Around Here Week 18-19: 04/29-06/12

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 71+ hours (of 1000)
Finally creeping up a little as the weather took a drastic change into for real spring these past two weeks. We are up a little more than 24 hours these past two weeks and it feels so good to be outside again. The kids are loving it - Greyson and Gemma have been playing one-on-one baseball in the yard everyday when they get home from school. Rusty is full blown tractor obsessed - which turns out to be just fine because we needed to mow real bad, LOL. We even let the big kids stay outside playing in the yard while we built a fire on a school night until almost 10p because we are 1.bad parents and 2. so thankful it is officially spring. It's been mostly blue skies and warm temperatures these past few weeks with the occasional (and glorious) spring thunderstorm (with hail balls on Saturday!) which I will take any day over the past few weeks of below 40 and chance of snow?!

Reading My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry. We had our Books & Brews Book club meeting at Bella Sicilia while we chatted, book reviewed, laughed, and enjoyed delicious food like always. Book Club night is like my favorite evening of every month for real. #batteryrecharging The next book we selected is The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien

Hanging out with Gracie all week as she spent the whole week at our house while her momma and dad were on their 10year anniversary 'honeymoon.' It was so fun to have her and she was so helpful and sweet. We made her a space of her own upstairs in the toy room by hanging a tension rod up with a little curtain. The kids could not believe how lucky they felt every day when they asked if Grace was still sleeping over and the answer was repeatedly 'yes!' It was also a peek into our future of having a more grown kid (Grace is 10!) so it was fun for B and I to see how much easier it will get when they can do even more independently and how much harder too (homework, yikes! and managing technology!) We loved having you, Gracie!!

Swearing off screens to celebrate National Screen Free Week.  The kids legit don't even care anymore, hahaha. I still make a sign and unplug the tv but basically only for fun. Violet was the only one who asked to watch a movie when she was cranky and tired and I just reminded her that it was screen free week and she's was like, "oh yeah" and that was that. We played outside, attended spring sports games, and read books instead. I attempted to inspire my students to go screen free too (LOL) and we did some fun screen free activities in class including Cucharas (spoons but with Spanish verb conjugations), Running Dictation, and a full day of classes in the courtyard instead of the classroom.

Losing no weight, but also the fact that I gained nothing was pretty awesome too. At the start of the month I had a bit of a weight gain and so then I spent the rest of the month trying to fight back from it. By the last day of April, getting on the scale and seeing I had broke even was a win. My momma-in-law has reminded me several times to remember to watch the full picture of the journey and reminding myself that I'm still overall down 9lbs is still a big victory.

Enjoying the elementary school spring concerts two nights in a row. Since Grey and Gem's concerts were separate, we found ourselves sitting in the balcony twice this week to clap and sing along with our kids after working so hard on their songs. Grandparents also schlepped all the way out both nights to be there for them and it is always so heartwarming to see our babies surrounded by their four doting grandparents who all get along. They are so very blessed and I am so incredibly grateful for that. '

Spending time with Aunt Kitty!! She was back in the states visiting from Bermuda and we were all so happy to see her. She came during a week full of spring sports games, the spring concerts, and Grey's first holy communion so it was perfect to get to be with her so much and for so many fun events. Now we are working on figuring out a way to get us to her in Bermuda this summer!

Celebrating Greyson as he made his First Holy Communion in church. He did such a great job on his reading and looked so handsome in his actual pants (!!one day of not mesh shorts or baselayer!!) We had a little family party at Abba and Chum's afterwards too with delicious food and great company. He is excited now to get to learn to be an altar server (he's been told it makes mass feel like it goes faster!) hah.

Baby showering to celebrate two mommas to be on Saturday - Carli and Chelsey (both due with baby girls this summer!) Gemma and Violet attended both showers back to back with me enjoying the company of women in such a traditional and right-of-passage setting. They sat quietly and snacked on goodies, and helped with wrapping paper garbage. So excited to meet and hold both those baby girls!

Building and finishing our chicken coop!! So much thanks to the grandpas who worked tirelessly beside B to get these chickens out of my house!! The chickens are so very happy to have so much space but not as happy as me to get them out of  here, haha.

Feeling so proud of my baby sis Uch as she held her second annual Rec the Alleghenies Expo at Greenhouse park on Saturday. She organized over 20 vendors with live demos all day to inspire our community to get involved with the awesome groups and organizations right here in town. So many people stopped to sing praises for the days' events and our three biggest kids ran the whole day away petting the baby goats, taking pony rides, getting their face painted, participating in the Zumba demos, painting, and watching the Stonycreek kayakers do tricks in the rapids. It was such an awesome day - good job Uch!!

Receiving our caterpillars from InsectLore so we can raise Painted Butterflies again this spring. It's been one of our spring traditions for the past few years and the kids (and we!) love watching them grow and change so up close.

Spring sports have us caught up in a whirlwind with no end in sight for the near future. Grey has been having the time of his life at baseball. He tried to be catcher this past week and had us rolling with laughter at how small he looked and how hard it was for him to remember to take off his mask so he could even see where the ball was when he didn't catch it. Omigosh, I think we're probably done with that position for forever now - second base suits him just fine. Soccer games have started and I love our silly little pack of hooligans. Gemmi has been doing great and walked off (with only tearful eyes but no actual crying) a double roll out of a collision with another player. She is really enjoying the sport and I have a feeling we might be spending many a years at the soccer fields. It's been a balancing act of trying to figure out which fields which parent and which kid(s) need to be at each night. Also, so much concession stand dinners and flat out Silver Bell ice cream for dinner #terriblemother Now just to add into the mix this upcoming week - Brandon and I in our summer co-ed volleyball league!  We got this....ready! break!

Teaching despite all the students being so checked out at this point in the year. We are down to only ten days left with students and they'd just rather not at all. HAH. I forge on though - we finished up Fiesta Fatal in Spanish 3 and students could choose which way they wanted to retell the story - some of the kids chose an instagram account with Spanish captions and I was literally cracking up laughing by myself during prep period while reading their hashtags and the comments they made on the photos from multiple fake accounts of other book characters. #ilovemyjob Spanish 2 kids finished out their Martina Bex Somos Units for the year, Spanish 1 learned about their last verbs of the year (estar and ir), and Spanish 1 Honors finished Capibara con Botas and had a Quinceñera food party! The seniors had their prank day (they took all the classroom desks out of the room and into the halls and then had a senior 'pool party' in the courtyard while they blasted The Beach Boys during the morning periods - oh, to be a youth again!) and we celebrated our school's field day with a day of games, bouncy houses, and a Just Dance marathon in my classroom. And then B and I attended our fifth prom together, but as chaperones this year!

Making some afternoon snacks of peanut butter protein balls, banana bites with sprinkles, and cake box cookies. For dinner, we had Old Bay shrimp and veggies, chicken over noodles, burgers on the grill, and chicken fried rice and two days worth of fridge/left over clean out meals. Grey made us his egg, sausage, and crescent roll breakfast casserole to enjoy on the patio on a beautiful Saturday morning too.