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| photo cred: Jenn Valetine |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 190+ hours (of 1000)
Up 21 hours this week thanks to lots of spring sports and sunshiney afternoons.
Reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera and finishing it in 24 hours. So good and such an incredible story idea. This is one of the books on the #ProjectLit list for high school. When I posted it on my teacher instagram, many of my students said they have, are, or want to read it too. It's a great one!
Celebrating our three year old RustMan on his actual birthday. We measured his height (taller than Violet at 3y but shorter than Grey & Gemma at 3y). We sang over his favorite breakfast (pancakes!) even my little soccer team sang him happy birthday in the huddle! We had his birthday party the Friday before, so he was pretty confused about why he got another one; "It still mah birtday?"
Feeling like a kid again when my parents came to watch our volleyball game. We played six games on Friday to make up a rain out and my parents came and cheered like I was a teenager. It was the sweetest and so comforting somehow. It's easy to get swept up in motherhood and be so focused on how you're loving and caring for and tending to, and barely keeping it together for all the humans that need you - and then to have my parents there at our silly little co-ed league game cheering; it just really helped me remember that I am someone besides 'Momma Tab.' (thanks Mum & Dad xxox)
Starting summer officially at the Studer house. The babies went to daycare until Wednesday so that I could have three whole days with no one in the house but me (!) I read, rested, blogged, scheduled appointments, and did some cleaning & lots of laundry. I took the babies to one of our favorite playgrounds for their first day of summer for a picnic lunch and it was nice to just spend time with the little ones for a day. The big kids had their last week and day of school and we are all home! All of our kids are mostly looking forward to sleeping in late and staying up late (#nobedtimesummer) and all the playing outside. B and I could not get over the first and last day pictures side-by-sides of the kids (Grey wore the same shirt both days, LOL) - why do babies grow so fast? B is on his summer schedule of four 10 hour days, so we get Daddy home on Fridays which is so nice and waking up super early to get his lunch packed has helped me get my much needed alone time in the mornings.
Terrified when we had a horrible drowning scare on Saturday evening. Violet can swim, but she still tires easily and isn't strong enough to make it in the deep end solo. Violet swam for two hours; going down the slide (in floaties) and swimming without floaties in the shallow end with her siblings and cousins at our cousin's pool. The grown ups told the kids it was last call and as we were cleaning and packing up; Violet went up the slide ladder (without a floatie) and joyfully went down into the deep end. Her older cousin and sister were only a foot away from her as she struggled and bopped up and down trying to get to the ladder. Neither of the girls realized anything was wrong and the grown ups were doing that half watching, half cleaning up sweep of the pool patio. I heard one little "ack" and whipped around shouting, "Where's Violet?" We all saw her and her cousin and sister grabbed her and Brandon pulled everyone out of the pool. That's how fast - that's how silent drowning can be. It was awful and I was sick in my stomach all night and into the next day thinking of how different our night - OUR LIFE - could have been. The girls were inches from her and didn't realize. And we were right there and didn't know it was happening. Thank God that she was able to make that one little sound, so many parents are not so lucky to get that notice. We had a very long chat with that little water daredevil about making sure she tells us if she's going in the deep end and praised her for not panicking; that she kept trying to get breaths and swimming underwater even though she was fatigued. We talked to the big kids too about what drowning really looks like (NOT like the movies) and to watch for all the little kids that might be swimming with them at any time. Brandon and I continue to be on edge and high alert now knowing how different it all could have been. It is quick, it is silent, and it can happen to anyone! Please be safe, I am sending so many prayers to all your families for a safe summer of swimming.
Having so much fun playing volleyball alongside a former student, Maddy, who just graduated this year. She is doing awesome and she's such an asset to our team!
Wishing a happy birthday to my little sister, Kayla on Friday night. I headed over to her bestie, Sarah's house, where we laughed and chatted into the night until it was officially her birthday at midnight so we could sing to her. We love you, Kitty.
Congratulating a former basketball player of Brandon's for his college graduation! We are so proud of Ryan and grateful to him (and his brothers) for being role models for our kids.
Spring sporting with two soccer games each for the girls and 3 baseball games for Grey. Grey's team ended up winning a nail biter on Saturday against the second place team in the league. It was so great to see the boys all work together and feel so proud. They'll be in the playoffs next week and then we only have Sanction All-stars left of baseball (which is a lot, but I'm saying only because I'm trying to be positive, hhah). The spring sports season is coming to a close and I can't say that I'm not a little bit relieved. April - early June has been so hectic for us the last few years, the end is always a little bittersweet.
Making for the kids (because we're Keto, see below) french toast, Taco pasta, frozen chicken nuggets, fridge left over buffet, hot dogs on the grill, and cake box chocolate chip cookies to share with our bus driver for the last day of school.
Keto'ing all week and actually loving it. After a few days of meh (feeling kind of buzzed and out of it), we started to feel more awake and markedly less hungry. I think that's what is blowing my mind the most. I am such a snacker; I want to eat all day and I'm hungry all day. But now on keto, I don't even feel hungry until about 10:30a and then I eat a proper breakfast and then I'm good until about 2/3p; it is blowing my mind. We are also eating a lot of good and interesting things to meet our macros (we use the Carb Manager app to make sure our calories are coming from 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbs each day). We've had buff chicken zuchinni boats, grilled salmon, cauliflower rice (obsessed), fried cheese taco "shells," so much delicious avocado, grilled steaks, homemade keto bagels, 'bulletproof' coffee, and peanut butter 'fat bombs' (thank goodness for Pinterest and Keto instagrammers for recipes!) One week in and I'm down 4lbs and Brandon's down 8lbs!
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