Around Here Week 34: 08/19-08/25

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  415 hours+ (of 1000)
Up 25 hours this week. The weather is finally starting to feel like summer...just as we are about to head back to school (bummer). We enjoyed a nice, long evening around the fire all together after dinner and scored many hours due to fall sports (practices, games, pep rallies, etc).

Reading Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel and finishing up my Spanish novels and graphic novels for this year: Robo en la noche, Billy la Bufanda y Las Botas, and La Casa de La Dentista. I am so excited to share the stories with my students this year.

Spending time with cousins. The Gilmores drove in from Hershey for a day to hand treestands so while the boys (including Grey and Reid) headed to the woods for the whole.entire.day - Audra hung out with our house much to Gem and Violet's supreme joy. The kids all played nicely which meant I had most of the afternoon to power wash our siding - a chore I have had on my list all summer. Is there a more satisfying task than power washing? (that'd be a no). Then we were lucky to get a sleepover with cousin Caleb which included a visit to my classroom and a Just Dance competition with my volleyball playing students who were at school for camp.

mini-celebrating our six and a half year old Gemmi Roe with a 'happy birthday' over a cookie for dessert and measuring her height on our kitchen doorframe. Our beautiful, silly, sweet as pie girl, we love you so.

Emergency room visiting for a nurse maids elbow for Rusty. We were seriously afraid that he fractured it on the Lord of the Flies playground (what I call the school playground when Momma and Dad are both coaching practices), but alas and thank goodness it was fixed up with a quick swivel and pop back in place.

Mean Momma'ing it on our playdate with our besties the Fiores at Chimney Rocks.  We headed out for a hike in the afternoon and just as we were getting on the path, two of our kids set off on a full sprint waaaay ahead of us. It was scary for a few minutes when we couldn't catch up to them/find them (especially since the hike is all hills and drop offs) but when we finally caught up to them, I made a flash decision and looked at Kate and mouthed "sorry, but we have to leave now" and then proceeded to explain to the kids that we had to cut our playdate short. The kids understand that momma's rule is "if you don't know how to behave, you don't get to go" - I'm way outnumbered always with this crew, so I need everyone to be responsible and follow the rules - even at three years old. So we turned around and hiked back down the path to the sounds of tears and apologies.

Swooning at the Ligonier Farmer's Market with the girls early Saturday morning. Something about a Farmer's Market just sets my soul aglow. So much inspiration, and real hard work with real hardworking hands, and delicious smells and tastes, and all the beauty. Gah. love it so much.

Fall sporting all.the.days.  We've had football and cheer practices most nights this week, including sports pictures which prompted me to start an annual picture of Grey and Gem that I'll be forcing them to do every year now until they graduate high school (HAH). As cheer coach I've been putting my own kids to work in our garage painting flag football run-thrus for all the games - we have 7 games and we've got 3 run-thrus done so far. We headed out to the varsity field for the Fall pep rally on Thursday night where the kids were thrilled to get Senior Varsity fall sports players autographs (adorable), their faces painting, and food from the concession stand (obviously).
-We also had our first games of the season on the beautiful, sunshiny Saturday at Blacklick. Gemma and our cheerleaders did a great job cheering for the entire flag football game including an awesome first job at our halftime dance routine (to Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya). Uch and I were exhausted after the game (keeping 19 little 1st and 2nd grade cheerleaders all together for 40 minutes is a feat!) but it was fun and proud the way they all did their best and had fun. I am so grateful to have Uch coaching with me! (love you!!)
-Grey played in the minors game while B headcoached and they did amazing. Seriously so impressed with the whole group of Grey's teammates and friends - it will be so fun to watch them all the way up through Varsity playing together. B is an amazing coach and it makes me so proud to have him out there doing what he was born to do; coaching kids sports and life lessons. #hotdad for real. The babies totally hung in there and played during two games in the hot sun with their little friends (#playerslittlesiblingsquad) and I was so grateful to have them just go with the flow even though it was such a long, hot day with two coaching parents who were distracted most of the time. We had a big cheering section (four grandparents, one great grandparent, two aunts, and an uncle who kept shouting from the sidelines - haha, love you Kev).

Finishing up my classroom and attending my first day back to school (Act 80 work day). We spent an hour or two at B's office doing a little redecorating and adding some more home-y touches to his office and then later that week, I put the final touches into my classroom. I figure we spend half our days in those rooms, they should be some place we enjoy spending time in, right? B laughed this whole summer saying, "geez, we're going to need to take out another mortgage on your classroom" (he's half joking, hah), but it sure does look beautiful and inspiring to me, so whatevs.

Making grilled church picnic chicken, my mom's enchiladas, chicken and zucchini casserole, delicious creamy Italian crockpot chicken (made and delivered by Heather - thank you!!) and crockpot swedish meatballs over mashed potatoes.

Around Here Week 32-33: 08/05-08/18

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  390 + hours (of 1000)
Up 38 hours in two weeks with some off and on weather (honestly, this summer has been so ridiculous). We've been snagging hours at evening practices and through our travels and activities.  We found a resident walking stick bug this week twice! He was hiding out on Grey's rollerblades and the kids were freaked out at first until we talked about his awesome camouflage and they realized he didn't bite (hah). After holding him for awhile, we put in him our tree by our back patio but then Violet found him (or another one?!) all the way over on the other side of our house a few days later. We relocated him to our robin nest tree (they've moved out) and we'll see if he pops up somewhere else next time!

Reading Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel and reading through my brand new Spanish novels for this year: Tumba, La Llorona, and Esperanza. My local book club; Books & Brews met up at Press Bistro to discuss The Woman in the Window and it was a pleasure as always to chat and talk with grown ups and eat delish food.  We decided on our next book This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel (thanks for the idea Shelly!) and I read the first few pages just to get a look into the book and o.mi.gosh obsessed already.

Enjoying some home upgrades. my Dad (chum) helped install our new kitchen sink faucet which we really needed (thank you!). We fi.na.lly finished the garage project and put everything back in that we are keeping. There is only one final pile to go to the Salvation army for donations and one bigger pile to go into the dumpster we will be renting in the few days. I did some serious back-to-school nesting and went through the girls' and boys' bedrooms and the upstairs toy area and garbage bagged and donation bagged a ton of stuff. We moved Grey's fly tying station down to the basement which brought a little inventory creation resurgence in his etsy shop. I reorganized and moved furniture around and it's been a lot easier to clean up. Then I hunkered down and went through all the different handmedown totes to update the kids' sizes (worst job ever) and got it done! And then, joy of all joys, I embraced reality and finished the 2016-17 family yearbook and swallowed my need for it to be perfect and opted for just finished instead. I ordered it and when it arrived, I actually hugged it. LOL. The kids loved looking at all the pictures (and still have pulled it out almost every day for the past week and a half) and it honestly makes me so happy. I claim that besides our living family members (children & pets) - in a house fire, the only material item I would grab would be those family yearbooks!

Smh with my Gemma Ro. First, she got prescription glasses at the eye doctor which I thought maybe was going to be a great thing. It's just a tiny prescription, but she does complain about headaches after a long day of playing school (or going to school) and she struggles still quite a bit with reading. The doc said she should wear them during school and any homework activities. And then, in total Gemma fashion, she lost them within two days. Good grief. When I got home, I coined the phrase, "Gemma, glasses on your face or in your case" and must have said it six hundred times and even still. We're all in on trying to locate them before next week and the start of school.

Visiting Idlewild with our favorite friends, the Fiores. We have not been so good on our "no bummer summer list" (that's almost entirely my fault! thanks for loving us still!) but we did get to spend a fun afternoon riding rides, getting sprinkled with rain, and (in Kate and my case) getting very dizzy. The kids are between the sizes of being able to ride the big kid rides but not yet without an adult - so we alternated who rode each time and it was hilarious and horrifying how our grown up equilibriums are so evolved (ie: old). I mean, we can still do it, but once is enough - tell that to our little hooligans though when wanted to ride the tilt-a-whirl back to back times!

Saying goodbye to spike. Our sweet hamster passed away this past week and broke all of our hearts a little bit. He was about 2 years old, so pretty standard life span for a hamster, but it didn't make it any easier to bear. rest in peace in Hamster heaven Spiker (with Hamster Jesus, as the kids say)

Egg hunting. We usually get about 7-8 eggs a day in the nesting boxes, but we stumbled up on a little nest that T'Challa has been making secretly near the garage. By the time we found it, she had laid 10 eggs there! hahah! The kids were cracking up laughing. The chickens have been having a great week eating up watermelon too (their favorite treat!)

Catching up with our family at the annual (50th!) Uzelac family reunion. I have a very big family on most sides, including the Uzelacs - my grandma had 13 siblings (!) and we all get together each year to spend the day eating good food with good company. The kids LOVE seeing their cousins and playing home run derby and performing karaoke.

Showering our loved ones in love at bridal and baby showers. Our cousin Clerissa is expecting her first baby, a boy, and the girls and I headed out to Indiana for her adorable shower. Then our cousin, Morgan is the bride to be this October and Violet is her flower girl. Her bridal shower was perfect and had a 'little black dress' theme on a Friday night at Flair of Country (so delish). Then we gave some love to the Stankan family, expecting their third, a girl - at their co-ed baby sprinkle. The kids had a blast playing with their besties and we had beautiful weather all day.

Exploring the Jim Mayer trail with the kids. I have been eager to check out this local walking/biking trail and I'm so glad we finally went. I braved it by myself with all four kids and thanks in large part to the shady trail and the over 100 (?!) millipedes we 'rescued' walking across the path. It seriously blew my mind how many we found.We walked for two hours and there was minimal whining or fussing. Time in nature is always the solution. I seriously believe that.

fall sporting at football and cheerleading practice. It makes for some wild evenings; B and Grey at football practice, Gem, Uch, and I at cheerleading practice, and Rusty and Violet at the playground living out all the Lord of the Flies scenes (hahah, only half kidding). Thank you so much to all the parents and older siblings who keep collective eyes on all those younger siblings who have cheerleader & player older siblings (especially our cousin Taush who brings her two littles over to play with ours!)

Classroom organizing and setting up. I was lucky to get to visit with my girls' volleyball players while they were at camp and got a ton of stuff done in the room for prep for the upcoming year. I got the sweetest package delivered from my dear friend, Ashley from The Big White farmhouse. She emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I would put together an Amazon wishlist for my classroom and then she went on and acted as my own personal classroom angel. Seriously had tears in my eyes - thank you Ashley!! xxox

Making slow cooker cream cheese chicken taquitos, kielbasa, zucchini, and corn on the cob, cheesy chicken and potatoes in the slow cooker, tacos, spaghetti, sausage & potato soup, chicken & zucchini casserole, and slow cooker chicken teriyaki bowls. For breakfast, we had our favorite 3 ingredient chocolate muffins, french toast, banana bread, zucchini bread, along with lots and lots of egg sandwiches.