny if you know Uncle Juice and the kind of bachelor vehicles that man drives!) We won (all three!) and it appears we should be able to play side by side for the rest of the season. yay!

Appreciating summer chore charts. It has been really nice to get some extra help around the house and the kids are loving that I added kitchen/cooking items to their list. Each day one of them is either making breakfast, lunch, or afternoon snack! I personally like the extra vacuuming and bathroom cleaning that I've been getting out of chore charts.

Meeting our newest friend, Ivella. Baby Ivy is only two weeks old and the kids were over the moon to get to meet her and spend some time holding her. Congrats Carli & Joe, she is so beautiful!

Sleeping over with friends and fam. Having sleep overs is some of our favorite summer activities. A treat for both the kids and the grown ups (! down a kid or two at home for a night makes such a huge dent in needed one-on-one time for others!) Grey got to have two sleepovers this week, once with his friend Gabe and another (including a trip to the movies to see Jurassic World 2) with his cousin Caleb (thank you Valentines & Rummels!) and Gemma invited her friend Rourie over for a sleepover at our house where there was a impressive 'show' from the Principal & Vice Principal about their 'student council trip' (hahha! complete with dress up clothes, papers, and clipboards!) And so much Just Dancing and giggling.

Celebrating our family friend, Ryan who is on his way to Navy Officer training. There was a big party for him at my parents' house on Saturday and the weather held off for the most part. Our kids had so much fun making new friends and getting hilariously muddy (ahem, Gem) while running around with Ryan's cousins and family friends. When I was a kid, Ryan and I (and our siblings) were all part of the Tap Run Ski Club kids. Our parents were all friends for a million and a half years (and still are!) and the whole lot of us would get to spend huge amounts of time together - on vacations, bbqs, parties, and even a special 'kids' day' event with games and fun they had planned for us. I was second to oldest of the Tap Run kids and Ryan was one of the youngest. A baby Tap Run kid grown up and making us all look good. So proud of him.

Making tacos, spaghetti, and ordering in for pizza at an alarming frequency (LOL).  For breakfasts we had banana, blueberry muffins, pancakes, donuts with a surprise visit from Aunt Kitty who is visiti from Bermuda! and Grey took breakfast orders from everyone and made egg, sausage and bagel sandwiches! I made chili cheese dog casserole to drop off to a friend and hawaiian meatballs and chocolate chip muffins to deliver to baby Ivy and her parents.