Around Week 38: 09/16-22

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  477+ hours (of 1000)
Up 18 hours this week! We finally got a break in the rain (thank goodness, for serious I was starting to get weather-related depression, no joke). We also had a lot of outdoor activities this week that lent themselves to lots of time outside. I still haven't figured it out enough to get out during the school day on my lunch - it's a goal of mine to walk a few laps on the track during that period just to get some fresh air and some head space, but alas, not quite there yet.

Reading This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel (still). Even though I haven't finished yet, we had our Books&Brews book club meeting at Pappy's Pizza and it was amazing as always to chat and hang out with some of my favorite ladies.

Delivering dozens of eggs to our Home Ec department from our free range brood. With all ten chickens laying, we average about 10-12 eggs A DAY, so we have plenty to go around. The Home Ec teacher and I worked out a system that if she sends one of her students up with some cartons, that's how many she needs back. It's so nice to know our eggs have a for sure home (and need!) 

Fall sporting with football practice and cheerleading. Gem cheered at the CV game and Grey had a bye that week. We even enjoyed pizza and snacks at Luray playground afterward with the Stahls and their girls.

Planning for Violet's upcoming birthday! She decided she wants a "princess bouncy house birthday party" please and thank you. haha. this chick. Okay then, on it.

Volunteering at the kids' PTA annual color run. Our fam ran the yellow color station again and Grey ran with his friends. We had a blast all morning spraying everyone and also cheering them on - because you know I love that the most at races :)

Helping out at Uncle Dave's house as he is laid up from his recent injury. Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy have four horses (including Violet's favorite, Dawn!) and a whole ton of land, and a wood burning furnace for heat! Our whole crew, along with his daughter and her fam, and our cousins Albert and Caleb spent the day there loading up chopped wood in the basement, cleaning stalls, and mowing grass. It was a powerful lesson to explain to the kids on our way home that it was no big deal for us to spend a few hours helping (it was fun even!) but it was so important to be there all together because Aunt Cindy could never have caught up on all the chores on her own.

Teaching weather, seasons,and days of the week in Spanish 1 and Spanish 1 Honors. Spanish 2 continued learning about La Universidad (Somos Unit 4). In Spanish 2 Honors, we are continuing reading the book, Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro. In the book, Brandon builds a fort so we built forts in class to read the chapters! (#jaja). Spanish 3 Honors began reading their first novel of the year, Esperanza by Carol Gaab. We started with Chapters 1 and 2 and I love following along with Martina Bex's esquemas and suggestions.  We had dictation quizzes across the levels which is my favorite quick glimpse into how everyone is following along. Students had a random day off of school due to a technical glitch, but it was a great day to get a ton of grading and organizing done on my side. Then we had an ACT 80 day with ALICE training which was amazing (and also heartbreaking that it's needed at all).

Making Korean ground turkey and green beans over rice, steak'um tacos, crispy shrimp pasta with farmer's market cheese, restaurant style filet steaks, meatball sandwiches, and Coney Island burgers. We also made zucchini bread which was eaten in under 10 minutes because we have an obsession.

Around Here Week 37: 09/09-15

A glimpse into what it is like to live in our house just this (wacky, crazy, whirlwind of a) minute.

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 459+ hours  (of 1000)
Up only 11 hours this week thanks to so much rain. Good grief. It would not let up and we had our driveway washed away again for about the tenth time this summer/fall. We did snag some hours at the football game on Friday night, but it honestly rained so much we had to cancel football and cheerleading practices! It was a muddy, depressing mess all week.

Reading (still) This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel and finding it hard to squeeze in the time to get it finished. Every time I do get a chance to read it, I really love the writing and the story, but life, man; it's sucking all my free time away!

Celebrating the life of my Uncle Mike with a brunch and gathering at my mum&dad's house. He passed this fall unexpectedly but it was so wonderful to see all the people who cared for him and who care for my momma and uncle (his siblings). It was a beautiful day inside, filled with warmth and love - even if it was raining outside. (thank you to all who came and helped and made food, it meant so much to my mumma.)

Honoring first responders on Sept. 11th. My students wrote out thank you cards for our in-house first responder/resource officer Mr. Schmidt and the kids and I delivered chocolate chip muffins and thank you notes to one of our favorite first responders (and our neighbor, and the kids' resource officer at school) Mike.

Visiting the Que for Benny's fourth birthday party while the clouds parted and we got a break in the rain for the little man. Ben is Violet's best friend (and cousin) so she was over the moon to get to spend the evening with him. The kids played on the playground and in the sand while I got to enjoy delicious food and adult conversation with cousins, aunts, and Mimi. A perfect outdoor evening - which we all needed.

Pulling Gemma's front tooth out which has been so loosey goosey for days. It was making me more crazy than it was making her! She finally allowed B to pull it out and we all sighed with relief. A little toothless grin looks perfect on her. Unfortunately, the poor tooth fairy must have got delayed in Hurricane Flo (?!!?!) and she didn't make it to our house that night (#mommafail) but what luck (!) the tooth fairy did make it to Abba's house who brought over Gemma's loot that afternoon.  (#closeone)

Feeling grateful that my hubs has been my lunch date for almost the whole week straight. One day we planned to eat together, then I forgot my lunch, then I needed a lunch, then I wanted chocolate (boy, did he deliver with a GIANT Hershey's bar - hah). It has been so lovely to spend a period a day with him while we chat and snack, even if students are constantly hanging out in my room and interrupting our conversations and asking me 20 thousand questions about Spanish club (haha). It is so comforting to be high school sweethearts still.

Wandering through the Ligonier Farmer's Market and loving it. Uch and Kitty went with the three littlest kids on Saturday morning (B and Grey had football) and we tried free samples, and bought unnecessary snacks, and even got to listen to some live music. Gosh, do I ever love the farmer's market.

Date nighting while Miss Hannah hung out with the kiddos at our house. I met B out at the Elk's club after his golf outing and we spent some time with my Aunt Dar and Uncle Mike before we headed out to listen to our friend Bruce and his band play at Shotziz's with my Dad and sisters.

Teaching greetings, goodbyes, and numbers 1-30 in Spanish 1 which also included learning how to play Manos Nerviosas. Spanish 2 learned about La Universidad (quiere ser, toma, and habla), while Spanish 2 Honors got into Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro, their first novel of the year. Spanish 3 was still learning about Guatemala and this week we did an immigration simulation which included a mock citizenship test to be able to immigrate to the US legally. The kids were really engaged and we even had  'coyotes' and green cards through 'marriage' happen naturally as students had difficulty passing the citizenship test and their classmates wanted to help them get to 'Merica (the 'USA' area had snacks and desks/chairs).

Making crispy bbq chicken wraps, spaghetti, homemade pizzas, and we had a leftover/fridge clean out night. We made our favorite chocolate chip/pumpkin muffins to deliver to our first responders (and our bus driver!)

an open letter to the kind student

dear kind and decent student,

I am grateful for all my kids. The shy ones, the quiet ones, the weird ones, the smart ones, the too smart for their own good ones, the silly ones, the class clowns, the teachers' pets, the athletes, the bookworms, the i'm-just-here-because-i-have-to-be ones, the sad ones, the puppy-love eyed ones, the ones with awesome&meaningful questions, the one that is always willing to participate, the ones that write me notes, the ones that leave me shaking my head, the ones that are still in my head with pride as I'm falling asleep, the ones that are still in my head with worry as I'm waking up-
every.single.one of them.
I love 'em.

but you, kind kid, I am most grateful for you.

thank you.
thank you for being exactly you.
thank you for coming to class on time and sitting in your seat and getting your work out.
thanks for saying hi to me in the hallway on the way to your other classes.
thanks for waiting your turn and sharing and cleaning up.

but most of all, thank you for being the one I know I can trust with the kid that no one else wants to partner with.

Maybe it's the kid who doesn't ever have their work, or the kid of 1000 immature jokes, or the kid who isn't so good at hygiene yet, or the kid who is so quiet and shy, or the kid who talks about off topic subjects that no one else has ever heard of, or the kid who is a perfectionist, or the kid who gets so mad they crumple their paper up in a ball, or the kid who won't stop tapping the pen, or the kid who answers all the questions without raising their hand.

thank you. thank you. thank you.
to the ends of the marking period, to the ends of the school year, to the ends of all the Earth.
thank you.

I know I rely too much on you, I know I probably take advantage of your patience and kindness too often. I also know I don't nearly enough tell your momma (or coach, or dad, or grandma, or other teachers, or whoever it is that you care about) how your kindness changes the dynamic in our classroom. How you are my most favorite kid because of your goodness and patience. I am promising you, I will try better on this.

but for good measure - just so it's clear -
How grateful I am that I get to be your teacher.
How grateful I am that your peers get to be your classmates.
How grateful I am that our school gets to be your alma mater.
How grateful I am that this world, who needs you so badly, gets to have you a part of it.

thank you kind kid.
your indebted forever teacher.
xxo

ps1. teachers teaching a kind kid, please tell that kid's momma (or coach, or dad, or grandma, or other teachers, or whoever it is that they care about) how awesome it is to have them in your class.

ps2. parents raising the kind kid - you are doing things so right. please write a manual.