Around Here Forty-Nine: 12/02-12/08

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

homework at Team Studer HQ...good grief.

Grey grading my students' vocab crossword puzzles - his favorite!

#babyinamug

 

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 522+ hours (of 1000)
Well, it's cold now, so I'm going to shoot for a goal of 530 hours to round out the year, so in the next three weeks, I'll need to accumulate eight hours total. I didn't grab anything over an hour of time this week (walking to and from the car doesn't count at all), but I'll do my best to snag as much time as I can before the year is over knowing that I won't make my goal - but doing better than last year!

Reading just a little bit of The Nix by Nathan Hill and inching through it. I've heard that once I hit pg 250 I'm going to become obsessed so I'm hanging on (nearly there!) In the opposite of Reading category, we are going full on Hallmark Christmas movie mania over here. None of us (save Greyson) can control of ourselves on the binging on holiday cheer and romance - B and I love adding in our own commentary and dialogue and tallying how often people fall on each other in these movies so they get in the 'ole are we gonna kiss, are we not predicament. Gosh, love that cheesy goodness.

Loving on Marco our elf. He's been up to his silly little antics and the kids love carting him all over the house so he can participate in whatever they're doing (coloring, eating, etc). As long as he gets put back in his little box to 'charge up' (as the kids say) he is ready to roll for his morning time antics. Making a Marco schedule is a life saver as it always is each year - thank goodness for my planner and pinterest #perusual

Celebrating our littlest babe at a year and a half! #halfbirthday Gosh, time, you're killing me. He's a feisty little thing and is into everything. I forgot how destructive and tireless little boys can be (this is right at the same time that I wrote my Rules for Moms with Boys blogpost because I thought I was losing my mind with Greyson's energy and destructive nature). He is still a climber and now has figured out how to open all cabinets, drawers, the washer and dishwasher, and he can push the stool to the upstairs bathroom and sit in the sink and play in the water. He's a professional toilet clogger (toilet paper, dog bones, toy cars) and a professional item hider - I've been missing my favorite spatula for weeks and just found my make up brush after several days (it was in the blanket box in the living room).

Changing in a fundamental way after reading the Virginia Satir quote about hugging and really starting to believe that so much sadness and loneliness and confusion and hurt in the world might find a way to be fixed if we all hugged and got hugged a little more often. Virginia Satir said, "We need four hugs a day for survival, we need eight hugs a day for maintenance, and we need twelve hugs a day for growth." I read it to B and now neither of us can get it out of our heads. We're finding ourselves being super intentional about hugging the kids and it feels like it's making an impact (hugging begets more hugging - these kids are all over us! haha, even Grey has been softer - infinitesimally so, but still). And because we've been intentional  about hugging each other we've been in a great up this week in marriage too.

Leaving our shoes out for St. Nicholas and waking to find them filled with candy. Rusty and Violet could not even believe it - they were losing their minds.

Bundling up! Snow and the cold has arrived. While walking into school one morning and being a grouch about the cold, a fellow teacher confessed to me that she wears long johns under her clothes and I was all epiphany bubble and have now started trying it. Life changing, man. I've been wearing my leggings under my work clothes and I'm about a thousand percent more cozy. Yeah, appropriate clothes - who knew that was the solution to being too cold and grouchy in the winter? #everyoneknowsthisandyet

Taking it slowly on the holiday mayhem. Gigi took the three smallest kids to visit with Santa and the Grinch last week and the kids all helped stuff, label, and stamp our Christmas cards for the mail. We got the most beautiful book in the mail this week (to make up for our year of mediocre 12 Months of Kindness performance), Soft Enough for a King that comes with kindness slips that look like pieces of hay that we can fill the wooden manger with before Baby Jesus arrives. I still have lots of buying and wrapping to do, lots of upcoming holiday get-togethers, and so many random school holiday stuff to finish (kid gift exchanges, holiday party donations to buy and deliver, school dress up flair to organize, yeesh!) but I'm taking it with one step at a time and trying to enjoy the sparkle and mistletoe.

Sending out love and light to all the people we love - which is how I always feel when I write out our Christmas cards. I actually got a little weepy over all our friends that are scattered all over different parts of the world and how much I wish I could grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine with them and spend an evening catching up and laughing with them. I know this is a season of our life right now where every single thing is directed by what is best for our kids and our family as a whole - and I am so very grateful and blessed that this is true for us - but also that little piece of me wishes I could just walk out of the house with no pre-planning and grab a drink with my best friend...or even just call my best friend and talk without interruptions from little voices and hands. All of my friends know if they receive a random call from me it's because I am somehow miraculous in the car by myself driving somewhere and I have fifteen minutes of silence to devote to our friendship. Friends, please know how much I think about you and love you. How grateful I am for your patience as try to survive through these exhausting and beautiful (but seriously exhausting) years of parenthood. Thank you for still being my friend even though I am not such a great friend if it is measured in calls, text message replies, or visits. xxoxox

Starting the "real" basketball season with the first game Friday night at the Rockwood tourney where Brandon's team actually played my students! hah! I warned my students that I'd be cheering for them in my heart each individually, but that I would definitely be sporting my blue jay gear.  The kids slipped right into the regular groove of basketball games, except for Rusty who was initially very confused when he could see Dadda, but couldn't go be with Dadda. It will take a few games, but he'll soon realize how much fun we have with our basketball family during the season. The girls were so happy to be reunited with Maddie (the Athletic Director's daughter) and we've been working out which kids get to ride the team bus home with Coach Daddy and Coach Hinton (on his lap looking at hatchimal's photos - hah! Violet!) and Grey has been obsessed with going to practice with Coach Daddy and playing with the team manager Aiden or best friend/fellow coach's kid Kam.

Making teriyaki chicken and fried rice, taco pasta, and four ingredient cheddar beer bread to go with our broccoli and wild rice soup.