Around Here Week 38: 09/20-26

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

photo cred: Hannah N

Homecoming community decorating!

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr.  O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

decoration surprises by the Sideline Crew!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 507+ hours (of 1000)
Heavy rain straight into chilly temperatures (but at least dry). B and Gemma tried to convince me to turn on the heat this week, but I still stand firm on no heat until Nov 1! hahaha!

Reading The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Listening to and finishing Good People by Patmeena Sabit. I really liked it - listening to it on audiobook was awesome because it was a full cast and really felt like a true crime podcast! 

Running to do list completed: 

• Olive got one filling done at the dentist office this week (one more to go!) She did so great with the filling appointment, but then sucked/bit her numb lip later that evening so we had to deal with the swelling/ scabbing of that (while I watched for infection all week)...ugh. Fingers crossed she doesn't do that again next week for round2! 
• learning more about X and scheduling posts. Grey and I worked on Sunday to schedule out the week. We still need to figure out how to download Hudl videos to post directly to X. Oof, the learning curve is steep over here. 
• I got a smart watch for Gemma to monitor her heart rate throughout the day and for her to wear during practice too (she can't wear it during games because it's technically 'jewelry' but) I want to walk into her cardiologist appointment in October with all the data I can possibly have to keep the ball rolling on whatever is going on with her heart. 
• Updating the fridge calendar with all the October activities and making my monthly doodle on the top of the calendar! 

In search of a clean up/ declutter method that isn't too overwhelming. Imagine living in a house with 8 people: SO many shoes to trip over on the way into your house. Literally, just consider that alone! That's not even trying to calculate laundry, groceries, garbage, hair ties (!!!), and general cleaning (dust, bathrooms, sheets) with 8 people; four of them three sport athletes. And if we're being entirely honest, it's been 16 years of having small children in this home. This is truly the first year we could take a big gulp of the fresh air that comes with kids that are old enough to go to school and take care of themselves in most capacities (dressing themselves/ showering/ sleeping through the night). So, I'm on the hunt for a system that could work where I can tackle 16 years of surviving in parenthood to try to clean and declutter all the nooks, crannies, and bins (!) that have been the scotch tape holding this circus together.

A wacky week all around. Between Homecoming festivities and the elementary school being closed due to a necessary mildew cleaning (thank you power outage and weather), to everyone feeling kind of under the weather, to the rain that lasted for days...this week felt like a whole month long (and not in a good way).

Homecoming festivities! The high school had spirit dress up every day and on Wednesday was the hoco bonfire. Since Gemma and Violet are both in student council, they made drink donations to the bonfire dance. They both also volunteered to help homecoming candidates with their skits (Gemma was a soccer player in Vaeda & Brandon's 10 things I hate about you skits and Violet was a jellyfish in Averie & Luke's Spongebob & Patrick skit!) Friday was the hoco parade that I had three kids participate in while the babies and I watched and collected mountains of candy. Gemma rode on the Varsity soccer float, Violet rode on the JrHigh soccer float, and Rusty walked with the minors football team. Then we had the homecoming football game and crowned the new king & queen: 

Violet's birthday! Violet turned 12 on Friday! She had a great birthday (woke up to 12 balloons on her bed and chocolate croissants before school!) Because it was homecoming and she is on student council, she spent the day decorating the field and community for the festivities (which meant getting out of classes for her birthday!) Then the sideline crew surprised her with a decorated trainers' room before the game, we got her a birthday pin to wear, and even got the announcer to call her out over the loud speaker before the football game started! After the game, her friends all came over to our house for a birthday sleepover where they stayed up most of the night playing games. Violet requested a 'purple brithday' with the addition of bracelet making. So I organized some purple snacks (Poppi, Boom Chicka Pop, and purple skittles) and then our etsy bracelet charms arrived on time for the party! On Saturday, they made their charm bracelets, sang over the purple red velvet cake pops (Violet's request), and bobbed for apples because it is one of Vi's favorite activities (hah). Seems truly impossible that my Va-vi is twelve. Like what in the actual world?! 

Time with family and friends. Rusty, Reddy, and Olive got so much time with high school friends and football players as they spent the week at the high school working on their flexible instruction packets (no classes at the elementary building). What a gift it is to have so many big kids to look up to for my babies! Violet helped Bristol babysit her cousins, Gemma helped her bestie Abigail get ready and take photos for the homecoming dance at Richland and to JB's house after the football game. Gemma, Violet, and I went to cheer on the Varsity volleyball players for their game on Tuesday night. Grey went to Primantis with his friends, Bryce & Reed's house after the football game. 

Teaching with the first real five day week of the year. Elementary 3rd grade started decorating their 'pasaportes' to learn about different Spanish speaking countries around the world. Grades 4&5 practiced numbers 1-10. Spanish Expo finished their Geography studies and took the map test on Friday. Spanish 1 got their adjective list and conjugated the verb Ser. They used the verb and adjectives to write descriptions of famous people and translated sentences in a musical chairs style game. Spanish 2 got their vocabulary Food List #2 and then started work on their Food Truck projects. They found really creative ways to come up with a menu and design their 3D food trucks that they will have to present next week. I was honored to stand with my former student, Maria, who chose me for Teacher Appreciation Night for the volleyball team. The volleyball boosters invite all the selected teachers to a meal after school and to get a photo with our player. What a blessing it is to be in young people's lives! Thank you Maria! I am proud of you! 

Sporting with no basketball for Reddy this week because of the elementary school being closed. Rusty had two minors football practices and one basketball practice. Violet managed three JrH soccer games and watergirled at the Varsity football game. Gemma had two Varsity soccer games and two soccer practices and was asst trainer at the Varsity football game. Grey had his sports massage with Miss Emma, four days of football practice and the Varsity football game (Homecoming!) on Friday vs. Portage. Brandon coached all week and attended the youth football parent meeting on Monday night.  I double/ triple/ quad-checked the details for the upcoming senior night football game (God bless the booster officers - appreciate you girls so much!)

Making sheet pan kielbasa, veggies, and ravioli, teriyaki noodles with chicken and broccoli, instagram chicken with peas&cheese pasta, ground beef tacos, sloppy joes with shells&cheese, hamburgers on the grill with frozen fries in the air fryer (thanks Grey!), and frozen pizzas before the football game and cheese quesadillas after the game and out for Chinese on Saturday night! For breakfast, I made chocolate croissants (for Violet's birthday) and French toast and bacon for everyone including the party girls. for Violet's birthday dessert, I made red velvet cake pops (at her request)

Intentional Movement with more lymphatic movements and I was even able to pressure some of the kids (and Brandon) to try them along with me since everyone feels like sickos over here. 

Around Here Week 37: 09/13-19

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

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mrs. Feathers

photo  cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Peyton

photo cred: Coach Ginger M

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 492+ hours (of 1000)
Definitely starting to feel like fall. Chilly mornings and evenings and blazing hot afternoons (my classroom is a sauna). The yellow! The yellow everywhere is giving me so much joy even if I don't want everything to change just yet but it sure does look pretty with things making the switch to a new season. Still a lot of green, so that's a good, slow start.

Reading The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong for my Lit Ladies book club and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith because I haven't finished it yet. 

Listening to Good People by Patmeena Sabit and really enjoying it. Grateful for it on my commute to and from work each day. I truly have no idea how the story is going to shake out.

Running to do list completed: 

• I got the contact information for one of my student's family that has a litter of lab puppies! 
• I ordered the gifts for the football senior night from Etsy (bracelets & pins)
• I got everyone's school photo forms completed and boy does this company hate to see the Studers coming (lol). They have a great program that with the purchase of two photo packages in the family, the rest are free; great idea of families of three and even four. But the Studers roll up paying for only 2 kids and get 4 free packages of the same value! Very thankful for that even if we are their worst nightmare! 
• Grey went driving for TDS driving school again and worked on his online courses

Thinking about ways we can try to tackle Gemma's 'episodes' now that we have to wait for the next round of blood work after the antibiotics. Some of the things she is willing to try is practicing breath work during games and practices (or when she feels like her heart is starting to ramp up) and possibly starting to journal or track symptoms and connections (sleep? hydration? etc). I looked into some nervous system reset exercises on Youtube but you know that sounds absolutely ridiculous to have your mother suggest that to her teenagers (ugh, eye roll galore). I just want our girl to feel better and I'm trying to grab at any straws while we wait for the next round of blood work and her cardiologist appt in October. 

Missing Gigi (always but a little extra) as Pappy came to be Gemma's guest of honor for the Cancer Awareness game at Somerset. He walked with her before the game in honor of "Gemma's late grandmother, Marianne Studer, who battled hard against Pancreatic cancer." It was a beautiful moment and Pappy was honored to be part of it. Thank you Somerset (and my dear friend Loni) who organized the event and invited CT players to participate too. 

Second lost tooth for Olive this week! She waits until it is basically dangling out of her mouth, so it's no trouble for B to just give a yank and it's free almost painlessly! 

Officially football on tv season (LOL, exactly what our family needs! more football!) and so it is on most nights. I know that Tuesday and Wednesday nights are open...but every other night, we got football playing on the tube. It is still warm enough that we've been hanging out and watching the games on the back porch though so that's nice and I'm very grateful we have all of our cozy furniture back there. B and I had a nice evening on Saturday night together just the two of us on the back porch - he watched the game and I got to read. Basically, my perfect evening! 

Mostly adjusted to the back to school schedule, but kind of laughing that by Thursday night, we are all pretty much running on fumes. Everyone is falling asleep with no problems by then (me especially! barely making it into bed before falling into unconsciousness!) Friday everyone gets a quick jolt of excitement because of Friday Night Lights and then Saturday mornings are for sleeping in and waking up slow. It's a steady rhythm that I really appreciate about the fall: total running craziness Monday-Thursday, then Friday Night games (home around 10:30p and yapping about the game while looking up all the articles), then very slow Saturday mornings. Kind of my favorite. 

Time with family and friends. Rusty got to sleepover for his friend Maddox's birthday party. Violet got to have a sleepover and spend the day with Pappy for her birthday. Rusty and Violet both hosted a lemonade stand at my parents' house on Sunday afternoon (thank you Abba & Chum for letting them live out these wild dreams - hah!) Gemma got to hang out with cousin Becky to get her nails done (thank you!) and went to the Varsity girls soccer hang at Gina's house. Grey went to a party with friends on Saturday night. 

Teaching our first five day week, but thankfully we had a regularly scheduled early dismissal for students on Friday...so still not exactly a full week (yay!) Elementary students learned to ask ¿Cómo te llamas? and we played a game which they all thought was hilarious. Language expo continued practicing camina and corre in reading and writing. Spanish 1 got a lot of new vocab including numbers to 100, colors, days of the week, and months. I also had Spanish 1 memorize and recite (or sing) Los Pollitos Dicen individually for a presentation grade this week and even though everyone was very nervous; they all did such a great job and felt very proud to learn a mini Spanish poem/lullaby. Spanish 2 continued Somos 8 and their food unit and memorized & sang Cielito Lindo for a presentation grade (everyone did so great!)

Sporting Reddy had one basketball practice and his first two basketball games this week! Rusty had one minors football practice, missed one practice (cough break), and one minors football game. Violet practiced with the junior high four times this week. Gemma had four Varsity soccer practices and played in three Varsity soccer games. She and Violet also assisted at the Varsity football game as watergirls and asst trainers. Grey had team dinner and film, four football practices, and a Varsity football game at United Valley on Friday.  I made the meal for Team Dinner & Film on Sunday for the football team! I worked the concession stand duty on Tuesday for the boys' soccer game, and we hosted the football coaches to our house for pizza and the PIT game on the back porch on Thursday. I also got some ordering and planning done for the football senior night that I volunteered to do for the boosters.

Making crack chicken sammies, beef roast over egg noodles with gravy, sheetpan chicken fajitas, buffalo chicken dip, takeout pizza, and copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta. For breakfast I made egg/ sausage casserole. For desserts I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for our house. For team dinner I made 40 sausage and pepper sandwiches, 24 hot dogs and sauerkraut, a crockpot of baked beans, 144 pierogies in butter and onion, watermelon, and 4 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.