Around Here Week 50: December 9-15

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

 

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  526+ hours (of 1000)
Ugh, up about 20 minutes in a week. It has been so cold and wet that there is little motivation to go outside except to take care of our chicken girls. Actually the biggest detterant from getting outside after the school day is that it's so dark so quick - by the time we get bookbags unpacked and an afternoon snack in and put dinner on, it's basically night time outside. hahah.

Reading and finishing Juntos by Ally Condie. It was very cute, I tried to see if they have a movie/series about it (would be perfect with that YA dystopian theme we all love) but it looks like it was caught up in production awhile back. I started into Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman which is our current book club read. I'm just a few pages in yet and already loving it.

Thankful for grandparents as it was all hands on deck on Monday so that I could fi.na.lly. go grocery shopping with no kids (!!) My mom stayed home with the girls while my dad carted the boys all over the creation for Grey's two basketball practices that night. Fridge & pantry stocked and fully prepared for cookie baking - thank you Abba & Chum!

Cheering on Gemmi Roe as she did her (one line) solo this week at her Christmas concert. The song was "What do you want for Christmas" and Gemma answered back "I want a piano" (ya hear that, Santa?!) She did a great job and overcame some initial nerves. The babies and I went to the concert (Grey had a basketball game and Daddy had practice). My mom and sisters were there, Mimi came, and even Miss Hannah came out to watch the concert. She was so proud - and so were we!

Meeting with Rusty's speech therapist for our first visit at our house. It went so well and we all liked her so much. Even though it was Rusty's special visit, obviously all the other kids sat around and wanted to play and watch (#bigfamstruggles) Rust did good and really tried his best, Ms. Kristin was so encouraged by his mimicking and I feel like I learned a lot of great strategies to help him at home. She will see him once a week at daycare, I can't wait for him to continue to grow in confidence - he is going to be so happy!

Celebrating birthday parties - Grey had a nerf gun birthday for cousin Caleb and Gem had a swimming party for her friend Mya - such fun winter birthdays! I'm inspired!

Getting holly jolly. The big kids had santa's workshop at school which meant we had to open their presents they picked for us immediately upon their arrival home from school (LOL). We hosted our annual Polar Express viewing & popcorn party with the Fiores at our house, and Marco continued with his antics including wrapping up the tv, taking selfies on the ipad, and wearing wrapping paper stilts.

Basketball season'ing as B had two games this week and Grey had two games at Duke Andrews and two nights of basketball practice.  We made it to the very tail end of Brandon's home game because #latetoeverything It's going to be a challenge to get to games this year, with Grey playing basketball himself - but we're going to try our best to cheer on Coach Daddy and his boys!

Teaching action verbs to Spanish 1 including a spirited game of charades and preparing for their interpersonal interviews one on one with me next week. Spanish 1 Honors finished Capibara con Botas and got to work on their Final RAFT project. Spanish 2 finished Somos Unit 5 and started in on Somos Unit 6 including body part vocabulary (always a joy to teach to immature tenth grade boys #sendchocolateandprayers). Spanish 2 Honors Read One Whole Novel in One week! I am so proud of them, and it was so inspiring to see how they could handle it. We read Tumba and mostly followed MisClasesLocas plans for it. Spanish 3 Honors worked through the preterito super 7 verbs and they interviewed me. Ugh, the first steps into the preterito vs. imperfecto can be so weird and scary but I know by the time we get to our next novel Robo en la Noche, they will be ready to swim! I learned about and then introduced Gimkit into my students' lives for review and O.MI.GOSH. we all have an obsession. Every student is 100% engaged and so intense about it. It took a few minutes for them to start to realize what works and what is the most efficient way to rack up their 'money' (some of them still learning) but it is amazing and I can't promote it enough. (here's a great description of it). We had a mini fiesta in Spanish Club and B and I also got doll'ed up and chaperoned the Winter formal #highschoolsweetheartsFOREVER (thank you Miss Hannah for babysitting!)

Making creamy Italian chicken in the crockpot, frozen pizzas, mac and cheese, and Christmas colored and shaped Spritz cookies to kick off my holiday baking! We enjoyed a great soup and sandwich lunch at the church hall that was put on by the ninth grade CCD class. Grey had just been officially inducted into the altar servers and then spending the afternoon chatting with some of our besties at the church luncheon was a perfect mini celebration!