Around Here 10: 03/03-03/09

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  13+ hours (of 1000)
It was snowy and cold again this week, but the chickens and shoveling had me earn a little more time to bump up to another hour for the year. We are all so anxious to get outside - while we were discussing the weather on the way to school this week, Violet shouted, "Go Away, Winter! We don't want to wear coats anymore!" #mood tho

Reading There's No Such Things as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk and falling more deeply obsessed with my commitment to outdoor time for myself and our kids (for all kids!) I also ordered our next books & brews book club book The Feeding and Care of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray but I didn't start it yet because I dove right into McGurk's book!

Missing B/Daddy while he spent three nights in Hershey for a school admin conference. I was so blessed by family and friends though who huddled around us to get through our week of activities and school pick ups and drop offs. (thank you abba, chum, stankans, and garretsons! I am so very grateful for all the ways you helped me get through this week!)

Catching a movie at the theater with the Stankan family! We haven't been to the movies in quite some time, but while B was out of town, I loaded up Sheila with the whole crew and we saw How to Train your Dragon 3 with Loni, Rourie, and Ivan. Grey was over the moon as he is an enormous fan of the How to Train your Dragon movies, series, and characters.

Kissing basketball season goodbye! Grey had his last game of the season with his CT team at the YMCA and they finished with their first win in overtime! At the very last moment of the game, one of the other team's players was so distraught over losing that he ran up behind Grey (who had the ball) and shoved him with both hands and Grey went flying head first across the floor (he was okay and got right up, albeit a little confused and shaken) and then the buzzer went off and the game was over. It was such a bizarre moment and the kid who had pushed him was overwhelmed with emotion and was hysterical (crying/freaking out). I saw that Grey was fine but watched in confusion as nothing happened: the refs didn't call a foul (it was overtime and everyone was waiting for the next game) and the kids' coach (who I learned also happened to be the kids' dad) didn't do anything about it - and I was mostly disappointed that it was really such a sports teachable moment lost for all the kids there.
--Grey, who has had sports expectations drilled into his 8year old brain for his whole life, got up and went through the hand shake line and when he got to the kid that pushed him who had tears streaming down his face, Grey told him good game while high fiving and also giving him a pat on the back too (like a, "we're cool, dude, chin up" move that he's seen his Coach Daddy do through the good game line).
--and I knew my reaction to the event was crucial too. So when I talked to Grey after the game I asked if he was okay (he was, mostly confused about what the heck happened) and I reminded him that sometimes people can get overwhelmed in a big game, but that never means you take it out on another player or the ref. And I praised him for his reaction and kindness/patience with the kid through the good game line and then we moved on to talk about the rest of the game.
--If we want a level headed, humble, accountable athlete - we need to react to the game with a level head, humility, and accountability as an athlete's parent/spectator. Our motto is, if you want to prove a point in sports, you do it with your talent and hard work: make another basket, score another goal, throw another touchdown; you move on to the next play with your head held high and play your game.
Sports are more than just sports. 

Celebrating our babiest cousin's first birthday! Miss Remi Jane turned one this week and the kids and I made the trek out to WashPa to celebrate that sweet little squishems. While we were at the basketball game and Remi's birthday - B was working out at the High Ridge hunting preserve and put in a full 12 hour day walking through snow in the woods during the pig hunt. He was so sore and chilled to the bone when he got home; he had to practically thaw out before he could even speak in full sentences (hah!)

Teaching Somos Unit 4 in Spanish 1 (including target structures: habla, toma, and quiere ser), Spanish 1 Honors finished Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro and took their novel fill-in-the-blank final. Spanish 2 moved onto Somos Unt 7 (including target structures le ayuda, tienes que, and pasatiempo vocab). Spanish 2 Honors did a mini unit about Quinceñeras before getting ready to read Fiesta Fatal next week and Spanish 3 Honors did a mini unit about Costa Rica (including a travel research project on Google maps) before getting read to read their next novel; Robo en la Noche. (Also - cheering on our North Star boys' basketball team who made it through the first round of state playoffs!! On to the sweet sixteen - Go Cougars!!)

Making my mom's enchiladas with leftover taco meat, ramen noodles, swedish meatballs in the crockpot over mashed potatoes, and King's Cake (with babies in it!) to celebrate Mardi Gras/Carnaval on Fat Tuesday.

Around Here 9: 02/24-03/02

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  12+ hours (of 1000)
Not enough to push me up to another hour this week, bleh. Spring, where you at?

Reading and finishing Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippenott and then handing it over to one of my students who opened it and immediately started reading it in her free period (which she spends hanging out in my room - hah).

Stumbling our way through Read Across America week (happy birthday Dr. Seuss!) and all the themed days at school. We threw together the lamest fairy tale costumes (aka. name tags for Hansel and Gretel for Grey & Gem) and then barely pulled off the rest of the week for them (their 'twin outfits' didn't quite match their friend/twin's clothes, we totally forgot about grade/color day) and the little kids had an easier week with pajama day and mismatch day (aka every day). Violet thought 'crazy sock' day was the most hilarious thing she had ever heard of. She borrowed two socks from her big bro, Grey, and was pleased as punch.

High fiving the Rustman who is making progress in his speech work with Ms. Kristin. He is really chatting up a storm and had me belly laughing the other night when he feigned horror when he realized I put something under his bed in hopes that he'd forget he wanted it when he was out of the room. He looked at me with a face in shock and said, "Momma! Why you put that under my bed?!"

Jumping and smiling and hugging when one of my former students (she's a senior now) stopped by to tell me that she was accepted into her first choice college! I am so proud and grateful to have been her teacher and be just a small part of her journey through life. (congrats Mattison!)

Feeling grateful for cousins Heather, Albert, and Caleb for taking Grey to see the Harlem Globetrotters on Wednesday night. It can be hard to do much of anything sometimes with our litter of children (haha, I say that lovingly) but we are so blessed to have family and friends who take a child or two on special events that we could never do all as a family. thank you Rummels!!

Catching up with my sisters at our monthly SCF (sisters come first) happy hour date. We met at Uch's house and got all caught up from Kayla's trip to Thailand and got to see her pics and videos!

Celebrating our Gemmi Roe birthday girl with a sleepover party at our house. She invited six friends, plus her little sis Violet, and we spent the evening playing 70 rounds of Just Dance on Youtube and watching musicals all night (Hairspray and Mamma Mia!) The girls were all very sweet and Gem had such a great time. We meant for the party to be Just Add Magic themed but with all the dancing it sort of turned into a Dance party theme (lol). We even got to have our cousin Mallory for an extra day to sleepover which made us all happy.

Enjoying a day date with mah man. (thank you Miss Hannah for babysitting!) We went to my students' basketball game which they played and won the D5 Championship! Then we enjoyed dinner at Press when we by chance ran into my sisters and Kev there too! We share the Mongolian Cauliflower appetizer and it was delicious as always. Then we headed over to Mardi Crawl to help Tasha and You in Flood City with registration. It was a great turn out this year with 9 participating bars and over 300 wristbands sold. #proudbigsisbrag

Teaching and having mini conferences with my Spanish 1 students who were working on their Capibara con Botas final projects, Spanish 1 Honors read chapters 3-6 of Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro and had a snowball review on Friday. Spanish 2 students were finishing their BBQP final projects, while Spanish 2 Honors learned more about the Bolivian children 'prisioners' and did a writing and interpersonal speaking presentations. And Spanish 3 Honors finished up La Casa de La Dentista with some writing and interpersonal speaking presentations too.

Making use of our crockpot this week with chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes, and London broil cooked all day (yum!). We also had breakfast for dinner to use up our abundance of chicken eggs and B made spaghetti one night. We had a Just Add Magic themed birthday for Gemma, so we made "If These Walls Could Taco" and "Extract the Magic Mac & Cheese" with "Point of View Popcorn" (aka Bedford Candies popcorn - thank you Soph & Kate!) and sang Happy Birthday over our "Shut 'Em Up Shortcake"

Gemma Rose, 7 years old.

My Gemmi Ro,
you are seven.
seven years already of your kind and generous heart.
seven years of your silly, bubbling giggle.
seven years of twirling, fluttering, and tumbling.

it always feels as though we exist in a fairy tale story book when you're around, Gem. There's a little extra sparkle, a heap of theatrics, the lines between good and evil always clearly defined, regular breakouts of music and dancing, and almost always a happily ever after.

You are no damsel in distress though, my girl, you are almost always the hero in the story. I will spend my whole life trying to get you to understand that you need to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others. It is often that I have to tell you, "Gem, you're trying to help too much now, honey." You are generous with your time, service, and kindness to a fault. The thought of anyone being offended by you makes you feel anxious. When your Dad and I have to drive separately somewhere, you worry yourself crazy deciding who to ride with because you don't want to hurt one of our feelings. Sleepovers at your friends' houses make you so happy but then you worry about how much Daddy and I will miss you. You told us over dinner the other night as just a side comment, "When one of my classmates break or lose their crayon, I let them have mine.....actually, I barely have any crayons left in my box in my desk because I've given so many away!" Dad and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. Roie, you need to take care of you too, baby.

 
You took it easy this year in sports because you told us that sometimes it gets too busy with everything we do. (boy, do we ever need that reminder regularly Gemma, thank you!) So you cheered for football season (me and Uch were your coaches!) and you signed up for AYSO soccer. No competitive cheer or indoor soccer because you wanted time to "play and be with my family."

Most of your friends are still all older than you by years/grades. Regularly, people are shocked to learn that you are only in first grade - both because of your height and your maturity. Dad and I forget constantly that you are only just now seven and we are always trying to remind ourselves that you are still just a little girl (even though you seriously might as well be 12 in the way we trust you and how you handle responsibilities).

You are less of a frilly, sparkly girl this year. You prefer leggings and a sports tshirt to dresses. You like your hair just in a ponytail and you are desperate for it to grow back again (after we got several inches cut off earlier last year). You still love hugs and dancing and snuggling but you ask for it less now and that's bittersweet; less neediness, but also stop growing up please. You love stories, especially about when you were little and when Dad and I were young and dating. You are always so eager to make sure that we know how much you love us. You say things like (when eating at a restaurant) "This is such good food - but not as good as yours mom!" or "That boy is so handsome! But not as handsome as Dad!"

You and Grey are either best best bestest best friends- not leaving each others' sides laughing maniacally at the weirdest jokes ever - or ready to choke each other and nitpicking everything the other one is saying. You and Violet play 'girlfriends' together with babies and purses, you whisper and giggle in the dark past bedtime, and you even started sharing your clothes with her (!). You two make my sister heart explode with your little tender moments that I only have the privilege to watch from the outside - but I know the power and love that is held in that hug of sisterhood. You baby Rusty probably the worst of all of us and he knows it. He calls you "my gemma" sometimes and girl, well, good luck with that. His curls and hugs around the neck and sweet smile can make you crumble into a pile of mush. You literally would do anything for him and I have to tell you all the time, "Gem, he's never going to learn if you keep doing everything for him!"

Your favorite movies are all 'kissing movies' like A Cinderella Story, Another Cinderella Story (lol), and most recently, To All the Boys I've Loved Before. You have fallen head over heels for musicals this year including Mamma Mia, The Greatest Showman, and Hairspray (big time crush on Link, but Gem, you are not alone in girls who have had their first major celebrity crush on Zac Efron!) You like watching baking/cooking shows on youtube and still ask to help anytime I'm in the kitchen. 

You are an independent little thing and the absolute most helpful child in our house. You are nearly completely self sufficient (hah!) and can even get almost everyone else ready too. You make us cups of tea (in the microwave), you get snacks and drinks for your siblings, you can empty and load the dishwasher, and you're the only kid not afraid to go into the basement by yourself to get something from the freezer for us. You can change diapers, clean a bathroom, and almost (so close!) learned to iron this year - but because you were trying to be too helpful (this is a theme of yours) you accidentally burned yourself when putting more water in it while it was still hot when I stepped out of the room. 

Grey told a silly joke the other day, "what did the snake say to the mailman?" (ssssss) which had us all giggling. And then Violet jumped in on the joke and asked "what did the pig say to the mailman?" (oink oink) and then you tried, "What did the turtle say to the mailman? ....(can I help you?") ....this is so typical of the kind of stuff you say, Gem, that leaves us all wondering -what in the actual hell are you talking about? while you sit there and just laugh at yourself. Being able to laugh at your silly, unique self, Roe, that is an invaluable skill - so hold on to it, my darling. Let your freak flag fly, girl - it's bold and bright and beautiful!

You still love playing school at home; you are always trying to enlist the babies in being your students while you sing strange little chants to them about keeping their hands to themselves and their mouths closed while walking in the halls (hahha, makes me laugh every time). I hear your teachers' voices and phrases parroted out of your mouth as you do your pretend read alouds and give instructions. I am so grateful that you have had amazing teachers that inspire you.

You are still working hard in school and math seems to come naturally to you. You have made progress in reading this year and you are so determined to get there. You still have a way to go until reading becomes more natural to you, but goodness girl - when you get a handle on this reading thing, you are going to soar. I can't wait to see you unfurl those beautiful wings and leap into uncharted land of learning and characters and new worlds. Oh Gemmi, how much you are going to adore reading.  I can't wait to do it together and the chats we will have and the worlds we can explore together through books. You are going to love it so much and I can't wait to watch how your dedication and persistence in trying finally pays off and you unlock that incredible padlock to the whole wide world.

Gemmi, 

I am so lucky to get to be your momma.
to watch you and be inspired regularly about patience and generosity
I am so proud of the girl you are
and humbled to even think of the girl you are going to continue to be
I hope to be a little more like you everyday.
Gemmi girl, you are something else.
I love you forever and ever
and ever for all the days
even when you're way taller than me
and changing the whole wide world
my roie, I will love you.
momma