Around Here Week 3: 01/12-18

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 3+ hours (of 1000)
Didn't push it over the three hours yet this week, but we did have one final nice day on Monday that the kids and I went outside for a little after school (although we needed coats, gloves, and hats. Mostly scored little bits of time tending to our chicken girls who are bummed that it actually isn't spring yet. The temperatures took a nose dive later in the week and by Saturday we had rain turned to sleet turned to hail turned to snow.

Reading and finishing With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. I loved it so much! I wish there as more! I picked back up where I left off on The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan and we had our Books&Brews book club meeting at Luna Azteca on Thursday night and decided we'd read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson next and then watch the movie! Double bonus as it's also one of the books on our Project Lit list!

Renting a saxophone for the last two marking periods for Grey while he tries his hand at band. Send prayers and ear plugs!

Loving so much Rusty's new little skit. He holds his hands open (like they are a box) and says, "Kring?" and then I pretend to get a ring out and say "YES!" and then we kiss and he holds my hands while swaying back and forth singing "married, married, married." hon.est.ly. #imdeadnow The skit doesn't always go the same way though - sometimes he pretends to grab the ring from me and throw it (#geminiproblems) but when it's the sweet version, I'm telling you, my heart becomes a melted glob of goo.

Emailing my college professor to introduce myself and give her a heads up that...um...how can I put this - I'm having a baby this semester. LOL. She was very sweet in her response and we are on the same page that I have full intentions of everything getting done and on time!

Adjusting the two littlest and Daddy at the chiropractor this week. (so jealous - mine isn't until next week!) The two little kids who have dealt with some constipation issues the last few months and they both had their little pelvis bones fully twisted. The doc straightened them all out (literally, hah!) and Brandon felt two inches taller after they left the office. We haven't been in too long and we are all in need of some adjusted alignment especially after this last bout of sicknesses - we need these nervous systems back to full working order!

Receiving a whole box of baby clothes & diapers from the a very thoughtful teacher & friend. The kids' STEAM teacher, Mrs. Roxby (who they adore) has been out on maternity leave with her newest little fella and she boxed up a bunch of his newborn clothes to pass on to our baby bro! It was so sweet and the kids could not believe that Mrs. Roxby was so kind. They kept oohing and ahhing at all the teeny clothes (how quick we forget how little they are at the beginning!) and commenting that everything smelled like Mrs. Roxby (hahha!) Thank you so much - for the clothes and for being a beacon of kindness and light for our kiddos. We love you Mrs. Roxby!

Living that kid-free nightlife on Friday as all four kids were whisked away to a local hotel with my parents and sisters! First they got to go bowling and then they got to swim in the hotel pool and sleepover! #bestnightever ! While the kids were laughing hysterically (oh, those aunts and Chum can come up with some weird inside jokes...) Brandon and I went out to eat at Living the Dream (in the former Tulune's restaurant) and then came home and.....went to bed early! Hhahahhaa, also - #bestnightever Thank you so much Chum, Abba, Kitty, and Uch for the peace and quiet!!

Winter Sporting with 6 basketball games for Grey and one practice. He gets a little bit of practice on all his teams for different aspects of the game. He wears #8 for CT, #4 for Sportsman's, #11 for Legion and #5 for Storm! And all three of the four teams are different colors, hah! He's still loving all the running around on the court (and between the practices/games) so c'est la saison de basket. 

Teaching Spanish 1 through Somos 1 Unit 5 and creating funny stories madLib style for El Muchacho, El Hermano, y La Novia. Spanish 2 got to learn about the Chilean mining accident and we compared it to our own local history; The Quecreek mining accident. They watched the movie The 33 - such a good movie and true life story! Sp2Honors did an immigration simulation exercise that had a curriculum cross-over with Civics, worked through some song lyrics, and finished a vocab test before we start our novel next week. Sp3/4Honors continued learning the preterite tense (er/ir regular verbs, super 7 verbs, and car/gar/zar endings). It was the end of the marking period this week too - so....a lot of negotiations about grades and explaining to kids, "I'm so glad and proud to see how much you care about your grade - but you also need to care this much the whole marking period, not just now that we are at the end."

Making cream cheese chicken taquitos (a Studer fam superfav!), tacos, chicken parm in the crockpot over pasta (Brandon and Grey loved it!), Korean turkey and brocolli over rice, and buffalo chicken dip.