Around Here Week 17: 04/21-04/27

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  71+ hours (of 1000)
Up 12 hours this week because spring has finally sprung - truly! We earn quite a bit of hours at spring sporting events alone - but we were able to snag some more hours with Easter egg hunts too. I have a goal to spend at least 1 hour a day outside currently and I'm getting at least that 5 out of 7 days a week between our activities and the weather.

Reading and finishing The Feeding and Care of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Grey. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style in this book but it was still an interesting and worthwhile read. The Easter Bunny brought me the next Books & Brews book club choice which is Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal and he also gifted me with Ikigai: The Japenese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles which I became intrigued by after seeing the image below on Instagram. (I think I am currently in the "satisfaction but feeling of uselessness" category between What I love, What I'm good at, and What I can be paid for - which is maybe how all public school teachers feel when there are so many things we need to be for our students; it can feel like any good I'm doing is such a drop in the bucket for some of the issues and obstacles that my students face in their own lives and in the world today. I try to remain focused and steadfast on the tiny, shining moments that are so bright and beautiful and keeps all teachers going again for another day, but it can be overwhelming some days too. Good thing I love my job all the way down in my bones, man. it ain't for the faint of heart).

Celebrating Easter! The Easter bunny found us and brought the kids candy, books, and those odd surprise balls that are cool these days. We went to church (Grey served) and then spend the afternoon with our Studer cousins at Mimi's house for brunch. We got to spend some time with Gigi and Pappy afterwards at their house before heading back home with full bellies of too much chocolate easter bunnies. hah!

Moving the baby chicks out to the coop. We are officially free of live chickens in our dining room again! The weather has been nice enough consistently and the girls have started to grow in their real feathers - so we kicked 'em to the coop! The big chickens are keeping them in line and we have the lamp secured for some of the cooler nights, but they seem to be adjusting just fine so far. They are definitely loving the free range life pecking around all day in the grass!

Getting the most incredible news on Thursday in the form of a CLEAR SCAN for our Gigi. After almost 10 months of battling Pancreatic Cancer, our Gigi gave us the best news after her appointment. Omigosh, we were all in tears and shouting with joy. What an incredible gift and how proud we are of here for fighting so hard. Thank you all for your prayers, kindness, and support through this. We are so deeply blessed and grateful.

SCF happy hour'ing with my sisters at our house for this month. Kitty brought sushi (yummiest!) and Brandon kept the kids corralled so that we could laugh and talk and catch up with a few kiddo kitchen dance parties and tickle fests sprinkled throughout.

Spring Sporting with the last week of soccer practices before games begin next week. We also had soccerfest at the elementary school on Saturday complete with team photos, a bouncy house, concessions, and face painting. Grey and B had two baseball games this week - one at home and one at CV

Teaching the mini unit before Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro which includes learning how to merengue! The kids really impressed me with how well they did after they got over their initial fear of boy/girl partnering up (hah). Spanish 1 Honors is in the final stage of their (longest ever) food unit and started working on their menu projects. Spanish 2 learned about El Cucuy and impressed me (and themselves). Spanish 2 Honors watched two films this week to prepare for their last novel Esperanza. They watched Living on $1 a day and Which Way Home - I realized last minute that next week is Screen Free Week and had to squeeze them both in - thank goodness for movie guides! Spanish 3 Honors began the fable El Que Se Enoja, Pierde from Martina Bex. Whew, the end of the school year is in sight now (I even updated the hallway bulletin board calendar to show our last month's activities!) and my desk is proof of the last sprint madness.

Making cheesy potatoes and contributing 4 dozen eggs for our Easter brunch at Mimi's house (thanks chickies!) We made ham pot pie with leftover Easter  ham, and had a leftover/fridge clean out dinner. We were surprised with two meals from our family this week - tacos from Gigi and Pap and taco pasta and apple dump bake from Heather. Kitty brought sushi to SCF happy hour (yummiest!) and We received a Misfit Market fruit/veggie delivery (thank you AGAIN Heather!) and was shocked to see how much delicious produce we got in it. I made the most soul healing/rejuvenating potato and leek soup from our delivery with a side of three ingredient cheddar beer bread.