Around Here Week 42: 10/14-10/20

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  515+ hours (of 1000)
bleh, up only 2 hours this week. It has been really cooling off around here and I have not been motivated/encouraged to spend any real time outside. I did hop on the tractor this week after we finally got the flat tire replaced to mow 'the back nine' but other than that, I've been sticking indoors, unfortunately.  Grey and B got some of their own outdoor hours though on Saturday for mentor youth hunting day. Grey spent half the afternoon in a double tree stand with Pap and other half of the time in a double tree stand with B. He loved it.

Reading the To All the Boys I've Loved Before series by Jenny Han thanks to the sweetest snail mail ever this week from my dear friend, Shelly. I literally gasped and squealed when I opened her package to find all three books in the series. I gobbled up the first two books (TATBILB and P.S. I Still Love You) and then passed them along to my students who are all reading them too- we have a bit of Peter Kavinsky fever going around our school right now (hah #same) I am nearly finished with the third book (Always and Forever) and I'm loving it.  Kind of glad I watched the movie first, because the books are different enough that I probably would have been let down from the movie - so now I just like each separately of each other. (Shelly - thank you so so much - that was so very thoughtful and kind of you!)

Holding Violet's hand while she got her ears pierced! In our family, you can get your ears pierced if you want to but not until you're at least four years old. Our Vially was ready and took her ear piercing like a champ (only a few tears after the second one). She was so proud of her new earrings though and couldn't wait to show her preschool friends and teachers. She has been very dedicated to cleaning and twisting them each day to keep them healthy.

Celebrating ten years of marriage with my man. Seems impossible (both too long and not long enough... how odd the passage of time is). We realized that in a decade of marriage (which went by in a blink of an eye) we have an eight year old child. So in just another decade (basically, no time at all) our son will already be in his fall semester of college. #gulp #gulp #gulp

Taking the kids for haircuts, including Rusty's first ever haircut (at 28 months!) On the way to the salon, Gemma and I just decided that she should get hers chopped off since it's been such a hassle and knots up so easily and she was, "um, okay." She looks adorable and it is so much more healthy - she must have brushed it 80 times that day when we got home. Violet got a little trim and looks like a cutie pie peanut. And the Rust Man got the slightest trim to calm down that #georgewashingtonhairdontcare look of his. He still has all those curls though (and any that got cut off, I scooped up off the salon floor to save!)

Teaching personal descriptive adjectives in Spanish 1 and gustar to Spanish 1 Honors. Spanish 2 is working through Capibara con botas and Spanish 2 Honors is learning about tener miedo de, mira, and hacia in Somos 1 Unit 9. Spanish 3 Honors is so close to finishing Esperanza (only one more chapter to go after last week!) They researched political asylum in the US and almost everyone really learned something. I had them respond to some questions on our google classroom page and then they had to thoughtfully comment on two classmates' responses. It was all very collegiate and I was pretty proud of them.

Making two ingredient chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, chili over mac and cheese, crockpot lemon chicken and rice, chicken quesadillas, and we enjoyed some delicious pot roast with mashed potatoes and homemade bread that my parents delivered to us for our anniversary!