Around Here Week 40: 09/30-10/06

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  511+ hours (of 1000)
Up 16 hours this week thanks to some (finally!) beautiful fall days! I'm still not totally satisfied with my intentional outdoor choices, almost all of our hours come from activities that we need to be outside for anyway (games, practices, etc) and I'm not choosing myself to spend time outside, especially when I get home from school. I'm still trying to get a handle on chores, homework, and dinner which those three alone have me shaking my head every night at how the hours get swallowed up before bedtime. (let alone adding blogging or reading to the mix yet). I know I'll get there, but this long readjustment is always frustrating.

Reading...I can't even say it again, I'm reading so little that it doesn't even count. But our book club did pick our next book which is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (which is also about to be released as a movie!)

Celebrating our Violet with her princess bouncy house party at our house. We lucked out on an absolutely perfect September day (finally!). The bouncy house arrived in the morning (from Hogue's Fun Factory) and kept our kids occupied all morning while I was able to clean and finish the Princess dress cupcake tray. B ran off to Stuver's to pick up mum flower pots for around the house and our family and friends brought delicious food to accompany our hamburger and hot dogs on the grill (thank you!) Violet had a great time with her cousins, friends from school, and her besties Benny, Grady, Hunter, & Chloe. It was such a great day for our peanut.

Fall sporting with practices and an away game at Meyersdale this week. Our flag cheerleaders had the two last run-thrus to paint and it went over surprisingly well (I had my doubts considering 19 first and second graders with paint). It rained (again) on Thursday so B had the minors football team over for game film in our garage (hah!) Our game was on a hot, fall day and the flag cheerleaders did great through the heat and sweating. Our minors boys (Grey's team) experienced their first loss of the season which Grey took kind of rough. Always good practice though to work through those feelings of defeat and disappointment (25 Rules for Moms of Sons).

Enjoying Gemma's full on toothless grin after she lost her other front top tooth! (tooth fairy was on it this time!)

Taking a day off of school after my body just shuts 'er down because I don't know how to relax. Between October and November each year, my body has to do something drastic to get me to take a rest day and it was this week. I got to relax home alone and take care of myself (which included getting some grading done, chatting with my sister, and watching The Shape of Water).

Teaching colors and school supplies in Spanish 1 while Spanish 1 Honors starts in on Somos 1 Unit 2 (corre, camina, ve). Spanish 2 started reading Capibara con Botas and got to play for the first time one of our favorite novel games: Write-Draw-Pass. Spanish 2 Honors finished up Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro and took their end of book test and learned about their RAFT Project that will be due next week after some in-class work days. Spanish 3 Honors is still working through Esperanza and we've made it to Chapter 6 and everyone let out an audible sigh at the end because, ugh, sad (but yay that everyone could understand that it was sad, right?)

Homecoming week at our school this week - so we dressed up for our Haunted Hoco theme before the big pep rally on Friday. It was the high school teacher's turn to put on the show and we showed up for it - all dressed as recognizable spooky characters (I was Pennywise from It! We also had Chucky, Freddie, Jason, and the Purge people!) complete with a Thriller and Kiki dance (hah). Then the Spanish Club participated in the Hoco parade thanks to some parents and awesome Spanish Club kids. I brought Vi and Rust with me on the float and they were kept company the whole time with our Spanish Club President, Ana (aka: Maddie). I even had two students dress up as the Ganga girls from the Señor Wooly music video (JAJAJ, you're amazing Cheyanne & Olivia!) The babies and I stayed for a little bit of the Hoco football game and watched the crowning of the king and queen (Violet wanted to hug all the 'princesses')

Making Italian crockpot chicken and potatoes, taco pasta, order in pizza (on game film night), leftovers, and stromboli.

Around Here Week 39: 09/23-29

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  495+ hours (of 1000)

Up another 18 hours this week and I finally caught up to (and passed!) my hours from last year at this point. woohoo!! The weather was inconsistent this week, but luckily we had a lot of activities that forced us outside for lots of hours. I dragged the kids out to the high school track late on Sunday night to get in a quick 1 mile run to try to prepare for our upcoming 5K race and all of our fall sports activities really upped our hours this week. 

Reading STILL This is How it Always is.  (I know, I'm a broken record).

Fall sporting with two games this week. We played Rockwood on Sunday and despite the chilly weather that day, everyone did great. Chum, Pappy, and Gigi traveled all the way out there to see the game too so it particularly nice to have all of our fans together. Then it rained and rained and rained for all the days and we bailed on practices because MUD. On Friday night, all the teams participated in the Homecoming parade down Main Street straight to the Hoco football game that night. Then we played North Star at home for our flag and minors team (which meant I saw all kinds of my students cheering on younger siblings #cantgetawayfromthesekids #donthateit). Grey's team had a hard fought won which keeps them still undefeated for the season! 

Singing happy birthday to our little peanut Vially Mary who turned four this week! She's still so squishy and sweet that it feels sort of heartbreaking that she's four; like a real preschooler instead of my little munchkin who was closer to a crib than she was kindergarten, but somehow, like always, I'm shocked by time. #everymothersprobs

Taking a half day at work to go to the dentist with the girls. We all originally had dentist appointments in April but due to who remembers what now, we had to reschedule and the earliest they could get us in was now (6 months later!) We all got good reports though and it always feels good to knock those kinds of things off the never-ending to-do list. 

Thanking the geniuses that spread the ideas on Pinterest when I finally got my classroom laptops under control thanks to two regular kitchen dish drainers and some binder clips. You should have seen me going on and on about them to every student and teacher (and maintenance staff worker) that stepped foot in my room.  The chromebooks are all lined up in their slots while all the charger plugs are readily available, blows.my.mind. #thankspinterestyetagain

Loving the random teacher perks like snacks brought by students from the Home Ec room (had amazing Apple Crisp last week - thanks Hunter and Mason!) and receiving beautiful, original artwork pieces to decorate my room (thank you Damien!) and the little post-it notes I find littering my desk that say "hola" and "have a good day!" (thank you Maggie & Maria). I got a big boost this year with a teacher's assistant first period, she has been such a blessing; making copies and grading vocab quizzes (xxox Alysha!!) 

Feeling jealous that B and the girls got to visit Baby Sukey before me! One of our favorite families had their new, sweet baby girl last week and B got to hold that little bundle before me when he dropped off Sukey's big sis (and Gem's bff) after we got to hang out with her off the bus on Friday and during the Hoco parade. Sukey's big bro, Ivan, stayed at our house for a sleepover that night though, because the next day we were.....

Running a 5K at the Que Classic! It was the most perfect fall weather day for a run, and we saw loads of people we know at the race. I ran into a former student, a current student, lots of friends, cousins, and a former co-worker! Grey and Ivan left me in the dust (expected) and I had an enjoyable race at my turtle pace. Every time I run I think, "this is so nice," so I must get back into it. I got to see that sweet baby Sukey after the race at the finish line where she cheered/slept her way through our finishes.

Teaching about the Spanish Alphabet and finishing up Spanish speaking country/weather projects this week in Spanish 1 and Spanish 1 Honors. The Spanish 2 students started learning about Ecuador and Capybaras to prepare for their first novel this year, Capibara con Botas. The Spanish 2 Honors kids continued reading Brandon Brown; we missed a day together this week as they all traveled to DC to visit the Holocaust museum with their History class. Spanish 3 Honors is digging into Esperanza and we are moving at just the right pace following along with Martina Bex plans. I am getting more used to moving at a chapter every other day and really pulling apart sentences and details to make sure the kids are following along. 

Spanish club organized a Fútbol Fanatico day for the fan appreciation night when we had three teams playing home games. It POURED outside, so the kids and I set up our pop up tent and painted as many faces as stopped to visit us! 

Making chicken, veggie, & stuffing casserole, hot dogs and mac&cheese for Violet's birthday dinner choice, chicken and wild rice soup with 4 ingredient homemade bread , and spaghetti. We also had some banana blueberry muffins when I woke up one morning at 5am with a passion at using up some brown bananas #weirdmomprobs

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.