A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: St Davids Youth |
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| photo cred: Shannon L |
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| selfie cred: B |
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| video still |
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| photo cred: Jacinda F |
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| Reddy's best buddy Dawson (senior football player) |
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| photo cred: Stacy B |
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| photo cred: Stacy B |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 556+ hours (of 1000)
The weather was beautiful on Sunday and I took the long walk up past the water tower and around the neighborhood at the top. But later in the week, we were starting to feel that winter chill in the air - we all wore beanies to the football game on Friday night. By the end of the game, my toes were absolutely numb. Oh no, don't leave me yet fall!
Reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and having our book club meeting about it. It was a fun evening with delicious girl dinner (I brought cookies). I still have a little bit to read before finishing - so I'll be working on that before I move on to another book. I get to pick the next book for that book club, and I chose When Things are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent
Smiling at church on Sunday when the three little kids sang at mass and then Violet and Gemma volunteered at the Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser after church.
Bandaging up Rusty's face after he slammed his eyebrow off the trampoline metal while playing football with Reddy. He was pretty tough about it and pretty pleased with the cool scar he will probably have from it. Yeesh. It happened right as we were getting ready to head out for the soccer end of season banquet where I am bringing dessert and snacks and a team captain (naturally). As I'm trying to get his face under control and Olive is passed out on the couch from the start of a sickness, my friend and fellow soccer booster member Shannon texted, "I know all about Studer Time, and we are still good here, but are you on your way?" LOL. thankful for people who know us and STILL love us. xxox
Studer Time - we are NEVER on time. never have been in our entire lives - especially now that we have all these kids and animals. If you are familiar with Studer time, you know we are going to be 10-15 mins late guaranteed. Maybe some of us won't have shoes on when we get there so you smile and give us grace about it, maybe you've prepared for this by telling me the time you need me to be there is actually a half hour earlier than everyone else, maybe you're a coach or teammate who has received the text from me "WE ARE COMING IN HOT but we will be there in time for the start of the game!" maybe you send me a text an hour or two ahead of time to give me a gentle reminder (thank you for all of those things!) But we do show up with the freaking party of this big family and we are generally loaded down with food and drinks...so I can do some things but not everything! (and my everything means be there on time...sorry!) LOL
Wishing a very happy birthday to my favorite person. B turned 41 this week. He got a surprise day off of work for his birthday because Olive was too sick to go to school. They went to the pediatrician and spent the day in their sweatpants (kind of the best birthday). Then he had football practice, but we were able to drop off donuts at football practice for all the team after they sang a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday to Coach (hahha). I made him cake mix chocolate chip cookies for home but he had a board meeting and it was getting so late at night - I had all the kids get around the table and I was videotaping them singing happy birthday because it was bedtime. At the third line of the song - B hustling through the door saying, "I made it just in time!" It was such perfect timing, I honestly have tears in my eyes every time I rewatch the video!
So grateful for the sweetest, most generous gift to Gemma this week from our cousin Becky. She stopped by our house one night this week to give Gemma her camera that she's had for 8+ years and never got around to using it. She heard about Gemma's interest in photography (and her internships this summer with Bridge Perspective) and told me earlier in the fall that she wanted to give her camera to Gemma. Gem was blown away and so excited - she took it to the district playoff boys soccer game and got some great photos already. The gift was so thoughtful and generous - Becky said the only payment she wants is that Gemma will have to take her family photos for the rest of eternity - hah! Gem said she would be honored to do that!
Olive on antibiotics for the start of pneumonia. She missed two days of school this week (thank you Abba and Chum for keeping her one of the days!)
Haircuts for all the fellas - God bless Lamont who always takes such good care of helping my boys look as handsome as possible. We love you Mont!
Celebrating Violet's birthday with an 11 Challenge theme. She invited friends over from 11a-11p (!!) to complete 11 tasks for her 11th birthday. It was a long day, but a great one and all the kids were very sweet and funny. We first took a long hike to the big boulders on the Laurel Ridge trail where Aunt Uch and the nephews met us in the parking lot after for water and pizza (haha, THANK YOU, we were all starving, it was perfect timing!) Then the rest of the party was at our house! They played games, bobbed for apples, learned a tik tok dance to the Monster Mash, decorated sugar cookies, jumped in leaves, and played cops&robbers in the dark. Violet had a great day and although it was a long one - it was a good day for me too.
Time with family and friends: Five of the kids got a day with Abba and Chum on Sunday (thank you!) Rusty went to his friend Westyn's Halloween costume birthday party. Gemma went to cheer on the UPJ girls' soccer team on Saturday with some teammates (thank you Elle and Coach Mowry!) Grey filmed a clip for his video production class with his group at our house, went to the Burnworth house on Friday night for karaoke with the team (love that), and then to his friend Quinn's birthday party (thank you for the ride home - Becky!) I got to hang out with Coach Mallie at the football game when he came to cheer on the team (thanks Mal!)
Teaching and watching Coco in the elementary school while we continue to color calaveras and alebrijes. Impossibly, we have made it to the ninth week of school, so there is a lot of grading and gradebook updating that needed done this week. Spanish Expo worked through week 4 including classroom vocab. Spanish 1 finished their weather unit and started learning the Spanish alfabeto - they love playing hot seat and spelling words on mini white boards. The competitiveness in these classes is off the charts. Spanish 2 started their first novel El Silbon, including the pre-novel activities like learning about the legend and listening to Como los Vaqueros (always a fan favorite song!)
Sporting with an end of season pizza party for Rusty and his minors team (thank you coaches and Lindsay!) Violet had one cheer practice. Gemma and Violet both attended the end of season JH soccer banquet (Gem as a player and Violet as a ball runner) and they both were on the sidelines for Friday night as asst trainer (Gem) and watergirl (Vi). Grey and Coach Daddy had team dinner and film on Sunday, four practices, and a home game on Friday night vs. CV. It was the last regular season football game which made it a little bittersweet - we made sure to get all our traditional pictures (Grey and his friends, Grey and Gabe remaking the first grade photo) and the kids all wanted pics with their favorite seniors & players. Olive agreed to make a "Guess the Brother" Tik Tok and we were all cracking up about how she kept going boneless on the boys and then shouting at them, "That's not how you hold a child!" She was really hamming it up on them and had all their families cracking up. How blessed she is (all my kids) to have an entire team of big brothers! Grey got his bi-weekly sports massage from Miss Emma too! I brought donations to the JH soccer banquet, volunteered in the concession stand for the Varsity boys' soccer district playoff game (cheering for both teams since cousin Caleb was the goalie for the opposing team!)
Making cast iron skillet chicken pot pie, meat sauce spaghetti (Brandon's birthday request), sheet pan chicken fajitas, and sloppy joes and shells & cheese. I made chocolate covered pretzels for the soccer banquet and made a double batch of cake mix chocolate chip cookies for Brandon's birthday (and took some to book club too!) For Violet's birthday we ordered out pizza for lunch and then I made a roaster of pork/ hot dogs/ kielbasa/ sauerkraut, shells and cheese, buffalo chicken dip, and sugar cookies with my grandma Helen's boiled icing for the kids to decorate. We also had a hot cocoa bar and smores!
