Around Here 3: 01/13-19

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 1+ hours (of 1000)
Barely got any more time outside this week, but I'm not beating myself up over it. My sweet friend Ashley shared with me this quote that totally fits with how I've been feeling in this cold, dreary winter weather. (thank you!)

Reading and finishing The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I only had about 20 pages left and about 300 steps shy of 12,000 on Thursday night, so I did a few laps around our dining room table while finishing the last little bit of the book (two birds with one stone is my favorite). I enjoyed the book a lot - as usual with Picoult as the author. Not my favorite of hers, but very interesting and an important read about WWII. I thought I sort of knew where the ending was headed, and I ended up guessing correctly, but then I wasn't overly pleased with being right (hah). I started reading Room by Emma Donoghue which is a borrowed copy from one of my students (thank you Abi!) So, so good.

"Getting my blood out" (that's what my children call it) at our Student Council blood drive on Friday.

Playdating twice this week. Gemma had a friend get off the bus at our house after school one night. Gem and Ava played dress up and hoverboards and even helped make dinner. Grey took the bus to his friend's house after school one night and they jammed out because they've made a two man band (hah). Halen on guitar and Grey on drums (bless you Angie for enduring those jam sessions!)

Visiting Mimi for brunch between Grey's basketball games and getting Violet's cheetah, Speedy, stitched up after he had a little tear in him. She had a 'bandaid' on him all week until she could get Dr. Mimi to give him stitches. I also got to see Mimi's first monthly newsletter and I loved it. We got her a year long subscription with Neveo which is an app that Mimi's grandkids have on our phones and we upload pictures of the kids all month long and then Neveo creates a polished little newsletter style to send to her. Since she doesn't have any social media, she missed out on most of our Instagram and Facebook posts, so this is Mimi's own printed out, fancy version of a newsfeed! She loved it and has it in a special folder on her dining room table for safekeeping.

Hunkering down for the huge winter storm that (was supposed to) hit this weekend. We did get quite a bit of wind and freezing rain, a little bit of snow too. But all in all it wasn't as bad as it seemed it was going to be. (thank you plowtruck drivers). It was such a relief though to drop any responsibility for leaving the house. Gosh, it was total bliss to not have to feel guilty about not going anywhere! We got some chores done, watched a bunch of movies with the kids, played around and goofed off as a family, and mostly did nothing but stay cooped up in the house. It was heavenly and so much needed!

Laughing until my belly hurt about Violet asking Brandon to play 'Applejack' which is basically him being a horse and her riding on his back. He played and played with her and then finally was like, "okay, Vi, I need a break" and she just leaned down over his shoulder and held out her hand near his mouth like it was full of oats and said, "Just eat this Applejack and you'll be good again"

Basketball season'ing a ton this week. B had three games with his varsity team - one of which I made it to because it was at my school! I cheered for both teams because I have the hots for the coach and my students play for the other team (hah). Grey had three games this week too, including his first game with his CT team at the Y. Gemma is very interested in learning how to keep 'the book' and I'm planning on digging up some of Brandon's old stats books from previous years to give her some practice on the blank pages (she'd love that! and it's a useful skill to have - I volunteer occasionally to keep the book at Grey's games all these years later)

Teaching pre-Capibara con Botas unit about Ecuador and animals with my Spanish 1 students. Spanish 1 Honors students are working their way through Somos Unit 5 which included a class story that went on forever and ever until my entire #oldschoolchalkboard was filled up and the kids were still saying "más!" Spanish 2 practiced their er-verbs while Spanish 2 Honors fell in love with Selena's El Chico del apartmento 512 song and learned about piropos. Spanish 3 Honors finished reading Los 3 Cerditos and had a little fluency reading. Our school also was trained on the new PA wide system Safe 2 Say Something program which empowers kids to anonymously report situations that they think are dangerous or concerning. And it was the end of the 2nd marking period which meant I had lots of LMA (Leave Me Alone) passes rolling in for bonus points to add to their final grade.

Making banana blueberry muffins and egg & spinach 'muffins'. We also had chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes, a deer roast in the crockpot, and delicious veggie chowder soup with four ingredient beer bread. Gem helped me whip up some pork chop & stuffing casserole and cake box mix chocolate chip cookies to deliver to our cousin Heather. I am currently loving hot tea in the afternoon daily to warm up my afternoon and give me a little boast of joy.