Around Here Week 22: 5/26-6/1

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

NOT a tornado funnel

photo cred: Uch

photo cred: Uch

photo cred: Uch

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  169+ hours (of 1000)
Up 20 hours this week despite the thunderstorms and tornado watches that rolled through our town again this week, but the beginning and the end of the week were beautiful and summery.

Reading and finishing Erotic Stories for Punjabi Women by Balli Kaur Jaswal. It was a very sweet story with so many interesting layers. Our book club group chat was quite hilarious through the reading of this book including lots of vegetable emojis, LOL. Hardly waiting for our book club meeting to discuss!

Working hard in the yard. We had a productive Memorial Day at our house as we got to work early in our front flower beds and enlisted the kids in helping. We pulled out about six overgrown bushes and then transplanted a few things to different locations within the bed. Then we all headed down to Stuver's Nursery to pick out some new plants and buy 15 scoops of mulch to do all the landscaping. The kids helped most of the day, they mostly loved playing the back of the dump truck filled with mulch - but they helped cart wheelbarrows, lay the mulch, plants flowers, water flowers, and sweep sidewalks. Everyone's hands were dyed from the mulch by the end of the day and we all had rosy sunkissed cheeks and noses. Everything finally looks ready for the summer (Brandon and I say, "it finally looks like someone lives here" hah) and we love the new arrangement in the front off the porch.

Singing Happy Birthday to our Gigi. It was kind of perfect that all our sports games were rain cancelled on Gigi's birthday so that we could scoop up all the kids and grab pizzas to spend the evening at her house celebrating. We were all teary-eyed as we sang to her after such a long and difficult year for her. But she is a warrior and I can't wait to see what this new year brings. We have a lot of fun to make up, Gigi! We love you and are so grateful to have you.

Suffering through a body crash...again. I got home from school on Thursday afternoon and went right to bed to sleep for three hours and then was in the bathroom until 2:30a so sick. I seriously need to find a way to take care of myself throughout the school year because my body has revolted every two months when I don't. When will I learn?!

Celebrating our Rustman's third birthday with a ninja party at our house on Friday night. We had a cardboard tower karate chop session, pool noodle swords, and bubbles (for a bubble wand/sword). It was a beautiful evening, so we ate outside and built a fire and let the kids go crazy on the trampoline. Rusty loved being the certain of attention (really loved opening his presents), and is pretty proud that he can show how many he is on his hands using the "OK" hand gesture. Everyone was so tired afterwards - including me; I fell asleep on the couch with Violet before my sister left! Thank you for helping us celebrate our three year old RustMan!

Spring Sporting but dealing with a lot of cancellations and postpone games thanks to the wacky weather all week. We did squeeze in a baseball game but all the soccer games and our Roxbury volleyball games were called on account of rain. Grey got called up to play with the CT majors team on Saturday at the Point Stadium downtown which was pretty cool (B never got to play there growing up and was laughing about how he had to wait until his son was nine years old to stand on the field, as a coach! hah!) After the game, the CV majors team asked if Grey could play with them because they were short a player - and so it was FIVE hours at the baseball field for us. I'm honestly so grateful to the three little kids who just went with the flow and played and ate massive concession stand snacks to pass the time.

Teaching the last week of school! I scheduled my final for the last full days of school (#savageteacher) and if students didn't have the LMA passes to be exempt - they were taking it! Besides finals, the week also consisted of all hands on deck to undecorate my room, which is a feat. Luckily, I have the sweetest teacher's assistant, Lysh, who was eager and dedicated to the task. She organized my whole closet (seriously could cry about how grateful I am for that!) and then enlisted some of her (taller) friends - hahha Lysh, only half kidding- to help take down all the other decorations (thank you Emily, Tristan, and Sofia). As students walked into my room they were visibly disgusted at the bare walls and many of them commented, "Oh Gosh, what is this place?" and "Ew, this is terrible" hahahhaa, glad to know that my decor does have an effect on them all year long. On the last day, it was a bit of a free for all in the school (we are only there for about an hour and half) and so my room got packed with kids who wanted to play Just Dance. With about ten minutes of school left, the fire alarm sounded (LOL) and we got one final fire drill in for the school year. I got a lot of sweet notes and another flat out amazing drawing from Damien. (#lovemykids #lovemyjob ) The teachers had to stay all day and then come in for a few hours on Friday - I got all grades finalized, some last minute organization done, and then loaded up my car with things to organize over the summer.

Making church picnic chicken on the grill, shredded chicken & pork loaded nachos, spaghetti, and frozen pizzas & ninja cupcakes for Rusty's birthday party.

Starting the Keto diet on June 1. Both Brandon and I. gulp. I will report back - first day we held strong despite being at the baseball stadium for five hours with no food we could eat (LOL). We are using the Carb Manager app to help us stay with the Macro ranges (who am I even talking like this?) but we're pretty excited and ready to stick it out for at least a month!

Thank you May

 Thank you May for...

• another annual much-needed week without screens to unplug and remember what life and living is all about for our whole family
• the opportunity to host our first screen free week kid party at our house that led to a hilarious soap slip 'n slide and lots of tired and squeaky clean children. 
• the joy to chaperone both of the big kids' field trips and spend a whole day with them and their classmates out of the school exploring at the zoo and Camp Sequanota.
• perfect weather for the Rec the Alleghenies Expo that my baby sis works so hard to organize and is so good for our community. 
• a mother's day with lots of love from my own kiddos and hugs for my momma
• a trip to Hershey park with the thrill of riding rollercoasters and the Hershey Drop
• a surprise birthday party for that same baby sis who turned 30 this year and a touching video that hopefully reminded her of how amazing and inspiring she is
• a little sis (kayla) and Kevin who put together the surprise party that was so perfectly Uch. thank you for planning and directing and organizing - you two are hilarious and the best!
• amazing and thoughtful preschool teachers who love our babies during the school day and put on an adorable promotion/graduation program where we got to see Violet say the pledge and dance and sing her heart out.
• a birthday for our Gigi who had a tough year but worked through it like a champion. We all had tears in our eyes while singing Happy Birthday 
• watching my students shine after months of hard work on the stage at their musical
• another prom with my favorite date
• hugging the class of 2019 at graduation and sending all my good thoughts, hopes, and wishes with them; feeling so grateful I got to know and care about them before they go off into the world and do great things
• perfect weather to update our landscaping and our kids who found the patience and energy to help us all day ripping out overgrown bushes and putting down new mulch, there were some tears and complaints - but they helped the whole day and had the dirt and mulch stained hands to prove it
• our first official outdoor meal on the patio; it feels like the real start of summer!
• another last day of school where my students gave hugs, and some thoughtful and sweet gifts, and one incredible piece of artwork accompanied with notes that make every hard teacher day worth it a million times. we all need the summer to recharge and grow and mature - but I am already excited to see my kids again in the fall
• lots of baseball and soccer that make our kids proud, and tired, and motivated

Rustin James, three years old

my sweetest Mr. Handsome,
Our babiest babe is three.
How in the world does time work?
You bring so much light into our family.
We all laugh and smile as your eyes light up with joy and amazement at all the things we are already taking for granted - even your siblings get to see the world anew, and for that my baby - I am infinitely grateful that you can give that to them.

You are fully in the Question words stage "Who? What? Where? When? Why, why, why?" It is endless questions from you and an "I don't know, buddy" will not suffice as an answer; you'll just come up with a new similar one. We are so happy you are getting all your thoughts in after so long of not hearing what you had to say. You completed 10 months of speech therapy with Ms. Kristin and you have come such a long way. You still drop a lot of your ending sounds and can't say some other sounds (most blends, and /s/, /v/, /g/, /z/) but you are getting your point across and now will not.shut.up. (no complaints, but sheesh dude) You have a distinct "RustyLanguage" that we are all becoming incredibly fluent in.

You are persistent and know what you want; it can be exhausting for this momma of yours. That baby of the family in you has already taught you that if you keep on asking on down the line, someone is going to give in - sometimes just to get you to please for the love all that is holy, man, stop repeating yourself!? 

You are also very sensitive and can tell right away when someone is upset or sad. If we are play fighting and you fake stab me (ha #boymom) and I pretend to cry, you give me a hug right away to revive me back to full health (just to stab me again, but still). You are sensitive too when you think someone is upset with you. You don't do your 'fainting goat' move as much now but you often cross your arms in front of you, stick out your bottom lip, and hang your head. 

You have the sweetest little laugh when something surprises you - it makes everyone near you laugh too. I hope with all hopes that you never lose that. 

You are such a stinkin' trooper man. You get carted to all the places for every other person in our families activities and events. You make friends and find stuff to do and cheer on the teams and are your brother and sisters' teams' honorary little dude. It's hilarious and endearing to watch how all your siblings friends see you and shout, "Rustman!" I love you so much and am so grateful Rustman that you just come with us and deal - even if it's just for the concession stand food and Silverbell Ice Cream - seriously, Rust, I love you for that. 

You have your siblings totally figured out and know exactly who you want in any situation. Grey is the coolest dude you ever met and you try to copy everything he does. You love that you get to wear Grey's hand-me-down clothes ("Dis Grey's but now mine") and you take his advice on how to hold a bat or play a game better than you listen to me or dad. Grey got in big trouble the other day and after I got down yelling at him and sent him to his room, you bawled your eyes out and then went up to your bed too so Grey didn't have to be alone. 

Gemma is such a sucker for you. Oh.my.gosh - that poor girl. She babies you more than me! She carries you around if you ask her to pick you up, she helps you get ready, she rubs your back, she sneaks candy and snacks for you. It's honestly ridiculous how wrapped around your finger she is. She loves you fiercely and protectively. Let no person ever cross her Rusty, because there will be a severe price to pay. You two are very much alike too; our sweet skips. You both wake up almost at the same time - it's kind of weird. Some days it you two sleeping in late, others days you two are the first two up naturally. And you two are both our snuggle masters. 

And Violet is your bestie. The games you two weirdos play together make me laugh so much; two little cannonballs bouncing around the house and yard together. When you play house together you are the Dad and she's the Sister and she sasses you and says she's going to school/work and then you yell at her and put her in pretend timeout. You call her Wiley and she can translate your Rusty Language to anyone if needed. You repeat her so often (especially in the car; if she asks me something and I answer her - you ask me the same exact question and want the same answer immediately after her). She never gets annoyed or upset about that repeating thing; it's almost like she understands that you need the practice and she's happy to give you phrase to try out. You two are going to be an awesome little team. 

Your hair, dude. it is a part of you and your personality and that's just the way it goes. People can barely keep themselves from touching it constantly and you give them your signature stink eye sometimes saying, "I don't like you" but because it's in RustyLanguage, they don't understand (thank goodness #mortifiedmomma) I have seen old ladies literally stop mid conversation to comment to each other about your hair and everyone asks if we've cut it yet (or warns me never to cut it). It is a conversation starter everywhere we go. 

You love the movies Jurassic World, Peter Rabbit, and Monster Trucks (Santa brought you your own 'creech'!) You love looking at picture books and having them read to you. If I sit down and pick up a book, you come and dead weight plop right down on my lap. Your favorite toys are play weapons like guns, swords, and anything that even remotely resembles a gun or sword (pool noodles, bubble wands, sticks, serving utensils). You love play fighting and play dying dramatically (hah!) 

You are a little picky with eating; you'd prefer to eat chicken nuggets or pizza more than anything else. You love 'chippies' (potato chips) and 'chowkit' (chocolate in any form). You call a sipper cup a 'bubba' and when you need to relax you ask for it. You dip everything in ketchup, including your pizza and noodles. 

My Rusty James, 

You bring so much joy and love with your sensitive and caring heart

You bring so much silly and wild with your adventurous and brave soul

how did we get so lucky to be your family, my darling?

I will be loving you forever and ever

even when you get way bigger than me 

my Mr. Handsome baby boy

your momma