Around Here Week 15: 04/07-13

Friday, April 19, 2019

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






The Mighty Muffins!

















Intentional Outdoor Hours: 48+ hours (of 1000)
Up 14 hours this week with some beautiful spring weather. Sports practices and games are leading up the hours for outdoor time after school, but we had a absolutely perfect Saturday morning that the little kids and I spent on the porch reading, coloring, and riding scooters. The boys were at fishing camp for the first day of trout before they had to come home and we all headed to the baseball game.

Reading the same books still (good grief!) and ordering our next book club book Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal and signing up to participate in the Summer Book Club with Book Love Foundation for teachers. My friend Renee (also our school's eleventh grade English teacher) introduced me to the opportunity and my books and swag have already arrived. I have to hide them from myself though so I can read along with the schedule and fully participate in the book discussions this summer. SO EXCITED!

Introducing the chickies to our big chickens with little success - hah. they mostly ignored each other and the chickies were just so excited to have more space to explore. We still have about two weeks before they can officially move to the coop, but they are loving the occasional outdoor adventures.

Celebrating our nine year old! Our booboo is nine years old and it came and went with just a little bit celebration because baseball season/fishing season is so crazy (hah). We sang at fishing camp the weekend right before and had cupcakes, then he played up in a baseball game on his actual birthday and had a big crowd of extended family cheering for him. We got baseball iced donuts to share with his team at their game on Wednesday and B had lunch with him and his friends at school. He got a shotgun from Gigi and Pappy (for turkey and pheasant hunting) and a kayak for fishing on the Quemahoming from Abba and Chum! #outdoorkid  We will have an actual birthday in a few weeks when it warms up (and slows down). He wants to have a sleepover at fishing camp (shocking! lol). He's nine and, truthfully, making me nuts. Every few years I have to pull out my It's a Boy parenting book and my 25 rules for moms with sons post to remind myself I'm not insane. Raising young men is not for the faint of heart. I love this wild kid, but good grief we are like bulls fighting horn to horn these days. I know we'll get through this, but it's hard to know what's a battle to have and what's a battle to let go (for both of us) right now.

Registering the two big kids for fall sports (already!) Grey will be playing minors tackle football again and B is the head coach and Gem will be cheering flag footbal and I'm the coach again. Did I mention that B is also the VP of the football board. #heliumhands

Visiting the big kids' school on Reading night. Our PTA does an incredible job of decorating the whole school (this year's theme was Enchanted Forest and the kids were on the hunt for hidden gnomes!). Each classroom had a theme - our favorite was planting beans! - there is a book fair in the gym and our local animal man put on a show including his alligator that had all the kids in awe.

Opting out of standardized testing for my third grader after a lot of research, impassioned conversations, and reflection. I love our school and our teachers and our kids so intensely. And even if I'm just a drop in the bucket; I just could not.

So thankful and proud of our Gigi who got to ring the bell this past week! I spent most of Friday in grateful tears that she got to celebrate this incredible milestone. She is truly a warrior. Thank you all for your continued prayers and good wishes. We have a big scan coming up later this month - please keep her in your hearts.

Volunteering at our church's fish fry for the last time this Lenten season. The kids helped clear tables and even got to do some serving of drinks and rolls/coleslaw this time!

Looking at the calendar and realizing I need to remind the Easter bunny that his big day is coming fast. Ahem, as is always the case, thank you Amazon prime.

Spring sporting with more soccer practice for Violet and Gemma. My little U5 time has a bakery for the sponsor so we call ourselves the Mighty Muffins (#cutest thing on the planet) and there is so much hugging! I've started calling our huddles = huggles because the girls get in so tight and squeezed up. Oh gosh, I'm having a blast with those kiddos. Grey started games this week. He pitched on Tuesday and played short stop on Saturday. They are 1-1 so far and had such an awesome game on Saturday even if it was a loss by one point. Our pitcher had a moment on a mound that he was really getting down, and our whole in field huddled around him and got his spirits back up. It was awesome to see. #sportsaremorethansports Also, our baseball coach is so handsome and makes me proud every game, but that's a longer post for another day ;)

Teaching and practicing horizontal conjugations with Spanish 1 and finishing out Somos Unit 6. Spanish 1 Honors got a new group of food verbs and did some free writing about breakfast and lunch choices. They had a fiesta food day on Friday! Spanish 2 worked on animal vocab and started Somos Unit 9. They did an awesome job of completing a Mad Lib version of a story with target structures with a partner and then translating it all into English. I was so proud of their hard work and collaboration (especially as they have been my most trying class period all year). Spanish 2 Honors worked all week on their final novel projects of retelling the novel through their choice of format. Many of the groups chose to make a movie trailer and through our mini conferences this week, I can hardly wait to see them. Spanish 3 Honors celebrated their finishing of Robo en la Noche with watching the movie Rio.  The final few weeks of the year are all mapped out and we are jammed in tight up through the end! All classes have one more book to read before the end of the year (!!) and lots of fun end-of-year activities! yeesh, I'm starting to sweat a bit with only 30 more days to go!

Making chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes for Grey's choice of birthday dinner, banana cinnamon and sugar muffins, grilled kielbasa and pasta salad, and a fridge clean out night. Tis the season of concession stand for dinner (ugh oh).

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