Around Here Week 36: 09/06-12

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

topnotch rizz?! LOL

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

bravo, these are amazing, Sherry D! 

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

wrestling matches in the bleachers all game long!

photo cred: Gemma

selfie cred: Ev!

selfie cred: Abba

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 483+ hours (of 1000)
The teenage chickens are laying and now we have an egg surplus over here! Our rooster has finally earned a proper crow and he seems like a nice guy so far - so we don't have any issues with him as of now. We are getting HUGE brown eggs from the old girls (like it's honestly ridiculous how big these eggs are) and smaller brown and green ones from the teens. I don't know yet if we are getting guinea eggs because they are not laying in the coop like the other girls. They might be all over the yard for all I know!

Reading and finishing Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine. It was interesting and I liked the historical context and perspective. I didn't love the ramp up of action in last few chapters after such a slow moving story. I thought I had made it to the end and then like eight things happened in a row - that was wild there at the end. Also read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I picked up my book order from The Laurel & Leaf - they were The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (our Lit Ladies book choice for September) and Train Dreams by Denis Johnson which was suggested to me by a teacher friend (thank you Joyce!) 

Listening to Good People by Patmeena Sabit. Very glad to listen to it - voiced by a whole cast and it was giving Serial podcast vibes. I am loving it! 

Running to do list items completed: 

• Grey went driving with Mr. Saylor for TDS driving academy and worked on his online coursework for the program- hopeful to get his driver's license on October 8th!
• I called and scheduled a cardiologist appt at Children's hospital for Gemma which will be mid- October and we can re-do her bloodwork to ensure the strep is gone in the very beginning of October.
• Took the two biggest girls to get their eyebrows waxed
• Finally bought a new laptop for the house since ours died this summer and B and I have been juggling bringing home our work laptops so the kids can do homework. I got one for only $200 at Best Buy! 
• Grey and I worked on updating his X account for football season and connected his huddle and updated his photos. We are learning more from instagram tutorials on what he should have because I am clueless

A long weekend thanks to Labor day and boy, did we ever need it this year! After 45+ hours without power the laundry was stacked to the ceiling! Also, Labor Day every year is a mini milestone for back to school to me. We've had a couple days of bedtimes and early mornings. We've had some meal planning around activities. We've had some Friday Night Lights and week day practices and games with homework mixed in there. We are doing okay if we're all still standing by Labor Day (hah). 

The germs have descended. It's not a surprise, every year from September to May someone in the house is sick because we have germs from everywhere (my two schools, the elementary school, the high school, the football team, the varsity soccer team, the jr high soccer team, the minors team, the k-2 basketball team, the school buses)...so we endure. Grey, Violet, B, and I all felt the effects of cold, sinus, and sore throat this week. Uchie brought us some elderberry juice to try though! 

Elementary school open house for probably about my 11th time - but for each of my kids, it's their first time in each grade...so I go; even though I'm busy and it's the start of the school year and I've seen it all before. I go to check out all the hallway artwork and sign that I was there for our kids and to pop in on my friends who are also incredible educators in the school district. We are very grateful that we have so many caring and supportive adults in our community who help raise up our babies. We love you CT! 

Camo season prep. Violet attended the PA Hunters safety course on Saturday with her friend Evaley and passed her test!

Time with family and friends. We had a cousin sleepover on Sunday night with the Moore boys at our house, Violet and Rusty got to go to the Altoona Curve baseball game with Abba and Chum and then sleepover their house. Violet went to Idlewild with Evaley and her family on Labor day (thank you!), Gemma had a playday (a "couch rot" day - hahha!) with Peyton on Labor Day.

Teaching another four day week (honestly, thank goodness to start school off on an ease-into-it schedule). Elementary school continued with the first day of Spanish special learning about Me Llamo. Spanish Expo finished out week 1 and then started into week 2 with musical chairs translations. Spanish 1 learned basic conversation phrases and practiced numbers with the Smack It game. Spanish 2 started their food unit/ Somos 8 and they learned Cielito Lindo lyrics which they will need to memorize for next week. In all levels, we made Thank You cards for our schools' resource officers in honor of Sept 11. 

Sporting Reddy had one basketball practice and Rusty had two minors football practices and a football game. Violet practiced with the Jr high soccer team two times and was the manager for the team in two games. Gemma had Varsity soccer practice three times and one soccer game (undefeated so far!) Grey and Coach Daddy had team dinner & film, three football practices and a football game Friday Night Lights at our home stadium vs River Valley. It was a pretty tough game and Grey was very sore on Saturday - but we are getting him back to good with ice and rest! I volunteered to make buffalo chicken dip and sent cookies in to the soccer concession stand, I helped host the football family tailgate before the first true home game (thank you to all the families who came and donated food!) 

Making homemade stromboli, chicken/ veggie/ stuffing casserole, Pioneer Woman lasagna, Swedish meatballs over mashed potatoes with green beans, chicken alfredo pasta with roasted broccoli. For desserts I made rainbow sprinkle sugar cookies. For breakfast, I made two loaves of banana bread. For the football family tailgate I made rice krispies, firecracker lil' smokies, and cut up a watermelon. I prepped for my lunches my favorite food combo: kale, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, and sweet potatoes. We had some leftover kielbasa too, so I threw that in there. I cannot adequately explain how much I love this mixture, especially salted up with some pink Himalayan salt. Like, I will eat the entire thing - goodbye and thank you. I ordered some pumpkin spice creamer because I am a basic Biah...judge me all day but it's literally bringing a jolt of joy to my day so I don't care - hah!

Intentional Movement I did multiple days of Lymphatic Drainage movements that really slowed the germs to my body (I'm convinced it really did!) It helped me feel awake each morning too! Now that we are two weeks into school, I think I am ready to get back into some real actual movement - I have been craving it so much. 

Around Here Week 35: 08/30-09/05

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

dinner in the coaches' locker room!

the danger of being a sideline photographer! Gemma, watch out! photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Shannon L

photo cred: Shannon L

photo cred: Shannon L

photo cred: Shannon L

selfie cred: B

cute spirit gear by cousin Becky!

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Gregory Ricupero Sports Network

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 469+ hours (of 1000)
Welp, the heat turned way up and the storms came pounding through this week. My classroom feels like a sauna by the afternoon, hahaha - the sweat literally dripping down my back is a real classy professional look (LOL). The rain, thunder, and win then pounded us on Thursday night and knocked out the power in our whole town from Thursday until Saturday evening! And I know what you're thinking - but you have solar panels! We do indeed, however, they are leased so all the power we make gets returned to the grid!  

Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Not doing a great job of reading this week because it was such a busy one with the first week back to teaching. I am determined though to get these books done in the next two weeks! 

Listening to and finishing Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Very interesting story by way of such an unlikeable character! I was laughing out loud at how awful she was in her running thoughts - most of the time hilarious in the way they were so bluntly terrible. 

Running to do list: 

• I registered the kids for Sunday school
• Grey got scheduled for his first drive with Tim Saylor's driving school
• I did a little social media reflection and decided I needed to reset because the overwhelm is starting to affect my anxiety. 
• Gemma had a dentist appointment (thank you Chum for taking her!) and is still taking her antibiotics for her untreated strep

Figuring out the daily flow with everyone now back in school. Always an adjustment period and I shoot for Labor day to be a good moment to reflect on how things have been going. I feel very thankful we went back to school in shifts this year; the kids first last week and then my students this week. Laundry piled up, crockpot was working overtime, and my planner had a lot of logistics detailed out - but we made it in one piece!

No electricity from Thursday at 8p until Saturday at 5:30p! We had incredible storms on Thursday night that knocked the power out for 2000+ people in our area. My sister Uch in Westmont experienced the worst damage with possible tornado touch downs. We got to thankfully borrow Pappy's generator (thank you!) to keep our fridge and deep freezer on during the outage. Otherwise, we pulled out our camping lanterns, opened windows, washed dishes by hand, and cooked meals on the Blackstone grill. The wet laundry sat in the washer (oops) and we tried unsuccessfully to flip on the light switches a million times out of habit (LOL). The kids actually did great without screens - lots of wrestling, mess making, and trampoline time. They followed us around like little shadows and we all went to the Somerset football game together on Friday just to get out of the dark house!  

Catching a Friday Night Lights game that wasn't ours! We all loaded up to go to my students' football game since our game was rescheduled for Saturday due to the power outage. I never get to see my students' on Friday nights (band/ cheerleaders/ football players/ fans) because we are always at our own games - so this was a real treat! Violet was at a sleepover, but everyone else came with B and I and all of us together is generally a sight - but my elementary school students were shocked to see my kids in real life when I talk about them often in class. My fourth graders love to see a video highlight from the football game before we see class and they were awestruck to see Grey in the flesh! One of my little fourth grade boys said, "You are the GOAT for real" ...hahah, Grey was in his glory! It was good change of pace of our crew and we certainly didn't have much else to do since we were still out of power on Friday night! 

Reflecting on power outage sustainability at our house. The science data was out this week on the Super El Niño brewing in the Pacific that guarantees more intense weather to come in months ahead so I felt weirdly grateful to have this little dose of no power and how that might look for us at our house. How lucky we got to try it out when the weather is comfortable rather than it being the middle of winter and we have no heat/power. We collected and organized all our camping lanterns for next time. We organized a list of things to do before late October like chopping wood to keep in the basement near the wood-burning furnace, getting extra batteries for the lanterns, making sure our propane tanks are full, etc. 

Time with family and friends. We all went to Pappy's for lunch and one last swim before he closes up the pool. Olive, Red, and Rusty got off the bus on the early dismissal day at Chum and Abba's house (thank you!) Rusty got a sleepover at Chum & Abba's house. Violet got a sleepover at Bristol's house. Gemma and Violet had a shopping day with Abba and Shelly for most of Sunday (thank you!) Grey had a no-electricity board game night with friends at Quinn's house and a movie night with friends at Leah's house after the football game. B and I went out with the coaches and their wives to Old Tollgate Inn after the football win on Saturday night. 

Teaching the first week of school! We had a four day week and it went great! I am at the elementary school in the morning and then have four classes at the high school in the afternoon; Grades 8-11. Elementary school started right into Spanish with Me Llamo and creating nametags. I know almost all of the fourth and fifth graders' names but the third graders are all new to me. Grade 8 got into week1 with introductions and some basic words. Spanish 1 starts off with an expo bootcamp (remembering things from 8th grade) and Spanish 2 starts with a review and remembering also. We play Taco Tuesday at both levels, learned about Tomatina, and tried to remind our brains that we did actually retain some Spanish over the long summer break (hah!) Of course, we also did Dancing Friday! 

Sporting with one basketball practice for Reddy and two Minors football practices for Rusty. Violet practiced with the JrH soccer team two times. Gemma had three Varsity soccer practices and two Varsity soccer games. Grey and Coach Dad had team dinner and film on Sunday, then had football practice six times and a Varsity football game on Saturday! It was supposed to be our first home game, but because of the storm and power outages, our school and field didn't have any electricity! We played a "home" game at Forest Hills stadium (thank you FH!) vs. West Shamokin and the community traveled well to show up for our team! Grey also had his sports massage with Miss Emma. I donated hot dog buns and chopped onions to the soccer concession stand, created the Football booster Tailgate flyer and spreadsheet to share for the first real Home game (!!), and organized plans for the senior night game.

Making crockpot copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta (we ate that in the coaches' room at the field house at school because the day was packed with activities in the evening!), sheetpan chicken fajitas, sloppy joes with shells&cheese and roasted broccoli, bbq chicken and roasted sweet potatoes, takeout pizza (power outage), turkey taco rice bowls on the Blackstone (power outage). For breakfast with no electricity, I made pancakes, bacon, and eggs on the Blackstone grill. For dessert with no electricity, I made peanut butter power balls. For our teacher potluck on Monday's Act 80 day I made Ramen noodle salad to share.

Intentional Movement with only 1 mile weighted vest walking. Red and I took an evening walk down the road together (he was climbing the walls and making everyone insane). We saw two black snakes on the walk! He loved it and it was nice to be one on one with him while also getting some of his wildness out in a non-destructive way (lol).