Around Here Week 12: 03/17-03/23

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

photo cred: Lisa Gilmore

photo cred: Brandon Studer

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 23+ hours (of 1000)
Up about 4 hours this week and got two walks in with the dogs; I took a kid or two with me each time. The first day of Spring arrived and I was stuck in the house with a massive fever, so that was a bummer. But spring is definitely here - regardless if it still a pretty chilly because our chicken girls are laying like crazy right now. We are bringing up almost a dozen of eggs a day! They are so happy to be free range and loose all over our yard again.

Reading and finishing Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich (with Steven Levenson, Benj Pasket & Justin Paul). I borrowed a copy from a student (thank you Kylie!) and really loved it. Now I need to see the musical! It has been so fun this school year borrowing books from my students - I even started a hashtag #whatseñorastuderisreading on my teacher instagram (#nerdteacher) I can buzz through YA books pretty quick and I really think they offer such an insight into my students' worlds. I'm also still reading There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk and playing catch up with our book club's last month book (!) The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray.

Getting trolled by that sneaky leprechaun who used the shoelace from Grey's sneaker to repel and then climb back out of the box trap Grey had made! He did snag a piece of his shirt on the cardboard though!

Giggling as Violet sings (from Teen Beach Movie):  "Bubble gum, Cherry Pop, I hang with my brother 'cause his friends are so hot"

Hunkering down when the germs descended on our house. I came home from school on Wednesday afternoon and got into bed and didn't get out again until Thursday morning with fevers, chills, and body aches. It got passed around several times between the two littlest and B got a bit of it too. By Friday, I still didn't feel great and Rusty felt awful, so I stayed home from school with the two little ones so we could try to get ourselves back to health.

Celebrating our sweetest friend, Gina's birthday. She invited both Gem and Violet to her Paris party because she is honestly made of cotton candy in her soul and our whole family adores her. happiest to you, Gina girl.

Flying solo on the weekend. B headed out to Elizabethtown with Grey and Gem to spend the weekend with our Gilmore cousins. Their youth fishing day is two weeks before us, and if you know Greyson Rudy Studer, if he can get his line wet - he's all in. Gem loved sleeping over with Audra and Grey with Reid and Rowan (thank you Lisa & Ray for keeping my fam!) While Dad and the big kids were out East, the babies and I held down the fort with the dogs and chickens. We visited the Fiores new house and made an afternoon playdate at Slinky's Action Zone. I kept thinking it was their turn to do something fun just for them, I kept thinking, "Boy, when Gem and Grey were little we used to do this kind of stuff all the time" but now that everyone is in activities; poor Vi and Rust just get schlepped to fields and courts all the time #babyofthefamprobs

Prepping for spring sports season. B and his team started outdoor practices this week for baseball. I met with my team at Meet the Coach night for AYSO soccer. I am coaching Violet's little U5 team (we have four players total, hehe! so cute!) and Gem will be playing U8 this year. We got all three practice and game schedules and I filled in our next three months in my planner so we know which fields we will be at and at what times. So much concession stand food and Silver Bell ice cream in the near future.

Choosing my seasonal quote in how to approach the next few months of busy spring sports and end of school year madness. Here it is, inspired by spring:

Teaching Somos 5 Unit including an introduction to Bullfighting before we started watching Ferdinand in Spanish 1. Spanish 1 Honors took to tower building to finish their Castells de Tarragona Unit and then played a little catch up by also watching Ferdinand (which they hadn't done after their Bullfighting unit, oops!) Spanish 2 started into Somos Unit 8 and Spanish 2 Honors continued reading Fiesta Fatal chapters 3-4; learning about azoteas, Mexican mercados and getting a tiny taste of Pear Deck. Spanish 3 Honors continued to read Robo en la Noche, or should I say listened to because they all prefer to have Storytime with Señora instead of reading it on their own (hah). We worked on Pear Decks to help us work through comprehending chapters 2-4.

Making fried spam over rice (because have you seen that commercial? HAH good job Spam Advert team, it convinced us!), steak'um wraps, chicken and broccoli casserole, no bake energy bites, and three ingredient chocolate pumpkin muffins.