Intentional Outdoor Hours: 242+ hours (of 1000)
Up 21 hours this week, we had some perfect summer days here (high 70s and a nice breeze) that made us all so happy to have the windows open and the curtains billowed up. We visited the high school parking lot twice this week to ride bikes and scooters! By the end of the week, the weather had cranked up to crazy hot and humid. I even surrendered my summer fight and we turned on the central air.
Reading and finishing my local book club choice, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn. It was a perfect mystery for summer but had my dreams all a little distorted and weird (hah). If you liked Girl on a Train or Gone Girl, it was similar to that - little reveals of the whole story throughout so you aren't ever quite sure of what is really happening or true. I liked it! I've also been making my way slowly through Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel, I love me a goal driven quest memoir. My bff Kate surprised me with a beautiful book of empowering women poetry, Stripped by Cara Alwill Leyba and I gulped down half the poems in about a half hour one morning, sending poems to my sisters. (thank you Kate for the book and the inscription xxxo). Grey is finishing The Last Firehawk The Ember Stone (and now I have books 2 and 3 in the series in my amazon cart, because when you have a reluctant reader who gets excited about characters and a story you buy.all.the.books immediately #momprobs)
Celebrating our two boys with a belated double birthday pool party at Pappy and Gigi's house. It was a crazy weather day (sunny, torrential downpour raining, wind gusts, and then sunny again!) but the company was the best, we had delicious food, and a lot of smiling and laughing.
Summertiming in all the best ways - knocking off big ticket projects from our giant list on the fridge slowly but deliberately. The kids have been really good with their chore charts and other helpful tasks like weeding our garden this week (we all hate it). We've been staying up late, sleeping in long, and trying to enjoy the freedom of no schedule.
Potty training the RustMan and hardly hating it. Rust has been our easiest to potty train so far and I've even ventured out in public (by accident) without any diapers because he's been so good about letting us know when he has to go. Thank goodness we have no neighbors because this child spends about 80% of his day with no bottoms
Taking the dogs to the vet which is always a spectacle. I only had three kids that day (Gem had a sleepover with Kitty) so our vet trip was a teeny bit easier, but still. Me, the two dogs (overly excited and 90+ lbs each), Grey, Violet, and RustMan with underpants on. Both dogs AND Rust all peed in the parking lot while we were waiting for our appointment time (LOL) but everything looked good and the dogs are all up to date on vaccinations. Oh gosh, it makes me tired to even remember this day.
12 Month of Kindness task finishing for June by dropping off donations at the Humane Society and spending some time with the pups and kitties with no families. Poor Gemmi and her big heart wanted to take home all the pets (or at least one cat and one dog, momma!) and cried the whole way home thinking about the animals in the cages with no families and no one to play with them and snuggle them all day. Gem is going to have an exciting little giveaway coming up in the next week or so about channeling all her love for the animals in shelters - so stay tuned!
Enjoying Violet and Greyson's bedroom floor sleepovers; the two of them had three bedroom floor 'campouts' in the boys' room this week with sleeping bags and all. I feel so grateful to see their little friendships develop and see how each of them relate to each other. We call Grey and Violet our 'wild skips' because they so cray all the time (and they skip in kid birth order; Gem and Rust are our 'sweet skips')
Date nighting / Sister time / Beer Olympic brainstorming at Tulune's Steak & Alehouse Drinking for a Cause event. We had yummy food, interesting beer tastes, and an intro to a new-to-us local restaurant. I even got to spend time chatting with a teacher coworker (hi Renee!) which made me so happy and get excited about the new school year (just a little, hah, still very grateful for summer). thank you to Miss Hannah for coming to the rescue last minute as always to babysit!
Playdating it at the Quemahoming Dam with the FioderCrew. We got a beautiful day to spend with our favorite friends - swimming in the dam, building our own sand dams (#meta), playing on the playground, and fishing (Grey). It is always refreshing to spend the day refilling my soul cup chatting with Kate and we crossed another No bummer summer trip off our list!
Relishing a kid-free two days (!!) Pappy and Gigi took the three biggest kids to Ocean City, MD for the weekend (ocean wave jumping, hotel pool swimming, boardwalk bike riding!) while Abba and Chum had a sleepover with Rust Man (visiting Buttermilk Falls, spending time with his aunts, getting spoiled with attention). While the kids were away, we laid on the couch and watched movies during the very hot afternoon and didn't feel an ounce of guilt about it (HAH) and then took the dogs for a long walk which they loved followed up by a super late dinner at Tap814 Speakeasy(I fell asleep on the way home #classicparentdate )
Making a lot of creative dinners with left-over birthday party fried chicken (homemade chikfila sandwiches, chicken salads, chicken wraps), spaghetti, and B made our favorite old bay shrimp.
I have fallen asleep on the couch on "date night" (ours are always after the kids have gone to bed, at home, on Friday nights with homemade pizza and a movie) every time for at least the last three months. My poor husband! Maybe now that I'm not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to teach, I will actually be able to stay awake for a whole movie! Hah!
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