Around Here 1: 12/31-01/05/2019

A look into our life just this moment.

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  less than 1 hour (of 1000)
Really doing a pretty terrible job of getting outdoor hours, but I am also sort of settling into this idea that it is best for my body and soul to mirror the seasons. Instead of getting frustrated with the short daylight hours and the cold in the winter - what if I did like the Danes and cozy up, read, drink hot tea, and go to bed early. As the days get longer, I naturally get less sleep because I squeeze every moment of sunlight out - so maybe I should treat winter as my rest and recuperate so that I can be at full efficiency.

Reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult to start the year off. The girls and I watched Dumplin' on Netflix and loooved it.

Celebrating the new year with friends and family. We spent the early evening visiting our besties Jon, Linds, and baby Tessa at their house. The kids were so so happy to play with Tess and the noise level was at a full blast with the five of them and their dog Bo running amok - just how we like it. Then we headed back in towards home to watch the ball drop with our Gilmore family at Uncle Ray's house. Since the kids got a little catnap in on the way home from the Kochs - we had four of four kids awake to welcome in 2019 at midnight (albeit, Rusty was pretty cranky). We cheers'ed our cups and kissed our way into the new year.

Listening to Grey retell his first experience pheasant hunting when he went on new years day with Brandon and his Gilmore cousins. Cousin Jesse has an awesome dog, Gunner who did amazing in the field and Grey actually ended up shooting a pheasant, while B got a chukar. They were so proud - Grey is hooked!

Buying a new planner and loving it. hello new year.

Working on creating my list of 100 small things for 2019 and struggling a bit. I have a lot of frustrations about the state of the world and the state of my mind. ugh. I'm trying to dig deeper and be really specific and intentional about my choices. It's taking a long while, but I think it's going to ultimately benefit my heart and soul for the year.

Attempting to register for my online college courses only to discover that I have one more PRAXIS test to take yet (!) So I signed up for the Fundamental Knowledge test for this month (5511) to try to get it done in time to register for the spring semester. B claims its all a money scheme and was like, "so you graduate high school, and undergrad, and grad school and pass a praxis Spanish test - but you have to pay over a hundred dollars to take a fundamental skills test, yeah okay" but it is what it is - so I've been brushing up on my Math, Science, Social/Civil studies, and ELA skills for another two hour test. Testing for hours is terrible - and to think this is what we do to our babies every year in the state tests!

Basketball season'ing - Brandon had only one game this week, and I have yet to get to more than a half a game this year! With Grey playing basketball and having practices two to three nights a week and two games a week, usually at the same time as B's games - it's just not happening. Grey is getting noticeably more comfortable in each basketball game. We got the schedule for his CT team and the two leagues will only have one game overlap! And bonus - these early morning basketball games end perfectly in time for Saturday brunch with grandparents and aunts!

Teaching again after our long winter break. Yeesh, that first week back after break can make ya a little weary. My hallmate teachers and I were laughing about how even after only a three day week - we were barely making it to Friday. HAH. Spanish 1 did some brain review and learned about 3 Kings day (including watching some Dora in Spanish which had them all cracking up). Spanish 2 started Somos Unit 7 and Spanish 2 Honors worked on 2019 goals in Spanish and learning about 3 Kings day, and Spanish 3 Honors used the past tense to ask and talk to each other about their winter break activities.

Making pork, hot dogs, and sauerkraut in the crockpot for New Years (PA tradition), haluski and breaded rand chicken tenders in the air fryer, B made his and Greyson's pheasant and chukar  (so delicious!), kielbasa and periogies, and fancy fried ramen noodles with leftover chicken.