Around Here Twenty-six: 06/24-06/30

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  249 hours (of 1000)

I'm slowly increasing my hours now at four weeks post Rustin- up 21 hours since last week.  Violet and I logged quite a bit of time on the tractor earlier this week (surefire way to get her to nap!) and Saturday was a big outdoor day as we graduation party hopped three times between basketball players Jake and Cody, and then on to our favorite twins Bryce & Taylor's party.  It was so nice to spend Saturday evening with some of our closest friends growing up (my Tap Run ski club family!  miss you already Tif!!) On Monday morning, Bullet and I took a 2 mile walk together at 5:30am because I was up and feeling ambitious and excited to be moving towards the mid point of the Rotten eight.  I'm hoping to do it more often, but for this week - it was just that once (hah). 

Reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks with our Inspired Readers Book Club.  I have already recommended this read to at least two people because it's so so good.  This quote gave me a bittersweet smile about kids learning and trying new things and the messes that go with that (p. 6), "The world can be so complicated for Max.  Even when he gets something right, it can still go wrong."

Relishing a weekend with only the two little kids!  Gigi and Pappy took Grey and Gem for the weekend to Ocean City, MD and they all had a blast.  They rode bikes on the boardwalk, collected seashells, flew kites, and the kids even got to choose their own hermit crabs to bring home! It was a lot more quiet and slow at our house this weekend and it was so nice to be able to give some one-on-one time to Violet and Rustin.  We missed Grey and Gem though too and it felt like a big step for them (and us, gulp!) that they are big enough now to spend a whole weekend away making their own memories and visiting new places. 

Taking a bite out of Shark Week, hah. We enjoyed the shows at night (Grey most of all) and I tried to incorporate some type of shark or ocean themed activity during the day.  We played a game of Shark & fishies outside on afternoon and worked on a Shark writing prompt during 'summer homework'  We've also been doing double checks on all the facts we hear on the shows in our shark nonfiction books - Smart Kids-Sharks and Sharkopedia. 

Enduring Violet this week.  yeesh, it was a 'no, no, no day' almost every day this week.  Lots of whining and fussing and No, mummie. No, mummie'ing.  She's still working on potty training and it's going alright but she's seemed to have lost a little bit of interest - so we're following her lead and not pressuring it, just helping her on the potty when she requests it.  She is head over heels in love with the big kids' hermit crabs asks them about twenty times a day to bring their cages down and let her hold them.  

Eliminating caffeine and dairy from my diet to hopefully try to help our Rusty boy.  After every single feeding he has his little face all scrunched up and a tight belly and cries for about twenty minutes.  every.feeding.  We do the bicycle legs which make him feel a little better and he loves to sleep on our chests and be held.  We've tried the drops but they don't seem to make much of a difference.  Next stop is the chiropractor! 

Loving our new patio pillars that got capped this week  We still have one to go but they look beautiful and were a double whammy - using up the bricks from a big pile that has been sitting out back since we bought the house and provides seating around the fire pit, giving it a polished and finished look.  Seriously, i'm obsessed. 

Making these easy applesauce blueberry muffins for breakfast and day-long kid snacking, crockpot cooking this delicious Italian Chicken dinner (we ate it over noodles) that we received as a freezer meal from my dear friend and cousin Heather (thank you! it was delicious!), and making our family favorite Korean Beef over rice because everyone eats a ton of it and there's no complaining!