Around Here 29 & 30: 07/15-07/2

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  332+ hours (of 1000)
Up another 34 hours - we snagged a few hours with a night swim at Gigi and Pappys and a few walks with the dogs. This weather has been so wacky all summer. We had winds so strong the other day that it was uprooting our vegetable garden (?!) but the kids loved running around the yard pretending it was blowing them away (it may have actually been blowing Rusty away a little bit, LOL) The big kids have really been into riding their bikes the past few weeks and they even tried their first bike jumps and made their own ramps down our steep retaining wall hillside.

Reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and enjoying it. A few weeks ago I read The Nightingale from her and it was probably one of the best books I've ever read in.my.whole.life so it's hard to go in with that kind of expectation, hah.  I do really love Hannah's great strong female characters and her descriptive writing. Brandon is reading The Dry by Jane Harper - like he's already over half way through the book - which has me all emoji heart eyed.

Visiting Idlewild, just the six of us for about three hours before it started thunderstorming. It has been such a mixed up summer that we hadn't been yet at all (even with our season passes!) and we needed a little family getaway...even if the getaway was only a half hour away and for a few hours. The kids had fun riding all the rides and even RustMan got to ride a big ride - well the Balloon Race with me. hah. Then the three little kids got to go again with Abba and Chum the next week (swimming and riding!) while Grey got to spend the day with Caleb (thank you all!)

Working on the garage; clearing all the things out and putting them into piles (keep, donate, garbage), power washing, and dry-lock painting the last wall. Bud and Jon jackhammered the drain pipe hole for the new wash basin going in and then B and my Dad cemented it all back in place. Final few steps to go - etching, epoxy painting, and then putting everything back in! We can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Enjoying my best friends and their kids. Karpy and baby James flew up from NC and we all got together to spend the evening at Katie's house with her kiddos. I love that no matter how much time is between seeing any of us - we pick up right in the conversation wherever it was that we left off last time. We had a great time catching up and the kids always love playing together. We got to take Soph home with us for a sleepover (yay!) and then we got another few hours in together at the pool splashing, talking, and laughing together before Karp & James had to head back to the airport (only to get their flight delayed and then rescheduled for the next morning!! You are a supermom Karp- thank you so much for coming up to visit. And thank you Kate for hosting and feeding us!! love you guys - akt forevs)

Feeling so blessed with people who have been so kind, patient, and helpful during this summer. The kindness and thoughtfulness of everyone has been overwhelming -- one small example --while I was ordering a little door sign from Rachel at LightofMine514 etsy shop - she went out of her way to be incredibly generous and put a rush on the order (thank you!)

Prepping for the new school year. Brandon has been rolling his eyes at me for the last two weeks as I keep bringing home supplies and decorations for my classroom spent with our own money (it's particularly frustrating as he's the business manager of the school - but he also gets to see first hand how teachers do this to give our kids/students all.the.things). I also got into my new classroom to do some organizing and it makes me so happy. It's bigger and I have tables (!!) and I love it so much. I got to meet with a fellow Spanish teacher for lunch and just chat chat chat about school and kids and Spanish it was amazing (hi Tonya!) Back to school always has me all nerded up and I love it.

Collecting chicken eggs! Our chickens are starting to lay and the kids are so excited about it. We even cooked up a few and it took a conversation or two explaining the different color of egg yolks and how it relates to the chickens' life and diet. So far we have only one (or two) chickens laying, so we're working on getting our first dozen - but soon we are going to be up to our ears in chicken eggs!

Day-dating. Our first time visiting  The Fat Squirrel  and then sushi at Nyko's another day. We're figuring that two lunch dates count for a 'date night. In any case - delicious food, handsome company - what more can a girl ask for

Clapping for Gemma and her musical theater camp friends as they put on their production Break the Cycle after a week with the Community Arts Center staff. She played Dee in the show (she had only two little lines) and learned five new songs, some choreography, and stage blocking. She loved it and made some new friends. Our girl honestly wishes that real life were a musical (#justlikehermomma) and has watched Mamma Mia on Netflix every day for the past two weeks. So after her own musical, I took the girls to see Mamma Mia 2 at the movie theater and well, we're all obsessed.

Sending love and prayers to the sky with balloons for the one year anniversary of the passing of our sweet, precious friend and soccer teammate Inez. We miss you Nez.

Making what feels like nothing because I've been so terrible at meal planning. We did get some garden zucchini this week, so we had zucchini bread (grey helped) and their little minds were blown realizing that something we grew in our own garden could make something so delicious. #gardentobreakfasttable B had to grill up the trout that Grey and my dad caught on their little fishing excursion as I made the mistake of telling him if he caught a nice one that we'd make it for dinner (oops). It was okay but it was awfully cute to see how proud Grey was to catch us dinner.