Around Here Week 3: 01/12-18

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

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


















Intentional Outdoor Hours: 3+ hours (of 1000)
Didn't push it over the three hours yet this week, but we did have one final nice day on Monday that the kids and I went outside for a little after school (although we needed coats, gloves, and hats. Mostly scored little bits of time tending to our chicken girls who are bummed that it actually isn't spring yet. The temperatures took a nose dive later in the week and by Saturday we had rain turned to sleet turned to hail turned to snow.

Reading and finishing With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. I loved it so much! I wish there as more! I picked back up where I left off on The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan and we had our Books&Brews book club meeting at Luna Azteca on Thursday night and decided we'd read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson next and then watch the movie! Double bonus as it's also one of the books on our Project Lit list!

Renting a saxophone for the last two marking periods for Grey while he tries his hand at band. Send prayers and ear plugs!

Loving so much Rusty's new little skit. He holds his hands open (like they are a box) and says, "Kring?" and then I pretend to get a ring out and say "YES!" and then we kiss and he holds my hands while swaying back and forth singing "married, married, married." hon.est.ly. #imdeadnow The skit doesn't always go the same way though - sometimes he pretends to grab the ring from me and throw it (#geminiproblems) but when it's the sweet version, I'm telling you, my heart becomes a melted glob of goo.

Emailing my college professor to introduce myself and give her a heads up that...um...how can I put this - I'm having a baby this semester. LOL. She was very sweet in her response and we are on the same page that I have full intentions of everything getting done and on time!

Adjusting the two littlest and Daddy at the chiropractor this week. (so jealous - mine isn't until next week!) The two little kids who have dealt with some constipation issues the last few months and they both had their little pelvis bones fully twisted. The doc straightened them all out (literally, hah!) and Brandon felt two inches taller after they left the office. We haven't been in too long and we are all in need of some adjusted alignment especially after this last bout of sicknesses - we need these nervous systems back to full working order!

Receiving a whole box of baby clothes & diapers from the a very thoughtful teacher & friend. The kids' STEAM teacher, Mrs. Roxby (who they adore) has been out on maternity leave with her newest little fella and she boxed up a bunch of his newborn clothes to pass on to our baby bro! It was so sweet and the kids could not believe that Mrs. Roxby was so kind. They kept oohing and ahhing at all the teeny clothes (how quick we forget how little they are at the beginning!) and commenting that everything smelled like Mrs. Roxby (hahha!) Thank you so much - for the clothes and for being a beacon of kindness and light for our kiddos. We love you Mrs. Roxby!

Living that kid-free nightlife on Friday as all four kids were whisked away to a local hotel with my parents and sisters! First they got to go bowling and then they got to swim in the hotel pool and sleepover! #bestnightever ! While the kids were laughing hysterically (oh, those aunts and Chum can come up with some weird inside jokes...) Brandon and I went out to eat at Living the Dream (in the former Tulune's restaurant) and then came home and.....went to bed early! Hhahahhaa, also - #bestnightever Thank you so much Chum, Abba, Kitty, and Uch for the peace and quiet!!

Winter Sporting with 6 basketball games for Grey and one practice. He gets a little bit of practice on all his teams for different aspects of the game. He wears #8 for CT, #4 for Sportsman's, #11 for Legion and #5 for Storm! And all three of the four teams are different colors, hah! He's still loving all the running around on the court (and between the practices/games) so c'est la saison de basket. 

Teaching Spanish 1 through Somos 1 Unit 5 and creating funny stories madLib style for El Muchacho, El Hermano, y La Novia. Spanish 2 got to learn about the Chilean mining accident and we compared it to our own local history; The Quecreek mining accident. They watched the movie The 33 - such a good movie and true life story! Sp2Honors did an immigration simulation exercise that had a curriculum cross-over with Civics, worked through some song lyrics, and finished a vocab test before we start our novel next week. Sp3/4Honors continued learning the preterite tense (er/ir regular verbs, super 7 verbs, and car/gar/zar endings). It was the end of the marking period this week too - so....a lot of negotiations about grades and explaining to kids, "I'm so glad and proud to see how much you care about your grade - but you also need to care this much the whole marking period, not just now that we are at the end."

Making cream cheese chicken taquitos (a Studer fam superfav!), tacos, chicken parm in the crockpot over pasta (Brandon and Grey loved it!), Korean turkey and brocolli over rice, and buffalo chicken dip.

2020: 100 Small Things

Monday, January 20, 2020

This year is going to be a little wacky, I've just accepted it and I'm hoping to move forward with intention and gratitude. My planner is already filled with deadlines, and saved dates, and then there's the big one that doesn't care at all about dates and plans and deadlines...our new baby brother. My planner is one of my most prized possessions (that sounds incredibly nerdy but it's 100percent true) and so to have all these things mapped out (maternity leave, kids' practice & game schedules, my college course requirements, holidays) and then have the big overlay of....well all of this as long as baby bro goes along with the schedule already sets me on edge a little bit. Then we have a double digit birthday, a decade of motherhood (emotional rollercoaster), and another kid off to kindergarten!

I always struggle with this part of motherhood. The growing of one while the others still need me too. I'm so much slower in all ways (physically, mentally, efficiently, patiently) when I"m growing a human and can never quite get rid of the guilt that my other kids have to put up with their mom who is not running on standard levels. And then the baby comes and it really gets wonky. Again...just trying to accept and move forward with intention and gratitude. (if I keep repeating it, I'll get there, right?)


So in an attempt to recognize how this year will be unexpected and new and interesting - I'm trying something a little different with my 100 small things.  In years past (2019, 2018, 2017) I've made categorized lists to focus my goals and before that (2016, 2015) I just made one huge list. But to try to stay on track and give myself some direct focus, I've grouped by month this time around. I loaded up on the maternity leave/summer months when I have more time and energy and took it a little slower (more practically) on the early month. By October, we have run ourselves pretty ragged (start of school year, fall sports season, big holidays) so those months have low numbers too.

I was also able to split my 1000 outdoor hours up in what (I hope) are reasonable numbers for each month to get me (finally!) to my goal. And my book goal (24 for the year) are broken up by month. I've already knocked a few off my list and worked half way through a few for the month of January (yay!) so we're off to a decent start.

January
1. 5 outdoor hours (4.5 hours)
2. Read 2 books  (With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo and The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan)
3. replant our Aloe Vera in a bigger pot
4. set up a payment plan for my college course
5. Purchase Gemma's 1st Holy Communion dress
6. send a thank you gift to a sweet and thoughtful friend
7. attend college course orientation (virtually)
8. create 12 months of kindness task list & post to fridge
9. direct deposit church donations

February
1. 8 outdoor hours (6 hours)
2. Read 2 books (Scythe by Neal Shusterman and Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman )
3. attend Ash Wednesday mass
4. order new breast pump (through insurance = free!)
5. inventory baby supplies (attic) and wash (thank you mum for washing!)
6. purchase new toilet bowl brushes for all bathrooms
7. find a sports league/team for Rustman
8. start a family puzzle
9. brainstorm kids' bedrooms for baby5 arrival

March
1. 15 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books (The Toll by Neal Shusterman )
3. Finish our taxes
4. volunteer with the big kids at our church's fish fry
5. create an emergency kit for the house
6. finalize maternity leave binder/notes/plans
7. Kindergarten registration for Violet
8. swap and organize all the kids' dressers
9. get school board approval for Spanish trip June 2021

April
1. 30 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books, 1 in Spanish
3. Make new baby birth announcements & send
4. turn in 15 page research paper (!)
5. declutter kitchen cabinets
6. buy new screen doors (front & back)
7. close out old CD at bank
8. buy a shade tent for the yard

May
1. 70 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books
3. pull off NS prom (!)
4. write every single day
5. start keto
6. front porch flower pots/beds & hang a hummingbird feeder
7. deep clean the deep freezer
8. participate in Screen Free Week
9. attend graduations of Richland & NS
10. have joint first holy communion & baptism party

June
1. 150 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books
3. donate blood
4. figure out daycare plans for 20-21
5. toy purge (house & attic)
6. new headboard for our room
7. create summer kid chore charts
8. swap kids' summer clothes/shoes
9. create car tote (wipe, diaps, bandaids, sunscreen, etc)
10. AKT weekend
11. Host a 'playground crawl' with YIFC

July
1. 200 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books, 1 in Spanish
3. No Buy July
4. update all passports
5. Gemma attend theater camp
6. Violet attend art camp
7. teach Violet to do her own ponytail
8. clean out my Gmail account
9. master bedroom closet purge, organize, & inventory

August
1. 200 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books
3. Family camping trip at the Que
4. finish curriculum map 20-21
5. Ride bikes/stroller at the Jim Mayer trail & picnic (whole trail!)
6. make bedtime routine charts
7. create vision boards for the upcoming school year with the kids
8. create my own vision board for the upcoming school year
9. Mail box makeover (flower bed, update pole, etc)

September
1. 150 outdoor hours
2. Read 2 books
3. Organize plans for Sunday school into binder
4. finish 2019-20 family yearbook
5. Run Que Classic 5K with Greyson
6. create a shared writing journal with Gemma
7. plan 1 meatless meal a week for the month
8. Organize a back-to-school Spanish Club dance
9. donate blood

October
1. 140 outdoor hours
2. read 2 books, 1 in Spanish
3. have a real anniversary date (our 12th!)
4. swap kids' fall/winter clothes totes
5. spend a fall family day at the Que
6. Grandmas & kids day trip

November
1. 20 outdoor hours
2. read 2 books
3. participate in Planksgiving
4. have our family photos taken
5. create Christmas cards
6. update all kids' baby books with photos

December
1. 12 outdoor hours
2. read 2 books
3. learn how to make nut & poppyseed roll with Mimi
4.  host Christmas morning and breakfast at our house with a fancy table
5. start "best gift of the year" re-wrap tradition at Christmas breakfast

It's been five years of creating 100 small things list (thank you Ashley for the inspiration all those years ago!) and despite NEVER having crossed off all of my 100 small things - it truly has helped me focus and stay intentional on the kind of life I want to be living in the wild blur that is raising up small kids. Everyday flies by and I find myself tucking in and kissing sweet little faces and trying to grasp on to what they said today, how much I hugged them, how their childhoods are being formed in these everyday memories. This blog and our family yearbooks help capture those memories for me but my 100 small things list works in the background to make sure that it is a life that we are actually living - not just watching go by through the car window. I am taking part and making conscious choices for this blessed, wild, loud, messy life is one that I can someday look back on and be proud of, that someday I will be the kind of person that I will be proud to be. It's a reminder that life doesn't happen to you - you make small decisions each day so that you can be who you hope to be.

What goals do you have this year? I want to hear them! They always inspire me and make my brain start turning on ways I can make it work for me too! :)

Around Here Week 2: 01/5-11

Saturday, January 18, 2020

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



















Intentional Outdoor Hours: 3+ hours (of 1000)
We went from snow on the ground in the beginning of the week to a heat wave- in the high 50s in January! Gemmi and I got the dogs out for a really long walk at the Quemahoming and Bullet tried to take a swim but realized within about a minute that the water was freeeeezing. Our girls (chickens) were so glad to be out and roaming around the yard, poor things don't realize it's just a fake spring day. Rusty didn't either and joyfully declared, "Mum, winter is over!" I had to break the news to him that it most certainly is not over....not even close.

Reading With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo for our Project Lit book club at school and loving it so much. What a heartwarming sweet YA book. I love the character and the truthfulness behind the way that Acevedo writes her main character, Emoni's thoughts as a teenager. I can't wait to discuss with the book club students!

Asking Aunt Kitty to sage our house to get rid of all the germs (and demons?) because that's where we are in desperation with this darn sick season! She came over to watch the three little kids so they didn't have to go to one of Grey's games but both parents could. She hung out with the kids, helped with homework (thank you!) and saged the whole house. Fingers crossed! We love you Aunt Kitty!

Celebrating our extended families by honoring Orthodox Christmas. We don't celebrate too big, but we have Orthodox on both sides of our family (Serbian on my side and Russian on Brandon's) so January 7th is a day that gets a little something special. It's our tradition for a few years now to let the kids sleep under the Christmas tree (before we finally get to take it down on January 8th!) and they get one present each from "Orthodox Santa." It's the official closing of the holiday season for us, and it is simple but important.

Stressing over my junior class students who had prom raffle fundraising tickets due this week. We still had quite a lot of students who missed the due date and I had to have a heart-to-heart with them on Friday to let them know how serious it was for them to get in their sold and unsold tickets. I also went on a teacher/momma tangent about how all these small low risk/low stakes things they do in high school is for practice. Not so far in the future, they might need to confront their wifi provider about a bill and selling a raffle ticket to a stranger is an opportunity to talk to someone who might agree or decline their proposal. Later in life, when you care about it, it doesn't get any easier - it gets harder because something is actually on the line! Get in all the practice you can now so you have lots of experience for later in life. Sheesh - this raising kids (our own and my students) is not for the faint of heart!

Cheering on my students at their basketball game at our kids' school. The whole crew headed out to our home gym to cheer on the visiting (but my students') team and it was a really great and close game. It's hard to want both teams to win - luckily I don't have any children playing for our home team (yet), so for now I'm a cougar fan until the kids get big enough and then I'll be in a really sticky situation.

Girls Nighting' it with Gem and Violet on Saturday night. We went to see Frozen II (cute!) and then out to Eat 'N Park just us girls. It was a special night and I am so grateful for these two - so different - but so complimentary daughters of mine. With the realization of the house very soon to be over run with so many boys, having my two daughters feels even more special.

Having a (mostly) boy free night at home as Grey and Rust got a sleepover with Chum & Abba. It is always so much quieter (and cleaner!) when the boys are out. So it was a pretty peaceful evening and the boys loved spending time with Chum. Rust got a long walk in the woods with Chum and Grey got to be sister free for an evening (which he's always grateful for). B got to hang out watching college basketball for most of the evening when I took the girls to the movies and the only boy who tagged along is the one kicking around on the inside (26 weeks and as long as a bowling ball - hah!) Thank you Chum & Abba for keeping our boys!

Winter Sporting with six basketball games (!) and one practice. Oh, this boy of ours. I keep asking him if it's too much and he repeats over and over that he loves playing for all four teams and he's not giving any of them up! He had three games in a row on Saturday and didn't miss a beat. It's been fun to watch how much he's learning and how all the positions that each team needs him to play has been helping him learn so much about the game.

Prepping for Spring sports (!) by updating the sponsorship letter for the upcoming baseball season to be sent out to local businesses. Since I've been doing it for the past few years, its actually pretty simple to just update with new information. Once it's approved by the board, then all I have to do is get them mailed out. With so many kiddos, it's nearly impossible to get to meetings, clean up days, or other events that need me to physically be somewhere to be helpful- but I can do this small task at home so it feels good to help in a way that works for me right now in this stage of life.

Teaching a full week back to school after a long break and - whew! We were all so tired by the time Friday rolled around. It is hard getting back into the swing of things. In Spanish 1 we worked on our Señor Legalos male 'models' including written descriptions using our clothing vocab words and adjectives while also introducing them to Billy La Bufanda on Señor Wooly. Spanish 2 continued practicing verb conjugations - all three endings in the present tense. Sp2Honors watched two (!) documentaries to prep for our upcoming novel, both of which held their attention and had them thinking broader: Living on $1 and Which Way Home. Sp3/4Honors started dipping their toes in the Preterite (eek!) and just practiced with AR regular verbs to start. They had a Past Tense Identifier vocab test too (hace mucho tiempo, pasado, etc)

Making sirloin tip roast in the crockpot, pierogies & baked beans, Hawaiian meatballs in the crockpot over rice, Italian baked chicken with potatoes and green beans, and sloppy joes. The kids helped me make Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow (with chocolate, chex mix, and powdered sugar) - and we gobbled the whole batch up in 2 days!