Around Here Eighteen: 4/29-05/05

A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home right this second.

Intentional Hours Outside: (122 hours of 1000)
Up 12 hours from last week, but it was a fairly gloomy, chilly week here and I know it curtailed our outdoor time which was a bummer, especially being SFW.  We still soaked up time at the baseball field.  We can't complain too much about the rain though as all of our trees and bushes are now in full bloom.  Finally, from our mountaintop we see green again instead of brown and gray trees with no leaves!  Our azalea bushes are sporting big, beautiful magenta flowers, and all of our yard trees have started to grow leaves.  It's definitely starting to look like summer around here, we're just anxiously awaiting the warmer weather for it to feel real.

Reading The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman.  I finished this week Name All the Animals by Alison Smith which I really enjoyed.  It was tragic and pulled at my heart more than once, but it was also beautiful and real and raw.  Very glad I finally took it off of my to-read shelf!  I also finished one of our May books for the Inspired Readers book club - The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth.  Finished that one in two days (!) such a captivating first real 'summer' read that was light and 'big bite' consumable; I literally gobbled that story up but didn't feel too full afterwards, just happy.

Catching a movie on Sunday night (right before Screen Free Week started!) for our cousin Gracie's birthday.  She, Greyson, and I went to see The Jungle Book in 3D and it was an amazing movie, but they are not kidding when they say it may be too intense for young viewers.  Grey was stressed for a lot of it because they animals really do look real and there is a lot of suspenseful parts.  We held hands, he closed his eyes, and I kept whispering to him to remember that we already know how it ends - that Mowgli is okay - but that didn't help too much.  So, this momma is calling the movie too intense for at least my six year old.  Grace (8) seemed okay, but I still warned her parents to maybe debrief before bedtime (hah).  Super great movie though, honestly!

Riding bikes, scooters, and pushing strollers over at the high school parking lot a few times this week because it gives the kids lots of energy release while I slowly waddle behind them.  They love going over there with all the room to go fast.  Violet likes to switch it up with riding in the umbrella stroller and hopping out and pushing it herself.  We celebrated Arbor Day there ('tree day' as Gem says) by stopping to hug trees along the parking lot and looking up and on them for creatures that use the tree for their home (we saw birds, a squirrel, and lots of bugs).

Cheering Grey on this week at two baseball games, his 6 year well check, and his Spring Concert at school.  It was a big "Go, Booboo! Go Booboo!" (as Violet chants) week over here.  He is really getting into baseball and we can see him getting slighter better at each game.  He has moved to the pitcher's mound now (machine pitch) and says he likes it better there because, 'there's more action.' HAH.  His concert was adorable and a whole bunch of our family came to watch as the kinders and firsts sang songs from their year in music class.  Grey even surprised us with his involvement in the Green Speckled Frog song when he was one of the kids selected to hold up his frog from STEAM class to go along with the song.  He was proud, mostly of how he kept it a surprise for us!

Getting in a lot of family time this week as our village comes together to help us in this final pregnancy stretch.  Pappy secretly mowed our grass for us while we were out last weekend because our tractor has been broken all spring and our grass honestly is out of control.  And Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy are using their farm and handyman experience to help us get our tractor fixed!  My parents had the two big kids over for a sleepover last Friday-Saturday including planting plants and fishing!  And then Gigi took Gem to a bridal shower and my sister Uch watched Violet on Sunday.  My Mum came to babysit the girls while I headed out to my prenatal appointment and when she left our house was markedly more clean than when she came.  Gigi and Pappy brought snacks, Gatorade, and helped corral the girls at Greys' baseball game.  Mimi, Gigi, Abba, Chum, and Aunt Uch all showed up for Grey's spring concert! We had the movies with Grace and a playdate with Caleb, and Aunt Uch and Kevin took Grey out for his birthday game of Glow golf!  It was such a great week of family and we so appreciate it as everything feels slower and more difficult in these final five weeks of waiting for Studerbaby4!

Making pancakes for dinner one night because that's where I am in this stage of my pregnancy, hahhaha, bailing on dinner plans and going for easy and something no one will complain about.  We also had Loaded Potato Soup in the crockpot that was delicious - it makes a really big batch, so I've frozen the leftovers for post-baby (score! only four more freezer meals to make on my to do list now!) We also made a double batch of loaded chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and to get rid of some leftover bananas, a kid favorite: banana oat cookies (with chocolate chips this time because we are fresh out of dried cranberries, boo.)  The big kids made, all by themselves!, Taco Tuesday dinner for us one night in honor of Screen Free Week! (more on that later this week).