Around Here Week 24: 06/09-06/15

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

Happy Birthday baby Ivy! 

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  220+ hours (of 1000)
Up 30 hours this week! I have been getting out most mornings and drinking my coffee on the porch with my book and it is such bliss. I am also doing my best to just get out and enjoy the weather instead of fretting over chores inside. We have been making good use of our fire pit already this summer and it makes me so happy.

Reading The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney along with The Book Love Foundation Summer book club. It's a beautiful book written in verse from the perspective of a young girl in Sudan during the civil wars. I am flying through it and loving the comments and thoughts on the facebook discussion with all the other people/teachers reading along with the book club.

Spending the day at Greenhouse Park with family and friends. My Dad and Mum organized a fun day complete with a pavilion, fire pit, and fun. We spent almost the whole day playing kickball, hanging on the playground, and splashing in the Stonycreek River. Grey and Chum even attempted a kayak trip down the river, but it was too swift for our sit-on kayak and they ended up flipping and narrowly escaping a rapid. Grey thought it was so cool and awesome (meanwhile, B was having a nervous breakdown - haha. he's the more nervous of the two of us when it comes to our kids and dangerous things; he can barely stand to watch them on the trampoline). It was such a nice day relaxing and being outside.

Taking both dogs to the vet and getting good reports. Bullet is almost 10 years old and Trixie is almost 8 years old now. Bullet is 96lbs and Trixie 93lbs. They got caught up on their vaccinations, new Seresto collars, and a clean bill of health covered for the whole year. Very thankful to the vet staff who knows Bullet has a lot of anxiety and lets us come through the side door because he cannot handle life.

Strawberry picking in Indiana, PA with the kids. We woke up one morning and it was perfect weather (sunny but not too hot) and so I loaded everyone up and we headed to Ben's Strawberries about 45 minutes away. It was a quaint and inexpensive little strawberry farm (only $1.75 a pound!). The kids were amazed by how many strawberries there were and loaded our buckets down with almost $9 worth of strawberries. I had to have a little informational chat with Rust that we only pick the red ones (after I saw him pick a few teeny tiny barely even green ones!) They were so juicy and delicious (and Keto friendly!)

Selling our wares at the local community market! I was very ambitious and carted all four kids and our (broken, busted) canopy down to to the community market in our little town on Thursday afternoon. We got all set up and tied down before it started torrential downpouring for about 20 minutes, but then the sun came out and we just had to hold the (broken, busted) canopy down when the wind gusts threatened to set us aflight through the parking lot. The kids brought their items; Grey - fly fishing ties, Gem - fresh eggs, Violet - custom artwork and we stayed from about 3 hours. It went okayish. Thank goodness for Gem's little friend, Molly and her family who were set up with their garden veggies and baked goods next to us to keep everyone playing and occupied. Mostly the kids were bored and frustrated that they weren't selling everything every second. Rust was a restless maniac and everyone was starving (duh). B stopped by after work and just shook his head and laughed when I said, "Why don't you just say, 'sweetheart, these seems like a difficult idea' when I say I'm going to do this kind of stuff!" It was alright and an important lesson and we might do it some more this summer but goodness, why do I do these things to myself (lol). The kids have an instagram @StuderFishandChicks and I'll keep ya'll posted when I decide to be a lunatic again and take four kids under 10years to the farmers market.

Being accepted to college...again! I finally had enough conversations with all the right people to confirm that I will need to take a student teaching practicum to be officially certified to teach in PA (which is odd because...experience and TFA and a masters doesn't count apparently, weird flex but okay Pennsylvania Dept of Ed). I actually love love love learning and school so I'm pretty excited about the prospect of being a student again, but who in the world at nearly 36 years old and a mom of four kids with a full time job and multiple volunteer positions has the time and money for this?! yeah, not me, but mommas find w a way - so I'm on it and will be 'graduated' in May 2020.

Spring Sporting with the final soccer games of the season! Violet and Gemma each had two last games this week and it is bittersweet. I made mini fruity pebble muffins for our Mighty Muffins' last game and the other parents all pitched in with snacks to give our crew a little end of season snack party. Miss Hannah was there to see Gem's last game and then brought her down to Roxbury for our volleyball games. She even stayed for all six matches and took the kids for ice cream during (thank you Miss Hannah - we love you so!) Grey had a playoff game with his team on Monday night and lost (he had a rough game with his snotty nose and nerves about playoffs), and that was it for regular season ball! He played up in two majors games later that week (a win and a loss) and had practice for his little league sanction team twice too.

Making for the kids chicken and veggie casserole, hot dogs on the grill, frozen pizza, and leftovers. The kids each helped in a small way to make Strawberry dump cake with whip cream icing after our day at the strawberry fields and we had lots of good breakfast food like mini pancake muffins (with toppings: bacon bits, sausage, blueberries, and chocolate chips!), egg sandwiches, and fruity pebble muffins.

Keto'ing and losing another 2 lbs this week (yipee!) We are still going keto strong and sticking within our macros each day. We had chicken & broccoli with alfredo sauce, cauliflower rice and ground turkey, pork chops (with almond flour) in the air fryer, jalapeno stuffed chicken, and lots of salads, bulletproof coffee, burgers, and cheddar brats.