A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Becky C |
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| photo cred: B |
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| photo cred: Becky C |
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| photo cred: Abby U |
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| photo cred: Becky C |
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| photo cred: Becky C |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 186+ hours (of 1000)
My first week of Summer but doesn't quite feel like it because it's still pretty much mayhem with the big kids' last three days and all the sports and places to be at certain times. I know it is right there on the horizon and I am very relieved to not be rushing in the morning for school. I'm starting off by getting organized (my planner and lists are going wild) and by trying to catch up on all the very obvious things that have been building up in the last sprint of end of school year - mainly LAUNDRY. The kids and I did take Osa on a walk though and that felt like summertime at least.
Reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, really liking it and enjoying the style of the book through all the letters. Just enough of a glimpse into her life that I feel very invested.
Listening to and finishing It's Not Her by Mary Kubica (still hate it).
School stuff this week:
- Violet went to the Flight 93 memorial for a field trip
- Grey & Gemma both participated in the annual SHOFCO soccer tournament at their school. Grey's team did great and made it to the semifinals. Gemma's jr high team made it all the way to the championship games at night and she got to participate in the student vs. teacher game!
- Rusty took his birthday snack in for his classmates and teachers
- I took the last day of school photos of the kids
- Called the vet to discuss options for our old man, Bullet
- scheduled an Orthodontist appointment for Rusty
- created a custom gift for our ELEVEN football seniors who graduated this year (so proud of you fellas!) and who all invited us to their graduation parties this summer
- I updated the girls' mini flyers to hand out to their teachers before they left for the school year offering their babysitting services (Gemma - actual babysitter that can be home with kids with no parents and/or house sitter for vacations. And, Violet - "mother's helper" to be available to play with kids while the parent is still home)
- Updated the June fridge calendar and did my monthly doodle design (limes & lemons!)
- Brushed Osa really good (she loved it)
- Olive had a check up with the dentist because her filling fell out (ugh). It was a very traumatic experience getting the filling last summer, but our dentist is the best (Dr. Garver) and he gave her a temporary fix up in hopes that her baby teeth will fall out before it really starts bothering her - fingers crossed!
It's summer vacation! The kids had their last day of school on Wednesday (Rusty's 10th birthday!) and everyone is relieved to have the wide open summer waiting for us. Although, in a family of eight with four athletes and a football coach for Dad...you can imagine we are not looking at summer with full freedom of time - but we try to make as many opportunities for rest, catching up on projects/chores, and fun as possible.
Celebrating Aunt Kitty's birthday. We had a cookout and fire at Uch&Kevin's house. Everyone secretly prepared a poem for kitty and we got to read it aloud at the party. The kids ziplined and went on the swing like little maniacs. I made a chocolate chip cookie cake with homemade icing (my both time for both - I learned how to stack/ cut out the numbers!) and we had yummy rice bowls (thanks uch!) A great summer night celebrating Kitty!
Grad parties this week: for two friends/football players: Stephen Stango and Aiden "Burnie" Burnworth
Time with family and friends Violet celebrated the last day of school by going to the Que with her friend Brody then got to spend the day with Chum (they went golfing!), Gemma kicked off summer with a house sitting gig for the Altimore's and got to go out to eat and get new sneakers with Chum (who took her to PT on Thursday - thank you!!), Grey is starting his summer off with a lot of fun (will be the summer of friends, I suspect!) He went to the pool parties at Gina's house (twice) and Quinn's house with the friend group. We all had dinner with Pappy on the way home from the soccer tournament at a cool place called Bube's Brewery in Lancaster County.
Sporting with Olive and Coach Mom who had their last three games this week (we celebrated with a mini snack party after our last game). Red had two baseball games adn Rusty had three baseball games (one where we had baseball donuts to celebrate). Violet had two 12U AYSO games, 1 Sparks soccer game (finishing the Alliance Tournament on Sunday), two Sparks soccer practices, two AYSO All star soccer practices, and the AYSO All Star tournament at CT on Saturday (her team won first place!) Gemma Ref'ed two AYSO games, had two physical therapy sessions on her ankle, had one summer league basketball game, and was asst trainer at the 7v7 for football. Grey had four summer league basketball games, one football practice, and a football 7v7 at River Valley on Saturday. Grey and Gem both played in the annual schoolwide SHOFCO soccer tournament! Grey & Gem both also finished their weight lifting/conditioning testing days to set their baseline with Coach Mike and the Varsity sports off season programs. Brandon and I each got a day in the youth league concessions stands too!
Making sloppy joes with peas&cheese noodles, chicken, broccoli alfredo pasta, hot dogs and buff chicken dip with veggie dippers, homemade stromboli and homemade pizza (dbl batch of dough), instagram chicken with green beans, meat spaghetti, and crack chicken sammies. I made oatmeal/ pb/ choco chip cookies for home, pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing for Rusty's birthday, and cookie cake with homemade buttercream icing for Kitty's birthday party. For breakfast on Saturday, I made chocolate croissants.
Movement: I saw a reel that said, "it was easier to move when we were younger because we just did the thing that we loved" and when I was young, I loved jumping on the trampoline (VERY difficult now after six kids and a bladder that just cannot). But I also loved rollerblading - inspired by this reel and really wanting to MOVE; I purchased rollerblades and truly believed that I was just going to strap them on and be able to do it again. LOL FOREVER, girl you were out of your mind!? It is a re-learning for sure and holy heck does rollerblading take a lot of muscles, balance, and stamina that I have not used in probably 30 years. And believe me, I have the scrapes and bruises to show for it after this week! I literally was able to go only about 5 minutes without my ankles throbbing and staying balance at the start of the week. But I kept trying, a little each day and watching tutorials on instagram and slowly (SLOWLY) I am getting stronger and better. This week, I rollerbladed six days! New rollerblading skills - increasing stamina and I went from rollerblading on our blacktop to making (slow and cautious) loops around the elementary school parking lot! I only have one injury - a big scrape on my elbow! (I know you're asking - are you wearing protective gear? and the answer is no because I'm stubborn and dumb).
