Around Here Week 19: 05/06-05/11

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  107+ hours (of 1000)
We snagged 13 hours this week. A portion of that time was spent on the tractor mowing the lawn -hah! It's like a rainforest out there the way the grass is growing! We almost can't keep up with it between the rain and spring sports

Reading Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal for our next book club. We've decided to have a Punjabi-inspired pot luck for our meeting early next month! I also borrowed Miles Morales: Spiderman by Jason Reynolds from our English teacher (and my friend) Renee. Grey saw it in my bag and was all ready to steal it from me (heh). We are reading Code Word: Courage by Kirby Larson at night together because that boy needs to get some AR points asap. #Lawdhelpmewiththischild

Clapping for our alligator third grader at his spring concert. The second and third graders put on a very sweet 'musical' at their show and Grey had one line in the microphone. Hah!

Receiving a very sweet note from a student on teacher appreciation day. (thank you, Ana) Our principal also had a catered lunch for the teachers which was delicious.

Channeling all my zen during a very frustrating call with the board of education in which I was completely patronized and devalued as an educator. I got off the phone with them and literally walked into my classroom closet and sobbed. After an incredibly life-affirming conference call with the university a few months ago and two state exams successfully taken (on the first tries), it appears I have hit a very thick wall towards the final steps to my certification. I have incredible educator friends though who are giving me great suggestions and being all "screw it! let's start a charter school" #onlyhalfkidding #butforreal

Honored to share 'Muffins with Mom' at the babies' daycare on Friday morning before school (we had an ACT 80 day). Violet and Rust were so proud to pick out my muffin flavors and help stir my coffee. Sweetest!

Chaperoning the prom on Friday night with Brandon. It turned out to be a lovely evening and the kids had a good time. I am taking over prom committee next year, so I spent much of the night making mental notes of what we should keep and change; what worked and didn't; etc. Thank you to our personal Mary Poppins, Miss Hannah who stayed with our kiddos!

Braiding hair for our cousin, Morgan, who attended two proms this weekend. I learned to braid from my grandma and mom and have plenty of hours of experience in (teammates, sisters, friends, and daughters!) so instead of going to a salon, our cousin asked if I could do a Elsa/inspired from the top with some messy waves. We called it the beautiful female version of Aquaman and it looked perfect with her gorgeous face and dress. Love you, Morgan!

Volunteering at the Rec the Alleghenies event. My little sis, Tasha, has organized this incredible event for the past three years. It was bigger and better this year and includes local organization that encourage outdoor/hobby activities of all kinds. There were gyms, biking, running, medieval fencing, the library, knitting, fishing, kayaking, etc All.the.things there available to check out, view schedule/events and try out. I participated in a Kettle ball demo and oh.my.gosh! My muscles were almost immediately sore afterwards. I don't know why I was expecting it to be harder on my arms - but newsflash - the arms are the least of the suffering. You spend almost the whole exercise in a squat positions - so yeah, thighs were dead. deadest of dead. ill-advised choice to go beast mode in the kettle ball demo #hatemyself

Spring Sporting with four soccer games and two baseball games this week.

Teaching Chapters 4-6 of Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro in Spanish 1, including building fortalezas en la clase. We also had a dictation quiz which is my favorite because the kids think it sooooo easy but it only proves that they're learning because they even know what words I'm saying. Gosh, I love me a dictation quiz so much. Spanish 1 honors started the pre-reading activities for Billy y Las Botas graphic novel which included clothing vocabulary, image descriptions, and predictions. Spanish 2 started their last novel, Tumba, and read chapters 1-4 while Spanish 2 Honors started their last novel, Esperanza, and read chapters 1-5 this week. Spanish 3 Honors took their final test on El Que se Enoja, Pierde and selected the novels that they will be reading individually for their last assignment. On Thursday, our student council hosted a Mock Accident and it was really powerful (the ambulance, fire dept, and the state police showed up too). We had four students participate as the victims/drunk driver and then we had a really meaningful assembly afterwards where the students asked questions and got a chance to speak to our district magistrate. Perfect time as prom and graduation are upon us!

Making pierogies and frozen popcorn shrimp, and B made vegetable soup in the crockpot. We had Thomahawk pizza one night and met Gigi and Pappy out at Hoss's for dinner another night. I have been terrrrrrrible at meal planning and I swear its showing in the kids' attitudes toward food and mealtimes. Must get it together - it seems to be one of those things I've added to my, "in the summer I'll get to it" list -which is growing continuously! LOL.