Around Here 29 & 30: 07/15-07/2

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  332+ hours (of 1000)
Up another 34 hours - we snagged a few hours with a night swim at Gigi and Pappys and a few walks with the dogs. This weather has been so wacky all summer. We had winds so strong the other day that it was uprooting our vegetable garden (?!) but the kids loved running around the yard pretending it was blowing them away (it may have actually been blowing Rusty away a little bit, LOL) The big kids have really been into riding their bikes the past few weeks and they even tried their first bike jumps and made their own ramps down our steep retaining wall hillside.

Reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and enjoying it. A few weeks ago I read The Nightingale from her and it was probably one of the best books I've ever read in.my.whole.life so it's hard to go in with that kind of expectation, hah.  I do really love Hannah's great strong female characters and her descriptive writing. Brandon is reading The Dry by Jane Harper - like he's already over half way through the book - which has me all emoji heart eyed.

Visiting Idlewild, just the six of us for about three hours before it started thunderstorming. It has been such a mixed up summer that we hadn't been yet at all (even with our season passes!) and we needed a little family getaway...even if the getaway was only a half hour away and for a few hours. The kids had fun riding all the rides and even RustMan got to ride a big ride - well the Balloon Race with me. hah. Then the three little kids got to go again with Abba and Chum the next week (swimming and riding!) while Grey got to spend the day with Caleb (thank you all!)

Working on the garage; clearing all the things out and putting them into piles (keep, donate, garbage), power washing, and dry-lock painting the last wall. Bud and Jon jackhammered the drain pipe hole for the new wash basin going in and then B and my Dad cemented it all back in place. Final few steps to go - etching, epoxy painting, and then putting everything back in! We can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Enjoying my best friends and their kids. Karpy and baby James flew up from NC and we all got together to spend the evening at Katie's house with her kiddos. I love that no matter how much time is between seeing any of us - we pick up right in the conversation wherever it was that we left off last time. We had a great time catching up and the kids always love playing together. We got to take Soph home with us for a sleepover (yay!) and then we got another few hours in together at the pool splashing, talking, and laughing together before Karp & James had to head back to the airport (only to get their flight delayed and then rescheduled for the next morning!! You are a supermom Karp- thank you so much for coming up to visit. And thank you Kate for hosting and feeding us!! love you guys - akt forevs)

Feeling so blessed with people who have been so kind, patient, and helpful during this summer. The kindness and thoughtfulness of everyone has been overwhelming -- one small example --while I was ordering a little door sign from Rachel at LightofMine514 etsy shop - she went out of her way to be incredibly generous and put a rush on the order (thank you!)

Prepping for the new school year. Brandon has been rolling his eyes at me for the last two weeks as I keep bringing home supplies and decorations for my classroom spent with our own money (it's particularly frustrating as he's the business manager of the school - but he also gets to see first hand how teachers do this to give our kids/students all.the.things). I also got into my new classroom to do some organizing and it makes me so happy. It's bigger and I have tables (!!) and I love it so much. I got to meet with a fellow Spanish teacher for lunch and just chat chat chat about school and kids and Spanish it was amazing (hi Tonya!) Back to school always has me all nerded up and I love it.

Collecting chicken eggs! Our chickens are starting to lay and the kids are so excited about it. We even cooked up a few and it took a conversation or two explaining the different color of egg yolks and how it relates to the chickens' life and diet. So far we have only one (or two) chickens laying, so we're working on getting our first dozen - but soon we are going to be up to our ears in chicken eggs!

Day-dating. Our first time visiting  The Fat Squirrel  and then sushi at Nyko's another day. We're figuring that two lunch dates count for a 'date night. In any case - delicious food, handsome company - what more can a girl ask for

Clapping for Gemma and her musical theater camp friends as they put on their production Break the Cycle after a week with the Community Arts Center staff. She played Dee in the show (she had only two little lines) and learned five new songs, some choreography, and stage blocking. She loved it and made some new friends. Our girl honestly wishes that real life were a musical (#justlikehermomma) and has watched Mamma Mia on Netflix every day for the past two weeks. So after her own musical, I took the girls to see Mamma Mia 2 at the movie theater and well, we're all obsessed.

Sending love and prayers to the sky with balloons for the one year anniversary of the passing of our sweet, precious friend and soccer teammate Inez. We miss you Nez.

Making what feels like nothing because I've been so terrible at meal planning. We did get some garden zucchini this week, so we had zucchini bread (grey helped) and their little minds were blown realizing that something we grew in our own garden could make something so delicious. #gardentobreakfasttable B had to grill up the trout that Grey and my dad caught on their little fishing excursion as I made the mistake of telling him if he caught a nice one that we'd make it for dinner (oops). It was okay but it was awfully cute to see how proud Grey was to catch us dinner.

Around Here 27 and 28: 07/01-07/14

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

 

 

 

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  298+ hours (of 1000)
I'm up 56 hours from two weeks ago (averaging 4 hrs a day) which isn't terrible, although I'm still lagging behind my outdoor time at this point last year by about 34 hours (bleh). Full disclosure - I count time working in the garage as 'outdoor time' as I explained to our cousins the other weekend - "one of the walls is a door and it's open?!" hahha. I justify it because I am outside-ish, without screens and sweating and working - so whatever, I make my own rules up for this challenge! I got in a few walk alone and with the dogs these past two weeks (my Runkeeper app is acting weird - I actually just uninstalled it and will try to reinstall to see if that fixes it..?) We discovered a robin's nest in the 'rosary' bush next to our porch and it has four eggs in it! We've been checking on it daily; the kids are enthralled! Two little fawns have made our yard their favorite visiting spot (while the dogs are in the house) and have even tried to make friends with our chickens (who aren't interested in friendship with clumsy, silly fawns, hehhe). So now, our animal count at our house is: 2 dogs, 1 hamster, several fish, 10 chickens, 2 fawns, 1 skunk, a groundhog family, and 2 baby fox.  It's  regular zoo up here on our mountaintop.

Reading Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel while also starting The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.  I loved The Nightingale so much - like, for real for real, one of the best books I've ever read - and I've heard great things about this one.

Borrowing books from the library and enjoying free kids' lunch there too. We met up with Aunt Kitty and snagged some great books before taking a little walk around downtown and eating some sweet treats from LambCakes. Some of our favorite books this time were: Chalk by Bill Thomson, A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry, and Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper.

Visiting Living Treasures Animal Park for some one on one time with our littlest babe while the three biggest kids spent the weekend in Ocean City, MD with Pappy and Gigi. Rusty loved feeding all the animals and we went later in the afternoon so there were hardly any other guests. Afterwards, we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Out of Fire Cafe, and liked it so much that we promised each other to come back just the two of us. The kids had a blast in Ocean City swimming until they were exhausted, a 5 mile bike ride, and jumping waves in the ocean. Thank you Pap & Gigi for braving the 5 hour drive one way with those three crazies...and also for not bringing home any hermit crabs! LOL

Finishing out the month of June with a weight gain, ugh. What a difference being home without a schedule and trying to eat well.  It's a lot easier not to snack all day when I'm at school teaching for eight hours. It was a good wake up call though to get my butt in gear to get back to tracking again on my WW app and to pay attention to my water intake and my steps. I know the difference it makes to just the way my body feels, so I'm determined to get back on the wagon.

Summertiming it with long nights and late mornings. The kids are rotating who sleeps downstairs on the couches and all four of them had a living room campout the other night. The kids started their own treehouse building project in the woods behind our house (it's weirdly yet impressively creative). We have three of four kids that can swim on their own! Violet is nearly fully swim-trained and has even mastered jumping off the dive and swimming on her own. She needs to work on stamina and breath holding, but the girl is like a real mermaid in the water - she looks so natural.  Rusty has even been practicing swimming without floaties, but that kid's big 'ole melon stops him from being able to fully surface (he's 97% in head circumference at his well check this week - HAH!)

Starting a huge, much needed garage project. We cleared out most of our belongings asking ourselves the question most adults ask anytime you deep clean: "How did we accumulate all this stuff?!" and started dry-locking the walls after power washing the whole place. Then we used the Rock Solid supplies to etch the floor and apply an epoxy to keep the floors sealed, clean, and pretty.  It looks so much better that despite the huge undertaking it is, we are glad to finally get it done right. We are only bringing back in things that we need and use. We still have the whole front garage to do, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

Kayaking at the Que two weekends ago with our Gilmore cousins. Grey took to kayaking like a pro and of the six hours we spent at the dam, Grey was kayaking for five and a half of them! Ray and Lisa had a youth kayak and Gemma and Violet were able (and loved) taking it out all on their own. I got to cross an item off my 100 small things list while I spent much of the day on the paddleboard carting kids around to jump off and tip over on purpose (hah). Rusty took a peaceful nap on my lap in a kayak and the other three kids had such a blast, we are seriously considering getting family kayaks instead of family bikes (!).

Celebrating the fourth of July with swimming, sparklers, and some fireworks.

Preparing for fall sports at the football and cheerleading equipment handout. Grey could not be more excited about moving to the minors tackle league (he is certifiably obsessed with his pads, hah!)and likewise, Gemma can hardly wait to don that cheer uniform and carry her pom poms around. #lawdhelpme My sister and I are coaching Gem's flag cheer squad and Brandon is on as head coach for Grey's minor team along with some awesome assistant coaches (thanks for being at equipment handout Coach Huffman and Coach Dail!) And then we closed out the baseball season with the end of year picnic!

Spending time with family and friends and leaning into their love, patience, and support. We all loved spending time with our Gilmore cousins at the Que and then Brandon and I went out to try Stonebridge Brewery with Ray, Lisa, and Butter that night and had a late late dinner at Tollgate. The kids and I made a trip out to Friendship Village to spend the afternoon with the Stankan crew. Brandon and Uncle Juice made a day of dive bar hopping and then met up with us at my parents' house for a cookout and fire. Grey got to have a fun day with Heather and Caleb at the trampoline park and blueberry picking and they brought home the most delicious donuts from Peace, Love, and Little Donuts (thank you for those and the blueberries and the crockpot roast!!) Thank you to all of you that have reached out to us with your love and positive thoughts - we are still not ready to have everything out in the open, but to all you Prayer Warriors out there, please keep our family on your list.

Making Church picnic chicken and grilled veggies, buffalo chicken mac & cheese, kielbasa and pierogies, shredded ranch and cream cheese chicken sandwiches (aka 'crack chicken'), and spaghetti.  For breakfast we had fruity pebble muffins and blueberry waffles (with fresh blueberries!).